CAMPAIGN DIARY - 10/04/16: THE SOURCE

CAMPAIGN DIARY – 10/04/16: THE SOURCE

Previously, on The Broken World Campaign…

The heroes take a little time to rest up before proceeding to the source of the island’s life, according to Urt the Xorn that Vayl the sorceress befriended.  Using her magic to translate, Urt relates to the heroes approximately how many dwarfs are in that chamber and also that one of the “hairless ones” are present.  They determine, based on Urt’s description, the hairless ones are humans with tattoos but that’s about as much as they can discern from the xorn’s descriptions.  Urt also tries to describe the “alien” creature that is controlling the dwarves from a cavern at the edge of the island.  Urt says the creature looks like an aetherbeast (so probably large and monstrous), has many tentacles and eyes and just being near it makes Urt’s mind hurt.  

The heroes finish their rest and go to the chamber of the Source and find the worker dwarf thralls, as Urt described, and one “hairless one”.  Bantu does invisible recon and after getting a look at the hairless one, he believes the man to be a Thuelian – a person from the island nation of the Sovereignty of Thuel.  Their culture is known to have an aversion to body hair and also tend to adorn themselves with body art such as tattoos and piercings.  They are also known to be very pale, and the man at the other end of the Source chamber fits that description.  

The chamber itself is a massive cavern that is bisected by a chasm with ledges on both sides.  Incarnum sprouts from the rocks but the most notable feature are the massive crystals in the center of the chamber which spans the chasm.  Several dwarves stand atop these large crystals and seem to be burning runic brands into them for some reason.  Bantu reports on this and the heroes enter the room but give themselves away and the dwarves attack.  Brahm uses his wand of lightning to try and take out the Thuelian before he can escape or attack them, but the powerful bold fails to kill him outright and he flees the chamber after issuing some orders in the Thuelian language.  The heroes then engage the dwarves on their side of the chasm.  The dwarves on the other side continue their work as ordered and the heroes eventually make it over there and stop them before they can leave.  They manage to incapacitate two of the dwarves, but an unfortunate side-effect of Solomon’s magical blade continues to eat away at his unconscious dwarves until they die. Norro and Brahm’s magic also do not enable them to capture the dwarves alive, but the two the group manage to incapacitate they tie up and blind fold in case whatever controls them can see through their eyes as well.  

The heroes decide to return to the living incarnum chamber where Vayl continues to study and they take a long rest.  During the rest, Norro subtly uses his magic to get Vayl to open up about herself and she reveals that she is a princess of the Kingdom of Anduin; one of the more powerful nations in the region.  Her father, King Ember, did not approve of her joining the Ordo Arcanis, but she did so because she was born with the power to wield magic, but could not control it, so she joined the Ordo to enable her to control her power.  Her father became even more disapproving when her magical training resulted in her skin changing to a red color and the growth of horns from her head, making her look like a demon.  Vayl doesn’t want anyone treating her special because of her noble upbringing, so she keeps this all secret.  

Urt further reveals to the heroes that the area of the island where the hairless ones are taking the incarnum, describing the rooms and the heroes surmise that the Thuelians are preparing some kind of ritual.  They draw upon their knowledge of the Thuelians and share with those not in the know that they are a nation that took much of their arcane knowledge from the Illithid War from a couple hundred years back.  Their religion is different in that they worship a being they call Thuel, who they believe to be the first god of this universe and they believe that the gods of the Trinity usurped power from Thuel and stole it from him.  They detest the Church of the Trinity and all who believe in what they refer to as the “usurper gods” or the “false gods.”  The Thuelians also worship Thuel’s servants; monstrous creatures said to live in the Aether and are the size of islands (which sounds a lot like gargantuan – one of which the heroes encountered a few weeks ago).  Bantu also shares a rumor that he picked up here and there that the Thuelians are attempting to replicate the weapons of mass destruction that were used by the Illithids during the war which were so powerful that they wiped out entire islands.  Vayl suggests that perhaps the Thuelians are trying to build a gate to summon one of their god’s servant’s or perhaps the god himself?  Or maybe they’re building a weapon?  

The heroes complete their rest and depart for the chambers that Norro observed one of the Thuelians call “The Project”.  The heroes come up with a plan to have Bantu and Brahm dress up as the worker dwarves carrying a barrel of incarnum with Leikner hidden inside.  They enter the Project chambers and are waved in by the sentry, but a warding glyph in the floor activates and nearly drowns Bantu and Brahm with horrid, nightmarish visions that threatened to drive them mad.  The two manage to shake off the magic and do not give away their ruse to the inattentive guard.  They get into position for Leikner to spring into action and that is where the session ended.