Delving Deeper

Alexander

After the devastation in Red Larch, our folk hero feels compelled to track down those responsible and prevent them from causing further damage.

Kahntun

After the devastation in Red Larch, our folk hero feels compelled to track down those responsible and making them pay in blood and pain.

LiKi

LiKi is ever mindful of her Emerald Enclave mission to rescue an azer from enslavement to the fire cult, but she agreed that dealing with the Earth cult took precedence.

Leopold

Leopold, however, argued very persuasively that they had a primary responsibility for rescuing the missing aarokocra, Kazra, from torture deep beneath the Templing of Howling Hatred. Although they protested this vigorously, Leopold subtly smirked when his companions finally consented.

To the Fane of the Eye!

The path our heroes took in the Fane of the Eye. (eye of what?? #dafuq)

Our heroes set out early the next morning and arrived a few days later at the Temple of Howling Hatred which, again, they found to be deserted. They traced their way back to the dead purple worm whose gaping gullet lead to a tunnel descending into the earth. They steadied themselves, then climbed down the skeleton to access the tunnel it left behind, arriving an hour later at the Worm's stair. They found six balloon packs and equipped each put one on, storing the other two in their bag of holding for later use.

Leopold somehow convinced the group to go north, toward a howling wind. When they arrived in the adjacent chamber, they found a dark pit from which chaotic gusts were blowing up and down the shaft. Although very loud, they were too weak to pose an actual hazard.

"Well, good thing we found these handy backpacks!" Leopold excitedly commented, then added "alright, let's do this." He started climbing into the pit.

"Are you crazy!" Kahntun shouted over the wind. "I'm not going down there! We don't even know where we are or what is going on."

"Yes, but we know Kazra is down there."

"No we don't." LiKi argued. "We were told that she and the others had been 'taken below.' We just arrived here, we don't even know what this level is or what's lurking in these creepy caves."

Alexander agreed. Fearing letting enemies close in from all directions, he was eager to keep the party on the outer margins of the dungeon. But Leopold seemed to be influenced by some weird, inexplicable compulsion drawing him deeper into the abyss or at least toward the heart of this unexplored level. He was obstinate. Alexander grappled him and began dragging our bard forcefully toward where they had just come from. Then suddenly, Leopold loudly pronounced a word of power that carried over the cacophony of wind. Then . . . ::poof:: he was gone. He had cast dimension door on himself and teleported into the passageway just to the northeast.

Balloon Packs

This backpack contains the spirit of an Air Elemental and a compact leather balloon. While you’re wearing the backpack, you can deploy the balloon as an action and gain the effect of the Levitate spell for 10 minutes, targeting yourself and requiring no concentration. Alternatively, you can use a reaction to deploy the balloon when you’re falling and gain the effect of the Feather Fall spell for yourself.

When either spell ends, the balloon slowly deflates as the elemental spirit escapes and returns to the Elemental Plane of Air. As the balloon deflates, you descend gently toward the ground for up to 60 ft. If you are still in the air at the end of this distance, you fall if you have no other means of staying aloft.

1. Harpy Nest

A bronze torch glowed with a magical light up ahead. Leopold could make out the shape of several mangled corpses surrounding the light, but he couldn't focus on this. He suddenly became aware of the most beautiful music he had ever heard in his life. He had to touch that music! He ran into the chamber, realized it was coming from above and began to climb!

Although eerie, this song and these images ran through our heroes' minds, entrancing them, and drawing them up the steep cavern walls!

There's always a siren/ Singing you to shipwreck/ (Don't reach out, don't reach out/ Don't reach out, don't reach out)/ Steer away from her rocks/ We'd be a walking disaster/ (Don't reach out, don't reach out/ Don't reach out, don't reach out) As these lyrics pleasantly revolved around the chamber, Kahntun and Alexander rushed in, only to be similarly entranced. They too began to climb. LiKi pulled out a ball of fur from her bag of tricks and conjured a giant badger. The badger rushed into the room, acting as LiKi's eyes and ears. Although she tried to resist, our sorceress felt compelled to help her friends, so she too entered range of the magical song and became charmed by it. They climbed and fell, then deployed their balloon packs (although, Alexander just cast spider climb on himself). They climbed, and fell, and climbed. When they were finally within range of the siren singing to them, it lashed out with claws, scratching them harshly in the face!

In time, LiKi broke herself from the charm and cast web on one of the three singing monsters eighty feet up. Leopold found himself entangled by this web, which gave him just enough time to stick some of his candle wax in his ears. That was handy! Although it was painful to turn off such beautiful music, this freed him from its enchantment. He began to lash out with magic missiles. Alexander and Kahntun were freed shortly later and they climbed up to cut two of the harpies into ribbons. A third escaped. In spite, Leopold looted their nests and set them on fire.

