Session 25: Tharizdun Events

Miscellaneous

  The party learns of Tharizdun and the secrets of the orb they carry.

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Leafall 24, 2020KC

  Dead Archfey of Skola Vale, Skola Vale, The Dark Rain Forest, Kampos       The party is at the Skola Vale trying to discern the truth of the attacks that led the village and the rest of the vale to leave the Material Plane and go back to the Feywild as its only location. As well as to find a solution as the The Dark Rain Forest seems to rely on the Village of Skola Vale for its growth, and the Elder of the Dawngreets's powers seem hampered on the Material Plane due to the shift.   They saw the gigantic corpse of the Archfey that created the vale and were told that a Ziggurat of Tharizdun, below Skola Vale and a Adventurer Class Airship lie under the ground after they fought a large band of Goblinoids.   The party went to the large gap in the base of the stomach and saw a very rough set of natural stairs that went down. The party traversed the very long walkway with spatters of light from above breaking through, and they saw a Dead corpse of a Goblin that fell in here during the battle.   As they get to the bottom, they see they are in an immense cavern. No way to see where the possible walls are, and ahead they see a Ship, a very large Ziggurat, and lots of dark sand. It is dark, but moving light is sneaking in from the holes above. There are two large statues at the base of the stairwell. All but Sas W.T. Rayce could make out some large black vertical object in the distance.     And then Bastion Bladesinger, Shadow in the Snow, and Calliope Galanodel see movement on the ship. The party is sure that they are not seen. Shadow in the Snow begins to sneak closer to the ship to survey the movement. She sees a Goblin in the Crowsnest with a pipe in his mouth and not being so attentive. She sees a few other goblins on the ground and the dangling foot of an Orc resting in the lifeboat on the rear of the ship. As she is taking in the vision, she hears.    

Goblin Boss: "Aren't we supposed to get relief soon? I don't like this. I don't like sand."

    So she sneaks back. She says how they are bored and not paying attention; they are waiting for a shift change. So maybe we can ambush them.   The party discusses the situation. Shadow in the Snow suggests "taking them," whilst Sas W.T. Rayce worries a "relief" might be their backup. They all know they want to find out what is going on, and there is a discussion on capturing one.   Table talk on Light Conditions   Barlo suggests the party act as the replacements; he says he speaks Goblin and for the rest to have ranged attacks ready.   Calliope Galanodel worries that they might get intimidated, but since Shadow in the Snow says they saw four guards here, they realize they shouldn't. Barlo says he is good at bullshitting when the Shadow in the Snow brings up some other disguise techniques.    

"I have Suggestion and Charm Person," says Calliope Galanodel. They realize the Goblins were speaking Common and ..

    Table talk on spells   Barlo heads out with the rest behind him.   As they start marching forward, Barlo starts talking as soon as they all come in view and the Goblin in the crow's nest starts moving.    

