The Violet King
You return to your true selves, from the mundane lives of office workers, standing before an Eldritch beast of terrifying proportions.
“So, Senko Slyfingers, you stand here, you chose to come here, now your choice faces you.
Where hath thou placed their loyalty, with the goals of simple, frail mortals, or instead to follow my eternal will?”
“I propose you this deal, simple as it may be,
I will remove the touch of mine cousin from your mine, and I will grant you a Boon that will aid you with your Lich problem. If you choose to follow deeper into my service, so too, will grow the boons you receive.”
In exchange you will owe me three favours, of my choosing, which when asked of you, you will complete with all due haste and urgency.
The Boon of the Violet King
Upon acceptance, he felt his body going through changes,
- Your skin drops a few shades, heading towards a sickly purple tinge.
- There is an ache in the centre of your forehead, as if something new is growing there.
- Three small mushrooms grow from your toes. Toes that are now small tentacles that you have strange level of control over (Advantage when Climbing Barefoot)
Some small abilities come to you,
- You have the ability to cast Hunger of Hadar, once per long rest.
- You Gain the ability to cast Identify as a ritual.
- A small pouch filled with tentacles of some sort. Also a bag with 5 small pearls and 5 small owl feathers within.
Along with some other, more effective ones.
- Mauve Blade of Matinduar (Matt-in-doo-ah)
You gain the ability to summon a blade made of a mysterious purple crystal, wrapped in ragged cloth rags for a hilt. The blade is dripping from the tip, and as the liquid hits the floor it sizzles, and dissipates with a hiss.
This dagger acts as a +2 Magic Weapon, and deals 1d6 Necrotic Damage on a hit.
The Dagger has 3 charges, and when thrown can use a charge to detonate into a purple cloud 10ft in diameter, dealing 2d8 Acid Damage, Con Save DC15 for Half. 1d3 Charges can be recovered per day, by meditating with the blade at dawn and re-pledging oneself to the Violet King - Glare of the Forgotten God
*As you approach a victim while not in combat, you may petrify them with a vision of the hidden presence behind your eyes. If the victim fails a Wisdom Saving Throw, it will be paralyzed for up to 30 seconds, or until it is sufficiently startled awake by a companion or loud noise. * - Mantle of Violet
You call forth the essence of the Violet King, causing the room you’re standing in to pale, as if the color of reality is being sapped away. All shadows deepen and darken, and Dim Light will become Darkness, and Bright Light will become Dim, as Dim will become Darkness.
And the King will smile at you and say:
“The first challenge has been overcome for you, and my Shoggoth has also been recaptured and fed, this deal is good for us both.” Before he fades away slowly, disappearing from sight, his chains dropping to the ground next to you.
Behind you a small archway appears, showing through it the entry chamber to the dungeon.
The Front Door
The remaining Orcs are cowering inside the entryway, and struggle to describe what happened, just that the riders came, started yelling about killing ‘The Guardian’ when they saw the severed Shoggoth Tentacle and went frothing mad, and tried to force their way in.
The Orcs held them off for a while, but just as they were about to fall, something happened outside and when they looked again, it looked like it does now, with over 100ft from the doorway being coated in a thick coating of blood and body parts.
Nothing larger than a joint is recognizable, seeming though that every single thing outside the door have been ripped to pieces all at once, in the most violent way possible.
A very quiet projection of the Violet King echoes around the room, first the exhalation as if of someone stretching, the in a smug tone “You’re welcome”
The Orcs look at you, horrified.
Fairies and Foibles
When past the next crossroads, they found Godmothers Gate.
A small cluster of large tree stumps, larger than usual, maybe 5 ft tall each, and quite large across as trees go, 12-14 ft.
A weak presence can be felt in the air, as if a lingering aura of the grove that once stood here, now receding.
Two stumps in the center, are far larger than the rest, and occasionally the light passing between them seems to shine an odd hue
History – This feels a lot like that time we met a fairy godmother
Nature – These trees are similar to what you’ve heard of Elven groves and their Heart Trees
A poor Astral Squirrel was summoned, and intimidated through the portal, before the group joined, and through the shimmering field to the glade of the Godmother, a long forest path leads to her, who is hovering before you, dressed again in her green and black ball gown. Her cat-eyes squint as she looks at you for a moment, pursing her lips before she speaks
“Well this is distressing boys, you’ve lost your Scaly little friend, the thief has joined the Anathema, and the big angry boy can jump now, not quite the progress I was hoping to see next time I saw you.
And you dear paladin, can you correct this ship to a holy course or are we – oh, Paladin of Kellok? Ah. I see. Playing with fire are we?” and she chuckles to herself lightly “Ah well, times they are a-changing.”
She leans in peering specifically at Senko, “What did the king gift you? A weapon to bring down the lich? Some ancient horror to release upon him? What was it?”
You spoke with her, looking for hints, and giving away a few things about the encounter with the Violet King, eventually the topic of Tangor came up, which she pled ignorance of who that could possibly be.
Kangrog saw the trick, and declared her fake.
The Godmother laughs
The glamour and illusions on the glade melt away, along with the disguises from the Lich himself, who was appearing as a faerie godmother.
“Well done, simpletons. I haven’t had fun like this in the better part of a century.”
“So the old King gave you nothing useful, at all? I have nothing to worry about still? Interesting, you really are doomed this time, if you’re the best the living can manage”
At that Senko attacked with his new dagger, striking into the Lich’s breast, who reacted by seizing Kangrog with a Paralyzing Touch, freezing all of his body except his axe-arm, as Justus smote down the foul Undead with the the grace of the Elder Flame.
The lich hits with a cantrip, then is smacked with Flashy twice, taking 60-odd damage after resistances applied.
