Session 23: Deus Ex Machina Report

General Summary

Upon making it out of the Ambrose Canopy, the Masters of the Nine Elements finally reach their destination: the technological supercity of Sota, nestled in the Banrich Valley in North East Everen. They wander through the sketchy alleys of the Lantern Ward and marvel in the architecture of the Spire Ward, talking to a noble, Auldron Feugelhaig, who gifts them a Ring of Shielding, on their way up and eventually paying for board in the Crossroads Inn, a mystical tavern hidden halfway up the Central Dragon Spire that's shattered across the 24 Realms, making for a unique experience for many from different walks of life. Rostliem orders a very steep toad in the hole from the toad in the hole demiplane and sits down with the rest of his party to discuss plans moving forward.   But before any plans can indeed move forward, the Masters of the Nine Elements are approached by Ondor, a Grand Arbitrator of Deus Ex Machina, Chronomachina's guild of warriors. He claims that he was instructed to meet the party by his God, the Curator, who sent him on a mission to steer the Astral Key away from the hands of evil. In dire need of a cleric, the party accept him into the fold right away, making Ondor the newest member of the Masters of the Nine Elements. He shares his information he acquired on the city in his weeks he had spent their prior before they all retired to bed in their custom sleep cubes that the barman, Bernstable Branchley, had summoned for them.   In the middle of the night, Elkas found he couldn't sleep, and so returned to the bar area, completely empty except for Ondor, Donevan and the barman. There they listen to an episode of Ablio Nickelbraid's podcast, but soon have their mood ruined when an explosion from beneath them in the spire rocks the tavern. Flustered, Branchley then sporadically teleports the inn to the peak of a mountain in Qaruno, where the party spot Anton De La Vére and his family, having relocated to their ancestral home. Preparing for the worst, Branchley relocates the inn back to Sota, but his magic fails him as it temporarily gets stuck on Hemlock Street, the most infamous urban legend in the city: a supernatural alleyway that blinks in and out of existence, supposedly making anyone that walks it late at night disappear completely, never to walk back out again. Donevan senses the presence of a fiend peering at him from the darkness at the other end of the alley moments before Branchley manages to teleport the tavern back to safety on the Dragon Spire.   Ashamed at his inability to control his tavern, the barman refunds the party their money they spent on their rooms, leading them back out into the strangely quiet streets of Sota at night. They decide to take advantage of their time, using the veil of the night as a guise to check the city's records room for any mention of the hilt and who had bought it. After intimidating some guards by pretending to be truly malicious creatures (lawyers), they gain access to the records room, in which Donevan learns that the hilt was purchased by a man named Dapon, who installed it in the Sota Institute of Technology to be on display. At the same time, Ondor researches Hemlock Street, and discovers that the entire alley is inside of its own demiplane, with any person who wanders it supposedly ending up at the front gates of the Hemlock Asylum, never to return again.   The next morning, Heato Hiyori finally completes the last leg of his 40 day trek to Val T'loré, sick to the stomach thinking about the fate of his parents. When he finally arrives, however, he is completely surprised to see both of his parents alive and unharmed, sitting down for dinner together. Upon seeing him, Heato's mother rushes to hug him, but it's soon revealed to all be an elaborate ruse played by the mad sorcerer André Calixis, who used a 'Major Image, bitch' to traumatise Heato forever. He gives an evil villain laugh, and explains that he hasn't murdered his parents (yet), instead keeping them as ransom, threatening that if the fighter ever wants to see them again, he has to do what Calixis tells him. Heato reluctantly agrees, and is dragged through the City of Gold, a mule to the Empire.   Meanwhile, back in Sota, the party descend the Dragon Spire in search of the Institute of Technology, supposedly where the hilt is being held. When they find its front half reduced to rubble, they quickly deduce that someone must have beaten them to it, and that explosion they heard last night, was their hilt being taken once again from right underneath them. Averel figures that this ploy has Da'ernam Grye, the Shadar-kai crime syndicate in the city, written all over it, a fact later confirmed by the chief of police, Grif Thazar, who is holding a small group of their members that were caught fleeing the institute hostage in the penitentiary for further questioning.   The party waste no time in journeying to the penitentiary, and Rostliem steps forward to play mind games with them in an attempt to deduce who has the hilt. A very confusing conversation later and the party have a rough timeline of events in their heads. A small gang of Da'ernam Grye members, who had planned this raid for weeks, travelled to the institute in the dead of night, and made off with the hilt before anyone knew it was gone. However, things started to go wrong when the other half of the group decided to steal the hilt for themselves and run off into the darkness with it, leaving the others to eventually get caught by the Greyblades. The ones who stole it could have possibly delivered it to one of the local Da'ernam Grye hideouts in the Lantern Ward, an abandoned tanner's factory, though the chances of it still being there are very slim.   Still, chances are chances, no matter how slim, so the party set course for Mirthridge Tanners, soon discovering it to be infested with Shadar-kai (no way, for real??). Ondor and Averel strategise, sending Elkas and Donevan through the front entrance, themselves through the back entrance, and Rostliem through a window on the top floor as a bird. Some shenanigans occur in the ensuing fight, with many party members accidentally dropping their gold between the cracks in the floorboards, Ondor chucking his spellcasting focus across the rooms, rapiers committing fratricide against brethren of the Da'ernam Grye, and Rostliem turning some poor bloke into a Eunuch Jelly Man.   They pillage the contents of the factory, finding expensive scales and furs but no hilt. Averel also finds a note written in thieves' cant sent by one of the higher-ups, Ajax, previously mentioned by one of the captured members of the guild. The letter states that Murdoch and Skeen, the 'Dimber Dambers' of the guild want the hilt brought to the Raven's Foot 'Bungary' as soon as possible, lest the goonies of the 'bolshy shaggers' be pilfered.   So next step: an impromptu meeting with two of the most influential crime bosses in the city. For Averel and Tony, it's a dream come true.