Abhirupata?

A strenuous and draining combat turns out to have only taken place inside Miriam's mind and despite the party having defeated the shadowy creatures, Miriam was consumed by darkness, now only Seether remains. She looks and sounds like Miriam, but is a wholly different person and this sheds new light on all of the preceding attacks and calls and disappearances involving "Seether". Her connection to the Fractured Lands is a mystery. Whatever it was that you saw in Kiuvaruk was not Seether. The tentacle faced creature that killed Lord Highdrake also killed Brannis after forcing him to create a power source. For what purpose, you don't know. "Seether" claims Abhirupata or 'Abhir' will rise again now that they can recreate the crystals.   Captain Naomhain tells you they have had some success in recreating smaller crystal using the Hot Iron you have recovered. They still do not know how exactly they work but they appear to draw energy from the earth itself? Almost nothing is known about the Fractured Lands, beyond it is populated with monsters and some say horrible disfigured creatures out of nightmares. Cpt. Naomhain tasks you with a reconnaissance mission: Get into the Fractured Lands and find out what you can about 'Abhirupata' and if possible, whatever threat is mounting.  Confused and dishearted by Miriam's loss, the party begins preparations for a dangerous expedition.

Foray into the Fractured Lands Making minimal preparations, the party sets sail toward the northern coast of The Fractured Lands, hoping to make landfall relatively close the the marked, unknown location on their map. Miriam had marked it prior to be overcome by Seether. After weeks of listless sea-travel, they find themselves skirting the shoreline looking for a safe harbor for the ship to wait while they explore. The sea has taken on an 'odd' color and the salt-air has a strange tang to it, as though the very sea and air surrounding The Fractured Lands has been altered. Loud, sudden banging on the hull draws everyone's attention. Jean heads below decks to follow the sound, Baern Eira and Tronc go topside and join the sailors in peering over the rails. Eira notices, not only a dark shape off the port-side but that one of the sailors next to her is dripping with seawater as if she just came out of the ocean...... Too late as a monstrous fish/man attacks and kills several sailors while they peer over the side. Another appears on deck and Baern, is stunned by the loud scream emitted by one of the creatures. Two giant mutated crustaceans crawl on deck and begin attacking the crew. Tronc polymorphs the wolf Ouzel into a giant octopus just before he does the same. Eira, surrounded and badly damaged, unleashes spells without thought for consequence and proceeds to set the mizzenmast and the port quarter on fire. The creatures are defeated but the ship is badly damaged and is immediately beached for repairs. After resting and considering their options, the party opts to head inland, towards whatever lay at their destination. The land is wild, overgrown but with traces of civilization. They cross what once were fields hedged in by stone walls and are able to soon discern the many ruined buildings whose foundation are all that remain. Who lived here? Does anything still? Cresting a ridge along a cliff face the party is started to find two large beasts attacking each other. They appear to be bison but the sunlight filtering through the haze in the sky glints off their skin. They are made of metal! The beasts attack the intruding party, pushing through Eira's entangle spell and charging Tronc. The Wolf Ouzel is again polymorphed , this time into a huge mammoth from Tronc's distant past. After some fumbling in his new form, Ouzel begins to trample and gore the beasts and the combined might of the party brings them down, though not without effort and a scare. The beasts were able to exhale a noxious cloud that caused those in it to begin to turn to stone! The party resisted the effects but their confidence may be a bit thinner after two such encounters with wild and unknown creatures. What else does The Fractured Lands, Abhirupata, have in store fore them? What does Miriam (Seether) have here and what became of the tentacle faced creature (that was Neither Seether or Miriam) that sought and now has the power to create crystals containing enormous energy?

