The Thirty-Sixth Session

January 9, 2021, Campaign: As the ground quakes, evil wakes

Previously

Grash: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the s҉̰̞̫͇̯̳͇t̬͕̰a̭r̜̹͙s̢̞͓͖̮h̤͖͕̖i̱̩̗p̮ ̱͖̕͝E҉̣͕̙ń̺̳̩̤̘̩̬̰t̳͍͍̖ę̜̱r͇̪ṕ̦̖̝̻́͝r̜͓͔̗̙͔̻̬i̧̗̦̜͇͟͝s̬̥̻̜̲͇̰̀͞e̝̘͕̖ͅ ̢̢̟͓̬̠̺̞̩̩͚̯͙͉̱͎ ̵͞͝҉̢͈̳͈̻̺̤̪̝͎̙ͅ ̟̺͚̟̦͖̯͕̀͟͡ͅ ̵̪͖̰͍̮̣͓̤̱̝͖̱̟̯̦͢

The Knights of the Summer Court, having escaped from the Underdark, headed to the Quadroads. On the way, word of spiders reached the Party's ears. When Moon reached for the Ice Heart of Winter, betrayal. During Moon's cleansing ceremony the gnome Eta'el reached out to the Party with an offer: 4000 gold for retrieval of their Skystaff. Begrudgingly the Party accepted the quest to travel to the Banyo tree inhabited by Kerjes. Stopping at the Quadroads, the group left Moon and Zelrathi at the temple to Ioun: Moon to convert, and Zelrathi to research.

As the Party were leaving, they picked up Viroth, a monster hunter, who also sought Kerjes. Traveling east to Sky Diamond Academy, the Party came across Renewal a town covered in webs, but not completely deserted. Finding a Halfling mother and the town's children, the Party stayed the night. In the dead of night, aberrant arachnids fell upon the group.

With the corrupted spiders vanquished and the source of their corruption shattered, the Party moved on to the other side of Lake Revival. An empty home within the deserted town of Barehold is where the Party bedded down for the night. Hearing chanting, Bugfood went to investigate, and found a small gathering sacrificing two cocooned bodies to the lake.

Bugfood planted a Bean as a skirmish commenced. When the group's two leaders fled by Teleport and the rest of the group killed, the ground shuddered with the power of the Bean. The Party quickly packed up and were leaving on the cultists' abandoned horses when the shoreline birthed a great monolith.

A stone pyramid broke through the surface, uprooting trees, sending them crashing onto their sides. The corpses of the recently deceased convulsed and spasmed in place. As the pyramid ceased its ascension, as though taking its first breath a baleful wind picked, up gathering towards the entryway.

While Jerry, Ryltar, Salris, Viroth, and Vurguron were helping the Halflings onto the horses, Bugfood with his small gathering of satyrs and a weasel stood by to watch. The gathering wind drew in the cold night air, pulling in dirt and dust whose slithering reached a fevered pitch. Dirt and debris exploded from the entrance of the pyramid.

The Party reeled away, covering their eyes from the dirt. When they looked again, they saw two skeletal empty eyes staring deep into their very souls.

Standing amongst the settling dust is a six foot tall mummified corpse, with golden headpiece inlaid with precious gems, one gem seemingly moving on its own, a large golden necklace with blue and green stones laid upon its chest, a scarlet cape slowly settling along with its own ruby dust, a wide leather belt around its midsection, two wide gold bracelets overlay maroon gloves on its wrists, two golden belts holding a silvery khopesh at its waist, and water-damaged bandages from the waist down.

At the sight of the khopesh, Bugfood, Ryltar, Salris and Viroth felt an uneasy instinct squirm.

As the mummy speaks, the words crack and beat like a dry whisper amplified to a shout: "Tereshut!"

"What is this? I was promised that I would return to an Eden!" It catches sight of Jerry, and addresses her: "Where is my lady!? She had promised to be at my return!"

Jerry bluffs: "She was washing her hair, and said that she couldn't come."

"That seems uncharacteristic of her," says the mummy.

"Well, it has been a long time," says Jerry.

