5 - What lies beneath

General Summary

Dead ends and loose threads...

Still in Padstow, the group again try to find more information about Kupo's bounty, discovering from the guard who posted and rescinded the bounty, that it had been posted by the official The White Mages guild, by someone named Gery Foxe. It was rescinded a week later by someone named Hamas Lyoney, also from the White Mages guild. Atrix Forde was nowhere to be found, it seems to trail is cold.. for now.

Walking the rocky mountains..

Arrex Nairin cleverly decided to head to the local church of Crystal Animism in the hope of finding some information about primal crystals. They discovered some local legends of a place called Titan's Peak, where the legendary Earth primal was rumoured to exist, home to the primal Earth spirit Titan, who watches over the mountains. With this knowledge, the party went and bargained for some climbing gear for their trek. Though they made an agreement to sell it back later, for half the buying price. Vexacious Rein has a new habit of giving daily speeches. Some are even inspiring. The party set off, taking them 3 days to reach what they believed to be Titan's peak. They fought some smaller monster groups along the way, goblins, bugbears, and the like. They then formulated a plan to climb the peak.

Kupo kept an eye out for wandering monsters, and good climbing locations.
Zephyr Highwind used his climbing gear along with his jumping abilities to help anchor the party to higher and higher points.
Zar'ral Helvimtor and Arrex scavenged food, mostly local berries, helping keep the group fed on their expedition.
Vex helped navigate for the trip.

All in all, the trip went without a hitch due to competent party members and reliable climbing gear.

Hie, my children, into the dark...

Arrex soon felt a growing power within the crystal within their chest. It seemed the power of wind was reacting to something, drawing them closer to.. something. The party followed Arrex' lead. They bumped in to a wandering Otyugh, seemingly eating fresh bugbear dung. The party avoided the encounter and headed onwards. After some time, they came to the border of a potent magical domain, where the ground suddenly shifted from rocky mountain to dampened mud, as if some kind of mystical doorway. The group headed through with only a little hesitation. They felt the first of many small earthquakes, the noises almost sounding like scrambled speech. After spending far too long attempting to push open a bark-like stone door, they realised it opened by pulling. They entered Titan's domain.. The walls were a unique formation of rock, that looked surprisingly like tree bark, and the floor was a slick wet mud. Ahead of them was a set of 3 large sockets within a stone plate upon the far wall. Arrex reached out to touch them, and caused another earthquake, this time though, a pair of Earth Elementals broke out from within the walls, leaving no trace behind them. A combat ensued. The party had little trouble dispatching the foes, who had a habit of dropping down in to the earth, melding with it before burrowing and appearing somewhere else. The larger of the two elementals had a solid earthen core, which Arrex pressed in to one of the sockets on the wall, it then glowed and became fused. The party wander around the room for a bit, unsure as to how to proceed. They eventually discover two side rooms, each with a puzzle. One, a terrifying amount of pit traps, underneath what seems to be muddy flooring. Kupo uses his shape earth spell, and easily solves the problem, finding a second earthen core within. The second, a large room with 3 pillars, the space between them like sinking mud. The group found themselves a little stuck, and it took them nearly an hour to discover that there was something within the sinking mud. The brave Kupo dived in, sinking underneath, seemingly lost for a moment before resurfacing, a third core in hand. The cores opened up the wall once entered, and the group headed in to what appeared to be a large room, circular, snaking around at about 10 foot wide, connecting with itself a few hundred feet around. In front of them was a large, heavy chalice within a hole in the wall, and they noticed a tiny, 1 inch slit within the bottom of the floor on the far side, following it all the way around. The grumbling earthquake returned, this time speaking inside their minds.

Rise to awaken,
sink to rise.
Slumber in depths,
in depths slowly bleed.
Sands fall ever no more;
until again they rise,
then the core shall drink.

Above them, Kupo spotted what seemed to be a kind of vent, blocked with clay. Kupo shot the clay, and it burst open, spilling sand in to the room non stop. The group then began their gauntlet, realising that they had to open the sand vents, in order to increase the weight in that ring of the circular room, so that it would then sink lower, opening up the ability to go to the next ring, closer to the center. More weak elementals appeared, forming out of blue wisping aether energy. The group fought through these, taking minor damage as they continued inwards, ring after ring. Each ring also contained another chalice, they managed to carry all three chalices towards the final ring, which only filled with sand, and did not sink. There was a pair of large doors in this final ring, with 3 gaps for the chalices. The group tried filling them with sand before placing them in, this was rejected. They then tried blood, and this too was rejected. Finally, they tried water. The sand now covering up to their waists, making movement nearly impossible. The doors flew open and the group headed inside. Within, was a large circular room, with slopes leading down to the enormous shape of the Earthen primal crystal. The crystal was roughly 30 foot tall, and had a diameter of about 10 feet, but was covered by many smaller crystals, shooting out from it's base to about 1/4 of it's height. The entire room was thick with magical energies, leaking from the crystal. As they attempted to connect their magic weapons to the crystal, without clarity of their real purpose, something awoke. The mountains began to rage with earthquakes and it seemed, had decided to bury the group to stop them interfering with the crystal. The crystal sunk in to the ground, the same way that the earth elementals had done prior. As rocks began to fall, suddenly Arrex felt a huge power within their chest, and the crystal magic activated to create a form of wind shield, buffering and deflecting the rocks from above before lifting the party and the platform they were stood on up in to the sky, forcing them upwards, away from the dangerous chamber. It was then they saw a face form in the earth in front of them, even as they shot upwards, it remained constant. Huge rocky features and an angry snarl, as two huge rocky hands slammed in to the sides of the platform, trying to force it back down. The toughest fight the party has ever faced is about to begin..