🤝100. power of two

session 100 • january 08 2024 • words

🌑 DAY 29 • 📅 MARPENOTH 19

In Hot Water

Soren's spider familiar notices nothing out of the ordinary and signals to Soren as such. However, as we proceed into the room, several small elementals emerge from the magma vents and attack us.

Though we manage to make quick work of them, the vents begin to heat up the water. Having been separated in the fight, the party dashes to the exit nearest to them, splitting up the party: Diana, Will, Sildar, Hugh / Soren, Nezznar, Thurmond, Grymus, Bebop.

Sildar is reluctant to leave Soren alone with Nezznar, but both groups decide it best to try and meet up through another passageway.

Soren big-wet-puppy-eye searches for a hallway to meet back up with the group, finding a bottle and a bag as he searches. Nezznar notes that if we cannot meet back up with them in a timely manner, we should leave the dungeon to avoid being swarmed by kuo-toa without half the group.

Soren stoutly refuses to leave without the group; Nezznar expresses anger at this, but does not argue back.

Reunited!

Meanwhile, the main group finds their way into what appears to be an altar room, where they are accosted by a giant eel and several kuo-toa cultists. During this fight, Hugh uses his Halo of Spores ability--it has seemingly grown stronger since Myco's awakening in the Underdark.

Among the kuo-toa this time seems to be a caster / cleric-type kuo-toa, who uses a Spiritual Weapon and pillar cover to harrass the backline (Will and Diana). Hugh is swarmed by kuo-toa and the giant eel. At this time, Soren's group comes around the other side of the hallway, and sees the other group embroiled in this fight.

Soren whispers to the eel and encourages it to turn against its slavedrivers, casting Enemies Abound and greatly disorienting the creature. Instead of biting Hugh, the eel turns against the kuo-toa cultist next to it, biting it to near-death. After it finishes mauling the kuo-toa, Soren--recognizing that the spell will eventually wear off--shoots it; Will eventually lands the killing blow on it.

Soren proceeds to focus the hiding caster down while rest of the group makes quick work of the rest of the attackers. Excitedly, Soren reunites with the party and hugs Sildar, then the rest of the party. When Sildar expresses his concern over Soren, Soren says "I'll always find my way back to you."

Soren muses over how we should drag the eel back to the surface and make a meal of it. Diana is ecstatic at the idea of watching and learning from Soren as he cooks, having enjoyed his mushroom soup earlier.

Hugh makes Diana, Will and Soren eat the Weave LMAO, restoring spellslots for the former two, albeit his magic restoration does not work on the latter.

We continue further into the dungeon, but withou Bebop, who adamantly refuses to go in any deeper for fear of the "curse". We leave him to watch over the dead eel; Soren warns him against gnawing on it, because he is looking at it with big wet hungry fish eyes.

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As we move deeper into the dungeon, Diana complains about the kuo-toa and her injuries; Hugh wonders why she doesn't just wear some armor. Diana abjectly refuses to wear armor, saying that she doesn't want to put on something that would diminish her beauty.

Hugh slides in cha cha real smooth and goes "nothing could possibly diminish your beauty" LOOOL HOLY SHIT

Diana is moved by this statement, but only agrees to keep an eye out for armor that looks nice.

The deeper we travel, the carvings on the walls begin to morph from depictions of the sea mother / ocean / water into more terrifying things: we see depictions of chaos, murder and destruction. Eventually, we begin to see the same symbol carved everywhere we look:

Soren (who fails a saving throw) begins to feel the urge to carve the symbol into himself. He abruptly moves on from the room, able to resist the urge, but the party notices something wrong with him.

He admits to the strange feeling he felt; Diana urges him not to do so because you should never advertise anything for free LMAOO. We continue until we find a fish statue blocking our way.

Blood Sacrifice

The statue has its mouth open, and there is a small cauldron nestled under its tongue--clearly awaiting some kind of sacrifice.

We try to put in trinkets, then we try to bleed a kuo-toa into it, to no avail. Diana, versed in religious sacrament due to her clerical studies, notes that the sacrifice might need to have been willing.

