Chapter X1: Shadow Over Ashenport Part 4
The 16th of Firedawn in the year 3250 C.R.
General Summary
After defeating the high priest of Dagon, the adventurers decided to make their way back through the hidden temple, and rappel the cliff face to to find the entrance to the underground tunnels that Duvall had discovered on his scouting mission. Plundering the now abandoned general store, the Bountiful Tide, for rope and other supplies and gear. Choosing to head back to the Smooth Sailing Inn, the party decided upon one more night of rest to recover their fighting strength and tend to their wounds.
Once more, the deafening alien call rang through Ashenport. This time Deimos, Duvall, Theolin, and Perspehone were enchanted by the all encompassing knell. As they marched mindlessly towards the river, Terza the merchant from the Gold Leaf Consortium, managed to awaken the group before they could drown themselves in the great river like so many had before them.
After resting, the group embarked toward the cliff that overlooked the Celinadian River, now in obvious danger of overflowing the river's banks and flooding the small fishing village due to the torrential downpour of the last four days. The wind and the blinding rain made the climb down very treacherous, resulting with the Theolin, Deimos, and even the nimble and agile Persephone tumbling the twenty-five feet down to the sandy riverbed below. Meanwhile, Duvall using his supernatural abilities crawled down the treacherous cliff face with ease.
Upon entering the mouth the underground caverns, Deimos charging ahead boldly, set off a trap made of a sticky like substance trapping him in his tracks, and metal objects fell from the cave ceiling echoing throughout the cavern, alerting anyone dwelling within.
The warriors were assaulted by more fish-men, who fought with a single minded fanatical goal; kill the intruders. During the battle, the combatants were assailed by a horrific aberration almost defying description. The beast was an amorphous mound of quivering flesh whose surface was covered in eyes and mouths. The monster's mouths emitted a piercing cacophony of babbling shrieks that seemed to paralyze those who heard the shrieking wails in terror or confusion. It's mouths spewed forth a blinding saliva, rendering a couple of the adventurers sightless.
After a tense, but quick battle, the fish-men and the blob-like horror were slain, and the adventurers continued through the cavern tunnels. The floors of unworked stone quickly filling with water rushing in through the cavern entrance from the overflowing river above.
The group entered into a large cavern that had been flooded, the water being fed from a submerged tunnel that likely led to the river above. Moving cautiously towards the pool of water, the warriors were attacked by large bipedal, crustacean like creatures Writhing tentacles draped from the monster's maws, their bodies covered in a hard armor-like carapace, and each of their arms ended in large pincer-like claws. The battle was intense as the party fought for their lives against the nightmarish beasts, but in the end the adventurers claimed victory, and the group marched onward.
Finally, the group skulked to what seemed like the end of the caverns. Each stood on a ledge overlooking another, larger chamber below. In that distant chamber, they spied sequence of monstrous idols, a great basalt altar like that beneath the church, and a shallow lagoon, roughly 2 feet deep, that runs beneath the distant wall. A moderate slope leads down from your level to the grotto below. From their vantage point an older woman, clad in black robes, moving around behind the altar.
A couple of the warriors approached the edge of the overlook, only to quickly realize the rocky slope on which they stepped was an illusion and the tumbled to the hard stone floor below. The black robed woman was an illusion as well, apparently meant to temp those above to move closer to the false edge of the ledge, as if baiting unwary onlookers into another trap.
The party inched cautiously towards the pool. The oily, black, stagnant water lapped lazily against the cavern's stone walls. The floating bodies of the Tusk Twins were discovered, their corpses bobbing face down in the lagoon's pool.
Then the waters churned with unnatural intensity, and an oppressive presence filled the cavern as Dagon emerged, its six eyes gleamed with malevolent intelligence. Its voice reverberated not only in the air but in the minds of all who heard it, deep and alien, dripping with ancient disdain.
"Kneel, mortals, and tremble before Dagon, Lord of the Abyssal Depths, the eternal ruler of these seas! You, pitiful creatures of fleeting flesh, dare to intrude upon the domain of the primordial? You, who walk upright in arrogance, are but specks of dust, blown forth by the winds of an age that should never have been. .Long before your kind dreamed of fire, my kin ruled this world. We were the architects of existence, shaping seas and skies to our will, while your ancestors crawled blind and witless in the primordial ooze. Your gods? Mere parasites, conjured by your fear of the unknown. Dagon is no mere idol to be worshipped; I am the void made flesh, the elder sovereign of a forgotten eon!"
Dagon's voice rose, resonating with a mixture of fury and pride.
"When this world was ours, the waters sang with the power of our dominion, and the land trembled beneath the weight of our will. But then came the upstarts, the usurpers: elves, dwarves, humans—vermin scurrying in the ruins of our glory." And now, here you stand, tiny and insignificant, daring to challenge me? I shall remind you of the truth. The oceans shall reclaim what was stolen, and your civilizations will drown in despair!"
The cavern reverberated with a deep, guttural laugh, echoing endlessly as the monstrous "god" loomed closer, its translucent, mucus-coated form pulsating with ancient malevolence.
"Bow before your rightful lord, or be consumed. You are but the fleeting echoes of a fading age. I am eternal."
The battle was on, with hero and foe alike using every weapon, ability, and skill to vanquish the other. Duvall became possessed by the ancient creature's malevolence, but the spell was eventually broke by the brave half-orc's quick thinking. Dagon was threatened by death from a thousand cuts and turned it's back to the heroes to submerge itself beneath the surface of the lagoon beginning to swim away to escape, Deimos and the half-vampire Duvall simultaneously landed crucial blows (both rolled natural 20's-critical hits!-Bill the DM), slaying the self proclaimed "god" as it's lifeless, bloated slug-like form floated in the oily water.
From within the water, from beyond the cavern walls, seemingly from beyond the borders of reality, boomed a hideous shriek, like the unearthly call everyone heard so often since their arrival at Ashenport, but somehow changed. Somehow even worse . . .
It was a cry of rage, of fury unabated. Without pause, without breath, it continued, rising, until one can scarcely hear their own thoughts. On it went, and on, for minutes on end, until all feared their very sanity must crumble beneath its weight.
And then suddenly, it was gone.
Rewards Granted
- A polished, golden shield.
- An ivory statueuette of a dolphin
- 2 potions of healing
- 90 gold dragons in various coins
The crustacean-like fiends found in the flooded caverns.
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