#etharis

[supereffectivemoonblast]

Part 17: The Root of All Evil

Covering Session Notes 66-68

Esmeray and Nerissa carefully explain to the freshly resurrected Gretel Drach that she had been annihilated by a force beyond their control. She is understanding of the fact that openly discusssing why it happened (Typharia silencing those who know too much) would only put her in danger again.

They tell Gretel about their recent meeting with the Emperor, and they agree it'll be best for Gretel to find her way to him, away from Nerissa and the baggage of her patron. Nerissa fetches Ostarion to help with a Transport Via Plants, but Gretel makes the three promise to not tell Anneliese or his sister Anna that she had died. Things are hard enough already. Ostarion summons a tree and Gretel steps through, leaving the adventurers to have a difficult night's sleep.

Before sleep, Nerissa prays to Typharia. She needs answers as to what the true meaning of that holy smite was. Typharia answers her call, and gives Nerissa the upsetting answer that yes people were supposed to get hurt. Typharia has a grand plan, and for it to go as planned, Nerissa must be kept away from some darker secrets. Nerissa tells Typharia she is frustrated but hopes her patron knows what she is doing.

In the morning the weather had cleared up immensely. It seems Deteriora, Archdemon of Progress had set back the evil cultists of the mists by a lot.

Nerissa fills in her party on what she'd found out on the Typharia smite incident. It seems the Goddess of Knowledge has plans beyond their understanding, and if recent events are any indication, then the safety of mortals is not a priority. The Stormbringers theorise that Typharia could be kept in check if they worked to bring another god back to life. Unfortunately, the best god for that role is Aurelia, and Typharia is in control of her sacred artefact, the Mantle of Aurelia.

* * *

The party were supposed to be interrogated by the Morencian council that day, so the party head toward their chambers. Guards outside tell the party that the council are in a very heated meeting right now, so as they walk away, Esmeray sends her shadow snake familiar in to eavesdrop. Mar (Deteriora) had joined the council meeting, which seems to mainly be a loud argument between the monster hunter Vendemir Kaltstahl and Doge Lorenzo Flabenici about the fate of Syndra and the Stormbringers.

Left: Vendemir. Right: Doge Lorenzo

Nerissa contacts Syndra by Sending, and it seems it has been decided she is innocent. During the interview process, another council member openly tried to kill her. Since they can only wait for the council, she advises the party to go snooping for more evidence of foul play. Their next person of interest was Admiral Endoria Onaglie, so Anneliese uses her Clockwork Orrery to track down the Admiral's office.

As the party slink through the winding halls, they are intercepted by some very intimidating naval officers, all displaying Nautanticli on their persons. Combat comes immediately, and they soon learn these captains are powerful undead soldiers, and the Nautanticli empower their necrotic magicks. Seared into their flesh, the party spot the cursed power words: RISE, WITHSTAND, OBEY. As the party fight, they find out enough Radiant or Force damage can destroy a word, and that destroying RISE (the word giving life to the undead) instantly destroys the undead soldiers.

During combat, Ostarion gets pulled into a private realm to one on one a death knight. Without the fear of being discovered by his friends, he finally unleashes the power he discovered from Oak's cursed dagger: it allows him to commune directly with the spirits of Morencia's mist, and control the undead. Using this power, he seamlessly destroys the undead officer, and returns to the material plane just as his allies finish dispatching the other officers.

Ostarion; The New Master of the Mists

While they pick over the undead captain's bodies, Esmeray's snake familiar is spotted by Mar, who speaks through the snake to Esmeray. The council debate is now on the ceasefire, and while things have been heated, the Admiral has been giving Mar weird looks.

Esmeray asks Mar to describe what is strange about the Admiral's behaviour, and as those quirks are communicated, the party realise that the Admiral in that meeting is a faker in magical disguise. Mar stands up in the meeting and points at the Admiral, calling him out as a faker trying to destroy the council from within. The officials around the table gasp and Vendemir starts to prepare a magic tincture to undo the potential disguise.

Before Vendemir approaches, the fake Admiral spits a string of magic words and instantly detonates, covering the council room in a shower of viscera. A diversion!

* * *

While Mar and Vendemir try to calm the panicked council members who just saw the head of the Navigator's Guild explode, the party continue forward to the Admiral's office.

The door is locked by both magical and physical precautions, and too afraid to interact directly with the mechanism, Ostarion uses Pass Wall on an adjacent wall to make their own way in.

As soon as they enter, the air stinks with blood. The corpse of Admiral Onaglie lies across the room, slumped on her desk, the carpet immediately around her soaked with blood. They look over the body and the missing eye under her patch proves this to be the real deal. Marks on her ankles, and skin discolouration makes them believe she was strung up by her feet and drained of blood before being dumped here. But there are no cursed runes on her skin, in fact, Edrik's paladin senses indicate her body had been consecrated with holy light before her death.

Initially the party suspect this could mean that the Admiral's blood was being used as a substitute for Dawn's Blood, which the party know Coltan has been in short supply of.

Using Speak with Dead, the party interrogate the corpse to try and find out why the Admiral died in this way. Endoria's ghost tells the party she sacrificed herself to appease the mists. She prepared holy rites so that her body was properly consecrated before her death; consecration is a vital part of calming the mists so they cooperate with the peoples of Morencia. The party concludes this means that the other, desecrated sacrifices would have aggravated the mists. The temperament of the mist may be affected by the nature of sacrifices to it, and despite all their misgivings about the real admiral, it seems she was trying to calm the mists as her final act.

* * *

Knowing this information needed to be presented to the council, the party rush back to the council chambers, where they are met by guards forbidding them to proceed. Given the exploding faker, the adventurers decide they can't wait, and after magically disabling the guards, they climb the stairs.

They reach the top just as the chamber doors swing open, the Doge staring daggers at them. Suspecting the Doge might be possessed, Nerissa dashes forward to Dispel Evil and Good on him, but the Doge sees this as one act of aggression too far, and orders the surrounding guards to dogpile the adventurers.

Edrik cries out, trying to argue that they can prove their innocence, by bringing that exploded fake Admiral back to life, for interrogation. Vendemir agrees they could be helpful, but the Doge wants the Stormbringers locked away for their defiance.

The ever slippery Esmeray invisibily dashes up to the Doge, spotting a chunk of flesh on his collar. She grabs and throws it to Ostarion, who uses a wish to instantly resurrect the fake Admiral in their entirety.

The faker is bewildered, but after getting their bearings and realising what happened, begins to chant again. Nerissa fixes him with her Antimagic stare, and whatever suicide bomb spell he was casting fails. Misha quickly grabs them by the shoulders. To the bewilderment of the Doge and his council, the party present the fake admiral.

One of the bankers steps forward. Certain mannerisms had given Mr Banksy suspicion of a faker for a while. He walks forward kicks the Admiral in the groin. The faker doubles over in pain, and Vendemir uses this opening to pour a tonic over their form, revealing a shorter and slimmer man with a bald head. The ceremonial tattoos covering his face and chest clearing mark him as a member of the Daughters of Light, Coltan's doomsday cult.

The guards ease off on the party, as the Doge and Vendemir walk back into the council chamber to better discuss the ramifications of this reveal.

Very soon, a few guards come walking up, accompanied by Syndra, who congratulates the party on their investigation. She stands next to Nerissa, who's antimagic stare is still stuck on the cultist, and asks the party what the sum results of their search was.

Syndra is given the breakdown of their encounter with Oak, their fight with the Magialate (but leaving out Deteriora), and how they discovered the sacrifices to the mist have been aggravating the undead spirits into a frenzy.

Nerissa concludes her recap by saying that Morencia is a city of liars and secrets. Syndra whispers to her that she has already found out too much, and Nerissa falls under the control of a Dominate charm.

* * *

The evil Nerissa is told to eliminate Ostarion, so she Stops Time and begins layering on enchantments and abjurations to completely rob Ostarion of his psyche. Anneliese, who is unaffected by other time magic, is still moving, and immediately clocks Nerissa's unusual behaviour. She quickly uses her own time magic to pull her other allies into the frozen world.

Esmeray's lunar fey magic dispels the charm on Nerissa, and they quickly deduce something is up with Syndra. Something has control over her, and they might have to beat it out of her.

As the Time Stop ends, Esmeray attempts to Dispel Evil and Good on Syndra, but the spell fails. A magical shield around Syndra blasts Esmeray flying back by some ghostly force. This is a possession more powerful than the mists of Morencia.

Nerissa takes a step back, as Anneliese, Esmeray, and Misha rush forward to slam their powerful weapons into Syndra. Edrik grapples and gags the Daughter of Light cultist.

A very wounded Syndra looks up pleadingly at Nerissa, asking the tiefling to defend her. Nerissa bites back tears, why would Syndra ask her to destroy her friends? She wants to believe the real Syndra wouldn't do this, that somebody else has possession over her.

So she asks in return why this person had to choose Syndra.

Syndra's eyes glow a vibrant magical blue and screams back at Nerissa, "Because you took her from me!" The same eyes she saw in Coltan. This is Gitta Sauber, getting back at Nerissa for locking away the Tower Master's psyche.

Left: Coltan the Conqueror, Right: Syndra Quinen

Syndra casts Feeblemind on Nerissa, and begins to lash out with dark magic blasts at the rest of the party. Thinking over what Syndra just said, and seeing those same electric blue eyes, Esmeray gives herself and Anneliese See Invisibility. She now sees the totality of Sauber's new possession spell.

Syndra's body is blurred, overlapping with the body of somebody else, and tendrils of spiritual energy spiderweb out from her body to link with every other person in the chamber. The guards, Vendemir, even the Doge. Gitta had captured Syndra's body, and through her, taken over the minds of everyone in Morencia's central government.

Esmeray and Anneliese begin targeting the invisible tendrils themselves, and with enough force, manage to sever the links between a few guards and Syndra. Thankfully, it seems this version of the possession ritual does not kill those they sever, but it seems to be doing damage to Syndra's psyche.

After being clued into the plan, Ostarion casts Time Stop. Anneliese once again pulls her allies into the frozen world, so she, Edrik, Misha, and Esmeray can quickly rush around the chamber and sever the twenty or so tendrils anchoring Syndra to the council. Ostarion uses the frozen time to cure Nerissa's feeblemind, and time resumes.

The whiplash of every tendril being destroyed in a split second knocks Syndra off her feet, and Anneliese makes one final precise cleave with her scythe to try and sever Syndra from the now wavering shadow around her.

As Syndra falls forward, the shadow separates from her. The dark silhouette, now visible to all, glows and pulsates in an alarming fashion. An arcane explosion is likely imminent.

Nerissa and Esmeray rush after Vendemir and the Doge, Ostarion pulls the pile of guards into a private demiplane, and Anneliese coordinates those council members still standing. Ostarion and Anneliese combine their efforts to teleport everyone they can to Castalore, reaching safety at Raghnall's estate.

The others find Vendemir standing over a dead Doge Lorenzo. A severed, bejeweled hand in Vendemir's grasp. It seems their argument did not end well. Nerissa teleports herself, Vendemir, and Esmeray to the Free Sword's keep in Voros.

Why the Free Swords? That was where she met her allies, and she was feeling nostalgic.

* * *

At Voros, Nerissa, Esmeray, and Vendemir catch the worried gaze of a few Free Sword soldiers, but before any meaningful conversation can be had, a deafening sonic boom washes over the keep and tremors knock many to the ground.

Esmeray assumes her fey form and flies up into the air. Across the horizon, she sees a magnificent mushroom cloud, which slowly clears to reveal a chasm rapidly filling with water. Morencia was destroyed in its entirety, and was now nothing more than a crater.

After instructing one of the Free Sword guards to spread word of Morencia's fall, Nerissas contacts their allies and teleports to Castalore, where they can finally discuss what just happened.

Once their Stormbringers and remaining Morencian allies are filled in on what Esmeray saw, their initial discussion is how such an arcane misfire could have destroyed the entire city. With Vendemir's input, they remember that quite recently, they had tipped off the Free Swords of suspicious activity in Castalore, that led to bombs being found in the city sewers. It is likely Morencia had been rigged to go in a similar fashion and that the arcane eruption was always part of a bigger plan.

If Castalore and Morencia were both rigged for a magical nuke, there is a possibility this could soon happen again in other large cities. Esmeray runs away to teleport to Raghnall and their allies on the war front, while Edrik approaches Dobreslov, a fey wizard that Raghnall had hired to look after his estate. Dobreslov is adept at sending magical letters across long distances quickly, so Edrik works with him over the next hour to tell every major city across the continent of Etharis what had happened to Morencia, and that similar explosive traps could be laying in wait under their feet.

Syndra was unconcious when they teleported to Castalore, so after some magical healing, they wake her up. Apparently she had no memory of her life within the last week, so the party had been talking to her possessed self the entirety of their most recent visit. She becomes very unsettled by the true gravitas of what happened to Morencia. But after conferring with Vendemir, she assures the party that not all was in vain.

The Doge's hand, which Vendemir had brought with him, possesses a magical ring that the Doge had been using to access a private sanctum in which he was hoarding the wealth of not only Morencia but of many other countries too. Within the realm was a leger book, detailing all of the money that other countries had invested in Morencia, so once Syndra could open this sanctum, she could resume transactions with other countries, and organise the ceasefire between Burach and Ostoya.

* * *

Syndra finds Nerissa brooding alone elsewhere in Raghnall's keep. Nerissa is frustrated that they've been trying their best to save everyone they can, do the best for this world, but they are always two steps behind. She is one of the most powerful beings on the material plane, but feels more powerless than ever.

