Session 133: Boneheaded

General Summary

9th Sydenstar 836PD   A beat goes as the Unbroken and puppet Clone Guards are left alone after the Ulitharid Karkematth escaped. Waiting to see if the mindless Clones would fall down without their apparent master, but it seems their strings still hold as they move to attack the party.   Raphael collapses in the overwhelming magical pain of the escaped Warlock’s spell, Simeon rushes to catch and protect him from the guards. Fortunately, their attention is drawn by Ussi, valiantly blocking the Clones path towards the others.   The spirited panther claws through the guards’ armour, but with all 3 surrounding them, their mortal form is laid low by the Clone’s spears. Seeing her primal companion slain, the Lady Enessa turns her bow into its blade form to avenge her Ussi.   Orlando, running low on bullets, similarly turns to the blade and pulls out his trusty service dagger, although his skills have rusted a little. The gunslinger and ranger manage to manoeuvre the guards through their melee into a perfect line for Zeni to hurl a strike of lightning bolt right through the guards.   With Raphael and Simeon briefly indisposed, the chronomancer Arthur arrives with his timely punctuality as reinforcement. The wizard alters time around the guards, making them slow to act. This provides the final and easy opening for Enessa to cut down 2 of the guards, and Zeni to launch a death dealing fire bolt at the final guard.   Now that the lab seems to be immediately clear of any threat, the party take a couple of moments to recuperate through Simeon’s Prayer of Healing. The group then start to investigate the rest of the laboratory and the various rooms, first finding the original Karkematth’s old study.   Examining the study, Orlando finds a secret door which Zeni’s detect magic becomes overwhelmed with the various wards and items in the secret room. A chest and spellbook are heavily warded, but a lone humanoid Skull is left unguarded.   “About time!”, the Skull suddenly speaks! The Skull introduced themselves as Bartholomew, or “Barty” for the ease of those that struggle with syllables. Zeni recognises this talking skull as a vessel for a Spirit of Intellect, a fey entity with immense knowledge that is captured to act as a living library.   However, as a Spirit of Intellect, Barty knows a lot of things except manners and morality. Whilst Enessa and Zeni revel in the fey spirit’s mockery of these ‘monkey mortals’, sadly Arthur’s skin is thinner than the bare Skull’s when his intelligence is belittled.   Despite Barty’s condescending comments when questioned, he reveals that it’s been 17 years since they’ve ‘seen’ anyone else. They share that the original Karkematth died 10 years ago, and had planned to create a legacy of Clones to increase his power, but abandoned it in pursuit of something more powerful. Due to divination wards around the secret room their knowledge hasn't been able to be updated on the last 17 years, but will slowly come to them once out.   When asked of where the ‘Soul Splitter’ is in the lab, Barty directs to the warded chest in the corner. There is a passcode that would allow the party to avoid having to use their higher circle magic to dispel the wards, but Barty was ordered to forgot it.   The party continue to investigate the rest of the laboratory in hopes of finding any possible clues. They pass through a grand library and into an equally grand room with an orrery of the planes.   Enessa spots several symbols on the different models, and Zeni moves the orrery to when the barriers between the planes would be strongest, revealing a phrase in primordial, an ancient language of the elementals, “My word is my power”.   The group rush back to the study and Zeni speaks the primordial phrase, but nothing happens. Barty sardonically questions “why they would be speaking in such a language, when most respected arcanists would be using draconic or celestial”. Arthur makes use of his academic training and speaks the phrase in the draconic and celestial tongue, disabling the wards.   With Raphael still resting outside the study, Arthur takes Karkematth’s spare spellbook for his own collection. Orlando finds a spellgem that contains a 9th circle spell of Shapechange, that either Zeni or Arthur could use. However, when they check the chest where the Soul Splitter should be, they find it empty!   Presuming (hoping) the illithid might have taken it, the Unbroken search the remainder of the laboratory and find a corridor of cells. Down towards the end they hear crying from the only occupied cell.   A clone, named Kix, has been locked up as they have been infected with an illithid tadpole. Unlike Elmorn, and the other clones the party had met in the cloning chambers, Kix had passed a series of trials that proved himself worthy of ‘Ceremorphosis’, to be turned into an illithid.   Kix is in intense pain, he doesn’t know how long he has left before he turns, and he doesn’t want to become one either. He can sense a powerful mind down below the lab, which might be where the Ulitharid retreated to. Barty confirms there's a secret entrance in the library which would lead down below.   Orlando asks if there’s something Kix would find comforting, and the infected clone replies they had learned of a city, Vasselheim, from their studies in the library. Orlando asks Barty to comfort Kix by distracting him with his knowledge of the city. Simeon and Raphael are left with Kix to decide how best they end his pain, through the mercy of Bless or Blade.   The rest of the party go to find the secret door in the library, which they eventually discover behind a central bookcase. Having confidently explored the laboratory without experiencing any magical traps, and recently disarming the wards in the study. Enessa opens the secret door, triggering a Glyph of Warding that blasts lightning across the library…