The Light Beneath the Darkness
The party is hired by Jeleneth Edrys to investigate and clear out an old illitid mine. As they move down through eerily smooth and silent corridors, where the darkness is only interrupted by the gleaming of eldritch energies, they must confront ancient biological weapons and fight eons-old defence mechanisms.
If they can make it through this they reach an ancient prison, where an alien civilization kept the worst of criminals and most dangerous dissidents. Down there lies a wounded angel, whose soul is guiding a god down from the darkness above...
Relations
Adversaries
Luossk
Luossk served as warden of the Prison, commander of the slave armies and expert torturer. During the Great Uprising he held the mountains with mind-controlled prisoners and his brood of elite chuuls. During the fighting he was assaulted by a gitzherai hit-team, which succeeded in mortally wounding him at the cost of their own lives. Realizing that the battle was lost, Luossk retreated into the depths of the prison and interred himself into a stasis pod, using his psionic powers to call out coordinates to a potential relief force.
Luossk relies solely on life support, and if it is cut off all one can see is a dessicated mind-flayer head floating in goop. This is protected by three chuuls.
Backdrops
Locations
This adventure location is divided in two: the Upper Mine and the Prison. Beneath this there is also the Ancient Temple
Upper Mine
People mistakenly believe that this is an old mine, when it is actually the entrance to the old illithid prison. Outside of the entrance there are two massive statues of strange, mollusk-like creatures. Inside there is a pillar of stone veined with strange, glowing purple crystal. An akshusian who gazes upon the pillar sees brilliant crimson and purple light formed in a vaguely humanoid shape, and feels intense discomfort around the pillar. The pillar is flanked by two ten-foot wide stair-cases, going around a 50 foot wide dark hole that descends into nothing. The walls and stairs are strangely formed, and have no marks from pickaxes or other such implements. The two stairs meet on the other side of the hole, where miners have built a simple lift for getting into and out of the chasm.
Four miners will be tasked with ferrying the party in and out of the chasm. None who have entered the chasm have lived to tell the tale. A DC 10 Perception check on the lift reveals scratch-marks from claws and talons stuck in the wood.
The illithids used to mine of psionically active crystal in these old mines. Today the only remains of the original activity is the inactive psionic machinery used to carve the mine. For a long time, the only denizens of the mines was a family of hook horrors that would hunt tribesmen and giant goats in the mountains. Not too long ago a stone giant named Bergr entered the mines, ready to finally die after almost eight centuries of life. The hook horrors have so far respected his privacy, primarily due to fear of his gigantic stone fists. He has spent the last couple of years meditating in the depths of the mountains, and has finally found the most beautiful dreams in the psionic crystals (which now grow over him).
This strange peace was interrupted, when kruthiks crawled up from the prison below. These ravenous beasts killed most of the hook horrors, and have tried to kill Bergr several times. The only remaining hook horror, Knekk-klo (ein epic hook horror), carries three hook horror children with it and tries to defend kruthiks and occasionally crawls up to kill miners. Bergr is very upset that his meditation is constantly being interrupted by small creatures with a ravenous hunger. He will give the party some psionic stuff (maybe a stein rune?) for killing the kruthiks and finding out where they came from. The kruthiks don't have a Hive Lord, but they do have acid mutations.
Basically så var det ein gong gruver, og no har ei stor familie med kruthiker flytta inn. Eg må lage eit vertikalt kart med kva som leier til kva.
Prison
Parent Plot
Related Locations
Comments