Session 44: The Gang Meets the Architect

As the huge monstrosity of purple sludge rises from the circle, Nan prepares to cast a spell, but is suddenly yanked away to the plane of air by Faranehou. The monster grabs Arran and starts pulling him into the toothy maw in the centre of its body, but he conjures an arcane shield that is too large to swallow. Arran and Grombrin stab and bash the monster’s arm, trying to break its grasp, but the sludge rapidly reforms away any damage. When Arran’s arcane shield expires, he is shoved into the monster’s mouth and completely swallowed inside of its amorphous body. Vojta turns into his stone form and pummels the monster, while Grombrin sends his ethereal hammer inside of the monster to smash at its insides, trying to give Arran some breathing room. The monster responds by grabbing Grombrin and shoving him inside its mouth too.

Having recovered from the fear spell, Cho charges back into the room and slashes wildly at the monster, splattering chunks of its body around. In return, the monster grabs him and throws him back out of the chamber. Vojta then wedges his stone hands between the monster’s teeth and forces its maw open, revealing Arran and Grombrin half-engulfed inside. Grombrin tries to crawl out but the sludge pulls him back in. Arran uses his view on the outside to teleport out of the monster’s stomach. The monster grabs onto Vojta, but his stone body is too large and resilient to swallow. Arran and Cho stab and slash at the monster’s flesh once again, and as it staggers, Vojta leverages his grasp on the monster’s mouth to tear the front of its body wide open, causing Grombrin to splatter out across the floor along with the monster’s guts. The monster collapses as its amorphous flesh rapidly rots away into nothing.

Arran inspects the circle and concludes that it was an unstable resurrection spell that went wrong when they interfered. They wonder what happened to Nan, and Grombrin says that he recognised her being pulled into an elemental portal, probably to her patron’s domain. Unable to do anything about that, they take a short rest while Arran shows that he retrieved the key shards. This time they keep them in the bag of holding while they move on to the final cave passage. This passage is completely blocked by a pile of stinking dirt. Arran drinks the potion of gaseous form from the Oda-iger dungeon, becoming a cloud that can pass through the porous material of the mound. He finds many decomposing carcasses inside of it, making it more a mound of corpses than dirt. On the other side of the mound he comes out into a cavern, where he sees the final key shard stuck under the rotting carcass of a giant. He can’t take the key with his gaseous body, so he returns to the group and tells them what he saw.

As they deliberate how to get through the pile, Arran suggests using his repulsion shield to launch Cho through it, shield-first to carve a path. Cho agrees, so the two line up and he punches the shield. The magic shockwave launches him into the corpse mound, but instead of bursting out the other side, he gets stuck in the middle. They hear his muffled voice speaking calmly from the pile, then yelling out in surprise. The mound comes into motion, shaking off the layer of dirt to reveal the amalgamation of corpses all shifting and shambling as one. Cho struggles in panic as the undead mass squeezes down on him, but he’s trapped inside. As the mound moves and sheds away the dirt, the chamber behind becomes visible, and the undead giant is seen rising to its feet. Before the group can decide what to do about Cho’s predicament, the giant tears several smaller zombies from its bowels and throws them over the corpse mound.

Arran is buried under the bombardment, but he summons spectral swords to whirl around him, warding off the zombies. The gore-covered Cho struggles free from the corpse mound, and Vojta summons Trojka to heal his injuries. The mound releases more zombies from its mass to join with those from the giant. As the group fights off the zombies, the undead giant clambers over the mound, hefting its greatsword to attack. Grombrin then raises his hammer and channels the presence of Morach, incinerating some of the zombies and striking divine fear into the giant, causing it to flee into a different part of the cavern. The mound launches spears of bone at the group, while Arran and Cho stab and slash at its mass, and Vojta stays back to provide healing. Grombrin summons a wall of fire to scorch the mound and burn away any loose corpses. However, the bloodied Arran and Cho are forced to make skirmishing attacks, leaving Grombrin alone at the front line. The mound bears down on him and fully engulfs him, breaking his concentration. However, the fire has already burned away much of the mound’s excess flesh. Seeing his chance, Cho charges in and cleaves a long horizontal gash through the core of the mound. Grombrin spills out, still swinging his hammer in a panic, as the remaining corpses shudder, then go limp. Arran and Vojta skewer and burn the remaining zombies.

The group knows that the giant will return, so they take formation to face it, after Arran quickly grabs the final key shard. At the far side of the cavern, the giant overcomes the divine repulsion, pulls several more zombies from its guts, and bombards the group with them. Vojta summons a tidal wave to push back the giant, while Arran and Cho fight off the zombies. Grombrin has a sudden idea and infuses five nearby corpses with fiery energy, causing them to rise. These zombies, moving stiffly and robotically, charge and batter down the giant’s zombies. As the giant approaches, Cho charges it and slashes through its knees, but it strikes back with heavy blows of its greatsword. Grombrin sends his zombies to swarm around the giant and claw at its calves, but it ignores them. Cho and the zombies strip away most of the flesh from the giant’s legs, but it remains standing through miraculous undead fortitude, and smashes Cho into the ground until he’s knocked unconscious. Seeing an opportunity, Arran then runs up, uses one of Grombrin’s zombies as a stepping stone, and makes a leaping plunge with his rapier into the giant’s spine. Its entire body buckles, then crashes to the ground defeated. Vojta heals Cho back to consciousness, and Cho decapitates the giant to be sure.

