A first campaign log

[Terane]

Spoiler: August 2016

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Starting off, we're assuming that we left Teredor, went to the Purple-veils's quarters and unbolted the chest because Joe wanted it, then Aqila megateleports us back home, we report in, get an item with Disjunction on it when we explain what the plan is, possibly with some facepalming, then return to the Nexus, chuck a few rocks with Silent cast on them into the entry way, then make our way to the Forge room, where we begin this session. We talked about doing that last session, so no need to rehash the plan.
So, on finding Almaera in the Forge, as Teredor promised we would, with her two minions, we fire off the Disjunction, and it is indeed an instant kill. Using Detect Magic, Aqila realizes the only item that survived with its magic intact was her shoes, and grabs them, triggering jokes about a wizard’s pointy shoes for some odd reason, then they all run to the portal to the Senior Quarters, and sedately walk to the Vault just in case more Seniors show up. It also gives us a somewhat secluded venue to pull off the next phase of the plan.
We get ready to scout the head's quarters so we can run for the right portal, then Aqila will be able to scramble it and send any pursuers off into random parts of the fortress, or so we hope. The ‘is the staff piece here’ spell comes up empty, not that we were expecting it to be in here.
Moonbeam summons some large air elementals for the scouting mission, then sends them into the portal. There are four golems in the room, which appears to be an entry way of sorts, and they attack the elementals on sight. One eats 133 Disint damage and dies. The surviving 3 each go through a portal to see what's there. Moonbeam uses chain of eyes to see that one room is a harem with one golem and a dozen ladies of various appearances, the next one was the head's quarters, and when that elemental jumps to the next nearest portal, it ends up the same place as the 3rd one, in the lab, which only has 2 visible portals. The elemental in the harem went through the other portal and ended up in the head's quarters. So we haven't found the vault yet.
Joe sends in one elemental with Dagnar provided invisibility to see if the golems can see invisible. They can. Meanwhile, Aqila is casting summon elemental 4 repeatedly to get a swarm of small elementals. So for the next phase, Aqila sends her swarm into the room, with the last 4 carrying liquid smoke capsules to drop on the golems. This blinds the golems temporarily. The party runs through the portal to the Head's quarters portal while the golems are smoked. Aqila tells her elementals to bounce around the room until they get a golem chasing them, then follow through the portal, and then scrambles the portal once we're in the room. The swarm manages to get one to chase them before they get picked off.
There is one golem in the head’s quarters. We liquid smoke it too, but it still almost hits Dagnar with a disintegrate. Aqila finds a secret door with a spell, then Thoron goes rhino and charges the bookcases concealing the secret door. He smashes through and goes through the portal on the otherside into a small room with another golem in it. He manages to hit it. Bits of it are chipping off. And then the golem attacks. Thoron has a ring of counterspell, so he doesn't die from the Disintegrate.
Next round, the golem in the quarters with us lumbers towards Joe and takes a swing at him. He misses. Joe wildshapes into a legendary ape and grapples with it, succeeds and throws it through the scrambled portal. With Aqila trying and failing twice to help out with a grasping hand assist, and Moonbeam animal-growthing Joe to give him actual effective help. Meanwhile, Thoron rapidly backs through the portal he went through, but not before the golem in there swings at him and punches him in the head. More of a glancing blow, but it still hurt.
Aqila scrambles the other two portals in the head’s bedroom to keep anything else from coming in for a few minutes. While we quickly toss all the books into the bag of holding just because we never walk away from loot ever, a small construct pops in and in Teredor's voice warns us that we'd better hurry because the Head is aware that there is something going on and is coming back. We know that with the portals scrambled, that'll slightly slow him down, but we need to hurry. And the golem in the secret room is not following Thoron through. So Thoron is asked to also go Legendary Ape and we pile through the portal. The druids grab the golem while Aqila scrambles that portal too, and then they chuck it through. Meanwhile, Dagnar uses the scroll to dimensionally lock the secret room down so we can work undisturbed. When Aqila uses the 'Is the staff piece here please?' spell, she gets a yes and a rough direction.
So, inside this secret room, we see a vault which appears to be made of adamantine, a jewelry display table with two rings and a necklace, an empty armor rack, two iron bound chests, and a large pile of what look like various sized blocks of wood. 7' by 3' by 1' all the way down to a bunch of 2" cubes. All the blocks detect as magical and it looks like they all have associated extradimensional space. The spell was pointing at the vault as being the staff piece location. The chests are unmagical, the jewelry is.
The vault is 6'x6'x4', with a dial with numbers on the front. Aqila decides that this may take a bit, and takes a catnap. Moonbeam finds the rings to be strong but simple abjuration magic. The necklace looks like transmutation, but....odd. So Aqila gets woken up to use analyze dweomer...Ring of protection +4, ring of minor universal resistance, +10 all simple energies. Necklace of strangulation. Looking around quickly, the chests are still mundane, the boxes are all extradimensional stores, and Joe and Aqila remember hearing that those sorts of boxes have passwords that open them and that wrong passwords seal them permanently. And the items are probably around the size of the box. For some of them, Aqila can 'see' several words that are either the right one or a trap and she has no idea how to tell which is which.
Dagnar, meanwhile, was taking 20 and opens the lock on the vault. There's a set of slim boxes inside, all about the right size to be a staff piece, 5 in total. We open all the boxes. 4 of them have an elemental theme. 4 rods decorated with flames, drops, wind, and the last is a piece of granite. The last is the staff piece. There's a rune staff leaning in the corner...contact other plane and analyze dweomer. Type of staff that you power with your own energy. There is something that looks like a weird game board...it's something idiotic diviners try some time...the pieces represent specific people and the pieces moving is supposed to represent the future...it occasionally shows the future, and it's by accident if you guess right. There's an item that will summon an entity to answer any one question to answer a question to the best of its ability, and each person may only ask one question in their lifetime, and asking the question applies a curse to the asker. (next 20 d20 rolls where your life is in peril, roll 2 times, take lower. No way to remove the curse.). Also unclear what entity is summoned - so maybe not the safest thing to use. Or most reliable. Cloak of balor nimbus, with +3 to saving throws and spell resistance 20. Robes of permanent greater mirror image.
So, there are 55 blocks to be investigated, in the giant pile of wooden boxes. Aqila takes half an hour to cast the 'make it safe' spell on the staff piece. While the druids work out how to haul off everything that's not nailed down, Dagnar opens up the chests for kicks and giggles. Cash and gems around 50k gold value. Can't get into the hole or the bag of holding while we're in the dimensional lock. Then we get all the loot gathered up and Aqila gets us home.
So, mission accomplished. We hand over the staff piece, and there will be a reward for that forthcoming at some point. We also hand over the unused scrolls from our trip. As for the rest of the things we brought back, our bosses have a deal for us. It'll take a month, but if they get dibs on anything dangerous, they'll help us get the boxes open. (It'll be 2 months before they get the staff assembled so OOC we have a rough idea when the real campaign endgame kicks off)
And so we don’t have to do this later, the DM rolled to see what we would get out of the 55 boxes. Here’s the list:
Biggest box - Mirror - allows you to use greater scrying at will and is specifically able to view extraplanar, and can be used to open a gateway to where ever you're seeing. Risk of an intrusion of outsiders any time you use it, though. And the more times you use it in a given day, the higher the chance that you get attacked...up to dozens of balors. When we get it, we’ll most likely have it out on loan to the Sentinel, since we won’t need it all the time…may rack up some favors that way.
2' cube box - Comes with a note: If you put the hood on it's a face covering hood. It inflicts a negative level on wear and doubles the levels each minute you wear it...only works if you take the negative levels. if you are concentrating on a specific question when you put it on, you will receive a vision related to the answer, and the writer of the note believes that the visions are accurate, though the scene may be reconstructed rather than something that actually happened. No guarantee that you will get a vision; writer guesses that the spell casts a lot of divination spells and synthesizes an answer when it has enough info. Have to use restoration to fix negative levels afterwards.
2' cube. Fail. ooc, least useful of the cube items
2' cube It's a very large pile of journals. Belong to a head of the order that took many trips to chaos region - journals are in code, but could be interesting. She was considered the best of the heads of the order in the last millennium.
2' cube - fail. Was schmuck bait.
2' cube - Comes with notes. 3 crystal goblets. If you fill the goblet with a liquid and drink the entire contents, you will get an effect for 24 hours. 1/day/goblet. Water grants 10 DR. Wine is advantage on attack rolls. Writer won't tell us what other liquids do, warning that at least one liquid will kill you.
2' cube fail (item that you can use to scry on its location)
2' cube - marble carving of a human skull that randomly repeats single words that it has heard.
2' cube - collection of books that are really bad...one is written it what is purported in Sakaneth's language....to the dangerous stuff vaults. The rest were texts by ancients on ‘unwholesome topics’.
2' cube - mystic orb - 2' diameter featureless crystal sphere...no apparent function.
2' cube - thoroughly smashed mechanical gadget. Artificer thinks that it may have been a orrery of the planes, gadget for scrying on the planes. very partial chunk of one.
2' cube - large glowing coal the size of a human head. It appears if you fuse it with yourself in some way, it will grant some benefits like fire damage heals you and you gain an extreme vulnerability to cold. Completely unable to case cold spells. All fire spells are maximized. Removal is 24hr unconsciousness, and 2d6 permanent loss to all stats.
2'x1'x1' has a pile of very thick clothing...insulating properties against the Maelstrom. One set of clothes.
5'x1'x1' - a warhammer. Call down lightning bolts at will. Chance to be healed instead of hurt by electricity, and 1/day control weather.
3'x2"x2" fail – would have been a domino mask that makes you blind outside of 60', but lots of divination effects inside. all low level detect x spells.
3'x2"x2" Metamagic rod variant. 10 pts to be consumed. Can apply any metamagic - cost is = to metamagic cost. recharging hurts...8 hour ritual and 200 energy for 1 point recharge. ouch.
3'x2"x2" Spyglass that has applied to it true seeing and arcane sight but they only work when viewing an item between 500' and 1000' away from the viewer.
3'x2"x2"fail. Wand of 'nothing'
3'x2"x2" Flute carved out of ivory. Joe will claim it for his wife...no magic, just pretty.
3'x2"x2" Thin dagger, no real hilt. Allows critical hits and sneak attacks against undead, and makes you invisible to undead.
3'x2"x2" Rod of Wonder
3'x2"x2" fail on useless box
3x2"x2" Dangerous item - Scepter for communicating with a demon lord. Requires selling your soul to that demon lord. To the vaults with it!
3'x2"x2" Labeled by owner - supposed to be Codex Arcana...name of an item that never existed (every spell the Ancients ever knew, purportedly), on examination, it's actually a scroll that will cast a single random spell that you can't know what it is until you're done casting it. And it's reusable. 0-9th level spells.

Spoiler: GM Commentary

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Potentially the most powerful item they got - and the most horribly dangerous.

2"cube - gem that will cast a random spell. You know what spell it is, at least before using it. 50% chance that it will change spell when you use it. Changes once per 24 hours normally.
2"cube - small silver chain. 7 charms. While wearing, while at least 1 charm is active, can blink at will. use one to dim door. destroy one to teleport or plane shift. Chain acts as a key to any plane it's linked too...linked to a lot of them. Can use your own plane shift with it as key, and can teleport into maelstrom....destroys charms to do so, and more depending on how deep you go. 1d6 charms. Takes 1 day to generate a new charm. 7 max charms. no other cost.

Spoiler: GM Commentary

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Was surprised the party ended up never actually using this trinket.

2" cube. pair of lenses that grant continuous detect good, chaos, law, and evil. Just need a frame for them.
2" cube - lost next 3 of these
2" cube - prism lenses - distorts view, no benefit.
2" cube - lenses that obscure all living and dead plant matter - ie can see through a forest, but can't see the trees
2" cube - ring in shape of mobius strip. prevents use of shapechange while worn.
2" cube - random power surge ring. All spells are minimized except 20% chance of empowered. um, yeah...
2" cube - amulet that blocks all spellcasting abilities of the wearer.
2" cube - amulet of strangulation.
2" cube - ring made of glass - no magic.
2" cube - Gloves of Death. Continuous death touch effect - finger of death spell basically. while wearing, suppresses any death ward effect on you. so don't touch yourself.
2" cube - ring of warning. Effectively a constant augury, attunes to you over time, let's you know when danger is coming. Spidey-sense.
2" cube - fail. star of chaos, giant shard of the mad god. Would have gone to the vaults
2" cube - fail. ring of life, keeps you alive but drains con permanently.
2" cube - 3/day random globe of invulnerability, force ward, lesser globe, resilient sphere, death ward, stone skin, prismatic sphere or roll twice and get both.
2" cube that is viciously trapped - fail to open. ooc it would have shortcut some plot points....key to Zeleya's home plane.
2" cube - bracelet of souls - similar to trap the soul by binding subject in bracelet. up to 200 HD, no more than 30HD creatures, 9th level spell saving throw. Can drain the souls to reduce your age. That one's going to the vaults.
2" cube - artificer starts swearing when he sees it. Amulet that contains 3 spell matrices....3 spells up to 5th level in each matrix, max 10 spell levels...can discharge one matrix per standard action. Drawback is its unstable...chance that the other matrices will discharge explosively. up to 40d6 disintegration damage. You get no saving throw. Everyone inside 30' of you does get a chance to save, and when it goes boom, the matrix you fired off is destroyed. 1% chance per spell level. Only safe to use when using 1 matrix at a time. And it could still blow up the matrix, but lower chance and no damage if the other matrices are empty. So eventually it'll be useless, but it lets you cast 3 spells in the time of one.
3" cube - ring of keys. Only useful if you know where the doors are.
3" cube - Skullcap - when donned it dyes your hair a random color. Can't change haircolor afterwards except by the cap or letting it dye out. Shapechange won't change it.
3" cube - looks like a sphere of water. Will flow through your fingers, except it won't split in two. You can cut it apart, but it will rejoin ASAP. New toy for Joe
Fail – item absorbs all spells cast in its vicinity.
5'x6"x6" - staff with 37 charges. As long as it has charges, magic missile at will. 1 - shield or mage armor, 2 is forceward or resilient sphere, and you can spend 3 charges to maximize or 4 to quicken. It is rechargeable.
5'x6"x6" – Staff, rechargeable with 11 charges remaining. 1 charge is dispel magic, 2 is greater dispel or an anti-magic ray, 3 is a reaving dispel, 4 is disjunction.
4’x1’x1’ – fail
3’x3’x1’ – Labeled as Basin of Conjuration. It’s a large bowl, and if you fill it with water, it will summon a water weird, which will either attack you or answer questions. It has 18th level sorcerer spells. It looks like there is a long contract that binds it embedded in the magic on the bowl, but it would take time to analyze the spells to tease out exactly what the terms are, so you know under what circumstances the weird can attack you. Using dirty water to summon it is almost certainly one of them.

Spoiler: GM Commentary

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I decided to let them know what they didn't get once I saw how this was trending - they got most of what was actually useful to them. Don't remember what was in the failed boxes the note-taker missed recording.

We'll get all this in a month. This is just so we don't forget what we had gotten.
So we got back, dropped off a pile of stuff. And finally got a look at the Head's book stash. Largely light reading, with a selection of his personal journals, mostly not on magic, more like personal discussions, detailed accounts of experiments with his harem, and things like that. Presents for the Order of the Book scholars...their reaction is a mix of happy and horror. Most of the spell books appear to be relatively minor.
We all get a good night's sleep, then meet up to go report to Savinel about what we've learned, and Eltariel's prophesy. Moonbeam does some scrying first...the Amerelian ships are a bit better supplied now...and they might actually finish with the last ships before the first ships supplied eat through their supplies. Assuming that there's nothing in town to eat.
Savinel, after we talk to her, doesn't think Louhi has any involvement in Zeleya's worship. She's not perfectly certain, given what we told her Eltariel said, but... And Savinel thinks it's time to let us know a bit more about what we may be facing, since we're getting closer to reaching the temple. She's offering to create projections for us to face, and the fight will be 'real', except there will be no lasting effects afterwards, even if we 'die'. She thinks that it would be best to minimize what she's showing us lest someone figure out what she's doing...basically, if she thinks we can beat it, she's not bothering... she'll start with things that she thinks we can't beat...starting off with a beast that is a corruption of unicorns. Rare, and Zeleya's likely the only god to successfully pull this off, and even for her 9/10 die in the process. Practically, you want a paladin with you because they will attack the purest soul they perceive...you can use that trait to let you control who they're attacking. (OOC we only get exp if any of us survive the fight.)
Savinel will only do this one simulation for us this time because the effort of making it realistic will make it more visible. She'll give us a full run through of the threats she thinks we’ll be facing when it's closer to when we may be going to the temple, but for now, this is to give us the measure that we need to shoot for to pull this off.
So, we begin. We're in cramped quarters to make the terrain realistic. Thoron tries to baleful polymorph and fails. Was a 1/4 chance of success. The soul-bound unicorn tries to trap-the-soul on Aqila, and with all the buffs on her, she survives the attack. Joe wildshapes to dire lion then uses Blast of Sand, since it's resistant to a lot of things, cold and electricity in particular. Used a maximize for kicks. That, it felt. Dagnar uses the Black Blade of Disaster and closes to melee range and attacks. No joy. Aqila's darkbolt does 39 damage from 4 hits, no daze. So she uses a prismatic eye for her non-quickened spell and gets yellow, elec. Unicorn fails the save, so it gets owwied. Moonbeam does two quickened flame strikes. Makes the save on the sonic strike, and fails the save on the force strike. And now it is unconscious. Thoron does Blast of Sand. That kills it. (OOC if we hadn’t killed it before it’s next turn, it would have used Blasphemy on us, and that would have been….bad)
The construct dissipates. (Moonbeam did over half the damage it took) We can actually see signs of surprise in Savinel's countenance. "Perhaps next time I will see how well you do when it has assistance". She also gave us a quick verbal rundown on what else we may have to face. She thinks there should be more than a few of her greater handmaidens...we've faced lesser handmaidens to date. They're what she has serving her in place of Balors. At present, she has at least 11 in her service, based on Savinel's assessment...and she expects we'll have to face them all given how important the place is. It is not impossible that she will come herself (as an avatar) to defend her last temple, even if we bring a paladin.
“More likely, she will send her chief lieutenant. She is the one I know the least about, and when I judge it won't be an instant massacre, I will attempt to show you something of her. I should also note that when you face her it would be advantageous for you to be widely separated and for at least one of you to appear helpless. She is known to enjoy tormenting enemies provided she thinks she has time. If you can draw her into playing, that may buy you time to defeat her. Silviel is a being who if she was not bound to Zeleya's service, might well be a minor goddess in her own right. Fortunately the same oaths that bind her to Zeleya restrict what she can actually do. Still more fortunately, she is less than adept at forming her own avatars.”
(she'd kill a helpless paladin fast and thoroughly so don’t volunteer one to play bait). We want to find the biggest room in the temple to fight her because she can use Blasphemy and Savinel doesn't think we can get strong enough to resist her Blasphemy.
She looks thoughtful for a moment, then says that there are limits on what she can tell us that would be safe...safe for us, that is. She can say that there is a thing she knows that if we knows might help us find her temple, but it would be extremely dangerous for us to know it, and even for her to tell us how to learn it. She can tell us that we have met someone who may be able to tell us this thing without danger to him, but whether he would think it was safe for us, she can't say. 'There are things at work here that I do not pretend to fully understand.' Basically, be very indirect about asking questions on this topic.

Spoiler: GM Commentary

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Personality may not be sufficiently obvious from the notes, but Savinel admitting that she didn't understand something was a huge red flag for the party - a 'what are we getting ourselves into this time?'

[Terane]

Spoiler: October 2016

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Started the session out by sorting out gear and things. And remember that we told Savinel about the dragon eggs in the Dragon's temple in Aerodon. So we start out by being called to talk to the Elder Dragons in Arandor. Once we are all there, one of them gestures briefly with a claw, and 5 items float down to us. Very formally, in Draconic, "As promised, your rewards. For that which you have done, and that which you will do, these are well and truly earned." (part of the Pact means they aren't allowed to bestow powers on anyone that they haven't earned, so there's a legal aspect to this). (Also implicit, we won't get any more presents ever). Proper responses are given of gratitude, by those that understood the statement. And quickly filling in those who didn’t. The elder dragon shifts to using common, "On another matter, our thanks for the information you have relayed to us. We would ask that you refrain from taking any action against that or any other such location you discover" We agree, and notice that he emphasized other such locations. The number of eggs in the one we saw was more than the known dragon population of the world could have produced, so we know something is odd there, but not what. "It is imperative that those eggs be permitted to hatch undisturbed." Joe asks what happens after they hatch. "The gamble has begun", and then says no more on the subject. (They know they are a dying race...population is too small to survive) "If you would question us on any other subject, we have a little time, but know there is much we cannot tell you without risking your own safety." The fact that we’re getting license to ask anything in and of itself is worrying…this is not something that happens, generally.

Spoiler: GM Commentary

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These were exceptionally powerful items - very thoroughly smashing WBL guidelines. Player designed with some fairly loose restrictions, party munchkin had a lot of fun creating powerhouse items for these rewards.
Everyone except Aqila had some form of shapechange from theirs - Dagnar had a limited (Gloom only) version, others had at-will full shapechange at varying caster levels.
Aqila had some substantial stat boosts and an at-will heal.
And then a pile of other abilities - couldn't find a full write-up, do remember Thoron's had a pile of detection tricks on it so he could see through pretty much any kind of trickery.

We ask if they know anything about Helvisarn and the Choir of Frost. "Now that is an old name indeed. We may not know as much as you'd like." We add what details we know, that he’s trying to come back, Ilene's association with him being unwillingly, etc. They give us some interesting details, like the easiest way for him to come back is to pour his own power into Ilene, but if she breaks free of his control, he can't defend himself against his own power without permanently severing himself from that power. And then the dragon has a thought that seems to scare him badly, and he declines to say anything further on the subject for our own safety, just that if he's wrong, saying more would be dangerous, and if it's true, it would be fatal. Aqila comments that Valeiran also wouldn't say more either, but he gave us far more details on the situation than we'd ever heard from him on anything else....The dragon found that to be a somewhat more terrifying idea.
The most he would say further was, "You know that there are things in this world that cannot be harmed by ordinary means, and I don't speak of the undead, for those, the most effective means to combat them may be healing magics"
Joe asked them about Louhi and Ruzha. "Of that, what I can say and you can take this as full truth, she is not the one that you know as Ruzha. That she has some connection is certain, though what it may be, we cannot say. And this much more I may tell you...if it is within your power at all, she must live." Joe asks about Runa. "That we may not answer directly, but we will say this: Before this month has ended, if you have not learned the answer by other means, the 3rd paladin you meet shall give you the answer."
Moonbeam asks if they could tell us anything about Zeleya's temples and where they are...They aren't allowed to tell us for one, and for two, if they told us what they know, we'd surely die. So noted. They can tell us that anyone who would tell us and that telling would be fatal, are well disposed towards us and won't tell us. So anyone who does tell us, that alone won't get us killed. Joe changes tacks and asks about Zeleya's greater servants. "As to that, Savinel is already showing you that which is known. There is no more than that she knows that we could tell you, and she knows more of them than we do. And we know some things we think we know are false, but not which things, so we judge it would be safest to let her show you what she will in her own time."
Joe asks if they could confirm if Kashirna is the Dragon. They can’t, but "If it is indeed true, however, then your recent discoveries are perhaps more dangerous than you have thought. We will not speak too directly on this, but consider well: If he is indeed the Dragon, he has had 2000 years to consider his overthrow and devise a new course that will not carry such a risk. What place might your kind have in his new world? And this much more may make that more likely...we do not think it was within the abilities of our kind to create such things, and there have always been those of our kind who have resented your people. If he has perhaps made an alliance with those who remain of them, that might well explain where he found a mate."
Joe asked about Sohrab, what he's trying to accomplish, and if he's really a lich. "The answers to all these, we do indeed know. The answers to one of these, you will know soon. And this much more, the purpose that he thinks he serves is not the purpose that he will serve. It would be well to frustrate his designs where you encounter them, but don't seek him too strongly. He will not perish within this life of men."
We asked about the priest we'd run into so long ago, if he was a priest of Asurak. Yes, and emphasis on the was. So, Segmund was probably accurate in his fears about us getting sacrificed by that priest…
Moonbeam asks about dangers to Presmyslaw and Miroslav. "There are many dangers. The greatest though is not obvious. You will soon receive a message that seems to be a trap. Walk into the trap." "This may help you recognize it...the one who bears the message won't know who it's from or know that he bears it. As for Miroslav, he may prove to be the king that that land needs. If you see opportunity to bring it about, it would be well if he meets the daughter of the Sun. (he's being very cryptic). "
Joe asks that if there's any one thing he feels we should know, what is it? "Don't die."
And with that, they've given us all the time they can spare. We thank them for the information and the shinies.
So, our first move is to go find a room and see what our shinies are. And then make logical adjustments to gear. Then Listens to Wind and Thoron go make inquiries as to who the local expert in shapechanging is. The party also goes into paranoia mode when they realize how shiny the shinies are, combined with that 'Don't Die' and the comment that they're not just for what we did, but what we will do.
After the gear adjustments, we think about where we need to be next, and remember that island with the noble who's property had a temple we'd deconsecrated, and we'd promised to come back later. So, now's as good a time as any. He greets us with "Oh so you did get my message!" We look confused, and as it turns out, he'd sent a courier to Presmyslaw...after we get that sorted out, he tells us that our visit is timely, and that Lady Andjela is there and that she has some questions for us about Miroslav.
We see a young woman. Thoron's powersight sees her flickering between 3 and 25 in power. We'd seen that on Baron Taras, so that's suspicious. Joe turns on the Diplomacy. She starts, "So, I have heard you have had some dealings with Miroslav. I do not think you know him well, but I would hear what you have to say of him. (the island is one of the areas that could be a valuable ally in Miroslav's efforts to get a cohesive power base.) Do you think he might, perhaps he might be willing to abandon Makarn? Joe explains diplomatically that Miroslav seem to only pay lip service for the sake of his devout army officers, and probably be persuadable.
Joe's keen perceptions indicate that she seems honest and likeable. He asks her what her interest in Miroslav is, and her response was, "What do you know about the civil war that was fought here years ago?" Fast recap, almost 4-way in Ferial...Innokenti vs Mykyta...Dobroslaw supported Mykyta to try to stave off the war...4th contender was from the island...idiot about governing...tried to make everyone happy all the time, but had popular support. He 'disappeared' and no one knows what happened to him. (Innokenti had him surreptitiously executed). Aqila gives the high points that she remembers from her briefing back before she was assigned to Seferia. The lady listens, and says that no one really speaks of the 4th contender any more, but she's the daughter of Count Blagun...she has the support of the nobles that supported her father, sort of...she can't make a claim in her own right, but if she supports someone else, they'll follow her lead.
We assure her that Miroslav is the least bad choice out of all of Innokenti's sons, and seems to be halfway decent, really. She asks us if we would arrange a meeting with Miroslav. And if he should need more reason beyond what I have told you...she bows her head for a moment, and then we see a sudden flash in the shape of a giant phoenix around her. Ah, so she's a priestess of Nareel, the Goddess of the Sun. So A) that explains the funky power level shifts and B) ‘daughter of the sun’ seems like an obvious allusion. We take our leave and plan out how to arrange this meeting.
We decide to be polite, so we scry in to the priestess we'd taken to patch Miroslav's brains up, and see if she's in shape to have a chat, before we drop in. She's tired, but willing. She let's us know that Miroslav is recovering, but along the way, she's been finding and fixing some nasty traps left in his mind. Mostly weird patterns of thought in reaction to specific stimuli, like odd reactions to seeing someone wearing a green shirt, for example. She thinks he's probably in good enough shape for a meeting, as long as the other person is warned that he may have the occasional odd reaction, and that they're not left alone.
The priestess has heard of Andjela before, and thinks it would be safe to just tell her he's recovering from a nasty psychic assault as an explanation for any oddities. We arrange to visit Miroslav, politely, He probably doesn't actually remember us, since he was out of it after being rescued. So, we let him know that a potential ally wants to talk to him. "If she does have that sort of following, exploring an alliance would be wise." Message delivered, we head off. Joe asks the dogs how life's been. They're actually starting to get bored; there's been nothing to chomp. Joe pops off to get some dog toys.
And after that, we pop to Presmyslaw's capital, and find out that the courier was only there for one day. So we give him a ride back to the island and let Lady Andjela know that the Miroslav's been given the message and is interested. Then go back to the temple to see what's new in the Ruzha/Runa thread. When we walk in, one of the senior priests says, "Well, I think this is going to settle the argument." Another priest hears that comment and comes running up and says that a man has come there, says he has a message, and our names, and nothing else. They'd been arguing about whether to contact us or not. This looks fishy. We shoo people out of the room just in case things go boom. So there are witnesses in the hall in case anything ‘interesting’ happens. We see a somewhat glassy-eyed man standing in the room endlessly repeating our names and that he has a message. Creepy. Thoron sees a monumental pile of enchantment magic on him. Aqila tries casting antimagic field, and the guy collapses immediately. She steps back and he gets back up and resumes repeating that he has a message for our names on an infinite loop. He looks exhausted so Moonbeam Heals him. Nothing else changes. Aqila steps forward again, and he stops talking, looks confused, and asks where he is. The last thing he remembers is being in South Waymeet and a man talking to him, but he doesn't remember what he said. Aqila steps back one more time, while Joe identifies us and asks for the message. The voice changes to one we've heard before, Sohrab's...."You may know that there is a temple of Shenea near where you are. It would be to my advantage if that temple ceased to exist. While I do not know where it is, I believe I can arrange for you to gain the means to discover its location. If you are interested, come meet with me (gives a location out in the middle of nowhere in the East Wall)" The web of enchantments unravels.
The priests could hear the message just fine. They're dubious about the source of this information, but if we're willing to risk our necks.... Joe points out later that we were told to walk into the trap, so how close do we want to teleport so we can walk in?
We greater teleport in to the meeting place and we see a single ordinary zombie at the site. Or, almost ordinary. Unusually strong aura of necromancy. The zombie speaks in Sohrabs voice after a while.."Ah, you've arrived. As I said, I cannot tell you precisely where the temple is or how to reach it, however, I can tell you where someone who knows will be in one week's time. Unfortunately, I'm not certain where you might find her in the intervening time...I have my suspicions, but sharing them would tell you more than I wish to tell you. In one week, however, you'll be able to find her at this manor, provided that you do nothing to disturb it and alert her in the intervening time.” The location he gives is a small isolated manor a bit north of Presmyslaw's capital. Joe asks if he has a name or descriptions. "You may well have heard of her in your other activities...her name is Ruzha. I will advise you to be prepared for...unexpectedly distructive magic. From what I understand, one of her gifts allows her to be as many spellcasters at once." And, having concluded the conversation, the zombie disintegrates.
So, we have a week before we can follow up on any of that. And bored adventurers look for ways to entertain themselves. And there's this temple at Greenfields that we didn't desecrate. Yet. So, for kicks and giggles, we seed the temple's foundations with the spheres we'd picked up at the outpost of Tarevale...the ones that have incorporeal guardians attached to them, and they respawn a day after unsummoning. So we'll leave those to wear on their nerves for a bit. The snow as all gone, so they managed to melt it somehow. That takes most of the day, since we wanted to space the appearances out a bit.
The next day, we remember that there is an artificer whom we owe a favor to for pimping our carriage. He has a colleague down in southern Teredor, and they've both been working on the same problem - finding a more efficient way to create minor magical items. They technically have a solution, but the price is a bit insane. He's walking with us to his lab while he talks. At his lab, it's dominated by an impressive array of metal, etched runes, and crystals. From a first glance, conservatively, 200k materials in the apparatus. "The biggest problem we're having right now is that it works, but something in the array blows up every two or three items, and we have to fix the whole thing. The cost for repairs mean you'd have to sell each sword for 50k to break even. If we could solve the power surges that are causing the explosions, I think it would work. The approach I've been taking is substituting in planar infused materials to find more resilient materials, but it drives up the cost of the array substantially. My colleague has been trying a different approach, running higher power through the array to see if higher power is more stable. He's gotten more promising results, but more spectacular explosions...the longest he's kept it stable was a whole 9 items. The problem is, from some of his recent letters, I think someone has been poking around, trying to steal his work. And there are many people who should not get ahold of such efforts. The Dragon temple comes to mind, considering what they could do if they could equip their army with even minor magical items...the Enemy comes to mind as well, not for the minor items, but for what I had pointed out to me what this effort could lead to...I believe you've been shown the Spellforges? (trying to use one is liable to kill most anyone.) In theory, this could well lead to eventually a more usable form of spell forge...and I mean eventually in the order of centuries, not years. But one of the advantages that Arandor enjoys in preparation for the eventual war is that the Enemy contains no surviving spellforges." Joe asks if there are any others. "To my knowledge, no." Aqila asks if the favor is for us to visit his colleague, determine who's bothering him, and dissuade them if possible? "Succinctly put. If you can bring back evidence of who is involved, then the Sentinel can get officially involved" (we can only get involved, because we're on vacation and this is a favor) "And since he's not entirely convinced there is a problem, you need a reason he'd accept to get involved. I have some materials for his project that you could deliver along the way" He pulls out a few bars of gold, with an obvious glow to Thoron, "Earth infused gold. One of the more common infusions for gold, really. I believe he's intending to alloy it with some other metals, fleeting adamantine, I believe. (artificially created adamantine, turns back to ordinary iron with a dispel magic.)
The capital city of the Southeastern Teredor is Madaska, where we're going. The local branch of the Imperial University is where this artificer is working. And given the value of the materials, we are a logical courier. Meeting him in person, we realize he's a very naive absent-minded professor. We get to see his apparatus. Thoron can see some extreme unevenness at points, but we have no idea if it's intentional or not. Aqila starts asking questions as an excuse to stick around. That triggers off a long explanation using many terms that seem to be his own invention. She can't tell if they're words she knows under different terms, or entirely new. After an hour and a half, there's a loud explosion next door. She asks what that was, and he tells her, "Oh, that's the abjuration team having another one of their accidents..they're trying to figure out how to stop people from summoning demons...in a big area like a city or something." While Aqila was taking one for the team, Moonbeam Scholar's Touched his notes to search for clues. Mostly 'I did this and that blew up', but there are notes about things going missing, and having to take time to replace it....so misplaced, or stolen? Locate Object might be useful.
Aqila, taking advantage of the pause, asks him where he's been getting his material from...it's not a secret, and he hands her a list of the University's suppliers. Doesn’t say what he got from who, of course, but it should be explicable. She also asks him, since we were dropping the bars off as a favor, we wouldn't mind helping out a bit more by locating anything that's gone missing. He says that would be helpful and shows us an adamantine object with gems, one of a pair of tuned focusers, and if we can find the other one, it'll save him 3 weeks worth of work. We tell him that Joe has to go outside to cast the spell (to cover the fact he's going to be a Water Weird for Locate Object). Very few people know how druids work, so we can say just about anything. Meanwhile, Moonbeam goes to make sure everyone is okay next door. The room has a forcefield in the middle with what looks like a human-sized crystal in the middle that exploded. The researchers around it are muttering. They answer her, Oh, no, it's the same problem we've had for the last three months...when we bring them up to full power, they blow up...the models worked perfectly, but it's only the size of a room, so it's absurdly expensive. They've been trying lots of variations....37 so far. The problem is flaws in the physical crystals. Stoneshape theoretically could fix flaws, but in practice they add two flaws in fixing one. The crystals have to be grown, takes a year to get to full size, and they only have 60. (GM note: The real problem is that they misjudged the time needed to grow a crystal – to reliably get a sufficiently flawless one actually takes 10 years in proper conditions – not one. One of them has suggested that, and they’ve set up a very conservative experiment to test the idea – that crystal will be ready in 25 years if nothing happens to it)
Aqila has wandered over too by this time and offers Thoron as a potential way to ID if any crystals are unflawed. At this point, they start realizing that maybe they shouldn't have been taking so freely to people they don't know. On being asked who we are, Aqila gives a largely factual answer, that we were doing a favor for a friend of their neighbor, by dropping off some materials for him, and we came over to see if everyone was okay when we heard the explosion...and Aqila's father studies Ancient artifacts, so this sort of thing is familiar to her. The guy only heard two words in that explanation, and directs them to the lab three doors down where they're studying Ancient objects. We aren't actually here to fix their problems, so we move on. Meanwhile, Joe does his thing and has 18 minutes to check around the university first, then the rest of the city for the missing item. No dice, not in the city at all. When he reports that to the artificer, he gets visibly upset and agitated. We tactfully point out that his work is valuable, and that his friend had noticed that more things had been going missing, based on his letter, than you would think is normal, and warned us....He explicitly asks us to investigate.
Joe uses Locate Object to search for all the missing items, that the artificer located in his detailed notes as having gone missing, and the replacements were usable as foci for the search. A few small items turn up, but nothing else. The artificer having had time to think about this new idea, that if someone was trying to copy his work, they'd have almost all the pieces they need now, except for the central focus, assuming they've copied his notes. It's the one piece of the apparatus that has never exploded or needed replaced. It's been a week and a half since the last disappearance, and things disappeared every 4-5 days before that.
After some discussion, Joe becomes a star-nosed mole and finds 5 scents that don't match anyone else in the room, that by strength seem to have not been there when others had been, and all go out to the street. There are no cleaning staff around right now to ask, but there are security staff. After some persuasion, we get the security staff to show us the sign-in logs. They have lamps of revealing at the door so invisible people can't sneak in. We quickly find that no one reviews these logs closely...there's one name that signed in three times, and then signed out three times. And that happened on one of the nights something disappeared from the lab. When we ask about it, we find that the name is one of the researchers in the abjuration lab. The thing is, why three? Two people pretending to be the same other guy? A set-up?
Aqila, being the forgery expert in the party, takes twenty to see if she can determine which sign ins and outs are him. She determines that the 1st and 3rd sign-ins are fake, and that the first two sign outs...the one who got in last left first. The researcher is really not happy to hear that someone’s been impersonating him. We ask him about that night, and he remembers hearing a lot of rustling and moving around in the artificer’s lab. He figured it was the artificer working late, but the signout show that the artificer left before the first fake arrived.
We continue plotting how to solve this mystery. A stakeout is in order. As we're getting ready, the artificer comes to us and says, you know, you're not the only one who asked me who my suppliers were...a couple of gentlemen down from the Imperial city came down to look at the labs, and thought they could get better prices for my materials, and asked who we bought from. You know, I haven't heard back from them." He can give us a description of them, so Moonbeam goes for scrying. Moonbeam gets the one she had the best description of, and someone who probably is the described partner. They're sitting at a table in a tavern. With three other people. A young women appearing to be mostly dressed in knives. A much larger woman with a huge battle axe leaning against her chair. The 3rd is a weedy looking man with shifty eyes. He has a small bundle of wands near his hand. Detect magic through the scry pegs them as an assortment of evocation, but there's some odd universal magic associated with the whole bundle. The two men are dressed in obviously good business dress. Gear on the rest looks on par to what we had before we hit Brighthaven.
They're talking about plans for a future job. What she can hear is “The boss is getting really impatient, but I'm not sure it's quite safe...the guards have been more alert lately.” The one guy, the one we had a less good description of, looks a lot like the impersonated researcher. The smaller of the two women mutters, “I just want to get this over so I can do MY part." We decide to go out for dinner, leaving Thoron behind to keep watch. He has a skull to get in contact with Joe if need be. The tavern is an old warehouse, taken over, in the bad part of town.
We just walk in, weapons slung, and claim a table in the vicinity of the conspirators, and order good beer. We're not cheap mercenaries, after all. Meanwhile, the other group is having an argument. The cause is not obvious, but Joe recognizes a name that one of them mentions, that “Rezelene wants us to hurry”. That's one of Eleduath's greater hands. She was at the previous incident in the Deadlands, and got in a pissing contest with the Keeper over a staff piece. So she survived, and she's here, and the Enemy is involved. This probably qualifies as ‘Sentinel intervention is permitted’.
Aqila steps outside and bounces back to Arandor to report that one of Eleduath's hands is directly involved with trying to copy the artificer's work, and after asking if they want us to interrogate them in the field, or bring them back, she’s told to collect them, so she pops back, and passes that onto the rest of the party. This won't be hard. Joe wildshapes into a squid in the tavern, grabs them, then Aqila bounces the whole mess home. Moonbeam left a few silver on the table before we left to pay our tab. (Greater Hands are in the habit of putting nasty traps in the minds they have working for them, i.e. ask the wrong question and they literally explode). We landed outside the Citadel proper because Joe is too big for the teleport rooms. The arctic temperatures take the rest of the fight out of the five of them.

After we drop them off, and one short interrogation later, "Alright, you need to get down there and get a guard on that artificer now. From what these said, there's another team, and these ones are the dupes." So, we haul tail back south. Thoron and the artificer are still in the lab. We tell the artificer that a team of assassins is going to kill him, but we'll stop them, and would he mind sleeping in this rope trick room tonight so we can guard both him and his work. He seems to be rather out of it, but complies. We make sure he's comfortable with the toilet, bed, and stove we picked up last week.
We settle in for a stakeout. We left a skull with the guards, but hear nothing. Most of the night passes before three people pop up, one in each corner of the room where the door isn't. The three of them are all male, bare-arse naked, and incorporeal. The apparatus is taking up most of the room in the center, which limits the area we can move freely in. Thoron becomes a giant octopus, with magic tentacles, and starts pummeling the nearest bad guy. 50% chance to hit incorporeal, and 3 hits total. The one Thoron hit gets to attack now. Smacks Thoron around a little bit, but since they’re doing cold and disintegration damage with their unarmed strikes, and we had cold immunity up cold immunity up from our delivery to Arandor earlier, it’s not that bad. (and Thoron got the same, since it’s easier to chose dtypes when we’re all immune to the same one) An unhurt one gets to act now. Hits Dagnar twice. Joe goes octopus too, and kelp strands all three. Two get hit. One is free, the one that isn't attacking Dagnar or Thoron. Aqila nukes him with force bolts. 126 damage. Still standing.
Dagnar attacks the one that attacked him. All misses. Moonbeam ghostdusts the room. All are made corporeal now. Then she tries to turn the one Aqila nuked into a sloth. It works, so we have a prisoner. The sloth barely moves. Thoron, with a now more hittable target, unloads. 4 hits. 2 crits. And the dude is still standing. Thoron tries a quickened dispel and knocks 3 spells off. They had a blend of necromancy, abjuration, and evocation. The one by Dagnar is grappled by kelp strands, and tries to escape. He does. Joe goes into super dispel man mode and hits both the nonsloths. Aqila disintegrates the one that doesn’t drop dead when his spell is removed. A back pendant is left in the wreckage of the assassin. We leave Thoron, and Dagnar, on guard, while Moonbeam, Joe, and Aqila escort sloth back for interrogation...after Moonbeam heals it just in case.
One of the other senor Sword members lets us know that we've stumbled on something more interesting that we’d thought. He explained that it was surprising that these assassins were sent on something like this. Among those who know of these people, they think of them as assassins for hire, and some of the most difficult to hire, as well as the most expensive. “Because of these”, he added, gesturing at the pendant. “When worn, they are absorbed by the body, and renders them incorporeal, and difficult to hinder by most means. I would recommend against wearing one, because they consume your soul...after donning one, you have perhaps a month to live. Normally they are trained for decades before they are allowed to don a pendant. These ones seem rather undertrained. What is not commonly known is that they are agents of the Enemy, and when they are hired out, it is because their hirer's goals further the Enemy's purposes.” We also find out that normally, 600k gold is a common fee for operations. Recovering the pendants should delay further operations because a Hand would not normally have more than 3, maybe a 4th in reserve.
“We'll be assigning some Shield agents to guard him, but if anything too interesting happens, we may call you in.” We allow that blowing things up is something we're good at. Joe once again makes snarky comments about tents, and points out that we did not damage the apparatus. He trusts that this repays our favor to the artificer in full.

[Terane]

Spoiler: November 2016

Show

Everyone is here this month. We're on Day 3 of the week we were promised must pass before we can catch Ruzha, the lady who knows where Shenea's temple is. Presumably it’s the day after the morning we ganked the assassins in Teredor. After we get a little sleep, Aqila and Moonbeam go look up Tervel to see what he thinks about the whole Daughter of the Sun thing. And mention that we saw the same effect (the thing where, using power sight, someone flickers between a high and low level) on baron Taras. The ex-goddess Aremel is with him, as usual, and they explain that Angela is probably a favored priestess of Nareel, who has a guardian Phoenix bound to her...the lvl 25 we saw was the guardian, the 3 is her. Aremel is worried about the Baron, though...she'd like us to obtain whatever records of his family that we can find, because there's something it could be, and that's the first step to confirming. Tervel figures an archive dive in Presmyslaw's keep would probably turn up what we need. Aremel doesn't want to say anything about her suspicions because even reminding us that such a thing is possible is abhorrent to her.
And then Savinel metaphorically taps us on the shoulder and asks us to come visit. She's been reminded of the existence of one of the more irritating servitors of Zeleya...if we know how they work, they're relatively harmless, but ignorance would get us all killed. They're resistant to most forms of damage, and heal very quickly (quick healing 50). And if we destroy their physical form, they return very rapidly. Joe ask if squirreling them would work. She doesn't know of anyone who's done it, and can't guess if it would work. But, their ability to return does not work if they are killed in a brightly lit area...they of course can create darkness. (so area needs to stays brightly lit)...they aren't harmed by light per se, but certain of their powers are weakened, and they do not regenerate from light damage. Savinel describes them as 'unruly' creatures that will desert their masters at the drop of a hat....capricious and delighting in others pain, which is why they're attracted to her service. Their most dangerous attack can fortunately be seen coming...they can't cast spells directly but they can generate...a small bomb you might call it. Disintegration blast, disjunction, and simple energy blasts are all possible...it's a shadowy blob, and the effect goes off two rounds later...40' blast radius. You want to get out. The final effect looks like a simple paralysis attack, but ordinary protections are not reliable against it, so Savinel doesn't know what it actually does.
She doesn't see any point to having us fight one, since they are otherwise not impressive...they can create a weak electrical discharge (1d6 electricity ray) and that's about it. She has also, maybe, determined how we will find the place...what she's seen is too hazy to be reliable, but she suspects we will not directly locate it, and may never know where it actually is physically...what she's been able to piece together would require us to travel through a sequence of planes to reach it, though which ones she can't say, save that they would be hostile...planes with allegiance to Zeleya. Also, she can see that when this happens, Zeleya has some reason to want us to reach her temple, albeit badly weakened when we do...She can't see why she wants us there, only that is connected to the 6th person with us. No idea who that 6th person...she's seen no fewer than 6 and as many as 12. She never sees anyone clearly except us 5. And the 6th who is always the same she can't see at all.
She thinks her best chance of success (i.e. not dying as a result of this situation) seems to involve fewer people...all paths with the full 12 end in death for us all. She reminds us repeatedly that everything she sees is vague. Savinel today is willing to let us test ourselves against the best representation of Silviel that she can provide...she doesn't expect us to succeed, but it will give us a benchmark to test ourselves against to see what we will need to do to survive.
Savinel creates an image as a talking point before giving us the rundown: “Silviel is an accomplished spellcaster, but she is rather less than adept at actual combat (likely to make suboptimal spell choices). You will note that she is surrounded by many lines of energy...these are effectively whips that will attack you on their own if you go near her...dozens of them. She can also direct them herself. They are a part of her being...because of her nature, an antimagic field will not prevent them. She is also, to an extent, though I do not say this to discourage such a plan, able to cast her spells inside an antimagic field, but doing so is harmful to her. (spend hps equal to the SL of the spell). Her touch causes crippling agony. She can choose to kill instead of causing pain (blocked by death ward). Her final ability, that you will likely find most irritating...she is capable of forming a shell of near unbreakable energies around herself...she will heal rapidly within it, and can cast spells on herself, but can't act on anyone outside it. And she can't maintain it while uninjured.” Savinel has no idea if she can enter it while grappled.
Also, she's highly resistant to fire and cold. Resistant to electric and sonic, but still possible to injure. Acid, Savinel doesn't know...she's only seen weak acid spells used against Silviel...and those were ineffective. So, we plot and prepare, and then go to the same constricted room to face the approximation of Silviel.
Joe leads us off with a greater dispel. He knocks 17 spells off...10 left. (she has a habit of putting magic auras up to make it look like she has more spells up than she really does). Then he does kelp strands. 4 hits. 2 take, so she's twice grappled, for now. Dagnar is next, and using the spell knowledge stance. He hits, and learns 7/10 remaining spells she has up...spell turning - 9 levels left, spellcaster's bane - counterspell auto, superior resistance, death ward and 3 magic auras. Dagnar choses a tripled split ray of stupid for the spell cast through his dragon-gift sword, 14 int damage, we presume. And 50-odd damage from the hit. Moonbeam's turn - she uses her dragon gift with a time-stop to get 24 medium elementals out to soak whip damage.
Thoron did snake's swiftness mass, so Dagnar did another 50pts damage. Elementals did zilch. Spellcaster's band and superior resistance knocked off by Thoron. Then Silviel goes...the whips hit every elemental they strike, and Dagnar takes 36 fire damage. Then she casts the form of disjunction that suppresses magic items instead of destroying them. Everyone gets hosed...then Silvial spends her last action on Dagnar. She slaps him for 24 hps, with her pain touch. He blows the save, and is left cowering for a round.
Aqila’s spell matrix stored spells are now useless, effectively, so she tried prismatic eye, which takes out the spell turning. The turned spell also tries to banish the eye to another plane, but it survives the reflected banish. Joe gets to go again, and uses timestop to buff up. Bite of the werebear, wildshape to giant octopus, and then try to maul her to death. Needs a 20 to hit, so 8 misses. Moonbeam's turn is used to put up superior resistance, and throwing more elementals at her to soak tentacle hits. Dagnar is still out, so Thoron tried chain lightning, and it fizzled. So he tosses swiftness to give the elementals a chance to hit. 1 actually hits for 14.
Silviel's turn comes around. She casts wave of pain. And the tentacles beat up elementals. And Dagnar. His hit points are now in the teens. But she fails to cast defensively, so AOO abound. Dagnar is now uncowering, so he gets to take a shot too. Aqila fails to make her save against the wave of pain. Joe makes it. Moonbeam makes it with her resistance back. Thoron fails. Dagnar isn't in the cone, but gets slapped again and fails the save again, so he’s cowering again. Aqila is stunned by pain. For rounds. Retcon, moonbeam had time to greater heal on her turn, so Dagnar back at 63 hps. Aqila can't act but the eye can...doesn't instakill but does 4 con damage still.
Joe's turn. Timestop for 3 rounds so owl's insight, among others, then blasted her with 66 damage from blast of sand. Moonbeam also does the stop time to buff then blast of sand Silviel, and Heals everyone first, so Aqila is conscious again. What elementals were left did no damage. Thoron also did blast of sand. Did more damage, but not enough to drop her.
She goes into her shell. So we have some time. Savinel asks us if we want to bail here. We've already impressed her by not dying and getting this far. We agree...we've gotten a good idea of how far short we're falling, and what sorts of holes in our knowledge we need to fill for Round 2. Savinel thinks it might be worthwhile to see how well we do fighting more than one of Zeleya's servants. Turn up the difficulty a little.
We depart. Moonbeam takes a trip south to rummage through Presmyslaw's archives, and finds that Baron Taras's family is one of the oldest in the empire...extending back to Jahan's day. She takes that tidbit back to Aremel, who says, "It's not impossible then. I suppose I'll have to ask my sister for advice." OOC her sister, goddess of love, fertility, with a love of children, if she knew that someone might be using a spell to literally take over your own child's body, would go ballistic and order a holy crusade on Taras.