The mummy looks abashed, and through skilful questioning we learn that he was entombed after his opponents captured him in some great battle. The opponents were a group that opposed his plan to merge the plane of the Fae with the Material plane. His name is Degrazil, who Viroth knows as "the Butcher of Othe".

He is distraught that his Lady is not present, and states his intent to find her.

Silra Edenair, his Lady. Bugfood, a druid, knows that she wanders the land, helping people find renewal. Her followers are like a hippie gathering, wandering where she does.

Degrazil came down from the mountains of the northwest, but he doesn't recognize the terrain and the stars have somewhat changed since he came down. Jerry proposes that the dread mummy travel with them, out loud, to the mummy. To help him get his bearings and to find his Lady.

Everyone else in the Party doesn't like this idea; they felt the ominous dread.

Degrazil says that he's going to raise his new disciples, and begins to do things to the fresh corpses from the cultists that the Party killed. Animate Dead.

We ask if there's any message he wants us to carry to The Lady, and he says to spread word of his arrival, that all who remain loyal to him shall come to him and praise him.

"We'll certainly do that," says Jerry, as the mummy pipes sand into three corpses. Jerry is now in Team Scram.

We saddle up the children on the stolen horses, and begin to ride away, discussing whether we should deal with this target"I'm going to say this combination of letters and numbers, and you can make of it what you will: see arr fifteen," says David. now or later. We decide: Later. Bugfood casts Sky Write to leave a message: "Danger lurks in Barehold!"

We travel south through the night, and Jerry takes a level of exhaustion. The sun rises, and we see spiderweb in the treetops. "The spiders attack at night, usually," says Ryltar to the Halfling mom. She shudders. We take 8 hours of the morning to sleep and rest; Bugfood again casts Sky Write, warning people to stay away from the big pyramid in Barehold. He's hoping that adventurers will see it and deal with it. From where we are, a day's travel south, we can't see the pyramid or the previous Sky Write. We decide to continue traveling, at our usual pace.

The Ditch Town

Two days' travel pass uneventfully, and we come to the ditch town, where there were sales and sellers. It's trashed, invaded by spiders, with the denizens cocooned or dead. There's a lot of 3-5-inch wolf spiders about; Ryltar squashes one and doesn't see pink ooze. Bugfood wildshapes into an opossum, eats one, and returns to Tiefling form to describe them as bitter and off, not like normal spiders, like soured milk. Viroth says they're diseased, beginning to turn, like water that is beginning to taste of goat milk.

We find no living creatures; Salris finds no loot of notes in more than two dozen tents. Ryltar checks one tent and finds 80 gold.

Over the next three days, we gather 28 gold worth of material for Bugfood's healing-potion crafting.

The eldest of the children who we had taught Mage Hand to seems to be able to cast it, but in an inconsistent and faulty manner.

At the end of the second day, we exit the webbed forest, with one day's travel to Sky Diamond remaining.

Sky Diamond

On the third day, we come to the outside city of Sky Diamond. It's bustling, full of people who are seeking refuge from spiders.

The entrance to Sky Diamond is heavily guarded, and the guards ask our business. Ryltar presents his letter, but correspondent is dead by poison, so we tell the guard to send for Guy Pennet, and he does. Then Jerry explains the Mummy Lord threat to the captain of the guard, who has no idea what to do with the knowledge that he has been given.

The runner comes back with Guy, who is surprised but happy to see us. The guards won't let us in, but they let Guy out and he leads us to a tavern. The captain of the guard takes down notes on what we had said about Degrazil and Silra, "his big tiddy goth gf" in Salris' words, and then we all go off to the tavern.

Guy's divination

Guy tells us that the timetable that he had thought would occur has been pushed up. The series of events that are starting have begun, and he doesn't know when the next will occur. It's a cold, icy event. "Well, we did find the city that belongs to the Ice Lord, so what comes after that?" asks Jerry. Guy is shocked, and Ryltar shows him the Ice Heart of Winter, and so we tell him of the expedition and the Drow. He examines the wand, and "huh"s several times.

