January 13, 2024

Hook

TSB;EoA: Veins of Primordial Blight [Session 1] (Wilderness; Elemental Plane of Earth)

Plot Synopsis

[Co-GM: Spencer]

The party begins their journey with the other 12 people that make up the group that has been tasked with exploring the island of Mordik that has recently reappeared. The group cleared up any confusion about the job they had with their guides before the faint tune of music could be heard through the air- and everything fell into darkness.

The group wakes up in cold dark tunnels. After a few moments though they are able to regroup, and find out that only the 7 of them were brought to these tunnels- which Fulgurite informs them is the Elemental Plane of Earth. They light a few torches in order to see the tunnel they find themselves in, and picking the direction at random- begin to traverse it.

The tunnels are normal at first, cold rock surrounding them and the occasional precious gem embedded in the wall. Though a few strange things begin to happen as they walk, water dripping onto their backs- seemingly from nowhere, the sounds of distant thunder within the cave, the crackle and pop of lava just around the corner that turns out to be nothing at all. And while it doesn’t put the group on edge, they are definitely confused by the continued anomalies.

The first landmark of note that they find themselves in is a cavern so large they cannot see the other side of it. The party stands overlooking this cavern on a ledge about 20ft above the water that fills the floor of this cavern. Other than the strange rocky tendrils that provided small islands to hop across, the water contained nothing- not even a visible bottom. The party notices the continued strange occurrences, though this time instead of them being elemental they see the strange black goop that hurts to look at. Through deductive reasoning, and a helpful spell- they realize whatever it is, is at the bottom of this lagoon… and also not. Spooked, the party decided to use a ladder that Ignis has to touch the water as little as possible and find their way to another tunnel on the opposite side of the cave that Fulgurite and Mouse had found previously.

The group continues through the winding tunnels, with Spice marking the direction that they had come from at every fork in the road. After a while of doing this though, Spice finds themselves about to mark an area that they already had… and the party turns around to find that their way behind them is blocked. The party has two directions now, and after a few minutes of debating decides to go down the right path. It seems unassuming at first, though as they travel along they start to notice an increasing number of precious stones embedded in the wall. Ignus pries one out to sell later before the party continues on, though it isn’t long before they find the walls lined with strange glowing gems. Looking closer, they see what appears to be first-person memories of unknown people in unknown places. They write it off as strange before continuing down the passageway. Though after some amount of time Ji notices that one of the crystals is strangely familiar, though they can’t say why. Fulgurite digs through their brain and recalls a creature called an Al’memurra- a relative of the common Earth Eater that resides in the Earth plane. The Al’memurra eats memories instead of rocks though. With that in mind, the party pries the gem with Ji’s memory in it and runs out of the mouth of the creature.

Ji, now increasingly worried about how to re-obtain their lost memory, works with the group to try to think of ways to get it safely back in their head to no avail. The party continues on, now going through the left tunnel, until they reach another cavern. This one is spherical in nature, as if something took a sphere of stone and replaced it with a strange floating island. Wisteria, Mouse and Ignis decide to eat Baiena berries they found on the perfect island, and subsequently decide that they want to stay there forever. The rest of the party, rightfully unnerved by this turn of events, looks for means of a way off this island as well as a way to cure their friends. Fulgurite eventually finds a way to revoke whatever charm they were put under, and Ignis sets the place ablaze as they leave on a bridge on the other side of the cavern. Ji gets her memory back, and in the long rest the party decides to take on the other end of the cavern, sees the burning island floating in the void- glitching up and down right before she falls asleep.

The party again sets off, though it isn’t long before they come across the small village of Harrkia, which is a mining village of around 100 people. They talk to one of the guards, who points them in the direction of a shabby little general store. While they are pursuing the shelves, a zombie hand tries to “assassinate” Mouse. The animated hand is puppeteered by a man named Samson, who Ignis kills on the spot. The shopkeeper- a little stunned by this turn of events reveals that Samson was the mayor of the town, (to which Ignis revives the guy) but that he is also kinda evil (to which Ignis puts another bullet hole through the guys face- killing him on the spot). Mouse Revives him as a zombie under her control.

Noteworthy Postgame Events