Spoiler: December 2016

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After our day of training with Savinel, we have 3 days before something happens. Aqila learns glasstrike, and other book-keeping things are taken care of. Then Joe gets a panicked message from one of the Fae he'd asked to watch the gate locations...it was mostly incoherent, with a vivid image of a blinding snowstorm. That seems suspicious. We teleport to the location, and find a very cold and miserable looking satyr. Moonbeam gives him cold immunity. We can see a short distance away a wall of white...a hurricane-force winds snowstorm. The satyr says it started up a short time ago, and it's about 2 miles in diameter. He wasn't watching when it started...but some of his friends are in there and he thinks they are still in there. Based on the location, the gate would be right in the center of this mess. And Thoron reports that the storm extends upward as far as he can see.

We're told the storm sprang into existence rather abruptly. Moonbeam and Joe start figuring out what forms they want to wear into this mess. They decide to be solars. We teleport into the middle of the mess, on speculation, and indeed find an eye in the center of' the storm...about 70' in diameter, and things look a little dicey. There are eight pillars arranged in a circle, with an icy maiden in each one, and a woman is hovering about twelve feet up in the middle of the circle with a growing hole in the world that opens on...nothingness, enveloping who we presume is Ilene.

Moonbeam uses Brainspider to pry on the thoughts of the ladies in the pillars...she learns that they are opening the gate, that it will be fully open in minutes, and that they are doing this willingly. Aqila casts message to see if we can just, you know, talk to Ilene. She does not respond to hails. So we prepare to break crap.

Moonbeam gets to go first. She uses time stop to summon a crap-ton of elementals. 3 huge earth and 3 huge storm. Then she flamestrikes a pillar...twice. Sonically. The pillar is now riddled with cracks and looks ready to fall apart. Thoron goes next and shapechanges into a sphinx, and roars. Does 50 damage to all crystalline objects within 90' feet. All elementals have to save against fear. They all fail, feared for 2 rounds. One of the pillars shatters and a Choir member is now floating 30' feet in the air surrounded by shards of ice. Joe goes next, wildshapes into a dire rhino and using his flight, charges the first vulnerable Choir member. He slams into her like a truck. She explodes in a 150' radius blast of frost, strengthening the remaining pillars. We all have cold immunity so we're immune. 150 pts of cold damage. The elementals take damage, but none are under half health yet.

Dagnar goes next, moves to the next pillar, and swings the black blade of disaster at it. 86 damage. Aqila's turn. She blows her spell matrix after floating 20' up to get 5 mirror images, and fires off two shouts to hit 4 pillars, starting from the one Dagnar hit and going counterclockwise. The two shouts don't take any out, so she uses a quickened cacophonous burst to hit the one Dagnar hit plus the one to the left again. Blows up one pillar. Then the choir gets to go. Dagnar, Aqila, and Moonbeam all get hit with a CL20 Greater Dispel. Oww.

Aqila loses Indomitability and her Mage Armor. Keeps cold immunity. And keeps primal instinct, heart of earth, owl's insight, heroism. Moonbeam loses all but 4 buffs, flight, owl's insight, nature's avatar, primal instinct. Dagnar keeps superior resistance, owl's insight, barkskin, mage armor. Which doesn't let him resist whatever the Choir member did to him. Fails his con save, and now feels exhausted and can feel his heart rate slowing. Eep.

Moobeam's turn. The elementals flee into the storm. She timestops and recasts cold immunity on herself. And shapechanges again, and summons more elementals. She's now airborne too. So she can Mass Heal Dagnar and get his heart going again. Then the new elementals attack the pillars. All of them show cracks now. Thoron changes from a sphinx to a dire rhino and also charges the choir member...he misses. Joe's up and used maximized fire seeds...he misses too.

Dagnar uses the Black Blade of Disaster to do a full attack, after taking a step to be flanking. And uses the Duskblade offhand. He drinks a potion of true strike and only makes 1 hit with the Blade. 89 damage and she has to make a fort save. Aqila uses quicken to fire off two arcane bolt spells....that kills frosty number 2 who also explodes in a foom of cold. Dagnar is not cold immune, so he has to dodge. The elementals all get blasted too. And the pillars heal a bit. No choir members are out, so nothing happens on their turn, except we hear a dissonant chord, almost like a scream. The void space grows larger. We're running out of time.

Moonbeam summons an archon to cast consecrate on the void/Ilene in hopes that that will weaken Helvisarn's grip on her, then does Earthquake on the pillars after she comes out of her timestop. One pillar breaks. Force Strike misses. Bah. The archon casts Consecrate on the portal, but nothing visibly happens. Thoron charges the just released 3rd choir member and hits. He kills it in one hit. So Dagnar has to dodge the cold blast again. Pillars heal again. Joe prepares to act...first he splinterbolts a pillar to break it, then rhino-charges and smashes the choir member. She explodes. Four down, four to go. Elementals are gone. Dagnar charges a pillar, and gets a swing in. Breaks the pillar. Aqila gets to go...casts darkbolt at Choir Member 5, but none of the bolts hit. So she gets cranky and glass strike's it, and it fails the fort save. So a glass statue drops to the ground, and lands, cracking but intact. No iceburst this time. No portal size change or screams this time...

Moonbeam goes again. Timestop, then quickly drops off the glass statue in one of the Arendor drop points. Then she summons three more storm elementals of which the first two attacked the pillars when her timestop ends and expose 2 more choir members then the 3rd does their thunder/lightning attack at the 2 exposed choir members. Both choir members make their saves, so Moonbeam then tries to petrify one of them. She succeeds. So one out, and one still pillared. And still an archon to act...it uses holy smite on the other choir member. 18 damage. Thoron next. He casts drown. It works. It'll be dead in a few rounds. Joe next. He spinterbolts the pillar. takes it down. Then he charges. It explodes in a icy burst. That's all eight dealt with. With 2 in a state where they could be revived and studied...though it would need to be done fast since even the ones we 'killed' left behind an icy shard that is their soul, and if any of them are still alive after a certain period of time, even the dead ones will revive.

And now the original 6 elementals finally make it back after their panicked fleeing. Dagnar finishes off the dying/drowning choir member just to get this done. She explodes, he dodges. The elementals have a handful of HPs left. Aqila casts indomnibilty on herself just in case something stupid happens. The void collapses and we hear a scream of rage from Ilene. Joe reflexively shifts to a needletailed Swift...very small and very fast. Which is a good thing because Ilene attacks him. 29 divine damage total. Looked like bolts of golden lightning. Then a towering things that seems to be mostly claws and teeth appears. Made out of ice. It attacks the archon. Shreds it a bit.

With the void gone, Thoron can now see Ilene has a massive pile of buffs applied to her, with a monumental pile of tangled enchantments on top of it. Plus we can all see a multilayered shimmering orb surrounding her, like an orb of invulnerability, except some layers look like ice. Also surrounded by swirling halo of ice. The ice is like a halo of sand, but stronger. Fire immunity is active. All 5 resistances active. Greater mage armor. Superior Resistance. Death Ward. Force Ward. Globe and Lesser globe of invulnerability. Cold Flame shield. Freedom of Movement. Mindblank. Hearts of Air, Earth, Fire, Water. Glacial Ward. Greater Glacial Ward. Plus the massive pile of enchantments...higher than 10th level. Mostly compulsion effects. The storm elementals take out Ilene's summon.

Thoron fills us in on what she has prot wise, and defers to Joe, who G. Dispels her. Knocks off some buffs. Thoron knocks off more. Dagnar passes. Aqila tries to Earthbind Ilene for grins...the spell goes through but she makes the save. Ilene pauses, looking like she's fighting with herself. Moonbeam summons a bunch of monadic devas and they cast dispel evil, x6. Thoron and Joe knock more stuff off. Dagnar passes again. Aqila tries a greater dispel and it takes some more off. Ilene zaps people, but only one hit Moonbeam. 39 divine damage. She also summons another ice beastie. It mauls the original archon but doesn't kill it. Then Moonbeam's turn. Lots of dispel evils seem to clear Ilene's mind.

Her voice seems to echo from a great distance. "Thank you, there is very little time. I trust you know where another gate may be found?"

Recap - Valeiran told us that if we could break Ilene free from Helvisarn, we could kill him. But that would require us to almost immediately go to the last gate, and let her open it so Helvisarn can come through....then Ilene can kill him. Because he can only be hurt by his own power, and he's poured quite a bit of his power into her so she can open the gate for him. So, this is our best shot at ending this. But, we need to go now. (Also, killing Ilene would stop Helvisarn from coming through, but doom the world in a few decades. We don't know why)

She quickly cautions us to not attack Helvisarn ourselves...we need to keep his servants from attacking her, because she can't be distracted while fighting. Also, every fae in the area will be coming in to fight for him.

We have a few rounds to rebuff, but we need to haul tail, because if she resuccumbs during the fight, the world ends. Ouch.

[Terane]

Spoiler: January 2017

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Picking up where we left off, we rapidly reprepare and recast buffs, including tossing buffs at Ilene...we have little time, so we hurry it up.
When we arrive at the last gate location, we come in with greater invisibility up and everyone can fly, so we leave no trace of our passage on the grassy plain. Ilene asks us to do what we can to limit the damage this battle will do. So we just start plotting how to make the battlefield terrain more to our liking. There are small clumps of trees, but they are small and far off. 500' or farther. Plan is to use an avalanche to make a snow barrier, with Aqila using a wall of force spell to make a ceiling over the gate location so there's an open area for Ilene to work in. Then Joe will keep a control winds spell going to ensure that flight won't help as much to get past the snow. Moonbeam summons two monadic devas, one movanic deva and 2 ursinal guardian angels. Plus two warden archons and one guardian archon. And we gave Ilene the fast healing stone for safety. Ilene had cautioned us specifically to not attack Helvisarn, but to leave him to her, while we keep anything else from distracting her. We range ourselves on top of the heap of snow, looking down about 30’ into an open circle where Ilene waits.
With all preparations made, Ilene opens the gate. She faces the gate, lifts one hand, and slashes it down. The Gate springs open and a towering figure steps through (about 12' tall). He appears to be smiling. "So, you think you can challenge me. Have you told these fools what the price of your ascension will be?" "I know exactly what what I am about to do will cost. There is no need to concern them." she replies. We can tell he's trying to sown dissension here. We prepare to act.
Ilene leads off with what looks like a shimmering bolt of ice straight to Helvisarn. Thoron can tell it’s a lot of magical energy, and after one look, isn't sure he wants to keep looking at that. Helvisarn responds by summoning 8 minions, floating in the air up with us, about 30' up. We're still floating on the rim of the snow cliff. The minions look like full sets of plate armor made out of ice and nothing is visible inside them. First one attacks a monadic deva, as does a 2nd. 1 takes 44 damage, other takes 0. Joe is attacked next, and is missed. Aqila has 6 mirror images up and displacement, so she gets missed. Moonbeam is missed. Dagnar has Greater mirror image up, and is attacked by the last 2 minions. One minion hits an image, the other does too. Two images gone. And then Helvisarn returns Ilene's attack with a torrent of similar seeming bolts.
Thoron firsts casts firestorm and leaves all but one looking pretty melted, then he casts snakes swiftness, mass. Aqila can't hit the broad side of a barn. Everyone else hits. Two drop, Dagnar uses the black blade of disaster for grins on the non-melty one. It made the save, so normal damage. Joe goes next, with 6 still standing, and changes to octopus to deal max damage. He destroys all the minions. So Dagnar has nothing to do. Aqila gets a prismatic eye out for later. Moonbeam gets some more minions out while she has time. Storm elementals etc. Ten total.
Looking out past the edge of the avalanche, we can see that the grass seems to be shriveling, falling apart. Ilene repeats her attack. Helvisarn repeats his barrage of attacks against her. In the distance, we can see the leading edges of what looks like a mob of minor fae. Mostly satyrs, nymphs, and any dryad in range. Moonbeam summons more storm elementals. Aqila summons a Force Claw to guard us for grins. Thoron did Mass Resist Sonic - + 30 resist. Moonbeam also casts Vigorous Circle so we have fast healing 3.
Ilene does her thing, and while we can't see her face, her attitude seems to be smiling. Helvisarn snarls, "Enough of this!" and drops another horde of minions on us. 8 minions all grouping around Moonbeam, Dagnar, and Aqila. The minions are flying, with silver armor and a cloud of weapons surrounding them. They look like magic to Thoron, mostly Transmutation. Joe recognizes them as Fae Ragewalkers. First two minions attack Aqila, 3 potential hits, 2 miss on displacement, 1 hits an image. 5 left. Moonbeam has 3 on her. And they all went to the Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy...all misses. Dagnar as 3 on him. And the dice hate him...18-19 rolled. 46 damage total, with his stoneskin active.
Then all Moonbeam’s summons have to make a will save...the PCs have mindblank up and are immune to mind affecting spells. And then it doesn't matter, because the effect can't take effect inside a protective aura, which the devas are projecting.
Now it's Thoron's turn. He uses the chain lightning effect from his dragon present, and some of the Fae Ragewalkers look a bit fried. Then Thoron casts snake's swiftness mass, again. Joe pokes one of the ones by Aqila, and does some damage. So does Thoron. Aqila misses, big surprise. The ursinal helps out and one is down. Moonbeam gets a smack in, so do a few of the other summons, and Dagnar. No deaths, though. Joe goes squid-zilla on the fae. When the dust settles, there are only 3 left. Dagnar takes his turn and nails one too. 2 left. Aqila split an arcane bolts spell between the two remaining, and nails one. The last was less beaten. So Moonbeam turns into a gold dragon and evaporates the last one in a puff of firey breathe. Then she starts giggling.
Ilene appears to do nothing. Helvisarn looks furious. "JUST DIE ALREADY!" he screams. What looks like lightning bolts come raining down on all of us. Hit's being proportional to your size. So Moonbeam eats 9 81 damage bolts. Stabilizes at 1hp as her indomitability triggers. Dagnar dodges completely. Aqila saves and takes 41 damage. 30 hps left. Thoron in Solar form saves, and takes 41. Joe reflexively changes into a swift and dodges but still takes 41 damage. Not all the summons make it. The monadic deva has less than 81 hps and poofs. The storm elemental swarm is far enough away to avoid it. Movanic deva goes too. And the warden archon.
On their turn, Joe and Thoron move closer to Moonbeam so she can heal them on her turn. Aqila puts Indomitability up on Moonbeam again just in case. And then Moonbeam goes into healbot mode and we're all back at full health. Then it's Ilene's turn. She unleashes a barrage similar to what he's been doing to her. He actually staggers back. Then it's his turn. He does the equivalent of 15 freezing fog spells all around the open area. They overlap a lot. Thoron can also see 4 ...holes, opening in space in a line in front of Helvisarn. They look like a complete absence of anything. The rest of us just see swirling ice and snow filling the hole. So on Joe's turn, he uses Control Winds to suck the fog away in an updraft, tailoring it to not affect Ilene because we don’t want to risk impinging on her concentration. Then Joe moves, becomes a Lupin, and howls to create a fear effect to scare off all the lesser fae under 7 HD. 8+ are just shaken. Dagnar has nothing to do. Aqila tries a Scramble Portal going off of Thoron's directions, but we can't see anything happen. Moonbeam waits.
Then four entities take form, and with the fog dispersed, we can see them. Ish. Our eyes refuse to look at them directly...we just get a vague impression of nothingness.
Ilene says, with a note of fear in her voice, "You cannot attack these directly, they are wounds in the world. Heal them." At the same time she is saying that, all of us here, sounding in our heads, "This is the true test, now. These must not touch my chosen one." The voice is one we, with the exception of Dagnar and Thoron, have heard before. Once. When we were fighting the Avatar of Rakan. Eep. Helvisarn renews his attack on Ilene. The nothingness shapes move 20' towards her.
Joe goes first and heals one for 170 hps, being a touch spell. And he has to make a reflex save, as a Solar. Easily. The shape gets a bit bigger. Thoron does two big heals on the one Joe hit. Dagnar does benign transposition to swap Ilene's for a deva to keep her away from the shapes. She looks a bit shaken but still together. Aqila uses her dragon shiny to mass heal the lot of them. 190 each Then the healstorm cometh as Moonbeam takes her turn. Mass critical heal wounds, 230. Then she summons a pile of hollyphants. And does a mass heal for 150 on each one. The 15 hollyphants start healing. The shape that has had the most healing is starting to look fuzzy and pulsing around the edges. And when the healing wave is done, they are all pulsing around the edges. The hollyphants got a little scorched around the edges after touching the shapes, but are all still here. And the Deva throws a 3d8 heal in for grins. 26 disintegration damage when it fails its save. The ursinals drop down to use their Heal too, and take 38 damage on a failed save.
Top of the order - Ilene resumes doing single bolts and Helvisarn and he returns a volley in reply. The shapes converge on the deva and it is extinguished. Thoron is up and does 140 healing as a swift. Joe does 170 with the same tactic. Dagnar has nothing to do, yet. He gets ready to move Ilene if needed. Aqila uses her necklace again for another 190. Then Moonbeam starts the heal train rolling, Choo Choo. First, 34 on each, which is enough to make the first one explode with negative energy damage. 72 damage takes out the ursinals. The snow pit contains the blast. The hollyphants flew out last round because their heal is 1/day, so they're okay. Moonbeam does a 250 mass heal, and the other three go boom. Moonbeam summons a potload of hollyphants again anyway, in case more scary boogers show up. And we can see the fae Joe failed to scare off now hitting the edges of the avalanche.
Ilene fires off another single bolt. Helvisarn says, "At last, yield your strength to me!" And then we see the leading edge of the fae shrivel and die. Crap. And then two icily white female fae appear flanking him. Thoron and Joe recognize them as Frostwind Viragos. Joe swaps to sphynx and does a roar to scare the fae clear. Thoron babysits the storm elementals as a solar, meanwhile, so they don't get scared and run. Joe scares off another 80% of what's left. Thoron uses his standard action to launch chain lightning at the viragos, skipping Helvisarn because Ilene thinks we can't do anything other than strengthen him. He does do a pile of hps to one of them. Her hair is poofed. Dagnar can't do anything ranged. Aqila has the Prismatic Eye target the unpoofed one. She succeeds in driving it insane. She darkbolts the other one. 6 hit, 71 damage, and dazed for a round. Moonbeam is up next. She has 21 hollyphants, a large swarm of storm elementals, but we have more fae coming, so Moonbeam just firestorms the Viragos. Neither makes the reflex save, and take full damage.
Ilene unleashes a barrage. Helvisarn staggers under the barrage, yelling 'I will not be defeated. The gate is open. Aid me! This world is yours!'. Five unique entities appear. Each looks like an assemblage of different animals that really don't go together. It is cognitively painful just to look at the messed up things. One voice, or possibly multiple voices, changing constantly in tone and pitch, even in midword, speaks - "The gate is not yet fully open. My servants will aid you but know that you must complete the bargain." The voice sounds angry. The sensation accompanying it feels like our bodies are screaming in protest at hearing that voice. Doesn't feel like Sakaneth, at least. Ilene looks dead white. She also seems to be barely aware of anything outside of herself now. And all living fae are running hellbent for leather now. The viragos don't look happy, albeit as much as they can in their current state. The dazed virago doesn't do anything, but the insane one babbles incoherently.
OOC - the voice belongs to an entity that kept Helvisarn alive - the bargain is he turns the world over to it. He was planning on a backstabbing, of course.
Thoron chain lightings everything that isn't Helvisarn. 114 damage to anything that takes it. Dazed resists the spell. Insane is damaged. 4/5 creatures look unaffected, but the one in the middle tries to avoid the hit. It seems to twist through more than 3 dimensions, and is unharmed. (light blue). Joe unleashes Deadfall. Untyped damage, 8th level spell, 20' radius, leaves difficult terrain behind. 22d6 for 77 damage. All 5 go through the same eyetwisting gymnastics and don't fall prone but all look slightly battered. That works. Dagnar borrows Aqila's favorite wand and launches a forceball at the quintet...2 appear unaffected, 1 twists, 2 look battered. On Aqila's turn, she uses 3 fireballs, sort of. Light green on the far left dodges fire, 2nd'd on left, midgreen, dodges cold, and yellow, 2nd from right, dodges sonic. Cold vuln and fire vuln fail to resist and take damage. And then the prismatic eye fires on the dazed virago and she's wobbling on her feet.
And now it's Moonbeam's turn. She starts with a sonic strike to catch the batterred virago and the creature that takes sonic. And then does fire on the other side to catch the other one. The insane virago is now at 0 hps, and the sonic weak creature is gone. Moonbeam has her trumpet archon dive on the fire weak creature. The discorporating dive disembodies the target. And then Moonbeam tells the 14 storm elementals to get off their butts and work for a living. 13 of them attack the middle creature with 12d4 lightning, and 1 plinks the last virago. Or would if they could all crowd within 10' of the target. 9 can get close enough. 197 damage.
Ilene does not do anything visible, and is not answering questions. The two remaining weird creatures seem to explode in a mass of waving tentacles at everything near them. Which is just Joe because the storm elementals did a double move to get out of there. Joe does a quickened updraft to get clear, so he’s unharmed. Helvisarn screams and charges Ilene. He flies up swinging wildly with his great sword and misses completely. The edge of the blade seems to be drinking light. So, now, Joe goes squidly and tries beating the remaining two creatures to death. The first one dies, exploding in a wave of ichor that starts soaking into Joe's tentacles...he takes 10 con damage. And then the 2nd one explodes doing another 9 con damage. Thoron heals Joe, fixing the con damage. Dagnar swaps Ilene for a storm elemental to get her clear, then uses grease on Helvisarn's sword. Aqila summons a movanic deva to hang out with Ilene. Moonbeam goes to summonerville again. Buncha Devas.
Ilene has a silvery sword appear in her hand, calling out"Back away!" And then she flies towards Helvisarn, covering part of the distance. Helvisarn takes a swing at the elemental, and manages to not lose his sword. He unsummons the elemental, then continues in a frothing charge at Ilene. Missed again. Then it’s our turns and we get the hell out of dodge making double moves at a dead run to get clear. We’re still easily close enough to get to see Ilene run Helvisarn through, and he collapses. She collapses. There's a blast of light, and then the snow is gone and the ground is scoured bare. Helvisarn is gone entirely, and Ilene is a crumpled heap. Then we hear another familiar voice – “Done and well done”. Valeiran strolls into view. He did say we wouldn't see him until after we finished with this mess. Valeiran walks up and reaches down to take Ilene's hand. "And for you also, little sister, done and well done," as she wakes up.
"So, you succeeded in the first test," he states, addressing Ilene, then looking at us, "And the next part will not involve you, but I will advise you in one thing", he continues, looking at Joe, "I believe you have some idea where in the future the lady Ilene will be found. You may wish to suggest to your lady that she might want to pay a visit. After all, it will not be long before your people will need a refuge." Moonbeam casts Plant Growth to help restore the damaged area.
"So, before I depart, is there anything you would ask?" Remembering that Savinel faintly hinted that we should ask someone else if it's safe for them to tell us certain things. So Joe asks the questions that she wouldn’t answer. “Direct information would not be safe, but...Three warnings, first - and I do not expect you to understand this until the time comes...Do not kill the Queen. Secondly, when you have spared her life, you will be asked to do something that will seem suicidal. Do it at once. And thirdly, she whom you think you are hunting is not the real threat. Ask who stands behind her."

Spoiler: GM Commentary

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The party had already firmly established that Valeiran being talkative means something bad is coming.

Valeiran finishes speaking, so Joe asks if there is anything else he thinks we should know that he can tell us. "Yes. Let Sohrab play his games." Joe asks, "What is he?" "A partial answer, I supposed will do no harm...A failed experiment." "Can you tell us who's?" "Kashirna's". Joe asks if Kashirna is the Dragon. "That I can only answer if you can truthfully swear to not reveal the answer...some things must not be broadly known at this time." We briefly consult and decide we can handle it. "He is." Joe asks, "What is he after, his motives" "Revenge". Moonbeam asks what's the fastest way to end the war in the Ferial...he comments "The fastest way would be to surrender to Mykyta," in a tone indicating that we shouldn't like that answer. "To end the war in a way you would prefer would not be quick. I may say this - when the Dragon's true armies invade and are defeated, the war will be over. And they are not human. You have already seen the forerunners." We recall the draconic humanoid critters from the…hatchery.
Aqila has been thinking, and asks, "Can we expect there to be an All-Hands soon, the first in eight hundred years?" "Yes. And if the world survives, it will be very soon." Hearing that, she also asks, "Would there be any harm in my placing that tidbit in the elder's ears" "There would not, and in fact it would be wise." Then Joe asks if he can tell us how many temples Zeleya has left. "I cannot tell you directly. She has enough to carry out her plan, and no more." IE, we knock one off, and that spokes her wheels. Good to know.
OOC sidetrack - Moonbeam, should she scry on the pirate ships, will see that the ships are a few days from being ready to sail.
Aqila checks to make sure Valeiran is Ilene's ride out of here, and he indeed is. Moonbeam asks one last question, 'What should I learn next?' "I think this is not the answer you are looking for but...a new song" That has some interesting implications. And then Joe asks if we could learn how to unmake spheres of annihilation. "Certainly, if you have a spare century or two." Having exhausted our questions, and being someone exhausted ourselves, we take ourselves off.
Break here. Next task, hunting down Ruzha, and a temple of Shenea if we can pry the location loose from her.

Spoiler: February 2017

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We have 2 days before Ruzha is due to show up at her mansion, per Sohrab's advice. And Valerian did say to let him play his games...So we take some time to study and recover from killing a god....well, playing a significant supporting role in saving the world, anyway. Moonbeam gave Miroslav an update on the Amerellian fleet's progress. No immediate reaction from Aqila tipping off the retired Sentinel's network that an All-Hands is imminent. We finish resting up and refitting and get ready for what is looking to be a nasty fight.
We regroup and move to stake out the mansion and wait for our target to arrive. And then we hear a cheerful voice greeting us. Moonbeam sighs slightly and answers, 'Hi Sneezil. Anything we need to know?" Moonbeam and Joe are currently in Solar form, but Sneezil has no difficulty recognizing them. Sneezil hasn't stopped growing, and he's over 4' tall now.
"Not know details, but...you need to be careful with this". Sneezil continued, "Is trap, but have to walk in. Priestess is expecting you. She has a trap and will run if she thinks the trap is failing. She will stay if it is succeeding. Also, there is someone else in there already. Will be friend." Well, that's interesting.
We take a look at the mansion, and it detects as very magical...lots of wards against divination plus a number of concealing spells to the point that Thoron is having trouble seeing through it. Looks like something that took decades to set up, rather than a quick project. There are also signs of some hasty recent additions...Thoron is having trouble making out exactly what because it's mostly inside the building, but it looks like at least one disjunction spell-trap. Goody. Moonbeam asks Thoron to let her look through his eyes at the building and see if she can figure out more of what the spells are.
Moonbeam can see a 2nd disjunction trap, and maybe 1-2 more deeper in, masked by the first two. It also looks like, the one they can see most clearly, has a partial gap in the wards near it. It also looks like that one is on a very fast reset. Like a 1/round fast reset, but with limited charges. May trigger by walking past it.
We debate how to deal with this, then Sneezil says, 'Need to hurry. Friend not far in. May die soon!'. So we send a Janni in to see what happens. A disjunction trap is set off, and disappears, but the wards remain. So Moonbeam sets up a chain of eyes with a 2nd janni in ethereal mode to see what's inside now. It goes through the outer and inner door and sees a woman in full plate sprawled on the ground with a pale-haired blue-robed woman standing over her. The disjunction traps in the foyer seem to be gone now, and this looks serious, so we just walk in through the front door.
We stay in the foyer and can now see that there are 8 statues around the main room plus one big one in the middle with lots of abjuration spells on them. Possibly traps activated by a command' word. Plus a conjuration spell possibly active just outside the walls of the room. So we just walk in and stand in the doorway, meatshields up front, squishies behind. Thoron sees 'Ruzha' as a lvl 10 with power sight...she was 20+ at the party so something's weird. She almost looks not real. Also has a pile of buffs up.
Ruzha's reaction to our entry is 5 bolts of force at Dagnar. 19 damage. Joe Dispels her and takes a lot of stuff off. Misses death throes and mindblank, among other things. Thoron goes next and does a Firestorm, since he can see Ruzha lost her fire prots, and he can shape it to not hit the prone paladin. Ruzha looks a bit wobbly after that hit. Thoron hits her with blinding spittle for a follow-up, then Dagnar swaps Joe and the paladin to get her out of the way, and then moves behind Ruzha.
Note, Thoron moved into the room, where he can see there are decorative stone insets...similar to other Deilianan decorations...they look like normal scenes until you see the hidden dagger or other wrong elements.
Aqila fires her matrix-stored spells then quickens a prismatic eye. So Aqila has Greater Mirror Image up, and Ruzha gets an earthbind and dimensional anchor. Then the eye fires and it's a banish effect. Irony. Moonbeam squeeze past Aqila to Heal the paladin. Then she casts baleful polymorph on Ruzha and turns her into a sloth. And now Thoron can see that some of the spells were crafted to match the shape of the creature, and can see that we were fighting a simulacrum. Which explains the power sight 10 thing nicely.
So, where's the real one? The paladin is now awake. And the first thing she says is 'That's not the real one!' Joe answers her, 'We know,' gesturing at the sloth, and continues 'so where's the real one?' The paladin answers, 'She's somewhere else in the mansion with her guards. She's been summoning demons to help her out, lots of them.' She spoke long enough that most of us can recognize her accent as being Almaeran Highlander. Aqila got it first because it was very similar to her grandfather's accent.
Moonbeam uses a timestop to quickly prepare some buffs to toss at the paladin. Joe picks up the sloth and presents it to the paladin with a flourish. "The real one was causing some problems up north.' Aqila cut in, 'under the name of Runa perchance? She was posing as an Aerodonese noblewoman under that name, we think, and if we find the real one, we can see if the mark we left on her is there… "No, I knew her as Rona.' We learn the paladin's name is Seonag. Sneezil finally speaks up...'Think I might know how to make her come out, but might be dangerous. Might get killed." Joe asks, 'How many times', which confuses Sneezil. 'The big room is trapped.' 'What kind of trap' – Joe again. Not sure, magic go away…If all in trap, then she spring it.'
We think about what to do next. Moonbeam uses brain spider to see what she can detect and picks up 8 demons (max for spell is 8 at a time), deeper in and above us, but there’s no obvious doors leading out of the main room, only the entrance. 4 are dumb-brutish goon squad types. One seems to be very powerful, feels like a Marilith. The other three are succubi, but stronger than the average...priestesses of Deiliana. Aqila is not happy to hear about a Marilith in the offing. Joe tries taking Rakshasa form and uses detect thoughts to double-check...he picks up a 4th succubi, but no humans...of course, he doesn't pick us up either, with mindblank up.
We've messed around long enough. Time to make a mess. Step 1 - we get ethereal to walk through the wall to get under the concentration of minds. There’s a hallway around the outside of the main room with interesting designs on the floor. Thoron can now see clearly that there are two massive summoning circles permanently laid into the floor and protected by a set of wards. It looks like these are strong enough to call through any demon we can think of. The spells are bound into the circle, with the names of specific individuals. It could be used for other things, but would take time to study...and it can be activated at a distance. Yay. We continue on to get under where the minds were, and enter what looks like a small chapel, and pass through into what looks like a hastily emptied storeroom. Aqila prepares to use a passwall spell, sideways to the usual orientation. So instead of a small hole up, it'll be a 8' wide and 35' long rectangle.
We arrange ourselves, come out of etherealness, and get ready for the fun. Seonag seems to be a bit…tentative about this interesting situation she’s found herself in. After Aqila casts the spell, we hear a strange chorus of voices. It sounds like multiple people speaking in near perfect unison. "This was not the plan, but it can be adapted." It sounds like the same voice speaking in unison with itself, actually. Thoron peers through the floor and sees something. Joe is remembering something about a type of demon called a 'spellkiller'...particularly dangerous to magic users at close range. The marilith floats over the hole, but two thugs drop through. Joe does remember that spellkillers are useless, summoned. But these are almost certainly called.
Moonbeam got some Monadic Devas out before we started, so we have a magic circle against evil. Thoron opens the ball up with blinding spittle. Hits both. Then Seonag acts, giving a resigned shrug, saying, 'I suppose now would be the time for it to work if it ever does,' and starts singing something in a language we don't know. (casting prayer). (ooc it's a song that has been preserved in her family’s lore as something that repels demons) (it's really Sakaneth's servants, but we don't know that IC) Joe is up next and sends a Murderous Mist upstairs and blinds all 4 succubi. Then he kelp-strands them because Thoron can see that the thugs and the marilith all have 'freedom of movement' up, but the succubi don’t. He succeeds. Moonbeam sprays the upper room with blast of sand then does a pimped out sonic strike for 177 base damage, reflex save for half. The three succubi who got hit by both are dead. The surviving succubus escaped one of the strands, is still held.
Sneezil is up and he gets excited and charges in to mightily smite evil on one of the spell-killers. He has that holy/firey blast mace that we'd given him some time ago. He smashes it dead with one hit. Dagnar is up and takes out the Marilith with the black blade of disaster. And then Aqila is up. She casts Project Image, sends the image to be closer to the rest of the party, pokes her head up above the floor so she can see what's up there, and has the image cast a quickened darkbolt at the surviving spellkiller on the ground floor. Whereupon we learn that they have a natural spell-turning effect. The illusion goes oww. Aqila sees an illusory Ruzha up top, but no real one.
Now it's the spellkillers turn. The three of them put up antimagic fields, which ends the passwall, dropping Aqila down because her flight cut out until the floor reappeared, whereupon her spells work again. Dagnar is also down below too. We hear two thuds from above. (The Marilith was giving orders to the lesser demons, and the last order it gave the spellkillers was to bring up their fields and jump down to attack us. Order of Operations – Fail) The thug down below, being blind and under orders to charge a target after bringing his field up, charges Joe and hits him for 15 damage.
Top of the order. Ruzha decides to go to broke instead of fleeing because we aren’t in the main room in her trap, and triggers the summoning circle to pull in everything that wasn't already here. 9 total, though we don't know this yet because they're all in the main room. We hear a voice echoing in the room, "this is becoming annoying. I give you a chance to win your lives. Come, face me in the proper place!" Thoron targets the thug with a blast of sand to try to get rid of the antimagic field. The thug attacks Joe blindly, and does 15 damage again. Seonag tries to attack the thug and hits for some damage. Not much with the field up. Joe goes squiddy and attacks, killing the thug and ending the field. He then decides to make some new doors...we’re still in the dusty storeroom. He smashes into the kitchen and pantry, and doesn't find Ruzha there. He then casts timestop and goes looking for Ruzha...he finds a very plain bedroom, empty of people. Then he fires up tremor-sense...he can feel two demons trying to jump through the floor, 9 large demons roaming around the main room, and he can feel ten medium sized creatures above the demons, in the cramped upper level.
Then Moonbeam sends out a pile of air elementals to search...they find a dozen Ruzhas in that upper room. Interesting. Half the air elementals are poofed when Ruzhas start casting banishments. Thoron turns into a hummingbird, zipped up the stairs to the cramped runway around the main room, and chain-lightnings every Ruzha he can reach. The paladin decides that the best thing she can do is play rear guard. Joe is already upstairs and he casts frost fell into the room. And that ends the fight, as the remaining Ruzhas become ice sculptures.
We regroup in the main room, then Sohrab appears in the middle of the room. "Rather more impressive than I had expected, but you still have a small problem, don't you. Under the circumstances, I believe a little assistance would be helpful.' He gestures, and one of the Ruzhas comes floating down from above, presumable the one where Ruzha’s consciousness is residing currently. 'A pretty solution, fortunately, I have my own variations on some common spells. I have a few questions of my own that need answered, and then you may ask whatever you will.'
Seonag looks distinctly unhappy about the fact that we’re not only not attacking the big bad necromancer, we’re shooting the breeze with him, but she does nothing to interfere. Sneezil’s just hanging out. Note, the paladins are being told not to attack Sohrab, but only Sneezil knows why.
Sohrab’s first question is, 'Where is the temple of Shenea?' She gives physical directions to the entrance. 'Is Savrein there?' The answer is yes. 'Has he the throne?'…again yes. 'What is the entrance key' Whereupon she recites a string of twenty color names...9 different names with some repetitions. Aqila is taking notes. 'And how many underlings has Savrein' 5 priests, 8 acolytes. Sohrab 'faces' us...his current spectral form doesn't really have a face, but gives the impression of being pleased.
“I suppose it's a good thing that you did not trip the trap”...we ask why, then he gestures and the side statues start generating a 10' antimagic field. 'I won't activate the central one...it would be inconvenient for me, being significantly larger. He then gestures at the relief over the door which slams down. 'If it had gone to her plan, you would have entered the room and been trapped and her pet demons could have entered and killed you at their leisure. Personally, I think she should have activated the trap with just a few of you in there...admittedly the rest of you would have been free to thwart her, but at least two of your more dangerous members would have been in there. "
‘So, we have the location of Shenea's temple and a current passcode for the door. It would of course be wise to hurry before they change the entry.’ Joe comments, ‘That seems wise, how much time do we have?' 'That depends on how closely they were watching their ally, or their supposed ally…They weren't monitoring her that closely, you have a little while before they check in.' Sohrab continues, 'I will be able to accompany you at least as far as the entrance, and I do have a few words of caution for you - the most important of which is this: Their high priest you, will find likely in the main sanctuary seated on what appears to be a throne carved out of obsidian. I can say with confidence that he will be seated in it because he can't rise from it. You would also be advised to not kill him because what he contains would destroy you utterly.’
Joe asks what would happen if we inflict a form of non-death on the high priest. 'While I cannot be certain, I do not think he can continue to contain that power in that form,’ is the reply. 'What about turning him into a squirrel?’ 'I do not think that will be possible. There is this also, somewhere near him in the temple you will likely find a sphere, also made from obsidian and perfectly smooth...under no circumstances break it. The consequences would be equally disastrous.’
‘Thirdly, while I am sure that some of you at least are aware, after all it is unlikely that your employers would not have given you this much training, it bears repeating that as in any temple of Shenea there will be laboratories that are sealed because they created something that they can't control...please remember that priests will break the seals if they think the temple will be lost. If you think you can deal with them, it would be wise to deal with them in isolation. The seal will depend on what the priests believed was needed to contain it. It is possible the barrier will be purely physical, but it is more likely that anything they can't control will have more than physical powers.’
He gestures and a series of glyphs appear. ‘These are the glyphs that mark what may be inside...if there are any that your employers do not know, I make you a free gift of the information.’ It's things like flying, reproducing, singular, multiple, ethereal, etc. Aqila takes more notes.
'One of the priests that I believe is there I know has been working on developing and employing spirit shards to create magic items. As it happens, I do know it is possible to do what he is trying to do, I also know it is extremely foolish. You would be well advised not to take any items from his possession since it is difficult to distinguish one of those from a conventionally crafted items until the madness sets in and then it is too late for the poor fool that used it.’
Joe, unsurprisingly, asked what would happen if we tested the items out on Ruzha, purely as a hypothetical of course… Sohrabs response is, ‘I know something of the nature of the powers she was granted. It would be rather difficult to discern the effects on her. She was already not entirely sane and having been affected by that spell will not have done wonders for her. It is a shock to have a portion of yourself suddenly destroyed. As for my other warning, hmm, your new friend is Almaeran, is she not?’ (from the noncrazy branch, the hill people, yes) ‘It might be wise for her to accompany you. There are some disturbing rumors I have heard about their research . Also, your employers will have some interest in this...I hear they have been trying to recreate those oh so useful machines from Brighthaven...I have also heard they have had somewhat mixed success. But after all, almost any necromancer who has heard it is possible would be trying to do such a thing...there are very few of us who have no real need for it. I will also note that if they manage to identify you as those responsible, they will be rather annoyed with you for interrupting their supply. Unfortunately, I don't know how many shards were diverted from Brighthaven or other centers for their use.’
'And lastly, if you are forced to confront the high priest, be very careful what spells you use in his presence...the throne is a quite potent artifact. I do not know what of its powers he's been able to unlock. It's not the easiest of things to use. He has unlocked enough to survive sitting in it which means it would be very unwise to cast any summoning spells near him.’ We ask about non-summoning conjuration spells in general. ‘That should not be an issue, but you should expect any summoning spell in his presence will be corrupted and turned against you. At least out to 30' and with the common layout for temples, it will be difficult to attack from father away.’
What if we bring in summons? If he has unlocked more than the bare minimum he will be able to dismiss them, and any near his nature he will be able to control. Also, spells that affect time should be avoided...and I am curious how you managed to gain access to timestop...you should avoid that at all costs because if he's gained the greatest powers, he will be able to enter the time stop with you. Also you should expect spells targeted on him to fail. I do not know of other powers that are useful for combat. It is designed for creating and controlling undead.
'What about the priest himself?' ‘I know less about him. He could have access to any spells you do. 'Like antimagic field? 'I do not know. I think it would suppress what he contains so that as long as the field is active, but I do not know how the throne would react. I supposed that would have been a good test to have made when I had the opportunity.’
ooc - he made the throne. and it's a trap for necromancers...it looks very useful, and then you find you can't leave it and given the opportunity its master can gather everything that you learned since you started using it.
Joe asks what the high priest contains. 'Something that could have been a god. And worse, something that if it is released will be a beacon. I believe you have encountered some of the least of its servants very recently'...we remember the 'things' that were wounds in the world. Avoiding creating a beacon for those things would be a very good idea, yes.
And, having divulged all he cared to, Sohrab departs. Joe turns to the paladin and says, 'so, what's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?' As it happens, she was searching through Almaera for 'Rona' and tracked her here. We find the stalkers brand that we put on 'Runa' on all 12 of the ruzhas. Ruzha wasn't being as careful in Almaera and would have been easier to track down there. The mansion technically belongs to the temple of Deiliana. We do let her know that we've been told to let Sohrab play his little game here, by an authority that we trust implicitly. 'Rona' had been working on stirring up a little civil war there in Almaera. The mages and highlanders don't like each other at all...

