December 30, 2023

Hook

The Lonely Mountain and the Goddess II (Pthora, Cahyali)

Plot Synopsis

The party spends a few days resting at Taqtu-Tasiq, but is abruptly woken by a commotion one morning. There is snowfall on the ground, an ill omen and a sign that the protection of the Great Tree, named Angiyok-Orpik, is waning. One of the Towns' chieftains blames the party, insisting that letting foreigners in has angered the Tree and it is revoking its protection of their people. The high priestess insists otherwise, but is largely spoken over and ignored. She takes the party aside and divines a vision: there is magic being sucked from the tree, and it flows in the direction of the lone peak in the wastes to the east.

She says that if the party can go and find the missing clans, their names may be cleared. Resolving to solve this issue, the party leaves, accompanied by Elli. The high priestess gives them two snowstriders, named Blossom and Bud, to help them and carry their things. On the way out, they find strange puddles of pitch-black liquid that feel to be sapping their vitality and being when they venture too close, and which sprout uncanny, geometric rootless flowers when magic is channeled into them. Annabelle notes that the goop bears some similarity to the Beneath's Way of Black Tears, but isn't quite the same.

After a day's journey, the snowstriders spook as the party finds a lone tent in the wilderness. They read some documents left behind, finding it to be the encampment of a scout who didn't make it. In the night, Elli leaves alone to "scout ahead," and a strange scorch mark is left in the direction she left. She returns in the morning, dodging the questions the party has about her trip and the scorch marks. They continue onward, eventually finding the village of the missing clan destroyed by a river of the black ink. The people have been twisted into eldritch, zombified creatures, and are accompanied by strange batlike creatures seemingly born from the river. They fight, and Sochi is killed in the battle.

She awakes in the seventh layer of the Beneath, and wanders a while before asking a guard of the sixth layer how to get out. The guard answers in a way implying she is a demon herself, but she doesn't have much time to move before Elli arrives in Golgotha and takes her back to the rest of the party. She confirms that Sochi is a demon, who was reborn in the Beneath after her death, and remarks that she was lucky to be reborn so fast. Powder recognizes the magic Elli used, and she finally reveals herself to be an aspect of Mishra, who is seeking to destroy the entity dwelling within the lonely mountain.

Mishra gets the party to the foot of the mountain in the blink of an eye, and they rest in the wastes a night before entering.

Noteworthy Postgame Events