Grelda giggles. "There must be some clue here to help us find Xul-Khundur. Let's look around."
As you approach the giant hand, a monstrous creature suddenly burrows up through the sand, emerging next to Ashlion! The enormous fiend has a massive body that is part hippopotamus, part large cat, and part crocodile. Its hide is an unpleasant mottled purple. Black bile drips from its maw of saw-like teeth, and clouds of black dust emerge as it breathes.
"Don't resist. Your souls are mine," the fiend says in a telepathic growl.
Ruinë holds Tasha's hand as they walk. She whispers "I'm proud of you for using your words so well, Tasha. It wouldn't have taken much for us to go another way with Khufar. Thank you." She then places a small kiss on the tiefling's cheek.
---
[b]"Do you understand how terrible it is to open a conversation with "Your souls are mine"? We could discuss possible alternatives to this, if you are interested. No? For shame."[b] she says with a sigh, shaking her head. She whirls her hand and attempts to blast the creature's spirit from its body.
Grelda likewise attacks the creature’s spirit, but it resists both attacks. Roaring, then monster breathes forth flames over all of you before clawing Ashlion.
Tasha leans down and returns Ruine's kiss, pressing her lips to the half-elf's temple. "There's something about him ..." she whispers back.
~~~~~
Ruinë takes note of Ash's wound and sets about correcting it, giving him a boost of heroics in the process.
Grelda avoids the worst of the flames. Seeing Ruine burned, the witch boosts her vitality before trying to weaken the monster with a phantasmal killer.
It proves quite effective, severely shaking the fiend's resolve!
Ashlion flails about, managing to land one hit. Tasha strikes the fiend once but fails to deliver her finisher. Ruine heals Ash.
The monster focuses its attacks on Ash, trying to bite and claw the huge half-orc!
The cleric casts another spell on Ashlion, this one removing the curse the claw had struck him with.
Ash's blades dig deep into the monstrous fiend's body. She roars in rage and recoils from the half-orc, raising her clawed hands. "You are tougher than I anticipated!" The monster forces a toothy smile despite her grievous wounds and speaks in a hissing, whispering voice. “We need not fight any longer. I have information I’m sure you need.”
"Oh, now you wish to talk?" Tasha questions, the point of her weapon not wavering for a moment. "Then speak and we will determine if it is worth your life."
The fiend inclines her head. "I am Nefrethut. My kind are called ammuts, and for more than three thousand years, I’ve called this desert my home. I once lived in a land you perhaps know as Osirion, but I no longer remember my time there, it was so long ago. Now, I eat the souls of those who come here.” Forcing another smile, she continues, “But I’ll make an exception for you.
"Once, very long ago, a large statue of an ugly lizard stood here, but the sands of the Black Desert have claimed all of it except that hand. The people of the desert call it the Sunken Titan. Travelers sometimes carve words onto its surface.” Nefrethut sneers and continues, “That is, the ones that make it to the top before I kill them. Ascend to the top of the stone, and you may find what you seek."
"If you speak the truth then we will spare you to perhaps live another three thousand years. If you betray us, then your long life will end today," Tasha pronounces. "We will see what we shall see."
She nods at the creature and then backs away without taking her eyes from it.
Grelda spreads her cloak out behind her, transforming it into a pair of shadowy butterfly wings. She flies up to the top of the hand and alights on the palm, studying various phrases carved into the stone. The carvings are simple, mostly noting directions or mocking the now-fallen xulgath statue and empire. A sheet of durable leather is wedged in between two of the fingers. The leather bears the following note:
“The pteranodons of the jungle nest on the tallest tree in the Cradle, but elsewhere, there are none. An ancient scroll claimed that visitors to Xul-Khundur were greeted by shrieking dinosaur birds that glided above that place, so Xul-Khundur must be within a few miles of the tree!”
The witch flies back down to share the message with the others. "It seems we'll need to look for the tallest tree in the jungle. The Azure Eye and the Crown of Teeth will likely have more clues to help narrow down the search."
She eyes Nefrethut warily. "Do we walk away, or do we eradicate this fiend?"
"We will honor our bargain," Tasha says, keeping her eyes on the fiend. "They have held up their end and we will hold up ours."
She tips her head slightly at Nefrethut.
"Before we're on our way is there anything you can tell us about the ..." she glances at notes they've been keeping, "the crown of teeth or the island in the lake?"
"The Crown of Teeth is where the great worms of the Black Desert breed. The place is easy to find—it is where three colossal rocks meet, each shaped like a tooth.
"The lake within the central jungle has an island in the middle called the Azure Eye. I hear the water is pristine, and everything there looks beautiful. But don’t let your eyes fool you—it is a place of magic, where spirits flock like maggots to a carcass."
