Scion of the Sentient Sea

 As a developing fetus, V’ulle seeks to gather enough nutrients in order to hatch healthily so that his establishment of the Sentient Sea can begin in earnest.

 V’ulle is served faithfully by a faction of squiglings who do everything they can to ensure that their overlord hatches safely.

Though V’ulle is supremely intelligent, as a developing fetus he has very little acquired knowledge and almost no first-hand experiences of the world to speak of.

At the beginning of the world, great leviathans known as the Xelkheshi reigned supreme over the seas as the first creations of the gods. When the gods eventually grew bored of their children, however, and wished to see new life flourish, the Xelkheshi faced environmental calamity that wiped them from the world — except for a lone remnant. A great leviathan known as Vhogduth laid a single egg before the calamity struck, an egg which became buried by sediment in a gargantuan submarine landslide. The egg remained entombed for thousands of years, in stasis but alive, until just a few years ago, when a coincidental undersea earthquake shook it loose, granting it a second chance at life. 

Leviathan eggs and their embryos can persist for thousands of years without nourishment. Once they begin to receive the nutrients they need to hatch, however, the incubation period can last as little as five years. Shook from its slumber beneath the sands of the ocean, the embryo within the egg awoke and became aware of its reality. Ignorant of the world as it is today but imprinted with the memory of its ancestors, the embryo named itself V’ulle. V’ulle knew that it would have to make its incubation its own responsibility. It needed nutrients — other living, sentient beings that would be fed into and absorbed by its egg. V’ulle began to send out its telepathic call, speaking to any who could hear it and making an offering of power to those who would answer it. When the Xelkheshi ruled, their dominion was known as the Sentient Sea. V’ulle intended to restore that dominion and promised to make champions of those who aided it. 

A tribe of squiglings known as the Briorvi was the first to respond to V’ulle’s call. The Briorvi believe that an ancient prophecy has foretold V’ulle’s arrival, and that it is their divine role to ensure the scion’s growth. In exchange for a privileged position in the new regime that will be the Sentient Sea, the Briorvi have committed themselves to gather food for V’ulle in the form of sentient creatures such as merrow, merfolk, and any mortal races that find themselves within Briorvi territory. They attack boats and raid coastal fishing settlements to gather prisoners that they can feed to V’ulle. If left unchecked, V’ulle and the squiglings will build a new world order that begins beneath the waves. 

 count several hundred amongst their number. All of the tribe’s efforts have become focused on the incubation of V’ulle. Raiding teams assault boats, ships, and coastal settlements for prisoners. Other members of the tribe have contributed to the expansion of coastal and undersea lairs in which prisoners are held while they await their turn to be fed to V’ulle. A tribal sub-faction known as the Overseers have the privileged duty of feeding prisoners to V’ulle, a process through which prey are attached to the egg via an adhesive mucus secretion and then slowly absorbed into it. 

The leader of the Briorvi squiglings is Vheztu, a 

 and High Oracle for the tribe. It was Vheztu who first heard V’ulle’s call, and who consulted the oral histories to connect it with the prophecy. Vheztu is wise, good to his kind, and well-respected by his tribe, though he has no empathy for non-squiglings and is cruel and calculating in the matters of rounding them up for consumption by V’ulle. 

The most psionically-advanced members of the Briorvi, the 

, allow the tribe to conduct more raids and gather more prisoners than would otherwise be possible. The Briorvi have conquered a nearby tribe of sahuagin, and after slaying most of their number, have saved a select few for the purposes of steering, allowing them to travel farther, faster, and deal more damage to the benefit of the tribe. 

The Briorvi tribe have tamed a number of 

 that they use to make quick work of ships that sail over their territory. Using their forceful jets of water, the nautillery blow holes into the undersides of boats and ships. The squiglings then either board amongst the chaos, or, if the holes are large enough, simply wait for the ship to sink so they can collect their prey. 

 In addition to the nautillery, the Briovi have also tamed an 

 named Vuctust that they use to travel quickly between one raiding target and another. Vuctust is particularly useful for catching the squigling’s raiding targets by surprise, as its teleportation abilities disrupt scouting efforts and are exceedingly difficult to protect against for species such as merrow and merfolk. 

patrols the waters surrounding the undersea cave where V’ulle dwells. The squiglings have pacified the deathlight with regular offerings of food, and though it is usually content to ignore the squiglings, it has on occasion attacked and eaten some of their tribe members. These events are rare, however, and the squiglings would prefer to keep the deathlight around for the extra protection it offers V’ulle and the lair. 

V’ulle will do anything it can to avoid direct combat with the characters due to the supreme risk that it poses. If forced to defend itself, however, it will be prepared to do so. V’ulle is intelligent enough to be able to intuit the most violently capable member of the party and will cast 

if it can affect three or more targets at once. V’ulle will use its Recall Agony legendary action more often than not, unless it is in danger of defeat, at which point it will use Daze and Deceleration on nearby creatures so that it can create distance. It uses Mass Deja Vu when optimal depending on the circumstances of the fight, ideally in a way that forces party members to waste their turns or spell slots.

An embryo, the last survivor of an ancient leviathan race that used to rule the oceans, has been shaken from its slumber.

V'ulle

Scion of the Sentient Sea