2023/02/08: The Vault Part 5 and Fungal Rescue Report

General Summary

Othar's Swordhunters

Othar, Garrek, Shane, Buzz, Malthoronam, Morros, Union, Tauriel   The party got Calamity in touch with Catalus, who helped him break his bonds.   The party paused to consider loot and take a closer look at the Sword of Villains. (They also looked over the bow that dropped from the lava slug's corpse.)   Malthoronam picked up the bow, which had a lava rock appearance with runes and such. It promptly started draining his life force, exhausting him and lighting up. It was painful for him to release, giving him spasms as he tried to let go. Even getting his fingers off it didn't work; it was magnetized to his hand and was still draining directly from his soul. Garrek tried to knock it off his hand, but only succeeded in harming Malthoronam himself. Union tried to heal Malthoronam's steadily draining life force with psionics and found himself mentally interacting with a very powerful process. It's the "Bow of the Leyline Guardian". Union realizes that the bow is still powering up, and is using Malthoronam as a power source. It finally stopped when Malthoronam was concerningly low on health. The light, powered by Malthoronam's soul, changed to a green reminiscent of light through healthy leaves.   Certain little runes on the bow have highlighted, and Malthoronam can almost understand them. One of them points out a sort of switch that can set it to "burst fire". The bow also has a 1/day ability that is some big deal and requires him to be set solidly on the planet. Something like a leyline-powered railgun. It has a 3/day ability that is less impressive but less taxing. The bow's glow can be dialed up or down as desired.   It's a very nice bow.   After Malthoronam got healed up, the party went to go and get Saveon, the sword of villains. Calamity had actually built a little altar to her. As the group looked at her, she gradually shifted to look more attractive and perfect to each of them.   Eventually, Othar walked up and grabbed the sword. Villainous classical music started to fill the room. Othar and Saveon had a brief contest of wills. Saveon won. She flourished herself, stretched Othar's body (including muscles he didn't know he had), and then gave Othar control again. Then diplomacy began.   In summary, Othar isn't necessarily Saveon's first choice (as it's hard to tempt someone into villainy if he's already a dragon hoping to ascend to godhood), but he'll do for the time being.   After being told of the group's quest, Saveon said she is very familiar with the other swords of power. She's gotten into conflict with Altus Alai before; Saveon usually wins, as the Sword of Heroes usually prefers up-and-coming heroes and turns her back on them once they just start to become interesting. Saveon prefers the experienced types.   Saveon says the Sword of Heroes likely wouldn't be useful to the group. She isn't much for experienced heroes. She's currently located in the celestial lake the group saw in the scrying, defended by angels and fairies and such.   The third sword is the "Titan Sword of the Ages". He's the most powerful of the three, and many of the stories supposedly told of the other two blades were actually him and his wielders. He doesn't take credit much. His wielders tend to go out in a blaze of glory. Saveon knows his location, and knows the trial of arms that is required to gain access to him.   Saveon doesn't know what's located in the Tower of Necromancy. Something very bad. The group tried to point Calamity in that direction as he started his rampage.   Calamity burned his way out through the top of the Vault, clearing monsters out as he went. (Apparently, among other things, his breath weapon has an auto-loot feature. The gathering garns found this out the hard way.) The party stopped by the water temple on their way back up, letting Morros get battered around by water weirds for a bit before they got bored of trying and failing to drown her. She looted the temple, getting an odd black tome. Then the group made for home, teleporting out via water and returning to Castle Darkstorm.   The group consolidated their loot and reported in. Tauriel thinks she's going to do some adventuring, gather some treasure, and then maybe become a Theskan noble. The rest of the group wished her luck.   The Old One ranger the group recruited a while back is getting settled in in Thesk. She may be becoming another noble, trying to get land next to Othar's.  

