The party received a sending message from Gorum's Vale, or rather from the crash site of a meteor a day's travel outside the village. The sending had come from Kendra Marrigan, the village wizard and the daughter of the local seneschal, Sir Ulysses.
It appeared that the young wizard and her apprentice, Mathilda Vyrlich, had ridden out to investigate the site where the object had fallen from the sky, and they had run into distress. The meteor appeared to have been the same one that the party had seen during their hunting trip the night before.
They quickly mounted a rescue operation and headed toward the mountains. After briefly checking in with Sir Ulysses, the group of adventurers headed back out into the wilderness in the same direction the two wizards had gone the day before.
Upon reaching the site, they were ambushed by horribly mutated wolves that were using the nearly-dead Mathilda as bait for a trap.
Wolf Mutate
They fought off the wolves and healed Mathilda back to full strength.
Mathilda Vyrlich, Apprentice Wizard
The party then moved on to the crash site proper. There they came upon a large mass of stone half buried into the earth. Several holes had been rent into the ground, and a sickly yellow smoke slowly leaked out from somewhere underneath. The party chose the largest hole, and descended into the darkness.
In the first large chamber they encountered a number of ankhegs. But the insectoid creatures were not like those that sometimes harried the countryside. These ankhegs had pulsing, glowing yellow crystal shards embedded in their hides. The creatures quickly attacked, and the party was able to defeat them straightaway.
Slightly Mutated Ankheg
Moving into the next chamber, they came upon more ankhegs, only these had had longer to mutate, and were of a monstrous size and full of rage. They too sported the same crystals as the last ankhegs had.
Greatly Mutated Ankheg
Also in the room were several molted husks, the remnants of the creatures' various chrysalis mutations, and in the back of the room, plastered against a wall by solidified ankheg mucous, was a barely conscious Kendra Marrigan. She was trapped near a pool of still-viscous, glowing mucous. Trails of the hardened slime traced their way to the dried husks scattered about the chamber.
Kendra Marrigan
The creatures were very resistant to damage, but Lord Donaghast hit upon the idea of dipping his sword into the glowing pool and attacking. Lo and behold, the weapon now sliced through the creatures like a knife through bread! With this tactical advantage, the group was able to quickly turn the tide.
After defeating the creatures, they freed Kendra Marrigan. As they healed her, she told them that another, more powerful creature was trying to crack open her mind. She warned them that they should all flee, but before they could withdraw, the hive mother burst out of the pool and attacked.
The mutated hive mother was the largest ankheg anyone in Primordia had ever seen. Lodged into its back was a very large shard that glowed with a steady, sinister light, the source of all other shards they had seen in the caverns. It appeared that the shard was in the process of merging with the hive mother, and the symbiotic monstrosity quickly turned its vicious hatred onto the party.
Mutated Hive Mother
As the huge ankheg attacked them physically, the alien mind shard attacked them psychically. The battle raged on and on, so that Sir Mercer was laid low by a mighty psychic blast, while Lord Donaghast received many grievous wounds. In the end, the party laid the hive mother low and shattered the alien mind shard.
One of the pieces of the alien being still glowed very slightly, and the party realized that the crystal sliver could be wielded as a magic shortsword. Such an item would require further examination in the proper environment!
Mindsplinter
They also realized that they were standing in the middle of a mother lode of adamantine, and they would have to figure out a way to mine it and transport it!
Adamantine Ore
With victory in hand, they considered their situation...
