Timeline

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand —
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep — while I weep!
O God! Can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

Callie’s Journal

All HP and spell slots NOT restored!

Bec is just settling down to rest when she hears bang-bang-bang on the door, baby. Eff that noise, I’m asleep already. I put my pillow over my ears.

Freki notices Bec staring at the Celestial And Not At All Cursed Hand of Vecna. She’s kind of jerking her head in time to the knocking sound.

Bec goes to investigate – not leaving the Tiny Hut – and finds a little storage room with a conspicuous crate. She uses Mage Hand to move it aside. It’s heavy, so it shouldn’t move, but it does. That’s fine, probably. Under it is a symbol of two ravens and a grate set into the floor. A voice from under the grate says, “Hello! I’m in here!” It sounds like Vondal.

Freki can hear the voice now, too. He is wearing a cloak given to him by Hugin and Munin, and feels connected to them through that. He asks them if the dual birds in the symbol are related to them, but they aren’t aligned with those other black birds. He calls out to the voice, “Vondal? Is that you?”

Vondal (or ¿Vondal? as the case may be) is overjoyed to hear Bec. He doesn’t seem to be able to hear Freki. He wants help getting out from under the grate. Bec challenges him to say something only ¿Vondal? would know, like the secret he told in the mirror room. ¿Vondal? answers that he said Freki is a werewolf. Huh, that IS what he said! I didn’t remember until he said so.

Bec asks how he got down there. Freki thinks doing something stupid. ¿Vondal? is like “Hey!” But he understands that we need some time.

I can’t sleep with this ridiculous racket, although Cassandra and Audreth are both asleep. I get up resentfully. Bec leaves the Tiny Hut, which dissipates. Now she can feel Wild Magic kind of eddying around. She uses Mage Hand on the grate and pulls it out of the way.

Audreth feels like a giant eye is…eyeballing him. It normally feels as far away as a twinkling star, but not now. He lurches out of sleep, flooded with adrenaline and ready for a fight! Everyone is awake except Cassandra, and they’re all looking at some little storage room.

¿Vondal? climbs out of the pit and steps across the threshold of the storage room into the consecrated area. He’s very happy to be out of the pit, unsurprisingly. Freki thinks he smells more like the Flux than normal. Freki asks where he’s been, and he says there’s a tunnel down there. He didn’t go exploring, just tried to get out.

Oz thinks going down there is the way, since this place resembles an upside-down SPI headquarters. We could also take the stairs up, although Freki thought there would be more of those horror-dogs that way. Bec says going down would “take us to another fractal dimension away from home,” and Freki agrees. Fair enough, I didn’t really want to go in the smelly hole anyway.

Expecting an ambush, Cal and Oz want to go sneaky feet up the stairs. I need a minute to heal up, so I do that.

We turn back to check on Cassandra, but she’s now kneeling over my mother for some reason. Cassandra says, “There’s a seed growing inside her. I can’t stop it.” My mom is sprouting fish parts. One arm is a flipper and there’s something growing out of her eye. The thing in her eye needs to be pierced with an item with power over aboleths.

Bec tries casting Dispel Magic on the general fish situation. I feel something seep into me and I feel…changed. Awakened, maybe? Suddenly, I’m sure I can use my Trident of Fish Command to pierce the thing! As I raise the Trident I hear in my mind’s ear, “YOU SHALL NOT DO THIS! ALL IS AS IT MUST BE! SHE IS ONE OF US! YOU ARE ALL ONE OF US!” Everyone hears some echoey screaming, but the others can’t understand it. This is my burden alone. I discard the aboleth’s thought and stab it. I feel like everything is okay now.

Audreth sends the aboleth a telepathic double-deuce, and it sends one right back. “YOU ARE ALREADY DEAD, BUT YOU DO NOT KNOW.” The aboleth slithers away to wherever they go. At least it isn’t here.

My mom disappears. Cassandra stands up and says, “Nice. We learned something today.” Bec asks what, but she just shrugs and says, “It’s a shame about his face, though.”

We try to look at Oz, but he’s stealthy and we can’t all see him. He steps out of stealth. Audreth doesn’t recognize him at all. Bec does; he looks like he did in Elyria in the dream world when we all looked like other people. Freki and I think it’s still Oz, even though we can’t place the face.

Oz somehow senses that we are in a quasi-real composite plane under the HQ composed of not only the material realm but also Flux. It’s something like a corrupted Astral Plane, with the Faewild also spilling in. There’s also another layer, like the Faewild is on top of the Faewild somehow. More importantly, he’s tall now, and he doesn’t like it one bit.

Oz flails his huge clumsy body around like an apprentice puppeteer. We all hear, “The sun in your kingdom shall not shine again on this face.” Now Oz is really freaked out because he thinks we can hear his thoughts. But no, we aren’t all cursed. He realizes he can fold time back on itself to make something right that was previously done wrong. He can use this power for great justice and only great justice! He comes to this realization because he feels, to his bones, that karma has gotten him good for trying to weasel out of his oath.

Bec points out that attempting to walk up the stairs has gotten us nowhere, and maybe we should try to use the properties of this place to get to the top of the tower.

While everyone is in general disarray, Cal notices that my trident is rainbowy now. He doesn’t know what it looks like. I try to remember, but I can’t. Bec hears a whisper saying that none of us can remember what it looks like, because “she won’t let you.”

While Oz, Cal, and Freki are stealthy, Bec and I try to brain our way up the stairs. We pull everyone along the story, seeing things that didn’t happen, but also have happened at the same time. At the fourth floor, we meet Yrollam. He says “The living are not welcome here. You should leave, agents.”

Oz whispers to us to ask whether we should kill Yrollam, breaking stealth. Cal and Freki are still hidden. Bec says we need to rescue Lorelai, because she’s trapped here. Yrollam says she’s right where she needs to be, but we are not. Meanwhile, Cal slips past Yrollam and up the stairs. Lorelai is upstairs in the throne room staring vacantly.

“Why are you here?” Bec asks. “Aren’t you living?”

“I don’t have time to argue! Get out of here!” says Yrollam. It’s not very convincing. Freki wonders if he’s dead, undead, alive, or what?

Cal! Don’t you have gaydar for deadness?

—Michael

In the throne room, Cal senses undead spirits (ghosts?) waiting in line to petition Lorelai on the throne. But why would spirits be undead? They also seem to be moving extremely slowly, almost frozen.

¿Vondal? says, “I hate to do this boss, but we have to get through here.” He starts casting a spell, which Bec recognizes as banishment.

“Wait just a mi—” Mallory vanishes.

When everyone gets to the top of the stairs where Cal is, the scene starts moving normally. One of the spirits is on his knees, begging. The woman on the throne has turned her back on the petitioners, full of contempt for them and their plight. But then there’s a cracking and the woman turns back into the Raven Queen, Lorelai. She says she’s merciful when she wants to be, so she grants the petitioner’s request.

Lorelai looks over us all, then at Cassandra. “Mother?” she says, but then shakes her head. “Why are you here?” she asks us all.

Bec explains that we’re here to rescue her and asks if she recognizes Audreth. She says Audreth is her servant and she is the Raven Queen, who is going to restore this place to its former glory. Oz tries his panache on her and tries to convince her to get out. Audreth agrees that this place sucks.

Freki feels like he lost connection with his birds momentarily. Then when they come back, they say that they are where they need to be and we need to complete the Raven Queen’s quest. The Furies don’t belong here and maybe we can get rid of them. They can’t be killed directly, but they can be enticed to merge with something corporeal.

“Give me the monkey!” says ¿Vondal?.

Freki’s ravens fly off his shoulders and land on the queen’s shoulders. This all feels very wrong to Freki. She isn’t the real Raven Queen and what they’re doing doesn’t make sense. When he looks harder and more skeptically, he sees that this whole place is wrong! The wrongness suffuses the whole place like fog. The Flux isn’t helping, but this is a different effect, more like a hallucination.

Bec suggests that Freki take out the mirror shard he picked up outside and make her look at it. Fast as a flash, he slides back to hybrid form, whips out the mirror and shoves it in her face.

She flinches, but then says, “That is not helpful. Put that away unless you wish to see my less magnanimous side.”

“This is not your truth. Your truth is in the mirror,” says Bec.

“I was sure you were the heroes of legend, but if you will not help me, then leave,” says the queen.

Freki makes the case that this whole place is terrible, which is admittedly true. It’s also true that the Furies are pretty bad, but Freki isn’t convinced that they’re even the real Furies. He asks why I lost my gods. I feel like I’m missing something here. Why do people keep saying I’m godless? I’m like the opposite of that!

Bec hears someone whispering to her from behind: “You need to wake up.” She turns and sees the Fae Queen’s servant who she dispeled back in case 12 while we were in the Feywild.

The Raven Queen shoves Bec aside with telekinesis to reveal the servant behind her. She starts casting something that Audreth recognizes as similar to banishment. The servant disappears. Audreth notices that there’s no popping noise. The lack of noise indicates that she belongs to this plane. He realizes that Mallory also did not pop, when he was banished earlier.

The Raven Queen says, “If you do not believe in this place, then begone.”

Audreth is like, “Whatevs, I’m gonna talk to the giant eyeball.” Pushing through the feeling that this is something that shouldn’t happen, he invites his patron. The eye zooms in close and overshadows everything.

“No matter what happens, this is less fucked up than it was a minute ago,” says Audreth.

Audreth wakes up and sees everyone else around him on the floor, apparently having seizures. Flux tentacles are connected to everyone, including ¿Vondal?. ¿Vondal? is like, “Oh, hey.” Then he smirks, says “thanks” and disappears. Audreth casts off the tentacles from his own body first, smart. Pelor empowers him with extra strength so he can heal me. Despite all this, I think we can safely say his prophecy from two minutes ago was accurate.

I see lives flash before my eyes. I am momentarily insane. But then I’m shocked awake and see the scene as Audreth did. I try to use dispel magic, but it doesn’t work. It doesn’t feel like Avandra. Or Erathis. I look down and my pin has my own face on it! What does that even mean??? I have a feeling that I could make up a spell right now, whatever I want. I decide to try a modified zone of truth: zone of REALITY! It pierces illusions and shows only reality nearby.

Everybody wakes up screaming. You’re welcome, everyone!

When ¿Vondal? wakes up (screaming, like everyone else), he vanishes. Audreth hears a light “Thanks,” though gratitude is not exactly what he’s expressing, more like satisfaction that things happened the way he wanted. Also, this is definitely not Vondal.

Since we’ve been forced to see the truth of the situation, we realize we aren’t in the Underworld, not the real one. We’re in some tunnels, under the SPI headquarters, in the very heart of the Flux.

A̸̡̻̲͂̅ṅ̶̨̨͓͔̏̉d̷̮̈͠ ̵͉̙̓̾̃n̶̛͔̪̍̈́̕o̷̮̟͈͌ẉ̸̓̕͜͝,̷̧͍̥͉̇̿ ̴͙́̒t̴̛̪͊̀ȟ̶̻̣͙̔̄e̸̝͆̓̅ ̶͇͓͋͊À̴̹̽͒ń̴̜i̸̞̩͗̈͝m̶̛̗͚͊̒̔ả̴̺͠͝l̷͓̜̥̀̽͂͘ ̵͔͖̀H̴̲͔̗̆o̸͚͍̱͋̈̽̚ṻ̴̖́ś̶̳̽́̂ȩ̸͉͔̃́̚ ̴̬͙̓̅̕c̵̺͒l̸͉̋ơ̴͕̪͈͉͛ṡ̴̹̮̉̌ͅe̸̙͝

• Cal knows who he is, but he doesn’t recognize his allies. He wakes up screaming around strangers, not remembering anything that happened before.

• Oz experiences vivid hallucinations. Disadvantage on ability checks until the effect ends.

• Freki has an intense antipathy to this place and the Flux that is encroaching on this consecrated area. He desperately wants to leave, but he can’t get away. He’s on a tiny island of less-badness, surrounded by Hell. At least he remembers all of us, that’s something!

• I feel dazed and suggestible. Left to my own devices, I can do whatever I want, as long as it’s Callie-like. I need a third list of spells. Callie domain spells! I will do whatever anyone says. I hope it’s nothing bad, or I would if I had any will of my own.

• Audreth is stunned for a few minutes.

• Bec is unable to take anything seriously. Finding out that we’re IN the FLUX is the funniest thing ever. And the effect is permanent.

Callie’s Journal

Oz wants to go to the tower, which he imagines is full of treasure and not piping hot death. Well, we’ve done plenty of dumb things and lived, so we might as well give it a try. Freki notices some roots growing around. The ground smells like the forest to him. The birds seem more unified than usual. He asks them if we should reteat, and they say, “We cannot.”

Suddenly there’s trees and this is a forest somehow! This place is so freaking weird. On the other hand, maybe there aren’t that many trees. Still weird, but dwelling on it seems like it won’t get me anywhere.

Then there’s screaming from all around! I do not get confused and start flailing all over the place, and anyone who tells you I did is lying. But Freki sweeps me under his cloak anyway. From under the cloak, I can hear Oz’s monkey making scared monkey noises.

There’s a menacing female voice that says, “I think this has gone on long enough.”

The second one says to Audreth, “Broken free of our sister’s control, I see. Unfortunate.”

The first one says, “We can rectify that.”

They both brandish their claws and turn to look at the monkey. Then they fly straight into the monkey. INTO. IT. Alecto makes it into the monkey, Tisiphone doesn’t quite.

In a flash, Oz leaps out to defend his monkey, but the monkey remains possessed by a murderous bird-woman.

Freki shoots an acid arrow at Tisiphone. Then he hands a “spike growth” arrow to me. OK? I could maybe stick this in my crossbow, but I hope I don’t have to.

The monkey falls prone and its body starts to bubble. Ooh, I can’t look.

On my turn, I bless everybody except Cassandra. I don’t quite have enough juice for that. I also summon Avandra’s spiritual weapon, a rapier. Looks sweet, but whiffs on the monkey.

Cassandra casts something at the monkey and hits it, but then the energy she sent out starts…disintegrating her hand? OOH, I CAN’T LOOK. “This can’t be real! This is a nightmare! Not again…!”

Vondal casts Banishment on the monkey, which also contains the two Furies. The monkey turns into a pile of pulsating flesh…which is not a huge improvement…and unfortunately a splash of wild magic smacks Bec square in the face, turning her into a potted plant. Everybody else is now vulnerable to piercing damage. I don’t know how, but I sense that the plant is SO PISSED OFF. It’s rattling a little in the pot in a pissed off way, I’m pretty sure.

Audreth casts an aura and drags Vondal into it. The plant, invigorated by the aura, explodes out of the pot and into elf form! Cassandra’s hand stars to restore itself and she starts pulling, simultaneously sending out a pulse of holy power. “LET GO!” she shouts.

Cal stabs at the aberrant ball of flesh. He stabs it in the head (?) and there’s more screaming. Mostly it’s the two Furies, but maybe some monkey under there too. The sword is wreathed in a holy fire, which sets the flesh mass on fire. But the fire also follows the stream of light to Cassandra. Cal has stabbed her shadow, and so she takes some damage too.

Oz attacks the beam of light stretching from Cassandra to the eldritch horror. Two of Cassandra’s fingers get sliced off. She’s in shock. The horror monster twitches and oozes. I don’t even know enough adjectives for what this thing is like!

The flesh ball forms a maw, which shrieks in the gestalt voice of the Furies. Cassandra takes some damage from this, but she kind of shakes off the trauma. She’s pretty cool, I have to say.

Freki is smelling a lot of blood from the enormous cyst. He decides to fire a hail of thorns into the maw. He is not going to grapple it and become in its belly. That seems wise. He doesn’t quite kill it, though.

A SECOND MAW EMERGES AND BREATHES FIRE AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaa

I take 34 fire damage, now I have 36 HP

The abominable creature sprouts some legs and scuttles towards Cassandra. It physically envelops her and gets even bigger. Cal notices that the shapeless abomination is gaining some shape…s…. It seems to have six legs, two arms, and a head with two maws.

There’s a flash of lightning. I feel there’s a divine presence that was invoked by Cassandra from inside the flesh-prison. Freki feels the rage that is fueling the spell. Bec reasons that it was probably Cassandra. Vondal wonders if he could turn the power onto the creature. Cal is in the blast radius and it looks like he might get hurt…but instead the lightning gets sucked into his sword, which starts sparking. Awesome!

Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering flesh-beast; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee! My spiritual weapon stabs at the half-formed creature and nudges it into oblivion. It turns back into Cassandra. She is unconscious and her shadow is back attached to her as it’s supposed to be. Whew!

But then Cal notices something weird about the shadow, so he stabs it! Then the shadow stops being weird. Vondal uses his wand to heal her. She muses that it seems like this place is hostile to her, specifically.

Oz floats the idea that Cassandra manifested the Furies. It’s a good question, but Cassandra doesn’t think so. Freki wonders if she has any enemies down here. She says there could be some enemies of the SPI here, among the spirits of the dead. Cassandra isn’t sure that this is the real underworld, but it’s just a hunch.

Cassandra believes in fate, but she also observes that things just seem to happen, so why worry? “Speaking of which….” she gestures. The tower is right there. Oz scoffs at any suggestion of waiting to go in and kicks the door, which turns out to be locked. Freki points out that he’s low on arrows and needs time to make some more.

Working together, Cal & Oz get the door open and we all head inside. There’s a tile mosaic depicting constellations on the floor. They resemble ravens, though these aren’t constellations in our sky. Audreth thinks it’s one crane rather than two ravens, but it’s…upside down?

Freki smells something like the monster dog that attacked us and goes looking for it. Honestly, I’m so tired I don’t even notice. I sit down and try to relax.

Meanwhile, Freki finds a staircase going down and the smell is stronger here. He can also hear sleeping sounds. He comes back and lets us know, but we need a rest. Bec casts tiny hut and we’re safe for the duration!

Callie’s Journal

“The living are not welcome here,” says Audreth. “Now you will pay the final price.”

“At least we’re still living,” Bec whispers to me.

We gear up for battle. Oz starts out with a solid attack, though he’s surprised to find out his poison dagger is missing. Then he saunters away and hands things over to Freki, who’s looking strangely pleased with himself.

Curtis: “Did you hear what I said before about how you can’t perceive things in the periphery of your senses here?”
Nate: “No, I didn’t even perceive that.”

Freki is in hybrid form with a feathery cloak and says, “We are not your enemies, and you don’t want us to become that.” He readies his bow.

Audreth calls, “Megaera!” He yields, for now, and heals himself.

That name sounds familiar to me and Bec. It’s some kind of legendary creature, which Bec is surprised to find actually exists. In whatever way things exist IN THIS OTHERWORLDLY PLACE UNDER OUR HEADQUARTERS.

Bec kneels to look Audreth in the eye and tells him we have members under the protection of Nerull, which supercedes the authority of the Furies, which she thinks doesn’t exist anyway.

I’m already at eye level, so I don’t kneel. I just ask him to explain why he’s under our headquarters. He just says we shouldn’t be here, which I’m not even arguing with!

Cassandra doesn’t think Audreth will listen to us. She starts casting a spell of some kind.

Audreth looks outraged. “Honorless!” he says, and stands up.

The creature shrieks in the distance. We can kind of see it now. It looks like the same thing that was hunting us before. Three arrows come whistling from the direction of the creature and slam into Cassandra. Yeowch!

Oz yells, “Give me my fucking dagger, hairball!!!” Excellent as ever at knowing who the enemy is. Still chuckling, Freki tosses him the dagger in one smooth motion.

Freki fires Hail of Thorns at the flying creature and lands two great attacks on it! He’s looking a little fuzzy, like his cloak is camoflaging him somewhat. It’s pretty weird!

Oz slices up Audreth again, snicker-snack. He’s badly wounded, but not dead yet.

Vondal attacks Audreth with Scorching Ray. Audreth’s eyes turn to inky black voids. He isn’t channeling Flux like a wild mage, the Flux is channeling him. Something reaches through the voids to grab at Vondal. Creepy! So creepy! And we just came from a whole undead, underground city!

Vondal strikes back for 69 damage, nice.

There are a bunch of mirrors floating around reflecting…what? Oz sees Mallory, also surrounded by mirror shards. He panics, shifting through all kinds of shapes, unable to stay with just one. Bec sees a woman in a tower surrounded by strange creatures, which she is smiling at. Freki sees Audreth drinking water from the river, after which he gets a vacant expression that is the hallmark of ensorcellment. Vondal sees us doing some sort of ritual to help Audreth recover his memories. I see a shadowy beast with three heads. The heads turn toward me, trying to bite me. The heads have no eyes. But then, it opens more mouths and it DOES have eyes and there are so many and it jumps through the mirror and it’s RIGHT HERE!!! The beast bites me and fire drips into the wounds. Yaaaaah!!!

Damage I took: 36 points from the many-toothed dog

Bec casts Hypnotic Pattern. Two of the dog’s heads are mesmerized. The third head, the one that bit me, tries to get the other two to snap out of it.

I wisely run the hell away.

Cassandra fires off a massive radiant spell.

We all have advantage on saves, enemies have disadvantage on attacks.

The dog breathes molten rock over all of us! I think…I think I hate dogs.

Damage I took: 21 points of fire damage, plus we are restrained because of the cooling rock.

The bird-like creature, Megaera, I assume, lands nearby. She’s pissed about how we’ve been treating her pets, but honestly, how has she been treating them that they’re like this?

Oz wants to know if Megaera’s curtains match the drapes. Like, are her pubes made of little snakes? Cause his are! Dude, get that checked at the free clinic.

Oz attacks her and does some damage. Freki fires off two arrows, taking her down to near death. His third shot pegs her straight through the throat. The mists of Flux swirl around and seem to absorb her. Well, she’s…neutralized.

Vondal tries to talk to the dog and convince it he’s a friend.

Bec goes to check out…something by the river, I’m not sure what.

I stabilize Audreth. I have the feeling he’s not really our enemy, and I don’t want him to die. Then I cast Mass Healing Word on myself, Oz, Vondal, Freki, and Cassandra.

Spell cast: Mass Healing Word at level 4
Everyone who I healed regains 12 HP

Cassandra uses Hold Monster to restrain the Cerberus. “Got him!”

Vondal tells us that he’s just Flux-damaged, we can help him and bring his mind back, we owe it to him to try. It’s a stirring speech, and I think he’s talking about Audreth, but no. He means the dog. I sigh and roll my eyes. Freki has a plan to establish dominance over it, which sounds like a better idea, but never mind. Oz hasn’t murdered anything in the last five minutes, so he’s gonna kill it.

Oz kills the Cerberus in a way that is excessive even for him, which is really saying something. The mist swirls and the dog is gone. Oz hears a whisper in his mind that says Yeeesssssssssss.

Cassandra exhales and looks to see if there are more threats. “Are we in the clear?” she asks.

“Don’t you know?” Freki asks her.

“You’re the hunter,” she says.

“You’re the leader,” he counters.

She sighs and heals herself.

Cassandra heals herself with a minor assist from Vondal’s wand of healing. I cast Cure Wounds on myself.

Spell cast: Cure Wounds at level 4
I regain 24 HP

Oz wants to kill the unconscious guy, naturally, but Vondal actually steps in the way this time and insists that we cast some sort of ritual to heal his mind. I’m not sure what that would entail, but luckily Bec has some ideas. Maybe something tied to his identity would help him recover his memories? Vondal remembers that Audreth was a Warlock and a Paladin of Peylor.

Cassandra listens to what Vondal says, then says that if he’s a Warlock and a Paladin, that means he’s pledged to two entities. We would need to restore the ties to both of them. Besides Peylor, who else might he be pledged to? “The Great Old One,” Vondal thinks. The Great Old One is linked to the Flux somehow. If it gazes upon you, it drives you mad.

Vondal gets right to work. He makes the sign of Peylor over Audreth’s heart, draws tentacles representing the Great Old One over his stomach, and puts a piece of paper with “The Great Old One” and “Peylor” written on it in his mouth. Bec, Cassandra and I help Vondal with the ritual.

Audreth sits up and recognizes Vondal! The ritual was successful! Bec explains that we’re underneath HQ. Audreth thinks that means they were successful in reaching “the source.” They came from the mountain. There were four of them on the mission: Audreth, Rubinia, Mallory, and Lorelei.

Oz is confused about the number of Mallorys that exist. I explain that the Mallory down here is a changeling, and the one upstairs is the original one. We used to work for the changeling, but then he disappeared and now the original is back. Simple! Oz says he saw Mallory shifting shapes rapidly in the mirror shards, and not on purpose.

We explain that Rubinia is upstairs, but we haven’t found Lorelei. Now we know that Changeling Mallory is in trouble. But how did Audreth’s party, and now our party, end up in this weird place from two totally different starting points? Audreth says the roots of the World Tree are expanding far beyond where they should, creating more and more Flux points.

Bec uses Mage Hand to scoop out some vials of water for herself and Freki.

Audreth says something attacked his party down here before he could sound the alarm. The others all fell, and then he did. Vondal tries to tell him that it wasn’t his fault, he was alone and outnumbered. There’s a flash of anger and Freki senses some self-righteousness at that. I think there’s something he isn’t sharing, but I don’t ask about it right now.

He asks whether he said anything when we met him. We explain, with maximum sound effects, how the battle went down. He says, “It seems I was outnumbered again.”

Freki asks him whether he really was alone. He says his party was ambushed, they didn’t have a chance to put up a decent defense. Audreth says he fought on the front lines, while the others fought from behind where it was hard for him to see. It doesn’t seem like deception, but he does seem a little angry about how it went down. Freki presses him about what his warrior heart tells him about Mallory’s actions.

“I do not know them well, and would not presume to judge their valor in combat,” he says. A stone wall. Pretty sure that wall is casting some shade, though.

Freki thinks there is some evil afoot that needs to be rooted out. Audreth says this is beyond good and evil, and anyway, everyone has the capacity for evil. I tell him Freki means whatever force was controlling him. He says “The less you know about that, the better,” and I think Bec and I both just broke out in hives.

Audreth says he’d like to join our effort to find his friends, if we’ll have him. Bec and I are on board. She’d like to press on without stopping to rest. She explains that she saw a vision of a tower in the mirror shards and she thinks we should find the woman there.

Vondal and I think we should go back to HQ for an hour. He and Oz need time to resummon their familiars, and why do it down here? It sucks down here! Now that the distractions are gone and…um…we’re talking about it…the tower seems closer. Is that why it’s closer, because we’re thinking about it?

“Do you think we should go there?” Bec asks Cassandra.

“No. But I think we have to,” says Cassandra.

Vondal says he’s almost done summoning, which is great, because I’m so sick of looking at all the nothing down here. Except that it’s impossible, because he just started summoning and it takes an hour. I try to focus on the ladder and bring it closer. Hey, it’s here! And the tower is gone, since I’m not focusing on it.

Hey, Big Brain Academy here. Why don’t we just focus on the people we’re looking for and bring them closer? Why not use this dumb place to our advantage? Vondal mentions that we glow like bonfires and anybody who’s around will see us coming. That seems like a given, considering it’s a TOWER surrounded by NOTHING, but okay. Bec says to Freki that she thinks his goddess might be in there.

Audreth uses some sort of primordial power to share his memory of Lorelei with all of us. We all see her in our mind’s eye. Bec recognizes her as the woman on the throne in the tower. Looks like we know where we’re going, then.

And now, the Animal House close!

…Ozborn Underfoot went on to found a town called “Little Harm” that still exists to this day.

…Bec went on to re-bunk many previously de-bunked cryptids and became a giant in the field of cryptozoology.

…Vondal invented a spell that always does 69 damage, but only at exactly 4:20.

…Freki completed his martial arts training and became the first-ever werewolf ninja. Whether he ever became the vengeance-obsessed revenant Wrecki, I do not know.

…I met a dwarf named Varric Tethras who suggested that I write down all my adventures. And now you know the rest of the story!

Callie’s Notes

When we all start waking up, we all have a major magic hangover and only remember scraps of what happened immediately before going to sleep. When Cal wakes up after 19 hours, he heads downstairs and finds Vondal making a batch of cookies. It’s the middle of the night, but anytime’s a good cookie time, I guess. Freki wakes up after 23 hours and searches out a meditation space. The quietest room seems to be the training room, with its dirt floor.

Oz wakes up after 23 hours wondering why we didn’t save the halflings. He vaguely remembers that after he grabbed an hourglass, he gained a new power but also everything went wrong for him, and we all barely escaped with our lives. He has a feeling that his new power requires a karmic balancing every time he uses it.

Cassandra enters the kitchen and takes some of Vondal’s special breakfast cookies. She says Mallory will want to talk with them when he comes in, usually about 9 AM.

Vondal says, “Guys, I think there’s something in the basement.”

Freki isn’t here, but Michael chimes in, “Of course there is. Why else would you have a basement?”

Cal doesn’t quite remember what’s in the basement, but that sounds kind of familiar.

Oz, Cassandra and Cal head down to the basement and grab Freki along the way. He’d rather be out in the wilderness, but they’ve got more pressing business right now. Cassandra thinks Oz looks sparkly like the rest of the team now. Freki is somewhat perturbed by the idea that he might also be “sparkly,” but at least it’s only when Cassandra looks for it, and not a permanent state.

They all try to get the trapdoor open, but they can’t get it open. Cassandra explains that Bec was able to open the door with the Hand of Vecna, where they found Rubinia Elka. Cassandra is the one who found this place to use as SPI HQ. She’s absolutely sure it’s safe for us, though she doesn’t know how Rubinia got in there.

Vondal goes to wake up Bec, who it appears has the only key to the trapdoor. Cassandra tries to stop him, but he starts pounding on the door of the women’s dorm and yelling to wake us up. The other guys do not join in. Cassandra catches up to Vondal and closes the door, suggesting that they all tell her what they remember. The guys gather around the desk to tell her about Arallu.

When Mallory gets in (by teleportation), he hears the guys talking and comes in to ask his own questions. Oz opines that Xaryuvia fucking sucks, which, fair point. Meanwhile topside, Xaryuvia has sent a petition to join Aecus, probably so that the SPI would have to stay out of their internal business. Cassandra says Rubinia may have Flux poisoning. Mallory says they need to “extract” some more agents from Vondal. That’s where Rainy came from. They are “entangled” with him. Yeesh, talk about your fate worse than death. I’m glad I wasn’t around to hear this. In fact, I’m not thrilled I know it now. Anyway, Mallory makes the case that the SPI is severely understaffed and unable to respond to all the emergencies that are popping up everywhere, so if we find anybody who could serve as an agent, we need to recruit, recruit, recruit.

Oz suggests Bilbo, who we left tied up and invisible. Mallory says we can get bonuses for recruits who last at least a month and don’t die.

I wake up after about 30 hours, although it’s morning so I don’t realize it’s been so long at first. My little shrine is still here, so I go to say a prayer. I’m doing that when Bec wakes up. I see Rubinia and I remember her being there, but I can’t recall if we saw anybody else or if she just said they were down there. Mallory showed up, surprising Rubinia because Mallory is also in the basement. Then Mallory told us to go to bed and he would send another team. I’m hungry, so very hungry, so I pick up some breakfast coookies on the way.

I hear Mallory telling Oz that he needs to fix his attitude. The Elyrians are pissed about the stone Oz stole, but Mallory told them they can send another representative to replace Tybalt Nightbreeze if they want any help from the SPI. Anyway, Oz should stop fucking stuff up, is the gist.

Bec immediately wants to know what happened and whether anyone else went in the basement. It turns out Mallory didn’t send another team down because nobody could open the door. No problem, Bec has got this one. She focuses on the hand and places it on the stone trapdoor. The door raises and appears to be out of the way. Vondal sends Murky down, where Murky stops at an invisible forcefield. Oz just goes on down, passing through the forcefield without problems, though the monkey doesn’t seem to love it.

It’s about 20 feet to the bottom. Oz takes out his horn blade for light. “Shanana!” Light springs forth from the blade and as his eyes start to see, reality changes. He’s outside, he’s beneath it, but his comrades are the other way. He feels like he’s in opposite land in some profound way. Along the ground are gnarled roots. They’re tree roots, but messed up ones. Meanwhile, we watch him pull out his blade and then our view is clouded and we can’t see him anymore. Very faintly, we hear him say something about weird tree shit.

Bec hears the rushing of a river and hears what Oz says clearly. She also hears the sound of dust and the souls of the damned. It sounds like long-standing suffering. Bec calls back to him, asking if Oz can hear her. He can! She tells him to come back up, but he thinks we’re all cowards who should come down. Whatever, man, I don’t have any desire to immerse myself in endless suffering.

When Bec mentions hearing a river, Oz hears it too. Someone more introspective might wonder whether he just noticed it or whether his perception caused it to come into existence, but Oz is not that deep a thinker. Mallory trusts Bec’s intuition, as the only person who can open the door, so he yells down at Oz to come back, but all Oz can hear is a muffled voice. “Whoever’s farting down the hall, stop talking out your ass and get down here!” he shouts back. I bet Bec loves being the only one who can understand him.

Vondal’s opinion is that if there’s something weird under the building, we should find out what it is. It could be an undead army, or those giant earwig things! Mallory reluctantly agrees, but when he puts his hand down the door, he can’t make it past the forcefield. Bec wonders why he can’t pass through. Is it the sparklies?

Cassandra says, “What would be really interesting to know is….” and walks forward. Oh no! She falls straight through! Luckily for her, Cal was paying attention and has the reflexes of a cat. He uses his whip to catch her so she can climb back up.

“I didn’t expect that to work,” Cassandra says. She asks Mallory if she should go, since she can. He doesn’t think so, but she wants to. He orders her to prevent us from doing anything stupid, which might be easier said than done. I hope her performance review doesn’t depend on it.

Freki examines the area to sniff out danger. Bec moved aside the trapdoor lid and set it to the side. It’s pretty heavy to move by non-magical means.

Meanwhile, Oz is exploring. There’s hardly any screams of the eternally damned, you cowards. He sort of sees something horrible and hides.

Upstairs, Cassandra goes down below the threshold and casts some kind of spell. Cal and Freki feel it affect them. Then Cassandra continues. Cal goes first, then Cassandra, then Vondal, then Bec, then Callie. Freki’s going to go last.

Cal touches the light cloud and it feels…unpleasant. He tries to focus on what he can perceive. Unfortunately, he doesn’t perceive the creature until it perceives him. Cal slips into a hiding spot that’s good, but that Oz discarded as not good enough. However, Cal is perceptive enough to hear Oz scoff at his choice of hiding place.

As everyone passes through the light cloud, we all weather an assault to our minds. It’s disorienting; Bec doesn’t do great with it. I feel like I’m dragging my body along with my mind. Vondal tries to resummon Murky on this side, and it works, but Murky is too disoriented to go out on any missions.

Freki lights a flaming arrow and heads down. He feels the disorienting feeling and senses that he’s passed beyond the veil of death. Hugin and Munin appear to him.

Both: “Everyone lives two lives.” Hugin: “The life…” Munin: “…and the echo.”

Freki wonders if we – not himself, but his teammates – are dead, but on a second thought, he thinks we’re around. He sees me, Bec, and Vondal. The halflings are hidden somewhere. Where do they go, anyway? Meanwhile, Cassandra looks at some random spot and sighs in exasperation. Cal comes out from where he was apparently hiding. Wow!

Cassandra says, “This is a strange place. If I didn’t know better, I’d say we were in the Afterworld.”

Freki says, “We are!” He explains that he knows because of his birds.

Bec says that the birds are servants of the Raven Queen.

Oz don’t know nothing about no Afterworld, so he starts pointing out the weird shit he’s seen down here. There’s lots!

Vondal feels inside-out in his perception of the Flux. This somewhere that the Flux is leaking out of and reality is leaking into, as opposed to the other way around. This place is something like a linchpin. But what is it holding together?

Bec has the overwhelming feeling that living people should not be here. I hear ya, sister. Freki’s feeling is that the Flux is like a blight that will eventually consume everything unless it’s stopped. Vondal feels that this is all at the edge of reality, if that’s a thing that could exist.

This is all too much for me. “WHY IS THE AFTERWORLD UNDER OUR HEADQUARTERS? WHY????” I yell to no one in particular.

Vondal shrugs and says this is the eye of the storm. Besides, he died and got better. He mentions that he just found out that there were some elves who tore reality. WHY IS THIS THE FIRST I’M HEARING OF IT? It’s not like Vondal is usually tacitern or withholding! He says it was an attempt to heal the world from some sort of conflict, perhaps the war that was going on 50 years ago. The war ended when all the soldiers disappeared, so I guess that would solve the problem from a certain perspective. One of the elves betrayed the other two. One of the betrayed was Priscilla Stormcloud. He doesn’t know who the other two were. And? AND? This happened at the TOP. OF A TOWER. My mind is reeling.

It’s an awkward time, but Cassandra has some sort of missive from Elyria for Bec. Bec opens it immediately, as naturally she would. It’s a letter from her father, who has enclosed some useful spells, Catnap, Spirit Sense, and Anchor to Life. That’s so sweet, I wish my dad would send me care packages.

A tiefling approaches. He’s about to speak, when Cassandra says, “Audreth?”

Goratrix has thrown up a force shield around the Brucolac, and the restless mutterings of the ghosts just outside are escalating. Will the agents engage in the better part of valor and discreetly withdraw from this blighted underground wasteland for the time being? Or will they double down and keep fighting in spite of the odds?

Callie’s Notes

Bec’s unconscious form has been surrounded by some kind of enchantment, from the harp. Cal realizes it is affecting Bec’s body rather than her mind. It seems to be repelling the undead aura. Uh, I totally knew that.

Freki tries to slash at the Enoch mist, but he isn’t able to destroy it. It’s kind of hard to hit an incorporeal thing with your hands, you know?

“You fools! If he dies, we die!” Goratrix yells out the door at his allies. Despite his words, he seems pretty happy with Enoch being almost dead…er. He’s coming towards us!

Cal has the feeling that something monumental is going to happen. But what?! He moves closer to me, to protect me if he can.

The Brucolac does something that intensifies the horrible aura in this place. Help, help! I’m being oppressed!

A somewhat Roger-shaped tentacle squiggles out and blorps Vondal out. Vondal says “We gotta get out of here! This is place is gonna blow!”

Things seem to be going not necessarily to our advantage, so I call out to my team to get over to me. If we can all hold hands, I’m sure I can get us all out of here.

Enoch continues to try to move down. Freki can now see where he’s going, toward a crack in the foundation. He takes the opportunity to slash again at the mist and rakes through it, destroying it. Goratrix is pleased, the creep. RIP my dinner buddy.

Oz tries to cartwheel over to me, but trips and falls on his face. We all treat that with the solemnity it deserves.

Then the ghosts come screaming in! They aren’t mindless, more like a hive or something. They’re all focused on one thing, but their movements are so chaotic it’s hard to tell what they want. The ghost that looks like Goratrix moans in anticipation and reaches toward Goratrix. The ghost is drawn to him, but Goratrix looks at it with deep horror and loathing. The ghost may be a remnant of whatever Goratrix was before he was a vampire.

Freki wants to hold Goratrix so the ghost can get him. I know that ghosts are usually tied to some kind of emotion. These ghosts are very emotional and they’re known for flipping out and terrifying or posessing people. They want to be inside this place and if they fill it up with their ectoplasm, that’s probably not going to be a wonderful environment for us livvies. But anyway, Freki wants to see what happens if Goratrix’s ghost gets ahold of his body, so he grapples Goratrix.

“No! This must not happen!” Goratrix tries to wrench himself out of Freki’s grasp. He says, “I’m sorry, my liege” and tries to teleport away. Freki takes the opportunity to grab at him again. He disappears, but whatever Freki did to him had some effect. He might have messed up his spell. There’s a strange void where he was standing, like a little hole in the world.

Cal decides to slash at the little void spot, rather than doing something as sensible as GETTING THE HELL OUT OF HERE. The whole place shudders when he does. Cal and Freki are waving the ghost home, toward the…portal? I guess we can call it a portal.

The Brucolac is continuing to concentrate and his clothes are stitching themselves back together.

Vondal asks me what the plan is. I tell him I can get us out of here at any time, but we all have to be touching and Cal and Freki don’t seem like they’re done here. Meanwhile, Bec needs to be stabilized. I run over and cast Cure Wounds. The atmosphere over here is less oppressive, I guess because of the harp effect? There aren’t any ghosts nearby, which is good.

The Goratrix ghost is sucked into the rift that Cal made. Cal senses deep fulfillment for just a moment as the ghost enters the portal.

