Abyses 40: Derrogorgone

# TL;DR

* Savants & Demonic Cult are dead.
* Demonic Cult were the ones causing the Earth Elementals to go mad, seemingly to weaken the city’s defenses.
* Stonespeaker Hgraam will help the Acquaintances in any way she can.
* Errde was unhappy the party helped Hgraam
* Ivis reluctantly refused to be the non-Duergar representative for Gracklstugh.
* The party was rewarded permanent residence, and paid several months of taxes on them in advance.
* The myconid Loobamub was chained to Ivis’ new bed, after fleeing the grove then being imprisoned and tortured by the Duergar.
* Fergus healed Loobamub, put it into suspended animation, and leveled up.

# Derrogorgone

* Ivis was stunned by the Derrogorgon’s furious head, petrified by visions of the Demogoron’s demiplane, cackling humanoids having their skin flensed from their bodies with scalding chains.
* The Derrogorgon then missed every attack it made against Ivis, causing the smiling head to laugh at his neighbor’s expense.
* Ivis then feigned a strike at the chuckling head, before redirecting his strike and sundering the furious noggin.
* As soon as his body hit the floor, the dark energies inhabiting the derro’s body reanimated it. Though the hacked up zombie proved no challenge to the party.

# Snooping

* When the Derrogogone fell, the pillar of faezerness that had extended from the magic circle fell, filling the room with thick faezerness but also providing a clearer view of the figure that stood in the center of the circle.
* The figure was a small statue of an earth elemental, with iron spikes and growths sprouting from various cracks along its body that began evaporating as soon as the ritual was stopped.
* The statue had a single word in Terran carved into its pedestal, after expending a gilded spell scroll Fergus was able to discern it was a terran name, Diorin.
* Bernhol was unable to discern anything specific about the circle, but gathered the statue was being used as some sort of effigy to remotely effect the earth elemental it depicted.
* The party looked through the various crates and documents throughout the cavern.
* Two of the crates had iron and stone pieces that seemed to form a larger whole. Fergus, still under the effect of comprehend languages, saw more terran names. Lios, Bregund, and Rihuud
* A smaller metal box held some money, magical items, and a tome depicted some of the rituals the Savants were conducting. Most of it was written in dwarven, but some passages were in abyssal. It also revealed the Derrogorgon’s true name was Narrak, a vocal member of the Savants who fervently sought equality for derro within the city. Bernhol was interested in reading through it thoroughly at a later date.
* After doing one last sweep through the hideout, the party saddled the stone and iron onto Quell and returned to Gracklstugh.

# Pitton Hotel

* After a very long day, the party’s first priority was finding some lodging. Ideally somewhere they could store their findings without needing to worry about one of the many hostile groups within the city breaking in and stealing them.
* Ivis used his powerful presence and mounting influence within Gracklstugh to find temporary lodging the party could safely store their findings, a hotel within the Duergar area of Gracklstugh that was relatively friendly to outsiders known as the Pitton Hotel.
* The party hunkered down for the night and discussed their future plans, while Bernhol began assembling the pieces they found. They decided it would be best to speak with Stonespeaker Hgraam, the leader of the Earth Elemental community within Gracklstugh, the Cairngorm Cavern. They wanted to inform her of the apparent cause of the recent madness plaguing the elementals, and learn why the cult would put so much effort into driving them mad in the first place. And Bernhol figured out the pieces formed more earth elemental statues, but these ones more closely resembled the two-headed mad elementals the party had occasionally seen.
* In the morning the party heard an unexpected knock at the door. It was a member of the hotel staff waking up the party for the complimentary breakfast.

# Hgraam’s Homies

* As the party entered the Cairngorm Caven Fergus heard some rattling chainmail with no visible source. He cast See Invisibility to reveal a heavy Stone Guard presence in the cavern, despite it traditionally being exclusive to the elementals.
* Hgraam recognized the party from their first time in the city, and allowed them to speak with her in her office.
* After sharing their findings, Hgraam asked the party to hand over whatever evidence they found so she could hopefully revoke the decision to have Errde’s Stone Guard police her people’s home. This included the tome which Bernhol never had the chance to read.
* When asked, she said the reason why Narrak’s cult may have been targeting the earth elementals specifically is that they represent an indomitable pillar of the Deep King’s military. Since elementals began going mad they’ve gradually lost their right to move about freely, and the idea of exile them entirely has been garnering support. If this were to pass the city’s military would be much weaker, and any plans Narrak had to lead an uprising would have a far greater chance of succeeding.
* Hgraam deeply thanked the party, awarded them a 500 GP emerald, and said she’d do whatever she could to help them during their time in the city.