Barlo in Goblin: "Where's this ship at? The fools we're replacing? It's so damned dark in here."   Goblin: "Boss. Boss, we got somebody."   The one on the left comes up to the party, and Shadow in the Snow whispers to Calliope Galanodel, "That's the one you want to charm."   The Goblin Boss moves towards the party and slowly puts his hand on his sword's hilt. "Who are youse guys? You don't look like the normal shift change."   Barlo waves, "It sure is hard to find this fucking place."   Shadow in the Snow in Goblin "hold yer beans."   Barlo's 13 deception calms him enough to not attack.   Goblin: "I don't understand the meaning of this. Your not part of this outfit."   Barlo: "yeah, we are."   Goblin: "you look more like the ones in our cells than the ones relieving us."   (Calliope Galanodel looks and notices they are not wearing any insignia or matching uniforms.)   Barlo: "oh damn, I forgot... That's because we're wearing their skins as cloaks. Sorry about that."   And they continue to progress towards the Goblin.   Barlo: "I'm telling you, you have to feel this creature's skin. So soft."   **Charm Person** from Calliope Galanodel connects on the Goblin Boss and the Orc in the liferaft.   The Goblin boss resheaths his sword and says, "Yeah, I guess we've had to bolster our numbers. This mission has run long."   Orc: "Good to see you guys. So you're our relief."   Calliope Galanodel: "So, what do we do?"   He whistles, and the others come down.   Goblin boss: "So, this is your first shift. Just hang out on the ship and keep watch. We're not expecting too much. There are rumors of some group that might come in, but we've been here so long that we're not really expecting it. Just remember – don't go to the temple over there. Boss said to stay out unless you want to die."   Shadow in the Snow & Calliope Galanodel: "Sounds great."   Bastion Bladesinger: "What's in the temple?"   Goblin boss: "You don't get paid to ask such questions. We don't know; we stay out here. We take shifts with top side."   Shadow in the Snow: "How long are the shifts?"   Goblin boss: "Could be 10, 11 hours – or like this one, 14 hours."   Barlo: "How much longer do we have to keep doing this?"   Goblin boss: "What I'm hearing is they probably can't afford our services much longer. Besides, they still want us to be responsible for... I'll be delicate due to your 'backgrounds,' but the boss is paying for those imprisonments too."   Shadow in the Snow: "What do you mean our 'backgrounds'? Who you got back there?"   Persuasion (w/ Advantage) - 12.   GB: "Before we got on this mission, we had a Tabaxi and a Tortle at the base as a prisoner for some reason. I need to get out of this hole. That temple is spooky, and this was too long to be too close to it."   Barlo: "Wait, did you see something?"   Goblin boss: "it whispers."   Goblin: "yeah, it whispers evil."   Orc slaps him on the back of the head "Evil? You wouldn't know Evil if you heard it. That isn't that Evil, just voices in the head."   Barlo: "oh, okay. You going topside?"   Goblin: "yeah."   Barlo: "You've been down here for like 14 hours?"   Goblin: "Something like that. You lose track of time."   Barlo: "Oh, so you haven't heard. They moved the camp east.

    As they walk away, Barlo envisions shooting them in the back of the head. Shadow in the Snow points out that they didn't move the bodies.   They check out the Adventurer Class Airship. It is made of unique Wood. The weapons have been severely damaged. The grains of the Wood are soft and smooth, and it looks like a shellacking coat is on it all. It doesn't look like the fossiled Wood of Outding Refuge, but it is similar in a way that it is not like normal Wood.    

Shadow in the Snow: "can you sense Feywild stuff?"   Calliope Galanodel: "not usually."

    There are marks all over the ship; it looks to be from various fights. It is half-buried in the sand and obviously deep enough so that the crew climbing around isn't unsettling it.   Behind the Helm is a Bronze box thing with a Leather tricorn with red trim on the box. The box is an elaborate Wood and Bronze with Bronze filaments going into the rest of the ship.   Shadow in the Snow uses her Ring of Alertness "Detect Magic," and as she uses the power, she sees the items they wear glow. She seems on the ship there are lines of magic tracing all through the ship and especially the Helm, the filaments of the box, and the tricorn. The mast is also glowing, but it is a bit more faded, especially around the holes.    

Shadow in the Snow: "how are those Gloves of Thievery working for ya?"   Barlo: "what you got?"   Shadow in the Snow: "can you check the box for traps?" and she takes the tricorn.   Shadow in the Snow also sees something else glow…   Barlo investigates the lid (17) and feels confident it isn't a trap. "Want me to pop this open?"   Shadow in the Snow: "yeah"

    More filaments and a half-orb cavity. Where the filaments all Lead into.   Arktos is in the lifeboat, keeping watch.   The sphere that goes in there is a bit bigger than palm size.   Shadow in the Snow sees the hat is glowing. She puts it on.   Bastion Bladesinger investigates the Adventurer Class Airship as Shadow in the Snow points out the glowing stuff.   No one has ever seen a Flying Ship. Sure, rumors exist. The stories say the sky was full of such flying ships and castles and such, but something happened and they all lost that ability. But at Bastion Bladesinger's "college,"The Hermetic Symposium, a loose collection of wizards he trained under, there was one who kept going on about how he would build such a ship. Bastion Bladesinger had a professor who was studying Mythallars and flying ships. Many seek to solve that problem, but he always spoke of mythallars (an orb of great magic ) and often as big as a room, and they could kill a person who touches it. The wizards and sages spoke of how ancient cultures had floating Cities and castles, and they were powered by such Mythallars. These things also would power other magic items in their vicinity. It is also said they had flying ships, some using trapped Elementals or other methods.    

