Session 2.9

The Hunt for the Leviathan
Chris (as DM), Steve (as Kamara), Casey (as Root), Eric (as Ulrich), Rick (as Rael), Shane (as Indigo)

The party plans to hunt for the Leviathan, the giant stone snake monster last seen west of the Northern Temple, to uncover its mysteries. We don’t know if it’s a creature or a construct or what its motivations may be. All we know is that it was a creation of the Masters and that it likes to crash through the swamp while chasing adventurers at high speeds. Kamara wishes to investigate the interior of the creature, believing it to be a construct that holds secrets inside! His innate teleportation skills will allow him an easy escape after he’s made his discovery. There are Viven portals near the Leviathan’s habitat, so we’ll pay a visit to the Green Hyla and the 8th along the way.

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Day 1

 * Early in the morning, Rael gathers a large amount of simsum wine to bring to Viven.
 * The party pays a visit to The Reach to see its progress under the new management of Lex.  Lex isn’t around, but the wise-cracking Nix, the Tabaxi rescued from the rie farm, is the bartender.  There are no Hyla present at all; it’s mostly Orphan townies hanging around.  Rael finds his own recipe list behind the bar and smoothly persuades Nix to return the recipe to him. Nix offers the party Orphan Cocktails, which we all sip on and gag at before handing them to Rael, who quickly prestidigitates them all and drinks them all himself.  They taste like a mix of hooch, espresso, and turpentine.
 * Root checks up on the painting of Rael that’s still hanging on the wall; Root himself painted it, and it was the first gift he had given to anyone in Hardholme, so it holds a special place in his heart.  Root and Rael are dismayed that the painting isn’t holding up well; it’s become dingy, and someone has drawn a crude mustache on Rael’s face. (RUDE!)  “Would a mustache suit me…?” Rael asks, holding the painting next to his face.  “Noooo,” Rael and Indigo trail off simultaneously.  Rael prestidigitates the portrait and takes it with him.
 * Before leaving the Reach, Rael leaves behind an autographed copy of his new book for Lex, If I Did It, by Rael Dekker.  “To Lex, with Love"
 * On the way out of town, we stop by the Strider Ranch to collect our mounts, and Kamara shows us his new Shinehorns procured from Etherwood!  They have the bodies of giant foxes, but with deer heads and elk antlers!  These will definitely be the IT mount next season.  (Get to work on breeding them!)
 * The river still doesn’t have a bridge!!!  At least we have this tiny boat now, which turns into a big boat.  It’s even big enough for all the striders, so we don’t have to solve a fox, chicken, and grain riddle to get everyone across alive.
 * We’re able to reach the Viven portal by evening and enter its safety.  This is Kamara’s first time to Viven!  He approves.  We all immediately return to Davros (the bar, not the world), where we all order Davros (the ale, not the bar).  Kamara agrees that this is the most scientifically-infused drink ever created.
 * Rael brings in the shipment of simsum wine to Lenk, who takes Rael aside for a little chat… “Look uh… This stuff’s really popular here in Viven, you know…  And I want Davros to be the only establishment that sells it.  You get my meaning?”  Rael is more than happy to work out a business deal and rolls really great on his persuasion check.  A great deal is sealed!  “See,” Rael sighs contentedly afterward, “I love making money without being stabbed or shot at!”
 * Kamara produces a strand of sparklegrain that he brought all the way from Etherwood.  It has an ethereal, pearlescent quality about it.  “Do you know what gives it this unique trait?” Kamara asks.  Lenk doesn’t know, but quickly offers to take it from Kamara for further study.  “No no!” Kamara replies, deciding instead to bring it to the Center for Science & Magic (CSM).  The party begins drinking simsum wine together and loudly talking about how great it tastes, as the nearby Green Hyla harken to their voices and gather around to try it out for themselves.  Kamara, Root, and Indigo depart for the CSM, while Rael and Ulrich stay behind at Davros.  Rael plays Firewall on his new guitar, while Ulrich removes his prosthetic foot, which also turns out to be a bone foot flute!  They make music together, to the joy of all in the bar.
