129: Spawn of Tsathoggua

Noon of Ulanra 25th
Experience: 10,509 xp each (188,709 total)

Following the combined trail of wholesomeness resonating from the hidden artifact and the awful tremor of the Yth presence, the party emerged from the catacombs before the ancient archdruids' table, piled with moldering filth and warded by blight barons. Despite the group's brutal ambush (which obliterated one of the barons and its rotwing resurrection), a second baron was far enough from the strike to remain unscathed. It called up from the blasphemous grounds a horrible legion of tortured elementals.

As the party spread across the battlefield, engaging the monsters with steel and spell, all could sense a growing menace. The Yth was near, though it wasn't until Thamior plunged his legendary blade into the fouled soils that it appeared. It was a titan of a toad, suffused with seeping tumors and extraneous flesh tags. It exuded a horrid stench, and its blubbery lips dribbled slimes of such vile potency they could make a ghoul retch. Shard recognized the monster as the spawn of Tsathoggua, one of the Ythlords that destroyed Erdu, and called it to task. The entity was not nearly as simple-minded as it appeared, and chided the party for braving his corruption, which already affected the majority of the party in a variety of unexpected psychosis and neurotic ticks. He tongue-lashed, pounced, and invoked twisted psionics, but the party weathered the initial attack well, particularly the feladrin, who managed to roll away from being crushed. Unfortunately, his luck would not last, as he was promptly swallowed whole.

Thamior's state inspired the Queen of Saspien into casting the aberrant into the deepest pits of Hell, not an all together easy task given the Yth's might. Her success freed Thamior, but the fel contracted a hideous disease in the gut of the star-toad, and quickly took on the likeness of a green-hued rotwing, which he managed to dispel only with great difficulty.

While the spawn was absent, the party focused on removing the surviving baron from the field, and thus avoided impending crops of tortured elementals immune to their attacks. When the Yth did return, dazed from the ordeal, Shard shouted for a clear path and unleashed the power of her mythic spear, Lazshil. Transmuting into a primal streak of white, the lightning bolt cut the battlefield in half and carried the Yth to its final resting place, impaled without any chance of escape. Slouched and wounded upon the electrical current, it called to its brethren in the racking discord of Deep Speech, a warning perhaps.

Wounded, the spawn wouldn't have perish had Narra not triggered an event through Shard's Crystal of Erdu that took even the aberrant by total surprise. Harnessing the forces of multiple worlds, focused into an irresistable power by the former goddess, not even the extradimensional putrescence of a Yth could endure. It seemed to scour all facets of existence clean of the monstrosity and furthermore reverse the very sands of time, restoring the estates to a stunning natural equilibrium. Unfortunately, the vampires of the fallen House did not return with the health of the land, but the stain upon the queendom was entirely undone in a force which inspired hope. Perhaps fighting the Yth was an option after all...

Encouraged, the party returned to their ships, castles, and agendas, promising to return soon and choose the first of many targets. Each night they were apart only underlined the urgency, every last star in the sky dead and gone, save nine red lights.

Gained Resources: Hood of the Far Seer (Tyvis), the health and security of Saspien
Expended Resources: House Calalas (wiped out)

New NPCs: Spawn of Tsathoggua (dead): An accomplished Yth of greater stock, part of an aberrant genus specializing in corruption and the decay of host worlds. It was responsible for the fall of the House of Calalas, and the ruinous seed that germinated into the Green God.

Plot Developments

• The combining of power sources through Shard has proven the bane of the Yth. There is the potential to oppose them by uniting, both Creations varied armies AND in the powers of the party. It seems to add another level of purpose for why the Ythlord work so adamantly on sewing strife and creating despots.
  

Next Session: The party attends to pressing matters before reconvening and coming to a consensus who or what will be their primary concern for the immediate future.