Session 37: The End of the Ravager Report

General Summary

Previously

After entering the Hive in the outskirts of the Runespace system, the party has managed to destroy 6 of the 10 lesser eyes, leaving only Disintegration, Petrification, Fear and Wounding. Along the way, they freed the golden people from being charmed, removed the stabilizing control of the beasts in another realm, freed dozen of nixies who had been transformed into slugs, introduced the King of the Ghouls (and his ghoulish minions) to a mummified beholder buffet, and recovered several imprisoned dreamers, one of whom is now awake. In the vast central chamber, they found immense murals telling the history of the creation of the Hive and the Ravager, and now find themselves inside the 2 mile wide Ravager, assembled from those same murals. The Ravager is apparently responding to the threat of an imminent attack from a beholder fleet. The Ravager is piloted from the central (antimagic) crystal by a mix of the Mozck AI (which entered the Hive earlier, as a crystalline starfish/scorpion), and remaining intellect of the Ravager construct. Standing atop the crystal as it descended was one of the giant suits of armor, encrusted with pink crystals, and carrying a huge brown beholder eye. Beams of light appear in the darkness, erupting from different facets of the central crystal. Four of them leap out to the eye stalks, burning steady and bright. Six others appear briefly and dimly, and then fade away, as the powers they are attempting to tap into have been rendered unavailable by the party's efforts. With a huge lurch, they feel the Ravager get underway. While the party has no desire to protect the beholder fleet, they are concerned about what they heard the Mozck AI say, and its intent to replicate itself into the various ships, to attack Paraxis and the Phaeton Halo. Still blocked by the antimagic of the central crystal, the party readies what weapons they can by bolting two ballista onto the top of the shuttle. The party intends to attack the central crystal to stop Mozck and the Ravager.

Session Notes

As the party works on preparing the shuttle, they see signs of the battle between the Ravager and the Beholder fleet. The globe echoes with the sounds of lightning; sharp cracks when the crystals fire. The air here smells of rock dust and ozone and soot. It's very warm, and a brisk wind is blowing into each eyestalk. The active crystals in the eyestalks cast weird, twisting shadows inside as the eyestalks move. The other light here comes from the giant central crystal, which floats, one endpoint up, in the exact center of this globe. It's much dimmer now, and you can make out symbols carved into its ten facets. You can no longer see the spiky armor that was standing atop it. Thin beams of light, each about one inch across, connect the central crystal's facets with the four active eyestalks. All the lights are different colors. At one point, the party sees a flash of light between two of the mural plates, as a strong disintegration blast from the Tyrant ship hits a gap. The party sees slimes swarm there to repair, which gives them the idea of attacking the slimes. At another point, one of the vast murals swings open like a gigantic mouth, and streams of dust (which the party realizes are petrified and disintegrated beholders) whirl in towards the central crystal, apparently boosting its power.

Temporal Cameo

Without warning, a pinch-faced, balding, thin, middle-aged man in simple robes, with a glowing hourglass on a chain around his neck, a staff in one hand, and a small sword at his belt, appears as if out of nowhere. The party recognizes him as the man you saw with the altered images of yourselves, reflected in the mirror entering Wonderland just as you were leaving it. (And Windellian recognizes him as Skippy, a member of the Knights of the Reluctant Circle, based on his conversation with Al at the bar on the Rock of Bral many months ago. The man says, "Sorry about that, this should be the right spot. Now, as you will have just seen when you tried to re-enter Greatspace...wait, a minute! Seiko damn it! (mutters, I guess I won't be able to say that for long) Again? This place totally messes with me...Ok, I was never here. Forget you ever saw me. I will see later, at -- Seiko willing and the time streams don't rise -- the right time. Good luck. I know you will be successful…unless by being here I’ve altered the timeline…again. But I am sure it will be fine...probably...almost certainly…forget I was here. (And disappears)

