It was a strange night for the group. Their sleep was disturbed by dreams of distant locations, crystal caves, and sigils of Vecna upon diamond doorways. When they awoke, Gark was the first to mention his strange dream, and soon each of them was pulled into the discussion, all having had a similar experience. Talking over the details caused an even stranger occurrence: they realized they could reach out to each other through thought alone, gaining telepathic contact between themselves.
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| Map of the Fane of the Eye |
Before the group continued their search of the Fane of the Eye, Bessok summoned a feast for breakfast. Everyone enjoyed a healthy meal before throwing on their backpacks and delving deeper into this strange dungeon. Moving through previously travelled ground, they passed the fungal caves (9) and spotted more weird cloud formations up ahead, so they decided to head west into a new area (4).
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| A Harpy |
Taking a moment to explore the area and the dead, Morthwyl was saddened to realize that two of the bodies in the middle of the room were her previous adventuring companions. She offered a quiet prayer, while Bessok placed a blessing on the dead. Meanwhile, away from the group, Gark was exploring further into the room south (3). A stone pedestal stood in the middle of this room, holding a glassy sphere. The area close to the sphere was clear, but beyond that, battered armour, weapons, and clothing were strewn everywhere. Gark might not be very intelligent, but he was wise enough to spot a trap when he saw one.
When everyone had gathered again, they decided to avoid the trap and head west along a curving corridor to a large open room with the skeleton of a giant worm fused to the wall (1), heading upwards through the ceiling to an area high above. Curious, the group climbed the bones and makeshift wooden steps into what they soon realized was an area they'd been to once before—The Temple of Howling Hatred.
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| Map of the Temple of Howling Hatred |
Traveling west through unknown territory, they first encountered a large feasting hall (13) that the Dwarves of Besilmer would have once used for drinking and merriment. The entrance area (6) showed the worn image of a smiling dwarf on the face of a coin stamped into the flagstones. Onward west and into a large central plaza with a huge thirty-foot-tall granite statue of Moradin as its centrepiece (7), the plaza surrounded by ancient stores (5) that were now little more than rubble.
To the west of here, the doors of an underground graveyard offered twin reliefs of dwarven gods, one being the same that Bessok worships, Marthammor Duin. South of there was a large, but now completely ruined villa (8), where the group found a few hidden treasures, including an immovable rod. Now familiar with the area, having heard the roaring of the waterfall and catching glimpses of the pyramid to the south (18), they became aware of the lack of activity here. Previously, screams echoed around the temple, but now there was nothing but silence and the steady flow of the waterfall. As they moved around the pyramid, however, they began to hear a clanging sound of someone working off to the east. Approaching cautiously, they came to an area of the plaza paved with ultramarine marble (15), a wall of fallen masonry and stone blocking the path further east. Here, a floating Djinni moved back and forth, hammering on the masonry as if steadily clearing a way through.
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| A Djinni |
While the others raced to catch up, Bessok tried convincing them that if this was possible, it would be the right thing to do for their friend. As they climbed the stairs, the sound of the horn vibrated through the empty temple, calling forth the Djinni. Gark made his request, wished for the return of his family, and the Djinni bowed respectfully. Holding his arms out to either side, small whirlwinds formed, whistling until figures could be seen through the churning air. As the whirlwinds faded, Gark's wife and son stood on either side of the Djinni, who stayed long enough to watch the family reunite. Wishes sometimes have their perks.
Looking confused and uncertain, Gark's wife and son had no idea what had happened to them. Gark swept them up in his arms, then decided to leave his friends behind. Not even a single farewell, his mind fixed on the wonders before him, he escorted his family out of the temple and back into the Dessarin Valley, while the rest of the group watched his departure.
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| Farewell Gark! |
Now one person down, a brief discussion ensued about what to do—but they were here now, and they weren't going to leave until the cults were destroyed. After a brief search of the rest of the area, finding nothing living or dead, they climbed back down the skeleton of the giant worm and returned to the Fane of the Eye.
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| Map of the Fane of the Eye |
Heading east again, they turned southwards into a damp room with a thin, low mist clinging to the floor (5). Several sets of crude bronze manacles anchored to the walls held three captives, one of whom they recognized: the boatman who had escorted them south to Womford so long ago, who had declared he was going to leave for Waterdeep when the troubles continued to grow. Captured while trying to leave, he had been here ever since, barely alive. While Joe talked to him, Bessok searched the area and quickly found himself at the bottom of a hole, falling through the ground mist and into a hidden pit. A strange-looking orange creature scuttled towards him, but he avoided attacks and flew back out of the hole to avoid it. The poor Rust Monster was stuck down there and would continue to be so.
