Saralas: Session 77

24 Elient

• It's just me, Min, and Korag now. Karthos, Baerwin, and Resda are stone.
• Korag says he can restore them but he has to rest. I ask if he can do anything before that, because they probably need to rest too, and won't be able to rest as stone.
• After a while, he agrees he can probably bring back Resda with his current strength.
• He does so. She seems confused, and Skant is completely misinformed and praises her, the bastard. I point out how wrong he is but he refuses to believe the cleric could do it.
• While we are doing this, Min is poking at the trap. She gives a little cry of triumph.
• "Min, did you figure it out?" I ask.
• "Trap is disarmed" she replies.
• "Prove it," I say and in response she walks safely into the next room and looks around.
• Resda seems very out of sorts at first, but recovers herself. We talk a while and I argue with the professor orb.
• Resda does not seem to appreciate being called out on her mistake in reviving Karthos while he was still in the trap. Maybe it wasn't a mistake. Maybe she's trying to punish Karthos. Better keep an eye on her.
• Korag and Resda both beg to rest, they seem unable to restore the others. This chamber appears as good as any. I ask Korag to send another message to Wodna, but be vague.
• She's going to be so disappointed.
• This room seems as good as anything, with the trap door. We set a watch and rest succesfully.

24 Elient, Late Day

Bun is Sick

• I think it's still the 24th, we weren't up for that long before we ran into the trap.
• Bun lets out a sigh, like he's in pain. I note that every time we've tried to help him there seem to be side effects.
• In my head I see an image of "helping him" by slitting his throat. It's those awful daggers.
• I tell Min this and say she may have to choose between the awful daggers and Bun.
• Skant thinks that if normal healing isn't working on Bun, a magical creature, then the problem is more magical. "Do we need to give him black ice?"
• Karthos thinks the magic animating Bun is fading. I muse out loud that Bun wasn't always animated. Min objects.
• I check my journal. Bun seemed to start flying around after Min died, and after Pearl took Bun.
• "Who was Pearl?" I ask. "Who was Pearl?" Min agrees.
• Min goes through the doors to the south. There is a room with 8 doors leading to 8 chambers. Baerwin recalls that the inscriptions were the schools of magic and said we needed the name of a head of one of the schools to use the doors.
• Skant does not have any information on the names of these people. We might be able to get the information from the party downstairs or the brain in a jar nearby. The answers are probably out in the city somewhere as well.

Do My Books Help?

• I look through the books I still have in my packs, and ask if we can get Skant's help to translate.
  • One of the books concerns magical wastewater treatment and dealing with municipal waste.
  • The other is about the magical creation of familiars and other magical pets. I ask if there's anything in there that might help Bun. Skant peruses the book but pauses to complain about how I am treating him.
  • Skant also says that magical creatures are typically bound to some sort of magic, and if they are removed from their environment they often can suffer and fade.
  • He asks if Bun has said anything. We recall that Bun was dreaming and we heard him say once "Prismeer". It's a place in the Fey wilds filled with many magical creatures.
• Maybe Bun has to go back? We could use the scroll of plane shift, or banish him where he'd presumably return there.
• Min seems to want to go through one of the doors.
• I go back north and search for something we can tie a rope to. There is nothing that appears to be suitable to hold a rope. The doors similarly don't look reasonable.
• I suggest two of us brace and hold the rope and that way one person at a time could climb the rope.
• Min moves towards the doors. Seeing this, Karthos sprints north and jumps down the hole. I call after him but by the time I get the word out he's already gone.
• Min walks towards one of the doors. She says "abjuration". Nothing seems to happen. She goes down the list of schools but nothing seems to happen. She reaches forward and opens the door.
• Behind the door is nothing but pitch black. I look, just black is behind the door. Min casts firebolt, but it vanishes the moment it crosses the threshold of the door. She sticks her hand into the door. It disappears, but nothing bad seems to happen. She sticks her head in.
• She pulls her head back out. She said she didn't see anything when she stuck her head in. She goes down the line, all doors are the same.

• Meanwhile, Karthos...
  • Down the hole, Karthos has survived the fall and is going around the party asking about the heads of the schools of magic. He eventually finds a great fan of High Illusionist Ajamar
  • He apparently makes fantastic parties
  • Karthos heads over to talk to the brain in a jar
  • The brain in a jar gives him the name of all eight

Through the Doors

• Karthos is back. He says the brain in a jar knew all the names we needed, and he repeats them back to us.
• I go up to the Illusion door, speak the name of Ajamar. As I speak the name, the symbol above the door begins to glow. It is pitch black. After a short while I come to another door. I realize I am in a narrow hallway. I open the second door, and step through into another chamber.
• A vortex of glowing stars rotates in the air in the chamber. As the constellations move they cast radiant starlight across the walls. Eight high-backed chairs face this miasma?
• I report back, then head back to the room.
• Skant seems very impressed with this spectacle.
• Karthos studies it, it seems to be the entire night sky. The chairs are empty.
• 8 doors, 8 schools of magic, 8 chairs. Council chamber?

Library

• I walk around the stars, and find a library with books everywhere.
• The walls of this triangular room are filled floor to ceiling with books. The books were thrown when the city crashed and are scattered all over the floor.
• The books, time, and cold have not been kind and most of the books are destroyed
• I search anyways, and find
  • A scroll of comet
  • An adamantine key
  • A brittle book with a black 8 pointed star on its cover
• I ask Skant if he can tell what the book might be. He says the tome records the meetings of the Wizards of the Ebon Star. Master Iriolarthas opens the door to his study when 3 or more of his apprentices or those who have drunk from the goblet in the House of the Arcane are seated.

