2025/06/27: Horrors Under Snake Mountain Part 6

Buzz, Et-Kehri, Terana, Othar, Union, Malakai   Just the essential mid-session notes this time. This may be cleaned up and storified later.   In the middle of a large stygian underground lake, on board the Dread. The shaggoth just came through a wall. Psionics just turned off thanks to Thor.   Giant sphere of armored black flesh with an occasional eye or mouth. One big tentacle on the top and one on the bottom. Bottom one is acting sort of like snake tail, top is big and meaty and shaped sort of like a displacer beast tentacle, except with trilateral symmetry with spikes on all three sides. The spikes are grinding teeth that are constantly rotating. The 100 meters in diameter is just the sphere; the tentacles are extra.   Othar told Saveon that he was going to use another 8th-sphere spell and asked her to help him maintain his dignity this time. He can't look weak in front of his allies! She said she should be able to manage that, even if by just directly controlling his body.   As Terana ran to engage the shaggoth, a rain of ash began to harm everyone in the area. The shaggoth gave the ship an uppercut with its lower tentacle, nearly knocking all those aboard to the floor, and then the top tentacle started drilling a hole through the starboard bow of the Dread. On top of all that, spiky javelin-like projections started growing on the monster's surface.   Buzz, hearing his god's advice (that these things fear only light and the divine), unloaded on the shaggoth with holy damage with his Omega Cannon. Et-Kehri, falling back to join the kids in Professor Luftkin's defenses, called for someone to try to immobilize it or make it vulnerable to shadow or psychic.   Othar: [maniacal laughter] "Face oblivion!" 100m radius blast of soulfire. Othar had channeled his Darkfire Dawn spell through Saveon, bolstering its power. Surprisingly, he was pretty much fine after. He'd held together well. Darkness engulfed an area around the shaggoth, briefly, and it seemed to partially deflate and reinflate as it tried to adapt.   The Dread attacked the shaggoth in melee, but while the shaggoth was knocked around, it was completely undamaged. It had so far proven to be immune to all but a few damage types.   Korbane enhanced everyone's weapons with Holy Blade.   Terana did a little over 549,000 damage with avatar form and a ton of buffs and attacks.   Malakai's arm (with the Good Sword) got ripped off by a destructive beam of black energy.   Othar knocked himself out with a second blast. (It felt a lot like a heart attack.) Through the pain, he could feel Saveon taking over.   Sith undid Malakai losing his arm and then cast Pantheon's Wrath, calling on the power of the whole group of gods that are closely watching (and also his wife).   The gold dragon and Fist of Ranthael dove in from the hole in the ceiling opened by Pantheon's Wrath. The second adventuring party had joined the fray in dramatic fashion.   Egwin stabbed one of the big monster's drill tentacles and a second later it exploded. He was defending Yiea.   More friendly reinforcements. Adventurers in robes and cloaks, wielding a variety of oversized melee weapons. Carroc jumped in after them. It was a party of junior Blackmoors in training. They apparently saw a shaggoth and decided "this seems like a great training opportunity".   Shaggoth was torn apart by violet lightning. Carroc's sword, Elkarath, cooked it while ripping it apart. (A bit over a million damage.) The shaggoth was about to swing at the Blackmoor kids, and Carroc took exception to that.   Golden alligators in the water.   Terana bonded with the Dread, making (eternal) friends with him. Then she passed out because of her avatar form. Buzz got her a cold compress and kept an eye on her. Et-Kehri, having no idea what else to do, set about cleaning the deck with prestidigitation and (after some of the gunk turned out to have hit points), friendly fireball. Under the gunk, the Dread turned out to have gleaming spots of green and blue. Gems? Wasn't specified yet.   Brief discussion of loot distribution with the other parties.