Syndra consoles her, explaining that defeats always leave more mental impact than victories. While The Stormbringers have been seeing a lot slip out of their control, they have managed to save people from oblivion at every step. And though what happened to Morencia is a tragedy, that city was rotten to the core, with not much good left to save. Syndra leaves Nerissa with her thoughts but expresses that at the very least, she is grateful Nerissa was there for her.

Much later, Anneliese finds Nerissa. Anneliese was also very shaken by this event, especially since she sees parallels with her role in the absolute destruction of Ulmyr's Gate. Anneliese echoes Syndra's point about the little victories. They are haunted by the bad, because the results of their good happen after they leave.

They are the Stormbringers. Storms bring lightning and destruction, but their rain brings fertile regrowth too. And they don't have time to stick around and watch that regrowth when there is more zapping to do.

Nerissa is roused by this last point. They do have someone to blame, and its not her. Its Gitta Sauber.

[mapas-fantasticos]

Map of Etharis from Grim Hollow.

[supereffectivemoonblast]

Part 18: Time and Space

Covering Session Notes 69-71

While her allies were in Castelore, Esmeray had teleported to her adopted father Raghnall on the war front. She bursts into the war tent, and Raghnall asks his allies to wait while he goes out to console her. In his private tent, Esmeray trauma dumps all of her recent angst, crying herself to sleep in his arms before a real talk can begin. Esmeray wakes the next morning, and Raghnal is there to give her a drink and a smile. Raghnall catches her up on the war: Welgirson's puppets seemed to have formed a large part of the Burach army, and with their loss, Ostoya has pushed the battlezone all the way back to edge of the Burach Empire's border. Mina and Drago have both disappeared, and Raghnall suspects it could be for the same reason. In their place, General Dulka and his Order of the Dawn have been brought into the war council after their involvement in undoing the bomb threat in Castelor. As well as a vampiric dragon in human form named Aurelius (an old ally of the party). Leaving Raghnall to reconvene with the council, Esmeray talks to Anna about the possession plot in Morencia before it fell, how Syndra and the entire council were being controlled. She asks Anna if there are precautions her party can take to ensure their allies aren't compromised. Anna shows Esmeray a magic goblet that when filled with holy water, serves as a test for proof of posessesion. Anna will need The Stormbringer's help for some of the construction, if they want their own goblet in the short term. Esmeray works with Anneliese and Edrik to smith the necessary metal at the right temperature, and soon after, Anna gives them their own goblet.

Once the goblet is finished, Esmeray takes it back to Castelor, and catches up her allies what she learned on the war front. Syndra has now successfully opened Doge Lorenzo's demiplane of gold, and so they can begin to implement their plans for a ceasefire. Raghnall had advised Esmeray that the gold's purpose is to grease the wheels with the other kingdoms of Etharis. Mina and Drago both, for separate reasons, wish to end this war with Burach's surrender, so asking this pair to agree to a ceasfire will be almost impossible. By exploiting the gold dependency of the Castinellan Provinces, the Charneut Kingdoms, and select Valikan clans, they will be using the power of these other kingdoms to pressure Ostoyan into backing down. Esmeray and Anneliese facilitate communication between Syndra and the Dragon's Head Merchant Guild (through Anna) to bring the Doge's gold stash back into circulation. This process will take a few days, allowing the party a short break, and then they will begin opening up dialogue with important figures in the Castinellan, Charneutan, and Valikan regions.

***

While Esmeray was with Raghnall, Nerissa took out Paquin's Book of Monsters, an in-depth text she purchased on their first trip to Morencia. Reading through, she happens upon a phenomena known as a Vessel Shard; a being(?) that comes from a lich's failure to ascension. It behaves like an undead virus, spreading from victim to victim, robbing each of their free will to create a hivemind of hateful creatures. Infection does require intimate contact with a physical conduit, but instead of infecting the blood, it infects the soul.

This process sounds very similar to what happened to Syndra, and if that's the case, there is good and bad news. The good is that this process will be hard to replicate, the item used to infect Syndra had to be prepared specially for her, and likely took months to prepare. The bad is that Syndra's very soul may have been damaged beyond repair for the duration she was under the infection's effects. Nerissa decides she will need to ask the party's resident expert on souls, Ostarion, to have a closer look.

***

When the group had first arrived at Castelor after the fall of Morencia, Vendemir took the other politicians they saved with him to stay in accommodation away from the Stormbringers. Ostarion was curious about these loose threads, so after a delay, he followed Vendemir. He soon found the monster hunter standing in a dark alley, a bloodied sword in his hand and a pile of dead politicians at his feet. Vendemir tried explaining to Ostarion that Syndra was the only council member he needed alive, and these others were rotten and needed to be put down. He braced for Ostarion's counter, but the lich druid agreed with him. Ostarion also wanted to cut these loose threads and only regrets that he wasn't able to do the deed himself. Ostarion leaves Vendemir to go to a lonely rock cliff at the coast, where he pulls out his dark ritual dagger once more. The spirits of the mist tell Ostarion that any souls slain by his hand can be absorbed into the mists themselves, and at his word, the dagger can summon the mists to him, in part or in whole, and fight for him as an unstoppable wave of undead spirits. Ostarion accepts this deal and opens his demiplane to free the dozen or so Morencian city guards who he pulled in just before they left Morencia. They look out to him, confused and hopeful, but he raises his dagger, and slays every single one of them in the name of his new dark lord.

Arch Lichen Ostarion and the ritual dagger of the mists.

A refreshed Ostarion returns to Raghnall's estate some time later, and hears Nerissa's plea to analyse Syndra's soul. Ostarion finds the soul is pockmarked and rotted in places, like a bread eaten away by mould. The damage is irreversible, but not complete. He returns the soul to Syndra's body and telepathically tells only her his diagnosis. She's had her longer elf lifespan shortened, but only by a portion. Syndra takes Nerissa away privately and confirms that Ostarion's analysis confirms symptoms she had been experiencing for a while now. Her incomplete soul has robbed her body the ability to heal naturally. She has been relying on potions to stifle even the most minor cuts, and relies on stronger tinctures to heal from exhaustion. Nerissa assures her that she will heal Syndra's body when she needs it. After this adventuring is all over, having a cleric as a partner will make her condition easier to manage.

***

At the end of this first day of downtime, Esmeray summons her allies together to try this magic goblet and prove that none of the Stormbringers are compromised. Edrik provides the table with some holy water and they each take a sip. Anna told Esmeray that the signal that someone was possessed is that the creature would find themselves unable to drink, they would be physically repulsed by the liquid and refuse to lift it to their lips. All party manage to down the liquid without issue, even Ostarion heartily accepts the tonic, even if it burns his undead throat. All except Nerissa, who, after retching a little, manages to down the liquid, but with difficulty. Every party member saw Nerissa's revulsion, and she says what they're all thinking. She is the main driver of her body, but there are other forces within her that hold significant sway. Her first instinct is to think of her previous psyche, the Tower Master, whose impulses bleed through her thoughts occasionally, but her second theory is what Esmeray is truly worried about. Typharia has her own hand on Nerissa's fate, and is steering in a direction they don't like.

Nerissa knows that her allies have been discussing a plan for her patron for some time now, but despite her own boundless curiosity to hear it, she knows that her eyes and ears feed directly into her goddess. So she leaves to go talk politics with Syndra. Esmeray lays out the plan for the others. She can't say how yet, but she has been in contact with a force from the outer planes who would be able to block them from Typharia's vision altogether. They will have a time limit, but if they want to truly shut down Typharia, once and for all, this will be their opportunity to do it. Peace between nations is their current priority, but as soon as they have set up the pieces for that process to happen, Esmeray wants their next priority to be Typharia. To save not only Nerissa, but potentially the entire world from the Goddess of Knowledge's master plan.

***

Since they still had a few days before negotiations to begin, Esmeray advises the party to tie up any and all loose ends. When they are finally done making peace with the world, she wants to launch immediately into her next plan. So the party split up and pursue their own plans.

Nerissa decides to spend those free days catching up on her notetaking. She shuts herself in one of Raghnall's private studies, and with Syndra doing her own work next to her, Nerissa records her experiences of the many frightening monsters she'd faced since joining the Stormbringers. After studying the Paquin Book of Monsters, Nerissa discovers it is a book with magical properties, and by using it to research her adversaries, she becomes more proficient with knowledge on magical creatures. While Paquin had left notes on Daemon Oaks and Bonepile Meemeeks, many of the creatures the Stormbringers had encountered were undocumented. Nerissa spends her few days off writing new accounts for the Tyrant Teostra, Truthseeker Angels, the Prima Stregone Ulrich, the Mists of Morencia, even the Archangel of Death, and many more.

Ostarion spends his free time arming himself with powerful gear, an improved arcane focus, new armour. He also spends more time conversing with his evil dagger and making plans on how he will procure more souls.

***

Esmeray elects to spend her time seeing her friends and family in the fey realms. She arrives at the city of Asteria, as the centre of the Celestial Fey Realm, and is immediately taken aback by all the unfamiliar faces around her. She walks through the city streets towards the central palace to find her parents, and all the while, gets looks of confused familiarity by all of these new Celestial fey. As her mother informs her, the restoration efforts within the Celestial Realm has allowed new celestial fey to be born, coming down from the starry sky to help populate the transforming city. Esmeray asks her mother and father to partake in material realm style dinner, and though they do not understand the custom fully, they enjoy the socialising and chilli curry dinner. Ophion and Celeste regale their daughter with stories of their adventures when they were younger, and how they courted each other in secretive and cheesy ways.

Esmeray stays the night, and later goes to find her other allies, including her best friend, Aneira. After being formally inducted into the Celestial Court at its founding, Aneira had since made a new home in Asteria. After catching up Aneira on her party's recent adventures, Aneira shows Esmeray a project she'd been working on: a magic tattoo of a custom constellation. And touching each of the seven stars on the tattoo will summon one of those seven closest allies of hers. As Aneira applies the tattoo to Esmeray, the fey queen admits there was a deeper real reason she wanted to see her closest friend. Esmeray is deeply in love with Aneira. She has felt this way for a long time. Aneira immediately returns those feelings, and they become entangled in each other's arms; fade to black.

Aneira, the Wintry Portal Fairy, in the arms of Esmeray, Queen of the Celestial Fey.

***

Anneliese wanted to spend her downtime getting stronger. When they were hunting Dr Welgirson, Anneliese had discovered the central housing unit of the Clockwork Orrery, a magic item she had been putting together for some time now. But there were still two parts she needed to complete it. She starts by using Raghnall's library to research the possible whereabouts of those parts, powerful magic items in their own right.

Her first lead points to a mirage island off the western coast of the Burach kingdom. Using her sorcerous and ranger abilities, she quickly pinpoints its probable location and dashes across the choppy waves until she finds a strange portal over the open ocean. Stepping into this portal transports her to the mystery island, a seemingly man-made circular platform of land with a large cylindrical tower in the centre, a cannon barrel the size of a dragon pointing out one side. Right outside the tower's entrance is a humanoid construct, who informs Anneliese she had been expected, and guides her inside.

She walks downstairs to find herself in a massive warehouse, absolutely packed with humanoid constructs, many of them as large as giants, but all seemingly deactivated. She finds another of the smaller helper constructs, who confirms to her that this a meeting place for many of the Thaumaturge, and that a lot of the world's top scientific minds have centralised their projects here, including her father, Casper Drach, and Issac Lorend, the gnome artificer who she'd befriended at Altenheim Palace. Anneliese last saw Issac just before Typharia smited Otis and their other allies, and through talking to the construct, she learns Issac been preparing for her arrival, but he no longer lives. The Goddess of Knowledge did indeed destroy him.

At the basement of this complex, she finds a large magical gear, rotating midair between other machines. This must be the part of the Orrery she was looking for. But Anneliese knows enough about machines and time magic to know that taking this gear would destroy this island. She walks over to find a desk, with a bloodied note from Issac, "I know you'll keep your promise, thankyou Anneliese", and it hits her. This is not just a research lab, this whole island is the Weapon of Mass Destruction Issac had described to her. He did finish it, and hid it here so it would not fall into the wrong hands. The last thing Anneliese and Issac had discussed is her promising him that if he did not get a chance to destroy the super weapon, he wanted her to do it. So she wipes tears from her eyes, whispers "For Issac", and grabs the gear. The gear transports Anneliese across time and space so that she wakes up in Raghnall's library. She now has her second last piece of the Orrery, and Issac's lab had been erased from reality, now existing only in her memory.

Anneliese, master of time, in possession of the complete Clockwork Orrery.

Anneliese's last piece is easier to find, but again presents a tough moral quandry. This time piece is suspended in space in the bowels of a volcano at the edge of the Burach Empire. When she reaches the edge of the volcano's crater, she finds a rising column of lava, but just before it tips over the rim, the lava reverses its course until it dips low enough to reveal a set of rotating rings. Then the lava rises again. The Orrery piece has put this volcano, mid-eruption, in a timeloop! Anneliese does not have the elemental expertise to control a volcano, but she does have just the right ally for the job, a powerful primordial named Ataeshia.

Ataeshia comes with Anneliese back to the volcano, and demonstrates her mastery by reshaping the lava like clay, pushing and pulling until there is an opening long enough for Anneliese to fly down into the magma chamber and retrieve the orbital rings. After, Anneliese asks Ataeshia if anything can be done about the looming eruption, and Ataeshia weaves her elemental magic to hold the volcano in a state of slumber for 100 years. The volcano will eventually blow violently, but they have time to plan.