Magic Room (Stasis Chamber?)

• Baerwin heads to the door on the other side of the room.
• A ten-foot-tall spindle of gray stone hovers above the floor of the chamber. The surfaces of the room's walls are cracked.
• There is also a goblet here. It might be the one the book referred to.
• This appears to be a room for the study and practice of magic
• They were probably studying whatever this thing is.
• I study the cracks more closely. It clearly appears that a large blast of some source originated in the center of the room.
• I tell the others that whatever this thing is let off a huge amount of energy.
• Baerwin ponders whether this is what caused the fall.
• I wonder if this thing is the artifact we heard about, that they were studying.
• Bearwin's suggestion makes sense, if they were studying this, and accidentally set it off. Maybe it caused the city to fall.
• I suggest we leave this alone.

The Balcony

• To the south is a set of double doors. I check for traps and find nothing.
• The doors are locked. I try the key I found and the doors unlock.
• I pull the doors open. The doors open to the outside, we are on a balcony overlooking the city.
• I survey the city from up here. Looking down from the tower I see cultists here and there. Some appear to be in hiding, setting traps, probably for us.
• I cannot see Wodna. I head back inside and muse on whether wizards made proclamations from the balcony, it seems like a proclamation kind of place. I lock the doors behind me.

The Goblet

• There's a discussion of what to do next. The others still seem to want to talk to the lich.
• Skant says there must be three, and empowered by the goblet.
• The goblet is a jeweled goblet of exquisite craftmanship.
• Baerwin pours some water into the goblet and drinks.
• Baerwin suddenly appears clean. "Wait, that was prestidigitation!" I remark.
• Min rushes forward and drinks.
• Resda joins in.
• Saralas is skeptical and declines.
• We have three. They go to sit in the appropriate chairs.
• A magical portal appears and we go through

The Lich's Study

• We are surrounded by nothics
• There are tables all around covered with wizardly things.
• There are books and scrolls everywhere, and a circular pit containing a sunken library
• There is a floating skull in the middle of the room with wispy arcane symbols above it.
• "I am indeed 'The Guy'" the skull says.
• "I am Iriolarthas, Arch-mage of Ythryn"
• He heard a rumor we were here to restore the city, "but that's not true, is it."
• "I'm here for Treasure," Min states plainly.
• Resda says we're here to protect it. Baerwin asks if he knew about the red wizard.
• "There is a wizard indeed. I have half a mind to throw you out to her, if you survive the fall."
• "I suppose since you made it here I will hear you out."
• He confirms the nothics are the remains of his apprentices.
• Baerwin explains what Avarice is here to do, and that we are here to stop them. He explains he is here on behalf of Auril, to stop them from releasing Levistus.
• "The evil god," he remarks.
• "Presumed evil."
• His concern is restoring Ythryn to its former glory, and taking its rightful place in the Netherese empire.
• There was only one man in the city who could control the Mythilar, and he was killed when the city fell. They have been waiting for reinforcements from the empire of Netheril to help them rebuild.
• When Baerwin explains the empire no longer exists the Lich is very skeptical. "Do you even know what year it is?" someone asks. He gives a date, which Skant confirms is the correct year.
• They recovered the artifact below from the sea of moving ice and were studying it. Something they did activated it, and a charge spread through the entire city, deactivating all magic, including the Mythalar. And they fell.
• The weave itself is damaged, no doubt from the magical explosion. He is certain Netheril is still here and he just has to wait. That they are just struggling to find this place because they crashed into the ice.
• Baerwin asks if we can help.
• "If I can't control the Mythyllar, what do you possibly think you can do to help?"
• He asks what the other group is doing. Resda tries to convince him that they are trying to take the Mythallar.
• He flies into something of a rage, flying around the room, scattering papers. "To take it!?" he says, incredulous. He says he will see about that and bursts straight through the wall outside.
• Faintly in the distance we hear screaming.
• Baerwin walks back through the portal.
• Karthos looks around at the objects in the room while the lich is outside.
  • He finds a small metal case containing four vials of quicksilver worth 500 gp each
  • An intricate crystal rode worth 1800 gold
  • A staff of power
  • Iriolathas' spellbook
  • A scroll of tarrasque summoning
• "What's in the spellbook?" Skant asks. Resda touches the spell book and flips through it. It contains spells. It is filled with spells. It includes spells, including create magen, which was lost. This may be the last copy in existence. The worth of the spellbook is incalculable.
• I am hesitant to steal anything because the lich may come after us.
• Karthos grabs the staff of power.
• Resda says she'll carry the book around, at least for now.
• "You can put it in my bag of holding," Min says casually. Baerwin is stunned. "You have a bag of holding!?"
• "We should get out of here," I say, "before we run out of time. If you're going to steal, steal, but be quick."
• The quicksilver and crystal rod are needed to create magen.
• They took everything, including the scroll of tarrasque summoning.
• We head to the balcony, and look around. We see red stains on the streets below, and as we look out, Avarice plummets to the ground, screaming.
• "We need to get to Wodna. Maybe we should jump. Min can you cast feather fall?"
• "We have to be falling for it to work". Resda flies off. Min grabs my hand and everyone else holds hands and they jump off, dragging me with them.
• I really wish they hadn't stolen everything.