He cast CloudKill, dropped almost everyone under 5hp, got jumped by the Squirrel, Smashed it on the floor, and cackled and made snide comments and left.
Back on the Trail
Exiting the Faerie grove, seated on a stump opposite the portal is a small squat demon, that takes one look at them, deeply sniffs the air, and asks in the voice of Slurg “you reek of Lich-Musk, Kangrog, have you no shame? Did you at least kill it?”
The Imp is here to chat, having felt the recent actions and locations of the party.
He also wonders if there is a reason why Kangrog is only using half of the axe?
Asking for it, he utters the command word, and it turns into a double-ended double-headed longaxe, with both ends aflame.
The Axe Now grants the use of the Whirlwind Attack ability.
Whirlwind Attack. You can use your action to make a melee attack against any number of creatures within 5 feet of you, with a separate attack roll for each target.
If used in combination with a Potion of Vaulting, the Barbarian can roll to hit all creatures along the path of his flight.
The Road-sign
Coming to the next crossroad, the sign reads
“Tos Calos, 12 Miles, South”
“Alduin’s Cove, 5 Miles, West”
“The Wastes, North”
There are a number of other symbols on the sign, that at first seem like they are just parts of the woodgrain, but Senko quickly recognizes as thieves cant, telling of Soldiers at Alduin’s Cove, specifically Nestorian ones.
Thassian Soldiers are said to be in Tos Calos, along with something he cannot quite make out, but could be either ‘Weapon’ or ‘Ritual’, along with the symbol for ‘Limited Time’
Smugglers Cove
Smuggler’s Cove is nothing more than a barely held together building, an old holdfast and a few barely tended fields next to it, shrouded on 3 sides by sharp cliffs and the ocean.
Looking at it, you notice a few things immediately;
Perception, The Holdfast seems to have once been built here to look over the little cove, which is one of the only parts of the visible coastline without a rocky reef or sheet cliffs to assail.
Insight, you recognize a pile of dung as that of a Dire Tortise, of which you only know of a single one.
Nature, the waters nearby seem teaming with life, the land is bare, and barren. Except for the presence of a single, slightly too large squirrel watching you from the top of a far off hill. Well and the soldiers too.
Scattered around the fort, is a group of fighters, none in uniform except for a simple Red cloth tied around one of their boots. One, sleeping next to the stable, appears to be wearing caster’s robes of some type, several have impressive looking iron crossbows and well made and maintained weapons. These guys give off an air of capability, if danger was to appear, it would be met with force, immediately.
As you think that, Captain Horn drops his invisibility, standing next to you. “Oh it’s you! welcome lads, we’ve been looking for you since that deal with the Teleporter. Welcome to the last outpost of the Empire west of Relast!”
He has two squads of the Third Legion Marines here with him, including a couple of spell casters. Can help with Tangor, but for now offered food and rest.
We wandered around and meet the Nestorians,
The specialty NPCs are
- Fire Wizard – Scorch
- A wizard of the Cult of the Elder Flame,
- Greets Justus with a “Brother Knight” and a head nod. Justus vs History DC 3 to know if he knows the return greeting “Brother Magus” (May-Gus)
- Elven Bowman – Specialist Aeson Elarus
- Dwarven Fighter – Corporal Kagrel Orehorn – Scattergun + Battleaxe
- Human Battlemaster – Gnomer
The Others:
We didn’t meet these, due to time, but for reference: 3rd Legion Marines, 4th Company, 7th and 7th Squads.
- Ricky Five Fingers – Used to have six, Lost one, now I got five. Whats so weird about that?
- Squint – Sharpshooter, Half Blind
- Moneybags – “Can I borrow some of your arrows?”
- Toothless – He’s got three left.
- Kipper – Newest guy on the squad “He can’t even swim!” – Everyone laughs
- Thieving Sonny – “Mah name iz a warning, if you fink about it”
- Lucky – Currently has an eye-patch, bandages on both forearms, and walks with a limp.
- Mad Dog Daryl – Don’t ask, and definitely don’t find out.
Snakebite
Says hello to the guys, asks how his investments paid off for them, and says he has some really nice stuff, but it’s all on Turbos pack and he will sell it to you later on.
Captain Horn
Motive: He is also here looking for a few other things, the captain of the guard here is likely to have information on Thassian movements to the east of here where the real action is, so she is looking to maybe take the guy captive, or at least get any notes from his office.
When they talk to Horn, He gives the situation with the Thassians;
- They took the town a week ago, pushing the small NIS office out of town,
- The thieves guild are on the Nestorian take, and got word to the guys right before the Thassian’s arrived.
- They are located to the south of town, near the cemetery,
- They traverse the sewers of the city to get around.
- As Thass took the town, they fired a Nestorian patrol boat in the habour to stop word getting out,
- the marines outside are the remnants of that boat, some truly nasty fighters.
- The Nestorians and Thassians are not currently in a state of war, Horn needs to get word back to the homeland about what’s happening here to get us but her teleport ring is out of charges.
- The Thassians are preparing for some sort of ritual, and ransacked the town for certain holy items and spell reagents.
- They also hold all gates and ports in and out of the city.
- The undead from Morvail are marching across the plains laying waste to everything in their path, they seem dead set on Nestor itself
- All legions are being recalled, all forces are heading for the Triforts to use the ancient defences there to try and hold back the tide.
- In the meantime, the Goblins of Garithmaroc, a city below the plains, are having the only success in the area, under the command of Blacktooth the Shaman, occupying a huge swath of the undead horde
- without the goblins, they undead would already be in the capital.
After this exchange, Scorch perked up, as one of his scrying wards had been dispelled, at the same time a horn sounded nearby, and Thassian squads appeared, coming your way.