[Terane]

Spoiler: March 2017

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Picking up where we left off, we are getting ready to assault the temple of Shenea. Sohrab warned us that the high priest would have monitors throughout the temple to keep an eye on his underlings (think security cameras) that he can cast through. The high priest will notice us if we destroy monitors, and may notice us if we kill a priest. Also, we're told that once we've desecrated the temple, Sohrab is willing and able to deal with the abomination that the high priest is containing - he wants it gone.
We take an hour to stop by the Kantoran temple in Presmyslaw's capital to let them know that 1) we know where the Shenean Temple is and 2) we're about to go desecrate it. Then we reprot up, share some gear with the paladins, get a snack, and teleport to the location we got from Ruzha. Sohrab is there, waiting for us in yet another guise. He tells us that he will try to keep us concealed at least until we're in the antechamber of the temple. Whether his protections will hold deeper in, he can't say. He can't enter the temple until we desecrate it. He also tells us that the lock we have the passcode for is probably a puzzle, with a time limit.
Aqila volunteers to open the lock, given her specialties. The lock is a smooth pane of stone, with illusions creating the colored tiles to enter the code into. With a little help from her friends (owl's insight, luck stone, etc) she cracks it right open.
Side note - the abomination that the high priest is containing is something that Shenea does not want unleashed ever, so unlikely that the priest will sic it on us, even if desperate. And Seonag is using a +1 icy burst long sword so we rummage through our stash and lend her a greater dispelling dagger. Aqila lends her her favorite rod of force damage effects. Seonag does have good armor with a permanent death ward effect, a death bane effect, with extra ac against undead. See invis and detect undead on her helmet. We also lend her a +1 reflecting shield to swap off with her turn undead invokable shield that also has sunburst 5x/day. She has some other shiny gear. We get her some +will and +cha gear on loan for extra pallie damage.
Aqila tosses Ectoplasmic Armor up on everyone just in case, so +8 ac against incorporeal. Joe gives Sohrab an echoskull so we can talk to him from inside the temple. The skull will be depowered the instant we’re ready to stop letting him have a direct view of everything we’re doing. We're protted, prepped, and ready to roll. As a note, Seonag does not have a mount...she has a Celestial Hawk familiar, who can cast spells for her, and before we go in, she casts the spell that let's her friend go Half-Celestial with all attendant spell-like abilities when invoked.
Anyway, a portal opens up when Aqila finishes the puzzle, and we enter the antechamber. It's a bare 30'x30' square, with two doors leading to the rest of the temple. Aqila is wearing the Sohrab link. Moonbeam casts find the path and finds no traps between here and the sanctuary...but we don't want to just go straight there because of all the experiments in labs that may be freed when we desecrate the temple. The seals binding the doors closed, we’re told, are powered by the divine connection to the temple, so they go poof when the connection is severed. And since some may be able to teleport...yeah, we need to clear the place first.
We go down the left stairs. There's a monitor facing the stairs, but Aqila casts an illusory wall right in front of it so it sees empty stairs, and anyone else sees the normal wall. We see a door that's covered in glyphs, including some that Sohrab didn’t know what they meant, so we skip that one for now...the next one only has 3, spawning, incorporeal and possession. Thoron can also see the far door that only has two - caustic and toxic, both with an extra glyph that means 'strong emphasis'.
Aqila casts silence on a rock and leaves it to block sounds from this level getting to the rest of the temple...the stairs continue down to a basement level...we're on the middle level of the temple, the sanctuary is on ground/top. Then we open the door. We see an incorporeal form inside an obvious binding circle. Roll for initiative!
Dagnar defers to Moonbeam so she can cast Ghostdust at the critter, which lets the rest of it hit it more easily. Then Dagnar circles around behind it and whacks it solidly with his sword. Then Thoron uses fire seeds for his attack...he sees it has 50 hit dice. Joe uses Sunbeam. He's been waiting for this. Aqila uses a Searing Light. 52 damage. Sneezil bounces in so Dagnar is flanking now, and unleashes a Smite Evil, or tries to. He manages to connect with his mace, and does 49 damage. Seonag does 25 with her sword. Then the creature acts. It spawns 5 monsters.
Thoron does chain lightning. 3 of the spawns die, 2 make their saves. Spawner is still up. Dagnar whacks it and channels scorching ray. He has haste so he lands several blows. Moonbeam does a moonbolt on the spawner. It saved. The second target failed. Helpless for 3 rounds. Joe does another Sunbeam on the Spawner. That kills it. Aqila targets the baby that didn't get moonbolted and vaporizes it. Sneezil thwacks the other one, and the room is clear. 1 down, many to go.
We poke our nose in the caustic and toxic room. Opening the inner door lets a cloud of green smoke roll out. We can see a tall rune-covered cylinder in the corner and a bunch of badly-eaten runes...Well, Dagnar and Thoron can see that, since Dagnar opened the door and Thoron was there to use his sight to look. Everyone has to make a reflex save before Dagnar slams the door shut. Aqila uses her artifact to heal everyone to full. So no monsters in that room, just an experiment gone very, very badly wrong, it looks like.
Dagnar recognizes the runes in that room as a calling spell and other runes that look like the diagrams from the wizards tower back in Chalisce...the ones for draining a demon's essence...except it looks like it might be elementals not demons. So, scene of a lab accident. Then Thoron hears someone moving around in one of the unsealed rooms near us. So Joe shapechanges into a mouse and quickly finishes scouting this level...the very runed door is the only other sealed one on this level. Then we go down the same stairs to the 3rd level...as we get down, we hear someone going up the other stairs. Thoron can hear someone puttering around in one of the labs, with sounds of repressed pain coming from it too. Aqila makes up another silence rock so we can block sounds of combat off from the people down here.
The only sealed room on this level has a glyph for very high speed, many creatures, energy immunity, needs maintenance - with glyph for maintainers present, and destructive of magic. That sounds tricky. That glyph is usually used for antimagic field, ray, or disjunction. Plus a glyph that indicates 'unexpected abilities'. Joe has a look in the occupied room to see what's going on there...a skeletal figure is pacing around a set of warding circles which contains a demon. The Demon appears to be in pain, and a stream of essence is being siphoned off into a rune-covered box outside the circles. The demon looks like 28 HD, and the priest is 15...with no combat buffs. Just stuff to protect him from the demon. Heh. We’ll deal with that later.
We move to the sealed room. Aqila sets the silence stones to keep combat sounds from leaving the area, and we open the doors. Inside, the room is ringed with boxes. Some are charred wooden boxes that are empty. (OOC note – the boxes are the ‘maintainers’. The charred ones were damaged in the accident that caused the lab to be sealed) The rest are filled with gaunt undead creatures. There are also warding circles inscribed on the floor. Moonbeam slipped out to grab a couple of huge earth elementals for this fight...we're hopefully far enough away from the sanctuary to avoid the high priest stealing/dismissing them.
Thoron can see 16 hd on these guys...Moonbeam goes first with a flamestrike to see what happens. The divine damage took, the fire did bupkis. The force strike she followed up with did significantly more damage. A voice intones ‘Adjustments needed’. We don’t know if we’ve just been noticed, or if it’s some sort of spell in the room that we set off. Joe goes next. He targets the row that Moonbeam battered, shapechanges into a will'o'wisp and launches a sunbeam down a row after teleporting into a corner. The glyphs in that area start glowing brightly and the creatures look very battered.
Seonag goes next, stepping just inside the room, and makes a shot at turning undead. She barely fails her roll. Thoron tries chain lightning. No effect. Joe had moved back to the doorway, so Thoron quickens a blast of sand out of frustration and fries that row of creatures. They all die. The creatures that still live begin moving out of their boxes. Sneezil makes a go at turn undead. He turns two of them. Dagnar casts mirror image because he doesn’t want to move into the room when area spells are about to fly, and then Aqila unloads her newest spell. Sunburst, pumped to 23d6. Half of them are blinded...though they have blindsight, bleh.
Moonbeam goes next and she can do mass heal. And then that does nothing because they have life ward up. Bother. So she quickens a forcestrike and nukes them. The voice intones 'adjustments complete'....this strike did noticeably less damage. Moonbeam swears expressively. Joe tries Deadfall. It knocks prone all but 4, and half of the ones still on their feet are turned. At this point, the earth elementals can hear someone coming down the stairs. Moonbeam put them on guard duty because they can’t get into the room with the creatures. Seonag fails to turn undead. Thoron decides to blast of sand, flying into the room to aim more precisely. 5 left.
The undead move to attack, and Hellfire does 92 damage to everyone. Owwies. Then Sneezil comes flying in to do a mighty smitey. He kills one of the 2 that are active. Dagnar flies in to slash up the other one. Gravestrike + duskblade aren't quite enough to finish it off. Aqila almost gets it with Searing Light. The voice intones 'Adjustments are needed' again...so we're running out of time for light to work as a damage type. Moonbeam does splinterbolt, which finishes the last unturned one off. Joe moves and sunbeams all of the survivors. Room cleared. Just in time for a very surprised priest to come down the stairs. The elementals are mostly in the walls, but we couldn't shut the doors and the silence zones are also clues that something hinky happened.
Thoron is the first person who can act and knows that something needs done. He tries Baleful Polymorph. The priest turns into a tiny tortoise. His gear falls to the floor with a clatter. That worked. We talk about just putting him into the room we just cleared, and Moonbeam gives him a strawberry because she finds it amusing. He was carrying an Unholy vile wounding Flail. No armor. A couple of scrolls - planar binding and a very complex scroll that we can't readily ID. Then we figure that we don't want to leave him to die, so Joe tucks him in one pocket in his belt, leaving the flap open for air circulation.
Sohrab chimes in at this point. “It appears that you've cleared all but one of the labs. I may be able to tell you what's in it if you get me access to the temple.” So, new plan, skip that last scary room and go to the sanctuary. (OOC: Sohrab is worried that the last room is too much for us, since he could see the list of runes on it through the echo skull, and would rather we get him in before we die). Joe asks how confident Sohrab is that the last lab's contents can't teleport away after we desecrate the temple. Sohrab believes that it won't go instantly, and that he can pin it down until we destroy it. Joe also asks if the priests will notice if we destroy the altar. Sohrab notes that Shenea is known to have priests that aren't fully attuned to her nature, so they may not notice the destruction immediately.
Moonbeam leaves the elementals behind, and we sneak back up with Thoron leading so we don't trip over any traps/wandering priests. Sohrab also notes that the stairs we went down were the ones by the priests quarters, in his opinion, and taking the acolytes stairs might be safer for the return trip. We go up a level, and Thoron can still hear someone puttering around in the lab we knew was occupied, and now we can hear someone in the room between the two sealed labs. That would have been the footsteps we heard going up a level when we went down to the 3rd level earlier. Joe takes a peek in the first lab, which has many cylinders with partial humanoid forms inside them...varying stages of growth - lots of necromancy – and one live priest puttering around.
As we move towards the sanctuary, Thoron can hear voices from it - sounds like 2 people talking. One voice is insisting that they should try the experiment again. We're in the purification chamber that has doors leading into the sanctuary. The voice argues that they know what went wrong now, and just one of those creatures would be enough to ensure their safety forever. The other voice is mostly silent...impression that Voice 2 is unimpressed and dubious. We listen to figure out if Voice 1 sounds alive or not. Thoron thinks he is, which means we can get some more information about the situation first. We get Moonbeam to use Brainspider on the priest to pick up what he's thinking of, and to suggest that he be distracting. Joe suggests that she have him try to kiss the high priest, so she goes with that.
We hear some interesting sounds through the door. Moonbeam loses her connection to the brain as the idiot touches the throne and gets disintegrated. There's our distraction. Time to roll. Plan is for Aqila to pop a resilient sphere around the throne and high priest to give the paladins free access to the altar for desecration purposes. There is a stone wall between the doors and the throne, so we can't just burst through the doors. So, we head in and see what we can do.
Moonbeam acts first and casts Binding Winds to keep the priest from speaking. He can't cast anything with a verbal component that isn't self only now. Thoron pulls out Telekinesis to try to grapple the seated priest. He fails. Joe does kelp strand for grappling. And Blinding Spittle for grins.
And now the Priest acts. His body bursts into flames as a Balor Nimbus appears, ashing the kelp strands. 3 Spectral figures appear by the altar. Seonag rolls a 20 on her knowledge check. The figures are guardian spirits for Shenean temples. The less distinct one eats spells. (Seonag spent a lot of time rooting out Shenean temples in the Almaeran highlands; this is bigger than any she's fought before) They look like a shadow, a skeleton, and a humanoid figure with a white sword. She advises against meleeing the sword wielder because it is dangerous. The skeleton should be mostly harmless because it's main attack is a death touch and we're protected. "If you can keep the sword wielder occupied, I can deal with the one that eats spells.” She moves into the room and with haste makes an attack on the shadow. She does some damage.
Aqila gets through the priest's SR and casts a resilient sphere around the throne and him. Dagnar moves in and does a ghost-touched scorching ray on sword-guy. Damage done. Sneezil moves in and does a Holy Smite. He hits all three of the spirits. That blinds them with failed saves. Moonbeam keeps the Binding Winds spell going, but she hands her ghost-touch bracelet to Joe. Joe goes next and ghost dusts the two that don't eat spells, so Thoron has a better shot of being useful when he goes after. Joe also does splinterbolt on the two that take damage from spells. Thoron does a telemantic attack to try to disarm sword-shade. It works. (The sword is an attempt to create a sphere of annihilation effect. It only does not affect its bonded wielder, and will disappear when the bonded dies...do not want to touch). Seonag continues beating on the spell eater.
The priest doesn't seem to do anything obvious. The skeleton attacks Seonag for 4 damage. The shadow does a full attack on her and misses completely. The unsworded guy chases his sword. Aqila fires her spell matrix and kills the unsworded with one hit, and puts displacement and greater mirror image up on herself. The sword poofs. Thoron is sad. Dagnar goes and closes with the skeleton, attacking with dusk blade. He almost kills it with that hit, and does a scorching ray to finish it off. Sneezil moves in to smite the spell eater...16 damage. Moonbeam maintains the winds to keep the priest locked down. Thoron shapechanges into a bronze dragon, snakes his head around, and sprays the spell eater with acid breath that also hits the altar. The shadow takes damage. The shadow poofs. The altar is pitted and smoke is rising from it.
Moonbeam holds firm on the winds. Seonag points at the altar, saying “If one of you can strike here, preferably with a blunt weapon...” Joe complies with alacrity. And now we can hear Sohrab's voice - coming from the high priest. Interesting. "Yes, I can see that this will be quite useful...YOU UNUTTERABLE IDIOTS!!! Get to the lab immediately! They tried to summon one of the abyssal lords...fortunately they failed...they only got one of his great captains." Joe asks, as we run, if Sohrab can take down the dimensional lock on the sanctuary, and he can't with any speed. Oh well. "They were trying to create an undead imbued with all 4 elemental types, infernal, abyssal, and celestial essences."
Thoron grabs the loot with telekinesis as we run out of the sanctuary and the dimensional lock on it, then Joe teleports us downstairs to save a round or two. We hear Sohrab’s voice continuing, "It's faster than I expected. I think I can keep it trapped in the temple, but it can teleport very quickly." Joe asks if he can tell us where it is. "I may be able to, but I won't be consistently reliable. And while I don't want to disturb you too much, there is also a book in the temple that must be found and destroyed...it has the name that purports to be the name of the abyssal lord they tried to summon." (The Abyssal lords, all three of them, were Sakaneth's lieutenants).
The critter tries to teleports to us and attacks Aqila. Her anticipate teleport spell slows his arrival by one round and lets us know where it will be arriving. So we get ready. Moonbeam casts timestop and casts true casting followed by summoning a bunch of archons.
Meanwhile, there were 3 other priests. The one with the growing corpses will be popping out with 4 of the more intact figures after the demon arrives. The other priest on the 2nd level pops out of his lab too, but we can't see him yet. No idea what the 3rd guy minding the demon siphoning process is going to do. So we get ready. Joe goes dire tiger and prepares to maul the crap out of it with all his buffs at the ready. Thoron does the same. Aqila gets ready to try to lock it down so it can’t escape.
Then the big bastard pops in and we unload on its butt. Joe charges in to maul. Seonag's hawk activates the spell and goes full half-celestial mode. The paladins and friend all do smite evil and Sneezil and the hawk roll near max. Thoron also does legendary tiger maul. Dagnar does Gravestrike. Everyone who does a melee attack gets a retaliatory stroke back, because this undead sprays acid every time it is struck by a melee blow. So Dagnar takes some acid damage. Joe's use of Nature's Avatar lets him really sink his teeth into this guy. Then he has to dodge 6 retaliations for his six hits. He takes 61 damage from 6 sprays of acid. Thoron does the same thing and also hits 6 times and takes 6 sprays of acid. 53 damage.
Moonbeam tries to Moonbolt the bastard and he rolls a 20. The archons Moonbeam summoned use discorporating dives. None of the six manage to get rid of it, and the fire damage does nothing. 47 holy damage. Aqila hits it with dimensional anchor, and with some buffs, makes it stick. And now the priest and his 4 friends pop out behind Dagnar.
Joe does a quickened greater teleport so he can charge again, and repeats his attack. He beats on it and takes more acid sprays. And now the demon/undead abomination acts...It utters Word of Chaos after coming out of its own timestop. Deafen, confuse, and stun possible...mindblank protects from confuse, so one round stun and 3 rounds of deafness. 20% chance to fail spells with a verbal component. Then is sprays us all with acid. 35 damage on a failed save. Then it casts petrification at Joe, and he rolls a 1. Tiger statue. So next person up who is not stunned is Moonbeam. She casts timestop, and unstones the kitty, casts mass heal which fixes the stuns and deafness, prepares a spell and casts rain of roses and casts true casting, then her summons get to act. 6 more discorporating dives. None hit. And the evil in the area start taking wis damage. That would be the big demon/undead, the priests, and the 4 buddies the one priest brought out.
Dagnar does a Gravestrike as a swift action, then starts whacking away under the effects of haste. And he's using the black blade of disaster offhand. The demon fails his save. 24d6 damage. So 90+82 disintegration+37 from sword. Monster does not disintegrate. He healed while in his timestop. Dagnar tries ray of stupid for grins. It fails. Aqila tries a disintegrate, pumps the damage. 149 disintegration damage.
And now the undead act before the priest does...they're behind Dagnar who’s behind the demon. One of them activates an aura of desecration. One attacks Dagnar with a sword. He takes an unholy blast but an image soaks it. One of the firestorms us, but we had fire immunity today. 2 of the archons made their saves. Now the priest gets to act. He decides to attack us because he thinks we are more dangerous. He casts Blind at Dagnar. Mirror does not soak. But Dagnar makes the save. Sneezil is up next and readies an action to attack the next time the demon tries to spellcast, using the Circlet of Blasting that we lent him. And now the other priest walks around the corner, sees Thoron the legendary tiger, and tries to Harm him. Thoron farts at him for his pains.
The rain of roses continues inflicting wis damage on the undead. Joe does his G. Teleport and charge shtick. Only 4 hits that time. The demon/undead is getting stronger every round it’s outside the sealed chamber. And now it's the demon's turn. It uses a 1-a-day ability, that is casting, so Sneezil uses the circlet of blasting to retaliate. And that makes it lose its concentration and it’s casting of implosion fizzles. We all get sprayed with acid. Low damage. Then is uses timestop and uses inflict critical wounds to heal 81 hps.
Seonag's turn and she starts singing. (the song was designed to affect abyssals/Sakaneth's servants specifically) The demon loses all the gains it made in the last round, lowering its ac and saves. Then she smites evil and does a full round attack. 71 damage. Then Thoron is up. He changes into a dire bear and mauls it, then casts snake's swiftness, mass. Sneezil hammers the demon with his holy blast mace. Jooe and Thoron hit. And Dagnar gets the kill. Moonbeam's turn. She has the archons do discorproating dives on the undead/priests. All but 1 undead and the priest behind Thoron are discorporated. So, for grins, Moonbeam goes legendary tiger, teleports and mauls the flame-strikeing undead to death.
Aqila goes to investigate the lab to make sure nothing else is going to be a problem. Thoron mauls the idiot who tried to stick his hand up his butt and turns him into a bloody smear. Aqila prepares to cacophonous blast the lab to get rid of all the experiments. But she calls everyone over to have a look first, because the things look vaguely familiar. They look like Ancient's Shaping cradles. Dagnar thinks they were derived from the cradles at least...and he remembers a box from another lab that might be a real one. She shatters the room before we go. She and Dagnar go look at that box, and discover that it is the remains of a shaping cradle. It looks like someone has been trying to repair it. If we work together, we can pick the thing up and haul it back to Arandor for analysis. (The Ancients used the cradles to create new life forms – the hard part is making the creation live, which is where most people messing with that tech today get stuck, but if you’re a necromancer that is intending to just animate it instead, it lets you create custom-designed undead.)
Joe decides to screw with the last priest, the one minding the demon in the basement, by shapechanging into a nightcrawler. The priest is a lich, and reacts by casting command undead. It fails. Joe mauls it for a bit. The demon laughs and says 'There must be quite a story behind this'. Then Joe goes Solar again after killing the priest. The demon laughs again. 'I don't suppose I can convince you to assume your true form.' Joe replies, 'Do I look crazy?' 'Well, some mortals are gullible. I don't supposed I could convince you to release me?' 'I don't know, depends on what would happen.' 'That depends on how many priests you've left behind.' Joe looks over his shoulder at the paladins. Seonag comments, 'My inclination would be to send him back the hard way, but...depending on how badly he's been weakened, he may be more dangerous than what we've already fought.' Moonbeam grins and says, 'I think I can handle it...' She summons 10 storm elementals and lets them frag him. One less pit fiend to worry about.
This lab was obviously a draining room. The one next door was the same, just a different flavor. Joe entertains himself by scaring the acolytes to death/eating them as a nightcrawler. There's a lab for infusing essence into an undead creature. There's a soul-shredding experimental room. We find the experiment log too. Aqila takes anything that's text. Meanwhile, Sohrab's been plundering the high priests memories. They were somewhat disappointing. Most new things were things that Sohrab thinks are too insanely dangerous to do.
We search the temple, and find the book and the orb. We’re taking the book with us, and leave the orb with Sohrab. So loot-wise, we find a staff, and the unholy flail, and a journal of one priest that implies they all had external lairs where they kept their good stuff. There's the pile of cursed loot with plate mail, etc. We'll get a bounty of around 30k gold for the lot because there are Sentinel researchers who are trying to come up with a fool-proof method of distinguishing this crap from normal enchanted items, and they have a shortage of guaranteed cursed items.

Picking up right where we left off we get Seonag to help us write down what her song sounds like phonetically along with the tune, get gear redistributed, and pick up the Shaping Cradle to haul it back to Arandor for reference/bounty. Plus the book and the cursed items. At this point, there's no reaction when we land in Arandor with our cargo of stuff, including the tortoise-priest. We've dragged in weirder things. We then take Seonag where she wants to go, and to pick up a pair of gems that she was given to give us by Valeiran.
Then we part ways, and go visit Savinel, as recommended. We let Joe ask her what she's afraid to tell us. "I can tell you, but I do not believe it will be safe for me to help you any further, after I have done so. There are three matters that may be what you were advised to ask me about. I will begin with the less dangerous, and move to the more dangerous...” She shows us what looks like an insane whirlwind of ice/fire/acid/lightning. “I do not know why you might face one of these, she did not make them, and does not have contact with the one who did. Firstly, do not attack them - for all practical purposes consider them invincible, however they do not exist for very long once they are created. Do not get close to them unless you can withstand the various energies that comprise their forms.” She thinks we can't fully resist the damage, but could blunt it (20d6/round, each type).
“From what I've seen, I do not think you will face these in Zeleya’s temple, but you may face them on the route there, about which I can give you a little more information now - I can say with confidence that you will depart this plane in order to reach it. How many planes the path passes through I cannot say. I can say that your guide will have somewhat greater knowledge of each plane as you pass through it. So listening carefully would be wise. Particularly since some of what I've seen implies that some of these planes will warp your magic in different ways, which could be lethal if you are insufficiently attentive. A final item, which is what I believe was what was referred to...well, there is some other piece of advice I can give you that would be beneficial...you would be wise, and I will not say which one because I don't know, but it would be wise to take a paladin with you, and I mean one only. Every vision in which I see you winning, I see only one paladin.”
“And for the last thing, it seems that Silviel has an ability that I was not aware of. I do now know how to properly imitate it in order to let you face it, but I can at least tell you what I have learned about it.” A new image appears, of Silviel with a cloud of darkness spreading out from her. “From what I can tell, when using this ability she is highly resistant to any form of damage, and no, I do not know the limits, however she is unable to do anything else while it is in effect.’ Joe asks if she can still regenerate - Savinel doesn't know. “The cloud continues to spread out from her, fairly rapidly, but for reasons which will become apparent, I don't know how rapidly or to the limits to which it can spread. Inside it, it significantly impedes spellcasting (50% failure rate). Secondly, it will completely blind you.” Joe asks about nonsight perception. She thinks it won't impede that but can't be certain. “It appears to slowly drain your life in spite of protections, I can't see the mechanism.”

Spoiler: GM Commentary

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Disjunction-like effect every round in the cloud - save or all spells/items suppressed for that round, but nothing permanently destroyed. Also 1d6+1 CON drain per round, no save, applied after the spell suppression.

“Light spells of sufficient strength can slow or apparently drive back the darkness.” Joe asks it a Quasar would suffice, an demonstrates. She is not certain, but she hasn't seen us use that ability in any vision where she's seen us fight Silviel - apparently Joe gets eaten first when it happens, as far as she's seen. “From what I have been able to see, I believe that this is severely draining to her, so I do not thing she can sustain it for long, but I have not seen her use it until she has to stop.” Joe asks some more questions. “You must understand that what I see is not entirely clear. From what I see, light slows the spread across the whole area, but the effect is greatest where the light is.
“If you have any other questions, I will not promise to answer, but I will at least entertain a few.” “Is there anything that seems to enrage Silviel greatly, any nerves to prod?” asked Moonbeam. “I can see how that would be useful, but to my knowledge, no. Perhaps you may learn something.” “If we live to tell about it, we'll let you know'” Aqila asked if there was cause to think that we need to embark on this sooner rather than later. “That touches on things that I may not tell you.” Moonbeam asks if Silviel has any other minions that she routinely brings in. “There are her greater handmaidens but from what I have seen, it would be likely that they would be there already. There are 11 of them. You would be wise to disperse some of them before embarking on this, but that will be nontrivial.” Joe asks how high the ceiling is, if there is one. “I have not seen clearly - I am not sure whether it is a distortion in my perceptions or if you are in fact fighting in different places in different visions. If it is a distortion, I would say between 10 and 20'.” We also learn the walls are structured, so not a cave. Joe asks if wind could hold the darkness back - she can't answer that, hasn't seen. She will say that she has seen times in the visions when it seemed to slow for no discernable reason, but I could not tell if you were using wind spells or not.
Aqila asks about whether walls of stone would work. “I do not believe any such approach was tried in any visions I have seen. Whether that means you did not think of it, or whether there was some reason it would not work...assuming you do not discover something at the time that would make it pointless, it seems to me that that should work. Of course, I can offer no guarantees on that point.” She can't see if the cloud acts like it is material or etherial.
“I would advise minimizing the number of spells you have active. (reciprocal gyre) And she rarely relies on spells cast on her.” We're running out of questions to ask, so Joe throws out “So, who is the daughter of the sun?” “In what context?” “Some peers of yours told us to introduce her to Miroslav...” “Interesting. I will have to look into that.”

[Terane]

Spoiler: April 2017

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After dropping off our new paladin friend, letting our allies at the Kantoran temple know we took care of that little undead temple problem, and Sneezil left…somewhere, we find out that Zalakirinal wants us to come visit. So we pop over to his lair, politely. When we get there, he doesn't even try to beat around the bush, but tells us that Telesriel (his girlfriend that we met in the first arc of the campaign, who gave us a lift as an apology for attacking us because she thought we’d hurt her boyfriend because Moonbeam had drops of his blood in her backpack, though Moonbeam didn’t realize that’s what that present from Zalakirinal was when she got it…) has found something that she wants to investigate because she thinks it could be a hazard to establishing a nest in the area, but she can't easily get into it. Zalakirinal doesn't know what the problem is, but he knows the location. He’s basically operating off of one Sending's worth of information...he recommends we teleport in nearby and walk in because she sounded a bit jumpy. And of course we’re not smart enough to avoid something that’s making a dragon jumpy, at this point, so we promise to help.
Before we head off, we ask him how the ice sprites have been doing. He's found them to be quite helpful, since some things are best stored at low temperatures, “though it can be difficult to protect them from the ice that forms”, he adds as an aside. We also let him know that we'd just gotten back from deconsecrating the local temple of Shenea, so that's one less threat in the area, and we let him know about Helvisarn, which explains what that disturbance was. We also mention the weird crap we saw fighting Helvisarn, on the off chance that he has any idea what it was.
"There is only one thing that fits all of those details, but I didn't think anyone would be foolish enough to open those gates." Joe points out that we've met a lot of fools in our time. "The best that anyone opening a path for those could hope for is to be the last devoured. They exist only to devour all things." Cheery thought. Aqila asks, 'I take it, since we're all still here, that there are reasons why they can't reach the material plane easily." "Those paths were sealed off so long ago that even to my people, they are no more than legend. Unfortunately, that is also long enough ago that I do not know if anyone living knows how to check the seals. If Helvisarn was able to bring them through, they may be weakening." We ask if Mirarn and Kalya are old enough, or Valerian. "Understand that these are my vague recollections of already fragmentary stories that I was told when I was young...I cannot think what his proper name was, but it was said that it was the Lord of Sorcery who led the sealing. If you can find someone who can identify who that was..." Aqila is reasonably certain that that is not a title that any of the Ancients held, so it must be someone older than that.
Then it occurs to us to see if Zala has any idea what the words of the song that we learned from the paladin were. He doesn't recognize any of the words, but he thinks that it's a mix of Celestial, Abyssal, and Ancient, and he thinks the language changes every couplet. We were told that this song was supposed to work against demons. Zala seems to think it’s something else, that only works while whoever the creatures are bound to is disincarnate. The one creature we saw this work on was an undead that had an abyssal bound into it. Abyssal's were bound to Sakaneth, who is currently discarnate, so that jives with Zala’s theory.
Zala is willing to think about possible reconstructions of the song, but warns us not to get too much hope up. Seems like a reasonable trade for our investigative services. We buff up and take our leave to go see what has Telesriel's tail in a knot. She greets us after we arrive, and points us at a hole that was obviously drilled into the mountain we're on. "When I was scouting around here, I discovered when I came very close to this mountain, I could sense a very strong presence of negative energy, and it disappeared a very short distance away. Investigating, I found a small region inside the mountain that is impervious to divination spells and it appears to be an ethereal solid. I drilled a hole to try to reach it...the resistance to my spell increased enormously as soon as it contacted the object. The stone may be altered. It then decreased after cutting through a relatively small amount. I sent in my own summoned creatures to check...I broke through a relatively thin wall into a tunnel filled with poisonous gases, and it's also under an antimagic field. I appear to have breached it near the upper end of the tunnel." That is an interesting mess she’s turned up, and we discuss how to go about investigating it.
Joe turns himself into a huge earth elemental and determines that he can't glide through the ethereal solid...so he then goes in through Telesriel's tunnel, followed by Thoron. After a hundred feet of tunnel, he finds an open space. The whole place is filled with poison gas, and the tunnel has antimagic field up on it. The field ends in the open space, but there's a reverse gravity spell up there that's holding up a multi-ton slab of the same ethereal solid material that surrounds this object in the mountain. The open space is about 30' across. The tunnel continues along the other side, and there's a shaft running horizontally and perpendicularly to the tunnel through the middle of the open space. The shaft is too small for a human to fit through. They can't see where the tunnel goes on the far side. And there's some sort of strong abjuration spell in or on the small shaft. The set-up smells very strongly of TRAP!
There is some debate on how to proceed. Joe tries shapechanging and casting 'Find the Path'. It tells him to walk across the room, stopping every 5 feet to speak a specific password. He does so, with a readied action to timestop if he gets surprised. An alarm goes off, surprising him, so he timestops, casts echo skull on a skull, leaves it, and teleports out. The spells make his link to the skull weaker, but he has muffled sound and blurry vision from it. The rest of us were waiting outside with Telesriel, and Joe fills us in on what he found. Joe also leaves a trap-monkey behind that can move the skull.
As Joe watches, he sees an almost completely invisible figure approach. He has the elemental lift the skull up and speaks through it. "Hi, sorry about disturbing you - we found this place and were trying to figure out what it is." It ignores the voice and the elemental. It seems to be looking around. After a short time, and a few more tries in different languages by Joe, it turns and goes back down the tunnel it came from.
So, Joe teleports back in, leaves a note on the elemental, and switches to being an air elemental to proceed down the downward tunnel. It is no longer featureless, about 10' wide, with upright casket on each side every 5 feet. It curves to stay inside the ethereal solid, which is roughly egg-shaped, and slopes downward. After about 200', the sarcophagi are open, and empty. The whole tunnel is still antimagic field filled. The tunnel is smooth polished ethereally solid stone. After another 100', the tunnel starts being roughly hacked...still with sarcophagi. Then after 20', there's a set of doors. Still ethereal solid. Still antimagic field.
Joe makes a light stone to test where the field ends, if it does. He finds three inches of space outside the doors. And, absent any better idea, he just knocks on the door. A deep, gravelly voice responds. "I was wondering when you would actually get around to doing something. Would you mind explaining what you thought you were doing, breaking into my home?" Joe just tells the truth. And asks if the person would like to have tea. Being rebuffed, he sets the echo skull down in the brief gap of not antimagic field and leaves. He gets a brief vision of a skeletal humanoid smashing the skull after opening the door. He also briefly glimpsed very complex machinery and a skeletal figure with extremely elongated claws for hands. Also delicate machinery.
Joe makes a silent image of the machinery for us to look at. Aqila thinks it looks vaguely like the Ancient's shaping cradles. Dagnar concurs. Joe decides to try to get an expert's opinion, and asks Moonbeam to summon an Ursinal Guardian. And we hit the jackpot with the one who answers the summons. He recognizes the equipment.
"I trust you destroyed that thing?" We explain we haven’t, yet, but it's down that tunnel, and we're debating whether to make a mess or not. "You probably should, very carefully. It's liable to explode rather violently. I've never seen one exactly like it, but that machine is for flesh-shaping, soul sculpting. It looks like someone is remaking, refining and improving undead creatures. And possibly not one that he originally created. Taking control over something..." He doesn't recognize the spikey undead creature from the image...there are many things it could be. "And I will say that anyone capable of using that machine would be quite capable of making his own unique monstrosities." Telesriel observes that the change in the quality of the tunnel sounds like it was two different groups digging it.
As we're talking over things, a shadowy figure appears by the tunnel. Then we hear a familiar voice. Sohrab. "Well, I shouldn't be surprised that it was you that finally found this. Convenient, because I won't have to explain as much." Telesriel looks ready to attack, but is holding back. He asks us if we wouldn't mind evicting his former student. Joe asks if he'd fill in some details first. Sohrab notes that explaining everything would take some time, but that we've probably figured out that this is a repository for some of his old experiments, and his former student thinks that he can take control of them and turn them on him. Apparently Sohrab did the original trapmaking, then his student enhanced it with some anti-undead additions with no password to let anyone by. And the additions are dimensionally locked. So everything past the smooth tunnel is new. Joe asks what's in the sarcophagi. Sohrab is perfectly willing to tell us that they're old experiments in fighters that were laughably weak for the difficulty of creating them.
Sohrab notes that we can't be unaware of what is coming, and if we don't wreck the place too badly, he'd like to use it as he's been doing - it's one of the various caches of minions he's been placing around the Ferial in anticipation of the invasion by the Dragon's armies in the not too distant future. Sohrab also offers to do us a small favor if we oblige him in this...since we do have a small interest in keeping, oh what's his name, Prezmyslaw, in power, so we'd be interested in information about a significant near term threat to him. He's known about young Taras's foolishness for some time now. Aqila, noting Sohrab's choice of adverb, asks just how old the individual referenced is. Sohrab is amused and declines to answer, yet.
We then ask if he has any tips for making the eviction process go more smoothly. We learn that the student has not adapted to lichdom well. His mind has fragmented. He also observes that, after Moonbeam expresses distaste for that state, that she'd be more likely to adapt to the state than his former student has. She's not amused. Telesriel seems somewhat horrified contemplating the thought. We're also warned that our target has divided his phylactery, and any item he's carrying is probably part of it now. And cleansing the items for use would likely be more expensive than the item is worth. He could do it, for example, do it but it would be hazardous to him, so he'd charge a lot for it. Priests of Nareel or Reshana of sufficiently high rank probably could enact the rituals. He'd guess in the 30-40k gold range.
Joe asks for some more information about this guy's abilities...Sohrab’s willing to confirm that he's got the raw power to perform spells that are beyond us, but as for combat magics...that depends on how much he is concerned about destroying his devices. His more dangerous spells are not precisely discriminate. So we would want to avoid damaging them as well. “He is quite adept at defensive spells. You may have difficulty forcing him to combat, but his own traps mean he cannot run away”, Sohrab concludes.
Joe asks if Sohrab can disable any of the traps. Not the dimensional lock, since those aren't his. And removing the antimagic field would trigger the collapse of the tunnel. The material is something he deliberately designed to be as impenetrable as possible.
He also warns us that his student would have worked to make the creatures he removed from the coffins more resilient against attack, though he can't say precisely what that means. He also mentions that his student had some ideas for improving their attacks. “The point that would be most dangerous to you: they were made to be very accurate attackers, they can all cast quickened true strike. If they strike with both sets of claws, they do more damage, and they are exceptionally agile. He said he thought could make them highly resistant to damage, nearly invincible. I doubt he has been able to do that much, but they should be reasonably tough. He may not have been able to apply all the augmentation to each of them - so there may be different varieties.”
Sohrab sketches briefly. “If you see these, since he stole them before he left. They are spell matrices, activatable with a thought.” Joe wonders if we could activate them. Sohrab points out we would want to be sure of what spells are stored, since some may be beneficial only to an undead and would be cast on the activator. Joe briefly wonders what would happen if he used shapechange to be undead temporarily. Sohrab thinks for a moment, and notes that that might have a very bad interaction with the spells...perhaps making you permanently undead. It would be an interesting experiment, but not very useful.
He finally notes that it will be very difficult to surprise this guy because the walls contain a network of very simple watch sprites. Sohrab set it up and he cannot believe that his student wouldn't have maintained them. So if we return the tunnel, he will almost certainly be watching us.
So, we ask Sohrab to take down the antimagic field outside the new section so we can teleport in with poison immunity up, and while it partially collapses the tunnel, we can still get to the doors. We're loaded for bear and ready to go. Aqila casts project illusion right before we open the doors so she can use reciprocal gyre safely. Then we burst in, and the skeletal lich snaps out one word, and a prismatic wall springs up between us and him. The room is roughly rectangular with 4 sets of machines in each corner, an undead by each machine. The lich is in the back of the room up a set of stairs and behind the wall.
Thoron carefully positioned himself and casts disjunction. It succeeds. Three of the machines are now disabled. And sparking. Thoron can see some wild surges of magical energy now. The prismatic wall is also gone now. (And the rest of the spells we never saw like silence, prismatic sphere, resilient sphere, etc.) We can see all four undead....one has claws dripping acid, one is heavily armored, one has purple glowing claws, and the 4th is blurry and indistinct. Joe does Sunburst, with true strike to make sure it gets through SR. All the undead are blinded. The lich goes next.
He uses timestop and gets a prismatic sphere back up. And presumably some buffs. The undead move to attack Joe, currently a Wisp, and he takes 15 damage. Another blurry and indistinct undead pops in. Dagnar is up and doesn't even have to move. Wielding the black blade of disaster, he lays into his first, blinded target. Hits every time, doesn't kill it. Even with the followup with his offhand doesn't kill the heavily armored one. Aqila casts Sunburst and gets through to all but one of them. And she quickens a Prismatic eye for grins. She hits one with Indigo, but insanity doesn't work on undead. Bah.
Moonbeam unleashes a moonbolt that leaps from target to target, hitting them all twice. The armored guy resists both times, the rest are out for 4 rounds, helpless. Then she does a flamestrike. The armored guy evades and still lives.
Top of the order, Thoron does another disjunction to knock the buff spells back off. There goes the sphere. Only the new undead gets hit by it since the others are piled up by us. Thoron also does quickened snake's swiftness mass. Dagnar whacks the armored guy with his black blade of disaster. And Joe and Thoron, in wisp forms, zap the guy too. The electricity does nothing, but the blade poofs him. Joe is up and tries kelp strand. The lich has freedom of movement and ignores it. Then Joe goes dire lion and charges the lich. He mauls the lich for a little over 100 points, then reverts to wisp to be immune to magic.
The lich is up now. He hits Joe with the Reaving Dispel. Then he fires some cones at the room. Cone of Cold only reaches to Thoron and Dagnar. Thoron is immune and Dagnar evades. The lich’s Acid Fog has no saving throw, but we have acid resist 30. And it was cast at Joe, who's in the center of 20' of acid fog. And that conceals the lich from sight. Until he walks out of the fog in the timestop. And blasts the party with two delayed blast fireballs. Except one is sonic, and we're immune to sonic today. The fire was 63 damage. So Aqila takes nothing between saving for half and the ring of absorption. Dagnar dodges. Thoron is immune. And Moonbeam dodges. The lich is infuriated and his personality shifts. He's now going to kill us artistically. He launches a spell at Dagnar that causes his heart to start stopping. He will die in 4 rounds now. Same thing the choir of frost did to him. This is becoming a theme, here.
The undead are moonbolted and helpless this round, except the newest one is lying on the square where the new one is being drawn in. Trying to teleport a new thing into the same space as an existing creature creates some nasty feedback in the machine, which is sparking badly now, and both undead are damaged. Not destroyed, but damaged. Dagnar gets to go now. He goes to whale on the new undead, and leads with the Black Blade of Disaster. And misses every attack, because he's exhausted from the lich's spell.
Aqila starts off her next turn with a reciprocal gyre at the lich. 72 damage. Searing light hits. 42. And 4 dark bolts get through for 44 . That kills the lich. And then she fires the eye at the still upright undead, who takes 50 electricity damage. Then Moonbeam does a mass heal on everything. We heal, they don't. ka-poofery. And that fixes Dagnar's heart freeze. So we quickly grab items. 11 large gemstones on the lich...phylactery components, we think. About 30k gold worth, each. 9th level quicken rod. Monk's belt. Cloak of displacement. Ring of protection from positive energy. Ring of protection +5. All items are part of the phylactery. Also, we can see the interconnections between the pieces of the phylactery...and there's a piece missing. Or rather, Thoron can see it. Time to search!
Aqila works out that the area behind the throne is near the edge of the egg, based on Joe's description of the shape of it earlier, when he searched around it. So Aqila opens up a passwall through the ethereal solid so Thoron can go search in the direction that Thoron can see the energy connection coming from for the missing piece. Earth elemental shapechange lets him find the last piece fairly easily, buried in the mountain. It looks like a gem encrusted skull, but the gems are fakes. Aqila notices that the pattern of the gems is unusual...it looks like the skull of a high priest of Davare, ritually prepared for burial, except they wouldn't use fake gems and the gilding they would use is not there.
And we find the other two matrixes that Sohrab mentioned. The lich fired the other one off when we came in the room, which is where the pile of defensive spells came from. Of the two remaining, one has prismatic sphere, solid fog, and cloudkill as CL20. The other one is Harm, self only; a custom spell that energizes an undead creature for 1 round per caster level with 8 bonus HD; and animate dead on targets of your choice if you have soul shards. Before we go, we nuke the 4 machines and completely destroy them.
When we get outside, Telesriel thanks us for ensuring that she learned that this would not be a suitable region for raising children in. Sohrab’s causual assessment that this area will be a war zone ‘soon’ is on the same scale of ‘soon’ for a dragon, really. Sohrab is also waiting for us, since we were only in there for a few minutes. "So, you've succeeded. And it appears you've even left me with some of his experiments to examine. So, a favor for a favor. I believe you have had dealings with Baron Taras before. You probably did not realize he's nearly 1600 years old, but not in that body. He has been moving down through his bloodline. Technically the spell he uses lets him take the body of any of his descendants from any of his past bodies. In practice, he would find it difficult to take over anyone who is not a close descendant of his current body. Going beyond that would prove problematic. Of course, doing anything about this without some evidence would be problematic. He is one of the great barons of the south. If anyone believes that Prezmyslaw has him removed without good cause… As for what evidence you could find to support removing him, I can't give you direct proof, but I can give you the keys to his ritual chamber, would should be all the proof you require, especially since he will be taking his son there for the initial preparations. Catching him in the act would be difficult, but if he's used it recently, there should be plenty of evidence."
Then Telesriel says, “I trust you aren't going to let Melore find out about this.” (That's Aremel's sister, and that's the sort of thing that will flip her ‘go bat**** switch’ and people who know her are worried that she might use natural disasters to express her feelings in the matter). Aqila assures her that we won't tell Melore...but we've already talked to Aremel. Joe asks about the flickering we saw on Taras. "What you saw with Taras was his true self, and the image self he tries to project to hide his presence. But, as I said, he is a fool." He also mentions that if we see the flickering elsewhere, it doesn't necessarily mean the same thing, after Joe asks about that.
We wrap up here.

