Expedition 131: (W)hole

We defeat the shadow dragon and the dracolich, while the snake Nasher'Mythollow takes the Manufacture Hulk back to the Sparksouled, removing threats and pacifying the Felwood.

### Detailed Writeup

*My skin, my skin, trapped in the deep*
*Ripped from my corpse, my body they reaped*

*Dig, dig, dig, to restore my soul*

*Down to the deep to make me whole*

The party sets out into the Felwood, many buffed with various sources of necrotic resistance.

We first meet with the giant white snake, Nasher'Mythollow, and explain the plan. We will encounter the shadow dragon, the dracolich, and the manufacture hulk at the pit they have been digging. We hope that Nasher will take care of the manufacture hulk, disabling it but not destroying it, because it is the only way of making more Sparksouled. He offers to transport it to the Sparksouled himself, which seems like a good plan to us, as long as Valorie can Skywrite a message to the Sparksouled before the gigantic snake arrives at Highhall.

We chat with the snake while Bea uses Commune with Nature to locate the dragons. Finn asks what sort of animal he'd like to be polymorphed into, and we learn that the snake is not very creative, and afraid of heights (as he asks to be transformed into a smaller white snake). Ranag asks how old he is, which he answers cryptically "I am from before when it was very cold," which Ranag insightfully figures out means just this past winter. Does this gigantic snake only seem ancient, and is in fact very young, or does he suffer from memory loss or time distortion? Something to explore further.

As we approach the pit, we begin to hear, echoing loudly in our minds, an insistent chant:

*Whole...Whole...hole...Whole...hole...Whole...THE TIME IS NEAR...HOLE...HOLE...HOOOOOLLLE*

We prepare for battle, Might casts bless on all PCs and summons a demon named Zormar the Tormenter, Valorie casts Heroism on five members of the party, and Gonerton summons a starspawn abberation, which is an unholy abomination comprised of millions of tiny worms in the shape of a person.

The snake explodes outwards from the polymorph, like one of those prank cans of coiled snakes, and immediately absconds with the manufacture hulk. The dracolich turns invisible, but is blinded from a sunbeam spell. The shadow dragon uses its necrotic breath weapon repeatedly on us, but with necrotic resistance, heroism, and the fact that we are decently spread out, it does less damage than anticipated.

In the center of the pit there are four giant, zombified ants gnawing at the unstable ground, trying to release something. Finn and Ranag leap down and deal with that threat, Finn gracefully leaping and doing acrobatics down the side of the pit, and Ranag gliding down on Broadwings. With their Radiant damage, they make short work of the ants. However, after we finish off the ants, the dracolich uses a legendary action to disintegrate the ground and release the gibbering mouthers from the Eye Cloak Tannery beneath the ground. This causes some problems for Ranag and Finn, because the strength saves to be able to move and the wisdom saves to merely bear the presence of the gibbering mouthers prove a difficult obstacle, until Ranag is able to fly them both out of the very center of the pit.

Meanwhile, the others fight the dracolich and shadow dragon, who are tethered by a magical link, and share a hit point total. Valorie and Gonerton, our casters, manage to keep concentration and keep fire off of them by a masterful application of the spell Blink, and as such they tend not to exist on their turns, which was good. Bea, Gratitude, and Zormar do a lot of the damage to the two dragons. However, Gratitude unfortunately becomes the target of the dracolich, and he drops to 0 hit points - and immediately dissolves into a mass of plants and vines, and literally dissolves before our eyes.

In the stunning finale of the fight, Ranag draws the Eastern Blastrod and shoots twice, doing massive damage to the dragons, killing them with a big flourish. The gibbering mouthers dissolve, as have all the gibbering mouthers from the Eye Cloak Tannery. A serious moment of quiet befalls the Felwood, as every major threat to adventurers has been defeated by the shadow dragon, the manufacture hulk, and the dracolich - the Felwood is pacified.

Valorie manages to cast the Skywrite over Highhall just in time: "Manufacture Hulk Incoming. Transported by Large, Friendly Snake. Don't Attack."

Might suggests that Gratitude was probably a doppleganger, a creature pretending to be Gratitude. We leave the Felwood, come back with a cart, and do what we came to do - harvest a large amount of amber from the tower. We also find the dagger Satyr's Companion as we leave.