# Errde Angy

* Next the party went to Errde’s office to claim their reward for finally putting an end to the Savants, and to discuss her proposition of having Ivis take a political position within Gracklstugh.
* Most of the Stone Guard were still busy keeping the Derro protests from reaching too far out of hand.
* Errde gave Ivis a compendium detailing more information about Mindflayers biology and society.
* They told Errde they finished off the cult, what they learned about them, and about the party’s conversation with Hgraam.
* Errde was please the Savants were finished off, but unhappy that they delivered the evidence to Hgraam without speaking to her first. She apparently had her own plans for resolving the mad elemental issue.
* Discussion then shifted to Ivis’ potential as the new voice for the non-duergar of Gracklstugh, now that the Savants were dead.
* This position would allow Ivis greater insight and influence into the goings-ons of the city, and full access to the city’s network of teleportation circles. With the big caveat being he could not do anything that may potentially put the city in jeopardy, which had the unspoken implication that if Ivis were to threaten House Oblodra it would put Errde in hot water and she would have no choice but to help the Drow hunt him down in order to save face.
* Ivis reluctantly declined, Errde was disappointed but unsurprised. After hearing his choice she replaced one of the dorm keys on her desk with one she pulled from her desk drawer.
* The topic then shifted to the housing they were promised for ending the Savant’s. Bernhol took two rooms, planning to use one as a laboratory. Fergus took one room, Rat King elected to remain in the dumpster. Ivis also took one room and was given the key Errde took out of her drawer. Ivis and Fergus paid a year’s worth of property tax in advance, Bernhol paid for 6 months, and the party went to see their new property.

# Who? Did What? With a Mushroom Man?

* The Savant’s old dormitories were nice, not quite as luxuries as the Pitton Hotel they stayed at the night before but much nicer than the Bullette’s Burrow where they had been staying out of necessity.
* The rooms were furnished, and air conditioned. And Ivis’ room was occupied.
* Loobamub, the Basidia-loyal leader of the Circle of Hunters the Acquaintances had met in the Neverlight Grove, was chained to Ivis’ bed, shriveled, covered in open wounds, and missing a finger.
* Fergus and Ivis immediately used their divine connections to heal it, which closed the wounds but did nothing about its missing finger or weakened state. Next they asked it what happened.
* After the Acquaintances left the Neverlight Grove Phylo had launched a full-scale war on the Troglodytes. Basidia led those who were loyal to it out of the village. It had the idea to flee to Gracklstugh using the teleportation circle in the Fungal Wilds, but was unsure if it would be safer than taking their chances wandering the Underdark. Basidia was ready to be the first to risk itself, but Loobamub stopped it and insisted on going instead. They agreed that if Loobamub did not return within thirty minutes they would assume the worst and venture on. As soon as Loobamub teleported to Gracklstugh it was taken as a prisoner of the city. It was ceaselessly questioned by the Duergar, about the Acquaintances, the situation in Neverlight Grove, and most persistently about the teleporter’s password. Loobamub told them everything they asked except for the password, to which they began torturing him, but it held firm. His shriveled state was not a result of anything the Duergar did, but rather from going to long without melding with a Myconid Sovereign which would eventually prove fatal.
* The Acquaintances were bewildered by this, and had many questions about Errde’s involvement. But their main priority was stabilizing Loobamub, though they had no idea how they could. Rat King fished some Blue Caps out of his bag, which Loobamub was grateful for but it didn’t seem to cure his condition.
* Ivis asked Fergus if he could somehow put Loobamub into a stasis until they found some way of fulfilling his need. Fergus was confident he could with The Verdant’s help, but wouldn’t be able to perform the ritual until the next morning. The party spend a tense night trying to sleep and tending to the Myconid, who was physically unable to sleep even in the best circumstances.
* In the morning Fergus sat down and began the ritual, after around 10 minutes he began glowing with a pale green light that smelled of grass and trees. As he desperately tried to safely suspend the metabolic processes of this creature that was not quite plant, fungi, or animal, Fergus had to more deeply connect with the alien ecology of the Underdark than he ever had before. As he did so he felt The Verdant’s presence, and she too wanted to help Loobamub in whatever way she could, in addition to allowing Loobamub to rest for the first time in its life Fergus had also restored its body using magic more powerful than he had ever been able to conjure on his own. Afterwards he instinctively knew his connection to The Verdant, and to the life of the Underdark, had grown stronger.