Session 107: Another Brick In The Wall Report

General Summary

After returning the city of Borelius' Boast to Crwthis and Sstherfaen, the roses chose to fly, as fast as possible, to the Korth Wall in hopes of drawing Alathius' attention away from the city. After using a powerful magical banner, the group flew, in the form of cloudlets, to the massive escarpment, thousands of feet tall, at the nearest edge of the Korth Wall mountains. There are shimmering flutters in the air around the cliffs, and the group are wondering, still in telepathic communication, how best to scale this geographic challenge. Facing a vast escarpment, represented by the first of three immense cliff faces, each rising thousands of feet above the level below. Jeeves mentioned the shimmers in the air, and asked the others their opinions, receiving ambivalent answers. Roy mentioned their telepathic bond was running short, so they all chose to land and resume normal forms so the spell could be re-cast. As they were spending the required minute, half-way through the transformation and restrained by the magic, they realized the ground was not mere grass, but that the swampy hummocks were infested with swarms of large spiders, swarms that turned out to be quite aggressive.

As Roisin realized that the spiders had begun crawling up her legs and were infesting her clothing, she reacted with horror, screaming out in anger; the cry empowered by the magic of her noble blood. Most of the spiders were blasted away; unfortunately the cry also harmed her friends and blasted some of them back away from her as well. The spiders began rushing back, one swarm crawling all over Roy and biting him vigorously. Bastion conjured a magical swirl of blades made from magical force, and shredded a couple of the swarms adjacent to him. Roy, deciding that the largest possible area was best, ignited Cotazh's Fiery Furnace with deep focus to keep it active, burning spiders and allies alike in a vast area. Jeeves, thanks to Roy's verbal warning, was able to dodge the entire effect, Roisin was blinded and Roisin and Bastion were slightly injured, and Boris was mildly injured. Most of the Spiders were burned to ash, and the grass ignited and burned away. As the grass burned away, hundreds of massive spiders were exposed as thousands of smaller creatures burned to ash, the size of Roisin or even some larger than Jeeves, scuttling away from the fire. Roy warned everyone to remain still (not that they could move until their transformation completed), and that there were many other spiders in the area. Roisin simply closed her eyes, after resisting the flames. Roy disappeared into the ethereal plane, to avoid the damage. Jeeves prepared to avoid attacks, and suffered significant burns. Boris began healing Jeeves, using an aura of vitality, even as the heat burned him. Roisin prepared to use her decanter to calm the flames once the transformation completed. Bastion managed to resist the spell entirely. Roy reappeared, conjured a large trench to the West, then disappeared again. Jeeves began dodging, in case they were attacked. Boris healed Jeeves again and also began dodging. Roisin and Bastion dodged, as Roy reappeared, conjured another trench, and disappeared. Boris healed Jeeves again, and then dodged. Roisin, sensing the completion was near, prepared to use the decanter. Bastion dodged. Roy reappeared, conjured a third trench, and remained, suffering some of the fire damage. Jeeves dodged again. Boris again healed Jeeves and dodged. Roisin solidified, set the decanter on the ground, and activated it to send a geyser of water in the area then sat to hold the decanter stable and managed to throw off the spell entirely. Bastion stepped up to the geyser, and kept an eye out for spiders. Roy conjured a fourth trench, fully encircling the party with 10-foot wide trenches 5-feet deep. Jeeves stepped closer to the water and dodged, avoiding further burning for the moment. Boris leapt the trench and healed himself. Eventually, the magical flames subsided; the boiling water, which filled the trenches, seemed to keep the spiders at bay for the moment.

Jeeves used Healer's Sight to see the air creatures, Roy renewed the telepathic communication, Jeeves healed Boris and Roisin, and Boris healed Roisin and Bastion. Roy asked Jeeves if he needed a rest, and cast a spell causing both of them to fall asleep for 10 minutes. Roy awoke, and asked if everyone was ready to get moving. As everyone completed their transformation back to cloudlets, the largest spiders began crossing the trenches, and the group observed tens of thousands of arachnids of all kinds emerging from ground burrows to crawl into the swamp. Jeeves masterfully led the group, threading a needle between air creatures as they crested the cliffs, remaining below 30 feet above the ground within the mountains as the air creatures became unavoidable within the mountains. Proceeding until they arrived at a pleasant valley nearly an hour later, they landed and transformed back to their natural forms; avoiding the many subtle threats thanks to Jeeves' perceptive warnings. The group decided to follow Bastion, instead of renewing the telepathy, and Bastion led them through the mountains, mostly along the same path he had walked years before, towards Levron's Citadel.

