In an attempt to regain her lost mojo, Tasha twists, turns, and tumbles under the golem's legs. Hoping she confused it enough, she pops back up to her feet and stabs at the thing.
Tasha slips through the golem’s legs, stabbing it hard in the back. Ashlion shatters the damaged construct with another critical hit!
With the threats neutralized, you can search the shrine. The carvings on the stone slab depict ritual sacrifices. The largest of them shows a xulgath priest holding a still-beating heart toward a glowing orb floating above a large obelisk. In their other hand is an obsidian blade, and next to them lies a dying xulgath placed on a sacrificial stone. It is clear that the carving depicts rituals that once took place in this very shrine, and that the glowing orb is one of the aeon orbs. There’s no indication from the carvings as to why the aeon orb is no longer here.
Numbers carved on the stone give a sense of the scope of sacrifices made here. Sacrifices performed in Zevgavizeb’s honor were an integral part of everyday life for the xulgaths. Sacrificing prisoners of war and animals was a common practice, as was sacrificing other xulgaths. The carvings further detail the role of sacrifice in xulgath society: the xulgaths believed that if sacrifices were not supplied for the gluttonous Zevgavizeb, their hunts and harvests would fail, diseases would infest the community, and Zevgavizeb might arrive to devour his unworthy followers. These sacrifices were performed during thunderstorms that centered on the top of the altar, which were very frequent.
A serrated blade called bloodletter lies on the sacrificial stone. It is a gloom blade with its fundamental rune upgraded, making it a +3 greater striking shortsword.
The altar hides a secret passage underneath it. Moving the massive stone slab reveals a hole 8 feet in diameter that leads down.
Grelda is happy to spend the time being hugged. She strokes Ashlion's cheek and places a couple healing hex on him to help speed along the recovery process.
With time on her side, Ruinë works to correctly fix Ashlion's various wounds. This is helped with Grelda's magic which seems to be healing him faster than she is.
Seeing that he is in good hands, she turns to find Tasha. She takes on hand and moves Tasha's head to the left, then the right, then looks over her sides, chest and back carefully, making sure there are no hidden wounds that are forgotten due to adrenalin.
Satisfied she nods, "Okay, I think we're all set. Nice work, everyone."
When you are ready, you drop down into the chamber below. Hundreds of blood-stained skulls sit in uneven piles around the edges of this room, rising above a layer of blood a few inches deep that shifts and churns slowly. The walls are covered in rivulets of wet blood, and the air in the room smells overwhelmingly of iron.
The blood in the center of the room suddenly begins to roil as a bizarre aberration rises up! It resembles a giant, blood-red sea jelly shaped like an oversized heart. The monster moves to attack!
Ruinë stays within 15' of Ashlion and Tasha, close enough her eternal blessing helps them but far enough away to stay out of the melee and fires a divine lance at the creature.
"We're fighting ... what? Blood?" Tasha muses as she circles about the manifestation before stabbing with her blade.
Tasha moves up and quickly stabs the monster twice. Her rapier proves particularly effective, puncturing deep wounds in the jellylike monster. It is weak to piercing damage!
Ruine blasts the thing with a divine lance, then Ashlion moves in but misses with his attack.
The creature begins to quickly heal the damage dealt to it. It floats back a few feet to get out your reach, then it focuses on a spell. Taking a page from Grelda's spellbook, it attempts to violently suck the blood out of your bodies and infuse itself with the life essence!
Ruinë fails to avoid the negative damage done to her and gasps loudly in pain as the blood flows from her body into the the jellylike creature's.
She reaches out and places a hand on Tasha, casting a spell to provide continuous healing on her.
The searing pain of having her blood pulled from her flesh is soon tempered by a familiar warmth that Tasha knows is from her lover. She continues to stab.
Grelda resists the worst of the spell. Noticing its vulnerability to piercing weapons, she draws her dagger and sends it hurtling towards the monster with a burst of magic!
Grelda's dagger punctures the creature's jellylike form. Tasha lands another good hit, while Ashlion batters it with two fiery hammer blows! The second one is a critical hit, knocking the monster down into the bloody pool!
