Into the Chasm - Episode 5

The party descends from Eidrikas’s broken runic platform through a series of floating platforms in the Great Chasm, bypasses a damaged custodian and a lightning-filled conduit, and confronts the orcs in a ruined chamber below.

Timeline

• Jan 29, 1730 DR, afternoon: From the floating rock above Eidrikas’s platform, the party scouts and descends through the suspended chasm mechanism, where they find and kill the orc band.

Cast of Characters

• Eidrikas (AYD-ree-kahs; he/him, human): injured mentor and caretaker.
• Damaged custodian automaton: broken guardian and repair functionary.

Places

• Great Chasm (chasm in Zimkova, Greater Sembara): immense chasm and ancient mechanism site where Eidrikas holds a damaged runic platform together while the party descends after the stolen stabilizing stone. Session context includes: floating rock beside Eidrikas’s tilted runic platform, heavy-gravity upper chamber, custodian chamber, lightning chamber, and ruined lower hall.

Narrative

We begin with the party on a floating rock in the Great Chasm, where Ekko has returned from speaking to his mentor, Eidrikas. Ekko’s Detect Thoughts reveals Eidrikas’s pain, his effort to resist the force coursing through him, and memories only the two of them would share, allowing the party to feel confident this is really Ekko’s mentor. From their small floating rock platform near the cliff, the party considers the route into the machinery below. A rope hangs from the damaged platform where Eidrikas holds the broken circuit together to the upper chamber of a larger cylindrical complex, below. Eolo flies down to scout the complex, after which the party begins moving their rock towards the entrance.

The party maneuvers the floating rock to the broken rim of the cylindrical structure beneath Eidrikas’s platform. Looking into the chamber, they see a strange column of blue light, and a crushed orc. Eolo descends into the chamber, flying around, and discovers somewhat awkwardly that gravity is unusually heavy near the chamber’s outer wall. Meanwhile, Ekko retrieves the rope orcs used, allowing everyone to climb safely down from the rock.

Eolo, of course, cannot resist approaching the blue column, and gets yanked by a powerful force across the boundary, sustaining minor injuries. Inside, gravity nearly disappears. Unclear what the point of the blue light is, or how it functions, the party turns to the cracks in the floor used by the orcs to descend. Securing the rope, they climb down, with minimal incident despite the strange gravity.

The party descends into a chamber filled with crystalline structures and metal hatches. Two humanoid figures made of stone and metal occupy alcoves along the walls: one has collapsed, while the other is badly damaged but still active.

The surviving construct wakes, cycling through several languages before Finnan recognizes Giant and attempts to speak with it. It asks whether the party is authorized, and Finnan explains that they are pursuing unauthorized orcs who stole an important part of the mechanism. The damaged custodian confirms that unauthorized agents caused damage, but otherwise struggles to answer Finnan’s questions. It can only repeat that its repair functions are suspended while a threat remains.

Through a hatch in the floor, the party sees immense black conduits descending through a lightning-filled chamber below. A dead, blackened orc, and an intense, almost willful knot of lightning twisting in seeming-anger suggest this may not be a safe way to proceed. The party decides to return to its floating rock and take the safer route around. As they leave, the custodian asks whether they intend to eliminate the threat, and Justas assures it that they do.

While the party begins the difficult climb back through the upper chamber’s heavy gravity, Eolo flies down for a closer look at the strange knot of lightning. It appears malevolent, out of place, and coherent enough to attack. Eolo draws both crossbows and considers testing that possibility, but, after a rare moment of caution, decides against it and flies back up.

Getting everyone out proves more difficult than getting in, given the strange gravity in the chamber. Jrain resorts to Jump, Finnan uses Misty Step, and Ekko transforms into a polar bear to take advantage of his own magically enhanced jumping. Justas, alone, insists on climbing, managing to exhaust himself in the process. The party finally regroups on the floating rock and maneuvers it around the outside of the structure to the roof of the much larger bottom section.

There, the six black conduits pass through the roof beside a large metal hatch. Opening the hatch, the party looks down into a vast, wrecked chamber filled with rubble, smashed pillars, and scattered magical lights. They hear a group of orcs arguing in one direction and see a single orc crackling with lightning in the other. Unable to understand the argument, they decide to attack the larger group first.

The party drops through the hatch toward the larger group of orcs. Although the guards notice their approach, Finnan acts quickly, casting Hypnotic Pattern and trapping three enemies in a motionless stupor. The party carefully avoids waking them while Ekko, Eolo, Jrain, and Justas cut down the orcs still able to fight. One enemy manages to awaken an ally, while the separate lightning-shrouded orc races across the chamber to join the battle.

Finnan briefly drives the lightning-shrouded orc away with a command, but it soon returns, sending arcs of lightning through much of the party. Meanwhile, the Thark-marked God Caller becomes the center of the fight, answering spells with psychic curses and repeatedly terrifying Eolo and Ekko. The party gradually wears both enemies down, until Justas kills the lightning-shrouded orc with a Guiding Bolt. The creature explodes in a violent burst of lightning, leaving Justas barely standing.

The God Caller continues fighting even after nearly all his allies have fallen, repeatedly striking Eolo with his axe while the rest of the party closes in. One arrow drives the god caller to his knees, but he tears it free and rises again; the next knocks him facedown and finally kills him. Our session ends as the party surrounds and dispatches the two orcs still trapped by Finnan’s spell.

Combat

Battle in the Lower Chamber. The party attacks the six-orc group beneath the hatch as a separate lightning-shrouded orc races in from across the chamber. Finnan’s Hypnotic Pattern incapacitates three of the group, allowing the party to defeat the others while weathering the lightning-shrouded orc’s electrical attacks and the God Caller’s fear and psychic curses. Justas kills the lightning-shrouded orc, which explodes and nearly kills him; Eolo kills the God Caller, and the party dispatches the two soldiers still held by Hypnotic Pattern.