 * At CSM, the party meets with Fox, whom Kamara questions about their operations in creating a travel route back to Davros (the world, not the ale).  They haven’t made much progress at all in the last 64 years, but they think they may be close to a breakthrough (how long they’ve been this close to that breakthrough, we’re not sure).  Fox never leaves this place, and he loves his menga.  He has, indeed, met Carric already.  Kamara shows Fox the sparklegrain, which Fox claims he has seen before on Davros.  He offers to take the strand for further study; Kamara hesitates, then reluctantly hands over one single grain from the strand.   Root tries to convince Fox to leave Viven at some point to see the outside world.  “If you’re afraid for your safety, I can go with you, to protect you,” Root offers.  Fox looks excited, leans forward, and is about to answer positively, but Root interrupts him – “but you can’t RIDE me!  I’m no mount!”  Deflated, Fox leans back in his chair and declines.
 * The party travels back to the hub of Viven portals.  Where do all these portals go?!  There are 15 portals here, but we only know of 8 exit locations.  After speaking to the guards, we learn that 5 portals were closed permanently when the Red Hyla discovered them, leaving only 10 functioning portals.  The party tests the portals and, with the help of the Greens, fill in their map to show the locations of the 2 mystery portal exits.
 * Late that night, the party strolls toward the Ritual Ground to see what’s there.  They come across Rael and Ulrich along the way, who are taking a break from the party at Davros.  At the Ritual Ground, a small ceremony seems to be taking place; a few Green priests are in a circle, while other, older priests are standing to the side watching.  Begben, the oldest Green Hyla, is present.  We avoid approaching him, since that’d be a MAJOR cultural faux pas on our part.  Begben is responsible for all the magic the Greens possess, and oversees the passing of the magic down through their generations.  The Greens worship Magic itself… they worship the Weave.  We instead approach one of the lesser priests, Dopdot, who is standing near us.
 * Ulrich presents Dopdot with his cursed sword.  Ulrich understands that a Hylan curse was placed upon this sword and has been searching for answers to break the curse.  After taking a long look at the sword, Dopdot replied earnestly, “I don’t know how to break this curse… however, I can ask Begben, for the price of 500 gold.”  Ulrich agrees to the price, hands over the gold, and will have his answer upon his next return to Viven.
 * Kamara presents his strand of sparklegrain to Dopdot, questioning if the Hyla knows anything about it.  “I do not!” replies Dopdot, “But I can ask Begben about it, for the small price of 500 gold.” (Kamara declines.
 * Rael finally asks Dopdot about the Masters.  “Where did they go?”  The replied advice was free, “They just left one day, about 100 – 200 years ago.  Even the ground their city was on is gone, leaving a giant Hole.” “Interesting,” replied Rael, “How long has the sky been clouded over like this?” as he points toward the cavernous tree-ceiling of the city.  Understanding what he means, Dopdot pauses for a second, “It clouded over at the same time the Masters disappeared, actually.”   In thanks, Rael gives a copy of his new book to Dopdot, If I Did It, by Rael Dekker.
 * On the walk back to Davros, Kamara confides in the party about the underground Strider races, Rowan’s involvement, and his fatal gambling problem.  Kamara was introduced to the races by Rowan himself; they and others in the club meet some nights around midnight to race in dangerous locations – at the edge of the Hole, near dangerous megafauna, etc.  One particular night recently, Kamara and Rowan both lost the race.  Rowan, however, seemed especially deflated.  It turns out that he was in great debt because of these races, and he decided the only way out was to take his own life.
 * “Underground Strider races…?!”  Rael was disgusted at the very thought of such a thing.  “We need to legalize that as soon as possible!  A system in place so people have a place to GO to gamble ‘safely’!” [cough*TipsyTabaxi*cough]  Root agrees and offers to talk to his employer, Francis-John Archibald IV d’Ordeau, about using the Archibald Battle Coliseum (ABC) as a locale to host the events.  Kamara has the idea to use a complex network of Sending Stones to broadcast the event to bars across the land, so patrons can gather there to listen to the events as they’re occurring.  Exotic Striders would also really up the ante!