Spoiler: May 2017

Show

We pick up right where we left off, and review what Sohrab told us about Baron Taras. He told us exactly where to find the site the Baron has been using for rituals, with a note that the site is impossible to reach except for right before and after the ritual. When Joe asked why, Sohrab replied, “There are limits to what I may say regarding that, however I can tell you it is because of the being with whom he has bargained for this ability." Sohrab could give us an approximate time as to when the ritual will happen. He also noted that it may be easier to prove what's going on after the ritual, as opposed to before. Moonbeam wondered what would happen if we hallowed the area before the ritual. Sohrab thought for a moment, then responded, “It should certainly interfere with the ritual. I'm not aware of anyone actually trying that in the past but I cannot believe that the ritual would succeed under those conditions. That said, I also think it unlikely that you would be able to do so, because I find it unlikely that you would not attract his patron’s attention.” Joe suggested trying to unhallow it instead. Sohrab commented, “Even still, I think you would attract his patrons attention, less violently perhaps....”
He then showed us an illusion of a fairly complicated device and continued, “This is one of the focuses for the ritual. I believe there are somewhere between three and eight of them in use, I think likely towards the lower end, but I don't know enough about his ritual to know. When activated, I believe they will somewhat impede your spellcasting. For you, it should be a minor nuisance. At worst you may see a spell or two fail. Destroying these, if he's performed the ritual, will cause him to have to repeat the ritual again if he wants the transfer to be reliable. However, you may not wish to destroy them…” When asked why, he explained, “Evidence, yes, and they have a nasty side effect that may kill you.” Joe wondered what the effect was. Sohrab described it as an unstable rift between the planes that will open, very unstable, and mentioned that if we destroy one, the effects should destroy the others. He notes that we'd probably at least be sucked through in one piece - only end up in multiple pieces if very unlucky. How comforting.
Sohrab continued, “I will note, that while I think he has not realized this, strictly he does not need these focuses any more. He does not know this, and if you do destroy them, he may be desperate enough to attempt the ritual without them.” On being asked what he thinks will happen if we steal them: “It is possible that you could succeed at that. I wouldn't recommend trying moving them in an extradimensional space unless you don’t mind losing it. It is possible that it would not be destabilized but I wouldn't bet on that, and certainly not if you tried to put more than one in there.”
Joe commented that we just need one for proof. “The best way to prove it, assuming you are able to remove it from the site, there should be at the focus, the center of the entire spell, an object that looks like this, Sohrab stated, showing us an illusion of a rainbow swirling orb, “mounted in a framework. My advice would be to take it to Prezmyslaw, ask him to summon all the Barons together, and shatter it in his presence. His reaction to that should easily prove what he has been up to. But be warned that removing the orb may draw the attention of Taras' patron. And if you do, he will likely send some of his servants to deal with you. In theory, if Taras has made the appropriate bargains, it could be multiple balors, or worse. In practice, I think he has not made such bargains. At worst, he would send his pet. I do not think it can kill any of you, but it may make you wish for death. Unfortunately, telling you too much about the pet’s nature will tell you who the patron is, which I may not do. I can give you this further piece of advice that may allow you to learn more. If you mention to Aremel what I have told you, she will know that the patron must be one of a small number of beings, and may be able to deduce which one.
We take our leave of everyone, and head back to Arandor. There are a few days before Sohrab's estimate on when we can access the ritual site, so we carefully fill Aremel in and get a good night's sleep before doing some research. Her take on our report – depending on how literal Sohrab was being on who could be called in to defend the site, it's either one of the great demon princes, or Asurak or Zeleya...it is conceivable that it could be Asurak, but unlikely. Aremal stated, “As for the demon princes, it is unlikely that he has a deal with one of the council, which leaves....three that would be reasonably likely possibilities. Avrakin perhaps, I do not think he has the knowledge for that but it is possible that he has gained in in the time I have been absent. Shylarene almost certainly has the knowledge necessary for this, but it is not her style. Were he female, I could see her doing such a thing, but...unfortunately, the last one that seems likely to me would be the worst one of them for you. Kizravek the Void Prince. It is entirely in keeping with his nature and you said that he mentioned a pet?” As we confirm that, she continues, “and that it would be unlikely to kill you but make you wish you were dead, which is a perfect match for the void serpent...fortunately, the protections you have would protect you from the worst of its effects, since most of it is meddling with your mind...so as long as nothing lowers your defenses...and there may be at least some attempts at that. I believe the serpent has some ability to dispel magic....I don't believe any of you have the ability to restore someone afflicted by those nightmares.”
If we're afflicted by its venom, you don't act in the real world when you act in the nightmare. Joe may be immune to the venom...Aremel would be interested to know if he really is immune or not. Worth a favor token from her, to find out, but she can't recommend us trying to find out, given the severity of the effects. Aqila asks if we can purge the nightmares with dragonfire (from Savinel's gift), assuming one can manage to do that in the throes of nightmares...Aremel thinks it is possible. The rest of the party makes a few cracks about Aqila's fire obsession. Aremel also strongly counsels us to avoid being swallowed...in its gullet we would be afflicted with very potent nightmares, that no one she knows of has survived with their minds intact...granted, the victims she knows of were not up to our caliber, but still strongly advised against. She also doesn't think that we're likely to see an army of balors out of him. At most, she'd expect us to face his pet and some of his more powerful servants, perhaps 3-4 demons...which ones would be a trickier question. There are quite a few possibilities. But she thinks our ordinary defenses would suffice against most of what they can do.
Aremel says, “Those devices that you described concern me somewhat. The side effect he warned you about from destroying them was somewhat more extreme than what you would expect if they were merely focuses...they must be something more but what their other purposes are is more than I could say...if you have time, I would say you should examine one of them closely, and see what you can learn, before trying to remove any pieces.” On being asked if she thinks it would be safe to summon experts to help us with the examination, she thinks it would be safe only as long as we don't attract the patron's attention. She thinks it could be possible that he could send his aspect through to fight us...we'd have a fair chance, but only fair, of beating it, but a gate of that magnitude would be far more noticeable than the benefit gained, so very unlikely. Assuming Taras has not given him something of sufficient value to warrant the risk. We all remember that the venture to find the Oracle was funded by Taras, ostentatiously for the benefit of Prezmyslaw. Aremel comments, “Which, come to think of it, were he to have some way to move it off plane, the Oracle you helped recover would be a gift of that magnitude. That said, moving it off plane would be a major undertaking and I do not think he would open that gate without already having payment.” (The ship is about a month out from finally getting to the Ferial, still)
She noted that even though we gave the user’s manual to Prezmyslaw already, this demon prince specializes in collecting secrets and may know how to operate the Oracle already. She notes that if the patron is a devil, we have other protections against them, since the Enemy's Greater Servants are already forbidden from attacking us. Of course, we don't know if Sohrab was being literal with his reference to balors, or if he was just using an approximation of the power levels involved that we would understand. We don't know, and we didn't ask earlier. Though he probably wouldn’t have answered that.
And that's most of the info we can get from Aremel. So we take a few days to study and get ready for the party. When we get down there, there are clear signs of the 'hunting trip' that was Taras' excuse...we only missed him by a day, it looks like. Following Sohrab's directions, we find a very twisty cavern, and deep underground, we find a hole that looks....blurry. Looks like a small alcove that doesn't go anywhere, but it's a doorway that leads to a moderately large chamber. We can see four devices around a ritual pattern inscribed in the floor, with a complex spire in the center, with the glowing orb embedded in the middle. There are eight crystalline spheres below it, with enormously powerful divination magic associated with them, as far as Thoron can see...like 12th level spells. Near the door are two bubbling vats that weren't mentioned. They emit no noticeable odor. Thoron looks at them and they appear opaque. It is disconcerting.
Aqila acquires a sample to see if she can discern what it is via alchemy. The substance is mostly demon blood. Mixed in with that, she finds some slight traces of human blood, dragon's blood, and a substance she can't ID. Well, that's interesting. Before we do anything else, Moonbeam summons a Zorn to assess the metal of the spire while Thoron examines the spell. He sees it has 2 features...it provides ordinary vision to the caster as if they were standing at the focus, and it can be expended as a focus as a summoning spell up to the level of the spell. We determine the whole array was shaped by magic. The xorn thinks the metal isn't unbendable, but it might take a little bit.
We spend some time debating how to get the orb out without getting friends. Moonbeam casts Stonetell to see what the rock has seen. She learns that the structure in the middle is a sort of altar, used for burning incense/blood, and using it does attract the attention of Taras' patron. She also gets a description of Taras' patron. It's a perfect match for Kizravek. That doesn't prove that is him, but if it's not, they'd have to have had a reason to fake his appearance to a rock. Aqila, meanwhile has been not walking into the room, but studying the devices around the altar to see what she can discern. Thoron could see that there are 5 schools of magic on each focus - necromancy, some convoluted mess he can't make out - abjuration, currently inactive but looks like under some conditions these will pulse a disjunction spell - divination, relatively minor looks like its connected to the necro, guess it's a guide for Taras's soul to reach his new 'vessel' - significant enchantment spell, does also look like it's associated with the necro spell and is a memory modification spell - probably erasing memories of being in this room - and transmutation spell that appears to be already triggered and able to be dismissed, it looks like some form of shapechange spell holding something in a shape other than its own.
That triggers Thoron to look for whatever is shapechanged in the room, if its still there. He sees 4 otherwise insignificant lumps of rock in a circle around the center pylon that have 18 HD. That's going to need dealt with.
So, plan is for Aqila to cast a dimensional lock over the entire room, then find a friend to cast prismatic wall for us. The friend we get eyes the room and asks what demon lord we're ticking off today. We cop to it being Kizravek, probably, which gets us a warning to not get swallowed, and then explain that we're planning on chucking four pit-fiend power equivalents into that prismatic wall....he eyes us for a minute, and warns us that those are probably death drinkers, and we'd better be planning on throwing all four of them at once. He declines our offer to watch the show, and we drop him off back home, owing him for the casting, before starting the fun.
And then Thoron uses telekinesis to throw all four rocks at once at the wall. It works. We have sent 4 statues of insane death drinkers randomly into the planes. Heh. Next, Aqila casts an antimagic field after Joe shifts into a legendary ape and walks with her into the room and after some time and effort, pries the orb loose. And then everyone not in the antimagic field gets hit with a disjunction. We start decamping. As Joe and Aqila pass the vats, Moonbeam tosses holy water in each and runs like hell. We all follow as they start fizzing purple. Joe passes the orb to Aqila and lags back to drop an echo skull. Then on a 3-count Aqila drops the antimagic field and we teleport to the middle of the desert.
After we land, Joe hears a voice through the echo skull. "Leaving so soon? You could at least tell me who to thank for this… So, just who are you working for anyway? Nesimban, Chensirie? Surely not that idiot Walithan. Or are you maybe some of Shylarene's little pets.' Aqila knows Chensirie is one of the known demon princes with an ambitious goal in life....replacing Shenea. So, this may be a list of demon princes. Shylarene is the queen of succubi. Aqila does a quick flight check, then bampfs the party to the middle of the ocean just as a precaution against teleport traces, 100' up from the water. Joe can still see and hear through the skull. "Well, since it seems you don't wish to be helpful, I suppose I'll investigate on my own. I do hope to meet you, soon." We don't say anything. And we putter around for a little bit before heading to go talk to Prezmyslaw about this latest fun bit.
We land outside the city and walk in, as a final precaution, are escorted to Prezmyslaw, and after filling him on the latest fun problem we've turned up for him, he comments that it'll take a few days to call all the barons together. Mostly from political reasons - the southern barons in particular aren't entirely sure they want him as king. So we have a few days to kill. Aqila learns Prismatic Wall while she keeps an eye on the orb and keeps it Obscured from unfriendly eyes.
Meanwhile, a plan is hatched to deny Taras an escape route. A cheesy plan, but a plan nonetheless. Joe gets a potion of glibness, and Moonbeam uses brainspider on Vuk, Taras's legitimate heir, to figure out what makes him tick. She feeds that info to Joe, who shows up that night as an angel of Ravenne, after Dagnar sleeps the guards in the room, and convinces Vuk to take a necklace of death ward and Moonbeam as a Guardian Falcon - the kid is a hunter, so him carrying a bird around isn't unusual. He's also a bit of a spoiled brat, since his father saw no reason to instill social graces in him. We hope this will suffice to keep him unbodysnatched until we deal with dad.
Three days after we got the orb, the barons are assembled, mostly with their heirs. Prezmyslaw gives a quick summary, without naming names, of what he learned from us. Then he has the high priest of the Kantoran pantheon called in. The priest affirms that the orb, which is sitting on a stand near him, is what we said it is. "Now, we are told that if the orb is destroyed, there will be an unmistakeable reaction from the one who has been using it…” A fairly burly guard is brought in with a heavy hammer. Thoron can see that the guard is fairly glowing with prots. We're all in the room in various guises. The guard swings the hammer, the orb shatters into dust, and Taras lets out an unholy scream as Aqila throws a resilient sphere up around him on principle. And then a demon appears inside the sphere with him.
The demon speaks. “You have broken our contract. Will you attempt restitution or shall I take possession of your soul now?" The panicked rush to clear the room has started. (The demon has a fear aura up, but we don’t know that) Aqila looks over at Prezmyslaw. "Do we have your permission to deal with this situation?" "I didn't think you needed it”, he comments with a snort. "Well, he is your baron…" "Not any more he isn't." Joe offers to pop Prezmyslaw off to safety and does so, much to the relief of his guards. Moonbeam shifts from falcon to angel, tells Vuk he doesn't want to see this, and that's enough to get him to let her evacuate him back to his home. She comes back just in time to watch Taras’ body drop dead to the ground. A large shadowy form appears instantly. We assume that that's Taras. Dagnar manages to hit him with a dimensional lock spell as Aqila drops the sphere.
Dagnar goes first, using a haste potion, a true strike potion, and nails the shadowy thing with 3 hits. Moonbeam shies a moonbolt at both the demon and the shadow. It seems to stagger them, but no other effect. She follows up with a force strike. Thoron can see surrounding Taras a number of spectral figures linked to him by spectral chains. The demon looks like a monumental shape of flames, much bigger than he looks physically. Like 40' to 50' range. Thoron tries chain lightning to no effect and follows up with a mass resist fire on the party, given the fiery nature of the demon.
Joe changes into a legendary tiger and charges Taras. After mauling the crap out of Taras, he teleports back as we all hear a spectral scream and the sound of celestial trumpets. Thoron can see that one of the spectral figure has vanished. Taras does a Wail of the Banshee. And then Joe gets hit with a G. Dispel magic when the wail does nothing.
Aqila takes the field and casts a prismatic spray. She hits Taras with Electricity and Poison, and the demon with Stone. Demon rolls a 1. Demon is now a lovely statue. Hah! Then she fails to beat spell penetration with a glass strike. Bah!
Dagnar is up again. He tries moonbolt, and it has no apparent effect. He follows up with a mass assay spell resistance. We're starting to think Taras is not actually undead. Moonbeam does ghost-dust to make him corporeal, then does a flamestrike with dragonfire enhancements. Thoron does chain lightning again and we hear another scream. Joe timestops, rebuffs after his dispelling, and then makes a few fire seeds to leave by Taras before the spell ends. Then he charges as Taras screams again. He mauls Taras again and another scream sounds.
Taras has figured out that we have death effects protection. So, instead, he hits Moonbeam with a Reiving Dispell. Then Aqila casts Spell Vulnerability and follows up with a disintegrate. Some damage. Dagnar gets ready to unload next round, and moseys on up. Moonbeam does a timestop, summons 4 rounds of Devas and rounds it off with a flamestrike. Dagnar knows he'll need to evade and is ready. 9 Devas arrive, and there are 6 screams as they all cast dispel evil on him. They move out of the way. The flamestrike provokes another scream. Thoron estimates there are 30 more souls hanging around. Joe mauls Taras for another scream. Dagnar gets a sneak attack of opportunity and Taras starts looking desperate..(can't cast this round). Thoron tries to grapple with telekinesis. Fails. Tries splinterbolt for a little damage.
Taras yells "I will be avenged! Take my soul. Make me the Gate!" Well, that sounds bad. Aqila does a blistering flame strike, aiming to miss Dagnar, then tosses the Prismatic eye up now that his SR is low. 2 and 4, which is enough to do another scream. Then Dagnar gets to go all stabby. He gets a scream, and successfully feebleminds Taras. Well, now he won't be attacking us, but the Gate is still coming. Moonbeam's turn. 9 Devas cast holy strike and the 1 she gets that turn gets a scream from its dispel evil. Then she fires up a 200ish damage flamestrike. Dagnar evades as another scream sounds.
Thoron shapechanges into a giant squid and attacks with all ten tentacles, and bite. Another scream. Dagnar makes an AOO and gets a scream. Then Thoron finishes his turn with a splinterbolt for grins. Then Joe does a timestop to make some fireseeds, then mauls Taras. Two screams total. Taras mindlessly mauls Dagnar for 27 cold damage. Aqila puts up a dimensional lock centered on Taras, then tries a GlassStrike. Nope. Eye does fire damage. Bah.
Dagnar pulls out the Black Blade of Disaster. And Taras fails his saves twice. The fun is starting. 400ish damage. Two screams. Moonbeam takes her turn and gets 3 screams total. Adds 3 more devas. And does a snakes swiftness mass, so Dagnar gets a hit, using the Black Blade. Taras made his save that time...11 damage. 7 devas are in range and get hits in. Thoron does his tentacle schtick and finishes off with splinterbolt again. Two screams. Joe realizes that Devas are fire immune and gets an evil grin on his face. He makes 4 rounds of fire seeds and mauls Taras. Two screams from the seeds and one from the mauling. Dagnar takes his AOO and adds a little damage. Taras fails to break the paralysis then he vanishes. He has become the gate and the pet arrives through it. It's the nightmare serpent thingy we were warned about and it's colossal. We hope Prezmyslaw has reinforced floors in here.
Aqila's Eye zaps it with electricity. No resistance, but it makes its save. She tries to Glassstrike it twice. No dice. Dagnar gets up. Thoron sees it has 40 hd, but it looks insubstantial. (The dimensional lock did stop it from coming through completely, so we’re only facing its shadow) Dagnar does assay spell resistance mass and then does a full attack. Does a lot of damage, moonblade hits screw with its spellcasting, but doesn't get feeblemind through. Then Moonbeam comes up. She casts time stop, summons a bunch of devas, casts snake's switness mass to let the existing horde of devas and Dagnar beat on it, then finishes with a firestorm. The new devas also do dispel evil. 13 devas already there hit it. And then there are holy smites. It's about half hps at this point. Also 12 str damage from Dagnar sneak attacks to date.
Thoron the squid rolls in and unleashes his might. 170 after DR taken into account. Dagnar gets his sneak attack in now. A little more Str damage. Joe tries Frostfell, fails to turn it to ice. Does some cold damage. The pet's turn comes up, and it bites Dagnar for 35 damage and he fails the con save on the poison. And now Dagnar is in a coma and grappled, in the thing’s mouth, and due to be swallowed next round. Aqila's turn. She does spell vulnerability on the pet, tries a glass strike which fails, and the eye does 7, which doesn't work in a dimensional lock. Moonbeam tries flesh to stone and just fails, after a timestop and makes a bunch of hollyberry bombs. 180 from that. Thoron defers to Joe, who tried frostfell again. no effect. Thoron's up now. Dagnar's last hope of not being swallowed. He unleashes tentacly hell and it goes poof.
Dagnar's limp body falls the ground, until some of the Devas catch him. We take him back to Arandor for medical attention. There are people there that can cast Miracle/Wish. Dagnar still takes a few points wisdom damage, but that's fixable. Meanwhile, Moonbeam hunts Vuk up, fills him in on just want went on, and concludes with a "you'd better have been worth it, kid".
The collateral damage is a bit interesting. Prezmyslaw was more or less expecting us to trash the place again. There was records storage below the room and clerk's rooms above that will never be the same again. We've also mentally scarred some more guards. The fallout from every single baron being witnessed running away in terror will be interesting for Prezmyslaw.

[Terane]

Spoiler: June 2017

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We are getting towards the time that Valeiran said would come, when we meet the person who will be able to guide us to a temple that Zeleya needs to carry out her current plot so we can destroy it and thwart her. As it turns out, we have three days after getting back from our last adventure to prepare and round up party members before we begin our long delayed attempted to assault Zeleya's temple. We debate who else to invite along on this caper. We ask Roxana, the priestess of Nareel from Stonebridge, if she thinks this sounds like fun. She's willing to come help, if we have time to pick her up when the ball goes up. She suspects that we won't though. The debate over which paladin to invite along is leaning towards Tervel, knowing that Aremel will come with him. The druid is firmly of the opinion that Sneezil would be more fun, though.
We do know that there are rules about gods attacking each other directly, so Aremel can't go the whole way with us, but her presence might throw wrenches into attempts by Zeleya making direct attacks on us. Also, it has been long enough since our raid on the Veiled Order citadel for the loot to be available. So we have some shinies for this party.
We settle firmly on asking Tervel to come along, and his opinion is that we won't have time to fetch anyone once the fun starts, so he'll accompany us until we find the temple or he gets sent somewhere else. At which point we’ll go get Sneezil if it comes to that. Aremel explicitly states that she's coming along, and brings up the restrictions about deities being allowed to attack each other - she thinks that the oath no longer is binding where she is concerned, but other gods may not know that. (note that gods get a warning twinge when they're about to break a gods-oath, even if they don't remember swearing it.) So she is going to behave as if the oath still applies to her, to not tip Zeleya off that it probably doesn't. And she doesn't think that she can substantially help us fight, but she still has piles of esoteric knowledge that may come in handy up to that point, though.
At the end of the three days, Princess Louhi contacts Joe via sending. Apparently, having heard some bits of not completely accurate information, her mother has decided to host a feast in honor of our efforts in dealing with the dragon problem, and wants us there as guests of honor. He accepts on our behalf, followed by some frantic shuffling of faces on Joe's part, trying to remember which one he was using for that mission. We're going to have to raid the costume department for Aerodonese fashion, again. And this is a week-long party, so we need to borrow some changes of clothing. Louhi also makes it clear that her mother will be inviting us to stay for the whole time, and providing accommodation, and it would be a grave insult to not accept. Also, we can get away with inviting a few guests, so Tervel and Aremel should come with us just in case this is the event Valeiran was telling us about.
As part of party preparations, Aqila, Moonbeam, and Aremel make an effort to coordinate outfits, menfolk not invited. When we arrive, Princess Louhi is there to greet us in person. "Before the actual festivities begin, there are a few people that you should have some warning about that will be in attendance." She's making sure we don't make a serious social gaffe. "Firstly, of course, my brothers and sister will almost certainly be there, (they're half-siblings, offspring of one of the king's 3 concubines, and could be made heir if the king chooses, and all want the throne) and Teemu is a reasonably skilled mage, scholar, and alchemist, and incredibly proud of his abilities in all areas...it would be extremely impolitic to make him look bad in any of those areas...be warned he is a very hot-tempered man. Here, you should be safe enough, since mother would disapprove, but if he gets angry enough, he may forget himself. And he does, technically, have the authority to have you executed..." We carefully keep straight faces. We also learn that the 4th night will be a costume ball.
"Prince Juho...it would be best to have as little conversation with him as possible, since he will almost certainly bring up his views for the future of the country, and you will most certainly disagree with...he believes that we should have closer ties to the Dragon Confederation, to the point that he believes we should invite their armies in to even up the score with Teredor. And then Prince Aimo...the ladies should probably avoid him...he is distinctly obese, unpleasant, and used to getting his own way in all things, including with women. And then there's my sister, Pinja...she is not in herself particularly dangerous, and will be pleasant and charming in person, but she does have a number of assassins on her payroll which are reputed to have, frankly, near impossible abilities. What their actual abilities are, I cannot say, because she has not yet decided to send them after me.”
“Beyond them, at least three of the dukes will be in attendance. Politically, Veli is the one that's most damaging to offend, since he is also Father's younger brother. Personally, I would consider him a blowhard and a fool, but if would be wise to avoid giving him any indications of your opinions about him. Duke Jorrit will probably be bringing along his wife. I would prefer not to go into much detail, but I suspect that you may want to help her out, but please don't. I don't think there is anything you can do that would actually help. He is a womanizer with somewhat brutish tastes. She will probably be wearing more concealing clothing than usual...unfortunately, since he is one of the Southern dukes, he is not in any way under my authority. (impression is that it will not go well with him when she gets the throne). And finally, Duke Sakari...I think, I hope, you will get along well with him. He is currently my strongest supporter among the greater nobility. And also known, and by a number of his peers, ridiculed, for his integrity. He may bring along his son, though I hope not, since, unfortunately, his eldest is somewhat of a rebel. His younger son, I think would be a better heir, but ducal heirs must be approved by the monarch...hopefully he will live long enough for matters to change.”
“I also strongly suspect Baroness Fredrika will be there, since, technically, the dragons were on her land. As far as the other nobles, the only other one I can be certain will be there, because he has never missed a chance to go to one of Mother's Festivals because he doesn't have to pay for the food and drink, would be Count Sampo. I suppose I should warn you about that...he is known to be a worshipper of Zeleya, and does nothing about that impression, because frankly, he is an idiot. So he is left alone in hope he will lead them to others who are more intelligent. I will also say he is a supporter of Prince Teemu for the throne, though Teemu would rather not have his support.”
“For the others that would be of some significance...others will attend, but have less influence, Count Rasmus is Fredrika's immediate superior. He's part of Prince Juho's party because the timber trade with the Dragon Confederation is extremely lucrative for him. I would also expect Countess Vilja to be in attendance because she has been one of Mother's favorites for some time now. Rather longer than most people have managed to enjoy her patronage. She has a somewhat nasty streak, there...she likes to build people up to cut the knees out from under them. It does keep those in her court quite attentive to her moods, which I believe is the point.”
We then introduce Aremel and Tervel to Louhi, and we do use Aremel's real name, on her advice. Louhi's reaction - "It has been quite some time since a paladin has openly attended a royal function - it would be nice if it happened more often. In any case, Mother is keeping some of her plans quiet for now, so I don’t know the entirety of the intended festivities. I know for the beginning she intends to have an open buffet with no servants present, other than those required to bring the food in.” The intent is to have an opportunity to mingle without reference to rank.
“As mother's guests, socially, you would rank with the greater nobles. Of course, it would be wise not to presume too much on that. Tomorrow, I believe she's organized a hunt of some sort. Quite likely, though I have no details, probably hawking, with a grand banquet planned for the evening. Towards that, I should note that each of you will likely have one of the grand nobles assigned to you as your dinner partner for the evening. Though I would suspect that she would attempt to assign the highest ranking nobles she can. Duke Jorrit, since he brought his wife, will be dining with her. I suspect you ladies will be dining with Duke Veli and Sakari. As for the two of you”, motioning at Dagnar and Joe, “likely two of her ladies in waiting would be assigned to you, though if you are lucky, she won't inflict Valpuri on you. And for your friends, well, I doubt she will have made any special arrangements for them, and would have no objections to them dining together. Beyond that, other than the costume ball on the 4th night, I do not know anything of her plans.”
"I think it would be best if I introduced you to Mother now." So, we follow her to a small receiving room. One elderly woman is seated there with four younger women standing around her. Louhi bows slightly. "Majesty, the guests you have requested have arrived." Louhi introduces us, as the queen nods slightly, then finally, "And they've asked to accompany them, the Paladin Tervel and his lady Aremel." And there's a definite reaction this time. The queen says, "Aremel? That is an interesting name. I am curious where your parents found it." Aremel replies that she is not certain and that, unfortunately, it is far too late for anyone to ask. "I see. I had not planned on additional guests, but we shall have to see that you two are seated at my table tomorrow night. It will, not doubt, be an interesting conversation. You may go. The servants will show you to our rooms. Daughter, if you would remain a moment...." We follow the servants out. They show us to a suite with 5 bedrooms and one central sitting room.
Spot check time! Dagnar sees some stones with odd carvings on the outer wall. He points it out when the servants leave. The suite is against the outer wall of the palace. They appear to be guides for a spell, but aren't magical themselves. The common use is to bar teleportation into an area, to protect an important area. But they need actively maintained by a mage, so most people don't use them unless they have a spell that's impractical to use otherwise. He also remembers that, in Aerodon at least, for defending structures, that one has been supplanted for some time, but there was a period of time when this was the best option available. This tends to suggest that this building is 700-800 years old.
Tervel, now that we're alone, lets us know that he's been using his detect evil ability, but he can tell us that the queen, all four of her handmaidens, and Louhi, were complete blanks. The servants didn't ping. Aremel explains to us something that Thoron just got a few hints of...the crown that the queen was wearing appears to be prepared to be a key to open something. It's also old, possibly old enough that no one remembers that it was a key...she guesses that it's 4-500 years old. And it wouldn't be detectable as evil even if it connects to a strongly aligned plane, if it's never been used. And if it connects to a more neutral plane, obviously it wouldn’t show as evil. It may even connect to a plane that no longer exists, and using it under those circumstances would, best case, at least let you survive, but you would end up on a random plane. Which is the simplest way to get to a plane you aren't wanted, but it is completely random. It might be possible to determine where the key leads, with an examination, but Aremel doesn't have the power to do so anymore, and her knowledge of the planes is woefully out of date. Plus, 'borrowing' the queen’s crown is contraindicated.
Moonbeam decides to use brainspider to snoop around on who's here, and detects all three dukes in evidence. Veli is 'entertaining' a servant girl. Other people are shielded...including the other princes and princesses. A Count Tauno is giving a lecture to Prince Aimo about his behavior, though Moonbeam can't figure out why the prince is letting the count lecture him. (Teemu is in his 30's, the oldest. Louhi is mid-20's. Juho is a year younger than her. Aimo is 21 now, and Pinja is technically not adult yet, but she only has about 3 weeks before reaching her majority.)
Moonbeam can pick up on Count Sampo, the Zeleya worshipper, and quickly confirms that he's a complete idiot. His main thought is that he hates being here because he hates hiding his nature from the queen. He believes no one knows he worships Zeleya.
Thoron is let out to stretch his wings and determines that the palace is somewhat isolated. 500' radius walls around the building and grounds. Guards are patrolling around, about 200 of them. 3-5th level per Thoron's power sight. No active magic on the walls, but quite a bit on the palace. From above, the palace seems to have been built around what had been a strong fortress. Our rooms are in that fortress-core, so we’ve got some of the high-status rooms. With Moonbeam's chain of eyes spell seeing what he sees, she can determine that Prince Imo's rooms are not in the prestigious area.
We are called down to dinner. The one rule being observed is that the least important are called in first, so by the time we get there, everyone is there except the queen and rest of the royal family. Duke Sakari is near the door - the other Dukes are on the other side of the room. He comes over to us, "You must be our queen's guests for these festivities. May I have the pleasure of being given your names?" We introduce ourselves, and he considers us for a moment. "While I'm quite sure that Princess Louhi will have warned you, do have a care if you have to speak to Duke Jorrit at any point. While I would personally approve if you decided to deal with his behavior appropriately, in my position, I must, of course, strongly disapprove."
Moonbeam asks if he might give us an appropriate excuse...Sakari thinks it would be unlikely that would give us an appropriate to the circumstances excuse here, though one could hope. He gestures slightly, then continues, “While it would have been impolitic for her to wait for you, I believe the Baroness Fredrika would like to thank you personally.” Sakari has a lined face, and grey hair, but not balding yet. He's also the wearing the most modestly dressed in the room. We follow him to meet the Baroness.
The Baroness is a somewhat matronly woman, wearing stylish, but of an older style, clothes. In person, she has a slightly high-pitched, grating voice. She thanks us for dealing with the dragon that was ravaging her lands. While she at such an event, she hates to do anything as crass as commerce, she also thanks us for saving her mountainberry farm, which is practically the only source of her disposable income. Moonbeam offers to 'goose' production if the Baroness is interested - the Baroness declines, noting that they've tried using magic to improve yields before, but every time it's been tried before, the quality dropped off, so she'd rather not risk using magic until they better understand why. (trace minerals in the soil that get used up faster when magical enhancement is used).
So, we mingle. Dagnar tries to hit on Countess Vilja, and gets a verbal flaying. Moonbeam is casing the situation. Joe is flirting with the ladies. Aqila is circulating slowly, seeing who approaches her, rather than the reverse. Thoron is wearing the guise of a white peacock and snooping on conversations. He's pretending to be a pet. Count Rasmus is haranguing a group of people, who look like they'd rather he shut up. The food at the buffet is intricately carved, and generally made to look like anything except what it actually is.
Princess Pinja enters now, wearing the most daring costume, surrounded by four ladies wearing the same thing she is, but in solid black rather than many colors. Also, her hair is flowing, while theirs is tightly bound with pins. Thoron can see they are 15 HD, while Pinja is 7. Prince Aimo at 6hd, is the next to arrive. He's a waddling pile of blubber, also wearing a 'daring' outfit. He arrives alone. Prince Temu 14hd, and Prince Juho, 10hd, enter together. Temu has a lady about his age on his arm, who shows as 7hd. And finally Louhi and Queen Ansa enter together, with the Queen's four handmaidens. Queen is 20hd. The oldest handmaid, plump and motherly, has 8hd, named Kielo. Youngest is 7hd, Lahja, seems to be maybe 18. 3rd is Tatjana, 15hd, pinched-face, vaguely shrewish. Last is Valpuri, who Louhi specifically mentioned as not being a nice person, has 10hd, an icy personality, and pale blond hair. Scorns anyone who is of lower rank.
Count Sampo is also 6hd, he and Imo are the lowest hd in the room, except for Count Tauno, who's 3hd. He's the court weathercock who will always support whoever is in the strongest position. Currently, he's supporting Louhi. He's being ingratiating towards us right now. After they enter, Louhi comes over to us. "I trust you are finding this at least tolerable?" We make appropriate noises. And then Count Sampo decides to come over. This is being observed with interest by onlookers, who know Louhi really doesn't like him.
Sampo starts with "I trust you have time to sample the delights of our fair city?" Moonbeam comments that it is a beautiful country. "If any of you would care to accompany me at some time, I'm sure I could show you things you have missed." “Like what?” from Moonbeam "Oh, I'm sure there are some hidden establishments that would be of interest of you". Joe is diplomatic. "If we were to remain for a while, are there any establishments that you would recommend? " "You might find the White Swan interesting." Moonbeam brainspiders him, and learns that he is convinced that Louhi is a high ranking priestess of Zeleya.
Note that we don't have most of our usual buffs up, because that would be rude. Mindblank is an exception.
Moonbeam gets us out of this conversation by planting a suggestion that Valpuri is into his kind of thing, and he departs. A few minutes later, we all hear a ringing slap. Followed by a palm strike that put him on the floor, stunned.
We go back to circulating. Over time, we determine Valpuri completely fits the description we were given. Gives a strong impression that she's putting up with our presence because the queen invited us. Tatjana is charming and witty, but her humor is at the expense of someone else. A cruel edge is noticeable. Lahja is very much a flirt, and it becomes quickly obvious that she's mainly after a husband of suitable rank. Kielo quickly gives the impression that she's the social grease between the other three and keeps things smooth between them. We also find out that she has 11 children and her experience raising them that is standing them in good stead here.
Sakari, we already met. Rasmus is....Rasmus. Jorrit, we avoid. The queen, we gather, has some genuine appreciation that we helped protect the kingdom, but she mainly invited us to assess us, since we are new acquaintances of her daughter that are unknowns and wants to know how to fit us in...threats, neutral, assets? The impression we can get is her plans include a strong dedication to her daughter taking the throne. From gossip we overhear, or rather, Thoron hears, that the king as suffered a serious health issue but none of the speakers know much in the way of details. From the disjointed bits and pieces, it sounds like a heart attack. We can also pick up threads that knowing about this is considered a risk to the safety and stability of the nation.
As Moonbeam is casting around for people with guilty knowledge about the king, an elderly man with long white hair and a long white beard comes up to her and said "Young lady, are you sure that's wise to be doing that here?" Moonbeam asserts that she's acting defensively only. He introduces himself as Antero, high priest Antaro, the queen’s spiritual adviser. Thoron sees 12hd. Joe suspects that Sakari has noticed what Moonbeam is doing too. We can also be confident that Louhi's court mage, and a man who's been avoiding us all night who appears to be someone's hired mage, have probably also noticed.
Moonbeam allows that the Sampo incident was her, and was hard to resist. Antero comments that while he doesn't know what her traditions are, he doesn't think Aeran would disprove. Since we obviously came with a paladin, Moonbeam asks if he's noticed anything 'odd'. He seems to have something he wants to tell us, but doesn't have time to do that tonight. He thinks he may have time to talk tomorrow, after the hunt, in our rooms, if that would be acceptable. We think that it would be.
Tervel and Aremel have been having an uneventful evening, and even an encounter with Aimo didn't go too badly. Tervel has also been using his pallie-senses, and detects some sort of evil presence, but he can't pin down what or where. Below us is as close as he can get, as we find out when we get back to our rooms after the party. Two notes get dropped off by servants. One is Sakari requesting that we make time during the hunt to find him for a conference, as it would benefit us both. The second note is from Prince Teemu, inviting us to join him for the noon meal during the hunt. We send back appropriately polite assents to the requests and turn in the night.
We get breakfast delivered, with a note from Louhi that she is aware we didn't bring any hunting birds with us, and offers us the run of her mews, with the exception of her favorite. Aremel is not going to fly a bird, she'll just hang out with Tervel. Moonbeam picks out a peregrine. Joe has Thoron. Joe/Moonbeam talk a few of the other birds into behaving for Aqila, Dagnar, and Tervel. When we get there, we see that Queen Ansa seems to be flying a great eagle of some sort, though it looks like a hawk in body shape. Sampo's bird seems to be half-crazed and ready to rip things into shreds. The rest of the hunters seem to have more ordinary bird choices.
Sakari is flying a well-cared for bird that reacts to him in a way that suggests he cares for it personally. The princes are all flying birds and give indications that they're aren't familiar with them. Joe talks shop, since he knows birds well. He tries chatting the queen up about her bird - he learns that it was found up in the Ice Teeth, and that it's been a challenge for the falconer to keep it alive. He is familiar enough with the local wildlife to know that's not an Ice Teeth bird, but she believes she's telling the truth.
Moonbeam chats with Sakari, observing that he's got a well-cared for friend there. His response is that he hopes his healer can keep the old girl going for another year - on closer observation, she can see that this is a bird who would not have reached that age in the wild. Moonbeam and Joe offer to have a look at her later. Sakari also gives us a warning that we would want to avoid flying our bird's when Sampo's is in the air - it's known for viciously attacking other birds. On being asked what would happen if our birds defend themselves when his is in the air. Sakari notes that as long as there is no evidence that we are cheating, no one other than Sampo would care if his bird suffers a mischief. Sakari delicately implies that slipping an intelligent bird into the hunt would be considered cheating. Joe makes shift to deflect suspicion.
The queen launches first, signaling the start of the hunt. Her eagle-hawk goes out, and brings back a rabbit. Everyone is to launch in a pre-determined order, which we will be told, and your bird is expected to make a kill and bring it back. And when the queen decides that there have been enough launches, the game is over. We're hawking in the queen's private game preserve, so it is well stocked. The order seems to be precedence.
Moonbeam gets a squirrel, Aqila can't talk her merlin into launching, Dagnar gets unreasonably lucky when his choice brings back a fox, though it’s a small fox.
On her second try, Aqila convinces her bird to fly and it brings back… a mouse. Moonbeam and Dagnar get squirrels. 3rd round - Aqila gets a squirrel, Dagnar gets a pheasant, and Moonbeam gets a mouse. 4th round - Aqila's merlin struggles in with a rabbit. Moonbeam gets a game hen, and Dagnar gets the rabbit. Last round - Aqila gets a grouse, Moonbeam's peregrine brings in a big fat pheasant, and Dagnar's bird gets a grouse.
Meanwhile, Thoron has been carefully picking targets. So he finds the largest rabbit in the range and brings it in. Followed by a big fat grouse, a big fat pheasant, then ends with a smallish bobcat and a young coyote. Sampo immediately begins arguing that Joe must be cheating. Joe calmly points out that a golden eagle is much bigger than a kestrel, and if you want larger game, you need to fly a larger bird. And because it's Sampo making a fuss, no one else is going to join in, because who wants to be caught dead agreeing with that idiot?
The queen decides to award the day to Joe/Thoron. We did manage to sneak off and talk to Sakari privately while the hunt was going on. "I have some reason to believe that, at some point during these festivities, one of Louhi's brothers intends to make an attempt on her life. I do not have any proof as to which one of them it is, nor, to be honest, can I prove that it is one of her brothers, other than that the ultimate paymaster is a man and the three of them are the most likely candidates, as there is no one else that could be as confident that their position would protect them in case of failure, and that would profit by her death.”
“The difficulty, and the reason I have not mentioned this to the princess, is because the evidence suggests that her bodyguard has been suborned. And she is, unfortunately, quite fond of him. He's been her guard since she was ten. The reports that I have of you, which are sketchier than I like, suggest that you might be trustworthy, and your behavior I've observed reinforces this." He notes that we cannot act first, but we need to be ready to act if need be. He has also picked up on some sketchy evidence that whoever is behind this is working with Zeleya's temple, though it seems more like evidence to blacken someone's reputation in case of failure rather than truth. He is confident that Teemu and Juho are not in any way involved with Zeleya. He thinks that is a blind, rather than truth, personally. He also requests that if we find any more solid evidence, to let him know, and to protect the Princess. We assert that we will do so.
The other event during the hunt was the noon lunch with Teemu. It quickly becomes evident that he wants to sound us out on various political subjects...mainly where we stand on the idea of closer ties with the dragon temple. Moonbeam switches to Dragon Speech to comment that they can go do something anatomically impossible. Joe's opinion is the same. The other point he tries to suss out on, is relations with Teredor. He seems to be looking for us to agree that closer ties are preferable. Aqila comments that her father's family has lived along the river since before there was a Teredoran empire, and they have no complaints about how they've been treated since the empire moved in. Teemu seems very happy to have that tidbit of information.
That night, there is a dinner where we feast on the results of the hunt. Moonbeam eats with Sakari. Aqila is assigned to entertain Duke Veli, the king's younger brother and noted blowhard. Dagnar draws Tatjana, and Joe gets Valpuri, the icy blonde. Tervel and Aremel eat together, at the queen's table. The high priest lets us know that his services have been requested for that night, so he won't be able to meet with us until the following night. And Louhi has been assigned to dine with Rasmus, the supporter of Juho.
Of note, that it is a saying in Aerodon that if you want to start a war, let the queen organize the banquet at the peace talks. Teemu is accompanying the queen tonight. We are all at the high table, within earshot of each other, roughly. Thoron is in his normal Golden Eagle shape, hanging with Joe and getting first dibs on dinner, since he was the star of the hunt. Moonbeam talks hawks and hawking with Sakari. Aqila takes one for the team, and lets Veli babble at her while contemplating the intricacies of the Art and listening in on other people's conversations to keep entertained. Joe tries to sweeten Valpuri up, and after many, many gambits, finds that Tatjana's behavior is becoming unnerving to her. She's almost wondering if Tatjana enjoys hurting people. And she's obviously uncomfortable with this conversation at dinner. Joe tries to lighten it up by asking if Valpuri thinks if Tatjana will break Dagnar's heart...she doesn't see why she would bother, and changes the conversation to talk about Joe.
He makes up a plausible and hard to verify story, and tries to talk her into having a more private conversation later....she has duties with the queen for the next two nights. Left implied is there might be time after that. Joe tries to subtly solicit info about Louhi's bodyguard. Valpuri believes him to be one of the most dedicated to his duty that she knows.
Joe also carefully probes for data about the princes and if there's any gossip about us from Louhi. The latter hits a brick wall, because anything she knows would have been in privileged conversations. He accepts her refusal, and probes about other gossip about us. He gets comments that there is a lot of speculation about us, and that our support of Louhi is unwise. Or perhaps her relationship to us is. Or both.
Moonbeam doesn't get any new useful info out of Sakari since we're in public. Veli is getting steadily drunker. As he's a point of collapse, he mentions the queen's court mage, maybe. “Blasted necromancer, never can tell when one of his little things will be spying on you.” Well, that's interesting. He's a drunk and not necessarily reliable source.
Moonbeam does get a little info out of Sakari about High Priest Antero...he's seen as being too nice to be a real player at court. Meanwhile, Dagnar is getting a nice collection of very subtle vitriol about everyone else at the table from his dinner partner. He's also picking up very subtle hints that she might be interested in him, but not yet. Needs to be an appropriate time, perhaps after tomorrow night.
Louhi is being polite to Rasmus, who decided that this was a good time to press her about his Dragon Confederation views. And there is nothing else of note at the dinner. We all politely take our leave, and return to our suite, where we trade stories and hear about how Tervel and Aremel's night went. She is obviously a little agitated. It seems the queen asked her point blank if she'd seen her sister lately. She answered that it had been some time since they'd spoken, truthfully. The point that has her agitated is the fact that the queen apparently recognized her for one, and for two, knew that she had a sister, because she's been out of circulation for about 2k years, and that connection wasn't widely known even then.
She also noticed that Teemu was very intrigued by that comment, since it implied that the queen knew who she was. Tervel comments that that sense of evil seems to be growing stronger. It's still from below, but there's a new sense of anticipation, but he can't tell if it means in the next hour or the next week.

[Terane]

Spoiler: July 2017

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It is day 3 of the party. We know that there is a masquerade ball tonight, and Louhi had no idea what her mother has planned for the other two days. We find out in the morning that we're being left to our own devices until evening. We also find that we have invitations from Baroness Fredrika, who would like an opportunity to thank us in person for saving her lands from the marauding dragon. We also have an invitation from Prince Juho for a small party he's hosting for his friends and associates. And finally, we have an invitation from Duke Joritt...the wife-beater. He says he has some things that may be to our mutual advantage to discuss with us.
Juho's party is at a fixed time; the others are asking us to set a time. He would like us to show up mid-to-late morning. We can probably fit the other two in before and after the little party. We decide that we'll see Joritt first and the Baroness last, so we're going to the masquerade in a better mood. And for the purposes of these events, 'we' means all PCs plus Tervel and Aremel.
Joritt is alone when we meet him. He exudes a sleazy 'do not buy this used horse' sort of charm. He greets us pleasantly and leads off with some small talk before getting around to why he asked us here. "I believe, from what I've heard, you are currently inclined to support the Princess Louhi. I seem to have discovered something that might change your mind. You will of course have to wait some little time before exploring to verify my words, however, it seems that the rumors that she is a priestess of Zeleya may be more founded in reality than I had expected."
Joe asked what he found. Joritt explains, "I may have discovered a temple to Zeleya beneath this very palace. Moreover, I've discovered some evidence that Louhi will likely be there, participating in a great ritual, soon. Specifically, one of the caretakers of the temple said so in my hearing." When Moonbeam asked how he knew this was a caretaker. "If I see someone cleaning the implements inside the temple, I would assume they are a caretaker," he replied heatedly.
We ask him for more details - he tells us that it's a small temple, maybe 50', and he found it because it is well known to the greater nobility that there are many passages under the palace, and the keystone to the palace's defenses is down there. He was down there 'inspecting' the keystone, and found the temple off of that passage. He tells us that he's been warned by his counselors that the keystone may unstable, and he wanted to check it because if the defenses became active, it would be very difficult if not impossible for anyone to leave until they are disabled again.
We get the impression that he's not too bright. We know he's supporting one of Louhi's brothers, Imo, for the throne, and he seems to be trying to use us as catspaws to make an accusation against her. He tells us, "If you are interested, I can provide directions to the temple. I believe the ritual is to take place tonight or tomorrow night, and I can trust that you will denounce her if you see her taking part in the ritual as one of the officiants?" We note that we will take the appropriate actions, depending on what we see. He seems quite satisfied with that, and gives us the directions. We take our leave, discussing plans. Having Moonbeam shapechange into the form of a handmaiden of Zeleya to see how people react could be entertaining, for example.
We then make our way to Juho's soiree. He has surrounded himself with an impressive array of sycophants. Count Rasmus is the highest ranked noble here, besides the prince. Juho wants us to convince Louhi to support closer ties with the Dragon Confederation. His faction wants closer trade relationships and some degree of military alliance for the next time they go to war with Teredor. Note that Aerodon has started every war they've had with Teredor, and they've lost every time.
Moonbeam tries injecting a little sanity into the discussion, pointing out the realistic chances of Teredor acting aggressively, and the real risk of the Dragon Temple using pre-staged forces against their host. She is met with scorn. They don't see any risk, assuming that the Confederation would have to use ships to move enough troops to threaten them. The idea of using teleportation circles to invade is just not clicking. Then Rasmus starts rhapsodizing about the profits to be made by selling the forests of Teredor to the Confederation, noting that he's shipped more timber to the Confederacy than makes up the entire Aerodon navy, then hinting we could get a cut of this action if we help them. They just can't believe that the Confederacy could make even a half-decent navy. We politely tell him that we expect his ideas will have spectacular results.
After this 'bribe' is offered, the party winds down in small talk. We go off to confer amongst ourselves. Wisdom check! A few of us feel a massive blast of malice emanating from below the palace. Aremel goes dead white. "I didn't think it was possible for anyone to do that anymore. We may have walked into a trap coming here. The only way out may be to let it play out....one of the Six is trying to come here, in person. One of the Blood Gods. I can't tell which one, maybe not even after they come through."
Joe starts wondering if this is a challenge, if we were picked out for sacrifices...Aremel doesn't think this has anything to do with us, and if we leave, there are plenty of other sacrifices. And the only way to actually stop this may be to interrupt it in the middle. Good times. We briefly discuss importing some friends for backup, then Tervel looks up and looks worried. "I don't think it's safe for us to leave, now. Even just mentioning the idea gave me a feeling as if we're on the brink of disaster." We're on our own, then. Paladin intel is not to be ignored
Aremel states, "I would expect that our best course is to act as if we had noticed nothing. Hopefully, whoever this is...well, there are two possibilities. Either we're on the menu for sacrifices, in which case when they come for us, we can deal with them as is appropriate. And if we're not, then they must have some plan for keeping us from interfering. From how strong that was, assuming they can arrange for the sacrifices quickly enough, I suspect that this will peak sometime in the early morning. The masquerade ends at midnight....”, she trails off.
We start plotting, quickly. Aqila drops out of sight to go learn Nondetection from so we can have all our buffs up tonight, so she's missing the meeting with the Baroness. Excuse for her absence will be that she’s making final adjustments to costumes. The rest of us go meet Fredrika, are thanked thoroughly and given each a bottle of 10-yr-old mountainberry wine. For note, in a good year, she might get 30-odd bottles of wine from her lands, so this is a good chunk of production as a thank-you.
Before the party, we get our costumes on. We picked them out before coming here, so we don't have to leave. Aqila's going as a dragon. Moonbeam is a nixie. Joe is a floating Air Elemental. Dagnar is a tiger. And Aremel and Tervel are going as a Dryad and her tree. Thoron is wearing a peacock mask, ironically. Aqila puts nondetection up on everyone, so we can go in fully buffed.
We start playing the 'who's who’ game, since the costumes are supposed to hide your identity. Tatjana, Valpuri, Kielo are not spotted after a few hours. Count Rasmus, Duke Joritt, Baroness Fredrika, Count Sampo and Countess Vilja are also not in evidence. Veli was seen early on, but he's disappeared. We are also seeing people here that we haven't seen before. Two distinct themes to the new people's costumes - some are in seasonal related costumes, while the others are elemental themed. So Joe blends in. About a dozen of each theme are present. Two dozen people crashing the party in coordinated costumes suggests that it's either a high-ranking noble and his entourage, or an army here to kill people. The common reason people crash masquerades in Aerodon is as a romantic gesture, to make an impression on someone you want to pay court to.
The party continues normally until midnight, when everyone is supposed to unmask. Low rank to high are being called in turn to reveal themselves. When Baroness Fredrika is called, one of the winter themed persons unmasks. It looks like Fredrika, but there's something...off. Thoron can't tell if she looks strange magically or not. She's acting stiff, like someone is acting as her. The same pattern holds for everyone we hadn't seen. The ladies in waiting are after us in the order. Joe casts timestop, and shapeshifts briefly into something with true seeing to eyeball the people who are acting oddly. He can't see anything wrong.
Also, the two elaborate costumes that Thoron thought were the Queen and Louhi turned out to be relatively low-ranking noble women at the unmasking. We don't know if there was just a costume swap or if they were ringers the whole time. We all unmask. The Elemental themed folks are assembled on the balcony over the ballroom, and unmask in order as the court mages, their guards, 4 hand maidens, Louhi, the Queen, with two left. The final two are still masked when the Master of Ceremonies looks around, not seeming to notice the other two masked elementals. No one else seems to have noticed, either. The Queen thanks everyone for the festivities. "And now, to your rooms, to prepare for the festivities of the morning." We can see Louhi leaving the room, followed by both of the still-masked figures.
Joe uses timestop and quickened teleport to get the scent of the masked figures before they leave. One is male, one is female, and he doesn't recognize them. Joe asks Aqila to cast Message so he can ask Louhi if its normal for people to remain masked at the ball...she doesn't respond. We start leaving and blocking line of sight to Moonbeam so she can use Brainspider to check this out...they all have mindblank up. Joe does the timestop and teleport trick again to drop an echoskull into Louhi's pocket. Thoron sees the masked people as 18 HD each, and he can't see any magic up on them, including the mindblank we know they have. This is getting worrisome.
Aqila then uses Message to contact Antero and warn him that there are two masked people following Louhi, she's not responding to messages, they are visible to True Seeing, and this may be an assassination attempt on her. We'll be investigating and please give us top cover. He doesn't want to commit...he couldn't see them. While we're trying to convince him, Aremel stumbles in midstep, and urges us to get back to our rooms, fast. We send Thoron to follow Louhi as a bug while we teleport back, surreptitiously.
When we land, Aramel is freaked out. She's sure they are two of Sakaneth's Sorcerers....which should have died out thousands of years ago, and unless he's actually back, he shouldn't be able to make more. We could see them because we were with Aremel, and the pact prevented them from affecting us. She warns us specifically that these sorcerers don't do magic...it may seem to be, but magic doesn't interact with what they do in place of spells, and vice versa. Joe can see and hear through the echoskull, so that's not being suppressed. Aremel remembers that each one had a limit palette of spells, and they were themed. This group seems to do enchantment stuff. But, she can think of several ways to produce the effect we've seen. She thinks our best course of action right now is to meet with Antero and see if we can convince him that there is a problem, and Joe needs to keep an eye on where she's going. He can't see outside of Louhi's pocket, but Moonbeam can scry. She can see that the skull is currently in a narrow stone corridor, without decoration. So, likely in the older area of the palace
Aqila sends a Whispering Winds message to Antero to come to our rooms while she starts preparing combat spells. The moment Antero steps into the room, it feels like the floor is falling away, a sudden sense of vertigo. And everyone with fly permanencied pops into the air in reaction. At the same time, the little engravings that Thoron had noticed early on start glowing. Aqila immediately suspects that the castle wards have been activated. Moonbeam throws a mass heal to cure the vertigo. Antero stumbled to a chair, moaning, "I've never felt that before...the gods, they are all gone." Aremel speaks up, “It's not that they're gone, it's that they can't reach you. And I'd dearly love to know how this is even possible. We're halfway into Zeleya's realm!" Moonbeam scrys again...she can see that Louhi's clothes are in a pile in a small closet. Crap.
Aqila looks at Antero, 'We know where Louhi is. This is a rescue mission now. Are you in or out?" He is still somewhat dazed, but is willing to do whatever he can to help. We teleport to where her clothes are, and Joe goes Bloodhound to track her down. We chase after him. Thoron, meanwhile, from his vantage point in Louhi’s hair, sees that she has been chained naked to a pillar, and is starting to struggle. Around the periphery of the room, there are eight more people chained to pillars. 4 male, 4 female. In order, Countess Vilja, Valpuri, Keilo, and Laja. The other arc is Count Sampo, Count Rasmus, Duke Joritt, and Duke Veli.
Standing in front of Louhi is the queen in the regalia of the High Priestess of Zeleya, holding a dagger that seems to be drinking in the light. Tatjana is holding a barbed iron scourge and standing closest to the male arc. Prince Juho is standing across from her and closest the female arc, also carrying a scourge. There are two unfamiliar people, and the Queen and Louhi's bodyguards are closest to the door.
Each prisoner is chained to a post, with a carved stone basin under it and a channel leading to an elaborate pattern in the middle of the room. The chains include manacles and secure the prisoners to the post and the floor, so there’s no simple way to release them.
Before we teleport down, Aremel warns us that Zeleya can see everything we do, unless we have some way to hide from her sight, and mindblank won't cut it. We remember that Valieran gave us two gems earlier...one that would hide us from the sight of evil, no duration specified. And one gem to hand to whoever leads us to Zeleya's temple. The time to use them would be now, it seems.
When we arrive later, outside the temple, seemingly unnoticed. Aqila, will see this set-up and suspect that there are three components that matter to the ritual...the blood being shed, the pain of the victims, and their deaths. Meanwhile, when Thoron looks at Queen Ansa, she is blazing with magical energy, as if her entire body is being transformed. It looks like it's flowing from the crown she's wearing. Her effective HD have increased noticeably. Tatjana and Juho start scourging Vilja and Sampo.
Queen Ansa starts speaking in a very different voice. Thoron doesn't recognize it. "Now of course is the traditional time to reveal the evil schemes. Fortunately for you, it is important for the ritual for you to know exactly what is happening here, daughter, and no, I do not speak of the flesh I wear. You know who I am. And you, my daughter, will be my vessel. My form in this world, to break all the bonds of the gods! Already, the gods muster around this place. They know what is happening, and that they cannot break in to prevent me without breaking their own oaths. Even if, somehow, you disrupt the ritual, they will do whatever they think they need to prevent this from happen again. If the shield falls, everyone within this palace will die."
Meanwhile, the rest of us are getting close enough to start hearing the rant. "And of course, even if you resist long enough for the ritual fails, all I have to do is wait for one of them to get desperate enough to sacrifice themself. I'm sure that fool Kantor would do so. And if you are hoping for rescue, other than that fool riding you, I know none of your friends are anywhere close to help, none of them could reach here in time, and if he tries, he will die like the insect he is!"
That's our cue. Dagnar is being a Gloom, so he's got ridiculously fast reflexes. He charges in with the Black Blade of Disaster readied to chop Louhi free. He shatters one of the 4 chains binding her. Joe is being a Solar, and frostfell's the room, except for the center. He almost kills Count Rasmus. Valpuri is dying. Everyone else except for the sorcerers, Ansa, and Tatjana are also ice. Moonbeam takes the field and prepares to firestorm the bad guys. She fries everyone nicely. Thoron does a chain lightning, targeting people and implements of destruction. Nothing else is dead yet. He does a snakes-swiftness mass to give Dagnar another hit at the chain. It doesn't break. Tervel casts delay death on the two sacrifices that Joe inadvertently tried to kill. And then Aremel does something inexplicable, based on what we know...she heals Ansa. ,
Aqila takes a previously described action, casting two prismatic walls to cut off the prisoners from the ritualists. Dagnar, hasted, prepares to free Louhi. His 4 strikes break the remaining chains, and Louhi is free. Then he does 3-steel on the firey sorcerer. And essentially decapitates him. Joe goes next, turning into a giant squid to make ten disarming attacks on the queen, who's still holding the scary dagger. She stabs him with an AOO and does 30 damage, and some stat damage that he's shielded from. He manages to disarm her, then attacks the remaining sorcerer...she gets splattered.
The Queen is out of mooks, and it's her turn. She tries to implode Dagnar, but Thoron uses disjunction as a counterspell and that works. So she throws a quickened spell at him. 144 Disintegration damage. Moonbeam tries to heal him but fails to penetrate Dagnar's spell resistance. The 2nd time it works. Louhi summons her armor, commenting "I suppose they were right that this was a wasteful enchantment, but it does come in handy now.' Thoron is up. Puts up Battlemagic Perception. Tervel moves into Ansa's line of vision so she can see there is a Paladin here. Aremel does the same. Aqila tries 'Animate Rope' and tries to bind Ansa. Does nothing. Note that Antero is present, but mostly as a witness rather than an active participant.
Dagnar is up, and readies an action to disrupt any spell Ansa tries to cast. Ansa's turn. "I congratulate you on an impressive reversal. I suppose it's a good thing I did spend effort on a back-up plan. After all, as far as the Gods can know, nothing has changed. As soon as the shield is lowered, they will still try to obliterate everyone here. So, I have a choice for you to make. You can assume that your victory here is good enough, or you can take a gamble. If I win, I will get everything that I want. If you win, you will ensure that the gods will know that I cannot repeat what I have done. Rest assured, I will be risking something quite precious. I have prepared a path to my last remaining temple on this plane. If you fall, I will take my daughter as I have planned all along. And you must take her with you; the gates are keyed to her and her alone." Joe asks her where she found the sorcerers, while she's is in a talkative mood. "You'd be amazed at what you can find in hidden places. The Dragon may occupy his last citadel, but there are places where he's never delved."
Aremel suddenly looks taller, and more powerful. "It seems in this time and at this place, I am restored to what I was. I may not be able to attack you directly, but no oath prevents me from keeping your priestess alive." OOC Zeleya's using Ansa as a vessel means she can't withdraw until Ansa dies. So she can't directly oppose us in her last temple.
Zeleya asks us if we're taking the gamble or not. Joe asks Louhi flippantly if she wants to go on a date. Louhi looks somewhat pensive, noting that she can feel what's on the other side of the gate, and presumably that will continue to be true..this one feels like a minor plane of the daemons. Joe notes that it's not every day that we get to expel a blood god from our plane. Zeleya just laughs at the notion..."Do you think you can really do that?" We'll hurt her, and her fellows will watch her very closely so she can't pull this stunt again, but she'll be back. Some centuries after Louhi dies, and it would be a lot of effort for her to create as perfect a vessel for another try, but she will be back.
We're going to do it. Louhi's going whether we want to or not. Antero is not going - he'd rather help Aremel keep Ansa alive. Aqila rummages through our stash and pulls out the good manacles to bind the ice statues that were in on this whole thing so when the spell wears off, they won't cause trouble. The formerly dying are healed, and we prepare to assay the pathway with Louhi.

