The Depths of Muldrak

General Summary

The Arrival

For two days the Zephyr travels the storm-wracked waters of Lake Tairos toward the western shores... toward the ruins of Muldrak.

The gnomish captain of the swift little ship bravely plows through the punishing waves, not for pay but by necessity. He trusts the word of his friend Rewyn, there will be no world to return to if they don't stop the Spawn of the Scorned One now. Captain Hale even volunteers to travel with them and to fight these monsters because his life is insignificant compared the the consequences of failure.

Senator Okan Sage spends his time below deck meeting with each individual soldier and faithful of Tatayne The Breath of Life that volunteered to come along. He wants to hear their story, record their deeds and give them a chance to speak their mind privately. His goal is to tell their tale to the rest of Ghal Pelor.

Through the sleet, hale and storm clouds assailing the top deck the heroes eventually see the the withered silhouette of Muldrak. The blockish architecture of the dwarven city is eroded and decayed. Vast amounts of copper, bronze and iron that adorn the old city have rusted or been overtaken by a verdigris patina. The lightless city and the remains of the harbor are their destination. They bring Hale's ship into dock and unload their small army (12 soldiers from Ghal Pelor's army and 6 faithful from the church of Tatayne). They find the city flooded to at least knee-depth and signs of collapse everywhere.

Exploring the Ruins

Muldrak is a vast ruin but both Sandig and Dunric are familiar with the city layout of their people and they know the harbor should have one they're looking for, access into the sewers and thus the caverns beneath. Everything the heroes have learned up to now points to the caverns as being the source of the recent awakening of the spawn. Okan Sage confirms it and again reiterates that they must get below the city and force the elixir he crafted on whatever being is behind this. The mental shock wave the concoction will unleash should sever the hive connection they share and kill off the spawn it controls.

Sandig and Dunric decide to take lead because of their knowledge of cities and divide the party into two groups. Both tasked with finding an entrance into the sewers. Sandig decides to explore the area closest to the docks while Dunric goes deeper into the harbor district looking for a temple to the city's old divine patron Moradin The Forge-Father of Tairos. They believe the sewer lines should should be strongest and most likely intact in those areas. The harbor area because of the amount of material it must have handled while functional and the temple's because no expense would have been sparred in the construction of the building, including its connection to the sewers.

Dunric's group moves forward to first secure and clear out the ruined shell of an old ship-construction factory. The water here is more stagnant and filled with rust. Artemesia and Rewyn begin exploring while the others secure the main area. They're able to find a small cloister of cultists engaged in a private sermon. They look mutated beyond all racial recognition. She's able to overhear some of the sermon, given in a twisted version of The Common Tongue. The cultists are speaking about punishing a betrayer inside Ghal Pelor. She and Rewyn get the jump on them, killing them all save one, who escapes out the back. Artemesia chases after the creature but they lose sight of it in the pouring rain. Dunric and Ivy follow after the Artemesia and leave Gero in charge of their portion of the soldiers.

Meanwhile, Sandig and his group explore the harbor barracks. They find signs of the old dwarves that used to call this place home. Infection looks to have run its course and many of the dwarves, Sandig suspects, devolved into Spawn. He finds writing on the walls, phrases that make little sense and seem to have been written by a shaky handy. The seven children of the Scorned One were bound in webs of reality and stored within mirrors made by the angel of Tairos. Yet one found his way out, the youngest of his children. Khallendesk'ordrad. Shedding much of his power as he slipped his bonds and returned to the mortal world, the young one wandered and watched.

Sandig's group searched the entire area and found the sewer system but it seems to have been blocked up from the decades of abandonment, clogged with debris and overgrown by plant matter. He reasoned they could clear it but not without time and not without being noticed. He decided to venture deeper into the city with his team. He was able to spot Artemesia running through the rain alone, possibly lost, and heading toward the largest structure in the area. They followed, unsure of what she was doing and where the rest of her team was.