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| A Rust Monster |
West the group travelled again, passing the bodies of the dead Harpies (4) and further to a dark shaft that went both upwards and down (2). Strong winds howled through the area, and glancing over the edge of the hole in the wall, Bessok could see ground in the darkness, maybe eighty feet below. Leaping in, the winds pushed with enough force that they didn't even need their flight, the gusts slowing their fall to a gentle landing in the Howling Caves (1).
Joe had recognized all this; when he tried to attune to the spear taken from the Prophet of Air, he was gifted a vision of her early actions. He knew the path she took to the location where she opened the Air Node, so he took the lead. A curve to the north and then across a large chasm (4) clouded with mist, with flashes of lightning and rumbles of thunder. A few turns and eastward, but not before noticing something off to the north (7).
A gruesome sight: two humans, an Aarakocra, and a Drow all hung suspended from hooks connected to chains, their blood pooling on the floor beneath them. Beetles scurried around the floor and walls and across the chains to and onto the victims. With the winds coming from further east, the bodies twisted and turned on their chains as they struggled, rasped, and moaned.
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| A Nycaloth |
Bessok cut down the Aarakocra but was unable to understand its chattering's, so he sent it a mental message instead, advising it to escape, which the bird-like humanoid eagerly agreed with. The two humans were cultists and so were put to rest, while the Drow explained it had come from the Underdark but was ambushed, and he'd very much like to leave. His request was granted, and after a brief search of the area, the group was on their way once again, this time into a small forest of mushrooms (9), some as tall as humans. With some study of the mushrooms, Bessok and Joe realized that some were worth collecting for their restorative abilities, so they filled a couple of small pouches with enough to keep them supplied for now.
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| An Aarakocra |
Back on the path, Joe led the group northwards through increasingly powerful winds to a chasm that they easily flew across (14), into a smooth cave where the winds would change direction at random (15). Multiple Air Cultists were in reverence to the winds, and soon found the gift of fire too, as Joe roasted the area with another powerful fireball. Barely slowing them down at this point, the bodies fell to the ground as they continued through an opening to the north of the room and into an intersection (17).
The gale coming from the north made a constant howl, enough to silence their steps as they approached and noticed two women tied to a pair of rock columns that extended from floor to ceiling. One of the women noticed them approaching and quickly mimed a warning, eyes opening wide to signify danger, a glance upwards to reveal the source of the danger. Bessok spoke into her mind, asking about the threat, her answer revealing the presence of more demons hiding invisibly on the walkways above.
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| A Barlgura |
Moving past the rest of the group, Bessok went to the women and released them from their captivity. A few questions revealed one to be part of the missing Delegation, Deseyna Norvael, the other a farmer who had been taken captive. After applying some healing to the two, Bessok opened a portal to Waterdeep for them to escape, then sent a Sending to Laeral Silverhand to inform her that another member had been found. A response that she would be traveling to Red Larch tomorrow was received, along with the fact their payment would be left with Constable Harburk.
Moving on, they reached another winding set of tunnels where the wind became unbearable. Pushing into the winds, they turned north, south, then back north again, where four air cultists in their feathered robes awaited them, seemingly unhindered by the powerful winds. As they moved closer, the cultists started casting arcs of electricity at them. The group somehow managed to dodge the attacks and send their own back, another fireball from Joe exploding around the cultists. The group struggled to get closer but were finally close enough to bring final weapon blows down upon the cultists.
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| An Air Elemental Myrmidon |
Combat quickly followed, the elementals flying at speed straight at Joe and surrounding him, smashing their lightning-coated flails into him again and again. Bessok and Morthwyl rushed in to assist, surrounding one of the elementals in return, hammers and axes slicing through the air and clanging into tough plate. And though they were tough, their strength wasn't enough to deal with an adventuring group like this, despite their now lower numbers. The first elemental was defeated in moments, the second dissipating into the air with a wispy trail of smoke drawn back into the cloud above.
Studying the cloud above, a silvery window would sometimes become visible in the centre, a window into clouds floating in an endless sky. This was no doubt what Joe had seen in his vision, the pathway to the Elemental Plane of Air that the Prophet had opened with her spear. Now the question was, how to close it? Not wanting to risk making things worse, Bessok asked his God—it was obviously something to do with the spear. He asked: would throwing the spear through the portal close it?