Heading further inland, the party crosses sweeping grasslands that appear to once have been farmland. They travel down what was once a broad highway, now overgrown and broken in many places. Keystones and foundations are all that are left of many, many houses. Where some buildings were more intact, as the party travels further south more and more devastation can be seen. The air becomes...fuller. Like it is saturated with some force or power. It is unnerving and the party members are soon on edge. Passing through what has become an overgrown ravine, a group of gryphons try to make a meal out of the party and almost succeed in carrying off Ouzel, Jean's wolf companion. Resting in the blasted ruins of a home, another night, the party is surprised and surprises a scavenging group of orcs. Baern makes short work of them with an unexpectedly powerful fireball. There are noises as a few unseen others run off. The next day the party crosses an apparent border: a broken spear stuck into the ground with an orc skull perched atop. Shortly thereafter they find some trails worn into the earth. Obviously used but not well-maintained. They opt to follow one that heads generally south to travel a bit faster. Though after a few hours of travel they notice another party coming along the trail behind them, and moving fast. Baern and Eira become invisible while Jean and Tronc set up a false camp. They are set upon by a party of gnolls! The party has rthe advantage and summon conjured animals and utilize polymorph to create a wall of beasts between them and the gnolls but are surprised by the fore and aft gnoll scouts joining in the combat. The party is ultimately successful, but Eira was badly hurt. The land grows more barren as they have traveled south and with no obvious refuge in sight, knowing they have crossed a band of orcs and now wandered into contested gnoll territory what are they to do?

Resting after their combat with the gnolls, the party moves forward hoping to put some distance between them and may have been a patrol. They make it through part of the day when, looking behind them after a quick meal break, Baern notices another, larger and fast moving party of gnolls coming up behind them. Choosing caution, the party once again hides on the side of the road, using pass without trace to remove their tracks. The gnoll war party, which is clearly what this is, stops where the tracks end and begin to fan out. One of the giant hyena's with the gnolls smells our party and lunges to attack! The party strikes while they have the chance! Employing a clever strategy, they combine their magical abilities and create three giant constrictor snakes between a combination of polymorph, conjure animals and wild shape. Then the snakes begin to fly! They grapple the gnolls and fly up and drop them, causing increased damage and lots of confusion. The gnolls and hyenas put up a good fight but it is interrupted by an attack bu several weird spider shaped creatures with eel-like heads. They don't attack outright but do something to one of the gnolls who then leaves peacefully. They attempt to do the same to Eira, but she shrugs off the affects. The party then turns it attention to the remaining creatures. When the combat has ended, the party finds Jean is missing? Tracks indicate he walked off with the spider-creatures and then they suddenly stop. The party finds a tunnel beneath a trap door made to look like the terrain. They follow and after a couple hours traversing the tunnel, they surface near what appears to be the ruins of a city neighborhood over a large crack in the earth. The ruins are crawling with more of the eel-spider creatures, large and small. There, in the distance they thing they see Jean walking happily alongside a gnoll and several other creatures deeper into the ruins.

Taking a few minutes to peer into the ruins, our party wastes no time in jumping into combat. Eira and Tronc both begin calling lightning from the sky while Baern and Ouzel attack the creatures, who swarm out of the ruins in response! At one point both Baern and Ouzel become charmed by the creatures mind-bending but they are freed due to swift actions of their fellows. Eira is surprised by an invisible creature who then paralyzes her and nearly kills her before Tronc, in the form of a giant elf, comes to her rescue. Jean is freed from his charm and joins the fight! The party quickly turns the tables on the tide of attackers and suddenly in their minds they hear a call for peace. One of the larger creatures, a Neogi Master, speaks directly into their minds calling for an end to the slaughter.  The party accepts on the condition the neogi give them information about the area and their treasure! "We took your people and others to gather trade for The Masters and The Deep Ones. They require.....bodies. We did not know you were so strong or we would not have attacked you.  The Masters live below. They say they will rebuild....are rebuilding Abhirupata. We don't know what that means.   To get below..you must go to The Glass, there you will find The Wound. Do not go through the center, along the rim, there are tunnels, they will take you down." The party takes assorted coinage from the neogi and also find a clear gem that appears to hold a cloud inside (flashes of lightning can be seen within). They also bring out a bit of junk that appears to be a shortbow without a string. The party looks it over, and find it inscribed with the same ancient script on the coins they have found. The neogi laugh and tell them it is junk, they need a 'cell' to power it and the Masters keep all they can find to themselves. Fumbling with it a bit, the party finally remembers to pull out the small crystals that were made using the Hot Iron in their possession. The neogi master gasps as Jean slides the crystal into a socket and the bow strings itself with light.