Fungal Rescue

Knight, Ril, Ba'alzamon, Eldrin, Union, Zaran   Knight made emergency calls to Aetheril, Eldrin, Zaran, and several other people, letting them know that Rodger and Sunderfury had gone missing and that he was gathering people to retrieve them. The group formed up in New Hallownest on October 18th.   Mithril shipments have started coming in. The channel is partly completed, which is speeding things up. There have been several attacks, and things are getting lively.   Knight filled the party in on the situation and the (minimal) scrying results so far. Eldrin made an attempt to do a boosted psychic scrying with the support of a crystal ball and a network of holocrons from Star Wars. He saw caverns with giant fungus colossi stomping along and widening a path. More came behind. Behind that was a large cavern with a bum-looking and sort of crazy wizard in the center. The wizard saw the scrying and looked back at Eldrin, and Eldrin only managed to shut it as the room started to turn psychedelic colors.   Ril uses the leylines and the nearby solcite to look for someone with information. She gets the soul of an old orc slave. She learns that the old wizard supposedly died a long time ago. He was an adventurer. He had something eat away at his mind until there was nothing left. He swallows souls. He represents or is possessed by something other, something powerful.   Ba'alzamon pulled out a large crystal ball that was specialized in looking into the past. He followed the course of the group until they disappeared. The Hollow Knight was hard to see, and Ngel Sfet wasn't visible at all. The group fought mushroom colossi and some mushroom-human zombie things. Then they entered a cavern and things got really weird. They confronted something that looked like a glowing red dot, and then the view flickered, and they were gone. Briefly, in the view, the red dot became the crazy old wizard (with a glance at the camera).   Union used his new ascension crystal to briefly ascend to a higher plane of existence and try to ascertain what power the wizard was using. It turns out it's some sort of fungus-based Old One. The wizard is its avatar.   Eldrin, fortunately, has had a sort of "encyclopedia Old One" plugged into his brain, which he consulted. Long before there were humans, there was this fungus Old One thing. It was killed repeatedly, but kept coming back, eating people, and making them into undead versions of themselves. It's not particularly intelligent; it mostly just wants to grow and spread and become one with everything. It operates as a sort of omnidimensional unimind.   The closest translation of its name is "Galesh".   The group rested and the spellcasters prepared spells for the upcoming terrible confrontation. Eldrin, in the meantime, tried to communicate with one of his Sith holocrons, the Sith within which specializes in doomsday weapons and temporal shenanigans. He suggests that with the aid of Union's ascension crystal, they may be able to draw Galesh into a higher plane where it can be truly harmed. It would take a big ritual and a bunch of crystals and such. Eldrin and Union set about constructing the ritual, with Knight supporting with resources and labor. Ril prepared a way to boost Zaran's psionics, as Zaran is also crystalline.   Ba'alzamon traded his crystal ball to Ril in exchange for her cloak of magic. Ril's eye ate the crystal ball.   The mining has been going rather well, and they actually have returned with plenty of solcite crystals and (strangely) several very large crystals of mithril. A bunch of these are going into the ritual.   The doomsday weapon is going to be targeted at whatever the crystal hits when it's set off. The party will need to be split. Eldrin at the ritual, Union handling the crystal. Knight will be with Union, one of the other spellcasters will need to stay with the ritual. Ba'alzamon will stay at the ritual, Ril (and hopefully Sith) will go with the assault party.   The ritual will be happening in New Hallownest, as that's the home of a major leyline nexus. Ba'alzamon will be summoning an army to defend, as it's likely Galesh will strike back once he figures out what we're doing. Ba'alzamon thinks he can probably talk his paladin golem into helping to guard the ritual. Eldrin is calling in the assistance of an Ancient One who lives in Trunkwood and can help set up an anti-Old One zone or a zone to enhance the ritual blast. Ba'alzamon also contacted his therapist, who had some suggestions and a particularly useful crystal for properly applying the "cosmic oneness" to Galesh. Orb got involved, adding extra finish. And finally Ba'alzamon contacted Renedge itself, for even more oomph.   (Ba'alzamon cast a Contingency on Knight, which he can activate to get Speed of Elkar and Quick for one turn. An extra 20 attacks and an extra initiative. Eldrin cast a contingency on Union, which can be activated for Twitch, giving him +5 to initiative.)   This is a ritual built around a magical ritual circle and a psionic ritual circle, all centered on the therapist's crystal and focused through a ton of valuable crystals, all placed on top of a powerful leyline nexus and organized by some of the most powerful mages on Renedge. It's taking about a day and a half to set up. This is going to be one hell of a boom.   (The group was gathered on the 18th. The ritual is started early on the 19th. The ritual is finished partway through the 20th.)

Rewards Granted

1 xp and varied magical equipment for Swordhunters party

Missions/Quests Completed

Acquire a powerful magical sword to aid in the war in Thesk. It might not be the one we were looking for, but it's at least as strong and we have info on the locations and defenses of the other two.   Help Calamity escape the Vault.

Character(s) interacted with

Calamity, Galesh, the Ancient One, Orb, Ba'alzamon's therapist, Catalus