Temple of Water

Temple of Water

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Season 4: Episode 6

Purifying the waters of the first temple of creation.

After confronting ghosts of their pasts in flashbacks, the adventurers plunge into the ancient, subterranean Temple of Water. Descending into the damp, echoing depths, they uncover forgotten murals of the sea god Dagon, drain a massive cistern, overcome a pipe mazd, and race to reassemble a fractured stone puzzle. While traversing on a rope bridge over treacherous waters, they are violently ambushed by a prehistoric Plesiosaurus that drags their mercenary, Johan, into the watery abyss. Thanks to a chaotic rescue fueled by magical faerie fire, thorn whip vines, a daring diving smite, and a devastating blast of radiant wrath, they pull Johan from the jaws of death, drain the flooded temple, and bravely bribe a pair of giant crabs with soggy rations. Their trials finally reward them with a bizarre prize inside a vault—a severed blue right hand—but their victory is instantly cut short. An undead army, led by the infamous scoundrels Iron Fang and Brynheld bearing a shield that perfectly matches the temple’s key, suddenly marches onto the bridge, spelling imminent disaster for the party.

• Flashbacks: Character flashbacks revealing why Sin Biscuit and Oak left their homes, and explores Woot’s corrupted memories before his system fully reboots with new upgrades.
• Entering the Temple: The party uses a cerulean blue disc to unlock the mound, opening a 30-foot drop into the Temple of Water.
• Upper Chamber: In the first chamber, they discover murals depicting the creation myth of the god Dagon subduing chaotic waters. They drain a cistern using a valve and collect scattered pieces of a broken stone disc.
• Pipe Maze: The party enters a large cavern filled with waterfalls and large bronze pipes. Using an owl familiar to scout, they navigate the teleporting pipes to safely reach the upper ledge.
• Rope Bridge Attack: While crossing a treacherous rope bridge over deep, brackish water covering ancient ruins, a Plesiosaurus erupts from the water. It grabs the mercenary Johan and drags him under.
• Defeating the Plesiosaurus: A chaotic rescue ensues. Lyra uses Thorn Whip to fish for Johan, Court dives into the water to smite the beast with his hammer, and Ralph obliterates the dinosaur with a massive Level 2 Guiding Bolt.
• Draining the Temple: The party reaches a platform and turns four valves to drain the water level, goving access to previously submerged dungeon. They pacify giant crabs blocking their way by feeding them wet rations.
• The Vault: In the newly drained area, they find the throne of Dagon and a circular vault. By assembling the stone pieces they collected earlier, they open the vault and discover a chest containing a severed blue right hand.
• Cliffhanger Ambush: Just as they secure the hand, Lyra’s owl familiar alerts them to danger. An undead army is marching across the rope bridge toward them, led by two familiar faces from a past campaign: Iron Fang and Brynheld, who is carrying a shield resembling the temple’s key.

Flashbacks

We learn about the pasts of several adventurers through a series of flashbacks: Sinbuscuit, Oak, and W00t.

Long before he was an adventurer, Sinbiscuit was merely a kobold of his clan, tasked with sorting scavenged tribute to offer to a great bronze dragon. The cavern had echoed with the chipping of pickaxes and the yips of his clanmates, Ignis, Kayleth, and Fidget. They sifted through the rusted canteens, mud-caked boots, and torn canvases of dead adventurers. While the others goofed off, holding up useless trinkets and playing with dull swords, Sinbiscuit meticulously sorted the crossbows and valuable gear.

“I found an eye patch! I’m bored. I need an eye patch. I probably going to see better with it.” -Ignis

Realizing his lazy clanmates intended to steal the credit for his hard work, Sinbiscuit gathered the best of the armaments and made a run for it.

“I’m doing the work! I’ve got the swords and the crossbows… you guys did what you needed to do, I’m going to take this, I’m going to go turn it in for all the credit!” -Sinbiscuit

Chased out of the tunnels by his own, the lonely kobold fled to the surface world. There, a war-torn band of desperate humans taught him the common tongue, eventually leading him to the bustling ports where he found passage with the South Trading Company.