Thanks to the powerful magic of the Windborne Pennant, they traveled an incredible distance, covering a distance that would have taken months of travel, in mere hours. Bastion considered bypassing the dangers of the wall and leading them into the steppe, but decided to lead them to the destination they chose instead. Unfortunately, they took a wrong turn near the end of their journey, and were suddenly transformed to their normal forms as they entered a strange, but large, valley. After recovering from their, very high speed, tumble, they stood up to take stock. Looking around, they could see ethereal glows all around. Roy looked around and said "Oh hell! You brought us to the wrong valley." Jeeves said "What?", Roy replied "Celebryth Vale!" Roy pointed out the troop of fiends headed toward them from one side, and the matching troop of celestials on the other. Roisin felt her senses spin, and directed the group in a random direction. As the group began to run, to escape these creatures from other planes. they managed to evade the troops, which simply faded out as they moved, but they found themselves on a small bit of land in an ocean. Roy said "Back up, this is elemental water", so they backed up, and again could see the celestials and fiends, then ran another direction, getting a considerable distance away as the two troops began to fight. The combat between celestials and fiends is a terrifying sight to mortals, and the group rushed even faster as they fled the destruction. They suddenly felt a wave of immense heat and Roy called out "Damn! Elemental fire!" The group backed up again, only suffering minor burns. Finding themselves in a forest primeval a short time later, they backed up again as Roy realized this was Arborea. They turned and twisted several times, finding themselves at the edge of an infinite expanse of sky, as Roy informed them "Elemental Air, back up." Jeeves asked "Is there any we haven't hit?", and Roy replied "Earth". They almost immediately entered Elemental Water again, and turned back, but found a gap between these planar breaches, and eventually found themselves on the edge of the vale at a road leading to Levron's Citadel.

They discussed how to find Arborea again, and Roy explained that this vale could not be navigated easily. Jeeves seemed eager to continue on another quest, despite the late hour (it was now 4 hours past sundown), but Roy insisted that a night's rest was the better choice. Jeeves, with Bastion's assistance, discovered that Healer's Sight could see the planar edges, and led the group the rest of the way out of the vale and over to a modest ripple in a cliff side, where Roy asked if they should use an extradimensional space within a travel tent, or a well hidden lodge. Roisin chose the travel tent, so Roy pitched a tent in a 5 minute magical ritual, then gestured to the others to enter the tent. As they entered the tent, they found themselves standing not in a tent, but in a large room with a well polished wooden floor, a large dining table and a small kitchen, and two doors leading to sleeping chambers, one filled with pillows, and the other with three double beds and one extra-large bed. Roisin took the pillow-filled room, and the others took to their own beds in the shared room. Bastion pulled a chair up to the window showing the outside, and began maintaining his mechanical form while the others slept. Bastion observed a number of strange creatures from other planes pass by at some distance, but none seemed to notice the small tent, well concealed and at some distance from the road. Waking in the morning, everyone prepared to seek out Arborea as the unseen servant prepared meals for the day from their rations. Roy mentioned that it might be possible to find a demi-plane somewhere in the Celebryth Vale, and use that space as a safe home for a short time to train and rest, or they could seek out a safe valley elsewhere in the mountains nearby. Roisin decided they would seek out a demi-plane. As they explored the vale, carefully avoiding other planes thanks to Jeeves' Healer's Sight, Jeeves and Bastion managed to find a tiny sliver of a planar edge, and Roy said "Good eye, that's a small demi-plane. Be careful of the two either side, though, it will be a tight squeeze, particularly for Jeeves, and you definitely do not want to experience the planes either side, as you won't be able to leave if you enter." Most of the group slipped through easily, but Jeeves almost grazed both side planes but Roy slightly rewove time and warned Jeeves to go sideways just in time.

Looking about in this demi plane, they found themselves in a pleasant forest glade, with an invisible door that only Jeeves could see, that was only present from one side. Bastion flew up to look around, and could see the forest was only about 300 feet in diameter, ending in void. To the North could be seen a modest cottage. Roy led the group to the cottage, which had a large pile of cord-wood beside the cottage. Roy seemed to pause, laid a hand on the chopped wood, shook his head, then walked in. Following Roy in, they saw Roy standing beside a small-ish cheap bed in the one-room cottage, a larger fancy bed nearby, a simple fireplace/stove, and hard-earth floor. Bastion asked about others, and Roy said "oh, no there won't be anyone else here." then began absent-mindedly launching fire bolts at the small bed until it was burned to ash. Asked about it Roy seemed confused and a little rattled. Roy explained "I've been here before, in case you were wondering. I'm sure you have a thousand questions, so might as well get it over with."