Day 2

 * Kamara was admiring Root’s armor before, and he wants to visit the Bazaar.  We go there and spend the day exploring/shopping!  Kamara and Rael both buy some sweet +1 Studded Leather Armor crafted from Soova hide and dark blue Veranium studs.  Ulrich buys an awesome +1 Veranium Plate Armor.  We’re ready for some adventuring!  But the bazaar was distracting, fun, and tiresome.  We stayed there all day!  We’ll have to leave tomorrow.

Day 3

 * Rael points out on our Kazaraan’s Valley (KV) map the approximate location of where they encountered the Leviathan.  We decide to exit through the portal directly west of the Northern Temple, in the confluence of two small tributaries of Tastyfish River.  We ask the Green guards about their knowledge of the Leviathan, but they know nothing.  Perhaps only the Reds and Blues know of it.  We should ask the Red Resistance more about it!
 * We exit the portal into the swamp and head west, in the direction of where the Leviathan was last seen.

Day 4

 * There’s no sign of it!  We reach the next river, then turn around and comb back eastward, but further south.

Day 5

 * We continue to comb the marshland south of the portal, when we spot the Leviathan some ways southeast of the portal, near Tastyfish River!!!  Odd… it’s travelled a long distance from where the last party found it...  But it hasn’t crossed any rivers.  Ulrich points out that perhaps it’s unable to cross the water??  We float (lol) the idea of somehow using it as a weapon against the Red Hyla.
 * This thing is massive.  It looks like a giant stone snake, but the head is also giant, almost like an alligator’s.  It appears to be about 20 feet high, 120 feet long, and made of smooth stone.  Although its eyes are shut, we know that they appear to be giant green gemstones.  When touched, this thing is highly murderous and moves FAST.  Let’s touch it!
 * Rael lends his Immovable Rod to Kamara, who will be the canary to venture inside the Trojan Horse.  He’s going to wake it up, get inside of it, take a look around, then Teleport out and tell us what he saw.  The rest of us move away toward a copse of trees with the Striders, a distance from the monster’s tail.
 * In order to test if this creature is actually afraid of the water, Root will command it to “Swim” in the water nearby after it awakens.  Commanded creatures always refuse to perform actions dangerous to themselves.  He brings his Strider closer to the creature’s head to prepare for this.
 * Kamara gives the signal to us.  Then he boops Levi on the nose!  The giant emerald eyes SNAP open!  INITIATIVES!
 * Rael immediately uses his guitar to cast Wall of Flame in front of Ulrich, Indigo, and himself, separating us from Levi, as Ulrich skips his action to see what happens next.  This giant flame wall is no mere illusion… it can HURT!
 * Levi SNAPS at Kamara twice, injuring him greatly and SWALLOWING him!  (Mission accomplished!  Uhhhh…. Now what?)  Levi turns toward the giant glowing wall of flame and begins to move toward it…
 * Indy major sweat-drops, but skips his action to wait for more results, as Root reaches out to Levi in his mind, commanding the creature to “SWIM!”  Will it jump into the water at Root’s command, or will it refuse for fear of its own life? …Nothing!  It turns out there’s no mind to control!  It’s purely a construct that is non-living!  (We’re experimenting and learning along the way!  Hooray!)  Root uses the rest of his turn to quickly move toward Levi’s massive head.
 * Inside the construct, Kamara gets his wits about him.  The air is hot and humid, and it’s hard to breathe and dark inside this thing.  He’s inside a cylindrical room that runs along the length of the snake; the walls are made of a rough stone, and the sides are undulating, moving him toward the back of the room, like an esophagus…  “This isn’t what I expected!” Kamara exclaims, “Where are the treasure chests and dungeon puzzles?!”
 * But HARK!  Toward the back of the room, he sees a very unexpected sight!  At the end of the esophagus, there are 5 very ragged-looking Red Hyla!  They’re feverishly shoving lots of dinnerbird into an undulating sphincter at the end of the esophagus!  (WTF…  are they FEEDING it?!  What the hell is happening?  There’s a lot to unpack here.)  When the Reds notice Kamara nearby, they drop the dinnerbird and go on guard against him. (No time to unpack!)  Kamara immediately attacks the 5 Reds with Breath of the Black Dragon, spewing a corrosive vomit all over them!!  The 3 closest Reds scream in agony as they dissolve away; the dinnerbird is gone too.  The 2 remaining Reds are hurt badly, but they prepare to charge.