The rest of the ghosts have filled up this space, which…that is a lot of ghosts, man. Cal, Freki, and Vondal are all in the ghost soup, which probably smells musty, if I had to guess. Freki makes it over to us. Then Cal uses his whip to grab Vondal and drags him along. Oz has already made it, after picking his way carefully and doing no cartwheels whatsoever.

The Brucolac’s will presses against my mind. Ooh, I kind of want to be his friend. I bet his dinner conversation is incredible. Wait, no! No, no, I resist!

The Brucolac uses his horrible absorption attack again. Cal and I resist, but Bec faints again.

This is pretty bad! I tell everybody that if they want to come with me, I’m teleporting the hell out of here. We teleport the hell out of there! The horrible feeling of oppression is gone, and we’re back in SPI HQ. Nobody is dead, surprisingly, though Vondal and Cal look exhausted. We’re in the women’s dorm, which is where I set up the shrine. Avandra is a little bigger than Erathis, but I’m not going to rock the boat.

Cassandra is there, asleep. When we appear, she summons a light and asks if we’re okay. Cassandra starts healing Bec and asks what happened. Oh boy, where to begin? Cal says we met the Brucolac, but she’s still stuck on our mission at the manor. Man, that feels like a year ago! While Cassandra is working on the healing, she’s astounded by how damaged we all are. We try to explain, but we don’t get far before she says we should get Mallory. That’s a good idea. We probably don’t have it in us to tell this story twice.

Cal asks if Oz is doing okay, because he doesn’t seem quite like himself lately. She casts Detect Magic and says he seems a little bit…cursed. Unlucky. His luck has abandoned him. She suggests he try to sleep it off and she’ll check on him later. He grumbles that he doesn’t need anyone checking up on him and stumbles away. Um, okay? Cassandra also thinks that Oz is “more like the rest of you,” whatever that’s supposed to mean.

Bec says the Celestial Hand told her to help Vondal get the hourglass. Cassandra doesn’t know what is a Celestial Hand, so Bec shows it to her and explains that it used to be the Hand of Vecna. Cassandra tests it with Detect Evil, but it’s not evil anymore.

Mallory is like, “Let’s talk about things in order.” That’s why he’s the boss.

We explain that when we cleansed the Necronomicon, it seems to have created a rebound effect on the Lich, who is the one who defiled it to begin with. Vondal says, “Oh! We got a new employee!” He holds up the Wand of Wonder and squirts out Roger. His long neck with all the heads is shorter now. The heads all look around while Roger tries to get his bearings. He sighs. “It feels strange here.” Vondal suggests it may be the lack of the Flux. He hates it, what a surprise. At least he has Vondal to look after him.

Anyway, Bec goes on to explain that we also found a chart with symbols and gods, and figurines of us (weird!). The rows and columns showed the divine domains and where each of us lies in relation to them. One god was missing. Talos said we were “god-touched.” Mallory says maybe the missing god was distilled into divine essence that we saw at the manor the first time we were there. Prompted by Mallory’s speculation, Vondal brings up what he saw in the portrait at the defiled church. The vision was of three elves and a halfling (Yondola), trying to perform a ritual on top of a tower. They were using a ring as a focus to try to make everything good again. One of the elves sabotaged the ritual, however, and something terrible happened. Vondal believes it was the birth of the Flux.

Cal also had a vision of the forging of the Arkenstone with his sword. “Mother, we will make them remember.” He can’t remember who Mother is. He asked the Brucolac, but he also couldn’t remember.

Then we get back to the problems we had at the manor. We explain how we defeated Lady Nightshade, and Cal shows Mallory the head.

"Ye gods!" says Mallory. 
"I got some other stuff in here you might want," says Cal. 
"Is it more heads?" said Mallory.

It is not more heads. Anyway, then we explain how we julienned the former Lich (but didn’t destroy him) because he is a powerful force for good in Arallu, even if he doesn’t want to be. We also tossed Malachi out of the mansion, killing him, but we left his body there, so the vampires grabbed it for their own purposes. We’ll get to it!

Cassandra gets her notebook and a pen and magicks it to take notes. Freki rolls his eyes at this flagrant magic use. We tell her about the room full of all kinds of magic artifacts, the hunt, Sophie, and the Soulbound Rest with the Brucolac in the sarcophagus, and how that place has probably imploded into Flux by now.

Mallory tells us that they’ve been busy too, okay! The hurricane situation has continued to develop and “the other thing is ongoing I guess,” which doesn’t sound very much like the Mallory we’ve come to know and love. Bec and I side-eye each other. He seems like he’s got brain scramblies, but why? When we try to think about the third thing that we could have investigated, all we can remember is goblins encased in…stuff? Something? It was the dwarves who called for help, but the details are fuzzy.

We all need some sleep. Cassandra suggests that Vondal check on Oz, scan him for dark magic, you know, the usual. Vondal gives him a confident poke, but Oz just snores. Freki goes to steal Oz’s dagger of venom. He doesn’t stir. Freki is disturbed and calls for the rest of us. He’s not convinced that Oz is just asleep. He pockets the dagger anyway, LOL. Cassandra thinks Oz’s aura seems strengthened, like it’s growing into a new shape.

“Will he become a monk?” Freki asks. “Ha ha, probably not,” says Cassandra.

Before heading to bed, I thank my goddesses at the shrine and feel them smile upon me. They’re the best!

Freki tries to commune with his bird friends and they seem to be safe.

Bec focuses on the Celestial Hand to see if anything is emanating from it. “Can you hear that?” says a faint voice. She can also hear a thump-thump sound, like someone knocking. From the same direction, she can hear, “Is anybody in there? Help! Open the door!” It sounds kind of like it’s coming from downstairs, at the base of the tower.

“Well, this was a bad frickin’ idea,” Bec thinks. She asks me if I hear anything, but I don’t. Nevertheless, now Bec can’t sleep, so we buddy up and head downstairs to see if anybody is in trouble down there.

The Celestial Hand points the way to some stuff that just looks like junk to me. Bec assures me that there’s a symbol there. It’s the symbol of Vecna, which she draws for me to demonstrate. She thinks it’s drawn onto a trap door, which I also can’t see. I try touching the hand and suddenly I can hear it too!!!! Great, now I can’t sleep either.

One of the voices in the hand tells Bec that “she” (Vecna) does not want Bec to open this door and reveal this secret. As Bec tries to open the door, the Hand touches it and the trap door unseals. Now I can see it even without the Hand! It’s unsealed, but not open as such.

I do a Sending to Freki, who is the least digested of our team: “Bec heard something from the basement. Get everyone you can and come down now!”

When everyone is assembled, Bec explains that she heard voices from the hand that led her to the trap door.

Mallory is like, “Haha TRAP door.” He orders us all to use every skill we have to figure out if this is a stupid idea or not. I do a spread of cards to find out if opening the door is a good course of action or not. The cards give me the Hermit, reversed: loneliness and isolation. Meanwhile, Freki sniffs the place. It smells dank and musty, like a cave, and he thinks he catches a whiff of Flux (though that could just be from outside the tower).

Cassandra touches the Hand to hear the voices. Cal knocks on the trap door. It sounds more hollow towards the middle.

Cassandra wants to open the door. Bec really wants to open the door. As far as any of us can tell, this (probably) won’t kill us. We’re opening the door.

Bec tries to use Mage Hand to open the door. The Celestial Hand wants to help. Bec takes it out and it becomes her hand. She uses it to open the trap door, just lifting it straight up. There’s a ladder leading down.

At the bottom is a woman. She climbs up the ladder. It’s a red-haired dwarf. Her name is Rubinia Elka. She’s a necromancer, or, well, “not” a necromancer. She is wearing an amulet that looks familiar, because it’s in our evidence locker. The last time we spoke to her, we talked about the Dwarven clan of Aldrimor.

“Oh, thank the gods!” she says. “The others are still down there. Lorelai, Audreth, and Mallory.”

She looks at all of us and stops at Mallory, astonished. What. Is. Happening.

Callie’s Journal

As Cal goes to the teleport circle, he notices that it’s not exactly the same as it was before. He jumps off to avoid the trap just in the nick of time! But the Brucolac swings a gauntleted fist at Cal’s sword, attempting to bludgeon it out of his hand. Cal parries, but the Brucolac bites him! Cal’s blood boils in some kind of reaction. His body frosts over. The Brucolac tries to let go, but can’t. The frost is entering him!

Meanwhile, the rest of us appear around the outskirts of Sepulchralis, but we’re missing Cal. He didn’t make it?!

All at the same time, we all have a pounding headache.

Suddenly, Cal finds himself looking at the teleport circle and knowing for certain that it’s a trap. If he steps on it, the Brucolac will attack him. He can also see the Flux glittering all around him, and he’s pretty sure that’s new. He senses hostile intent from the Brucolac.

Meanwhile, in our minds, we all see the Brucolac bite Cal and get frosted and be unable to let go. He lets out a primal scream (the Brucolac, not Cal). Cal stabs him and he pushes Cal away from the sword, trying to disarm him…from the sword that is still lodged in the Brucolac’s body.

So we’re pretty sure Cal is in big trouble. We ask Sophie if there’s any way back there, and she says it would be suicide to go. She gives Oz the ol’ doe eyes, but he’s undeterred. We all pile onto the carpet. It’s rescue time! But suddenly, Oz looks torn. Bec frowns. It looks like he’s been enchanted, that vixen!

Cal rages and stabs the Brucolac, who growls, “Dirty tricks!” and tries to throw Cal. Sir, no one tosses a halfling. Besides, we’re the ones who were betrayed by our erstwhile ally, so settle down. Cal uses his whip to get the sword back. Annoyed, the Brucolac says “That weak earth magic won’t help you!”

I cast calm emotions on everybody, to remove Sophie’s charm and also to prevent any retribution from Oz. Now that Sophie is calm, she thinks that we are f’ing nuts and splits herself into 8 parts. Whoa! Vondal tries to convince her without trickery to join us and save Cal, but she ain’t having it. She wants our portable hole in exchange. Nah! With a last “thanks for helping a girl out—see ya never!” she runs off, along with all the cool stuff we gave her.

Cal tries to whip the sword out of the Brucolac’s arm. He yanks it out and flames burst out of it.

That pounding headache feeling happens again and Cal is stepping into a portal. Whatever is happening is beyond his comprehension, but his danger sense tingles. It’s definitely a trap.

Back on the carpet, which we are pushing for maximum speed, Vondal and Freki can tell that some sort of force (karma, perhaps) is acting on this situation, keeping the balance of power. First Cal was saved, now the Brucolac is saved.

Cal senses the Brucolac’s hostile intent. He’s gonna Reckless Attack that guy’s dick, and he doesn’t care who knows it!

Bec casts invisibility on us, so that things won’t notice us zooming around on the carpet. Good thinking, Bec!

Cal lands a critical strike on the Brucolac and sets him on fire!

(Sean is rolling pretty badly on his crits.)

Nate: As one of the two halflings rolling like this tonight, can I say: this feels racist.

We’re going fast and not from the same way we came in, but we navigate these slum-tunnels as best we can. Hugin and Munin say to Freki, “Be ready. The time is approaching.”

The Brucolac uses finger of death on Cal, who somehow doesn’t shrivel up and die. The Brucolac says in a pained voice, “Enoch! Come to me!” and the portal lights up. Dammit, I do NOT want to see him right now, no matter how sparkling his dinner conversation was! Let’s put something heavy on the portal, guys.

The flames that were on the Brucolac sputter and die.

We’ve reached the gate of the cemetery. Vondal senses that the ghosts are… um, not in the graveyard. That seems ominous, not like we wanted to encounter any.

Meanwhile, the Brucolac uses telekinesis and Cal is restrained, by which I don’t mean that he’s acting passive-aggressive while hiding his real feelings.

The Brucolac orders Enoch to guard the door. Then he says to Cal, “Did you feel it? The lost time. I have not felt that interference from Themis for some millennia.” Cal tries to remember who Themis is, but it’s kind of hard to concentrate right at this precise moment. So he bluffs, proving that he’s more mortal than not (if there was any doubt).

The telekinesis drops, but Cal is still pincered between Enoch and the Brucolac.

We’re approaching the chapel. All the ghosts are surrounding the chapel like some kind of freaky unbiodome. Three vampires guard the door: Goratrix, Meerlinda, and Etria. They’re watching the door for some reason, and the ghosts are giving them a wide berth.

Oz uses Panache on Etria to try to convince us that her clan is the best, and they should work together to get rid of these Crispic losers. He shouts “2READOR 4LYFE!” or something like that. It might have been more like “Let’s take out these two assholes,” but is that all that different when you come down to it?

The Brucolac bends down to stare at Cal up close, looming enormously and menacingly. “Her touch lingers on us both.” He starts moving his hands like he’s going to cast a spell. Cal tries to stab his hands in an attempt to mess up the spell. The Brucolac does stop casting the spell, but he also grabs Cal and GODDAMN SWALLOWS HIM. On the way down, Cal whip-grabs his sword again and manages to snag it and bring it in with him. An inspired move!

Oz tells the vampires at the door that we need to get in there and asks if we’re going through them or not. Goratrix steps to one side and waves us in. “Watch your step,” he says, enjoying this.

Inside the titan’s tum-tum, Cal hears muffled voices talking about how there are “more visitors.” Cal is getting eroded, mind, body, and soul. So the situation isn’t great.

Bec drops our invisibility and asks Etria if she’ll help us. Etria says, “I fear you’ve misread the situation. As much as I’d love to take power, this isn’t the time.”

Vondal asks if the vamps have seen anything and Goratrix is in the middle of telling us he sees all, knows all, et cetera, when Freki gets in his face and growls. There’s just a touch of fear from Goratrix, but he’s not our target and not in our way, so we just go past him.

We open the doors and Enoch is there. “Hello. I see you’ve found my lord’s sanctum,” he says.

Cal is trying to use the sword, but meanwhile he’s being digested and some part of him is nourishing the Brucolac.

The Brucolac claims that he was all set to let us go, when we insulted his honor. And by “we” I mean “Oz.” Oz tells him you can’t insult what doesn’t exist and Freki backs him up.

All along the walls, where the tentacles were before, the Flux has become palpable. Vondal wonders if he can use it to kind of like Flux Cal out of the titan’s belly. Relatedly, Flux is now a verb, or at least Vondal is trying to make it happen.

I’m having an episode. I’m normally open to visions, but this isn’t a great time, to quite honest.

Bec wants to ask the Hand of Vecna to take us all the hell out of here. She hears three voices from the Hand: (the voice of a crossroads at night) “He seeks to take Themis’s power,” (reminiscent of a cauldron bubbling and stirred with a magical staff) “You must stop him,” and (a voice full of schemes and sorcery on a golden chariot) “Take it for yourself.”

Something is moving in Oz’s pocket. What is in his pocketses? It’s a small wooden coin, not the sort of thing you’d expect to wiggle around. He got this from Avandra, who also said he’d know the time to use it. He bites that coin!

Vondal starts bending reality to make Cal just BE out here with us. Enoch notes this to the Brucolac, who wants to wait and see.

Oz is like, “I’m over here biting fucking wood! Let’s go!”

Vondal starts to glow. His green muppet fur starts to glow and he becomes translucent. We can see his skeleton!

I flicker over to Vondal and then I start having a vision.

Vondal’s fur bursts into flame. He can’t control it anymore, but maybe he can channel it?

A rain of fire falls from the ceiling, centered on Vondal. At the same time, Vondal is radioactive. I take 7 damage from the fire raining from the ceiling.

I have a vision of myself at HQ setting up a shrine to my dual goddesses. It’s not one hundo p my style, but it’s good. I feel connected to the shrine. I’m sure of exactly two things: I didn’t do that, but that it still happened. That’s one of those mysteries that scholars will ponder for the next few centuries, assuming of course that I live long enough to tell anybody about it.

Freki grapples Enoch. Meanwhile, the Brucolac is locked in a mental battle with Vondal and completely distracted. At a certain point, we others can tell that neither of them is paying attention to the here and now.

Bec considers whether she could cleanse this space, but that would take a lot of long and involved rituals. She wants to follow the Hand’s… let’s call them “suggestions.” She has to trust the Hand to take the next step.

My holy symbol is fidgeting. I feel that with its help, it could be done. What could? Something BIG. World changing, even!

Oz feels a golden thread connect from his heart to my holy symbol. I feel it too. We’re united, my brother in Avandra! I can tell that Avandra is extremely excited about this moment and what will happen.

There’s another flicker and Vondal is Cal. Cal’s sword pierces a weak spot, and the energy of his sword opens the hole bigger. A tentacle from outside reality pulls him out like some kind of 160th trimester c-section.

Oz has a feeling that he could steal, like, anything. But what?

Bec feels that the Hand is helping her burgeoning divinity flourish. Oh my, that’s new! She can tell now that Avandra is supporting Oz and me, and that could not have happened if I was split between the two goddesses. Bec can’t take Themis’s power; her divinity has already manifested a power. Oz, on the other hand, has some room in his soul there.

Bec tries hard to sort through the sensations and insights she’s getting to figure out where the power is that Oz should steal. She takes 18 points of psychic damage, but also thinks it’s somewhere inside the Brucolac. What the flipping heck?

Hugin and Munin say, “Freki, focus. Now come back to yourself.”

Freki lets the bloodlust of hunting Enoch fall away. The birds are encouraging him to be himself, not just an animal. All his forms are him, no one is better than the other.

Enoch turns into a bat to slip out of the grapple.

The Brucolac opens his hands and screams. The Flux that Vondal used to pull Cal out of the Brucolac’s stomach starts flowing in, like the Brucolac is consuming it. Now he’s using it to (barf) manifest something, but it’s not clear what yet.

Oz slices and dices Enoch the bat. He’s not quite dust, but he’s on his last wing. Freki still has him, so he attempts to use that same hand to punch the Brucolac. Then he still has a bite attack left, so he tries to bite the bat’s head off (not enthusiastically, it must be noted). Hugin and Munin manifest, distracting Enoch enough to let Freki chomp him. Enoch poofs into mist.

Bec attacks the Brucolac with chill touch. The Hand of Vecna is still in contact with Bec. The first voice says, “His power is out of balance,” then something in Elven [GM’s note: “all kalina and no mori”]. Bec knows it means the magicks of will and yielding, opposite forces that should be balanced.

Bec casts a super sweet rainbow and I kind of wish I had some of those psychedelic fruits we got earlier. I think the Brucolac does too, because he seems distracted for just a moment.

Cal Reckless Attacks the Brucolac, landing an incredible strike on him.

The Enoch mist floats away as fast as it can, but most directions are blocked by swirling ghosts outside. There’s a shattering sound in all our minds, the sound of a vampire barrier breaking. GORATRIX IN DA HOUSE

“Cease this folly!” says Goratrix. At some point, the lady vampires come in, take a look at this scene, and walk right back out. Smart ladies.

It’s my turn. It occurs to me that it would be awesome to invoke duplicity and create a duplicate of myself to try and rob him of his barf-baby, which is taking the shape of an hourglass. Avandra is tickled by this idea and together we create an enormous me! Kaiju Callie runs over and pulls out a huge deck of cards. “IS THIS YOUR CARD?” me says, and fires the whole deck straight in the Brucolac’s face. Ha ha ha ha!

While the Brucolac is distracted, Oz gets the idea to steal the hourglass… but he also desperately wants to stab the bad guy, and he feels like he won’t be able to do both. What to do? In true Oz fashion, he rejects reality and tries anyway to do both! He runs up and grabs the hourglass, which he absorbs into his body nearly instantly—and he feels the slightest temporal pulse, dragging him back only a moment [GM’s note: a Critical Moment!], leaving him with just enough time to lash out with his sword. Whoa! Oz’s strike lands true, and it should have been a fatal blow, but the Brucolac does not die; instead, he lets out a low, growling moan and sucks part of our essences into himself, healing some of his wounds.

Bec passes out from the attack. Freki coordinates with Cal to slam the Brucolac together. Enoch continues to flee, but has nowhere to go.

Responding to the dire state of his sire, Goratrix clenches his fist and a wall appears around the Brucolac. F^#K!

Callie’s Journal

Bec casts cloud of daggers and creates a pretty purple storm. Stylish and lethal, that’s our Bec! After slicing off, just, like, so many tentacles, she sneaks around towards the sarcophagus.

Sophie yells at Cal, “Flank it!” and smites the Death Tyrant. An eye opens behind her and shoots some kind of ray at her.

Vondal shoots a ray out of the wall of light at the Death Tyrant and it roars in pain and anger. Vondal’s ray destroyed the tentacles that were ensnaring him, but new ones sprout out of the walls and try to grab him again.

The Death Tyrant grabs at Oz’s sword and the light from it is extinguished. The oppressive feeling in this place is back.

Freki shoots a hail of thorns at the Death Tyrant. He hits it right in the central eye, kapow! It flips around to reveal a gaping maw and starts sucking in the nearby ghosts. It seems to find the ghosts…delicious. Urghghghghghgg.

Freki shoots at it again, but one of the eye stalks snags the arrow right out of the air and tosses it to the floor. “PATHETIC,” says the Death Tyrant. It moves towards more of the ghosts.

After taking a swing at the Death Tyrant, Cal makes his way over to the sarcophagus and does a little hop to see inside. There’s a gargantuan creature in there. Could it be the Brucolac? It has the sword, as seen in the stained glass window and other depictions. Was the Death Tyrant…feeding on it?

The Brucolac bursts out of the sarcophagus. Its wings unfurl in the air.

With a wave of its hand, it clothes and armors itself. We can’t see the wings anymore, but it can still fly.

It stares straight at Cal and something seems to pass between them. For the first time since I’ve ever known him, Cal doesn’t want to kill undead? SNAP OUT OF IT, CAL!

The Brucolac looks at the Death Tyrant and orders it to leave. The Death Tyrant doesn’t react in any way.

I have a vision of an army of ghosts, swarming into the church, over us, and towards the Death Tyrant. I also hear the strumming of a harp, driving the ghosts towards the Death Tyrant. As more ghosts enter, the desecration gets worse. As the harp plays, everything ripples, shifts, and changes. It feels a bit like the Feywild. There’s yet another will behind that, someone weaving reality. The feeling gets more intense until I snap out of it. I call out to my teammates, “We have to get out of here or kill the Death Tyrant NOW!”

The Death Tyrant sucks in the nearest ghosts. Its eye stalks look around and then it moves toward the Brucolac. It’s like, “I hunger” and the Brucolac says “I know.” I’m tilting towards RUN at this point.

Oz does a flurry of attacks against the Death Tyrant and does some damage that can’t be healed by, uh, ectophagy.

Bec, noticing that something is obviously wrong with Cal, tries to dispel whatever is affecting him. She successfully unravels the charm! Nice!

The Brucolac kind of offhandedly uses the power of this horrible place to do something horrible to us. We all lose some of our vitality!

Michael: “If we all fail, then it’s not a very good teacher.”

On the fly, Freki makes an arrow of slaying out of wall tentacle, prays to his bird friends, and swears an oath on his bow: “A swift death to those who have wronged me. May my bow strike true, and may this be the end of you.” The bow whispers something back in Elven. Vondal seems like he’s weaving some kind of massive enchantment or something (six sorcery points!) to help Freki’s aim, too. Even with all the help, the arrow flies straight and true, but not exactly at the right…spot…. Hugin and Munin appear to escort the arrow!!! The Death Tyrant looks grievously wounded! Then it turns an eye stalk on Freki and shoots a ray at him.

The air starts to ripple OH NO IT’S JUST LIKE MY VISIONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

Vondal starts firing magic beams. With each one, more green fur sprouts out of him until he’s covered with it. And the Death Tyrant has been incinerated by Oscar the Grouch! What kind of armor class does a trashcan have?

The shimmering in the air stops. That’s a relief! Now we can be killed by the Brucolac instead.

The Brucolac thanks us for purging his sanctum. We all look over at Cal, except Freki, who says, “Well met.” Ironically, that’s probably the most diplomatic response any of us could muster.

The Brucolac says his house seems to be in some disorder. While he is deeply malevolent, he’s not actively trying to kill us, so that’s nice. I feel that he is shaken by this experience, which should not have been able to happen. He’s also furious, unsurprisingly. Should I point his ire in some direction that isn’t us? Probably should, right? Yeah, probably should.

Vondal notices that even though the Death Tyrant was slain, the power of the Flux here is still super strong and the stained glass windows are still messed up. Whatever’s wrong seems to be ingrained in this place.

Freki smells something like Oz (or his sword) from the shadow woman. The other woman smells like Cal, or his sword. The Brucolac picture smells like the Brucolac.

Sophie looks at him suspiciously and asks why he isn’t killing us right now. She lacks subtlety, but knowing his motivation is just paralyzing me with fear, to be quite honest, so maybe it’s best not to be burdened with knowledge sometimes.

The Brucolac acknowledges that consuming us would give him more power, sure, but he thinks we have a part to play besides being eaten by him. Which is more than we could have expected from him, really.

Vondal, meanwhile, puts his hand on one of the windows and gets sucked in. I mean, I wish I could say I’m surprised? He finds himself on a hill with three elves and a ring. He feels himself being torn. His two halves are separating. Eventually the ring’s power will wash over the world and heal everything, but when it reaches the apex of its power, the ring cracks! With a feeling of deep betrayal, Vondal gets thrown out the window. He has just witnessed the birth of the Flux. One of them ruined the ritual and created the Flux. This is all because of some asshole elf! Let’s find them and kill them! He recognized two of the elves: Janus Ilaris (now the Ghost here in zombieland), one was Priscilla Stormcloud, and the other one was someone Vondal knows but couldn’t see.

The Brucolac tells Vondal that he’s playing with fire and it’s only a matter of time before it destroys his mind.

Oz taps at one of the windows, feels his head exploding, and knows that the woman in the window is the woman from his sword. She reaches out to touch his head and impart the depths of her pain. Her name is Dallah Thaun. She was betrayed by someone, and it’s Oz’s job to find out who and wreak her terrible vengeance.

Cal goes and stands near the other window. He feels deep sadness and knows she is dead. The Flux has started to erase her. That’s why her face is obscured.

Bec is trying to figure out what it all means, but she realizes that she can’t get it right now.

Cal touches the middle window.

GM’s note: Cal has a vision of Moradin in full steampunk armor, as he forges the Arkenstone into a sword:

“Mother… we will make them remember…”

The Brucolac says, “Perhaps I spoke too soon. More and more you grow.” Cal asks if he knows the people in the windows, but the Brucolac says he can’t remember.

Oz tries to pick the Brucolac’s pocket. He feels something he really didn’t want to feel, but at least he didn’t get noticed and turned into some kind of flesh milkshake.

The Brucolac (who used to be known as Cronus) says he remembers “devouring them all, including her. But I do not remember who she is.” Cal thinks Morrigan (?), who wants revenge, may have been devoured by this guy. But Vondal said the Flux was caused by elves, and what Cronus is talking about happened a long time ago, much longer than the Flux.

Oz wants to liberate the halfling ranch. The Brucolac asks what our companion would say about that. Sophie says the Death Tyrant is dead, so everything is fine now. Also she doesn’t believe the Brucolac isn’t in league with Xaryu, though he says he isn’t.

Sophie says if he’s really thankful to us, he can help us destroy Xaryu. And don’t eat us while he’s doing it, please and thank you!

The Brucolac says he wants our information if we expect to get anything from him. Cal says that he thinks the Ghost sicced the Death Tyrant on him, but the Brucolac thinks he and the Ghost are allies and this is unlikely. So I tell him what I saw in my visions. He says that information is valuable enough to merit him sending “an agent” with us, if that’s what we want. Someone who fills a need in our party, someone patient and smart. Hey now, I do not say out loud.

The Brucolac bids us to consider one of these three: Calderon the Cold, who knows all about spiders and tunnels. Orlok, who can find anything and go anywhere. Or Elloia Canarl, a consummate hunter (though she might start by hunting Oz, and who could blame her?).

Nate: “Let’s take the ‘they/them’ and stir up some may-hem!”
Curtis: “Orlok goes by it.”
Michael: “Let’s take the ‘it’ and stir up some shit!”

Sophie says before we teleport out, this is the last time we should speak freely because Xaryu is always watching. ALWAYS WATCHING. Even sign language is out!

We all go through the portal. Oz yells “Your wings look like shit!” as he’s about to step through the portal. The Brucolac reaches out to close the portal, so Oz, reading the action, backflips through it before it can close.

Left alone with the Brucolac, Cal says, “What now, uncle?”

The Brucolac tells him that Xaryu is what prevents the vampires from wiping out the halflings entirely, so is the situation really so simple? Cal responds that nothing is ever simple. “Truer words were never spoken,” says the Brucolac, and… lets Cal go??

Lingering questions:

• Two vampires connected to Goratrix seem to be involved in this…assassination attempt…so why did Goratrix lead us right here?
• If vampires aren’t allowed to set foot here, as Goratrix said, then what was the Brucolac doing here?
• Was Meerlinda’s dream power involved in creating the Death Tyrant in the first place? Seems like her wheelhouse.
• But in my vision, someone was directing the ghosts to feed the Death Tyrant, so maybe Janus Ilaris? Cal thinks so.

✨ LEVEL UP to 11! ✨

Callie’s Journal

GM’s note: NOT FINALIZED

As we enter the church, the feeling of wrongness and desecration increases. I thought the Soulbound Rest was the worst, but THIS is the worst! Is there any bottom to this barrel? Vondal closes the door behind us, so we are locked in here, but at least all the ghosts are out there, I guess.

Okay, most of the ghosts are outside. A swarm of ghosts appears at the opposite end of the church. Freki has the impression that they’re here for some reason, maybe to protect something. Looking around, Bec and I wonder if this may have been a church of Peylor at one time, though it’s hard to tell. Its original purpose has been corrupted. Vondal feels that something happened to pull this place partly out of reality.

It is extremely quiet here. Weirdly silent. Vondal creates a wall of light between us and the ghost swarm that also illuminates the whole place. There’s a sarcophagus at the altar of the church, behind the ghosts. The Death Tyrant is there, with withered tentacles that are still moving. There are three stained glass windows. A goddess is depicted in two of them, but her face is obscured in a creepy way. The final window depicts…something other than what it originally did. It looks like the vision that we saw a while ago of the Brucolac, as well as the Necronomicon that we destroyed. That’s surprising, since Goratrix told us that vampires were forbidden from entering here. This place is supposed to be ruled by the Spirit. Bec speculates that maybe our cleansing of the Necronomicon might have done something to the Brucolac too, but we don’t really know.

Hauntedness increases as we approach the sarcophagus. We’re all at at top stealth mode and ghosts don’t make any noise, so everything is still eerily silent, but it does seem like they’re investigating us. Bec goes around the far side of the pews and moves closer to the wall.

I move closer to the wall and cast spiritual weapon. This may have been ill-advised, as it attracts the attention of the ghosts, who also move closer to the wall and start reaching for me. Guh! I know they can’t go through the light wall, but it’s still ooky.

Tentacles burst out of the walls! Everybody who had moved to the side now has to get back to the middle of the room. Bec casts a cube around the beholder with some kind of dazzlement. Sophie summons duplicates and they all run around, but unfortunately the real one seems to have gotten snared by Bec’s trap.

Freki…uh…lightly shoots Sophie in the back, just to jostle her out of the illusion. It works!

It’s time for me to be a CLERICAL BADASS. I channel Avandra to Turn Undead and the ghosts flee before me. Then I use my Spiritual Weapon to strike at the remaining ghosts, and they dissipate. Hahaha!

But then, the Death Tyrant faces us and it is HUMONGOUS. It’s like six times as tall as me. It’s like a house. A really gross house! It says: “Serve me and be liberated. Oppose me and die.” Then it shoots a blast at Bec and Sophie, knocking Sophie back. Bec reflects it and the tyrant charms himself, hahahahaha. I guess this is the way to charm a terminal narcissist, huh?

Bec freaking vaults over the pews, like since when can she do that??

Sophie looks like she can’t decide between Xaryu and Oz. He becomes strangely glamorous for a minute and she casts Haste on him, so I guess he won.

Freki shoots a lightning arrow. ZAP!

Vondal tries really hard to shoot some sort of beam really far. Three eyestalks with heads of Roger (the manor ghost) pop out of Vondal. He is in some way entangled with Xaryu now. I feel like this is one of the top three weirdest things Vondal has done? Maybe top five.

I Bless myself, Murky, and Freki. Then I move toward Xaryu and the rest of our party and attack a single ghost with Spiritual Weapon.

An enormous hand reaches out of the sarcophagus. No! Get back in there! DEAD MEANS DEAD!

🎇🎂🥳

Callie’s Journal

GM’s note: NOT FINALIZED

Freki asks Sophie why she chose this particular rundown shack, and she says she followed her faith here. It’s where she’s supposed to be. Okay, I get that.

Goratrix says he’s brought our winnings here. Meerlinda sets a bag down outside the door. What a mensch, this guy.

Bec asks why Goratrix has a beef with Lestache, but Gortrix says it’s the other way around. Lestache is jealous because Goratrix built this city (not the ruins, the good part).

Freki, with his low charisma, says Goratrix basically built like a block of a city, then. Oh dear, we should probably stop letting him talk.

Vondal asks what Goratrix wants. Goratrix says we should all ask ourselves that more often. He considers. It’s power. Power is the thing he wants, and we are powerful. But so is he, so he holds our lives in his hands.

We try to suss out what the hell he wants. It seems he could, uh, take us now or wait until we’re even more powerful. But that’s risky, since we might get killed by someone else while he’s waiting.

Goratrix says if there’s a Death Tyrant, then maybe the Zaryu tribe has a fallen member. So, is the SPI bound to stop it or what? Well…yes and no. Lacking our halfling murder squad, we’d probably just send this one up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes.

Sophie asks Goratrix why he even cares what we do. He says it’s an event of interest, so he wants to know how we’re going to proceed. He’d rather we not bring more SPI agents down here. Freki doesn’t get why this is a problem. Goratrix explains that these things wash over the whole land and destroy everything, and he’s really not down with that. Bec proposes that we join forces temporarily to take down the Death Tyrant.

Goratrix says if it is around somewhere, he has an idea of where it might be, and it’s a place vampires can’t enter. Vondal strikes a deal with him that if we go and investigate, he’ll agree to not kill us and even discourage the other vampires from harming us. He’s the best. The best we’ve got, anyway.

He swoops the bag into the shack telekinetically. Bec really wants to know how to do that rad magic, and he says he can teach her that and more if she joins her clan. Vondal determines that Goratrix doesn’t particularly hate spiders, but he goes along with it because the other vamps do. Good to know (?).

Vondal suggests we take a rest. Since 3/4 of the current party is spellcasters, that sounds like a great plan to us. Goratrix teleports away. Sophie congratulates us on tricking him into giving up the location: the Soulbound Rest. She thinks I can cast a spell called “Find the Path” to get there, wherever it is. That’s flattering, but I do not know that spell at all! Vondal has something similar, though he’s reluctant to use his high-level spells to try and find this place.

Sophie thinks we need to go, but Vondal thinks we should stay put and rest. She is really keen to grab her cursed sword and go. That sword is like a bad boyfriend, she just will not accept the truth about it.

I chat up Sophie about her service to Tiamat. She says most of her people follow Tiamat, who is the Best God. She didn’t know Bilbo, though. I get the impression that she may have some other feelings about Tiamat, but she’s not at liberty to say them out loud. She’s used to being constantly watched by Zaryu and Tiamat, I guess.

Freki really likes Sophie. She’s his favorite halfling; she’s only stabbed him once so far. Is this the only criterion, or…? Maybe it’s just the most relevant one.

We divvy up the magic items during our rest. I swap out my Boots of Elvenkind with Boots of False Tracks. For the next few hours I am going to be a faun, haha.

Then Goratrix shows up, pleased that we haven’t run away. He flies off, and we take off after him on Bilbo’s flying carpet. Eventually we get to a place with a rickety metal fence surrounding some kind of ruined estate. Goratrix says this is the realm of the spectral undead and therefore the vampires are not allowed to enter. Goratrix himself not only can’t get in there, he doesn’t even want to. That’s strange for the guy who gets his kicks breaking and entering.

The negative energy here is off the charts. We all hate it. Sophie tells us that we’ll be under Tiamat’s protection. I mean, I’ll take it. Sophie tells us that the Death Tyrant is a rebellious piece of Zaryu. That’s why Zaryu wants it dead, because it wants all non-Zaryu things dead. Vondal senses a tremendously evil and powerful presence about half a mile away. Also the whole place is just blanketed with non-corporeal undead creatures.

I cast Pass Without Trace to make Freki even more stealthy than he normally is, and make the rest of us somewhat less unstealthy. Sophie casts Bless on herself, Freki, and Vondal because he seems like he needs the most help. Still, just to minimize our risk, everybody except Freki gets in our portable hole and Freki slings it over his shoulder (I assume). As Freki is about to leave, Goratrix says “Best of luck now.” Meerlinda weaves an illusion of Freki’s home for him, filling him with resolve and purpose. He does an awesome jump over the fence and feels confident.

Freki’s instincts are excellent right now, so Sophie follows his lead. He adjusts slightly to accommodate her while dodging the graves and whatnot that litter the ground. He also opens the hole periodically so we can breathe, for which I am very grateful. At one point along the way, Sophie steps on a branch and makes a sound. Freki hides, then looks around to see if anyone noticed and sees…GORATRIX! But, like, a ghosty version of him. It moans and floats over to a grave. It smells like sorrow and desperation, but not malicious or like a vampire anymore.

At another point, Sophie trips and three ghosts float over to investigate. She volunteers to get in the hole and hang out drinking sangria with the rest of us. (Just kidding obviously, we sure don’t need any more hits to our dexterity.) Then Freki discovers a huge chapel. That’s…probably the place.

Callie’s Journal

GM’s note: NOT FINALIZED

We’re all Blessed, at least as far as we can be in this awful place. We also have 7 temporary HP due to the incredible banquet. I really have to learn that spell.

Freki’s bird friends have spotted something. They dive down and…um…poof out of existence???

Oz faces off with Enoch. Aim away from the face, Oz! He stabs Enoch a lot and then runs away, drawing Enoch’s attention away from the building. It’s a run-by stabbing!

Bec casts Detect Magic on the building. It seems to be shielded with abjuration magic of some kind, similar to Bilbo’s house. Anyway, Bec is going to stay here in the tiny hut so we can stay protected.

Freki is frekied out by the disappearance of the birds, so he starts getting hairy and decides to jump through a window after them. CRASH! Subtle, wolfie. [Inside, Freki is deafened. He sees three Sophies. Two are looking menacing and battle-ready, and a third is hiding as well as she can. He tells her not to worry, we’re on her side. Unfortunately, if she says anything back, he can’t hear her. D’oh! The three of them start casting a spell and the broken window mends itself.]

I decide, in a split second, to take control of the flying carpet and hide it (sort of) behind one of the buildings in the square. I don’t want to draw attention to the building, which I’m guessing is where Sophie is hidden. And/or where Freki just died, hard to say. Look, I’m not saying that factored into my decision!

Enoch looks like he’s about to fly, but then teleports instead. Looks like Oz hit a nerve with that “your wings are shit” line. Enoch smacks him from behind and rakes him with a claw. Oz dodges and doesn’t take the full hit, but Enoch grapples him and tries to bite him. Oz wriggles away from the bite and Enoch stomps him with a fiery claw. Then he spins around and blasts Oz with a fire hand. That spin was really cool, but Oz didn’t have much trouble dodging it.

[Cal is aware that Enoch has a lot of resistances that normal undeads do not. He is also calm and may have many other hidden talents, but he also has the standard vampire weaknesses, like running water, sunlight, stakes, holy symbols, etc.).]

Cal focuses his ire on Enoch and runs toward him. The fire that Enoch summoned gets all sparkly and then Vondal appears out of the flames, behind Oz. The last thing Vondal remembers is the introduction to the hunt. Suddenly he’s in this ruined town square and the halflings are fighting a vampire. OK! He summons a giant horizontal wall of light. Enoch flinches and his wounds stop healing. Ooh, good one, Vondal!

Oz attacks again and Enoch still seems calm, although he’s bleeding now.

Bec elbows me aside – politely, as she does – and takes the carpet over to the building where we think Sophie is. We’re going to go in together.

Oz’s monkey flies into the light, briefly casting a shadow outside the wall of light. The shadow it casts…does not look like a monkey. It has no wings. It is halfling shaped, like the ghost Oz has described. Weird!

