Session 5 - Solving the Curiositorium

March 13, 2022
Picking back up with the tortured djinn/dao, we started investigating the room. Strong abjuration magic emanates from the hourglass. Espy tried a few things, pulled on a rope but found nothing.
We moved on to the menagerie room, and looked for a lever there. We did not have any luck, although Vedemis had an idea to use locate object spell. We opted to use it on the next pass.
In the golem room, strong transmutation magic emanates from the cog device the golems are arranged around. Espy summoned a phantom steed into the centre of the wheel to no effect. Using a mirror, Espy was able to see a hatch in the top half of the centre of the wheel. Not able to determine anything further.
So Vedemis and Espy move into the dagger room while under pass without trace while the rest of us went under water. She found another scroll of thunderwave, but not much else.
 
So next we went around again and Alvar Qeshka detected a lever in the knives room and we went around again and Espy found and pulled the lever. It dropped the force cage.
We climbed the falls and made our way into the middle where we were attacked by water elementals. We took some damage but were victorious. After a brief respite, we carried on. Qeshka dispelled the darkness in the middle and revealed a device conjuring the water. The device was a extra large decanter of endless water and inside it we found a moon pool room. In that room was the Horizon stone.
 
In the middle of the room was a large floating mirror with 9 golden frames.
 
Qeshka channels and chants.
 
Nothing to begin
One to see Nothing
Two, the sum of One and Nothing
Three, each plus Unity
Four, the ways One may go
Five, the Journey and the Traveler both
Six, the Five plus the foundation below
Seven, the Six plus the possibility above
Eight, the Ways, Journeyed there and back again
Nine, the Unity of All.
 
Only Nine may behold Ten
The pattern underfoot changes, and a line of energy bisects the slab, then widens into an oval of glowing blue fire with a dark circle in its center with the faint reflection of the Star of Kryptikos within it.
You realize suddenly that you stand not on a slab of stone, but on the orb of Kryptikos, glowing with arcane energy, even as the ground gives a lurch and with a rumbling, grinding noise, arcs of stone runes float up from the ground in various orbits and begin to circle about you, as your surroundings fade away into the enormity of a vast desert of nothing but sand to all sides of you, the cosmos whirling about above you, the fires of Infernal realms below, and on all sides the impossible vast endlessness of the horizon.

You sense the ur-Genie from the other room being ripped apart slowly by the winds of karma, and each and every grain of sand being added one at a time to the sands before you, as Time races toward the point where the Wind of Nothing is finally exhausted, and all existence ceases to be.
But only Kryptikos may attain the Horizon.
Qeshka is no longer an old woman, but a being of titanic height and presence, massive in her power, the same gold and blue energy of the Eye of Kryptikos beneath your feet now shining forth from her eyes, beams of light showing where she gazes at the pulsating sea of lifetimes and events within the endless sands between here and the horizon.
One heartbeat passes, and she looks to you quickly, and then back out to the horizon. Another heartbeat passes, and she turns and looks at the sands behind you. A third heartbeat passes, and she turns her gaze upwards into the Cosmos wheeling above.
There is another shift, and the sands and the horizon fall away to nothingness. The stones and runes begin to wheel over and about you in their orbits, and you notice that you are floating on the Eye of Kryptikos within the center of a massive Gyroscope of Eldritch Energy.
There is another Heartbeat then, the single heartbeat of a God, and all fades to black, and you find yourself back in the Bag of Holding, at the now-locked entrance to the Curiositorium. Qeshka sits before you unceremoniously on the bottom of the bag, her eyes now milky white and she says,
"I have stood on the Horizon Stone, and Beheld from here to the Horizon. I shall never behold through mortal sight again. You will need to assist me. I am blind now, for such is the price of my Vision. Assist me back to Seahold, and I will reveal your Path to the Horizon."

