Wyrm’s Bane and Comet Prophecies
To save Craumgacu from being turned into a teapot, the Veiled Vanguard hunts a deadly purple wyrm in the storm-lashed badlands. A meteor crash interrupts their journey, delivering a cryptic prophecy of cosmic doom. After a brutal battle that sees multiple party members swallowed, Valerie’s explosive spell ends the wyrm’s life, and the party secures its venom—then flees before more of its kind arrive.
Ro’Zaad persuaded Guildmaster Brightvein to spare Naoki, arguing the monk was expendable and useful for their upcoming task. Brightvein agreed, giving the Vanguard two days to procure the venom of a purple wyrm while keeping Craum hostage with the threat of turning him into a teapot if they failed. Leaving Thalia behind to monitor the Golden Chain guildhall, Ro’Zaad, Valerie, Naoki, Emelyne, and Renatus descended from Nal'thees into the badlands. En route to the wyrm nesting grounds, Emelyne was bitten while attempting to catch a snake; lacking poison-cleansing magic, Valerie and Naoki watched anxiously as she suffered hallucinatory delusions of grandeur. During the first watch, Valerie and Ro’Zaad discussed morality and his decision to defy his guildmaster.
Later that night, a sudden torrential storm muddying the badlands was interrupted by a crashing meteorite burning with green flames. At the center of the crater, a sentient jade mask levitated after being poked by Renatus’s sword, chanting an ominous prophecy warning that a comet would tear the veil, overthrow the gods, and bring the return of cosmic terrors. Following a quiet morning watch—during which Naoki and Renatus drew pictures in the sand and discussed Renatus's divine savior—a traveling Lizardfolk rider approached them asking for directions to Nal'thees. In exchange for information on local wyrm burrows, he gifted them a wooden token bearing the three-clawed symbol of Kydro, god of ambition and transformation.
Reaching the nesting grounds, the Vanguard’s strategy dissolved when a purple wyrm erupted from the earth and swallowed Emelyne whole. Ro’Zaad initiated combat with a devastating 41-point psychic strike, but the creature retaliated by brutally biting Valerie. She willingly allowed the beast to swallow her, joining Emelyne inside its dark stomach before casting Dimension Door to teleport them both onto a nearby cliffside. After Naoki sustained heavy damage from a blow, Renatus attacked, only to be swallowed himself—though he continued stabbing the beast’s digestive tract from within while Emelyne summoned her Reaper spirit to slash at the burrowing monster.
As the wyrm tunneled laterally, Ro’Zaad swan-dived into its hole to repeatedly stab it. The wyrm resurfaced directly beneath Naoki, catching him in its jaws just as the party unleashed a barrage of magic. Valerie sealed the creature's fate with a compressed explosion of air that detonated its head—dropping Naoki out safely while Renatus wriggled out of the carcass. Ro’Zaad harvested the venom sac, Emelyne briefly inspected the creature's anatomy, and the party quickly retreated to a rocky alcove to take a short rest before the scent of blood attracted more wyrms.