Development. Sgothgah recognizes that accom·
plished adventurers would be highly useful servants in
its conflict against the aboleths sent from the Endless
Nadir, and it tries to keep at least three of the character s
alive if it can. If the battle appears to be turning against
the characters, Sgothgah contacts one of them telepath-
ically (without identifying itself) to demand their surren-
der. If that demand is ref used. the aboleth softens it to a
request that they accept a temporary truce and agrees to
answer a few questions.
The aboleth has no intention of dealing with the char-
acters honestly, since inferior beings don't merit such
treatment. Using its Probing Telepathy, it discerns each
character's greatest desire. then uses this information
against the party, promising each character what it
knows the character wants in exchange for nothing
more than being allowed to spend a few more months
in the temple. After that time, Sgothgah promises, it
will return to the unfathomable depths of the ocean and
never bother humanity again.
If the characters have put together a sense of the abo-
leth's plots, Sgothgah admits that it is raising a kraken,
but it claims that the creature is meant to be used
against its enemies in an ongoing civil war between
opposing factions of the aboleth civilization. I t claims
that those enemies are already probing the aboleth's de-
fenses around the Styes, and are just as much a threat
to the district and its people as to it. If the characters
are so inclined, Sgothgah says, it could use their help in
driving them off-concocting some far-flung suicide mis-
sion for them on the spot.
Sgothgah freely weaves lies, truths, half-truths, and
the characters' desires into the conversation. As long
as doing so is believable, Sgothgah offers and promises
anything- because the cunning creature has no inten-
tion of ever delivering. All it wants is for at least three
promising victims to come close enough to the pool for it
to use a lair action to send forth a grasping tide, pulling
the characters into the water in an attempt to infect and
enslave them.
Dark Altar. The shark hanging above the stairs
serves as the altar in this evil place. T he cult routinely
kidnaps beggars, vagrants, and lost children and sac-
rifices them to the dark god, saving their heads and
affixing them to the shark. Eventually, the carcass will
rot to the point where it tears loose from the ropes and
falls into the water to be eaten by scavengers. When that
happens, the cult members celebrate the occasion, hunt
down a replacement shark, and star t the cycle again.
Treasure. The cultists hid treasure they have col-
lected from victims under the topmost step leading
down into the pool. The treasure can be discovered with
a search of the staircase and a successful DC 18 Wis-
dom (Perception) check.
Inside a flooded hollow under the removable step are
eight sacks of coins, each containing^100 sp and^50 gp.
A rusted iron coffer holds^17 pieces of jewelry worth a
total of 1,530 gp. along with three potions of healing,
four potions of greater healing, and six potions of water
breathing.
Also inside the hollow is an object sealed inside a
tightly sewn oilcloth- an instrument of the bards (Cli
! Tl A I' I f J.! I'. I JI I SI \f 5
lyre) found by a cultist years before. The lyre is the cult's
greatest treasure. and has been kept as a gift for the
leader that the cultists hoped would someday come to
them. (They offered the lyre to Sgothgah. but the aboleth
had no use for it.)MYSTERIOUS TuNNEL
The submerged tunnel snakes westward for nearly a
mile, and is flooded along its entire length. It opens up
to the seafloor^40 feet underwater and a few hundred
feet off a deserted stretch of coastline. The only visible
landmark in the area is the spire of Landgrave·s Folly,
the sunken island where Sgothgah has been raising the
juvenile kraken.
ff the characters return to the Styes without explor-
ing the area further, any of the folk in the Styes can tell
the story of Landgrave's Folly (as detailed in the next
section) in response to hearing about the spire that the
characters spotted jutting out of the waves. If the char-
acters investigate the temple and take on the final sec-
tion of the adventure i mmediately, the background story
ofLandgrave's Folly can be filled in after they return to
the Styes.Part 5: Tharizdun's Progeny
At the height of the Styes' long-ago glory, a local ec-
centric noble named Bryson Landgrave announced his
intention to discover what lay on the underside of the
world. To that end, he ordered the digging of a great
pit that would eventually lead to whatever was there.
Locals dismissed the effort as mad, but the noble was
rich, and no one complained about the wages he offered
to diggers.
For reasons no one could comprehend, Landgrave
chose to excavate down through the solid rock beneath a
small islet a mile or so west of the Styes. The work went
well at the start. But then workers began to perish in bi-
zarre or mysterious accidents. In an attempt to counter
his ill luck, the noble commissioned the construction of
a temple (using material removed from the hole) at the
dig site to confer blessings on h is work. As Landgrave's
luck would have it, on th e night the temple was to be
consecrated, a violent earthquake struck the islet, which
sank into the sea and took the pit, the temple, all but a
handful of workers, and Landgrave himself with it. Only
the temple's spire is still visible above the waves as a
testament to what becomes of rich fools, and the site be-
came known as Landgrave's Folly.DEATH FROM THE DEEP
Landgrave's Folly is where Sgothgah has hidden the
growing kraken. in the pit at the bottom of the flooded,
ruined temple. The two aboleths that tried to attack the
site did well in their earlier battle with Sgothgah, forcing
it to retreat, and are in the process of dismantling the
last of the magical wards set up by the renegade aboleth.
As the characters approach Landgrave's Folly after
either defeating Sgothgah, making a deal with the abo-
leth, or succumbing to its enslavement. the two aboleths