Spoiler: September 2017

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Review from last time – We are in the basement of the Aerodonese royal palace, standing outside a portal that leads to a path through other planes and purportedly ends at a major Zeleyan temple. We’ve used one of the spheres that Valeiran had delivered to us. It looks likely that we are to give the other one to Princess Louhi when/right before we get to this temple. Louhi is the key to all the portals and they will close when she passes through them. Louhi also is getting some information about what is on the other side of a portal when she’s near it – Zeleya still wants to win her gamble and she needs Louhi alive to do it.
Zeleya is currently using Queen Ansa as an avatar, and is stuck in her while she lives. Ex-goddess Aremel is temporarily empowered and is going to try to prolong this state of affairs as long as possible. We have between 4 hours and 4 days before Queen Ansa dies, at which point Zeleya escapes and is free to give her full attention to screwing with us. If that happens, she can screw directly with us if the local planarchs let her. Or change where the portals go - IE if Tervel gets killed, the next portal may lead directly to her plane. Zeleya is a coward and will not risk personally confronting a paladin, but if he dies, all bets are off.
Based on what Louhi is picking up from the first porta, we know the first planarch we're going to meet will be able to sell us lots of things, if we can meet his price. Louhi is going, whether we do or not. (OOC Her spell list has some interesting gaps in it, as we'll discover.) She'll also be able to, in theory, tell how far the next portal is from each portal we reach. She can tell from the first portal that the next one is 100 ft away. We have no idea what the trick is to slow us down, on this side of the portal so going through at top speed may be ill advised. She can also tell that on this first plane, the locals are likely to be immune to acid, and resistant to fire, electricity, and cold.
Note - no ethereal plane on an outside plane unless some planarch invested a lot of effort into it. A really powerful planarch could just kill us if we enter their plane, but it's unlikely that Zeleya approached someone that powerful for this pathway. Too expensive. OOC - when we first met Queen Ansa, it wasn't just Ansa...so we weren't told things so we couldn't betray to Zeleya that we're actually a threat to her plans. That’s why Valeiran didn’t give us the spheres directly – she could have picked that up from our minds, apparently.
Louhi thinks she may be slipped useful info from Zeleya because she has an interest in getting Louhi to her temple so she can complete the ritual and carry out her plans, which may inadvertently help us as well.
After a quick discussion, we decide to not risk leaving for more supplies, lest we get smitten by the gods...(ooc, if we tried it, we'd get hit with enough nasty curses that would take a high level priest most of a day to unravel. So, it's go time. We're burning daylight.
We go through the portal, and see a platform, a bridge, and another platform with a portal on the far side. These structures are floating in a void of disintegration energy. There's a 60HD dude on the bridge. In a calm, reasonable voice, he says, "Before you make with the spells and the stabbing, perhaps we can come to a beneficial arrangement. I have been paid a great deal to stop you, but if you outbid...and I will take into account the hazard to myself and my minions in attempting to stop you. Oh, and please don't try teleporting, I don't want to have to clean up the mess."
We begin negotiations. He notes that he's being paid by the death. We point out that that’s not necessarily permanent for us. He starts thinking that might be an interesting way to run his price up, since he’s being paid by the death. We note that we killed a god last month, and a few dread. He offers useful information and safe passage for 300k, the useful info being on the next two planes, that may let us obtain services from the next planarch that that planarch would normally charge 2M gold for. He does mention, for free, that the effects of healing magic are inverted on the next plane. He only mentions for free that the plane after that doesn't have a planarch, and that we're particuarly vulnerable to the things roaming that plane.
Joe offers the Bracers of Blood - he offers 40k for that. Holy water isn't of interest. We probably don’t have time to make scrolls, or have access to spells that he’d find valuable. Then Joe remembers that we picked up some souvenirs from the trip to find the Oracle. Joe pulls out the ear bone from a leviathan. The planarch is intrigued. Joe took all 6 ear bones, and is only showing one off here. He may be interested in other items of similar provenance. We try a control rod next. The planarch is still interested. He asks if we have a complete set of ear bones, and that those, plus the control rod and the bracers, would constitute a sufficient price for passage and information.
Joe asks if the planarch would mind tossing in a few blocks of stone so we could make casts of the bones before we hand them over, since these were trophies. He is willing, and notes that planarchs can't make real materials on their own planes...or rather anything a planarch makes won't stay real off their plane. These stone blocks are real, in this case. It seems a good bargain, and Tervel doesn't think this planarch is too evil to deal with. Louhi doesn't think she'd be able to replace those, and is grateful for our help. She is planning on trying to pay us back for the help we’re freely rendering to her.
While Moonbeam makes casts of the bones, the unnamed planarch begins fulfilling his end of the bargain. "Firstly, I would advise that before the next gate, you would provide yourselves with immunity to acid. The entire plane is swept with storms of acid constantly. And as I have already told you, don't use healing spells. The next thing to be aware of that it is a quite extensive plane. I do not know how much of it Zeleya has purchased the use of, but I would be amazed if you had less than a mile to travel and possibly much more. I would also advise against teleportation - for one, I find it hard to believe that you are familiar enough with it to do so safely anyway, and I do know the planarch has a special watch out for teleportation - he is inclined to think that that is evidence of thievery and is wont to strike first and ask questions of the ashes later. To be fair, he has had problems with teleporting thieves."
He then goes on to inform us that we could be taken for thieves, because we do actually have something that belongs to the guy. Basically, that mystic orb we picked up from the Veiled Order belongs to the next planarch over, and if we give it back, he's got a significant reward out for it. To the tune of a Wish each. But we'd have to get his attention and that might not be safe. He also notes that there will be some vermin around that may lightly annoy us.
Continuing, he informs us that the plane after that is one of the 'dead' planes...the planarch has died and no one has claimed it. There is generally a reason why no one has taken it over - he can rule out that it's the throne of all hells, since that would make it look the planarch who made the gate was making a play to claim it, and no one is going to do that until they're actually ready (and all the others would dogpile anyone trying to assert rulership over all the infernal planes unless they can actually make it stick). Otherwise, there's no way to know which dead plane it is.
Continuing: “To make up for that lack of knowledge - I will tell you about the three planes I consider it most likely to be. The most likely, though I find it hard to believe that Zeleya would defy Rakan in opening a portal there, is the former home of the god of undeath that Shenea unseated two millennia ago. The old god's remnants still roam there. If it is that plane, it is a pity you don't have more mundane combatants among you...the remnants are attracted to magic and eat it.” He recommends that we dismiss all our protective spells before passing through. On being asked, he tells us that using an antimagic field is considered to either be safe or suicidal. He personally thinks that some remnants are attracted to it, and others can't sense it, so it's a chance that could go either way. And, contrary to what many have expected, and never attempted to test, it doesn't possess any negative energy traits. In other words, dismissing our death wards will not doom us.
The next possibility is a realm with a technically living planarch who can no longer control his plane. He was a powerful devil that rebelled against his lord and was punished by being stripped of his powers and chained in torment in the center of his plane. “If it's that, you'll want to immediately protect yourself from fire, and still need many healing spells from the rains of hellfire. As long as you don't approach the center, nothing should slow you down, but I think it’s likely that one end or the other will be there. At which point you will meet the legion of devils set to protect the prisoner so that no one tries to rescue him, or put him out of his misery. Individually they wouldn't be a threat to you, but...”
"As I said, unless she knew exactly who would be in your party, I doubt she would have. Oh and it occurs to me, backing up for a moment, one important point about the god of undeath's plane, that I have heard people say, there is supposedly some form of enchantment on the plane that makes navigation, challenging. Going in circles, and so on. I have heard of people navigating the plane successfully, but you can't count on one of them being around...now that I think of it...oh, he's almost certainly dead..." He's talking about Jahan. We mention that we killed him, but we're on, strangely, cordial relations with his apprentice. He is amused and intrigued by the notion.
“The 3rd is an odd place, its first master constructed an entire ethereal plane for it. So a number of spells that normally don't work in the planes, do work there, but I wouldn't advise it - the horrors that live in ethereal plane are numerous. The plane is unpopulated except for those horrors, some of which can strike from the ethereal plane. Beyond that, the plane itself is quite straightforward to traverse. I suspect that Zeleya will have stationed some of her own minions there, if it is that plane. For a nominal fee, I could give you some information about them…” We decline to take the schmuck bait.
Given an opportunity for questions, Joe asks if control weather would affect the acid storms. The planarch thinks that Joe would be marginally able to - and only if that doesn't attract the planarch's attention...which could be a safe way of getting him to notice us so we can give him his thing back. Louhi has no questions.
Tervel wants to know about the nature of the next planarch. "Well, the simplest way to answer that question assumes a certain knowledge on your part. Are you familiar with the Anhref?" We aren’t, really, other than vague awareness of the term. "They consider themselves the lords of chaos, though, as should be quite obvious by them calling themselves Lords…" We comment "that they're somewhat missing the point?" He continues, "indeed. The being is closer than them to truly being that, while still being comprehensible to mortal minds. So the best way to describe him is...mercurial. So he can go from pleasant and charming to murderous instantly. Should you return his item, he will likely be well disposed to you for the length of your visit, but I do not advise a return trip unless you find another item to return. And to answer what I think you wanted to know,” he said looking at Tervel, “while he is not what you call good, neither is he evil. He is merely chaotic.”
We take our leave of this Daemon, and proceed across the bridge to the next portal. As we walk off, he gives us a cordial farewell – “It was a pleasure dealing with you. I believe my lady Felzanith will be pleased with how this turns out.”
As we're approaching the gate, we hear Zeleya's voice speak and tell Louhi that while we may have prevented her from directly interfering with us, she can take her blessings away from Louhi. Thoron sees what happens. Louhi's still 22 HD, but can only cast up to lvl 8 spells now, instead of 11th. (basically, had priestess levels converted to aristocrat) The planarch heard the whole thing. "An intriguing development. I will balance it with a small token of goodwill of my own. I don't know where on this path it will be, but Zeleya has made a bargain with some of the Elder Fey. And while some of you could expect to have an advantage with them, trust me: you won't. But you may be able to gain something to rebalance the scales in your dealings with the next planar lord, if you are clever. I could sell you some knowledge of the current courts of the fey." We decide that it's not worth the delay.
Louhi protects herself, Aqila, Dagnar, and Tervel, from acid, and the other three were already being in solar form, and naturally immune. We step through the portal into a driving, greenish, rain. Joe starts working on stopping the rain, as we walk. Everything that Louhi can sense matches what we were told. Another round of shapeshifting later, there are three silver dragons to fly to the next portal. 30 miles away, per Louhi.
As we go on, we see a significantly denser patch of rain. It speaks to us. "So, I am curious why you are travelling in my realm." Joe speaks for us, "We are here to return an item to you. We are not the thieves, but we did take it from them, or those who acquired it later." The planarch replies, "There are several items that could meet that description." Joe answers, "It is an orb seeming made of crystal, about two feet across." This gets his attention firmly. "The eye! I believe that you have heard about the reward I have offered, then?" We agree that it had been mentioned to us, and it is in part a wish for each of us, and the balance would be him teleporting us to the other portal.
He also notes that he sees we're expending some of our resources to protect ourselves from the environment. He offers, and grants us, all a permanent 30 resistance to acid, so if we chose to visit again, it would be a more pleasant experience. Not that we want to come back! He also notes that, per his bargain with Zeleya, he should impede us, but in gratitude for returning his Eye, he will waive that. We take our wishes (will backfill who asked for what later) and he bids us to be on our way, with a parting comment that he hopes we are prepared to deal with the remnants of the dead god. Well, that answers that question.
As we approach the portal, Zeleya yells at Louhi again, and now she can only cast lvl 6 spells at most. Aqila gets thrown through the portal with a readied action to cast antimagic field. As soon as she moves the field just clear of the portal, everyone else piles in. Aqila pulls out her box of chalk so we can track ourselves. It takes 5 minutes for us to cross the first chalk mark. The ground itself moves, as it turns out. The chalk marks are going weird. This is going to go well!
Over the next 20 minutes, we slowly learn our way around, then we hear a voice speaking up. "I thought I sensed a disturbance here. My apologies for being so slow. I should have known it was you." It's Sohrab. We chat for a bit. It's a congenial conversation - we amuse ourselves by stringing him along on how we got here. We let him know that it's a Zeleyan plot, eventually, that we got to this place from another plane, and that we're planning on leaving through a portal. He wonders what moron left a risk of one of these things getting out...he's not surprised to find it was Zeleya. After some chit-chatting we come to an accord: he's familiar with navigating this place. He thought he was the only one who knew how to get here from the material plane. He's willing to help us leave faster if we help him do some research while we're here - he'd like to lead one of the little guys over here for us to fight, slowly, so he can see what happens. He'll keep anything big and nasty from wandering over while we fight. Or try to. He also mentions that they have a horrific stench, at least all the human servants he's had come here all complained about the smell, briefly.
On our part, we try to kill it slowly so Sohrab can take notes, then we'll leave. Tervel will put favor of the martyr up on those who need it to protect from the sickening stench. The arrangement is agreeable to both parties, so we prepare to battle. Sohrab leads one of the ‘remnants of a dead god’ over and we attack. Dagnar goes first and just fails to hit. Moonbeam lobs a reverberating, irresistible sonic strike at it. The spell fizzes. Dagnar gets clobbered because he's closest. He's being a Gloom, so he's pretty tough. Still takes 61 damage from the slam that hits, and it dispels and eats some of his protective spells. Joe takes the form of a huge Legendary Tiger and mauls the thing for massive damage. Tervel charges in to strike the undead thing for 106 damage. Aqila casts Glitterdust for fun to see what happens. The spell works - doesn't actually do anything useful, but the spell works and it is now faaaaabulous. Louhi casts Searing Light and does 15 damage. So that actually worked.
Thoron proves with his shiny that the thing is electricity immune. Dagnar goes again and managed to hit this time, after flanking it between himself and Tervel. Moonbeam goes into timestop and gets out some friends. Storm elementals to Bring The Lightning! and the Thunder! The sonic damage does do some damage, but it resists some of it. Then she does a mass heal, including the thing for kicks. It resisted the heal. Bah. Then Tervel gets pasted. 150 damage. Still on his feet, but he needs a medic now. Ironically, none of his prots get dispelled. Joe casts timestop, reverts to Solar, pulls out one of the rocks we prepped for the temple fight with the Celestial Brilliance spell, sets it down where it will affect the undead, returns to tiger form, and mauls the undead again. Thoron decides to try picking up a bunch of rocks via telekinesis and chuck them at the undead. The pelting results in Sohrab calling out "I believe I've seen enough'. As the rocks contact the undead, the sink in, visibly healing it. Seriously?
Despite being more than half dead, Tervel still gets one hit in, for some damage. Aqila heals everyone with her shiny. Louhi does Searing Light again, and she gets it through. Dagnar stabbies again. Moonbeam’s friends do 40 sonic damage. Joe didn't teleport out of range this time, so he gets attacked. He's missed. Joe teleports away, and charges back in - the mauling finishes the undead off.
Sohrab feels this was productive. "Well, in hindsight, I should have expected that result, and that explains why my controls spells haven't been working - the plane itself has been helping absorb them. Knowing that, I can perhaps find a way around it. It will take some time, but perhaps in a few years I'll be ready to experiment. But, I believe you have somewhere you need to be." After consulting Louhi to figure out where it feels like the next portal is...he thinks he can get us there in half an hour or so. We follow him to the next portal.
Zeleya pitches her usual fit, and now Louhi is down to 5th level spells. And now we find out something weird - Louhi feels that this gate will only let us go through one at a time, once a round. Sohrab's contribution - "Well, you should let the planarch on the other side know where this portal came from. I think he will be rather displeased. Of course, if Zeleya has displayed any intelligence, this will be an opportunity for her servants to face you and not the planarch directly, so you have no opportunity to pass that information on." Sohrab estimates that the planarch is a low ranking demon, and a brutish thug, so one who's not likely to pay attention to the leased corner of his plane until after Zeleya leaves.
So, Moonbeam sends an Elder elemental through. It finds a small maze on the other side. It gets stuck. So the next person to try to go through just can't. Elemental butt blocking the portal, though we don't know that. We know something is up when we hear Zeleya laughing hysterically at us. Moonbeam flips some birds. Louhi is now getting an impression of small spaces on the other side. Moonbeam gets a large earth elemental to go through next time as an ablative meatshield. Joe follows as a will o' wisp. He finds that there is a greater handmaiden on the other side, standing at the end of a short hall with a corridor running off to her right. Joe has readied action timestop. He stops time, prepares to have no back-up for a round, and goes legendary tiger for maximum maulage. He crits a few times in the process. Then he has to make 6 con saves. Only fails one to take 28 disintegration damage. Another greater handmaid, standing at the far end of the right hand corridor, at another corner, casts blight at the tiger, and he takes 10 damage. Whiskers are singed. The light also goes out. Dagnar now comes through.
He goes to the end of the hall, jumps over the tiger and lands silently to see the handmaiden. He sneaks down to stab her. Misses. Joe's turn. His foresight tells him that teleportation is interestingly screwed up in here...it will send you somewhere random in the maze. And Dagnar is kinda in his way. The ceiling is only 8 ft high. So he timestops, reduces his size, and then charges by flying over Dagnar's head. He mauls this one to death too, and he has to make 5 saves this time. Makes them all. Then he has to make a will save. He fails. The tiger is now confused. Dagnar also has to make a save, and fails too.
Now the next person’s turn to come through. Except Joe and Dagnar act before Moonbeam - so Dagnar attacks Joe as the nearest creature. He doesn't hit. Joe starts babbling incoherently. We picture this like a cat talking to the ceiling. So Moonbeam comes in, sees Dagnar menacing Joe, with Joe staring into space, mouth gaping , and facepalms. She timestops, tigers up. and gets a few summons to make the enemy waste her actions. She has a readied heal for when the spell ends, and casts Earthquake to see what happens. She also scouts around and sees two more handmaidens further on.
The heal fixes the boys. The earthquake does nothing. The handmaiden sees herself surrounded by angels (movanic devas). She casts firestorm, gets all of them plus Dagnar and Joe in it. They resist. Dagnar goes in to stab, and just fails miserably. Joe does his flying charge schtick again. Another one bites the dust. He takes 18 disintegration damage from one failed save. Moonbeam aligns her fangs, summons more movanic devas, took a steadying breath, and cast improvisation while in timestop. Then positioned herself smack a handmaiden. She does, but eats 21 disintegration for her pains. And goes for the grapple. Succeeds, but the handmaid casts 'get off of me' immediately. 20d6, fort for half. Doesn't force the end of the grapple though.
At this point, Aqila comes through, yells down the hall to find out what's up, and then does a double-move to stand just behind Dagnar and under Joe so she can help if needed next turn. The handmaid we haven't engaged yet tries to teleport and ends up at the far end of the maze. We don't know this. We just know she vanishes. The other one tries to escape the grapple via teleportation. Moonbeam hangs on for the ride. The handmaid lands in the middle of the devas. It’s a total scrum now. Dagnar gets sent to go find the other one. Joe takes his turn and first turns into a solar as a free action so he can speak and lets us know about the teleport thing, then timestops and teleports. Twice. He doesn't land anywhere useful. He does manage to not land in LOS of Aqila, so her anticipate teleportation spell doesn't affect him. The timestop ends and he tries to figure out what to do with the pileup. He settles on trumpet - using a hollyphant form it does sonic damage, stuns for 1-2 rounds. The handmaid is not stunned. Must be immune. Moonbeam is also immune. He hits one deva who is stunned for 1 round. No damage to handmaid.
Moonbeams turn. The devas can't hurt it effectively, so Moonbeam does a full attack. Almost dead, but not quite. Aqila uses an arcane bolts so as to not hit any allies and does 23 damage. Still not dead. Thoron comes through now. He can't see anything, so he flies down the corridor in his natural hawk body, past Aqila, and finds the pile-up. He doesn't see anything useful to do there. So he keeps going through the maze. The battered handmaid decides to go out with a bang. It's a 154 damage, fort save for half. Moonbeam has a lot of temporary hps, so she lives even with a failed save. Aqila makes it, barely, and lives. Mass heal on her next turn. Joe is also in LOS and thanks to foresight, he gets enough warning to swap to a form that has high con and lives easily.
The last handmaid tries to teleport again and see where she lands... yeah, she lands out of LOS of any of us, but it was a quickened teleport. She moves and finds Joe. She tries to use blurstrike on Joe, but he has true seeing. Fails. Dagnar hears the commotion and comes up behind her. Fails his sneak attack. Joe swaps to legendary bear to maul better from a standing start. And does so. She is now paste. He fails a few con saves. 22 more damage. But, all enemies are dead and heals are coming. Tervel arrives to find that the screaming has stopped. Louhi shows up and we all move to the exit portal.

[Terane]

Spoiler: October 2017

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Before we continue, we want to get a status report on Ansa from Antero. Moonbeam has a go at scrying the room. Her attempt to get Antero fails - he makes his save. Workaround - scry on one of the frostfell victims and use message. Antero says that his attempts to help don't seem to be helping anymore, but Aremel is holding her own for now. He thinks we may have another hour or two, speaking conservatively. He thinks when the end comes, it'll probably be fairly abrupt with little chance for a warning. As we approach the next gate, Louhi gets knocked down to 2nd level spells. She tells us that what she's picking up about the next plane can't be right...she's getting an impression of a Rakshasa planarch, and given they are very lawful, and extremely xenophobic, she can't imagine one dealing with Zeleya.
Moonbeam asks Tervel just how Aremel is doing all this, given that the gods aren't supposed to be able to reach into the palace right now. Tervel makes it clear that he's not going to say everything he thinks he knows about the situation, but implies that The One is involved. We accept that. Louhi thinks the next portal is fairly close, but it almost feels like it's moving.
After finishing our pre-portal checklist, we step through. Thoron is detecting a 'dead' magic zone in front of us...except for what looks like 12 teleport cages with normal magic, each a 15' cube. There's a glowing orb in each cage, and in front of us. We're on a ledge on one side of a chasm with the cages in the chasm, and a ledge on the far side with an image of a translucent Rakshasa on it.
We also see a good sized horde of demons surrounding the dude on the other ledge. "Welcome. I've prepared a most amusing entertainment for you. But first, one small matter..." He waves his hand and Louhi appears on the other side with him. "Her mother would be most distressed if anything happened to her, so of course she won't be participating in our little game."
"So, the game as I intend it is quite simple. You can of course do anything you can think of to alter the situation. I hope it will be amusing. Each of you in turn, touch the orb in front of you. You will be transported into one of the boxes." "And if we don't" "Then I look forward to what you devise to get past this little obstacle."
Thoron looks down into the chasm and sees some sort of disturbance in the earth below, as if something large was tunneling. The chasm extends as far as we can see in either direction. The ledge is metal.
Basically, we touch the orb on our side - victim gets teleported into one cage at random. Touch orb in that cage - we teleport to another cage and fight a demon. Only get a demon in cage we haven't been in, and each orb only goes to 1 of 3 randomly selected cages, so if it can't send you to a new cage, it sends you out of the dead magic zone to the other side of the chasm and you 'win'. That's the rules he's set. If we find another entertaining way to win, he'll let us win. Chucking a rock in the chasm ends with it doing loop-de-loops. Moonbeam summons a lemur to touch our orb and see what happens. It pops into one of the cages. She has it hop around and confirm that physics works and expected in the cage.
On being asked how he feels about angels, the planarch remarks that they're boring, unless they're being squished. So we have a few options. Ah, one rule is you can't land in a box with an ally. Enemies, yes. And there's no limit on how many beings can enter at once.
And then Joe gets a wicked gleam in his eye. He talks to Moonbeam. She starts summoning squirrels. Thoron casts Nature's Avatar when there are 27 of them. The waves of squirrels begin hitting the far ledge....first get one in each cage, then the rest just get sent to the far side. As the third wave hits the far ledge, 9 vrocks fly over to our side, carrying javelins. They squat on the cages menacingly. Meanwhile, the orb on the far side has been placed in a zone of freezing fog. That will impede the squirrels. Might not do much to tigers, though. And with the fog up, the demons can't see us. The squirrels, focusing on one foe at a time, have managed to eat one of them.
So, it's tiger time. But, in the meantime, the squirrels took down 3 more demons, including a marilith. Joe does a victory dance in celebration of the might of nature. And then the tigers start flooding in. One big guy starts speaking blasphemies, which daze and weaken the tigers, but damage is still happening. The tigers take down 5 of the mid-rank demons.
At this point, the planarch gets annoyed, and complains that we are making a mockery of his game. "Let the Serpent's Minions deal with you." 4 golothmas appear, two on either side. Unfortunately for them, Joe has control winds up. 3 of them get blown off the ledge. We see a larger serpent-like creature leap out of the ground and look around in confusion. We still have one left. Moonbeam is the closest to it. She gets a scorpion out of her terrarium and casts Giant Vermin on it. 20hd colossal scorpion on the field. The golothma is 40HD. The scorpion grapples the golothma firmly. The golothma's hands come out of midair to attack the scorpion back....4 of the 8 claws hit. Time to roll for initiative.
Dagnar is first up, and he gets out the duskblade to go stabby-stabby the golothma. He stabby stabs. It dies. This annoys the planarch, who sends all five champions over to our side of the chasm. 16, 18, and 3 20hd monsters. The wolfy one in the middle, we've encountered its kind before, and it's got a virulent poison that ignores immunity in its snake head. The rest of the demons on the other side are going to die to tigers soon. Joe is up. He unleashes a Murderous Mist. This blinds three of them. Then he decides to go a-mauling. He comes very close to killing the one that looks like a Balor. (ooc, it isn't, but we can't tell that). He grapples it too.
Moonbeams scorpion attacks the bullheaded demon and beats it up. She becomes a dire tiger for mauling goodness next turn, plus summoning 6 more to go maul the blue dude. She also sonic-strike-buffed-to-the-max the death-drinker and wolf-headed poison dude. The tigers barely scratch the blue dude. We conclude it has damage reduction. Thoron casts Snakes-Swiftness-Mass because we're pretty sure these things are electricity immune. More maulings, but not enough to knock one out.
Aqila flings off a screeching-ball and only gets through to 1...the balorish dude takes 44 damage. Then the blue demon acts by tossing his dancing axe into the air. This does not provoke an attack of opportunity. And Thoron has to make a will save. He avoids succumbing to trap the soul. And then the blue dude tries hurling Thoron into the dead magic zone. It fails too. The death drinker tries teleporting to land on Aqila. Which means the anticipate teleportation spell kicks in and takes him out for a round. He’s going to be very unhappy when he finally gets back.
Tervel's up, and is perfectly lined up to do a charge. He gets a critical hit in on the wolf-snake dude. 130 damage. It's dead, and the dancing axe melts into goo too. The balor-dude moves by attacking the tiger grappling him. Sort of. His natural weapons don't do anything to Joe beyond 11 damage. The blue guy goes now and tries to dismiss a summoned tiger. It fails. It does 38 damage to another one. Pitiful showing, that. The goristro, the bull-headed dude, currently grappled by the scorpion, tries to retaliate with natural weapons. No dice.
Top of the order with Dagnar having a choice of 3 targets. He targets blue-dude with a full-attack. And takes him down. Now the planarch takes his turn. "Oh, lets make this a little more sporting." Everyone without freedom of movement makes a will save, so basically the summons. Some still avoid being paralyzed. "Hmm, that seemed less effective than I'd hoped. This doesn't seem like a difficult challenge for you at all. It must be more entertaining, it must!" Aqila comments, "Oh, you want entertaining? Just give me a moment..."
Meanwhile, Joe quickens a greater teleport so he can charge and maul the balor-dude. He does. It dies. Death Throes. 100 untyped damage. Aqila and Moonbeam fail. Rolled 1 and 2 respectively. The goristro bull-dude also fails and poofs. Friendly fire, isn’t. Thoron waits for Moonbeam to summon on her turn, then does a quickened mass nature's avatar and readies an action to clobber then death drinker when it pops in. Moonbeam does a quickened mass heal, so HP damage is erased. She also summons more tigers, aligns their fangs, and gets all her summons positioned to clobber the death drinker when it comes in. Aqila just casts grease and moves out of the way.
The death drinker pops in, and winds up flat on its back. And then the mauling occurs. It's reduced to pink mist in seconds. The planarch pouts, dismisses the vrocks, the cages, and tells us we can go but with no help from him! So we just pile into the portable hole and have Thoron fly it across. We find the tigers, Louhi, and nothing else on the far side. And the portal.
When we reach it, Zeleya snarls, "Very well, I take back everything I gave you!" Louhi’s armor and weapons shatter. So she's again naked, with no spellcasting ability. We scrounge through our stash of gear to lend her some stuff. As for what she feels through the portal...the next realm feels like Fae. Aqila digs out some spare clothes for Louhi to wear under the armor. We give her the +3 plate that used to be Innokenti's, and the mace that we're going to give to Sneezil, on loan. Belt of giant's strength +4 and a +5 cloak of protection. When Louhi looks at the plate, commenting ‘Well, that explains some things…”, Moonbeam does make a point of stating that Tervel was not involved in that trip. Also dug out a coronet of +6 will and +2 resist compulsion. Boots with 3/day expeditious retreat +4 agi, and a ring of +5 protection and the robes of displacement. And a wand of healing as an option. Plus Moonbeam lends her her bracelets of flame strike and snake's swiftness mass.
We pass through the portal, and land in the center of a large arena. "Welcome. Greetings to our contestants, our contenders. Five challenges we have prepared. Five difficulties for you to surmount!" Five little glowing signs appear in front of us. 'Fangs to gnash and claws to rend', 'power turns to smite the wielder', 'Of all weapons, the deadliest is mercy', 'Spires protect and destroy', 'Shields shift and change'. "When the time comes, choose these in whatever order you wish, but first, we must talk."
The arena has no seats. The sky is...strange, psychedelic patterns strange. The ground feels like smooth sand. The portal is not in the arena. After he finishes speaking, a humanoid figure appears in the arena - Thoron can't see any HD, so that has interesting implications. "So, as I say, five challenges. Defeat 3, and you may pass freely. For each you defeat, a gift for the weakest of you. Arms and armor made for a queen. And should you win through, for each of you, a gift, a boon of knowledge to aid you when you enter the temple. And so, the terms, the challenge, to begin, there shall be no cheating sight, no perception other than your own. The second, between bouts, no spells shall you cast or remove.” Joe asks if he's going to change the rules on us like the last guy...the guy comments that he could give his word but would we believe him?
"And finally, if any of you die and remain dead at the end of a bout, they shall remain dead until all are finished, but for them I shall hold time in abeyance." "What is the end of a bout." "When the conditions for victory in the bout have been met." In appearance, our 'host' seems to be a rather short human, with armor that seems like water.
"Then only one thing remains, a simple word to each of you! Aqila hears “Sentinel”, Moonbeam “Dragon”, Joe “Tree”, Dagnar “Almaera”, but Thoron hears only silence. Louhi is looking very perturbed, and does not share what she heard. Tervel tells us that the word he heard was Sacrifice.
We break here since this next bit will take a while.

Spoiler: November 2017

Show

We pick up where we left off last month, in a Fae arena, with five challenges to face. We can see around the entire perimeter of the arena, gates for things to be brought in, and what might be a trap door right in the center. There are eight gates in total, evenly spaced. So, common consensus is that 'fangs to gnash and claws to rend' sounds like a good warm-up, and we position ourselves for what may come. We pick a chunk of wall between gates and away from the center, and wait for the challenge to appear. Six heavily muscled, oversized, wolf-like things appear from six of the gates...with six limbs each. Joe's inspection lets him notice that they also seem to have well developed throat muscles.
Dagnar acts first and casts scorching ray to get information about resistances for us. It hits with all three rays. The creature looks puzzled. One of its buddies charges us from the other side of the arena, but fetches up short of an attack this round. The one Dagnar zapped charges at him next and mauls him. It misses with the bite and racks, but hits with both claws and rends him a little. Only 33 damage. A third creature gallops towards us, but comes up short for an attack just yet. Thoron's turn comes next. He is in Solar form and casts blinding spittle at the closest creature, then grabs Louhi to get her out of the attack range and flies upwards with an updraft. The spittle misses the one that attacks Dagnar.
Joe begins his turn by changing into a chronotyryn, and after grabbing Aqila and flying upwards, he unleashes a murderous mist...20ft cylinder placed off the ground so only tall things get hit. But it does nothing...no blinding, and no apparent damage. He can see the slobber from the one that attacked Dagnar is smoking where it hit the ground. Acid spit? He tries Frostfell next, and four of them become ice statues. The only two still up are one that was closest to us on the right, and the one that had been next to the right before running over to us.
Louhi doesn't have anything she can do at the moment, other than climb onto Thoron's Solar back and free his arm up. The only uniced critter charges in at Moonbeam, who in Solar form with a monks belt, and handily dodges the attacks. Moonbeam retaliates by casting timestop and summoning some elephants. Then some rhinos. Healing Dagnar, and getting some more elephants for good measure. The timestop ends and the fun starts - rhinos smash 4 ice sculptures. Nine elephants attempt to trample the still moving creatures...one manages to trample the one that was attacking Moonbeam before she moved. Not much damage, though. They're pretty tough. Tervel takes his turn by landing a tremendous blow on one...mostly absorbed by its armor, but it does some damage and mildly curses it. Chance to fail actions. Aqila, shrugging away from Joe, drops a Slow on both of them. They fail their saves. Both slowed.
Top of the order - Dagnar goes up into the mist for concealment and three-steels the one Tervel attacked. He does quite a bit of damage, but it's still on its feet. It goes after Tervel, but the slow limits its attack, and it misses completely. Thoron warms up his shiny and zaps both of them. He hits the battered one, and misses the other. Joe decides that enough is enough, shifts to Legendary Tiger, and mauls the bugger. It's still alive, but looks more battered and bedamned. Joe gets mauled a bit in return, but not much. Moonbeam drops a flamestrike on them both, but only the battered one takes damage. The elephants trample through again...to no effect. Tervel swaps the less battered one with an elephant to break up the pair, then flies up out of range. Aqila flies up to cast flight on Louhi so she can get off of Thoron.
We basically finish the fight by letting Thoron zap them and elephants trample. It takes a while, long enough for the elephants to fade away. Also, Thoron does get acid puke horked on him before he got high enough, but it wasn't that much damage, and Moonbeam keeps people healed up. The acid resistance 30 is coming in handy here.
We decide to try 'Spires protect and destroy' next. We all start in the air. The challenge takes the form of a dark shadowy thing in the middle, which is surrounded by resummoned elephants. At each of the four 'not cardinal' points, there are three...'things'. Three spires in each set of blue, orange, and orange. We're in the air over the elephants. The planarch tells us that the challenge is to defeat the guy in the middle, and we can't affect him directly with anything we do. That implies the spires are the key, somehow. Dagnar gets to go first. He casts timestop and flies down and touches an orange spire. Nothing happens. Joe flies down next and changes into a lilitu and tries to figure out what the blue spire does. He can't do anything with it, but learns a linked target, if reduced to 0 or below HP, will receive a heal spell.
The thing in the middle looks incorporeal. Joe looks at the other two. The first type casts disintegrate only on the command of a linked creature at a specified target. The other will cast reciprocal gyre under the same conditions. He can tell at least that he would know if he was linked, and he is not linked to any of them. He swaps to will o’ wisp form and tries shocking the disintegrate pillar...some minor chipping, but not linked.
The shade goes next. Out of the pillar Joe just touched, he gets hit with a disintegrate. He is immune. Joe feels the pillar try to link to him and fail. Dagnar gets hit with a reciprocal gyre. 11 spells on him, so 99 damage and he has to make a fort save. He makes it and is not dazed. Dagnar feels the pillar that hit him link to him. Louhi gets hit with a disintegrate, and makes her save. Thoron eats a reciprocal gyre. He makes his save, and takes 65 damage. A disintegrate is aimed at Aqila but he misses. Moonbeam has a gyre shied her way...48 damage with her save. Tervel gets a disintegrate and makes the save easily. Joe gets hit with a reciprocal gyre as the last pillar fires.
Moonbeam's turn starts with a heal, goes into a timestop, and turns into a tiger for the con and lack of spell resistance. We're coming to the conclusion that the key to getting control of a pillar away from the shade is to fail a save. Louhi doesn't have anything useful to do. Thoron turns into a tiger and casts mass nature's avatar for the extra HPs. Aqila studies a blue pillar, but discerns nothing new.
Dagnar defers to Moonbeam. Joe learns that if a spire is destroyed, there is a backlash on whoever it's linked to. He also learns that that there is the potential for the spire to change links when it's used. If there is a valid target, it will change, but he can't discern what makes a valid target. This happens in timestop. He also learns that they have about 200 hps. So he returns to tiger form and goes to smash a blue spire. He doesn't finish it off, and attacking it sends an odd pain up his legs. The shade goes next and the first disintegrate is to the spire Dagnar is linked to...Thoron counterspells. Joe gets linked to that disintegrate pillar. Louhi gets a disintegrate. Thoron gets a gyre. Joe gets a disintegrate, but it misses. And then he gets a Gyre too. It hits. Moonbeam gets hit with a disintegrate and a gyre. No pillars link to us except the first one to Joe.
Moonbeam's turn. 3-round timestop starts by summoning angels to buff the shade to make gyre more effective. She gets enough to get 10 new buffs on the shade. She then has her elephants attack spires...each time they hit, they poof. The pillar has a banishing effect on attackers. There are enough to finish off the one Joe attacked, and damage the other 3. One elephant makes its will save and can try again next round. Dagnar now takes his turn and hits the shade with the gyre. There is no visible effect, but Dagnar loses control of the spire. We holler at Louhi to smash the blue ones. She can't hit hard enough to do anything. Thoron tops off Nature's Avatar on everyone, and as a tiger attacks the one Louhi whiffed on. He doesn't finish it off. Aqila uses a cacophonous blast to hit the blue spire 3 elephants beat on. It looks to be on the verge of falling apart now.
Dagnar moves to get in range to sonic ray the spire in the scrum of people, and destroys it. Joe's back up, and casts timestop. Which lets him get to the most intact spire and reduce it to a battered wreck. And now it's the Shade's turn. It targets Moonbeam with 4 gyres. She takes over 200 damage. Thoron eats a disintegrate and also takes a pile of damage. Aqila survives a disintegrate because Thoron casts instant of power, which lets her save for half. Dagnar, still in gloom form, also is targeted. He makes his save and takes 17 damage to Aqila's 14. And now Moonbeam takes the field. She timestops to summon some elephants, and sics them on the two battered spires. And that finishes them off.
Meanwhile, Joe has a burst of inspiration. He realizes that both people who took control of a spire had touched it. He's the only one who has control of one right now. So now everyone races to touch stuff. Louhi touches the gyre near her. Aqila goes to the nearest gyre to her and readies a counterspell. Tervel flies across the room and touches the gyre over there. Thoron gets the last gyre. Dagnar gets the disintegrate spire by Louhi. And Joe touches 'his' pillar again as will as Aqila's, then zaps the shade. It makes its save, though it's not like we can tell.
The shade goes and again fires 4 gyres at Moonbeam, and she again only fails one save. She's hurt, but it's fixable. Everyone who touched a gyre spire gets control of it. Dagnar saves against a disintegrate. Tervel fails, but lives. Moonbeam goes next and teleports over to Tervel, heals them both up, touches his pillar so he can use it on his turn. Louhi touches the disintegrate pillar, that Dagnar did not get control over because of is spell resist, and waits until someone can touch her pillar before she uses it. Thoron touches both of his pillars, on his way to touching both pillars by Louhi and Dagnar. Aqila touches both pillars and then fires the gyre. Joe now controls it. Tervel touches both pillars and then fires his gyre, giving control to Moonbeam. Dagnar touches both spires. Joe also touches both and fires off the gyre. And the Shade collapses.
We clump up, prepare some new spells, and go up in the air. We chose 'Of all weapons, the deadliest is mercy', and are told that this is another simple challenge if we find the key, and defeating the central figure is the key. Also, wounds we deal to him will harm us. We behold a indistinct figure in the middle of the arena, holding a staff, we think, with a ring of twelve, blank-eyed, armed and armored humanoids around it.
Aqila puts her high int to good use and posits that the blank-eyed look is a symptom of mind-control, and while we’d get hurt if we attack the dude in the middle directly, if she’s right, freeing the armsmen might allow them to deal with the problem for us. Dagnar is up first, and uses the wand of Greater Dispel to area dispel the ring of targets. Four of the guards start moving more naturally and seem less...controlled. This lends some weight to Aqila’s theory and gives Joe an idea. He turns into a form that can create an antimagic field in a cone in front of him. He does that over the whole group, and that frees all of them from the center figure's control. And we win, because we freed all the prisoners in one go, and that was a win condition. We didn't know this, but winning a challenge in one round is cool.
And we break here, having won our way free of the plane. There are two more challenges that we can choose to attempt to get more shinies for Louhi.