***

While their allies are off doing their own quests, Edrik and Misha spend their time at Raghnall's base. Other than the worlds leaders he contacted earlier, Edrik wanted to specifically contact his adopted mother Marusya, and talk over his concerns with the war and what it meant for Gormadraugh. Marusya is a serial late replier, so when Edrik didn't get a reply the first day, he resigned himself to training with his weapons, and shopping for Misha's upcoming birthday. Misha spends her time alone, not as worried about Marusya's absence. In the days to come, Misha and Edrik saw little of each other, instead, checking in with Anneliese when was there, querying Ostarion on his definitely not evil plans, and helping Nerissa with her monster notes. Edrik was becoming more and more worried.

Then finally comes a reply. "Sorry I don't have time to chat. I found him and I'm going to put an end to this. Love you."

Edrik Trumannson, with the Red Dragon Mask of Power, looking over Marusya's sacred tree.

After Misha, Anneliese, and Nerissa do their best to calm Edrik down, the entire party are summoned to the war front, courtesy of Esmeray's new magic tattoo. The meaning of the letter is unmistakable: Marusya had been hunting Coltan (possessed by Gitta Sauber), and wished to destroy him. Partially because of his world domination ambitions, but mostly because Gitta had destroyed her family, and she wanted personal revenge. Now, it seems, she found him.

Edrik is frustrated that Marusya won't trust him, won't rely on them for help. So he tries rousing his allies into using all magical means to track her down. But Esmeray is not having it. All of them have had to push back their personal quests in order to pursue larger quests for the greater good. She had to delay finding Aneira in Morencia for their main quest, and again she had to delay removing Thaelkinei from her head, for weeks. Anneliese has a different rebuttal. Marusya is very capable. She is likely more powerful than all of the Stormbringers combined, and she probably went off alone so that Edrik wouldn't die at her side.

Nerissa suggests they could look to the tree Marusya had left in Edrik's draconic lair for some hint. As Edrik prepares for that, Esmeray promises to ask Raghnall if he knows anything, but to be prepared they can't help. Misha stops Edrik in his tracks. Misha DID have to experience her family's death. Her Ruby Dragon heritage preserves the souls of all of her ancestors inside her, yet she has to live with the understanding that she is the last of her kind, and she doesn't have anyone else to look after her. Edrik was supposed to be her caretaker, but if he decides to abandon their current quest to chase Marusya, Misha will not be coming with him.

***

The group splits up. Nerissa and Edrik try to get any help out of Marusya's tree, Ostarion, Esmeray and Anneliese look over Marusya's things, and Misha leaves the camp, flying off into the mountains.

With Raghnall's help, they determine Marusya has travelled to the City Below, using necromantic talismans to bypass the worst effects of that demiplane. Esmeray is frustrated that they do not have time for this, and Raghnall reiterates that with Mina and Drago still missing, he will need their help making deals with the other nations of Etharis. She and Anneliese decide that they will try to bring the party back together, and fly off to chase Misha. Ostarion will wait for Edrik and Nerissa to get back.

Nerissa sits Edrik down next to Marusya's tree and casts Dream on him. Instead of finding himself in Marusya's dreams, he finds himself in a realm between worlds, confronted by someone calling themself a "Dreamer". The Dreamer tells Edrik that Marusya is in a place that cannot be tracked so easily, and if he wants her to be safe, he should stop using the tree like this. He awakens from the dream, panicked, and sees that Marusya's tree is discoloured and a bit withered. He casts healing magic on it and admits to Nerissa that he can be ok with Marusya going off without him. But if she dies and he's not there, he would still like a body to bury.

***

Esmeray and Anneliese fly many miles until they find Misha, in human form, standing on a mountainous plateau. Misha quietly tells them she didn't want them to come after her. Misha is very disappointed in Edrik, that he was supposed to be there for her but even he could not understand the torment that she endures. She tells her allies that her experience as the last ruby dragon is something nobody could comprehend. The memories, the emotions, centuries of legacy, all live through her. And it is not just that she remembers what her ancestors know, those ancestors provide ongoing commentary to every adventure she's had. She worries when they worry, she cries when they cry, and when they are angry with her decisions, she feels that same wrath. This burden has worn away at Misha's mind, and she thinks that eventually she will lose her own sense of self, instead becoming a vessel. While she is terrified of losing her very personhood, she also can't cut herself off from the ruby dragon song. They aren't just a memory, they are alive.

Misha Edriksdottir holding the White Dragon Mask of Power, last of the Ruby Dragons and keeper of their song.

She set out to adventure with Edrik to calm Gormadraugh and find peace. But after this next adventure, she has made up her mind to leave the Stormbringers, and retire in some outer plane. Misha explains that she had also talked to Marusya, and knows exactly what she is doing. Marusya knows the risks, and left the magic tree in Edrik's lair as a contingency, a piece of her life force so she may return later. But she doesn't need to tell Edrik that, he needs to find peace himself.

Misha assures the pair that she will cooperate with the party, but she needs time alone to find peace. So Anneliese and Esmeray fly back to the base of the mountain and start walking back. As they walk back, Anneliese reflects on how their time in the party has changed all of them. And while she agrees with Esmeray's assessment that they need to push their personal issues aside to make world peace, she's worried that the group as a whole is drifting apart and relationships are becoming cold. Esmeray retorts that she doesn't want to be that bad guy that has to keep pulling her allies back from the brink, but the party is full of powder kegs always ready to blow. Edrik struggles with his emotions, Anneliese touches magic devices she shouldn't, Nerissa cannot help but ask questions that put them in the crosshairs, and Ostarion is, well… very concerning. Esmeray does not mean to call out her allies at their worst because she doesn't care for them. It is because she cares too much, and wants her friends to survive this.

Death will be an inevitable part of their pursuit of Marusya, Coltan, Mina, Gormadraugh, Typharia… But they can't control those powerful figures. They just have to be ready to react to whatever may happen.

***

When Esmeray and Anneliese finally return to camp, Edrik has seemingly calmed down. He is aware he's been acting selfish, and is ready to steady himself for those political negotiations that need to happen. Misha soon returns, transforming into her human form mid flight, and landing with a punch into Edrik's shoulder. She huffs, they're even. For now.

[supereffectivemoonblast]

Part 15: Church and State

Covering Session Notes 57-60

As the party crest the hill overlooking Altenheim's main gate, the party go over their newer names and roles once more before they'll have to use them (I will mainly just use character's real names in this summary post to prevent confusion):

Eirina Lyeneru (Esmeray) Noble

Freiderich von Vollendorf (Edrik) Guard

Nicole von Vollendorf (Misha) Guard

Katya Ananova (Nerissa) Noble

Erik Lehnsherr (Ostarion) Servant

Daria Wenzel (Anneliese) Noble

Given the cover story for a lot of their company, they join a line of carriages that seemed to be reserved for other nobles but their appearance seems to incur some pointing and jeering from carts immediately in front and behind them. Which does make sense, nobody would have heard of their company around these parts. Anneliese (a local) notices they are behind the carriage of Bishop Karlos Reinach, a future pope hopeful; his appearance in the city during their visit may spell trouble.

Their entry at the gate is very tense, but it seems CleVon's connections were well made, and very soon, their carriage is inside the city, parked at a very nice hotel called 'The Shining River'. CleVon has his own plans, and says he will arrange to meet the party at the Emperor's palace.

The 'Nobles' are given incredibly lavish rooms with little privacy from hotel staff, while the others are given very squalid chambers.

The next morning, Esmeray is handed a letter addressed to them. The Bishop Reinach had noted their appearance and wants to have a fancy lunch with the group. One carriage ride later and the noble ladies are escorted into a very expensive looking restaurant, empty except for one long table, where they finally meet Father Karlos Reinach.

The food is delightful and the company mysterious. Karlos queries the party about why they are in Altenheim, and why he hadn't heard of them. The party obscur some details, but tell the Bishop they are in the city on orders of the king, for need of their 'expertise'. They are powerful and magical figures, and their goal in the city is to make peace, ideally ending the war.

The Bishop answers their questions in turn; he has become frustrated with the nobles of Burach becoming fat and distant, ignoring the horrors of the world to better line their own pockets. The current pope is corrupt, and others of the Emperor's council are likely at fault for the war escalating as it has, especially Doctor Welgirson.

The conversation concludes with the father noting that his and their presence in the city will be a catalyst for change, and asks what their true intentions are at the palace. Anneliese tells him that there are people of interest at the palace that need their attention. This seems enough for the father, and he presents to them a trio of letters before leaving. These are official invitations to a grand ball at Altenheim Palace.

***

After appropriate preparation of dress (and spells and weapons), the party depart for the palace.

Ostarion (their servant) is left outside to park their carriage, while the others present at an entry desk, to leave some of their belongings before entering. A variety of rich and very fancy characters are surrounded by small crowds of their own. The Bishop Reinach gives them a wave, and they try to avoid the gaze of a very intimidating woman, Doctor Franciszka Welgirson, their main target. She is a Disembodied, one of those souls who partially returned from Ulmyr's Gate, whose bodies still glow with the glittering scars of the Ethereal Realm.

Dr Franciszka Welgirson

Very soon after they begin mingling, they spot CleVon sitting alone. CleVon gives the party his commentary on notable company at the ball. Some of the Burach Empire's top military brass have made an appearance, which makes CleVon worried that they're not taking the war seriously. CleVon points out other VIPs he think the party should talk to, then declares he'll meet them again towards the end of the night.

Annelise soon finds herself in the company of the gnome Issac Lorend, one of the Emperor's teachers, and a master craftsman. While doing her best to obscure her own deeds and inventions, she explains her interest in magical weapon craft and black powder technology. Unlike all of the other guests Issac had been palming off, Issac is very interested in Daria. As the chat goes deeper, Issac takes Daria to his private workshop on the palace grounds.

He shows her his automatons, helpers given magical sentience, as well as his own magical weapons. Issac explains to Daria that he has been commissioned by the Archduke of Rauland to create a super laser cannon, and while he has the potential to finish it, he has not made a working model. He asks Daria what is better, to finish a weapon of mass destruction, or to make it badly so that lives are saved, in exchange for a tarnished reputation. Anneliese tells Issac that weaponised incompetence is always preferable to mass murder, and Issac approves, telling her, "Be brave, not fearless."

Esmeray studies the military minds from afar. Lord General Vasilly Roemer is a haughty and eccentric type, openly bragging about his station and deeds. Captain Damon Andval, his second in command, is visibly bitter about his superior, and is in deeper thought. She spies Lady Yule Buchant, a tactician and money mover, looking particularly unhappy to be here, so decides to take her aside for a conversation.

Yule is a shaker and mover within the upper crust of Burach, making connections with powerful people across the empire, but to Esmeray's shock, she's not even on the council. Yule is happy to tell Eirina how she has not been afforded the respect she's clearly earned. The Lady Buchant also notes that the war has been incredibly impactful to her countrymen lately, and between that and Morencia's recent upheaval, the empire is struggling in ways that the council could never imagine.

Nerissa singles out the dwarf Archduke Ulrich Eizenherz, the political leader of the region of Rauland, as a character of note. It is rumoured he had been bedridden with illness for almost a decade, and that his public appearances are rare. She dare not engage Ulrich in direct conversation, but listens in on his chats for a chunk of time. Nerissa soon comes to the bizarre conclusion that this Archduke, and in fact all of his immediate company, are fake people. The conversations, the movements of people in the vicinity, all happens on loop at least twice while Nerissa is listening in. She is concerned what this could entail, but before she could finish her study, the party is interrupted by a trumpeting arrival.

***

In the main entry hall, party goers gather to see the arrival of Emperor Oldalric Pongor Aurelius I, a man no older than twenty, accompanied by the Pope Roland Murich, a tall grizzled man with a barrel chest. His arrival seems to be unexpected, as the party see a smirk from Reinach and Issac, and a scowl from Damon and Franciszka.

As the Emperor moves about the hall, shaking hands and giving greetings, the trio make their own move to see the Emperor, who gives them a knowing grin and wishes them luck with the night's activities.

As they turn from the Emperor, Esmeray spots a shady figure, Coltan (or maybe more accurately, Gitta Sauber). He doesn't seem to spot them, but as they watch for him in the coming moments, he seems to leave the party early. The other guests start to disperse as they find Father Reinach again, he knows very well what Father Tan's goal is in Burach. He warns them that this very dangerous man and the pope has become closer, and that Father Tan is at the heart of Burach's unravelling.

In the coming hours, the party starts to die down, and CleVon catches their eye, as they leave to find their belongings and begin their true mission.

***

The party collect their gear from a storage room, and equip all of the weapons and armour. Ostarion arrives through a side door, and CleVon begins to guide them upstairs towards the council member's quarters.

As they begin to climb, they hear another set of footsteps following them from below. They wait in ambush to find Captain Damon sneaking up. Nerissa dominates his mind and has him explain that his goal for the night was to slay Lord General Vasilly in his sleep, and then go for the Emperor's throat. Nerissa uses her Plunder Intellect technique to rob Damon of his mind and Ostarion shoves him into a demiplane.

