Cult+of+The+Three+Below

=The Cult of The Three Below=

This group was mentioned by Muraco the Changeling as she was being hauled away by the Sharn Watch for multiple murders on 2 Olarune 998 YK. She said she had turned Faye Dwarfhammer over to them, and mockingly hoped it "wasn't one of the Cult's sacrifice days...".

Dashiell Kaplan, when asked by Draco, recalled that several months back (sometime in early Aryth 997 YK), when he was just getting started in adventuring, he and his companions encountered a "Cult of the Dragon Below" operating far below Sharn. They broke up the cult and killed the object of its worship, a Bright Naga called the "Queen With Burning Eyes," but the Cult Leader himself fled by diving into a pit that could have led all the way to Khyber, the Underdark.

If there's any connection between the two, it is not readily apparent.

On 3 Olarune 998, a mission to rescue Faye was undertaken by a party of five adventurers and a Grimlock warchief whose clan had been wiped out by the Cult's Dolgrim followers. The trail led deep into the Sewers below Sharn. There, they ran into a force of Gnolls loyal to the Daask organization and led by a Druid of the Children of Winter sect. They were defeated, as were a large number of Dolgrims dead-set on protecting what appeared to be...dozens of eggs as big as full-grown Gnomes. Along the way, Nina Moondown found the remains of an Orc Gatekeeper Druid, along with his emblem and weapon.

Soon after, they discovered that these cultists either found, or were somehow able to summon, a horrible aberration responsible for creating the Dolgrims -- an egglaying monstrosity with a spider's abdomen, long tentacles for legs, and the head, arms and torso of a female Goblin. Fortunately for all of Khorvaire, the Dolgirm "Mamasan" was slain by this adventuring party...but not before it laid eggs, perhaps hundreds of them. Each Dolgrim Hatchling is able to run, leap and use its claws to latch onto an enemy so it can bring its two mouths to bear and start feeding. The Grimlock warchief died in the fight.

Continuing on despite grievous injuries and with no spell support, the party found an abandoned temple, guarded by undead. Even as they fought them, Faye Dwarfhammer herself came running at them, chased by apparently Humanoid cultists. Somehow she had escaped her bonds in the chaos following the Mamasan's death (in which the Dolgrims fled en masse).

Mission accomplished, the party escaped without pressing further into the Cult's lair. Therefore, its membership, other than Dolgrims and a couple of now-dead Dolgaunts, remains a mystery.


 * Update, mid-Olarune:** When a group of adventurers entered the Morgrave University library stacks in search of architectural blueprints to Czervanth Tower, home to the NZZN organization, they found the librarian had been replaced by a nasty fellow who could summon Gricks (small aberrations) and had a tonguewhip in his mouth.


 * Update, 1 Therendor 998 YK:** The House Lyrandar airship //Blue Yonder//, sailing from Sterngate towards Sharn, was attacked outside Mistmarsh by Human cultists. Their leader was able to summon a pair of Spinagon Devils (evil outsiders native to Shavarath), and directed them to attack the bound Fire Elemental driving the vessel. The fire-immune Spinagons flew //inside// the elemental ring and started tearing and clawing. The airship, flying "nap of the earth" to avoid strong late-winter headwinds higher up, plowed its nose into the ground in the middle of a separate battle between a trio of travelers and a Swords of Liberty cell. When it was over, the leader had //teleported// away but his fanatic followers, the summoned Devils and the Swords of Liberty were all dead. How the cultists were able to locate a moving airship and teleport aboard is an unanswered question.

The leader had unusual grafts -- a living breastplate and a paralyzing tentacle like that of a carrion crawler -- and a bad habit of repeating //"Our Day is Coming. The Three Shall Rise!"//


 * Update, 3 Therendor:** The bodyguards assigned to Norrin Tordannon all had unusual flesh grafts, including "eyestalks" firing rays of cold and electricity. The Dwarf himself was seemingly free of such things, until his head exploded while being questioned. Before dying, Tordannon implied that with House Deneith no longer providing security, NZZN had turned to their other clients, Daask and the Cult of The Three Below. All the bodyguards were slain, except for a Harpy flying overwatch.


 * Update, 5 Therendor:** During the final chase of the murderous Changeling Muraco in Sharn, a pair of cultists were seen to be trailing her. They intervened and tried to keep the party from stopping the Changeling from fleeing. Each had an "eyestalk" graft. Both were slain.

In the final battle against the Cult of the Three Below, the party was able to kill the leader, who was in fact **Vestan ir'Simul**, the leader of the smaller, weaker cult Dashiell had encountered months before. Vestan, wearing the skin of the Orc Druid as a cloak and wielding the half-finished //byeshk// head of the //Guurgaal// replica Faye had been working on (crudely lashed to a quarterstaff, non-magical and non-functional...except somehow he was making it work), was leading the cultist in trying to crack a Gatekeeper ward protecting the surface world from the horrors trapped in Khyber -- specifically the three //daelkyr// lords responsible for the fifth Xoriat incursion //circa// -6560 YK.