Spoiler: December 2017

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'Shields shift and change' and 'power turns to smite the wielder' are the final challenges for us to meet. We choose 'shields' first. When we do this, everyone gets a curse applied to them. Moonbeam - acid vulnerability. Dagnar - lose mind-affecting immunity. Joe has that one too. Thoron, Aqila, Tervel, and Louhi all manage to ignore the first curse. Meanwhile, a tall, humanoid figure appears in the middle and we understand we have to defeat him to win the challenge. We also know any curses we get will go away when we win or forfeit.
Time to roll for initiative. Dagnar goes first, moving towards the figure and preparing to unleash a three-steel. Does about 50 damage and leaves a small gash on the figure. Moonbeam decides to present a 'divine hint' to the figure, after going into timestop and summoning some friends. So, 5 elephants and two hollyphants, with animal growth. Sadly, the divine hint seems to do nothing. Joe teleports near the figure and shapechanges into a Nightcrawler to wreak havoc. He does nothing. Aqila tries Magic Missile to see if it hits. Nope. We think it's immune to crushing and spells that allow spell resistance at this point. Louhi has nothing she can do. Tervel moves to Dagnar and gives him a protection from evil. Thoron tries a Blast of Sand. 51 damage. The figure looks a little sand-blasted, so we know that works.
A 2nd round of curses comes out. Dagnar gets a cold vulnerability. Tervel is a frog. Thoron is vulnerable to poison, and Louhi is vulnerable to cold. Aqila, Moonbeam, Joe, and Dagnar avoid new curses. The figure attacks. Dagnar has to save against confusion and makes it. Moonbeam has a petrify aimed at her, but being a solar saves her. Joe is fine because we had fire immunity for this trip. Aqila has a petrification applied to her, so she's stoned now. Louhi is also stoned. Tervel resists confusion but is still a frog. Thoron gets poisoned and would have lost 7 con if Moonbeam didn't have sheltered vitality up on us all, since he's currently not poison immune due to curses. The hollyphants get confused and so do two elephants. This'll be fun.
Dagnar tries three steel again, and this time it doesn't work. Looks like the new shield is immunity to piercing damage. Moonbeam Heals the summons to fix confusions and damage. She also puts stone to flesh on Aqila and Louhi while in timestop because they're objects. That works. Then she gets ready to blast of sand the guy to see if she can replicate Thoron's success. It fails. We guess evasion. Joe shifts to a garngrath and does a 'swallowing charge' on the figure. 80' swath where everything gets hoovered in if it doesn't make an opposed grapple check. The figure fails, and ends up 'en mah belleh'. Aqila puts Indomitability up on Joe to see if that helps what's likely to come later.
Curses happen again. Louhi loses her cold vuln as that curse is removed. Aqila doesn't get a curse again. Joe loses his poison immunity. Tervel loses flight. Thoron is also grounded. The rest resist their curses. Then Joe gets hit with all the attacks the figure unleashes, because the figure is in his belly, and Joe is the only target. Joe first gets hit with some sonic damage. 77 hps would have been gone except garngrafts are immune. Then a disjunction. Joe wildshapes into an earth elemental as a reaction. A baleful polymorph is resisted because elementals are immune. Then a petrify hits and he passed his save. Then an antimagic ray and he fails. A daze does nothing; he's immune. Confusion comes up twice, and he fails. 2nd antimagic ray doesn't do anything more. Saves against poison. Daze does nothing again. And another disjunction comes up. Polymorph is immune again. And finally a stun which he is also immune to.
The disjunction does not cancel the antimagic ray. But, we get the win. All curses end, and a naked Tervel grumbles a bit as he gets dressed again. Joe's stuck as an elemental for a bit. And buffless, since we can’t use magic between bouts. Going to make the next challenge interesting. The last one is 'power turns to smite the wielder'.
Joe is stuck as an elemental until we start the last challenge, and had all his buffs stripped. Moonbeam wants to open with an earthquake, so we try to make sure everyone is hovering as the challenge starts. The summons are old, but still present. The figure that appears in the middle of the field looks exactly like the fae lord. Time to roll initiatives again. Dagnar goes first, and his enervate does not work. Spellturning seems to be a thing, here. Moonbeam is up next and casts her earthquake. The figure doesn't get caught in any fissures. She first does timestop to prepare some spells.
And now the fun really starts. We all get hit with a targeted prismatic dispelling...so for every failed save, we also get hit with an effect from prismatic spray. Moonbeam loses 9 spells and eats 9 sprays. 3 Stone - immune, 2 poisons - immune, 2 Acid - 0 damage, 2 electricity - 60 damage, and 1 disintegration. She made saves, so the damage was less than it could be.
Dagnar loses 7 buffs. 1 insanity, 3 electricity, 1 poison, 2 disintegrations. He makes enough saves to take no damage. Louhi loses 5 buffs, but makes her saves against 2 disintegrations and 2 insanity. 20 fire damage only. Thoron loses 16 buffs. This'll be fun. 4 fire - 30 damage, 2 acid - 20 damage, 4 electricity - 200 damage, 3 poisons and 2 petrifications that he's immune to, and 2 disintegrations - 80 disintegration damage. He has fortunate fate kick in when he hits 0 hps, which is a 160 point heal, and when the disintegrations take him back negative, his contingincy last breath kicks in. So he was dead, briefly, and then gets stabilized at -1hp.
Aqila only loses 3 spells. And then she gets stoned again. The electricity is therefore not absorbed by her ring, and she takes 36 damage. Tervel loses all his buffs except fortunate fate, which helps when he fails his save against poison and it Heals him up. The summons numbers are shrunk - both hollyphants and two elephants are dispelled. Of the three left, one gets insane, one takes some disintegration, and one takes some elec. And that concludes the Charlie Foxtrot. It's Thoron's turn, and since Favor of the Martyr lets him act at -1hp, his move is HEAL.
Louhi charges towards the figure. Tervel is still unconsious. Joe casts timestop, shapeshifts into a prismatic golem, and rebuffs. He comes out of timestop, craps out a fabulous diamond, and sparkles. Dagnar is up again and jumps in close enough to stab, and attacks. He does some noticeable damage. Moonbeam timestops, unstones Aqila, buffs, then flamestrikes the figure. It evades. The insane elephant begins babbling incoherently. Aqila takes her belated turn from her midair advantage point, aims a cone of cold at the figure. It seems to do something. The figure comes up next - Dagnar gets hit with a reciprocal gyre. 49 damage. Louhi takes 9 damage.
Now it's Thoron's turn. He's a might cranky about this. He does fire seeds. They work. 49 damage. Louhi finishes her charge and she smacks him a good one. And does near max damage on it. 40 damage. Aqila casts a sonicball unprepared and it does 38 damage. Moonbeam's heal got Terval back on his feet, so he starts charging in too. Joe does 48 damage with fireseeds. Dagnar is up, and is still dazed. Moonbeam timestops for 5 rounds, teleports to stand next to the guy after healing Dagnar, prepares a mummify, and deploys it. He is still fleshly. (needed 13+, rolled 13.)
Figure goes and casts another mass reciprocal gyre. Dagnar gets dazed for 4 rounds again. Louhi gets dazed for 4 rounds. Moonbeam makes her saves. Minor damage all around. Thoron takes his turn by doing a fly-by blast of sand attack. Aqila does a fireball, and does 40 damage. Moonbeam and Joe were in the area of effect, but immune. Louhi is dazed. Tervel is in his flight stance, so he has to do a diving charge to get at the figure. He manages to connect with his attack, dealing enough damage to end the fight.
We have completed all 5 challenges now. And now the faelord comes out to chat with us, and he's got some info to share. The first thing he goes over with us is the layout of the ritual chamber we'll be fighting in at the temple. The chamber is roughly 50' by 70' with a second level balcony and stairs up to a raised platform with a low railing around it at the far end of the first level. Also what we can expect to find within. The high priestess is a lvl 20 caster, focused on divination, pain, and torture. Flensing, prismatic dispel, reciprocal gyre, etc. There will be one of Sakaneth's sorcerers, with a focus on temporal distortions. 30th level caster, focused on manipulating timestops. IE jump into your timestop and pull in other people too. There are iron golems that are normal except they breathe hellfire. The guards are basic melee combatants, but their armor can be triggered to make them more powerful for a time, before they explode. The high priestess or Silviel can trigger that. There will be half a dozen handmaidens...probably not enchantresses. Silviel likely won't be there when we arrive. She'll show up if all 6 handmaidens are dead/incapacitated, if the high priestess is dead, or if we're there longer than a minute. Silviel can enter timestops, but not cast it herself.
The darkness can be slowed by 1 celestial brilliance spell...it'll take 3 to stop it. We can't hurt her while she's using it, but it takes a bit before she can recast. She also has two tortured unicorns that have fallen to blackest evil. The chamber is enclosed within a teleport cage, and the walls have walls of force built into them. The entire chamber is covered in a 'distort summons' spell. (summons are evil versions, and not under your control) The last portal will not permit summons to pass, and it will slow your passage...they'll know you're coming and Zeleya is watching us. (it's like an anticipate teleportation spell). There's a portal to Zeleya's realm in the room - that's where Silviel will be entering from. Depending on how the battle goes, we could have an opportunity to destroy Zeleya herself, but the faelord does not recommend that we take it.
The faelord also warns us that it is possible, but not likely, that the sorcerer could have been gifted with a reactive timestop - an immediate action. “In Sakaneth's current condition, I wouldn't think he could receive that, but I wouldn't have thought it possible to have received the abilities I know he has received.”
We ask if there's a reason why he wouldn't recommend us killing Zeleya. He explains that one reason is the danger to us, but the other is that if we were to do so, many of the gods are bound by an oath to hunt down and deal with anyone who kills any god, so those gods that participated in the oath, would be required to hunt us down afterwards.
Note - we're getting this information in parallel to save time. We will also be learning metamagic on one spell up to 6th level to make it interact with the sorcerer's magic. The faelord lets us know that he thinks our friends can definitely keep the queen alive for another half hour, but not more than two. So that gives us our time limit. He'll also give us the equivalent of 2 hours rest. While he's giving Louhi her 'winnings - gear she can use, he tells her that these are the items that were prepared for her a millennium ago. That’s not ominous at all, now is it?
The faelord will not explain that last comment now, but we might learn more about it on our return trip.
Also, when we were getting the in parallel info dump, Louhi appears to be moving a lot faster than the rest of us. We can't hear what the others are told. Conclusion is that she's being told quite a bit more than the rest of us.
As we're preparing to go, Louhi tells Aqila – “As you know, my last court mage betrayed me...I believe your superiors would support your taking that position, and yes, I know you are one of the Sentinel, now.”
To Dagnar – “I similarly find myself in need of a new bodyguard.”
To Joe – “You may have perhaps heard some of the nobility's plans for timbering and similar operations. With what I know now, I would rather those be greatly impeded...not stopped because my people have need to wood. If any of your people would be interested in relocating...understand it would be welcome to me, but those holding those lands would be less welcoming.”
To Moonbeam – “While it has never truly been a position within the court of Aerodon, I believe a court physician would be valuable, particularly one that can defend herself to some degree.”
She doesn't say anything to Tervel (ooc - she knows where he's going next because the faelord told her. The faelord also gave her short bios about each of us, which is why she's making those offers.)
The faelord tells us this before we leave - 'while I will not give it to you now, as you may fail at Zeleya’s temple and I will not have it fall into her hands, I have prepared a focus that will let you return to my plane.' And with an evil smile, he continues, “should you survive, you will always be welcomed in the Court of Remembrance.” And at that, we hear a by now familiar scream of rage from Zeleya. (ooc - she didn't know which fae lord she was dealing with). (also ooc, the Court of Remembrance has the job of Remembering everything that's gone on, so this guy has the memories of all his predecessors.)
We'll finish sorting out our prep next session. Breaking here before the temple fun.

[Terane]

Spoiler: GM Commentary

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Some commentary on the previous post - didn't include inline because I wanted the whole block in one post, and looked to be a bit close on the character limit.

The fae lord was very definitely really there to help them - just had to make it look like he was trying to stop them. And, ideally, effectively kill at least one of them temporarily - Zeleya did a really bad job of reading the fine print on her deal with him. Anyone getting the impression that Zeleya wasn't exactly in the running for world's brightest deity is quite correct. In setting, quite possibly the least intelligent of all the gods - Asurak would give her competition, but his errors tend to be harder to see behind the general calamities. Add in that she's one of the more seriously crazy gods (virtually every deity in setting has some problems from past trauma, but Zeleya was definitely the worst off), and the fact that she had a plan as well thought-out as this is nothing short of astonishing. And not actually her work, as the party would learn soon.

Spoiler: January 2018

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We are preparing to go through the portal into Zeleya's Temple. We have had the equivalent of two hours rest, and are reprotting spells. Joe has a shapechange scroll that he's been hanging onto, and he manages to convince Aqila to use it. The plan is for her to go through the portal in Shadesteel golem form to make her immune to spells initially, with the suggestion to switch to Pit Fiend form so she can use spells again after the initial round. She's somewhat less than amused, but it does make sense. Tervel manages to not roll his eyes at the druid. Moonbeam and Dagnar are obtrusively snickering at Aqila's consternation.
We've been warned that the inhabitants of the temple will be waiting for us, because the way this last portal works, Louhi has to go last, but none of us will enter the temple until she does. It's a sort of detect teleportation spell that will dump us all out at once with them knowing exactly who's coming. So, to counter that, Joe is planning on casting flash flood at the portal so we have a water wall open the ball for us. We're warned that doing this might make things more difficult, but we judge that not getting killed outright is useful, and we'll prepare for stuff.
We need to kill Silviel before Tervel can deconsecrate the temple. Louhi has been enchanting every pebble she can with celestial brilliance so we have a weapon against Silviel's mist. We all have some of them, and she'll scatter a handful when we land. She also put Luminous Armor up on all of us - effect is benefits of full plate with no drawbacks, plus we glow. She'll also consecrate the area we land in so we can be healed - the soulbound unicorns emanate a 60ft field that makes damage dealt within it vile, which can't be healed outside of a consecrated area.
We come out with Aqila, Joe, Tervel and Louhi in the front of the alcove, and Dagnar, Thoron, and Moonbeam in the back. The flash flood smashes the door behind us, and flows down the stairs, damaging the balcony above us. (OOC it also drowns the prisoners that we never knew existed in the cells down below) The two priestesses on that balcony that wraps around the whole room are knocked prone, leaving four handmaidens up there. There was a wall of force preventing us from entering the sanctuary, and that fades away as we watch. Thoron, Joe, and Moonbeam are all in Prismatic golem form. The sorcerer acts first, and since he can't tell who's who reliably, and his initial thought for a spell won't work well on golems, he does something else. He disappears from our view, and Thoron sees some sort of spell effect on the floor under our 'feet'. We don't know what it does.
Dagnar goes next. He's gotten golem strike prepared and keen blade up on his weapons. He goes after a golem first and with one mighty blow knocks it down to 6 hps. Joe is targeted by the high priestess, and is hit with a dispel. He loses spells, but keeps his shapechange. Thoron gets the follow-up reciprocal gyre. He takes 57 damage or so. Joe gets to go next and opens with a murderous mist. He aims it to miss Dagnar and the golems, since they won't be affected anyway. Joe then puts whiteout up as planned, since had put snowsight up on us beforehand so we can see through it. A handmaiden goes next. She can use soulsight to see through the whiteout, and targets a prismatic golem. Thoron gets targeted again. Another 57 damage, then another one targets him, and indomitability stabilizes him at 1hp.
Thoron retaliates with a disjunction on the whole crowd, missing Dagnar and the golems. The portal ripples slightly, but appears untouched. He follows up with blinding spittle on the high priestess. That hits. Barely. A handmaiden targets Moonbeam with reciprocal gyre thinking that she's Joe, for 70 damage. The next one targets Thoron again, and he's saved by fortunate fate. He's at 114hps again. The next one targets Moonbeam for 35 damage. Moonbeam retaliates with an enhanced sonic strike at the back of the room. Only the high priestess and one unicorn make their saves. She casts firestorm next. The burning firestorm hits everything except allies and the golems. And it's all vile damage because of the unicorns. One unicorn makes the save.
A unicorn goes next, targeting Tervel with trap the soul. He makes the save. The last handmaiden goes and targets Moonbeam with 103 damage, but she makes the save for 52 damage. A lesser priestess is up, but she's blinded and in the whiteout. She Heals her blindness from murderous mist, but the whiteout is still in effect. The other unicorn is under orders to target Thoron with trap the soul, but it doesn't work on golems. He targets Tervel, and fails the attack.
Aqila goes next. She swaps to pit fiend form to cast, floats up 5 feet in case the floor does something unpleasant, then acid storms the room and puts a prismatic wall across the back of the room, in front of the portal. This may make things interesting. Louhi launches a Hammer of Righteousness at the lead soulbound unicorn, which gets killed outright, being evil, with 71 damage hit. The soldiers are up now, and 3 are blinded already. and all 4 are affected by whiteout. They all take defensive stances. Now the golems move. They rotate and breathe a 10ft cube of hellfire at Dagnar, futilely. Tervel's up, and his best move is killing the damaged golem. He fails to deal enough damage. It has 1 hp now.
The sorcerer is up again. He appears twice (can take two turns this turn). (OOC: He's been told specifically to kill Moonbeam, and he's pissed because his allies were not effective enough to get his target out of prismatic golem form). One of him disappears again. The other targets Dagnar with his equivalent of a disintegrate. Dagnar makes the save and takes 15 damage. Dagnar recasts golem strike and goes after the less damaged golem. He kills it. The high priestess is up next. She casts dispel at Joe again. He only loses only 3 spells this time. She's really annoyed now. So she hits Thoron with a reciprocal gyre. He takes some damage, but not enough to kill him yet. Then it's Joe's turn. He casts Control Winds. Chaos ensues. He forms it as a cylinder to not hit Dagnar and hits both levels of the room. Everyone who fails their save gets knocked prone. The high priestess, unicorn, and two handmaidens make their save. One handmaiden gets banished by the wall. One handmaiden gets turned to stone. 3 soldiers got blown in and are out of the picture. Both lesser priestess are dead. He uses his last action to cast Boreal winds. So, one more handmaiden gets banished when she slides into the wall.
So, left on the field are two priestesses above us on the balcony, confused in the whiteout, three handmaidens but two are prone, one unicorn, the high priestess, and one battered soldier. And the golem with 1 hp. The handmaiden who isn't prone hits Thoron with a reciprocal gyre. 55 more damage. Thoron's turn. Consistent Empowered Chain Lightning on the unicorn. It survives with 1 hp. We’re sensing a theme here.

Spoiler: GM Commentary

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This was more or less a theme for the entire battle. Didn't mention every time it happened, but virtually every enemy they dealt serious hp damage to ended up at exactly one hp at some point. I don't think I could duplicate that again if I tried.

We hear a familiar voice from the other side of the portal. "I'm so glad you are willing to meet my price." The prismatic wall shatters. The portal is no longer misty white, but clear. We can see a blue crystalline gem the size of a human on the other side. It's a very large shard of the Mad God. We can see Silviel next to it. Thoron hasn't finished his turn yet. He shapechange to Solar form with the High Priestess's face to taunt our opponents. Moonbeam's turn. She goes Solar so she can heal herself and Thoron. Then she firestorms things and now only two lesser priestess, the High priestess, and 1 golem with 1 hps are left plus the sorcerer. Aqila goes next. She tries a glasstrike on the now visible Silviel through the portal, which fails. She quickens an indomitability on Thoron so he's got a get out of death free card again.

Spoiler: GM Commentary

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And now the party knew why Zeleya's planning was abnormally good. They never got confirmation in character, but Sakaneth was more than a little annoyed at having to work through Zeleya. Of course, even if he had managed to fully reconstitute himself at this point, he'd never have considered personally taking the risks this plan entailed. That's what pawns are for.

Louhi's turn. She 'hammers' the High Priestess and she dies. Silviel steps into the room. She is now in the area of effect for the Control Winds and the Boreal Winds. She resist both. Tervel kills the golem, finally. Moonbeam put superior resistance back up on Joe one her turn. Silviel starts the turn order with 1 standard action. When she goes again, it'll be a full turn, but for this time, she dispels Thoron with a lvl 25 epic dispel. She thinks Thoron is Joe. Thoron keeps shapechange, but loses a lot of other stuff. The sorcerer acts next, and apparently it is now convenient for Sakaneth for Louhi to be dead. She eats two hits of +100 damage each, but stabilizes at 1hp thanks to indomitability. Dagnar goes to stab the sorcerer, who vanishes and appears across the room. Dagnar responds by finishing his move action to chase the sorc down and blurstrikes him to sneak-attack him.
Joe gets to go now. He becomes the flying spaghetti monster and starts beating the sorc down. He manages to kill it, and land a few hits on Silviel. Well, one. Thoron's turn would be next, but Silviel goes first. She still thinks Thoron is Joe. She fires a glasstrike at the bird. And succeeds. Thoron is out of the fight. Silviel has a swift action left and decides the octopus is Moonbeam. Reciprocal gyre at the Octopus. He takes 27 damage. Moonbeam is up next and heals Louhi up. Then she casts deadfall at Silviel, making the terrain over there treacherous. Silviel avoids being knocked prone.
Aqila manages to get a spell vulnerability to take affect on Silviel. And follows it up with darkbolt. Gets 4 bolts through, but Silviel makes all the saves against daze. Louhi's up next. She 'hammers' Silviel and does some damage. Silviel has a standard action next, and thinks Joe is Moonbeam, and Moonbeam is Thoron. She also thinks she's winning and decides to toy with us. She hurls a Darkbolt at Joe and he takes 62 damage. He's immune to daze, but feigns it anyway. Tervel is up. He uses the longstrider buff to charge Silviel and hits. He does 70 damage with smite evil.
Top of the order, and it's another Silviel standard action. She continues to attack 'Moonbeam' with a baleful polymorph. Because Joe put plant body up on everyone including himself, it does nothing. Dagnar is up next. He does a swift action Night's Move so he can flank her and full attack from behind. He gets 5 attacks with haste and gets 1 hit in, and it's a critical. 99 damage dealt, less damage reduction. Joe is up. He uses two charges of his still/silent thingy so he can cast mass resist sonic and mass resist cold while still appearing to be dazed. So Dagnar doesn't take much damage from the tentacles, and Tervel only takes 96. Dagnar is targeted with an implosion, but she fails to get through his spell resistance. She follows up with a reciprocal gyre. 80 damage and dazed. Thoron is a statue, so Moonbeam dragonflamestrikes Dagnar and Silviel, trusting in his saves, which he makes, then she mass heals the melee crew. Silviel makes a save, but still takes damage. She doesn't have evasion.
Aqila casts Ruby Ray of Reversal at Thoron, undoing the statueing. Louhi does a Righteous Smite on Silviel for 78 damage. Silviel does a mass reciprocal gyre. Aqila is at -23 hps, conscious because of favor of the martyr. Everyone in range gets beaten up. Tervel does an Emerald Displacement strike on Silviel...she now has a 20% miss chance. And takes 54 damage before reduction.
Silviel goes into a shell. She is going to be in there for 1 round. We have 6s to prepare. Tervel puts up strength of Stone. +8 to str. Dagnar puts Heroism up. Thoron puts up energy resistance electricity on Tervel, and now both melee types are immune to the tentacles. Aqila mass heals the front of the room, and everyone is healed to full. Joe goes into timestop and rebuffs Bite of the Werebear, and makes a bunch of fire seeds. Moonbeam goes into timestop and also makes a pile of fire seeds plus some Monstrous Vermin, then puts owl's insight up on Thoron. They both pile them where Silviel will be when she comes out of her shell. Then everyone goes prismatic golem again who can.
Silviel's move on coming out of the shell is to cast implosion, at Aqila. She makes her save. Dagnar goes next. He's got 5 attacks and lands 2. Plus he doubled his sneak attack for this round, so he does 188 total, after damage reduction. Joe detonates his fire seeds for a pile of damage. Silviel takes her full turn now. She tries to implode Dagnar again, and his spell resistance saves his bacon. So, she hits him with a quickened reciprocal gyre. Dagnar takes 74 damage and is dazed. Thoron's turn. He tries baleful polymorph for kicks and giggles. No sell. Moonbeam sets off her fire seeds. Another pile of damage plus she gets Dagnar healed back up, so he's back in it.
Aqila tries a Glass Strike and it fails. Louhi tries Implosion on Silviel. It succeeds splendidly. Silviel is now a messy mess. We hear Sakaneth's sardonic voice. "It seems, dear Zeleya, that you have a bit of a problem. You could try to meet my price for more active assistance. You could try to step through yourself, if you even have enough power to form an avatar right now, and I suspect any such avatar would be weaker than your little servant there was. Or, I suppose, they might try to purchase my assistance. That might even be entertaining." he concludes cheerfully.
Joe asks him what his price is, out of curiosity. "Well, you have removed some number of my servants lately, though, to be fair, that idiot Rakshasa should have used them more efficiently. So I suppose, if say, three of you would agree to join the ranks of my sorcerers, that would suffice." Joe says, "The answer is probably no, but to be fair, what would that entail?" "Why, your complete and total devotion to me of course." Moonbeam laughs, which looks like a Rave in her current form. Zeleya is almost incoherent with rage and sputters, “I can still kill them. They can't leave here quickly enough" Sakaneth laughs and says, "Ah, and here comes the final player in this little act." The fae lord shows up.
"A minor matter first, Zeleya. You do owe me for our bargain still. And I think I know exactly what I wish to collect. If you wish to survive, you know what deal you must make now, but first you will let these leave first, unharmed, with me." Then, looking at Louhi, he says, “You know what that gem is for. Throw it through the portal now." Louhi smiles, and does so with alacrity. The portal shatters, and the temple is fully deconsecrated. The fae lord looks at all of us, and comments, "It would be wise to depart quickly" Joe makes a point of eating the remaining priestesses on our way out. They are insane without Zeleya's influence, but it's the point of the matter. The temple collapses as we decamp.

Spoiler: OOC Future

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The bargain is that Zeleya will ensure that that shard of Sakaneth reaches his temple so he can be reborn, and in return, he will make sure she comes back when he's back to his full power. And Sakaneth promised Zeleya that she will be given her sister Selwende, goddess of lust, to do with as she wishes. And if that sounds like a bargain favorable to Zeleya, keep in mind the relative talents of each as schemers. (Admittedly, Sakaneth's talents are more informed attribute than anything really shown in the campaign - interaction with his plots has been more his plots as carried out by underlings/pawns of varying ability, with his ability to provide effective guidance being distinctly limited)

So, we follow a Fae Lord to his home. He seems pleased with this day's work.

[Terane]

Spoiler: February 2018

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So, we pick up where we left off, having destroyed the temple of Zeleya that we've been hunting for months, killed Silviel, her lieutenant, permanently, and saved the princess! We also haven't really slept in almost 24 hours, and we've just been told that we've been invited to a meeting of the Fae Courts. Tervel is not with us, because the Fae Lord sent him to where he is going next. Louhi is not going to be going either, because she’s not involved with the reason we’re being invited. Instead, she’ll wait for us as long as she thinks is wise, and if we don’t show in time, she’ll return to Aerodon without us.
The fae lord, who extracted us from Zeleya’s temple and who has extended this invitation to us explains why he has done so. It's because "We have been in contact with servants of the All-Devourer" (the blobby things we killed with healing magic when fighting Helvisarn). "I am aware that the contact was entirely hostile, however others of the Courts doubt that. There are more than a few cannot believe that any human could possibly defeat his minions, so obviously you must have struck a deal." Moonbeam looks insulted.
"So far, none of those who believe this think themselves strong enough to attack you directly." Moonbeam comments that that doesn’t rule out indirect attacks. Joe asks if they care that we stopped thousands of Fae from being consumed to be Helvisarn's servants'. The fae lord explains that the Outer Fae basically see the fae native to the material plane as worthless. If any of the outer fae themselves had been caught in that mess, we might have earned some points, but any of the ones likely to have that happen to them would be more likely to try to remove the embarrassment of being saved by mortals by removing said mortals. Eyerolls all around.
The Fae lord goes on to explain that his intent in inviting us here is so we can demonstrate that we have not been corrupted. Joe asks what happens if we can't prove that. The Fae lord says, "For you, nothing. The court of Blood would capitalize on it, as would Bone and Terror. The Court of Stars would be diminished, as would Light, though they might try to attack you directly." Basically, the courts of Light and Stars aren't necessarily friendly to mortals, but they leave us alone. Light likes the idea of defending mortals, even, as long as they don’t have to associate with us to do so. Bone and Terror don't want to wipe us out, because we are useful for raw materials and terrorizing. Blood just wants to kill everyone and they wouldn't object to spilling mortal blood a little early.
He then goes on to warn us that we probably want to hide the gifts we received - specifically calling out what we got from the elder Dragons of Arandor. The fact that he knows about where were got them from has interesting implications. He doesn't think any masking we can do would hide them sufficiently, on being asked, but if they’re concealed extradimensionally, that ought to let them avoid notice. He does not tell us why he thinks we need to hide them.
We are told that the debates may take a few hours, depending on which minor courts or other people show up. If, for example, Shylarene decides to show up, we can expect for her to be there and officially protesting any attempt to let us go free. Moonbeam asks if she’s a 'Zeleya fan girl?' The fae lord comments, “No, it would just be to her advantage to officially protest. If she thought you were stupid enough to accept them, she might shower you with gifts.” She's not a fae, she's the Queen of Succubi. Joe asks, “Did we cause a power vacuum?" His reply is, "In the planes, no, Zeleya still exists, but in the material plane, people will undoubtedly already be moving in.”

“Kizravek will have undoubtedly moved already - he has no use for politics. If Shylarene is there, I would expect quite a bit of additional debate. Perhaps a day or two.” Aqila comments that we haven't slept in almost a day. “I am well aware, and there won't be opportunity for rest while the debate goes on, unless you want it to go against you.” Joe points out cheerfully, “that's what Heal is for!”
The Fae Lord continues, “The most serious concern is if the Empty Court is aware of this and chooses to make their case. They are in favor of cooperation with the All-Devourer, and at best, they would believe that you have made a deal and would seek to cooperate with you. But I have no knowledge of their deliberation. The other minor courts are unlikely to contribute anything of note. Revelry and Mirth are likely to be present – but do not take their names to mean what you think - when Zeleya dealt with me, she thought I was of the court of Mirth and found it natural that I would deal with her. Others are willing to revel constantly, and they may be put out by having to interrupt their revels.”
His final cautions is, “Remember to be polite when dealing with the court of Stars. They are the most well-disposed towards mortals, which is to say they think you barbarians that may be trainable to not piddle on the carpet.” Joe cracks that neither the mage nor Dagnar should be allowed to talk, in that case.
(ooc - the division between the material plane fae and the outer fae happened before the time of the Old Gods. There are occasional contacts between them, but only occasional)
He asks, finally, “So, before we proceed, have you any questions?” Moonbeam asks if there is anything, apart from our mere existence, that the Fae Courts would find insulting?” Aqila expands that we are remembering a time when a dragon tried to kill us because her boyfriend gave us a present. The faelord comments that he is well aware of Zalakirinel's missteps. “I suppose there has been little enough contact that it would be good to remind you that the courts are under Seal of Peace so do not make any hostile actions. Those of the courts will try to insult you to tempt you to unwisdom.” On being asked, “What happens if we insult them back?” he comments, “It would get you no points with the fae you insult. With others, it depends on whether they would see gain, or at least no loss, by not reprimanding you.”
The fae lord gave us some more details on the courts: “Bone, Blood, and Terror are loosely aligned. Light nominally opposes them. They are in love with the theory of defending the mortal realms, but more the less they have to have contact with actual mortals.” Joe asks if there is anything we might do that would be seen as threatening that we might not realize would be seen as such. The fae lord gives us some details about duels - long story short, mortal duels are the only ones you can kill someone without suffering the wrath of all the courts, other types could be to first blood, to first folly, or to humiliation. Joe asks if that last one includes turning someone into a statue and crapping on them. The fae lord notes that that might be amusing to those of a vulgar mind, but if he wants to actually score points, he should think of something more refined. The best approach is to get your opponent to do something on his own that would be humiliating, but using enchantment spells to do that scores less points. (Note: brainspider is not enchantment).

He further remarked, “And I suppose, since you brought it up, I should stress that accepting any gifts that any members the court offers you would be unwise, but declining them will require a certain degree of tact.” Joe asks about the exchanging gifts thing to cancel debt. “Sometimes, yes. here it would be unwise to carry away anything you might be given here. You can be confident that such a gift will be in some way, trapped.” Good to know.
The fae lord pauses a moment, then “And there is some unwelcome news. Shylarene has just entered the courts. You should be prepared for a longer debate. I had hoped she would not move so quickly…” He pauses again. “It lacked only that. Apparently you made more of an impression than I thought. All the minor courts are in attendance. At least it is fewer than it would have been once. There would have been thousands once, but there are only dozens today. The strong become stronger and the weak disappear. You might find some entertainment from some of them, but don't accept any drinks from the Court of Wine. Pleasure, Pain, and Misery will all be present, and of course, the Empty Court.”
“One last matter before we enter, since they are all assembled and delay would insult now...” He gestures and an image springs up. “While the planes cannot be mapped precisely, to make it clear why they are concerned about the All-Devourer...” We can see in the image the rough sizes of the Fae plane, the Demon planes, the Infernal planes, and a giant dark region that is the All-Devourer, dwarfing the rest. The abyss is between the Devourer's region and the Fae and Infernal realms. The fae lord mentions that he has known that the Devourer has devoured over a hundred thousand planes in his time. “If Sakaneth were awake, the Abyss would be an insurmountable obstacle. So you see why we wish him to be awake. The devourer doesn't know Sakaneth is sleeping, and is so proceeding cautiously.”
So, we hide our dragonshinies, and Dagnar is warned to stop being a Gloom since that is an effect of his shiny. (Also, Glooms are servants of Sakaneth so we don't want to imply we're allied with him)
The fae lord had also given us the names and descriptions of the major players we'll be seeing. Most courts will only have between 2-5 representatives here, being the heads of the court plus any courtiers they chose to bring. For example, the queen of Blood will usually only bring some of her knights that have yet to earn a name. They earn names by shedding sufficient blood and mortals aren't worth much. The Queen of Bone will certainly have an attendant of some sort, likely of her own crafting. The King of Terror usually brings his huntmaster and his chief torturer. Light usually brings his Champion and sometimes his consort. She comes only for matters of lesser importance, otherwise she stays home to ensure the safety of their people. The Queen of Stars usually brings her chief advisor and two randomly selected courtiers, and it is as far as anyone can tell completely random. We shouldn’t expect either of them to be of any importance to any debate. Moonbeam asked if they were for 'decoration?' “Decoration and extra eyes and ears. Anything they hear will be made known to their queen, but what they think is unimportant. Though if you insult them, she may take it as an insult against her.”
That led to Joe asking if we might insult someone by accident, if there are any special sensitivities. The fae lord thinks a moment, and notes that if the Queen of Bones brings one of her more odorous servants, carefully do not comment about the smell. The Court of Light, of course...be quiet, courteous, and do not attempt any form of physical contact whatsoever. As far as the Court of Stars is concerned...if you can show yourselves to be reasonably polite and attentive to all the courts, not just to hers, she will likely side with you.
Joe asks, “How many of them do we have to win over?” The reply is “Strictly speaking, just one...the others will be unlikely to confront them over this. Ideally, you would win over all of them, but...The Court of Stars is the most powerful right now, but is in the descendent. Blood, Bone, and Pain are all in the ascendant. As far as the minor courts, as long as none of the major courts take offense against you, they are unlikely to acknowledge that they have been offended. They are also unfortunately less stable in their inner workings than the major courts, and I cannot be certain who will be sent to represent them. So I cannot say what idiosyncrasies might lead to giving offense. Though undoubtedly the Empty court will be offended if you manage to convince the others that you made no such deal.”
Joe asks what happens if someone attacks us unprovoked, are we allowed to defend ourselves? “You are, and technically the other courts are required to defend you. In practice they will delay as long as they think they can. Even the Court of Stars is unlikely to think it worth it to hurry. As a hypothetical, if the Queen of Blood chose to attack you directly, the Court of Stars would almost certainly intervene instantly. Of course, all the courts know this.”
We're warned that getting caught lying would be bad. Joe asks if there would be any reason to not just request that they put an antimagic ray and a zone of truth on us and ask is flat out if we made a deal or not, as a way of short circuiting the debate. The fae lord thinks the likely outcome would be to get ourselves removed from direct questioning, but we would still end up sitting in the room while we get discussed. It would be a gamble, but one in our favor, he thinks. And now, it is time to leave this antechamber and face the courts.
When we enter, the first reaction we see is from an attractive female fae surrounded by 4 faceless knights. “How good of you to grace us with your presence, Resondiel, and I see you brought pets.” The Fae Lord, who we now know is named Resondiel answers, “You would appear to be somewhat behind the times, or did you not hear that they sealed Zeleya away, for some time now. However, since the purpose of this meeting is to allow discussion over the possibility that they have bargained with the All-Devourer, I think it best that we hear their defense.”
There is silence for a little while, then we see a woman that is obviously the Queen of Bone, given the monstrous skeletal horror standing behind her. It looks like dozens of animal skeletons wired together. Moonbeam eyes the anatomical puzzle. The Queen breaks the silence with, “I supposed since you've gone to the trouble of bringing them here, we may as well hear what they have to say, assuming they can say anything for themselves. That you are in your right minds has not yet been proven”. Joe comments that that may be true, since sane people generally don't pick fights with gods.
The King of Terror speaks next – “To my mind, that is actually a point against you. While Zeleya is certainly unpleasant and far from a particularly reliable power, her realm is at least between mine and the All-Devourer.” Joe commented, “It should still be there.” “Yes, but you have noticeably weakened her. To be fair, she is not a particularly noticeable impediment, but she still would have impeded him somewhat, if anything by the time it would take him to digest her realm!”
Moonbeam points out that she is a shaman from a long line of shamans, and making such a bargain would be antithetical to her nature. The Queen of Blood came back with, “I think even Estarven would have to agree that it would not be the first time that convenience or power seduced someone away from their principles." Moonbeam rebuts that she could have taken service with Zeleya if she was after power. Estarven, the King of Light, speaks up to note that in the short run, Zeleya might seem safer, but in the long run the All-Devourer will not reach our realm for some time, and noting that the servants have shown up in fae realms, and even in the realms of pure law on occasion.
Aqila points out that the only reason the servants were on the material plane is because Helvisarn let them in and we ensured he suffered the consequences of that stupidity in short order, Joe noting that we did get rid of them first.
We can tell that the Queen of Stars seems annoyed when she speaks up. "These accusations and counter accusations could go on for some time. I for one would prefer we move on to discussion how we will respond to Zeleya's temporary removal. But, this matter must be disposed of first. So, do you have any suggestions for how to speed this along?” she asks the crowd in general.
Joe suggests a discern lies spell and an antimagic ray to suppress our ability to resist the first spell. No one seems to speak, from what we can see, but the Queen of Stars says, “So, it seems that the Queen of Blood has an objection to this procedure.” Blood contended, “It is perfectly well known that there exist magics that will defeat this. I would insist that they dismiss all of their defenses while they are questioned.”
Joe comments that he didn't think she would be that incompetent. The Queen of Blood states that she isn't speaking for herself, but the lesser courts that have less power - she doesn't want to have this debate again in a few months, so let’s be absolutely certain.
Shylarene speaks up next. “If it pleases the court, you are all familiar with my skill with enchantments and that their defenses are less than nothing to my skill.” A bit of backing and forthing about how reliable she would be, ie why wouldn't see wouldn't just have us lie under influence. Joe ends with a comment implying that she's saying that the fae aren't as powerful as she is. Shylarene gives Joe a look that would incinerate him instantly if she could. She seems noticeably pissed that he called her out like that.
The Queen of stars moves to move on from that suggestion. "Well, will you consent to Nezari's suggestion (The Queen of Blood’s name is Nezari)?" Joe points out that if you are saying you can't tell if we're lying or not with what protections we have up, that doesn't speak well to ones competence. No poisonous looks this time. We can tell the Queen of Blood would like to continue the line of argument, but it's too threadbare of an argument at this point.
"Very well, then, says Blood, "for whatever it will prove, go ahead. Let us hear from them exactly what happened to them in their battle, with no omissions. Aqila roots through her bag of holding for a moment, and pulls out her copy of the mission report she submitted to her bosses after that incident. And starts reading from the top so their admittedly fallible mortal memories omit nothing. When she gets to the part about the globby things that showed up, the Court of Wine’s representative spoke up. “That sounds like servants of the Unifier. You can't seriously expect us to believe that they fought on the same side as the All-Devourer!”
Aqila states that she's reporting what we observed, and that we have no insight into what bargains Helvisarn may or may not have made in his time outside the Material plane. "As interesting and implausible as that seems, she is at least truthfully reporting what they saw. What the creatures were, you may or may not be right. It hardly matters. The Unifier is at this time not of any great concern to the courts”. There is a pause, then “Let her proceed”, says the Queen of Stars. Aqila finishes reading off the mission report without further interruptions.
At this point, the King of Terror speaks up. “Presuming of course, as naturally I do, that they had no means beyond our ability to defeat our perceptions. I find it implausible that they made any sort of bargain. On the other hand, we have been remiss in considering the actions of this…Ilene.”
Long story short, Terror wants the fae to 'investigate' unwise humans who make bargains with powers like Helvisarn' by opening the old gates to the material realm. Aqila points out that when mortals engage in that foolishness, there are mortal organizations who deal with them, as was the case in this instance. Terror basically wants to get a gate open so they can go back to 'playing' with mortals, and sees this is a way to get that much.
The King of Light says, “I think I can agree that opening the gates would be premature. Certainly let us make preparations to open the gate if there is a reason to do so, and perhaps increase our efforts to observe their world so that we might spot anything of concern to us.”
The Queen of Stars says, “I think we can proceed as Estarven has suggested. I had hoped we could resolve this more finally, but I suppose it would be premature to permanently remove the threat posed by mortals - they may prove to have some value at some point in time. I supposed the only thing that remains is for our guests to give an account of their dealings with Zeleya. It is, after all, fortunate, that the same people were involved in both incidents.
We gave the fast version of events, along the lines of, “We thought we'd been invited to a nice party, until the torture scene in the basement, so we put the kibosh on that and followed the princess through 5 or 6 planes until we reached the temple...which Zeleya wanted us to do because she still wanted to use Louhi's body as a vessel. At which point we killed all of her unicorns, guards, priestesses, servants, and golems, and Silviel too. Well, Louhi killed her. Implosion spell. Very messy. Sakaneth has an interesting sense of humor, by the way. Zeleya was pretty pissed last we saw of her, before everything collapsed. But we'll be dead before she gets back, so we don't care…”
We give more details about the battle, of course. Shylarene asks Resondiel why he intervened. “Because it amused me. Why else does any of us do anything?" The Queen of Stars concludes our part in the proceedings with, "A quite clear statement. I think that we can for the moment dispense with your presence, though we would wish you would stay readily available in case we have more questions. Melisinel, Kelryn, see to their reasonable comfort while we deliberate further.” We are escorted out of the counsel hall to a side chamber with a buffet bar, and couches. We don't eat the food, but we have munchies with us.
After a few hours, Resondiel comes in. “I am somewhat surprised and more than a little suspicious that Blood and Bone have both agreed to go along with the Court of Stars’ response so quickly. There is a small matter that is of some concern to you. I am not certain you will be interested, and I am not inclined to try to advise either way. It appears the Court of Light has been working on a potential weapon against the All-Devourer. They believe they have a way to destroy his servants entirely and not merely return them to him. There is of course a small catch. To function properly, they think it will require a mortal to wield it and it has occurred to some of Estarvens's underlings that, since you have apparently defeated some of these servants, you might be appropriate wielders.
Joe asks what the costs are. “In the long run, the cost would be your life. That said, this is a timespan longer than you would likely live anyway, assuming of course they have correctly estimated the effect, it would ensure you could not live beyond two hundred years from the time you take it up. I will say that Estarven at least is prepared to offer you what he considers reasonable payment for taking up the task. I am not at all certain what he considers reasonable, and I would advise against attempting to bargain. And I will say that refusing after he states what it would be would be somewhat of an insult to him.”
Moonbeam asks what happens if the wrong hands get it. 'Assuming it functions as advertised, it would be nearly harmless to anything not one of the All-Devourer’s servants. I note that they would expect you to employ it against them, and if it should turn out if they have misjudged, it well could turn out to be fatal.” Joe asks why it would be fatal. “Because the time you would spend trying to use it would give the servants time to kill you. And even if it does work, it will take half a minute to be used, and in that time your companions would have to both not kill them and keep them from interfering with the device. And the range is short, about 60 feet. The device, fully assembled, it is about your size. It can be folded into a more compact form, of course, folded it will take more time to set up.”
Joe asks if there'll be more refined versions coming out. The fae lord notes that there could be, if they put the effort in, but most of the court is disgusted with the progress made thus far. He's surprised, given their distaste for mortals, that they're making the offer at all.
We also learn that as far at the faelord believes, when we killed the servants, they would have been instantly available for the devourer to dispatch again, but for some reason he wasn't able to send them back to our location.
Aqila asks if they'd be upset if mortals investigated how the device works. He thinks they wouldn't be, but they won't let it out of their possession unless it is bonded to a mortal who will use it. Long story short, there's little benefit to us, and if they're wrong on the magnitude of the life-shortening, a great deal of harm to one of us. So we are going to decline. If they want to work with the Sentinel to do more research, that'd probably be cool, but the Light guys aren't interested.
So, we go back to the fae lord's realm to reunite with Louhi, and prepare to escort her home. We arrive back at her castle where we'd left from, and alarm spells start going off. The room contains a very, very decayed corpse about where we'd left Queen Ansa. The clothes are decayed, the bones are crumbling, and the crown is dust. The former ice sculptures aren't there, and neither is the priest or Aremel. Spot checks!
Thoron spots a ripple along one wall, right before one of Pinja's assassins stepped out. “Ah, my lady was hoping that you would return. For the moment, at least, your brothers have been convinced to leave the castle. I hope you can convince some actual forces to reach here or convince your sister to leave.” Aqila points out that we just got back from killing Silviel and banishing Zeleya from the world, so we do constitute a force of sorts. The assassin looks exasperated – “can you produce an army? Prince Teemu at least had some suspicion that his father was dying and has half the army backing him up.”
We point out that we can scare an army off, or impede it without harming them. Louhi requests that whatever we do appear to be natural to a mage. Some things we could do include scaring them off with the moondog's ability, or just fogging things up.
Louhi's main concern is ensuring that the country is not torn apart in a civil war. Given that we’ve been directly involved in two of those so far, we aren’t exactly eager to go for three. The assassin reports Teemu’s forces are two, maybe three days away, at the rate that army is moving. The army is of concern to the assassin because their lady refused to leave without being certain that her sister was safe, and the four of them aren't enough to keep her safe from that.
Short sidetrack whereupon Joe determines that the assassin cannot speak of matters that are not for outsiders, such as the numbers and locations of other assassins.
We’re told her 'sisters' have counted no fewer than 97 people wearing robes of high ranking mages of Aerodon with the army. Counting the low level mages, there are approximately 120 mages in the entire country. They have seen no fewer than 35 wearing robes of archmage, of which we know there are 11 in the country. Beyond that, he apparently has a surprising, assuming the robes to be telling the truth, number of the priesthood with him. We are again confident that some of them are false, though the numbers are more plausible. He could have scraped up those numbers if all priests within 250 miles were supporting him.
Joe questions if assassination is on the table. The assassin states that she'd been advising her lady to take that option. Louhi states that she'll entertain that notion only if it's the only way to prevent him from taking the throne. Otherwise, she wants him alive to face justice.
Thoron is sent out to reconnoiter with his specially acute vision and pin down what the actual forces are. There are 6 archmages, 11 senior mages, and the remaining 80 have mage levels at least. This is a large chunk of the army's mages.
Other options discussed include just sending invitations to the country's nobles to come to the coronation. Antero is still at the palace, so we hunt him up to ask him what he thinks of all this. He thinks it unlikely that Teemu will have any of Selwende's priestess's with him, or any of Melore's, except for healers. They might be receptive to a chat, but they aren't likely to be in the loop on anything important. There are about 80,000 common soldiers. We also learn that traditionally, in coup attempts, the winner will share out about a quarter of the treasury among the survivors.
Moonbeam is sent out as a little birdie to brainspider folks in the army to see why they're following Teemu. The story going around the army is that both the queen and the princess has disappeared, presumably abducted, and Teemu has gathered them up to rescue them. Also a rumor that an imposter is going to show up. Moonbeam plants some counter-rumors with a compulsion to spread them. The soldiers are hoping that this is a rescue mission and that the princess will be there and shower her with gold for rescuing them.
Moonbeam then tries some of the lesser mages to see what they think. Quite a few of them are harboring their own suspicions about Teemu's actual plans and in general they're mostly approving of the idea. Moonbeam plants the idea that they feel like Louhi is scrying on them in some fashion in some of them, and the idea that Louhi may have more powers than she's shown, so are they really backing the right one?
Moonbeam audits the senior officers' thoughts and finds many of them are anticipating the perks of senior officers in a coup - gold and the pick of the loot and slaves if they get to sack a city. She's disgusted. A few officers are aware that there's a general who pointedly refused to join Teemu, and has been retired for sometime. This is the guy who's the reason that Teredor only took a small slice of Aerodon last war. He turned down the last two offers of a job he'd been given - and was offered lavish pay on one of those occasions. They're also nervous because he's popular with the common troops.
When Moonbeam gets back with her news, we ask about this famous general. Louhi hasn't met him, and he probably wouldn't know her by sight, but...it's worth a shot.
When we reach the general's house, his first question is, “What army do you have? We indicate that we're it. He comments that we're not doing a very good job selling or position. Aqila comments, “would you rather we lied?' and Joe asks if he wants a demonstration of competence. The general says no and no. Joe comments that we're hoping this won't come to a fight. The general states that it will, but the question is who will be fighting. The general asked who the opposition’s general is. We tell him. “So, young Jarmo is the best he could get? You probably won't need my help, but I'd rather that idiot got as few soldiers killed as possible.”
We mention that the army hasn't been moving as fast as it could be. He asks how fast. 2-3 days to cover what they should in 1. He'd have expected a week. We comment that we can arrange for some obstacles to slow them down further. Snow, sleet, fog, etc...He suspects that Jarmo wouldn't have remembered anything that wasn't weapons and army...'I wonder if they have shovels.'
We have recruited General Mauri. On the recruiting noble’s front, we're getting mixed results. Mauri is willing to help with recruiting armies, but helping with the nobles would backfire. We keep at it, and with one day's work, we almost have a quorum of nobles, after browbeating the nobles in the dungeon who haven't been stripped of their titles yet. Only some of them are willing to sign a petition supporting Louhi...others would be once the coronation has started. And others would sign on if we could neutralize the opposing army. Joe uses control weather to turn the rain to sleet, which has a heavy fog roll in.
So on Day 2, the army is basically stuck and some desertions start happening. The archmages are expending considerable effort to ensure that their tents and the senior officers tents are in clear patches. This doesn't help with their popularity with the troops. Being able to show that the army is sitting tight gets us to quorum. The coronation will take place in 3 days. The ceremony will take that long to set up, and Louhi insists that the formalities must be observed here.
The assassins are less twitchy about their lady being in danger now. And General Mauri is of the opinion that he wouldn't have tried to move the army through the snow - at least two of those archmages ought to know teleport circle. Also, his first response would have been to recognize that this was a magical assault and go hunting for the spellcaster. He also would have been reasonable sure that he had more overall magical power in hand than the opposition (us). He'll concede that individually we're probably a match for any one of Teemu's archmages, but he isn't sure the lot of us together can in a straight up fight take all of them. Mauri also thinks that we're unlikely to get any of the other archmages to join Louhi's side - he's met some of them. Their attitude is basically 'we'll serve whoever wins, otherwise we'll stay out of it.'.
We keep the lid on things for the next 3 days. Joe continues recruiting to get lagging nobles to join in. We do hear a rumor that Prince Juho has gone to sea, sailing for the Dragon Confederation. He's on a Dragon Ship. A proclamation that Juho left behind is also found, to the effect that, in the event Teemu is crowned, that Teemu is illegitimate, killed the princess, and for loyal citizens to resist his rule until Juho comes back with allies to free the land from Teemu. Louhi is reasonably confident that that proclamation will get out, at some point. There are also rumors that Prince Aimo was assassinated. (he was scooped up by some of Queen Ansa's minor priestess's to be sat on until they know whether the ceremony succeeded or not. If it failed, they need someone from the correct bloodline to get a new vessel for the next attempt. And with Zeleya gone, they can't get new spells burned into them.)
We have in total 5 days before the coronation. The ceremony goes off without a hitch. We are now officially hired, and the coronation decrees are proclaimed, starting with the traditional pardoning of minor crimes. Petty thieves, etc. Next, formally outlawing Zeleya's temples with an additional edict that anyone convicted of being one of her priests is now under the sentence of death. The final decree 'in light of the consistent and persistence failures of our predecessors in prosecuting wars against Teredor, we will seek to settle our differences and regularize our relations with that nation.'
(By custom, she was limited to three coronation decrees, and nobles do not dispute them. They will still try to find ways around it, but not publically).
Next step is to make a general announcement to the army of the coronation plus the proclamation's text. Shortly after that, we can see several fights break out in the camp, on the level of fist fights, not weapons. A day later, a delegation headed by 3 archmages shows up. They essentially repeating the story they'd been told, that Louhi had been kidnapped, and replaced with an impostor, and if they could be assured that she's really her, they'll serve her. We also hear from them that Prince Teemu disappeared during the confusion, along with two of their fellow archmages. They don't know if they left together or separately. The 6th will have quietly returned to his estates when they get back. The last guy hasn't decided what to do yet.
We ask where General Jarmo went - apparently he disappeared too, along with a high ranking priest. Afterwards, quietly, one of them approaches Aqila and tells her he thinks he knowns why the general disappeared, handing her a hefty ledger. On investigating, the army was twice as big on paper, and he was collecting the excess. He'd gotten a pardon from Teemu contingent on his taking the throne. It's not a capital crime, but grounds for dismissal and repayment. He'd only been cooking the books for a year, so he'd 'only' stolen about 10,000 gold. Mauri’s opinion is that Jarmo's skill in embezzlement was on par with his generalship. If he'd faked fewer soldiers, he wouldn't have needed to pay so many bribes, and gotten about the same profit with less consequences.
Louhi doesn't need us to look for Jarmo, she'll just publish an proclamation of exile and he can look over his shoulder until someone scoops him up. She does want to know where Teemu and the two archmages went to, and if they're together. Scrying doesn't turn them up. (the priests and mages who vamoosed had habits that Louhi would strongly disprove of. Beating of inferiors and so on)
So we pause here. Aqila drops off her latest adventure report in Arandor for the archives. She gets a simple warning that in about a week's time, we need to make sure we will be available on very short notice. We are also instructed to bring Louhi up to date on certain items with a note that she probably already knows. It's a list of things that the Sentinel is doing in general terms. We do know that the strike for the Maelstrom is coming soon, and there won't be much notice when it starts. Sometime in a week to three.
All the items from the Veiled Order Citadel are available now. The contract for the Weird has been deciphered, and we can release it if we want to. We'll have to fight it until it is released, and we can't kill or incapacitate it if we want it to work.

