23 Unndilar 835

On their fifth day at sea, the party came upon a sudden storm in the middle of a clear and sunny morning, agitating Tomba’s anxiety. Out of the swriling storm clouds coalesced a large humanoid shape with a strange spherical center and four limbs stretching to the sky and into the sea. Summoning other water beings, the storm figure attacks the party and then focuses on the ship, attempting to sink it. After several big hits and a growing storm, Della sends a message to the creature, explaining why they are here and what they can do to prove themselves. “Survive” is the only answer, as the monster focuses it’s attacks on the ship in full. The party retaliates and brings the monster to its end, erupting in a clap of thunder and a bolt of lightning that scatters the party across the deck. Where the monster stood is not a hulking, tattooed monster of a man, 7 ft tall with tangled black hair and beard, with the left side of his head shaved. “You survived,” he says.

As the figure looked at each of the party in turn, Amira felt an overwhelming tightness in her chest, similar to the time she blacked out in Nicodranas. Recognizing the anger as not her own, she resisted… and felt her warlock power dissipate.

The figure asks them what item could convince a god to cross him, wherein Della explained the command from Melora to listen to fate to stop the Apotheon’s return. The figure thought for a moment and then pronounced them worthy. He introduced himself as Jibar, champion of Kord, and declares them worthy to continue their quest. In exchange, he offers them a bargain: as Kord controls the skies and storms, Jibar is unable to enter the sea himself, so if they can obtain something from him, a Pearl with a Piece of the Sea’s divine essence. If they agree to retrieve it for him, he will warn them of the dangers that await below.

After the party agrees, Jabir warns them that Diver’s Grave is a reef constructed of generations of destroyed ships, collapsed and stacking on top of each other endlessly. Untold number of creatures have made their home here, including a community of mutated reef sharks, kelpies, and saughain. Their homes are made from various wreckage outcroppings throughout the reef and they patrol the open waters for treasure, fresh blood, or a good fight. Stick within the wreckage and you’ll mostly avoid them. However, the greatest threat of the reef is the Aboleth. It has made it’s lair on the fourth level of the wreckage and patrols the largest and richest areas. Both Jabir and the treasure the party came for will be under the Aboleth’s protection. It has the ability to create illusory terrain and probe their mind for secrets to trick them with their greatest desires. It is the Aboleth that gave Divers Grave it’s name, long before Kord oversaw the area. The mucus cloud the Aboleth generates makes hand to hand combat difficult; you’ll drown before you kill it. The best bet is to distract it with a threat to it’s lair or bait it with various ranged attacks, attempting to give it multiple targets.

Additionally, a shortcut will lead them from the second level to the fourth, directly into the lair of the Aboleth’s treasure. Once they reach the second level, where the wood turns gray from age and rot, but not completely falling apart, they’ll look for the ship with the one breasted mermaid on it’s mast head and follow it’s hold down, down, down. At the end, there will be a net to push through that will lead them into the ship’s treasure hold, the heart of the Aboleth’s lair, so move with caution.

Before Jabir disappeared, they asked how he knows so much about this if he can’t enter the water, he says he has heard tales from the survivors and learned much from his predecessor, who guarded what lies beneath before his demise. When asked “what lies beneath” Jabir said that Zehir’s son, the great and first leviathan, Nethrashi, is chained beneath the waves here. It’s jailer has been lost and ravaged, so there is no one to placate it. In the jailer’s stead, Jabir tests sailors’ mettle in a battle with the storm itself. Those who are found wanting are used to make Nethrashi fat and lazy, while building a cage of wreckage atop him. At this time, there is no device of mortal creation that could reach Nethrashi’s chains; someone would need the help of a god. Jabir trusts that they are worthy, though it is against Kord’s ways to question those who have proved themselves in battle. Jabir will meet them here when they return.

The next couple hours were spent repairing the ship from Jabir’s damage, and though Kerlu reports no deaths, the Expositor, Dairon, was not found during the headcount. Della checked her room and found it sealed with no one inside to answer her. After Tombah gathered supplies and bags of holding, they plunged into the depths, with the help of Della’s Water Breathing spell to grant them breath for the next 24 hours.

100 feet below the surface, the Diver’s Grave emerged from the depths, a massive pyramid of ship’s corpses with jutting pillars of mast and masthead. They entered the wreckage and began to explore the maze, winding their way through following Della’s locate object spell to the bottom, getting a boost from a collapsing section of the wreckage, leading them to level 2, where the wood is greyed and rotting.

Moving through the ruins found various traps and hazards in the centuries of wreckage, as well as plenty of treasure to fill the bags of holding before reaching the Aboleth’s lair in the third level. The lair opened in a large lab where the Aboleth had been Frankensteining a lot of corpses to create fish-humanoid abominations that filled its halls as guards, forcing them to fight through to reach the Aboleth’s treasure room. On the way, Amira and Stone were enthralled by the Aboleth and forced to fight for it in the final chamber. Despite this, the party proved successful, forcing the Aboleth to flee, escaping with the assistance of it’s illusory terrain.

Returning to the ship, the crew was ready to go though this was delayed by the reappearance of Jabir, who came for the pearl the moment Della hit the deck. While handing it over, Della asked him to ask Kord for a blessing, protecting them from the storms. Jabir agreed that they would be safe on this voyage, having proved themselves, but they will need to prove themselves again when they next return from port.

With the crew making way out of the perpetual storm surrounding Diver’s Grave, the party discussed their heading in Amira’s office. At Kerlu’s suggestion, they agree to head to Rumblecusp to visit a new resort and port there as it will be off the radar, though more expensive. Dairon mentioned that her visit to Sandrius resulted in a quest while they’re in the Lucidean Ocean: find the Viscount’s Tomb on Urukaxl. Kerlu also suggested they stop at an island to farm some materials to bolster the remaining damage points, with the deserted Vide Cay jungle the best option on the way. With their heading set, the rest of the day was spent resting and relaxing.