At Kaylyn's request, Vizeran glances briefly at the book then waves his hand dismissively. Yes, yes, take it! I read that particular volume centuries ago. The principles were instructive, but authored on a world with no magic, so it is of little interest to me now. Thou may keep it, provided that thou return Nematodes of the Underdark once thou has finished with it.

The group seem satisfied to allow Rhayna an hour to attune to the Crystal Ball, which she does so. It is a simple matter of scrying on Kaylyn (which is a strange sensation considering they are already both in the same room) and reading the contents of the book. In fact Rhayna is even able to see her own hand turning the pages through the vision of the spell. The illusion on the book is far more extensive than expected, and each page contains several chapters of information, and yet is no more difficult to read than if written in large print. Rhayna could spend far more than a week studying the contents of this book. It is an extensive treatise on necromancy, including many concepts that Rhayna has never dreamed of, some of which are in fact quite disturbing (Rhayna, please make a DC 17 WIS save). However it is written from an entirely academic viewpoint, and clearly from the perspective of one steeped in the arcane arts, so as much as Rhayna is intrigued by its contents, many of the concepts are beyond her, or for that matter anyone other than those who have dedicated their lives to the study of magic. Rhayna can see the formulae for a range of spells, but cannot comprehend the inherent symbolism. (The Book is equivalent to a Libram of Souls and Flesh, except for the physical appearance and touch. The spells are wizard spells, and all magical features of the the book require attunement by a wizard. Otherwise it is simply an interesting, albeit disturbing, read...)

In response to Kirin, Vizeran explains that demons (and by extension, the Demon Lords themselves) typically lose strength temporarily upon being drawn to the Material Plane, but can begin to change the area around them, strengthening their connection to it, until they are almost impossible to uproot and unsummon. In time they can even create a permanent portal to the Abyss. This is what Vizeran particularly wishes to avoid, and the reason for his own sense of haste. He has not seen Neverlight Grove, but has heard the group's account of what they saw, and says that the giant mushroom of Yggmorgus and the horrific scenes that surrounded it are a perfect example of this. He also notes how quickly the dwarves of Gracklstugh were influenced by the power of Demogorgon in the Darklake, even though he was likely no closer than a hundred miles away.

With this renewed sense of urgency, the group determine to get on with the task at hand. Kaylyn logs a single hour with her own tome, and stows it away for further perusal, before donning and activating the helm once more. The tower of Araj twists and melts around the group, blurring and warping, until it resolves into a new scene. The group look around and find themselves....

(Kaylyn, please roll 1d100 for the Teleport spell. Can do publicly or privately as you wish...)

(Here we go again...)

Rhayna WIS Save: 25

(Rhayna manages to resist being driven mad by the true content of the Imaskarran Tome of Death)

1

79

75

66

Well, this is just embarrassing

14

I mean really!

89

The tower of Araj twists and melts around the group, blurring and warping ...

27
There is a flash and a gut-wrenching pain (everyone takes 16 force damage) as it feels like your intestines are trying to teleport independently of the rest of your body. The sensation lasts only a fraction of a second, but the pain lingers as the spell attempts to recalibrate itself and try again...
12
There is a flash and a head-stabbing pain (everyone takes 22 force damage) as it feels like your brain is trying to teleport independently of the rest of your body. The sensation lasts only a fraction of a second, but the pain lingers as the spell attempts to recalibrate itself and try again...
19
There is a flash and a whole-body pain (everyone takes 18 force damage) as it feels like your skin/scales are trying to teleport independently of the rest of your body. The sensation lasts only a fraction of a second, but the pain lingers as the spell attempts to recalibrate itself and try again...
52

... until it resolves into a new scene. The group look around and find themselves....

... back in the main foyer of Vizeran's tower. Disoriented and in agony, the group gather their wits as the drow mage slowly levitates from the tower apex down to the ground floor. Hmm, I see it did not go well, he muses unhelpfully. It is likely that the worm nursery is in an area heavy suffused with faerzress, which is already sufficiently contaminated with demonic energy to affect teleportation. This may prove to be a difficult journey. Allow me to attempt to make some adjustments... Vizeran takes the helm while the group recover, then returns and hands it back to Kaylyn. Your next attempt should produce a more satisfactory result.

Donning the helm once more, Kaylyn again focuses on the destination described in the book and tentatively casts the spell again...

The tower of Araj twists and melts around the group, blurring and warping ...

12
There is a flash and a back-aching pain (everyone takes 11 force damage) as it feels like your spine is trying to teleport independently of the rest of your body. The sensation lasts only a fraction of a second, but the pain lingers as the spell attempts to recalibrate itself and try again...
95

... until it resolves into a new scene. The group look around and find themselves....