Freki leaps at Sophie to bite her, thus “drawing first blood” to win the hunt. He gives her a little nibble. She tastes like halfling, with a little bit of infernal hellfire contamination. He grapples her and tries to tell her that she should stop fighting because we’ve won according to the rules. She wriggles out of his grasp.

There’s a ringing and Orlok’s voice says that the hunt is over, as the condition has been met.

Sophie frowns at Freki and puts a hand on her wound. She almost looks like she understands, but then the sword takes control and she attacks Freki.

Bec and I run into the house. I want to use Calm Emotions, but as I reach for the spell, Avandra puts another, unknown spell in its place. I decide to have faith, faith, faith and cast the spell. Suddenly I’m where Sophie was and Freki is towering over me!

Hearing the announcement, Enoch says, “How unfortunate” and teleports away. I assume Cal and Oz are disappointed, but I’m happy that Enoch lived another day. I’m only telling you this, journal. Shh!

Oz and Cal enter the room and Oz is like, “Ladies, it’ll take me a while but I’m willing to try.” This may or may not be the reason Sophie is glaring murderously at us.

Bec uses a hypnotic gaze on Sophie and she goes kind of slack. Even though her hand is open, the sword doesn’t fall out of it. So creepy. Cal smacks the sword out of her hand with a remarkable well-aimed strike. There’s a weird tearing noise and Sophie seems to come back to herself. I try to tell her that we won, but she’s still focused on the windows, like, you’re welcome. Anyway, I can help the Sophielings with mending, but it takes a few minutes.

Meanwhile, Cal picks up the cursed sword with his whip and pauses an uncomfortably long time before throwing it into our portable hole. We should find a volcano to throw that thing in.

While we’re working on the window, we see the Gangrels coming around the corner. Then more vampires. Is this a casual stroll, or more like a Reservoir Dogs stroll?

Sophie hangs up some Tiamat symbols around the building. Oz tries some line on her and she’s like OUTTA MY WAY. He looks like he’s in love. Me too, maybe.

Freki asks why he was deafened. Sophie tells him that he triggered her defenses by coming in through the window instead of the door. The birds were apparently eaten by Tiamat, oh dear.

Elloia comes up to the door all, “Would you like to open the door?” Hmmm. I wish I could, but I don’t want to.

Sophie and Oz try to thieves cant at each other, but they don’t understand each other. Sophie calls us all over to the corner farthest from the vampires and we talk quietly. She says we need to track down the Death Tyrant and destroy it. She doesn’t know where it is, though. She strolls over to the window and tells the vampires that Vondal’s wall of light is going to vaporize them if they don’t tell her what she wants to know.

Enoch says they’ll tell us what we want to know when the light is gone. Vondal says sure and then shoots him with the wall of light. Enoch turns invisible somehow. He’s so cool. Vondal continues to strike at him in the same location. Enoch says, “You are a fool.” Vondal tries again, but Enoch is somewhere else now.

Oz uses his panache on Elloia and asks her what she knows about the Death Tyrant. She tells him that Enoch knows and probably would have told us if we hadn’t attacked him. Then she asks if he wants to be a vampire. She can totally hook him up. She’d also be happy to turn Freki, who would be “something special.” She isn’t interested in the rest of us. Mean! Anyway, she and Oz promise to meet again and then she takes her clan and leaves. Some down, a lot to go.

I keep feeling like I’m being watched. Is it Avandra…?

Oz, Cal, and Vondal run out and start slashing stuff. Eight of them surround Cal, three of them are grappling him. One is a statue thanks to Vondal.

I Channel Divinity to Turn Undead and a number of them drop Cal and make to flee. I summon my spiritual weapon and attack the most raggedy-looking one. It doesn’t die, boo.

Freki uses an arrow of tidal force against a vampire. A stream of water trails from it, rising to a tidal wave when it hits the vampire. Kelp rises out of the ground and ensnares them all! They are also vulnerable to the running water, because vampires. Heh heh. Freki still has two of those left, too!

After we’re done killing or chasing off all the vampires, Goratrix shows up. THAT’S THE CREEP WHO’S BEEN WATCHING ME! He slow claps and thanks us for doing his work for him. Oh, wonderful.

Callie’s Journal

GM’s note: NOT FINALIZED

I know that the sword that the halfling took will make people paranoid and then turn into a devil. The sword may have influenced her to take it. Oz noted that Orlock used tongs to put it into the cage. Oz tries to tell her that the sword is evil, but she just clings to it harder and says he can take it out of her cold dead hands. It’s sad when people get bitter, and cling to weapons or religion or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them…or people who are exactly like them….

We decide to throw in the Candles of the Deep as Clan SPI’s offering. Bec and I make a huge show, based on the ritual elements of how the vampires put in their items. We demonstrate how they work underwater using Oz’s vase of endless water. It’s a pretty good show, if I do say so myself! Freki pretends to freak out at the sight of the fire, which attracts the vampires’ attention. Meanwhile, Oz sneaks over and gives Sophie my Clamulet, which should help her against undead. She already has something around her neck, which Oz recognizes as an amulet of Tiamat (since he just saw that symbol in Bilbo’s house).

With the offering complete, Lestache announces that the hunt can begin. Orlok, since their clan is not participating, guards the valuables. Lestache also lets us know that we can’t pull any funny business like hanging around and waiting for Sophie.

They open the cage so the “fox” can run. Dragon wings pop out of Sophie’s back and she flies away! Lestache seems surprised, although it’s hard to tell with him how much is part of the show. But then he suggests that they start hunting right away instead of giving her a head start, so it seems more clear now.

Oz tries to challenge the vamps’ courage on the basis that they shouldn’t need to cheat to catch a halfling, even with wings. Some of the vampires are convinced, but some are unimpressed and just head out.

Freki keeps sniffing around. Seems like it’s time to go.

Enoch bids us good luck and then turns into some kind of winged demon and flies away. What a man! I hope we don’t have to fight him!

We head out and Freki tries to track Sophie. He smells her scent going in 7 different directions, but he knows that this is a magical illusion and he knows which one is the right one. Go, Freki, go!

We continue on and enter an area that feels wrong. It is unhallowed ground, which is the opposite of hallowed ground and resists the living. Ugh, I can’t wait to get out of here. Bec wants to pull out her Mace of Disruption for the light. She puts a cloth over it so it’s not like a beacon in the darkness. There are some skeletons in the distance, but they don’t seem to have seen us. They have no eyes, how could they?

We end up kind of sandwiched between the Brujah and Enoch, oh no. In order to follow the trail, we need to follow Enoch while avoiding the Brujah. I channel Avandra and send a duplicate of myself shrieking down the alley to distract the Brujah while we go ahead.

We feel a horrible sense of oppression and surveillance. It’s the Malachimera, urggghhhh. We decide not to attack it because that would draw unwanted attention. Bec wants to make us a tiny hut on the flying carpet to keep us safe in case it attacks. She does, so we have a silent-running covered wagon now!

As we tool around on the carpet, following Freki’s supersniffer, we suddenly notice that the Malachimera is ON TOP OF THE DOME TRYING TO SEE IN AND I WILL NEVER SLEEP AGAIN. Nevertheless, this is the life I chose, so we carry on.

At a fork in the road, Freki isn’t sure which way Sophie went. We know which way Enoch went, so we decide to go the opposite direction and bank on him being wrong. Meanwhile, we’re just flying around with this Malachimera on top of our tiny hut because we don’t seem to have any better options. Then the thing starts banging on the top of the dome. Dammit! It can’t get in here, but it’s making a lot of noise!

Oz decides to make the carpet do a barrel roll, which probably seemed like a good idea at the time but feels less good to me and Bec, who are rattling around like the last bean in the can. Oz and Freki each manage to grab one of us, wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew. Unfortunately, the Malachimera is still on top of the dome.

But then, it shoots some kind of a fireball at Malak and disintegrates their cloud of bats. Malak is set on fire and if not destroyed, is at least distracted. I’m going to write ha-ha because I can’t laugh while we’re trying to be stealthy.

Calderon the Cold and Lestache are facing off against each other. Heh heh.

Malachimera is banging on the dome again. Will anyone rid us of this turbulent abomination? We decide to use melee attacks against it, which we can do through the dome. I Bless Freki, Oz, and Bec. The dome kind of mutes the effect of Freki’s arrows. Also, things have a way of passing through this thing. However, their combined attacks dislodge it and it ends up under the carpet. Not sure I like that any better, TBH.

We can see Lestache and Calderon ahead of us, so we try to take the carpet over their heads. Lestache spots us, but luckily they’re both distracted by the arrival of Malachimera! Go, creature, go! You my friend.

I drop Bless for the time being so I can give Guidance to Freki. We need to know where we’re going. Behind us, Lestache calls, “You idiot! They’re getting away!” But then he’s on fire and we are sailing away, ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. It’s almost like treating living creatures as playthings has some kind of consequences? Well, Malachai wasn’t alive, but it’s the principle of the thing.

We almost fly into a bunch of mummies that were camoflaged against these ruins, yikes! We’re surrounded by all kinds of weird undead things, on unhallowed ground, and just overall this is one of the worst situations I’ve ever been in, including when I was stranded at the bottom of the ocean. I have to pick who to Guide, and I choose Oz this time because I feel like we need to stay hidden. I’m not scared, you’re scared!

Freki thinks we’re close and another push could get us to Sophie. For the next choice, I decide to push through my fear and Guide Freki for this one, in hopes that we can get to her fast.

Around the next corner, we see a clearing with some buildings. We’ve lost track of the vampires, but unfortunately that doesn’t mean they’re gone. Enoch is above us. He says “Greetings” as if he can see us, although he shouldn’t be able to.

We can see Sophie across the way. She yells, “I’m the one you want, you sons of bitches!” I like her. I hope we can have a drink together someday. Oz notices a mark on a doorway that looks like it may be a thieves cant symbol. He doesn’t recognize it, unfortunately, so it’s hard to say if it’s a good sign or a bad sign.

Enoch is distracted by Sophie (or possibly “Sophie”) and flies away from us. But then, like an idiot, Oz yells out, “Hey asshole, your wings look like shit!” It’s a use of Panache we’ve never seen before! This will grab Enoch’s attention…obviously…but also gives him disadvantage against anybody but Oz. Meanwhile, the Gangrel go after Sophie.

Freki sends Hugin and Munin over to the mystery building to find out if Sophie is in there and let her know that we’re on her side if she is. Enoch comes back around the corner as a hellbeast and calls Oz out. Oz kisses his monkey and jumps out of the hut, ready to rumble!

Callie’s Journal

Possible session titles:

• Good People On Both Sides
• Live and Let Unlive

A ghast pounds on the door and demands to know what’s going on. Oz sticks his head out the door and tries to get the ghast to go away using deception. The ghast agrees to wait.

Oz asks me to use my disguise kit on him, so I start doing makeup. He looks almost not entirely unlike Bilbo when I’m done. The real Bilbo is tied up and still invisible in his house, left on his bed with the covers rumpled so it looks like he’s just a slob. The ropes aren’t invisible, though, so this won’t stand up to serious scrutiny. How did he do that invisibility trick, anyway? That was cool!

We go outside and the ghasts are suspicious on the basis of smell, but don’t call us on it. We all hop on the ol’ magic carpet and head to the ball. Vondal somehow has a good mental map of the layout of the city, and also thinks there’s a spider-filled plane alarmingly but not immediately nearby. Why did he think we needed to know that?!

When we get to the castle, Oz/Bilbo pipes up that the “good-looking one” had the audacity to attack him, but we left him tied up back at Bilbo’s place. Heh heh heh.

When we enter the grand entrance hall, Lestache enters at the other end. He’s dressed even fancier than before, including a maquerade-style mask. He has provided food and drink, which we can enjoy in any of the private alcove rooms off the main hall.

Ozbo and Vondal have a loud argument about whether Ozbo should be greeting the guests or entertaining us in a side room, so already this plan is off to an excellent start.

“Our first guest has arrived! It begins!” announces Lestache.

A woman in a frilly gown leans down and demands Ozbo announce her. He makes an excuse about getting a head injury and begs her pardon, so she tells him her name. He makes a big show out of introducing her but forgets her last name, whoops.

Lestache tells her that she’s the first to arrive so she has the “first chance,” whatever that’s supposed to mean.

Ozbo asks Lestache if everything is set to go according to plan, and Lestache tells him he’d know better, since he’s the one who arranged most of it. Ozbo asks about the “main event” and Lestache looks confused and says, “You mean the hunt?” There’s a twinkle in Lestache’s eye and Ozbo fends off some sort of mental incursion. Lestache orders him to get in the alcove and entertain the livvies. He’s suspicious and concerned.

Oz comes into our room and lets us know that there’s a “hunt” planned, quarry unknown. Someone else is announcing the guests now. Eavesdropping, we find that Lestache has assigned a woman to the task who isn’t entirely pleased to have it. He owes her a favor now. Her name is Etria LeDuc, the Shimering Star of Sepulchralis, and she summons an ethereal harp and strums it, giving us all a little frisson of pleasure.

Freki hears someone outside say, “Bilbo is one of them. Just play along. It will be funny.”

Now’s the time when we can prepare some rituals if we want. Lestache pops in and we have a short discussion where he agrees it’s time to introduce us.

The bell rings again and Malak the Mad, Mother of Malkavia and Father of Fascination, enters. They wave hello to us. Bec is still pretty sore about that time Malak tried to kill us…earlier today. The assorted vamps all look at each other.

Lestache apologizes on behalf of Malak, who says they didn’t try to kill us. Lestache believes there are good people on both sides of this conflict. Maybe it was a misunderstanding! (It was not a misunderstanding.)

All the vampires fall silent as Enoch the Wise, Lord of the Inner Council of Seven, enters. Etria plays an even fancier intro theme for him. He suggests we get the party started. Note for future research: can vampires get crunk?

Lestache tells us we can introduce ourselves, so we do, with Etria playing a little harp flourish between each of us. The vampires applaud politely. Lestache announces that the living guests are not to be harmed, and that we’ll have our own buffet, and then tells everybody to go ahead and make merry until the evening’s events start.

Etria summons a banquet for us. Hell yes, wish I could do that!

Ozbo notices that Troile (who was announced earlier as Troile the Rebel, the Peerless, Champion of Serene Wrath) is not dancing, and in fact they and their retinue have organized themselves in posts around the room. Ozbo pulls Troile aside and Panaches him with a side order of shameless flattery. Ozbo pulls out the vial of changeling blood and says, “I don’t know what this is, but it came out of my master when he sustained a wound. I think something horrible may have befallen him!” Troile thanks him and Ozbo slinks away.

The effects of the feast include curing us of disease and poison and making us feel generally invigorated. Bec is aware that the spell that created the feast should have taken 10 minutes, but only took her 1. Bec is enjoying her entire plate of celery and compliments Etria on her harp skill and the food. Bec and Etria dance, and they seem equally impressed with each other.

Ozbo gets into the ruse and figures out that although he is basically livestock, he works for The Master, so he gets what he wants if he plays that card. The power goes straight to his head, but he also uses the opportunity to spy on Troile.

Freki is wondering if the band is dead or halflings. Is anybody alive in this place? There are no ghouls or ghasts, just vampires…and no Lestache. Hmm. Freki catches a glimpse of him disappearing towards the front door in a sketchy way and tries to tail him casually. Some vampires intercept him and strike up a conversation about his werewolfiness and what forest he’s from. In an attempt to fit in, Freki says the Selva’s orc population has been “civilized,” but feels gross saying it. Since Freki is detained, he asks Hugin and Munin to follow Lestache and spy a little. Meanwhile, he chats with the vamps. They say it’s been a while since they had guests, since they usually, you know, eat them.

Lestache returns and Freki senses satisfaction, like something went well, and a bouncy anticipation. Freki asks about the vampire he’s talking to. This is Orrick of Clan Ventru.

Ozbo is watching Troile and Freki is watching Lestache, so they both watch when the two vampires have a quiet chat. Lestache looks mildly annoyed.

Bec and Etria are having a nice time talking about magic. Etria asks if she knows a spell that makes people never stop laughing. It’s her favorite! Etria is a devoted hedonist. She’s sick of having goals. It gets repetitive. She’s over 500 years old, and has concluded that nothing really matters. Bec says a benefit of being mortal is that you don’t really have time to get bored. Etria smiles and agrees. “It’s cute, really.”

Lestache comes and grabs Bec, telling Etria to have a good time. Etria says, “I was.” Hahaha. We all get collected and ushered away.

Once we’re all assembled, Lestache tells us to dispense with the charade and take off the silly Bilbo disguise. He seems rather unconcerned with out intent, but does want to know if we harmed Bilbo. Freki says none of us here did anything to Bilbo. Totally true, as Cal (wait… who is Cal…?) is not here. Somehow this all makes sense to us. He offers to answer all our questions.

Freki asks if the vampires could not treat the halfling village like a vegetable garden. Lestache understands his concern, but there’s no getting around it. This is just a city of undead monsters, man! Live and let unlive! He does find Oz very amusing, but he couldn’t play along after Oz tried the changeling blood thing. I admit that we barely know what Oz is going to do from minute to minute, ourselves.

A gong interrupts us. “He” is here, ugh. Lestache asks Oz to introduce him and says a bunch of words, which Oz probably didn’t catch, whoops.

Oz heads out and tells the guest that Lestache gave him instructions. Is the guest ready to come in? Goratrix Ceoris tells him “almost” and starts something that looks like, but is not exactly, spellcasting. He clenches his fist and we feel an ethereal shattering of some kind. “Now I’m ready,” he says, and enters.

Lestache wearily tells Goratrix he could have just extended an invitation, but Goratrix likes doing it this way. Of course he does.

Oz introduces him as “the hidden, the tiny, the pink man in the boat, Goratrix Clitoris!” Everybody laughs. Goratrix is mad, as Oz intended, but Lestache is like, “Obviously I didn’t tell him to do that. It was pretty hilarious, tho.”

Goratrix tries another spell-like incantation, but Lestache stops him from making a big scene. One of Goratrix’s entourage, Meerlinda Descant, introduces herself with the title “Weaver of Dreams” as reality appears to shift all around us. She then proceeds to announce another of Goratrix’s companions, Calderon the Cold, Bane of Spiderkind, with an illusion of Calderon destroying spiders. Then she performs three illusions as part of introducing Goratrix. The first is an important-looking room with Goratrix the most important (“Archmage of the Crispic Clan”). The second is the whole city, laid out before us (“Architect of Sepulchris”). The third is him ordering around a bunch of gargoyles (“Supreme Commander of Gargoyles”).

Lestache is all, “Do you have to do the whole thing every time, sheesh!” He starts calling Goratrix increasingly elaborate names (“Pompous cockolorum! Conniving snollygoster! You purveyor of falseness and untidy monstrosities!”). He’s getting all lathered up when Troile tells him to settle down.

Goratrix wanders off and Freki proposes getting him out of the way to Lestache. Lestache finds him irritating, but not enough to murder him, as it turns out. “He thinks he’s stronger because he broke into my manor and forced a good announcement, but it means nothing.” Lestache is not willing to ruin the party just to measure his…dominance…over Goratrix.

Freki asks him whether he’s quite sure he’s going to like all the surprises tonight. Lestache tells him there will be some kind of gladitorial event where Goratrix will come out on top, and then in the hunt, Lestache will reveal his trump card. “It’s all showmanship!”

From my investigations in the past hour or so, I have figured out there are probably at least seven vampire clans, of which I know the names of several: Ventru, Crispic, Brujah, the ones that Malak and Lestache belong to, and two more. Lestache, Troile, and Malak are allies. Etria is part of Lestache’s clan, which is probably why she has to defer to him.

We all head back into the ballroom. Bec goes to find Etria again and chats her up about the harp. Calderon finds Vondal and chats him up about hearing the voice of Lolth. He says his clan has worked hard to contain the spiders. Vondal says he can tell they’re still close. The tendrils of the Flux continue to grow, and will eventually tear this reality apart. Calderon wants to know how the Flux scarred him. Vondal says using his power is dangerous, plus he’s single! Calderon offers him a place with his clan where he can learn to master his power, if Vondal will serve with them to destroy the spiders and bring glory to their clan. “What kind of glory do you seek?” Vondal would like to publish another book. Calderon laughs and tells him to think about it.

Goratrix won’t approach any of us because we’re beneath him. Enoch comes over to talk to me, oh boy! He kisses my hand and invites me to sit down. He wants to know what happened with Invictus. He is super charming and probably has some kind of devil blood, like he was a devil that became a vampire. He brings me drinks and I tell him the story, maybe a little bit more than I intended to let slip. But basically, Invictus’s phylactery was cleansed, sending his clean soul back into his undead body, causing the massive explosion. I also tell him that Invictus is still there in the manor, but can’t get out.

Freki communes with his birds. Hugin and Munin land on his shoulder and “remember together.” He gets a flash of what the birds saw: Lestache and an unknown halfling are meeting. Lestache asks “Frokim” who he brought. She was a perimeter defender, fancied herself a captain, but that’s against the rules, so Frokim made sure she got caught and exiled. She’ll be on the outskirts of the southwest border, at the edge of Gangrel territory. Lestache wants to withhold payment until she’s delivered straight to him, but caves and pays Frokim. Lestache doesn’t really look too unhappy.

Freki asks if Hugin and Munin can find the captive halflings and let them free? They agree to look and say it would take time. The caves are endless, but they will search. Munin says Freki was destined for more than just “keeping the peace.”

There’s a brief vamp fight. The band stops playing while they fight, then starts up again when there’s a clear winner.

Later, Lestache (who is announced as “Your host Lestache de Lyarcourt, Fragrant Flower of the Château de Mécant) asks if everybody is ready for the first event of the evening. There’s a smattering of applause and someone yells, “What is it, Lestache?” He keeps doing his ringmaster thing. He promises he has something “weird and wonderful” and hypes up the crowd.

A big box, covered with a dark curtain, gets rolled into the hall. The curtain is pulled away with a flourish to reveal:

What even is that? It’s undead, probably unique, but I can’t tap into my knowledge proficiencies anymore! My goddess badge seems to have gotten all tingly, so I take it off and look at it. Erathis isn’t there anymore!!! Instead it’s Avandra on both sides! I hear her laughter in my mind. “Good job,” indeed. I am shook!

Bec is also astonished by this creature. It’s so creepy! It moves in jagged fits of blurred motion, hard to predict where it will be at any given moment. Lestache says he has clearly outdone himself, and I can’t really disagree. Even Goratrix is fascinated by this thing.

Malak steps forward and says, “I could try.” Lestache is like, “Are you ma – oh, I forgot.” Actually, it turns out Malak doesn’t actually want to fight for themself. There are three other very intense, crazy-eyed vampires ready to go. They’ve been working on a project. They all confer amongst themselves to see who remembered to bring the project.

Malak pulls a sword out of a sack. No! Reaches back in and pulls out nothing. “This bag is empty!” Then Malak turns the bag all the way inside out and an old man falls out. It’s Zombie Malachai!

Malak is unimpressed. Making dead people alive is old news. But the subordinates assures Malak that this is what is left of Malachai’s soul. It’s Ghost Malachai! Ghostachai? He says, “Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh” and Malak is onboard.

The two creatures don’t seem particularly hostile toward one another, so Lestache invites Goratrix to help out. Goratrix does one of his unique incantations and a forcecage appears around the creatures. The two-torsoed thing starts smashing against the bars of the cage. Ghost Malachai takes everything in and focuses on the two-torsoed thing, who shoots a ray of flame from its staff at Malachai—but it passes right through him. Malachai then rushes toward the creature, passing into her body and possessing her with his ghostly powers!

Then the two-torsoed thing phases through the bars of the cage!!! The vampires all jump back, and the thing zigzags out. One vampire somewhere in the crowd yells, “Rip off!”

Lestache is like, “Huh, that was unexpected.”

“That sucked!” heckles the heckler. Lucky for him vampires can’t eat other vampires. Can they?

Anyway, seeing as the crowd is getting restless, Lestache moves the hunt up from midnight to now. The quarry has arrived, so he just needs a few moments to prepare.

He leaves and comes back with Orlok (“the Lady of Whispers, Countess of the Underground”, to which she responds “I’m no lady”) and Elloia (“Warden of the Accursed Tunnels, Servant to None But Him”). Lestache announces the Council of Seven is complete. Another box gets wheeled in. Lestache says the quarry for today is something truly special. “A halfling guardswoman. She was a perimeter defender, and even fancied herself a Captain, and champion of the downtrodden! Her people repaid her service by exiling her from their wretched community.” He’s really playing this up.

Sophie Steelboots is her name, and she is looking hopeless. Lestache offers to let us join the hunt as “Clan SPI” if we ante up an item to throw in the pot. The quarry gets to choose one item to use, and the rest stay in the pot. If we win, then she goes free and we win the pot. But we have no protection if we join the hunt. The vampires are free to attack us however they want.

The vampire clans all pony up magical objects:

• Lestache / Toreador: Instrument of Illusions
• Enoch / Ventru: “The Ventru accept your gracious offer, and pledge in return this Needle of Mending
• Goratrix / Crispic: Bag of ten Mind Crystals of Subtlety
• Troile / Brujah: Ruby of the War Mage
• Elloia / Gangrel: Boots of False Tracks
• Malak / Malkavian: Manual of Gainful Exercise
• Orlok: “The Nosferatu decline to hunt. Nonetheless, just for fun: we offer this Sword of Retribution”

Sophie reaches for the sword. As her fingers grip it, a fire forms in her eyes, and her expression darkens…

Callie’s Journal

Cal has fallen asleep, but aside from him, we’re all feeling pretty great when a vampire calls for Bilbo.

He says he probably needs to help prepare for the ball, puts on an amulet representing Nerull (openly), and heads out.

Oz starts rummaging through Bilbo’s stuff, of course, and notices a holy symbol of Tiamat mounted on the wall. There’s nothing behind it, much to his disappointment. Freki finds some Glowcap mushrooms growing in something like a compost pile. Freki sniffs it and it smells like plant matter, but also slightly like decaying flesh.

Peering out the window, we can see what looks like a bell tower and maybe a churchyard of some kind. It looks like the vampires probably killed whoever was here before and moved in. The churchyard, where Bilbo lives, is mostly falling apart.

Bec looks around to see if Bilbo has any books. He does have a journal, so Bec flips through it. He writes a lot! She does a detect magic ritual for five minutes. The journal is not magical, although it has an illusion magic residue, as though something enchanted with illusion magic touched it a few times. Reading a few entries, Bec finds an incriminating passage: “I do what I can to prevent them from rising as undead, at least,” and we think Bilbo may be killing halflings when he can get away with it. He has also been used as a lure for other halflings. Poor Bilbo, we should help him. :((((

Freki and Oz are suspicious of Bilbo’s motives, but with my religion/vampire lore knowledge, I can assure them that no undead creature would have all these symbols of Nerull.

I’m going to try to sleep. That ale really snuck up on me!

There’s a banging on the door and a non-vampiric voice says, “Meatbags! You have been summoned!”

Bec is like, “Who is it?”

It’s probably a candygram.

Bilbo opens the door from the other side and he’s there with a ghast. The ghast’s tongue is lolling and drooling all over, gross. Bilbo says, “Sorry about that. Don’t mind him. He’s always hungry.”

Freki asks him about why there’s flesh bits in the mushroom soil. The ghast is like “fleeeeeeeesssshhhhh???”

Bilbo sighs and comes inside with his magic carpet so we can talk without this distraction. He reassures us that dinner is “not likely to be you, this time.”

Oz has had it with these motherfucking vampires in this motherfucking town! He’s still very keen to liberate the halfling town. He uses Panache to get Bilbo on our side. Bilbo admits that he is all for this plan, but if we attack Lestache he’ll have no choice (twitch twitch) but to turn against us. He also says it is his fate to serve Nerull. Nerull loves fate, it’s her thing.

Oz starts talking about how we could disguise someone as Bilbo, which makes Bilbo understandably nervous. He starts backing away slowly.

Anyway, there’s no obvious way out of this, so Oz tries to whack Bilbo with the pommel of his sword. But before he can, Bilbo slips his hand into his pocket and disappears. Dammit!

Oz grabs the magic carpet. Freki smells where Bilbo is and attempts to grapple him. Bilbo is surprisingly slippery and wriggles away!

Cal all of a sudden whips the air and catches Bilbo! We can see the whip wrapped around something that we can’t see.

Callie’s Journal

None of us knew Freki was a werewolf, but I guess getting bitten is the kind of thing that could trigger the transformation. We’ll have to figure out how to calm him down without hurting him too much.

We’re in combat! The undead leaders are fleeing while we make coleslaw out of the minions.

Bec sees a bat and is inspired to whack it with her bat (mace, but who’s counting?). She ends up smacking it straight into Cal, where it bounces off his abs and falls to the ground.

Cal picks up a petrified creature and swings it around, hitting five of eight of the undeads surrounding him. He lets it fly! Man, this is exciting! What if we gathered athletes every year to compete against each other at throwing petrified zombies?

Vondal uses the Wand of Wonder at the mist. His hair stands on end, bursts into flame, gets sucked into his body, and shoots out the wand as a fireball! Somehow this also entails shooting Roger (the servant from the basement of the mansion) out the wand. He winds up sort of inside one of the mist creatures? Look, this has been a really weird day.

A massive fireball washes over everything on the field of battle. Hmm, this would be another good event for my new sporting venture. I could sell a ton of snacks.

Bec runs over and yells at me to help calm Freki down. I promise that I will as soon as I can.

Roger reaches out a spectral…tentacle…and pats Freki on the shoulder because he’s looking unwell.

Freki is creeped out and attacks him! He says, “Owww… I can’t hold on forever, you know.”

All of the hostile undeads seem like they’re neutralized or fleeing, so I drop the bless spell and cast calm emotions to hit Freki.

Freki feels very calm, and thinks that he always knew about the beast inside, even though he was surprised earlier. He has gained a deeper understanding of his wolf nature. And his bird friends are back!

Munin: “I remember now. All is as it should be again.”
Hugin: “Vecna’s hold over us has been broken.”

Oz wonders how long he’s been a wolf. Freki says he’s always been that way, so it’s probably the Flux making us forget. He says he comes from a village of Lycanthropes and Talos killed his father.

There is a twinkling in the distance, and as it grows closer, someone is waving. “Hello! Don’t shoot! Hello there! M’lord Lestache sent me! I mean no harm!”

It’s a halfling on a flying carpet, flanked by bats. He lands the carpet, and the bats transform into vampires, who stand there wordless. They look like bodyguards.

“I came from the chateau. M’lord sent me to invite you to his grand ball tonight,” says the halfling.

Bec explains that we were attacked by another group of vampires after Lestache left. Oz asks the halfling (in halfling language) if he saw the wolf and points at Freki.

The halfling is impressed, but he doesn’t know anything about werewolves. Bec tells him that Malak got away. Oz complains about the fireball, not knowing Vondal is the one who cast it. The halfling extends this offer to us: if we attend the ball, we have Lestache’s word that we’ll be safe before and after the event. That makes me ask, not during? He rattles off a list of calamities that Lestache promises will not befall us: we will remain alive, unharmed, unturned, unbitten, not food for Lestache or any of his kind. Also, we get to stay in the halfling’s house. Freki asks him if he’s ever heard of a union, and suggests he find some other familiars for collective bargaining purposes.

Our guide, Bilbo, gives us a little flying carpet tour of Sepulchris, the underground vampire city. He points out “Malak the Mad’s” place. Bec asks how Malak knew where we were, and Bilbo answers that he “couldn’t say” (um, sir) but Malak is known to have prophetic visions sometimes. He points out another enormous castle-looking residence belonging to “Enoch the Wise” and suggests not to go there, saying the Ventru are known to be ruthless—but then everyone is here. He sounds pretty over it. I ask him how he came to be Lestache’s familiar. He says he won’t tell the story for anything less than three pints of beer. Noted!

Oz decides to put the Panache on Bilbo. Now they’re temporary besties! He tells Oz that his home is guaranteed safe from vampires. The whole thing is ringed with garlic and there are stained glass windows with images of ravens: circling above a field of corpses, pecking out an eye. There’s a figure in a cloak. I recognize these as related to Nerull.

Bilbo welcomes us in and goes to make tea. When the door closes, he breathes a sigh of relief. He points out a talisman of Nerull. Every door and window has a talisman. He warns us not to remove the talismans or open the doors or windows for anybody. Vampires can’t come in without an invitation. Oz asks him again what his deal is. He says “I love it here!!!!!” in a weird way that doesn’t seem one hundred percent genuine. “I’m treated well and have more freedom compared to other familiars. They tend to get eaten fairly quickly in these parts. My master knows this, and allows me these protections and creature comforts to help keep me safe.”

Bilbo toasts “to the living—may we all stay that way!” and offers us ale and tea. Freki asks if he has family, and toasts them. He asks why Freki is so calm, and Freki says he has good friends. (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄) Freki was a lone wolf, but he was looking for a reason to join a team. He joined for me, awwwww. Bec says her mother died and her father disappeared, so she joined the SPI to find him.

“What’s the SPI?” asks Bilbo.

“How does this guy not know the SPI?” Oz asks in response.

“He lives under a rock,” I point out. Well, it’s true!

Freki asks what Cal’s deal is. Explain yourself, shortie! Being a little drunk, Bilbo spills that he thinks he might recognize Cal. Is he from the Ranch? Cal doesn’t know that name. Bilbo is astonished to hear that he might be from the surface?! They agree that the surface Arallu is real, real bad (but pls don’t tell Lestache that Bilbo said so).

Bilbo proposes a game. Question for a question! He asks Vondal what’s his favorite color? Orange!

Vondal asks Oz for a list of all the languages he speaks. Oz answers in thieves cant.

Oz asks Bilbo how he came to be Lestache’s servant. Bilbo answers that he was fleeing vampires with a companion. The companion got eaten, but Lestache needed a new familiar to replace the one Malak ate. He asks Cal what it’s like on the surface. Cal says he spent a lot of time on glaciers and it toughened him up. Bilbo protests that it’s not enough of the truth, so he has to drink.

Cal takes a drink and asks, “How often does your master meet with the Triumvirate?”

Bilbo answers that he only meets with the Lord Brucolac, as all the clan leaders do from time to time. The Brucolac probably won’t be at the party, as such things are beneath him, but most of the clan heads should be there. Cal asks Bilbo where the Brucolac lives, and Bilbo says no one knows: he appears and disappears as he wishes. But you can always tell when he’s about to appear because everything grows dark and cold.

Bilbo asks Freki which of his friends annoys him most, LOL. Freki answers that his first journal entry was a note to kill Vondal in revenge for trying to kill Hugin and Munin. Also, Freki resents magic and the whole wild magic thing just skeeves him out. But then again, why can’t Oz tell the truth about something as simple as how many languages he speaks?!

Bilbo asks (out of turn) if this is Vondal’s real form? What in the world kind of creature is he, anyway? Has he ever had eyestalks? I say he’s a wild mage and not even trustworthy to himself. Bilbo asks Freki what Oz’s deal is. Freki says Oz is such an agent of chaos he doesn’t even know if Oz is on our side half the time. Cal says chaos can breed the end of chaos. Bilbo likes that logic. So Cal is a mastermind, channeling all of our chaotic personalities, is what Bilbo is getting out of this.

Freki asks why the spellcasters don’t guide the party more. Bec says she deliberates carefully. Bilbo says I, Callie, am wise and therefore avoid doing dumb things. This guy gets it! I use thaumaturgy to make a little halo of light appear above my head, but Vondal calls me on it, the bastard.

We’re really cool with this guy, so Vondal and Cal float the idea that Bilbo could go with us. Bilbo says his master needs him here. His eye twitches; Cal infers that he is under the influence of magical charm.

It’s Vondal’s turn, so he asks Bec if he looked good as a pony. Bec says yes, he wore it well. Then she asks him how old he is. Vondal says his consciousness is 87 or so. Oz says he trusts little about Vondal, like that time he put armor on an owlbear. “THAT OWLBEAR IS ONE OF THE BEST AGENTS WE HAVE,” says Vondal.

“Well, I believe that,” says Oz.

“How did the SPI get destroyed?” Bec asks Vondal.

“Mistakes were made,” says Vondal.

Answer the question, dammit! Vondal “explains” that he woke up in a dumpster and his meat suit was younger than it was before then, but his mind is still the same. The God of Dwarves came. He is very reluctant to talk about it, very unlike him.

Bilbo is like, “Oh, it’s his fault! He did something bad and doesn’t want to talk about it!”

Vondal admits that “Experiments were being run…on the thing that made the SPI blow up.”

“So the SPI blowing up, that was you?” Bec asks.

“No, it wasn’t me.”

“You were involved?”

“I was there.”

“You were indirectly involved?”

“Listen, girlie! I’ve had a paper published! I know what words mean!”

Oz, incensed by Vondal’s sexism, bounces his mug off Vondal’s head.

But anyway, Vondal explains that it was an accident. He was experimenting, and the god showed up, and then the dumpster. The course of events is clear!

“Did that bring the Flux here?” Bec asks.

“Nooooooo,” says Vondal.

“Then why is there Flux at all, and can we put it back?” Freki asks.

“It’s not your turn!” Vondal protests.

“I’d like to know that,” says Bilbo.

But Vondal wants to know if Cal is undead. Cal hates undead! But Freki hates magic but also is a magic, so the two things really aren’t mutually exclusive. Freki says that he is NOT magic, thankyouverymuch.

Bilbo asks if Cal has plans to kill Lestache. Vondal says we have no current plans. Bilbo says he’d be most distressed if Lestache were killed (*twitch*twitch*). And if the Brucolac were killed, everyone in Xaryuvia would be even more miserable than they already are. What’s that? His hometown. He asks if we’ve heard the name “Xaryu.” Some of us recognize it as an infamous crimelord from the Radiant Union of Pelor. He’s a beholder and also there’s a cult that worships him. Back in my very first case, we saw a Colosseum that was rumored to be backed financially by Xaryu. Bilbo used to be—and most of his people still are—in the thrall of Xaryu. He complains that he used to be a law-abiding cleric of Tiamat, but then he was banished from the colony and hunted by vampires. We’re kind of getting into the idea of liberating Bilbo’s family.

“Do you know the first thing about beholders?” asks Bilbo.

“Do they know the first thing about us?” asks Freki.

They’re aberrations, unnatural. They shouldn’t even be here. They’re covered in eyes, which makes it extremely hard to sneak up on them. In their lairs, it’s completely impossible. Beholders shoot petrification rays, but they do need a target or an inkling that there’s a threat. They’re also extremely intelligent, good at planning, and believe they are perfect and everything else is lesser. They dream, and sometimes pull things from their dreams into reality. That’s how they reproduce, but unfortunately (fortunately for us) they tend to fight to the death when they meet. Very rarely, sometimes they see each other as “me” and form a hive mind.

Bilbo says there are at least six Xaryu. Basically they keep the halflings as livestock for the vampires to eat. That’s why halflings get banished periodically. “You don’t stand a chance,” he finishes sadly.

“We’ve heard that before!” say Freki and Oz at the same time.

Bilbo is curious about the glacier. Who lives there? Cal says there weren’t more halflings there. He lived with a race called the giants. He was adopted. Or, y’know, traded. Acquired, even. To honor his father, he was given to his new father, and served (with) him until he joined the SPI. He spent a lot of time fighting off the undead.

“Vampires have to eat. It’s in their nature,” says Bilbo.

“They can eat my ass! We’re ending this slave trade!” says Oz.

“You were a sacrifice to the gods?” Bec asks Cal.

“My father’s not a god anymore,” Cal says.

Talking about studying the Arkenstone brings memories back to Vondal. He has some new ideas about how to enhance its resonance, so that it can reach its true structural potential. If he had access to the stone, maybe he could improve it!

Vondal drunkenly asks me: “How did you get two of them? Because normally they fight.”

It takes me a second, but I get he’s talking about my goddesses. I say they have a special relationship. He’s like, “THEY’RE THE SAME!!!”

There’s a knock at the door, and a feminine voice says, “It sounds like a party in here. Can I join?”

It’s Avandra! OMGOMGOMGOMG

She says quietly to me, “I know you like my sister better than me. But it’s OK, I don’t mind.”

Vondal says, “So you belong to her, then?”

Avandra puts a hand on my shoulder and says, “She’s doing a great job.” Cal senses shenanigans!

Vondal drunkenly complains that the gods should require their priests to be nicer to orphans. Avandra responds sadly that that isn’t how it works. If you want the gods to change, you have to change the worshippers’ hearts. She doesn’t want to be what people expect. She wants to be herself! But that’s because that’s what her followers want her to want. She can never truly be free.

