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PREVIOUSLY - CAMPAIGN DIARIES 18 - Catching Meazels
Day 44 - The Foundingstone
Day 44 - The Foundingstone
Deep in the earth, in the ancient complex of Cahervaniel, the heroes rest for a moment in a tomblike room with a curved stone wall. The air is stale, but breathable, and moist from the pool of fetid floodwater they swam through to make their way to this chamber. The room is lit by verdigris veins of magical power pulsing from the very stone itself. The opposite side of the room hosts a doorway like they have seen before, sealed shut by ancient magics, with three stone figures above the door, each a stylized skull with an infinity symbol in its mouth. The eyes of two of the three skulls glow with an unnatural green light, the third is dark, with a stud underneath it waiting to be pressed. The curved wall it stands within glows with even greater power than the other walls.
The party debates waiting, a few of the team are wounded, Atlas just being revived from passing out during a battle with frog-like humanoids underwater. Vald, the chitine, a multi-armed man-spider, having to press on Atlas' stomach several times with his three usable arms to "get the water out of him." The party decides they have had enough of this place and wants to end their adventuring here, and end it quickly. With some trepidation, K'ronk presses the button below the unlit skull and the third skull's eyes alight.
The door slides open with the deep grinding sound of stone rollers, echos within make it clear that the two other doors to the room are opening too. Within is a large domed chamber, perhaps sixty feet across, with two other doors evenly spread around the perimeter. The ruins of a brass contraption stands at the center of the room, parts of the collapsed mechanism lay across the dirt floor, lit by the powerful glow of the magic-imbued stones here. The device looks to have once been a reflection of the heavens, a celestial simulacrum known as an orrery, but now is destroyed. There are other things of a more concerning nature though.
Against the wall opposite the entrance, a three-foot tall statue lays against the wall, its eyes glowing a potent green of magical might. Next to him, an unmoving chitine, but a chitine like no other. He is emaciated, yet looks wiry and strong. His features twisted to a more arachnid visage than the other chitine they have met. The party cautiously steps in, moving around the debris of the orrery, their weapons at the ready.
"It is Caullum" Vald says. "But he is 'different'. Caullum, what keeps you here?"
The chitine moves now, and speaks. "I am The Guardian of the Stone. I have been awoke by the power of the Foundingstone. The great stone would have you as worshippers. Come, join me, stare into its eyes and learn it's true power! The Foundingstone is mighty, and once fully renewed, it will help the chitine achieve greatness and crush the hated drow and all others in our path. It has mastery of space and time and can make its very dreams come alive. Witness its mighty power!"
In a flash of green light, four giant spiders appear in the room, unmoving.
"Who will step up, stare into its eyes and bear witness?" Caullum asks.
The team looks to each other, and then Orryn speaks. "I will look upon its greatness." With trepidation he walks over to the wall. He is short, but there is a mound of loose dirt before the Foundingstone, and he uses it to stand tall and peer into its eyes.
Orryn shutters as the eyes beam green magical energy into his, and he turns, his eyes glowing green. He stands next to Caullum and they both speak together. "Who next will witness the power of the Foundingstone?"
Nowhere secretly casts Hunters Mark on Caullum, the Ranger spell allows her to weaken her opponents to cause more damage during attacks. She then suddenly hauls back her flail and smashes Caullum across the face. The chitine seems completely unharmed, but turns to her as if seeing her for the first time with the blank stare of his faceted eyes. It smiles. "Shit." she yells, "regular weapons don't work!"
Possessed Orryn pulls out his rapier and springs to attack Seraphina and she is slashed and bleeding. Atlas moves to Orryn and tries a flurry of blows, trying to land non-lethal attacks against the possessed friend. He strikes, and his fists, clad in gauntlets of ogre power deliver a stunning blow, but Orryn is not out. Seraphina turns and calls forth a Sacred Flame toward one of the giant spiders, which have started moving, burning the creature and setting its wiry hair alight.
