Part 2: Worm Sign

General Summary

Slide down this smoothly melted tunnel into the area where we saw that Avarice’s group had come up from the Underdark. Upon landing in the large cavern surrounded with many icicles overhead and steaming pools of water the rhemoraz attacks!

Mama Rhemoraz Attacks and Swallows Nix!

From inside her gullet, Nix uses her daggers and claws her way out of the monstrosity. Once expelled from its mouth, she catches herself on the wall with her claws, pulls out her scimitar and slashes across the beast's neck. Using all fours, Nix scrambles across the wall and starts chucking her daggers at the beast. Super scarred and partially digested, she jumps on the beast’s back and eviscerates it. The baby rhemoraz flees away to lick its wounds.
After healing our own wounds, we start to investigate the chamber. Prudence (who still has her awakened spellbook summoned) and Belias had noticed a cloud of mist that watched us during our battle and left before we were finished. After Belias confirmed that it was likely a Vampiric Mist, Prudence sends her spellbook up after the cloud up the ice tunnel it came from to see if it’s planning an ambush. Bulwark investigates another adjacent chamber where he finds a small cat with wings, cowering in fear. Moreso concerning, he finds a skeleton of a female Tiefling holding an iron rod with an eye on the end of it with a note wrapped around it. It appears the body has been here over 300 years.
Bulwark opens the note and it advises, “Touch the eye for a self-guided tour of Ythrym” and it’s signed P. Bulwark befriends the Tressym with a successful animal handling check. Prudence steps in to check out the note while Bulwark touches the eye.

The Note is in Prudence’s Handwriting.

Investigating the skeleton and its disintegrated clothing she realizes this is her body from 300 years ago. Her body has huge claw marks that sink deep into the bones. Obviously it was ravaged by something savage and, realizing she was fatally injured, she retreated into this chamber to await her death.

Map is Revealed After Activating the Eye

Meanwhile, Bulwark spawns an Arcane Eye from the magical rod – an invisible scrying eye – that he uses to tour the area where Avarice’s team went. We had determined that Avarice and her team had went down another worm tunnel, where Nix had found a piton remaining.
Following the eye, it travels down the worm tunnel to a huge cavern with a fortress flanked by 6 statues of wizards. A drow task force is present and are using magic to erase any trace of Avarice’s team. The fortress contains a wizard’s workshop with a large cube on the table that is emanating some kind of energy.
There is another cavern near this with hundreds of dead ice mephits and a gigantic trident, a trident large enough for a giant to have used.

Atalanta’s Trident, but Enlarged.

Using the Arcane eye, Bulwark continues investigating. The cavern connects to a grove of frozen trees. Some kind of magic is here as the plants are still alive and bear some kind of purple fruit.

Purple Fruit in the Frozen Grove

Bulwark hears some crunching and munching noises in a chamber off the grove. Following the eye, he sees two malformed looking creatures with one singular eye and they are eating the last young rhemorhaz that escaped to this area. One of the creatures looks up at the area where the Arcane eye is flying, its eye flashes with arcane energy and then suddenly Bulwark’s vision through the spell is shut off.
Blocking off this chamber and realizing it may be the best place for us to rest, Prudence insists that we need answers and the only way we’re getting those answers is to ask the only one who knows anything right now: her dead body. It’s obvious Avarice is ahead of us and the Vampire is also taunting us and trying to lure us into a trap. We need to rest.

Prudence Speaks with Dead People.

After a suitable rest, Prudence attempts to speak with her body’s skull, casting the spell to Speak with Dead. Ice forms from around the area and creates jaws and tendons out of ice allowing the skull to speak.

• How did you die? The gnoll vampire, Tekeli-li, fatally injured me. I was able to retreat to this chamber where I drew my last breath
• Did you find Ythryn? No.
• What was your goal down here? We were sent to find and destroy the source of darkness that had entered into our realm. As we made our way through the Caves of Hunger, I was deceived.
• Who deceived you? My patron, Mystryl
• How were you deceived? As I followed the voice of my patron into the caves, it grew louder. We were tricked into freeing the Spawn of Thruun, the same aberration that gave Tekeli-li his power through drinking its blood, the blood of Thruun.

