Wan chuckles, warbles in his throat, and shrugs at Falxi. He then hands over his khakkara.
Once you have surrendered your weapons, the drow lead you down a hall into a large room. This massive chamber has a high, vaulted ceiling. At its center stands a small forge, anvil, and worktable with various tools. A few benches line the walls.
Your escorts ask you to wait for Quara to arrive. Various staff bring in chairs from the common area and food and fungus wine from the kitchen. Before long, Quara arrives to greet you, radiating calm command and curiosity as she studies you for a few moments. "So, you are surface dwellers. I’ve never met any of your kind, but I’ve seen artwork. Strange, you are not nearly as ugly as our art makes you out to be. I am Quara Orshendiel, leader of this outpost. Let’s figure out whether or not we can help one another."
She turns to Falxi. "Cousin, it is good to see you again. Tell me of your recent adventures."
"My attempted ascent to the surface was as difficult as you might imagine. If it weren't for these surface-dwellers, I'd no doubt be shackled in some gladiatorial jail cell right now." Falxi nods his thanks to his companions.
"After joining up, I rose all the way to the surface with these adventurers, then we returned to the depth by magical means and fought our way back down to this settled area. We've fought a number of creatures in thrall to Belcora. Her influence is strong throughout the caverns."
Zin looks around. "Belcorra's whole complex is a gladitorial jail cell." He grimaces, "It is aazing she didn't sweep her forces through town."
Quara nods. "Yes, your town is lucky, indeed. My guess is that Belcorra doesn't yet feel confident in her abilities or her servants' abilities to sustain a raid on the surface world. But her strength increases every day. Is there anything else you can tell me about what you've encountered so far?"
“Well, we’ve found lots of flesh-warped creatures and devils and that one werewolf but I don’t think he was really associated with Belcorra and was just hiding in here and those worm-things and gugs and…” Akkaboo proceeds to list out every creature she can remember encountering in the depths of the lighthouse.
Once you have finished your story, Quara taps her chin. "You’ve given me some things to think about. Thank you. You are welcome to rest here tonight. I will consider what you've said and render my decision in the morning."
If you agree to stay, the drow direct you to a room containing several bunks, each with a carefully folded bedroll atop the mattress. At the foot of each sits a pair of strongboxes with padlocks and keys.
Falxi stays with his new companions, hoping to reassure them with his presence.
"Quara is fair, usually, and she does need your help."
Zin smiles. "That is good to know. It is also good that we met you Falxi, or this could have gone much differently. We would have had loss on both sides." He lays down in the bunk for the night.
Wan chirps as he looks at the strong box, considering shedding Aggro's skin. After a pause, Wan begins divesting himself of his armoured shell, but then moves Aggro's anthropomorphic form into the cot and crawls in afterwards, cradling Aggro in a spooning position.
He falls fast asleep.
The next morning, Quara meets with you back in the great chamber. She is accompanied by a pair of twin drow in mystic robes, who lurk at the edges of the room.
"I believe you’ve been truthful with me, so I’m going to be truthful with you," Quara begins. "Yldaris only exists at Belcorra’s pleasure. It was here when she first created her vast dungeons; at the time, my grandfather was its leader. Belcorra made allies of several groups, including drow, urdefhans to the west, and the deep gnomes above, who have embraced undeath. To each, she gave a large magical lens with strange powers. For safekeeping, I believe. Ours was the Ochre Fulcrum Lens, and it could manipulate emotions.
“But there was more to the lens. My grandfather told my father, Larathols, who became Yldaris’s leader after him. But my father never told me.” Quara sighs. “I was never meant to lead. My older sister was to succeed my father. They both embarked on a secret expedition a few years ago. On an island in the great lake, the urdefhan warlord Khurfel caught and killed them. Their expedition had something to do with the lens, I believe, and I suspect my father had it with him. Perhaps he hid it someplace; perhaps Khurfel took it. I don’t know.
“Belcorra came to me as a ghost shortly afterward. She insisted I swear Yldaris’s support and aid in a surface invasion that drives her even in death. For the good of Yldaris, I renewed the vows my grandfather made. But I’ve never felt bound by mere words. I won’t help her. I’ll help you. You’re welcome in Yldaris as long as you’d like.”
"We have discovered a bit about those lens, cousin. You are well rid of the Ouchre lens, if what we have discovered is true. They are sinister and infused with evil magic."
Falxi doesn't mention the lens that the group has recovered.
"Unfortunately, the lens may be part of the key to defeating Belcorra. We may need to face the urdefhan."
Suddenly, the twin drow speak. “There is more…” one of the twins says. They move their mouths in unison, making it hard to tell which is speaking.
“…you should know,” the other drow continues.
This plainly piques Quara’s interest, and she motions for the brothers to go on.
“The ochre lens lies in a dark and wet place. Khurfel didn’t claim it. Larathols dropped it in the water to deny it to his enemy. He died attempting to learn more of its purpose, more than the partial truth we know,” one twin speaks.
