Session 29: The Saviors? of Scatterpoint Report

General Summary

Previously

Having found Prof. Lassiter, and persuaded him to help the party adapt the Planar Stabilization Device from the moonbase to work under the strange physical laws here, and having accepted the help of Barbas, the Talus-in-old-man form, the party sets off towards the Clock Tower (the site of the Incident), with a score of Converted under Barbas's command. The journey will likely take about a week. The group sets out the next morning. En route, Lassiter asks the party many questions about "The Land Before", Runespace, Spelljamming, the planet Paraxis, etc. He agrees to teach Jessa more about adapting runestones as power sources for technological gadgets, so that Jessa can hopefully use her runestones to get the Reality Comb working. (The party still hopes to use the Reality Comb to escape Scatterpoint, after setting the device to be triggered.) Barbas and Zayer continue to talk, exchanging information on the planar powers, both currently and the old (and petty) information Barbas is only too happy to share.

Session Summary

The Journey

The journey is uneventful and proceeds quickly, with mounts for the party, Barbas and Lassiter, and tireless Converted legs carrying the rest. The Barrens terrain changes from the Twisted Fields (more wild and barren), to Bentshadow (just to the south of GreyMesa, beneath its plateau, and often called the Scrap Heap. It is the most salvaged of all the regions, where rusty remains linger like some monolithic skeleton picked clean. The great Penfold mines are here, and the district of GauntWhistle is the central transportation hub of ScatterPoint. It is chiefly responsible for the repair and maintenance of the rail lines. The party can hear the clamor of the factories there from miles away). Eventually, the party crosses over into GhostMire, a harsh land subject to many swift runestorms and often blanketed in fields of witchgrass.

Clearly, no wild animals or rogue bands choose to interfere with this large group, as they encounter no leatherwings, Slag rats, rogue malakar tribes, etc., only needing to hunker down to weather an occasional runestorm. Some highlights of the journey.

BN Sue is intent on his self-appointed role as morale officer, and wants to party with the Converted, and get them to loosen up. BN is disappointed to learn they don't really need to drink, but when Prax reminds him that Zayer was able to overcharge the Overwrought Edgar Kipps on Root's crew, BN enlists Zayer's help. By the end of the evening, the Converted are feeling quite mellow ("Did you ever really look at your metal hand? I mean, really look at it?")
En route, Lassiter asks the party many questions about "The Land Before", Runespace, Spelljamming, the planet Paraxis, etc.
Lassiter agrees to teach Jessa more about adapting runestones as power sources for technological gadgets, so that Jessa can hopefully use her runestones to get the Reality Comb working. Jessa is able to confirm that the Reality Comb is apparently undamaged, but its power is drained. She manages to get it working with Lassiter's help, but conceals this from Barbas. Jessa spends the rest of the trip tuning her equipment (and loaned items), tweaking them to make sure they work under the current circumstances.
Windy talks to Lassiter about the history of clockwork beings here in Scatterpoint, and works with Jessa on furthering knowledge of his growing capabilities.
Prax talks to the Converted, trying to gauge their battle readiness and capabilities, in case they find the Clock Tower defended.
Windellian spends as much time as he can flying, cruising around, and generally enjoying being above ground.

Lord Valentine

As the party is passing relatively close to Stone Manor (but still several miles away) and readying camp for the evening, Windellian spots a flock of bats of unusual size approaching. He lands and warns the camp, and they all watch as the bats land in the nearby stand of witchgrass, and emerge moments later as a group of vampires. led by Lord Valentine himself.