Beneath the Surface: The party wanders the dark confines of the tunnels below the surface, utilizing Eira's ability to cast light at will to keep Jean and Tronc out of the dark. Giant insects burst through the walls attacking the party. The ankhegs are defeated and the party moves forward after healing through Jeans spellcasting. They find some markings on the walls, but none of it makes sense. Eira tries to guess their meaning, if any and the party enters a large cavern with chasms of unknown depths throughout. Large flying creatures surprise the party members scouting in the dark but fail to solidly connect. The party fights them off and finds their lair with some coin and two potion (one warm to the touch, one filled with a silvery liquid). The party continues exploring and eventually finds a large cavern filled with fungi of various sizes. There is a soft glow dimly illuminating the floor. The party enters and a loud shrieking emits from a nearby fungus. Two round, floating creatures with one large central eye bob towards the party. Jean rushes forward and slashes one open with his shortsword. It bursts in a cloud of spores and Jean and Baern are overcome with coughing fits, but not before Baern blasts and destroys another of the floating spheres. It was far enough away that it is of no danger to the party. A violet colored fungus lashes out at Jean but misses. Ouzel, transformed into a giant ape crushes it in his fists. The party gets the feeling of movement in the shadows to the north. Initially they see nothing but then they note several 'people' blending in among the mushrooms. These people appear to be mushrooms themselves and they watch dispassionately as Jean and Baern collapse in a fit of coughing. One of them steps forward and emits a cloud of spores from itself and gestures for the party to come closer. Eira, checking on Jean and Baern, identifies that they are diseased and both will die in less than a day is a cure is not found.

Having just finished a combat, the party nearly jumps into a fight with the mushroom people in front of them. Pausing long enough to realize the myconids (as they identify themselves) have made no hostile actions Eira allows one to envelop her in it's spore cloud and she finds she can comunicate telepathically! The myconids want no fight and were investigating the noise from the shrieker. When asked about the infection from the gas spore, they claim to have encountered it before but only in others, the fungus people seem unaffected by it. Other 'breathers' may be able to help. They live west of here. After hours of travel, the party enters tunnels that apear to be groomed, cleaner and wider though still perhaps carved by unknown beasts. The find a cavern that is filled with garbage and offal. They peek inside but upon hearing the faintest murmurings and evidence of movement they leave. They find an underground market-square in a large cavern. There are humanoids of all types walking about. The atmosphere is very 'rough and tumble' Fights either go on until someone dies or are quickly quashed by shaggy bestial faced humanoids that serve as bullies more than enforcers, but everyone gives them a wide berth. The market stalls fill a variety of needs. Vendors displaying food (various fungi, mosses and meat?), weapons and armor that appear scavenged, goods bearing the script of Abhirupata. You find a stall where a half-orc male is seen bandaging the wounds of another individual. He tells you, when asked that he has encountered the fungus you describe before. It is deadly and those infected often become confused and have delusions as if they were some other creature. " Some have purposely infected themselves after some infected reported seeing treasure in a hidden lair. Those either die from the infection or never return. Likely dead ." Myrk tells you he can make a cure for the infection but it requires a silver lichen from a cavern system to the north. None that have gone that way in the last few months have returned but if you can bring any back he will make the cure (for a price). If you can bring any extra back... then we can deal. The party travels another few hours north, Baern and Jean coughing intermittently. They find a fast flowing river with the rubble of what was perhaps a natural rock bridge below. As the party begins to work their way across a huge blue lizard with many legs rushes out of a narrow crevice in the wall and attacks. It approaches the party and blasts them with a bolt of lightning from its mouth! Jean, Baern and Eira are badly hurt. Tronc summons a giant snake which is quickly cut down by the multiple attacks from the monster. The group takes several more large hits before Eira casts charm monster and buys the party an hour. They quickly heal up and hurry down the tunnels with the behir following Eira  and are able to find a flooded cavern with the remnants of tools and structures. On the far side they find a few handfuls of what they assume is the silver lichen and, though the water stirs suspisciously, nothing immediately attacks Baern as he collects the lichen. Eira instructs the behir to guard them from whatever is in the water (through rudimentary gestures as they don't share a language). They then hurry back the way they came fearful of the charm monster expiring before they are able to get far. Once the party reaches the ruined bridge, they decide (after quickly glancing at the loot in the lair) to ambush the creature once it returns as they don't have time to colect everything before the spell expires. Through a clever combination of spells and melee, they defeat the creature and are able to return to the market with not only the silver lichen but new treasures as well.