We started asking questions of Deputy Dom for more details to see if we could get more information. Specifically regarding Thruun, what kind of magic the Netherese were dealing with.
“A mote of alien thought given form and flesh, Thruun is not of this world. He dwells in an icy prison, awaiting a time when the world will be right for his coming. As his age of freezing darkness draws near, his brood begins to appear, stalking the wastes in preparation for his reign. If he is released from his prison, the entire world will be covered in a deadly glacier, removed from light and hope for all time. His physical form is said to be imprisoned somewhere far north of the Spine of the World."
After a contemplative pause he continued, "It is prophesied that one day his spawn would be unleashed. Spreading his blood and corrupting whatever it touches.”
The Netherese built a powerful prison deep within Ythryn to contain him known as The Cradle of Thruun. Deputy Dom moved on to discuss the Netherese Mage’s involvement with Chronomancy - the arcane art of time manipulation. They knew well the danger and catastrophe that would occur should Thruun be released. Therefore they created alternate realities and time paradoxes that acted as a failsafe should things not go as planned.

“After hearing this, it made sense why the gifts of my patron had not left me… Because she is still here with me. However it was then that I realized the capabilities possessed by this Thruun - imitating a god and reaching out to their patrons is no easy feat”

After discussing the descriptions of the creatures that had shut off the Arcane Eye with Deputy Dom, he believes these to be “Nothics”, creatures that may once have been human but have been corrupted by unbridled wild magic.

What Awaits...

Worried we may also be infected by this magic, Dom suggests we search for magic. Prudence uses her Eldritch sight to detect magic and determines that the source of this magic is southward of us. She turns back around and looks at the tressym and realizes it’s also fully formed by magic, illusory magic. Upon voicing this, Belias instantly leveled his crossbow and hit the flying cat with a bolt. The tressym dropped its disguise and revealed its true form, a winged kobold vampire spawn and immediately rushed to make its escape.
While deliberating where to go next, Nix had the sudden realization that the kobold spawn in disguise had stolen her amulet. After this you made your way to Tekeli-li’s lair where the Spawn of Thruun was imprisoned. This is where you witnessed firsthand the betrayal of Prudence’s patron and Tekeli-li final act: an attempt to free the Spawn of Thruun using the magic of Nix’s Chardalyn Amulet

The Decision is Made

So, have I mentioned before that we are fucked?
This day. Fuck this day.
It went from bad, to maybe it will be ok? To .. yeah, no, we are fucked.
Not only are we in a place that holds so many secrets and ancient evils lost to time, we are “working” with the fucking worst humanoid ever… Avarice and her stupid face and stupid newfound magical powers -__-
We are running in race we cannot win.

Just when I thought we caught a break...

While prudence was in the middle of a full blown mental breakdown from what we discovered (I guess finding your own skeleton can do that to you) Bulwark made a new friend, a winged kitty, that was very friendly with everyone, especially with me.
I should have known something was wrong. I am shit with animals. They kinda hate me. But because I was in my beast shape I thought, “Well, I guess I look kinda like a cat? Maybe that’s why it wants to hang out with me?”
The stupid fuck was a fucking minion for that Mother. Fucking. Vampire.
It took my necklace. MY NECKLACE. I CAN’T BELIEVE IT HAPPENED AGAIN.
I knew I shouldn’t have left my sister. I knew that coming back was going to bring me more hardship. Don’t get me wrong. I love these people. Well Atalanta, Bulwark, and especially Reinaldo. Even Dom. I would legit fight a dragon if that would mean that they would be safe, and well, I have.
But...
There is always a but.
I didn’t really think that I would lose the one thing that I hold so dear. The one thing that my parents told me never to lose. There were still so many questions that I had about it. About that necklace and the link it had with my family and our past, and what darkness it holds.
I guess desperation gets out the religious part of me. I felt so lost and the Traveler always knows what to do, and he never disappoints. I guess in a different life, I would have been a good cleric for the Traveler.
But my hands have so much blood.
But he answered my plea and showed me a massive cave with an ominous skull carved into one of the walls. On the other end a flat sheet of cloudy ice formed one wall of this forty-foot-high cavern. Something dark and humongous shifted behind the wall, its tentacles waving unimpeded. I become aware that was not alone inside my mind. Somehow, this horror from another world has wormed its way inside me.
That was the true plan that Tekeli-li and his minions had for MY necklace. The Traveler showed me what would happen if we did not act fast.
They were using it to resurrect THE NUMBER ONE MONSTER WE SHOULD AVOID.
We all jumped into action and ran to where my necklace was laid out as a sacrifice, or so we thought. As soon as we entered this massive cave the fucking kobold that stole my necklace threw me my necklace... but it wasn’t really my necklace...
It was an ancient relic, cracked and rusted… and yet, it felt like the necklace that had been with me for years.
I tried to be strong. I tried to be strong for my party, for the two new dumbasses that thought that coming on this journey with us will not lead them to their death. But I failed. As soon as I saw my real necklace I wanted it back. There was no godly power in this universe that could hold me back. Why do I have to be so weak when it come to stupid sentimentalities.