The hat is connected to how this flies. Bastion Bladesinger tells this to the other members.   Bastion Bladesinger: “We should explore the ship more”   Shadow in the Snow: "Do you know how to make them Fly?"   Bastion Bladesinger:"no, but a Wizard I know might."

    Shadow in the Snow wears the hat, and after some time, she is given the info on the hat's power.       Shadow in the Snow realizes that an item of some sort needs to be put in the box.         Shadow in the Snow then passes the hat to Bastion Bladesinger so he could figure this out, she wants to use the time of her Detect Magic in the below levels.   It notified her also it takes just 1 round to become attuned to it. It can still impart the data w/o attunement. If someone is attuned to the hat and someone else tries to take control w/o the first giving it up (or if they are unconscious) there will be a will of wisdom/charisma battle.   Rules for Tricorn are listed on the card   Sas W.T. Rayce wonders about what kind of artifact it was that powered this before.   artifacts discussion   Bastion Bladesinger puts the Basalt's Magic Ball in the receptacle and nothing happens. Arktos is in the lifeboat. Now Bastion Bladesinger gets the hat’s intel. It also “tells” him how the bars coming out of the wheel is how it goes up or down. You pull out the bars to go up, and push them back in to lower the height. It does notify him that a Mythallar of small size can power the ship, the last item was an unknown artifact.   The last Captain was Captain Meklan.   As Basalt's Magic Ball is placed they see a very faint glow in the filagree near it, but it barely lasts.   As Shadow in the Snow explores below it is noticeably warmer than the caverns. The warmth of those on the ship and below decks is around 72 degrees. The ship has a Gentle Repose type of effect so that food and the Wood of the ship does not decay. The ship also has enough oxygen for anyone on it or in it. This does not make it a submarine. Maybe there is a way to make such a ship able to go underwater…   Sas W.T. Rayce takes out the ball and puts back in the Bag of Holding. She pulls out the Brass Orb of Toril of Bast into the box. As she does so the Light begins to go through the filaments, and Bastion Bladesinger knows the ship is powered, as the hat notifies it is Fly ready.      

Bastion Bladesinger: “may I?   Sas W.T. Rayce: are you going to remove it?   Bastion Bladesinger: yeah.  

Hat: ship is not ready to Fly, power source has been removed.

 

    Bastion Bladesinger investigates the Orb of Toril. He sees all the runes on the orb.   (To Bastion Bladesinger): as you investigate the orb you recall hearing of all types of orbs, but nothing comes to mind at this time about such an orb. However you do see a very thin line that seems to encricle the sphere and a single bit of runes that breaks that circle. The runes are not one you can read, but you know they are of the same alphabet used by Celestial and other such languages.   He asks if anyone knows “Celestial” and Calliope Galanodel offers her assistance, so he hands it over to her and Sas W.T. Rayce is watching everything with the orb. Calliope Galanodel reads the runes, she then says out loud: “It looks like a name… Tharizdun.”   The word sparks some thoughts in some, almost all have heard of Tharizdun.   Tharizdun is known by many names; The Dark God, , The Elder Elemental Eye, The Ebon God, He of Eternal Darkness, Lord of Decay, The Ender, the Patient One, He Who Waits, the Anathema, the Father of Elder Evils, the Author of Wickedness, the Eater of Worlds, the Despised, the Undoer, the Lost God.   He is the boogieman. In the beginning there were fights and battles between the “Gods” and the “Primordials” (the nature of elements made manifest). And before them was Tharizdun. He was given a Crystal of pure evil which he was supposed to plant in the Astral Plane, but instead he put it at the edges of the Astral Plane and that grew to be the Abyss.   He is mad, he seeks destruction.   Calliope Galanodel has also heard in the past that he is possibly responsible for the corruption of the Unseelie Court of the Feywild in the past.   After she says the name, the top half of the orb opens and rises into the air. Inside of the orb was a strange glowing “world”. You can see the world, and strange flickers of that which covers it – a strange yellow and green glow or a dark black and purple.   All while Shadow in the Snow investigated the lower decks trying to see if her magic detection could find anything interesting…   As she goes through and finds a lock box. There are supplies, food, and all types of things down there. There wasn’t anything exposed glowing. In the Captain quarters there is a little lockbox.   As she comes up to the top deck is when Calliope Galanodel said the word and the orb revealed its secret. She recognizes the orb and pulls out her Coin of Bast, which has a slight glow. At this point the spell wanes and the glow disappears.   The orb: the initial white light disappears and they notice the globe inside with the strange magic around it.   The base of the orb is still in Calliope Galanodel’s hand and the top of the Brass floating above with this floating “world” inside. As the party looks they see movement inside of this world. It is not a recognizable world for any of this group. Its continents do not match those known of Dierde.   At this point Calliope Galanodel remembers she was given the glove from the Elder, she was worried to wear it at the “statue”, and so much had happened since then – so she remembers it and she puts it on. As she puts the glove on her hand it disappears, the glove disappears. She puts this hand on the top part of the orb and she gets some background on the orb. • As she holds it, she learns that the orb part is the “Orb of Bast” and the item inside is different. The orb is a protector for the “world” of Toril inside. The light that they see is that world’s Feywild, the dark mist is that world’s Darkfell. It is a Gem of Tharizdun, and there are 333 such gems that are needed (it is said) to release Tharizdun, aka “The Chained God”. • The immediate history she learns is how this world orb was in the ship and there was a moment when Bast got on the ship, put it in her Orb of Bast protection and looked for someone to hold it. She found Sas W.T. Rayce and gave it to her when she was being a hermit.    

