Chapter 4: The Soulmonger
As the war with the Sahuagin begins, Wind on Water gets a message indicating that he has inheritance from his recently deceased uncle, Three Tongues Dancing. The Lavinia's Folly travels to the jungle land of Chult and docks at Port Nyanzaru. From there they travel to Fort Beluarian and meet with Liara Portyr to gain custody of his inheritance, which turns out to be a sentient longbow he dubs Xahuani.
Due to a not-so-accidental mixup, the Monster Squad ends up gaining audience with a member of The Harpers named Syndra Sylvanne at the villa of Merchant Prince Wakanga O'Tamu. Syndra tells them that in the past several weeks, a death curse has fallen across Faerun preventing resurrection and causing those who have previously been resurrected to wither and die, including herself. The Harpers have interrogated a Lich (somehow), and learned the source of this curse is an Artifact called The Soulmonger located somewhere in Chult. She has hired several adventuring parties including the adventuring parties The Iron Field and The Company of the Yellow Banner to figure out what's going on and destroy the artifact, but the situation is so dire that the more people they can send, the better. The Monster Squad learns that the Soulmonger is likely located somewhere in the forbidden city of Omu which has been taken over by the fallen Barae of Mezro, Ras Nsi. They make the long expedition through the jungle, hiring guides Eku and Kwilgok as well as his pet Ankylosaurus Deadly Treasure. Along the way they free the Aldani people of their Lobster-Curse, meet Artus Cimber wielder of the Ring of Winter, banish a Tarrasque (after spelunking through its innards), meet the remaining members of the Iron Field, and run into the powerful lich Valindra Shadowmantle. Both guides are killed on the way, but the group eventually makes it to Omu. There they find the remains of the Yellow Banner camp, a crazed Tabaxi assassin named Bag of Nails, and a fairly large contingent of Red Wizards who seem to have been fighting with Yuan-Ti that have taken up residence in Omu. They learn that Ras Nsi is somehow in league with the Yuan-Ti, but successfully avoid any major interactions. They also meet the scholar Orvex Ocrammas whom had been hired and then left for dead by the Red Wizards, and convince him to join and assist them. They learn that after Ubtao turned his back on Omu, they turned to worship of nine trickster gods. In turn, these gods and all of the inhabitants of the city were killed and entombed by the Ilithid Lich Ralayan the Occultacle, a member of a secret Lich organization called The Twisted Rune. He killed the nascent gods, forced the entire population to build The Tomb of the Nine Gods, and then slaughtered them and entombed them in it too. There he placed The Soulmonger, which would draw any souls of dying adventurers into it for storage, so that he could feed them to his phylactery at his leisure. In the last several months, Ralayan became extremely concerned about someone called Zellix'Phor. In his notes he considered the use of something called "The Elder Elemental Eye", attempting to use the life-force of a Chosen, or the use of an Atropal to defend himself. He went with the Atropal, summoning a hag coven known as The Sewn Sisters to help him super-charge the Soulmonger to work at a global level, thus providing the necessary souls to feed the fell creature. The Monster Squad was able to enter the tomb and survive the death traps therein, much to the chagrin of its architect Withers, working their way down to the lower levels of the tomb. There they discovered a strangely friendly Aboleth called G’lyh’rul, who suggested that Zemiyah must do something to learn to control the Spellscar she received while fighting the Dweller in the Deep, or she would be completely open to psychic attack. The creature indicated that the Abolethic Sovereignty could likely help her, as could other groups with specialized knowledge of psychic energies. Beyond this underground lake, the Monster Squad has a final confrontation with Withers, wherein Orvex sacrifices himself so that Queeg is able to knock him into a Planar Vortex. They then proceed to kill the Sewn Sisters (and save a clone of Seftali), and destroy the Atropal and the Soulmonger, ending the death curse. As they escaped from Omu, Seftali has a brief excursion with her Goddess, Hiatea, who agrees to let the clone stay in her realm and learn about life there, and in exchange return a person of Seftali's choosing to life. She chooses Orvex.
The Monster Squad discover a link in a network of Gates controlled by the Twisted Rune, that connect to Omu, Mezro, Almraiven, Shoonach, Athkatla, and Port Skaug. They elect to travel to Mezro. In the ruins of Mezro the Monster Squad once again meets up with Artus Cimber who believes that Mezro was not in fact destroyed, but rather was displaced into a demi-plane and these ruins left as a distraction. The monster squad help him attempt to re-open a portal to Mezro, but are thwarted by Kaestra Karanok, one of the leaders of the Church of Entropy. They prevent Kaestra from entering the portal to Mezro and flee the city with Artus, who loses an arm in the process.
