Nepttin part Deux

Discovery, Exploration

The Path of Nightshade travel back to Nepttin and find Hazel and the rest of the town of Ecco. They have been surviving with hardship but know some new secrets about the Island that may lead to a Grimore.

It has been seven months or so since the encounter with Nerezza on Nepttin.   The Dragons Redemption does a flyover of the frozen volcano, then down to the town of Ecco to look for Hazel, the ornery shifter who decided to stay on the island once their memories returned. Bobushio knows that supplies haven’t been coming to Ecco, so Bobushio loads supplies on the ship via the Tower to bring to the Island.   When they arrive Ecco is relatively the same, but the huts are much sturdier and better insulated. There’s a communal outdoor cooking area and much more defenses around the town. A town wall surrounds the village and there is damage to the wall where attacks have happened. The town is aware of the ships arrival very quickly and most of the town is assembled as the party arrives.   Hazel marches up to Bobushio and slaps him. “We’ve been waiting four months. You went silent, and I haven’t been able to reach anyone. We’ve survived barely, by eating creatures. Hideous creatures from other planes. We thought that Nerezza’s death would stop creatures from other planes from coming onto the island but they continued. There’s no pattern or logic to what comes through. A least before we could have a little warning." "Since you have left we’ve made a tunnel to Nereza’s lair to get everything out of it.”   She offers to take the party down there, though it is empty now, though she hasn’t been down there in a few months. Bobushio has the supplies offloaded, as he looks around he notices many things made out of materials not of the Material plane. Moz notices how cold it is, but thinking it’s not as cold as it should be being this far south. Hazel explains that it sometimes gets really warm, but it’s cold a lot. The fog from the mountain rolls in and means a change is coming. There was a time that the island set on fire and all the vegetation burned down, then it all grew back much too rapidly. Also a very windy period that blew away all the snow. The periods are very random.   Bobushio is wondering if there’s a possibility of closing this manifest zone, but he doesn’t recall reading of any successes at it. He also doesn’t trust that the Tower wouldn’t just cover it up.   Gilly can tell that Hazel is so mad at them and feels betrayed. She decides to tyr and make colcannon, but she messes it up. She she then goes to Chef and they make a wonderful meal. Thuniel pitches in some mead. The good food and alcohol loosen people’s tongues and they start dropping tidbits, particularly about Nerezza’s lair.   A small young person named Rusty says that they found a place only he could fit in. He looked inside and there was a big open space where he saw a sunken ship on a reef and a big tower protruding from the ocean, when he tried to see more, something scaly and slimy tried to grab him. No one else could fit in. He offers to show them the tunnel   Moz is looking for seeds that might be interesting and new and finds twelve seed types from various planes. The party heads into the mountain with Rusty. Many mistake shifters for lycanthropes, they are related to the fae, and each are related more to certain animal types. Hazel can take on rodential aspects. Rusty can take more dogish aspects.   Rusty leads them into the mountain to the place where Arline Soren died and the chamber where Doctor Tick was tortured. Rusty leads the group to a place Moz, Gilly, and Bobushio all had noticed before but never thought to go in, and it becomes clear that it was enchanted to make people not think about it.   Moz casts Reduce on Bobushio and Thuniel will try to squeeze through. Gilly, then Moz, then Thuniel, then Bobushio try to get through. This tunnel is not short, but wriggling through takes about three minutes. Gilly crawls out into the enormous cavern and sees what Rusty described. She cannot see the roof because it’s too dark, it’s dimly lit by bioluminescent algae. Bobushio gives ISAC a glowing stone and sends him to the roof, but it gets too far away to really even see. It’s a little less than a mile high, according to ISAC’s mileage.   It feels like the gravity is wonky and Gilly feels like she could walk on the walls were to step in. Gilly can see what looks like a tower, but even farther away is another tower, and they are completely different styles of architecture. They might have been from different periods. One looks like incomplete ruins. In between is the shipwreck. There are lots of humanoid dark creatures in the water and on the land. This cavern could take up a third of the island.   As the rest catch up with Gilly and get to the edge of the water. We see half a dozen or so small yellow glowing jellyfish in a tidepool. Gilly wants to touch, but Moz doesn’t want her to.