Very warily, the group continued upward until they come to the floor where the Pope and the Emperor's other teacher's rooms would be. They happen upon a very fancy looking door that they detect SO MUCH magic on. Although they try to carefully dispel as many traps as they can, they fail to spot a floor glyph that causes tentacles to fly out and turn a few of the party into books. They hurriedly undo the polymorphs and rush into the room, which confirms their suspicion that this is Welgirson's study. A lot of books and items seem to have been moved somewhere else since Nerissa and Ostarion accidentally teleported here, and the Teleportation Circle on the floor had been hacked up and broken.

Edrik sets up an immovable rod at the door, and Anneliese spots a temporal magic item, the final part of the Orrery! As the party start to search more thoroughly, they hear an angry knock at the door. Franciszka Welgirson screaming, "THIEVES! BACK AGAIN!"

***

As Welgirson continues slamming at the door, Ostarion uses Passwall to sneak out of the room and attack from behind. He sees Dr Welgirson accompanied by Pope Murich and Archduke Ulrich, and before they turn to see him, Ostarion throws them into a Prismatic Wall. This holds them for some time, but soon, Ostarion is forced back, the wall falls and the fight truly begins.

The Archduke breaks into the room weilding an elaborately styled longsword, which Anneliese identifies as Dämglesvir, a holy artefact of the Divine Four, belonging to Maligant, god of war. As Ulrich dashes at the Stormbringers, they notice him moving unnaturally, as if like a puppet on strings. He must be under Welgirson's control.

Welgirson herself moves into the room next, and attempts to get the drop on the party using Time Stop, but to Welgirson's horror, Anneliese keeps moving. Anneliese expels an aura of temporal energy, and suddenly, all of her allies are moving too. Welgirson has had the tables turned on her. In the frozen world, Edrik and Misha thrash into her, and every time Franciszka casts a spell, Esmeray counterspells, Anneliese Mirror Spells, Nerissa Dispels, and Ostarion fires back with a blast of his own powerful druidic fury.

As regular time resumes, Welgirson is dripping with magma, but there is not a scratch on her body. They now see a film of magical energy surrounding her, she has been blocking any damage during the fight thus far. Just as they position themselves for follow up, the party notice a sulphurous smell in the air and tiny spore particles seeping in from the hallway. The Pope saunters into the room, and where he steps, a bright moss grows at the ground near his feet. The party try to hold their breath, but the spores coat their bodies, and begin to burn their skin.

As Welgirson readies her next spell, the Pope raises his holy scepter, causing the moss and spores to catch alight with magical flame.

Not wanting to lose the advantage they had during the Time Stop, Esmeray uses her fey magic to latch onto Welgirson's shadow and begin draining her seemingly bottomless well of magic. Before the Archduke Ulrich can raise his hand again, Nerissa casts Banishment, temporarily removing him from the fight.

CleVon, Anneliese, and Esmeray all slice back and forth between the Pope and Dr Welgirson, and while Welgirson' spell shield seems to be negating any damage, the Pope begins to fall apart. But not in a human way, in the way slicing into a burning tree would. Chunks of bark-like flesh falling off and a boiling sap oozing from his wounds. The Pope targets Misha, and Edrik powers through the flame to get the finishing blow, bisecting the holy man and spitting at how Aurelia would be disgusted as to what he'd become.

More desperate than ever, Welgirson starts overwhelming the party with huge spells of immense power; trapping Nerissa and Misha in a Prismatic Wall, blasting the roof off and blasting the frontliners with a Meteor Swarm and a Hell Ball, and bringing CleVon under her complete psychic command.

But Welgirson had spread herself too thin, and the remaining party shatter her Spell Shield. Edrik slashes at her with his Atgeir, and she truly bleeds for the first time. Franciszka Welgirson pleads for mercy, they will need her help in the coming trials, and only she has the power they need. The party see through her lies and continue to bear down on her.

Welgirson makes one last threat: if she dies, the spell she has CleVon under will kill him. When they hesitate she makes a run for it, but Ostarion has no need for things like mercy and consequences, so he casts Time Stop, embuing his form with the power of an Hourglass Widow, master of time.

In that stopped time, he and Anneliese shred through Welgirson's body until all is left is bones and boiling muck. And before time resumes, Ostarion moves to the frozen CleVon, and casts Greater Restoration, removing any curse Welgirson may have left on his body, while Anneliese moves her allies out into the hallway to avoid the room collapsing on top of them.

Ostarion stops time. Anneliese, an Hourglass Widow Time Warden, can move within the frozen time.

***

After a moment catching their breath, Nerissa's Banish spell ends, and Archduke Ulrich reappears, limbs askew and unconcious. Edrik notices he has not loosened his grip on the cursed sword, so severs his hand at the wrist. His main body responds to healing magic, but he does not wake. Whatever has happened to him seems irreversible. The party dump the lifeless body of Ulrich into their portable hole, but the Sword (hand attached) seems to push back against entering the demiplane. So they sheath it and carefully carry with them. They leave this crumbling wing of the castle to search for the Emperor, who CleVon had rushed ahead to find. What remains of the Pope's corpse seem to catch alight as they leave.

Expecting to run into castle staff roused by the explosions and shaking walls, they instead find full scale mannequins strewn across the halls and rooms as they get closer to the Emperor's quarters. They finally find CleVon standing beside a chaise lounge, the Emperor cradling a visibly injured woman. A large number of puppets lay at their feet. The Emperor explains that these puppets were people that had taken care of the Emperor and his mother for many years. These were people who they knew and believed to be allies of theirs, but as it turns out, they were fakes, constructs puppetted by Welgirson to enact her will over the Burach Kingdom.

Nerissa heals the woman, who turns out to be the Emperor's mother, a woman who had not been seen by the public since her son had been born. But it seems she had almost as much say in running the kingdom as the Emperor( which turns out to be not much). The party explain to the pair that they are allies of CleVon, and believe they had properly slain Dr Franciszka Welgirson, but doubt the other creature they faced was the real or final form of the Pope. The Mother Empress is pleased to learn Gretel Drach yet lives, and Nerissa Sends a message to Gretel, informing her that they will have need of her once they are sure Welgirson has nothing more hidden within the palace walls.

***

CleVon agrees to stay behind and guard the royal family after the Emperor's mother shows them to a hidden panel that seems to hide Welgirson's true magical lair. What lays beyond the door seems to be a bedroom, but a large pile of books lays in the center of the floor. A magic circle seems to guard against thieves, but the party soon undo the puzzle and remove the circle. Detecting Magic reveals all of the books are booby trapped with some combination of evocation and illusion magic. Nerissa tries to open one book to uncover the puzzle, but reads a warning from Welgirson written in the page. All of the books are rigged with a trap spell that will kill them within minutes. The party hurriedly drain all of their remaining magic to dispel magic on nearly 30 books before shoving them in the portable hole too. But even with the apparent danger gone, they can't trust Welgirson at her word, so they flee the bedroom, which erupts with devastating evocation magic just as they flee the hallway.

The castle walls rumble around them and the ground begins to tilt. The magical damage from their prior fight had already battered the upper castle, and now it seemed the entire palace was going to collapse. Thinking quickly, the party each assign themselves key VIPs they want to rescue from the collapsing building, and rush off to their destinations.

Anneliese overloads herself with time magic, so she can quickly rush to the bottom of the building to find Issac. Several damaged mannequins lay outside the shutter door to his workshop, and as she bursts her way in, she finds an arcane firearm pointed at her chest. Not recognising Daria without the disguise, Issac doesn't believe she is not there to kill him too. Anneliese whispers to him, "Be brave, not fearless", and he immediately understands before running with her to the castle's outer gardens.

Nerissa rushes with CleVon, the Emperor, and his mother to a nearby window to use a Scatter Scroll to teleport them to the ground several stories below.

Edrik and Esmeray stay on the upper floors to rouse Lord Vasilly, Lady Buchant, and Bishop Reinach. Like, Issac, each had been fighting the puppets of Welgirson, but it seems that Welgirson's death had caused any power in these puppets to fail. As they move their new allies towards windows for Ostarion to fly them out, they come to realise the scale of Welgirson's plot.

The Emperor, his closest allies, and the handful of VIPs the parties were now rescuing may have been the ONLY real people at the party. Hundreds of puppets litter the castle's crumbling hallways. Did Welgirson's illusion reach beyond the palace walls into the rest of Altenheim? The rest of the Burachan empire?

Altenheim Palace collapsed into rubble within two minutes of Welgiron's final booby trap, but CleVon and the Stormbringers successfully saved all of the innocents they wanted to, catching their breath in the gardens outside the castle. Once outside, they begin to hear the sounds of absolute destruction and screaming from beyond the castle grounds. It seems Welgirson's puppets did indeed have their roots throughout the city. As they spot glowing embers and bitter smelling spores on the wind, it seemed that whatever creature the Pope really was did not act alone either. The smell of incoming smoke indicates they may be hunting the Emperor, and getting closer. Edrik tears a hole in the earth beneath them and opens a portal into his Draconic lair. He invites their new guests to take shelter within, and without much convincing, they all hop in.

***

The fight with Welgirson and the fake plant Pope (Fope), and their later attempt to undo Welgirson's traps had absolutely drained Esmeray, Nerissa, Ostarion, and Anneliese of all of their magic. So despite the need to contact Gretel or other allies, that follow up would need to happen after a long rest. Edrik and Misha show their guests around the space, and all begin to take stock of their situation.

Lord General Vasilly is still very injured, and the Emperor and his mother are very shaken. That trio are taken to separate quarters to rest, while the party take time to properly introduce their real selves to their other new allies. Despite the terrifying situation they just left behind, the discussions are quite open and productive.

CleVon, Reinach, and Yule discuss with Edrik the tactical implications of this demiplane, and Yule later hints that she knows of Edrik's draconic powers, and may have some draconic aspects herself.

Anneliese formally introduces Issac to her own work, and he is very impressed with the craftsmanship on her transforming infernal firearms. Issac and Anneliese combine their smithing prowess to use this downtime to make some powerful tools for her.

The three forms of Anneliese's Shadowsteel Firearms

Esmeray and Nerissa spend some time looking over the books they took from Welgirson's room, and find a magic key hidden near the bottom of the pile. Yule tells them this is the type of key that will likely open a hidden magical vault.

Ostarion and CleVon talk out the drawbacks of his current weakened state, and how he felt out of his league fighting alongside the Stormbringers. Ostarion offers to undo his spell sometime, but also has other ideas that could be more useful to everyone…

Finally, Esmeray talks to Father Reinach alone. The reappearance of the Mother Empress has him fearful; she was close with the pope and Welgirson when she was in public's eye, and look what became of that pair. Reinach concludes that this situation is dire, but even if he trusts nobody here, especially not The Stormbringers, things could have gone a lot worse.

[supereffectivemoonblast]

At the start of 2025, I was invited to join a friend's long-running D&D campaign (already like 70 something sessions in). Every other campaign I've drawn art of, I was there for session 1, so it felt awkward if I was to draw these characters that had existed for dozens of sessions before I got there, and initially, I didn't.

These sessions also run more frequently than my other group, so when I did finally decide I would draw them, I decided against doing a session art for every session. Now I'm playing catch-up, and for every 4-5 sessions, I'm doing one art.

All this to say that these session arts will come infrequently after I've done this initial burst of catch-up, and the session descriptions will be less detailed per session (except when I need to do broad introductions like in this session).

Part 1 - The Winter Court

Covering my session notes 1-4

A party of adventurers had been travelling in the eastern parts of the Charneault Kingdom (a southern region in Etharis), working for the Company of Free Swords in Voros. The party (lots of homebrew and third party):

Anneliese Drach: Time Warden Ranger

Ilze Barenis: Blade Dancer Rogue

Edrik Trumannson: Dragon Rider

Misha Edriksdottir: Edrik's Dragon partner (in human form)

Ostarion Longfeather: Witherbloom Druid

The party has been tracking a mysterious man named Casper, Anneliese's estranged father, who is working in disguise within the Free Swords. The party do a little investigation and are introduced to a tiefling named Nerissa, who helps them find faked letters from their Free Sword contact, Andross.

Nerissa Lazâr: Eldritch Domain Cleric (me!)

Nerissa is a cleric dedicated to bookkeeping and knowledge. Her piety is in service to searching for more knowledge. In a world of dead gods, having prayers answered is a bad omen.

The party decide to put on a talent show to cover their attack on Casper, but during the chase, a group of assassins start to attack their allies. Ostarion uses a powerful sphere of Annihilation in a last ditch effort, and when the dust clears, the assassins and Ostarion are gone. Meanwhile, the other party members find and confront Casper. Nerissa paralyses him, opening a flurry of attacks from Edrik and Anneliese, he never stood a chance.

Anneliese puts down her father Casper.

The party and the Free Swords dispose of the assassins and Casper by fire, and they psychically recieve a foreboding message saying they shouldn't have that. The party know this is Coltan, a vampire warlord who has been a thorn in the group's side for most of their adventures together. Coltan had also been operating within the Free Sword's fortress, and after some more investigation, they find the office he'd been using, and some notes on what he's become. Not just a vampire, but an amalgamation of many powerful monsters.

One of the party knows an old ally of theirs, Yög, knows how to reverse monstrous transformations. But it turns out Yög is in captivity, and they'll need an ally from the Thaumaturge (a powerful legion of spellcasters) to get him out. One some Thaumaturge can be found in the Fey Realm's Winter Court. Nerissa knows the spell to get there, but needs an attuned focus. Ilze summons a fey ally named Aneira to help them get there, who reveals Ilze is actually a Changelinger from the Winter Fey Realm named Esmeray.