Soren cuts his palm open with little hesitation, and it opens the door for us. Will heals his palm with his paladin powers (Lay on Hands); Soren thanks him :)

We enter into a ceremonial looking hallway with a staircase leading upward and out of the water. The vibe here is RANCID, there is a thick miasma and the water itself seems thicker. We hesitate, but at Soren's encouragement, press on.

Soren notes that we should try and keep the leader of this cult alive, so that he can question it on these strange happenings in the Underdark. When the group hesitates at the idea, Soren pleads with them that he just wants to know "what's happening in my home".

At this, the group readily agrees to try and keep one alive even in the heat of battle.

Into the Worship Room

We emerge on top of the stairs into a huge ceremonial worship room where a desecrated altar of the Sea Mother sits in the middle of a large moat. There are three kuo-toa chanting in here.

We are noticed as we approach, despite our Best Attempt at stealthing. The kuo-toa are, understandbly, not very happy. Diana attempts to convince them that we are here to learn about the Deep Father instead of you know, raiding their temple, but they are not amused. The fight begins.

As the head priest chants at the statue, Willow suddenly feels a possessive urge over the party; he moves forward and grapples Diana in a hug, surprising her.

Soren suddenly also feels a sense of uncharacteristic bloodlust, charging to the frontline, closely followed by Nezznar (who is possessed by characteristic bloodlust LMAOOO Soren doesn't know how close to death he came.)

Thurmond, also gripped by this possessiveness, demands the pincer staff (that Will gave to the twins last session) from Grymus. Grymus indignantly shakes off his requests, telling him that he already has one ("you didn't want even one yesterday and now you want two you idiot??")

Whirlpool Go Brrrr

As the party devolves into chaos, the head priest summons a massive whirlpool on the bridge, trapping several members of the party on the bridge, including Will who is still grappling Diana.

Eventually, Will and Diana manage to escape the whirlpool; Diana chides Will for being so handsy. Poor Will, who has snapped out of his stupor, is not sure what the fuck happened LOL. Grymus rushes forward as well but Thurmond, on the other hand, backs out of the whirlpool--too afraid to fight, despite his desperate concern for his sister.

Soren and Nezznar snap out of their stupor; Soren takes a heavy hit for his impulsiveness, but manages to back away enough and regain an advantageous ranged position. Hugh, Droop and Nezznar attack one of the adds while Sildar and Grymus close in on the other.

Soren casts Hex on the head priest, surrounding it with hellish butterflies and inflicting heavy hits on the other.

Grymus beloved, who has never fought a day in her life, manages to latch the pincer staff onto the face of the kuo-toa she's fighting. She screams the entire time as she grapples the kuo-toa, much to Sildar's (who is fighting beside her) amusement and concern.

Hugh at some point pushes the kuo-toa lackey off the cliff LMAO. Nezznar climbs down with his drider abilities and wails into it with the whip as it tries to get up, like it is a drow stress ball.

Echoes of the Prince

With Diana's Guiding Bolt, Will's arrows and Soren's eldritch blasts, the head priest quickly falls. He begs the statue for the power to destroy us all, and his prayers are answered. He morphs into a giant, two-headed abomination.

It hits Nezznar heavily, taking him down almost in one hit, causing the party to realize this is no small threat.

The onslaught of madness renews, stronger than before, causing the party to do various strange things; Diana encourages Will to start smacking the abomination with his sword, and Droop tries to steal Will's bow while insulting Will's archery.

Sildar, in the meantime, is gripped by an uncharacteristic competitiveness. Amplified by his recent feelings of weakness in the Underdark, Sildar explodes at Grymus, telling her to "fuck off" from this fight and that he didn't need his help.

Grymus, relatively unphased due to the usual brusqueness of the duergar, is like "???? What is WRONG with you my dude" and continues trying to help grapple.

Willow, pushed to desperation, reveals his aasimar form and flies into the air, stunning Diana (who did not know he was part angel prior to this moment). Thurmond, still hiding in the back, casts Enlarge on Will, making him a big toll angel boyeeee yes he is yes he iiiis

Soren, gripped by the madness and desperate to express showmanship, thunder-step kicks off of the abomination--teleporting into the sky, causing thunder damage to it with the backlash, and opening his own demon wings.

This fight is full anime oh my god.

Despite the range Soren and Will gain on the abomination, we continue to fail wisdom saves and devolve into chaos; Diana casts Beacon of Hope and bolsters all our minds, turning the tides.

