Alkali's D&D Experience

With the Kay and Culpa defeated, the party finally emerges from their subterranean prison, stepping out into the shining light of the Kessil Hills

The swirling smoke of distant campfires streak the sky. A casting of Speak with Animals allows one of the group to question a carrion bird brought by the smell of death. The bird reveals that there are two humanoid encampments nearby: a small dwelling to the west and a larger settlement to the northeast.

Northeast is the destination chosen by the party, who set out in that direction.

A shiny glint is seen in the distance over the hills, and the resident kobold sets off running for the shiny, with the rest trailing behind.

The party finds a lone gnoll on a hilltop, raising a sign of accord, indicating it wishes to speak with them. Its armor shines in the light, a makeshift collection of metal well-put together, crafted for mobility.

Asher the kobold translates for the rest, the gnoll only able to state their intent to speak with the party further before one of the group spontaneously casts an illusion of themself behind the gnoll. Startled, they throw down a smoke bomb, disappearing in the confusion.

Sounds of an entire party of gnolls echoes through the hills, with several chasing after the sounds, followed by the rest.

The scouting party of gnolls enters a somewhat large encampment, likely of around fifty inhabitants, ringed with wooden, spiky palisades. A rank smell is revealed to be a swath of pitch painted between the hill the party crests and the encampment itself.

Prepared for an attack, archers line the perimeter.

Pausing on the hill, the party signals that they wish to parley. Four gnolls, led by the one spotted before, approach.

They demand a meeting, all of the party and ten of their own, on a nearby hill at the zenith of the moon.

Waiting, the adventurers organize to scavenge for food.

Suddenly, a figure, singing a strange hymn, falls out of a tesseract in front of the party, quickly falling unconscious. Wounds on their wrists are found to be commonplace, done over and over, and their blood is off-color.

The party cares for the sleeping arrival, and take them on a stretcher later that day to meet for the parley.

They climb a hill scorched by fire, revealed to be where the gnolls’ last chieftain died.

None bear weapons, and neither do the party, save for a shovel disguised as a staff held by the kobold.

A great cookfire burns in their midst, and a boar and drink are brought up for a feast.

Drinking a herbal concoction, the lead gnoll in armor speaks to the party in common, introducing themself as Istek.

Istek describes that the Lord of Worms has been assembling a large force nearby, attempting to recruit the gnoll tribes of the region as well. Only a few have joined, the rest choosing to stay independent.

This force has amassed around large mines in the hillsides, trading the gemstones found below with the nearby human settlements, but also carting out countless green, glowing urns.

Many creatures have been found wandering the hills, some stark raving mad, but the most dangerous being the many armed ones, the spellweavers. Whenever they have been spotted, some of Clan Blighteye have gone missing.

Istek in return for their information, asks in return for the party to find where their missing brethren have been taken.

They also tell of information passed to them by a traveler. The spellweavers existed before anything else, even before the first era. They desired to stay on the mortal realm, but to be able to affect it like the gods. They made a stop-gap, a safety measure in the form of a massive crystal, with the entirety of the essence of the entirety of their plane of existence encoded within, a snapshot of the world. It would be able to revert the world to the state before their spell of godhood is cast. However, the spell backlashed, instantly killing 95% of their population, and shattered the crystal, its pieces scattered across the globe. Through the ages the spellweavers have been trying to reconstruct it, only having it about one third of the way.

Additionally, Istek describes that when Clan Blighteye rejected the Lord of Worms’ offer, the pupil-less ones, the Kay, came for them. Their tribal leader at the time realized that everytime the Kay tested their defenses, they would learn more and more about them. They decided to take the battle to them. They came upon them at night. They got as close as they could, burning so much. Their leader had a way with fire. Since his death, they have burned ceremonial fires every month for he who saved them. They managed to corner the Kay on a hilltop circled by fire. They thought they had won without even a loss until a reality-bending spell, cast by a white Kay, rang across the battlefield. They saw every common green Kay holding out their hands and extinguishing the flames. The white one only lingered there for a minute, before grabbing hold of a figure fully clad in shining metal armor, and tesseracting away. Then they swarmed. They did what they could, Clan Blighteye’s archers peppering the hordes, but in the midst they lost their leader and quarter of their tribe. Only because of his tactical mind did they prevail. They will cherish him until this generation is gone.