It reacts by throwing a blob of sticky webbing upon her, immobilizing the halfling cleric. Immeral the wizard casts a Dissonant Whispers spell against Caullum, but it appears to have little effect. Dain moves to attack Orryn, but his plain weapon has no affect, so he turns to the spiders and pursues them.
K'ronk tries to pull the Foundingstone from the wall, but as soon as he touches it, the evil influence cascades into him. Green energy flashes like lightning up his hands, but he releases his grip and though stunned, shakes off the influence of the stone - barely maintaining his identity. "Do not touch that thing!" K'ronk yells. Vald moves faster than the others have seen of him, attacking Caullum ferociously as he is screaming in fury and slicing multiple times with web-made swords. He strikes, but to no avail, the Foundingstone power has made Caullum immune to all but magical attacks. Clinker, the deep gnome prospector suddenly has a pair of daggers in his hands and unleashes a fast and furious attack on one of the spiders, spewing more green blood from the arachnid. He avoids its poisonous bite, but not its clawed legs, one hits, slashing Clinker badly.
Caullum reaches into his dagger and pulls out a sword, the likes of which the party has not seen. It is white, almost clear, like ice, and frost billows from it like breath on a cold morning. Caullum attacks with the sword and slashes Nowhere badly. Nowhere brings forth Lightbringer, her magical mace shaped like a sunburst and made of solid brass. She does not activate its bright glow which affects the undead, but attacks savagely, hitting the chitine two times, both clearly with success, but seemingly to little effect - it stands strong. Orryn attacks Seraphina again, but this time she defends herself from his rapier and goes untouched. Atlas punches Orryn again, this time knocking him out, but as Atlas stands over his friend, the eyes of the Foundinstone alight and beams of green light stream towards Orryn and his wounds start closing, and his eyes open. He is being healed by its evil power.
Immeral has a flash of brilliance, remembering the tale that Hamun Kost shared. The power of the Foundingstone was released by Pyorrhea who dug it out of the earth. He calls out to his comrades, "We have to bury it!". Seraphina tears at the webbing covering her and preventing her movement, and she manages to extricate herself. Immeral casts chill touch at Caullum, who is visibly damaged from the attack, some of his veins turning dark with necromantic destruction. Dain hit Orryn again with his fists "Stay down." he states forcibly, Orryn lands unconscious again. K'ronk casts a firebolt at Caullum and strikes him with the Staff of Power, using its magical nature to at least bring some damage to the creature. Clinker still fights off a giant spider, but this time his stabs end in its death as it bleeds its last onto the dirt floor. Vald stands stunned at the powerful enemy, then turns to help his friends with the spiders.
The other spiders miss both Seraphina and Clinker, but hits Immeral. The bite of the creature is horrible, as is the poison it injects into the wound. Immeral screams in agony, but does not fall. Caullum wields his ice sword and slashes at Nowhere. She dodges two of the slashes, but he strikes her arm on the third slash. Apart from the pain of the slash, cold grabs Nowhere's arm and she looks down to see strange webs of frost clinging to her arm. The webbing starts to move, emerging as hundreds of tiny ice spiders that begin to crawl across her skin. She ignores them, and casts hellish rebuke at Caullum, dousing him in infernal flames. The magic fire burns, but does not yet kill the possessed creature, while the lights of the Foundingstone maintain their lock on Orryn, continuing to heal him, but he is still unconscious from the mighty blow of Dain.
Atlas decides that something has to take down the Foundingstone, and hoping that his magical gauntlets will protect him from its affect, he grabs it and pulls it off the wall. This time, the green energy of the stone does not race up Atlas's hands, his gauntlets protecting him. He throws the Foundingstone to the ground and digs furiously at the pile of loose earth, trying to get a hole big enough to put the evil artifact into. Seraphina wields her Staff of Withering and smashes one of the spiders, wounding it severely. Immeral casts a Ray of Frost on the same spider, destroying it, while Dain turns his attention to one of the last two horse-sized spiders and attacks with his great axe. He kills the beast by loping off its leg - green snotlike slime spurting from the amputated limb.