The creature tries to rise back up, but while Tasha misses with her attack of opportunity, Ashlion lands another devastating blow, causing the monster's body to burst like an overripe balloon! Ash and Tasha are showered with hot blood!
The body of the monster holds five rubies shaped like blood drops. Each is worth 700 gp. in addition, a thick knot of spiderwebs 15 feet wide is tucked in the upper northwest corner of this room, between the walls and the ceiling. It contains enough space for a large creature to fit, if snugly. Ruine realizes that this cocoon serves as a restorative coffin for a vampire of some sort! Destroying it would likely be a wise course of action.
Healing is dispensed and focus is restored. You climb back out of this chamber and head down the steps of the pyramid to the lower entrance to its interior. Dried xulgath corpses clad in bone armor sit motionless around a table at the south end of this long room. On the walls, carvings show xulgath warriors capturing or brutally killing animals, humanoids, and other xulgaths. Another image on the wall shows bound captives with terrified expressions kneeling before a stone slab.
The stench rising from the xulgath corpses gives you the first hint that they are more than just dead bodies. Indeed, they rise up to protect the pyramid, snarling and brandishing bone spears!
"Let's make quick work of these boneheads," Grelda says, unperturbed by the undead xulgaths. She nudges Ashlion's fate before singing an eldritch song that sends pulsing waves of ethereal energy at the wights!
Ruinë has the perfect spell for groups of undead. Throwing her hands towards the group, light explodes all around them.
Critical Success The creature is unaffected.
Success The creature takes half damage.
Failure The creature takes full damage.
Critical Failure The creature takes full damage and becomes blinded permanently.
If the globe overlaps with an area of magical darkness, sunburst attempts to counteract the darkness effect.
Ruine's sunburst wreaks havoc on the wights, blinding one of them and leaving all of them wounded. Ashlion rushes in, annihilating the first two wights within reach.
The remaining undead move in on the barbarian and stab him with their spears, three scoring hits and attempting to drain Ashlion's life force.
Ruinë targets one of the undead attacking Ash and tries to blast it with a divine lance.
Not happy with being caught flat-footed, the dashing tiefling flips forward to stab from a flanking position.
Tasha delivers a critical strike, following up with a normal hit. Ruine burns down her lover’s foe with a divine lance, then Ashlion annihilated the three remaining undead xulgaths!
There are two other rooms on this level. Various items lie on stone shelves built into the walls of the first room: statuettes, chalices, and other mundane items marked with ominous symbols. Carvings on the walls show a xulgath wearing a robe of knobby hide and holding a dagger in their hand. Another xulgath pours an unidentifiable liquid from a vial onto the blade of the dagger, giving the weapon a radiant glow.
The treasures in this room are neatly sorted. On the top shelf are four vials containing an adult blue dragon’s breath potion, a greater potion of flying, a potion of tongues, and a truesight potion. A piece of parchment near the potions has Dwarven writing on it identifying each of the potions.
The second shelf from the top contains scrolls stored in tubes carved from bone: a scroll of disintegrate, a scroll of freedom of movement, a scroll of stoneskin (6th), and a scroll of wall of stone. Similar to the note on the top shelf, a piece of parchment lists the contents of each scroll, again in
The third shelf has miscellaneous items on it: body paint for rituals that has dried to powder but is worth 5 gp for its lustrous color, an obsidian cup shaped like a xulgath claw holding the bottom half of a large egg (worth 125 gp), and a religious symbol of Zevgavizeb carved from bone and studded with small opals (worth 150 gp).
Wall carvings in the second roo. show xulgaths trading gold disks, dinosaur horns, jewelry, and vases for other valuables and commodities. Dozens of small gems are embedded in the wall carvings, some portions of which are gilded to highlight them. Opposite the door, behind a large stone table with a grid carved on it, three coffers sit against the wall, all with their lids smashed open. Uneven rows of stone tablets sit on shelves built into the walls.
The stone tablets are ancient records of trade deals, taxes, and other transactions. It seems the xulgaths used gold disks, weapons, meat, gems, fruit, fish, quarried stone, and other commodities in a sophisticated system of barter, one more advanced than many surface civilizations of the time.