 * Meanwhile outside, Rael moves with his Strider to the side, a little closer to the tail, AWAY from the approaching head.  He quickly casts Bane on the monster to weaken it.
 * Ulrich is worried that something bad may have happened to Kamara and wants to enter Levi to help in any way he can.  However, he’s paralyzed by his fear of being eaten.  The last time he was swallowed by a horrific monstrosity, his foot dissolved in its stomach, and he died!  He can’t face that again… But, he must!  His friend may be in danger!  Summoning all his courage, he leaps off his Strider and charges toward Levi’s mouth and prepares to be eaten whole…!
 * Levi bites Ulrich once, damaging him and swallowing him too!  Levi’s now inside the flame wall, and his stone skin begins to roast in the fire, taking damage.
 * Indy and Root see how this is playing out and decide that we need to attack it if we have any chance of getting out of this alive.  Indy casts Chaos Bolt at the creature’s face, causing Force damage, and Root smashes the creature’s left eye with his hammer!
 * Inside the esophagus, the Red Hyla charge Kamara and Ulrich, who’s now standing there too!  Kamara utilizes his psionic powers in a defensive reaction to reduce his damage incurred.  Kamara then yells at the Reds to “STAND DOWN!!!” as he’s attacking them. (lol)  He attacks the one in front of him, finishing it off, then he uses Snake Bite on the last remaining one in front of Ulrich, but misses.  Ulrich swiftly finishes off the last Red Hyla himself.  They’re all dead!
 * Rael holds his action to prepare for a Dual Tech with Indy.  Ooooh!  But Levi sees Root, who’s standing next to him on the Strider.  Levi rises into the air, then crashes down on Root and his strider, eating them both!  Still in the fire wall, Levi continues to take fire damage.  Root’s Strider is unfortunately killed in the attack.    It didn’t have a name yet; so we named it Dark Red.  RIP fella.
 * Indy is ready for the dual tech and casts Chaos Bolt through Rael’s Thunderwave.  “Chaotic Thunder” is coined, dealing a hard Force/Thunder hit to Levi’s head.
 * Inside the esophagus, the cylindrical room is now VERTICAL, since Levi’s head is up in the air right now!  Root is FALLING THROUGH THE ESOPHAGUS and through the sphincter, but he reaches both arms and legs OUTWARD against the walls around the sphincter, and manages to hold himself up!  Both Kamara and Ulrich, who were trying to hold against the walls, fall and land on top of Root.  They’re okay!  But wait… a blob-looking body-part of the sphincter reaches out and PULLS all three of them trough!  The new room they fall into is also a vertical cylinder, and it has a massive amount of bubbling liquid below!  (a stomach?!)  They’re somewhere around the middle of the creature’s body.  And they’re falling toward the liquid!  Kamara quickly activates Rael’s Immovable Rod, and holds onto it!  Both Ulrich and Root grab onto Kamara and stop falling!  They’re now hanging suspended above a giant pool of acid.
 * Against his better judgement, Rael decides that he should help other people.  He jumps off his Strider and runs toward the tail of the monster.  In a bid to open the creature and attempt to free whatever/whoever may be alive inside, he uses his guitar to cast Stone Shape on the lower part of the tail, and he enters the creature from this side.  Inside, he finds himself in a lower intestine, with an anus exiting the creature on the OTHER side he didn’t see.  #rippeditanewasshole
 * Levi turns its sight on Indy and the group of unmanned Striders, being the only things left NOT inside of it.  In response to Rael’s entering the tail, it slams its tail against the ground, damaging Rael in the process.  Levi’s body is still in the flame wall, continuing to bake away!
 * “Gotta go.”  Indy decides it’s time to make a run for it with the Striders.  These people are crazy!  And my HP is so low that one chomp of that thing will kill me!  He swiftly leads the Striders away while throwing an Eldritch Blast back at Levi.