Spoiler: GM Commentary

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Plot thread that never got picked up - sitting around as a potential short one-shot for some hypothetical time part of the group can't make a game day for the currently running campaign.

Spoiler: March 2018

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Picking up where we left off. Louhi has been crowned, and we have jobs for the foreseeable future in her queendom. But first, there's the little matter that the Sentinel is going to need us for something within the next week...
Since Aqila is taking over as Court Mage from the stooge of the previous queen who tried to kill Louhi, she gets dibs on the lands and facilities associated with the position, and the party too, but it's not much. A townhouse, a library and a lab. It takes about a day to disarm all the traps and make sure it's cleaned out. That's done mostly by Dagnar with Aqila studying in the library and standing by in case he needs heals, disenchantments, or otherwise cured of undodged trap effects. Moonbeam and Joe also took some study time.
We give Louhi the heads-up that we're going to be taking scheduled leave sometime in the next 1-3 weeks. She's well aware that we will be required to be elsewhere at times and only requests that we let her know if and when we can.
We're not getting paid yet by the crown of Aerodon because, traditionally, court employees are 'paid' by being exempt from Aerodonese taxes. Which aren't income based, incidentally but based on living in the country and owning property in Aerodon. So it's more like we don't have to pay anyone to work for Louhi now.
Anyway, it's 4 days after the coronation when the call comes to return to Arandor. It's about noon when we return to the Citadel of Valanas. We finish up any unfinished shopping while we're waiting for the briefing on what we’re needed for. One of the errands we finish is giving Sneezil his hammer. He does a happy dance, then tells us that 'He may have to go away soon'. (OOC note, as Sneezil was made from part of a planar lord, technically he owns that plane.) We ask him if he'll come back. He thinks he will, but he doesn't know if we'll still be here.
The main briefing is a definite event, because it's pretty much the entire Sentinel order in one room. Around two thousand strong at this point. We're told that Mirarn and Kalya will be attempting the close the Maelstrom. The first step is letting the Final Weapon be completed. And it must not die until the Maelstrom is closed. Valrim and Elenmire's task will be to distract it and ideally keep it in the Maelstrom so it doesn't rampage through the world until the Maelstrom is closed. (note, the Tarrasque is the shell of the final weapon. Completing it means letting the demon lord that was bound to it when it was created enter the shell and empower it. And if it is completed, then killed before the Maelstrom is closed, the world goes boom. No pressure on Mirarn and Kalya’s kids or anything…)
The plan is, Mirarn and Kalya will be working to close the Maelstrom. They will be guarded directly by every surviving allied Atenil. They will be surrounded by an inner ring of defenders, whose job will be trying to stop everything that reaches them cold. There are multiple paths through the Maelstrom, and each path needs guarded. A middle ring further out from the center will try to stop everything they can...high level threats will be let through for the inner ring to smash, but they'll try to weed out all the distractions for the inner ring. The outer ring will try to keep the local wildlife from causing trouble, and smack down targets of opportunity among the Enemy's forces.
The inner ring will be composed of high level Agents, mainly Swords. Our group will be in the inner ring since that describes us to a T. The middle ring will be the rest of Agents of sufficient power to survive there, or basically the entirety of the Shield, Eye, Book, and low level Swords, excepting only those who aren’t really combat-capable…pure researchers or artificer-specialists for example. The outer ring will be most of the population of Arandor over 6th level who are combat effective, lightly salted with retired Sentinel agents who survived their tour of duty. Arandor's mostly going to be manned by children, mothers of infants, those with disqualifying disabilities and the hopelessly noncombatant for the duration of the crisis.
We’re told that there has been some communications from The Enemy, who has his own completed staff. In some ways, the Pact will be temporarily suspended. Some of the Enemy's more powerful agents will be allowed to attack us, when they normally won't be. The most powerful just won't attack first. Also, importantly, attacking one of them inside the Maelstrom will not remove the Pact's protection outside the Maelstrom. i.e. if we get a chance to take pot-shots at Eleduath, she won’t be allowed to nuke us later if we all survive the experience. Of course, he proposed this bargain thinking that he’d be there first, and we’d have to attack him.
We’re also specifically told that this will be the best opportunity any of us will ever have to take out some of the Enemy's forces, because they'll be weakened there in ways we won't. So more incentive to try our best to nail every one of them we can while the opportunity exists so they won’t be around to cause trouble in the aftermath.
We're all given a general outline of the plan of defense, and warned that closing the Maelstrom will take at least one day, at a minimum. They are reasonably confident that the Enemy won't start attacking with his strongest servants, but once he knows what Mirarn and Kalya are up to, he's likely to commit to an all-out attack with all his strongest forces, including himself. We're warned that if he's willing to risk enough, even if we manage to kill him, he can return in seconds. If he's playing it safe, it'll be a day at least. And if he does show up, it'll be at the last second, so even a small delay may be enough. His appearance means it’s win or die time, basically.
The next piece of information we’re given is that the environment will disrupt summons in some way...may strengthen or weaken spells in general. Teleportation is dangerous, unless it's short range. Physically walking around is safer, but there's a risk when walking between planar interfaces - if it collapses as you're passing through, you may die. And an interface can collapse in seconds to centuries. Average duration is 6-7 days.
"There will also be denizens of the planes that will come to investigate. We hope that they will stay neutral, and we would prefer that you convince them to leave, but if they will not be dissuaded, drive them off. (main reason - the effects of what Mirarn and Kalya are doing are liable to drive any extra-planar denizens irredeemably insane). "You will all be issued an item to hold a planar interface stable, but if it tries to go unstable while you're using the device, the wielder will take backlash until they stop using it, and the interface will collapse immediately. Also, some of these fragments do contain ethereal mirrors." (IE don't assume you're safe from ethereal effects.) We can probably buy off smarter denizens with magic items, and dumber ones with shiny things. We make a mental note to see how much costume jewelry we can round up in short order...Aerodon probably has a good bit floating around right now, post-coronation.
Plane shift is insanely dangerous, worse than teleporting. The Enemy's greater servants will likely be trying to conserve their strength for what they will find in the center of the Maelstrom. This could mean restricting themselves to weaker abilities, or going all out to kill you as quickly as possible.
After the briefing, we overhear a senior agent warning a group of juniors about the 'Ghost Raptors'. He sees us listening, and tells us, “oh, they won't be that dangerous for you. They're one of the things created by the chaos over there, and they're always getting into the Maelstrom. The only thing to watch out for is they tend to spin off ghostly projections of themselves so if you see a bunch of ghostly lizards, look around for the main one. They don't last long, maybe a minute, those projections, so they aren't dangerous to you, but they're a nuisance and they could be a fatal distraction."
The party starts tomorrow. So we have a few hours to find some trade goods. Jewels, fruit, chocolate, that sort of thing. Plus useful consumable like hero's feasts or restful candles. Moonbeam offers the use of her candle that gives everyone maximized spells for the next 24 hours. Aqila does the costume jewelry run to Aerodon and warns Louhi that we're going to be going to the End Of The World As We Know It and we'll see her on the other side. Joe rounds up foodstuffs and some livestock for the hell of it. Plus some puppies and kittens on the off chance someone wants a friend. Moonbeam really really is hoping anyone who wants one actually wants it for a friend, not for a snack. Joe collects some other exotic 'pets' for trade goods. We don't want to know what. He also collects some pests in case someone would be entertained by unleashing a plague of something on an irritating neighbor, to cover all the bases.
We make sure we get a good night's sleep, then it's time to get into position. Each group of us in the inner ring is linked to one of the diviners monitoring the situation. They'll be watching for attacks and we'll be sent to intercept. They'll give us their best estimate of the strength of the opponent, so if it's something one of us can handle alone, we can split the party so the rest of us are available to intercept a different attack. Each diviner is generally hanging out with the weakest group of the groups they're directing so the stronger groups can target the threats. But if something's going for an attack directly on a diviner, we probably want to quash it. We are most definitely not one of the weaker groups, and will probably be the primary quick reaction force for our sector, because we have a Moonbeam.
Specifically, Moonbeam spent some time last night summoning a pile of Phantom Stags, so as many diviners as possible can be mounted in case they need to run for it, plus mounts for us so we can get repositioned in a hurry. Aqila suggests that getting some of the strongest healers in the middle and outer rings mounted too might be the difference between survival and death in some situations.
Break here to finalize what we want to have on hand for bribes, consumables and so on, before the real fun starts next session.

Spoiler: GM Commentary

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Into the final stretch - all remaining sessions were on this event.

[Terane]

Spoiler: April 2018

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Opening with the briefing on major servants the Enemy may send in.
“Duraln is known to be active. He's one of the weakest spellcasters among the greater servants (so lvl17ish). Devastating melee combatant. The two likely to show up early are, from the enemy's perspective, to be mistakes, as they aren't particularly useful. Fenire may not be active right now- his interests lie in pyromancy. If he can do it with fire magic, assume he can do it better than anyone you've ever heard of. He shows no inclination to use any other forms of magic,though he probably knows them. Helluin is known to be currently active and is of a similar bent, but with cold spells. Kentaliel is active, but we think it unlikely that she'll show up for this battle because she's not a combatant..she's an organizers, an administrator, and a skilled manipulator.”
“Lesheira is known to be active and physically the closest of his greater servants to the Maelstrom. We know she is currently based in Chalisce and may be the first to appear. She is known as the Fate-weaver. She is able to alter probability, but outside of that she's relatively weak. Possibly the weakest of all the greater servants. Nethran we believe is active but have not been able to confirm. He may show up early, because he's based in Larethin, if we're right on his activities. His specialty is corrupting spellcasters. Relia is known to have been in Aerodon, but she has disappeared lately. Probably because her candidate for the throne has been thoroughly discredited (Imo - the fat one). Her area of talent is in seduction. She’s likely also not going to be of any great impact in the battle.”
“Tyelene is also known to be active. She's the 2nd strongest of the greater servants and the Enemy's chief torturer. Be prepared for agonizingly painful spells.” We are. “Vaniras is most likely not active, though he may be called out in a great hurry if the Enemy deems it worthwhile.” Someone asks what the disincentive is? “In his case, he is extremely unstable. Vaniras is the Enemy's hunter. If he has a worthy quarry to hunt, he can be kept reasonably functional. If he doesn't, he becomes seriously unstable, to the point of jeopardizing the pact. For the others, he will hesitate to commit them, because, if a servant is killed, it takes a while for them to come back, and, from his perspective, if he throws too many of them into this battle, he runs the risk of losing control over one or more of them. Crezanthk is known to be active, as he always is, but, as an arch-devil, he is unlikely to be effective at all in the Maelstrom, so it is unlikely to be committed to this battle.”
“And finally, Saralis is known to be active, and the most dangerous of all of them. (we met him in Brighthaven, giving orders to Duraln, ordering us to hand over the scepter). If you can survive his initial assault, it is likely that you will at least survive the confrontation with him. Bear in mind that failure to survive will be eternally lethal. He is not called 'The Soul-Devourer' for nothing. (last breath wouldn't help). Death ward may provide some protection but this has never been rigorously tested. However, unleashing this assault weakens him for a time if it fails. If it succeeds, it will strengthen him instead. His known record is 11 at once.”
“Certain powers may be able to withstand the assault. There's an unconfirmed story of a paladin drawing the entire assault down on himself, but the paladin did not survive, and neither did anyone else, at least in their right mind. The lone survivor was rather incoherent in his account, which is why it is unconfirmed. The assault cannot be carried across planar boundaries, but then, not much can. We suspect he is the one least likely to be committed because he's the one most likely to break free, and the one most likely to be a threat to the Enemy if he does.” (Saralis is the only servant that's a pure-blood Atenil, and he was the Enemy's 2nd in command for the entire Gods’ war, so he remembers it well)
(OOC, if Saralis shows up, Sneezil will come help us. This is not good for him, because he'll also be affected by the planar effects)
That was the briefing before we got into position. The first hour goes by without anything getting to us. We get notified of a small group that snuck past the first two rings, that looks to be made up of half a dozen fighters and one competent mage. They didn't sneak past - they had 4x those numbers when they started. Unfortunately, the best place to intercept is going to be in a wild magic plane. There may be a small possibility of more serious effects, but the most likely side effects from casting there would be things like changing hair color. Foresight might warn you of bad effects, but don't count on it. The sliver is only 40' at its widest. Also, prepare to handle a dead magic zone...in about two hours, the planes will shift so the one interception point for the nearest good path will be in one. We can hope one of the greater servants takes that path then, because you'll have a good chance of taking them out.

Spoiler: GM Commentary

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I had a fairly complex set of tables for randomly generating the sliver layouts relevant to each fight - using both a set of detailed pre-designed planes, and a set of rules for generating new ones on the fly. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find them anymore - they appear to have gone missing some time over the past couple of years. I will note that the party ended up seeing just about all of the pre-designed planes show up in possible battlegrounds, though they didn't visit all of them.

The sliver has 6 interfaces. We know which one this group is coming through. You can't see through an interface. Aqila casts a Prismatic wall to block the interface. The random effect is 11 tiny gems raining around the portal. They're planar stuff, too, so they'll stop existing outside this sliver. The first 5 all die to poison. 6/6 is insane, and gets blasted to a random spot in the Maelstrom. The mage comes through last and gets a bit toasted, then stoned. That was easy. We return to our waiting spot.
Aqila resumes napping on her mount. 40 minutes later. "We've got a pretty good delegation of demons coming in. We don't know if the Enemy has decided to throw them away, or if they are coming to investigate on their own. It looks like a dozen assorted creatures, and we're not entirely sure what they are. A full-up Balor is leading them. Your best choice for an intercept, since we want to keep them as far away from the center as possible, is extremely strongly evil aligned. Probably noticeable amounts of hellfire. It won't help them as much as a devil, but it won't be pleasant for you. Good news is, if you have to fight them, they won't be thinking as clearly as they would otherwise, this far in. Expect more brute force solutions - a lot of these are powerful demons, so they'd normally be subtle. If you can convince them to leave without fighting, that'd be preferable, but we don't want them coming further in.”
“The other bad news is this is one of the larger slivers, and we don't think you can get there before they get there. You should be able to arrive while they're looking for the exit. It's unusually small for this size of sliver, which means they could block it if they think of it, and the largest of them might not fit through it, but we can't be sure at this distance.” We discuss on the way how to handle this. We could just attack, but there might be a slim chance of convincing them to leave.
We ask them what is so valuable that they'd risk losing their minds in here. The boss, an advanced Balor, answers, 'What is more valuable than power?' Then continues, 'I feel the storm shifting. Either it will be controlled or it will cease. Either way, there will be scraps of power for those who are near.' We point out that he's going to go nuts before then. He's planning on using his meatshields to shield his own mind, and the three Balors are fine with this plan. There're 7 other demons with him, that are the 'cattle' referred to. They don't seem to be concerned with the situation either.
Aqila tries to get them to believe that they've got a day before there would be scraps...it's the truth, even, but they really don't want to believe her. Joe gets them to consider the idea that they might be going mad already, so now they're willing to be bribed to leave. The boss would prefer to be paid in our essence, in quantity. So, we first try the handcuffs from Zeleya...he considers those tokens for his subordinates. The cursed dagger from Nayden is also considered a token. Moonbeam and Jon offer booze and weed. Then, as a capper, the rod that looks like a rod of Annihilation, and really isn't. The boss wants to be sure it's what it appears to be. Joe bluffs that we're sure. So, we buy them off with schmuck bait and weed. We keep the handcuffs and dagger for more bribes later. They leave.
We return to the planar sliver that we've been using as our base. Our diviner comments that that was neatly done when we get back. Half an hour later, we are told “This is peculiar...it looks like some sort of very weird creature...we've got someone doing a record search now to find anything like this. I'm guessing it's some sort of crap the Ancients came up with that's not widely known. 4 Golems, 2 of them decidedly large, and a couple of ...oozes? I honestly have no idea what purpose they could be serving. There's some sort of interference around them...I think the golems have some sort of spell disruption effect on them. If I'm right, you shouldn't be hurt if you can stay far enough away. We'll try to find a place to intercept them with that much room. 80-100 feet may be enough room, but we're mostly finding small slivers and good interception spots.”
“The good news is they're moving slowly...we don't think you can get to either before they arrive, but you should get there before they leave. The other is maybe 80 feet. The larger one is just dirt and rock. The other...I can't believe what I'm seeing. It looks like a giant slab of diamond. You know, academically, that planarchs can do whatever they want, but seeing it…. This is rather tame. I don't even want to think about what whoever did the lava and ice sculptures had to do to make that work. For that matter, I'm not sure why that thing's still stable....anyway...” Joe asks about the spell disruption effect..they can tell something like that is there, but it's disrupting their ability to keep an eye on them.
There's a 50-50 chance of catching the group in the bigger room, because it's on 1 of the 2 routes they could take. The definite room, they'll have to go through. And there's only a 30% chance to get from the bigger room to the smaller room in time if they don't take the route through the big room. There's a more direct route, but only a 20% chance of it staying stable. And any points to intercept past there, there's one poor chance of getting them in a big room, and better chances in small slivers where we'd be forced into melee.
The unstable route has just one point where it may close. So the plan is for Aqila to park there and hold the door, if they take the other route, so we can get to the guaranteed interception point before they do. She shapechanges into an ape form so Thoron can give her extra HPs. That will let her withstand holding the unstable point open for longer.
As the rest of the party nears the large plane, the diviner contacts them with, “We think we have a better fix on them. You're going to be able catch them in the larger plane, but they'll be almost right on top of the portal you'll be entering. But, you're coming in from a larger plane to begin with...they could have picked another route, but we now know where they're going. So the party sets up to ambush the golems et al, and the diviner tells Aqila she can stand down and go help. It'll take her about two minutes to get there.
Moonbeam casts reverse gravity by the portal as a trap. It takes them two minutes to show up, so Aqila gets there just as they come in. Moonbeam spends the rest of the time casting earthquake repeatedly to really screw up the terrain. The golems and blobs come through and start rising into the air, then something shifts and they drop down. Thoron can see the effect now - it was 'spell impedance' effect with 100' radius when they came through, and then shifted to antimagic field mode. Same radius, and stayed that way. We’ve never had to deal with this sort of thing before, that range of that spell, at least.
The golems are 2 small iron, 1 large iron, and one large stone. The oozes are almost transparent, slowly flowing blobs. They aren't impeded by the terrain. The golems are definitely slowed, though. The weird creature behind them comes through. It's vaguely humanoid with very long arms and a mass of waving tentacles coming out of its back. The tentacles seem to be pointing to one or another of the golems. It looks fairly frail.
We have basically no way to hurt them, so we decide to avalanche them, which blocks line of effect, then Joe uses control winds to shape the snow into a neat pile so Moonbeam can cover it with walls of stone. After a few minutes, we're told that this group must have jumped the gun, because more groups of the same composition are coming in from all points. He's relaying our tactics to the other groups, because they're guessing these are distractions and delayers so the real attacks can slip through. We don't have time to come help, but need to stay ready for whatever the real attack is. Ten minutes later....
“Well, someone in the enemy's ranks is going to get a stern talking to. Though, if our other teams had tried fighting them conventionally, they might have gotten by. There were three groups led by three Greater Servants. One is Helluin, the other two are a male and a female...the female is the one you can intercept...best guess is that it's Lesheira. She's got a handful of things escorting her. Very strongly recommend you have fire immunity up if you don't right now. She's got some of the Ancient's odder war machines with her. She also has a more powerful than average Nightmare as a mount. Cold spells should take them out fairly quickly, but she's got some of the old inferno-blasters too. They spit intensely strong lines of fire. Immunities should at least blunt the effect.”
The diviner continues, “Looks like she's got an assortment of things on the same theme, plus a few fire spirits...not outsiders, but we're not sure what they are precisely, just that they aren't getting scrambled. Options for intercept....there are three planes in a chain, but none are particularly great for fighting in. One is dead, one is intensely fire aligned, making your best spells against her escort useless, and the third one is highly unpredictable...with any other servant, it wouldn't be as bad a choice, but with her…”
We discuss how to handle this. The best plan we have right now is block Lesheira into the dead plane and force her to find another path with, we hope, a better ambush spot. The fire plane is unearthly fire, molten and even gaseous rock...frostfell around the portal cools it enough to have the rock stay solidish so Moonbeam can shape it over the portal. This works out reasonably well. It'll take Lesheira at least half an hour to find another route.
Once she does, we're told “I'm not sure if this is strictly better...we've got fairly good points. One's only probable, but it’s at the fork, and there's a strongly good aligned plane, with the other route is impeded magic. The other option is a chain of 5 tiny planelets. We suspect you'd end up with a running battle through them. The first in the chain is another dead magic plane, then some form of wild magic...different from the other plane and not similar enough to any we've seen to be sure what it'll do to your spells. Third is, oddly, the result of two planes smooshed together that were distinctly opposed. It's reading as earth and air, which means it should be noticeable unstable, but doesn't seem to be. That might mean someone is holding it stable, so that's concerning. It's not something that should stay stable naturally. Fourth may not be entirely safe...extremely strong positive energy plane. (healing and overhealing too far will make you explode). The 5th seems to have no unusual traits, which makes us very suspicious because there are no normal planes in the Maelstrom.
We go to the impeded magic plane on the assumption that she won’t want to go to the strongly good plane. It's one of the more sculpted slivers around. It looks like it was an earth plane originally...it's like a cavern with the sides sliced away. The floor and ceiling are stone, the sides are planar boundaries, looking like walls of force. Aka invisible, with void on the other side. We're warned that the walls may be dangerous to touch here. Perhaps not instantly fatal, but painful. (note, the properties of a plane can be more easily seen when we're in the plane physically). This is a 500' long cavern, and it's still 120' wide. It's narrowing at the points the portals are at, so it was probably close to '500 in diameter to begin with, with an '80 ft ceiling.
We craft a wall of stone sandwich with prismatic wall filling over the portal in and wait. “By the way, as a warning, you'll want to be careful leaving after this fight. The Tarrasque is heading this way. We don't think it will come into the plane you're on, but...”
We hang out 40' up and Joe prepares to cast Tsunami when they're in. We can hear them start working the stone over. It disintegrates. A minion tries to come through next. It's turned to stone and disintegrates. The next minion goes insane and is banished. The 3rd is a firesnake and goes insane without being banished. After she kills her minion, the next one survives and can tell her what happened to it, sort of. Now she knows what she's up against. She's decided this is too dangerous. As a note, she's on a water plane right now, and it's a big plane.
The diviner relays to us, “I think you made her angry. And also, some good news, in a way. It's not Lesheira. I'd like to know how she was close enough to get here this early. It's Relia.” She's not far enough away from the portal for us to get through. She's sent her minions back and cast prismatic sphere around herself while she's working to take down Aqila's wall. And she knows there's a 2nd wall of stone. We see the 2nd wall disintegrate, so Aqila puts a 2nd wall up. Another minion comes through and gets disintegrated. She takes that wall down. We are giggling now, and grease the area around the portal, then put a 3rd wall up a couple of feet farther from the portal. Relia sends one of the multi-legged fire-spewers through this time. It hits the grease, then hits the wall. And survives the trip, so she thinks that the wall is really down and comes through with the rest of her minions.
When the dust settles, there is a fire spewer, a firespirit, Relia, and her Nightmare steed on the field. Joe has control winds going and an evil grin on his face. We roll initiatives. The firespirit gets a trip back through the wall. It fails 4 saves...fire and poison immune, but takes cold and electricity damage. It's got like 5 HP left, so it's outta the fight. Dagnar's up first. Given we want to save our strength, Dagnar casts slow. Relia makes her save, but her mount and servant don't. Then it's Relia who starts by casting a mass dispel, which Thoron counters. Then she's really pissed, so she does a trick that will make her lose her next turn and blows a pile of limited use stuff, though we don’t know that in character. She throws three spell rips at the party, hitting Joe and Aqila. Moonbeam's protected by a counterspell by Thoron. All our buffs are stripped, and permanent spells are suppressed for a minute per caster level. We lose contingency spells. Then Relia follows up with a disintegrate, and Aqila doesn't make her save. She's dead, unless someone can last breath her, like now.
Joe fails his save too, but he 'only' takes 140 damage and survives. It's now his turn. 5 round time stop. Step 1 - shape change. Step 2 - rebuff what he can. Then he casts deadfall on the baddies, and the fire spewer dies. The nightmare and Relia are knocked prone. He tries a baleful polymorph but it fails. Moonbeam's turn. Timestop. She casts a reach Last Breath on Aqila, who is now not-dead and at -1 hps. Moonbeam can cast delayed flamestrike...so delayed, reverberating, empowered flamestrike, then force flavor and cold flavor to properly express her irritation with what happened to the mage. Relia makes her saves on the sonic and cold. Fails on the force. Relia is overkilled by 112. The nightmare is now a thin film of paste. The fire sprite tries to come back through the wall. It becomes a nice statue and disintegrates.
Moonbeam finishes her turn by healing Aqila. Aqila comments on regaining consciousness, “That wasn't any fun. Let's not do it again”. Joe recommends directing her complaints to God. We examine the corpse. Her formerly concealing robes now appear diaphanous. And more hole than cloth. The only not destroyed things on her person are a black crystal and a metamagic rod that does double-extends. The diviner starts yelling at us to destroy the crystal. It's a link back to the Enemy. So he knows everything we've just done. Yay. We're warned to get well back and physically smash it. A little stone-shaping, shapechanging and a wall of force later, it's pulverized.
We're updated on the situation - the unknown male has been ID'd as Duraln. He wasn't expected to come in this early.

Spoiler: GM Commentary

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The Enemy was annoyed with Relia for looking stupid in her failure, and seriously annoyed with Duraln, who was in charge of organizing this attack. He screwed up the timing by sending the first group of golems in too early, which gave the party a chance to work out a strategy that the other reaction groups could use to take them out of the fight and get it passed on in time for them to use it. So he came in in person to try to salvage things. If he dies, at least he doesn't have to get yelled at, for a while anyway.

[Terane]

Spoiler: May 2018

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We head back to our base sliver, getting updates about the current situation from our usual diviner contact as we go. The group that Helluin hit lost two people, but they stopped him. Duraln was also stopped, but they had to throw a 2nd group in to do it. Between the survivors of both groups, they have enough people to put a solid team back together, but they aren't used to working together. So, there are going to be some redeployments among the groups in the inner ring...the 2nd roving group in our sector is being shifted over to the sector that got mauled. They're looking at getting another group deployed to our sector from a lower threat area, but they'll be one of the less capable groups, since that’s what would have been deployed to the lower threat areas in the first place. In the meantime, it’ll be just us to intercept anything in our sector, plus the group guarding our diviners.
There is some good news to go along with this...they have a source of news directly from the Enemy's camp. The bad news is that the Enemy has arrived in person, but at least he is staying outside the Maelstrom for now. The other news is that the Enemy has ordered a standdown in general attacks for now. He wants to make sure he has a suitable hammer in place first before the next major assault. Probing attacks will continue to try to determine where the weak spots are in the inner ring. We contemplate pretending to be a weak point to draw in the stronger attacks, but aren't sure that's a good idea or possible.
We get back to ‘our’ sliver, rebuff, reprepare spells, and Aqila at least settles in to take a nap in the saddle until the screaming starts again. About half an hour later, we all have to make a will save. Dagnar rolls a 1. He takes 4 points of damage. The rest of us make it. A fairly visible ripple of energy washes through the sliver we're in. We're told that everyone in the Maelstrom is reporting seeing this, and the scryers are certain this is not a natural occurrence. Speculation is that it's some sort of novel attack from the Enemy, or it could be caused by the process of closing the Maelstrom.
Aqila tries to go back to sleep, but a few minutes we get told, "We have something weird coming in. I have no idea what this thing is. It looks like some sort of incorporeal creature with a glowing shard in its core.” Joe gets a funny look on his face, and asks, “What color is that shard again?!?” We're told that it's a weird bluish color, and that the shard is about the size of a fist. We're all now wondering if it's a Mad God shard, given that we saw a sizable one about a month ago. The diviner’s reaction to our suspicions is, “Well, if it is related to the Mad God, it needs to be intercepted before it gets to the center, but you'll want to learn as much as you can about it before engaging.” Good advice that.
Then we get told, “We've got one down! One of our team has been driven mad trying to divine around that thing. We don't know if it's safe to contact other planes with it in the vicinity!” They have the victim sedated right now - Heal didn't fix their condition. We contemplate seeing if we can help, but they're 15 minutes from our position. There won’t be time to go to their base and intercept the interloper.
We’re told, “The first safe intercept point is in a dead magic zone, that he'll be hitting in about 10 minutes. The next possible point is a strongly chaos aligned fragment, which isn't a good idea if it is a Mad God shard. There's a good chance he'll take a specific exit from that sliver though. One exit is strongly good aligned, and the other exit is...” We hear him break out laughing. “Fortunately for you, it's just a fragment of that plane, assuming the whole thing had the whole structure that that looks like...I don't want to think about trying to guide you through something like that. I don't suppose any of you have taken the 3rd level course in incomprehensible planar architecture have you? This looks like a piece of the exemplar plane for that course. The inhabitants don't know where it came from; they just live there. It is one that the Dread have access to, though not complete access or they'd have absorbed it already. The thing everyone gets hung up is the doors - no door in that place connects to the same room from both sides.”
Joe asks what happens if you tried to use a antimagic field on one of the doors in there. “We don't know...the only person we know of who tried never left the plane. He just disappeared. This sliver looks like just a hallway and a room with a portal at the far end of the hallway and the other one, that you’ll come in at, is in the middle of the room, so you don't have to deal with any incomprehensible geometry here.”
We decided that making our own dead magic zone via the Dreadnaught would be more useful than using the existing dead magic sliver, so we head for that fragment of the incomprehensible geometry plane. We arrange ourselves in the room, and look down the hallway to where the other entrance is to estimate what we have to work with as far as room to set up traps and impediments.
Before setting up traps, Aqila casts shapechange, and assumes the form of a Water Weird to inquire of other planes if a shard of the Mad God is approaching our position. The answer is 'Yes'. She asks if it will be inhibited by an antimagic field. The answer is 'Yes'. She asks if it is vulnerable to sonic damage. The answer is 'no'. On asking if it is vulnerable to force damage, the answer is 'yes'. She then asks if it is capable of attacking our minds through the protection of mindblank. Yes. Through the protection of being a construct or undead. 'Yes'. Not what we wanted to hear. Aqila then asks if it is able to attack our minds while it is within an antimagic field. 'Somewhat'. The picture we’re getting here is less than good, but it took less than a minute to get that information.
We're then told that we have 1 minute before it reaches the dead magic zone on the other side of the portal, and since it's such a small sliver, we should expect it to come through to our sliver almost immediately. We're also told its rate of speed is ridiculously variable...sometimes it seems to be standing still, and others, moving faster than we can. (They're losing track of it and picking it back up again, in reality...it's actually moving at a constant rate). So, Aqila swaps to pit fiend form for the combat, waits for 30s, then casts in order, Maw of Chaos to fill the hallway with damage, then the druids leave a pile of force berries and an echo skull to watch, then she casts a Wall of Force just outside the area of effect of the Maw, and then a prismatic wall to block off as much as possible any spells that the Mad God shard could do.
Meanwhile, Joe also goes Water Weird and spams Vision for more info. He dredges up some vague legends of something that at least seems like this thing. He sees scenes of strange devastation. This thing shows up, and other monstrosities follow. Several of them, from what he sees, are equals of great infernal lords. He relays this to the diviner crew quickly. He also sees that it seems to warp spells cast by anyone fighting it. Mostly the spells seem to just not work. (note to self, Aqila needs to ask Joe if those monstrosities look like the statues in the temple we found later….)
He tries Vision again and sees more effects associated with the creature’s mere presence...spreading madness, people acting as if they were blind, paralysis, and death. He also gets to see one of them being destroyed...not how, but what. It explodes, and everyone within a huge radius seems to die from it. We may have to bail out into the unholy plane that’s on the other side of our door, but that’s a large plane with 11 exits and we'd be suffering from negative levels if we went there. (4 of them)
Thoron is being the Dreadnaught and projecting an antimagic cone down the hallway as the final piece of our ambush. Though the Echo Skull, Joe sees the Shard step through, and then we hear an annoyed but familiar voice state, “I should have expected this. You again!”. Having strong suspicions that this is the Mad God himself, Joe asks after Zeleya somewhat cheekily. Next we hear, “Well, first, I suppose, getting rid of this annoyance.” The Maw of Chaos winks out. Joe comments, “You could just go away. Save everyone some trouble” The reply is, “Well, I need some assurances first, that my world will not be destroyed.” Aqila checks to make sure we're on the same page. “We're trying to close the Maelstrom so that this bleeding wound in the world is closed. Does that endanger something you care about?”
We learn that Sakaneth - yes, it's really him, or at least a large shard of him - thinks that if we screw up closing the Malestrom, it will harm his interests. He’s come here to put a stop to this nonsense, it seems. Joe, at one point points out that if Sakaneth helps us instead, he could assure that we don't screw up and break his stuff, because we're kind of on the same side here, or at least he could stop the Enemy from interfering. He's not interested in doing that, though, unsurprisingly.
We point out that his choices are to let us keep going, or risk the Enemy coming in to take control of the Maelstrom and then he'd have to deal with someone with all that power and not his best interests in mind. He sneers at that, asserting that he, in all of his power, failed to control it, so he has no concerns of someone else succeeding, not even when we point out that they may know something that he doesn't. We are very carefully not mentioning the staff to him, lest he get tempted to go grab it and have another go at controlling the Maelstrom. That would be bad.
Eventually, we bring him to ask, “Let us say, for the sake of argument, that I choose to withdraw. What assurances do I have that you will succeed?” We take turns trying to talk him into not interfering, or perhaps helping, and eventually it seems to work.
“I suppose it could be entertaining to provide you with some small knowledge”. He mentions that that ripple was the first sign that the closing process is working, and was caused by a sliver collapsing. As the process proceeds, more ripples will happen as more slivers collapse, and the damage will increase with the size of the sliver that collapses. If we're lucky and there are only small slivers are in the area around the center, we might survive with only our skin flayed off our bones at the end, because the collapses will occur with increasing frequency. If a large sliver collapses, the continent may be destroyed.
He then mentions having servants in the area, and Moonbeam asks who they are, so we don't risk offending any of them. Joe comments that we rarely leave enough behind to be offended, which, leads to this comment: "Something you have in common with Pangwejahat. She rarely leaves enough of a mind behind to be offended either.” Moonbeam recognizes that as one of the names of the 3 great abyssal lords, aka the Mother of Madness. Joe asks if she's a relative. (she's one of his servants). This comment is duly ignored.
Aqila points out that as long as the Maelstrom exists, it's a bleeding wound on the plane that some moron could use to destroy the material plane for as long as it exists...closing it removes that risk permanently. Moonbeam makes hushing motions to shut her up before she says something too rude to the Mad God. Aqila mutters about the Veiled Order soto voce before piping down.
Sakaneth does decide that he has no reason to interfere right now, warning us that if he thinks we're failing, he will intervene. Joe comments that if he'd be nice enough to mention when something's going wrong, we'd have a better chance of not failing. Sakaneth allows that he might do that if he finds it amusing, and disappears.
The diviner crew got to listen in on the exchange and relayed the information to the archivist crew back home, and they believe the information he gave us is reliable. The diviners can see what slivers are near the center, and they'll need to see a few more ripples to get a better feel for how this works. They're fairly sure that the type of plane that is collapsing affects what the effect is. We ask if they think an antimagic field would protect against the effects. Not against all of them...the models predict that a dead zone collapsing would create an effect of a disjunction rippling through the Maelstrom, for example. That'd suck, yes.
We start heading back to our base camp as our contact comments, 'What I'd be most concerned about is if a strongly evil plane gets collapsed. The consequences of that, based on the models, are...ugly.” Joe asks if a magic circle against evil or consecrated ground would help. “It'd be like trying to turn a hurricane with a flyswatter,” is the response. Not completely useless, but the next thing to it, essentially.
Then the topic changes abruptly, before we even get back to our base sliver. “It seems you're getting all the weird stuff today. It looks like one of the probing attacks broke through.” He pauses, then continues, “It looks like some sort of golem, or seems to be. But it's fast...very fast, but other than that, it doesn't seem to have any sort of powers, just some vicious attacks.”
He pauses again, then. “That can't be an accident. That course it's taking is the worst possible one for you to intercept it. I have never seen so many dead magic planes connected to each other. We have a string of 6 of them. And the next best option we can find for you to have a chance of intercepting him looks like a fragment of the Abyss, but very concentrated. I expect, as badly as that's going to impede you, you may not be much better off there. (8 negative levels). There's another possible, but that's only if he takes the right route, and you won't be able to get to the other site if he goes the wrong way.”
“This looks like a scouted attack - they may be able to see you too.” We aren't happy, but it looks like the surest spot for the interception is the abyssal plane. And there are no other groups that could intercept it before us, so we can't find out if it can fly or not. This looks like a situation where Aqila may get to punch things, because we won't be able to cast anything over 5th level spells in there. She still has Shapechange up from doing the Water Weird thing, so she'll go in as a Solar. We ruminate over appropriate shapes for the party as we travel to the abyssal sliver.
We're told, “We can see two good places that you can fight it in the Abyssal plane.” Joe asks if there's anything else around. “Not that we can see, but in the time it would take for us to get this set up, something could get in from the outer ring. The gate he's going to come in from is in some sort of odd structure that looks sort of like a temple. The other, best possibility, before he has too many different routes to take, looks like outside the temple on the temple grounds. We'd advise against that because there are some odd structures around it that look reminiscent to some defensive structures that we've seen before.”
Joe asks if we can activate them to our benefit. “Not really. If they're what we've seen before, they'll act impartially against anything fighting on the grounds. We can't know what they'll do, but based on we've seen from similar ones, with the effects of the plane, they could take you out of the fight entirely. Inside the temple, unless they're mobile, you should be safe. Of course, if they are mobile, your best change may be to intercept it somewhere else on the plane. The problem is that it's fast enough that it may be able to outrun you.” “Even with phantom stags?” “Possibly yes. And if it can fly, most things can fly faster than walking, and if so, I don't want to think about how fast it could be. I'd dearly love to know what this thing is because it doesn't match any of our records. And while this does look like one of the Enemy's probing attacks, please try to be sure it is of the Enemy before destroying it - it could still be a third party.”
The sliver is about a mile across. It's one of the largest ones around. We don't get attacked walking into the temple. The portal is 20ft wide, and there are 3 statues behind it. One looks like a massive scorpion with too many claws. One looks like an octopus with too many tentacles and a giant shark mouth. The center one seems to be carved as a vaguely humanoid but indistinct figure. There is no altar, but there is a massive blasted spot in front of the statues, kind of under the portal. That makes us suspicous. Moonbeam thinks its safe to summon something small, as long as it's not good or lawful. Moonbeam gets a monkey out to go walk through the portal and come back. Nothing happens, so the statues don’t nuke things walking in from that direction. She also remembers that the two animalistic statues look like the described forms of the other two of the three Great Abyssal lords. Which would make the indistinct figure the Mother of Madness that no one has ever seen and lived to tell the tale, perchance?
Joe tries to Vision the past of the temple and has to make a will save when he tries, and succeeds. He sees the temple in a more repaired state, with fully intact walls and a major difference - a 2nd rank of three statues behind the three already there. Behind the scorpion is one that resembles a massively oversized rotting human form, about 12' tall. Behind the octopus is a similarly large massive figure with a number of smaller identical figures surrounding it. From the waist up it looks mostly human except with a mass of tentacles replacing each arm, but below the waist is just tentacles, and it has a horn in the middle of its forehead. The center statue is a giant serpent. Also, the altar is still present at that time and made of translucent blue stone.

Spoiler: GM Commentary

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There used to be 6 Great Abyssal Lords, but only 3 were around in Kaneth's day, and thus actually remembered. The other 3 can't take a physical form until Sakaneth comes back.

