We resume with the party still debating strategy in
The Tavern.
Tornac is absent from the session again due to a real life work emergency.
They begin by going over the
Executive Summary of the Preservation Proclamation given to
Mazu by
Penguin. What ensues is a lot of back and forth and brainstorming. Notable points include, but are not limited to:
- Mazu explains that the gods have been watching The Celestial/Murderers ever since the beginning, because Istus told them to.
- The Preservation Proclamation is not malleable in and of itself. Existing terms cannot be removed or modified. New terms can, however, be added.
- Penguin has clearly been manipulating things from behind the scenes from the beginning as a way to gain power
- The root of the problem seems to be that the clause regarding interfering with another god's domain overrides other clauses regarding apocalyptic scenarios and just cause for war
- Zerrof would consider attacking a god to qualify as "interfering" in that god's domain. It is currently unclear whether the Preservation Proclamation agrees or not.
- Mazu takes Penguin's vial back, and comes very close to breaking it. She eventually decides to back down until she can establish exactly what they want him to do. She is also concerned that, if she calls him in, he will find a way to take control of the situation and use it to his advantage.
They eventually decide to try and get advice from
The Bronze Prince.
Zerrof casts sending repeatedly to have the following conversation:
Zerrof here - We've finally read the contract that binds you and think changes to it would solve your problems. Will you help us with this?
the document cannot be changed. I could help make more.
We know no lines can be changed but we would like to add an addendum. Will you meet with us in person?
it is not my place to step into such matters. I must remain neutral.
Because of your neutrality you're uniquely qualified to assist with this to ensure it affects all evenly.
A couple of persuasion rolls later,
The Bronze Prince arrives to consult.
The Tavern is far too crowded, so they adjourn to
Barry the Airship. Major points from the consultation:
- The first suggestion is to add some sort of third party arbitration clause to allow the gods to take action normally forbidden, but this has been tried before and failed to pass. Many of the gods still fear mortals since the events of The Shattering and are not keen to give them more power.
- Iapetus would also be forbidden from attacking gods directly under the Preservation Proclamation. The problem is that he has not technically signed, and even if he did the Preservation Proclamation does not prevent him from getting mortals (who effectively serve as his followers) from rendering gods mortal
- Even though the contract considers the Forms to be gods, Mazu would not agree. Unfortunately a vote was already held on that subject before they knew what they were dealing with, and Iapetus was deemed to be a god.
- Despite being a god, Iapetus has not signed the contract. He is still subject to its protections. Normally the gods would take this as just cause to declare war, however they have tried this before in a previous cycle and the results were catastrophic. Iapetus rendered three gods mortal in the ensuing conflict and then signed the papers just as he was starting to lose. They expect this would happen again if they go to war.
- Zerrof proposes some sort of arbitration by combat among the god's followers. The Bronze Prince says this option was already proposed by The nine hells and then consequently refused by gods from every other plane.
- Adoven Verdonnet points out that, if the point is to prevent mortals from having votes, then that has failed. After all, mortals are the ones leading Ragnarok. The Bronze Prince smiles, but declines to comment.
- The Preservation Proclamation was intentionally designed to be very difficult to change or violate, because the gods still distrusted each other and feared someone would find a way to wiggle out of it and cause mayhem.
- The gods have already come to agreements for a solution multiple times before, but these all failed. It is only due to Aria starting things over by use of time travel that the gods have not already been rendered mortal. The Bronze Prince describes this as "interference", but seems grateful for it regardless.
- Adoven Verdonnet is starting to think the gods "deserve it", at this point. The Bronze Prince says he is not the first to say so.
The group, having run out of ideas for the legalism route, leave
The Bronze Prince behind and go to visit
Aria at the
Church of Ascension. Once
The Bronze Prince is gone,
Mazu points out that it might still be possible to solve this through legal means; it is just that the gods will not all be on board with that plan.
Adoven Verdonnet reveals that he was sent to
Vigrid to stop
Aria from time travelling. This confuses him, because it sounds like she is the only one protecting the gods.
Aria travels back in time by use of a golden music box left to her by her grandmother. It always takes her back to around two weeks before the current date. This is not precise, however. Sometimes she arrives a few days earlier or later, but she cannot push time back too much further than that.
It is not clear how long the music box can keep doing this. It has been losing its sheen with repeated use.
Aria has clearly done this many times, as she has good guesses about what the party has been up to. She is currently on her 38th cycle.