She stares at it and then finally looks to Sas W.T. Rayce:   Calliope Galanodel: “Does the name Bast sound Familiar?”   Shadow in the Snow’s look now focuses squarely on Calliope Galanodel and Sas W.T. Rayce responds: “Yes”   Shadow in the Snow: “What do you know of Bast?”   Calliope Galanodel: “Why are you looking at me? Am I supposed to not say it out loud?”   Shadow in the Snow pulls out The Coin of Bast and puts next to the orb, and it shows how closely the two objects look related.   Shadow in the Snow: “I had a Dream about Bast. I was told that Sas W.T. Rayce had the other piece of the puzzle and I’m supposed to find a city connected to the orb.”   Calliope Galanodel: “Sas W.T. Rayce, do you remember anything about Bast?”   Sas W.T. Rayce: “She visited me in a dream, much more a vision. She told me to find a city and that people would help and to definitely not lose the orb. Shadow in the Snow and I already discussed how we both had such Dreams.”   Calliope Galanodel: “ As I learned this is the orb of Bast and the world inside is the world of Torill. It has a Feywild in here, and a Shadow in the Snow plane and the world. And everything I’m getting from this is bad. It’s not good. Something is bad about this. There is a Gem in there. The Gem of Tharizdun and if all these gems get together - bad stuff is going to happen. He can be let go from his imprisonment. If someone is asking you to put these together and Cities to take these things… “   “I think this Tharizdun is in this world.”

    Barlo gets curious.   But first, when the word Torill was said it triggered some memories in Bastion Bladesinger from his studies: Torill. Not too much you would know, but the term comes up with the Netherii -- an ancient race of people who were responisble for such grand magics, such as the mythallars. They supposedly came from another world and the term Torill come up   Clarification: the world is a Gem. Bast put the world in the Orb of Bast. She was trying to hide it and found Sas W.T. Rayce.   Bast seems trying to hide this orb. And then Shadow in the Snow comes up to Barlo, “I found this box, can you open it?”   Calliope Galanodel gives the orb back to Sas W.T. Rayce, she pushes the top back down and then puts it back into her shell.   Barlo investigates the box, it is locked.   Tabletalk on DCs and repeat attempts   His first lockpicking attempt fails. He asks if anyone has “Guidance” and so Calliope Galanodel offers Bardic Inspiration and Sas W.T. Rayce does her Guidance spell. This time lockpicking was successful. He opens it towards the party and they see the coins, gems, and a Potion that was inside.     Also, Calliope Galanodel learns a bit from the ship as she touches it she learn a bit of it's history as well. It was the ship for a group of adventurers whose last "mission" was to come here and clear out the temple of Tharizdun and to "destroy" the Archfey. The one which still lies here. That Archfey tried to make the vale straddle the Material Plane and the Darkfell instead of the Material Plane and the Feywild. They were obviously successfuly, but the spell used to put the Vale as a 'lock" over this cavern and put the cavern into a pocket dimension meant they couldn't get back to their ship.   Calliope Galanodel then touches the ship, gets a weird look on her face and says: “Um, it sounds like this ship was on a mission and they came here on a mission to clear out the temple. The temple is to Tharizdun. And they were here to destroy the Archfey. It is possible that the Vale was put as a lock to this cavern here.   Shadow in the Snow and Barlo look at her.  

