The Womp Womp
The party's name for the periodic psychic pulses afflicting Fallcrest and the region around it. Agatha resents the name and uses it anyway.
It is why the party went below, and it is what Gulthias asked them to deal with in exchange for the truce.
What it does
- A mental hum. Jocelin described it as "like a hammer pounding on the inside of my skull"
- Those affected go blank and lose hours
- It hits indiscriminately — party members, orc prisoners, and large portions of Fallcrest's civilian population alike
- It reaches from Fallcrest down to the deep Underdark, and north as far as the Throne of Antlers
Vulnerability appears to be individual rather than positional. Agatha and Jocelin have gone down repeatedly while others in the same room stayed up. Dravona has never failed a save against it.
Recorded occurrences
| When | Where | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| After the Brokenskull ambush | Deep tunnels | Agatha, Jocelin and the orc prisoner all entranced. The party killed the orc as a precaution and hid in a Rope Trick |
| Simultaneously | Fallcrest | Part of the population left catatonic. The Lord Warden increased patrols; the Septarch began investigating |
| At the double doors | Underdark | Several party members stunned for hours, just as they reached the objective |
| At Broken Spire Keep | Surface | Agatha and Kvothe woke locked in a room while the rest of the party fought kuo-toa outside |
| Midsummer Festival | Fallcrest | Did not occur. Voren had wards and teleport tokens ready. Nothing happened at noon, in the afternoon, or at the feast |
| Third day of the journey home | Underdark | Several party members catatonic for hours |
| 30th of Autumn | Camp outside Nenlast | The whole party went down except Dravona. Four or five hours later Gulthias walked out of the fog |
| 30th of Autumn | The Throne of Antlers | Levelled enough of the tribal council to delay it by two days |
Those last two are the same pulse. One hit the party's camp outside Nenlast; the other hit the Throne of Antlers, several days' travel north.
What the party has been told
Voren the Green, who investigated it directly:
- The source is the Underdark — far deeper than the party had ever been
- Mind flayers are probably involved
- Portals are probably not the direct cause
- His tower can be warded against it
- After Midsummer passed quietly: the pulses may not be on a fixed schedule. Whoever is behind them either was not ready, or was interrupted
Felani, High Priestess of Rockhome: a mind flayer experiment. Psychic attacks under test. She does not like it.
The Silver Ravens: they do not understand it, but suspect the Iron Circle is either being paid or gathering resources for something larger.
Gulthias, who called it "the one below": it was disrupting his plans as much as anyone's, he had not anticipated it, and he expected the attacks to get more specific. That is why he offered the truce.
Other things on the table
The Way told the party the Old Ones are building towers, powered by magical forces fed by magical creatures, which when finished will let them psychically control everyone within range of their city.
The Potions of Domination — found on Brokenskull Orcs in the Spiderfell early on, confirmed to lower resistance to mind control — have never been sourced to anyone.
And during the four hours the party spent catatonic outside Nenlast, a voice in a dream named itself "a savant of the depths," offered knowledge beyond their pact, threatened to unravel their thoughts, and showed them a great eye.
What helps
| Countermeasure | Status |
|---|---|
| Voren's warded tower | Voren is missing |
| Emergency teleportation tokens to that tower | Issued at Midsummer, returned unused |
| Yew Claw bark, dried | +1d4 to Intelligence saves for one hour. Saved Kvothe, Sylvara and Dravona from a mind flayer's Mind Blast on 15 May |
| Potion of Resistance (Psychic) | Agatha carries one |
| The Chain Breaker's Clarity of Will | Advantage on saves against psychic attacks, and resistance to psychic damage |