The Sanctuary and the Old Ones
3 April. Kvothe, Agatha, Ubo, Dravona, Sylvara, Caldris.
Everything the party knows about the Old Ones and the towers, they were told here.
The land shark
Two nights running, Ubo and then Kvothe felt rumbling beneath them — and both times Caldris was already awake and listening.
Ubo tried to dispel the illusion covering the false path and could not shift it.
On the second night something crashed out of the tunnel wall: a thing built like a rhino crossed with a shark. It began sniffing around.
Kvothe reached to wake the others. Caldris touched his arm and shook his head.
They waited. It left. Caldris explained afterwards that it did not seem to hear well. Dravona knew them as land sharks: tough, strong-biting, poor-sighted, and sensitive to movement.
The Sanctuary
They went on to the Sanctuary of Whispered Stars. The tone that opens the door sounded different this time, but it opened for them.
The Windsong bow was back on its pedestal, and two people were waiting.
The Keeper — the woman who had come for the bow on Jocelin's watch — was one of them.
She had named her counterpart as a threat before he ever appeared: return the bow, or "the
way" will come.
The Way was the other, here for the first time. He did the talking. He is an elf, he
wears a mask, and he serves someone he refers to only as the master.
They had been expecting the party and knew which road they would be on. They carried missives from "the master."
What the Way told them
His opening was a rebuke: the master is concerned the party are stirring up the Old Ones. When they asked who the Old Ones were, he said it was troubling that they did not know who they were dealing with — and that the Old Ones were about to start focusing attention in places nobody wanted their attention.
Then he told them:
The Old Ones dwell far beneath the City of the Glass Pool, in the sunless ocean.
They have been dormant for centuries. They have awakened, and they intend to dominate all life around them.
They are building towers, powered by magical forces fed by magical creatures. When the towers are finished they will let the Old Ones psychically control everyone within a radius of their city.
That radius reaches the surface.
He warned them their death was likely if they continued, and asked whether they were dissuaded.
They said no.
The terms of his help
He was forbidden from helping directly and would not fight alongside them, but he was permitted to improve their chances without showing his master's hand.
| What he gave | Detail |
|---|---|
| The location of a weapon | West and south, a cavern holding a behir — and with it a great magical item made specifically to oppose the Old Ones |
| Map work | Added locations to the party's Underdark map, including active, guarded outposts near the Derro city |
| A prohibition | Avoid "the great magic." There is no route through it to the City of the Glass Pool |
| Two blue vials | Resistance to lightning damage — for the behir |
His tactical advice on the behir: kill it from range and never come within reach. Kvothe knew them as dragon-like, far less intelligent, enormously strong, immune to their own lightning breath, and able to swallow a person whole.
He was explicit that retrieving the weapon would materially raise their odds against the Old Ones.
The party's read at the time: he was not lying to them, but he had more reasons for sending them that way than he was saying.
Caldris watching
Caldris watched the Keeper and the Way closely, with an odd look on his face. He said nothing about it, and nobody asked him.
To the great reptiles
The Way marked the spot on the map as "great reptiles." He left; the Keeper stayed. The party rested overnight and set out.
The tunnels opened into a cavern with a deep chasm, ledges, dimly lit quartz, and bones all over the floor. Caldris pointed out that the tunnels leading away had been dug, not formed.
Then Kvothe heard claws on rock and looked up.
A huge blue-grey-purple serpentine thing, claws sunk into the rock above them, looking down. It growled, and then it roared.
Initiative next session.