2024/02/16: The Formian War Part 12 Report
General Summary
Knight, Kit, Malakai, Starlight, Union Union appeared out of nowhere through some spatial warp. He made some quick introductions, and then he used cellular regeneration to fix Kit's missing arm. Untouchable golem showed up while that was happening and the door was opening, led by a skinny zombified drow with a cybernetic crown. It was the same individual the party encountered in the dream on the way to the second key. Starlight used a wish to make the drow's control crown malfunction and grant him free will for at least a brief period. Rather than just trying to kill everyone, the drow pointed his sword at Knight and asked if anyone was interested in a duel. Knight, taking the opportunity to buy time, took him up on this. The drow asked for Knight's name, and after a bit of confusion over whether "Knight of New Hallownest" was a name or a title, he introduced himself as Xaruiel Na'Varr Feathe. From the drow city of Zaeriel. He was in fact one of the founders of the city and was considered one of the city's greatest swordmasters. Ever. (Two swords.) Duel finally started after much deliberate delaying on both sides. (The derro golem was getting very angry.) First round was inconclusive. Second round was much more energetic, but also inconclusive. The drow deliberately intercepted a good number of strikes with his head, and in return Knight got slashed, impaled through the chest with a flaming sword, and kicked into the rest of the party, carrying them with him through the newly completed portal. Inside was a realm of willpower. The party found themselves on a flat platform with cubes floating around nearby. All of them were glowy digital versions of their normal selves. (Knight was purple, Starlight was white, Kit was Orange, Malakai was purple?) The giant head of the evil derro appeared from below and smashed through the platform, then began ranting and cackling. The heroes were in his house now. Knight rapidly collected the falling heroes and set to dodging. This got him and his friends just out of the way of a giant blast of glowy energy the derro head spat at them. Union started using his psionic powers to mentally hide himself. Starlight gave herself glitchy wings so she could fly under her own power. Kit, for his part, went offensive. The knives plinked off the giant head like it had armor. Malakai started pulling swords to test their effects. Torbronz, surprisingly, had little effect in this place. The Evil Sword just plinked off the head like Kit's knives. Long fight. Ended up knocking a big blast into his mouth and detonating him. Found ourselves in a near-featureless square room with the sooty remains of a humanoid. An earthquake started. They dream-traveled out, passing through a creepy graveyard area and into a stone forest before cutting their way back out into a tunnel a third of the way back to New Hallownest. They went to check on the status of Gertaglebrache. The city had collapsed and exploded, the giant cavern crumbling into a number of smaller caverns. Kit got to searching while Starlight called for reinforcements and Knight called home. Kit found the strange black golem the party had found in the factory. It was moving warily and intelligently, and once it saw Kit it started nervously and quietly approaching. Kit animal-empathied it a bit, and accidentally sent it running off towards... something. Probably friends. On their way following it, they came across the drow. His head was still badly damaged, enough so speech was out of the question, but he was otherwise intact and mobile and was regenerating. He stayed in that spot for the time being. Taffy: Blue-black haired cute, slightly frumpy looking girl. Dressed sort of like a maid. No weapons, but does have a frying pan. Ivos: Golden-skinned, monolithic (6'6") gentleman in white and gold monk robes. Starlight's bodyguard. The black golem had aimed for the remains of the pyramidal fortress. It had left a trail of broken (or outright folded) defensive golems in its wake. The party found the black golem holding the roof off the bodies of a scattering of zombie derro and the two armored dwarves. The party retrieved the lot of them and piled them on Starlight's summoned barge. The golem was apparently uncomfortable around magical auras, so it decided to go its own way after that. Taffee said it was probably earth, water, and shadow elements. Continuing to search, Knight felt his upper right arm move on its own. It raised and flexed, then released. There was no sign of a source. Found a drow elite sabotage party trapped under rubble. Freed them in exchange for a favor from each of them. (Five boys, three girls? One girl unconscious.) The Fallen One. The black golem has been spotted from time to time in the area for the last thousand years. Seems to act sort of randomly. A golem that's gone insane? Sometimes attacks, sometimes helps, seems nigh-invulnerable. On a list of nearby threats the drow gave to Starlight. Starlight took the lead for the next section and found a party of formian adventurers. Knight got possessed, stepped forward, and gestured for the formians to leave. Follow-up investigations after the peaceful parting revealed that Knight had apparently absorbed the third stage of the yellow formian queen boss fight, and now she was stuck in his body. She was surprisingly friendly about it all, though, and called for peace. When Knight agreed to the truce, the queen pointed the party to another location in the ruins. The party found their way to the tower where the final fight had occurred and where the little derro girl, Tirabelle, was still waiting. The party eventually located Yvenna, though the rest of her party was missing. She still had Ash's staff, though. The party didn't find Ash and Malakai. Ash probably went on his own adventure, and Malakai apparently played with some explosives or special physics and got catapulted to Alvidar.
Rewards Granted
3 xp
favors from drow adventurers
formian queen soul?
Missions/Quests Completed
Kill the derro overlord and end the threat of Gertaglebrache.
Character(s) interacted with
Xaruiel Na'Varr Feathe, Mulatorkrull Maguragh Ktaterack, Yvenna, Tirabelle, The Fallen One, drow adventuring party, formian queen, Taffy, Ivos
Created Content
Notes
Starlight's teacher/master was the minister of agriculture for his nation.
