"Vlaakith herself. She is both the sun that blinds us and the void that contains us. Praise be."
Common Githyanki words of praise, offered to images of Queen Vlaakith CLVII
The party descended into the cold and dark Caves of Hunger, within which lurked unknown threats and horrors. With only Alith's blazing sword and the party's own natural darkvision for light, they forged their way deep into the glacial tunnels to seek the lost city of Ythryn.
Close to the entrance, the party was set upon by a quartet of flameskulls. The creatures attempted to blast the party with
fireballs, but Veszaltyrr craftily
counterspelled these attempts. Melfina destroyed one of the skulls outright with a powerful
disintegrate spell, while Ragna and Alithkav cleaned up the rest with their martial prowess.
Within an old abandoned ship near the now-destroyed flameskulls, the Lonesome Few discovered a peculiar object; an ancient
professor orb, which rose into the air once a bit of magic was channeled through it. The
orb introduced itself as Professor Skant, and quickly made its disdain for 'unintelligent meatbags' known.
Professor Skant revealed that it was a
professor orb forged in the days of the Ancient Hyperborean Empire. Although the Empire had long since fallen in millennia past, Skant was unable to comprehend the Empire's demise, and spoke as if the world was still in the grips of the Empire's golden age.
As a professor orb, Skant was endowed with four specific areas of expertise. Skant's in particular were:
- Hollowfaust and its secret undercity, Ythryn
- Vampirism and the traits of vampires
- Rituals surrounding the making, bottling, and drinking of Elverquisst (a rare, ruby-colored elven liquor distilled from sunshine and rare summer fruits)
- The process of Lichification
With Skant in tow as a guide to the area, the party continued on. They soon encountered a small tower, which Skant explained was an
arcane recovery tower used by ancient Hyperborean mages to partially rejuvenate their exhausted spellcasting abilities. Melfina used it to recover the energy she had expended with her disintegrate, and the party continued on.
In another cavern, the party encountered the head of an iron golem. Expecting it to be inert, they discovered it was actually quite conscious and aware of its surroundings. However, without its body, all the golem could do was cause the lights behind its eyes to blink. By conversing with the golem, the party discovered that one blink meant 'no', two blinks meant 'yes', and three blinks meant 'I don't know'. Through this primitive mode of conversation, the party learned that the golem was solely concerned with protecting the city of Ythryn, was quite homicidal after millennia of being frozen in the glacier, and would certainly try its best to kill them if it were in possession of the rest of its body.
The Lonesome Few's next encounter was a far grislier one; a pack of monstrous, hungry shadows. Although they were dispatched with little effort thanks to a well placed
fireball from Melfina, the shadows continued to haunt the party when they discovered a cave full of headless skeletons; likely the desiccated bodies of the souls that gave rise to the shadows.
While they explored the general area, the party was spotted by a pack of emaciated kobolds with glowing red eyes. True to its professorly expertise, Skant quickly identified the creatures as vampiric kobolds. The party engaged with the creatures, but two of the pack split off to escape. One was chased down and slain, while another disappeared into the southern cavern sections.
More caverns loomed before the party as they continued through the labyrinthian network of frozen tunnels. As they proceeded, they were subjected to grim hauntings and illusory effects, each threatening their resolve and sanity. The party persevered, for as ill as these portents were, they had certainly faced worse.
In another icy cavern, the party discovered the corpse of a frost giant, buried under the ice and left to rest for untold centuries. The ice above the giant was covered in scratch marks, likely from the kobolds attempting to dig it out to no avail.
Following the trail of the escaped kobold, the party encountered a shrine of skulls erected around a hole that was far too small for them to enter. They concluded that this grisly shrine was likely created by the kobold vampires, and this hole was the egress used by the escaped foe they encountered earlier in the caves.
Another nearby cavern contained vicious snow golems; ugly mockeries of the mortal form with unsettling mouths of razor-sharp teeth. Another powerful
fireball from Melfina proved to be the bane of the creatures, melting them to slush.
As they continued, the more perceptive members of the party picked up on the sounds of combat further in the caves. They decided to investigate, taking a route around a dead end and following the sounds. They soon came upon a stunning sight; that of Kith'rak Gen'a'as engaged in battle with his own red dragon mount and several of his subordinate githyanki. Beneath the ice in the room, a large shadowy figure writhed. The figure was only just far enough to defy identification, but powerful psionic waves foretold its power.
