The Natural Disasters #18: Out of the Dark

General Summary

The adventurers stand with their companions that have joined them on their task, and they wait in the trees for some kind of signal. Eventually, Ariel hears in his head from a soldier's voice that the assault is starting, and the party waits a minute before making their charge into the darkness. As they rush into the dome of night, they see beacons of light hundreds of feet away from them, flashing and dissipating before another beacon takes its place, but they can barely see in front of them. However, this does not deter the adventurers, and they charge forward.
As they are rushing ahead, the find themselves face to face with an enemy unit that they charged right into due to the fog of war. Ariel manages to maneuver and escape the unit, but axes are thrown which kill the Hellrider who was with the Disasters. Then, they come face to face with crossbowmen led by an enemy wielding eldritch power on the walls. 
The group rushes to fight them, Nix catapulting holy water in their direction, Ariel using his powers of vengeance to reach the top of the wall, and Syllin flying in to fight what she can. As the fight goes on, Ariel pushes archers off the wall to give Hope something to fight, and Bear finds his way up the wall on a rope that Hope situates. In the end, the eldritch commander died trying to escape from Bear due to hitting the ground too hard. The group was trying to recuperate, when those on the ground, which were Kriv and Claire at the time, -barring the fact that Nix had ridden away to search for another entrance- were struck by an eruption of the earth beneath them as the druidic commanders forces came for the party, and some other archers rushed after them soon after.
The group ran, seeing the flashes across the battlefield diminish while axes and arrows whizzed by them. Things looked dire for the forces from Elturguard as the Disasters found their way into a room that leads to an upper floor of the keep. Nix manages to find their way there by flinging themselves over the battlement utilizing a tendril that appeared from their body. Kriv and Hope barricade the doors they came from as the archers begin attempting to break it down. Meanwhile, the group are failing to figure out what to do with the ten tablets they see in front of them. Syllin tells them that the depths and destiny speak of accepting part of the darkness into oneself but being careful of what this will cause after she places her hand on one. Of course, the Disasters respond by asking what the hell she is saying, and she screams, "touch the tablets!"
Syllin manages to perform a ritual to deal with two more tablets, Claire deals with one, Nix deals with one, Bear and Ariel deal with two others, but they both fall to the ground when doing so. However, as Ariel topples to the ground, everyone sees that the dome falls and the vampires burn in the fight. Thus, there was one tablet left, and two heroes down when the archers broke through the doors Hope and Kriv were holding and the Disasters prepared for the worst. As a creature rushed through, ready to shoot, an arrow came from below the battlement and pierced itself in its head. As the party look over, they see a retinue of tribal warriors riding six-legged bears and their shaman-chief splitting their attention between the archers and the corrupted druid's forces, resulting in a showdown between the shaman-chief and a long lost Olympian.
Meanwhile, on the walls, the party managed to fend off some archers together despite the loss of Bear and Ariel. Once the archers are no more, the group wake Ariel and Bear up and attempt to topple the tenth tablet, only to learn the tendril of darkness is coming from below it. Everyone steps back as they shatter a hole in the ceiling of the keep, and the Disasters, now minus the wounded Syllin and Claire, jump down the hole to find themselves in darkness where the sun once shined down and looked up to see no hole in the ceiling above. They opened a door in the room and found themselves in a cavern with the tendril winding its way through it.  
The group take a moment to rest down here before falling the tendril, but as they do, they hear whispers and become unnerved, so they move as soon as they can. Deeper in the tunnel, they see pieces of the spawn of darkness' flesh sloughing off of them all over the ground and waterlogged fallen huts. Eventually, they also see a slightly bulbous creature pinioned to the ceiling with its multiple foot long tongue peeking out from the hair that covers its face. The party burn the creature to let it rest finally.
Then, they enter a room that elicits feelings of peculiarity that none of the party are able to describe. Around, they see items stockpiled such as a rifle with the words, "Bad News" etched into it, a sign that reads, "Red Dragon inn," and a book titled, On the Division of the Realms. Bear takes the rifle and Nix the book before entering a room with the rhythmic sound of a rocking chair. Upon it sits an old yet muscular looking woman who was rocking back and forth and playing with her hands and their disturbingly long fingernails. She assumes to know that these are the heroes who have been being a nuisance by hurting her children, and she explains that she has a shard from another plain that she is using to create a home for her children somewhere. Upon being questioned on some of the items, the hag, known as Sally Gristlegums, explains that there are other places the party could go where they would not have to worry about their home, but the group refuse. Thus, a fight occurs between Gristlegums and her paramour versus the Disasters.
Ariel manages to kill her sea elven familial tie, but Gristlegums is a hardy combatant who manages to manipulate the battlefield and cause corruption upon more figures and very nearly killing Ariel. However, she is eventually grievously wounded, so she touches a painting on her wall and disappears while the Disasters attempt to shatter the planar shard.  
Not much they do seems to work, but they manage to find a blade in the pile of items around and strike the shard with this strange fleshy item. By doing so, there is a feeling of change, but none of the group can seem to figure it out until they see one of the paintings glowing. Next thing they know, the stone beneath their feet has turned to grass and a sun shines above them through a canopy of trees. Then, for the first time in a while, the Natural Disasters step out of the dark.

Rewards Granted

900 cp, 5000 sp, 1600 gp, 130 pp, 11 expensive looking gems, a rod with towers on either side, a planar shard, and a fleshy blade in a white sheathe.

Missions/Quests Completed

Stopped the Darkness?

Character(s) interacted with

Kirk, The Hellrider
Syllin, Zealot of Destiny
Claire, A Close Companion
The Shaman-Chief
Sally Gristlegums, The Night Mother

Report Date

16 May 2021