They investigated the room. Several other corpses were scattered on the floor. Some had been picked down to the bone, their clothing and armor discarded nearby, while others had hardly been touched at all. The walls were uneven, with small ledges and fissures on all sides. The ceiling was about a hundred feet high.

Leopold made to go north, and Alexander grabbed him. "Dude. Seriously?!?" Although childishly simplistic, this bold argument had its desired effect on their bard. They traveled to the chamber just to the south, again, keeping to the outskirts of this new area.

2. Wind Prison

A stone pedestal in the middle of this cavern held a glassy sphere about eight inches in diameter. The sphere seemed to contain swirling smoke. Battered armor, damaged weapons, and tattered clothing were strewn around the chamber, but the floor within ten feet of the sphere was free of such debris. Several weapons on the ground seemed like they might still be serviceable, although all were badly worn.

Of course our bard Leopold was unable to resist the allure; he walked up and touched the sphere, unleashing a whirlwind within which he was immediately swept up.

Four of the swords came alive and attacked. As Leopold was flying around the room, been bludgeoned by the other detritus caught in the whirlwind, Alexander, Kahntun, and LiKi "killed" the swords. Kahntun then reached into the whirlwind and yanked a scraped up Leopold out of its swirling grasp.

3. Hall of Battle

Somehow, incredibly . . . miraculously, Leopold was able to convince the party to travel further toward the center of this evil place . . . even after all the foolish shit he had already done since they arrived! Perhaps, in their exacerbation, they simply lacked the will to the resist.

The chamber just north of the harpies' nest smelled of blood and death. The debris of several recent battles was scattered throughout the rough-hewn chamber. A dozen dead elemental cultists lay amid a handful of monstrous corpses, such as those of bugbears and ogres. Some of the bodies looked like they had been there form months, while others were only days old. A whirlwind of air encased in armor and clutching a flail suddenly rushed into view!

"Oh shit. Here we go" Kahntun gloomily grunted, but before he could unsheathe his sword, Leopold pushed him to the side and performed a short series of movements with his staff, windvane. Suddenly, the elemental monster of air bowed, entreating our bard in a language that he could understand, even though his companions could not. Apparently Leopold had a new, extremely powerful pet!

LiKi's giant badger looked down at her,tilted its head to the side, and seemed furrow its brow in confusion.

4. The Which Lurks

Emboldened by this, Leopold strode confidently toward a passage leading northward. Bemused and bewildered by these strange events (apparently this far beneath the ground weird shit happens!), his companions dutifully followed.

In the middle of the next chamber they saw a statue depicting an amorphous body and thick tentacles, hunching over as if to feed. A purple crystal the size of a human head represented one alien eye.

Kahntun could recognize this as drow craftsmanship that hinted at deity worship. However, neither he nor LiKi were familiar with that which it depicted. This was apparently a very old and esoteric deity.

Of course, Leopold walked up and touched it. An excruciating pain entered his head and he felt as though he was beginning to be reformed! A vision of a slimy, acidic monster, flooded into his brain, but he resisted! Perhaps fortified by his manic compulsions in this creepy place, he was able to negate the magical effects of the trap. But he knew that the "crystal" of worthless glass was attempting to curse him with a polymorph spell that would have transformed him into a very slow moving ocre jelly!

Turning into this oozing mess would have really lowered Leopold's game with the ladies!

5. Temple of the Elder Elemental Eye

Leopold conversed briefly with his elemental friend in auran. Then headed west. The entered a 100 foot wide chamber. A stone ziggurat capped by a huge altar of black grainte stood in the middle of this cavern. At the foot of the alter lay a bound and gagged figure. They could tell from his tattoos that this prisoner had been taken from the areas around the southern fishing village of Womford. Fresh rivulets of blood stained the alltar and trickled down the steps of the ziggurat. On all sides of the cavern, guttering flames danced atop sluggish pools of oily water. Gusts of wind moaned and howled from fissures high in the cavern walls. Apparently they had interrupted some sort of dark ritual!

Inside the chamber was Gar Shaterkeel, prophet of Olhydra! He rode atop a giant crocodile! Four crushing wave cultists accompanied him. They had a short discourse. Gar was curious about the adventurers and asked them questions. He flattered them, and they went along with it, as if they were there to join the cult. He eyed Leopold's staff, then commanded the bard to prove his loyalty and consecrate his weapon with the blood of the prisoner at the altar. Leopold climbed the twenty or so feet to the top of the ziggurat. His companions looked on in suspense. Had he fully lost his shit?? At the last moment, Leopold pointed his weapon at Gar, shouting "It is your blood that will consecrate this weapon in the name of the wind!"

TL;DR

They went to the fane of the eye.
Leopold was drawing them ever toward the center of this dungeon.
They narrowly escaped an encounter with harpies.
Leopold set off some traps.
Leopold acquired a new pet: an air elemental myrmidon!
They encountered Gar Shaterkeep in a temple.
They are going to fight the prophet of water.

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