With their purpose served, Grombrin disposes of his zombies by commanding them to line up and jump into a hole, down into the deep caves. Vojta questions him about being a necromancer, and Grombrin explains that he merely animated the corpses as if they were objects, but didn’t conjure any necromantic spirits. The group rests in the central chamber. When they reassemble, Grombrin says that he was visited in his dream by Morach. Morach told him that it would be a bad idea for Vojta to keep dispelling, because he was removing Turagh’s attempts to help them. He also requested to be able to see through Grombrin’s eyes. The others question whether this was the aboleth posing as Morach. Grombrin cast a commanding spell on himself, forcing himself to speak the truth, and confirms that the things he said were true. To confirm whether it works, Cho asks him how big his dick is. Grombrin says, and shows, that he has none, since his kind reproduces only by crafting. Vojta casts some spells to remove diseases or charms from Grombrin, to no effect. Grombrin already gave Morach permission to look through his eyes, so the group figures they will have to accept it.

The group then puts all three keys in the pillar. The figure of Turagh appears on it, but the image is damaged. The platform around the pillar starts sinking into the ground, and the group rides it down into a massive cavern containing a large lake and ancient lizardfolk ruins scattered on various islands. Tubes run along the walls, draining water from the swamp above into the lake. Large fish and lizards are seen swimming in the clear water, and masked spirits wander the ruins. In the middle of the lake floats the aboleth, unresponsive to their arrival. The group lands in a temple ruin on a small island, with ancient religious symbols from many different cultures inscribed on the walls.

With the aboleth close at hand, Grombrin decides to find certainty and performs a ritual to commune with Morach. He asks if Morach was the one that contacted him, and Morach answers that he wasn’t. He asks for advice for facing the aboleth, and Morach warns that the aboleth is so powerful that it is dangerous even to the gods, and that he should trust no one, not even himself. When he relates this to the others, he concludes that the Morach in his dream must have been fake, though he feels confident that this one was real. Cho now speaks up and says that he was also contacted, supposedly by Yane, who told him to strike down his companions for intruding on the temple. He didn’t share this because it was obviously not the real Yane, and he didn’t want them to think he was possessed. Arran now admits that he was also contacted, supposedly by Turagh, and told to listen to Grombrin’s advice. When asked to elaborate, he develops a migraine and can’t recall the details, saying there is too much information in his head. Vojta tries to use dispelling magic on Arran, but something quietly stops it from working. He conjures a flame in his hand to check if his magic works at all, and it does. With no other options, they stop pushing the subject and decide to explore.

Outside the temple, many barrels and crates are stored on the small island, marked with the signet of the thieves’ guild of Namos. They look inside and find weapons, some religious supplies, and rations, notably unspoiled. Each barrel contains a written note, though the words seem to be nonsense. They assume that this is a secret language used by the thieves’ guild, something Ahrm told them about. Apparently, the thieves’ guild has been storing supplies here, in cooperation with or under the control of the aboleth. As they look out to the next island, Grombrin opens his divine senses and feels an overwhelming celestial presence. All of these ruins are consecrated, especially the temple they just emerged from.

Vojta magically gives the group the ability to walk on water, and they walk to the next island. Before they get there, a white cloaked humanoid appears floating on the surface of the water. It introduces itself as being both the aboleth, and the one whose blessing they seek. Grombrin asks if it was the one imitating Morach, and the being confirms. When questioned about its claim of being Turagh, it says that it is one of the seven, but not a god, merely interpreted as such by mortals. The other six are gods, it thinks, but it doesn’t really care. Vojta asks if the being is willing to give its blessing in order to stop Cerebarieth. It says that it doesn’t fear Cerebarieth, since its own existence predates the reality Cerebarieth created. However, it can give them access to the blessing that belongs to this place, if they promise to leave in peace. It explains that the celestial aura here isn’t its own, but was already here when it arrived 4371 years ago. Cho questions the being extensively, but in the end there isn’t much to do but believe it on its word. The group reluctantly agrees to take the offer, with Cho setting the condition that the being never impersonates Yane again.

With a gesture, the avatar parts the water of the lake, revealing a stone door on the lakebed, with the symbol of Turagh inscribed on it. The group opens the door to find a deep drop into a large dusty chamber. Cho lowers down a rope, then holds it while the others climb down. He considers staying up here in case this is a trap, but the aboleth warns that it won’t keep the water parted forever, so Cho reluctantly jumps down after them. The round chamber below contains two huge wooden hatches in the floor. Arran opens one of them and sees another chamber about 30 feet below. There are primordial inscriptions on the walls, welcoming them into the outer sanctum of Turagh. As they approach the wall, a statue of Turagh emerges from it, with the inscription: “If it is an audience you seek with me, grant me my crown.”