Live streamed and uploaded every week on YouTube. Join us live on Fridays at 7:30 pm Pacific/10:30 pm Eastern!
Original character art by Jimmy McClure.
Music by Kevin MacLeod.
Chat with us in the Official Discord Server.
Support the channel via Patreon!
Previously on Call from the Deep
Starring:
Gotwald Ironhorn, level 6 minotaur Rune Knight Fighter
Mac, level 6 tortle Drakewarden Ranger
Savra Akkedis, level 6 lizardfolk School of Necromancy Wizard
Torrel, level 6 kenku Fathomless Warlock Pact of the Amulet/Fighter
After a short rest, the party heads down the dark staircase into the caves beneath the fortress, as directed by the now-paused undead pirate captain.
The dank tunnels lead to a large cavern, home to patrolling undead, heaps of gold and jewels, and an adult black dragon — Garrundar the Vile!
NOTE: We’re off next week (March 15). Call from the Deep will resume on March 22!
Savra does most of the talking, immediately seeing the dragon as a fellow necromancer. Lucky for them, that’s one of the few things he respects, even after his annoyance at having his undead pirate thralls defeated not once, but twice by this group of adventurers.
They explain that they’re on a fact-finding expedition, tracing the pirates back here in hopes of learning more of the attack on Neverwinter and the assassination attempt on their patron, the aboleth Kzixxaro.
(At one point they kindly ask Mac to leave the room, as the tortle remains clueless about their eldritch benefactor. Which makes him clueless about the pact to come!)
Garrundar reveals that his thralls were hired out for the mission by a man from the Kraken Society, an islander cult devoted to the worship of Slarkrethel. He has no ties himself, but he was paid in advance for his services, and he does view an aboleth in the city as a threat to his own behind-the-scenes influence and business dealings.
After being pressed, the part boldly admits that they defeated the pirates and have traveled here on behalf of the aboleth. Once again Savra easily talks him down with mutual respect and admiration. Not to mention the practicality of a startlingly dangerous, and wholly unified cult across the ocean.
Having an entire army of the sea attack Neverwinter? That’s bad for business.
But Garraundar isn’t about to divulge the identity of his clients, cultists or not, for free. He demands a deal, a baragin.
Instead of money, however, he wants partnership and service. He senses great necromantic power from Savra, who’s quick to admit she’s planning on going lich, which interests the black dragon.
He proposes that after their mission is done — no less than the thwarting of the Kraken and defeat of Sea King Tentrix, that she return to the earthmote and continue her rise to power alongside his own.
She readily agrees, and the pact is made with a handshake. This party is all about cutting deals with everyone they meet!
Garrundar tells them the cultist’s name was Ned. Cue shocked Pikachu face on the party! The same Ned who led them to the “haunted house” in Saltmarsh, then nearly killed Torrel just when their adventure began?
Apparently Ned joined up with the K Society, and went to the dragon to hire out the crew of the Black Scourge for a hit job on the aboleth.
Luckily for the party, the dragon has his own resources and contacts in Neverwinter, and knows Ned is still there, for now. He operates out of a seedy tavern in the harbor district known as the Beached Leviathan.
The party thanks the dragon and hurries back to the airship, which Spellix already has idling near the fortress with Mac and Cheese.
Spellix is disappointed they didn’t try to sell genocider to whomever owns the fortress, but the group ultimately flies back to Neverwinter. Spellix declares the whole expedition a disappointment, and asks the party to please send more customers his way while he’s in town.
It’s dark by the time they return, and the party hurries to the harbor district. Mac warns that this bar is a notorious hive of scum and villainy that even the Watch won’t go near. He opts to stay outside by the door while the other three head in to look for Ned.
But the Kraken Society hasn’t been sitting idly by. Moments after they arrive, Ned spins around his chair on the bar, not surprised to see them. He threatens that his new boss won’t take kindly to their intrusion, as several other patrons pull out hidden weapons.
The party springs into action as the bar explodes with battle. Two clutch maneuvers end up deciding the entire match: Torrel’s hunger of hadar, and Gotwald’s choking dust.
Torrel drops the tentacle void near the bar area, enveloping a third of the enemies, including Ned, in the slurping void.
Moments later, Gowald rushes into the middle of the room and throws his pack of dust of sneezing and choking, an item he’s apparently had since the haunted house adventure (another call back from our first quest!). And which the DM accidently revealed early on, instead of hiding it as dust of disappearance.
The combo of void-tentacles plus incapacitating dust (DC 15!) proved disastrous for the cultists, allowing the party to only fight a handful at any one time.
Total enemies: 1 deep scion assassin (MME2), 1 thug, 3 cult fanatics, 3 cultists, 2 spies.
Knocking out the spellcasting cult fanatics proved especially clutch for the first half of the fight, as they spent the second half attacking with hold person, spiritual weapon, and inflict wounds.
Mac never even enters the bar, easily raining down arrows of death through the open doorway.
Things got a little more interesting when Ned, finally recovering from the dust (and already down to half health), revealed his reward for joining the K Society. He sheds his human form and transforms into a deep scion!
His psychic screech attack stuns Torrel and Gotwald, and his follow up attack a turn later nearly downs the kenku, who’s saved only by his adamantine armor preventing the critical hit.
But Ned’s on his last legs after getting blasted by Savra, and a smash from her zombie finally downs the assassin. From there the party cleans up the remaining forces. Only the bartender survives, fleeing into the streets, pursued by Cheese.
Gotwald pushes down on Ned’s crumpled body, and asks about his cult and his bosses. The dying Ned reveals that Tentrix has a floating fortress built from a ship graveyard down in the Nelanther Isles. He claims it’s protected, however, but before he can reveal anything else, he’s violently killed by his own squid tattoo, a symbol of the kraken.
All this work for a tiny piece of information, but it’s a critical one: the location of Sea King Tentrix.
MVPC – Torrel
NOTE: We’re off next week (March 15). Call from the Deep will resume on March 22!
Live post-session discussion:
Live streamed and uploaded every week on YouTube. Join us live on Fridays at 7:30 pm Pacific/10:30 pm Eastern!
Support my channel via Patreon!
RogueWatson 