The towering Goliath-Wood Elf druid, Oak, remembered a far different home. He recalled the heart of his once-peaceful village, nestled in a grove that used to bloom with vibrant life. But a gray blight had encroached on their sanctuary, withering the flora and drying up the streams. As Oak prepared to make a difference his mother had urged him to simply close the windows and wait out the long fire season.

“Look outside, everything’s dying. We can’t stay here anymore… I need to go out and find a better place for us. This is not going to last.” -Oak

“This is natural. Everything has a season. This is the fire season, it’ll be fine.” -Mother

“It’s been fire season for four seasons! Pray to your gods for my safety. I will return, but I have to find something better than this.” -Oak

Leaving his weeping mother behind, Oak ventured out, only to return days later to a tragic irony. The village was scorched to ash, his people dead or scattered. Falling to his knees, he prayed to Ao for guidance, aftering finding passage with smugglers, he following the whispers of the wind into the jungle where he would eventually meet Cort, Ralph, and the rest of the party.

And then there was W00t. In a series of smaller flashbacks, we explored corrupted memories of the warforged. As the artificers Wark and Bang diligently repaired his broken chassis, a corrupted loop of violent memories cycled through the Warforged’s processor. He remembered the suffocating heat of a volcanic crater, pinned beneath massive boulders. To survive, W00t systematically extracted his own crushed leg and brutally dismantled another fallen Warforged, grafting the foreign parts onto his own body.

“I need to requisition your leg… I will detach it now.” -W00t

The memory shifted. He was in a dark prison chamber, a single slit of light piercing the gloom. Guards of the White Lady arrived to interrogate him, demanding to know why his mercenary squad had been wiped out. W00t coldly informed them that his squad hadn’t simply died; he had repurposed all seven members into himself. When the guards attempted to power him down, he drew his built-in blade and severed them in twain.

Finally, the fragmented data showed him wandering the bustling downtown streets of a Maercant city. Two opportunistic recruiters for the South Trading Company spotted him and assumed they could trick him into free labor.

“Oh, what an interesting machine you are.” -Recruiter

“I’m not a machine. I am a threat support and point target elimination system.” -W00t

Before the memory could resolve, W00t’s optical sensors flared to life. His system had fully rebooted. He awoke to find himself packed in a wooden box, nestled amidst giant, floppy green banana leaves. The artificers had finished their work, repairing his knees and outfitting him with a new target analyzer suite and servo boost actuators. Wark peered over the edge of the box.

“Yep, still broken… It’s good to see you up and about, friend. You look good out of the box.” -Wark

Fully operational and ready to face the ancient darkness of the Water Temple alongside his companions.

Entering the Temple

With a sudden flare of optical sensors, the Warforged known as W00t fully rebooted. His memory banks cleared of their violent, corrupted loops, replaced by the sight of the artificers Wark and Bang looking down at him. He was packed inside a wooden crate, nestled amidst giant, floppy green banana leaves.

Standing up, W00t stoically fashioned the broad leaves into a makeshift skirt.

“I appreciate the natural beauty that comes from wearing them in such a way.” -Cort

“Yes, they provide no function whatsoever, but they are aesthetically pleasing.” -W00t

Cort, whose hands no longer bore their massive, familiar gauntlets but instead carried a mighty, crackling hammer, looked up at the towering machine with a newfound curiosity.

“What god do you serve?” -Cort

“I don’t serve gods. I kill them.” -W00t

With their companion restored, the party prepared to breach the Temple of Water. They took stock of their specialized gear. Cort and the kobold Sinbiscuit each carried a set of Black Gills—rare breathing apparatuses scavenged from coastal fishing towns that functioned like miniature scuba gear. W00t, needing no air, and Oak, capable of transforming into an aquatic predator, were ready for the depths.

