Sating the Hunger - 06/06/2024 - Mendal Recounts

It is customary for Mendal, after returning from an adventure, to demand the presence of his friends so that he can recount to them his recent heroic deeds. The very recent mission in Kundar, however, was a resounding failure. There were moments during the mission where Mendal felt his contributions were worthy of his usual boasting; his use of the Fabricate spell to equip Keros with ranged weaponry, and his manipulation of the battlefield with the Animate Objects spell, and additionally using his Artisan’s Blessing to craft a platinum ring. However, given the suffering that has followed from the party’s mistake, the normally ever proud Mendal has chosen to refrain from recounting the mission disaster with anything less than a serious tone. If one other in the party had also made that decision, party goodbyes may not have ended acrimoniously.

Upon Archie’s and Kavel’s return to the shared home, and finding Mendal sat in the courtyard with a glum demeanour, Mendal recounted the disaster of returning back to the sewers of Kundar, to the pit under the Kundar Adventurer’s Guild’s headquarters, to deal with Something Hungry...




It started with the wizard, Rae, recruiting Mendal and others for a return mission to deal with Something Hungry, and the cursed effect they gained from their last encounter with the powerful entity.

Mendal recounted meeting the kobold disguised young dragon, Halifax, who claimed to be related to Bahumat. Upon arriving in Kundar, Halifax brought the adventurers a device claimed to have been hastily devised by the Clerics of the Temple of Bahamut. With Mendal’s crafting expertise he could at least verify the device’s quick build. With the Identify spell, he verified the device was an anti-magic bomb. Halifax claimed the bomb was powerful enough to destroy the magic runes around the pit which gave Something Hungry a foothold into the Material Plane. With the runes destroyed, Something Hungry would be banished fully into the Abyss, never to be fed further citizens of Kundar to satiate what cannot be satiated, and in addition the connection to the Abyss allowing manufactured humanoid enemies to blend into society; would cease.

Hastiness and eagernes led the adventurers’ decision making. Rae’s revealed lack of plan for dealing with Something Hungry, and the delight of being given a plan, perhaps made the adventurers too eager to follow through with the plan they were given. Halifax also seemed too adorable to be actively conning the adventurers, despite the subtlefuge. And then there was the hastily constructed bomb. All these points should have given the adventurers pause for thought. Were the adventuring party conned? Could they have made a better plan? It is unclear. What we do know though, is that the successful completion of the plan caused something terrible to occur instead.

In the sewers of Kundar, beneath the KAG HQ, the adventurers encountered Urdox, leader of KAG, and avatar of Something Hungry. Urdox was surrounded by demon metal soldiers, adversaries the team had seen before. Rae, known to Urdox to be affected by Something Hungry’s curse, used this knowledge to the team’s advantage and walked up to the enemies and conversed with Urdox, to provide a distraction. By taking Urdox’s focus, the plan was for the fastest team member, Leonida, to run to the magic runes, anti-magic bomb in hand, and activate the bomb. Keros, Mendal and They would attack, from range, any enemies trying to intercept Leonida.

There was a slight hitch with the bomb, but it went off, on target as intended. The rune circle around the pit containing Something Hungrywas destroyed, as intended. But the desired effects of destroying the runes, did not follow.





“It worked… but not as we expected,” Mendal explained, and not for the first time. After coming back to Daring Heights, and following an argument, Keros and Mendal went to the Daring Council to explain the calamity that had occurred. “Destroying the runes didn’t shut the door on Something Hungry from our world, boys; instead destroying the runes broke whatever had Something Hungry chained to the pit, and gave it full access to our plane! The bloody great wormy maw emerged out of the pit!”

“For a second, when the stalactite fell down, I thought it might kill Something Hungry, but it didn’t. Then when parts of KAG HQ fell, I had hope again. But then Something Hungry just sucked up the falling wall and condensed it all into its giant maw - I knew everything was fucked at that point,” Mendal exasperated, explained. “We ran out of the sewers. We saw people gawking at Something Hungry emerging from the broken building of KAG HQ. Gawking! They should have been running! We tried - well Keros and I did - to get the dozy fools to move. When Something Hungry ate one of them in that horrific body condensing absorption way, then reality set in for the crowd. Then the screaming, panic, and frantic running started.”

Bloody stampede,” Mendal said, remembering the chaos. “We ran to the portal, got ourselves back to Daring Heights. But if Kundar and its citizens haven’t been swallowed up off of the map already; it’s only a matter of time.”

Silence hung in the air when Mendal stopped speaking, and Mendal Kavel and Archie sat quietly to be with their thoughts.

The goliath eventually broke the silence.

“You did the best thing you could have, Mendal,” Kavel said, supporting his friend's action to get back to Daring Heights immediately and inform the Council. “Not much else you could have done. Now maybe we can do something to protect the rest of the Dawnlands with some preparations.”

“This is terrible though indeed,” Archie said, beginning to summarise what he knew or heard about the Somethings. “Something Eldritch has also been released into our world, but at least that Something has disappeared into the Ocean. There is Something Lonely, Something Buried, Something Vast, and I have heard of others.”

“I’d love to know if that little fucker tricked us by giving us a bomb and knew full well what it would do? Or maybe he thought the plan would work as explained?” Mendal complained with frustration. “Either way, our fuck-up has probably caused the massacre and annihilation of Kundar. Moradin’s balls! We all have shitty records in Kundar now, and I think I’ve won the gold. You,” Mendal nodded at Kavel, “invited your cousins to do some building work; did it, and as you left a bloody great red dragon commanded by gith started wrecking the place.” Then Mendal nodded at Archie, “and you thought you were helping on a standard adventure and ended up breaking a criminal out of prison. Hmmm. Well. I win the worst contribution to Kundar in this house. Hell, I sort of don’t blame the Kundarians for having their own adventurer’s guild after our legacy. Poor buggers didn’t deserve KAG though; our group may have unleashed Something Hungry carelessly, but KAG seem to be the ones that brought it here!”

“How are the others, Mendal?” Archie asked. “You say you and Keros explained the situation to Daring Council, but what of the others?”

“Fucking hell, Archie,” Mendal sighed. “That team is cursed! Keros’s alright. Head wasn’t in the game at the beginning. Lovers spat with Rae. Former lovers I should say. Leonida was pissy with us at the end that we didn’t trust her intuition that something was off. Shehad no intention to talk to the Council. They vanished at some point. And Rae - fucking hell! I think Keros said everything we all wanted to say to Rae. Rae was chuffed that Something Hungry’s curse, which they were cursed with, had been removed during the anti-magic bomb’s explosion. Understandable, but, we had just unleashed hell on Kundar, and were feeling appropriately shit about what we had done. And there Rae was overjoyed and ready to get back on track with whatever research crap they’re apparently dead obsessed with! You wouldn’t have guessed from Rae’s reaction that we had witnessed the beginning of a town-wide genocide that we dumbass’s had a hand in!”

“What is up with Rae, Archie?” Kavel asked, expecting his wizard friend to have some insight on a colleague.

“I’m afraid I have no idea, Kavel. I haven’t seen Rae in a while. Calla sort of took Rae under her wing. I shall ask, but the Somethings are a more pressing mat-”

“Calla’s dead, I’m afraid,” Mendal said, cutting his friend off. “Keros told me.”

No one spoke as silence took hold again.