Valentine tauntingly greets Barbas, "Hello, old friend. Still stuck in a feeble old body, ordering your toy soldiers around?", to which Barbas retorts, "Still slowly rotting away in Stone Manor, 5 to a coffin, living off the blood of vermin? Eventually, Valentine greets the rest of the party, and asks why they are here--though eventually he acknowledges that he received a letter from Terridar Shadowmoon, telling him about the party's mission in Scatterpoint, and suspected this group was them. Highlights of the conversation:

Valentine and Barbas clearly have history, and neither appreciates the "get a room" comments from the party.
Lassiter is excited to meet Lord Valentine, who is well known but very reclusive, and accepts no uninvited visitors. Valentine is somewhat dismissive to Lassiter at first, but eventually treats him with a bit more respect when he learns Lassiter's identify.
Lord Valentine wants out of Scatterpoint as well, and offers to help the party. "Barbas, it looks like for the first time in centuries, our interests align. And we were both always pragmatists, weren't we?"
Valentine tells them of what they should expect at the Clock Tower. Despite Lassiter believing the Clock tower is empty and abandoned, Valentine that the Entropy Society has taken it over. This will be a surprise to Lassiter, who believes the Entropy Society is just a decadent social club, but Valentine and Barbas explains that the Entropy Society, headed by Lord Angst and Lady Ennui (both roll their eyes) are working on plot to destroy the city, apparently out of boredom. The plot isn't nearly as secret as the Society believes it to be, but none of the major powers here take it serious.

Eventually, he insists on meeting party at the Clock Tower at nightfall on the 3rd day following (which should be about right for the distance needed), and flies off.

Lady Umbriel, Goddess of Shadow and Balance

The party, ruminating on their strange and likely dangerous allies, beds down for the night, and continues their journey in the morning. All along the way, Zayer has been searching for a spot that "feels right" to cast a Divination to seek aid or information from Umbriel, the Lady of Shadow, the goddess whom Zurvon told them was trapped here after the Incident. Shortly after crossing the tracks into Ghost Mire, Zayer finds a small traveler's shrine to the goddess tucked under an overhang of an old ruin. The rest of the party decides to keep their distance, with Windellian keeping an eye out from above. The Divination is VERY successful. Zayer feels a strong sense of presence, and then sees a shadowy, starry woman appear. Zayer respectfully thanks Umbriel for acknowledging his request, and tells her of the party's mission. Lady Umbriel is intrigued, and asks several questions. Once she realizes that the party can free her and all the inhabitants of Scatterpoint, and just needs to get to the Clock Tower, she pulses with power--and the party finds itself elsewhere.

The party finds itself in the chamber atop the Clock Tower that they saw in the simulation in the Great Library, though ravaged by the Incident, and the time since. The distant towers of the city districts are visible through the windows, as are the overgrown reaches of the Barrens. Barbas, Lassiter, Lord Valentine and a pale man they later learn is Lord Angst are all there. Umbriel tells the party to proceed, and she fades away (though her presence can still be distinctly felt).

The party hands over the planar stabilization device to Lassiter, providing what notes they have from the Electric Monk and the scroll from the Planar Research Station, and then step as Lassiter (with an occasional bit of vague but menacing help from Lord Valentine or Barbas) works away to prepare the device, while Lord Angst seems to be delighted by the novelty of the situation. The party steps back as far as they can, and as Lassiter seems to be getting ready to trigger the planar device, Jessa attempts to use the Reality Comb to cut their way directly out of the dimensional bubble. The planar device erupts, and a great rift in space seems to rapidly expand out of it, suddenly freezing in midair (along with the others present), much as it did in the simulation. The Reality Comb seems to indicate the only way out is through the rift, and so the party takes a deep breath, and leaps in.

The Choice

After apparently losing consciousness for an unknown amount of time, the party finds itself standing in an immense, magnificent temple of Egyptian design. In front of them, on an immense dais, are two resplendent thrones. One one, Zurvon sits. On the other, Lady Umbriel sits, apparently still recovering from the transition. Both sparkle with the light of stars as they they touch hands and embrace, the divine joy at their reunion washing over the party. Zurvan addresses the party, thanks them, and says "You have earned the right and the responsibility, and must now make the choice that was suspended a millennium ago. You have the choice to tip the knife edge to magic or science, and weigh your choice carefully, for it shall...". Multiple people in the party immediately interrupt Zurvan's exposition in succession, choosing "Balance", and saying that it served this world well for centuries, and it should again. Zurvan, mildy miffed at the interruption but in a generous mood under the circumstances, and clearly surprised by both the speed and the nature of the party's choice, asks them if they are sure. (Umbriel, meanwhile, seems quite pleased by the party's choice.) surprisingonfirms th

