2022/11/23: Underdark Delving Part 6 Report
General Summary
Knight, Rodger, Senal, Zaran, Locke, Sunderfury
The group decided to fall back from the ants for now. Too much lightning, too much concern about reinforcements. They decided to go to the tunnel that crossed over or under the machine, towards the Hushed Caverns. It turned out it went above the machine cavern.
The group came across three dying formians. The group wasn't able to figure out what was killing them. Separation from the hive mind? They died pretty quickly. They seemed to be mineral explorers of some sort.
The group continued on. The caverns became oddly regular. Psionic ringing, Knight crit failed resistance, started to develop crippling headache. Group fell back past the formians before it dissipated. Locke and Zaran (who didn't even notice the ringing) volunteered to go venturing down the path to see if they could figure out what was causing this.
As they went further, they had to make a save. Zaran crit failed. He started to get confused even trying to follow the left wall. He was getting turned around in the large, straight tunnel. Zaran, from his perspective, was following the left wall. The two of them turned back, because that was a very bad sign.
Knight, Rodger, and Senal made a second attempt. Knight got hit by the pain again pretty quickly. Rodger and Senal went a bit farther, with no effects. Rodger summoned Sair, his cat, who said the sound was coming further from the south and up. Rodger and Senal decided to continue on. The tunnels were creepily long, but nothing stopped them. After several minutes of walking, they decided they didn't want to risk getting caught alone and turned back. They were able to return with no issues. Rodger mentioned that his place seemed, if anything, more dimensionally stable than the surroundings.
In the meantime, Locke asked about Knight's spyglass, and Knight handed it over. Locke saw a party of fomorian adventurers. Knight asked who wanted to bet that the party was coming to investigate the dead formians. Locke decided to scout it out. He found the formians retreating from the Caverns of Silence, then gesturing towards the tunnel the players were in, apparently deciding they didn't want to mess with the stuff down there, and heading back towards the ancient machine.
The party decided to circle back around to visit the kuo-toa city and try to meet the fish people. We might be able to ally with the fish people against the formians, which appear to be hostile to everyone.
When the party arrived at the city, they got to watch a giant fish person monster fighting a tide of suicidally fanatical formians. The water was very dark and oily, with almost no visibility. The group decided Senal would guide the group down, and Rodger would provide an elevator down. Senal put on/activated a magic item that let her take off her head and not need to breathe. (Torc of the Headless General?)
In the water, the group came across a bunch of kuo-toa, a dweller below, and some other things. They found themselves facing off against a phalanx of bident-wielding kuo-toa. Those not immune to mental effects (i.e. all but Knight and Senal) got a message that amounted to "who goes there". Some mental back-and-forth ensued. After some time, a chieftain arrived to do more advanced negotiations.
They have stonelike armor. The chieftain has a gold headdress with a tentacley design. The chieftain cast tongues. The chieftain is some 1.5 times the size of all the others.
The name of the city is hard to pronounce. Bpfashishlaship. Rodger calls it the City of Frothing Water. The chieftain is one of the many underchieftains of the city. His name is Ishtip.
At least three queens or leaders of the formians. The formians have been a problem for about two weeks. The machine is draining the city, which should be underwater.
Military alliance. Party and adventurers will help against formians, as they're a threat to all. Defensive alliance regarding the mining route, possibly getting the kuo-toa in touch with Zarlask for an alliance with him as well.
The kuo-toa opened a semi-permanent portal to the teleport zone south of the gates of New Hallownest. The queen herself, an even larger kuo-toa with a fish lower body, opened the portal herself. The party returned to New Hallownest to contact allies.
Apparently a giant mushroom monster appeared in a flash of lightning a little while ago, knocked down a wall, badly injured Hornet, and killed one of the guards. Hornet killed it. The Cult of Karnifax is handling the dead guard's corpse.
Also Zolsikar's spiders are here and helping. They're wearing masks like those of the New Hallownest citizens and have taken refuge in the city, since Zolsikar is becoming a danger to those around him due to demonic corruption and sent them away. We need to get that handled quickly before going to help the kuo-toa.
In on exorcism:
Eldrin (with his purification sword)
Anomenath In on the fight:
Hollow Knight
Anomenath
Eilitorre, Senal's Betrothed, who may come back to kill the kuo-toa later.