* * *

The party find themselves in a wooden storeroom, approached by a mysterious man named Gregor. The party knows Gregor as a charlatan fiend, and he has a deal to cash in with Anneliese. He allows the rest of the party to grab a magic item of choice while he talks to her, and Nerissa finds an amulet to her god (who she previously did not know the name of, Typharia, goddess of knowledge. A short time later, they're let go and finally arrive in the Fey Winter Realm.

Aneira guides us to the town of Hailstorm, where we meet the Queen of the Winter Court. She releases Esmeray from her oath, allowing her to finally discuss her identity with the party openly. We meet the Winter Court's spymaster Aspen, who feels us that the Mage we're searching for, Drifa, is looking into the disappearances of two ancient courts outside of the main four season courts. She can be found in her tower, a couple days travel across the snow.

* * *

The icy fields they travel across are perilous, and the group are mostly exhausted by the time Drifer's tower is in sight. Except for Aneira and Esmeray, who are at home in the biting cold of the blizzard. The tower is hundreds of feet tall, and they take a while to reach the top.

Aneira and Esmeray guide their less cold-tolerant friends through a blizzard.

Drifa the Mistress of Blizzards is very cold to Esmeray, and after a long conversation trying to convince Drifa to help us, Nerissa reads Drifa's mind to conclude that Esmeray has been cursed with an effect that causes Drifa to hate her. This invasion of privacy goes badly, but after we deescalate the misunderstanding, Nerissa successfully removes the curse on Esmeray and Drifa's mind is cleared.

Nerissa searches Esmeray's mind for more clues, but determines whoever laid this curse did so before Esmeray's earliest memories.

* * *

A calmer Drifa tells the party about her research, about the Shadow Court and Celestial Court, the 5th and 6th fey courts, that were scrubbed from fey society a millennium ago. She will help us retrieve Yög if we travel to the now uninhabited Shadow realm and find clues to the now unreachable Celestial realm. The party begin their journey across the Winter Court's horizon into the lightless and sickly Shadow Court.

[supereffectivemoonblast]

Part 16: Fog of War

Covering Session Notes 61-65

After their eventful evening at Altenheim Palace, the party and their rescued allies have a long rest in Edrik's draconic domain. With magic restored, they finally contact Gretel Drach again, who tells them she and Otis arrived in Altenheim soon after they lost contact, and much of the city is ashes. The pair had moved to an old cabin by a lake some distance from Altenheim, and await their arrival for a proper discussion.

As the party take a tally of who they have with them, they notice the Lord General is missing, and when they go to find him, they instead find a bloody corpse. Sometime in the night, a mighty blade tore a mighty gash into Lord General Vasilly, and there seems to be more blood spilt than possible. The collective go over their alibis, and inspect each individual's weapon for blood stains.

Eventually they find the legendary Damglesvir had been moved from its previous resting space in Misha's hoard, and some expensive cloth from her collection had been used to wipe blood off.

More interrogation concludes nobody consciously wielded the sword of Maligant last night, but it may have controlled someone with its maddening powers.

As their investigation met a dead end, they feel the temperature rise and smell ash. The Fire Pope monsters had found the entrance to Edrik's lair in the castle grounds and were trying to force their way in! The mages coordinated with Edrik to send him to Gretel's location, and when there, he reopened the lair, severing its previous entrance.

The party and their allies spend some time catching up Gretel on all the previous night's events, and how the evil sword may have caused a murder in the night. Gretel introduces the party to Otis Tremane, an old elf wizard, then takes the Emperor and his mother aside for a chat.

Once everyone is caught up, Gretel brings to attention that with the Burach Empire currently in ruin, organising an end to the war with Ostoya will be more difficult, and other forces may need to come into discussion. Issac reminds the party of his laser weapon of mass destruction that had been in play, but notes its use would kill many innocents and bring about an arms race of WMDs. They agree this should be their last resort, and Issac makes Anneliese promise to destroy the weapon if he doesn't have the opportunity to do so himself.

They also discuss the possibility of getting the Valikan, Charneutan and the Castinellan armies involved, but this would be a longer term project they don't have time for. More immediately, they could try to use Morencia's financial leverage to strangle Ostoya and Burach's economies into submission.

Since they have an ally on the inside, Nerissa Sends to Syndra, asking if she could help them maneuver Morencia in their favor. Syndra replies that she would be happy to help, but first she needs their help to bring Morencia under her control. Consider it payback for not calling back all this time.

***

Gretel approves their decision to go to Morencia and negotiate. When prompted on Damglesvir and what to do with it, she tells them to ask Otis. Otis looks over Damglesvir and tells the adventurers stories about two other swords who, with Damglesvir, complete a set. Their combined power may cleanse Maligant's sword of its curses.

They start telling Otis about other divine artefacts they had encountered in the recent past, and the shenanigans with Kolthys Markolf and the Aurelia's cloak last time they were in Morencia. Otis asks the party where that cape and Kolthys's other rare divine item, "the book" had gone. Nerissa begins to give him all the details about the Book of Typharia, and suddenly there is a white flash… The Stormbringers blink several times and open their eyes to find themselves on a streetside in Morencia.

Nerissa tries to assure her party that she had no input on what just happened, and they theorise that Typharia was not pleased with the direction of that conversation. Was the god of knowledge censoring Nerissa? Were there things she is not allowed to say?

The party decide that the intricacies of Typharia's mind needed to take a backseat for now, because the ceasfire needed to come first. The party grab a gondola and start heading to the Darkest Night Emporeum to meet Syndra, but it seems the canals are empty of most people, and those remaining have scary mourners masks. Esmeray thinks the masks seem to be related to a Morencian tradition where people are sacrificed to the mists, but it is the wrong time of year, and the mists are a lot thicker than they should be too.

They encounter guards at the market entrance, who tell them anyone not wearing a mask is marked as an enemy of Doge Lorenzo, and risk execution. Using magic and non-lethal force, the guards are silenced, and they avoid an arrest warrant. In the Emporeum, they encounter allies of theirs who escort them to Syndra's restaurant, where they meet Stenfohr, who gives them the lowdown on what they've missed.

Syndra is now on the council as a bank rep, and has been working with a monster hunter named Vendemir to solve the Moonless Night Murders; people who are ritually massacred when there is no moon in the sky. And the city being covered in fog has meant more opportunities for these massacres.

Stenfohr guides the Stormbringers to a secret passage from Syndra's base into the Morencian Government halls, and they emerge on the other side in a tidy office. Soon, Syndra comes in, pleased to see Nerissa and the others, but immediately jumps into business. With Morencia's control over the financial world, she could help bring a ceasefire, but first she needs to control Morencia. The Doge has opposed her policies at every turn, and the other Banker's Guild members aren't a fan of her either. Her best suggestion is to use Vendemir, who has recently taken a council seat because the Moonless Murders are apparently embroiled within the very government of Morencia.

***

Leaving Syndra to go to another council meeting, the party are escorted by government staff to meet Vendemir. They open the door to a tall gruff man covered in belts and satchels packed with anti monster gear, pointing a loaded crossbow at the door. After introducing themselves and their association with Syndra, Vendemir quizzes the party on their own monster hunter feats and methods, before going on to explain his current calling; the murders.

Vendemir suspects there are multiple parties involved. Most corpses have had their chests mutilated and marked with strange runes, but he has also found corpses without markings very soon after death. So the killer and the mutilator may be two different people.

The group decide they will begin their efforts by examining the most recent victim, Isaa Guillaume, the council member Vendemir replaced.

He escorts the party down to the city crypt, and they cast Speak with Dead successfully. This is strange because the spell would fail if someone else cast the spell in the last week, and the Maegilate, Morencia's mage guild, should have performed that duty already.

Isaa's ghost tells the party she was investigating her father's murder, he was a member of the Navigator's Guild and was killed under mysterious circumstances at sea. The most important evidence was shown to her by Lunel, her grandfather's bird. They soon find Lunel lurking nearby within the crypt; he is an undead raven. Seeing it had caught Vendemir's and the party's attention, it flies out of the building, making sure they follow. Lunel guides the group to a foreclosed Antiques shop nearby, and waits above the awning expectantly.

Between Vendemir and Esmeray, they break in and disarm the array of traps waiting for them. A letter under the door indicates someone else had been looking for "remains" at this shop. They carefully move through the shack until they find a basement, and on a table to one side, a skeleton, another letter, and a preserved eyeball.

The letter indicates this is the corpse of First Mate Guillaume, Issa's father, and that an eye witness says he was killed by the Admiral Endoria Onaglie, who subsequently tore out her own eye in a fit of madness. The letter is signed by Quartermaster Nettohen, who Vendemir confirms was the first person to be killed in the Moonless Night Murders.

A closer inspection of the body reveals it had been hacked at, likely during ritually scarring like the other victims, and Vendemir tells them the eye seems to be a component in a device called a Nautanticlus; a magical focus that allows Morencian ships to navigate the treacherous waters around their island while avoiding danger. The Nautanticlus is a joint venture of the Navigator and Mage guilds, and it seems like both are doing some cover up. By interrogating the ghost of this skeleton too, they learn he was used as a sacrifice to appease the spirits around Morencia in a conflict with the Castinellan Provinces.

As they begin assembling a list of suspects, it becomes apparent the chamber is filling with a chilling moisture. Nerissa uses 'Turn Undead', and the fog immediately dries up. Could it be that the mists of Morencia are a mass of spirits that Admiral Onaglie and the Mage's guild are trying to control?

***

The group hurry outside before the cleric's magic fades and find that the mist has thickened to the point that they can barely see a few metres in front of them. Ostarion and Anneliese (both undead creatures) hear the whisper of innumerous spirits in their ears. They are being tempted into betraying their allies and drowning them in the canal below.

Knowing that they need to act quickly, they cover their gondola with divine energy and hurry toward the Government Halls. While on the boat, Edrik and Anneliese are overcome with destructive energy, and try to sink the boat, but Nerissa successfully dispels the possession over them and they make it safely to their destination.

Vendemir enlists the party's help to mark each of the building's windows and doors with occult runes and salt so that the mist will not be able to enter while Ostarion attempts to use his druidic expertise to change the weather. His effort is being contested, and given how powerful Ostarion is, it seems his order to clear the skies is being met with a group of other mages working in tandem to cover the skies. While most magic is forbidden in Morenica, the Maegilate are a company of wizards working directly for the council. Maybe this conspiracy goes all the way to the top?

Having a few avenues for further investigation, they briefly part with Vendemir to go talk to Syndra.

A frightened attendant tells the party Syndra has been in her office all day, apparently meeting with the Maegi Professorie (head of the guild), and he says there were sounds of shouting and conflict. After convincing the attendant to leave his post, they break into the room to find a sorry sight.

***

Syndra lies on the floor covering in blood, surrounded by bottles, and holding a ceremonial dagger. The Maegi Professorie lies against a far wall, his rib cage torn apart, and his skin pockmarked with dozens of rune shaped scars.

Esmeray quickly fetches Vendemir as they begin their investigation of the apparent crime scene. They find that the Maegi's corpse is cursed with unholy energy, and Anneliese risks herself to comprehend the runes scribed on his flesh.

They are necromantic orders; RISE! OBEY! WITHSTAND! Spells used to make strong undead soldiers.

As they look over Syndra's body, she is obviously intoxicated, but also possibly possessed by the mists. Nerissa uses Dispel Evil and Good to cleanse her body, Edrik cures her poisoning, and they find a necromatic rune on her body: OBEY!

They wake Syndra up and she has no recollection of the past few hours. When they tell her what she's missed, apparently the attendant's story did not add up. This boy was named Oak, and it quickly becomes clear they might not able to trust him. Esmeray Scries on Oak, and he seems to be heading back to this chamber, accompanied by the Doge and some councilman of high office.

They quickly use Prestidigitation and other spells to clean up Syndra and obscure her involvement, Esmeray taking the dagger that was planted on her body. Nerissa tries to use holy magic to remove the rune on her chest. But the spell is absorbed and warped, removing the magical scar from Syndra's chest and tearing an identical scar into Nerissa's.

***

When Oak and Doge Lorenzo open the door, Vendemir vouches for the Stormbringers that they were not involved, but will be arresting Syndra so he can interrogate her later. The Doge asks the Stormbringers stay within the Government Halls until they too can be interviewed. City guards take Syndra one way, and Vendemir takes the Stormbringers a different way. As they Doge and his staff enter the room to begin their own investigation of the crime scene, they see a smug grin on Oak's face.

The little weasel is definitely deeply embroiled in this scandal. Vendemir leaves the party to find more evidence while he keeps an eye on the crime scene. The Maegilate's office is in a different building, but Oak will definitely be keeping an eye on them, so they need a chance to pin something on him.

After a quiet brainstorming sesh, Anneliese uses her Clockwork Orrery to locate Oak's quarters and they sneak down the halls to find it. Esmeray uses her fey magic to phase through the door, not finding a servants quarters, but a lavishly decorated four poster bedroom. The bed initially seems empty, but Esmeray casts See Invisibility to find the corpse of a blonde haired woman, resembling an ally of their past, Cora, daughter of the pope.

