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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
Having defeated the guardian and recovered in the Restoration Pod, the party travels down the dark, dank tunnel toward the dungeons of Ascarle, remnants of the ancient elven city. Now sunk beneath the waves, it’s the lair of the kraken Slarkrethel, and the apparent headquarters of the irksome mind flayer colony of Zellix’Phor.
After a mile of descent, the tunnel opens into a huge cavern hundreds of feet wide, with 50-ft ceilings, intermittently lit by flickering torches. In the middle they can just make out a massive dome made from an alien alloy, not seen since they discovered the crashed nautiloid on Gunderlun.
A terrible presence fills their minds, dominating their senses. The entity known as Zellix’Phor addresses them directly. Emotionless but powerful, it seeks to assimilate the party into the colony.
Despite the party’s gains, Zellix’Phor remains supremely confident, and targets Torrel in particular. The Warlock’s connection to his patron, the kraken, makes him vulnerable, to the creature’s influence.
Thankfully he uses Inspiration to reroll the CHA saving throw, and rebuffs the creature’s psychic probe, sending it reeling back in frustration.
After the psychic exchange, the party checks their severed-head-Augmenter-locator, getting updates on the location of the four Augmenter brains they’re searching for to help weaken Zellix’Phor’s hold on the kraken. The brains are north, further north, far northeast, and east.
The party’s tunnel had ended on a 30-ft ledge, so Gotwald secures rope and descends to the cavern floor, looking to head east toward the nearest Augmenter.
But these caverns have been warped by the thinning veil of the Far Realm from the kraken. The ground beneath his hooves undulates as living flesh with mouths and eyes!
Gotwald embiggens and scrambles out of the way, finding a safe spot, but calling up a warning to the others.
Torrel responds in the only way he knows how: by launching his own zone of horror with a void of tentacles (hunger of Hadar). The tentacle-void agitates the ground but doesn’t exactly create a safe zone for the party.
He moves the rope and tries a different landing, but sinks into the flesh-mouths, where they tear into his flesh.
Mac climbs down and rescues him, using his athletics skill to carry him across toward Gotwald, while Savra teleports her and Borgas using her magic.
Gotwald acts as the vanguard by simply charging across the ground, relying on his superior strength to avoid the sticky flesh and mouths, and call out dangerous patches to the others.
Their path finds a heavily secured door in the wall. Savra uses her staff of the magi to cast knock and opens the locked door, finding a small room that looks like an archeological dig site, with a central pit and a ladder, and a table full of objects.
The table holds several potions, gems, a magical diadem with a closed eye, and some creepy figurines.
But it’s the small pit that captures their attention.
Looking down, the pit ends in swirling mist. Mac drops a torch down the pit, which seemingly disappears after a few seconds. When they look down and try to gauge the distance, their vision becomes distorted and blurry.
The party spends some time debating, including possibly sending Cheese down to see what happens.
Ultimately they shy away, however, deciding they’ll accept the free treasures and avoid the creepy pit.
Another locked door to the north leads back into the caverns. Still fearing the fleshy mouth-floor, Gotwald charges forward and races to another nearby door, this one much less secure.
The good news: he doesn’t trigger any more mouth-floors.
The bad news: he opens the door into a double homicide crime scene!
The room is a dormitory with several beds and a table. Strange writings cover the walls. Two humans are sprawled on the floor, dead and bloody, while a third is continuing to write the markings, but using blood. Their blood.
A nervous Gotwald calls out to the others, and Mac is first on the scene. The former City Watch member from Neverwinter immediately goes into cop mode, and starts interrogating the living person.
The man ignores all the distractions, however, continuing to paint the sigils and markings on the wall. The language and writing are nothing the party recognizes, but his insanity seems pretty obvious.
Mac grabs the man to stop him, and this finally triggers a violent reaction, as the man turns and snarls, ready to kill again!
MVPC – Gotwald
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