The Drow’s Bane, Lela, and the seahorse mounts, exit the viscous portal onto a massive expanse of barren land leading toward gigantic stone blocks on the underwater horizon. A sickly green illumination emanates from the stone blocks lighting up the area in a dull glow, enough for the party to see Crazy Oman fifty feet away; he beckons them to follow him as he swims toward the stones. Lela, still holding Royce’s hand, continues to tremble in fear as Royce motions her to jump on Sparkle; he looks at the others with a worrisome glance as they continue onward.
An hour later, the party sees the stone blocks begin to take shape; the glowing stone resembles the remnants of a massive titanic city. Pillars, stairs and ramps come into view under arches that spread out across the city; gigantic doorways now in ruins, suggest the previous denizens to be titans or other gigantic creatures. The party now feels as if they are being watched; a feeling familiar to them from past encounters with beholders and mind flayer kin.
Nong calls out to Crazy Oman, “Where are you taking us?” Crazy Oman replies, “My master is not far now,” as he points forward; Nong can barely make out a huge pit in the ground ahead of them. “We are going to the Pit of Blasphemous Dark to summon him. Keep those seahorses alive until then,” he says licking his lips while staring at Nong. Nong, Naismith, Mordrock and Royce give each other an unsettling and suspicious look after hearing the news. “I don’t trust him one bit,” says Naismith. “I have heard stories about a great ancient city in the ocean depths that resembles this. A great terrifying god is rumored to be asleep there. I only hope Oman is not taking us to meet a god,” says Royce.
An hour later they approach a large pit one hundred feet in diameter. The pit descends into darkness and the walls consist of a black iridescent material that appears to undulate when you focus on them. Crazy Oman begins to dive into the pit and motions the group to follow him. The seahorses buck and cry out, resisting approaching the pit. The party calms their seahorses except for Beatrice who refuses to acquiesce to Naismith’s gentle pets until Royce interjects and calms her down. Nong stares down into the pit and even with the help of the Robe of Eyes, he cannot see anything except darkness below.
Reluctantly, the party descends together.
The descent into the pit is quite unsettling and it causes everyone’s sanity to begin to slip. The seahorses, Lela and the party are unable to mentally resist the alien environment and its ability to wreak havoc on their minds; Royce and Mordrock notice their seahorses acting odd and so is Lela. Royce, Naismith, Nong and Mordrock also feel an entity probe their thoughts, absorbing everything about who the party is and what they are looking for. They have felt entities probe their minds before, and often are not strong enough to prevent such intrusions.
The descent at the bottom narrows until the diameter is fifteen feet across. Crazy Oman stands below looking toward the northern black wall. “The summoning chamber is through here,” as he disappears through the northern black wall. Nong moves up to the wall and sticks his head through; instantly he feels another attack on his sanity sucking more away. He does see beyond the black wall however, a large cavern with a dais and stone wall seventy feet ahead. He motions back to the party and heads through. As each creature disappears through the wall, it feels more of its sanity slip away. By now, the seahorses are doing loops in the water and Lela is hysterically laughing, unable to control herself. Royce decides to cast Greater Restoration on himself to halt the consequences.
The summoning chamber is surrounded by black iridescent walls that form a protective barrier around it, except for a twenty foot entrance directly across from the wall the party exited. Crazy Oman swims up to the dais and spreads his hands across the stone wall; this wall resembles the stone wall that became a portal after he smeared his worm’s blood across it. The chamber is dark except for Royce’s sword, who is barely emanating enough light which is abnormal; Royce feels uneasiness from his sword, a feeling he has not felt from it, in a very long time.
The party looks around and sees corridors leading off in both the East and West directions which all end with black walls. No one else appears to be in the chamber with them. Crazy Oman motions them to approach the wall. “You must do what I did with my worm to summon my master. The creature must be alive when you rub its blood across the wall and rub until it dies within your grasp,” he proclaims as he swims above the party watching intently for their next move. Naismith is very uneasy about this and just scowls at Crazy Oman; Nong takes Pony up to the stone wall and looks back to the others, who reluctantly follow him.
Blood fills the water as the screaming seahorses collapse as their death takes hold. Lela sitting behind the group begins to cry and hold herself as she witnesses this gruesome act. The wall begins to absorb the blood. The party releases their dead seahorses and steps back from the dais. The wall begins to churn and soften into viscous black goo. Suddenly, Gigantic black tentacles shoot out of the wall and spread out above the party into the chamber. A huge bulbous body follows as it moves onto the dais spewing a dark green aura all around it. The writhing tentacles surround each party member as they hear a loud voice in their minds, “You have summoned the great Yokagoggar! Bow before me for I know all that you seek!” The Drow’s Bane flinch as the loud voice speaks to them and notice Crazy Oman groveling on the ground next to the dais. Then, Crazy Oman speaks in Deep Speech, “Mighty master, I have brought you these servants who seek your wisdom. They need your guidance and in return, will serve you as I do.” Nong stares back at Crazy Oman in disgust as he comprehends the speech.