K'ronk turns to Caullum, and with a blast of firebolts, he smashes the chitine with his Staff of Power and knocks the creature out. Vald attacks one of the remaining spiders and along with Clinker, they kill the foul thing and it breaths its last.
Just as Nowhere is about to deal the killing blow against Caullum and Atlas is about to throw the Foundingstone into the makeshift pit, the stone lets out a blast of magical energy that sends them all reeling, and before they can react, Caullum starts to transform.
Extra limbs burst from his torso, his leather armor pops off as his body expands, and his face rips in half from the spider-head emerging from within. With miraculous horror, a monsterous spider, twice the size of the giant ones before emerges, the size of a moose, or a large elk. It screetches a horific howl and attacks the party.
Luckily, the massive arachnid misses Nowhere as she shouts "bury the stone now!", hitting the spider with two blows from Lightbringer, but the spiders that landed on her the first round give up their short lives and sting her all over, but she ignores the pain and fights on. Orryn's eyes open. Atlas throws the Foundingstone into the hole and starts burying it with soil. Suddenly, the magic in the walls dim, and the group is in the dark, but their darkvision allows them to continue the battle, for the Spider-Caullum is not stopping. Seraphina looks holds her attack on Orryn, unsure if he is sane or still possessed, and Orryn tells her "I'm allright." Immeral is still reeling from the poison, but he manages to get off another Chill Touch spell against the Caullum-spider.
Dain smashes the last giant spider with his great axe, cleaving the creature's head in two, but not before it bites him, injecting its vile poison. Dain reels back in agony. K'ronk, seeing an opportunity, picks up Icerazor, Caullum's magical sword and slashes the thing, freezing one of its legs and infecting it with ice spiders. Clinker races in to attack the mega-spider but it dances around his blows and a wild leg knocks him back. Vald attacks too, and now, without the power of the Foundingstone, his attacks strike true and he decimates the creature with three sword attacks, but it still lives, and attacks.
Caullum-spider, turns to K'ronk and grasps him with two taloned arms, dragging him to the ground and digging the claws into his ribs, piercing his flesh and sending blood shooting in both directions. It goes to bite off his skull, but he dodges the bite and the cumbersome creature smashes its face on the ground, busting a mandible in the process. It howls in fury, and Nowhere uses the moment to attack him furiously, her Hunters Mark continuing to enhance the damage done to the beast. Orryn staggers to his feet, taking a breath and just gathering himself. Atlas moves to attack, but Caullum knocks him out of the way. Seraphina dives in with her staff, but she fails to wound the creature. Immeral uses his Chill Touch cantrip again and the monstrosity shutters with magical damage. Dain tries to rush over and axe the creature, but deals only a glancing blow on its tough hide.
Finally, awkwardly, K'ronk wields the ice sword again, and although not proficient, he swings and strikes the spider again, cleaving a leg off and imparting ice damage and another batch of silvery ice spiders, which swarms over it, the first batch biting the massive spider now, driving it into a frenzy, and then, with a final menacing start, it drops to the floor, nearly expired, and Nowhere deals the killing blow.
Vald states solemnly, "it is done, Caullum is gone, and the Foundingstone buried once again. Thank you friends."
Clinker says, "Seems like a good time for a drink!" and he lifts his seemingly endless flask, takes just a drop, squints and shivers, and offers the rest of the party a drink. None accept the potent brew, but all thank him.
Immeral, nearly spent, asks for some healing, and Dain shares a magical Keoghtom's Ointment which closes his wounds. Nowhere and Orryn give the high elf a dirty look, as both of them are barely standing. The battle is over, but how will they secure the Foundingstone for generations? Will they leave or seek more treasure in Cahervaniel? What about the Meazel who is running around attacking them? How about Atlas's pledge to teach the upper chitine about Mizar, and find them a safe home and start a temple? A relationship with a demi-god is nothing to fall short on. And maybe, just maybe, there will be time for rest and relaxation back in Phandalin.
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