Session 23: Through the Heart of Madness

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
Escape the King in Yellow		Arcane wards in the Carthelian Crypt
Find Praxis

Recap

??? ??, ???: Year of ????

As the majority of the party sat down to take a brief rest in the Study, Lorelai had other plans. Drawing a symbol of the Carthelian family on a piece of scratch paper, she drew her blade across her palm to smear her blood across it to call upon the Carthelian patron. As the blood swam across the page to fill and color the crest. It erupted in sickly green light which blossomed into a circle around her, as it did to Ilya, obscuring her from the rest of the party. In the circle, Lorelai spoke with Aspen, petitioning him for eldritch power, which he graciously bestowed. However, as he reached out a fiery hand through the flames, Lorelai's body was racked with pain as the infernal energy surged through her.   On the outside, her friends attempted to enter or dispel the circle, hearing the pained screams of their ally, but were rebuffed by a visage of Aspen. When the flames faded, Lorelai stood changed before the party. Rivulets of smoke rose off her new form, a blue-skinned tiefling with curling horns and spiked tail, her body changed to withstand the new powers it now posessed.   In the aftermath, Lorelai accidentally let slip that they were looking for the means to kill Incandus Carthelian. Aspen heavily discouraged them from pursuing this line of action, as it would find them in breach of contract persuant to Sec. IV§A Blt. 2 of their contract.   After concluding their rest in the Study, the Omens began to make their way out of the Library, moving to further explore the hotel and perhaps make their way to the Forest via the Pools. But before they did so, Andy took a moment to take one last look around the Study, and found that not only was the Study contained in the massive gyroscope that they had seen hanging above the Library, but there was also some sort of switchboard set into one of the walls, nearly completely plastered into the wall by the surrounding paper.   The series of switches held two ports for each location, labelled in Undercommon, and was supplied with two separate connective cables that could be plugged into the ports. Below, there was a lever that was marked "engage." Corralling the Omens and their allies back into the Study, Andy connected the cables directly from the Library to the Pools and threw the "engage" lever.  

It was a Dark and Stormy Night

David exploded.   As the switch was thrown, the Study underwent a yet-uninvestigated mishap, harming anyone within its confines as tremendous pressure built up around them and then was instantaniously released as they appeared outside the Mansion, not the Pools. As the Omens looked outside, through the swirling of the gyroscope they could see a storming night sky, creased by lightning which illuminated a dark Mansion, surrounded by the Forest, as well as a small side shed and a Lighthouse positioned on a neard-distant cliff overlooking the Ocean.   Leaving the safety of the Study, they stepped through the door and found them teleported to the main gate of the Mansion, stepping through the surrounding graveyard of mists that seemed to move with the passing of invisible humanoid creatures. Before entering the doors of the Mansion, the group decided to take a brief rest in the shed nearby. Therein, the Omens found a portal to the Mountains contained within a coffin, and within the Mountains they found a strange box bound with a note that said "To whomever needs it next." Ilya and Augustana later discovered held some sort of book, bound on fine leather and sealed by two silvery wings embossed with gold. No one in the party but Augustana seemed to be able to get it open, and she took some time reading to herself.   Not trusting the too-idealic Mountains, the party took a rest in the shed, where a cold wind seemed to consistently blow through, before moving to the Mansion. Within, they opened the front doors to reveal an entrance to the Halls. While a grand staircase to their left and right seemed to move up into more of the Mansion, identified by its macabre atmosphere and the raging storm outside. But these tranquiline Halls were filled with radiant, almost holy light that brightly illuminated the marbled columns and floors, striated with deep veins of gold. The otherwise serene scene was disrupted by a conflict across the Hall from them.   Against the far wall they could see, a paladin in shining armor did battle with eight cultists. While the paladin clearly outmatched them in skill, the cultists were trying to overwhelm them with their numbers. Seeking to end this quickly, Andromeda cast an insect plague against the cultists, which handily incapacitated them. The paladin introduced himself as Khorvis of Aos Si, paladin of the Watchers, member of the Pathfinders, and seaker of Praxis. His shield bore the sign of an eye and his armor shone with a deep, midnight purple color. He also held a compass that could track Praxis through the Pathways, though it had been warped by his time in the Pathways; over fourty years, by the group's estimation.   This gave him pause. He asked the Omens if they knew anything of the Silent War, if the Pathfinders or the Omniscient Dawn had triumphed in the stuggle to slay or preserve the gods. He understood why that might sound bad, but he swore that their quest was divinely sanctioned by the Stranger Themself. But together they could find Praxis.   After a jaunt through the forest, where it was revealed that Amara and Ilya had become posessed by ghosts while in the shed; that cold wind wasn't just ominous scene building, it was ominous foreshadowing! After taking a moment to deal with that, the found their way to the Fountains, where cultists guarded a huge mound of basalt pillars that held a freestanding Red Door at its apex. Fighting the cultists to break through to the other side, the conflict drew the attention of a nearby nightwalker, which joined the fray. Seeing the being annihilate two cultists with its eyes and withering others with its very presence, the Omens quickly sought safety behind the Red Door.   Safety that they would not find as they faced the King in Yellow.

Notes