Harold, King of the House of Air, plus some of his friends (it's "his turn", he needs something for a bunch of Malthorians to fight)
Kenju (likes to fight, wants some loot)
Ngel Sfet
Aku Namasu (likes to fight)
Zolsikar and his spider followers Talk more with Durkusk orcs later. Eldrin shaved the horrible hair endlessly growing off Zolsikar, then Anomenath held him down and the rest of the party used Knight's dream nail to get in and fight a smaller version of the horrible hairy monkey demon lord. A little before that, back in the Caverns of Silence, Locke arrived on his trip to visit and try to talk to the hydra and get its help. He tries to commune with the entire cave. He succeeded. It's some sort of genius loci, fairly mind-bending, very strange collective consciousness. He explained the situation with the formians and the war against them. He offered a favor in return. It asked for the favor immediately, wanting him to help it "expand its awareness". He would essentially become a weird twisted druid for it, getting unique abilities. It's a natural creature, so his god (of nature) is okay with it, but will definitely want a report after. Back in the fight with the demon in Zolsikar, Senal and Rodger took a beating with their tanking, Knight was a bouncy pain in the neck, the demon resisted a stunning scream from Zaran, and then Zaran successfully banished the demon (with some distraction/Void aid from Knight). In the real world, he left behind a "Fabulous Hair Charm". On Knight, it provides a thick white handlebar mustache. On Senal, it lightens her hair, which becomes flowy and beautiful and heavily shampooed. On Rodger, it gives him a massive, majestic moustache, a beautiful thick head of flowing hair, and all his hair goes from dirty blond to gold. Knight made quick portraits of everyone. Apparently the charm is what's left of an original demigod pugilist who the demon lord consumed. Gives proficiency in pugilism and an extra two attacks in it. Zolsikar is now cured. The party and their various eager reinforcements grouped up and joined the kuo-toa, while Locke (currently eyeless and a bit grey) rode in from the other direction on the hydra from the Caverns of Silence, flanked by hordes of eyeless monstrous creatures. Hordes of spiders throwing spears, some 20,000 Malthorian ultra-heavy infantry and archers from the House of Air and House of Earth. Some of the adventurer-tier formians manage to put up a fight, but they're being overwhelmed. Some formians manage to escape through dimensional shenanigans, until Harold shuts down all dimensional shenanigans (which is very disconcerting for the kuo-toa). About 36 of the 40,000-50,000 formians present managed to escape. (This is their forward force/army.) Harold and his crew proceeded to loot the area and cheerfully teleport back out. The kuo-toa are fairly disappointed about how they lost all their portals and dimensional shenanigans, but they did win (and they're sort of scared of us now), so they're busy refilling their city. Locke is now an Emissary of the Silence. Among other things, he can now enter a Silence mode in addition to his normal shapeshifting, which makes him eyeless (but with blindsight) and grey, and gives him toughness bonuses. He looked into the Silence's history, and there's some old memory about nature gods and betrayal, but it isn't really sure how it came into being. Presumably linked to the goddess to the north. The Silence is essentially souls that animate rocks in an approximation of life.
Eldrin (with his purification sword)
Anomenath In on the fight:
Hollow Knight
Anomenath
Eilitorre, Senal's Betrothed, who may come back to kill the kuo-toa later.
Harold, King of the House of Air, plus some of his friends (it's "his turn", he needs something for a bunch of Malthorians to fight)
Kenju (likes to fight, wants some loot)
Ngel Sfet
Aku Namasu (likes to fight)
Zolsikar and his spider followers Talk more with Durkusk orcs later. Eldrin shaved the horrible hair endlessly growing off Zolsikar, then Anomenath held him down and the rest of the party used Knight's dream nail to get in and fight a smaller version of the horrible hairy monkey demon lord. A little before that, back in the Caverns of Silence, Locke arrived on his trip to visit and try to talk to the hydra and get its help. He tries to commune with the entire cave. He succeeded. It's some sort of genius loci, fairly mind-bending, very strange collective consciousness. He explained the situation with the formians and the war against them. He offered a favor in return. It asked for the favor immediately, wanting him to help it "expand its awareness". He would essentially become a weird twisted druid for it, getting unique abilities. It's a natural creature, so his god (of nature) is okay with it, but will definitely want a report after. Back in the fight with the demon in Zolsikar, Senal and Rodger took a beating with their tanking, Knight was a bouncy pain in the neck, the demon resisted a stunning scream from Zaran, and then Zaran successfully banished the demon (with some distraction/Void aid from Knight). In the real world, he left behind a "Fabulous Hair Charm". On Knight, it provides a thick white handlebar mustache. On Senal, it lightens her hair, which becomes flowy and beautiful and heavily shampooed. On Rodger, it gives him a massive, majestic moustache, a beautiful thick head of flowing hair, and all his hair goes from dirty blond to gold. Knight made quick portraits of everyone. Apparently the charm is what's left of an original demigod pugilist who the demon lord consumed. Gives proficiency in pugilism and an extra two attacks in it. Zolsikar is now cured. The party and their various eager reinforcements grouped up and joined the kuo-toa, while Locke (currently eyeless and a bit grey) rode in from the other direction on the hydra from the Caverns of Silence, flanked by hordes of eyeless monstrous creatures. Hordes of spiders throwing spears, some 20,000 Malthorian ultra-heavy infantry and archers from the House of Air and House of Earth. Some of the adventurer-tier formians manage to put up a fight, but they're being overwhelmed. Some formians manage to escape through dimensional shenanigans, until Harold shuts down all dimensional shenanigans (which is very disconcerting for the kuo-toa). About 36 of the 40,000-50,000 formians present managed to escape. (This is their forward force/army.) Harold and his crew proceeded to loot the area and cheerfully teleport back out. The kuo-toa are fairly disappointed about how they lost all their portals and dimensional shenanigans, but they did win (and they're sort of scared of us now), so they're busy refilling their city. Locke is now an Emissary of the Silence. Among other things, he can now enter a Silence mode in addition to his normal shapeshifting, which makes him eyeless (but with blindsight) and grey, and gives him toughness bonuses. He looked into the Silence's history, and there's some old memory about nature gods and betrayal, but it isn't really sure how it came into being. Presumably linked to the goddess to the north. The Silence is essentially souls that animate rocks in an approximation of life.
Rewards Granted
3 xp
Missions/Quests Completed
Inspect and clear the Darkhome mithril mining zone. (Sufficiently completed for downtime to start. Further adventure in the area is available but not urgent.)
Senal Romenil
Locke
Zaran
Sunderfury Ironspire
Knight of Darkhome
Rodger Silverton
Report Date
23 Nov 2022
Primary Location
Secondary Location
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