... standing in a large cave, dimly lit with patches of faerzress that float randomly throughout the space. The floor is about 150' across and the ceiling is about 80' high but obscured by thick webs. Suspended from the ceiling are seven clusters of eggs. Each cluster holds about half a dozen silvery spheres, each three feet in diameter. Thick strands of some kind of resin (which Sekkar is aware is made from the saliva of purple worms) hold the egg clusters in place, as well as anchoring them to the cavern walls. Some of these strands stretch all the way to the cavern floor.

There are four visible exits from the cavern, one each to the north, south, east and west. The western tunnel enters an empty cave, but the others enter caves that also contain strands of resinous saliva stretched across them. The floor of the eastern tunnel is scarred with a 10-foot-wide chasm. The cave is silent except for some kind of rhythmic grunting coming from the south.

MAP: The group is the green dots in the middle. The strands on the NE/NW/SW reach to the floor, while the strand on the SE anchors about 20' from the floor. The egg clusters hang between 10' and 50' from the level of the floor.

(Two charges of the helm were used in the attempt. If the group wish to take a short or long rest to recover HP between the first and second attempt, then please let me know. If you take a long rest, then the helm will have time to regain 1d3 charges. Otherwise the helm will have expended its two existing charges and be empty on arrival.)

When the group was back to where they started after a few excruciating attempts to reach the nest, Sekkar did not even have the strength to explain to the drow what he thinks about his "fixes" of the helmet. Maybe for the best. Not that he believed the explanation about magical disturbances, but the group was not in a shape to fight. Should anyone suggest to rest before another try, he would agree for the same reason - who knows what is waiting on the other end. Getting there half-dead would not help anyone.

The view of the thick web was such a relief after another painful attempt to get here, that Sekkar was ready to hug any giant spider or a giant protecting group's target - that silvery spheres around. He stood for a few moments simply enjoying the world that does not spin or shake or try to turn you inside out and eat your brain. But as lovely as the surroundings were, they were still potentially quite dangerous. "I think we can reach that garland over there," he pointed at the one to the east barely 10ft in the air. "I'll lift someone up to cut a couple of eggs down. But before let's see if we are alone."

Sekkar pulled down the hood of the cloak and slowly moved in the direction of the chosen eggs - looking, listening, sniffing the potential enemies.

Stealth: 21 , Perception: 25 (there is also favorite terrain here (for another +4) if it works with expertise)

As the group appears back in the tower, Pax drops to one metal covered knee with a heavy CLANK, dropping further to put a single metal gauntleted hand on the floor to keep herself from fully collapsing.  Then, in a rush, she pulls the helm from her head, tossing it aside and sending it spiralling across the floor with a metallic screech.  Then she vomits....a messy nasty affair filled with too much surface food that she's been secretly gorging herself on since Mantol-Derith.  Strands of red hair hang down across her face as she wipes her mouth with a steel gauntlet.  Gasping for gulps of air she "takes a moment" to collect herself.  Then, without a word, she pushes herself to her feet, staggers over to the helm, picks it up, and walks away from the party to go find someplace to lay down. A glowing golden aura seems to steam from her body as she walks away and several unpleasant internal cracks stagger her as she walks away. 

Several hours later she returns. If the vomit has not been cleaned by the wizards servants, she heads outside to collect some dirt, returning to dump the dirt on the vomit, and then clean it all up, using a good amount of magic to finish the job.  Finally she seems ready. Looking around she mutters, "We could just walk. It's less likely to kill us."  But, seeing the group is intent on trying again, she glances at Kaylyn with a very concerned and serious look, "Try harder this time."  Then she holds out her hand and a small wooden semicircle with a strange nob sticking out appears there.  She lifts it up, and places it in her mouth, the knob sticking out, and clamps her teeth down on it hard.  With a deep breath, she nods that she's ready. 

When they appear within the room, she takes a few moments to look around. Her teeth clack slightly as the magical mouth peice vanishes from within her mouth. She quickly mutters, "Can't the worms sense your motion across the ground, regardless of how sneaky you try to be Sekkar, maybe you should stay still for a moment."  She casts a quick spell on herself. See Invisibility.  Then she casts another, Fly on herself. Focusing on this, she lifts from the ground and flies up about 20 feet. She looks at the group expectantly and flies towards the nearest egg sack.  She glances back at the group, "Once we get it, we just flee back to the tower, right?" 