As soon as I grabbed it I knew that I had lost.

My body was not my own and I could only see red.
Eldritch whispers started to creep in and fill my head until without realizing what I was doing, I took my scimitar and cut my hand and let my blood wash over my necklace.
How will my party ever forgive me...
How can I explain that I was screaming but no sound was coming out? Are they going to understand that even though it was me that hurt them and almost killed Belias, my true self was trapped in a cage inside my mind I was trying to claw my way out and help them in this battle.
But, at the same time I was so fucking angry. After Belias threw my necklace into the lava, I think a piece of my heart also fell into that fiery pit. I wanted to burn everything, I wanted everyone to feel my pain. I wanted them to hurt me, to react to what I was doing to them, to fight me and fight my pain. But nothing. It only took minutes but it felt like hours.
Bulwark reminds me of my brother. He isn't very expressive, he is not the greatest with crowds or other people but he always comes through and he is always there when you need him. He finally answered my silent plea. He attacked me and hurt me, and just as the eldritch whispers came they left and my mind was finally my own. I still saw red but this time my target was the fucking bastard that made this whole thing happen. The stupid fucking vampire that I thought was just an insignificant nuisance that just wanted some attention.

Gods let me be the one to kill his stupid face.

I started running. I don’t think I have ever run this fast in my entire life. Shout out to Umberlee and her blessed curse I guess.
I didn’t see anything that was happening around me, LIKE THE MOTHER FUCKING CELESTIAL THAT BULWARK SUMMONED!
I flanked with this celestial being and had Tekeli-li surrounded. I said my last prayer, not a very godly prayer but I knew that the Traveler was there with me and that he would help my strikes to be true.

Tekeli-li's Lair & the Spawn of Thruun

Endgame with Tekeli-li Highlights

• Before entering into the vampire’s lair Prudence hears her patron call for help, says “I don’t trust you” and the entreaty ends and she is frightened. (Did the voice really come from her patron or has it been Thruun all along?)
• The disguised flying kobold spawn tossed Nix’s amulet to her but it was old and broken (from 300 years ago)
• Tekeli-li: “You stopped the ritual before, but you won’t succeed this time” (he knows about the time loop?)
• Nix becomes dominated by the massive aberration within the ice
• Nix cuts off her hand, her blood empowers the Spawn of Thruun which begins the encounter
• Skull at the other end of the cavern starts issuing molten lava which is melting the ice flowing straight for the Spawn of Thruun
• Tekeli-li calls upon their kobold spawn
• Belias grabs the Nix’s amulet and throws it into the lava, halting its approach to the aberration trapped in ice.
• Atalanta grabs Nix’s severed hand
• Belias is killed and starts to fall into the lava, loses a foot
• Bulwark summons a Celestial to keep Tekeli-li from escaping
• Nix’s AWESOME capture and kill of Tekeli-li

Report Date

25 Mar 2022