The Ziggurat Beckons

and

Justin as the DM

"**The Ziggurat Beckons**" is the fourteenth episode of Rise of the Arcane, the third season of Tales From Del'nasra

A strange, inverted ziggurat sits at the bottom of the Marrowdeeps, and the Fonkey Casuals have found their way inside in the hopes the sword they seek may lurk within these dark, ominous halls.

## Episode Synopsis

#### **Previously on Tales from Del'nasra**

*"The Fonkey Casuals arrived in Tanbrook and were pointed to the direction of Fontaine, a grippli herbalist and healer and upon meeting with him, he restored Hopper’s age under the condition that the party retrieved some plants called voratides from the depths of the Marrowdeeps. You all agreed and set out for the lake, leaving Cornelius behind with Fontaine to keep him safe. You arrived at the lake and saw it stretch as far as you could see, was incredibly deep, so deep in fact that the water appeared black and there was this strange unnatural fog that seemed to cling to the surface of the water unmoving.*

*Leek wildshaped into a giant seahorse and pulled a rowboat with everyone inside out into the lake, where Antyr produced the Fonkey and cast Water Breathing from it. Everyone painfully developed gills, but it seemed the object was cursed as it only allowed those under its effects to breathe water, so everyone aside from Vonkar began to suffocate in the boat.*

*You all leapt into the water and wrapped the ropes around Leek and were carried into the depths until you came across these towering plants covered in fronds that seemed to be digesting aquatic creatures and various humanoids. You all successfully harvested the fronds and noticed that being injured by the necrosis from the fronds, or casting necromancy magic seemed to make this frigid water more comfortable and much warmer.*

*You all swam deeper towards a green glow at the bottom of the lake, stumbling upon a massive, inverted ziggurat on the lake bottom. Investigating the exterior and deeming it safe to enter, you all swarm inside, Leek dispelled the Fonkey’s effects. Exiting the water, you found yourselves in a flooded entry chamber with the words “He is the first and will be the last” carved onto a door stained with very old blood.*

*Antyr cut their palm and wiped some blood on the door causing it to open and reveal a shadowy, dark corridor beyond with mist clinging to the floor. You all proceeded forwards, those that were walking felt small, furry shapes running across their feet. Hopper tried sensing the possible location of the sword you were looking for and decided to take a left at the first junction you came upon. The left corridor led into a chamber filled with anguish human faces carved into the walls while the mist-covered floor was littered with weapons and armor ranging from more modern in design to extremely ancient.*

*A dagger was picked up and pocketed by Antyr which just as this had occurred, six shadowy figures rose up from out of the mist and flew towards you all, screaming in rage as they did so."*

#### The Episode

As the Fonkey Casuals fought off the shadows that manifested in the chamber, they began to notice that each shadow seemed to resemble Antyr but slightly varied in ways. However, the party worked extremely well together and were able to dispatch the shadows with relative ease due to Torger stunning them and effectively removing them from play. After these shadows were defeated the party noticed that some of the armor and weapons covering the floor seemed to match the weapons and armor carried by the party and that the anguished faces carved on the walls of this chamber all resembled the shadows they had just fought.

Confused as to what was going on the party proceeded in the opposite direction down the corridor and came across a large stone archway covered in carvings of various undead creatures and a large barbed portcullis. Before proceeding deeper into the ziggurat the party took a quick short rest and Torger opened the portcullis by knocking on the archway. They all ascended the crumbling stone steps and came to a large room with a mural painted onto the walls. The mural depicted an army of vampires with glowing red eyes, pale skin and visible fangs in armour, wielding red and black banners being led by a pale blue skinned elf with dark blue almost black hair. The elf resembled Antyr and some of the vampires resembled members of the Fonkey Casuals, aside from Vonkar who was absent from the mural. The elf and vampires were fighting an army of lamias, and a selection of humans in revealing yet painful looking barbed clothes and armour appeared to be fighting alongside these lamias. Hopper asked Antyr if they had any memories of such an event, and Antyr did not and asked that they all move on.