Kirin tosses on his mage armor before they teleport just in case as wells. Fighting the urge to vomit and scream from the pain, Kirin takes in the site before him. Before he can act, Pax flies off for the eggs so Kirin switches to defense. He'll cast Wall of Force on the ground as a platform from his staff.

"My back. Ow, that hurt..." Says Rhayna when they finally arrive at the correct location. She realizes that everyone fared the same as herself, so she casts Mass Healing Word to make everyone feel better (everyone recovers 10 HP). Then she looks around, hoping that maybe there might be a patch of fungus in this cavern.

Angry, frustrated, embarrassed and in pain Kaylyn keeps trying to use the helmet to teleport and each attempt fails.  Her friends around her are in pain, suffering with her failed attempts.  Eventually she gives in and calls for a halt. "A rest and then we try again.  And I agree Pax, walking might be easier at this rate."  She spends the time resting reading the book she has found.  Helmet charges gained after the rest 3

Again she tried to use the helmet after Vizeran's "adjustments" and while the trip was painful again at least this time they made it to the place they wanted to be.

"I am sorry.  Look on the bright side though.  At least I didn't miss.  Who knows where we might have ended up."

Looking up at Pax who has flown up to gather an egg. "Best to grab 2.  It has to be unhatched and I would hate to grab only one just to have it hatch and need to come back again."

Kaylyn also takes a defensive stand while Pax and Sekkar secure the eggs.  Pensive curls around her neck and helps keep watch. 

"Are we teleporting out?  Because we still need an eye of a beholder yet which could be found in these caverns." Kaylyn asks

"one thing at a time. We should have the caretakers of the eggs coming I think," kirin states as he holds his staff horizon as he turns and turns, trying to keep his eyes out 

(OOC: afaik, the beholder is not in these caverns. There are two that we know of - the "good one" is in Manthol Derith, the "bad" is not far from that city (at least its servant visited Manthol Derith))

Sekkar's instincts are bordering on prescience... indeed he detects the smell of fomorian, as he predicted. The signs of habitation through the cave, the meticulous condition of the eggs, coupled with the snoring from the other room suggests that a fomorian caretaker is currently sleeping not far away. In addition there is one giant spider lurking in the webs near the roof. And the scattered guano with the occasional audible skitter from the north suggests the presence of bats nearby. The occasional glowing insect scuttles along the walls. None of these seem to have been disturbed as yet.

Rhayna can see some large fungi growing near the roof of the cave, but nothing below the level of twenty feet above the floor. She also senses a larger patch of fungus in one of the caves to the west.

Pax flies silently over to the lowest of the bunches of eggs. Encased as they are in thick sticky resin, they will require some work to cut free, and careful work at that if damage to the egg is to be avoided, including not dropping them after they have been extracted. Pax's sword is probably a bit awkward for such delicate work. A crossbow bolt might be better, but a small blade would be ideal. Pax estimates that the extraction of the first egg could take 3 minutes.

Kirin and Kaylyn scan the cave and adjoining tunnels for sound and movement, half-expecting a gigantic worm to suddenly appear at any moment. However, the first sound to disturb the peace is much more startling. An eerie whisper glides through the cave like a puff of smoke on a breeze, within which wispy words can be detected...

Turn back or suffer a death so horrible you cannot imagine! You have been warned!

The warning was loud and clear, but Sekkar did add on top of it his observations about the giants (fomorian), the spiders and the bats. "Not like the idea of jumping with the thing around and then back for beholder. But one thing at a time. The eggs are too big to walk around in tunnels with them. Fragile enough too. If we can grab and jump back, that's the safest way. But looks like we will have to fight while one of us is cutting the eggs down."

Pensive stiffens around Kaylyn's neck when the voice is heard.  Kaylyn glances around trying to find the source of the voice while Pensive does the same. Whatever Pensive sees he would send images of to everyone but Pax who is busy at the moment.

Kaylyn perception 11

Pensive perception 11 

Pax glances around at the voice. She clearly makes her mind up about something and casts a spell. Its as if the shadows from around her stream into a cloud around her body. (Level 4 Armor of Agathys).  Glancing around the space that is far from empty, she tries to keep mental tabs on each potential foe.  Seeing cutting will be required she floats back down towards the party, staying just off the ground, "Can anyone lend me a knife?" 

Rhayna puts away her Journal after hearing the voice. She readies her Drow staff, in case they need to fight their way of this place. She then activates her Symbiotic Entity, and she surrounds herself with spore.

"Let's get the egg and get out. Focus on getting the egg, we'll handle what comes," Kirin states as he continues being on alart, looking around on his platform.

Perception: 18