Shadow in the Snow, “what does the ship have to do with the temple?”   Calliope Galanodel: “The ship brought them here. There was a bunch of adventurers here that came to clear out the temple and kill the Archfey of the Vale.. An Archfey who was a follower of Tharizdun   The Archfey that was Dead upstairs. He was trying to make the Skola Vale be a conduit between the and the Material Plane. Instead there was a band of adventurers and with the help of other Archfeys that killed him, then used the Vale as a conduit between the Feywild and the Material Plane which then locked this cavern into a pocket universe.   Now it seems that someone paid off a large mercenary band of goblinoids and Orcs to attack the Vale which triggered a protective response making the Vale leave the Material Plane and exposing this area for whatever exploitation that person is doing inside the temple.   Shadow in the Snow: “can we check out that black thing first?   Barlo: “Maybe it tells us where we are.   Shadow in the Snow: “or maybe instructions?

    **tabletalk of the prisoners being Tabaxi and Tortle**   Calliope Galanodel is curious, so she starts to put her hand towards Bastion Bladesinger’s face, and so he moved out of the way.   They all got off the ship and headed towards the Large 20’ tall black Metal Black Obelisk. The dull Metal seems to “absorb” any light near it. It is not made of the same material as the Ziggurat – which is black stone.   Calliope Galanodel takes a handful of sand and she picks up how this area is very important. She picks up how the glove says this may or may not be where the Shard of Pure Evil was passed into this realm from another dying universe. She shares this with the party.   And they get to the obelisk. They begin to inspect it and see all the very fine and thin linework that goes all throughout the obelisk. As they are looking at it and they hear a voice,    

"hello there." and there are two people here, they are two young Human males. The one who speaks has short hair and a short beard that is well trimmed.  

  The other has a five-o'clock Shadow in the Snow and large curly brown hair.   The goateed gentleman continues in his salutations: "I'm sorry, time is short" and the two look at each other with an odd smile "So, because you didn't… no. um… so here's the deal. When you get out of here - you need to find "Jinx" she is pretty well-known Bard at this time and you can just ask around the more prominent taverns and venues. Tell her Jeriah sent you and you are to tell her of your tales and travels. This is important. As a sign of good trust I need to give this back to… sorry, I need.. I want to give you this." And he hands Bastion Bladesinger a Ring. "Don't forget this time, Jink and Jeriah sent you…." as the last words came out of his mouth they both fade out of existence it seems and then with a near audible "POP" they are gone.

    Everyone is confused and starts trying to make sense of what they said. Bastion Bladesinger looks at the Ring.   The perception check:Shadow in the Snow saw the same Brooch it seems that Bastion Bladesinger was wearing.   They were in some rush it seemed. They did not come out of the obelisk, but appeared near it.    

Shadow in the Snow rolled an insight **whispers**   Shadow in the Snow: “what did he give you?   Bastion Bladesinger: “a ring.   Shadow in the Snow: “He said don’t forget this time, does it look Familiar?   Bastion Bladesinger notices it looks a bit Familiar, it looks like a Ring of Spell Storing he saw at the colleges.

  And then Arktos’ curiosity has him start snooping and he sniffs at it. A flash of light and lightning hits him and he is shaken a bit, but he has grown a bit.   Shadow in the Snow comforts him and wonders what is going on with this obelisk.  

t Milestone Experience: (1500 Each) | Total: 16,580 (Next Goal: 23,000) t

       

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