DM’s log – Adventures in Tyer-Besil – 17th of Auril to 22nd of Auril

17 of Auril – The party explored the rest of the earthen elements of the complex and swam down to the bottom of a well into the water temple area. They nearly died to a massively trapped chest.

18-19 of Auril – The party discovers and explores the water temple which seems to be devoted to a purified elemental known as the Olyhydra. They also meet and speak to the sapphire dragon named Azurea. She tells them of an ancient aboleth that dwells below and has dominated the minds of the people in the water cult to bend them to its will. The party began delving into the plunging torrents below to investigate the water cult and the elemental water node to try to free as many individuals from servitude as possible. Azurea told the party that individuals without a mark on their heads might be savable through restorative magic.

20 of Auril – The party did battle with the Yunkalakalub the devourer, an ancient aboleth. They managed to slay the creature. In the aftermath they summon the dragon. Azurea was impressed. She went about the task of further investigating the space – finding two hidden egg sacks below that appeared to be developing offspring of Yunkalakalub. Together with the corpse of the aboleth, Azurea began a binding ritual to prevent the aboleth from re-manifesting itself in the plane of water – banishing it instead to the far realms from whence it came. Azurea also granted the party a boon for their impressive work. The party decided to have Erionne’s tongue healed.

Erionne was floored by the kindness and generosity of the party and will likely continue to travel with them as long as they will allow her and as long as they do not deviate significantly from her moralism. The party gathered their strength for a few days of rest and ultimately ended up scrying on Aerisi in their downtime. The vision provided by the narwal horn of seeing, showed Aerisi in the process of casting an extended ritual. She seemed to be near its completion – or at least several days into the process. She was gaunt and clearly exhausted.

21 of Auril – The party made haste to locate and confront Aerisi. They traveled through the howling caves around the elemental air node – finding an enchanted sword buried with a dwarven hero in the process. Continuing onward, they found what appeared to be 30 or so air cultists with pneumonia-like symptoms. Each was coughing up phlegm and in poor medical condition. Most were loosely tied to stalagmites. Onward still, they stealthily approached the northwestern corner of the caves. They located the elemental node of air and surprised Aerisi. Unfortunately, despite several good hits, the party was unable to interrupt Aerisi. Her minions – air elementals, myrmidons, and silent stalkers – managed to keep the party at bay long enough for her to finish at least the core of her incantation. Frustrated by having to improvise the final stages of the ritual, she turned her attention to the party and summoned Ayatayir, the Djinn. All the while the bound air cultists tied up in the chamber began to convulse in unison with the undulation of the air currents and the storm brewing in the air node.

After what seemed like minutes, but was only seconds, the storm condensed into a tornadic tendril that shot its way out of the air node. Some in the party spotted a broken crystaline sphere tied down by heavy golden chains. The sphere was emitting some kind of radiant energy that seemed to impede the tendrils stretching out of it – but not for long. The radiant energy died down and the creature inside – Yan-C-Bin pulled its way out like a caged squid. The air cultists convulsing stopped just as a large eel-like creatures burst from their chests. The eels gathered together in the center of the chamber. Some were burned away by Teal’s flaming sphere, Pantaghion’s moonbeam, and other damage. Still, the sheer number and resilence of the creatures was high. As they gathered, they seemed to form a squirming, shifting, humanoid body. Yan-C-Bin sent a tornadic tendril through the node and into the mouth of the eel-body, seemingly possessing it in some way. This newly formed avatar seemed to exist as a duality between air and eel flesh. The party ran. Ari’s quick thinking and selflessness saved the day as she dimension doored into danger – falling unconicous from the effort, but not before getting the horn to Pantaghion. Pantaghion freed the Djinn – who then began helping the party escape – teleporting Teal (in bird form), Ari, and Pantaghion to a mysterious palace drifting on its own island in the clouds. Yan-C-bin blinked around the room overwhelming and quickly dispatching the stragglers – particularly Falco and Erionne. Seeing Erionne’s holy symbol, Yan-C-Bin said it “has business” with “your goddess” referring to Erathis and then pummeled Erionne who was trying to help falco. Meanwhile, Val, Ragnar, Jerry, and Tilia finished off a retreating Aerisi. Aerisi’s contorted skin began bursting with whatever infused energy Yan-C-Bin had “rewarded” her with. Ragnar got the final killing blow in a 1-2 combo with Val. Ayatayir, at the party’s request, plane shifted back to the howling caves. He found Falco and Erionne severely wounded – touched them and plane shifted back to his airy domain.

22nd of Auril – The party is split – one group is in the plane of air with Ayatayir (the genie), the other focused on escaping the underground ancient city of Tyar Besil. The escape was rapid and tiring. Fighting more tentacled creatures on the way out, Val, Tilia, Ragnar, Jerry, Travis, and Faesys made haste to reach the surface. They passed through the Fane of the Eye – the central nexus chamber that links together the sub-surface level ancient dwarven ruins of Tyer-Besil with the older, more ancient, primal nodes beneath them. While the group with the genie rested easy in his magic mansion, the others made their way, exhausted to the sighing valley. There, a decision was made to reach higher ground – in case of a flood. A large, rotating cloud seemed to sync up with gaps in the starscape above to form a spiral sigil that the party had encountered before.

The prime material group made their way upward to the entrance to the valley. There, they found a pillar of light lightning up the sky to the northwest. It seems a large inferno was joining with the clouds. The light provided an eerie twilight that lit up the dark night. In the distance the party noticed many moving creatures. Some appeared to be the destroyed, but now crawling corpses of dead woodland and plains creatures – burst open in similar way to some creatures seen below the surface. Others appeared to be fleeing flocks of birds, groups of deer, and other beasts instinctually running to the south west. The party, almost entirely exhausted from the hike out of the underground city made camp near the path back to Red Larch. In their second watch, the party noticed an approaching group of humanoids running from a horde of misshapen creatures. The group, turned out to be some of Tilia’s missing family members along with a grouping of other refugees connected with the burning effigy in the hills that the party had learned about during their time in Red Larch.

The party bedded down, Tilia’s mom Miana used some clever stoneshape spells to open up a pit beneath travis’s dome. With some usage of message spells by Ari the next day, the Genie was able to plane shift close enough to the prime material group to reunite the party. He gave a nod to Ari and told her to call him some time later. He then gave a wink to Pantaghion, who noticed a stone in his pocket. With that, the Genie twisted itself into a tornado of air and disappeared (plane shifting elsewhere, presumably back to lawfully reclaim his abode on the plane of air).

Using a newly learned capability by Ari, that she picked up with some downtime in the mansion, the party teleported back to the Tower of Contemplation – the Pansophical headquarters and residence of Grand Arcanist Alura Visoran in the Knowing Circle in Dranseri. Once there, the group quickly made its way to the Grey Market to go shopping, leaving Tilia’s family and the other refugees behind at the tower with Ari, who went to report to Alura’s assistant Zora and provide the cryptic message “Dimetrium to 427e.”