Episode 21, Beyond the Door

General Summary

Quest	fin	What's up with that?	fin
Delve deeper into the Millich Mines		Big Statue
Kill Incandus Carthelian		Pathfinders' Legacy
Chart the Stars		Planeswalkers' Folly
Escape the Pathways		Chess Pieces
		Arcane wards in the crypt

Recap

Lunaris 17, 3032: Year of Fire

The Omens brought Dorian into the caves beneath their home in Millich and introduced him to the big statue they had seen before. He was shocked; while statues like this had been seen before, he had never seen one that was both animate and able to convey thoughts and feelings, let alone one that could transmit memories of its journey pre-Fracture. While in the past he had compared this statue to one he had seen in the Black Desert, this statue was singularly the archeological find of the century, possibly of several centuries.   Needless to say, when the Omens turned him away from the statue and introduced him to the entire city that lay beneath their feet, he was stricken. This poor archeologist's heart nearly stopped beating. Statues like the knight they found were already notable because they were viewed as focal points or some sort of arcane pylon that protected surrounding Precursor infrastructure. These statues are highly sought after finds because they are evidence of a faction of Precursors who foresaw the Fracture and actively worked to preserve what they could before it arrived. Through their study, modern archeologists like Dorian hope to uncover knowledge of the Precursors and perhaps a reason or cause behind the Fracture and what lead to it; especially because The Six Sequential Prophecies suggest an event on that scale may come again.   Continuing to re-explore the city, which Dorian would later describe as belonging to the Tethrian region of archeological study (no one asked, but just as a treat for anyone who reads this, the regions of study are Tethri in Northern Aurelia, Cemri in southern Aurelia, Thrayvian on the west coast of Aurelia, The Stormlands in central Fulminaria and just The Coast on the Thunderer's Coast of Fulminaria). The Omens found it to be devoid of life, unlike when they first found it when the piscine folk of the city flocked to them and assailed them for assistance in solving their demonic incursion issue. Even though Dorian had imbued them with the ability to walk on water, the absence was noticed.   This absence was compounded upon when they returned to the ziggurat. Ilya, who had earlier remarked upon the dried blood that coated the precipice leading to the unknown depths, noted that the blood there looked... fresh. Tasting it, Andy recognized a salty taste reminisce of the bile of the piscine people which they had been encouraged to ingest on their previous visit and thus ascertained that this was the blood of the fish people they had worked to save. The population, as such, was now mysteriously absent from the city they observed. Going deeper into the city, Lorelai used her primeval awareness to sense a series of creatures nearby; below them and to the north were aberrations, and nearby was a monstrocity.   Investigating the monstrocity, they found a single creature, the Lonely. A weeping monstrocity, it proved difficult to kill, thriving on the company of others. But once it was defeated, the party investigated the ruins it had made its temporary home in, and discovered a simple, unadorned door set into the far wall. Its polished brass knob called to the party, but also made it stand out from the surroundings. Not only was it crafted in a different style from the rest of the ruins, but it was unweathered by the passage of time and was missing a matching portal on the other side of the wall. Ilya and Dorian managed to recognize the door as an entrance to the Pathways, which probably formed when the Lonely bled out into the Mortal Plane.   Andy knocked on the door.   There was the sound of shuffling and then an argument, sounding as if it was between two soldiers, one of Aurelia and the other of Fulminaria. Hoping to be their deus ex machina, Andy opened the door, flooding the ruins with the lingering scent of lavender. On the other side of the door appeared to be the well lit hallway of a hotel, intricate, maze-like pattern along the carpet and doors stretching in either direction. However, this accidentally allowing the Angry to follow the Lonely into the Mortal Plane. The creature that raged through the door was a towering figure of mottled pink flesh, with wicked hooked hands and two heads, appearing to have been created by fusing two soldiers of the opposing nation together, as evidenced by the tattered remains of armor that covered their new form.   The party managed to defeat it as it chased Lorelai, the greatest source of damage, onto the water. However, though thanks to an earlier water walk spell cast by Dorian, Lorelai could walk on water, the Angry could not, and in its blind rage made the mistake of making an attempt of it. After that, it was handily defeated.   Moving into the town hall at the end of the submerged street, the party found themselves in a desicrated Precursor ruin. An unholy temple that the piscine folk of the city had constructed to their god, the One Below. Statues clutching tridents had been covered in viscera of the fish people to take on their likeness, and at the far end of the chamber on a raised dias, a trident stood upright, haft partially submerged in a small pool of water. Behind the trident, an otherworldy mural of some sort of creature's face with a set of three vertical eyes took up the entire back wall. Fortunately, the lingering smell of lavender still pervaded the space and covered what would have surely been a wretched scent of rot and fishy decay.   The party found that grasping the trident, though exposing them to the will of this creature, allowed them to communicate with it, the terrible visage moving while they held the trident. Ilya, Dorian, and Andy spoke with it, and together gleaned that the entity they spoke to was some sort of primordial elemental, though Lorelai remarked that she had sensed an aberration below, not an elemental. The entity introduced herself as Olhydra, Princess of Evil Water, and enlightened the party as to what had happened to the residents of the town. The priest, a former adventurer who had evidently gone mad in these tunnels, crawled up out of the ziggurat carrying a mass of floating, writhing water which entered into the bodies of the fish folk. They each tore themselves apart before hurling their convulsing bodies down the mouth of the ziggurat. The priest was last to fall, jumping down after them.   Olhydra gave a few details to her storied past as well, revealing that she is a Precursor entity who survived the Fracture by placing her spark, the closest thing she has to a soul, in the trident that stood before the party. She spent untold eons adrift in the Astral Sea before being found here and has slowly regrown a physical form, the One Below, through the sacrifices offered to her. Through this conversation, it began to become clear that Olhydra believes this cave to be the entire world, but at Andy's insinuation of a greater world, her intrest was piqued at the opportunity to see the rest of the world, if someone would take her trident to see it.   Deciding to leave the trident behind, the group turned to leave, hoping to rest and think on what to do with the eldritch creature they had found themselves entreating with. But upon opening the doors to the temple, they found themselves faced not with the sunken city, but instead the grand entrance of a hotel; they were in the Pathways, and had been for quite a while.

Missions/Quests Completed

Delve deeper into the Millich Mines: The party found their way to the temple at the heart of the ruins and entreated with the One Below, Olhydra   Big Statue: Dorian was able to explain that these figures have been found throughout Andali, often near places that are better preserved than other pre-Fracture sites. They are believed to be arcane focal points that protected regions from the destruction, leading archeologists to theorize that there was a Precursor faction that saw the impending cataclysm approaching and was preparing for it, though they were ultimately unsuccessful.

Notes