Saralas: Session 74

23 Elient

Mythallar Base

• The cultists believe they can use the Mythallar to free Levistus
• We debate our next steps
• Karthos's jug could make poison
• We decide to go to the spire entrance
• I ask Resda to ask Skant if doing the rite will lower the shield entirely or let us through the shield. Skant confirms that the rite lowers the barrier completely
• Min wants to go Cultist hunting
• Karthos suggests we scout the base of the spire
• Beneath the great spire, exposed to the ruins of this dark, freezing city, is a luminous 50-foot crystal sphere on an ornate stand. The first adventurer bounces off the shield, and we see sparks where it happened.
• Should we call Wodna? Now? After we lower the barrier?
• Do we need to do this at the spire entrance?
• After looking around and finding no likely place to do the rite here, we notice a gargoyle leaving the tower area. We may be short on time.
• We might have to do this at the tower entrance Resda found. Skant is not sure.
• We talk it over and Korag sends a message to Wodna. He gets no response.
• We decide to head to the gate to the spire to try the incantation there.

Spire Entrance

• An arching strut of dark stone rises from this ruined district to a junction high on the arching spire. A gate covered in arcane symbols is here. The symbols represent the 8 schools of magic.
• Karthos tosses a stone, which bounces off the force field. About this time we hear a woman screaming from far up in the cavern. Looking up, we see Wodna falling.
• Min casts featherfall, and she floats down to the ground looking a little startled. "I saved you." Wodna politely thanks Min.
• She starts swearing at the magic of Ythryn, it's apparently fucking up her teleportation.
• Wodna demands to see the book before she'll do anything. I show her the books I have in my pack. She says any of the books I have will meet her needs. I give her one, and she seems quite grateful, like a huge burden has been lifted from her shoulders, and tucks the book away in her pack.
• She confirms Avarace is here, with 20-30 cultists. She has a way to get the Mythallar out of here, but it will take some time to arrange. 10-20 minutes.
• She is disappointed to find we have not been picking off the cultists we have seen. She is disappointed again to find we have not been destroying the clues as we find them.
• She thinks and says we might be able to make enough noise in the tower itself to draw Avarice there, giving her time to move the Mythallar
• "But there's the problem of the Lich..." she says almost in afterthought.
• Skant recounts that if anyone survived the fall of Ythryn it is almost certainly the high sorcerer, though it is not sure what form that might be in. "How about lich form?" Wodna asks. Skant considers this and says it is possible, but he won't be happy at interlopers.
• Resda suggests setting him on the cultists. "Letting him out would certainly cause chaos," Wodna observes.
• Resda asks Min if the daggers can cause the cultists to attack each other. They say maybe, but what's the fun in that?
• We suddenly notice that it becomes much, much colder, and a frost creeps all over all the visible surfaces. Baerwin's face lights up.
  • "Well, here she comes."
  • "Who is that?" Wodna asks.
  • "Auril"
  • "The God Auril?"
  • "Do you know another?"
  • "I knew I shouldn't have trusted you."
• Wodna lays it out, that teleportation is already messed up and she's going to try to teleport the most powerful object she's ever come across. She needs time to set it up.
• She doesn't know Avarices plans. "Have you tried talking to her?"
• "In another timeline," replies Resda.
• "So you don't know her plans, you haven't tried to negotiate with her, and you haven't made things harder for her. Is that about right?"
• Karthos inspects the symbols more closely. They are laid out in the order of the schools of magic in the incantation.
• Korag asks if anyone would visibly see the shield come down? We might just try it and hope no one notices.
• Karthos asks if the Unseen Hand is coming. "I hired you" Wodna replies.
• I point out that they only take jobs they know they can pull off.
• So maybe we drop the shield, head up the spire, and create a commotion. Avarice craves power, she might want to head to the tower to search out the secrets of the Netherese.
• You'd have to attune to this object to use it. It might take her some time to attune before she could try to use it to bring back Levistus.
• We debate going up the spire to explore and try to make a distraction to draw people away from the Mythallar maybe giving her time to work, or going straight to the Mythallar and fighting Avarice and all her cultists.
• Min tries to get into the tower and bounces off the barrier. She looks up from the ground and sees a gargoyle freeze and then fall to the ground, shattering.
• Baerwin attempts to pray to Auril, and feels she is nearby.
• We debate some more and decide to try going up to the tower first, making a scene. The others want to rest for a bit first to recover from the last fight.
• Bun has returned to his small size, and looks frail. I think Bun is dying, but there isn't much I can do.
• Karthos uses his alchemy jug to create some poison, and puts it in a small bottle.

Opening the Shield

• It's going to have to be Resda or Karthos, probably
• Resda volunteers to do it, because she doesn't trust anyone else
• Korag pulls out the ashes of Min and whoever else, from the Chair Incident
• But Resda can't produce a flame and hold it, she can just throw flames
• Karthos takes the wand and starts
  • He starts by holding the wand, and the first sigil goes out
  • He casts produce flame, and the second goes out
  • He tells the story of how we left his magic mushrooms out, and the squirrels got into them, the third goes out
  • He asks Min to tell a secret about herself. She admits to being scared of the daggers, but the fourth sigil does not extinguish. Saralas admits to rarely thinking of his son. The sigil does not extinguish. Karthos tries casting charm on Korag and demands a secret. He admits he didn't agree with others of his tribe and was banished for it. The fourth sigil goes out.
  • Karthos takes some of the ice that has formed and puts out the flame. The fifth sigil goes out
  • Karthos looks up at the sky. Nothing happens. We discuss a while. I check my notes.
  • This was the illusion tower, where Baerwin went in and came back with notes in his journal that translated to "Show thy face to the sky"
    • But nothing happened when Karthos looked up
    • This was the tower that laughed as we left
    • I try using my hat, turning into Karthos. Nothing happens
    • After some coaxing I give the hat to Karthos, and after he attunes to it he becomes me, and the sixth sigil extinguishes
    • He traces a circle with Min's ashes, and the seventh sigil goes out
    • He steps into the circle and drinks some of the poison. The eighth sigil goes out.
• Karthos chucks a rock at the entrance, and it disappears
• Min goes in, followed by Baerwin. They both disappear.
• I say "This was the gate to the tower right? They probably didn't walk up this thing." I follow.

The Tower

• We are teleported to the top of the strut. The ceiling of the tunnel gives away to a landing. Above us and the steps in front of us are a pair of mahogany doors in the tower's face.
• Min says it looks safe, then starts feeling around. AFter a moment she slowly opens the doors.
• We enter, and find a ballroom. There are courtiers laughing and gossiping, offering sugar treats on silver platters
• I am fairly certain this is an illusion. I ask Resda to check with Skant. These are Netherese nobles. Skant is insulting to us.
• I ask about the latest gossip. One of the nobles confides the latest development, which is that Ythryn mages can live indefinitely. But there is a catch: their brain has to be separated from their bodies and placed into a jar.
• "Who would choose to do such a thing?"
• "Anyone who wants to live forever."
• I ask about the fall of Ythryn and how that affected their party. They laugh, and seem to not know what I am talking about.
• I suggest we leave these people to it.
• Shortly after I notice that Baerwin has disappeared again.
• He reappears shortly after and relays that he found a letter. Skant translates, the letter is unfinished, related to an artifact recovered from Ostoria, which has been moved to a stasis chamber for further study.