Tasha nods.
"Thank you for your cooperation," she says and leads the others away. "I say we explore the Crown of Teeth first," she says once they're out of earshot of the fiend.
You leave the stone hand behind and traverse several miles of desert to reach the Crown of Teeth.
Amid a landscape of black dunes, three curved rock formations shaped like a carnivore’s teeth rise from the sand, their tips coming together more than six hundred feet above the ground. Everywhere near the rock formations, the surface of the desert is perforated by gaping tunnels. Between the tunnels, long swaths of sand have been flattened, as if something huge crawled on its belly across the surface of the desert.
"I'll check this one," Tasha says. She closes her eyes and a moment later, with the sound of tearing flesh, membranous wings sprout from her back and she takes to the sky.
She soars up to the point where the 'teeth' meet, searching for any sort of clue to be found.
Tasha soars high above the dunes, avoiding any monstrous worms that might be lurking beneath the black sand. At the top of the Crown of Teeth is a relatively at rock about 20 feet in diameter, lodged between the tips of the three teeth. The upper surface of the rock is covered with carved pictures and text. The majority of the writings are in Draconic or Undercommon and relate cave worm mating habits, including notes about their breeding seasons, tunnels, and egg chambers.
Among the carvings on the rock atop the Crown of Teeth is a single sentence in Common that stands out as the most recent inscription: "The seven embrace the eighth. I came across this phrase while studying ancient scrolls. I knew it referred to the legendary Xul-Khundur, but I never understood its meaning until I looked east."
From the high vantage point, Tasha can see the tops of seven hills within the valley’s central jungle, which form a rough arc. As the clue suggests, Xul-Khundur is likely located somewhere within that arc!
Taking careful note of the positions of the hills and the path between here and there, the tiefling then descends back down to the sand and informs her companions as to what she's found.
"I imagine that somewhere near that hill will the tallest tree in the jungle?" she questions before retracting her wings and beginning the trek towards the island in the water for the third clue.
You traverse the valley once more until you reach the Azure Eye. A small, round island sits at the center of an eye-shaped lake, the pristine turquoise waters sparkling with the reflections of the crystals in the vault’s dark ceiling. Reeds, ferns, and fragrant water lilies grow along the eastern shore of the island, while the western half is bare of vegetation. The crumbling ruins of a small building stand at the island’s center. The air is rich with scents wafting from the vegetation. Other than a gentle breeze moving the leaves and creating subtle ripples across the water’s surface, everything on the lake is still and calm.
The water is still and calm, and crossing to the island is easy. As you approach the ruined house, though, you hear voices whispering in numerous overlapping languages. The voices ask “Who are you?” and “Why are you here?”
|
Ashlion sizes up the lake, sweeps his wife off her feet and then races forwards.
By some miracle of atheleticism he doesn't run into the water but rather onto it, his huge feet leaving behind rapidly expanding circles behind him as he charges onto the central island.
Reaching it he puts his wife down and kisses her thoroughly!
Tasha shakes her head and laughs as Ashlion races across the water on his own two feet. Stepping behind Ruine, she wraps her arms around the smaller woman's waist and manifests her wings again to fly across to the island.
After a glance at the half-orc's gesture once they reach land, she follows up with a simple peck on the half-elf's temple.
~~~~~
"We are simple travelers and have heard of a place called Xul-Khundur. Would you know how we might reach it?" Tasha replies to the disembodied voice.
Grelda swoons in Ashlion’s arms!
***
A ghostly shape manifests within the ruined house. Its form shifts constantly between that of xulgaths, drow, humans, and others, while its voice changes with the shift in form.
Many voices gasp in unison. “Xul-Khundur! So many have come here to find it. We did too. We never found it! But we did! We can’t find our way back. The answer is somewhere here! Look around!”
Still looking for the source of the voices, Tasha moves cautiously into the house. She glances to her love, hoping the priestess will warn her of any spiritual dangers.
Before Tasha gets far, the spirits become louder and more excited. “Come, show us something new! Tell us a story! Please entertain us! We are all artists and entertainers here, as are you, or you wouldn’t be here! What can you do?”
"A story?" she questions with a smile. "Let me tell you the story of a simple peasant girl and the angel who came down from the sun to shine love upon her ..."
Tasha spins a story filled with romance as she continues to search through the house.
"... and with a final passionate kiss, the golden angel took the lowly girl and returned to her home in the sky where they lived happily ever after."
Grelda offers to read the spirits' fortunes, putting on quite the show as she reads from her star charts!