 * Inside the stomach, Ulrich and Root reach up and grasp the Immovable Rod, giving much relief to Kamara, who was trying to hold both of them up with his own body tension.  Levi’s upper part crashes down; the cylindrical room is now HORIZONTAL with the ground, causing the massive volume of bubbling liquid to wash across the floor, closer to the suspended adventurers.
 * Root looks upward and sees a new room above them, separated by a latticework of stone.  There’s a throbbing sound coming from it, with a pulsating red light somewhere inside. (?!)  He tries to reach the room, but he can’t.
 * Kamara, however, sees the room and is able to Teleport into it by line-of-sight.  Inside the room is… a glass screen that’s glowing red…  it’s covered in all kinds of writing that Kamara doesn’t understand!  Is this powering the monster?!  Kamara uses all his strength to send a Psychic Blast into it, dealing 42 damage!  It heavily damages the machinery, but doesn’t disable it!
 * In the intestine, Rael begins to crawl up the butt, searching for people, while laughing ironically to himself.  He reaches the upper end of the intestine chamber to find… an undulating sphincter.  Ew.  It grabs him and pulls him inside!!!  In the stomach, Root and Ulrich now see Rael enter from the far end of the chamber, floating on his back in the pool of acid!  It looks like this acid isn’t quite as potent as quakesnake or giant red hyla stomach acid.  Rael still takes a little damage.
 * Ulrich’s had enough of this shit!  He pulls a grappling hook out of his adventurer’s pack and rapples to the upper room.  He sees the damaged machinery, and in a rush of adrenaline, releases a flurry of 4 blows, dealing a massive 50 damage!!  Sparks fly out of the apparatus, the glass shatters, the machinery powers down, and the pulsing sound stops.  The sphincters stop working, and the acid washes out of the construct…  The Leviathan is dead!!!
 * Rael is lying on the floor of the stomach and jumps to his feet.  Enraged, he shouts, “See!  THIS is why I don’t do anything heroic!!!  I’M NEVER DOING ANYTHING DECENT AGAIN!!!” And he storms out of the creature through its second anus and begins to wring the stomach acid out of his clothes.
 * Root is frustrated at being able to do nothing to help, and he storms out the creature’s mouth and begins to smash and break off teeth with his hammer.  Kamara gingerly picks up pieces of the remaining red glass to bring back for studying.  “Kamara… was that a good idea?” Ulrich asks.  They were both so into the moment, and the enthusiasm for destruction was so contagious, that they smashed it without trying to control it.  Outside at the head, everyone begins to break off chunks of the eyes.  Gemstones, indeed.  But they’re WAY too big to bring back whole.  Everyone takes some chunks.  Indigo takes a bagful to study later, and they bring an especially large chunk back for BETA’s trophy room.
 * Curious about the construct’s operation, Indigo ventures inside the control room to search for magical properties.  In the corner, he sees a portion of the glass screen that still works…  There’s a voice coming through!  Garbled speech… a guttural voice…  It’s Abyssal!  A broken form of Abyssal, but broken BEYOND the language of the Nartox and Hyla…  Indy has trouble understanding it.
 * “What have you done?!” the voice demands, “You’ve broken it!  You’ve broken the Master’s toy!!!”   Indigo is petrified for a moment, but hazards an answer in Abyssal, “Uhh… Sorry about that!  We ran into some trouble!  Where should we take it for repairs??”
 * “Who are you?!” the voice demands, “You’re not Hyla!  Tell me who you are!!”  (Indigo sweat-drops) “Oh, uh, yes I am!  I have a speech impediment!  My name’s…. Blipblap!  Where should I take it for repairs, sir?!”
 * “Bring it to me,” the voice utters darkly and threateningly, “Master Tusk, the Last.  Bring it to the Fire Mountains in the Ashlands.  The Psora Suduk will know where to find me.”  And with that, the remanants of the machinery dies out and goes dark.
 * Outside, Rael’s clothes are all but destroyed, however his spirits improve as he realizes he’s invented acid-wash jeans!  Root hauls a giant tooth upon his back to bring back to Hardholme; he plans to plant it in the arboreum.  With that, the group marks on their map the location of the Leviathan remnants, in case they need to return.  Can more be salvaged?  Is it possible to get it working again?  Time will tell.  They begin their trek toward the portal that will lead home.