The mural room led into yet another corridor with three possible directions. The party chose to go left again and came into a chamber with three rotten wooden coffins nestled in alcoves and a stone table piled high with humanoid body parts, some more rotten than others. Hopper decided to open each coffin while Grin, Vonkar and Torger prepared for something to burst out. Instead, each coffin was empty aside from some gold coins, some gems and two spell scrolls; *chimes of midnight* and *atrophy*. Antyr took the scrolls and the party left the chamber, returning to the t-junction and headed to the right this time, entering into a chamber with a very tangible unholy presence. The walls of this room were covered in stone shelves were meticulously arranged urns, canopic jars, jewels and other trinkets were set. Realizing this room may be a mistake to mess with and poke around in the party left and proceeded down the remaining corridor in the junction.

This brought them down a disturbing and confusing corridor for Antyr, as this final corridor was filled with alcoves and nestled within each alcove was a glass coffin filled with a well preserved corpse of what appeared to be Antyr but varying in appearance. Each coffin was marked with a plaque that said "Antyr Xiloscient" and was labelled with a year going as far back as the New Zenith which was thousands of years ago, and more recently as three years prior. Antyr knelt down by one of these coffins that contained the body of themselves as a child, Antyr scratched a name into the plaque and told the party they needed to proceed forward, grabbing onto Torger for support and closing their eyes so they didn't have to see these variants any longer.

After a few minutes the corridor came out into a large chamber where a massive, grotesque beating heart was suspended from the ceiling by veins. There was a large, visible figure within the heart illuminated by some form of light and floating in a fluid. They also found an open notebook on the ground which was mostly turned into mulch from the blood soaked floor, but one page had remained intact at the back of the book and was written about a couple hundred years ago and detailed another group of adventurers journey through this ziggurat but it ended badly for them as the party discovered these adventurers ensnared and crushed within the veins on the ceiling. Not wanting to mess around with the heart and meet the same fate, the party proceeded down the corridor behind the heart, eventually coming to a stone door with Elvish script carved into it which said; *“Here lies the final rest of Xerion Talyns, the Bloody Cipher, The Everlasting and the First Immortal.”*

The door opened as the party approached revealing a very small chamber where the elf from the mural was imprisoned with a powerful, thrumming circle of magic in the centre of the room. The elf however was slightly skeletal as their face was nothing but a skull and visible vampire fangs. Behind the elf's body was an altar of black stone covered in more elvish script which said; *"Upon this altar, remnants from my obelisks that have fallen out of time, cords from my home, and words in my hand shall be placed, unveiling your true worth."* The party then realized that this place was most likely the Marrow Halls as described on the obelisk in the jungle.

Seeming to sense their presence, the elf's eyes flared with red light and a ghostly visage floated out from the skeleton and addressed the party by sniffing each of them and relaying some sort of cryptic introduction to each of them. One of these phrases seemed to trouble Leek who immediately shut down and retreated into their mind. This ghost-elf introduced themselves as Xerion Talyns, the first to discover lichdom and the last due to how time passes for them. Xerion offered to answer a few questions for the party as they had brought something of his in the form of Ciphersworn, and this seemed to please Xerion. Hopper asked if he knew where the sword they were looking for was and he gave them the location of Drowned Maiden Reef but warned them that a being known to them made way for the reef three days prior and that this being was Kastagar, the Architect of Sorrowed Gloom.

He also revealed more information about the obelisks and the Grand Restoration. The obelisks function as doorways for his chosen one and can be used as gateways back to the New Zenith during the War of Ascension to get more answers about the Grand Restoration as it was during this war that the path towards it began. He explained that the Grand Restoration was inevitable and that the magical surges were caused by the ley lines waking up after being subdued for thousands of years and fighting off the corruption that had tainted them, likening these magical surges to antibodies fighting off an infection. He said that these surges would get worse and eventually destroy the world as they knew it, but also restore it at the same time with the ley lines bringing something down from the sky.