The group waded into the murky lake, escorted by a small squad of young Kuo-toa whelps. In the center of the water sat an unyielding stone mound. The Kuo-toa chieftain, a mystic priest among the fish-men, waded forward and pressed a heavy, cerulean blue disc into Cort’s hands.

Cort stepped up to the mound, feeling the weight of ancient destiny, and pressed the disc into the circular indentation atop the stone. It locked into place with a heavy thud. As Cort rotated the disc, a deep, grinding sound echoed from the earth. Subterranean plates shifted beneath the lakebed, and the mound split open, revealing a daunting thirty-foot drop into a dark, humid cavern.

Staring into the pitch-black gloom with his darkvision, Cort saw the damp, shiny floor of the temple far beneath them. The descent would be treacherous. Drawing his rope, Cort handed one end to the small squad of fishmen, instructing them to anchor it.

Tension hung thick in the air, especially between the usually righteous Cort and the eccentric orc cleric, Ralph. Seized by an uncharacteristic, wrathful impulse, Cort shoved Ralph backward toward the gaping hole! Ralph stumbled, his arms flailing as he plummeted backward into the abyss, only surviving by desperately grabbing the ledge at the last possible second.

With a casual heave, Cort hauled the terrified archaeologist back up by the arm as if nothing had happened. Panting and glaring, Ralph brushed the dirt from his clothes.

“Okay, you go first. I was doing important stuff.” -Ralph

One by one, they shimmied down the rope, their boots finally hitting the damp stone floor of the ancient temple. The air was cold, thick with moisture, and heavy with the forgotten secrets of the watery abyss.

Upper Chamber

The adventurers’ boots touched down softly onto the damp, cold stone floor of the subterranean chamber. Surrounding them was an ancient, humid main hall flanked by open archways, its walls lined with broken pillars and moss-covered statues of jaguars, birds, and other silent, aquatic sentinels.

While the rest of the party kept a wary eye on the shadows, the eccentric orc cleric Ralph immediately set to work. He marched toward a massive, pristine mural carved into the western wall, pulling out his notebook to sketch the ancient stonework.

“I am tracking and recording our discoveries and marking out on maps so that future archaeologists can do a deeper investigation of our findings.” -Ralph

The relief depicted a towering, stylized figure imposing order over a chaotic, watery expanse. Ralph excitedly identified the figure as Dagon, an ancient primordial god of the oceans and sea who predated the current pantheon. However, the righteous paladin Cort was far less impressed by the deity’s depiction, specifically the fact that the god embodied chaos and was wearing a fish upon his head. Cort turned to W00t, the god-killing Warforged currently wearing a skirt of banana leaves.

“I can see why you kill gods. This one wore a fish on his head. Poor fashion choice. Leaves are much better.” -Cort

While Ralph sketched the creation myth, the rest of the group investigated the northern wall. There, they found a large stone cistern filled with black, brackish water. Peering into the gloom, they spotted a massive metal valve mounted to the wall just behind the basin.

Relying on his formidable strength, Cort gripped the heavy rusted wheel and gave it a mighty crank. A deep, mechanical clunk echoed beneath their feet. The glassy surface of the cistern fractured into a violent whirlpool, and with a hollow gurgle, the dark liquid rapidly drained away, lowering the water level to reveal a path deeper into the temple.

As the chamber shifted, Lyra’s keen eyes caught a glint in the dim light. She picked up a smooth, curved piece of stone that didn’t match the surrounding rubble. Exploring the southern wall near another terrifying mural of a multi-headed monster, Cort found a second matching piece.

Bringing the fragments together, the party made a crucial realization: these weren’t just broken rocks. They were carefully carved shards of a circular stone disc—deliberately broken and scattered. It bore a striking resemblance to the cerulean blue key the Kuo-toa chieftain had given them to unlock the temple entrance above, and they knew they would need to find the rest of the pieces to uncover the temple’s deepest secrets.

