Session 25: Beyond the Red Door

General Summary

Quest	fin	What's up with that?	fin
Kill Incandus Carthelian		Pathfinders' Legacy
Chart the Stars		Planeswalkers' Folly
Find the Morningstar		Chess Pieces
Rewrite your fate
Find your friends

Recap

Amoris 28, 3032: Year of Fire

Talking with the Gray Lady, the Omens were welcomed into the ████ & ████████, a bar set into the otherwise open landscape of Manto. Inside, a bartender named Viktor took their orders, welcoming them to the best bar this side of the afterlife. Each ordered the Gray Lady's drink of choice, a Silvery Mule; a swirling blued silver drink that tasted of fresh ginger and mint with a hint of lime, masking a stiff vodka beneath. They joined the Gray Lady at her table, already seated and nursing a Silvery Mule of Her own. A ghost drifted out, invisible to all but Andy, carrying a platter with their drinks upon it. The ghost was named Lif, as Andy later learned.   The Gray Lady set a bargain before them, if they agreed to which She would restore them to life, but warned that She would remove the memory of the pact from Andromeda, Ilya, and Lorelai's minds, for She didn't want Aspen Carthelian to pry the information from them; they would have to agree to the deal blindly. They consented, and entered a strange, gray blank space in their memory. Amara, Augustana, Dorian, and Khorvis listened to the Gray Lady's offer, agreeing to ████ ████████ before █████ is able to collect ████ █████ in order to ████████ the █████. ███████ ████████ will release the █████ already ██████ to █████, and foil the ██████████ ████ ████. █████ only needs ██ more █████ to succeed, so they must not ████ him any more.   They each agreed to Her terms. After Andy, Ilya, and Lorelai's memory bleeds back in, they saw a familiar face come in through the door: Sapphire. On one of their recurring visits to the ████ & ████████ as a warlock pacted to the Gray Lady, they stopped at the bar, asked for their usual, and had some casual banter with the Omens while they rested and recuperated for their upcoming rematch with the King in Yellow. They were shocked to hear of what happened, and offered to help anyway they could, though the Thunderbirds were in the middle of fighting a beholder on the Mortal Plane, so they weren't entirely sure what they could do about it.   The Gray Lady allowed them to use Her bar as a place to rest, offering the living quarters upstairs for their use, with the stipulation they didn't go into the library. Ilya chatted with Sapphire, Lorelai asked Sapphire to pass a note on to Athena for her, along with the cube of force. Augustana took to the small raised stage to play and put on a performance so great the Muse came out of the library to listen, playing a song of Their own in return. The Muse left their instrument onstage when they left, a gift for Augustana. Andromeda asked both the Gray Lady and the Muse if They knew anything about the stars, but Andy just got coy winks and half answers.  

Rematch

Returning to the King in Yellow's throne room with the Gray Lady's blessing, they found the arena changed. Slates of gray glass platforms hoved in the air, providing cover and additional venues of attack. The King in Yellow was confused at their return, but seemed happy to welcome the challenge once more, cackling with glee at the prospect of killing the Omens again. Even with the boon the Gray Lady had bestowed upon them, it was a grueling battle.   But the Gray Lady had one more boon to offer, sending the Thunderbirds to assist, burning Sapphire's Divine Intervention to do so. Between the two parties, they were able to push the King in Yellow back into its primordial prison within the obelisk. While its form writhed beneath the glassy surface, its cloak drifted down to cover it, softly twitching. Andy almost grabbed it, but it instead was cast into the lava, where it melted down to a greasy smear with a high pitched hiss and squeal. The two adventuring parties took a short rest together before continuing.  

Beyond the Red Door

Finally, the parties pushed through the final Red Door. They found themselves in a huge space of foggy white nothing. Hexagonal pillars of basalt rise from the fog, creating the ground they stand on, much like they did beneath the Red Door in the Forest. They form a platform ahead of you, and slowly rise in the center to hold a glassy Globe. It seems to contain a tangle of stairs, towers, and halls, skewed at every which angle, dotted by figures in blue robes.   Between them and the Globe, however, stands a figure in a silvery blue coat, holding the Morningstar in his right hand. He turns, coiffed gray hair styled back, piercing eyes staring out at you from behind circular blue spectacles. He introduced himself as Peter Montauk, and then dismissed the Thunderbirds with the snap of his finger, causing a translucent purple gauntlet to appear over his left hand momentarily, and with that sent them away. He then moved to accuse the Omens of tampering with his delicate balance of powers; closing the rift that was keeping the Bulwark busy, they now kill anything that comes from the valley, Seelie and Unseelie alike. They closed the rift beneath Millich, allowing the population to be sacrificed to The One Below.   While he is impressed they managed to defeat the King in Yellow, he can't have them pulling Praxis out of there after what he did. He remarked that it is a shame that they got this far only to die, to which Augustana and Lorelai both quickly distanced themselves from the past actions of the party, noting neither had been there for most of what they had done. He nodded, but before he could continue, a crystalline tinkling began to fill the air as frost formed over the Globe. Peter turned to the Globe as a voice filled the air around the group, drifting in like a frigid breeze across an empty tundra:

Yes... the Veil is thin here, I can help you.

A thunderous, airsplitting crack filled the party's ears as the Globe shattered, frozen blast of wind launching them off their feet. The world went white, and the party felt the strange sensation of falling uppwards as snowflakes of hard ice sliced their cheeks and arms before the ground stretched up to meet them.

Missions/Quests Completed

• Find the Morningstar Peter had it until the actions of the Winter Queen cast you out of the Foundation
• Rewrite your Fate The Gray Lady sent you back, with some strings attached

Notes