Session 36

General Summary

18th of Wealsun, year 595 level 13 > 14
The party questioned the bound kuo-toan archpriest and learned of some kind of "intruder god" that has threatened the existence of their goddess Blibdoolpoolp. That sometime after "the great wave," kuo-toans had returned to the lair with knowledge of a new god and many left to go worship it. Deciding to ignore the voice that was psychically communicating with Wally from the ceremonial brazier, the party made a bee-line toward the direction where the archpriest said the worshipers of the "intruder god" took captured humans. 
Ignoring all other paths and focused entirely on rescue, they eventually came to a cave chamber where they discovered a collection of kuo-toa dancing and chanting around another, a still living shell of a body violently shattering itself in preternatural shaking and vibrating, creating a spiral depression in the very rock. When interrupted from his worship, one of the other kuo-toans began doing the same thing. Using her still remembered connection to the Old Ones, Irina was able to make contact with one, and learn that they were worshiping a "prophet" of the New God, one of the original kuo-toans to have seen the new god and returned to tell others. A "new old god" named Cthulhu.
This kuo-toan was willing to lead Irina to the new god and dove into a cave lake that exhibited waves -- clearly connected to the open sea. And indeed after a while of swimming through a large tunnel, they emerged out the side of a mountain into open ocean. A trio of large bull sharks swam around, seemingly waiting for them, and started to make for the kuo-toan, but Malex was able to warn them off (being unusually intelligent sharks). They followed the kuo-toan for some time until they finally came up to a large ravine producing an eerie glow, with nearly a hundred worshiping kuo-toans at the edge of it. Hiding behind an outcrop, they watch as some kuo-toa approach a cage placed at the back of the gathering, where several humans appear to be sleeping with some kind of dark goo smeared over their mouths and noses. They take out one of the adults and pull his unconscious form through the crowd of dancing kuo-toa, to the edge of the ravine. One of the kuo-toa that looks like an archpriest scrapes the goo from the face, and the person slowly twitches and jerks and appears to wake up and realize he can’t breathe... He’s held between two of the kuo-toa and appears to look down into the ravine, and instantly the man shakes and attempts to scream so violently and insane that he actually takes in and expells lung-fulls of water in attempts to scream before he dies, spasming. His body is then tossed into the ravine and you can hear the cacophony of joyous voices from the kuo-toa who then continue to sing and chant in some dark and disturbing language.
Then they see a massive yet ghostly, mostly see-through form rise out of the ravine, and it’s followed by other smaller, twisted figures crawling to the edge of the ravine. Both the monstrously huge and the smaller figures gain solidity and they watch. At this point, Malex notices something warm emanating from a pouch, and when he pulls out the glowing water fey stone given to him by Roselind months ago, a portal opens up in the water before them. A portal displaying another location of ocean bottom, except this one is filled with brilliant coral and seaweed, and creatures in the distance. Malex pokes his head in and is instantly pulled through, but his companions grab him and easily keep him there. But in that brief instant, Malex senses the same feeling as the fey realm they visited long ago.
The party sees that the focus of the kuo-toa are on the massive new (old) god they are creating with their shared insanity (a creation that Irina can tell has the same aspects of the Old Ones, but is in fact not an Old One itself). They move to the cage and retrieve the 3 children and 3 adults inside, and send them through the portal created by the water fey stone. They are then noticed by the assembled fish people, and they rush to attack. Having been improperly and incompletely advised as to what the results of attacking nearly a hundred swarming kuo-toans and many monstrosities and an ersatz Elder God would be, the party chose to close the portal and attack the swarm. Fortunately for them, they were extraordinarily lucky and able to slaughter 88 of the creatures and cause the monstrosities and the ersatz Elder God to disparate with only 2 of their number being inconvenienced with unconsciousness.
However, they now find that with the complete elimination of the eldritch threat, the water fey stone no longer seems compelled to open a portal.
They follow the attending shark back to the realm of the Sahuagin where, with the giving of the statue head of Blibdoolpoolp and the tale of mass kuo-toan slaughter as well as a tribute of some of the accumulated undersea treasure, they are welcomed (in as much as non-Sahuagin can possibly be welcome there), and are allowed to feast with them. Though, clearly not very warmly, and so the party departs as quickly as it seems appropriate and make their way back to Knifeblade Isle where Sariel is waiting for them. After performing a test with Irina's summoning of the Hunger of Hadar, that indeed the water fey stone in some way reacts to the presence of eldritch evil, but the Hunger not being enough to open the portal, the party decides the best way to return to the fey realm might be through a hag....

Report Date

25 Aug 2020