Aria is not actually here due to
Ragnarok. Not directly, anyway. What she is actually trying to fix is what comes after; no matter how
Ragnarok ends, her hometown of
Sigil faces disaster. Before she explains details, though, she asks a lot of questions about the state of the world. Many things are different from what she expects. This conversation goes on for some time, as she coaxes out more and more things that are different:
- Griffon apparently remembers the previous cycles, and in fact remembers them before they even happened, long before she enters Ragnarok
- Lucan Pavalur's time traveling which probably explains Tornac 's memory, but not Griffon.
- Nihilo also seems to remember previous cycles, even though eh could not do this originally. Something changed in one of her cycles that let Nihilo remember.
Pestle says it is possible "the void" is responsible for both
Griffon and
Nihilo's memory.
Adoven Verdonnet asks
Aria if she knows for sure she has only gone back in time 38 times. She does not.
.
The doors always close seven months and 13 days after
Iapetus dies. This implies that whatever happens to
Sigil is directly tied to
Iapetus dying.
As far as
Aria is aware, all of the factions are correct about what will happen if they try their proposed solutions. Even
Nihilo's plan seems viable, as she has seen him destroy planes before and new ones have sprung up in their place. She mentions a desert with black goo creatures able to change their own forms at will. Not much was learned about them because they had no common language.
Aria also reveals that she is Adoven Verdonnet's daughter. She delivers this information very bluntly, having apparently tried several times before to be gentle about it and failed. She says that it happened when he separated from the rest of the group in the
Feywild. He met a "lovely eladrin woman", then lost his memory of the event when attacked by a sunflower.
Adoven Verdonnet is dumbfounded, and stutters repeatedly.
Pestle, meanwhile, already knew all of this and is surprised that nobody else did. He thought it was common knowledge.
Aria says that it takes decades for them to find each other again after the incident. She also says that Adoven Verdonnet was an excellent father, for a time, but then disappears roughly a week before the gates close. She does not know why.
Pestle gets a very good persuasion roll to ask
Aria how many times he has escaped
Vigrid. So far it is seven times. She refuses to explain how
Pestle escapes, but she does say that he needs to avoid doing what Adoven Verdonnet did. Or more specifically he needs to "do it somewhere different than he did".
The group also discusses whether or not there could be another music box.
Aria does not know.
getting back on topic,
Aria explains that she has tried many, many things. As far as she knows all of the factions are correct in their views on the world and what they can accomplish, but in every ending she has seen the disaster still befalls
Sigil. It is possible she cannot actually stop those events, but she desperately wants to try. At the very least she wants to find a way that her people can be more prepared for it when it happens.
After some more brainstorming, Adoven Verdonnet proposes instituting some sort of reincarnation system for the gods, and for
Iapetus himself, in order to prevent
Iapetus from ever dying. If that can be done, then perhaps there is a way to keep him from ever dying, and therefore prevent the gates from ever closing. This might work, but
Aria is unsure exactly what the rules are, and thinks it would be very difficult to change them. There is simply not enough knowledge about what the
Forms are and how they work for her to suggest anything conclusive.
She also talks a bit about
Fate and Free Will. Specifically, she says that some things seem to be inevitable no matter what she does. For example there is a human who always joins during the upcoming
Game of Boats who is doomed to die before ever seeing
The Town, and does not come back. She says that one time she even personally protected that man all the way to the end only for him to drop dead of a heart attack.
During the course of conversation,
Aria grows gradually more and more concerned. She comes to the conclusion that
Penguin knows about the time travel and is up to something. She begins asking a lot of questions about
Penguin and
Tornac, clearly getting more and more concerned by the fact that the wielder of
Dénouement is missing. At her urging, the party departs to try and find
Tornac.
After a brief search,
Pestle spots
Tornac at the gate in the center of the island. He is seen handing
Dénouement to
Iapetus and then departing for the bar. The rest of the session is spent with the party and
Aria frantically trying to figure out what is going on and find
Tornac.
Aria says this is a new development, so she has no idea why this would be happening. Adoven Verdonnet also points out that it might not have been a voluntary decision.
This gets them talking about what has changed with
Penguin and
Tornac.
- Mama Bear always ends up as a follower of Penguin after Tyr dies.
- Mama Bear is apparently a vampire now, and always has been one as far as Aria knew. She was not aware that mama ever had Ursinthropy. This is a large part of why she winds up as a follower of Penguin; few gods will actually accept vampiric followers. This has something to do with Edward DuThane.
- The glass vial Penguin gave to Zerrof is new. It implies to Aria that Penguin wants something from the party.
Aria gives the party an overview of the rules for the
Game of Boats, then
Pestle recharges
Barry the Airship's cannons and the party set off in search of
Tornac but do not find him before the end of the session.