The answer was a simple yes. It made sense: if the Prince's essence was tied to the spear, which kept a part of him on the material plane, throwing it through would break that tie, and nothing would be left to hold the portal open. Joe used his best throwing arm to launch the spear into the air, targeting that silvery window, but it seemed he didn't need precision. The essence wanted to be made whole; the spear made a few adjustments mid-flight and passed directly through the window, which closed behind it. The thunderous clouds roiling above were sucked towards the window as it started to close, then were blown outwards once it was gone, an explosion of air that caused a louder clattering of tiny stones as they rained down onto the now quiet cavern floor.
With the winds now gone, the walk through the caverns back to the Fane was a lot simpler and maybe a little relaxing—no more surprise attackers, no strong winds screaming around the group and buffeting them at every turn. A few minor treasures were collected along the way, until they found themselves back at the entrance, flying upwards and into the Fane (2).
East from here, again to where the Harpies were rotting, they decided to head north through another cloud, though this time they were completely unhindered except for the usual psychic probing and discomfort from being under the scrutiny of the Elder Elemental Eye. Leaving the cloud, they entered a room that smelled of blood and death (20). The debris of recent battles was scattered everywhere; a dozen or more dead warriors of the various cults lay with monstrous corpses of ogres and bugbears. What caused it? There was nothing still alive here.
Speaking with one of the dead, Bessok found that the dead were here before the cultist-corpse he spoke to had arrived. There was a powerful air elemental wearing plate armour defending the area, powerful enough to hold everyone back. The elemental, however, much like the node below, was now gone. Were the two related?
North again through another cloud, to a place Bessok had travelled to before: a statue in the middle of the room of an amorphous body, thick tentacles, a huge purple crystal representing one alien eye (19). Ghaunadaur. With hatred of this evil God on his mind, Bessok rushed over and jumped, delivering a kick, trying to break the crystal, which was actually glass that instantly shattered from the attack. Bessok, however, felt a momentary "wobble" as his leg turned to literal jelly, feeling his whole body start to morph before he could gather the willpower to fight it off. A curse, no doubt, but one he managed to resist.
Not done with this statue, especially after that, Bessok started hammering at it, breaking off small parts, though the noise travelled along the corridor to the west, alerting the cultists in the area. The Prophet of Water, riding a Giant Crocodile, rushed into the area with a gathering of cultists ahead of him. Joe was quick to react, sending a flood of arrows into the approaching enemy; the cultists dropped like a wave, but the Prophet and Crocodile were tougher than that. The Prophet raised his hands, and a rain of ice fell around Joe and Morthwyl, clanging noisily off Morthwyl's plate armor.
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| Gar Shatterkeel, Prophet of Water |
Bessok rushed around to one side and unleashed a powerful beam of light which burned through both the Prophet and its mount, bright enough to blind the pair, allowing Morthwyl and Joe to more easily accomplish the task of putting an end to the two. As the Prophet fell, Bessok, still not done with that damn statue, turned the beam of light on the stone and steadily melted it down into nothing.
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| Vinthanamel the Lost |
Having noticed where the cultists had stored his equipment, he swiftly redressed and gathered his things, then lined up as a new member of this strange group. Meanwhile, Bessok had decided that the altar needed to be destroyed too, but one smack of his hammer against it caused a vision of the Elder Elemental Eye attacking him, which caused actual psychic damage to the Dwarf. So he allowed Morthwyl to take over with her thrown hammer. This seemed to work. Though she could feel the Eye trying to attack, she refused it over and over as her blessed hammer turned the altar into granite chunks of rock that clattered their way down the ziggurat.
As the altar crumbled, the black clouds also disappeared. One to the north revealed a view of another room containing a sarcophagus (18). A brief investigation revealed it to be trapped with a glyph of warding, something their new elven member dispelled with a wave of his hand, the man already proving his worth. Inside the sarcophagus, however, was nothing but dust and some demon armour, a notoriously cursed set that nobody wanted to touch.
Realizing how long they had been searching around these ancient caverns, the group decided to return to the hallowed ground of the tomb (10) and rest up for the night, after sharing some drinks, food, and tales with their new group member, of course. Overnight, this elven wizard was already starting to experience dreams similar to the others: visions of Vecna and distant locations with crystal walls...
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