We aid her in leaving. We make our way back to the Villa. Then she told us the following prophecy:
 
beyond horizons came the five
the weaver she to find them
no fated choice so we might thrive
let naught but silver bind them
 
let choice be theirs unbound un-led
to walk among the nations
until they walk the path of dread
and serve as our salvation
 
in crystal find the ways between
to join the cities six
in riddles old find paths unseen
and gate to move betwixt
 
plant it then with dragon gold
in place of earthblood's power
let five and one unite unfold
and raise the nexus tower
 
then silver calls and silver sees
observe the solar halo
approach the throne upon your knees
the silver crown in shadow
 
and then unknown the final steps
the chance of failures legion
exalted lords or demons depths
our masters or fell minions

 
Bespia believes she feels the crystal and cities six:
Khal'vraya back in the Age of Chivalry was home to several superlative sand deposits that filled crevasses and coated the mountainside in ravines and valleys hearkening back to when the land was part of a prehistoric seabed. When the humans controlled the lands, there was an entire city high up on the mountain called the City of Glass, where artificers and guildmasters for glassblowers and glaziers and crystal workers would work the ancient sand deposits producing superlative products of many kinds of glass or crystal. It was more of a Guild Outpost than any actual city itself, barely larger than a medium sized town.
When Kh'alassia fell, the human Guildmasters called upon their knowledge of the magic of crafting and cast some kind of enchantment upon the City of Glass, so that any Ffelyani who entered contracted some kind of cursed wasting sickness that they never recovered from. Either that or the trespassers disappeared forever, or met with gruesome accidents on the ascent to the City of Glass.

We are also told we are free to go back to Heshaba City. Alvar asks us to take Bespia and Gomki back with us. We agree to do that and she gives us a holy symbol each and says we can show it in her lord Kryptikos temples and receive aid.
We then make our way to the gnomish enclave and the teleport circles to return.
 
Ummo Meksu was waiting for us in the dining room and asks after our adventures. He is most pleased and grants us a bonus of 3000 gp and outfits us further and a monthly allowance of 1000 gp a month each.
 
"I have been informed by my sister that you have been summoned to an audience with Evyzaraxxa, that our Patron leaves her lair and comes here, to you. I confess that I am envious, for I have served as head of this household for decades and I have never been granted an audience, nor a summons, merely dispatches as communications. I would not recognize Evyzaraxxa if she stood before me today." For just a moment he looks at each of you in turn as if actually wondering if one of you are an ancient silver dragon in disguise.
"However, that is not the way that this family operates. My younger sister Khepkhusha was selected as this generation's connection with our Patron. It surprised us all, as the other twin, Zomza, was always more mystically inclined, even before they named themselves Twiceborn. Khepkhusha was originally a Shadow Monk in the armed services of the Empress. But when she was summoned to serve Evyzaraxxa at age 26, she spent two years in attendance of the dragon in Grand Askolvieth, high atop the Forbidden Mountain.
"When she returned she had unlocked powers as a Sorceress from the bloodline of one of Evyzaraxxa's children who had blessed House Ummo at the start of our service. She is now a stronger sorceress than she was a Shadow Monk, even though she has returned to active duty in the monastery long since.
"Khepkhusha has left this scroll with instructions for you to follow for your audience with the dragon. It is a summons to a place within the city here, a counting house we have several accounts with. We maintain secrecy to a point as to whom we serve, and while I have every confidence that Evyzarraxxa has less trouble dealing with trouble than we ourselves do, it is more of a courtesy to keep her comings and goings private so that other houses don't make foolish mistakes, like they tried to do with you, twice now. You will report to the counting house in three days time, at sunset.
"In the meanwhile, you have leave of the city. I am no expert in deciphering prophecies, but I suspect you will be removed from active duty and given your own lead soon enough, though I will await instructions from the Silver before giving up all hope of continuing to have you serve my missions directly."

He smiles. "You have already gained favor of the Dwarves and earned the respect and scrutiny of the court members here. I do confess, suddenly having the newest Coterie of the Empire seem to vanish or act in a random manner would delight me in just knowing how confounded and chaotic all of the schemers would be trying to figure out your agenda and my own for using you in such a random fashion. In the meanwhile, please enjoy the city."