“To true freedom!” she toasts.

“Anyway, I promise not to say anything about what I just figured out. I know that’s why you’re here,” Vondal says sulkily.

“Everything is not about you,” says Bec, who has been drinking tea the whole night.

Oz is really into rescuing the halfling village. Vondal and Bec corner him and ask what’s weighing on his heart. Oz pretends to cry into his beer.

“What I’m trying to excommunicate—” Vondal starts.

“Nope,” says Bec.

“—explain, is that Cal is growing. He’s opening up more.”

Vondal wants to sleep off the ale, so he crashes in Bilbo’s bed with Murky as a bat on his face.

Avandra flips Oz a wooden coin with her symbol on both sides and tells him to bite it if he ever decides to forgo the direct approach in favor of a sneakier one. “You’ll know when it’s time.”

Callie’s Journal

Possible Session Titles:

• Ozborn, Underfoot
• Be a Lycan, Not a Ly-can’t
• Hunka Hunka Burnin’ Bec
• Calsplosion
• Vondal Shocks the Monkey

We’re outside, but we have no way back since (fake) Malachai brought us here and he’s dead(er). A bat flies toward us. Those of us with dark vision can see it. Oz takes the opportunity to hide under Malachai’s corpse. He is truly the best of us.

Luckily, our old buddy Lestache flaps over in bat form and greets us. He’s pretty surprised that we’re all still alive. Also, he has a new accent. Never a dull moment!

Callie tries to remind everyone that Mallory told us we were to avoid unbalancing the powers here in Arallu, but Vondal is here, so that goes nowhere.

Vondal explains that we found the Lich, but he wasn’t exactly himself anymore. Lestache asks how Invictus came to be chained up in his own basement. Vondal explains that we think the Necronomicon was Invictus’s phylactery. When the book was cleansed, it cleansed him too. So it’s highly unlikely this could happen again.

Lestache is relieved that this is a one-time deal. He says “some” in his faction would want to seize power now that Invictus is gone. Not Lestache, though! He finds that tacky. He invites us to his “chateau” for dinner. I can’t help noticing he didn’t specify what’s on the menu.

Bec tells him she thinks the effect is contained in the manor, and also could he call us an Uber or something? When Lestache asks if there’s anything else we need to do here, Vondal and Bec have a furious whisper fight over it. Vondal really wants Invictus destroyed, so he’s stoked that Lestache seems like he could do it.

Nobody argues about the dinner invitation, so Lestache leaves to make arrangements. After a few minutes, a formation of five bats flies in. They all land and turn into vampires. The pommel of Cal’s sword is glowing in their presence. They do not get too close to the manor, which is still shining.

The vampire who seems to be in charge, Malak, responds to our questions with some riddle-like non-answers. This doesn’t seem like a great start to our relationship. We ready for battle.

Oz comes out stabbin’! Then he walks away trying to be all cool or something.

The pincushion vampire bites Malachai’s body. Its wounds heal from drinking Malachai’s blood. Bec, an intellectual, knows that there are vampires and then vampire spawn. Spawn are lower ranking and more animalistic. She thinks most of this group are spawn.

A vampire spawn attacks Oz’s monkey and grievously wounds it! The monkey turns back into a statue and clatters to the ground.

Malak takes a sack off her back and turns it inside-out. A bunch of things falls out, including a buttload of ghouls and ghasts! “Oh, right, that’s what was in there,” says Malak. She directs the undead mob at me. Hey, I’m too cute to get eaten alive!

There are so many creatures they can’t all reach me, so some of them attack Cal. This is quite an onslaught, but Cal is great at resisting this kind of thing. Unlike me; I am not great at resisting. I get paralyzed. At least I’m not dead, thanks to Vondal.

Cal, having been attacked, is enraged. I mean, I am too, but I can’t do anything about it. He ends up taking one out.

Two ghasts attack Murky, and one attacks Vondal.

A vampire in a white dress leaps elegantly at Bec and grapples her in preparation for taking a big ol’ bite. Well, as long as they keep it classy.

Oz tries to hide behind Freki. He gets partial cover from that. Freki will need double movement to get off that square, since Ozborn is underfoot. DM: “He’s not literally between your legs.” Nate: “Respectfully disagree.”

Bec casts fire shield.

Callie casts bless at level 4 to bless everybody in our party. Callie also gets attacked for 10 HP.

In response to being attacked, Freki feels like clawing it. Huh, what a weird thing to think. He reaches for his sword, but that feels…like, wrong somehow? He attacks with his bow.

Vondal puts a hand on Callie’s shoulder and teleports them both away, back inside the manor, with a swoosh of his cape.

Murky tries to pick up the monkey statue. It’s a little too heavy, so Murky log-rolls it toward the manor. This attracts the attention of some of the enemies, who kill Murky. RIP, little buddy, it was a good try.

The red vampire moves into the spot vacated by Callie and attacks Bec. The fire shield burnsssss it preciousssssss. Nice!

Oz stabs to his left. That vamp is looking pretty raggedy, but it’s not quite done for.

Malak points at Oz and says, “You’re naughty.” He somehow manages to pull out enough wisdom to resist. Malak declares Bec naughty next. She resists too. “You’re ESPECIALLY naughty!” she says to Cal. With Vondal and Callie’s assorted blessings, he also resists. Stuff’s still attacking him, though, so he takes damage.

Cal attacks. His sword explodes with radiant light and hits a bunch of the undeads. He defeats one of the vampires, which turns into mist and starts retreating. He destroys a couple of the ghouls/ghasts.

Malak looks at Callie through the window of the manor and says, “Peekaboo!” SHE SEES ME! I deflect her mind-magic, though.

A vampire attacks Bec and gets burned, haha.

Callie continues concentrating on bless, but also blows up the mist vampire with sacred flame, then hits Malak with spiritual weapon (level 3). The ol’ one-two! Hiyah, have at you! Not really though, stop running at me, I’m very uncomfortable!

Freki attacks and does some damage.

Vondal uses his Wand of Wonder, so as not to ignite the Flux that this manor is full of. He casts gust of wind in Malak’s general direction. The window in front of us blows out. The monkey statue blows away. Oh man, Oz is never gonna find that thing.

A vampire grapples Freki, bites him, and drains some of his blood. It awakens the beast within Freki. He can choose to resist or accept it. It feels good and right! But is it the vampire trying to turn him? It doesn’t matter, he can’t control it….

HE’S A WOOOOOOOOOOLF!

Callie’s Journal

We’ve determined that Oz’s short bow is mint in box. Maybe it’s worth more that way!

There’s no time to think about that, though, because each of the thousands of mirror shards beckon to us with the call of hidden knowledge. Ooh, sparkly! I feel that Vecna’s influence has tainted this place and artifact. I can offer it a secret, which I will lose my knowledge of, and it will give me some piece of hidden knowledge in exchange. Bec, Vondal, and others hear “Tell me a secret” and are tempted to answer it.

Some sort of vapor comes out of Vondal’s mouth and he hears, “What you seek is in the crypt.” He complains about the customer service and demands a refund.

Callie tries to warn Bec that she’ll lose any knowledge she offers here, like a sacrifice. But it’s too late, Bec offers up [[[[[[the knowledge of karach and its uses]]]]]] something?

Bec hears a voice say, “The time has come for you to accept your destiny. What you seek is here.” This is followed by a flurry of images of the crypts here, including a correct path and how to open the doors, leading to a pedestal with a hand on it. “The time has come for a new wielder.”

Callie’s warning gives Bec and Vondal another chance to resist Vecna’s temptation. Vondal fails. Bec is tempted. Meanwhile, Oz uses his portable firehose to spray the mirror shards away. Vondal is so entranced that he runs after them, trying to shout his secret (“Freki is a werewooooooooooolllllllfffff!”). Oz tries to spray Vondal, but it only ends up making him faster. Vondal disappears into the mist!

Vondal is lost. Vecna’s influence seems more…demanding…here.

Bec looks at the portal and realizes we manifested the plane with our energy. So we could reverse the process and eject this plane from here, putting us back in the original room. She thinks this would be the easiest way to get Vondal back. Freki wants to know whether Vondal might instead be lost, but Bec is pretty sure it would be fine.

Freki tries to track Vondal by scent. Callie uses guidance to give him a little extra oomph.

Meanwhile, Vondal has given up some piece of knowledge to discover that Freki is “A pawn of the Raven Queen. His bird companions are her servants.” Vondal knows this means Nerull, one of the gods of death.

When Freki returns with Vondal, we all exit as Bec suggested. It works! We’re all okay and not dead or lost!

Vondal informs everybody of what he heard about Nerull and Freki’s bird friends. He tries to interrogate them, but nobody knows if they can even talk out loud. They tell Freki, in his mind, that they could speak if he wants them to. Freki asks them to go ahead and speak to Vondal.

Vondal asks the birds what the Raven Queen wants with Freki. They say he has a great destiny. Vondal asks them why Freki is a piece on the game board. They say that there is no game board, just what is…and what was…and what will be….

Munin says, “He was born under the sign of death.”
Hugin says, “And death follows him.”
Both: “He is a bringer of death.”

The birds say this power may destroy him one day, or it may save everybody. The power to devour, y’all! Things move forward, and in a circle.

Everybody offers to buy Freki a beer for having to put up with this shit.

All Freki wants to know is whether he’s going to get another shot at killing Talos. The birds confirm that it’s within his destiny and they’re all about helping with murder.

Freki asked what part of what they’ve told him is the most important. “Not knowing held you back from your true potential. You must meet your true potential. The world depends on it.”

Freki tries to pin down the birds about the nature of his power, in an attempt to get at the truth of his lost memory. But Munin seems spooked (“…I can’t remember. I should remember…”) and the birds fly off and vanish. Huh.

Freki asks Hugin mentally if they need his help, and Hugin says they are OK, but implores Freki: “she is the power of memory. She should remember. Find the truth.”

Callie realizes that the forgetting effect (which is neither a blessing nor a curse, but some kind of anti-divination magic) is from Bec and Vondal offering secrets to Vecna. Dammit!

Freki is convinced that remembering whatever he forgot is the most important thing to do right now, but Bec wants to go down to the crypt and continue investigating down there. Callie agrees with Bec, but on the condition that no one partipate in any paranormal phenomena without the agreement of the rest of the group. YOU GOT THAT, YOU BUNCH OF MUPPETS?

Vondal checks in on his depressed friend Roger, from last time he was down here. Roger is the same as before, unsurprisingly.

They find a door with a hand on it. That’s the door that Roger said they couldn’t get through because they don’t possess the power of the goddess of secrets.

Vondal and Oz try to neg Freki into using his magic, which is his secret that he forgot, probably.

Bec is the one who opens the door, obviously. Inside is the Hand, surrounded by seven coffins with guardians that will either let us through or try to stop us.

Cal feels that the hand is no longer undead, somehow. There are no undead here, in fact. He decides to go look in the coffins. Nothing in there but dust!

The hand is covered in symbols, many of which are written on the map upstairs. The central ring symbol, however, is not.

The Celestial Hand -- for illustration only, actual symbols may differ

Observing the hand, Bec feels the presence of Sartus Morningdew. She realizes the hand has been cleansed, like the Necronomicon. In fact, when the book was cleansed, it also cleansed the hand! Bec thinks back in her mind palace. She thinks the Necronomicon may have been Invictus’s phylactery, in which case his soul was likely pushed out, and may once again reside in a living body. Vecna wanted Bec to know about the hand, but this part was a surprise. Did Vecna not know, then?

Cal grabs the hand with his whip. It has a golden chain around its wrist. Nothing happens when Cal takes it. He sticks it in his backpack.

There is a dark-skinned elf standing next to Bec. No one can see her but Bec. She’s dressed in leathers and is of the night. She whispers, “Put it on.” Then she melts back into the forest. Bec is pretty sure the hand will help them recover their lost memories, but Cal isn’t convinced that it’s entirely un-evil. Oz uses panache on Cal to convince him to give Bec the hand. He also wants to cut off Bec’s hand and replace it with this magical one, so maybe we aren’t going to take all his suggestions.

Under Oz’s persuasion, Cal reconsiders his position. While he’s pondering, he notices that his sword is glowing like an ember, like there is fiery energy. It gets brighter when he moves it closer to the hand and dims when he moves it away. He asks Callie what she thinks. She tells him that the hand has the same kind of energy as the sword, and that’s why they light up when they’re together.

Cal allows Bec to take the hand out of his bag (with mage hand, because the other thing in his bag is a severed angel head). Divine energy washes over her. It does not try to kill her, for now. She thinks she can use the hand to manifest something like divination. She asks the hand, “What steps should be taken to restore the memory of Munin?”

This knowledge does not want to be known. Bec has to push through it. But she does get the tip, “He must lose control.” She would have gotten a better answer if the knowledge wasn’t so protected, but she tells Freki that he has to lose control.

Bec opens the door that Roger said we’d never get through. He says, “You found it” but not excitedly, then goes back into the servant’s quarters.

Inside is a mystical chamber. Invictus likes weird-shaped rooms, it seems. There are 16 walls in here, which have either a tapestry, a door, or a shelf on it. The shelves hold all sorts of books, potions, and items for performing ritual magic. Including some real strange and forbidden stuff. Bec wants to close the door and leave, but Vondal has his foot in it and Oz is also pushing to get in. They bust in like Larry and Curly.

Then Freki and Bec close the door behind them, the perfidious bastards! They are super creeped out by this room. I’ll forgive them someday.

Inside, Cal notices that one of the tapestries seems un-tapestry-like. Oz whips out his blade and slashes it. It was enchanted to conceal what was behind it, but that’s all. There’s an archway behind it and a dismal, reddish glow across the threshold. This is the glow of the manor suffused in the air.

Vondal opens the door for Callie and they all (minus Freki and Bec) go to investigate the door. Walking through, there’s a gross metallic taste in the air. There’s an angel of some kind with bloody wings. There are glowing tendrils connecting him to parts of the room. He seems to be suffering.

Also, there’s some creep in the corner of the room! It’s Malachai! This seems like it might be the real one, not the fake one we killed earlier. He complains that he’s alive again and his whole setup with the crystalline heart is all messed up.

Invictus says, “You must destroy this place,” referring to all of Arallu. “You must burn it all down. It should never have existed.”

Malachai says, “I dunno, I think it’s pretty great!”

Invictus says, “Shut up. You were never my servant. You belonged to something that should never be. Undead are abominations. They act like humans, but they are not humans. They must all be destroyed. If they come here, this power could destroy them, but they are too cunning for that.”

Invictus tries to expose his heart so we can kill him. “No one deserves to suffer like I am!”

Malachai is like, “You did do some pretty horrible stuff, yeah.”

Oz tries to shoot Malachai with his mint-condition short bow. It is ineffective, and I’m starting to think Oz has Oppositional Defiant Disorder.

Cal asks Callie to go check the ritual room and see what it’s for. I think it’s where Invictus ate the souls he needed to fuel his unlife. Yrrrghghhh.

Invictus promises to tell us stuff in exchange for us euthanizing him. Cal promises that if the information is good, he will return and kill him. Invictus says the Brucolac was once a god but is now corrupted. That’s why Cal’s father hates him so much, because they were brothers.

When the world was young, the gods overthrew the titans. Hyperion’s titan brother Iapetus created the Book of the Dead in an effort to save the mortally wounded Cronus. But something went wrong and Cronus became the Brucolac. For a time the book was lost, but it was ultimately rediscovered by Invictus, who took the opportunity to bind his soul to it to make himself immortal. As for the ghost, he is an enigma. Something happened fifty years ago that no one understands and Invictus can’t remember. But the vial of divine essence, which Invictus wanted to use to free himself from lichdom, had to come from somewhere. All of us now contain some of that power, which he theorizes came from a dead god. Oz and Cal wield great power of destruction. He wants them to use it on him. He’s been alive far too long and done too many horrible things.

Malachai would like to continue doing bad things, thanks!

Callie asks Invictus whether we need to do something special to kill him. It has to be an amount of power equal to that which did this to him, so, the power of a god.

The chart upstairs was an attempt to understand what happened when the manor exploded and where the power went. We all gravitated toward certain elements based on our souls, except for Invictus, because he had no soul; he was inverted in some way.

Malachai, Callie, Cal, and Oz head out to the ritual chamber to destroy the really evil stuff. Also, Callie grabs as much of the non-evil magical components as she can and stuffs it into Cal’s backpack.

Meanwhile, Malachai silently casts a spell on Callie, but she resists. She can tell he was trying to bind her physically. He complains that he could really use a Ring of Mind Shielding. Ha ha, bet you could! Oz stabs him for his betrayal. The wounds don’t heal. Malachai says, “I just wanted to have the ring, so when I die my soul could go in there and maybe I could come back!”

Upstairs, Freki hears the whispering in the paintings. Oh, so THAT’S why they call it the Gallery of Whispers! All the paintings are portraits of individual people. Freki is looking for anyone or anything he recognizes, but he doesn’t see anything. A woman’s portrait beckons him. “Come to me so I can be free!” Freki is like, “Nah, mang.” He asks if any of them know about Munin. One of them says he might know something if Freki just comes in the painting. Freki asks about assurances. The guy is like, “You have my fine word, sir.” Sounds legit!

Bec is waiting in the foyer and hears the noise we’re making downstairs. She comes in just in time to see Oz stab Malachai in the back.

Bec goes in to talk to Invictus. She asks him whether Vecna is still the master of the hand. He is surprised that Bec is able to wear it and thinks even Vecna’s power apparently has limits. Bec asks if he can help, and he says no amount of help would make up for the bad things he’s done. But he’ll try anyway. He mentions the dead god again, and Bec asks if that is the power of the nine elements she saw inscribed on the hand. Invictus is shocked. There were never nine! But if there were… that changes everything! It explains the hole in the world. The gods bound the world with the elements. If one of them has really been destroyed, then the world would be unraveling.

“You don’t know what the Flux is? It is everything that is not the world. It is unreality. The gods bound Aecus so the Flux would be kept out.” Then he roasts Vondal for thinking he had mastery over such a primordial power.

Bec asks Invictus whether it’s possible to restore a memory lost to Vecna. He says yes, it’s possible to learn something again, but Vecna will exact some kind of toll.

Freki shoots him with some sort of acid arrow. He’s in pain, but doesn’t die. He says one of the relics or divine magic beyond that could kill him.

Oz uses his divine-powered blade. Even though it doesn’t kill Invictus, Oz keeps right on stabbing him.

This is obviously not working, so Callie prays to Erathis for guidance. “The vengeance must be complete. Both she and her shadow must be of one mind.” The vengeance must be against Invictus specifically. I know this is a specific “she,” someone ancient and powerful, and there’s some reason Erathis can’t tell me, perhaps a gap in her knowledge. If there’s a “she” and a “shadow” then it seems they need to be reunited in some way.

Oz’s stabbing is getting to be…compulsive? He can hear the ghost in his mind possessing him and enjoying this stabbing a LOT. Cal pulls Oz away.

Callie relates what Erathis said to her companions. We can’t kill Invictus, but we should definitely take care of Malachai. Cal and Vondal decide to escort him outside. His feet drag and he eventually passes out. Cal tosses him out the front door and he dies.

As they all walk to the door, Callie thinks over what she heard and tells Cal and Oz that they could have killed Invictus, but they both have to go into it wholeheartedly. It seems Cal’s heart is not quite in it now, though.

Callie’s Journal

Lady Nightshade challenges Callie to drink it again. Callie passes, but only barely and only with Vondal’s help, again!

Vondal shows her the SPI badge (?). She says, “You are the ones we need.” She then swings her scythe and rips a hole in reality through which we can see the pulse of the Flux. She punches into the rift and grabs the Flux. It starts crawling up her arm. Gross! This could give her immense power. Bec and Callie think that the Flux is using her more than the other way around, though.

Freki shoots into the rift with a lightning arrow and the Flux snaps the angel’s arm off at the elbow. She’s kinda pissed! And also made out of mouths! The mouths shriek, “We will consume you aaaaaalllllll!”

“We should kill these people,” says Oz.

“How?!” demands Freki.

“With violence, how else do you kill people?” Oz says.

The magic surrounding the sexy Chippendale angels breaks, and they turn into glowing balls of light with faintly visible visages within.

A residual psychic echo enwreathes the balls of light: fading images of flaming skulls, which they once were. The charm they were running on Oz broke when they became heads, so he’s only charmed by the angel now.

Bec, Vondal, and Callie sense that the angel has an overwhelming desire to eat us, as opposed to what she wanted earlier. Nom nom nom. She was consumed by her need to consume. Callie thinks when she said “we” she didn’t mean her skulls, but someone else we haven’t seen yet. And also something more sinister, perhaps from beyond reality itself. Jinkies! Maybe we should try being worse at our jobs, to avoid inspiring this kind of behavior.

Oz attacks one of the skulls and stabbinates it. The hornblade has necrotic, poisonous damage. Its negative energy cuts through the positive energy of the room. The glowy flamy light of the skull dims. Oz skewered it good, so it’s stuck like a shishkebab now.

All the foes attempt to intimidate us. Oz and Cal are afraid, but everyone else shakes it off. The skulls hit Oz (and Cal?) with a beam of light that sucks some of his life force into Lady Nightshade. The unicorn taps Oz with its horn and he regains some health!

Vondal tries to banish Lady Nightshade and one of the skulls, but unfortunately he becomes terrified of Freki and also drunk. He does regain some spell slots, so…nice? But the spell succeeds somehow, and Lady Nightshade and the skull disappear.

Callie casts Calm Emotions (lvl 2) and the party members who were frightened or charmed are calm now. Yay!

Just then, reality slice apart and Lady Nightshade starts climbing out of the rift. She’s mutated even further, somehow! Freki decides to shoot her in the face again, assuming he can find it. He manages to get her right in the neck and the rift snaps shut, slicing her head clean off. Cal catches it like a goddamn basketball!

Oz attacks the skull he attacked before, whose wounds were slowly closing up. He destroys it.

The unicorn gives Vondal a goodbye tap with its horn and vanishes.

Before Oz can murderate the remaining skull, Bec tells the party to hold up. She wants to ask it some questions. The skull tells her she is not of this place, but she seems cool, so it will tell her what she wants to know.

Where is the positive energy coming from? The Master.
Who is the Master? The Master is the Master.
Where is the Master? Below.
The Master was once called Timor Invictus, but not anymore.
Vondal asks how we can kill him. You know, so we can make sure that never happens.
The skull says Timor is stuck in a realm of endless suffering. He’s tried to die, but can’t. That’s kinda sad! The skull doesn’t want us to kill him, but maybe there’s a way to, ahem, end his suffering. That would be the kind thing to do.

The skull starts shaking and sparking. A figure superimposes on top of it. In a ragged voice, it says, “You’ve come. I will be waiting.”

The skull says, “My master calls!” and flies away downstairs.

By the time we’re done talking, Cal and Oz’s wounds have healed. The positive energy is almost getting annoying at this point, like, give it a rest already.

The party takes a quick look around. There’s a banquet hall, a magic laboratory, a library. In the lab is a journal written in an elegant hand and signed by Illyana Nightshade. The journal begins 300 years ago. She appears to have been researching how to join Invictus in undeath. She successfully created a Philosopher’s Stone, and then she ate it. It does seem to have given her eternal life, but she is now forever hungry and thirsty. Towards the end (about three years ago) are notes about how efforts to cure the insatiable hunger and thirst aren’t working. Nothing about splitting apart and become a tooth monster, though.

Next we look around the library. Oz snags a crystal ball that looks valuable. Bec tells him that it’s used for scrying. There’s a bookmarked story about how Vecna lost her hand.

Timor (probably) tells us to find him upstairs.

Upstairs, there are three main areas: an art gallery, guest rooms, and a study. The skull that went upstairs before is floating around the gallery at random. Well, it’s not like the art is going to appreciate itself.

Oz checks the study door for traps. It gives him a funny vibe. He grabs Cal and asks him to take a look too. Cal agrees it’s weird. They feel like it would be a bad idea to open the door, but there’s no clear reason for it. Bec can use Mage Hand to open it safely, perhaps.

Meanwhile, some of us remember when we were talking to Malachai, he mentioned the “Gallery of Whispers.” Maybe we should check there? We all gather in there to hide from whatever explosion or whatever is going to happen when the study door opens. She casts Mage Hand, and…the door is…locked.

The skull whispers, “Why did you defy the Master?” to a painting. Each of the paintings is a portrait making an emotional face. Vondal thinks the Mirror of Living Memory might have trapped souls in these paintings. There aren’t legends to that effect, but still.

Murky touches a painting and hears a wail of misery. Vondal tells us to touch the paintings. “It’s like a seashell, but instead of the ocean you hear the lamentations of a lost soul!”

Vondal and I grant Bec some extra fate juice as she attempts to remove the trap on the study door with Dispel Magic. She’s able to avoid the trap and doesn’t set it off.

Door’s still locked, though, so Oz is going to try to pick the lock. Inside, the eight magic domains are scrawled on the floor – a portal? On the desk is a scroll covered in divine symbols, as well as figures resembling each of us and some of our associates (Sartus, Tybalt, Bram the Blithe, and Timor Invictus). Mine is next to Avandra’s symbol, natch. Avanadra appears to be at the intersection of air and sand, whatever that means.

Bec wanders away to look at the portal. She knows a lot about portals and can see magical rivulets for channeling magic energy. She postulates that maybe we need to pour each of the types of magical energy into it, in order to activate the portal.

Cal looks at the paper with the figures and notices that all the people represented are the ones invited to the undead party before! Nice one, Cal!

Everyone gathers around and tries to figure out the paper with the tokens and symbols. Vondal figures out that the elements correspond to the magic domains:

• Water – Knowledge
• Storm – Tempest
• Air – Trickery
• Sand – Life
• Fire – Light
• Magma – War
• Earth – Nature
• Ice – Death

I’m confused about why Avandra and Erathis are on here under two things, when each represents just one domain. Also, the combined form is also on this chart. What?

Cal is inspired and getting this thing solved! Freki is also coming in strong on this puzzle! It occurs to Freki that every square is covered and only one god occupies each one. Maybe this is an illustration of the lines of power in the world?

^ = prone figure
* = darkened square
@ = scratched out
+ 8 mystery symbols on the diagonal

We spent quite some time figuring this out!

Munin speaks to Freki and says he needs to activate the portal.

On the Nature/Nature square is a symbol representing the Divine Mother Gaia, perhaps the source of all life:

She predates the eternals, according to legend. Cal recognizes the symbol as appearing once on a letter his father got once. He mentions that his dad claimed that he “used to be a god” and talked about things he would do if he still had his full power.

It turns out that when we touch our own symbols, they light up, wow! But before we can activate the portal, Vondal and Cal leave to check out the basement. Down there are servant’s quarters, more stairs leading down to the crypt, and a door with some evil-looking glyphs. Vondal thinks it looks like a lock of some kind.

Something floats out of the servant’s quarters while Cal and Vondal are looking at the door. It’s a giant neck-head thing followed by a suit. “You won’t get in there,” he says helpfully.

“I believe the Master is expecting us,” says Cal ominously.

“You do not possess the power of the Goddess of Secrets,” says the servant (?).

Cal asks if they need that power to see the Master. The servant says you need it for the door, which may or may not lead to the Master, whatevs. “This is Invictus’s chamber, beyond which lies the Veil of Secrets.”

Vondal recalls that one of the people who hired the SPI said the Veil of Secrets was the source of the problem. The butler opines that it doesn’t matter whether they get it open or not, because nothing matters anymore. Vondal offers him a job, but he doesn’t seem interested. He seems depressed. He should try taking a walk or writing a gratitude journal.

Cal wanders off while Vondal converses with the spirit. Eventually Vondal comes back and we all combine to activate the portal.

Through the portal is a mirror with a cloth on it. Vondal mentioned before that the butler said Invictus could see the future and sometimes the past, when he looked in the mirror. The edges of the room just fade away into nothing, as if we’re always in the middle of the room no matter how far we walk.

Oz holds up the hornblade and uses it to cast light around. The room gets bigger, but there doesn’t seem to be anyone or anything else there. Munin seemed veiled before but now seems clear. Hugin was clear before and is now veiled. Munin tells Freki to accept his destiny.

Vondal yanks the cover off the mirror and Munin is perched atop it! Munin says this is their domain, the domain of memory. Glancing at the mirror, Freki sees flames. Munin says the mirror shows what Freki has forgotten. “This is where my parents died,” Freki realizes. But he wasn’t there when the village burned, so this can’t be his memory.

Freki sees himself go to confront the invaders and say in a voice that isn’t his, “What do you want?” It’s Freki’s father’s voice. He says he has power.

The centaur Talos laughs condescendingly and says that power is what he came for.

Freki’s father turns into a tiger. His tiger claws rake at Talos while crying things like “Abomination! God hater!” Some of Talos’s bling comes off in the fight.

The last thing Freki sees is Talos landing a finishing blow on his father.

Vondal looks in the mirror and sees himself having a wild magic surge. All the SPI agents around him get sucked into some kind of singularity produced by the Arkenstone. Vondal feels a divine presence and sees a dwarf-size (but metaphysically huge) entity called Moradin. Vondal thinks it was a divine intervention that ultimately ended the wild magic surge.

The mirror shatters!

Callie’s Journal

Freki offers a mutually beneficial alliance. In response, the woman holds out her hand and says we can kiss her ring if we want to serve. Bec and Callie notice that the ring is the symbol of Vecna, who deals in secrets.

Bec realizes that this woman is Lady Ilyana Nightshade. She says, “What I need is worship. What you need is knowledge and power, and I can offer both.”

Freki is not about to agree to any of her terms. She snaps her fingers and figures start appearing out of nowhere, flanking her on both sides. They look like angels with broken-off wings, staring at her adoringly.

But the last one is Vondal! This lady is as surprised as the rest of us to see him.

The lady orders Bec to be silent and she is silenced for one round!

Freki pulls out his bow because this is pretty hostile. He feels an attempt to take over his mind and says, “That is gonna cost you an arrow.” He shoots her with ensnaring strike and then says, “Can we stop?”

Oz tries to stab her. She doesn’t dodge, but also he doesn’t seem to do any damage to her—his sword deflects around some invisible barrier she has. Then he saunters around behind Freki and taunts her from there.

Cal knows that Lady Nightshade is supposed to be undead, though this person standing in front of us doesn’t seem to be. He decides to wait and see what happens.

Lady Nightshade tries to force everyone to obey her. It works on Oz, who suddenly sees how totally reasonable and awesome she is. Why doesn’t anybody else get it??

Vondal casts mage armor. He senses that this place is chaotically infused with Flux. There are tendrils everywhere! There is a wild magic surge, but Vondal feels that now that he knows about the place, he might be able to avoid it next time. There’s a lot of positive energy in this place, so much that we’re all healing slowly every round. So the result is that a unicorn appears and nuzzles Vondal.

Callie pets the unicorn. It touches its horn to her hand and she is suffused with holy power!

Freki readies an arrow.

Lady Nightshade offers Oz a potion and he makes to take it, but Callie slaps his hand in reaction.

Bec realizes Oz is acting strange and casts dispel magic on him. Freki tries to stop him from taking the potion, but Oz dodges! However, the charm is dispelled by the time he gets to the potion, so he tries to grab it and smash her in the face with it. He’s been in a lot of bar fights, y’all! The glass…turns out to be a lot thicker than he thought and he has to make 4 Wisdom saving throws, lol.

The angels, or whatever they are, all turn to him and say in unison, “DrInK iT.” They charm the everloving shit out of him!

The unicorn is furious at Oz’s attempt to hit its mistress, so it tries to gore him with its horn. Oz trips and falls down, but keeps his grip on the potion bottle.

Hold onto your butts, it’s Vondal’s turn. He decides to cast charm person on Oz. The air gets all weird and shimmery around him and he is shunted to the Astral Plane. So why is he still here? Also, the Charm succeeds so now Oz is charmed by Vondal.

Callie can’t even reach out to Oz before the unicorn knocks Oz to the ground. Callie tries again to grab the bottle out of his hands and barely manages to yoink it. She makes it disappear with sleight of hand, but unfortunately, the only person who saw where the bottle went was Oz. Womp womp.

Freki furiously roars, “Stop!” but it comes out kind of…badly rolled.

Lady Nightshade orders Callie to drink the potion. With a lot of help from Vondal, she is barely able to resist. She gets a little taste and it tastes delicious! But she still resists.

Over the next few days, Mallory (the real one!) and Cassandra work to get the SPI HQ back into shape.

• All field agents are called back to base for an all-staff meeting on Woodsday, Vis 03. This includes:

  • Rain
  • Squeaks McKraken
  • Lawrence Feathersworth
  • Victor Rocksmith

• Meanwhile, our SPI agent heroes have two days off: Vis 01 and Vis 02. Or they can help rebuild HQ.

Some notable things relating our heroes:

• Cal feels something has changed about the Arkenstab. He feels it pulsing with more power than ever, but he also feels a shock of momentary cold every time he grasps it. Cold like vengeance.
• Bec’s father Letharil Galere stops by the SPI. To thank her again. He entrusts her with Sartus’s spellbooks.
• Freki has time to craft more special arrows.
• Oz’s contacts confirm that they sent him the monkey statue. Signed, sealed, and delivered to SPI administrator Cassandra.
• Callie has a clairvoyant episode.

At the all-staff meeting: various agents share information about current events:

• In the absence of leadership, McKraken, Feathersworth, and Rocksmith have started to establish SPI outputs in three of the nations: Squeaks under the Mountain, Featherworth in Reena’seere. Rocksmith in Trell.

• Cassandra remembers what happened to her: she and Mallory (Eeoram, really) were back at the base, trying to deal with the Breach, when they were ambushed by the Malosi. Before she could react, she was slain by Andalla the dragon shaman. Cassandra felt Andalla pulling at her spirit, trying to consume her, but she managed to flee into the nearby monkey statue, which she sensed could house souls. But once inside, she realized the soul of a monkey was already within, and they began to comingle. Cassandra remembers being inside the statue, her consciousness fading, but striving with all her will to drive the intruders as far away as she could. She doesn’t know what happened to Eeoram, but she remembers him being there with her right before the ambush…

• Squeaks McKraken has been working on a case in the dwarven lands:
  • Dwarves aren’t fighting goblins anymore because goblins stopped coming.
  • When dwarves investigated, they found karach had spread up from the tunnel depths: a “super bloom” of karach!
  • The karach is unstable, and Flux oozes in various places. Squeaks was unable to delve deeper on his own, but he was able to connect the source to the old SPI HQ, behind the sealed off stone wall.
• Lawrence Feathersworth has been in contact with Arallu about an incident that occurred in Sepulchralis, the underground Arallan necropolis.While agents of Arallu are the ones who contacted him asking for the SPI’s help, he has not yet been successful in arranging passage to Arallu to actually investigate what happened. But he knows some details of the incident:
  • Evershroud Manor, the primary residence of Timor Invictus, suddenly exploded with positive energy on Rixa 25. It is believed that Invictus was inside at the time, and he has not been heard from since.
  • The undead sent in some living mortals to investigate, but none returned.
  • The undead themselves cannot enter, for fearing of being quickly destroyed by the positive energy suffusing the place.
• Victor Rocksmith has also been in diplomacy mode:
  • He has spoken with agents of Saint Benedor, who wants the SPI to ensure that an unnatural hurricane from Trell reaches Oasis, to rejuvenate the land, and insists that the SPI owes a debt to his nation for their actions regarding the Cornucopia.
  • But the dragons of Skyrealm have pledged to unravel the hurricane using air countermagic, and have forbidden the SPI from interfering. It is a brewing international incident.
  • Rocksmith is not sure what to do, but he was able to trace the origin of the hurricane back to a magical lighthouse on the shores of Trell…
• Rain has been chilling at Vondal’s house in Vondal’s bathrobes. :-D

Feathersworth has arranged for the Arallan representatives to meet at the SPI outpost in Reena’seere.

Mallory approves Cal & company’s request to join Feathersworth for the Arallu meeting. But he warns them that that there is a very delicate balance of power in Arallu, and that the actions the agents take could disrupt that balance and lead to world instability.

Callie’s Journal

We have some time off! We need to be back for the all-staff meeting on Woodsday the 3rd.

Mallory asks Callie and Bec to help repair the ol’ HQ, which is pretty trashed.

Bec goes to see the elves and is presented with the spellbooks of Sartus Morningdew. They think that if anyone can use his books to the best effect, it’s Bec. Aww!

Oz decides to go to “Gnome Vegas” to cheat at the casinos. He succeeds! But then Leopold shows up and says “We’ve been looking for you!” Oz tips the dealer 10% of his winnings and says to always remember the name of Freki the werewolf!

Cal hangs out at HQ to fix up the training room. He also talks to Mallory and spars with Cassandra (who is boosting her AC with magic). She has some cool magic that makes people not want to hit her. She also tells him his sword synergizes with divine casting. Neat!

Callie goes back to see Gavin at the Emporium. She asks whether he has anything that can help repair HQ. Then, holding a bottle of glue that can stick anything to anything (Sovreign Glue) and a Cube of Mending, she has a vision of a door behind which is the promise of infinite, forbidden knowledge. AND a secret that only Callie can know. She could use the items to seal the door forever OR go in there, get the secrets, and THEN seal it! But before she can make a decision, the vision ends. Gavin asks if she saw tomorrow’s lottery numbers and suggests that she come back sometime when she doesn’t need anything, just to see him. Aww!

All-Staff Meeting

Rain the Owlbear, Cassandra, Mallory, Squeaks McKraken, Victor Rocksmith, and Lawrence Feathersworth are all there.

Oz comes in late, when we’re recapping the World Tree events.

Mallory congratulates us on saving the World Tree and giving the Necronomicon to the elves. Although we did piss off the RUP by stealing their artifact.

Squeaks McKraken opened an outpost under the mountain, not the same one as the old, sealed off outpost. The dwarves refused to reopen that one because there’s a flux leak down there. Squeaks thinks the leak originated in the old SPI outpost and is slowly spreading karach.

Victor Rocksmith set up an outpost in Trell, his homeland. St. Benedor has had a vision that a hurricane will come and rejuvenate the desert that we destroyed by stealing their cornucopia. Unfortunately, the dragons of Zephyr plan to stop the hurricane to prevent it from damaging the Sky Realm. Victor investigated the origin of the hurricane and found it emerged from one of the Trell magic lighthouses. They absorb storm energy, but are not supposed to let any out.

Lawrence Feathersworth opened his outpost in his hometown, Reena’seere, a half-elven city that Bec is also from. Some reps from Arallu came out to see him. He arranged a meeting with them for tomorrow over lunch to hear more about their request. Basically, a manor belonging to one of their leaders has begun radiating positive energy and they can’t enter it. They need someone living to investigate it.

Bec is interested in Cassandra’s lack of shadow. Weird! Cassandra suggests letting the monkey out. The monkey nuzzles Oz, then hops over to Cassandra. The monkey has two shadows!! One of them is Cassandra’s shadow. The monkey barks at the shadow and poofs back into the statue.

After the meeting ends, Freki sniffs around to grab any DNA in case he needs to find these people later. He doesn’t get any from Mallory or Rain, but he does get a hair from each of the others.

Mallory warns us that the balance of power in Arallu needs to stay balanced. If any of the three factions gains too much power, it could be a disaster.

Reena’seere

Feathersworth tells us that he has no money (on account of being a statue for centuries), but he has repurposed a B&B for his outpost. He apologizes for the dinginess of the place, and makes us tea! It’s slightly chilly, so he starts a fire in the fireplace. He’s great!

At noon, three figures teleport inside: Grim Tanzerin, Lestache de Lyarcourt, and Malachai Hawthorne. Bec sees that Lestache has some magical items, Grim’s chain is magical, and Malachai is filled with transmutation magic.

Lyarcourt introduces Hawthorne, but Bec has to ask about Grim. Lyarcourt says he’s “nobody, protection.” Lyarcourt totally has some tea. Cal thinks maybe he has heard of Malachai. Malachai is one of Invictus’s top lieutenants. Supposedly Malachai ripped out his own heart and replaced it with a spirit trapped in a gemstone to avoid dying of old age. He isn’t exactly undead himself, but this is obviously some real dark magic. Cal thinks Lestache is some kind of vampire nobility.

Malachai was apparently a witness to whatever happened at Evershroud Manor. He says there was an explosion of energy and he barely teleported out in time. He was near the Chamber of Whispers. He thinks the energy came from inside the Chamber. Invictus may or may not have been in the Chamber.

