Into the Elemental Abyss
The Veiled Vanguard meets another adventuring party investigating the monolith’s energy surge. They exchange information, identify magical items, and rest, but during the night, Ro’Zaad expresses frustration over their looming fate, and Valerie reveals she wasn’t born in this plane. In the morning, Nolseara opens a portal, but the Vanguard quickly realizes they’ve been betrayed—finding themselves not in their intended destination, but in the vast underground expanse of the Elemental Plane of Earth.
Teleporting out into the courtyard late in the evening, the Vanguard encountered an arriving party of adventurers led by Father Lyrcas of Rivermoore, alongside Nolseara the hat-wearing mage from Turiess, Elias the star-lit city bard, and Bearcol the dwarven hammer-wielder from Rubealon. After Valerie narrowly won a bardic duel against Elias, the newcomers explained they had teleported to the site after sensing a massive energy burst from the Master Monolith.
While taking a break, Emelyne ritual-cast Identify on the magic items Ro'Zaad held, revealing the spectacles as Eyes of Minute Seeing, the blue gem ring as a Ring of Jumping (which went to Thalia), and the Dassus symbol as an Amulet of Health that set the wearer's Constitution to 19 (which went to Craum). As the two groups discussed the monolith's threat to the resurrected, Nolseara offered to teleport the Vanguard closer to their next objective in the morning. While the other adventurers rested inside a Leomund’s Tiny Hut, the Vanguard kept watch: Craum and Ro’Zaad discussed Craum’s past and their two-month death clock; Thalia, Naoki, and Renatus debated Ro’Zaad’s trustworthiness; and Valerie admitted to Emelyne that she was originally from a darker plane before revealing her admiration for Emelyne, who shared that her sister built medical machinery in Rivermoore.
In the morning, Nolseara opened a hat portal to an arid, mountain-rimmed landscape that Father Lyrcas claimed was the Wasteland. Stepping through as the portal snapped shut, the party realized Father Lyrcas had betrayed them; the improbably massive mountains, red-lit cavernous ceiling, and subterranean sky revealed they had been banished to Guylawn, the Elemental Plane of Earth. Using Sending, Valerie confronted Father Lyrcas, who coldly stated that his patron, Mordecai, would never allow the resurrected to live, leaving the Vanguard stranded in a realm ruled by Dao genies and subterranean earth elemental lords.
Disaster struck immediately as a razored sandstorm engulfed the landscape. Valerie and Renatus fell behind, suffering temporary blindness and exhaustion before Emelyne guided them to cover. As the winds intensified, Ro’Zaad and Emelyne lost their footing and slid toward a gaping sinkhole. Reacting instantly, Valerie tied a silk rope to Ro'Zaad's mount, wrapped it around her arm, and slid down the embankment, injuring her shoulder as she caught the sliding pair at the precipice edge.
Seeking shelter in a circular cave, they inadvertently flushed out a swarm of cackling Sand Mephits that had fueled the storm. Gathering inside the cavern, Craum lit a torch while the party tended to their wounds and attempted to mine floating crystals from the stone walls. As a small gemstone dislodged, dozens of glowing eyes ignited in the darkness, and a host of earth elementals stirred to life around them.