The Devourer Awakens
Seeking answers to the many questions facing them, the heroes sought out the assistance of Granius, a local loremaster who had served as mentor to Stannis Alensin. The portly wizard agreed to look into the mysterious omen given by the evil cultist encountered in the caverns of Zeccas the beholder. What was the Devourer, and who or what would awaken it? After leaving several recovered items with Granius for identification, the heroes returned to the caverns to recover the fallen body of Alarion’s shadow dire wolf steed.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the caverns seemed deserted. In the week since the heroes’ last visit, it seemed that the beholder—along with any remaining minions or allies—had left the area. Not wanting to wait around for anything to return, the heroes quickly raised Agathon the wolf from the dead, then made their way back to Helmsport.
Upon their return, they went back to Granius to see if he had learned anything in their absence. The loremaster, surprised to see them, claimed that they had already been back to claim their identified magic items, mere hours earlier. What’s more, Granius said that the heroes had asked him to accompany them back to the ruins of Khundrukar, but that he had declined, preferring to remain hard at work at his studies. The heroes realized that an impostor was afoot, and immediately suspected their former friend, Seth McCullin. After all, this wouldn't be the first time Seth pulled a fast exit with his friends' possessions in tow. A quick scry by Granius revealed that Seth was nowhere near Helmsport, which only deepened the mystery.
With the only lead seeming to point to Khundrukar, four heroes—Adarrial Smythe, Alarion Northsea, Beran Findalson, and Duran Fortnite, along with cohorts Verdigris the dragon and Rexander the hound archon—descended beneath Helmsport to follow the trail of the impostor. As they entered the subterranean complex, the heroes heard a strange, sibilant chanting echoing down the tunnels: “Laogzed, Laogzed, Laogzed.”
Quiet scouting revealed a group of troglodytes engaged in a religious ritual, led by a priest who stood over the body of an obese human. The heroes watched in horror as the troglodyte gutted the human, releasing a burst of mystic energy. The characters cursed their slow reactions and sprang forth from positions of hiding as the entire cavern began to quake. Though too late to help the sacrificial victim, the heroes nevertheless wreaked terrible vengeance upon the troglodytes responsible for his death. When the troglodyte cleric fell, it changed form, revealing itself as not one of that reptilian race, but rather as a shape-shifting doppelganger—perhaps even the very impostor who had tricked Granius earlier!
Then the very stone of the cavern floor cracked and split upon, belching forth a horrible stench. Rising up from the crevasse was an enormous scaled creature, its very skin oozing with putrid pus. Its enormous maw gaped wide enough to swallow a horse, and the heroes knew instantly that this was the Devourer whose appearance had been foretold—Laogzed the Devourer, horrible demon-god of the troglodytes.
Now battle began in earnest, as the heroes stood their ground against the foul creature called from the depths of the Abyss itself. At one point, the creature seemed poised to swallow up Duran, but Rexander bravely traded places with the cleric, suffering that fate himself instead. Finally, Duran struck the killing blow against the demon-god, and it collapsed into a heap of putrescence. Rexander survived, yet the dark energies held within the Devourer claimed another victim instead, washing over Laogzed’s slayer like a festering miasma of evil.
When Duran regained his senses, he realized that in its death throes, Laogzed had delivered upon him a dying curse: Duran’s link with his deity, Altius the Highfather, had been severed. As if the demon-god had simply reached inside the cleric’s soul and closed a spigot, Duran could no longer channel holy power into spells.
Exhausted from the struggle, and confused and horrified by Duran’s loss, the heroes returned to the surface. The cleric went to the church, bringing with him a book of dark rituals and a sacrificial knife recovered from the doppelganger leading the troglodyte ritual, both of which he turned over to Lorcan—formerly the chief inquisitor, and now the new Bishop of the Western Province—for destruction. The other characters met again with Granius, explaining the events that had just occurred. Both Lorcan and Granius agreed to research the Devourer’s dying curse, to see what could be done for Duran.
A few days later, Lorcan announced that the Church of Helmsport—in an effort to combat the cultist activities of recent days—was officially banning the possession of tomes such as the ones recovered from the cultists in the heroes’ last two adventures. Anyone possessing such books of evil knowledge was hereby required to turn them over to the church for burning. The risk of such volumes falling into the wrong hands was simply too great to allow them to exist.
This announcement sent a wave of concern through the minds of local sages, including Granius. As a member of the League of Scrolls, Granius held all knowledge as sacred, and could not in good conscience agree to its destruction, regardless of origin. The decree resulted in an exodus of wizards, sages, and other learned individuals from Helmsport. Granius packed up his library and traveled to Blackmere City, where his former pupil, Stannis, had recently constructed a fortified tower. In an ironic twist of fate, the master now became tenant to the student, as Stannis welcomed Granius into his home.
This renewed alliance proved useful, as together the two Scrollkeepers were able to discover information about the death-curse of Laogzed the Devourer. Apparently, the only mundane method of lifting the curse was the sacrifice of innocent victims to Laogzed. Duran, refusing to accept this course of action, sought an audience with the newly appointed Archbishop of Blackmere, Cael Carlein (the former Bishop of the Western Province) to see what other options might be available.
Meanwhile, the lands to the north of Helmsport were rocked by a second volcanic explosion. Though still far distant from the city, this cataclysm was closer than the first. Locals began to worry that these were signs of divine wrath. A grassroots Altian religious group in Helmsport, calling itself “The New Order,” increased its activities, channeling the people’s fears into religious fervor against those who did not share their fundamentalist beliefs. While investigating the group, Adarrial found himself swept up as well, even appearing in front of a gathering of hundreds in an attempt to calm their tensions.
Meanwhile, the dwarven barbarian Thorgrimm took an active interest in the seismic troubles. As a representative of the small but growing community of dwarves that had settled in the ruins of Khundrukar, Thorgrimm felt a responsibility to learn more about the geological instabilities that threatened the region. With Alarion, Eandrynn, and the dwarf cleric Skeldal in tow, Thorgrimm descended into the depths of the earth beneath Khundrukar, traveling north through underground tunnels to investigate. Along the way, the characters encountered a pack of displacer beasts traveling south, and later an enormous subterranean creature that Skeldal identified as a delver. Despite initial hostilities, the characters managed to communicate with the creature. It informed them that it, like many denizens of the underdark, was being driven south by a rising tide of magma. Something unnatural was at work in the mountains north of Helmsport, and it was wreaking havoc with the geological forces of the region. Armed with this new information, the heroes returned to Helmsport.
Back in Blackmere City, Archbishop Carlein was mystified as to how he could help Duran restore his link to Altius. Employing powerful magics, the archbishop called upon the advice of Gaeriele, a mighty planetar servant of the Highfather. The planetar offered to lift the curse, but only if Duran completed a holy quest. The young cleric must recover the Three Thuribles of Justice, a trio of holy artifacts called crafted centuries ago and lost during the Infernal Years. Only when the thuribles—said to rest somewhere in the fabled lost city of Chael Rekshaar—were once again in the hands of the Church would Duran’s powers be restored. Duran accepted the quest, and his comrades agreed to aid him in any way they could. The mystery of the volcanic eruptions to the north would have to wait, for now: the heroes were headed to Chael Rekshaar.
Previous: Evil Returns to Helmsport
Next: Finding the Lost City