Lestache says that, according to his sources, the explosion source was the basement. He’s going to share everything he knows as a courtesy, so we don’t all die. Such a sweetie. It’s hard to read whether he’s lying or just oily.

Malachai seems to have a deep desire to direct us to the Chamber of Whispers, though why is unclear. Additionally, Callie senses that he is anticipating us going there, so something will happen.

Lestache and Malachai are very not agreed on where they think we should go.

The Triumvirate (https://ctrue.name/equilibrium/creatures/undead):

• Timor Invictus is the archmage, he’s the one who’s missing.
• The Brucolac is the head of the vampires. Lestache serves him.
• Janus Ilaris is a spirit and head of…spirits? We’ve seen him around, possessing people at times.

Malachai describes the manor. There’s a study where Invictus does divination, some bedrooms, an art gallery. In the gallery is door to the whispering chamber. Malachai says the basement doesn’t matter. Lestache wants to talk about the basement! That’s where the lich has his crypts and builds his undead horde. Lestache thinks Invictus lost control of one of his magical artifacts and that’s what caused the explosion. We’ll see about that!

Evershroud Manor

We are teleported by Malachai. It’s a normal teleport, but we won’t be able to get back on our own (the spell is too high level for us). When we get there, we feel great from the radiant energy, but the undeads aren’t comfy.

Malachai hands Feathersworth a bag and starts casting a spell. Bec realizes that the spell is to turn Feathersworth into a puppet! She tells us that the spell is dangerous and Lestache tries to stop Malachai but Malachai doesn’t stop casting.

Cal whips out his sword to slice off Malachai’s arm, but before he can move, Oz stabs Malachai in the gut with the hornblade. Malachai stops casting, but doesn’t seem all that upset? Then suddenly a creature kind of emerges from Malachai and then his face reassembles. Gross!

The creature claims that he saw what he saw and is definitely not lying. Bec and Cal are 100% sure he is lying. He didn’t see anything, that eyeless bastard! He tries to run away, seeing that we are now hostile, but Freki nabs him with a grapple arrow and Cal incinerates him with his sword.

Lestache says he’ll investigate what that whole thing was about. Bec asks him directly if he knows about totenmaskes, but he says he doesn’t. Callie thinks he’s probably telling the truth, but it’s hard to say.

As we approach the entrance, we see that there’s no sky. It appears to be inside an enormous dome or maybe underground? This is similar to the dwarf caves, but grander. It looks like outside, but dimmer.

Rays of light are shooting out the windows. Similar to this:

Let’s go in!

The front door is slightly ajar. Oz and Cal just waltz on in.

A figure appears on the grand staircase with black bird wings. She says, “Halt. Pledge your service to me, leave, or die.”

In the aftermath of the Malosi fight at Alye’adu, the SPI agents rescue Mallory and Cassandra from their respective plights.

Mallory and Cassandra reestablish operations at SPI HQ, and the other active SPI field agents bring new cases for the agency to address.

Callie’s Journal

There is a woman in the village named Respa (the redhead carrying a bowl of food). I remember her from a case we were on. We went to arrest Hollerd, a dwarf, on his ranch, for poisoning his uncle. There was a woman on the farm who tried to send us away, but we pushed past her and arrested him. Respa looks like that woman.

Freki asks if she has seen other people transform the way he does (into a werewolf). She says she hasn’t, and asks if many people outside the village can do it. He asks if any of them can, and she says no because none of them are tigers, wolves, rats, rhinoceroses, etc.

She says Rotesabal has a little friend, and another person in the village is a bird (that would be the one who looks like a white bipedal bird).

Cal asks whether any of them are undead. They are not!

Marigold is the only changeling present in the village right now. She keeps up the mind link so they can all communicate easily. Changelings that are outside aren’t connected to the mind link. They need to be within 100 feet.

Eeoram is the alt-Mallory (i.e. the one we’ve all met). We haven’t seen him in a long time!

Marsh witch spends half her time in the forest and half in the marsh. Named Grainne/Anorje.

We all have a drink at the pub before we go, and talk over what we’ve learned.

We need to rebuild the base and find the other SPI agents. Mallory has been burned by pure elemental fire and can only be healed with a focus of equal strength to the spell that burned him. Cal pipes up that now that he has his sword back, we could use that. Since it was the Arkenstone that burned him to begin with.

We convince Marigold to let us try to heal Mallory. Bec makes a tiny hut around his bed, and another magic user in the village makes another barrier around the whole house. Bec, Cal, and I try to do a healing ritual. Cal feels an intruder in his mind and tries to resist.

Cal places the Arkenstone on Mallory’s forehead. I cast bless on us, then cast cure wounds at level 5. Bec supports with a 5th level spell. The stone explodes outward with healing light. Cal’s job was to focus the effect, but Marigold’s interference makes it too hard and he loses control of it.

Wave of sacred fire washes over. It is infused with healing energy but still painful. We take some damage, but Cal is able to redirect. I have to heal Marigold, but Mallory is saved!!!

We return to the pub so Mallory can catch up over a beer. He last talked to Eeoram about a month ago. He wants to know where Vondal is. We don’t know any better than he does. He says Vondal has gotten worse if he keeps disappearing. He never did that before. We tell him that the HQ is more or less repaired and we’ve recruited some new people (Bec, Oz, Freki, the owlbear Rain and Squeaks McKraken). Mallory sighs. “Wild magic sent ‘em away, wild magic brings ‘em back.”

Mallory asks whether Vondal has screwed anything up lately, but we think he hasn’t. He’s relieved. He didn’t want to fire Vondal. He says we need to get back into HQ and get things set up. We let him know that Cassandra is missing and we don’t have any sending stones.

We decide to go to Vondal’s house so we can meet up with Rain. Cassandra should be able to find us there, too. Rain says hello: “Boss! And you guys!”

I send to Cassandra first. It feels like there’s some kind of barrier, but I push through. “Cassandra where are you? Are you in trouble? Can you get to Vondal’s?”

The monkey statue in Oz’s bag turns into a real live winged monkey! Also all his shit falls all over the ground, LOL.

The monkey answers my question with monkey squeaking. The monkey…is Cassandra…?

Freki can talk to animals, so he asks it some questions. The monkey recognizes Oz as its friend, but not Mallory. It rifles through Oz’s bag and finds Vondal’s cookies. It holds one up and then eats it, sharing with Oz.

We ask it what it is, but it just says “I am me. I am two things.”

The monkey points at Oz and the Hornblade and says they’re both partners. Oz gives the monkey the sword. It holds up the sword, hops up and down, and then four wings pop out of its back. Two are the celestial wings it had before, two are shadow wings. The sword is the monkey’s shadow, and the shadow has the shadow wings. Callie thinks there is some kind of deific power associated with the sword and the monkey is empowered by its mirror. My goddesses are twins, but they aren’t opposites. The monkey and the sword are more like two sides of a coin. Cassandra is a divine spellcaster, and the monkey has done some divine magic. The sword is something different.

While Bec and Callie discuss the feelings of the magic being wrong somehow, Freki smells something familiar. It makes his hackles rise. It was when the orc lady rubbed a statue and turned into a demon. Freki smells…the statue/whatever magic that was.

Mallory tries to sum up: Cassandra is in the monkey? And the monkey is the sword? Where did the hornblade come from, anyway? Oz says that he took it from the fountain.

We take the monkey to the mirror. It looks transfixed for a moment, but then the mirror shatters. D’oh! Bec and Callie sweep it up so Callie can use mending on it. I notice that there’s a woman with dark hair and arms crossed. When I look closer, she’s actually blonde. When I look even closer…it’s me. Weird!

Callie does augury with tarot cards. Would it be a good idea to try dispel magic on the monkey? The final card is Strength. It’s a good idea!

Bec and Callie cast dispel magic at 4th level together. It is kind of like pulling something out of the monkey. Bec and Callie can barely hang on. Cal’s Arkenstone starts vibrating. The monkey is agitated. The celestial monkey and the monkey monkey are separated but stuck together by sticky strands. Cal slices through the strands and Cassandra appears and falls to the floor. The monkey turns back into a statue. The shadow goes back into the hornblade.

Oz grabs the statue and thinks “be a monkey!” It seems to want to, but it has a hard time. When it pops back into monkeyness, it seems very tired. The shadow stays in the sword and doesn’t go back into the monkey. Freki gives the monkey some food and asks if it’s OK. It’s tired and misses the nice lady. The monkey eats the food and pets Cassandra’s hair. It’s unsure if Oz is still its friend, so Oz hugs it and allows it to go back to its pocket dimension to rest.

Cal says Cassandra wasn’t the only thing in the monkey. Bec and Callie think the shadow wings might have been the other thing.

Mallory tries shaking Cassandra, but she doesn’t wake up. He picks her up and puts her in Vondal’s bed. He doesn’t think she’s going to wake up for a while.

I have two sendings left. Who should we contact first? Mallory suggests that he can put out feelers to get Sima’s body back from the elves. Maybe Cassandra can rez her, if it’s not her time to die. Mallory is excited to have another agent!

We decide Eeoram is the top priority. I try to cast sending, but I get a 404 :( His spirit is not on this plane. Although…where is it? Changelings can’t be resurrected and we don’t know how they reproduce.

Mallory says that when Vondal disappears, he’s time traveling. I probably can’t contact him.

Let’s try Squeaks. I do a sending: “Mallory says to meet at Triumph recruitment circle, tomorrow 9 AM. Bring any other agents you can. Will brief everyone.”

Squeaks and the other two NPC agents (see episode 2) have established field offices and each has been investigating some active cases.

• Squeaks has been investigating in the city under the mountain, the dwarven lands. Our old friend Sil is not in charge anymore. Someone else has called Squeaks to find out what happened in the goblin territory. They seem to have gotten encased in karach or some kind of crystalline flux.

• Victor Rocksmith, a hard-drinkin, hard-smokin sailor gnome, has been in the land of Trell. He says there’s a political situation brewing. A hurricane has emerged from Trell and is heading towards the island-city of Aether in Skyrealm. The High Priest of Pelor, St. Benedor, has invoked the SPI to convince the dragons not to dispel the hurricane. Pelor gave him a prophecy that the hurricane will cleanse the desert lands and restore them. The desert has been overly dry since we took the cornucopia, oops.

• Lawrence Feathersworth was contacted by an agent of the vampire. They are demanding the SPI’s service. Agent went to Arallu and saw it briefly. They wanted him to enter the manor of the archlich, which has begun to exude some sort of power and no undead can enter it. Also, the archlich has not attended any meetings of the triumvirate. Where is he?

Open questions and next steps

• Should we try to recover Sima’s body and see if we can revive her? Or will one of us volunteer to be the anchor for Sima’s double?
• Vondal wants to find Mallory’s doppelganger.
• Vondal has a big lead on what happened to the SPI agents, and will want to follow up on it.
• Freki wants to find out what happened to Hugin and Munin. They were somehow held at bay during the battle.
• What was Talos talking about?

Cal has reclaimed the Arkenstab, and Talos is on the ropes! But Andalla has transformed into a goristro demon that is unlikely to serve you beer, and they both still have a boatload of hit points… Will Talos succeed in entering a berserker rage and laying waste to Alye’adu? Or will Bec enchant him again into an oblivion of giggles? FIND OUT NEXT TIME

Callie’s Journal

Rumble in the Jungle
–OR–
Cat-tastrophe

The battle situation has developed not necessarily to the party’s advantage.

Oz stabbed the centaur. The centaur looks bad but not dead.

Freki has “attuned” one of his remaining four arrows, so he has three left that are not attuned.

Vondal directed Murky up toward the horse-man.

Bec does Magic Missile and hits it!

I attack with Spiritual Weapon! It glances off the demon’s thick hide, boo. I move a little over to my left so I can affect both enemies with my Spirit Guardians. They don’t get an opportunity to swipe at me because they’re both slowed, haha.

The monster lady saves and takes only 5 points of radiant damage from the Spirit Guardians. Then she starts casting a 6th-level divine spell called Blade Barrier that slices through four of us. She is a shaman. She also moves towards everyone.

The centaur turns into a were-tiger-centaur and says “You all stink of the gods. How fortunate for me.” Then he does something and we feel a pull at our souls. Bec failed the save, so she feels…depleted in some ineffable, non-numeric kind of way. Everyone else is OK for now. Murky is unaffected. Hugin and Munin are affected somehow, although Freki doesn’t find out about that until later.

Oz feels ice climbing up his legs and needs a strength save. He fails and takes 9 points of cold damage and his speed is reduced.

Cal fails his save against the soul-stealer too. He strikes out at Talos and hits! He is bleeding from all over his body. His second strike runs Talos through! But then Talos says, “Pathetic!” and gets back to his feet.

Talos screams a battle cry and I feel a divine energy of some kind. Cal feels that he is tapping into Cal’s power somehow.

Oz attacks. Talos is just death-saving at this point. Oz is unable to finish him off, so he calls Monkey Caesar into play.

Cal realizes that Talos will live as long as he is enraged, so he calls out, “Stop the rage!” But he’s been knocked down and is prone.

Freki fires his special arrow point-blank into Talos. It does damage, although the creature kind of shrugs it off. He tries to climb up the neck and doesn’t succeed but doesn’t fall off.

Vondal banishes the enemies. They’re gone for a little while. We get the opportunity to rearrange our battle order and prepare actions.

I break concentration on my Spirit Guardians and cast Calm Emotions at fifth level on Talos as soon as they reappear (it has to be 5th or above to hit Talos because he has an Ioun Stone or something that absorbs spells 4th level or lower). He barely manages to throw off the calm, but he looks tired now and the cold doesn’t return.

Vondal did Shocking Grasp with Murky.

Oz finally gets his natural 20 roll that gives him some ridiculous attack with his horn blade. He cuts Talos into halves (104 points of damage, whoooaaaaaa).

Bec attempts to cast a spell on the orc, but she’s resistant to magic and nothing happens.

Freki claws at the orc. He does a total of 24 damage.

The orc casts Revivify on Talos, knitting his halves back together. She then changes back into an orc from her other form.

Talos gets to his feet and casts Heal. He puts his ax on his back and says, “Enough! I yield for now.”

Oz says, “He really pulled himself together!”

In accordance with Selva custom, Talos allows us to name our terms (“war price”).

Cal is keeping his sword. Freki takes the ax and gives it to Cal, who hands it back (sensing as he does so that Talos is relieved to have it back). All Cal wanted was his original sword back! Talos mentions that we don’t even know what we are.

Freki says, “We want the bracers. And we want you to leave this space. And also, what is it you think we are?”

He says, “You are godlings. If you become like the others, I will have to kill you. What I don’t understand is how you don’t know.”

Talos stole the god-ling-ness??? from Bec and Cal during the fight. That’s why they felt they had lost something.

Freki asks, “Why do you want to kill the gods?”

“Because they deserve it. You could all join me. You are worthy to join the Malosi.”

Hugin and Munin land on Freki’s shoulders. He feels comforted, aww. He checks in with them. They say something happened to them that they do not understand, but they’re OK now.

A big suit of armor comes clanking up to us with Sabrina on its shoulder. The orc turns into a raven and flies over to the armor, landing on the other shoulder.

Talos promises not to harm the people of this village. He says again that we could join his tribe if we want. Then he says to Freki, “I’m glad at least one person from your village was strong enough to survive.” Freki notices that he has a very self-satisfied smirk as he does so. Then Talos rushes over to the armor and they all vanish.

Marigold apologizes for being unable to do anything. She explains that they were unable to move or possibly didn’t exist for a little while. Bec asks if they saw the suit of armor, but Marigold doesn’t recall. We (not Oz) remembers the suit of armor from when we met Sabrina before. It protects her.

Bec is thinking they might have had their memories modified or been banished, although all we saw was them running into the trees, so we don’t know for sure.

A dwarf villager opines that whatever happened to them “felt psionic.” Bec says Sabrina may be a githzerai, and the dwarf is like, “I knew it!!!”

Vondal goes to check on Mallory. He’s still there, right where we left him. He tells Sima’s doppelganger that she can imprint on him, with the price being that she has to figure out a better way of doing things.

Marigold says, “We’re changing the rotation then, so I can leave!”

Oz blabs that Bec took Isis’s body and has it, so Bec apologizes for her cultural insensitivity and she and Callie take the body out of the portable hole and lay it out so they can see it. The villagers are all shocked.

Vondal mentions that he’s older than he looks, like the villager who looks like a child. Later, she’s munching on some of Vondal’s cookies. Freki also notices that suddenly she has a ring that she didn’t have before. And hey, Vondal is missing a ring!

Vondal orders the kid to give the ring back before she gets hurt. He gives her a cookie because rewarding bad behavior is what grandpas do. Michael gives Allen an inspiration point for that! Vondal proceeds to give the kid a whole grandpa lecture along with it. He doesn’t roll well, so he takes her word for it that she’s totally taking it all in and learning.

Changelings are dead forever once they’re dead, so there’s no chance we could revive Fake Isis.

Ayina asks whether we knew that centaur. Freki explains that he sensed our innate goodness, or at least trying-to-be-goodness. Callie feels like maybe she knows something, but can’t quite grasp what. But she doesn’t think Talos was lying or mistaken; he was right in some way.

The villagers want to know what happened with Isis. There seems to be no point in keeping anything from them, especially since Vondal is going to spill it anyway. Bec says something about the cult of the white crane and the dwarf guy objects that it isn’t a cult, but a “force of nature” that has “done nothing but benefit us.” Isis was the leader of the village, but she was deposed for saying bad words about the white crane.

We explain about the blood mage gnome that was inside the hamadryad Phoebe and how Isis tried to protect him after he was expelled from Phoebe’s body. He escaped, but Oz killed Isis.

Ayina says to Vondal and Bec that she knows the centaur, or at least her double does. Talos has attacked the Lord of the Devils, Asmodeus, many times. She asks if Bec/Vondal knows why he would do that. Vondal tells her that they met him once before in some kind of demiplane. Talos expressed admiration for Cal’s sword and was angry at us for invading his territory. Bec recalls that Asmodeus might be almost a god himself, and Talos seems to hate any kind of god. Ayina tells Vondal and Bec to keep their conversation to themselves.

Vondal and Bec head off to take a look at the destroyed “door” to the village. Seeing them, Callie joins them. Vondal wants to weave some flux around the door. Callie casts Augury (knowledge domain, once per day) to ask Erathis whether this will have a good result or not. Weal! It’s a go!

Vondal’s magic gets sucked up and woven into a wild magic door. Ayina is shocked that Vondal is so powerful.

Open questions and next steps

• Should we try to recover Sima’s body and see if we can revive her? Or will one of us volunteer to be the anchor for Sima’s double?
• What happened to Mallory, and is there anything we can do for him? Vondal wants to find Mallory’s doppelganger.
• What was Talos talking about?
• Vondal has a big lead on what happened to the SPI agents, and will want to follow up on it.
• Freki wants to find out what happened to Hugin and Munin. They were somehow held at bay during the battle.

The SPI, after tearing the veil protecting the hidden changeling village of Alye’adu, learned that the SPI’s leader Mallory has been comatose here for the past four months. Now Andalla the orc shaman, in the form of Freki’s raven companion Munin, and Talos the centaur warlord, wielding the Arkenstab, have followed the agents through, and seek to seize the power of the changelings for themselves!

Callie’s Journal

An Equestrian of Power
–OR–
Unleash the Beast

The centaur starts throat singing and at the same time, the air chills and snow starts falling. He says he is here to take what is his, i.e. the shapeshifting power of these changelings. Seems bad! The orc doesn’t do anything.

I am able to perceive that the centaur is trying to stall us, so I yell, “Stop horsing around!”

Everybody prepares to fight. Freki fires off some arrows at the centaur, but they deflect off of him somehow. An invisible shield of some kind?

Vondal banishes the centaur and orc. They will reappear in the same place in one minute.

I cast Spirit Guardians at level 3 and move into the area where the centaur and orc will be, so my spirit guardians can affect them. I also cast Spiritual Weapon at level 2.

Bec decides to Dispel Magic on the snow, which has been coming down more thickly and making it hard to move. It dispells. Yay!

When we’re all ready, Vondal lets his concentration go and the centaur and orc pop back in.

I attack using my spiritual weapon and do 15 damage, yay!

We pretty much own the centaur, so the orc pulls a little figurine out of her pocket and turns into a Goriostro (sp?), a big scary demon.

Cal grabs his sword out of the centaur’s hand. There is a flash and all the snow in a five foot radius melts.

Oz stabs the centaur, who seems to…like it….

The SPI was on the trail of a suspected doppelganger, the spitting image of one of their former colleagues. But then her trail suddenly disappeared midstep! And Freki is being shadowed by a mysterious and malicious-seeming third raven…

Freki asks Hugin and Munin if they saw where they prey went. They tell Freki:

They track her trail to a place where it ends in midstep. Oz’s hand feels weird as he waves his sword through the space where the step ends.

Callie’s Journal

We find a spot that is described as a “veil” or “portal,” although it’s invisible. Cal and Oz decide to go through. From my outside perspective, they don’t seem to have gone anywhere, but it’s pretty funny to watch them get a running start at nothing.

Vondal tells us that it’s a kind of protective or misdirection field, intended to keep people away. But because it’s large enough for a small village, it isn’t very powerful.

I know a little about the shapeshifters because they’re “trickery-adjacent”

Trickery Gods (I know them all, or mostly):

• Avandra, the best one, of course
• Brandobaris
• Ioun
• Some lesser dragon deity
• Sehanine, Elven goddess of the moon
• One whose name I forgot
• See also eternals

I channel divinity (one week cooldown) and realize that the way to get through this veil is to know the name of the place, which I heard from the doppleganger when I used Speak With Dead. Speaking with Erathis’s voice, I say, “Alye’adu” as Oz attempts to stab the veil.

The veil is ripped, because of the sword. :\

I can sense that Erathis knew about this place already. Both my goddesses seem pleased that I’m investigating it.

Our party goes in there and some sentries immediately find us.

Their leader (probably) comes out to talk to us. She looks like one of Sehanine’s priestesses, powerful.

One of the villagers says Isis was her “imprint” and she was Isis’s “anchor.” They are changelings. (The changelings are the “imprints” and the originals are the “anchors.” There is one and only one anchor per imprint. If they lose their anchor, they need to find another one or they die.

50 years ago, The Vanishing happened. During the War of Countless Dead, one day all the soldiers fighting disappeared into thin air, and the Flux appeared. Since then, the Flux had been growing. The changelings believe something happened at the Tower of Orsis that caused the Vanishing, but they don’t know what because they didn’t have an agent there at that time. That’s why they planted all these agents around in various nations.

I want to know what they know about the white crane tattoo/cult. Several of them react positively. They feel like it’s been helpful, which is exactly what Isis said. She said it was super helpful until it started controlling her and forcing her to do evil.

Cal, Freki, and Oz are not part of the mind link. So they’re watching when a centaur named Talos comes riding in with Cal’s sword at his hip.

The SPI is on the trail of a suspected doppelganger, the spitting image of one of their former colleagues.

Cal asks the elves if they can do a locator spell for his sword… but can’t remember the result…

At camp the first night, Freki confronts Cal about his behavior, and they bury the hatchet.

Callie casts a sending to Enoki to make sure he is doing OK. She can’t remember exactly what she asked him, but he responded:

Where is doppel-Sima going? Northeast, from Deepwood into Selva, toward the dwarven Veldt. General direction of the Mountain.

After six days, Freki is considering scouting ahead to confront the fake Sima.

But Freki suddenly senses that they are being followed. The hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. The agents decide to climb trees and set a trap for the follower, whatever they are.

Callie casts seeming to turn Bec into Sima, and Oz and Callie into trees. Freki declines to be magicked.

Freki feels he is somehow connected to whatever is following them.

Hugin: “Indeed, there is a connection.”
Munin: “Yes… It is me. I remember… dying.”
Munin: “I am me. The other… a facsimile only. With my power.” Freki: “Is the facsimile bad?”
Munin ponders for a moment. “Unclear.”
Freki (to the rest of the party): “Do not attack my friends the ravens. However, do not trust them either.”
Hugin: “We protect you, so that you might fulfill your purpose.”
Freki: “Do you know its intentions?”
Hugin: “We do not know this third. It is an other.”
Freki: “Do you know my purpose? But also: thank you very much for the protection.”
Hugin: “To devour the world. Or… prevent others from doing so. The choice is yours.”

Freki remembers that he did see Munin die once. He later had a vision of the dragon shaman that killed Munin turning into a raven and flying away.

Freki: “Something is following me. I don’t think it’s following us, it’s following me. So… do we want to as a group book it after Sima? Do we want me to run ahead possibly taking the thing that’s following me with me? And you guys follow it best you can? I might be able to catch Sima. I have no idea what happens if I catch Sima when it catches me.”

Bec: “But if you go and it chases you, at some point it will have to pass by us.”

Freki proposes that the agents stay together, and move at a speed that allows everyone to stay alert. (“I can’t have flippy McGee flippin’!”)

Freki: “Our priority is no longer catching Sima, it’s staying together.”

Freki is trying to guard his thoughts, in case the third raven can perceive them.

The agents abandon their tree-lurking plan, because Freki can tell the third raven is not getting closer while they are stopped.

They start moving again. They can see ahead no more than 100-200 feet, due to all the trees.

Freki feels like bird #3 is maybe a half-mile to the southeast, and keeping its distance.

Freki sprints 100 yards ahead, to check whether the bird keeps pace with him. It does. Does it think that’s funny? He senses that it is amused by his behavior. Arrogant!

Oz: “Can you untree me?”
Callie: “Ohh… I dunno…… can you give me one of those candy bars you’ve been hoarding?”
Nate: “How did you know that Oz invented nougat in this world?”

The agents think back on what happened during their first few days of pursuit…

One the first night: Oz sneaks up to the camp, sees Sima doing normal camp things, including building a fire, hunting, and fletching. She has only the clothes on her back, but is a competent survivalist. He also sees some of Sima’s skin on her hand slough off while she is eating dinner, and she cries out in pain.

Second night: Oz sneaks up to the camp again, and sees Sima casting a spell on a small thrush bird. It flies up to her and lands in her hand. She whispers something to it, and sends it flying off ahead. Oz thinks she enchanted it to do something. He also sees her casting goodberry on some berries and eating one of them.

Bec drips antitoxen onto Isis’s blood. It distends and reacts. Same even more so when Bec tries mixing more water with the blood: it’s like it can’t hold one shape while confronted with another liquid.

Callie casts speak with dead on Isis. Oz, because he killed Isis, is banished to a ways away before doing it, so that the corpse does not clam up in response to an enemy being present. After consulting with her team, Callie asks these questions:

1. What is your mission? To protect the world from another Vanishing.

2. Where do you come from? Alye’adu. (Bec translates this word from elven as something like “together double”.)

3. How did you get here? I was stabbed by an artifact.

4. How were you going to prevent the Vanishing? By watching the nations, and intervening in their affairs.

5. Who is your leader? (with a hint of sadness) I was.

Callie: “Well that was interesting!”

Back to the six day mark, after the agents have made contact with the third raven…

Freki asks his birds if they need anything.
“We are sustained,” they respond.
Freki: “What about you, third eye? Do you need anything?”
Response *drily eager*: “Soon enough.”

Still following doppel-Sima’s trail, they debate whether to try intercepting her before she gets where she is going. They are pretty far into the Selva now, getting closer to the beginning of the Veldt, when Freki realizes they’ve lost the trail. Wait, no—they didn’t lose it, it ended, abruptly, mid-footstep. Dun dun duuun!

The Tree is rumbling.

Stormseeker: “Did it work? Is Sartus OK?” She goes over to check him.

Bec: “We have to get out of here.”

Oz (adamantly): “Yes, we should go check on the queen immediately, posthaste.”

Vondal quickly tells Rain: “We blew up, I’m good, everybody else question marks, welcome back, hi, and now the tree that holds all of existence of dying.”

Cal beckons Oz over to talk to him. He wants Oz to stab the Book.

Phoebe: “The cleansing is incomplete. Something is wrong.”

The shaking is getting worse.

Lorissa (still checking Sartus): “He’s not breathing!”

Cal, whispering to Oz: “I want you to use the Hornblade to stab the Book.”

Oz: “Aww Brando, do we think that’s a good idea? I don’t think that’s such a great idea… They seem to be way smarter than us, man.”

Cal: “We need to kill the Book.”

Freki overhears: “I don’t know that it’s a bad idea. ‘cause the Book is clearly magic.”

Oz, Cal, and Freki continue to debate it.

Oz: “It’s against my nature, but I think this is a case where “don’t stab” is the way to go.”

But Cal is adamant that the Book has to be destroyed.

Callie intuitively senses that Sartus’s spirit and divine connection are rapidly dissipating, leaving only a lifeless husk. She thinks even speak with dead would not work on him.

Bec: “We have to go the Queen. We have to take the Book with us if it hasn’t been fully fixed.”

Callie senses that the Book is still evil, but much less so? “It was always an evil artifact… but…”

• Rain hefts Sartus’s lifeless husk over his shoulder.
• Vondal and Murky and Freki and Rain run for the entrance.
• Bec tries to heft the Book with mage hand. It’s hard at first, but suddenly it gets easy; Callie feels a divine assist from some Fey influence.
• Phoebe and Lorissa follow them out.

Oz: “That owlbear’s gonna eat that guy!”

When the party gets outside the treasury, they realize it’s not the treasury that’s shaking—it’s the entire Tree. And it’s getting worse.

“Quickly! With me!” Phoebe says and she touches part of the trunk in prep to tree stride. “Take my hand!”

Mushrooms oozing out the trunk, Phoebe recoils. The creature that’s in the queen is fighting back, and Phoebe cannot use her power on this Tree anymore, it is too far gone.

But Letharil Galere and the other remaining tree-melded appear! They can still tree-stride, since they are bonded to this Tree. Each of the seven can each take one person to the throne room. Letharil takes Bec, and the party agrees the other six should be Cal, Callie, Freki, Oz, Vondal, and Lorissa Stormseeker, who has sworn a vow to protect the Queen and would like a chance to fulfill her oath, as well as get revenge for Sartus’s death.

Throne room

In the throne room, the party emerges from the two sides of the giant throne made of tree branches.

The Queen/Zuggtmoy is chained to the throne with roots wrapped in cold iron:

Celes Skyfall the paladin is there. She is shocked to see them appear, but moves to block them from advancing any closer.

Skyfall: “If you kill her, the Tree dies.”

Vondal remembers that this situation is a lot like that one time with the evil entity possessing that guy… just gotta get it out of there and kill it!

Vondal asks others for advice, but people aren’t sure… then Stormseeker speaks up.

Lorissa (quietly): “Banishment.”

Vondal: “Banishment? I have that!”

And he immediately casts it.

Freki wants a page of the Book to incorporate into an arrow of slaying. Celes thinks it’s a brilliant idea.

Oz points his weapons at the Queen: “Creature! You are a yeasty onion-eyed ratfucker. Get out here and face me!”

Zuggtmoy: “Untie me and it would be my pleasure.”

Vondal casts it! He busts through the first layer of her will. Then, Feymist begins to flow from the Tree into him! He is chaotically empowered, and pushes through the second layer of her will!

An enormous black ooze emerges from the Queen! It gushes all over Callie, who was standing in the wrong place at the wrong time.

• Oz uses decanter to wash off Callie.
• Freki shoots a lightning arrow at the ooze but it’s immune to lightning.
• Vondal manipulates reality to make the ooze be Freki’s oathbow sworn enemy, which is currently still Erasmus the faerie dragon.
• The ooze takes the form of a faerie dragon (still black oozy).

Vondal makes Bec super lucky (all 20s), and everyone else critically unlucky (all 1s).

Lorissa casts fireshield as she bladesings, but trips (auto-1!) and falls into the black ooze. :-(

Vondal tries to fix it, causing three wild surges. Vondal grows large, is followed by ethereal music, and immediately teleports 20 feet.

The black ooze makes nine pseudopod attacks! But all nine miss, since it was critically unlucky.

Oz attacks the ooze with his swords. The ooze fails the Con save vs poison, then fails another Con save vs necrotic.

Celes still wants to grab a page from the Book and give it to Freki to incorporate into an arrow of slaying. Bec stops her from touching the Book directly, concerned it would corrupt Celes, then rips out a page using mage hand, thrusting it toward Freki.

Freki dexterously grabs the torn-out page of the Book and wraps it around one of his arrows-of-slaying-in-the-making. He swift shot shoots it. The ooze is completely obliterated! But his hand feels oily, and it’s not going away…

Cal tries to whip grapple the Hornblade (35 Athletics!).

Oz: “What the fuck?”
Cal: The Book must be destroyed.”

Oz manages to weasel the Hornblade out of the whip’s grasp (39 Acrobatics!). As he frees the blade, he flips around acrobatically, bringing the sword down… ON THE BOOK!

As this happens, Bec reflexively drops the Book (which she was still holding with mage hand), which lands still open, as Oz’s downthrust drives unerringly toward the Book’s spine…

Vondal, concerned he might have been created by the Book, or even be an aspect of the Book itself, tries to channel luck to protect it using Lucky (which normally can only be used to protect himself)… but it doesn’t work. Whew!

…and the Hornblade pierces Freki straight through the back.

Oz does 109 critical damage. But Freki in hybrid form has 110 hit points! He has 1 hit point left.

The party quickly acts to heal him:

• Vondal uses Callie’s 5th level cure wounds from his ring of spell storing to heal Freki for 16 HP, and also heals him with a charge from his Wand of Healing.
• Celes, a paladin of the ancients, uses her lay on hands power to heal Lorissa’s acid damage, then heals Freki for 40 more HP.

Celes then inspects the Book and the Queen for lingering traces of evil, but finds none. However, Cal is skeptical, sensing some subconscious doubt in Celes’s analysis of the Book, and calls her on it. She looks again at the Book, and now notices a tiny gem of something evil still there. Lorissa casts remove curse on the Book, and everyone feels a tiny metaphysical cracking sensation, and Celes believes the Book to be now fully and truly cleansed. At least, Freki’s oily hand feels better now!

As everyone frees the Queen from her chains, an argument can be heard through the throne room doors. The Warforged bursts through the door with two of her elite hunters (1 and 2), having pushed past a flustered Anastasia Starflower.

………………….

Six days later, the agents are tracking the Sima doppelganger east through the Deepwood.

And Freki senses that they in turn are being followed…

TODO – clean up and complete these rough unfinished notes.

Callie, Bec, Freki pass save and see through shadow conjuration illusion. It’s a magical construct.

Bec: “So you didn’t believe in it enough though to actually come here to stop us?”

Tybalt: “It’s doesn’t matter whether I am here… what matters is that he is.” And he floats up anime-style, manifesting Janus.

Freki: “They’re not real!” and shoots an arrow at Tybalt’s eyepatch, thinking it will go through… but it thunks! Then he shoots another one, and it’s deflected by some invisible shield.

Oz (bluffing): “Apologies, we’re still not used to these forms… We’ve taken the forms we believe to be most beneficial to our cause…” Trying to convey that they are actually doppelgangers. 32 persuasion.

Janus raises an eyebrow, seemingly unconvinced and ignorant: “What nonsense is this?”

Oz: “Oh come now, don’t be coy, we all know what we’re talking about here.” He moves in front of Sartus.

Bec: “Who else is involved in this? Are the guards up there on our side?” She moves behind Sartus.

Sartus: “Run, you fools!” He takes some steps back, then turns and runs.

Dark Oz appears! Tells the monkey to fuck off. Then to Oz: “And now for you” and channels the dark ghost lady! She points the Hornblade at Oz, and Oz looks down and believes his Hornblade has reverted to the Cornucopia horn.

Janus: “Begone, unworthy!” and does mind blast. Everyone is blasted back five feet. Freki fails the save and takes 13 psychic damage and is stunned for one round. He is bleeding out his nostrils.

Cal recognizes that his undead sense is not tingling. He lashes out with his whip, grabbing Tybalt/Janus and pulling him into melee with Oz and himself.

Callie receives a sending from shadow-Gavin: “Help! There’s a crazy guy wrecking our shop! I tried to stop him but he sprayed me with blood! I feel… so itchy… and hungry…”

Callie decides to cast calm emotions to make Sartus stop being stupid. It also helps Freki shake off the stun, and Oz finally see through the illusion. Cal almost sees through it, but not quite. The monkey is also on the edge of the magic and stops fleeing.

The Brucolac appears. Callie and Freki don’t see through the illusion. But Bec sees through it fully. “I have a gift for you” the Brucolac says to Bec, and pulls a ball of feathers?! out of his bag, and throws it down. An owlbear samurai appears in front of him! “What? No!” he explains, and tries again, this time producing the corpose of Letharil Galere.

Freki transforms into hybrid form, and moves up to the ghost and owlbear.

Oz attacks Janus with his dagger of venom, misses, and fancy footworks away from the ghost toward the owlbear samurai. “You’re next, you limp-cocked pig rapist!” Oz taunts the dark-Oz-ghost. Then he stabs the Hornblade into the owlbear!

Owlbear: “Oz! What are you doing, I know I annoy with my spells, but please!”

Bec casts dispel magic on Cronus! His conjured will tries to resist but fails, and he dissipates. So does the shadow Letharil, and the residual shadow energy around the owlbear. Bec realizes that all the effects are linked in a chain.

Sartus comes back and stands next to Bec. “Thank you, and I’m sorry. But it’s all up to you now—I need to save my magic for when we get the Book.” And he draws a longsword.

The dark Oz-ghost moves up to the OG Oz: “Let’s dance!” she smirks.

Stabs Oz impotently.

Owlbear: “I don’t know how to deal with that!” He steps back, and attacks the dark Oz-ghost. Hits, but it’s only half effective. He does, however, see through the shadow conjuration effect. But he doesn’t know what it is…

Cal is possessed by Janus. He throws sartus out of the room with the whip.

Callie casts spiritual weapon next to the Oz-ghost lady, and hits her! It is fully effective. There is a flash, and they see another woman in gold and green in a negative instant. Only momentarily.

Phoebe finishes casting a summoning spell, and six pixie knights appear with shortbows. They shoot at the dark-Oz ghost, but only one hits.

Phoebe then casts dispel magic on Janus-inside-Cal. Oz makes a choice to cleverly sidestep the challenge of continuing to battle the dark-Oz ghost… and they disperse!

Bec then dispels the unconscious Tybalt, who is the only remaining shadow conjuration, and the spell collapses.

Vondal-as-Owlbear: “What is with these awesome sunglasses?”

Meanwhile, Phoebe heals Cal.

Oz: 22 deception “You cockroach shit-sucking cowards! We’re your relief sent by the Queen. Now open the door before we break it down and report your beligerence to the Queen.”

Unfortunately, this is not a believable lie for multiple reasons.

Male guard (sounding amused): “Heh heh hmm hmm”

Female guard: “If you come in here, we will be forced to fight you. We have our orders.”

Oz suddenly remembers about his monkey, and decides to go back and look for him quickly. He finds the monkey in statue form lying on the ground just outside the treasury building. When he picks up the monkey statue, he feels a wave of assurance and relief wash over him.

Lorissa: “If you take this book, it will do immeasurable harm. Nothing good will come of it.”

Vondal-as-Owlbear: “Sartus, explain why this is not bad plan. Sartus maybe not most popular, but pretty big brain boy over here!”

Sartus explains the plan: erase the writings in the Book.

Oz (panache): “Look into your heart, you know we can be trusted. I know it can be hard to bend the rules sometimes, but when all this is said and done, you don’t want to have regrets that you didn’t do everything you could to save the Queen.”

Book is encased in translucent crystal.

TODO – describe how the party got the Book out of there, and performed the ritual to erase the writings.

Meanwhile, Oz steals the Ioun Stone of Mastery! But he accidentally cracks it when he uses the Hornblade to split the crystal casing. It has 9/10 HP remaining.

Callie’s Journal

There is some heavy-duty illusion magic going on here with Dark Oz/Janus/Tybalt. Sartus is totally taken in, maybe because this is what he feared would happen. He yells at us to flee, and runs towards the door himself.

These things are illusory, but whatever they really are, they’re sending waves of terror out at us. I cast Calm Emotions at level 2 to try to reduce the effect.

A giant appears and tosses two things out of its pack or pocket: a samurai owlbear and Bec’s father, all disconnected from the tree and looking very undead.

I cast Spiritual Weapon at level 4, so damage is 2d8 plus my spellcasting modifier (7).