"Do you know if it's alive," Guy asks as he puts it down. It crusts over with ice, which quickly sublimates into a cloud of water vapor. "Well, it appears to have awoken. Certain magic items have properties in them that can produce an effect. Some can go dormant and be awoken again." Jerry asks if that's going to bring about the Final Winter. "No, it's waiting for something. There's something missing, something more to it."

But then the conversation returns to the series of events. After the cold event, Guy says that the next event will be a green star (which Bugfood has seen in a dream), and then he goes on a long TEDxTavern talk about divination. The fifth star disappears, and then the sixth star appears. He points at the wand: "If this is the second, then the third star is the green."

"Do you know anything about the fourth star," asks Ryltar.

"It gets brighter, and shines as bright as day. So, yeah. This wand, there's more to it. There's a magical barrier within itself, and it needs to be overcome. This is something completely different from what they make here. This wand is old." And then he shivers, and sits upright. "Was there anything else?

Jerry starts going over her list, and Guy replies:

• The jester: "Don't mess with them; the only way to deal with it is to contain it, and the best way to destroy it is to fight fire with fire. I don't know how to do that."
• The spiders: "Certain magical things could happen to enlarge a spider; if they were to turn pink and orange that would be … bad." "We've seen that." "Good, right." We pull out the ball of pants containing the obsidian pumice, and show him. "This is not of this world. Don't touch it. It's corruption from another plane."

But Guy is really distracted at the moment; his brain is full, and he goes off to talk to his superiors.

We order dinner from the bar, and ask the barkeep about libraries. There's the Temple of Ioun, and the Archive Incantatum within Sky Diamond itself.

Fifteen minutes later, a dozen guards show up to collect the Party. They don't manacle us, but they do escort us into Sky Diamond Academy.

The Deans of Sky Diamond Academy

The campus still sprawls in glory across the pocket plane, with gardens and buildings and towers. The guard leads us to a central office building with a large bench, and a table with five people sitting behind it. These are the Superiors: the people who announced Galinndan's death, who are for all intents and purposes the deans of houses within Sky Diamond Academy.

• Large, barrel-chested man, with red robes that match his big mane of curly red hair and beard.
• Elven woman wearing a jet black skin-tight dress with pearls in heaps around the neck, with red hair.
• Gnomish woman in long flowing blue robe and blonde-grey hair
• Human gentleman, greying brown hair, brown goatee in the modern style
• Human man in flowing purple scholarly robes and traditional hat

And there's Guy in the corner, standing sheepishly penitent, out of everyone's way.

The purple dean speaks. "Guy here has told me much, and explained many things. You have some things to explain."

Ryltar starts with the death of Glindan, and the Drow expedition to the Underdark.

The red-haired woman in black asks of Osril, her grandson, who went on the expedition with the Party. Ryltar explains that, though we traveled alongside the expedition, we were certainly not in agreement with their goals. And for the best of our knowledge, Osril remained underground with the expedition, in the Lost City. He was alive when we last saw him.

"And what was the expedition looking for?" Ryltar holds out the Ice Heart of Winter, and begrudgingly allows the blue-robed dean to Mage Hand it and examine it. Ryltar explains his trust issues, and how Moon tried to steal it. The deans murmur. We explain Moon's experiences with Lolth, and that she's alive in Quadroads.

The deans hold a very long murmured debate. They don't believe that Moon would have done such things, at which point we tell them about Moon's connection to the Battle Locusts: that she made them. The broad-chested man seems to be the central voice of the group, and he speaks: "Enough. Moon will have her way. We'll send a group to retrieve her, and she will come back to face her penance. Now," he says, and sends the wand back to Ryltar.

They may have other questions.

We ask them about Degrizil, Butcher of Othe. They say that Othe was south-southwest of Sky Diamond, and was wiped out by him. It was south of Leen, but west-northwest of North Haven.

Kerjes, we learn, is not something they know of.

The aberrant spiders are something they know of, but they didn't know of the aberrant nature. They suggest immobilization and destroying the source of corruption.

The doors behind us open, and we are dismissed, and escorted out of Sky Diamond Academy. Ryltar sends a message to Guy to send Priscilla out to talk to the Halfling couple.

We hole up in a tavern.