Pipe Maze

The air in the subterranean cavern grew bitterly cold and thick with moisture. As the adventurers descended deeper into the Temple of Water, the deafening roar of a subterranean waterfall echoed off the slick stone walls, filling the space with a heavy mist. They emerged onto a rocky ledge overlooking a colossal, flooded chamber composed of staggered stone outcroppings.

Peering over the ledge, the sharp-eyed kobold, Sinbiscuit, spotted a massive shadow gliding ominously beneath the dark, brackish water. It was a terrifying prehistoric monstrosity—long and strong, covered in stripes, and armed with giant flippers, a bizarre tail, and interlocking needle-sharp teeth. Sinbiscuit instinctively readied his fishing gear but quickly reconsidered upon seeing the sheer size of the beast.

“Danger all right in the water. Don’t jump in. What if it comes out?” -Cort

Seeking an alternative path, the party noticed a series of massive, metallic bronze pipes embedded directly into the cavern rock. Measuring nearly five feet in diameter, the pipes sat horizontally, creating a strange network that seemed to connect the cavern’s various disconnected ledges.

Refusing to risk a swim with the toothy leviathan below, Oak stepped forward and called upon his faithful owl familiar, Saluna.

“I have an owl… I’ll just have her fly through the pipes and see what’s going on cuz I can look through its eyes.” -Oak

With a silent flap of her wings, Saluna fluttered into the nearest bronze pipe. Through his familiar’s eyes, Oak watched in awe as the owl was magically teleported, instantly popping out of a completely different pipe across the cavern. The ancient bronze tubes were a magical transit system—a puzzle of portals.

Curious about the arcane mechanism, the warforged W00t approached the heavy metal opening, his new optical sensors scanning the dark interior.

“There’s magic here. When we go through these tunnels, do we tell that something is wonky happening like a magic?” -W00t

Without hesitation, W00t boldly stepped into the pipe. Instantly, his vision blurred at blinding speed. Like an arcane roller coaster, the heavy warforged was shot through the network, popping out safely onto the cavern’s highest ledge to look down at his companions.

One by one, the rest of the party—Cort, Ralph, Oak, Sinbiscuit, Lyra, and the artificer Wark—stepped into the bronze maws. With a dizzying flash of teleportation magic, they completely bypassed the treacherous waters and the hungry creature entirely, reuniting at the far ledge.

Rope Bridge Attack

The subterranean air was bitterly cold and thick with moisture as the party emerged from the bronze pipe maze, stepping onto the precipice of a colossal, flooded chasm. Spanning the dark, brackish water was a treacherous, rickety wooden rope bridge, its rotted planks slick with cavern mist.

Peering into the depths, Lyra’s keen eyes pierced the gloom. Below the water’s surface, she spotted impossible, alien architecture—salt-encrusted stone blocks, coral-choked arches, and jagged basalt ridges of a sunken city. Seeking a better view, Ralph tossed a magically illuminated rock into the lake, its light rippling across the eerie ruins.

“Danger all right in the water. Don’t jump in. What if it comes out? “ -Cort

Taking no chances, Cort led the way across the swaying bridge, securing a thick rope around his waist while the others carefully held on. But the rotted wood was unforgiving. Jim, one of the hired STC mercenaries, lost his footing and plunged into the dark water below. Lyra reacted instantly, lashing out with a magical Thorn Whip to safely fish the flailing mercenary out of the water.

“The thorn side of the whip is on the outside, the smooth side is on the inside. “ -Lyra

Using the smooth vine to carefully reel Jim back up to the bridge, Lyra hauled him out just in time. The water beneath them suddenly exploded in a violent frenzy. A colossal, pale shadow erupted from the depths. It was a terrifying prehistoric Plesiosaurus, boasting a neck as thick as a tree trunk, massive flippers, and a streamlined reptilian head lined with interlocking, needle-sharp teeth.

