Episode 22, Down the Rabbit Hole Report

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 Pathways		Arcane wards in the Carthelian Crypt
Find Praxis		The King in Yellow

Recap

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

Entering the Hotel's lobby in the Pathways, the Omens made their way to the desk, but not before the met a new friend. Augustana Lulani, a water genasi bard, had found her way into the Pathways following a song she felt in her heart. She sat on the shore of the Ocean near the Hotel and was playing the most beautiful music the party had ever heard, perfectly intuned with the motions of nature and the beat of the Call around them.   On approach, the party quickly found out Augustana is deaf, following a startling interaction between herself and Andromeda, who was in their stary form. Luckily, Dorian had Tongues prepped, and was able to cast it on Lorelai and Augustana, so the group was able to communicate.  

Room for 7?

Returning to the lobby, the party approached the front desk and was greeted by an invisible force sliding out a rack of keys and dropping on off the rack for them; room 234.   Making their way to their room, the party realized that their room is on the second floor, but the Hotel seemed to lack stairwells. Lorelai temporarily got lost as she experimented with different ways to find them, but learned that you can go up a floor by walking backwards.   Upon entering the room, the group took a moment to investigate their new surroundings, finding that they had an extra bed that held a small local map of the Pathways with a suspicious chunk torn out, their bathtub lead to the Pools, and while Augustana felt at home beneath the surface, the depths had unsettling pits of darkness within that made her question the safety of spending an extended period of time there, and Lorelai investigated the balconies outside, trying to determine if there were any strange rules that may apply to entering in through the outside. There weren't.   Ilya also took this time to attune to the Aspen Tongue. This lit a circle of green flame around him as a shadow of Aspen's true form passed around, not visible to the outside, but visible to the inside as it morphed into an outline of his usual visage. He spoke with Ilya and ensured that he knew that upon attuning to this sword, he would become Herald of the Carthelian family, carrying with that the responsibilities therein. He assented, and became fully attuned to the blade of infernal iron, which is able to store souls to be deposited in the sacraficial altar below the Carthelian estate.   Preparing to sleep for the night, the party spoke with Dorian on his past experience in the Pathways, curious as to how he got out. He was frank with the group, saying that, at the time, he was undertaking a continuing education class at Stryxhaven Academy, away from his position at the Vox Arcana, to learn illicit teleportation magics that are illegal within the Accorded states, but not at Stryxhaven. He wandered the halls for a time before eventually happening on a location secured by Reharian Reality Anchors, which prevented the Pathways from shifting, and was swiftly recovered and escorted out by curmudgeony wizards in blue robes and ejected into the Rose Protectorate.   Studying the map, the group determined that in the morning, or whatever passed for morning here, as the sunless sky outside remained well lit as if it were the middle of the day at all hours, they would investigate room 236 and 237, the Library and the Study.   But before morning came, the group recieved a visit from a group of cultists in muddy yellow robes. Spooky; we'll see more on that later.  

In the Stacks

Getting to the Library was easy, 236 was only a few doors down from their room, but it appeared that the plaque for 237 had been ripped from the wall. Entering 236 opened up into a much larger space than should have been behind the door, with huge arched shelves containing innumerable volumes of books, some of which attempted to attack the party, unsuccessfully so. Picking up a thread of twine that was tied to a shelf near their door and seemed to be tied to something deep within the stacks, the Omens followed it deeper in and met David Hartner, a small halfling from Honeywell who accidentally followed the twine into the Pathways, as well as a devourer that was trying to devour them. But they scared it off.   Continuing onward, they made their way to the Study, where they found huge amount of notes on the Pathways plastered to the walls, though much of it had been written over with scribbles of indecipherable script. On the desk, there was a more fleshed out version of the map, with small lines of twine connecting the locations, illustrating the way one could traverse the Pathways. They also found a note which reads as follows:

As my studies of the Pathways draw to a close, I have sought a way out, though I fear that I have drawn too close to the heart of Madness. It is clear that the only way out is through, but I fear too that my own Madness has reached its apex. My salvation lies at my feet, mapped out in my own hand, yet I cannot bring myself to follow the Path I have set. My way out lies through the Red Door but the Red Door is through the heart of Madness and in my travel I would succumb to my Madness but if I stay it will surely take me so I must go through the Red Door through the Madness the only way out is through the Red Door the only way out is through the Madness the only way out is through the only way out is through the only way out is through theonlywayoutisthroughtheonlywayoutisthroughtheonlywayoutisthroughtheonlywayOUTISTHROUGHTHEONLYWAYOUTISTHROUGHTHEONLYWAYOUTISTHROUGH

— The bottom portion of this note is written in blood

  As Ilya opened this note, a scrap of paper fell out, folded in on itself and covered in the word "no," which he unfolded to reveal the Yellow Sign, which promptly drove most who gazed upon it mad, compelling them to find their way "To the Heart of Madness." Luckily, Lorelai was able to activate the force cube, preventing them from leaving until they could be cured of their madness.   The group then hunkered down to take a short rest before continuing on their journey, barricading themselves in the Study with an arcane lock and by removing the doorknob.

Notes