Though the room appears looted, you find secret compartments hidden behind the tablets. One secret compartment holds 57 gold disks worth 10 gp each and eight gem-studded dinosaur skulls worth 200 gp each. The other compartment holds a set of five bronze plates carved with obscure religious symbols and Draconic script. The plates are worth 15 gp each. Four of the plates relate the story of a human outsider who stole all but one of Vask’s life-giving orbs. The only orb the human didn’t steal was the one in Xul-Khundur, which was initially a boon for the site but soon became a problem as the rest of Vask died. The final plate isn’t part of this story; it functions as a scroll of massacre.
The most obvious treasure remaining in the room are the gems and gold leaf embedded in the walls. A few hours of diligent scraping recovers 300 gp of loot from the walls.
Stairs lead down to the next level...
Ruinë thinks the mask is perfect for Ash, nodding in agreement as he takes it. She looks over the four scrolls, but hands them to Grelda in case she needs them.
Grelda accepts the scrolls, but gives the bronze plate with the massacre spell inscribe on it to Ruine. "I cannot use this one, but you can. Just...be careful with it! The magic is very dangerous. It may turn back upon you if you are not careful!"
You head down the stairs to the third tier of the pyramid. Weapon racks line the walls of this room. Most stand empty or contain crumbled weapons made of bone or obsidian, but a few steel weapons remain. Between the weapon racks are stone beds and simple furnishings. Carvings on the wall show xulgath warriors wrestling, honing the blades of their weapons, and fighting jungle dinosaurs.
The surviving weapons are made of steel and bear mismatched patterns and strange designs, indicating that they aren’t of xulgath manufacture. None of the surviving weapons are magical, but a belt of giant strength hangs on one of the weapon racks, covered with ages of dust.
"This looks right up your alley, husband," Grelda proclaims, helping to cinch it around Ashlion's waist!
***
Moving on to the next room, you find that it contains stone tables, long benches, and bunks made of stone. Carvings on the walls depict xulgaths performing various everyday tasks: training dinosaurs, felling trees, and exploring dense jungles. Above them is a carving of xulgaths planning and building houses made of stone blocks, including the great terraced pyramid of Xul-Khundur. Higher still on the wall are ranked groups of warriors, and above them are carvings of xulgath priests wielding sacrificial daggers.
Several enemies await you here. Three hulking undead creatures that are mixtures between drow and enormous spiders scuttle forward to attack, fangs dripping virulent venom. Behind them is a female drider vampire, who holds a bow in one hand and a religious symbol of Urgathoa in the other!
The vampire casts a spell, her appearance altering so that she resembles a nightmarish spider demon! The death driders move in and bite at Ashlion.
Ruinë's best undead spell has already been used, so she fills the room with a fireball instead.
Grelda boosts her husband's vitality before unleashing another spirit song at the undead driders!
Leaving the lesser undead driders for Ashlion to squash, Tasha warily approaches the leader. She resists the tremblings of fear that the woman's magic creates and steps in to stab at her.
"I've always hated spiders," she snarls at the monstrosity.
Ruine's fireball proves quite effective. The most wounded drider is fully engulfed in the flames, while the others are burnt. Ashlion swings wildly, but the one hit he lands is a critical strike! The scorched drider's body ruptures as it explodes in a shower of spiders!
Tasha nimbly leaps through the gap left by the exploded drider as she rushes at the vampire. She lands a critical hit, driving her blade into the vampire's chest!
The two remaining death driders continue to attack Ashlion while the vampire skitters back a few feet. Her wound begins to swiftly heal before Tasha's eyes as she casts a spell, targeting the tiefling with a finger of death!
Ruinë targets one of the two remaining creatures and burns a whole through it.
Tasha cries out as the negative energy wracks her body, but she grits her teeth against the pain and fear and continues to attack the vampire.
Ashlion annihilates another drider with two brutal blows, then Ruine incinerates the third one. Both driders explode into sprays of spiders! The vampire dodges Tasha’s attacks and Grelda’s projectile. She sinks her fangs into Tasha!