Eventually, Hugh bodies and grapples the abomination, keeping it pinned to the ground as we rain down damage on it. As it gets visibly close to death, Soren yells for the party to remember to keep it alive.

Though hesitant, Will goes into close quarters with his sword to better keep the creature alive for Soren, succeeding at knocking it out. It turns back into its original form, unconscious.

Blood Sacrifice 2!

Sildar and Grymus also kill the additional kuo-toa; Sildar, having been freed from his madness, is apalled and ashamed at his own behavior towards Grymus. Grymus, on the other hand, bonks him on the head for one damage and calls it even.

The party crowds around Will, with Grymus and Diana gushing over how cool his angel form looked.

Silently (and without the party noticing), Soren signals for Nezznar and Hugh to get into position, before unceremoniously dragging the kuo-toa over to the sacrificial altar.

The party checks in on each other, until Will eventually realizes that Soren has drawn Graz'zt's mark all over the altar and has begun to chant. As he and Sildar try to get closer to stop Soren, Nezznar and Hugh move to physically restrain them.

Soren's Chant (Undercommon)

Shadow's lord Graz'zt, embrace my offering.

I bring to your feast of flesh, to your court of dark desires.

Graz'zt, hear my whispers, hear my yearning.

Your ecstasy, your might, pleasure consume me, pleasure consume all.

Sildar is unable to get free of Hugh's grasp, but Will evades Nezznar's and attempts to stop Soren; Hugh manages to stop him as well however. Soren continues to chant, unphased and without even looking up, as Sildar screams at him to stop.

As the party watches, Soren kneels in front of the kuo-toa and slits its throat, spilling its blood all over the altar.

Means and Ends

The sacrifice to Graz'zt produces immediate and visible effects; the party hears a distant rumble of laughter. Soren feels a rush of euphoria and validation, and as he stands up, his slave mark has been replaced by Graz'zt's black mark.

Horrified, Sildar asks what Soren has done. Will also numbly wonders what happened to interrogating the kuo-toa to "find out about his home".

With absolute confidence, Soren readily admits that he lied and tricked the party in order to make a blood sacrifice to Graz'zt, and scoffs at the idea of the Underdark being considered his home. Heartily, he thanks Nezznar and Hugh for "doing their part".

When confronted about lying to the party, Soren points out that he was right to do so, knowing that Sildar and Will would try to stop them. Seeing Sildar and Will still shell-shocked, Soren also points out that the group was ready to kill the kuo-toa head priest, and that he killed it quickly--just in the name of Graz'zt. He argues that he reached the same ending--killing evil cultists--except he got Graz'zt's favor out of it, which would in turn help the party.

Will once again points out that Graz'zt will demand higher and higher prices of Soren; Soren points out that Graz'zt has saved their lives twice now and has asked nothing of him except "cultists we were going to kill anyway". Soren repeats that Graz'zt has never demanded worship of him, and has even called him a friend.

The Same Coin

Diana, who has remained quiet, expresses her concern about Soren's actions at this point--noting that she doesn't care if Soren "sets the world on fire for his loved ones": in fact, doing so aligns with Sune's tenets. She, however, points out that Soren has inevitably hurt his loved ones by going behind their backs.

Soren responds that everything he is doing is for the wellbeing of the party. Diana asks him to promise: Soren does so without hesitation, and even asks Diana to cast Zone of Truth on him if she must. Placated for the time being, Diana also points out that what if Graz'zt eventually asks Soren to sacrifice a member of the party--knowing that she is not as important to Soren as the rest of them.

Soren points out that she wakes up each morning without the fear that her goddess will make her sacrifice someone. Diana idly notes that "pleasure and love are two sides of the same coin, but there is more pain in love"--meaning that pleasure is innately selfish when it is taken without love or care.

Soren, misunderstanding, triumphantly agrees that there is less risk in pleasure than in love.

(The little writer brain in me is going BRBRRRRRRRRRRR at the poetry of this misunderstanding!!!)

Eventually, Soren--in a roundabout way--promises that if Graz'zt ever demands something so heinous of him, he would part ways with Graz'zt amicably, having both mutually benefited from each others' service and power.

The party is skeptical about this.