Session 14: Into the Depths Part 4

Caves, why is it always caves

The caves beneath the temple of Mael are dangerous, haunted by strange monsters, laden with the traps and tools of Vedris the lich and prone to flooding. The group however are by now experienced delvers into places they are not welcome and make good initial progress.

Artemis leads them through dangerous caverns filled with fungi and Chiniko disables the wardings around the enteance to Vedris' lair. Things get tougher when the group are nearly swept away in a tidal flood despite Morns normally prodigious strength and Assambers efforts to obscure their approach set off a lurking Ward which send choking smoke which dissolves skin and boils blood flowing through the caves. Artemis takes the lead and tries to lead the group around the remaining wards but he looses too much time. Vedris has completed her ritual and is waiting for the group as they burst into her chambers.

Finally we get to kill some undead

The cave is dark and dank, patches of stinking phospherescent moss cover the floor and sucking mud and mucuous pull at their boots. Vedris makes herself known, slithering out of the darkness. She is a great bloated serpent, flesh rotting and ribs exposed. She demands to know what they want and who they are.

Assamber demands the Heart of Mael and she gives it to him. This is a surprising development, the group expected to have to fight for their prize but it seems she is finished with it. As they trade insults another creature emerges from the darkness, a great slime covered dragon evidently in the late stages of pregnancy. Vedris croons to the creature, introducing it as her daughter and mother to her new race, a race which will take revenge on the Arkhosian Emperor.

Azhanti is horrified. To the Dragonborn there are only five true dragons, the Gods of his people and progenitors of the five tribes. All other dragons are fragments of those five mighty creatures dreams. He can sense such creatures, to him they are indistinct, unreal. This creature is not, this is a true dragon in the flesh, an abomination.

He flies to the attack. Chaos breaks out. Azhanti strikes with the powers of flame and Chiniko casts his curses but they slide off the iron will of the ancient lich. The dragon spews acidic slime everywhere and then Vedris strikes. Teleporting into the middle of the grooup dozen of mouths erupt all over her body spewing beams of sickening light throughout the room. She has opened a doorway into chaos and it burns the living. The group is decimated, many of them are near death and zombie Dragonborn are loose everywhere.

Azhanti acts and the room is blasted with Vulcans burning embrace, holy lightning contends with the chaos and death wielded by Vedris. Assamber leaps about the battle trying to avoid the zombies while Morn spends much of his time chasing Vedris or the Dragon. Only the iron willed concentration of Azhanti backed by the strange dream magics of Chiniko keep everyone standing.

The undead are down or neutralised, Morn is pounding Vedris and several devastating blows have dealt her a savage beating. Moving in for the kill Morn prepares to end things but, as is so often the case, Artemis beats him to the kill. Vedris is down, not dead but out of the fight.

Seeing its mother defeated the dragon rears up and descends on Artemis shredding him and leaving him a bloody mess. Things look bad for him but the group manage to rally. The dragon is driven back from his body and Azhanti once again calls a companion back from the brink.

Outnumbered, bloodied and trapped the dragon is subdued. Before anything can happen Azhanti executes it, hacks it into pieces and dismembers the mutant dragonborn young it was carrying.

The Denoument

Vedris is defeated and tells the group her tale. She was one of seven daughters of Mael. They had dominion over the Oceans in the First Age but were cast out by their father. The seven came together to plot their revenge. The rise of the Warlord Reptos was their opportunity. The Primoridals were running scared, the Lokarnos were ripe for rebellion. They overthrew the Priests of Mael and twisted their religion, invention Ul-oo-thee as their new God. Each of the sisters took command of one of the City Ships. With Mael wounded and distracted by his war with Reptos they struck, chaining him to the ocean floor with bands of black ice and drawing his immortal blood to power their sorcery. As the Empire of Reptos fell they used that power to fuel the Sundering, the ritual which denied the Oceans to any but them.

Two years ago that all changed. Alias Windstorm, a young priest of Ul-oo-thee came to serve in the Temple on the Maelstrom. Unknown to Vedris he was an apostate and an agent of the Order of Transcendental Inquiry. The Order was working for the Arkhosian Emperor who wanted to end the Sundering so that he could pursue his dreams of world conquest. The Order found the source of the ritual at the heart of the City Ships and Windstorm let in a group of Arkhosian Assassins. Vedris was nearly killed and would have died as her ship sank in pieces to the depths but she delved deeper into the spellstorm, the foundations of sorcery, than she had ever dared. There she stared chaos full in the face and it stared back. She was forever changed by her experience, transformed into the Lich.

She vowed to gain her revenge on the Arkhosians but she knew her sisters would not accept her new state. In secret she stole a dragons egg and, with the power of the Heart of the Lord of Change she worked her sorcery on it. She gave birth to the first true dragon in 10,000 years and it in turn would bear a new race of Dragonborn loyal to her. They would be the instrument of her revenge on the Emperor.

Those dreams are dashed now but the group have some sympathy for her plight, possibly motivated by the fact that the Emperor is their enemy also. They come to an arrangement, they will not destroy her, she will not seek revenge on them and in turn they may call on her aid in some future plan. It seems foolproof.