Downtime in Sky Diamond Academy

During our downtime:

• Ryltar goes to the Temple of Ioun to search for info about the desert expedition in Galinndan's journal.
• Jerry and Salris go to the Temple of Ioun to search for information about Kerjes, the aberrant spiders, and mummies: They find that Kerjes is draconic, known to attack by land or by sky.
• Vurguron buys healing potions.
• Bugfood crafts healing potions with his herbalism kit.

Moon's Hearing

Over the course of the next few days, the guards summon individual Party members to audiences with two or three deans. After each audience, we're escorted out of Sky Diamond Academy once more.

At noon on the second day, we are all summoned, and led to the same chamber of the five deans. And there they're talking down to a bound Moon.

We let them finish what they're saying.

There's heated discussion of why. She reveals that the Drow were the ones who took her in when her family were attacked by the Yuan-ti, in the town of Heartsong. Jerry knows that the Yuan-ti never attacked Heartsong. Moon is wearing the base robe of an acolyte of Ioun.

Jerry asks Moon how her conversion is going.

Ryltar apologizes to Moon to say that he threw her under the bus, and Jerry cuts him off, and introduces her background in the Yuan-ti wars, and says that she knows that Heartsong wasn't attacked by the Yuan-ti.

With some magical investigation by the Deans, we discover that neither Jerry nor Moon are lying.

Further questioning reveals that Moon was hidden away during the attack, and was rescued by the Drow after the attack. Heartsong was a home of crafting and magical artifacts, of great value for weapons development. It was why Moon went into the crafting magics at Sky Diamond Academy.

The deans ask if we think Moon can be redeemed, if there is good in her. Ryltar ("Don't trust a Drow," he says), Jerry, and Bugfood think she can. Salris is eh. Salris reports that Zelrathi was opposed. Vurguron doubts that Moon is actually Moon anymore, or ever was. "What good is there to see in her?" he asks. This leads Ryltar to explain how he saw all that Lolth has done to the Drow, and how he has worked to overturn and atone for what he has done.

"Then let this be the judgement here. She will continue her path to Ioun, under penance of death." The black-clad dean comes up with a fine silver strand, and lays it around her neck. "Should she stray from the path, this will end it." Moon slumps.

Ryltar approaches, and apologizes to Moon, saying that he hopes she can forgive him, and says he thinks it will be all.

The door opens, and we exit. The Deans give us permission to reenter Sky Diamond Academy in the future. We set up camp outside of town.

Salris and Ryltar

That night, Salris asks Ryltar if he really believes that anyone can be redeemed. Ryltar thinks that anyone can, though it might take a lot of penance. Salris feels guilt over his kinslaying; Ryltar isn't really surprised by it. Salris explains that that kinslaying is the reason that the dwarf keeps following the Party. "What's the reason you can't do penance?" asks Ryltar. Salris holds out his Pact Weapon. "When I slayed my father, I inherited this. Something holds me back. Irregularities come and go; some days I am more rational than others. I feel that there's something there that holds me back." "Was your kin deserving of his fate? Would you do it again?" "He was deserving of it; I just don't know if I'd do it again. I feel that it holds me back from doing more…" the conversation continues and we learn more that Salris is uncomfortable with what his power might ask him to do, and whether he has any use to the Party if he abandons that source of power. Ryltar says that he'll stand by Salris even if he loses that power. Salris was very worried about stuff, but Ryltar talks him around to it, and Salris feels better.

Salris thanks Ryltar for the talk, and as he's standing up, asks if Ryltar has any advice on growing apart from pact entities.

Shopping and Preparation.

The next day, we discuss whether to go straight to Kerjes or do any shopping first. We hit up Sky Diamond Academy's library and learn that Kerjes is a manipulative Green Dragon, of unknown age.

We buy some antitoxin, and then spend some time rummaging through the students' experiment offshoot bin, buying lots of consumable items.

Next session

Soon:

• Travel to Kerjes' tree

Ongoing questions:

• What will Zelrathi discover?
• What's going on in the stars?
• How can the Jester be defeated?
• What is left to complete the Ice Heart of Winter?
• How can the Mummy Lord be defeated?