Fortitude; Maximum Duration 6 rounds; Stage 1 3d8 poison damage and enfeebled 2 (1 round); Stage 2 4d8 poison damage and paralyzed (1 round)
And help Ashlion does. With two brutal blows, the drider explodes into a cloud of mist. The mist drifts away, but since you have already destroyed her web coffin, you know that she will not be able to rejuvenate.
As usual, Ruinë sets to work with Grelda in repairing the wounds to her team. Picking up the bracers, she holds them out to Tasha and says "Aren't these your size?"
After healing up and refocusing, you move on into the next room. Several rounded stone beds fill the northern part of this room. The tables, chairs, and other furniture are also neatly crafted from stone. Statuettes adorn small niches built into the walls, and carvings on the walls show xulgath priests performing various religious duties: curing diseases, collecting taxes, sacrificing creatures, and performing rituals. On the ceiling above, a large carving shows a stylized map of the Vault of the Black Desert with six softly glowing orbs, one of which is over the site of the Cradle of Worms. A stone desk contains an open book and a large metal cage about three feet square. A mass of slimy purple flesh sits within the cage.
The purple flesh begins to wriggle and move as you get close. A head raises up, and you realize that the mass is actually the coiled up form of a runt purple worm, perhaps 7 feet in length. The worm lets out a noise that sounds like a sad whimper. A sign on the cage reads “Wurples.”
"I hate cages," Tasha mutters to herself as she approaches the imprisoned creature.
"We should free it and move on," she says, reaching up to unlatch the cage.
The worm chirps happily and nuzzles against Tasha’s hand. It slithers off the table and playfully wriggles around your legs before going off to hunt. It seems like the worm is good natured and would be easy to train. It would make a great circus act!
The book on the table is written in code, but Grelda is able to decipher it. The book is the diary of a duergar servant named Qormintur, who departed from the city of Shraen two months ago. A dangerous journey through urdefhan territory took her to a valley dozens of miles long, and eventually she and her master— who isn’t named in the book—discovered a terraced pyramid with the help of three landmarks. They claimed an orb, which the duergar’s master obviously considered the reason for his visit. Qormintur explored the pyramid, and she took the orb to one of the lower levels, where her master continues to research it.
The rest of the notebook contains personal entries. Anyone reading the book can learn that Qormintur spent most of her life in Shraen but never felt she belonged there. She felt her destiny lay elsewhere, and that every day spent with the “dead folk” was a step away from avenging those who wronged her long ago.
"Wurples, eh?" Tasha says with a grin as the relatively small creature heads off to hunt. "Maybe we should take it with us when we're done here. Speaking of which ... Let's keep moving. Down we go."
The first room on the lower level is a library of carved tablets. It will take many hours to read through them, so you move on. This room is a mess of rubble and broken pottery. Faint smells float in the air: honey mixed with the musty scent of leaves and mushrooms. Carvings above empty wall niches show xulgaths using sticks to extract and jar secretions from plants, beetles, and frogs.
Healing supplies are hidden amid the rubble. Searching the room uncovers a greater salamander elixir, a major elixir of life in an alabaster bottle worth 800 gp, and a true staff of healing.
In the next room, dozens of clay vases stand on stone shelves built into the walls and in racks standing on the floor. Some are cracked open or smashed into pieces, while others remain sealed with black wax around heavy lids. Five vases contain wine that is still potable, thanks to alchemical preservatives. The wine in those vases was made from jungle berries and dezullon juices and is particularly strong. Each vase is worth 500 gp.
Past this, you come upon a luxurious apartment that has three ascending levels. The room is decorated with ornately carved stone benches, desks of polished granite in beautiful colors, and ornamental columns with carvings of religious imagery. Notes, maps, and plans have been laid out across the desks. The double doors leading out of this room are elaborately carved with a single twisting tentacle ending in a sharp talon—the symbol of the demon lord Zevgavizeb.
A bored-looking duergar woman studies the notes on the desk. This must be Qormintur. She is attended by an iron golem sculpted to resemble an armored drow warrior, along with a trio of undead driders. Qormintur looks strangely delighted to see you. In Dwarven, she utters, “Finally, a challenge,” before standing up and reaching for some bombs strapped across her waist.