Not really sure what to do with this, Esmeray moves to Oak's desk, and inside the drawers she finds a note written in illusory script, and two drawstring bags. One filled with coin, the other with broken bones, signs of those same necromantic runes chipped into them. This is the evidence they need to get Oak arrested! But just as Esmeray straightens up, she hears a whisper behind her, "I really wish you didn't see that", as Oak drives a dagger into her back

To Oak's Dismay, Esmeray is immune to the necrotic venom coating the dagger, and what should have been a decisive strike becomes Oak backed up against a wall, he calls to the corpse on the bed, and a terrifyingly quick zombie begins to charge Esmeray. Upon hearing a scuffle, her allies destroy the door. Ostarion casts a curse upon Oak's zombie, instantly turning it to ash.

The fey snakes bound to Esmeray deliver their petrification toxin, and the beaten and battered Oak turns to stone. Now free of interruptions, Esmeray calls Vendemir to come check Oaks's room, after giving them enough time to finish rummaging.

They find an echanted wedding ring, likely belonging to the zombie he commanded (very concerning) and look over the magic dagger that had fallen from Oak's grip. The dagger looks to be a visual copy of the dagger that was planted on Syndra, but it had been smithed with extra magical steps. Ostarion senses vast necromantic energy coming from it, and takes some time to get well acquainted with it.

***

Vendemir arrives on the scene as most of the make themselves scarce, very ready to cure Oak's petrification and look over the evidence they'd left for him. As the others take off, Esmeray explains some of her concerns she had on their last trip to Morencia.

Vendemir seems on top of most of Morencia's underground, but then Esmeray explains their deal with Ulrich the Prima Stregone. Vendemir is very distressed that such a creature has been at large within the city without his knowledge. Esmeray tries to assure Vendemir that Ulrich cant be bad compared to gods. Vendemir asks what gods? Then Esmeray lore drops all of their interactions with Typharia.

Vendemir suddenly clams up and declares he does not want to talk to the Stormbringers anymore, especially Nerissa. If Typharia is back, then the knowledge he keeps puts him in danger. He warns her that if they say the wrong things in front of Typharia, she will be in danger too.

Once their dealings with Syndra are over, Vendemir needs The Stormbringers to leave Morencia and not come back.

***

Once united again with the party, she tells them of the upsetting meeting she had with Vendemir. If people as powerful as him fear speaking their secrets in front of Typharia, then perhaps they were wrong about why Typharia tore them away from Otis Tremane. Maybe Typharia wanted to silence Otis and not Nerissa.

Suddenly very afraid of what they left behind, Nerissa tries Sending to Otis, CleVon, and Gretel. No responses. Esmeray then tries scrying for their allies, one at a time. Most of her attempts fail, until she finally scries on the Emperor. Through the orb, she calls out to Oldalric telepathically, and he tells her that their disappearance coincided with a blinding white light and next thing he remembers was awakening in a stranger's cabin. With Ostarion's and Oldalric's help, they scry a tree they can use to reach the Emperor, and most of the party head over.

Esmeray and the others arrive at the Emperor's side. The woman who had found him is in fact a Valiken spy named Freya who was charged with keeping the peace, and she arrived at the lake to only found the Emperor and his mother. The party are shown the Queen mother, who had lost in her legs in blast, and Ostarion restores them heals her as well as he can. Now more mobile, the group decide Freya should take the Emperor and his mother on the road, and re-equip non-detection amulets. If the Stormbringers could find them, then the plant pope would be on their tail.

Nerissa stays behind, Annelise with her. The cleric is absolute distraught; she brought Typharia back into this world with the purpose of quenching her unending curiosity. And now her curiosity is smiting people when Nerissa asks the wrong questions.

Anneliese stares intensely at her friend. She doesn't blame Nerissa though, all of her fury is directed at Typharia, and the daggers she stares are for the Goddess of Knowledge only.

The others come back soon and catch up the pair on what they saw. Nerissa breaks down. She blames herself for all of this. The others console her, resolute that Typharia's decisions are beyond Nerissa's control.

***

Incredibly stressed, the party decide they can't end this day without investigating the Maegilate. They try to sneakily find their way in, but instead reach a front desk and are directed to meet the Maegilate's main supervisor.

They meet a haughty looking elf who introduces herseld as Mar. She has been watching their progress since tehy arrived in Morencia using a scrying orb. She understands that their conclusions would bring them to the Maegilate, but those practitioners working under her were not supposed to be part of this mess.

Mar offers transparency to support her case, and begins giving them a guided tour of the facilities. The party are still ready to strike, but cautiously follow the elf as she walks them through. It turns out that most of the employees of the Maegilate are not actually spellcasters, but scholars well versed in magic.

Mar quizzes the party on what they've found out so far, and they explain what they know of the mist and Nautanticlus. Mar demonstrates the Nautanticli are made in house, and rather than ritual butchering, these days, retired sailors in their final days are sedated while their organs are surgically removed. It must be sailors that are used because the Nautanticlus rely on nautical knowledge to interface with the mists.

Finally, Mar brings the party to the weather mages, who are working at desks in a large office space. There, the party are confronted on their deeper connections outside Morencia. She knows the party know the Thaumaturge, Mina and Dute in particular, and wants to know which of the party she can use as blackmail to twist Syndra to their will. Syndra has been a thorn in Mar's side for some time, blocking most of the Maegilate's less scrupulous methods. And now Syndra must be forced to back down. Not liking where this monologue is going, the party leap into combat.

***

As soon as the party start their onslaught, it becomes obvious every "weather mage" in that room is under complete psychic control by Mar. They leap in front of attacks as human shields, they suddenly explode in a shower of viscera as human bombs, and Mar drains their life force directly to power her own spells. When Edrik finally lands a successful smite, he smells the burning brimstone; Mar is a fiend: The Archdemon of Progress.

Sensing they need to cut off the fiend from their power supply, the party use Maze , Ravenous Void, Prismatic Wall and a bunch of other powerful attacks to weaken the Archdemon's human support, all the while Mar is almost flattened by the attacks of the martials.

All of sudden, Mar inhales, and all of the remaining mages drop dead, their energy fed into the Archdemon. Ready for the second form, the party are surprised when Mar holds up their hands and declares this fight need not happen. There has been a misunderstanding and Mar is quite unsure why they are enemies.

***

The party cautiously lower their weapons and spend some time catching up Mar on recent history. The Moonless Night Murders, Typharia bringing them to Morencia, the War between Burach, and the few weeks when Death was no more. It soon becomes obvious that Mar has been living under a rock. She is an ancient creature that has been so invested in her projects that she's missed large chunks of important lore. She is particularly upset to hear about the fall of Ulmyr's Gate, a beacon of progress on an otherwise dark continent.

Mar tells them that the Necromantic words of power were originally one of her creations, but as the archdemon of progress, she developed better methods and moved on. She and the Maegilate went on to use the Nauntanticli as a more sensible method to calm the mists. Some darker cult within the council must have co-opted those methods for their own purpose.

Mar declares their real name is Deteriora, and is also aware of other demons the party has had dealings with, including Skade, which the party know as Gregor. Annelise tells her how Skade had dragged her in the downfall of Ulmyr's Gate, and how she's been mentally scared by her role as the person who pressed the doomsday button. Once Deteriora gets the full story, she drops a truth bomb on Anneliese; the fall of Ulmyr's Gate was entirely the Tower Master's fault, and Anneliese was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

As apology for the misunderstanding, Deteriora offers to help the party with a task of their choosing. Esmeray asks for their help understanding the spell that Gitta Sauber has wrought; the ritual to control powerful figures and their lineage; and how they may undo that spell. Deteriora promises to do their best.

As the party leave, they overhear the sounds of the Archdemon of Progress slaughtering what remains of the Maegilate, to sever all loose threads connecting her to the evil mist ritual.

Esmeray gets a message from Venin, Archdemon of Lies, who had just been in contact with her sister, Deteriora. The party have reason to suspect foul play from Typharia in recent events, and Venin is certain that in the grand scale of the Aetheric War, Typharia had a part to play that was particularly juicy. Typharia knows something she doesn't want Nerissa to know.

Venin has a deal for Esmeray: her demonic illusions can be used to hide Esmeray from the gaze of any divine being, even Typharia. And if there comes a time that Esmeray wants to say or do something she doesn't want The Goddess of Knowledge to know, Venin can erect a temporary veil. This veil can be extended to her other party mates, but it will hide them for less time. A veil over Nerissa may not even last a day.

***

As the party settle in to finally get back to the Government halls to get some sleep, Esmeray takes Nerissa aside to assist in finding more information about their missing allies. Deteriora had brought up a valid point; if anyone was to know if their allies were killed by Typharia's heavenly smite, then it would be Death.

They using Sending at The Keeper, Archangel of Death, and ask them what they know of Typharia's deadly smite. The Keeper does not immediately know the fate of most of their allies, but they do know for sure that Gretel Drach died. The Keeper sends their condolences, and promises them to look into CleVon and the others they hadn't heard from.

Esmeray brings out her Scroll of True Resurrection, which was granted to her by the Archdemon Skade. She was saving this specifically to bring back her adopted mother Dansari. But right now, they, especially Anneliese, needed Gretel alive. Esmeray reads out the runes on the scroll, and a very disoriented, but wholly uninjured Gretel Drach appeared before them.

[supereffectivemoonblast]

Part 8: The Book of Typharia

Covering my session notes 28-31

Divine magic rushed through the Deliberate Literate, and the flayed skins were sent to whence they came. The group look at Nerissa for a moment, then rush back to the bookstore's entrance. Waiting for them is their previous benefactor, Eclipse. Esmeray launches an attack, but before it can land, Anneliese blinks and her party has disappeared, sans a blank faced Nerissa.

Anneliese watches Eclipse double over in pain, and then mutate into something alien and twisted. She tries to intervene, but she seems to be slowing down, and a grinning creature with many arms crosses her path.

Esmeray finds herself in the ruins of Morencia, hundreds of years into the future being chased by a tall, twisted shadow creature for days on end.

Edrik arrives at the Valiken Hunter's Lodge, his home. But his loved ones are uncanny fakes, and in trying to interrogate these monsters, he's aged beyond his years.

Anneliese, Edrik, and Esmeray come to the same conclusion during these encounters. These are the Aether Kindred, the eldritch beings who killed the gods. And they felt Typharia's power.

Meanwhile, Nerissa finds herself wandering a library between worlds, and following the sounds of footsteps, she meets Typharia. The Goddess of Knowledge explains that Nerissa's gathering of knowledge have been feeding power into Typharia. And her faith has finally given Typharia enough power to awaken again.

Nerissa finally meets Typharia, Goddess of Knowledge.

Other gods may yet be revived by their own believers, but Typharia is primarily concerned with Nerissa and what they can achieve. She asks the tiefling to find more followers, so Typharia may build her power and protect Nerissa from those who will now be looking for her.

Nerissa wakes up in Morencia again, now being held aloft by the creature that stole Eclipse's body. Nerissa banishes the creature and helps the now exhausted Esmeray rescue the older and feebler Edrik out of the river. Anneliese reappears soon after. They have survived an encounter with the Aether Kindred, but Misha is nowhere to be seen.

* * *

The adventurers eventually return to find Syndra at her restaurant in the Darkest Night Emporium. From her perspective, the party just vanished for a moment, so she took Kurgovel back to her place alone. She also has intel back about the "Crystal Fairy"; the man who bought her has been found dead in alleyway.

They soon learn this man was transporting the crystal for a client, but after his death by impalement, he was robbed. Nerissa uses Speak with Dead to learn they were a Daughter of Light affiliate (working for Coltan), and whatever dealt the killing blow was a one of a kind gun spear of sorts. The group turn in for the night to follow up on clues tomorrow, and Edrik gets a letter under the door.

It seems Thaelkinei regained control of Misha's body, but she'll give it back very soon, after she finds something.

The next morning, Syndra directs them to "Heavy Metal Arms," a specialty weapon store that Typharia also hints may be a front for criminals. But just as they arrive outside, the building explodes, and Misha is standing in the ruins.

* * *

Edrik and Misha have an emotional reunion. Whatever force was straining their psychic connection is gone now. But on the other hand, this means Thaelkinei may have used that explosion to find another host. Now the Lich is who knows where.

The group duck into the ruins of the building and find a basement full of shadowsteel and advanced weapons/tools seemingly made from it (Shadowsteel is a cursed material made from harvested human suffering, and things made from it are super powerful). The group load themselves with some of the contraband gear, and also find the Crystal Fairy. Aneira looks to be trapped via Imprisonment Spell, and though they aren't powerful enough to lift the charm, they can now take the crystal with them.

When they emerge from the basement, Jurnoh is waiting for them. He had business with the criminals who owned this shop, but given the state of it, it seems they were incinerated by the explosion that destroyed it. He lets the party go, but they understand he'll probably have them tailed.

The Stormbringers decide that they'll prove their innocence to Jurnoh by having a very boring day out shopping in the Golden Sun Emporium. After some jewellery and clothes shopping (they finally collect their rich people outfits), they visit a book store. Nerissa buys some stationery, and inquires on a magical looking quill.

Undergoing a mystical challenge, Nerissa proves herself worthy of the quill and a mysterious book, and also buys supplies for Misha and Edrik to start journaling. As they leave the store, they are confronted by Isao, a weretiger who was tailing the group on Jurnoh's behalf. The adventurers have finally convinced him they're innocent, and Isao will now be looking for other people Jurnoh is concerned about.

* * *

The party return to Syndra's hotel and start to plan their next moves. Nerissa tunes out and starts hearing voices. Some higher power is demanding her to make them whole again. Other deities are paying her attention too now.

