On the night of the Full Moon in April, the Invisible Man appears at the gates of Dingradur and is invited in for a conference. He is very interested in their tale of events in the Lair of the White Spider. It seems that he has been back in Thangoria, stirring up trouble between various orc bands all vying to replace Gamesh as kingpin. He has identified one leader in particular, a son of Gamesh called Kaban who looks like he might establish domination. They discuss a future operation against him when the moment is ripe.
For now the party has on disrupting the insect nest to the south of Ashperton’s forest. (Girindor calls them termites. Ubaron persists in calling them ants. Yspadadden and Ranulf are vague on the difference. Trevillion doesn’t care.)
Reconnaissance
After an initial scouting trip by the elf, the party makes its way to the vicinity of the Termite Mound. They pick a fight with a work party comprising six “workers” and two “soldiers” and slay them. The main difference between the two types, apart from a certain level of basic combat competence, is that the latter also have stingers, that inject the victim with acid based venom that burns. Yspadadden removes the antennae from a couple of them. These he will carve into wands of detection.
Invoking his Druidic powers Girindor sinks into the Mound. He takes Ubaron with him, which proves an interesting but uncomfortable experience for him. They find a small cavity in the depths of the hill that Girindor improves with his magics until it is large enough to accommodate the whole party. While Ubaron inscribes it with teleport co-ordinates, Girindor communes with his surroundings. He can hear the rhythms of some central intelligence communicating with the termites.
Party gather again at Dingradur. Yspadadden crafts his wands. In order to reserve his power for operational purposes, Ubaron writes a teleport scroll to take the party to the place in the termite mound that he and Girindor have prepared, with a spare for Yspadadden just in case. These preparations once complete they set off once more.
The Assault
As soon as they arrive at their prepared position, Yspadadden powers up his wand. He detects the termite activity throughout the Mound, he can see the patterns of their movement and hear the instructions pulsing out from the centre to the drones. That hub of activity is but a few tens of yards away. As the move in that direction start to meet resistance in the form of termite soldiers and Yspadadden, through his wand, can hear the messages become more urgent as the alarm is raised.
They reach a huge central chamber, seething with with termites. In the centre is a huge, bloated, immobile creature – the Termite Queen – surrounded by her defenders. Girindor incinerates many by conjuring a Wall of Fire (his companions by now know better than to be anywhere near him without protecting themselves from fire – and lightning). Ubaron and Ranulf wade in with sorcery and blades respectively; Trevillion assails the queen with poisoned darts. Yspadadden invokes a stored spell and flies above the fray to land upon the Queen herself. He conjures his double-bitted dwarf-axe into his hands and cleaves into her head. The creature thrashes and gouts fire are expelled from her abdomen, doing more harm to her own folk than the fire-protected adventurers. Yspadadden is dislodged but the damage is done. More blows from the floor, more darts and some arrows from the elf and the creature expires.
On the death of the Queen the termites lose all interest in the fray and all direction. They wander off up their tunnels with no great urgency. Yspadadden becomes aware of an entity trying to enter his consciousness. It feels like an attempt at demonic possession. He resists and it withdraws. His overwhelming impression was that it was curious and wanted to know what was going on. Meanwhile the rest of the party look for treasure but find none. Examining the body of the queen, some of the soldiers and workers, and even opening an egg sac and looking at the hatchling, they find that every one had a distinctive marking that looked suspiciously like a sigil: an infinity sign within a lozenge shape. The searchers also find a strange spiral tunnel leading downwards – a route that none of the now randomly wandering termites is taking.
What Lies Beneath
As they proceed down the spiral tunnel, it becomes clear that their minds are under attack. Ubaron is a trained magician; the dwarves are mentally tough and strong-willed and the elf seems immune. Trevillion, however, is overtaken with lassitude after staring too long at a glyph inscribed into the wall at the entrance to the passage. It is all he can do to follow the party and they have to keep stopping and checking on him, lest he wander off. The passage tips out into a cavern with a foetid pool. Ranulf is in the lead, and as he approaches a creature emerges from the water and attacks him. It is a strange demonic figure that wields a two handed sword in its right hand and holds what looks like a head in its left. It has the body of a grub or a caterpillar. They slay the creature. The head it is carrying bounces off into a corner. On examination it appears to be that of a human but the sigil they have previously observed is branded into its forehead.
Hanging up in the cavern are a number of bulbous shapes. These have the vestigial head and leg parts of a worker termite but with huge distended bellies, clearly full of liquid. Girindor desribes them as “Repletes”. They contain special food for the Queen and they detect for power. There is a rough passage leading upwards. They follow it to find a second cavern. Within there is a large (greater than man-sized) brass cylinder, sealed at both ends, upon which is inscribed a sigil and a message in demonic script.
Neither Ubaron nor Yspadadden are experts in demonology. However, they know that the sigil is that of Asmodeus, a notorious and universally feared demon lord. The script is largely concerned with dire threats against any who should open it. There is another name that transliterates into the Common Tongue as “Mobius”. Next to it is the infinity sigil that they have seen imprinted on all the termites.
After some discussion the magicians form an hypothesis. Asmodeus has imprisoned Mobius in this canister, and banished him into the Void. By fate or ill-chance it has landed here on Middle-Earth. Mobius is imprisoned but his consciousness is powerful enough to cast an influence outside his prison. This allows him to influence the world around him to a certain extent: hence the monstrous termites and the constant assaults on their minds.
The party realises that all this is beyond their competence. Ubaron suggests Cassandra, the High Priestess of the Temple of Isis in Chittagong as an appropriate adult to tell. Meanwhile they gather the repletes (fourteen in all) from the previous cavern and teleport back to Dingradur. Ulfenir, Yspadadden’s wife, is delighted with these and the prospects they offer for brewing. She decants the precious liquids into vessels to preserve them. Yspadadden buys up Ubaron’s, Ranulf’s and Trevillion’s shares in return for a magic weapons and promissory notes. Girindor is keen to retain his own share.
G-30
OE Date: Spring 697
Characters: Yspadadden, Ranulf, Ubaron, Trevillion, Girindor NPCs:
Real World: October 2013; Where: Surbiton
See also Ubaron’s Diaries