Due to a not-so-accidental mixup, the Monster Squad ends up gaining audience with a member of The Harpers named Syndra Sylvanne at the villa of Merchant Prince Wakanga O'Tamu. Syndra tells them that in the past several weeks, a death curse has fallen across Faerun preventing resurrection and causing those who have previously been resurrected to wither and die, including herself. The Harpers have interrogated a Lich (somehow), and learned the source of this curse is an Artifact called The Soulmonger located somewhere in Chult. She has hired several adventuring parties including the adventuring parties The Iron Field and The Company of the Yellow Banner to figure out what's going on and destroy the artifact, but the situation is so dire that the more people they can send, the better. The Monster Squad learns that the Soulmonger is likely located somewhere in the forbidden city of Omu which has been taken over by the fallen Barae of Mezro, Ras Nsi. They make the long expedition through the jungle, hiring guides Eku and Kwilgok as well as his pet Ankylosaurus Deadly Treasure. Along the way they free the Aldani people of their Lobster-Curse, meet Artus Cimber wielder of the Ring of Winter, banish a Tarrasque (after spelunking through its innards), meet the remaining members of the Iron Field, and run into the powerful lich Valindra Shadowmantle. Both guides are killed on the way, but the group eventually makes it to Omu. There they find the remains of the Yellow Banner camp, a crazed Tabaxi assassin named Bag of Nails, and a fairly large contingent of Red Wizards who seem to have been fighting with Yuan-Ti that have taken up residence in Omu. They learn that Ras Nsi is somehow in league with the Yuan-Ti, but successfully avoid any major interactions. They also meet the scholar Orvex Ocrammas whom had been hired and then left for dead by the Red Wizards, and convince him to join and assist them. They learn that after Ubtao turned his back on Omu, they turned to worship of nine trickster gods. In turn, these gods and all of the inhabitants of the city were killed and entombed by the Ilithid Lich Ralayan the Occultacle, a member of a secret Lich organization called The Twisted Rune. He killed the nascent gods, forced the entire population to build The Tomb of the Nine Gods, and then slaughtered them and entombed them in it too. There he placed The Soulmonger, which would draw any souls of dying adventurers into it for storage, so that he could feed them to his phylactery at his leisure. In the last several months, Ralayan became extremely concerned about someone called Zellix'Phor. In his notes he considered the use of something called "The Elder Elemental Eye", attempting to use the life-force of a Chosen, or the use of an Atropal to defend himself. He went with the Atropal, summoning a hag coven known as The Sewn Sisters to help him super-charge the Soulmonger to work at a global level, thus providing the necessary souls to feed the fell creature. The Monster Squad was able to enter the tomb and survive the death traps therein, much to the chagrin of its architect Withers, working their way down to the lower levels of the tomb. There they discovered a strangely friendly Aboleth called G’lyh’rul, who suggested that Zemiyah must do something to learn to control the Spellscar she received while fighting the Dweller in the Deep, or she would be completely open to psychic attack. The creature indicated that the Abolethic Sovereignty could likely help her, as could other groups with specialized knowledge of psychic energies. Beyond this underground lake, the Monster Squad has a final confrontation with Withers, wherein Orvex sacrifices himself so that Queeg is able to knock him into a Planar Vortex. They then proceed to kill the Sewn Sisters (and save a clone of Seftali), and destroy the Atropal and the Soulmonger, ending the death curse. As they escaped from Omu, Seftali has a brief excursion with her Goddess, Hiatea, who agrees to let the clone stay in her realm and learn about life there, and in exchange return a person of Seftali's choosing to life. She chooses Orvex.
The Monster Squad discover a link in a network of Gates controlled by the Twisted Rune, that connect to Omu, Mezro, Almraiven, Shoonach, Athkatla, and Port Skaug. They elect to travel to Mezro. In the ruins of Mezro the Monster Squad once again meets up with Artus Cimber who believes that Mezro was not in fact destroyed, but rather was displaced into a demi-plane and these ruins left as a distraction. The monster squad help him attempt to re-open a portal to Mezro, but are thwarted by Kaestra Karanok, one of the leaders of the Church of Entropy. They prevent Kaestra from entering the portal to Mezro and flee the city with Artus, who loses an arm in the process.
Parent Plot
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