The group decide to contact Charles Dute, who is upset that they haven't yet found the book. But when they break the news to him that Thaelkinei possibly escaped her prison, he is distraught. When the party bring up Ulrich's story, Dute is doubtful. He knows who the book belongs to, and ensures us he watched them die.

At Syndra's direction, Nerissa meets Kurgovel, who has a warning for her. Her that her access to a living god will make her a target for fanatics. The Burach Empire's high priest or another whack job may string up Nerissa and then use her as a divine power battery for whatever propaganda purposes they need. Nerissa tells Kurg that even if it's a dangerous proposition, he is welcome to pray to Typharia and make her stronger.

Nerissa then has a date with Syndra and gets laid.

The party go to the Golden Sun Emporium, where they finally meet up with the Dragon's Head Merchants again. The heist is ready to be run.

A group of hired hands take the party to Kolthys' manor, and are let in the back door by a fake servant. They are led to the archives and the fake servant locks the door behind them. They start checking for traps at the archive loading bay, where there's boxes and lots of statues. One looks like Ostarion. Oh hey its Ostarion.

Ostarion Longfeather, a Druid Lich who was part of the group before Nerissa joined. His "death" became a gateway into training in soul magic under The Keeper.

Nerissa Greater Restores him, and after a hearty reunion, Ostarion explains that The Keeper of Ravencourt sent him to get the book (one more on the list). We agree to work together. But that spell seemed to trigger a big cauldron to start filling in the next room, and the other statues are looking at the party.

After some tactical polymorphs, debuff spells, and on the fly investigation, the party are able to shut off the magic filling the cauldron, and the statues go back to their station. They take some helpful books and phials of ingredients in boxes, etc, and then find the entrance to the true archive in the base of the cauldron.

During this, the Time Thief creature who appeared during the Aether Kindred attack reappears. It and Anneliese disappear into a void, but the others know she can hold her own.

There's animals being kept in the archives, but a few containers seem to be melted open by some acidic creature. The adventurers follow the acid trail until they find a gelatinous cube hermit crab (Cangromoko), and a thing trying to be a book (Bone Meemeek), trying to steal the book they're trying to steal.

But just as the group go to intervene, there's explosions above. Panicking, they try to speed up their heisting, and an almost sentient pull of desire radiates from the book. It compels them to grab it. Ostarion and Esmeray both leap upon it, and through Ostarions' desire to bring it back to The Keeper, they are teleported back to the Keeper's office in Ravencourt Sanctuary.

After they manage to wrench the book from their allies' hands, the Keeper evacuates the chamber. The book is dangerous, and the group need some distance between them and it. The Keeper listens to our intel and confirms one thing. As Dute said, the book did belong to someone dead. Typharia. And her rebirth has amplified its already impressive powers. But now this place is a beacon for those searching for it.

The Book of Typharia is an object of desire for many powerful figures.

And almost immediately, they hear a scuffle from within the office. Mina Taliesin and Kolthys have appeared, and a bigger explosion knocks the entire group away from the book into a wall.

Kolthys now has the book.

* * *

After the first few magical blasts from Kolthys threaten to kill everyone else, Ostarion and Nerissa buff and heal their allies to a point where they'd stand a chance. Mina manifests a cool scythe, and rushes ahead with Edrik and Misha to meet the man head on.

Esmeray, the Keeper, and Nerissa attempt attack from afar, but supernatural reflexes and magic wards protect Kolthys from most of the damage. Then Esmeray lands a sneak attack so precise it paralyses Kolthys, and the rest of the group launch attack after attack on his arm to try and force him to drop the book.

The book however, has given him supernatural endurance, and upon closer inspection, the book seems to be controlling Kolthys. Between each attack, he tries to regain conciousness, but the book wins out, and threatens to transform him into something more.

So Nerissa steps right up to him, and casts Plane Shift on the book. It disappears, Kolthys with it. When the Keeper looks to her and asks where she sent it, Nerissa simply replies, "To its rightful owner, Typharia".

* * *

As the group patch up their injuries, The Keeper explains that before the gods died, they left objects in the material realm imbued with their essence. Divine Artefacts. Four such Artefacts were said to be at the cornerstone of the Burach Empire's power, but they may be lost to time. The Book of Typharia was another artefact, and Typharia was a much more powerful god than any of the Divine Four. The Keeper also suspects that Kolthys' magic cape was another Divine Artefact, and Nerissa has now not only given back Typharia a font of her own divine power, but potentially the power of a different god.

Nerissa argues that empowering Typharia is important to their survival, but The Keeper is worried that since Typharia is the ONLY god alive now, her power will be unchecked.

The Keeper sends the group back to Mina's estate, since other powers will soon come to investigate what happened here. After Mina is made well, they're also reminded that they now have all the ingredients for the True Insight Potion. So while Esmeray goes to see her adopted father about freeing Aneira, the others give the potion ingredients to Yög, and prepare to train for whatever will come next.

[supereffectivemoonblast]

Part 12: Inheritance

Covering Sessions 43-47

While the party discuss the true extent of what they missed in purgatory, Esmeray remembers that she rescued and stowed away King Eidur. The Winter King is very dazed and unsure of what had last happened, but the party explain what happened to the Spring Court, to the other fey royals, to his wife Eirwen, and his son Findlay, his face turns from bewildered to a grave despair.

While giving Eidur space to understand the situation, Nerissa sends telepathic messages to their allies on the material realm. They have missed A LOT.

Coltan tricked their allies into believing he had killed all of the Stormbringers, and this resulted in Ostoya declaring a full scale war on The Burach Empire.

But most strange about this war was that people were not dying.

Men would be reduced to exhaustion, bleeding out, crushed, but no deaths. It seems that Soulline had become an avatar of death, and her removal meant that the living were barred off from the land of the dead. Nerissa tells Mina that after wrapping up business in the fey realm, they will meet again to fill in details.

Ophion takes the party and Eidur to meet with the survivors of the fey war. Esmeray reveals they recovered Findlay's body, and Eidur hopelessly asks them to try and bring him back. Nerissa and Ostarion start to prepare the ritual for Resurrection, but they sense something is amiss in the weave. It seems that with "death" being dead, the living cannot die, and the dead cannot be brought back to life. Eidur thanks them for trying, takes Findlay's body and leaves them to grieve.

***

The party reflect on how their inability to plan and be open lead to the worst parts of this disaster, and by being honest and open, they'd be better off. Nerissa uses this note to tell her allies that she took Anneliese's memory.

Anneliese is furious and demands her memories back. Nerissa of all her allies has seen the inside of her head the most, and understands best the damage that damaged memories has had on her. Nerissa restores the memories and begs the party to give her another chance, she knows what she did was the worst approach, but needs her allies to believe she can be better.

Anneliese tells her they have time for anger and pity, their allies are in trouble, but as she regards Nerissa, she sees a dark glint in her eyes. The Tower Master is still awake in there and it will take Nerissa's and her allies' cooperation to keep her in check.

After seeing off their fey allies, they Plane Shift to Fallowheart, near to their allies' location. As soon as they appear in the material realm, the party are drenched by a foul smelling rain. Using spells and other emergency cover, the party trapse across the countryside for a couple hours, passing by a crater with the remains of a city within. It seems the war has been VERY intense.

The Stormbringers hear their destination first. Cries of warriors, clashing of metal, and magical explosions echo across the landscape. Soon they reach a gathering of tents, and a soldier directs them to the largest, where their allies are gathered in a war meeting.

Mina, Raghnall, Marusya, Anna and a few other politicians they would know from Castelor are gathered around the table. Two notable faces the party see are Katalina Vulpescu, Countess of Soma (the human/mage side of Ostoya), and Drago Koshevek, Grand Duke of the Raevo (the vampire side of Ostoya).

The party's close allies welcome the Stormbringers into the room, a few hugs from family, but it seems they'd interrupted something tense. Marusya leaves to go for a walk, Edrik and Nerissa going with her. The others stay behind and are caught up on the state of the battlefield.

The Burach Empire and Castinellan Provinces have declared Coltan a vassal and prophet of theirs, and once Marusya and Raghnall brought furious wrath for their children's apparent death, those empires leapt to Coltan's revenge.

Burach has sent agents into Ostoyan territory to cast a never ending Red Rain, a high level spell that drains vitality from living things. But those stuck in rain won't die, just suffer in perpetual exhaustion and pain. The Somans and Raevons have been weakest where this rain is falling, so the war council here hopes that The Stormbringers could seek out the network of mages concentrating on the Red Rain and ease strain on their armies.

Drago also suggests unleashing special vicious undead that would be effective in the rain but mindless, and utilising a ritual temple nearby to blot out the sun again, but the others are not a fan of the idea.

Meanwhile, Nerissa informs Marusya of their latest meeting with Coltan, and what she found out in the Tower Master's notes. That Coltan's body is being controlled by an ancient evil mage, and he probably hasn't been the Coltan she knew for many centuries. Marusya tells Ed and Nerissa that she and Coltan were lovers, and had a child. Coltan killed that child then left, but this revelation reveals there may have been more to it. Marusya is bitter that she might have been angry at her ex-lover for no reason all this time, and hopeful that maybe the old Coltan may be in there. But Edrik tells Marusya to be prepared that his original could be forever lost. Marusya thanks the pair and goes back to the war room to discuss this with Raghnall.

The table decide to reconvene after some private discussion, and start to make plans on tackling the Red Rain. Annelise sees her sister Anna privately, and both are glad that despite Coltan's intentions, they lived to see one another again.

***

The party are surprised to find out Ataeshia had returned to their allies unharmed (they thought she died fighting the Dawn), and that she, like many of Soma's mages are fighting on the frontlines against Burach's own soldiers and spellcasters.

Anneliese suggests using Divination magic to search for the Burach spies, but Mina has to remind them that divine magic is rare in most parts of Etharis. Although, Mina does have a contact in Fallowheart, a Sister Abigail at the Church of Solyma. The party did meet a nun fitting this description soon after they had recently plane shifted, but the consecration of the church barred fiends, celestials, fey, and undead (most of the party) from entering.

The party were suspicious during their first meeting with that nun, and Anneliese has a foreboding vision of traitors in their midst, so they decide to return to Fallowheart and investigate the church further.

The party decide to take a long rest when they arrive, and now truly appreciate the horror of the Red Rain; many innocent people lay gasping in the streets, but they cannot help.

They rest in an abandoned building and take watches. Nerissa talks to Ostarion about how she fears the Tower Master taking control, but he reminds her she has allies to rely on, so long as she is open. They also spot a shadowy figure watching them. Is Drago spying on them?

In the evening, those spurned by the Church's wards wait outside in a magical hut while Edrik and Misha are invited inside, the sister apologising that the magic is a necessary to keep vampires out.

Once inside, Edrik sees symbols of Solyma and various other Arch Seraphs, and rows upon rows of sleeping people, he assumes taking shelter from the red rain. Edrik uses his honed supernatural senses to scan the room for unwelcome creature types, but finds nothing. So much nothing in fact that the bodies laying around him are not registering as living things. And as he turns to look at the cleric, she is also not alive, and seemingly made of wood.

Edrik pre-emptively launches a gout of fire just as the cleric makes a hypnotic gesture at Edrik and Misha. The party see the bluish flash of Edrik's flame through the windows, and he is not responding to their telepathic messages, so Nerissa Dispels the magical guards of the church and they burst through the chapel doors.

***

They burst in to see Edrik fighting off a small crowd of wooden mannequins, while dragon Misha is being grappled by a large angelic statue, puppet strings visible above. Esmeray cuts the strings, and the imposing figure of the saint stretches its wings, regards the party knowingly and starts slicing its large sword through the crowd of puppets.

Even after cutting down the sister who first met Edrik, different puppets start materialising string over the other adventurers to make them marionettes too. Nerissa and Anneliese launch wide ranging fire attacks to thin the puppet's numbers.

Edrik looks up the roof to see a grotesque spider-like monster controlling the puppets with its many arms. He, Misha, Esmeray, and the Angel statue launch a flurry of attacks at the Puppet Master, and even though it starts falling apart, it seems the Death-less curse extends to this creature too. Ostarion casts Disintegrate and collects the ashes. This somehow did not kill the creature, but it did render it inert; the party sit in silence as they realise the Red Rain outside had stopped.

The imposing angel returned to its perch and the party found the corpses of several clergy in the back rooms of the church. This infiltration happened before the war started. Nerissa uses Sending to tell Mina what they found, and Mina is devastated that her information network had become so corrupted. On the other hand, the puppet master seemed to be controlling the whole network of Burach mages, because Mina tells them the Red Rain had disappeared across the entirety of the battlefield.

***

The Stormbringers return to the war camp around midnight, only Mina and Drago are still present, quietly making plans. The adventurers tell Mina they want to ask The Keeper about bringing back Death, but she urges them to ask ANYONE else. The Keeper and Mina have been close for centuries, and Mina is scared of her lover becoming embroiled in something so intense. The party understand her worry but even as they leave, they know it will be hard to find anyone more qualified to consult.

The party do some divination and consult what literature they know on Death. Whereas most of the dead gods have a range of powerful archangels who took over their domain, Death only had one, and they perform the role of psychopomp; transporting souls between the worlds of life and death. The role puts heavy psychological strain on the angel, and as Soulline proved, corruption is abound. But Soulline was not the first archangel of death, and if another powerful being takes up Death's Scythe, Death will return.

The party are concerned there are few if any good candidates. And Aneira took that scythe.