The leviathan snapped its jaws wildly, missing Jim by inches. The party immediately sprang into action. Drawing on his divine authority, the imposing paladin Cort pointed at the beast, his voice booming with a magical Command.

“Flee! “ -Cort

Compelled by the spell, the beast recoiled, but the party wasn’t done. Oak quickly cast Faerie Fire, outlining the thrashing dinosaur in a brilliant, glowing green light that illuminated the water.

Seeing their chance, the party sprinted across the collapsing bridge toward a stone platform on the far side. But the danger wasn’t over. Just as they neared safety, the green-glowing leviathan surged from the depths one last time. Its massive jaws clamped around the leg of the mercenary Johan, violently dragging him screaming off the bridge and down into the dark abyss.

Defeating the Plesiosaurus

As they were crossing the bridge as the mercenary Johan reached the safety of the stone ledge, the glowing Plesiosaurus surged from the deep one last time. Its massive jaws clamped firmly around Johan’s leg, violently dragging the screaming man twelve feet down into the dark abyss.

Chaos erupted on the platform. Lyra immediately cast her Thorn Whip into the black water, blindly fishing for the mercenary. Cort didn’t hesitate; he stripped off his safety rope and dove headfirst into the freezing chasm. Plunging toward the glowing green dinosaur, he swung his mighty hammer, channeling a ferocious Divine Smite that sent lightning and radiant energy crackling through the briny water, shocking the monster into finally releasing its prey.

Above them, Cort’s hireling fired its crossbow into the water to lay down cover fire. Standing safely on the ledge, the kobold Sinbiscuit also fired his crossbow into the depths but missed wildly. Frustrated, he began hurling colorful curses at the dinosaur, loudly mocking its lack of wings and pathetic flippers. Wark dove into the water and hit the Plesiosaurus with his hammer.

Something inside the eccentric Ralph completely snapped. His repressed, battle-crazed orc cleric persona took over, abandoning all academic reason.

“I just remember that I get really angry, and I got angry, and I go and I cast Guiding Bolt and I charge into the water after it!” -Ralph

Channeling his wrath, Ralph hurled a massive, blinding orb of radiant energy at the beast. It was a flawless, critical strike. The Level 2 Guiding Bolt exploded directly in the leviathan’s face, dealing a staggering forty points of radiant damage. Battered, burned, and magically compelled by Cort’s command, the glowing green beast exploded trailing bits and glowing green faerie fire down into the abyssal depths.

Wark opened his bag of holding underwater in order to doff his armor causing a large volume of water to enter his bag of holding. Meanwhile, Oak transformed himself into a giant alligator, diving in to act as a scaly rescue bus for his floundering companions.

Between Lyra’s relentless pulling with the smooth vines of her whip and the party’s combined strength, Johan was finally hauled out of the water. He lay on the stone platform, coughing up brackish water and sobbing uncontrollably. Cort, dripping wet and completely unfazed by the brush with death, looked down at the traumatized mercenary with a stern drill sergeant’s glare.

“You suck it up.” -Cort

Draining the Temple

Finally the party safely reached a stone platform equipped with four mechanical valves. With the immediate threat of the Plesiosaurus handled and the mercenary Johan fished from the drink, the party turned their attention to their surroundings. At the far end of the rickety rope bridge, the warforged W00t hopped onto a raised stone platform. Embedded in the ancient stone console were four heavy, metallic wheeled valves.

W00t immediately gripped the first rusted wheel and gave it a mighty crank. Deep within the flooded chasm, a heavy mechanical grinding echoed, and large bubbles began to violently churn at the surface of the dark lake. As the rest of the party dragged themselves onto the platform, they worked together to turn the remaining three valves.

Suddenly, four massive whirlpools opened up on the far side of the cavern. With a deafening roar, thousands of gallons of black, brackish water were pulled down drains. The water level plummeted nearly twenty feet, exposing the sunken alien architecture they had only glimpsed before: salt-encrusted stone walls overgrown with sea debris, and a long stone bridge leading deeper into the ruins.