Gen'a'as warned the party that the dragon and his soldiers had been enthralled by
illithid trickery, and beseeched their aid in destroying them. The Lonesome Few readied themselves and joined the engagement, clashing against the powerful red dragon.
After surviving a blast of the dragon's fearsome fire breath, the combined forces of the party and the mighty Gen'a'as fell upon and began to carve up the dragon's scaly hide. As the dragon buckled under the assault, a new enemy joined the conflict; the figure beneath the ice burst from its frozen prison, revealing itself to be an
illithid Elder Brain.
Knowing they would have great difficulty against the two monstrous foes when battled simultaneously, the party focused on slaying the dragon while Gen'a'as engaged the brain. Even the mighty draconic paragon could not withstand the power of the Lonesome Few, and fell to their assault after a prolonged struggle. The brain was left alone against its assailants.
The Elder Brain was no easy target, however; it assaulted the party with mind-shattering blasts of psionic energy, and grabbed them with its powerful tentacles. Ragna in particular was staggered by the psionic energy put on display by the brain, as the barbarian's approach was slowed by stunning force and the manipulation of the very gravity in the cave.
However, even the brain's colossal mental fortitude could not hold back the whole of its foes, and Alith was able to break through to the aberration using her well-trained mind, steeled by her meditations on the
Unbroken Circle of Zerthimon. When an opportunity presented itself, Alith threw her blade directly at the brain's frontal lobe. As the creature's silvery blood spilled, it collapsed back into the icy abscess that had once contained it, dead at last.
Gen'a'as honored the party for their assistance, for even though he was opposed to Alith for refusing the will of her 'mother', he recognized that nothing was more important than battling and slaying the foul
ghaik wherever they might appear. As a show of good will, Gen'a'as placed a
planecaster device upon the floor of the cavern, which projected a large, translucent image. The image formed into a massive, regally adorned gith woman whose pale skin seemed almost stretched thin against her skeletal frame. The Lich Queen herself, Vlaakith CLVII, revealed herself to the Lonesome Few.
Vlaakith, speaking with authority that could be felt even across the planes, praised the party and echoed Gen'a'as' sentiments. Even though they would never be allies, she recognized that the Lonesome Few had aided in slaying an Elder Brain; something that few of even the strongest githyanki would ever accomplish. In doing so, they had saved one of her most faithful servants in Gen'a'as, and freed him of his obligation to hunt the remaining
ghaik presence in the Taiga.
However, the githyanki of the spelljammer
Umitl'a'ikith remained trapped in the plane-locked Frostgale Taiga, unable to escape until the Frostmaiden's Eternal Rime was brought to an end. To this end, Vlaakith proposed a temporary and limited alliance, signified by the bestowing of the
Lich Queen's Favor on Alith.
The
favor took the form of a small black triangle marked upon the back of Alith's hand. The
favor could be called upon just once, and when used, it would summon kith'rak Gen'a'as to the party's side, and also bestow on Alith a brief taste of the phenomenal power of the red dragons that served the lich queen.
Vlaakith's final words were saved for Alithkav specifically, whom she referred to only as Vlaakith CLVIII. She decreed that Alith had shown her scorn for the githyanki people, and would never again be welcome amongst the warriors of Tu'narath. She warned that any githyanki would know Alith's face and would consider her an enemy; something that Alith stated that she could live with. After her final decree was issued, Queen Vlaakith's projection vanished, and Gen'a'as soon followed suit by teleporting out of the caves.
More of the caves awaited the party even after such a fierce battle. Within a cavern of ice so polished that they gave off a reflective mirror finish, the party encountered Tekeli-li; a vampiric gnoll that thirsted for their blood, who left no reflection against the cavern walls.
Even though he could pose no threat comparable to the combination of the red dragon and the elder brain, Tekeli-li was still a surprise to the party, as he ferociously attacked them with his razor-sharp claws and vampiric fangs while his two vampiric gnoll minions followed suit. However, the party managed to prevail, keeping themselves from being confused by the mirror walls of the cave, and slew the gnoll vampires after a bloody battle.
Nearing their limits after a series of dangerous battles, the party decided to push themselves and continued to search for the path to Ythryn. The next cavern contained a strange stone cube, which Ragna laid her hand upon; as Ragna's hand adhered to the sides of the cube, it was revealed that the stone was in fact a mimic awaiting prey!
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