April 06, 2024

Hook

TSB;EoA: Veins of Primordial Blight [Session 11] (Elemental Plane of Water; Caubalt)

Plot Synopsis

The party takes a break for the day before heading out to the elemental plane of Water the next day. They proceed to wake Tal up and head through the plane of water to the large coral pillar-city of Caubalt. The tele-room is fairly quiet as they teleport in and take in their surroundings, seeing the remnants of coral chunks floating through the water the party hurries down a hallway towards the damage.

They are able to find the remnants of what appears to be a large, very circular explosion and a few mages doing a check up on a barrier that had been patched up and placed to keep any of the water outside. Talking to Kivu, one of the mages that was checking up on the barrier- they learn about the large “bubbles” of storms that have been appearing in the water before disappearing- causing massive explosions in the process. Normally (as normal as they can be) they have been farther away from the city, but recently they have gotten more common and this one took a chunk out of the city. The party asks him about the “Shadow of a Frozen Hope”, and while he knows nothing about the item in particular- he tells them of the massive chunk of eternal ice that resides within the deeper sea, and if they are looking for frozen things they could look there. Kivu also lets them know of people leading a rescue effort to recover those lost within the explosion that have a base of operations nearby the hospital.

The party heads down, locating the rescue operations with a few questions. They meet with the leader of the operation, Caspian, and talk to one of the helpers for a few moments about the black ichor they had found beneath. Afterwards Caspian gives them some depth, waterbreathing, and health potions to help with their descent and retrieval of survivors. Heading out to the door to the outside, they are able to drink the potions and head out into the water outside.

It's cold. Very cold. As the party descends down, it doesn’t take long for the light from above to quickly dissipate. In the distance Ignis is able to see a swarm of drifting Vatish following the current. They aren’t close enough to pose any threat, though they might be later. They continue to descend, eventually being able to see the looming white shape of ice beneath them. In the very far distance, they can see a flicker of light from some creature in the distance. Upon descending to right above the ice, the group can see a multitude of holes that appear to have been drilled into it. They decide to descend into one, continuing on until they see a light clambering towards them around a corner. Ji is able to find the start of a partially-collapsed tunnel, and the party hides as a Kanurri passes through the tunnel that they had been traveling down.

They follow the Kanurri, traveling back up to the surface and over the ice until they stumble upon a large gathering of the rubble from the explosion. Three other Kanurri can be seen searching through the rubble, supposedly for food. Ignis throws a grenade into a shallow hole in the ice a little bit away from the group to distract the Kanurri. This succeeds, and the party swims into the rubble in order to search through it themselves. Wisteria is able to find the corpse of one of the denizens of Caubalt, and cuts its hand off in an attempt to get one of the Kanurri to lead them back to the main area of the “hive”, though the hand isn’t enough for it to go back. At the same time Ignis accidentally causes a support pillar in the rubble to fall, causing a large cloud of billowing debris pieces and dust to cloud the water- attracting the attention of the 3 Kanurri that had been distracted. One is able to find Ignis, and between him and Ji, the two of them are able to kill it. The rest of the Kanurri scurry away with the corpse and the party follows them back to a massive hole in the ice.

Descending down the party finds themselves in a massive egg-shaped room. Hundreds of Kanurri scuttle around the bottom, and strange structures made out of stone and coral stick out of the ice. Black ichor drips up from the bottom and pools slightly at the top of the cave. The party splits, with Moryena and Ignis following the creatures into the food stores, and Wisteria and Ji exploring the weird stone structures near the ceiling.

Ignis and Moryena find a multitude of frozen bodies within the food stores, a combination of Vatish corpoes, other fish, and in the back- a pile of humanoids that are from the explosion in Caubalt. A few of the lizard-water elemental hybrids appear to still be alive, though most of the bodies in the pile have perished.

In the meantime, the communication beetle begins ringing, buzzing out a series of coordinates. They are able to call Tal, and give in the coords, though not before they attract the attention of a multitude of the Kanurri to their location. Ji swims over to a hole nearby and is able to squeeze into a crack in the ice to avoid the Kanurri pursuing her. Wisteria chooses to swim into the ichor pool right above her. She continues swimming, feeling like she's swimming through a less-thick molasses-esque liquid.

Eventually she swims down from the ceiling of some ruins in the storage tunnel. There's a door in the room, and she swims into it. Moryena follows her in. Ignis starts to dig through the dead people’s pockets, and after not seeing the other two for a few minutes, also heads into the room. Ji follows after the Kanurri stop following. Inside the room, the party sees a series of tiles that could be moved on the wall. One of the tiles cannot be moved, and the door closes and locks behind them.

They solve the puzzle, the room melting into black ichor before disappearing completely. Ignis is able to dig through the people again, finding a body near the bottom partially frozen, clutching a piece of light-coral in a fetal position. He grabs the body into the bag, and the rest of the party takes the survivors up and are able to leave the hive unscathed. The pod of Vatish are hovering nearby the city of Caubalt, but they pose no threat to the party as they ascend. They can drop off the remaining potions, the rescued people, and have Tal teleport them back to Mordrik.

Tal crafts the artifacts they collected into carved “pins”, and tells them that within the coords to the tower he was given, there should be a location to place these. After the party asks any questions they have, Tal teleports them to the tower in the planar sea. The tower is a large black stone tower, and the party stands on a balcony with a door in front of them. The sky is night, but overlaid with multiple skies, each sky looking like a replica of wherever a person is from. The party walks forward and opens the tower door.

The Recordatio has been entered.

Noteworthy Postgame Events