Harmony Session 8: Diving into the Past
General Summary
When last we left our heroes, they were facing down a monstrosity born of Vardura's opaque history. The semaphore, greater and its mad piper minion were doing a bit of a number on the team. Malachai somehow stranded himself on the other side of the battlefield and was getting wrecked by a lone sema, but Gorr was able to cut the thing down before it put the cornman in the ground. Zoran found himself facing down the mad piper and its mocking rendition of Vardura's strange melodies. Perhaps taking this personally, the goliath put his blade away and pulled out his flute. His performance was both revelatory and violent, Zoran's song somehow forcing the mad piper's cacaphony into harmony. This sudden shift fed back into the mad piper, and the abomination promptly exploded in a shower of torn flesh and shattered bone. Triumphant, our heroes took some time to collect themselves and stabilize Malachai while Zoran picked up the mad piper's bone flute. A good idea? Nah, a great idea.
Tatters of History
A thorough investigation of the area revealed quite a bit about the facility's previous purpose. Gorr and Malachai surmised that this place was some sort of Varduran laboratory that, over hundreds of years of neglect, had become overgrown with corruption. Whatever it had been had morphed into a strange sema-making soup over the years. It was likely that these experiments had also poisoned the swamp's underground river, and potentially, the swamp itself. Azarki and Pilgrim discovered some clues (and loot) from an overgrown desk that confirmed these suspicions, but only shed a little light on the fate of Vardura. Perhaps the camp's scholars can make more headway when they come to investigate. With that in mind, our heroes took a long rest to prepare themselves to clear out the several overlooked threats on the floor above.The Pointy End
Our heroes were swift in securing the ruin, only delayed by a very sweepy and allegedly shit-pantsed Zoran. They found a sword spider standing guard over an old cache of Varduran weaponry, a strange pool of water plugged up by an ancient-old skeleton, and a huge plant-monster that had gorged itself on the gross undead refuse spread by the lab's corruption. Behind this particular room lay a tunnel that appeared to lead outside. However, when Malachai, Gorr, and Pilgrim crawled through, they found themselves in an incredibly strange and magical forest clearing. They stood in a small wooded area, barely large enough to comfortably hold the three of them. Thick, dense trees formed a tight circle around them while pale hazy sunlight filtered through the dense canopy. White petals fell slowly through the thick air to blanket the soft mossy floor. It was wholly unlike Swango Swamp, but somehow, they knew they were still there. The cozy mugginess soon began to have a strange affect on the planty bois and Pilgrim decided to get them out of there before anything bad happened. The only thing that made any sense to them when they left was that Swango Swamp felt sad. Zoran decided to take his new bone flute for a spin and played a tune at the entrance to the clearing. The emotions transferred along the magical melodies channeled by the goliath nearly overwhelmed the party with the swamp's ancient-old grief, loss, shame, and black rage. One thing became clear to our explorers: Swango Swamp needed help.What Would Johnny Utah Do?
A choice lay before our heroes: Should they continue on to find the Exodus or divert their efforts into helping the swamp? Regardless of how they came to their decision, our heroes chose the most exigent course and resolved to tackle the swamp problem head-on. The fastest way to do that would be to go right to the source and follow the poisoning influence of the laboratory's corruption. This, of course, would require somehow navigating the rushing current of the pitch-black underground river. So, they plopped down a bolt for Varu vu Waterwend and went back into the ruin. The aquaphobic Zoran and critically thinking Enoch tried to come up with some sort of plan so as to not succumb to the total chaos of the river, but weren't fast enough. Azarki, fully in his exigent element, leapt though the broken floor and into the darkness, leaving the glowing cauldron of goo and the creepy lab behind. Reluctant or not, his friends promptly followed.The Heart of the Problem
After a pretty rocky trip in some rushing rapids, the river slowed enough to afford our heroes some reliable footing. Unfortunately, the more navigable speed of the river was due to the years of downstream corruption this primary vein had endured. The water here was thick with sludge and squishy shores of rotting sema-meat soon lined the tunnel like a clogged artery. Not even the pale light that began to shine from the end of the tunnel relieved our heroes, as this hazy, thick, and "meaty" illumination only served to nauseate them. About this time, a deep reverberation could be felt, and then heard, ahead of them. It sounded not unlike the ragged beating of a giant heart. The source of the meat light was revealed when the tunnel suddenly opened into a underground chamber. A squishy loam covered the floor, lit by the unsettling "meat light" that shone through the ceiling's few layers of translucent skin. Signs of corruption could be seen everywhere, even among the twisted faces of the half-dozen phytozombies who turned in unison to face our heroes. The ceiling flexed in time with the accelerating beat of the echoing heart and the phytozombies leapt to attack.Rewards Granted
- Bone flute from the mad piper
- Vicious greatsword from the sword spider's stash
- Necklace of Adaption from the drowned skeleton
- 80 gp, 1,700 sp, 900 cp
- 3x Star rose quartz (translucent rosy stone with white star-shaped center) (50G each)
- Conservator Fronk's journals
Created Content
- Our heroes deftly avoided a trap by unplugging the drowned skeleton from afar with rope.
- Gorr's unique connection with Swango Swamp made him felt peacefully sleepy in the magical clearing, but as a "phantom limb" feeling of sleep.
- Malachai had a different experience in the clearing, one of confusing and disorienting discomfort.
- Pilgrim tried to take some of the white petals from the magical clearing, but they immediately turned brown and dry upon exiting.
- When Azarki had to choose between helping Gorr or Pilgrim navigate the underground river, he chose Gorr.
- There is potential in using the strange Varduran melodies to communicate and send messages.
Notes
Conservator Fronk's journals revealed that the Vardurans were using transmutation magic to turn undead creatures back into "living" ones.
Only four sentences could be fully pieced together:
- "Song Uphon is very pleased by our latest experiments and has retreated to his Zacao to prepare.”
- “All deliveries from the Morvido Resurrectories have been diverted to Uphon’s Zacao.”
- "We now await the Song of Justice and the finale of Her Second Movement."
- "By Her Voice We Sing."