Meanwhile, back in the present-day temple….“It's getting close and we can say that they do have a similar set of divination spells running. It looks like they are less capable than ours, and we think they won't be able to see you until a creature they are tracking gets close. We're not sure yet how well they can track you after a creature they are tracking is out of the area.” We ask, “What if we cross a planar boundary?” “We won't know until they actually try it.”
We get ready for the incoming ‘fun’ - grease around the portal, web across the portal, solid fog in the area to obscure vision, and Wall of Thorns from Moonbeam's bracelet for added impediments. Aqila readies wall of force if it gets through that, and we lay down some sonic seeds to be triggered off if comes out. Joe gets some foresight twinges and then another ripple comes through. 27 chaos damage, half on a save. Dagnar fails. The rest of us make it. Presumably, a chaotic planar sliver of some sort just got collapsed.
The diviners let us know that this pulse was in line with both the original model, and the new model, and they'll need more data to know which one is more accurate. If the new model is right, the last few ripples as the Maelstrom closes won't be survivable. They've got everyone who's not combat-capable crunching numbers right now to determine which model is right. Also, because Joe asks, going into an extraplanar space not only will not protect us from the ripples, if we’d tried that for the last one, the damage would have killed us outright…eesh.
We all are hovering so Moonbeam can use Earthquake without friendly fire. Thoron sees the figure come through the portal, since he can see through solid fog. It looks like a mobile suit of armor, humanoid. It seems to be completely ignoring the web and the wall of thorns. And the grease. The fog does seem to be impeding it. Thoron quickly swaps to Weird to see if he can find a legend about this thing, now that he's seen it. He finds bupkis. Well, that's interesting.
Joe tries Guardian Archon to test it's alignment. It's so evil that a balor is less abhorrent, and Thoron can see a strong aura of necromancy on it. Aqila decides to cut to the chase and states loudly, “Sohrab, if that's one of yours, would you like to talk before we start trying to blow it up?” A very feminine voice laughs, “Not Sohrab!” Aqila, strongly suspecting what’s going on now, comments, “Ah, it's you. Still pissed at us for killing all your priests and priestesses?” Moonbeam facepalms. The voice speaks, “Thank you for confirming who you are.” Moonbeam glares at Aqila, who shrugs and whispers, “it wasn't like she wasn't going to figure it out....' since we now have confirmation that this is Shenea.
“I had been prepared to resent this requirement. Now I see I can enjoy it a bit.” Wen she’s asked, “why are you here”, the answer is, “One cannot give away all of the unguessed secrets yet.” (our characters may strongly suspect that Shenea has had the screws put to her to cooperate with the Enemy because of what happened in Brighthaven, to whit, the Enemy’s servants making off with the phylacteries or souls of her more powerful priests/priestesses)
“Let me put it this way...depending on why you are here, we might not have to destroy you,” is Joe’s way of trying to convince her to talk instead of fight. “I don't think you'll stand aside and let me destroy your masters?” she asks snarkily. We answer, “No, that would have unfortunate consequences.” “From your perspective perhaps, not from mine.” Time to roll initiative.
Dagnar starts us off by throwing a fireball into the fog, and it appears to do nothing. Then Joe sets off his fire and sonic seeds, and that seems to have an effect, making the figure stagger. The figure disappears, but Aqila's anticipate teleport spell lets her know where it's going to be showing up next round, so we move to get out of the way and ready actions. Thoron prepares to cast chain lightning when it pops in. Moonbeam readies a reverberating sonic strike with a quickened true strike first. Aqila prepares to cast dark bolts. Dagnar moves to be behind it when it pops back in and readies some backstabbery.
It reappears and we unload. Dagnar whiffs his strike. Joe is in squid form and colossally punches it. He hits. Thoron tries to chain lightning it and it gets reflected onto him. He tries to bounce it back and it just comes back. Spell turning foiled by Thoron being a prismatic golem. Moonbeam's Sonic strike damages it. Aqila can't not cast her readied darkbolt, and takes half of them. She's immune to daze, so it's not that bad, but still 48 nonlethal damage, though since she has 15 regen in Archon form and heart of earth, it wasn't that bad.
Shenea gets to act now. We aren't where we were so the pain is lessened, but not removed...except it whiffs on both its swings at Dagnar. Joe punched it some more. Thoron ties blinding spittle to no effect. Moonbeam repeats her sonic strike, and it looks rather battered now. Aqila throws a reverberating sonicball which does some damage. Dagnar goes for a duskblade full attack. He gets 2 of 3 hits, finally, with grave strike. It's visibly damaged. Joe does a full attack. With his first hit, the armor shatters, leaving a spectral figure behind. Joe lands a few hits on it, then it attacks Dagnar. He feels as though he's being torn apart - 32 disintegration damage.
Thoron tries to grapple the ghost with telekinesis. He fails. Moonbeam tries to cast ghostdust on it, and it fails. She mutters and casts mass heal swiftly. We're topped off, then she blasts it hard, becoming the new priority target. Aqila pulls out the wand she's been carrying since Brighthaven and throws a forceball at the spectre. 43 damage. Top of the order. Dagnar is up. He goes stabby stabby. His one hit passes through it harmlessly as it phases in and out. Joe again unleashes the tentacle massacre. It's looking tattered.

“It seems you are more dangerous than I expected. Well, at least I won't have to continue in this farce!” Shenea yells. Dagnar eats 120 force damage from a forcebolt ability. Thoron does quickened true casting with chain lightning. It declines to be affected. Moonbeam does her heal, which patches up Dagnar, and knocks it down to 1 hp. Her produce flames misses, so Aqila gets to kill it with magic missile. Then we all have to roll reflex saves, as a massive wave of unholy damage rolls through, and it's 117 damage. Aqila gets knocked out, but it's nonlethal damage so she is fine once Moonbeam heals her up along with everyone else who only took half damage.
Aqila comments, “Well, that was fun. Next thing you know, the ghost of Fiorino will show up with vengeance on his mind...” The diviner comments, “That sounds like it would be an interesting story. Perhaps after this…” Aqila states, “Long story short, he was the moron that opened a massive gate in Stone Bridge and almost let a demon lord through.” Joe chimes in, “and I wet his pants to distract him until we could close the portal on top of him.” “Yes, that does sound like I want the full story. Later.”
He tells us that things are heating up outside. “The outer ring is being hit by waves of undead. We'd rather not have you out of position if something big breaks through, though.” “Like another representative of Shenea coming in for an assassination attempt? I'd agree.” “Assuming that what we're getting out of the Enemy's camp is accurate, we may have some time before the real hammer comes down. Of course, he may change his plans depending on what his probes learn, but right now it's sounding like he’s planning a three-pronged attack, with him leading one, his daughter taking the second, and Saralis will lead the third. Given what we know, we'd expect him to take the weakest position, send his daughter against the next strongest, and send Saralis against the strongest threat.” Joe asks, “isn't he the one that would be a threat if he broke loose?” “Yes, which is why he'd be thrown at the strongest threat to keep it and him busy, since the worst outcome, from the Enemy's perspective, would be if Saralis reached the center before he did.” It probably wouldn’t be good from ours, either.
We're chatting as we make our way back to our usual spot. Aqila comments, “Great, so either we try to look weak and get to fight the boss, look strong and get to tangle with Saralis, or be neither and give Dagnar a chance to hit on Eleduath again.” This is another story that the Diviner would like to hear, though, he comments that he isn't that surprised since he knows Dagnar volunteered for duty in Almaera. Aqila snarks that him volunteering to hang out with us would be more telling, then Dagnar responds that he didn’t volunteer for that, he was voluntold! Aqila points out that we only turned him into a squirrel once, which gets a few snickers from the diviner, because he has heard that story. We choose to believe that that incident is making the rounds as a cautionary tale for new recruits.
The diviner switches topics on us: “The good news is that we think they've lost track of you with their scrying spells. The bad news is I'm starting to wonder if they can influence the motion of the slivers. We have 4 paths forming right now that are all incredibly bad for you to engage anything in. The best of them would force you to take baths in hellfire. The worst of them looks like, if it fully forms, would be completely unique in the history of the Malestrom...a chain of 23 dead or severely impeded slivers reaching from the middle ring to the center. And it looks to be, if nothing significant changes between now and when it finishes forming…” he pauses. “That is quite a mass of unholiness, and a tangled mess too. If they're not creating that, it's practically a perfect set-up for their purposes. Either you'd be playing tag with them in the tangle and likely miss them, or be forced to fight in a no-magic zone.”
This is not good hearing. “One of the other paths may have alternatives to the impeded sliver, but we don't know what they'll be yet, and some of them would be worse than a mildly impeded area. Though if the one plane moves into place, that could actually turn into a trap route for them.” Joe asks about odds. “Odds of the plane moving into place? 20-30%. Chances of them using that route? Practically nil if their scryers are doing their job at scouting ahead of them.” Joe then asks about the Enemy's scryers, and we learn that they were watching our battle with Shenea but we moved fast enough heading back to base that they lost us crossing the portals.
We still haven’t made it back yet when he breaks in again. “Well, if some of the recent rumors we've heard about you are true, this one should be right up your alley.” “What did you hear.” “You'll be able to guess. One of the outer fae is approaching, holding a staff with ambassadorial markings on it.” “Yes, the rumors are true. We'll go talk to him.” “If he keeps up his course, there's a nice neutral sliver. The only thing I have against it is that it's another case of someone doing weird things with their architecture, and it may collapse if you go in there. I don't know why someone thought balancing a slab of stone on the tip of a needle was a good idea, but I suppose I have seen stranger things done by people making their own planes...you can tell when they discover they can alter the gravity. It's even more obvious to see the ones where they didn't think through the implications of their changes. That was a real mess one time.” “What happened?” “Let's just say having two strong gravitational fields that act in two different directions where you can walk through both at the same time does interesting things to materials. That was the shortest lived planarch in history, I think.”
So, we didn't even get back to base before heading towards the aforementioned neutral sliver. We comment that we'll be fine even if it does collapse. The diviner asks “But will the ambassador?” Moonbeam can bring him back, but if he gets hurt in any way, the fae courts will likely take that as a declaration of war. Yet another thing to worry about.
We're only in the sliver for a few moments when the Ambassador steps through. The ground feels steady underfoot to us. We do not know him, nor he us. He states firmly, “If you have anything to do with those who are stirring this storm, I would have words with you, if you do not, Stand Aside!” Aqila answers, “Yes, we do. What words would you have with us?”
He begins, “My Queen has expressed concern for what the fate of the planes may be in this matter. The collapse of fragments of even long shattered planes is not a thing to take lightly.” We explain that the point of the exercise is to remove a bleeding wound on the material plane, some destruction of some of those shattered fragments is inevitable in the process, and the alternative is letting another power take control of the Maelstrom to use its power to his own ends.
“Then you are prepared, to give your solemn word under our laws that you will not cause harm to the realms of the Fae?” The precise definition of 'we' is important here. We establish that it means Mirarn and Kalya plus the Sentinel in general, basically.
We point out that we can't make promises on behalf of our employers, but his concerns will be relayed to the proper authorities if he will wait a few minutes. The diviner suggests we find out which court he represents, while we're at it. We ask.
“I speak for the Five Assembled.” IE the 5 major courts of the fae that we met with last month. We wait for a bit, then we hear the diviner speaking to us in a much softer voice than we're used to hearing, but it's so the communication is more secure, “Listen carefully. We're going to have to trust that you can resolve this situation under these instructions. We can not allow the emissary to approach any closer to the center. If he comes farther in, it would be as bad as a greater demon entering the maelstrom. If he speaks for all 5 courts, each of the courts will have pledged them a portion of their power to carry out his embassy” Basically, Mirarn and Kalya can't break off what they're doing, and letting him reach the center would ruin everything. “We can give him the assurances he desires, but only if he can guarantee that no fae will interfere, of all the fae under the command of the 5 courts.”
Moonbeam, Joe, and Thoron don't want to be guarantors of the oath here. Aqila is willing to do so. The Ambassador does not consider the oath of one to be sufficient, but three would. Aqila states, “it would be most proper for all those swearing to be of those directly in service to the Sentinel, and only two such are present here. Pray tarry a bit longer, and another of those directly sworn will arrive.” So Dagnar’s been roped in whether he likes it or not. The ambassador is a little put out, but is willing to wait. Three of the stag-mounted healers make it to the sliver in within 15 minutes, and all three of them combined with Aqila and Dagnar are considered sufficient guarantors, and the oath is sworn.
We're breaking here. Next time, The Final Countdown to the end.

[Terane]

Spoiler: June 2018

Show

We managed to get all the way back to our base sliver and have a few minutes to rest after the meeting with the Outer Fae ambassador, when we get the next round of bad news. Our contact with the seers tells us, “I know you’ve been stopping everything effectively, but it’s become more important that nothing gets through. The Enemy has started employing a weapon from the time of the ‘Gods’ War’.” Joe asked what it is. Basically, it’s a ‘simple weapon’…that can fire massive interplanar energy blasts at targets. Specifically, a blast came in and hit the center dead on, which is very worrisome, given that the Maelstrom tends to screw up interplanar effects royally. The defenders in the center can protect Mirarn and Kalya from this thing, but they can’t do that and deal with anything else, which is why it’s critical for us to stop everything cold.
Our contact comments that he’s surprised that the Enemy is even using this thing, since they were created to crack open Ancient fortresses during the war, so we didn’t know he still had any left, for one, and for two, it takes a strong user to activate it and it kills the operator in the process. The Enemy is probably not firing it himself – might be possible for him to survive doing that, but if he’s wrong, he’d be out of the game for a while. We’re told that one of us could conceivably activate it, but it’d be a toss-up if we’d be able to fire it, and we’d die regardless.
So, for right now, until we know he doesn’t have any more, we have to stop everything that comes in cold, and hope he doesn’t decide to spend a shot fragging us. “How nasty are they, anyway?” Joe asked. The reply is, “Have you seen Chalisea? That was a small one, aimed wrongly.” We contemplate the perfect, circular crater that the city and it’s bay are situated in. That brings up another question – “How much warning did they have before the blast hit?” Our contact tells us, “They got lucky – They had a whole minute. Usually, you only get seconds before it hits.” We’re also told that the blast won’t cross planar boundaries, which means we’re going to be staying mounted, and know where our escape route is so we can be in another plane within a few seconds if the warning of an incoming blast is given.
Note that firing this thing into the Maelstrom is a bad idea, generally, because the Maelstrom generally royally screws up planar effects. So, the going assumption is that the Enemy either fired a lot of shots to manage to bullseye the center like he did, or he’s found a way to compensate for the distortions.
Shortly thereafter, we’re told, “Good news! It looks like you’re not going to be seeing anything other than probing attacks for a while.” Since these should be relatively low threat encounters, we’ll be warned when things start to actually heat up. “From the looks of things, it’s going to be a while before the main attack. Eleduath has been calling in all her hands, and some are currently in positions that they can’t leave quickly. This is good for us, because we may finally be able to figure out where all of them have been hiding now, and where her schemes have been operating.”
It wasn’t very long before our contact got back to us. “Well, that was unexpectedly fast. We have your first customers. You may only want to send a few of you – it looks like three relatively minor mages.” Dagnar and Thoron call dibs, with Gloom Stabby Fun expected to be the result. It’ll take them ten minutes to intercept that group. While they’re en route, another call comes in.
“This looks like feints – if it wasn’t critical to stop everything from reaching the center right now, it wouldn’t be worth sending even one of you.” It’s basically a couple of grunts, so Aqila heads out solo to go incinerate them, and it’ll be 8 minutes to intercept. It’s not very long later when the next call comes in.
“I have no idea what these are. It’s like a spectral dragon, but it’s coming in from a completely different direction than the other two groups. The best place to intercept it is in a small sliver that is…pretty much normal. It’s a few hundred feet across, and suspiciously normal, which is worrisome because there are not “normal” slivers in the Maelstrom. We don’t know what is weird about it, but there are 5 gates in and 11 out, so it’ll be very difficult to intercept anywhere else. Using the communication relay, we debate quickly if either Joe or Moonbeam or both need to go deal with this threat. The diviners have no idea what these things are, which doesn’t help. Their best guess is that it’s probably immune to some form of energy, and looks insubstantial. It’s 20 minutes there and back, even on stags. They could halve that time using timestop and not taking the stags, though. A weird long route made this possible. (OOC note – the spectral dragon-looking thing isn’t actually completely immune, but it’s really fast. It’s an easy fight if both go)
As Aqila is almost all the way back from her grunt incineration run, and Dagnar and Thoron are returning too, the diviner gets back on the horn. “This is getting ridiculous, but we’re probably running through his supply of expendable minions here. We’ve got what looks like a pack of minor stone golems. They look like some beginners experiments.” Aqila can get to the best spot to intercept them from where she’s currently at, which is mildly good aligned. Dagnar and Thoron could get to the second best spot from where they are – it’s a sliver that’s mildly evil, and some active curse generator is spewing things in there, so anyone inside it can expect to get hit with random curses the entire time.
Aqila notes she can shapechange into a Solar, use walls of stone to split the golem pack up, and then splatter them, so she proceeds to intercept and Dagnar and Thoron resume returning to base so they can get whatever shows up next. Aqila employs her plan, and gets to see the first stone wall Disintegrate. She mutters grumpily on seeing that. (Using that ability damages the golems – OOC) So, she throws up an illusion of a stone wall next, and sees the whole pack blast the ‘wall’ before one of them walks into it. We assume Aqila can handle this mess, but it’ll take some time.
Meanwhile, Thoron and Dagnar are almost back to our base camp when another round of whatsits show up. The diviner characterizes them as, “looks like someone’s been modifying wyverns. They look faster, but more fragile.” He also ‘saw’ pulses of electricity going between them and speeding them all up. Thoron grumbles, because he likes Lightning Storm, and that’s likely a bad idea here. They are in a position to intercept the group – there are 3 wyvern things with no active magic on them, 15 HD, and they are very, very fast. 400’ move speed. Thoron and Dagnar have this.
Joe and Moonbeam, having polished off the weird dragon thing and in the process of returning the whole long way, get to hear the diviner shouting over the message relay, “You cannot be serious! It’s a single fighter!” That does seem…less than useful as a threat. They only have to take a five minute detour to go have a look. So, the fighter is Dominated. Moonbeam turns herself into a Dreadnaught to project an antimagic field to take care of that problem, and Joe asks the guy if he really wants to be doing this. The guy immediately turns tail and runs…right out of the cone, where the spell reasserts itself, and he then reverses course.
To get this sorted out, Joe turns himself into a Weird and determines that the guy is a patroller from Resinel who wandered into the Enemy’s camp and got dominated. Dude is also vicious, cruel, and a raper of peasants (he’s a minor servant of Gurthan). Joe’s reaction to this knowledge is to switch forms to Garngrath, eat the guy, then swap again to Dire Ooze, pukes out the gear and flesh, then resumes Garngrath form to belch. End of encounter. Moonbeam takes the flail from the gear pile.
Meanwhile, Aqila is done playing tag with golems and is told, “You’re in a perfect position to deal with this one – I don’t know if it’s a feint or one of the weird things that pop up around here, but I’ve never seen a humanoid ooze before….” It’s a short hop to the best sliver to intercept the latest oddity – which is a thoroughly contaminated water plane, laced with acid, amusingly. That acid resistance gifted to the party a while back comes in handy again. When the oozes show up, Aqila is in Quasar form, and employing Searing Light. They’re vulnerable to it in particular, so the fight is a piece of cake.
Everyone except Aqila is almost back to base again when the next alert comes out. “I’m starting to think he’s grabbing everyone with a random experiment and is throwing them in here to see what they do. It looks like a Glabrezu but it’s not a demon. Looks like it was stitched together from many parts. Maybe some variation on a flesh golem, but it doesn’t look right for that either. It’s taking a circuitous route – unless you get lucky with some unstable jumps, which would cut 15-20 minutes off, it’ll take you half an hour to reach the interception point.
Moonbeam consults her Omen of Peril on her plan for her to go solo this one. The Omen comes back ‘not dangerous’ so she does go alone to face the golem. She finds that it is indeed not dangerous, but it’s like a nesting doll – Kill one layer, and a smaller version pops out, for many, many iterations. She tries to short-circuit the hilarity with an earthquake. It can burrow. Eventually she nails the last, mouse-sized, golem.
Meanwhile, the diviner’s seen something new. “Okay, that cannot possibly be who that’s supposed to look like.” A pause then, “Okay, I stand corrected…the Enemy could have brought Duraln back that quickly, but I’d bet it’s just meant to make you panic and send everyone. It’s a 20 minute trip out to reach the first possible interception point. There’s a better spot, but you’ll have to wait for him to get there. The later spot is Fire dominant (doubles effects of fire spells). The other one would be worse, but not a whole lot. It’s a negative energy plane, so if your death ward comes down for any reason, you risk dying instantly (mechanically, you’re getting barraged with Finger of Death the entire time you’re in there). A few minutes later, it’s clear ‘Duraln’ is going to pass through the fire plane sliver. Right around when that’s apparent, “Alright, I know these are fake. I know he wouldn’t send Eleduath in this early.” There are three separate groups, Fiery (known dead), Tylene, and Eleduath – Only Tylene is actually plausible.
Aqila is on her way back now and could intercept ‘Tylene’. The ‘Eleduath’ is on a path with a strongly (12-levels) good aligned plane – we can be confident that whoever it is is either evil or dominated, so intercepting there would be preferable. ‘Fiery’ might be a problem because he’s got a nice fire plane in that line – Joe calls dibs. Tylene has three good intercept spots, but none are good for fighting her, if that’s really her. The last spot to stop her is 1 gate away from the center, and if it’s really her, she has enough defenses to rush past and make it through. The three options are “not terribly bad, but it’s a dead magic sliver, and Tylene would be the worst one to fight there, other than Duraln. The second is also not terribly bad if those crystals aren't active still – the place looks like a fragment of one of the Ancients’ extraplanar strongholds. They had a defensive shell of crystals and if she knows the control words, and if they’re active, she could turn them on you. You could check if they’re active still with Analyze Dweomer, otherwise there’s nothing harmful in there. If they’re armed, that should be obvious. It takes seconds to arm. They look damaged, so likely not working right, but… The last option is, well, an unusual danger. It’s a strong positive energy plane (Fast healing 30) with one other possible problem. That sliver may be inhabited – I’m getting hints of movement. The splinter is ellipsoidal, 80’ by 40’. Aqila decides to go with option 3 for the interception.
As she’s traveling there, the diviner gets back to her. “I think I’ve identified the movement. You’re not going to like it. Flux Slime. (they have a 10’ antimagic field around them, and produce random effects when they die that can hit up to 50’ away) She’s just thrilled to hear this news. So, at this point in the action, we have Thoron going out to intercept ‘Duraln’, Aqila intercepting ‘Tylene, Dagnar presumably planning on hitting on ‘Eleduath’ again, Joe going after the fiery dude, and Moonbeam on her way back to base after finishing off the nesting-doll flesh golem.
Thoron reaches his target first, and his power sight says ‘Duraln’ has 5HD. Yeah, that’s not the real deal. He also sees True Domination on the guy. Initially, his plan was going to be ‘disjunction’ to remove the Dominate, but it would also remove whatever protections is keeping the poor bastard alive in the fiery sliver, so that’s not gonna work, assuming this is a victim. Instead, Thoron turns into a Solar whose aura suppresses the Dominate effect. Thoron then decides to be a jerk and spreads his arms and wings, intoning, “Salvation has found you, my son!” The ‘Duraln’ screams and runs around in a blind panic. Whether from Thoron or realizing Everything Is On Fire isn’t clear. Thoron follows and tries to calm him down. After deciding he can't escape, he turns to fight (and rolls a natural 1). Thoron catches the blade with one hand. The dude has no idea how to use a sword. He also has substantial transmutation magic on him. Thoron realizes under all the disguises, this is an elderly peasant. Eventually, Thoron figures out that the guy thinks he’s dead and in hell or something, so he tries to pick him up to move him somewhere less dangerous, and eventually grabs him and flies him to the mildly law aligned plane next door, past the acid showers.
Meanwhile, Dagnar is encountering ‘Eleduath’ in the strongly good aligned plane. His arcane sight tells him that ‘Eleduath’ has zero spellcasting. He tries a sap instead, and carries the person off to find a dispel. Aqila’s True Sight shows her an elderly appearing (mid-40’s) peasant woman, not Tylene. She switches to Planatar from and knocks the dominated woman onto the next plane over where they won’t go boom from overhealing. It’s very mildly chaotic and evil. The aura of the planetar cancels out the dominate effect.
This is the mother of the family, and a relatively calm and unflappable lady. She starts demanding an explanation right off. Aqila tells her that bad people are using her as a decoy and would she like to go somewhere safe-ish until the unpleasantness is over? “Yes, but where’s the rest of my family!?” is the response. Aqila answers, “I have a guess. Let me ask.” Meanwhile, Joe got fire immunity up before confronting the fiery dude. He doesn’t get toasted right off, so it’s probably not really him. Joe uses the Weird form to get True Seeing up and sees what he now knows is an early to mid 30’s peasant. Angel form cancels out the dominate, and the dude panics. Joe turns him into a kitten for transportation. Aqila relays to the woman that we’ve found two men and a girl so far. The woman lets her know there are three more boys that need found yet. They might not have been sent to this region…
Aqila promises she’ll pass word on about them, so people are watching. We all have time to take the peasants to the center of the Maelstrom where they can be sort-of safe until this is all over. We meet up for the trip, and Thoron spots a spy crystal necklace on the girl, so we smash that up first. We then learn that the Devaeran patroller that Joe ate had ‘visited’ that peasant family before being picked up – they were grabbed when the Enemy’s forces checked his back trail to make sure there weren’t others coming. The daughter was raped. Well, he’s dead now… Joe tells them that specifically before Aqila escorts them to safety, so he can’t hurt them again.
Aqila does escort duty solo so our region isn’t completely uncovered by us all going. She disjunctions each of them before letting them go through the last portal so the dominate spell,and anything else, are cleared off. She has just enough time to get back to the base sliver before the next bit of fun. The diviner assigned to our group breaks in with, “Well, congratulations. The Enemy decided you were too efficient, so he hasn’t sent anything to you for a bit. The other teams are getting run ragged. And yes, this does look like he’s clearing out the experiments from the labs. A lot aren’t effective for combat, and would have needed a lot of effort to make. For amusement value, the acid spitting beetle swarm was the funniest…they weren’t acid immune and melted themselves.”
The diviner also tells us, “We think we found the rest of the family. Two of them are alive. One is alive now, but picked up some side effects that are causing him to deteriorate before we got him into stasis.” We find out later that anyone trying to heal him or divine on him has all their energy drained. Antimagic fields get devoured. He’s also immune to Glass Strike, Petrification, and those who tried got energy drained too. They tried non-magic healing and found that to be…ineffective. So the whole family is reunited, sort of. Grandpa is still giving everyone suspicious looks. Blame Thoron.
The diviner then tells us, “Well, this is different. You probably want a diplomat for this one. Joe says, “Well, that leaves you out,” eying Aqila and Dagnar deliberately. Dagnar returns a mocking grin. Aqila just rolls her eyes. “This looks like an emissary of Shylarene (Succubus). For the moment, she’s paused. Honestly, if the adjoining team wasn’t being run ragged, we’d send one of them, because she’s technically closer to their area of responsibility, but…” Joe asks, “Any idea what she wants?” “We’re hoping you can tell us. We’re assuming she’s from Shylarene, because she’s the only Demon Prince that routinely uses succubi. Looks like a normal one, no enhancements, but she’s paused in a strongly evil aligned sliver (5 negative levels worth).
So, Joe, being the diplomancer of the group, heads out to go talk to the lady. When he gets there, he makes the appropriate diplomatic niceties, and inquires what the lady is here for. The succubus responds, “My lady has been offered some impressive concessions for some assistance here. My lady thought it would be only courteous to give your masters a chance to make a counteroffer. Most importantly, your opponent has offered his full support for her bid for the Throne of All Hells. Secondly, she has been offered a steady supply of souls for her work, twenty a day for ten years. Thirdly, she has been offered material goods of her choosing up to 200,000 gold value a year for the same ten year period.”
Joe asks what she wants, and establishes that she’s being offered that to throw her forces into this battle. (She is a mistress of misdirection, spies, saboteurs, but not a real army). Joe asks if she was responsible for the peasant family that we met. “No, but consider that an example of what we can do.” Joe responds, “So, obnoxious, but ineffective.” She insinuates, “Are you sure you stopped that attack?” Joe answers pointedly, “Yes, yes we are.” She responds, “Well, I could give you a warning on one matter…That was not the only family their forces have taken.” Joe is not impressed with her information. He points out that she hasn’t told him what she wants yet. “I told you. I want to know what you will offer me.” Sense motive check – she’s not telling the entire truth. He thinks the two minor offers were given, but support for the Throne was not. Also, he thinks she’s not actually an emissary, just trying to cozen for shinies for a reward. Joe decides to swap to Rakshasa form, her clone, and see how she reacts. He now knows that Shylarene rejected that offer – the conversation was being watched by diviners and relayed, so that detail was passed to Joe to let him know how to handle this encounter.
Joe demands, “So, give me one reason I shouldn’t kick your ass so hard it comes out that pretty mouth of yours.” She answers, “It was worth a try – some of you humans are so gullible…” He taunts her for a bit, and learns she’s a very old succubus who has been in the highest ranks and busted down to the lowest repeatedly. A bit more back and forthing occurs, then Joe tries to intimidate her by changing to a Sword Archon and tells her, since she isn’t familiar with that form, that when he puts this blade through her chest, her soul will be trapped on a Celestial Plane for eternity. No resurrections. Time to roll initiative. Joe wins. He casts baleful polymorph for an opening move, and she fails her save. Then he does a discorporating dive. Banished, she is. Break here.

Spoiler: August 2018

Show

We pick up with all our characters being back at base, waiting for the major attack we know is coming. We're warned that Saralis is coming our way. Eleduath is heading for the stronger of the other two groups, and the Enemy is heading for the group that Duraund shredded once already, and he's brought Duraund back quickly, and is having him lead the attack. There are only 3 survivors of the original two groups of 5 that took on Duraund. Our diviner gives us the details next, after that summary. “Eleduath has several of her hands - assuming we survive this, we might find out where they've been hiding. Saralis has what looks like a pack of liches with some of their creations. Most of the undead they have with them look like standard brute types, not terribly dangerous. One major exception - one of those looks like it’s had a demon fused into it, and since this is presumably someone working directly for Saralis, they probably know how to do that the right way, not the more commonly known cheap trick. What this does, the demon will be able to act, partially independently. and when you destroy the undead, then you have to fight the demon too. Can't tell you for sure what type of demon is in there. Good news is, it's likely to be affected like any other demon would be inside the maelstrom. The binding may give it some shelter from that, but deep enough in, and they won't be able to keep it with them because it'll be going nuts. I expect they'll send it back before they're in danger of losing control of it, assuming they know there is a problem with this. They'll probably be able to get fairly close to the center before they lose control of it, though.”
“Your possible options for intercepting him, right now, early in his path...I wouldn't recommend either - one's a negative energy plane, where you'll be fine unless you lose your death wards in which case you'll die instantly. The other one is 600' across with multiple entrances and exits, and a strongly evil plane. I would strongly advise against fighting there. From there, his possible paths split into more or less 3 options. There are places to intercept along all three, but....there's another evil plane, not as strong, but you would be noticeably weakend... (1st one would be a -10 lvls, this one would be -2). The two following that are both weird...1st one, if it wasn't so large, I'd say we were looking at a chunk of someone's laboratory, but it's 600' across. Beautifully tiled flooring with a number of runes with a strong signature of elemental fire on them. I have no idea what they do beyond that. The 2nd one, if I'm interpreting what I'm seeing correctly and I'm not sure if I am because I haven't seen anything like this before, there's some sort of dimensional warping in that area. Depending on where you're standing, the plane will look to be different sizes. The range looks to be anywhere from 40' across to 4,000' ft. From the warped area, there are quite a number of exits, and I'm not sure I'd advise you fighting him there, because the warping may allow him to get past you easily.”
“The second route has only 2 guarenteed planes, connected to each other. I would not advise fighting in the first of them simply because it's a ridiculous battleground and I have no idea what it will do to you. It is showing as very strongly evil, good, lawful, and chaotic. It's about 30' across. The 2nd is 900', and showing as impeded magic. At a guess, a fifth to a quarter of your spells are likely to fail in there. Not likely to affect Saralis at all. (higher level spells are more likely fail). The third possible route, there are no 2 connected planes he'll have to pass through, but there are 3 planes he will have to pass through. One is 20' across, dead magic. The 2nd is 300' water and earth plane, which as messed up as it's been, means you're walking through mud, with bad visibility. The last one is a ridiculously strong positive energy plane, about 200' across. The final place you can stop him, is guaranteed, because it is the only plane that he can pass through and still reach the center. It's weakly good aligned, so a slight impediment to him. And, of course, he'll be aware that getting past you there will let him win everything, and if he gets past, he may well win everything. That one comes in at about 950'.”
Joe wonders what would happen if you had a wall of stone or wall of force on the far side of the portal, and an antimagic field on this side, would that block him in. Our seer contact thinks that it might, but the Ancients had things that could get through that. The plane is gently rolling hills, with beautiful grass cover. We ask about the center's terrain. He's not going to try to describe it, because strictly speaking, it has no terrain. What you see is what you want it to be. Joe asks what that would do with the wall of stone spell. “I've never actually thought about that question. I think it may be one of two things...either the wall would only exist for you, or the wall might exist for everyone, but if they don't choose to see stone, then the wall would appear to be unsupported. It might be interesting to experiment under less desperate circumstances.” Joe comments about it would have been a good idea to do some research beforehand. The seer comments that research has been done, but the people who might know are currently otherwise occupied, but he can pass the question back to the research teams to see if they can find an answer before we run out of time.
The diviner resumes speaking, “And, oh, well that's going to make things interesting. One of the outer ring groups decided they were going to try to help and slow Saralis down. Not directly, but one of them had a scroll of wall of stone. He threw a disintegrate through the portal. We didn't know he could do that. Hopefully he can't target through a portal, and can only blind fire. And he can't do that unless you attack him first.” (if Saralis breaks the pact, and it can be proven after the fact, the Enemy would either have to renounce the pact entirely, or be obligated to permanently kill Saralis under the terms of the pact). (Also, it would have to be an obvious violation, witnessed and provable, so not likely worth it to try to draw him into doing that).
Joe asks what happens if you just collapsed the shards around the center to cut off the gateways into it. We learn that shards collapsed that way also create pulses, which will also hit the center under those circumstances. Collapse the wrong kind of plane, and it could disrupt things. We start thinking about how to slow him down. And ask about what we know about Saralis himself. The seer tells us that he likes to cultivate an appearance of being hot headed and impulsive, but he's likely never done a thing in his life that wasn't calculated in advance.
So for initial screwing with the enemy, idea is to wall of stone around the dead magic area's exits so he has to work to leave. And Frostfell the water/earth plane so it's a solid block of ice/mud. The second path with the connected planes he has to pass through, we can make a wall of stone with one of the remaining antimagic stones to make him have to smash through. And for the first rooms, Avalanche or Blizzard to fill them up with snow. And other rooms, too, to just slow him down.
Seer lets us know what the final boom is likely to look like...there'll be some powerful damaging energy blasts - force, disintegration, unholy, and holy. There's also going to be probably a disjunction effect in there too. They don't know which order the blasts will hit until it gets closer. We're instructed to assume it'll be the disjunction first, because they will hit in short succession, and any one of them would have a pretty good chance of killing us.
So, to created impedances in the negative energy plane - walls of thorns by the entrances plus a blizzard to fill it with snow. Blizzard in the Evil plane. Blizzards everywhere, really. We split up to hit all the 3 routes with traps - Moonbeam does the 2nd path, Joe does the 3rd, and Aqila and Thoron do the 1st. Then we meet up at the good plane, as the seer contacts us with an indirect message from Saralis - basically if we make any more traps like that, he's going to consider it an attack on himself, though he'll forgive any other ones we've already set up before he gave us this warning. Heh. Too late!
We know more about the undead than we did - one of the monstrosities seems to be able to maintain a sustained blast of hellfire - 60' cone. So the Blizzard trap is less effective than he'd thought. Per the diviner, “He's been keeping it up for 10 minutes so far, so we should assume it can keep it up for an entire fight.” Oh well, we did get some information out of this.
The Evil plane, we couldn't do blizzard in, but walls of thorns and stone were doable on the entrance. 'Well, a little more information. It's not good, but we have more information on how destructive that cone of hellfire is. It's melting stone.” Joe asks how quickly. “Not sure it's not turning up the heat for this, but it's looking like a foot per round. If it's not turning up the heat, and it can actually sustain that, for general property damage, it's one of the more horrifying undead creations we've ever seen.”
“If he doesn't get more efficient on getting through the delays you've set up, he's going to be very short on time when he gets to the last plane. He is likely not going to take the 3rd route now, because it’s too long.”

The diviners narrating abruptly changes tone. “Oh, that's not good. Duraln has hit the first group. Who thought it was a good idea to bring her here!” We all yell back, “WHO?” He responds, “Your paladin friend and his lady friend. Oh, that's interesting. She's directing all the power she's necessarily being forced to absorb from the maelstrom into him. He's standing up to Duraln in melee. If he can survive the torrent, he may be able to stand up to the Enemy, and they have a very lucky set of planes for an escape route to the center - they have a strongly good aligned plane to hop through to get to the center, which he would never go through, and the route around it is very convoluted.” (-20 levels for the Enemy to set foot in there).
“It looks like Eleduath is going to be hitting her group soon...Oh, it looks like we rate 2 paladins...I wonder who's going to be helping you.” We ask, “Who is it?” He answers, “I don't know. A lady paladin.” Aqila casts a quick illusion of our previous acquaintance, asking, “That look like her?” The diviner responds, “Yes, that's her, looks like a bit better armor now though. Alright, it's confirmed, he's taking the 1st route.” (Meaning Saralis)
“Well, we do know what some of those runes do now, anyways. Congratulations on your flame tornado.” So the room with the weird runes now has a blizzard, tornadic force winds, and fire, per the diviner's description of the scene. “He may choose to argue that that was a deliberate attack, especially if you take out some of his minions. If you just slow him down...” Joe notes, And if he's wrong, he gets permanently dead.” (since that would violate the pact) The diviner replies, “Which is why I said might. If it was lower risk, he definitely would.”
A bit later we hear, “Well, we have a little more information on two of his undead.” Aqila asks, “Immune to fire?” “Can't tell you that because nothing seems to have hit them yet. One of them appears to also be able to control winds. The other has some fairly powerful cold magic - looks like some version of Frostfell. For the rest of it, the one that appears to have some control wind abilities appears to be immune to the winds. Saralis is also ignoring the winds. So is one of those hulking brute things, though I think that's more a matter that he's strong enough to stand up to it. I would strongly advise against letting that thing hit any of you. All three liches seem to be having trouble except for what we think is the demon fused one. He's not exactly ignoring it, but it doesn't seem to be seriously impeding him either. Not sure what's really going on there. From everything I can see, he should be getting blown away. There's nothing to explain why he isn't. The good news is you have four of them in serious disarray.” We ask if he's waiting for them? “Doesn't seem to be.” The minions he’s not waiting for are the hellfire one, the cold one, and two others that we don't know about...(poison breath and nasty screamer - sonic damage plus blasphemy, ooc)
“Other thing that might mean something, or might not. Saralis is holding a bag with a small stone, or small lump of somethings anyway, half a dozen of something anyway. It seems to be important to him - the wind almost ripped it away from him, and he checked to make sure he had a better grip on it.” Joe asks if those could be souls to power his abilities? “From what we know, he himself functions as the container, but I suppose they could be souls over and above what he can contain in himself, which I don't like the idea of.”
When they enter the warped space, four more of them blow away - 3 of the liches and one of the undead. He still has the demon thing and the one that can control winds left. And he appears to be leaving the wind controller behind to try to get the other minions out. So, it's just Saralis and his demon pet now, per the diviners reports. A short delay later, and we’re told, “Good news, we can tell you which entrance he's going to come in from. It's the one with the 250' portal. Also, that undead he's got with him appears to have a hellfire ability, but instead of a cone, he's radiating out around himself, out to 40'. It's not as hot, but hot enough. Saralis appears to be having no trouble with it.”
Meanwhile, Moonbeam covers the portal with a wall of stone so we have an idea where they're coming in at. A little while later, 3 holes appear in the wall. Apparently he has a way to split the ray for disintegrate. Before we can use readied actions, 5 black spheres come flying in from the center hole. Thoron sees necromancy, conjuration, biomancy, abjuration and transmutation. He can see an effect that will 'adjust' any disjunction or dispells to put them back on the caster. Eep.
Aqila’s readied action is to cast a spell and gets 4 rounds of timestop. She uses analyze dweomer on a sphere and learns it's a limited resurrection effect tied to a specific person. It will also temporarily armor him when it does that, but he will be unable to act for about 3 rounds. He has to be within 1 mile of them, on the same plane. She also casts 3 prismatic Walls, one over each hole.
As a note, all of us who can are currently in a shapechange form. Moonbeam casts timestop too, with mudslide, and mud to stone to bury all the spheres in stone. She's being an ancient Verdant Twist. Joe and Dagnar are waiting to see Saralis. Thoron is also waiting.
Saralis steps through the middle hole into the prismatic wall. He takes some damage, but isn't stoned, insane or banished. Joe uses Time Stop. 3 rounds, so he does delay drown, delay polymorph, and throws a pinecone at Saralis's face. When the timestop ends, the drown....doesn't work. The polymorph might have nailed him. We see his form wavered briefly, then resolidified. The pinecone misses, and hits the prismatic wall, and it blows up.
Saralis goes next. Aqila blows the last 3 saves, but made the first one. Thoron makes all but the con. Joe makes them all. Dagnar blows 3 saves too. Joe lets Aqila reroll a roll so she's only failed a will and a con now. Moonbeam blows essence so Dagnar can do a reroll too. He makes it now. Thoron rerolls, and now makes all his saves too. Demon undead comes through, and is now a statue.
Saralis speaks, “That is annoying.” Then, from behind us, we hear a cheery “Sneezil Help!” Moonbeam comments, “And here's where it gets interesting. Let's hope it's good interesting.” We hear some gibbering from our seer, followed by a new voice, “I'm sorry, I think you broke him. The idea of having two outsiders on our side in an area where they may go nuts was too much for him.” Sneezil, meanwhile, changes into a Planetar form, which means he can now dual-wield his maces. He still has his own face, just bigger. Joe rustles his branches as if the tree is cheering.

Saralis’s reaction is, "So I see that idiot wasn't drinking this time." Apparently he'd discounted tales of an imp paladin running around. Dagnar gets to go next. He does Ray of Dizziness to try to slow Saralis down. It works. Partial actions only for the big Bad now. Moonbeam gets 3 rounds with her timestop. She sets up a set of quickened true casting and delayed flamestrike. With some force and irresistable thrown in. And empowered and blistering and sonic. When the dust settles, Saralis seems to be smoking a bit. Joe defers to Thoron, who casts disjunction. It's countered. Joe will swap shapes, then do quickened launch item to throw pinecones at Saralis. The boom is big enough that he's forced to burn another 1/day - fullheal. Then he casts timestop, gets two rounds, and does a irresistable delayed drown, dropped a pinecone on the ground, resumed twist form, and prepares to launch the pinecone when the timestop ends.
Saralis goes next. He uses disintegrate on the rocks, destroying 1 stone, and freeing two of them from the rocks. There's a massive blast of unholy damage on its destruction. And that burns his action. But, now Sneezil has to make a pile of saves. He doesn't die, but, he's got one of each failed for next time. Oww. Aqila does analyze dweomer again and sees the conjuration is a summoning effect, that will summon 4 major demons to defend him. Sneezil tries to glorybolt him, and misses.
Note from the diviners – “You might want to get closer to the exit portal - that blast is coming soon, and we're pretty sure the disjunction is first. Also, it would probably be a good thing if at least one of you has the strength to heal when you get there - your paladin friend is in bad shape, and his lady friend is keeping him alive, for now.” Joe asks how long she can keep it up. “Until she goes crazy.” We're told Saralis can probably set up some protections to get through the blast, but it'll slow him down, and he may not have enough time to get to the center. “And the other paladin was actually fairly useful. We're not sure what made it work, but Eleduath had some sort of spell creating counterspellers for her. Nothing anyone else in the group had seemed to affect them at all. We're going to see if she'll let us take a look at her sword, because it was taking them out with one hit each. Of course, given the weird things paladins seem to haul around, it'll probably be some sort of ludicrously expensive effect that was only useful for this specific situation. Anyway, the other two groups are fairly clear. Eleduath's group had to stop because they couldn't make it to the center in time. The group fighting her has been ordered to an emergency exit - planeshift from the nearest stable-ish point. Almost certain death, instead of certain death.”
Dagnar is up. He does Dimensional Anchor, and it works. Dagnar does a Peter Quill style dance. Moonbeam goes into timestop, drops a delayed forcestrike on his head, then sees Saralis go into a shell. Fast healing while it's up. Joe uses timestop, throws a pinecone at him, which shatters on the shell, and drops an avalanche on him, but he manages to not get buried. Thoron also tries to bury Saralis, and it fails too. We're not sure how he's managing this.
The snow is too deep for him to disintegrate his stones out. He can't teleport past us because he's dimensionally anchored. He could retreat and regroup, or he may go into 'if I'm going to die, I'm taking you with me. Thoron sees him building up for something big. Sneezil starts rolling saves. He makes enough of them to not die. Now, it's Aqila's turn. She drops a fireball on Saralis to blow up the shield. She follows up with darkbolts, but the bugger made his saves. Sneezil tries Bolt of Glory again. No sale, just 32 damage.
Dagnar, having spent time regarding Saralis, prepares to make a death attack. Three steel, sneak attack, with death effect on save fail. Saralis wobbles back and forth, then collapses flat on his face, dead. The resurrection stones explode with muffled whomps, and the snow slumps down into the new cratar. Joe grabs the corpse and runs. Moonbeam grabs Dagnar and runs. Sneezil and Aqla book it, and Thoron follows at speed.
When we get to the center, the seer groups are there already. Moonbeam starts looking around for bodies that aren't moving and are still bleeding. We remind her not to heal the energy vortex cursed guy. After the disjunction pulse goes by, “Good news, as much as Eleduath had to slow down to shield herself from that, she probably can't make it here in time. The Enemy might have enough time. Everyone who has enough energy left, please start putting up walls. It won't stop him, with the artifact he's carrying, but it'll slow him down. (He's got the Staff of Angrenore, the staff that goes with the citadel he conquered back in the God War. He also has his own copy of the Staff of Ambar, which can be used to control the maelstrom, and that first one was the most useful of all of them for combat.) We're also told that the group teleporting out hasn't gotten in contact with anyone yet, but there were not explosions consistent with a failed teleport, so they presumably survived.
Joe casts a bunch of flash-floods through the portal. Aqila and Moonbeam make some wall of force and stone sammiches. We're also cautioned that we need to dismiss anything that could be construed as an attack as soon as the Malestrom closes. Sneezil took off before he goes nuts. As we're setting up barriers, we hear Aremel start laughing, with a slightly manic tinge to it. "It's so obvious now.” We can see swirls of energy dancing around her. Tervel seem to be stable now, but is still unconcious even after all the mass heals. Joe's heal check reveals that during the course of the fight he had every bone in his body getting broken at least once, and healed, every single major organ ruptured and healed. Basically, if it could be damaged, it was, and healed.
Aremel continues, "I understand why those lessons were necessary. This would not be possible otherwise." Moonbeam does a brain spider to check if Aremel's gone round the bend or not. Moonbeam sees a cascade of images running through Aremel’s head, all centered around her being vastly more powerful, fixing everything that's wrong with the world.
"It would be so easy...and a mistake." Swirls of energy start winking out around her. "Enough for one thing, and only one thing..." She steps over to Tervel and speaks one word. "Live." He wakes up abruptly, and Moonbeam can see a change - she no longer has a deity brain-spidered, but a ordinary mortal.
And about this point, the walls start coming down. We look to see if more walls are needed. We’re told, "He won't get through in time, and it would be best to not prevent him from coming through too late. There is one more thing missing." And with that, the Maelstrom finally collapses. We can now see a massively screwed up landscape, that will need a long time to mend. It's a massive jumble of varied landscapes. Desert chunks next to jungle next to swamps, etc. Thoron is tasked to go take a look around to see if any architecture made it through intact, in case it's dangerous. The tiled area from the room with the fire runes is sitting in the middle of a jumble of various forests, and is clearly visible as a patch of even light green.
The Enemy has now stepped into the center. Valrim and Elenmire are still off finishing off the Tarrasque now that won't break the world. (On Saralis's corpse, we find a greater rod of intensify, which is maximize and doubled, and a set of robes that we'd want to have purified because they're evil. But, they're +2 to CL, function as high end bracers of armor (permanent epic mage armor) and has a 5 points per day pool of metamagic reduction, ring of freedom of movement, activatable elemental immunity 1/day, for all elements, and a greater rod of quicken.)
The Enemy is wearing full plate, and a face-concealing helmet. Jet black of course. He could be a metal golem, for all we can see. “A pity that most of you are protected now. With your superiors as exhausted as they are, if not for that… But, there is at least one person here that is not protected..." He's looking at Tervel. "But, death would be too merciful a vengeance, and under the circumstances, I can do something much more creative. For you and your descendants, a curse on your line, that they shall know nothing but failure.” (cursed fate trait)
"As for the rest of you, as agreed, you have 100 years. Use them well" Eleduath had also followed her father in, looking rather singed. They both Bamf out.

Spoiler: GM Commentary

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And that wraps up the campaign. I hope everyone reading has enjoyed the logs.