Esmeray prays to the moon, using her celestial fey blood to focus in on Aneira's location. It seems Aneira is closer than they'd thought, in a vampiric temple a few hours travel away. Unfortunately this is also where Drago wanted to try blotting out the sun.

Anneliese wakes up Anna to make sure one of their allies (and not Drago) know where they're going. Anna is distraught to find some of her belongings have gone missing, so the party set her up in their magical tent, before stealthily leaving the camp and taking flight towards the nearby mountains.

***

The temple is built into a cavern in the mountains. Before heading in, Edrik uses his Divine Sense to make sure they're not being watched, and spots a presence in Ostarion's shadow.

They are soon introduced to Viscount Zielgor, a vampire under Drago who had been instructed to keep an eye on The Stormbringers (this was the shadow Nerissa and Ostarion sensed in Fallowheart). Although she is terrified of the party, she has a pact with Drago she cannot break. Esmeray notices the similarities of Zielgor's skills to her father's shadow magic, and quickly manages to convert her into a member of her Celestial Court. And with the promise of no interference, she follows the party down into the temple.

The engravings and patterns on the cavern's walls strongly resemble the place the party fought Martorius, and right at the end of the hall they find Aneira, standing in a ritual chamber near Death's scythe.

Esmeray confronts her first, expressing feelings of betrayal. Aneira explains that she did it because of Thaelkinei. Back when the party lost Misha in Morencia, they tracked her to where Aneira had been trapped in an orb. When the weapon shop exploded, Thalkinei leapt from Misha's body into Aneira's and had been hiding there ever since. But when the party spent two weeks in stasis after defeating Soulline, Aneira and Thalknei were conscious the entire time.

More than world domination, more than anything, Thaelkinei just wanted freedom. So Aneira made a fey contract with her, that if Aneira helped get her a body, Thalkinei would swear off conquest and give up most of her magical abilities. Fey deals are more binding that regular deals, but Esmeray reminds Aneira she is a special case. She once committed taboo acts that cause her to not be affected by other fey deals. But Aneira is confident it'll work out.

Nerissa telepathically reaches out to Thaelkinei, and it seems that Aneira is onto something. Thaelkinei was barely an adult when she became a lich, and it seems centuries of stunted growth has left room for redemption.

The adventurers promise Thaelkinei they will help make her a body, but first they must remove temptation and give Death's Scythe to a more responsible party. They decide to rip off the bandage and Nerissa Sends The Keeper.

The Keeper teleports to them at the first mention of Death's Scythe. First of all, The Keeper helps the party through the plan to remove Thaelkinei from Aneira. The Clone Spell will suffice to create a vessel, then Thaelkinei will be able to possess it like she had done to Misha and Aneira.

Then The Keeper turns to the Scythe. It calls out to those who wish to use it (Ostarion and Esmeray also feel the pull). The Keeper is an immortal mage, a master in soul magic and advanced necromancy. The Keeper expresses to The Stormbingers that they had been studying and training for a role such as Death their entire life.

The party express to The Keeper that they worry for Mina's concerns, so The Keeper magically summons her. After the portal opens, Mina immediately understands what it transpiring and breaks down in tears. "Why does it have to be you?"

The Keeper consoles Mina Taliesin and assures her and the party that The Keeper will still maintain their duties in Ravencourt Sanctuary, and be contactable should we need them.

The Arch Seraph of Death is a cursed position that many have taken the mantle of, so The Keeper would no longer be functionally immortal, but they promise to Mina that part of their investment in the role would be to find out why and how those arch angels keep expiring. A lich such as they would also overcome the madness that befell Soulline a lot more easily.

And so, The Keeper accepted Death's Scythe and surged with power, before turning to give goodbye to her allies as she crossed the veil to the realm of souls.

***

Mina gave her own solemn goodbye before teleporting back to camp. The party decides that the ritual chamber they found themselves in should also be destroyed, lest Drago decide we do need to use its power later.

Anneliese leaves a Delayed Fireball to impact the stone plinth in the middle and Esmeray remained behind to made one powerful follow up strike. But as soon as the magics impact the stone, it collapses in a strange way, and dark bloody tendrils erupt from all parts of the room to smother Esmeray.

The temple walls began to collapse around them, so half of them rush to the cave's entrance while Nerissa and Ostarion rush back to save Esmeray. Edrik and Misha hold up the entrance so the collapse is not immediate, and soon Anneliese and Aneira make it out.

Once Ostarion frees Esmeray, Nerissa casts Teleport, deciding that Mina's estate in Castelore would be a magically secure spot. But only Esmeray (who has fey magic securing teleportation) arrives in Castelore. She looks around to see that many of the estates in the area seemed to be destroyed by powerful magic, likely when Raghnall was told she died. And as result, Mina's magic circle was probably destroyed.

Ostarion and Nerissa find themselves in an office or study similar to Mina's, but it is very heavy in Burach aesthetic. Nerissa searches through notes on the writing desk and find letters from various Burach democrats, probably replicated by the Intaglio spell. But there is one recurring signature: Dr. Franceszka Welgirson. Knowing they're likely in danger here, both mages Detect Magic and search the room for traps and wards against teleportation.

There is a ward on the ceiling, and also a chair glowing heavy with Transmutation magic. Upon hearing footsteps, they dispel the magic on the ceiling, and decide to take hold of the chair before Teleporting.

Ostarion and Nerissa arrive near the outskirts of the war camp and take a closer look at the chair. It seems to be a subject of the True Polymorph spell. Ostarion gives his encouragment to dispel it, but backs up just in case. Nerissa casts her spell, and the chair disappears in a flash to reveal a middle aged woman in fine clothing. Ostarion recognises this as Greta Drach, Anneliese's mother.

Nerissa introduces herself and asks Greta to accompany them back to their allies. She Sends Anneliese of their findings, and to meet up with the others at their tent.

Nerissa and Ostarion do their best to fill in Greta on the main things she's missed since being a chair, for what turned out to be a couple months, and then they reunite with the party.

Anneliese hugs her mother as soon as they meet, and they go together to see Anna. Anneliese fills in the gaps of what the mages left out, and Greta is very worried with the state of the world. But moreso, Greta is worried with the state of Anneliese, who very openly expresses she is not OK. Anna wakes, who is happy, but more emotionally shut off than her twin.

***

Leaving Anna to sleep, Greta tells Anneliese of how Coltan and Welgirson had corrupted or killed all of their allies in the Burach nobility, and probably turned Greta into a chair more as a power move than anything else. Greta and Franceszka have been at odds for decades, and now it had come to a head.

Greta also asks Anneliese about the depths of their involvement with the Thaumaturge, since she has come to not trust most of their ranks. The woman decides she needs to discuss the state of affairs with the entire party and give them her personal wisdoms on who they should be trusting, and who they shouldn't.

All but Esmeray attend this meeting, but Aneira assures the party she is fine, just needs space.

The party confide in Greta that they do not trust the Thaumaturge as a whole, only certain people who are members. But most that the party list as trustworthy, Greta does not agree. Greta is more concerned on a certain being known as Pharazorthok, a powerful immortal being who has tempted many members of the Thaumaturge with promises of knowledge and power.

Nerissa openly discusses how she come across Pharazorthok. The being then whispers into Nerissa's mind that their relationship is healthy, but upon seeing the look of disgust on Greta's face, she decides to trust Ms Drach, and leaves Pharazorthok's book on the table before leaving the tent.

Greta encourages her daughters and the other party members to leave and get away from the book. Ostarion lingers the longest and hears whispers of promised power in his mind as he stares at the tome. But the druid decides to puts his allies first, and leaves the book alone on the table.

***

Nerissa stands outside, her Amulet of the Devout in her hand as she prays to Typharia. Edrik, Misha, and Viscount Zielgor come out to see her, and sit quietly while Nerissa chants words of apology to her goddess. Several hours pass, and several times Nerissa feels a pulse of divine energy, even experiencing cuts to her hands, but she does not hear her goddess.

Pharazorthok pipes in toward the end of her prayer and offers to heal those cuts, and Nerissa looks down to see markings in her skin, the Amulet now lightly covered in a dark ooze. Typharia did try to contact her, but as Nerissa suspected, Pharazorthok is interfering, trying to close off communications.

Nerissa and her allies rush inside, and she prepares to cast Intaglio to transfer the fading runes onto paper. Pharazorthok's warns Nerissa that reading this message could result in grave consequences for herself and Typharia. The cleric decides she is sick of this meddling patron, and casts the spell anyway. She reads hundreds of words, several passages of maddening pleas and warnings of other beings fighting Typharia, trying to make her power their own. Edrik sees Nerissa becoming lost in the text, unable to look away, so he snaps her out of it. Pharazorthok gloats that she will regret that later.

Meanwhile, Aneira finds Esmeray in a hidden chamber in the Magnificent tent, drinking heavily. Esmeray wants to be happy for Anneliese, she knows how important finding her mother was, but Esmeray has not been as lucky with finding her own family. Her adoptive parent Dansari is dead and possibly cursed to never come back, and her birth mother Celeste was torn from her by Soulline, forever out of reach.

Aneira joins Esmeray in the drinking, and the pair find humour in discovering Thaelkinei is also affected by Aneira's alcohol content, and somehow holds her drinks worse. Esmeray shows Aneira the key that she recieved from her mother's corpse, and Aneira identifies it as a Soul Key, a magical item powerful fey can use to safeguard a secret cache that only the key opens. If they find the lock the Soul Key opens, they may discover what Celeste wanted for her.

Aneira also manages to convince Esmeray that Thaelkinei is not beyond help, and although not an immediate issue, she would very much like to get Thaelkinei out of her head.

The pair drink together deep into the night.

***

The next morning, Nerissa tells the rest of the party about Pharazorthok. She has taken back the book for now, but is wary something bad will come soon. They agree to believe in her and allow her to trust them.

Esmeray lays out what she would like the party to do next. First up, they want to make sure The Keeper will still be able to help restore the souls of the Celestial fey locked in Coltan's phylactery. A Sending and a short time later, The Keeper appears holding the Phylactery. With Death solved, the process has been finished, and all they need to do now is open the container in the Celestial realm.

After The Keeper leaves, Esmeray's next item is to find a body suitable for Thaelkinei. The clone spell requires a chunk of flesh from the person to be cloned, and Aneira pipes up, saying that Thaelkinei wants to try using flesh from her old body. Before Thaelkinei became a lich, several of her organs were removed and preserved in canopic jars somewhere in Tol Kerduywell.

This quest does not take a lot of time at all. Aneira uses her teleportation magic to transport the party right to the building Thaelkinei remembers. They overcome a puzzle of trapped floor tiles, and once they have assured taking the jars won't result in more chaos, grab the jar for Thaelkinei's heart and teleport back to their tent.

Esmeray looks upon the Phylactery longingly, and the party, Aneira included, assure her that making the clone can wait until the Celestial Fey are brought back. So they Plane Shift to the Lunar Keep in the Celestial Court.

***

Once in the Celestial fey realm, they find a spot outdoors and sit down the Phylactery. A few powerful spells later and a maelstrom a blinding lights burst from its remains and fly like shooting stars to land all over the Celestial Realm. One landed in the keep, and the party meet Visavant, one of the caretakers of the court. He is upset to find out his brothers were not among those recovered souls, but gets straight back into his work, organising the keep.

Knowing that many other Celestial fey would have returned to their bodies like this, the party take a magic gate over to the ruins of the Celestial capital, Asteria. Thousands of fey of various shapes and sizes are wandering the streets, many of them trying to find loved ones, and others attempting to find their old homes. The party reuinite with Cassiopeia and Knight of the Void Star, and with their help, spend time gathering the masses into a central meeting place in the center of the city.

Very nervously, Esmeray takes the stage and introduces herself to the crowd as the new Queen of the Celestial Fey. She explains some of the surface details of what befell the Celestial realm, and the wider fey realms as whole. Esmeray expresses she will need to help to rebuild this civilisation, and although she is not a conventional leader, she will listen and do her best to help.

After fielding a few questions, she allows her people to move on. She looks up to the castle keep of Asteria, and thinks about where and what her mother was keeping as her most prized secret.

With Knight of the Void Star's help, they find the personal office and study of Queen Celeste. They search around until they notice a rune underneath a desk, and bringing the Soul Key closer, it glows. Esmeray takes a breath and inserts the key. Inside is a small cache with a glowing orb, a star, that she could hold in her hands.

Esmeray quickly understands what this is. Powerful Celestial fey can lock away a portion of their life force as a Celestial Body, a living well of their own magic. If Esmeray kept it, she could use it to empower her own magic. But if someone used revival magic on it, Celeste could be brought back to life.

In Celeste's own lifetime, the fey were told their souls could not be revived. But with Soulline gone and a new Arch Seraph of Death, things have changed.

Esmeray knows there is no doubt over which option to choose. Anneliese casts Revivify, and before their eyes, the orb transforms into a towering being of stars and light, something which could only be described as Celestial. Former Queen Celeste stood before them.

It is initially very awkward between mother and daughter as the others bow towards Celeste. Celeste knows right away who Esmeray must be, and that Esmeray has now taken the mantle and powers of Celestial Queen.

The party briefly go over what Soulline had done, and Esmeray explains how she was brought up away from this court, first as a mortal, and then under the Winter Queen. Celeste is disappointed that Ophion did not follow her plans, and Aneira uses Gate to summon the Shadow King to best explain himself.

Ophion is at a loss for words and falls into an embrace with his returned wife. She gently reprimands him, but knows that he was destined to be lost without her.