However, the receding waters revealed a new obstacle. Two giant crabs, previously concealed beneath the waves, were now stranded directly on the newly exposed stone bridge, clicking their massive claws and blocking the way forward. Unwilling to start another grueling fight, the towering druid Oak stepped forward, magically projecting his voice to negotiate with the beasts.

“If you leave, we will not harm you.” -Oak

One crab angrily clacked its pincers, eyeing the battered adventurers suspiciously.

“You’re not water people.” -Crab

Oak stood his ground, maintaining a peaceful demeanor, but the territorial crabs seemed hesitant to abandon their bridge. That is, until hunger took priority over their posturing.

“Do you have food?” -Crab

The party immediately dug into their packs. After the chaotic dinosaur battle in the chasm, much of their gear was completely soaked anyway. They quickly gathered up their ruined supplies, offering the soggy mess to the giant crustaceans.

“Yeah we have food, is this enough?” -Oak

Wark dumped a massive pile of ten days’ worth of completely waterlogged rations onto the stone floor. The giant crabs excitedly scurried over, their bulbous eyes twitching as their smaller appendages greedily shoveled the wet food into their mouths. Entirely distracted by the unexpected feast, the beasts scuttled off the bridge, leaving the path clear for the adventurers to continue.

The Vault

The newly drained temple revealed a forgotten path leading to a stone dais on the far side of the chamber. In the center of a carved circular pattern sat an ancient stone throne, hewn directly from the cavern rock. Ages spent submerged beneath the brackish water had left it crusted with barnacles, but intricate carvings of tidal waves still decorated its heavy arms. Just behind the throne, set into the far wall, was a massive stone door bearing a large, circular indentation.

The warforged W00t immediately recognized the shape. It perfectly matched the broken stone fragments the party had been diligently gathering throughout the flooded temple. Eagerly, they brought their scattered shards together, pressing them into the wall’s indentation to assemble the ancient puzzle.

“The circle is complete.” -W00t

As the final piece slid into place, the ancient mechanism unlocked with a heavy, satisfying clunk. Cort stepped forward, his divine strength surging as he gripped the edge of the massive vault door. With a groan of ancient stone and the sloughing off of centuries of hardened sea debris, the mighty paladin hauled the door open, dumping a trapped rush of seawater out onto the cavern floor.

Revealed inside the small stone alcove was an ornate, gold-encrusted chest, its sides beautifully etched with rolling tidal waves. W00t, the god-killing Warforged, stepped up to the prize. His optical sensors whirred as he thoroughly scanned the heavy box for traps. Finding no hidden dangers, Ralph confidently flipped the latch.

The lid rolled back, revealing a velvet cushion—and resting upon it was a bizarre treasure: a perfectly preserved, cerulean blue severed right hand.

The party stared in confusion, but Ralph let out an excited gasp. Reaching into his bag, he produced a perfectly matching, severed blue left hand—a bizarre relic he had scavenged months ago from down within the Temple of the Ancients. With a manic grin, Ralph brought the two disembodied hands together. The hands clapped together with a hilarious smack, but the party’s moment of bizarre triumph was violently cut short.

“I make the two blue hands high five!” -Ralph

Cliffhanger Ambush

High above the chasm, Oak’s owl familiar, Saluna, began to shriek frantically, alerting her master to incoming danger. Turning back toward the cavern, the party saw a terrifying sight. Marching across the treacherous rope bridge was an entire army of the undead. Leading the rotting horde were two familiar faces from a past adventure (Fallen Warlord): the cowardly, tobacco-spitting scoundrel Iron Fang, and the small, stubborn warrior Brynheld. But what truly struck fear into the party wasn’t just the approaching army—it was the massive blue shield strapped to Brynheld’s arm, bearing a similar shape and markings as the ancient key used to unlock the Temple of Water.