"What is this place, to you?"
"I spent a long time here once, I cut all that wood out there myself, by hand." Jeeves looked over, and quickly realized it was stacked in a trench
"Yeah, it goes down a long way, I had to dig the trench too, by hand. I lived here when I was an apprentice; I didn't really understand things at the time. I always wondered if the place really existed, and if it was a demi-plane. I figured I'd try to find it when I had more magic, but it seems we found it anyway."
Jeeves said "and burning the bed?"
"That was the bed I had to sleep in."
"I take it you did not have a good experience."
"My wizard master is a close confidante and servant of the dark being that controls Alathius. I'll let you fill in the gaps of what he might have done to me. Also, he said I would be an apprentice for two years. Three hundred and eighty years later, I learned he meant two years in the place where he found me, time is much much slower here. A year here is a mere hour in the normal realm. You may have noticed I do not like manual labor. He forced me to do everything by hand, and if I used magic I was punished. He taught me the basics, which took about a year, but then he just spent centuries coming up with new ways to make me spend entire days at manual labor."
"Why didn't you just leave?"
"Can you?"
"I imagine I just go out the same way I came in."
"Try it."
Jeeves walked to the planar portal, and after considering it for a moment, placed his hand to the barrier, felt nothing, then pushed his hand through the barrier, and his hand was promptly sliced off, leaving his gloved hand on the ground. Jeeves used his magic to reattach the hand then returned to Roy.
"You have a way out, right?"
"Hurts, doesn't it? Now imagine if your first experience of that was when your master shoved your shoulder into the barrier and held it there while you screamed in pain?"
"Did you get your arm back?"
"After a few years."
"Why would anyone do such things."
"He is an evil being. Evil sometimes does terrible things because doing such things is their only source of pleasure, or fulfills a need. If we spend a year here, it will be an hour out there, so we have plenty of time."
"That's reassuring, so he is unlikely to come here."
"He can't come here."
"Why?"
"I closed the door."
"Oh. Maybe we can leave a trap, so when he comes back..."
"He won't. He created this place specifically to torture me, and no longer has any use for it."
"I'm sorry I found this one."
"I'm not, I was going to come here eventually regardless."
"Sounds like you have a purpose for it."
"I know the feel of it now, when I have the magical skill I can destroy it. Or maybe I'll make it my retirement home. Either way it's mine now, and I can do anything I want here."
Jeeves suddenly felt a strike to his back, and turned to see a tree returning to it's place.
"I don't assume the trees here are awakened?"
"No, but they do whatever I want."
Another tree suddenly rose into the air, spun at high speed as leaves and branches went flying, until it formed into a trunk-sized spike that slammed into the ground behind the planar doorway, burying the massive stake a full 15 feet deep.
"You begin to understand?"
"Yes, I think so."
"It's so much worse than you imagine."
It was night, dark and cold. It was day again, bright and warm.
"Hmmm, so you control that too?"
Suddenly, Jeeves could not breath, and after a few seconds suffocating, Jeeves could breath again.
"You couldn't have done that for less time?"
"This entire environment is mere extension of my will. You have no idea how intoxicating that can be."

"The sun will work just fine for you. Do you have any questions?"
"No, I don't have any questions."
"Well, I have a question for you. Do you mind stepping outside?"
Bastion followed Roy outside. Upon stepping out, suddenly all of the mechanical elements of Bastion's form disappeared, leaving the organic core completely exposed. Roy spoke.
"Can you speak without your mechanical bits?"
there was no reply.
"Interesting."
Bastion's form returned to normal.
"That was for what, exactly?"
"I was curious. First what you look like without the mechanisms, second whether the mechanisms are part of you or more like a wagon you ride in."
"Like a carapace?"
"Not quite, your armor is like a carapace, but the mechanisms are part of you; interesting. I'm sorry if this was upsetting. This, it's like being a deity of this place, it's not good."
"It's not worse than having somebody remove the bones out of your body."
"It could be worse, I've had my bones removed by magic, it's unpleasant, but that's it. It could be so, so, much worse."
Roy stared into the distance for a bit.
Bastion said, "Well, youuu have the choice."
"Not really..."

Roy called Roisin and Boris out of the cottage, then began to gesture, and the cottage dissolved into sparkling dust, then a keep rose out of the ground, a clear copy of the keep in Triliobarn. Roy then said "Almost forgot" and clapped his hands. There was a sudden burst of energy and thunder as, a short distance away, a large arena burst into existence a bit beyond the edge of the forest space, and Roy said "We need to have a place to train. Well, that should do. Lots to accomplish, might as well get started." and Roy walked into the keep.