After defeating the rumble king, the knights go back to the Undercropolis, which is now exposed to the sky thanks to the destruction of the Godzilla battle above.
Once there, Gembo finds that the Echoseekers are displeased because with the way to the surface open they have lost their power within the city. Gembo makes Galphi a paladin of life as a gift which shows his trust in her as well as to aid the Echoseekers in reclaiming some of their lost prestige.
Next morning, Duer wakes to find his head has become like that of Acerak’s floating skull. He comes to the gruesome realization that HE WAS the phylactery all along. Acerak tells Duer that he’ll consume his body and soul to become a full Lich in two days, unless he agrees to retrieve a device called the Orndoolie Chronicler from Tower Graysong. Acerak also admits that the name Orndoolie Chronicler is a code name to disguise the actual artifact.
After some deliberation Duer and the gang agreed to infiltrate the tower by teleporting within. Once there, they find portraits of the various members of the Medusa counsel, the organization who own the tower now. Erithien takes a bauble attached to Brazza’s picture which is a glass sphere with one hemisphere filled with read sand and the other with red water. On the outside is painted the number 3. Despite several attempts to do so, Erithien never solved the riddle of the bauble.
The group finds a prismatic wall behind which there is a box labeled Orndoolie Chronicler. They start to dismantle the defensive field but Erithien's Grimm Psychometry reveals the Orndoolie Chronicler behind it are illusions. Duer uses arcane eye to scout the entire place and finds a room with no discernible entrance. Feye Lyne uses her investiture of stone to enter the room and finds another box which matches Acerak's description of the Orndoolie Chronicler. The room also contained a Red Dragon egg. However, the run is also completely filled with fire so fled the room without taking anything.
Duer guesses that despite his body housing the Acerak's presence that Acerak can't hear his thoughts, so Duer uses telepathy to communicate with his friends. Together, they mentally concoct a plan to plunge Acerak into an antimagic field, decapitate Duer, and then destroy the skull. The plan is executed flawlessly, with Acerak's head being removed and turned into bone powder. However, cefore they can attempt to a resurrection upon Duer, a large, illusory amphibious head reveals itself to the group. It's Brazza the Redeemable. She proclaims the group as trespassers and sends a contingent of Four Moons Mercenaries to take back the tower.
Just as the fight gets started, we discover that Erithien’s strange blood restores the headless Duer to unlife. Duer rises to the aid of his companions, albeit without a head. As it turns out, not being able to speak, hear, or see is only a minor hinderance to the clever wizard of his ability.
The group faces off against the Four Moon Mercenaries, led by old rival Goliath who was still sore about being cheated out of a payday. Danithal put the matter to rest by splattering Goliath’s brains on the wall and forcing her compatriots to surrender.
Duer then disabled the teleportation circle to avoid reinforcements from coming and the group retrieved the Orndoolie Chronicler, which turned out to be a deck of many things.
Duer warns of the terrible danger such a relic would pose, but the enticement of a magical power supreme over the cortexes was just too much for them resist. One by one they drew cards and here's what happened:
Erithien earned +1 chaos point for using the deck of many things but things don't go well from there. First, all of her magic items disintegrated… including the god tokens for death and destruction because the Deck of Many Things, being a relic from the far-realm, is supreme over the creation magic of this world. Then, she earned the enmity of a devil, all of her wealth melted away, and she was spirited away to the centre of the earth, imprisoned by something primeval. Oh, but she did level up!
Gembo got a an axe of sharpness!
Danithal also gained the enmity of a powerful devilish entity but also gained ownership of a keep in The Steppes. As a perk, she also gained expertise with persuasion.
Duer got a staff of swarming which he though much too pedestrian for his liking.
Dee got a castle, good persuasion, and another level! Not too bad for a snowman with no prospects.
After the chaos of losing Erithien, the group decides that Tower Graysong will take too much effort to hold against a dedicated assault by Four Moon Mercenaries. They teleport back to the Sword-Like Tower to seek the aid of Jass.
Once there, Duer admits to the mage his (obvious) undead affliction. Jass tells Duer that he understands the circumstances were unusual and does not hold his affliction against him. The party then brutally murders Duer and Gembo performs a resurrection ritual which was successful in returning their friend back to non-undead life.
The group discovers that the power of the god of chaos transferred from the chained-whip and has claimed the deck of many things as its new token. The crew worries about the pantheon being weakened by the loss of two tokens. Jass reluctantly becomes the God of Chaos until such time as someone better can be chosen, and gives Duer the purple mystical crystal ball, the token of the God of Magic.
Pate and Trevor return through the Uniexical Plexus to tell the group that they are going through the Far-Realm Tear on the Nemezolt. Feye Lyne tries to dissuade Pate from this course of action, but he argues that the Nemezolt is native to the realm and so they should be fine. In the end, the Knights watch their friends and conveyance fly through the tear. It also becomes obvious that the Unexical Plexus doesn't work upon the Nemezolt while in the Far-Realm.
After a night's rest, the group leaves Jass and Minksy to travel towards Eternity, the only way they can think of to get the middle of the world and rescue Erithien. The 2-mile wide hole in the earth is believed by some to be bottomless. I guess we'll find out.
At eternity, the group meets the self proclaimed Shaman of the Hole,
Beedah Smythe. She is a
Titanium Mountain Dwarf woman with holes through her ears, cheeks, nose, hands, and even skull.
Beedah Smythe offers to share her entire knowledge on
Eternity with the group if they pass the Rite of Goodbyes. If they fail, then
Beedah Smythe says they are not truly ready to leave this world and will not assist them. After all, no one who has ever gone into the hole (and there have been some powerful people to try it) and ever returned. She believes that anyone attempting this journey should be completely willing to say goodbye to this life forever and be spiritually ready to start a whole new life in whatever mystery land is in the hole.
The Knights are introduced to a amiable and excited Tortle man called Tomuq. Poor Tomuq has been waiting a long time for a group to show up who wants to go down the hole and hopes to tag along. The Knights agree to take the Tortle ranger with them and together they imbibe the mind-altering, tar-like nethersan concoction and begin their metaphysical spirit journey.
They enter a moment from Duer's history, the death of the Fire Hawks adventuring company and the start of Duer's five year enslavement to Zilla Wormwiggle. However, everyone else has become his old friends, the Fire Hawks. Duer and the Firehawks re-enact the battle but come out victorious this time. Duer says goodbye to his friends once again and the vision moves on.
Next they enter a moment from Feye Lyne's memory. They're in The Steppes, outside of the hideout of the Blue Dragons, a local criminal gang who stole from Feye Lyne's gang. This was also the same mission where childhood friend, Jenny Quake, was killed. Feye Lyne's companions have also taken on the appearance of her old friends. Together they break into the hideout and very quickly find out why members of this gang are called the Blue Dragons. Turns out, some dragons can take on humanoid form and still retain the power and abilities of their fully realized draonic form. We didn't get to see how the fight turned out because the session ended.
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