The Cosmology of the Universe

Highlights:

The universe is far older that most people believe.
The earliest intelligent beings that arose became gods of various forms, and shaped (and were shaped by) the subsequent evolution of life
These beings have existed for (at least) millions of years, giving them time to create vast realms dominated by magic (i.e., the power of thought and will), but these areas are still tiny compared to the overall size of the universe.
These areas have no fundamental affect on the wider universe, and there is a physical tendency/entropy of the universe to "Fall back" to its ground state of science-based reality. All magical realms (and powerful beings) thus are somewhat precarious, and need to be protected to survive. They need to maintain a balance, which ultimately underlies many of the laws and rules that seem arbitrary to humans (such as the gods never going directly to war with each other, and being careful to avoid meddling too much in each other's realms).
Realizing the danger, long ago the gods harnessed their collective power, and every system with "magic", that is, every system conducive to the existence of the gods, was surrounded by an extradimensional bubble of will, which would connect it to all the other sentient realms both via an extraplanar ocean of energy (the Phlogiston), and via the other (already existent) realms that the various gods had created for themselves (the Planes). Within the Phlogiston, every system was be encased in a crystalline sphere, so that any breakdown in the nature of magic/will/thought would be contained in that sphere.
The Phlogiston is both a way to enable their worshipers to physically travel between systems, a shock absorber (is one of the spheres catastrophically fails, since they are magic constructs) and a neutral connecting realm. In this way, the gods essentially ceded all interest in and risk from the depths of "real" space between systems (where Old Gods might still lurk in darkness), while protecting and segregating their own magical realms.

By this ancient Pact Primeval, the gods agreed to never manifest, communicate or interfere with the Phlogiston, lest they accidentally disrupt the careful balance they created--or they provoke other gods to intervene as well, and again, risk upsetting the balance. This is why the gods do not enter the Phlogiston. Not because they cannot, but because it is the ultimate taboo of divinity--because it could lead to the end of their special powers and existence.

Over millennia, the balance between magic (thought, will) and science shifts on different worlds in different ways. Sometimes a science-based civilization will make some magical discovery, but more often magic-based worlds tend to evolve toward science as the population grows. (Partly because science is easier to master and scale up than magic, and partly because the cumulative effect of millions of mundane minds tends to reinforce mundane events).

The Effects on Runespace

Runespace was very unusual in how long it maintained this balance, until the warring forces of science and magic destabilized things. Now, the party has healed the planar wound and made the choice to maintain the balance, but changes will be slow, and influenced by subsequent choices by the inhabitants.

The great rift where Agaddon lay will be sealed, dissipating the great Runestorm there. This should eventually heal the other planar disruption in Runespace (the runestorms on the surface of Paraxis and in space, the null voids, and the erratic connection to the Phlogiston), but those changes could take decades to fully resolve.
Some of the transformed Andari will likely die, as the runic energies fade. The transition of Scatterpoint back to Paraxis will be difficult and destructive, but most will survive the event.
The society of both Scatterpoint and the scattered settlements on Paraxis will be thrown into chaos by these great changes, but they will have the opportunity to chart the course of their society anew.
The Talus will likely return to the Lower Planes, causing unknown disruption there.

Finally, Zurvon knows that not all the party is motivated by the quest for knowledge or the desire to help, and so he implants knowledge into their minds of a forgotten cache of precious metals and ancient devices, not too far from Grantz, so that the party can claim that reward as well.

The Aftermath

The party awakes to find itself inside the shuttle, where it landed just outside the Runestorm. In the distance, they can see that the great runestorm is clearing, and the spires of Agaddon/Scatterpoint are visible (though there may be a few less spires than before). The party decides to quickly leave before any of the millions of inhabitants find them (or worse, the Talus or Baba Yaga). They fly back towards Grantz, and make a quick stop to find the cache of treasures that Zurvon told them about. Their intent is to collect their ship and crew and leave ASAP, and then continue their flight to investigate the planet Chandos (which went missing from Realmspace). After that, they will decide whether to pursue the Hive, and their next steps.

Campaign

Vagabonds of Greatspace

Protagonists