All is silent in everyone’s mind except for Nong. “You hold power…you serve…Orcus…no mortal can grasp the wand’s true power…,” says Yokagoggar telepathically to Nong. “Bring the wand to me and I will spare your miserable existence…the wand is no longer yours orc…it is your gift to me…NOW!!!”
Nong can feel the wand’s emotional response swell up inside him; he feels its anger, rage and hunger for destruction. Nong wickedly smiles, moves closer to Yokagoggar, and holds the wand out; as opposed to surrendering, he attacks the huge creature instead.
With the tension in the room now released thanks to Nong, Royce, Naismith and Mordrock spring into action. Yokagoggar responds by spewing out a black ink that causes psychic damage and eats away at the party’s sanity causing more Greater Restoration spells to be cast in response. The ink covers the whole area including Lela, who is huddled on the ground; she stops moving as soon as she comes into contact with it.
The party can hear in their minds the rage and confidence of Yokagoggar as it continues to strike every party member. Crazy Oman responds by attacking the party with lightning strikes, while screaming “Traitors! You shall be punished for your treachery!!” Two large creatures emerge from the black walls behind the party; the misshapen creatures, who are all arms and teeth, swim close to the party and unleash a fury of blows connecting with everyone around them. The battle continues with the party enduring punishing blows by the creatures, Yokagoggar spewing sanity cleansing ink and Oman casting spells.
There is a twinkle in Nong’s eye as he moves to a misshapen creature, strikes it several times, followed by a snap of his fingers; the result, instant death for the creature. Nong’s next victim is Crazy Oman, followed by the second misshapen creature. As the tide of battle shifts in favor of the Drow’s Bane, Nong feels for the first time, fear from Yokagoggar.
The party continues to wail on the huge creature until Nong hears in his mind, “ENOUGH! Let me live and I will show you what you are looking for.” Nong screams out, “Halt! It wants to negotiate!” as Royce, Mordrock and Naismith hold their next attack in response. Nong swims closer to Yokagoggar and says, “show us the way foul creature and I will let you live. Foolishness means instant death!” as he raises the wand preparing to strike.
Yokagoggar begins to crawl backwards through the wall as its tentacles lash out and penetrate the mouths, noses and eyes of the Drow’s Bane. Immediately they feel images being implanted into their minds from the tentacle invasion. They imagine a path starting from just beyond the Citadel of 10,000 Pearls descending into the depths of the Fathomless Caves. The path winds through cracks and crevices, breaching through lairs of unfamiliar creatures and continuing into a cavern filled with green water and more unfamiliar creatures. Beyond, the path continues to where the water crests, to reveal an air filled cavern.
The tentacles release themselves from the intrusion and slip back into the wall; Yokagoggar is gone from the summoning chamber. The Drow’s Bane take a deep breath and register what just happened to them. Royce sees the body of Lela and swims toward her. He lifts her into his hands and casts a resurrection spell that breathes life back into her body. She opens her eyes, sees Royce’s face smiling down upon her, and begins to cry in overwhelming emotion. Royce embraces her and whispers to her, “it will be alright, Lela, we will be home soon.”
Nong and Mordrock decide to explore the cavern for treasure. Mordrock looks through a black wall, which zaps his sanity, to find a smaller chamber beyond. He moves into the chamber that contains a large number of pods fastened to the walls, ceiling and floor. He notices the pods agitate as he approaches them. He glances around the room but finds nothing of interest. When he moves too close to a pod, a tentacle bursts out of it and swipes at Mordrock who runs back out of the wall, taking another sanity hit. He explains to the party what he found at the same time an annoyed Naismith exclaims, “Let’s get out of here now. We don’t need any treasure as we survived with our lives and got what we came for!”
Nong and Mordrock ignore Naismith and explore the black wall behind the summoning chamber. Mordrock steps through it expecting to find a chamber for the cost of his sanity but realizes the wall is dense. If he steps further in, it will cost more sanity. He pulls the rope signaling for Nong to pull him out.
The final attempt at a treasure hunt is from the Ethereal Plane where the party and Lela go next. Mordrock and Nong penetrate the thick black wall; they continue walking for fifteen minutes until the wall opens into a small chamber; fortunately, their ethereal plane movement does not cost them their sanity. Inside the chamber they see Yokagoggar on top a mass of coins and items; four small structures surround it channeling dark energy into the huge creature. “It’s healing which is not good!” says Royce.
Mordrock and Nong focus but struggle to make out any details besides coins that Yokogoggar is sitting upon. The party spends five minutes debating whether or not to materialize into the chamber to steal treasure, before making a hasty escape across the planes. As they get enough courage to do so, Royce detects Yokagoggar has noticed them from the Ethereal Plane. “Shit! He sees us. He knows we are here!”
With that, the party decides to abandon ship and recall themselves back to Catchbreeze, empty handed.