The spirits cheer and applaud your performances. Satisfied, they return to their torpor, allowing you to freely explore the island and the building.
The ruined stones all bear overlapping scribbles, drawings, and other notes carved ages ago. With a few minutes of study, you find a note written in Common by Farwalker. It reads: "Keep your eye on the three-fingered hand! Now observe the arm—the legendary Xul-Khundur lies to the right." This carving is directly below an open window that looks east over three rivulets from the hills, which converge into a stream that flows into the lake. This inflow vaguely resembles an arm with three fingers. This clue means that Xul-Khundur must be south of the river.
With all three clues, you are able to establish that the pyramid is located south of the river, within a few miles of the tallest tree in the jungle, and within a ring of seven tall hills. This limits the area where Xul-Khundur can be to only a few square miles, and you are able to find the pyramid within a day of searching this smaller area.
A stepped pyramid of majestic proportions rises nearly to the treetops of the primeval jungle surrounding it. Two staircases with moss-covered steps angle up and across the east face, converging forty feet above. From there, a single staircase leads up to the top level, some one hundred feet above the jungle floor, which houses a small shrine open to the air. Two doorways on the east face of the third level afford entrance to the pyramid’s interior.
There are half-buried foundations and tumbled stones nearby, suggesting a tall stone fence once surrounded the pyramid, and that dozens—or even hundreds—of smaller stone buildings once stood around it.
Taking Ruine into her arms, Tasha ignores the stone staircases via the simple expedience of manifesting her wings and flying up to the third level entrance.
Grelda casts fly on Ashlion before happily climbing into his arms so that her husband can carry her through the air as well!
A set of stairs leads up to the highest terrace of the pyramid, upon which stands a roofless stone temple. At the center of the shrine lies a heavy stone slab with a round cavity the size of a human’s head carved into its center. Around the hole, several carvings depict xulgaths performing various religious tasks. Behind the stone slab stands a twenty-foot-tall obelisk bearing a carved symbol in the shape of twisted tentacles that end in vicious talons--the symbol of the xulgaths' demon lord, Zevgazvizeb. The top of the pyramid is badly scarred, as though from thousands of ancient lightning strikes.
Two obsidian statues stand guard here, each crudely carved to resemble large xulgaths. The statues animate as you enter the shrine, revealing themselves to be golems ready to attack!
Ruinë isn't sure what to think of being flown around and having stories told about her. Commenting "I'm not an angel." softly, she holds to her flying lover as they ascend.
Once danger inevitably sets upon them, she casts a spell to protect her allies.
Choose an alignment your deity has (chaotic, evil, good, or lawful). You can't cast this spell if you don't have a deity or your deity is true neutral. This spell gains the trait of the alignment you chose. The bonuses granted by the spell increase to +2 against attacks by—and effects created by—creatures with an alignment opposite to the spell (lawful if you chose chaotic, evil if you chose good). These bonuses increase to +4 against effects created by such creatures that attempt to impose the controlled condition on a target of your divine aura, as well as against attacks made by creatures summoned by anything opposite in alignment to your divine aura.
When a creature of opposite alignment hits a target with a melee attack, the creature must succeed at a Will save or be blinded for 1 minute. It's then temporarily immune for 1 minute.
The first time you Sustain the Spell each round, the divine aura's radius grows 10 feet.
"You're an angel to me," Tasha replies with a grin, pressing a quick kiss to the half-elf's temple.
Tasha releases her lover gently to the stone surface and then glides in to attack.
Tasha's attacks skip harmlessly off the first golem's obsidian body. The golem retaliates, scoring one hit, while the second one moves up to Ashlion and punches him. Ruine's defensive spell protects her allies from further blows!
Ruinë tries to scorch the thing with fire, but can't concentrate in the midst of the battle.
Undiscouraged by her previous attempt, Tasha continues to stab at the animate stone.
Grelda gives Ash's fate a nudge before hurling a telekinetic projectile that doesn't hit.
Tasha lands one good hit while Ash delivers two powerful strikes, smashing and flensing the statue. Ruine's fire ray goes wide. The golems strike back, pounding Tasha and Ash!
Ruinë heals some of Tasha's recent wounds, bestowing her with a heroic recovery in the process.
The tiefling strangles a groan of pain and continues her onslaught.
Ash destroys his opponent with a devastating critical strike, then moves to assist Tasha, landing one solid blow. Tasha can't catch a break, failing to find a gap in the golem's armor to exploit. Grelda lands a solid telekinetic blow.
The golem turns its attention to Ashlion, swinging on him! It lands one critical hit.
Ruinë casts a spell to heal Ash and then tries to quickly patch up a wound, but she's too hasty and doesn't make any progress.