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Previously on Call from the Deep!
Starring:
Gotwald Ironhorn, level 11 minotaur Rune Knight Fighter
Mac, level 11 tortle Drakewarden Ranger/Rogue
Savra Akkedis, level 11 lizardfolk School of Necromancy Wizard
Torrel, level 11 kenku Fathomless Warlock Pact of the Amulet/Fighter
On route to the ruins further up the coast, the party spot an unsettling ritual by a cliff. Native rocklanders are passing swaddled newborns to several deep scions near the cliff’s edge.
This party has done some bad things and murdered a ton of people, but it turns out they draw the line at newborns.
Which, ironically, leads to a lot more murder.
Savra throws down a web spell to stop the scions from hurtling the babies, but one is dropped over the edge! Mac’s drake Cheese swiftly flies to scoop them up, while Gotwald charges into the crowd.
Torrel uses his repelling eldritch blast to knock a scion off the edge, sending them tumbling into the rocky waves below, while Savra unleashes an ice storm, insta-killing nearly all the gathered rocklanders.
Mac pulls off an epic action-move, lobbing two arrows into the air, racing along the side of the cliff (avoiding the icy rocks) and grabbing the baby just as the arrows kill his target. Nice!
The final baby is snatched by Gotwald as they take out the final scion.
The babies are safe from the ritual, though they’re surrounded by over a dozen dead bodies! The party gives them to Sanbalet and Cheese to return to the village and hand over to Frannis.
The party arrives at the ruins, finding only a single crumbling tower on the coast. From the top of the tower, they spot the edges of Ascarle in the water, the ancient, submerged elven city, and the lair of Slarkrethel the Fathomless.
Descending down a trapdoor, they see a false wall, and a staircase descending further down.
Savra detects magic on the stairs and charges ahead, curious. The magic is an illusory trap, manifesting a mind flayer that frightens Mac and Gotwald, who whip out weapons.
Annoyed, Savra casts dispel magic, and the “monster” simply poofs away.
Beneath the tower, the stairs lead to a narrow cavern strewn with large tubes containing green liquid and floating, mutated bodies with tentacles and other body horror.
A severed head on a workshop matches the face of Ingrimaar, the high priest of the Kraken Society, with scooped-out brain — and several brains on the shelf with labels!
Savra is like a kid in the candy store. It’s all very lichy in here!
She eagerly charges forward, examining the bodies and tubes, and begins placing the brains into the head.
The head animates, reciting stored information from the brains, including the mind flayer colony’s arrival and crash landing on Gunderlun, and their journey to Ascarle to battle the kraken.
They reference a powerful leader entity of the colony, named Zellix’Phor, and a “physical grafting” on the kraken to subdue him.
By dominating the kraken, they gained control of the Kraken Society, and began using the kraken’s powers and resources to build an army of sea creatures and pirates to expand and rebuild their empire.
Much of that has now been thwarted by the party.
The brain-recordings also explain the “augmentors,” powerful brains that enhance Zellix’Phor and keep the powerful kraken under control. The severed head-recorder can be used to detect the presence of the four currently active augmentors.
Thilliosk, the mind flayer who took over the appearance of Ingrimaar (and killed them and animated their head into this macabre device), was assigned to experiment on the locals to try and create more augmentors. The empire’s constant need for brains drove them to expand and conquer, and it seems they fear the kraken regaining control.
One of the tubes is empty, broken from the inside, and Mac tracks the liquid and footprints further east, south, and then west down some winding tunnels. Gotwald follows.
Meanwhile Savra isn’t done with this fascinating room. She finds a bunch of potions and alchemists supplies, and uses her staff of the magi’s knock spell to unlock a special Quallith lock on a nearby door, revealing the control panels and gears that manipulate the tubes.
Her 20+ Investigation check reveals all the information, and she and Torrel experiment by “purging” one of the tubes containing a dead body, hearing the sound of gas.
They turn the wheel for “Clean,” and Borgas reports the grate in the floor opens up, and a platform raises a gelatinous cube up from the depths!
Thankfully, no one is in the room at the time, as the cube dutifully sludges around searching for bodies before returning to its home.
Meanwhile, Mac and Gotwald discover the escaped subject, a hunched woman with tentacles, constantly hearing voices from the mind flayer colony in her head.
They try to get through to her but it’s clear the psychic conditioning is too strong, and she lashes out with a psi-blade and mental assaults.
Gotwald keeps her pinned down, but she’s able to slice at Mac, stunning him with powerful psychic attacks and knocking the ranger unconscious, before Gotwald can finally knock her out with a powerful punch.
Gotwald restores Mac with a potion of healing, and they discover another tunnel leading further east.
MVPC – Mac
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