Session 76: Knowledge is Earned
General Summary
2nd Unndilar 836PD Zeni uses her familiar Cynthia the Octopus to scope around some of the trap corridor, but nothing seems to react or trigger. Sabali rushes down the corridor, dodging and ducking flame spewing heads along the wall. Raphael and Zeni move along but fall into a trap of rotating spiked wheels in the floor, and decide to cast fly on the rest of the party. Orlando blesses them to aid their gauntlet run. All make it through the corridor and travel down the stairs to a final closed room. The water that run through the tracks in the floor ends in a pool with a Statue of an Androsphinx. Paranoid from their recent experiences with the traps, the party take some short time to heal, detect magical influences and Simeon casts water walk in case there's a threat from the pool. But Zeni discovers the statue is under a transmutation spell, and the bridge under the pool that leads to it has strong divination magic. They wait until the water walk fades, and Raph steps onto the watery bridge. He receives a vision of Kamaljiori, the avatar of Knowledge and Ioun. He asks what knowledge does he seek, Raph states that they are there to help protect the shackle. Kamaljiori shares that the shackle is currently being attacked, but the androsphinx power cannot stretch to where the shackle lies. For the Unbroken to learn where to find it, they must prove themselves worthy. Each member separately steps onto the bridge to converse with the avatar. Each must state what knowledge they seek, face their greatest fear and only in the epiphany and revelation of this personal trial, do they prove themselves worthy of the knowledge:
- Raphael faces a stringed puppet in his likeness, confronted with his fears of being a tool. But he is assured that his life is own when he cuts down the strings that hold him. Kamaljiro says his mother Mab would be proud.
- Sabali is challenge why he hides behind jokes; he says it masks his tragedy but is forced to face his fear of water. He starts drowning in an endless sea, and is forever out of reach from helping a drowning Zeni as well. He accepts that there are some things beyond his capabilities, and that sometimes he has to be true to himself without hiding behind the mask of the fool or the shadows.
- Orlando faces the fear of his perceived failures in Vasselheim, not being able to save some people from an undead horde during Vecna’s assault. Kamaljiori challenges his sense of powerlessness and wonders how far would he go to get power? Orlando proves himself as he acknowledges that his younger self would be selfish with that power, and he would use it now to help others that were powerless. Being a good man takes work, and the work is never done.
- Zeni also takes a light hearted approach and similarly forced to reflect on it. Kamaljiro senses that even with Drakkar dead, his legacy and actions still haunt her. She'll always been that scared little slave girl. Zeni hopes to build her power to help those left behind, such as the slaves on Darktow, she knows she can't save everyone but can only try to leave a place a little better than we they find it. She proves herself, and Kamaljiori shares her nature of birth being a storm born. Those born under a great storm and that she is infused with Kord, the Storm Lord’s blessing, but she owes no fealty to him unless she wishes.
- Simeon is last to approach, the coward of Wildemount who ran away from religious persecution, rather than stay and fight? Simeon prizes his freedom, and picks where he can fight and make a difference. The trickery methods of the Moonweaver do not sit right with the avatar of Ioun and their tenants of truth, but Simeon defends their methods and that he stays behind others so that he can catch them if they fall. Knowing his place puts him onto the path of knowledge, and he would sacrifice the shadows of trickery to step into the (moon)light.