After the battle, Freki and Vondal were pretty wounded, so I cast Prayer of Healing at level 5. 4+5+4+8+7+(7) = 35

As we all pray/cast ritual magic on the book, I am forced to contribute 3 more spell slots toward the spell. I contribute one level 4, one level 3, and one level 1.

Enormous gouts of blood burst out of Phoebe the Hamadryad’s neck, when Freki suddenly wolfed out and lunged at her throat. Ozborn immediately followed Freki’s lead and stabbed the hamadryad with both his blades, further engorging the blood flood. All that blood blobbed into a bloated blubbery pile of gnome on the ground, unconscious.

After that, things happen fast—very fast.

“Wait!” cries Isis Ra’ksh, “Don’t hurt him! He’s a friend.” She interposes herself between Phoebe and the gnome, poised to respond to any aggression.

Bec hesitates, watching to see how everyone else reacts.

“We can’t let him escape,” says Sartus, then tries to cast hold person on the gnome. But Isis counterspells it using dispel magic.

“I agree,” Vondal says, “We have to secure that guy immediately.” He points his fingers at the gnome and casts a spell, but it fizzles out, with Vondal poofing out in a puff of feathers!

Callie casts cure wounds on Phoebe. It is super effective! She feels not only the presence of the dual goddesses, but also less familiar divine presence, as Feymist coalesces from around the area and infuses itself into her hand as she touches the hamadryad. Phoebe’s wounds close, and her eyes begin to flutter.

Cal stays near Phoebe, wanting to know if she’ll recognize him now, if/when she awakens.

Phoebe then opens her eyes, apparently awake, but just lies there staring, at least momentarily. She seems to be in a daze.

Freki picks up the unconscious gnome in his maw and holds him threateningly. The gnome is grappled and covered in drool.

Oz readies to stab Isis if she takes any hostile action against his friends.

Bec asks Isis what the hell is going on with this blood guy.

Isis pleads: “Please put him down, and I’ll explain everything.”

Bec: “I’d rather him in Freki’s ‘gentle’ grasp, then who knows… all those things on his belt. One of those potions could make him RUN AWAY, just DISAPPEAR.”

Sartus (to Isis): “I share Bec’s concern. We need to be extraordianariliy cautious. We cannot fully trust you.”

Cal to Phoebe: “Are you OK?” Phoebe’s head slowly turns, in a daze, toward Cal. She slowly sits up, and Cal helps her to her feet. Phoebe looks Cal straight in the eyes: “Where is he?” she utters darkly.

Michael rolls a 32 on perception for Freki to sense exactly what parts of the gnome are in his mouth the most. Due to Freki’s close bodily contact with the gnome, Freki can sense that the gnome is barely unconscious. Any little thing would awaken him. So Freki shakes him awake!

The gnome startles. “Ahgh!” And then when he realizes his predicament: “Put me down at once! I’m being oppressed!”

Bec: “Not until you explain what you were doing with the hamadryad. Or in. That’s not a normal place for a gnome.”

Meanwhile, Phoebe has come to her senses, and Cal has helped her to her feet. As she turns toward the gnome, her eyes fill with lightning, and more lightning begins to crackle from her fingers.

“Wait, no, I can explain!” exclaims the gnome desperately.

Phoebe raises her arms, lighting shooting up into the sky, and a storm cloud manifests in a matter of scant seconds. A lightning bolt shoots downward, striking the gnome square in the everything. “Graghghgh!” screams the gnome in pain.

Freki is also struck, his jaw clenching as he refuses to let go of the gnome (even though he could sense the oncoming bolt a split second before it strikes—his instinct to brace for impact wins out).

“No!” cries Isis. “It’s my fault, not his! Everything he did is because of me!” Callie and others can sense that Isis is lying, trying to cover for his behavior, because she has strong feelings for him.

Oz, sensing that the storm would only grow more dire from there, looks at Cal: “We’re about to get wet; we might as well swim.” And he stabs Isis with the Hornblade, with secondary fire damage burning the gnome. Then he fancy footworks away, sauntering over to Cal.

“Please, stop!” cries the gnome. “We had good reasons for everything we did!” But no one is convinced.

Bec decides to jump into action, casting confusion on everyone except Freki and herself. Callie, Cal, and Oz all resist the effect, as do Phoebe and Sartus, but Isis and the gnome both become utterly confused!

In the last moment before confusion overcomes her, Isis lunges toward the gnome, touching him as she casts plane shift. The gnome has just enough presence of mind before madness overtakes him to acquiesce to the magical effect, and reality warps around him, bending him away to who-knows-where. In the moment, Bec knows enough about planar magic to recognize that Isis might have been able to include herself in the escape attempt, had she been able to join hands with the gnome… but she failed to do so due to his flailing around from being electrocuted and on fire.

Phoebe’s murderous gaze turns on Isis.

Callie is also thinking on her feet, and strongly considers casting calm emotions, but she is afraid of the consequences, and decides not to intervene against Phoebe’s rage. She steps back.

Phoebe strikes Isis with a lightning bolt, who screams in agony.

Oz then kills Isis, running her through with the Hornblade. He moves to give a flourishing bow to Phoebe, but at that moment, he feels the presence of the creepy halfling ghost responsible for his acquisition of the Hornblade (see Case 11, Parts 02 and 04), and a powerful sense of vengeance fulfilled washes over him. He feels satisfied, that this person he just killed was specifically responsible for some grievous wrongdoing against his benefactor.

Isis falls to the floor, her skin sloughing off, and she looks like THIS:

Bec recognizes the creature as a doppelganger! She wasn’t even sure they were real, or how many of the various conflicting stories are true. But here it is.

Bec wants to keep part of the body and starts sawing it. Oz stabs it again to make sure it’s really dead (it is).

Freki asks: “Why don’t you keep the whole body?”

Sartus cleans up the corpse with prestidigitation, and Freki dumps it into his bag of holding.

Bec: “Would it be a bad thing if we kept this, for studying? ‘Cause this is like myths being proved real, and I’m kind of reaaally excited about it.”

Sartus nods. “I agree. We have to keep it. We don’t know enough about these creatures. We need to know how far this goes.”

Sartus explains that he needs the hand anyway, because it will improve their chance of success at unmaking the words from the Book of the Dead.

Bec: “We need to tell people. Tybalt.”

Sartus: “Do we?”

Callie: “We may need to find a way to know that we are all who we are.”

Oz (bluffing): “It’s well known in the circles I travel in, that doppelgangers are real. And we have a very simple test.” He pulls a vial out of my pack, with liquid in it. Unbeknownst to everyone, it’s just water. He pricks his finger, puts some blood in, and explains that if he were a doppelganger, it would have fizzed and reacted.

Cal immediately pricks his finger and proves he’s not a doppelganger.

In actuality, Oz wants to test who will refuse to do the test. Everyone except Freki agrees to do the test, and “passes” it.

Phoebe suggests that the test actually works, and that any liquid will do, which gives Oz momentary pause.

Phoebe looks at Sartus and asks him whether he really wants to proceed with his plan. Sartus answers earnestly that he does, and Phoebe agrees to help him. The exchange seems uncomfortably intense.

The party votes on what to do next:

• Cal wants to seek out Tybalt because he wants to investigate whether Sima is another doppelganger.
• Sartus wants to not tell Tybalt, and instead steal the Book first.
• Callie votes to deal with the Book first.
• Freki wants to go after the safe, because he would like to stick to some plan for more than 20 seconds.
• Bec would also like to go after the Book.
• Oz is also on board with that.

Cal argues that we outnumber Tybalt, and should find him first.

Callie expresses concern that Tybalt also could be a doppelganger.

Bec: “I think we really need to save the Tree.”

Callie suggests using a sending to Tybalt. She thinks the risk is low that it get intercepted by a false/doppel version of Tybalt—that it will likely go to the Tybalt they have been interacting with.

The agents discuss this idea, but Sartus suggests to be very careful what they say to him.

Cal: “If you guys don’t want to go there, we should at least warn him.”

Oz: “But if he is one, we’re in deep doo-doo. And let’s face facts: he probably is.”

Sartus pleads with Cal, arguing that if Tybalt has any whiff that they are going after the Book, he will try to stop them.

Cal agrees on two conditions:

1. As soon as we’re done, we go to Tybalt.
2. We destroy that book immediately.

Sartus agrees completely, but expresses doubt that the book can be easily destroyed. Cal thinks: “I wish I had my fuckin’ sword…”

They decide not to cast sending, and go straight to the vault. It’s an hour’s walk through the city, from the ground floor on up through the city’s various districts of lowtown, midtown, hightown, and finally the palace:

They reach the treasury building, situated on a tree branch such that there is only one accessible entrance and exit. The entryway has a high vaulted ceiling with a walkway of quite some length, beyond which is the treasure room proper, protected by several elite elven guards.

At the building’s entrance, a figure stands with his back turned. As the party approaches, he turns around—it is Tybalt. He looks angrily at Sartus. “I knew you wouldn’t listen to me.”

(TODO: Clean up and flesh out these very rough notes.)

Andy guest stars as Erasmus, the Faerie Dragon guardian!

Bec flies through the hole!

Oz: “Screw it! We’re clearly not doin’ anything here. I’ve jumped in worse holes.” And jumped down the hole.

Callie sending to Bec:

Bec’s reply:

Everyone else follows suit. The hole leads to the ground level of the Tree.

Freki: “Swift defeat to my enemies”—as he drops into the hole.

On the surface, the Tree is covered in bands of black and gray mushrooms. Enoki mumbles, smacking the tree trunk’s infected mushrooms with his staff. “It’s worse than I thought” he says. He quickly says his goodbyes and squeezes into the tree trunk, to wrangle the mushrooms.

Callie casts sending to Tybalt:

Tybalt’s reply:

Callie senses that Tybalt is impatient.

Vondal using Lucid Memory to remember something about the Book feedback trying to protect itself…

Allen: Not using luck. Using sorcery power, gives advantage. Cost: GM can then make me do a free roll on the wild magic table.

Vondal: 18.

(TODO: Fill in Vondal’s recovered memory here!)

Vondal: “You ever hear of the ‘Arkenstone’?”
Callie: “Maybe… what’s it worth to ya?”
Vondal: “Just sayin’… it might be explosive.”

Vondal [about not remember which heretical deity Cal worships]: “I’ll have to ask him when he exists again.”

Isis is afraid of the Vortex. She says the more she says, the worse it gets. “Telling you everything would doom us all.”

Bec uses Prevailing Truth. How is it all related? What is the entity that needs to be destroyed?

• Isis says she has been controlled for the past month, and wants to destroy the monster that grew inside her.
• The monster grew because of corruption from the Book.
• She obtained the Book months ago, from the vault of Dominic Tremere. WHY?
• The power wants to be found? Perhaps. Could reach out to the entity that had the most ability to release it. Or the ability to enhance its power to break free of the Book.
• The SPI removed the Cornucopia in response to a prophecy of a coming Calamity.
• Is the Calamity somehow related to the Vortex?
• What if… the Calamity of the world spoken of by Melora seems strongly related to the Vortex that Isis, you, are speaking of.
• What if what Isis did is because of the Calamity?

Bec: “Did you get the Book to keep it safe from the Calamity, but then it corrupted you instead?”

Vondal [to Isis]: “How’d you even know about it?”

Freki’s Animal Instinct senses something off about Phoebe. As Isis talks about the Vortex, Phoebe seems to be getting increasingly fidgety and uncomfortable. “Let me out let me out let me out let me out…” Freki hears her whisper, so quietly no one else notices. And he smells… blood. She is a plant creature—he should not be able to smell blood. Overcome with suspicion and paranoia, he transforms into beast form and lunges at Phoebe’s throat. Fresh red blood spurts out, and Phoebe cries out.

Oz notices, and immediately springs into action, stabbing Phoebe with both his swords. As more blood gushes forth, it congeals into… a small man. Unconscious, on the ground.

“Don’t hurt him!” Isis cries out. “He’s my friend!”

Thanks to the tree stride power of Phoebe the Hamadryad, the SPI agents and allies reached what they believed to be the heart of the World Tree, the secret womb of the Fruit of Life, only to find that the vision of the Fruit was a powerful illusion, masking a pit into which they would have fallen, had they naively approached the Fruit.

Beyond its threshold, Freki sees Enoki and his poodle moth Cornelius entangled in an enormous thornbush, and hears him crying out for help!

Meanwhile, the others see half of Freki’s disappear as he stands at the threshold. Moving quickly to investigate, everyone save Vondal (who projects into his familiar Murky) advances toward the threshold’s edge until they can see what was going on.

Freki shoots a grappling arrow at Enoki and Cornelius, hooking them and pulling the duo out of the thorns, though not without some painful tears to Cornelius’s wings. Enoki has free-floating How Dare You energy, but is more concerned about healing Cornelius. Fortunately, Enoki is able to heal him quickly.

The other agents continue to advance cautiously until they are outside the threshold… when they suddenly hear a voice behind them. The illusion dissipates, and standing at the edge of the previously concealed pit is a fully armored knight clad in green armor made of wood and bone:

Speaking in a masculine voice, the knight demands they cease their attempts to interfere with the Fruit, or face destruction. “Leave or perish. The fruit must not be disturbed.” The scholars in the group recognize this figure as a Green Knight, a supernatural fey creature summoned to aid the cause of the wilds in times of need.

Bec kneels and explains to the knight that we need the Fruit or the tree will perish anyway.

The hamadryad Phoebe says, “Stand down, sir knight. It is as she says.” The knight, however, says he is bound to protect and says we will be destroyed if we persist.

Bec asks Phoebe if the Seed can be moved without disturbing it.

Freki attempts to point his drawn bow at the Seed, but he can’t actually see it.

Callie asks the knight who summoned him, but he ignores everyone’s questions and says this is his final warning. Enoki agrees that’s a great question, but also tells Callie the green knight won’t answer because “they never do. They’re really one-track.”

Oz slyly approaches the knight, playing dumb, until suddenly *stab!* he slays the knight in one blow!

As soon as the knight discorporates,

Freki’s bird companions Hugin and Munin speak in Freki’s mind, warning him that there are unseen threats in the Megil’ram (which Freki somehow mentally understands to mean “Thornbush” or literally “Wall of Swords” in elven). They dive from the canopy overhead into the thornbush, and a flock of songbirds (which Freki recognizes as shrikes) burst forth from the bush and fly away in fright.

At the same time, a series of mental attacks on Oz commences. Oz feels his body begin to pulse and stretch—some foul magic is happening to him. Resisting with all his might, the disturbance dies down… and then begins again as strong as ever as a figure concealed head to toe in a cloak of leaves, feathers, and bone appears at the edge of the thornbush, crying out in frustration.

Bec theorizes on the spot that at least two different people must be using magic on Oz, since one person could not have hit him twice with such a powerful spell so quickly. Unfortunately for our plucky murder machine, the second time he does not muster sufficient resistance, and he feels his body and mind crunched into a tiny metaphysical ball and reformed into… a giant narwhal!

“Stop!” the figure shouts at the agents. “This is the moment I’ve been waiting for. I cannot let you do this!”

Freki demands that she/they turn Oz back. When she refuses, Freki attacks, transforming, tearing into the spellcaster and knocking off her mask with two powerful claw attacks. Under the skull mask, they see:

“Isis! What are you doing?” exclaims Eixam. Callie and others get the impression that Eixam is surprised and frustrated that Isis is here, doing this. Eixam transforms into a swarm of vermin: locusts, spiders, scorpions, and centipedes, rolling over Isis and nearby thorns, devouring everything in their path, and lacing Isis with innumerable bites and stings.

Oz gets turned back from a narwhal (how?). Back in human form, he clambors to his feet, tumbles over to the figure, and does a bunch of damage.

Vondal burns Isis with a volley of scorching rays.

Enoki begins casting a summoning spell…

Callie casts bless on herself, Oz, and Freki, then summons a spiritual weapon and slices up Isis some more.

“No! Isis!” exclaims Phoebe, rushing forward to cast cure wounds on her!

Meanwhile, the thornbush grows supernaturally fast, straining toward all the interlopers, and twines itself around Isis to form a protective barrier from further attacks. But the swarm of Eixam eats through the bush as fast as it can grow in the area surrounding Isis, and Sartus casts command plants to further interfere with the thornbush’s attempts.

Still bleeding profusely, Isis desperately reaches out to touch something unseen next to her as she casts some kind of giant growth spell, which radiates outward… A faerie dragon appears next to her, and promptly begins to balloon to a much larger size, along with three remaining shrikes from within the thornbush.

PSA break!

In one smooth motion after completing the casting of her spell, Isis swings up onto the faerie dragon’s back… but Oz does not miss the opportunity to tear into Isis, who thusly lays across the dragon’s back, dying.

The faerie dragon waggles its eyebrows, flicks its tongue a couple of times, turns invisible again along with Isis, and casts another polymorph on Oz, this time turning him into… a crimson jellyfish! Suffocation rules, here we come!

Bec, concerned about the danger now posted by the three enormous shrikes, charms one of the two birds near here with her hypnotic gaze.

Oz, dissatisfied with his squishy existence, decides to end it all by declining to hold his breath (crimson jellyfish only “breathe” water according to D&D5E rules), and begins to drown.

Enoki completes his spell, and a buttload of mushrooms spring up from the tree trunk floor in a huge radius around him. He commands them to push back against the thornbush, and its sharp vines begin to recede.

Freki exercises his conscious will, takes control of the beast, and reverts to his elfin form. He then kills jelly Oz, causing him to return to his natural form also.

The faerie dragon, from higher up in the air above the edge of the thornbush, offers to parlay in a cute and resounding voice: “You don’t have to do this. It’s not too late to talk.”

After some appeals from Vondal that the SPI needs the Fruit to Save the World!™, with the dragon seeming unconvinced, the party reluctantly agrees to parlay. Even Eixam seems willing to talk, as they regain control of themselves enough to reform into a bipedal shape.

The dragon appears with Isis still slumped across his back. “You’re being dumb, you know. The real threat is down there.”

Eixam claims they want to help stop the destruction of the Tree (GM’s note: “they” is Eixam’s pronoun), and says that the party’s current means of travel will take too long to reach the Fruit. They offer to take the party there more quickly.

The party is cautiously interested in learning more about Eixam’s proposal, although they can sense that Eixam is full of malice. Eixam suggest a convoluted plan to travel via getting into a portable hole, which is an extradimensional space that can be folded up and carried by Eixam, who will fly directly to the Fruit.

Unfortunately, Enoki hates Eixam because locusts eat his mushroom pals. “They insatiably devour whole fields. Out of balance.” He flat refuses to go with Eixam. So the SPI agents decline Eixam’s help, who buzzes off.

Enoki offers to carry them in the portable hole instead, after chastising them for not telling him about it before.

The party’s plan: Callie will levitate using her tattoo and be pulled by Cal, who along with Oz will be carried by Oz’s mysterious new winged monkey companion. Sartus will cast fly and keep pace, carrying the folded up portable hole. The remaining members will enter the portable hole and ride inside.

Bec casts rope trick inside the portable hole, so they have 1 hour of air. Then Freki, Vondal, and Murky also climb into the hole-inside-a-hole. Unfortunately, Freki’s discomfort with magic causes him to panic when he gets in the hole; Freki wolfs out and tries to escape, but the hole is rather deep. Vondal cleverly casts banishment on Freki to boot him from the extradimensional space, and Callie calms emotions.

Callie begins levitating, towed by Freki, who is now flying thanks to another fly spell from Sartus.

For the first 20 minutes, the monkey struggles to carry both Oz and Cal at the same time. But then out of nowhere, she grows huge divine wings! Oz has vision of a woman in a dark cloak, face down, turning… on the other side, a red-haired woman in a green and yellow dress:

The next ten minutes are easier going, although the agents hear continual buzzing in the distance, and surmise that Eixam must be shadowing them. Freki’s ravens confirm this fact.

Then Cal receives a sending from Tybalt:

• Tybalt: Found druid’s lair. Yaara’tal Yggdrasil cave near elderly tree-melded. Sima dead, chained inside. Other Sima captured. Infected Queen awakening, spells doom. Hurry!
• Cal: Holy crap. Enoki leading us to Fruit. 30 minutes away. Eixam, locust thing, hovering nearby. Friend or foe? Two Simas?

Another sending follows shortly thereafter:

• Tybalt: Heard of a creature of vermin, evil being. Be wary. Glad but surprised Enoki helps. Yes two Simas, one must be imposter. Will find out.
• Cal: Will update as soon as something changes.

Soon, the party reaches a place where there is a thick mist around a large branch of the Tree. The party has a sense that something of import is happening, as the mist parts and a regal tree-like creature emerges from the tree trunk:

Some agents identify her as a creature called a hamadryad, a powerful dryad bonded not to a single tree, but rather an entire forest.

Enoki recognizes this woman and, bowing respectfully, says, “Your Grace? What are you doing here?”

Cal recognizes her too, and refers to her as Phoebe. But he seems surprised that she does not appear to recognize him in return. Cal asks her directly if she knows Hyperion. Callie recalls that Hyperion is the name of a titan. After some short exchanges, Phoebe confesses that the Tree’s sickness is affecting her mind, and she is having trouble with her memory.

Eixam buzzes over, radiating even more fury and hatred than usual. They tell the hamadryad she shouldn’t be here. Bec asks immediately why not; Eixam responds with a lie: “Because it is not safe.”

“I can take you directly to the Fruit of Life,” she responds, “There is not much time left.” She explains that her ability to tree stride can take others along with her, as long as everyone links hands. After a short discussion, the agents accept her aid.

Phoebe takes everyone, including Eixam, through the tree trunk to a very beautiful place. They see the Fruit they’ve been looking for!

Unfortunately, it’s way too big to put in the portable hole or otherwise transport.

Bec and Sartus warn the party that there is a powerful illusion magic happening. Eixam agrees, “Yes, this is wrong.”

Nonetheless, Phoebe starts walking toward the fruit, transfixed.

Sartus says, “Your Grace, it is not real.” But she keeps walking.

Vondal casts wall of fire between Phoebe and the fruit.

The fire burns away the mist and the glamour with it. The mist flows into Vondal’s mouth. Beyond the glamour, the Tree ends. If Phoebe had kept walking, she would have fallen off it. She snaps out of her trance.

Confused, she says, “But I brought us to the fruit. We are here, at the heart of it.”

Bec asks Eixam whether that’s true. “Perhaps,” they answer.

Enoki scouts and then reports, “There, I see it! That way!”

The party follows where he’s pointing. It looks like a dead end—like he’s flying through the trunk. Another illusion?

Freki goes through it and sees the true heart in the distance, surrounded by a huge amount of thorns. He (and he alone—the rest of the party is still on the other side of the illusory border) hears Enoki cry out in fear, and sees the poor little guy trapped in the huge thicket of thorns, which supernaturally surge toward the party!

The party wakes up covered in mushrooms. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!

But they did have a long rest, so they are refreshed.

Callie, Bec, and Freki realize the mushrooms aren’t real—just psychic residue from the attack in the Feywild.

Sartus and Bec dispel Oz and Cal’s effects. Oz is convinced the mushrooms were mentally real, and he has some psychic damage. Cal is just fatigued.

Callie heals Oz with cure wounds at level 2 for 10 HP restoration. But she takes 5 damage from a weird feeling of being STABBED IN THE SOUL BY PURE DEATH AND EVIL.

Bec thinks the mushroom face woman is some legendary creature… not a fey creature… but she can’t put her finger on it. Neither can Callie.

The party realizes that outside of their magical protective hut, real (presumably evil) mushrooms have overgrown everything—even including the hut’s walls and ceiling. It’s a good thing the tiny hut has a floor too, or who knows what would have happened to the party while they slept!

The agents spend some time trying to decide how to proceed without getting near the mushrooms, which seem to be emitting some kind of highly poisonous spores. They clear away the mushrooms on the hut’s roof, shoot a grappling arrow up to the forest canopy above them, and proceed to climb and/or float their way up into the treetops, safe from the carpet of mushroom death.

Surveying the area around them, while discussing how to proceed from there, Freki’s ravens report that someone is closing in on their position. After a short while, a tiny mushroom man riding a poodle moth comes into view!

After being berated by the creature for riling up the mushrooms, the agents try to explain the situation. Vondal is on the same wavelength with the mushroom druid, who they learn is named Enoki, and his moth companion is Cornelius. Enoki and Cornelius fly down to the center of the mushroom field, and the cranky little man begins shouting at the mushrooms and bludgeoning them with his staff, which causes them to recede one by one. After a little while, the agents complain that this approach is going to take forever, and the group arrives at a solution: Enoki can lead a ritual to calm all the mushrooms at once, with the help of the SPI agents.

Callie, Bec, Vondal, and Sartus work to aid Enoki. Sartus continues to seem strangely ill at ease in this natural setting, and he isn’t too helpful… but the others are.

As the ritual nears completion, Cal receives a sending from Tybalt:

• Tybalt: We found the Book on the forest floor. Was this your doing? The Tree’s getting worse. The queen is deathly ill. What do you know?
• Cal: Book not us. Tree has passages bored in. Queen infected by mushroom woman. Freki accidentally decapitated Queen in Feywild. Ritualing with Enoki now. Please advise.

Tybalt sends to Cal again:

• Tybalt: Warforged searching area near Book. I will gather more intel and get back to you when I know more. More urgency now. Keep me apprised.

Just as Cal receives this message, the ritual is complete; Enoki exhales an enormous sigh of relief as a massive number of spores shoot from his cap, which cover everything and send all the mushrooms away. “They won’t act up again for a while. I need a nap…” and he collapses.

• Cal: Group casting with Enoki. Will explore passages afterward. Will update with pertinent information. SO MANY SPORES! Mushroom problem resolved.

GM’s note: How and why did Enoki find the SPI agents where he did? Because that’s where the trail of mycelial corruption led: to ground zero. He didn’t bother explaining this, of course…

The agents let Enoki sleep it off while they discuss the situation. They debate whether to return to the surface to meet up with Tybalt and the Warforged, but ultimately decide to continue on their journey to rescue the Fruit of Life from the Tree before it falls victim to the Book’s dark magic.

The agents wake up Enoki and learn that he is familiar with the Fruit of Life, and claims to know where it is. The way he speaks, the party starts to think Enoki might be really old—maybe thousands of years old. Vondal sweet-talks Enoki into guiding them to the Fruit.

They follow Enoki for several hours. With Freki’s survival skills and everyone’s vigilance, they are able to proceed up the Tree without any major incidents.

Until…

They hear a buzzing sound in the distance. It grows increasinly loud, and after a few minutes a small swarm of locusts comes into view. It seems to be heading for an area just ahead of the party. They reorient themselves into a defensive position as the locusts keep moving, settle into the trunk 50 feet in front of the party, and coelesce into a bipedal shape.

The being speaks in a droning mass of sound: “We are Eixam (ee-SHAHM), and we have come to help.”

Sartus casts polymorph and animal messenger on the elephant to turn it into a crow and then sends it to the Queen with a message: “Our journey continues, and all is well.”

After traveling for a while, Freki reappears in a puff of brimstone, directly behind Bec. But not before the others made much progress slashing, climbing, and surviving with aplomb through the rougher terrain. He claims to have been trapped in a force maze.

That evening, the party stops at beautiful tree:

As the sun sets, the fruit begins to glow, captivating everyone.

Sartus says it is a dormina tree, which he has never seen in person before, but the fruit of which will send anyone who eats it into a euphoric slumber.

Oz does not hesitate to eat one of the fruits right away, and falls asleep smiling. Callie also has a bite of a fruit, and takes one with her for later.

Bec, ever the sensible one, casts a tiny hut spell to secure shelter for the party near the tree.

Oz and Callie have euphoric experiences!

Callie has visions of adventures with all the people she’s known. She digs a hole with Tybalt Nightbreeze, then plays dragon poker with Sima Cordelia and wins! But Sima says she cannot pay Callie what she owes until she is freed from her captivity—and Callie realizes that Sima is chained to a wall in a cave. She hears a voice asking, in an unfriendly tone: “Who are you? How did you get here?”, turns around, and sees a person with an eyeless mushroom face! Who then swallows her!

Oz dreams he’s a pirate, raiding pirate ships and fighting pirate battles. While swinging across to a target vessel, he realizes that strangely, the deck is devoid of life. Proceeding below decks to investigate, the stairs down become a tunnel through the trees into the Feywild…

The others—Callie, Bec, Cal, and Freki—appear as well. They all find themselves on a forest path, with harmonious dwellings integrated:

This servant:

emerges from a door and asks them to come inside. She claims that Ambriel Estanesse, Queen of the Seelie and Unseelie Courts, wants to speak with them.

Bec dispels the servant! But they decide to enter the door anyway.

The queen is seated at a long table eating fairy wings:

When she lowers her hood, they get a better look at her:

But when her mood changes for the better, her appearance transforms:

She offers the assistance of the Seelie and Unseelie Courts if they agree to swear oaths:

• Feytouched swear an oath of service: assistance in future for a particular to-be-named task, for no more than a year and a day.
• Godtouched swear an oath of exile: never to return to Elyrian lands.

Alternately, when Sartus requests an alternate bargain, the voices of the Courts speak! They suggest for the Feytouched to bond with the court, to gain its power but participate in its politics.

Ozborn swears: “The sun in your kingdom shall not shine again upon this face,” the vow sealed by a painful wave of psionic energy from Janus Ilaris representing the Unseelie Court, summoned by the queen in flesh and blood.

Cal is shocked to see the ghost, and refuses to swear an oath with him. He offers to swear an oath with the Queen, but she smiles sadly and says that in 7 days’ time, she will no longer be capable of enforcing such an oath. (The more astute and empathic amongst the SPI infer that the queen thinks she is going to die!) But the queen summons Orsob, a satyr, to represent the Seelie Court, and Cal swears the oath of exile by drinking a cup of tea with him:

Callie swears the oath of service with Orsob, because she feels now is not the time for waffling!

Freki waffles, claiming he doesn’t know which side he is on, but that his “oath” is to protect his friends before all else.

Bec tells the queen about the spot they saw in the blighted area, where the beetles went into the ground, on a hunch that it might be related to the queen’s pain. The Court acquiesces to the Queen indulging this theory once Cal and Oz had sworn their oaths.

The Queen manifests everyone spiritually at the blighted area. The agents show the queen where the suspicious activity took place, and she studies the ground. She reaches into the ground, her arm elongating as she reaches deeper and deeper… “I feel you… you will pay!” she hisses.

In response, everyone feels a psychic flash in their minds, and sees the same mushroom face that Callie saw in her vision. “I SEEEE YOOUU…”

The queen screams and withdraws her hand, as mushroom tendrils rapidly crawl up her arm and onto her body.

Reacting quickly, Freki pulls out his greatsword and takes his one chance to stop the spread of the contagion, by swinging at the queen’s arm… trips… and his sword comes down on her head.

Everyone wakes up screaming, covered in mushrooms.

Battle with murder sprite.

With Sartus Morningdew, the agents start climbing the World Tree, staying together. They climb up a 60-foot area. They find the Tree’s immature “golden path” of trees above. Then they find a blighted zone. Inside one of the dead trees are some beetles roving in a circle; in another, a sleeping sprite, which Ozborn wakes up. The sprite sleepily climbs out of the tree, spies the agents, and screams an ear-splitting shriek!

The party divvies up the merpeople treasure. They decide to store the treasure chests inside one of the treasures, a magical hole that is 10 feet deep and can be folded up.

When they get to the elven dwelling in the tree, everybody eats dinner and then they all go to bed. We are soooo tired!

Bec is woken up right at the beginning of her rest by some bastardTybalt. She comes out of her room and discovers the tree-melded. These elves are being absorbed by the tree, supplying their own life force to keep the tree alive. Her father is one of them! Every day one of these tree-melded gives up their own life so the tree doesn’t die. So far it hasn’t been him, but it could be any time.

Bec’s father says that it is a great honor to be joined with the tree, and it would have been a dishonor if he refused, so he did it and didn’t tell his family in case seeing them broke his resolve. He points out that Sartus’s plan will end up killing the tree, and the tree-melded along with it. The tree will be reborn, but there would be destruction in the meantime. This is why the Queen and most of the elves favor stopping the Druid and taking the Necronomicon back.

Bec asks Tybalt what his patron is doing to help this situation. Tybalt says he can’t speak to his patron’s intentions, he can only carry out his patron’s will. Tybalt offers to use his patron’s leverage to get the party a meeting with the Queen if that’s what we want. He can’t go with us if we decide to join the hunt for the Druid, but he will try to help however he can.

During their goodbyes, Bec’s father asks her not to consider his life as part of her decision. He also says he’ll help if he can. And if he lives through whatever happens next, then he hopes they’ll meet again. Then he says that the Queen is not of sound mind and sometimes what she says can’t be trusted. But sometimes she has incredible insight, so, try to tell which is which.

The next morning, Sartus is true to his word and escorts the party to the treasure vault, where they are able to trade some of their merfolk treasures for elven items of magic power to help them on their mission. Available treasures include:

The treasure vault also has an Ioun Stone of Mastery, which is a Legendary (Major) treasure that Oz considers bargaining for, but then decides it would be better to come back later to steal it instead.

Geared up, the agents set out to begin scaling the Tree in search of the legendary Acorn of Life.

The agents return to SPI HQ to find that Cal’s sword, the Arkenstab, has been stolen! And someone repaired the crystalline flux rift with karach! And where did this monkey come from?!

The decide to secure SPI HQ by changing the proverbial locks—i.e. the teleportation sigil sequence. At the same time, the meet with Sartus Morningdew, who is waiting anxiously at an SPI contact circle in Estanesse.

TODO: Flesh out these notes in more detail.

The party floats in void goo, suffocating. What do you do? Where do your thoughts go?

1. Vondal: “Must get rid of the goop!” Banishment spell with spell trick.
2. Callie: Use last charge on the Trident to talk to the fish remnants
3. Oz: Spite in the face of death: “Good luck gettin’ paid now, fuckfaces!”
4. Cal: “Can I use my whip to move myself?”
5. Bec: “My Dad, the World Tree, the Elves… will I ever see them again?” Hoping the World Tree doesn’t die…

Meanwhile, Freki accidentally pushes the big red TELEPORT button:

1. Looking around for a button that starts up the sub…
2. …sees the big red button… this must be it! Pushes it.
3. Too late, notices the label next to it that says “TELEPORT HOME – FOR EMERGENCIES ONLY”
4. Hears a build-up of energy…
5. …and the sub pops out of existence.
6. Freki feels rattled around… like the sub is looking for somewhere to go…
7. …but there is nowhere for it to go. It’s disconnected from reality here.
8. So, the pent up epic conjuration magic EXPLODES, filling the vacuum of the void!

The party feels this magical wave wash over them, reality rushing in. As it does so, the thoughts in their minds are made manifest in fascinating ways:

1. Freki remembers the ancient merfolk city that the aboleths had projected as an illusion, sensing it must have been based in historical reality. He imagines the city at its prime, and the merfolk metropolis begins to coalesce!
2. Oz: “What fun would life be if they weren’t chasing me?” He finds himself standing in an ill-gotten pile of gold and jewels and gems.
3. Cal: “Can I use my whip to rescue my friends?” His whip is suffused with epic magical power, becoming the Whip of Rescue +1 (Reach, Finesse).
4. Vondal’s banishment spell eliminates the divide between this place and the prime material plane, dissolving its barrier. As the realm is made manifest, he thinks quickly, visualizing the largest library ever built, open to the public, and it becomes part of the city!
5. Bec sees a vision of Sartus Morningdew waiting at a teleportation circle of the SPI.
6. Callie feels the power of her trident fuse with the realm as it comes into being, a powerful charm merfolk effect. The corrupted fish folk are restored to merfolk, who now believe in their hearts that the SPI agents are the ones from the other side of the Waters of Antigua! The ones prophesied to save them from the evil sorceress Gwendeviere, who decimated the city with the fierce Dragon Turtle Vorltrarr! But now that nightmare is finally over! The evil sorceress Gwendeviere can never threaten the waters of Antigua ever again, thanks to these brave adventurers!

Fortunately, it seems that banishing the aboleths’ foul influence restored Linistreya to her normal form as well. But she is still unconscious. Callie heals her and wakes her up. She is very grateful to see her daughter!

The SPI meets the mermaid princess Chrandria, and her friends Filiandra and Shraunna, who escort them to the Brotherkings Aquarmand and Harnaqua. They are rewarded with three large chests of treasure in thanks for their valiant efforts stopping the evil sorceress Gwendeviere and her dragon turtle Vorltrarr!

The agents discuss how to get home. They could take the sub home, but it’s a 12-day journey. And they would need to leave some munitions behind to make room for Linistreya. Or they could fix the teleportation circle, updating it to modern standards so that they can teleport.

They opt for the latter. Once Vondal has finished perusing the incredible library, and Bec has the teleport circle squared away, they teleport back to SPI HQ, except for Aurora and Lini, who return to Cognitutus to update the Board of Regents and Rollo on what has transpired. Their plan is to send someone back to Antigua later to retrieve the sub.

Case file addendum: What happened in Cognitutus?

1. A huge dragon turtle was wrecking the city, bashed in part of the bubble, and the water and sahaguin were streaming in… and then they just… stopped. The dragon turtle swam away back down into the depths, and the sahaguin seemed dazed and confused. When they realized the danger they were in on the front lines, they surrendered.
2. The Board of Regents were delighted with Aurora and the SPI, issuing a citywide proclamation of herodom honoring their accomplishments.
3. Rollo was ecstatic to be reunited with Lini. The Rockwells also finalized the deal to sell Euphoria back to the Noffindorfs, so their fortune is saved, and they are able to rehire all of the servants.

1. One by one, the pillar lights go out. Freki, Bec and Callie all have darkvision, but it is half as effective as normal.
2. The fish people meander off, back through the glass. There is no sign of Cal, Aurora, Vondal or Oz.
3. Callie is still connected to the über-fish. It is harming her psyche, but she can feel her mom deeper in the structure.
4. The party argues with each other, as they fall victim to the psychological tactics of the evil overlords.
5. After jabbing her trident into one of the suspicious columns, Callie establishes a psychic link with whatever is in charge of this place. She can feel her mother’s psyche and decides to follow it.
6. The party drifts down into a coliseum and is surrounded by fish people! Continuing to follow her mother’s trail, Callie leads the party into a cave. Inside is a giant monster!!!
7. After being grappled, Callie casts Zone of Truth to force the creature to stop lying. Her goddesses smile down and Erathis uses a significant chunk of power to destroy the illusions surrounding the party. They can now see that there are two aboleths whose will is holding the place and the giant monster together.
8. Freki RIPS APART THE ABOLETHS like a total wolfman.
9. Bec casts magic missile, kapow!!!
10. The aboleths die and the whole place dissolves into a barfy mess. Callie’s mom is free but has no hands or mouth. Vondal, Oz, Cal, and Aurora are there but unconscious.
11. Everyone takes some damage from grossness.
12. Freki, who can move quickly, goes back to the sub in an attempt to bring it back to collect the party and the unconscious innocents. Banging around on the buttons at random, he somehow manages to roll a 13 on his luck check and boop teleports in the sub. God. Damn. It.

1. Bec attempts to feel out telepathically, but everything is mentally…obfuscated.
2. The party has many opportunities to avoid Aboleth Doomsday! But for some reason, it seems they’d like to touch everything in here. It’s not a great idea.

3. There’s this magical orb that seems to be kind of a lightning rod for magic. Crazy messages from the psionic monster:

4. Callie – “begone your vileness(knowledge-cleverness-goodness-hope), it has no place here(void), vanish(sleep-die) for a while until your body(essence-soul) can be replaced with another more worthy(empty-cruel-infinite), this is always your choice(transformation-or-destruction)”
5. Bec – “we have destroyed(stab-of-pain-soul-ripped-out-of-body) much more powerful wizards(stab-of-hate) than you could ever become… on your own… their knowledge belongs to us… and you, if you join us”
6. Freki – “bit by bit… your curse consumes you(pain-of-jaws-rending-into-your-right-hand/claw, rich-delicious-blood-in-your-mouth)… turn your hunger to the ones more deserving(hatred-divine-magical-energy-radiating-from-the-organs-of-beings,organs-that-have-only-ever-been-there-for-you-to-eat) and grow strong(be-your-own-god,worship-at-your-own-feet,rip-away-your-body-and-eat-it,it-holds-you-back)

7. Oz – “you are the death(weapon-to-cleave-all-weapons,all-things) we have craved, raw impetuous undiscipline aligned with the void(our-unrealm-the-space-before-space-and-time-before-time), embrace your true existence(joy-at-breaking-rules,taking-what-you-want,no-authority-blunting-your-whim), total freedom forever.

