Harmony Session 10: And the Snails Lived Happily Ever After
General Summary
We last left our heroes as they advanced upon a flail snail lair alongside Lady Blight of Swango Swamp. She had brought them here to help destroy a sema spawn and didn't expect the snails to have returned. After helping the heroes clear out the immediate threat, Lady Blight left them to explore the lair alone while she went to go "check something." Saying she would find them later, she turned into the swamp and sped off.
Resolving to find out if the sema threat still existed here, the adventurers gathered their strength and made their way into the dark, humid cave.
The Scouring of the Snail
Flames flickered in the deep black of the cave. Dr. Malachai Husk crept forward, trusting his experience sneakily navigating dark dungeons to keep him safe. Unfortunately, he actually never accrued any real experience and quickly and loudly made their presence known. In response, a shriek echoed throughout the cave, quickly followed by the leathery flapping of wings. One of the distant fires went dark and Malachai found himself beset by a swarm of flameeaters, their tiny mouths aglow with freshly eaten fire. A bloody and dark battle commenced. The shrieks of the flameeaters called more flail snails from the darkness and they rushed forward to protect their lair. Unfortunately for them, our heroes didn't take the time to question whether they were the baddies before slaughtering the once-triumphant flail snails and ending the danger. Covered in blood, ash, and the snail's very flammable goo, the explorers took a short rest and began to explore the cave.A Poetic Interlude
Dispersing thorughout the cave, our heroes made some interesting discoveries. Gorr and Azarki discovered that the small pool of clean water hid a little tunnel in its depths. Pilgrim found some flail snail eggs now abandoned in a nest, and Malachai found a super scary skeleton in a flooded cavern only accessible with a narrow squeeze. Near the south end of the cavern, Enoch discovered a wall alight with the burning slime of the snails. The wizard cleverly extinguished the magical burning with some well-placed rays of frost and revealed a finely-wrought Varduran script beautifully chiseled into the wall of the cave. The text appeared to be the The Last Writings of Emparae the Aria, a Varduran. Zoran took this as a cue to bust out the old bone flute. This time though, instead of trying to play along with the hidden melodies of Vardura, Zoran chose to release himself to them. He let the melodies of Vardura flow through him and his flute, and suddenly found himself listening to a very clear voice singing the words carved into the stone. The lilting voice came from the hidden cavern with the skeleton. Zoran and the cornman squeezed into the small cavern and splashed down into the knee-deep water. The light from Zoran's torch flickered in strange spidery shadows where it bounced off the walls. The wavering light revealed that every inch of the interior of this cavern was covered in a much more intense and shaky version of the previous chamber's Varduran script. The phrase "BY HER OBLITERATING MERCY" had been repeatedly carved hundreds of times over. Zoran and Malachai approached the skeleton where it sat up in the shallow water. Upon closer inspection, they saw that several of the skeleton's bones were missing or shattered. Each of the legs and arms were cleanly severed mid-bone by heavy clean cuts with a massive weapon. The skull was even rent open in what looked like a very violent death. Brave Zoran reached out to push the skeleton. It tipped over into the water, the bulk of its broken bones finally splashing apart. An arm bone with the hand still attached jutted up out of the water from the pile. In its grip was the magical stylus responsible for the finely wrought text all over this cavern. Our heroes inferred that this corpse was perhaps that of the Varduran Emparae the Aria, whomever that may be.Down the Suckhole
Finding no evidence of the sema, our heroes decided they needed to explore the tunnel at the bottom of the pool. Enoch and Zoran volunteered to go in first, the latter eager to prove he had overcome his fear of water. In a stunning show of overcompensation, the big goliath donned his Necklace of Adaption and shoved himself into the completely submerged and terrifying tunnel. Enoch followed closely, but the big man's feet suddenly disappeared down the tunnel, pulled through by a sudden and powerful suction. Unsure of what to do, Enoch took the few minutes to wiggle himself back down the tube, praying that Zoran would survive. After telling his friends "Zoran got sucked!", the wizard immediately dove back into the water, his crew immediately following. Thankfully for Zoran, the suck tube did not result in his immediate death. Instead, it dumped him out of the tube and into a shallow pool. He had splashed down into a large underground cavern. Lighting a torch, the goliath took a look around and found the evidence they sought; the black, half-rotted vines of sema sign were everywhere. Zoran stood still, fearing for an attack, but the only thing that came from the darkness was the rushing of the underground river below him. Taking a closer look, Zoran realized that the sema refuse was not "fresh" and more closely resembled the quickly-decomposing aftermath of a nest's destruction. Zoran even found a stone basin empty but for a sap-sticky black resin that clung to the surface; this had been full of the bubbling green sema spawning goo, now completely burnt up. Someone had beaten them to this nest and destroyed the sema living here, allowing the flail snails to move back in (at least for a time). Zoran then found a single discarded black feather and thought of his mentor from the Panoptic Legion, The Corvus and her feathered black cloak. Just then, a series of splashes signaled the arrival of the rest of our heroes through the suckhole. They all agreed that it looked as if someone else had killed this nest, likely within the past month. Zoran cryptically said, "It looks like we have some protectors helping us!" and gave his companions a knowing wink. I doubt The Corvus will appreciate Zoran's creative interpretation of "don't tell anyone I'm here" but what's done is done. Hopefully the lack of transparency won't compromise the party's trust of Zoran. In the relative safety of the dead sema nest, our heroes decided to finally rest for the evening in the hopes that Lady Blight would return in the morning.Rewards Granted
- Flail snail eggs for Enoch, Azarki, Zoran, and Malachai
- Emparae the Aria's magical chisel with the inscription: To Emparae the Aria, with which to carve our harmonies into the bones of the earth.
Missions/Quests Completed
- Find out what happened to the sema in the flail snail lair
Created Content
- Zoran purposefully embraced the strangely beautiful Varduran harmonies and found that "the cornman's skeleton is singing at me."
Notes
When Gorr went unconscious in the cave, he once again was provided a vision from the Swamp. This one communicated an intense wave of shame and sorrow as the Swamp made a huge sacrifice in an attempt to protect itself. The missing flowering vines were central to this shame.
Report Date
05 Sep 2024
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