Inside the large ruin Artemesia scoured the dark halls looking for the escaped spawn and slowly began to realize she lost the creature. Dunric and Ivy eventually caught up with her and joined in the search of the building. They discovered a room locked and barricaded. Inside was the body of a dwarf who shut himself inside rather than face the horrors of the city. They searched his belongings and found out that he was part of the original exploration and salvage team. In the dead dwarf's bags was the salvage certificate that made his team's work legal. The form was signed by Senator Okan Sage.

Sandig and team finally catch up with Artemesia, Dunric and Ivy. While here the two dwarves are able find out that this ruin used to be part of the old temple and the sewer connection is intact, though the opening is a bit further in.

They return together to the ruin secured by the soldiers to inform them of their discovery. Once there they find two soldiers were killed and Gero along with Rewyn have ventured off to explore on their own. Reluctantly they venture out to find Gero and Rewyn who have found themselves surrounded by spawn while trying to secure some treasure. Jafar and Jasmine suspect that Gero has used his Suggestion Spells on Rewyn to use him for this side mission gone wrong but they ultimately keep it to themselves as the situation grows increasingly dangerous. Spawn of all kind begin emerging from the flood waters to attack. Ivy manages to turn the largest of them to stone while the rest of the heroes finish off the attackers and retreat back into the ruins.

Journey Below

The heroes lead their remaining soldiers back through the already cleared sections of the harbor district and into the temple ruins again. As they traverse the area the see more of the horror that's unfolded in Muldrak. They find a tree from which an infected traveler has hung himself from rather than face metamorphosis into a spawn. They find more scrawls of shaky text and scribbled words filling a stone wall. The young one became known as the Veiled Master for the power he mastered was the talent of disguise. He cloaked himself in mortal shapes, mortal trappings and mortal lies. As his kind infect and corrupt us we infected and corrupted him. He learned ego, individuality, ambition and greed. The Scorned One would see Tairos undone, warped into chaos. The Veiled Master wants nothing less than total dominion of it

The heroes skulked through the shadows of the ruins as far as possible. From their vantage point in the old temple ruin they were able to see the entrance to the sewers as well as the clutch of young Birth Worms all suckling and nursing off the bloated dead that bobbed in the stale waters here. Each of these young worms was as large as a horse, some larger. And each of them very hungry. Carefully the heroes set their ambush. Using their construct Scarecrow to lure them into one place and strike the lot with a Fireball Spell. The burst began the fight and the two sides clashed until the final Birth Worm was slain and the path into the sewers left open.

The journey through the narrow passages of the sewers took almost an hour but as expected it eventually released them into the caverns beneath Muldrak. Through the perfect darkness they heard first the wobbling, alien screech/song of the spawn. Then the sermons of the priests as they prosletized to their murmuring mutations "Ghal Pelor harbors the betrayer and the promise of so much flesh to infect! It is the end of the Veiled Masters and the rebirth of our strain!"

Jasmine shines her light into the room to reveal a hoard of spawn and freshly born Birth Worms as well as the priests who preach to them. And beyond that a great underground lake and the terrible thing they all bowed to. Fish, worm and squid all merged together into one nightmare thing that stared at them with a dozen alien eyes and hungry tendrils. Jafar would feel the infection inside him desperate to take control and bend to the beast's will. The others could feel it's oppressive waves desperate to override their thoughts. Okan Sage whispered to the terrified soldiers and the stalwart heroes "That is the piper to which all of these... things are slaved to. We must use the cure on it and quickly before it can call others to its side!" Driven by courage, duty or purely by survival the heroes and their soldiers entered the chamber.

The Final Battle

What seemed like an already difficult tide of enemies grew in number with more creatures emerging from the waters. The young Birth Worms slammed into the ranks of the remaining soldiers while Sandig along held the rear against oncoming spawn. Dunric called upon the power gifted to him by his god to transform into a raven and fly through the chaos with the cure hoping to deliver it and be done with this battle. Instead, the walls of his mind were sundered and a flood of horror rushed in. He was deluged with visions of the end of his people, the final death of Ghal Ankhar and the metamorphosis of the dwarves into spawn. The shock to his mind left him on the brink of death and sinking into the waters.