8. Bec sees some creatures peering in through the walls. Then they start coming through the walls, arrrggggghhhhhh.
9. All our attacks bounce right off the orb. :(
10. Oz impulsively attacks the weird observing creatures. Two of the creatures grapple him while another one starts pulling pieces off its body and hucking them at Oz.
11. Bec, the smart person, decides to attack the pillars instead. This seems to work well! But since she is the only smart person, everyone else keeps attacking the fish-food zombies. :(
12. Oz’s attacks cause the creatures to fall apart into 8 tiny piranhas. :O
13. Using the Trident of Fish Command, Callie realizes that all the creatures attacking are part of one, giant, fish, creature. And somewhere in the legion of things that make up this thing, is Callie’s mom!!!!
14. Aboleths eat the party and obtain the Cornucopia and Lamp. NO THEY DO NOT…Maybe?
15. The meaning of time and space in the campaign world is corrupted.

1. Shark attack!
2. Sharks and sahaguin defeated.

1. Aurora hooks up the party with some guns. How the guns work:

2. Rate of fire
3. “Toasty” Flamethrower - mounted on the Crab - 3d6 fire in 15’ cone
4. M2HB heavy machine gun - mounted in weapon port on exterior - 1d12+3 per slug

5. M72A3 LAW torpedo launcher - occupying one passenger spot - 10d6

6. There is not enough room in the sub for all 8 people as well as all the guns. We leave Rollo behind to make room for the flamethrower. He gives Callie his blessing.
7. Swarms of creatures, and electrical firestorm/battle at the main gate. To avoid that, as well as the “poop tubes,” we decide to use the passwall module. We are sure it will be fine—but Callie gives Oz her inspiration and Vondal uses magic to boost his skill so we don’t all die.
8. We barely make it to the water.
9. Some sort of evil mental tendril is leading us to our doom. The End of All Things.
10. After several days in the sub, a large bluish floating bipedal being appears — a Water Genie (Marid), who warns us to turn back or DIE!!!
11. After being informed the party carries the Hornblade, Benirree the Elegant says she has no choice but to help, giving Vondal and Callie detect evil and good at will; Callie invisibility 1/day; Vondal control water 1/day. Benirree plane shifts away.
12. The party continues on their ill-advised journey for 12 more hours, till the water becomes more sludgelike, more difficult to navigate. Aurora’s continued sanity seems questionable.
13. Bec ventures out in the Crab, hits the flamethrower and sees the void of nothing.
14. After redocking the Crab, and traveling forward for another couple of minutes, the party realizes they have arrived at a non-place: a football-shaped Void around which reality itself bends. There is a crack leading in, which looks like this:
15. Those who are strong of mind realize that the city is an ancient phantom, with no bottom:
16. The party takes 20 minutes to buff, staring directly into the void while doing so.
17. The party heads into the sketchy chasm. They see a temple-looking thing floating in the non-reality underneath (see right).
18. There is a perfect place to dock the Streamcutter, which appears to be the sole obvious entrance into the temple. Everything is perfectly safe.
19. Oz, Freki and Cal scout into the temple. They begin to understand the layout of the temple. They start heading back to rejoin the others—but they are ambushed by sharks!

1. A sinister voice echoed in the room: “YOUR KINDRED IS IN OUR GRASP. BRING US THE PRIMARY CORPOREAL ELEMENT, OR WE WILL INCORPORATE THE KINDRED INTO OUR LEGION. WE ARRANGE A DISTRACTION—TO MINIMIZE INTERFERENCE FROM OTHER CORPOREAL BEINGS. BRING IT NOW. WE WILL GUIDE YOU. OR DO NOT, AND WE WILL WRACK YOUR TERRITORY WITH SUFFERING.”
2. Freki was backhandedly blessed by Pelor, and could breathe either water or air.
3. Rollo argued that the party should take the Cornucopia with them on a mission to locate the evil entities’ lair, destroy them, and save his wife Linistreya.
4. The group discussed how best to take the artifact out of the city and move on the lair of the big bad evil fish. They decided to speak to the city council, presenting themselves as agents of Linistreya, and request support.
5. Freki (reluctantly) opened his mind to Pelor, and felt a slight connection: “THE FUTURE IS YOURS TO SHAPE.”
6. Callie prayed to her deities for guidance: “Should we take the cornucopia, in whole or in part, out of Cognitutus; or should we leave it in the city where it is protected?” Her deities replied, “The fissures in your reality grow deeper… and time is a horizon beyond which even we gods see only imperfectly. Erathis: Take the Fountain, and all we have built may begin to topple and be destroyed. Avandra: Take the Fountain, and you may emerge triumphant over malevolent forces from before the dawn of time.”
7. The water smelled funny.
8. Oz scaled the Cornucopia and retrieved the horn, which became the Hornblade once he allowed the mysterious (and possibly malevolent) halfling spirit to touch him. The Hornblade functions as a +3 short sword of sharpness and wounding.
9. Gonna go talk to the Board of Regents! “Jeeves: to the Hall of Regents.”
10. Sirens started going off. Callie knew that this meant the fish army was already attacking.
11. Guards tried to keep the party out of the meeting, but they persuaded their way in by dropping Callie’s mom’s name.
12. Rollo attempted to speak to the Regents, but he is not a political creature and did not give a good speech.
13. Callie gave a speech: “We are aware of the threat to the city. My mother went on a mission to save it and she needs our help. I was granted a divine vision from Avandra. When you have an invasive plant, you do not just cut off the top and hope for the best. You dig it out root and stem! We are willing to lay down our lives for Cognitutus, what are you willing to do?”
14. Freki gave a speech: “I’m just a simple amphibious wolfman archer and I am willing to stand not only behind but in front of Callie to help.”
15. Oz gave a speech: “We are the SPI and this is what we do - we get results! The front line is not where you think it is.” He also stole a chicken drumstick as a prop/snack and wielded it to great effect.
16. After some deliberation, one of the regents (Kwalish) agreed to loan them her minisub called the Streamcutter, and one of the others (Aurora) agreed to come along on the crazy mission. The minisub also has a scout ship called the Crab that can be piloted by two gnome-sized people. The top can be put down like a convertible, although water will flood it unless a wizard can provide a diving bell sort of effect. There are 3 Caps of Water Breathing. It also has a button that will automatically teleport the sub back home, but it can only be used once. She also has an experimental module that might allow the sub to pass through a wall—or else scramble the sub and everyone on it.
17. Rollo went back to Rockwell manor to pick up some of his alchemical creations. He brought back 10 oils of slipperiness.
18. The party then met up with Aurora near the west gate, with guns on hand. It was clear the city’s alarms were going off in that area; curfew had been imposed. Attack seemed imminent.

1. The agents fought the monsters.
2. They broke free of the madness that gripped each of them, with reality reverting to the actual.
3. Before it was slain, the aboleth’s mucus cloud cursed Freki—he can now only breathe water.
4. In the aftermath of the confrontation, Rollo (Callie’s father) noticed that the family’s watercraft was missing…

1. Raliana told Callie that her parents have split up! She heard through the grapevine from Archibald (family butler) that she was staying at the Hotel Crane. The servants all went with her, except Raliana.
2. Nate on Auror: “I hate this gnome so much. He reminds me of a mall cop.”
3. Freki smelled a strong unnatural smell in the kitchenette, and decided to leave. The smell permeated everything, but became less strong as he moved further away from the action.

4. Back in the foyer, the party (sans Bec) discussed Auror’s plan to protect the Cornucopia.

5. He will wall off the Cornucopia with walls of stone+force, and then arcane lock the door. The interior of the structure he builds is dimensionally anchored, alarmed and antilife shelled. Inside on the floor is a glyph of warding spell glyph with hold monster.

6. He tried to get Callie to sign off on the plan, warning that it would be expensive but worth it. He was reluctant to name a price; the party thought ~20-50K gp of materials alone.

7. An undead “courier” of “the Company” arrived: a revenant with a contract signed by Lord Rockwell! He had a work order for one year of service from undead workers: 21 skeletons, 3 ghasts, and a revenant butler. Callie ordered them to wait outside until the issue could be cleared up by her father’s return.
8. Callie decided to send to her parents, one at a time:

a. [TO DAD] Undead platoon at the door, leader says they’re yours. I sent them away. What’s going on? Come home as soon as possible! b. [RESPONSE] Oh, you made it home! So glad to hear! Yes, I hired them. Cost-saving measure, you know? Please let them in. Be home shortly. c. [TO MOM] Where are you? Please tell me we still have live servants. Where is dad? Are you getting divorced? Come home as soon as possible! d. [RESPONSE] *emotional voice* Callie? Where are you?? I’m coming to save you, honey! Stay strong, don’t give in to the madness. I love you so much.

1. Vondal appeared in the fountain. SPLASH! Then Pelor said into his head: “YOU ARE NOT WORTHY OF THIS POWER. BEGONE AT ONCE.” and he was flung from the fountain. Vondal was pissed! He spat into the fountain. The fountain shrugged it off.
2. Callie poked her face out the front door and ordered the undead servants to make a path for when her parents got home.
3. Oz heard a voice calling him “My chosen avenger” but that didn’t make sense to him. He thought maybe it was a telepathic wrong number. But the voice persisted, and he saw that the Horn of the Cornucopia had become a compelling-looking hornblade. Oz decided to grapple over there swashbuckler-style.
4. Freki started dancing to create a distraction. Oz landed on the top of the fountain and talked to a halfling ghost identifying herself as Yondalla. He touched the Cornucopia and his hand transformed! The Cornucopia itself lost its magical aura. Vondal theorized that the halfling woman was “put outside of reality” somehow.
5. Callie’s father returned home. He had a new tattoo of a white crane on his neck. He confirmed that he had hired the undead servants as a “cost-saving measure” and ordered them down into the manor to start working. A little while later, they heard Raliana scream.
6. Bec realized that the revenant butler was her father, Letharil Galere. But he couldn’t remember her.
7. Raliana screamed. “There are skeletons!” and came upstairs. Callie calmed her down.

8. People started having weirder and more intense ideas:

9. Freki wolfed out, trying to escape from the manor, but lost his direction.

10. Callie (at the suggestion of Raliana) got the big idea that her parents might be mentally incompetent, and

11. People had a critical moment to reject the reality of what was transpiring, and state a revelation:

12. Vondal: “This is the work of the deep ones!”
13. Oz, reluctantly: “This is not my hand!” and it returned to normal. The Cornucopia was also back to normal.
14. Callie: “That’s not my dad!” And Rollo said, “What are you talking about?” But his tattoo disappeared!
15. Bec was not sure what was real! Is it her dad? Isn’t it?

Freki: “The cook is the source of the corruption!” And she transformed into this:

1. SPI agents transport to Cognitutus using Callie’s secret sigil sequence.
2. Freki saw a light far-off in the distance out to sea. He got the impression the light was very big, and therefore probably very far away.
3. They made their way through the vibrant underwater city to the Rockwell family manor. On the way, Callie insinuated that she was bringing these non-gnomes back to her family to serve as dinner. The driver seemed nonplussed. Oz discerned via innuendo that the driver had some criminal connections, but did not understand what they were trying to ask him.
4. The manor was strangely unoccupied, with no servants nor family to be found. The Cornucopia was sitting in a dominant position in the first-floor foyer, having completely crushed the teleportation circle there.
5. After exploring several lavish rooms, the agents happened upon the study, where a man named Reginald Auror sat at the desk, writing some notes. He recognized Callie and was unsurprised to see her.
6. The agents learned Auror was a security consultant hired to keep the Cornucopia safe from any and all threats. He had only just begun his assessment and plan to do this. He was initially gruff, but became slightly less rude as time went on. Auror claimed that Callie’s parents were out at an important meeting, but did not know what it was—only that they would be back later that evening.
7. Auror mentioned “horrors from the deep” multiple times during their conversation. After Auror left the study, they inspected the document that he had been writing. It was a sketch of the area around the Cornucopia, with some jotted notes about protective spells. In one margin was drawn a cartoonish-looking fish monster.
8. Callie offered everyone snacks; the agents went to the kitchenette. There, they encountered Raliana, the long-time Rockwell family chef. She was happy to see Callie, and told her that her parents were out at a pre-arbitration meeting for Euphoria.

TODO

Freki remembers being the target of a scrying. He tells his allies about the message. They decide that Callie is going to use sending again, to contact Gardenblossom:

Where are you?
How can we get to you?
Why did you contact us?
Was that your scrying?
What’s going on?
Still love the clock.

Leopold’s reply:

I can’t believe you’re using Sending! Such an inferior spell!

Sure, it’s a little faster than scrying, but way less versatile. Back in my day—

The party waits 10 minutes for Gardenblossom to respond again, but he does not. They decide to teleport to the SPI HQ. They dig up a teleport crystal and activate it! The magic feels… sluggish. But it activates. Agents feel like their bodies and souls are being stretched like taffy through the wormhole…

The party finds a branch that is crying out for water. Callie tries healing it, but it just disintegrates under her touch. Bec discovers that it was undead.

Vondal tries some magic! It causes Callie to burst into bright light, blinding everyone. Vondal tosses Callie a rope so she doesn’t get lost, but everyone moves 5+ feet away from her to get away from the light.

Vondal doesn’t want to use his mystery wand, which he got from the genie. But he doesn’t want to put it away, either.

In a room that used to be Mallory’s office is a desk with a lamp that is “shedding roots.” Freki walks over to the desk and senses that the plant wants to help him. He likes the weird magical plant! Vondal casts Read Thoughts and kind of talks to the desk. Desky tries to get the party to open up its drawers and take what’s inside. Inside the drawer is a number of helpful alchemical objects. Vondal immediately becomes best buds with Desky, but their conversation takes a strange(r) turn and the party leaves. He’s acting shifty, but he doesn’t tell the others what’s wrong. When they’ve left the room and the door is closed, he fills them in that the desk turned out to be evil. Still, we’re keeping the loot!!! Freki and Callie really want to keep the loot, but Bec and Vondal warn them away. BY PEEING ON IT!

Vondal uses Prestidigitation to clean his vomit off of everybody. Callie tries to sneak a vial of Alchemical Fire, but then Vondal pees on all the loot to make it nasty to touch! Callie very reluctantly replaces the vial without touching the pee.

In Cassandra’s lab, a weird bulging wall of dirt covers the wall that had the hole. Bec sticks her head in. She calls out to Gardenblossom twice, but no answer. Then hears a very faint low droning sound. She mage hands near the dirt, and the hand becomes visually scrambled, like a computer glitch. Bec reasons that the dirt is elemental magic, and some sort of extraplanar phenenomenon distinct from the original hole.

Vondal: “So… you guys wanna fight it here, where it’s super strong? Or in a mini elemental plane of earth, that somehow dampens the flux? Your choice, ‘cause it’s probably comin’!”

Callie eats all the cheese. It’s not going to save her. :(

The SPI buffs, then proceeds through the earthen barrier. Oh noez, the tree comes to life! Combat ensues.

TODO picture of tree

Web at the bottom of the hill.

• Hilltop is 40 feet up—there is a huge nightmare tree (big d30), brutal-looking Hezrou demon (yellow d6), and giant mosquito-like chasme demon (orange d6).

TODO pictures of demons

• Vondal and Callie break right to edge of web, a little further down the hill
• Bec breaks right to edge of web, no further up the hill
• Freki breaks left to edge of web, no further up the hill
• A wall of fire 60 feet wide and 20 feet high shields the party from the hilltop and its monsters
• The tree moved through the fire to the other side; at the center just past the fire
• Freki’s turn is next
• Everyone is blessed
• Callie and Bec have earth spell slots from Zan’qaa
• Freki entangled the mosquito but it broke free but is still at the hilltop
• The Hezrou came around the right side of the wall of fire
• Zan’qaa is still floating above the scene. What will he do next??

Callie suggests to teleport the Cornucopia to “my parents’ basement—by which I mean their vault.” She explains that they live in a secure location in Cognitutus, the secret underwater city of gnomes! Bec deciphers and adapts a ritual from a history book that Anne Bonny brought, which described a druidic group ritual to … the party can’t remember. Bec leads the group teleportation ritual, barely competent (with Stephanie rolling exactly what was needed on the die). Anne Bonny provides the scroll of teleport. Callie draws the sigil sequence. Bec opts not to include the participants in the teleportation effect, but only the artifact.

The agents then realize they will need to trek back to Refuge—another seven-day journey through the desert, which has grown notably more inhospitable since the Cornucopia disappeared.

Anne Bonny whines to her boss: “Do we really need to slog all the way back?” to which Bram says no, they can teleport back. After a brief discussion, SPI agents agree to accompany Bram and Anne Bonny back to the Tempest, Bram’s ship.

They appear in the captain’s quarters. There is a lot of treasure and finery. There is an ice chest, closed, with an unlocked padlock. Bec almost peeks inside but Bram says, “I wouldn’t open that if I were you.”

Out on the deck, they see a large teleportation circle in the middle. A terrible storm rages in all directions a mile or so out from the ship. Several pirate crew members are active on deck, including a thri-kreen lookout peering through a magical spyglass from the crow’s nest.

The lookout climbs down and clicks at Bram, handing him the spyglass. Bram spies a chaos rift a couple miles away, and charts a course around it. “That wasn’t there before.”

Sending from Callie’s mom:

Response from Callie to her mom:

Vondal suggests contacting R. Martine Andrews, the sentient Warforged artifact, who went off after the Necronomicon, which had been stolen by an evil druid. Sending from Callie:

Response from the Warforged:

Sending from Callie to R. Martine Andrews:

Response from the Warforged:

Where is Mallory? No answer on the sending stone.

The SPI can barely remember Cassandra.

A scrying sensor appears above Cal! The thri-kreen lookout perceives it through the trueseeing spyglass.

Party doesn’t like being spied on. Bram is OK with Bec trying to dispel it. She casts dispel magic right as Leopold Gardenblossom messages Cal: “Where in the bajeezus are you? We’ve been looking everywhere for you! Please, come meet us at—” and the dispel magic terminates the scrying effect before Gardenblossom can finish.

The SPI valiantly battles the agents of Pelor. The largest stone statue rumbles to life, and speaks with Pelor’s voice! How dare they, mere mortals, interfere with a sacred artifact that protects an entire nation!

Bram fires back! How dare he, a stupid god, take issue with his much more awesome goddess, Melora! She knows what’s best for the Cornucopia! And it sure as hell isn’t safe where it is!

Pelor proposes a test of their valor and resolve: defeat his guardians, and he will allow the relocation of the Cornocupia. Two more stone statues rumble to life!

The SPI battles them, and is victorious! Pelor assents to their wishes. He also allows Panthea to drink from the Water of Life. She is judged—wracked with pain, and then falls dead. Her soul is cleansed, and in a better place now, Pelor says.

On the first night of camp, we discuss the prospects of stealing the cornucopia, as Seirye wants us to do. Freki asks about what will happen to the region if we take the artifact away. Bec asks why take it, rather than one of the smaller relics?

Seirye says:

1. The lamp is in SPI custody (Vondal took it to hide)
2. The Necronomicon was stolen and a Druid called Isis Rakesh has it
3. The Warforged went after the Necronomicon
4. The stone is also in SPI custody (Cal has it)
5. The ship is at sail in the Infinite Ocean, exact whereabouts unknown
6. The tree is even bigger than the cornucopia
7. The puzzlebox was stolen by Alex Orbach, who claimed to have it in his possession, although nobody got a look at it.

Freki interrogates Seirye rather rudely and she storms out. Callie tries to talk her down and gives her a little information about the puzzlebox. Seirye is unhappy that people don’t believe her.

On the second night, Meroe is doing worse. Her affliction resembles mummy rot (but isn’t), also resembles turning into undead (but isn’t that either).

On night four, Meroe throws up dead bees.

On the fifth night, Meroe can hardly go any farther. Freki decides to leave and see if he can retrieve the water. Meroe confesses to the circus crime. She framed Zombozo for the murder because he killed her parents when she was 13 (also he sucked as a manager, but mainly the parents thing). Also, after Freki leaves, Panthea rips out a chunk of her hair and it turns into Oz. Seirye beats the hair with her quarterstaff as it turns into our party member.

Then, a worm! Right after supper the worm attacks and is strangely attracted to Meroe but the party (with Freki hurriedly returning from his scouting ahead) manages to kill it before it can harm anyone.

On day six, Seirye tries to convince us to go through with the heist. When we won’t agree, activates her bracelet of friends, and summons her pirate boss, Bram the Blithe! We learn that Seirye is really Anne “Bonny” Qin, Seirye’s sister, and notorious first mate of the dreadnought Tempest. The time travel schtick was a ruse. But Anne and Bram insist that the goddess Melora really did tell them that a great calamity is coming, and the artifacts need to be secured. In any case, we agree to continue to the Cornucopia in order to heal Meroe and Panthea.

On day seven, Meroe is comatose, so we pull her in a makeshift sled.

We arrive at the Cornucopia. There are two Luminous Defender paladins there, two weeks off schedule! Meroe has awoken, and is acting strange, claiming she is fine. She meanders toward the paladins. As she reaches the Cornucopia to take a drink, one of the paladin tries to put his hand on her shoulder: “Halt! Who are you? What are you doing?” His hand passes through her body like sand, and she falls forward, dissolving into dust.

• Vondal leaves the Amulet of Vecna’s Lore in the safe in his house, along with his retirement savings. Then everyone met back up in the tunnel near the entrance to the old HQ.
• Lightning breath and shenanigans ensue. The old HQ has been consumed by the Flux. The gang escapes while Ghensh serenades the guard (Lomagret Drakehead) and proceeds to get drunk with her.
• Meroe has a resurgence of flux taint. Vondal sees that Panthea also is still affected by the taint but has yet to tell the rest of the party.
• Seirye wants to secure the Cornucopia by teleporting it away using a group ritual. The SPI agents do not necessarily agree, but Meroe is willing to do anything to get healed.
• The team heads to Oasis to prepare for the journey. Vondal plans to catch up in an hour.

Urchin delivering note: “Time to go. Don’t mention that you’re heading to the portal to them. Pay this child a silver; I will repay you. –V”

• Mary is unmasked as Seirye Qin. She claims to be from a future where a “calamity” has occurred—a calamity she is now trying to prevent by stopping the eight artifacts from being brought together and potentially destroyed. She says that Vondal sent her back in time, and that she cannot say much more for fear of polluting the timeline.
• The next morning, MAD shows up and kicks out the SPI—they have a writ from the Aecus Concord Council of Nations designating the SPI as the site of a threat to security. They refer to “the Incident” a lot.
• The five people from the MAD posse:
  • Sennik Cromwell, grizzled but fatherly Luminous Defender, a paladin of vengeance.
  • Donovan Morvain, half-dragon dragonborn bard, last seen in Case 01 as a member of the Luminous Defenders. The SPI knows him to secretly be a cambion: i.e., his father is a fiend.
  • Leopold Gardenblossom, from Case 03, a gnomish professor of magical theory. He’s the one who made Gurin Aldrimor’s life clock.
  • Ceowyn Mandragoran, the Grandmaster of Earth, a wood elf. He was present during “the Incident,” and left with Mallory to get help.
  • Sil Aldrimor, also from Case 03, former general of the dwarven armies, now dour-faced and stoic. She is silent for the entire encounter.
• Notably, Mallory is not among them.
• Vondal blurts out that Morvain is “the guy whose dad is a secret,” then challenges Morvain’s authority to take control of the SPI headquarters.
• Ozborn and Cal secretly raid the evidence locker, taking the Lamp of Seeming and Amulet of Vecna’s Lore, giving them to Zanqaa the Devoted (earth genie) to conceal them in Vondal’s ring of spell storing.
• Freki annoys the MAD agents—e.g., he gives his branch from the Shadow Forest tree to Morvain, claiming it was “involved in the Incident.”
• Cassandra decides to free Panthea and Meroe from the holding cell and bring them along. She confides in Freki that their best course of action is to extricate themselves from the situation, to avoid ending up powerless in the holding cell themselves.
• Ghensh escorts Leopold Gardenblossom to the breach. He removes his carpet, thinking that Gardenblossom knows what he’s doing as he begins to pull out a large number of scrolls and other arcane paraphernalia. Ceowyn Mandragoran hustles to the breach so that he can reseal the breach with his elemental magic.
• Cassandra and the SPI agents teleport away.

• Cassandra heals Freki.
• Vondal realizes there is virulent wild magic sparkles afoot.
• Mallory comes, Mallory leaves to get backup.
• Cassandra says she knows that the agents have a part of some power, and the creature has some part, and this power craves to become whole again.

Callie’s Diary

• I joined hands with my fellow magicians and cast Dispel Magic once.
• Then we decided to use the Arkenstone in Cal’s sword as a focus, to cast Dispel Magic harder.
• After that, all my magic got sucked into the sword!
• And then Meroe and Panthea ran away.
• I was so mad, I pulled out my crossbow and shot at them!
• After Ozborn stabbed her, I saved Meroe’s life with Vondal’s wand of healing.
• Then we all went out to the designated teleportation circles to check for new recruits.
• We found one! She came back and sparred with Freki. Her name is Mary Reed.
• Mary almost killed Freki! I used the wand of healing again.
• Then I was tired, so I went to bed. We are supposed to be wild-magic-quarantined anyway. What could go wrong?

If she sprays the barrier with our blood, it will become a grizzly barrier.

—Ghensh

• They fight the demon (a balrog? a balor?), while attempting to penetrate the Zeno’s paradox of a barrier into SPI HQ.
• The demon seems somehow reluctant (or possibly unable?) to get near Ghensh’s carpet. It also is reluctant/unable to enter reality bubbles that people manifested.
• With Ghensh’s efforts, the yachtopus “made port” with the barrier. The party tried various things to penetrate the barrier, without initial success. But eventually, the carpet speared itself through, and unrolled enough to create an opening large enough for the party to beginning slipping through one at a time. Bec is the first one through, and quickly informs the NPCs what was going on.
• Ceowyn Mandragoran, the Master of Earth, blasted elemental energy through the carpet’s opening, splattering a bunch of reality into the chaotic zone. Ceowyn seemed confident, while Cassandra was more concerned.
• Ceowyn says that Cassandra possesses the power to… something relating to healing or helping the party overcome their ailment…?

• Vondal and Bec both create bubbles of stable reality. Because they both are powerful, the realities combine.
• Panthea’s body starts morphing.
• Vondal decides to reshape reality in the form of a playground. Panthea tries to grab at the playground equipment with her hair, but she is too clumsy and can’t grab it. Everybody flails around in various ways. Vondal wills a yachtopus (half octopus, half yacht) into existence so everyone can ride together.
• Panthea turns into an anemone. Ghensh imposes his will on reality and turns everything into pure platinum. Various things get stuck in the platinum and eventually tumble together and start cruising down the mystical flow atop the yachtopus.
• Freki intuited that there were two ways out of this place: a “high risk, high reward” direction toward crisis but also salvation; and a “low risk, low reward” direction away from harm, but away from destiny.
• The party encounters a strange scene: the body of Alex Orbach, with his heart cut out in the same manner as Dominic Tremere’s was—and a twisted small-sized creature wearing Priscilla Stormcloud’s clothes eating of it.
• The creature sees them. Bec sleeps the creature, and they take it with them on the yachtopus, along with Orbach’s body.
• Freki traces the flow of this place to its center, and they see SPI HQ.
• The creature awakens and transforms into a huge demon!

No story this session… just leveling up and hanging out!

• Fire was all over, and several people fell into the pit down the rockslide of rubble.
• Vondal tried to use wild magic to mitigate the situation, but managed to turn himself and Ozborn into potted plants.
• Meroe tried to kill everyone with magic. She used obscuring mist and then confusion on the owlbears Fuzzy and Wuzzy.
• Vondal the plant sparkled, and over the next moments, exploded into a giant beanstalk.
• Meroe implored Panthea to “remember her promise,” which Panthea reluctantly did. She apologized and pushed Ghensh off of his carpet.
• But then, the party persuasioned Panthea into surrendering after Meroe was critically injured. Panthea agreed to surrender in exchange for fair treatment.
• But the landsharks were still attacking, doing devastating damage. As such, everyone rallied and climbed the beanstalk up into a mystical sparkling realm, leaving all their problems behind forever!

• Ozborn wakes up; runs into the Grandmaster of Earth in the SPI HQ. The monk tells him that it is a good thing Ozborn woke up, because he and Callisto are needed by their friends now. “I see the tapestry of fate. If you do not join them, you will not be happy with how matters proceed.” Ozborn wakes up Cal, they talk to Mallory, and head out.
• Ozborn snags a pixie after a slam-dunk hop and hands the pixie to Freki.
• We pepper the pixies with persistent petitions.
• Freki freaks and summons his birds. The pixies scatter!
• Vondal wakes up in a trash heap. “Not again!” He is almost eaten by some kind of trash monster (otyugh). A Kenku bird-man (Weezer) stops the trash monster from doing so.
• Also, Vondal is a pony now.
• Ghensh goes to investigate. But then, the golem Squatch says his tummy hurts. Ozborn asks to look at it. The golem is agreeable. The part that hurts is weirdly… squishy. Ozborn and Callie decide to do an “exploratory-investigatory surgery.” Ozborn attempts to bribe the golem with a ball bearing, but the Kenku bird-man runs over and steals it.
• Vondal and the bird-man talk about shinies. He accuses the pixies of stealing his shiny disguise hat.
• Callie cuts open the golem and Bec notices that it has a fresh interior wound. Afterwards, Meroe and Panthea come over angry and Callie uses a heal wounds spell to mend the golem. Meroe is reluctantly thankful.
• The party interviews Panthea and Meroe again in some depth. They suss out that there was a past incident of Zombozo getting “out of control,” which Panthea is emotional about somehow…
• [other things that have been forgotten in the mists of time]
• The party presses Meroe increasingly harder. She becomes agitated, and decided to pull the trigger on her trap: a wired underground infrastructure of bombs. The ground from her desk explodes outward and collapses, exposing the underground lair of the landsharks Fair and Foul.

• Freki’s birds pecked him awake. Laying in a pool of blood. Not his own blood. Next to him, Cal was dead. Freki held the murder weapon limply in one hand.
• Flash back to the real world—in Mallory’s office.
  • Cassandra found them at the fourth teleportation circle of Estenesse.
  • No sign of anyone else. Where did they go?
  • Mallory said that he does not know the location of any of the others.
• Mallory gave the agents their next case: murder at the circus!
• Freki was very disturbed by his vision (or whatever it was). He was fully convinced Cal was dead. But Mallory promised that Cal was just sleeping in his quarters, still recovering from the party’s recent ordeal at the auction. Freki insisted on checking on Cal in his room, where he was indeed found in a deep slumber.
• Agents went to Sanctum and found the LD chapter house. They met Brother Alabastor.
  • He led them to Zombozo’s cell. Zombozo told them he didn’t do it.
  • Knock knock! Who’s there? Harry! Harry who? Harry up and get me out of here!
  • Knock knock! Who’s there? Toodle! Toodle who? Buh-bye!
  • Brother Alabastor and two paladins then escorted them to the circus.
• The agents met and interviewed Meroe, Panthea and Squatch.
  • Meroe seemed pretty busy.
  • Squatch seemed somewhat fixated on the bodies.
• The order of acts in the show:

1. Comedy show with Zombozo and the pixie clown

2. Trapeze act (Panthea and pixies) + light show (Meroe and pixies)

3. Bodies were found towards the end of this act.

4. Animal act (Weezer)
5. Intermission
6. Comedy redux
7. Strong man
8. Grand finale

• Freki spoke to Meroe in private in her tent about possibly working at the circus.
  • He showed her his transformation shtick.
  • Meroe invited Freki to perform with them that night.
  • He learned that she believes the circus will be more profitable with her in charge.
• Callie cast speak with dead on Vanesse:

1. Who did you see last? My husband
2. Why were you killed? I don’t know
3. Why were you not watching the show? I was hungry, and had to pee
4. What made you step back? A huge clown
5. Were you serious about investing in the circus? Yes

• The agents discussed the mysterious “second clown” that performs with Zombozo during the opening act. The clown appeared—a ten-foot-tall creature wrapped in bandages from head to toe. And then it exploded into a swarm of pixies!

I can’t remember… did the potion of divine potential… explode‽ The whole manor—it went crazy. I’m not sure how, but we barely escaped with our lives. At least… I think we did…

• Bec Galere, Freki Sarin, Cal and Vondal are present for the continuing investigation.
• Quick recap of who is representing which artifacts:
  • Death - Necronomicon - Isis Ra’ksh - Not present
  • Knowledge - Puzzlebox - Alex Orbach (by process of elimination!)
  • Light - Arkenstone - Cal’s sword
  • Life - Cornucopia - in Oasis - Not present (or possibly Janus Ilaris? WTF?)
  • Nature - Tree - Sartus Morningdew representing the Fey Queen
  • Tempest - Ship - Bram the Blithe, Captain of the Tempest
  • Trickery - Lamp - Mallory and the SPI representing
  • War - Martine Andrews - Not present - Dominic Tremere fronting
  • Open question - Why is Tybalt Nightbreeze / Janus Ilaris here?
• Vondal casts detect thoughts. He tries to target the lich, but finds no mind to target. At that moment, Tremere accuses Orbach; Vondal swaps his focus! Then he targets the pirate, who is thinking: “That dick! Of course he tried to frame me! I’d never eat that shitty heart.”
• Bec thought the speak with dead should have lasted longer. Vondal believed “something is wrong with the body”—like its soul had not transitioned properly to the next plane, but instead had been somehow ripped out.
• Cal asked whether the Periapt of Health is genuine. Bec detected magic, focusing on the periapt, and saw that it was moderately magical with a conjuration healing aura! It appeared to be real.
• Freki tried to sniff out where the heart might have gone. But his search was fruitless, and eventually he gave up in frustration. But he did hear a quasi-horrific shrieking from the far door of the library. The door was slightly open, and he saw an arcane laboratory within. The strange shrieking sound was louder here. Freki signaled to Cal, who came closer.
• The shriek suddenly intensified. The following people proceeded quickly but cautiously to the Preservatory through the Arcane Lab: Cal, Freki, Bec, Bram, Timor, Murky. They passed a beholder in a jar! And all kinds of pickled somethings. There were also skulls and scented candles.
• The following people refused to be distracted and remained with the body: Vondal, Priscilla, Alex and Sartus.
• Where did Tybalt Nightbreeze go? He was lost in the shuffle…
• The SPI fought the murderous shrieking mega plant!
  • It grabbed the pirate with its main tentacle, and ate him shortly thereafter.
  • Invictus fed the plant a previously-unseen corpse hanging from the ceiling, which kept the plant distracted for a moment.
  • Freki shot it with an arrow (which worked! Was the geas not applicable somehow? Or no longer in effect?), then ring-of-jumped down its gullet.
  • Cal Indiana-Jones’d down to the ground with his whip, but couldn’t stab through the plant’s thick outer casing.
  • Bec pelted the plant with magic missiles.
  • Vondal came running when Murky told him what was going on, dove onto the catwalk, tripping and falling as he cast slow, which rebounded off the plant tainted with necromantic energy, and seeped into him. The plant then slammed him with tentacles till he almost died. He was almost necromantically reincarnated into something horrible, but narrowly saved by Bec, who used a healing potion and a very prudent dispel magic to unravel his curse before it festered—resulting in a harmless explosion of wild magic butterflies, aww!
  • Invictus conjured a Bigby’s Hand and grappled the plant, holding its mouth shut so that it would stop eating people.
  • A partially digested Freki Hulked out, transforming into a werewolf, and tore his way out like the Kool-aid Man. “I coulda done that!” said Bram. Freki almost devoured the heart of his enemy, but thought better of it when: A) the pirate shouted “Don’t do it, man!” at him, and B) he felt vile necromancy spreading down his limb even in the first moments of his holding it.
• Invictus: “Poor Matilda. Lucky you dispatched her before she replicated.”
• But the zombies got loose! Someone must have opened the first floor door. They were streaming all over the place: into the Preservatory, up the stairs, into the Hall of Victory… Invictus used the Bigby’s Hand to shove them around, then commanded them to lie down, then commanded them back into the room.
• Orbach somehow slipped away from Stormcloud and Morningdew unnoticed. Bec looked around, and noticed something unseen (invisible? Hard to tell) lurking in the torture chamber. Then it disappeared (did it jump down into the pit‽), and Cal noticed something unseen (invisible? Hard to tell) shouldering zombies out of the way in the 1st floor doorway. Cal whipped it good, tripping Orbach. The party dogpiled him, took away his gear, tied him up, and dragged him back to the Study. “I almost made it,” he said, “I guess it’s time to make a deal.”

