2025/06/20: Horrors Under Snake Mountain Part 5

General Summary

Buzz, Et-Kehri, Terana, Sith, Othar, Union, Malakai   Apparently at the end of last session Terana and Union spent a whole bunch of healing and some food on the hydra (the Dread) and made friends with it. It's very old. It has four heads. It's not particularly intelligent, but it at least does broadly understand the concept of friendlies.   It turns out the building on top of the Dread is not a temple. It's just a building. It looks like it was a pirate base at one point. There are remnants of an armory, a barracks... there's even an elevator that doesn't work anymore. It's been so long that key components of the elevator have rotted away, including the chain. It's a good thing the building itself is made out of some sort of crystalline stone.   The fangol came out of the walls, swarming. The party prepped for battle.   Sith got eight larger, golden squirrels when he tried to summon squirrels. His attempt to summon a water elemental produced a giant waterspout as the elemental was instantly defeated. Buzz used Wall of Stone to wall off three of the four sides of the "temple" and narrow the entrance on the remaining side.   In a dramatic black and white flash, Othar's casting of Darkfire Flare wiped out the entire fangol second wave. This came at a cost: Othar felt a pain he hadn't felt before, like something had snapped inside him. He spent the rest of the fight coughing on the floor.   Buzz summoned Progenitus, avatar of Khaz-Achk-Thuum. It was sort of summoned as/inside of the Dread. The Dread's breath weapon, currently in progress, went from acid to change, turning the affected fangol randomly into naked halflings, badgers, ogres, ogre magi, and humans.   The fight was lengthy and explosive, with Sith altering probability to make Kelsey's every attack a critical success, Buzz and Othar protecting the party, Et-Kehri displaying the first casting of Void Flash on Renedge, and Terana keeping the Dread (and her party members) alive. Union piloted the Dread for the duration of the battle. The crazy professor stayed invisible at the back of the party, making a few minor contributions.   After the fight, the party could hear a fight happening in the previous room. Non-euclidean shapeshifting noises and cries.   The party tried to rescue the humans, badgers, and halflings. Rescued dozens and dozens of people. To help out, the Dread opened docking hangars on its sides for the new-made people to climb into. There were roughly 1000 of them in total.   Then the next combat encounter Kool-aid man'd through the wall. It was the shaggoth the party had been warned of previously. Through the wreckage, the party could see the blackened skeleton of the being that just lost the fight in the room the shaggoth came from.   The shaggoth was over 100 meters in diameter, about half the size of the Dread.   As the combat was about to begin, the party heard a peal of thunder. To be heard this deep in the ground, it must have been incredibly loud. Whatever Thor had done canceled the terrible mental burden the shaggoth's power was putting on the psychic members of the party. Union realized that something had just turned off psionics in the area. Union felt alone, but the shaggoth must have felt much more alone.

Rewards Granted

2 xp

Character(s) interacted with

The Dread, Professor Luftkin Gardenia

Notes

NOTE: Fangol are something like trilobite/bullet and hybrids. About three foot long mandibles.   NOTE: Darkfire Flare: Big black and white flash. Hideous damage in large target radius. 5 temporary Con damage to caster.