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thatswaterdeep · 2 years

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A Portal Closed and the End Begins

After having watched poor Melissara be kicked through the portal to the Far Realm by Zalthar, the party faced the death knight while watching to see what else would emerge. Top used a bead of force to contain two of his minions, which, in turn, effectively boxed Q into a corner forcing to cast spells over the top. Zalthar put up a fight but just as he was being defeated, something came through the portal.

A see-through giant horror moved out first followed by... something... wearing Melissara's skin. It was able to cast some kind of spell at the giant which then reflected to everyone nearby. Q put a wall of blades around the caster while the Tossa, Ilokoris, and Sychor worked on the giant. Sychor moved through the blades and landed a hit, but not enough to fell the creature. It then actually pulled Ilokoris inside the blade barrier with it and attacked at close range. When they were able to finally dispatch them all and drop the blade barrier, the frog acted.

The tiny yellow frog that promised to save them all did just that. It transformed into a beautiful flying serpent and declared that it would close those portal no matter the cost. It then flew directly into the portal and it collapsed while everyone heard the wailing of creatures that were still attempting to come through. The party, with a little help from a frog, were able to close the portal and save this plane from a worse fate.

Feeling that Torm's blessing had been especially important during the battle, Ilokoris wanted to return to the shrine to Torm they had spotted earlier to give thanks and dedicate himself to Torm. At the same time, the party was wondering what to do with the black tablet that had been used to open the portal. Q decided to make another appeal to Correllan which did not completely succeed, but provided a hint. To the question, "How do we destroy the tablet?", Q heard the message, "Give it as the Mage's toll" which the party took to mean that it should be offered at the gate demanding a magic item to pass.

As they exit to give that a try, they encounter more of the psychic screamer creatures along with another enrobed figure who appears to be made entirely of... worms. During that fight, the creature draws close to all of them and covers Q and Tossa with worms. Once beaten, the creature dissolves into a mob of worms that seems to be leaving, but Ilokoris finishes it off.

Finally, the party is able to offer the tablet for passage at the last gate and they witness it dissolve, never to be used again. As they pass through the gate, the party is sent through a passage with streaking stars and multicololored lights while they hear the Mage's voice in their head. They realize that the Mage set up the Shadowdusks and allowed the portal to be opened. Even worse, the Mage is prepared for their arrival and has surely arranged to put up a fight.

On the other side, they first find a room filled with empty suits of armor where the helmets are formed in Halaster's face. They start speaking in unison and moving on the party. Not to be reasoned with, the Specters had to dispatch them all.

Down the hall was an empty room with an invisible barrier on one side. Not wanting to tempt fate, the Specters again, moved on.

They then discovered a room filled with jars, each with a well-preserved head. The heads started talking and even conversed with the Specters, but to no help. They remembered nothing outside of this room despite some being familiar to the party. Several disturbing, but unhelpful conversations ensued.

The next series of rooms had lightning jumping from large metal columns in two different rooms. It seemed to jump randomly until Sychor caught the pattern. He then also identified a dead space in the room where the party could stand while the lightning bounced and crackled around them.

Sychor found a secret door at one edge that had a small library stacked with books, but upside-down with gravity to match. A little investigation and a few long falls left him with some bruises, but no other clues.

North of the lightning, they found a room with a door knocker shaped like Halaster's face and a sign saying "Knock before entering". Ilokoris follows the directions to a T and everyone gets blown backwards by a trap set on the knocker. After dusting themselves off, they enter without knocking and find an empty room other than a lovely shield with an angelic face wreathed in feathers. Again, not wanting to create unnecessary problems, they simply leave the inscrutable shield.

After passing a room with cheap spell components and some that are well past their use-by date, they find a more interesting room with pillars in a circle. Each pillar has a symbol carved into it that some quickly recognize as representing each school of magic. When they walk to the center, the floor starts talking and they are teleported to a very similar room, but that seems to be depowered.

Following a zigzag hallway with floating chandeliers and strange paintings of Halaster doing very mundane things, they find a room with seven floating, flaming skulls. They skulls start hurling invectives until the party realizes that these skulls previously belonged to some of their classmates in Dweomercore and they aren't happy about how things ended there.

The end is surely near, but Halaster is not just around the corner. There are more creatures to face, opponents to outwit, and humliations to endure before he will show his face. The Specters are determined to see this to the end. The only question is whether they will have what it takes to complete the job... and whether they will walk back out when it is over.

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thatswaterdeep · 2 years

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Screeches from Beyond the Stars

The party had just entered via a beautiful staircase into a giant foyer with a statue celebrating Lady Dezmyr Shadowdusk. This was quickly interrupted by some madman babbling about how doom has come from beyond the stars. Around the other side of the large space was another statue celebrating Master Zalthar Shadowdusk. The statue of Zalthar is noticeably taller than that of Dezmyr.

In the adjacent hall they simply see several doors. The first the open was a pantry, but it appears that all the food is rotten and crawling with maggots. But, they are unearthly maggots. Very large and each has a single, visible eye. They have even appeared inside the wine bottles where they appear to be playing games rather than just feeding.

In the next they find the kitchen where unseen servants are mindlessly cleaning despite the slaughter that has taken place and covered the entire room in blood spatter.

At the end of the hall is a shrine to Torm, which is hopeful, but also makes the rest of their encounter seem quite bizarre.

Another door opens to a room with what appears to be an oversized wasp nest at one end from which emerge several floating brain-like creatures with beaks and tentacles. They are reasonably quickly dispatched.

When the party returns to the hallway, it is completely dark. While they move towards the stairs, something drops from above onto Ilikoris and thrashes him with seven or eight blade-like claws. Nobody gets a good look at the creature before it scurries down the stairwell.

Back in an adjacent room, the party finds a deranged Nothic scratching at the walls talking nonsense and offering to swap secrets. They finally conclude that this was a Shadowdusk servant that worked to open a gateway to the Far Realm but was told he was unworthy to pass through. He concludes the party will be unworthy as well. They are able to also learn that there are three floors to this space and the gateway is opened on the lowest floor.

As the party explores the other side of the foyer, they find a room with Melissara Shadowdusk and her husband, Derrion. She shares that she believes her family has gone too far and is bringing doom to the Undermountain and, eventually, the world. She cannot leave her room because she is convinced that the same thing that attacked Ilikoris will attack her. She believes her cousins are watching her and won't let her leave. She offers the party a place to rest, but they must move on soon.

In other room, the party finds assorted armor and weapons and the armor shows as magical, but in a vexing way. Top puts on some studded leather armor, gives out a little yelp, but says everything is fine.

The party also discovers a fountain the disturbing shape of an Aboleth that otherwise gives out perfectly clean water... apparently.

When they finally head for the stairs, they are rushed by some escaping servants being chased by alien-looking creatures of two types. Some simply have tentacles for arms while others have a prickly skin. One or more of them seem to cause screeching in your head when you get close, so the party picks them off at a distance.

Finally dispatched, the party moves down into another large hall and are set upon by five floating lights whispering questions. Unable to answer to their satisfaction, a fight breaks out and draws attention from aliens at both sides of the hall. A rather massive fight with inhuman howling and screeching goes on for a bit before the party can finally put them all down.

And this is just the first step into the second floor. Surely it gets easier from here?

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