• Callie Rockwell, Ghensh Faass, Bec Galere and Freki Sarin are present for the auction.
• Freki remembers following Dominic Tremere to the Conservatory as he stormed out of the room (the same way Cal did/remembers from session 20). Freki overheard a conversation between Tremere and the lich.
• Ghensh overheard Sartus trying to hire Orbach over a game of dragonchess. “We’ve heard you have a talent for obtaining unique items; we seek a bothersome item that currently vexes our people; the elven treasury could more than adequately compensate you for your time and effort.” Invictus immediately appeared and tried to hire Orbach instead. “I’ll pay double, should you instead obtain said item for me, its rightful owner.” Sartus raised an eyebrow, giving Invictus an irritated look. Orbach declined, saying he cannot find missing objects—only obtain them when their location is already known to him. Sartus persisted: “We heard a rumor that you already obtained this item once before—does that not make it more feasible in this case?” Orbach glanced askance at Tremere. “I don’t know what you mean.” But Tremere looked pissed and stomped out of the room. Orbach, sarcastically to Sartus: “Thanks for that,” and he went into the foyer.
• The lich led the party to the body. On the way, the party was joined by the other guests:
  • Timor Invictus escorted the party the entire way.
  • Priscilla Stormcloud was in the Study, and accompanied them from the start.
  • Tybalt Nightbreeze emerged from the Dining Room into the Parlor.
  • As the party emerged into the foyer, Sartus Morningdew was there, and complained of having to kill at least a dozen of the skulls singlehandedly. He seemed mystically winded.
  • Bram the Blithe had not been seen since he left to purportedly take a dump after his big speech.
  • Alex Orbach emerged onto the balcony from the 2nd floor Preservatory door, and joined the procession from there, after claiming to have battled skulls in the Preservatory.
• The party arrived at the crime scene: Invictus’s “Hall of Victory,” the hallway on the 2nd floor leading to the library. The victim was Dominic Tremere, still wearing his Periapt of Health. His heart was cut out in an apparently hasty fashion, with a supernaturally sharp knife. There was surprisingly little blood.
• The southern door was slightly ajar. The party investigated the room beyond, and found it to be a torture chamber. On the south side, rather than a wall, there was a pit, which was full of a writhing mass of zombies, 15 feet down. Ghensh flew around under the torture chamber, above the zombie, just out of their clutches, searching for clues, but did not find much.
• The door to the north led to the library.
• Investigating the body itself, it was clear to the investigators that the scene must have been cleaned up somehow.
• The pirate returned from outside. The party heard the front door slam, and him tromp up the stairs. His arms were scratched up, from—he claimed—wrestling a tree into submission so that he could shit on it.
• Callie connected the dots of Alex Orbach being the one who stole the Necronomicon. She believed that whoever had done that is the same person who stole her family heirloom. She confronted Orbach demanding that he empty his pockets. When pressured by everyone else, he reluctantly produced magic chalk of his own design which was “quantum linked.”
  • Orbach expressed scorn that he was kicked out of the wizard college, due to his invention being “too dangerous.” It somehow harnesses the Flux to quantumly link objects.
  • He did not, however, produce the Puzzlebox.
• Callie cast speak with dead on the corpse. Tremere’s body bolted upright in a puppetlike semblance of life. He fingered Orbach as his murderer. Callie was considering her next question, when the spell started to unravel for reasons unknown…

• Bram was called into the room. He jumped up on a table, tankard in hand. “Beggin’ your pardon, but… I don’t need to go in that room to make an offer. Listen up, me hearties. If I end up with that juice, then you (points to Stormcloud) get on my boat. You (points to Sartus and Tybalt), I’ll fix your Tree. You (points to Invictus) can’t use it anyway; and I’ll get your book back for ya. You (points to the SPI), I’ll tell you what happened to the rest of the SPI, and who was responsible. You (points to Orbach): you can be a pirate on my pirate ship; I know you want to. And you (pointing to Tremere): you get nothing; fuck you. And now: I gotta go take a shit. Think about it.” And he stomps out of the parlor into the foyer.
• Next, Stormcloud called Janus Ilaris. Tybalt channeled Janus. Tybalt hung like a marionette, floating/hanging with toes off the ground, with dead eyes, hair standing on end. Janus was translucent, wearing elven finery, floating an inch off the ground.
• Meanwhile, Cal sneaked out of the room after Tremere and Invictus, who had slunk off to have a private chat. He listened at the door of (what he later learned is) the “Preservatory.”
  • Tremere: “What will it take to get you off my back?”
  • Invictus: “I want your warforged.”
  • Tremere pauses. “No deal.”
  • Invictus (surprised/intrigued): “The pirate was right: you don’t have it anymore!”
  • Tremere (angrily): “Of course I still have it!”
  • Invictus, no longer interested. “We have nothing left to discuss.”
  • And Cal heard Tremere’s stomping feet coming toward the door.
  • Cal hid in the shadow of a foyer staircase, but Tremere noticed him—”What are you looking at?”
  • Tremere stomped back to the parlor, trying but physically failing to break a decorative lamp.
• Tybalt, still as Janus, emerged. Stormcloud seemed more pleased with how the meeting went.
• Stormcloud called the SPI. They wrangled Vondal from the library. Cal followed the ghost into the dining area, where he discovered Tybalt having a private conversation with it. “Begone, mortal!” the ghost spoke in a deep supernatural voice, gestured dramatically and psionically pushed Cal out of the room.
• Afterward, back to normal, Tybalt apologized for his patron’s rudeness. “If you want to compare notes after your meeting, seek me out. Good luck.”
• Callie, Vondal and Cal entered the study with Stormcloud. “You have the best leverage. If you turn over both artifacts to me, I will give you the vial.” Both artifacts? Stormcloud revealed that the pommel of Cal’s sword is in fact the Arkenstone, the artifact of Light. Vondal and Cal realized that the timelines match up for when the stone disappeared, and when Hyperion (Cal’s guardian?) gave it to Cal. (Cal realized that Hyperion used the Giant word “instrument” when describing the sword, which at the time Cal had thought was merely a formalism of the situation, but he has now understood to mean something like “cardinal tool”).
• The party negotiated with Stormcloud. They offered to give her the Lamp, and let her study Cal’s stone between missions, with Cal’s supervision.
• While Stormcloud considered the offer, Callie asked to speak with her privately.
  • Cal and Vondal left the room, seeing that only Timor Invictus was currently in the study, standing motionless in one corner.
  • Meanwhile, Callie asked Stormcloud whether she knew anything about a puzzlebox. “You speak of the artifact of Knowledge, yes? The owner is in attendance at this auction.”
• Before Callie could ask anything further, a wave (of unmagic? or Flux?) washed over the room. Cal and Vondal could feel that the wave did not originate from the study, but rather the opposite direction from them.
• The lights went out; the room was lit by glowing green flames of a flameskull near the study ceiling. Stormcloud sprang into action, calling out: “Take them down! But please avoid collateral damage.”
• The SPI battled the flameskulls:
  • The skulls moved quickly, shooting fire rays from their eyes, burning Callie and Vondal badly.
  • Stormcloud then used mass protection from energy to give fire resistance to the agents.
  • Cal stabbed one with an expert strike of his sun blade, and a wave of energy exploded outward from the pommel, damaging two enemies.
  • Callie channeled her goddesses into an undead turning effect which destroyed the flameskull Cal had weakened most, and sent the other two fleeing into a corner of the parlor.
  • Vondal hammered the two remaining skulls with scorching rays (crit!), before realizing that they were immune to fire-based attacks. However, he could feel that the matrix of his magic was, incredibly, completely aligned in a manner that made his attacks completely reliable, and more effective than usual.
  • The skulls continued to flee, since they had not taken any damage.
  • Stormcloud readied a counterspell, cautioning the agents to finish off the monsters quickly.
  • Cal could not reach them, but pulled out his whip and hit one, which snapped it out of its panic to flee.
  • Callie summoned a spiritual weapon, and blasted the damaged skull with sacred flame.
  • Vondal hit the two skulls with an augmented witchbolt, which was again super effective, destroying one and damaging the other.
  • The remaining skull tried to manifest a fireball in its mouth, but Stormcloud countered it with a chopping motion. She then readied another counterspell, saying, “I can only do that once more! Finish it quickly!”
  • The agents slung more attacks at it. The skull tried to manifest a flaming sphere but it was again countered. Finally, Cal destroyed it with a final blow.
  • They looked around warily, but saw no more foes.
• Soon after the battle, the lights flickered and the room returned to normal.
• A loud knock was heard in the distance, which Vondal recognized as the spell of that name being used somewhere nearby.
• Less than a minute later, Timor Invictus reappeared in the parlor. “I’m afraid I have bad news. Someone has died. I suggest you come quickly.”

• Went to spooky manor.
• Went through foyer to parlor. Met Priscilla Stormcloud.
• Argued about geas wording:
  • I will do no harm for 24 hours, unless my existence is in danger.
  • I will negotiate in good faith and will not steal or damage property.
  • Invictus: I pledge to guarantee your safe passage to a location of your choice within my power before the geas expires.
• Everyone (including Timor and Priscilla) swears the geas.
• Stormcloud explained that she had a potion that could turn you into a god. But she cannot drink it for reasons.
• Michael:
  • Does she know which item is the one she needs to study?
  • If so, what are the rest of us doing here? If not, what’s her plan?
• Dominic Tremere was the first to enter private negotiations.
  • Vondal asked Timor if he could use the library. Timor escorts him there, to the west wing, past a hallway of urns labeled with people’s names and slights they committed (presumably against him).
  • Meanwhile, Freki asks Tybalt how he appeared out of thin air, at the transport circle. Tybalt answered that he teleported in while invisible. He explained that he bonded his soul to another in exchange for certain powers. Then they both checked the perimeter like dual Jack Bauers.
  • Cal checked out the zombie kitchen. He found a larder, a wine rack, a freezer, and a bunch of ovens and grills. He met a ghast chef.
• Tremere emerged seeming very displeased with the session. Alex Orbach was next to go in.
  • Callie challenged the pirate to a rum-drinking contest. She used sleight of hand to pretend to drink more than she really could. But at the end, the pirate cast a magic spell to sober up, and she was still tipsy. Then the pirate started blathering about his magic ship and had a great number of stories about how he got it.
• Orbach returned. Bram the Blithe was next to go in.
  • Dominic Tremere said to Invictus that they need to talk. It was heavy with subtext. They went off to talk.

• The SPI agents were covered in Flux goo from Solomon’s explosion. Their memories were scattered and fragmented while Mallory briefed them on the latest happenings:
  • Freki remembered Mallory paying him, and offering him a job as a full-time member of the SPI. As part of his pitch, Mallory gave a vague spiel about knowing what it’s like to be alone. Freki accepted the job. Cassandra healed Freki’s fragmented essence.
  • Bec remembered opening Grosh’mog’s cage. “You will soon find a clue to your father’s whereabouts. But it will not matter—the world will finally be rid of filthy elves soon,” he declared smugly. “May you find honor and glory. I hope we do not meet again; I would hate to have to kill you.”
  • Cal remembered parting ways with Kavaki, feeling mutual respect and a sense that they would meet again some day. He also remembered seeing Ceowyn in the room next door practicing the four types of elemental energy, spinning, combining, separating. Ceowyn invited him to a sparring session. Cal was tripped up when the tiles in the floor erupted under his feet; Cal cut him with his sword; Ceowyn closed his eyes in concentration and healed the wound by meditating.
  • Callie remembered Salazin, the family’s new imp servant, appearing with a summons from her parents. She returned home to speak with them. They told her a Flux spot now grows beneath Euphoria. It is dangerous and unfit for operation. The Rockwell clan does not know how to deal with this albatross. Callie promised to tell her boss about it, and ask him for aid.
  • Vondal remembered receiving a private lecture from Mallory. The Temple of Symmetry was ultimately sucked into the unstable vortex which was created when Vondal disrupted the Zenithal Summit. Sonan the Scholar is dead, from the wounds he suffered curing Vondal, Kára and Mishaal. Ceowyn wants a place where he can meditate in seclusion, as recompense. Mallory told Vondal: “This goes beyond a formal reprimand. I should fire you. But we’ve been through too much together. So according to the official case file, the bad guy’s magic tainted the platform. Don’t make me regret this—I could lose my job if you get up to any more wild magic shenanigans.”

• Mallory told the agents that they have a new resident of HQ: Ceowyn Mandragoran, the Master of Earth, from the Temple of Symmetry, who teleported in (!) and requested to stay, now that his monastery was destroyed.

• Mallory also told the party that several new areas of Flux have emerged, including one where the Stormherd camp was, and another at the old SPI headquarters under the Mountain. He says that their colleague Audreth has been dispatched to Euphoria to research ways to combat their growth. Mallory stresses that the SPI’s new top priority is to prevent, or failing that, contain explosions of wild magic from now on (e.g., like Cal tried to do by destroying the Flux weapon), until a way is found to reverse the Flux at these hotspots.
• Mallory gave the agents their next case—although no crime has been committed this time. He showed them a card he received which “demands a response.” On the front side, written in flowery elven script, was “R. Mallory.” On the flip side, it was blank, but with detect magic, writing appeared: “At the sanctum of the esteemed T. Invictus, His Dreaded Excellency. Be at the 4th Circle of Estanesse at twilight on Evensday. Rest assured that all manner of precautions are being taken to protect all involved parties. Yours sincerely, P. Stormcloud, MAI, MHA.”
  • Callie and Bec knew the name P. Stormcloud: she is a historian, author of “The Aecus Concord and the War of Countless Deaths,” the definitive history of the events leading up to the cataclysm and reformation 50 years ago.
  • MAI = Master of Arcane Invocations; MHA = Master of the Historical Arts.

• Mallory briefed the team on known artifacts likely to be on par with the lamp. These objects might (or might not) be part of this auction. The artifacts in the file include: 1) the Necronomicon, 2) the Arkenstone; 3) the Cornucopia of Life; 4) Yggdrasil, the World Tree; and 5) the Lamp of Seeming. After hearing about the artifacts, it occurred to Bec that each one seemed to be aligned with a different divine domain! See Items of Interest from the case 07 file for details.

• In the 24 hours before the meeting time, Bec, Callie, and Vondal investigated possible artifacts for the remaining domains:
  • Knowledge: Callie had a hunch about what it might be! But she did not share.
  • Tempest: Callie summoned Belifax so that she and Bec could ask him about Melora, the goddess of the sea who the citizens of Trell are forbidden to worship. When they dropped her name, Belifax whispered the legend: Melora lives in the eye of the Relentless Hurricane, at the helm of a mighty vessel which she built using her own two hands. Many in Trell do not believe it, and in fact, Melora worship is sometimes punished by sending the offenders into the hurricane. Belifax then offered them some freshly baked blood cookies.
  • War: No ideas yet!
• Meanwhile, Freki scouted out the 4th Circle of Estanesse, and found it looks like this: He staked out the place for 24 hours. As the time of the meeting neared, several colorful characters emerged—see Persons of Interest from the case 07 file for details.
• Timor Invictus appeared at the circle, and demanded everyone produce their invitations.

• Sean separated the belts on his front right tire. He also bent three of his rims.
• Then we started gaming.
• Then he rolled a 1, so basically same deal.
• Cal somehow managed to Back To The Future the Flux Capacitor! It started to fade from reality. Solomon broke the weapon anyway! The stuff inside melted over him, but it was evaporating as that happened. That didn’t seem to have been the plan.
• Solomon called the genie and asked for his final wish. The genie said “As you wish, Master” and it was creepy so Bec took matters into her own hands with a Magic Missile. This got her stabbinated by the spear-wielding yak guard.
• The genie unwound time in an attempt to retrieve the Flux Capacitor from before it was destroyed. Solomon immediately began to ripple and grow. There was an explosion and some of the party were knocked over and damaged.
• Solomon’s new monstrous form, reminiscent of Akira (1, 2), rolled over even his own defenders as he cried out in ecstasy, tears streaming down the face of his original head.
• Now free, the genie granted three boons to the party to aid them in fighting the abomination created by Solomon’s wish.
• After generating several “sane” heads and having them lopped off, the Solomon monster started generating “insane” heads.
• The SPI fought valiantly to destroy Solomon, finally succeeding: Solomon exploded in a shower of guts, blood and chaotic magic.

• Munin pecked Freki’s eye. Freki had a vision:
  • What was. Fire. Burning. Blood. Talos sneering disdainfully: “There is nothing else I need from a lycan” and he turns away.
  • What is. Sabrina scoldingly to Andalla: “That bird was his friend!”; Andalla grinning wickedly with pointed orc teeth: “So? Spirit animals are delicious!” and she turns into a raven and flies.
  • What might be. A ring on Talos’s hand flashes, and his fist begins to glow. Effortlessly, he lifts Freki off the ground by his neck. “You are weak. Your people were weak. Afraid of who you really are, and the power within you. What a disappointment.” He throws Freki down and swings the spiked chain…”
  • WAKE UP! utters Munin, pecking Freki’s eye again. It explodes in pain.
  • Munin tells Freki he is not yet ready. “It is not strength you lack, but wisdom. And allies.”
• Freki’s left eye got all cataract-like. Callie tried to heal it, but there was nothing physically wrong.
• Upon further consultation of the compass, the party decided to head toward the Stormherd, which seemed close. Munin also flew in that direction (westward). Ghensh flew above the trees on his magic carpet.
• The party asked Kavaki whether she had any experience with the yakfolk. She said she had only encountered them once, as hostiles, and she barely escaped with her life.
• After a time, the party discovered several plumes of smoke, the Stormherd encampment.
• Outside the encampment, some yak kids are crowded around a scorpion and a spider, while the two creatures viciously fight. Cal notices one yak child slumped against a tree, apparently sleeping despite the noise. The children ran away once the yaks detected the party nearby.
• The party requested entrance into the camp to speak with Solomon, who they had learned was a powerful diviner. The yaks initially refused to let the party in, but Bec convinced them that the party was elementally balanced (which was apparently somehow important to the yaks). Naamah the spokesyak was the only one who spoke Common.
• Zanqaa the Devoted, an obsequious dao genie servant, appeared. He extended his master Solomon’s invitation for the party to spend the night and witness the Joining of the Elements ceremony at dawn.
• Bec threw veggies on the ceremonial fires in an attempt at cultural respect. She tried to grab some of the ash from the fire, but the yaks stopped her.
• Ghensh sang songs of his ancestors, and their (fictional) partnership with the yakfolk in past efforts to spread their race across Aecus.
• The party started poking around the camp. They found Grosh’mog the orc in a cage in one of the tents. He told them he was an oracle from the Blood Hand, and said the yaks were planning to sacrifice him very soon now. He begged them to free him.
• While party members debated whether to do so, Zanqaa appeared again and said his master was ready to receive them.
• As the party entered Solomon’s pavilion, they found three strong-looking guards inside, who Kavaki recognized as the ones she had fought previously. Solomon was sitting up in a king-size four-post bed. Next to him on one side was an end table with a spell book, and on the other side of the bed was a large scrying pool.
• The party had a conversation with Solomon, during which it became clear that his intentions were quite nefarious. While Cal was noticing something odd about one of Solomon’s pillows, Bec realized with dawning horror that Solomon must be the one who had somehow orchestrated Kavaki’s actions: Kavaki had been attacked by yaks, so Solomon could have been watching her via his scrying pool. She panicked, and shouted, “Run!” But the yak guards blocked the party’s escape.
• Solomon shook his head in a tsk tsk sort of way. “Too bad it has to come to this. Behold the union of the elements!” He pulled something out from under his pillow—it was the Flux Capacitor. Solomon moved to break the weapon across his knee; Cal, who had been watching like a hawk, moved to stop him…!

1. Callie healed Kavaki. Cal rescued Freki from the stream before he drowned. Vondal made sure Sabrina was OK, and gave her a cookie.
2. The party talked to Kavaki. At first, she did not want to say anything, saying that her story was too strange and unbelievable. But the SPI convinced her to tell them anyway, with Vondal explaining that it was their job to believe what most people find unbelievable.

• Kavaki claimed that she was ambushed while sleeping in the jungle, and that somehow her body was taken over by a foreign power, which physically compelled her to take all the actions that she did. She was fully conscious and aware while her body returned to the Malosi encampment, asked Sabrina to make the Flux Capacitor, took it on a several-days-long solo march through the jungle to the Manufeai, and wordlessly murdered them with it. She also remembers her body using it to absorb some sort of essence or energy from the slain gnolls afterward, and it resonating strongly afterward. Her body then marched her far to the south, where she laid down and was bludgeoned unconscious by unseen persons.
• When she awoke, the Flux Capacitor was gone, she stumbled a few steps, and found herself at the stream with Sabrina, Mengiris and the SPI.

1. Bec checked the area where Kavaki had come from, and found a series of concentric circles with energy directed inward. She theorized that Sabrina had somehow unwittingly transported Kavaki here using her power.
2. Kavaki’s flux tattoos started acting up. Even though Callie healed her, she seemed like she was slipping away somehow. Vondal tried to channel wild magic at a tattoo—it resonated and he felt like he was in perfect harmony with the surge of wild energy as the orange tattoo jumped from her onto his body.
3. Kavaki was angry, but also seemed slightly more grounded. She sat up a little. The other tattoos were all still wiggly, shimmering and unstable, though. Sabrina believed that Kavaki needed to get the tattoos off her body in order to survive. Normally though, a person can only sustain one tattoo at a time—keeping more at once requires immense strength of will. But Kavaki’s will had been weakened by her ordeal.
4. Kavaki did not want to lose her tattoos, but Cal had a conversation with her in the tongue of giants, affirming that those responsible must be brought back into the Ordning—giant culture’s concept of a unified justice and order to the giantkind and the universe as a whole. Cal swore an oath to help Kavaki do this, and Kavaki agreed to lend the SPI her tattoos, as Cal directed.
5. After some discussion, the SPI agents agreed to each shoulder the burden of a tattoo. Sabrina declined to have one, and no one asked Mengiris or other Malosi.
6. The seven tattoos are: green (biofeedback, DR 4/- for 7 min.); blue (defy gravity, 1 hour, self only); yellow (time hop, 5 rounds forward, Will DC 15 negates); orange (hustle); red (hammer, 4 touches at 3d8 each); violet (vigor, 20 temporary HP); and black (truevenom, Fort DC 15). Tattoos recharge after one hour.
7. The tattoos also imbue some personalized metaphysical power upon each character. Players (out of game decision) can activate these powers once per session, as needed. The powers are merely guidelines—anything that fits the character is appropriate here.

• Bec - Prevailing truth (Arcana, History, Nature, Religion). The tree of infinite possibility appears before you, you see branches which must be eliminated—and a powerful truth remains.
• Freki - Animal instinct (Survival). You smell emotions, even as they fade, and can even track people by the “emotional trail” they leave.
• Cal - Healthy skepticism (Perception). You notice something subtly out of place, which everyone else is taking for granted.
• Callie - Inspired reading (Insight). You have a supernatural flash of inspiration which yields a line of questioning that, together with a subject’s body language and response tone, is likely to extract a secret from them.
• Vondal - Lucid memory (Luck). You remember something from the past which is relevant.
• Ghensh - Stranger than fiction (Performance). You perceive the narrative arc of the universe, compelling you to burst into an impromptu story which parallels reality.

1. Sabrina channeled immense psychic energy to transplant the tattoos as directed by Cal. Everyone’s heads went fully fuzzy; when the psychic fuzz cleared, a dragonborn named Ghensh Faass was present, bearing one of the tattoos. This was completely expected and normal to everyone present—he had always been there. (It seems the flux tattoos are somehow linked to unstable reality, much like the Flux as a whole.) And there was never any black tattoo—there are only six.
2. In response to this metaphysical outburst, the Malosi tribe chieftain Talos appeared. He challenged the SPI’s presence in “his domain.” Talos appeared as a well-muscled centaur with much bling (magical and otherwise), a spiked chain easily accessible on his flank, and a missing joint on one finger. He was arrogant and superior, but perceptive, disdainfully referring to Freki as a “lycan.” Cal’s sword drew his interest, and he requested(!) to handle it more closely. Cal sensed his avarice and refused; Talos backed down and allowed the SPI to leave without a fight in pursuit of the flux weapon.
3. Kavaki agreed to lead them through the jungle in the direction she went before. They headed south for some days, but noticed nothing immediately relevant to their investigation during the journey. On the third evening, Kavaki told them they had gone farther south than she was at the time she was bludgeoned and left for dead.
4. The party made camp to discuss what to do next.

• Bec checked the compass and noted: Manufeai (fanged tooth) pointed NNE; Malosi (finger bone) pointed N; Blood Hand Orcs (patch of skin) pointed NW; Stormherd (clump of fur) pointed W.
• Callie threw a prophecy bead in the fire: “The hounds are on the trail, and soon will catch the scent. Heed the raven.”

1. The next morning, a raven hopped on Freki’s face, and pecked him awake. “Hello! I am Munin,” it told Freki’s mind.

1. They left the scene with Freki and Ni, and made camp to decide what to do next. Ni decided to return to the scene after exchanging tokens in a binding agreement.
2. A lizardfolk ninja named Semu appeared, and—on strict orders from the elder of her tribe—gave the SPI a “voodoo compass” capable of tracking the five tribes of the area. Semu warned it must be returned after justice had been served. The compass was flat—the size of two hands together—with four needles, the tail of each attached to something grisly:

• Manufeai: a fanged tooth
• Blood Hand Orcs: a patch of skin
• Malosi: a finger bone
• Stormherd: a clump of fur

1. Semu said: “Our debt to the Concord is now paid. When you are finished with the compass, leave it in Xaos, at the shrine of Essyllis. Do not seek us out or you will die. The elder also bid I give you this.” She handed them a bag of fire beads. “I warn you: her premonitions are incessant and melodramatic. Be measured in your response.”
2. Two beads emitted prophetic words:

• “Beware: the poltergeist seeks to fulfill its wish.”
• “The death of the wilds brings the world’s ruin. Unless you act.”

1. A third vibrated wildly, and when thrown in the fire, caused Vondal to materialize. And the fire snuffed out.
2. The party used the compass to find the Malosi. It led them to a tree with a magical portal entrance. Freki used his bird Hugin to scout, but it was noticed by an orc dragon shaman, who vaporized with magical energy of some kind. Freki attacked in retaliation, and the dragon shaman blasted him too with devastatingly powerful but partially uncontrolled auras. Callie managed to talk down the situation with a bluff, leading to an uneasy truce.
3. Andalla the shaman warned the party not to enter the portal (even though that’s where the compass pointed), because inside was the Malosi chieftain Talos, who would likely kill them for trespassing.
4. Andalla told the SPI that Kavaki’s favorite place was down by the river, so they went there, and encountered another member of the Malosi: an armored being with a very large two-handed sword, standing watch. Attempts to check it for magical auras revealed it was a “black hole” of magic. Vondal’s wild magic backfired, creating an explosive fireball, which nearly killed Callie—but time slowed and a child emerged. She rubbed a substance over Callie’s body and clothes, such that when the explosion resumed, Callie was not killed. “You should be more careful,” the girl said. The party soon learned her name was Sabrina.
5. Sabrina was mischievous but friendly, and told them several important things:

• She is friends with Kavaki.
• Mengiris is her protector.
• Talos uses Sabrina’s powers for his own purposes, when she allows it.
• She sculpts karach, which forms in underground caves where the Flux is strong.
• She made a karach weapon for Kavaki, who was very insistent about needing it for reasons Sabrina does not know.

1. At the request of the SPI, Sabrina used her psychic ability to reach out to Kavaki. Bec created a tiny hut, a magic bubble which would protect them from Sabrina’s psychic disruption. Freki wanted no part of it, though, and was knocked unconscious by the mental force (think Professor X in the movie Logan). Mengiris was unaffected. Sabrina seemed substantially drained from the effort, saying she had done all she could. Shortly thereafter, Kavaki stumbled through the trees, having suffered grievous physical harm. “It’s gone,” she muttered, and then collapsed in exhaustion.

1. The party slew the demonic reanimations of the tribe.
2. They spoke to Freki, who had witnessed the actual crime a few days before.
3. Flux Capacitor! Named by Stephanie!
4. Cal was itchy from the vargouille.
5. Callie paid Freki 5 gold to help find some plants to cure the itching.
6. Callie and Bec used the sending stone to Mallory:
   • Callie: Flux-based weapon in hands of Malosi goliath. Client wants revenge, also weapon. Cal itchy. Poisoned?? Abandoned by guides 4 days from city.
   • Mallory: Malosi exceptionally formidable. Gather more intel. Make a solid plan. Definitely capture that weapon. Why itchy? Plant? Poison? Spell? Cure him ASAP. Hire new guide.
7. Ni and Freki exchanged tokens: he gave her a special arrow, and she gave him one of her jingly bells. She said he is now bound to help, and he said she is bound to use the weapon for good. She promised to only slay those who deserve it.
8. Ni left, saying she will await news from them regarding the incident. She seemed to believe that some of her tribe may have lived (in a sense) through this ordeal, and made stronger.
9. Freki gathered more herbs and various plant stuff, to restock arrows, and get Itchy some more cold cream.
10. Callie tried to heal Cal again. She cast Cure Wounds and flushed the taint out of Cal’s body.
11. Freki called out to Hugin to fly cover. He sensed contact and acquiescence.
12. The party discussed how to find the Malosi, since that seemed to be their best lead.
13. Bec tried to form an alliance with the taciturn Freki. The SPI wanted to hire him as a guide. Freki said he could do as well as the people that they had. He wanted 11 gold a day, payable upon first access to a teleportation circle.
14. The party did a round of introductions.

1. The SPI traveled to Xaos, the City of Chaos, to look for the tribe of the Manufeai (gnoll tribe) because they heard something terrible and mysterious had happened to them.
2. After watching the hubbub for a while, they luckily encountered Bruck, who they persuaded to guide them to the site of the Manufeai, for a price. Bruck subsequently hired Vuthos as a co-guide.
3. At the site, the SPI met Ni, the sole surviving Manufeai gnoll, who hired them.
4. In Xaos, looking for a guide.
5. Bumped into Bruck, which was great because no one else would be a guide to the Manufeai.
6. Bruck reluctantly agreed, but said he needed to get supplies.
7. He came back with lots of supplies and another orc named Vuthos.
8. Tough trek through the jungle. Many huge spiders and other huge things. Vuthos enjoyed spearing and eating them. Bec and Callie studied the fauna, catching stuff in jars and drawing sketches. (Was Cal there? Was Vondal?)
9. Upon reaching the encampment, greeted by a shriveled orc witch doctor. “Good, you come,” she said. She introduces herself as Ni, an elder of the tribe, and leads the party to the scene of the incident.
10. The zone is scorched with chaos, slain gnolls and parts thereof strewn around. One corpse has bees coming out of a honeycomb where its chest used to be. Another has a stone slab superimposed, jutting out of one buttock. The rest are similarly grotesque and unique.
11. Upon close inspection, all of their heads look… fiendish. Like demons. They wobble and begin breaking off at the neck. Vargouilles!
12. There is one corpse which is wearing especially nice armor and shield, with an angry eye sigil branded on it. It begins to change, muscles distending as it rises…

• SPI agents travel to the temple of the Progression of Symmetry, a reclusive monastic order situated at the ultimate summit of the Cliffs of Transcendance.
• Agents speak with Ou-sh-, the Grandmaster of Winds, one of four elemental masters of the monastic order. She is the one who called the SPI to investigate. They Progression is sworn not to get involved in corporeal affairs, instead pledging their lives to self-reflection and spiritual pursuit.
• Ou-sh- tells the agents that people have been jumping from the Zenithal Summit platform and disappearing. When Mishaal, daughter of the Master of Fire Kára Halfdandóttir, became one of the victims, her mother leaped after her and also disappeared, so Ou-sh- called for the SPI in response.
• Agents speak with Ceowyn Mandragoran, Master of Earth, who expresses his support for the Progression’s policy of non-intervention.
• Agents speak with Sonan the Scholar, Master of Water, who has secretly kept a journal of all the victims’ names—which include a young orphan—in violation of the order’s edicts.
• Vondal—who has a soft spot for orphans—is furious, runs outside, and blasts the platform (which the agents sense is radiating a strange power) with wild magic. It causes a violent disruption, opening a rift, and sucking Vondal in!
• In response, a red dragonborn acolyte emerges angrily from the temple carrying a lamp, and dives into the rift! Inside, Vondal witnesses him use the lamp to transform into a white dragon. After a few moments, the dragon emerges from the rift and attacks the temple!
• With help from the elemental masters, the agents defeat the dragon.
• Meanwhile, Vondal navigates the place he finds himself in, which seems to be some kind of flux-tainted demiplane filled with spiderwebs. He perceives a gargantuan spider just visible deep down below. He also discovers both Mishaal and Kára bound in chaotic spiderwebs, with Mishaal’s body partially corrupted by Flux.
• Vondal manages to free them both from the webs, and carry them both (mentally) back through the rift. He is also able to extract the Flux within them by channeling it through himself, but at great cost: he falls unconscious, near death.
• Sonan is able to heal Vondal using an unfamiliar technique. Vondal wakes up, and is totally fine.
• Afterward the battle, the other agents investigate the acolyte’s room, where they discover a journal with some details of his scheme, which involved sacrificing people as part of a secret cult. But to what end is unclear.
• Memory of the following few days are lost to flux poisoning.

• Agents race through the garbage tunnels beneath the resort—the walls of which have entrapped thousands of people in expressions of shock, dismay, and agony—before they can be eaten by gibbering mouthers.
• Sima mysteriously has a vision of a specific path to follow, which leads to an elder brain in a pool deep within.
• Vondal dubs the brain “Brian” in sympathy for its desire to unite the whole world in Flux.
• Sima embeds both of her axes into the brain, dashing its hopes of becoming one with all of Aecus.
• The walls entrapping all the resort visitors release the people…? Memory of the following few days are lost to flux poisoning.

TODO notes

TODO notes

1. Vondal saw a vision of a stone of light, and a figure of light grasping it. Wild magic surge. Split into two Vondals.
2. Talked to and fought Zanic. Wild magic surge. Four Vondals. Zanic’s claw was much more robust than expected, but after the hand was ripped to shreds by hounds and subsequently burned, he was quite dead.
3. Split up: briefed Mallory. He ordered further investigation into the magical aspects of the case (wanted necromancy trails fully explained, etc.).
4. While SPI team decided how to proceed next, Larsa Wrathborn showed up and discovered the body. Upset, she left to tell the Brandywhistle of Zanic’s death.
5. SPI brought Zanic’s body to the palace and talked to King Durak.
6. SPI returned to Gurin Aldrimor’s keep. Confronted Bronce. He admitted that he covered up Hollerd’s actions.
7. SPI made a deal with Bronce: Bronce and Hollerd pay for their crimes, SPI protects the secret of Esprit Repose for the good of the dwarven kingdom, in exchange for Rubinia Elka’s full cooperation with the SPI in the future.
8. SPI went to Hollerd’s farm. Met a female dwarf from Sima’s village. Tybalt tried (and failed) to intimidate her; but Callie took a stab in the dark and used the dwarf’s feelings for Hollerd to avoid combat. Confronted Hollerd and after a brief contest of wits, returned him to the authorities.

1. On the way to the castle to question Rubinia Elka, Vondal seemed pensive and distracted. He made a flimsy excuse that he needed to buy some fruit from a nearby stand, told everyone to proceed without him, and said that he would catch up later.
2. The party talked to Rubinia Elka. Elka shared that Zanic Corbinic was expelled on suspicion of organizing a terrorist network. She warned them that he is extremely unstable and dangerous, stopping at nothing to achieve his radical goals.
3. They told Elka known details of the crime. She shared her copy of Thaumaturgical Herbology, and together discovered that the harpy’s tears could have been used to mix a poison known as midnight tears, “the only poison strong enough to kill a dwarf.”
4. After some consideration, Elka told them that ancient legends tell of necromancers who could animate parts of a body, including a hand. Callisto recognizes this legend as that of the crawling claw, a rare form of undead. Other small forms of undead such as flaming skulls would still be too large to fit under the door.
5. The party returned to Aldrimor Keep. They talked to Bruck, who told Sima alone that Stave was off on a midnight liaison with his “friend,” and Bruck may or may not have fallen asleep on guard duty. He also said that Hollerd is the one who brought Gurin his evening meal in his room, and that they argued loudly.
6. Vondal reappeared at the manor with a manilla envelope with a top secret SPI file which he claimed was somehow “not destroyed in the fire”—and for which he claimed he shouldn’t have clearance. Inside was a document about an organization called Esprit Repose: a secret cabal of necromancers known to engage in sacrifice of living creatures, but whose threat rating is unknown. Five people have “potential affiliation” based on “unreliable testimony,” including Bronce Aldrimor, Zanic Corbinic and Rubinia Elka. The cabal is rumored to possess “Vecna’s Lore,” which the party believes might be an amulet (the amulet?) that connects its bearer to Vecna, imbuing secret forbidden knowledge.
7. The party (sans Vondal) went to the Brandywhistle in the Flintlock district. It’s a small tavern, less than a dozen tables, plus a small bar. The locals there are the rougher sort, with weapons and hide armor. Sima tells the barkeep that they, the SPI, are seeking information leading to the apprehension of necromancers who have recently committed horrid and illicit acts under the Mountain. And the SPI has reason to believe the Zanic Corbinic may possess useful information to help quell this foul tide. The barkeep was upset to learn that Larsa Wrathborn is the one who tipped off the authorities about the Brandywhistle. But she trusts Sima when she hears that the SPI has no interest in dwarven politics. She says she will “see what she can do” about arranging a meeting with Zanic, if the party will wait outside. The party goes around back to tell Callisto the good news—and suddenly the back door bursts open and a hooded figure tears down the tunnel…!

1. Sil and Bronce decided to destroy Gurin’s corpse. Sil cut off his head, then burned the body in the fireplace.
2. The party proceeded to Kham Kuldohr Academy, and tracked down Professor Gardenblossom. He is extremely old and crotchety. They told him about the clock, and he retrieved his old paper about it from his office.
3. He drew a lot of animated illusions with the crayons on his crandolier. They learned the clock would explode catastrophically if the mystical core were damaged or unwoven.
4. Gardenblossom reconnected the clock to the mystical core. The party learned the clock stopped at 12 o’clock exactly—either midnight or noon. Midnight, the apex of night, might be an anchor time for powerful magics—either triggered or otherwise at their most potent.
5. The party had lunch while waiting for Mungus Wrathborn. During that time, Leopold told them the story of Mungus and Gurin and the almost-kings: Mungus won the duel over Brie’s heart, but was accused of cheating and was expelled from Clan Aldrimor.
6. Mungus showed up and gave them the letter from Gurin begging Mungus to visit him. Mungus said that Gurin’s family would be shamed—and at least expelled from Aldrimor—if the truth came out.
7. Mungus uttered some words about how maybe the Clans would be dissolved some day. Mungus’s daughter Larsa asked him to be quiet, but Vondal pressed for more details. He was persuasive, so Larsa admitted that some sympathizers are sheltering Zanic at the Brandywhistle tavern in the Flintlock district (same district where the Wrathborns live).

1. Went to the dwarven city under the Mountain.
2. Went to the keep of Gurin Aldrimor.
3. Met Hollerd, the eldest nephew. Hollerd said that Gurin was about to meet with Mungus Wrathborn, Gurin’s longtime rival, to reconcile their differences, later today.
4. Followed a trail of necromancy from Gurin’s room to Bronce’s room. The trail of necromancy led up the side of Bronce’s bed.
5. Another trail of necromancy from Gurin’s room led outside the keep.
6. Bronce’s things were meticulously organized, but there was a missing vial from his desk drawer. Bronce had all manner of wizardly items, including some potentially useful for necromancy.
7. Hollerd said that Bronce left very early in the morning.
8. The party learned that Bronce had gone to see Sil.
9. They tracked down the Dwarven Army barracks where Bronce went, and found both him and Sil in battle with subterranean goblinoids and zombies. Bronce’s fireball made short work of them, but not before Sima summoned ghost puppies with her acorn whistle.
10. Everyone returned to Aldrimor Keep, and opened the crime scene door.
11. The siblings reluctantly allowed the party to subdue the zombified Gurin.
12. The party studied the crime scene. Of the two necromancy trails, one led up the clock, and the other led to Gurin’s bed.
13. The clock was stopped at 3:32, but Callie noticed the mechanism was somehow broken, such that the hands could be freely moved—something clearly not intended in the original design. Unfortunately, due to the clock’s gnomish overcomplexity, only an expert on the clock’s inner workings would be able to deduce the actual time when the breakage occurred.
14. Callie was admiring and studying the clock, touched it, and had a clairvoyant episode where she saw a young gnome scholar talking to a mother-to-be dwarf called Frelda about how the clock would forevermore be tied to her child.
15. After initially denying that he knew the name Leopold Gardenblossom, Bronce admitted to knowing him as a professor at a local dwarven university, where Bronce had studied wizardry.

1. Returned to HQ to speak to Mallory. Discussed the cases and the book. Got some supplies for dealing with petrification.
2. With Martine Andrews, traveled to Euryale’s villa outside of Haven. From the looks of her villa (underground in some dwarven ruins), they concluded she was very likely a medusa, and probably the culprit.
3. Spoke to her about petrification under a ruse of Callie’s grandmother being afflicted, but made her a little suspicious of their intentions.
4. Left the villa. After discussion, decided to apprehend her before she could escape.
5. She resisted; they fought. Martine Andrews aided the SPI agents during the fight.
6. Brought the defeated Euryale back to base, and interrogated her. Learned that she had traded the book for a potion which would make her human again. Made a deal: Euryale would reveal all she knew about the two cases, in exchange for being allowed to use the potion to restore her humanity.
7. Euryale told the SPI the name of the book’s recipient: Isis Ra’ksh, an ex-druid who worships disease, probably a terrorist. “She is the worst person in the world to possess that book—and it was worth it.”
8. Talked to the Contessa, who handed over the necklace, and confessed her role in Tremere’s death, as well as the secret that Euryale was using to blackmail her: her son Donovan is half fiend. She agreed to be an informant for the SPI, in exchange for their discretion.
9. Returned to Tremere’s manor. Spoke to Andrews without Tremere present: told her that Isis Ra’ksh now had the Necronomicon. Then gave the necklace back to Tremere, and told him the good news: Euryale was apprehended. “This is cause for celebration! Andrews, bring the wine. Our best vintage!” But she was gone.

1. Examined the crime scene, discovered secret vault door behind Tremere’s portrait.
2. Opened the vault, and fought undead shadowspawn that burst out. Convinced Martine Andrews to join the fight, who demonstrated extraordinary combat abilities.
3. Talked to young Tremere, who claimed his murderer was Alyssa Morvain.
4. Learned of the missing book in the vault—the Necronomicon—which Tremere was studying in an attempt to cure his condition (also inflicted by that very book, which he found in Arallu 40 years ago). The only clue to the means of the book’s disappearance was smudged chalk marks on the lectern which resembled a small teleportation circle.
5. Decided to travel to Euryale’s villa the next morning. Vondal contacted Mallory to fill him in, but when the Necronomicon was mentioned, the boss ordered everyone back to HQ.

1. Examined the crime scene.
2. Interviewed Dominic Tremere at his manor; got a list of names from him (see above).
3. Visited the Beastly Colosseum and interviewed Rowena Darkshield, its proprietor.
4. Callie fed the list of names to Gavin, her assistant; he recognized only two of them.
5. Tibalt canvassed the area around Sartan’s apartment. He spoke to a young boy who claims to have witnessed a hooded figure being let in to Sartan’s apartment on the night of the murder.
6. Callisto and Sima spoke to the monster trainers, Argus Saravor and Bellamy Crue, about their whereabouts on the night of the murder, and related topics.
7. The SPI agents watched the monster arena battles that evening: Gorgon vs. Basilisk, the Ultimate Showdown of Stone! The gorgon won.
8. Later that night, while the agents were booking their rooms at an inn, they were magically contacted by Martine Andrews, the synthetic butler: “SPI. Come quickly. He is dead.”