“We have seen in a vision that the stones both empower the Ghost Queen and hold the key to her demise. They are slivers of something ancient, alien, evil, and hungry,” the other continues.
“We saw eyes of Empty Death!” they cry in unison.
“She separated the lenses because, together, they draw the baleful attention of the Empty Death. Even the Ghost Queen cannot withstand the Empty Death when their powers are joined within her. The secrets to the lenses are in the old treasure vault, which overlooks the lake.”
“Find the lenses and the answers Larathols sought.”
The twin seers fall silent again, and Quara looks back to you. “I would say you get used to Bhazrade and Klathor, but one never does. Let me assure you that when they do speak, it’s important. This is all news to me, but when the cavern seers speak, it’s to the benefit of Yldaris, and you as well.”
”Did we already find one of those lenses when we killed that massive gug?” Wan pipes up suddenly. ”I’m pretty sure that’s what it was cradling.”
He looks around at his colleagues.
”Right?”
"I believe so." Zin pulls a small shard out from his pack. "Is this it? We found the Gug by the lake listening to strange voices." Zin explains as he show the lens for confirmation.
“How do you think they go together though? Do they, like, go up against each other into a super-lens? Or is there a frame or something to hold them in place? Does the order matter?” Akkaboo’s head bounces up and down with each question, causing the slime perched on top of it to wobble precariously.
"It will probably whisper instructions in our mind. IF it doesn't possess us completely," Falxi says wryly.
"We'll have to find it first, of course. Do you have any idea where the third lens is, Quara?"
"Yes, that resembles the Ochre Lens," Quara confirms. "I do not know where the third lens lies, but no doubt is somewhere within these caves, either above or below us."
"Alright, then seems we need to keep looking around." Zin nods. "Can we have our weapons back?"
"What do you know about fleshwarping?" Wan asks Quara out-of-the-blue.
Quara instructs some of the other drow to return your weapons to you.
"Fleshwarping? Not a whole lot," she says to Wan. "We have no use for it here in Yldaris, that's for sure."
As you prepare to resume exploring, you realize you feel stronger from your recent experiences!
Zin grabs his weapon, "Let's take a peek around these caves." He begins to head out to search around.
A hidden door leads away from Yldaris and into the caverns. The ceiling of this cavern sports many crystal growths and stalactites. A pattering drizzle drips from these formations, and paths wind though thick fungus growing on the ground.
You follow the path west. The fungus growth thins ahead, giving way to barren rock and rubble. Amid the dull gray stone to the south, strange clouds of thick, grayish-black fog hug the ground. The drow warned you about this fog before you left--it conceals a deadly hazard, as well as harboring a dangerous monster. You could still try to risk the fog, if you wish...
Fungus grows wild and tall in an enormous cavern to the north, sometimes reaching as high as thirty feet. The cavern ceiling, when visible through the fungal canopy, is higher still.
"We should avoid that fog as the drow said." Zin turns and begins to wind his way through the fungal forest. He keeps an eye out high above as anything could be lurking around.
"Quara told us that the urdefhans were this way," Wan suggests as the team moves along. "What do we remember of what that captured urdefhan prat said?"
Wan affixes a weird set of goggles over Aggro's helm with an automated buzzing of gears and a tightening of lugnuts. As an afterthought, he activates a shimmering aura of blue radiance about Aggro. He looks around at his colleagues.
"Just taking precautions is all," he says with feigned indignation.
"Hmm...'I'll kill you all!' Something like that." Falxi joins the others in their vigilance.
Wan's precautions prove prudent as, shortly after entering the forest, two vaguely skull-shaped puffballs float toward you, descending from the mushroom tops high above with tendrils writhing!
"Eeeek!" Akkaboo shrieks. It'd been a while since she'd let a good shriek out, but the soft squishy walls of the room eat the sound up before it can echo properly. "What is that!?" Warily she throws a handful of cinders at the closer sporebag.
Wan starts twittering.
"RHI-ZOME serious?!" he quips, the gears in Aggro's chassis starting up in a familiar way.
Electric sparks begin coursing across the surface of Aggro in a completely-unfamiliar way. Wan steps forward and swings his khakkara.
Wan misses with his attack. Akkaboo isn't quite sure what these hostile funguses might be, but her fire proves quite effective at burning one of them! They appear to be weak to fire!
The puffball Wan attacked lashes out at him with its tendrils, badly wounding him! The poisonous touch threatens to paralyze the tengu!
The other one drifts closer and releases a cloud of spores over the rest of the party!
“Yuck!” Akkaboo throws another handful of flame before beating a hasty retreat.
Falxi coughs through the poison cloud, then slides into a combat stance and advances on the enemy that Akkaboo has been lighting up.
for
for
"Oh, that's no fun guy-----"
The tengu's bad pun is interrupted as Wan struggles with the paralysis effect.
"I SAID----" Wan doubles down on his bad pun ---- "that's NO. FUN. GUYS!"