Jasmine, Brielle and Ivy rushed into the waters to try and save Dunric from drowning and the cure from being lost. The quickly found the muscus cloud around The Piper to be highly toxic, transforming their flesh into a translucent, soft skin and their lungs only able to process water instead of air. Jasmine and Ivy fought off its effects but Brielle succumbed. The Piper's tendrils battered and bashed Ivy while Jasmine and Brielle were able to help Dunric to the surface.

The heroes on shore managed to blunt the tide of the spawn and the Birth Worms. The Piper noticed this and immediately forced its mind into Artemesia's and ripped control of her thoughts from her. It forced her to turn her bow against Sandig and spread fresh chaos to their stabilizing battle lines. It sought to steal Jafar's mind as well but in a moment of mental fortitude he shook off the shackles of the Piper for a moment and continued to aid his allies. Artemesia struggled against the Piper's mental grip and nearly broke free of it but before she could it crushed her thoughts just as it did Dunric's earlier, leaving her a gasping and drooling mess on the floor.

The surviving soldiers managed to pin down and slay the remaining spawn and worms, clearing a path for Sandig to charge through and lay a final, devastating blow on the Piper. With the beast bleeding out and sinking into the waters the heroes administered Okan Sage's elixir and moments after the deed was done the Piper began convulsing, hemorrhaging and screeching. The elixir's effect was as intended, the Piper's mind shattered and released a psychic shock wave that crippled and killed all of its kind. Jafar's own mind barely survived the effect and his body was wracked with nearly fatal pain yet he survived and the taint of the Scorned One finally died within him.

Rewards Granted

3300 XP per person (hoards of Spawn, infant Birth Worms, the Piper and campaign-level goal completed)

Missions/Quests Completed

-The entity known as the Piper was defeated and his psychic web of control evaporated

-Jafar was cleansed of the Scorned One's corruption

Character(s) interacted with

Okan Sage- Senator Sage came along to make sure that if there was any complication with the cure elixir he might be able to help. He also seemed to know a great deal about the threat and offered that knowledge as well

Nathan Hale- The gnome captain of The Zephyr agreed to ferry them for free and to tag along with the soldiers and help fight the spawn. He felt the need to help because of the threat the spawn represented toward his home, Ghal Pelor The Piper Okan Sage described the beast that controlled this place as the Piper to whom all these slaves dance to. This creature was said to be the spawn of one of the Scorned One's seven children, specifically the one that escaped the mirror prison and became known as the Veiled Master.

Notes

Lore Uncover

-The seven children of the Scorned One were bound in webs of reality and stored within mirrors made by the angel of Tairos. Yet one found his way out, the youngest of his children. Khallendesk'ordrad. Shedding much of his power as he slipped his bonds and returned to the mortal world, the young one wandered and watched.
-The young one became known as the Veiled Master for the power he mastered was the talent of disguise. He cloaked himself in mortal shapes, mortal trappings and mortal lies. As his kind infect and corrupt us we infected and corrupted him. He learned ego, individuality, ambition and greed. The Scorned One would see Tairos undone, warped into chaos. The Veiled Master wants nothing less than total dominion of it
-Muldrak was home to the Veiled Master during the reign of the Scorned One and the battles with Nuriel.
-The entity known as the Piper was the son of the Veiled Master and believed his father was betraying their purpose by no longer trying to fix The Gates and return the Scorned One to Tairos.

Cast of Characters

Player Characters
Artemesia Level 8 Human Archer Fighter

Dunric Level 8 Dwarven Inquisitor

Sandig Level 7 Dwarven Paladin & Level 1 Spiritualist

Jasmine Level 8 Human Oracle

Jafar Level 8 Human Wizard/Necromancers

NPC Adventurers
Ivy Level 4 Human/Medusa Commoner

Brielle Human Level 3 Rogue Level 2 Scholar

Gero Level 8 Human Sorcerer

Rewyn Level 5 Gnome Fighter

Report Date

02 Mar 2018

Primary Location

Muldrak