Curious if there was a way to stop the Grand Restoration, Antyr asked if there was any possible thing they could do to stop it. Xerion mentioned that it was inevitable but there may be ways to reduce the amount of damage done when it occurred, explaining that the Ley Guardians are aware of the damage that will be done and have for some reason been shipping vast quantities of raw Cathadiuum crystals to the capital cities around Del'nasra. When the party asked if he knew of any other sources of Cathadiuum he mentioned that there may be some deep below the City of Embers in the Undercity. During these conversations it was also revealed that Xerion was indeed some variation of Antyr and that his version of the Fonkey Casuals had indeed become vampires as seen in the mural, but they were all destroyed as they chose to forgive and redeem The Creep when they finally confronted him.

Agreeing to learn whatever secrets Xerion had to share, Antyr placed the stone from the obelisk, a page from their spellbook, and their astral cord onto the altar. Each of the items flared with magic and something seemed to get siphoned out of each. Xerion mentioned there was one final test to see Antyr's worth, and the ghost of Xerion faded causing Antyr to have a euphoric sort of brain freeze as the skeleton and ziggurat began to crumble causing the ziggurat to begin to flood.

There was a sound of ripping flesh and spilling liquid from the previous chamber as slow, thunderous footsteps began to walk down the corridor towards the party. Each of them had a few moments to prepare so Grin cast *Darkness* and flew up to the ceiling, Torger and Vonkar both enlarged themselves with Vonkar also encasing his body in solid adamantine. Leek summoned his wild-fire spirit Cabbage and the rest of the party situated themselves around the room preparing to face whatever was approaching.

#### After the Break

The lumbering figure approached, appearing to be a ten-foot tall hulking monstrosity that barely resembled Antyr. It had a large gaping mouth on its torso that seemed to emanate echoing screams every few seconds. Antyr cast *motes of eclipse* towards the entity, discovering that it was resistant to force damage. Torger and Vonkar immediately began pummelling away at the Astral Reaver with Torger dealing some significant damage and Vonkar grappling onto the creature.

Leek cast a 3rd-level *Scorching Ray* towards the Astral Reaver dealing some decent damage while Cabbage fired a Flame Seed towards the Reaver and also successfully hurting it. Doe kept their distance at the back of the chamber and cast *Dissonant Whispers* while providing words of encouragement to their allies with their Bardic Inspiration. Grin, concealed within the darkness on the ceiling used Hexblade's Curse on the Astral Reaver and fired their crossbow using Sharpshooter scoring a critical hit on the Astral Reaver and dealing some decent damage to it.

Realizing its foes were tough, the Astral Reaver let out a bellowing scream from its torso dealing significant psychic damage to members of the party and causing Leek to drop immediately to 0 hit-points due to how poorly they failed on the saving throw and causing Cabbage to revert back to being a teddy bear. The psychic blast also caused Vonkar to lose concentration on his *enlarge/reduce*. Another round erupted with more blows being dealt to the Astral Reaver, with Vonkar getting big once more through his Giant's Might ability. Doe brought Leek back to consciousness with a *Cure Wounds*, and the party continued to wallop on this monstrosity.

Torger threw a strange, veiny green orb at the Reaver which seemed to catch it in an infinite loop falling from the floor to ceiling and picking up in pace to terminal velocity in a matter of moments. This made hitting the Reaver with attacks incredibly difficult, with everyone failing to strike a blow on the creature. As it continued to fall through it emitted another discordant scream from its torso which caused Leek, Torger and Doe to all drop to 0 hit-points. Seeing that another one of those psychic screams could possibly end things for the party, Antyr fired a final Motes of Eclipse towards the Reaver and killed it as its body continued to fall through the doorways created by Torger.

The party were all revived, battered and bruised as more pieces of the ziggurat began to crumble as the flooding continued to get worse and worse.

## Featured Characters

### Player Characters

* Antyr Xiloscient
* Doe
* Grin
	+ Cabbage
* Hopper Thimblefoot
* Leek
* Torger Otrson
* Vonkar Eldsaga

### Mentioned

* Auntie Gothel
* Baphomet
* The Creep
* Duskreaper Aelinor
* Graz'zt
* Kastagar, Architect of Sorrowed Gloom
* Orcus