The tengu punctuates his irritated delivery with a swing, followed by a fiery blast festooning out from Aggro's form, enveloping his fungal foe.
Zin begins to feel ill as the skul rot takes hold on his body. Seeing Wan in a far worse state he rushes in to try and help him quickly before it is too late. Zin launches out a dark swirling vortex out onto the ground near everyone. "Touch the well and it will heal you!
AC 26 (27 w/ shield); Curse Stage: Minor | Skull Rot | Enfeebled 2
HP 91/96 | Resistance Physical 6; Harm 5 |
Hero Points 0/3
Focus Points 2/3
Spells (1) 3/3 | (2) 3/3 | (3) 3/3 | (4) 3/3 | (5) 1/2
Wand of Heal (1st) 1/1 | (2nd) 0/1
Ring of the Ram 1/1
Curse Benefit: Resistance: All Physical 6
Minor - (Enfeebled 1; -2 to saves, Grapple, Shoved and Forced Movement)
Moderate- (Enfeebled 2; -3 to saves, Grapple, Shoved and Forced Movement)
The burnt fungus avoids Wan's explosion, but the other one gets caught in the blast. Falxi scores a critical hit on the first puffball, following up with another hit as Akkaboo burns it again.
The puffballs lash out at Falxi and Wan, hitting both of them twice.
Akkaboo has to wind up an extra-strong ball of flame to hurl from all the way across the room.
Falxi shrugs off the poison as it tries to stiffen his limbs and slices back at the creature.
for
for
"SQUAAWW-RRRR!" Wan's squawk gets caught off mid-squawk. His eyes widen under Aggro's suit as he takes in the floating fungus ball.
Zin sends a concentrated amount of healing into Wan. "I'll help you next Falxi!"
AC 26 (27 w/ shield); Curse Stage: Minor | Skull Rot | Enfeebled 2
HP 91/96 | Resistance Physical 6; Harm 5 |
Hero Points 0/3
Focus Points 2/3
Spells (1) 3/3 | (2) 3/3 | (3) 3/3 | (4) 2/3 | (5) 1/2
Wand of Heal (1st) 1/1 | (2nd) 0/1
Ring of the Ram 1/1
Curse Benefit: Resistance: All Physical 6
Minor - (Enfeebled 1; -2 to saves, Grapple, Shoved and Forced Movement)
Moderate- (Enfeebled 2; -3 to saves, Grapple, Shoved and Forced Movement)
Wan is unable to remember anything about these particular kind of fungus. Nature isn't his strong suit!
Falxi lands another critical hit, then Akkaboo burns the damaged puffball. Its body ruptures and it bursts, showering Falxi and Wan with spores!
The other fungus continues to attack Wan.
The poison sears Falxi's skin and lungs, but he attacks the remaining enemy dauntlessly.
for
for
for
Akkaboo is grateful for the distance between her and the explosion as she winds up another ball of flame.
Wan remains curiously silent.
+ Drained 1
Zin shifts his beam and sends some healing towards Falxi. "These are hitting harder than I thought."
AC 26 (27 w/ shield); Curse Stage: Minor | Skull Rot | Enfeebled 2 | Drained 1
HP 82/96 | Resistance Physical 6; Harm 5 |
Hero Points 0/3
Focus Points 2/3
Spells (1) 3/3 | (2) 3/3 | (3) 3/3 | (4) 1/3 | (5) 1/2
Wand of Heal (1st) 1/1 | (2nd) 0/1
Ring of the Ram 1/1
Curse Benefit: Resistance: All Physical 6
Minor - (Enfeebled 1; -2 to saves, Grapple, Shoved and Forced Movement)
Moderate- (Enfeebled 2; -3 to saves, Grapple, Shoved and Forced Movement)
Falxi gets the fungus's attention as he slashes it twice. Akkaboo scorches it as well. The puffball attacks Falxi, landing a critical hit!
“Move out of the explosion zone!” Akkaboo yells as she winds up another fireball.
Falxi's luck holds. He slashes at the puffball again, then dances out of the range of the explosion.
for
for
Zin continues to heal Falxi. "Wan, snap out of it!"
AC 26 (27 w/ shield); Curse Stage: Minor | Skull Rot | Enfeebled 2 | Drained 1
HP 82/96 | Resistance Physical 6; Harm 5 |
Hero Points 0/3
Focus Points 2/3
Spells (1) 3/3 | (2) 3/3 | (3) 3/3 | (4) 0/3 | (5) 1/2
Wand of Heal (1st) 1/1 | (2nd) 0/1
Ring of the Ram 1/1
Curse Benefit: Resistance: All Physical 6
Minor - (Enfeebled 1; -2 to saves, Grapple, Shoved and Forced Movement)
Moderate- (Enfeebled 2; -3 to saves, Grapple, Shoved and Forced Movement)
Wan does not respond to Zin’s exhortation.
Falxi lands another solid blow, then Akkaboo delivers a critical hit! The flames cause the puffball to explode in a burst of spores!