Against Mozck and the Queen's Eye

Putting that strange encounter aside, the party agrees that Windellian will fly overhead, attacking the slime with flaming oil, while the shuttle (with Rylan at the helm, and Zayer, BN Sue, Windy and Jessa onboard) will attack the central crystal with the ballistae--all while carefully avoiding the bright beams of light. First, Zayer (under the shadow of the shuttle, to block out the antimagic ray) casts an enhanced version of Becalm Ship on the Ravager, in an attempt to slow it down a bit, to give the beholder ships what advantage they can. The shuttle closes on the central crystal, and concentrated attacks (including the ballistae and Windy's laser) on one of the energize facets overload that part of the crystal, causing that facet to shatter--which destroys the Wounding power of the crystal. Windellian scoops up those facets, using their fading energy to attack the slimes--which have now formed into one larger slime creature, swiping at Windellian as he harasses it. The shattered facet reveals a passage into the large crystal, but the party decides to continue to attack from a distance. The shuttle continues its attacks, shattering another facet (the Fear power), and revealing . At that point, the tall spiky armor, infested with pink crystals and apparently possessed by the Mozck AI, and carrying a keg-sized leathery eye ball that must be the primary Queen's Eye, emerges from the crystal. The figure summons two other eyes, which whirl around, and attack with disintegration and petrification. The armored figure breathes forth a cloud of dust of some kind, that grazes the edge of the shuttle as Rylan pivots it away. Meanwhile, the huge slime is now airborne, flying towards the central crystal. The party continues to attack, but then a couple of hits from the disintegration eye blow a hole in one side of the shuttle, and then blow away the engines. As Zayer grabs Rylan inside the cabin and flies out (and down to the Surprise), Jessa, Windy and BN leap from the top of the shuttle onto the crystal. The party concentrates their attacks on the huge eye, eventually causing it to erupt in flames. As that happens, the crystal starts to shake and darken, and the party concentrates their attacks on the black armored figure, who tumbles off the ground--cursing maniacally first, and then (for reasons unknown) laughing quietly to itself. Zayer has gotten Zreestram (who may or may not be drunk at this point) to quickly warm up the helm and fly the Suprise up to the crystal to recover the rest of the party. As the Ravager shakes and falls apart around them Zreestram deftly pilots the ship out through the massive collapse, and the party gets just far enough away before a titanic explosion destroys the Ravager. (Somewhere, there are Ewoks singing and dancing)

Aftermath of the Ravager's Destruction

The party gets their bearings. It appears that the Ravager destroyed most of the Beholder fleet (including both of the larger ships). Only one scout ship survives, and it appears heavily damaged and floating without power. The party decides AGAINST taunting the beholders, and fly back to the Hive asteroid. Best the party can tell, the Hive must have turned around at some point while they were within it, because the Hive is heading in towards the inner system, where they believe it will come reasonably (but not dangerously) close to Paraxis. The party debates what their obligation to the golden people and the nixies is, along with whoever might be in the realms they hadn't explored (Fear, Petrification and Wounding). They agree to do a quick reconnaissance to see what they can do. They discover that the crashed ship on the exterior of the asteroid (the one they spotted before first entering) is a half-destroyed beholder scout ship (presumably associated with the beholder fleet, and downed by the Hive's defenses). Along the way, they learn that the sailor they freed and awakened from the Sleep realm was off a ship called the Windblade, from a sphere unknown to the party. Apparently the Windblade encountered the Hive in the Phlogiston, and was attacked by the Ravager. The crew was rendered unconscious in the attack (presumably by the Sleep power), and the sailor (Arnais) remembers nothing more until the party awakened him (other than strange and terrible dreams). Zayer revives what others of the crew he can, including the wizard helmsman, and uses Mend Hull to fix up the crashed ship. The party agrees to give Arnais and the other surviving crew their spare (minor) helm off the Surprise. In return the surviving crew of the Windblade will transport what people they can to Paraxis when the Hive eventually approaches it (in six months or so). Windellian and Zayer go over their charts with the crew of the Windblade, in the hopes they can use the information to return to their homesphere eventually (if they don't decide to stay on Paraxis). With that, the party decides to head in system, planning to investigate Chandos on their way to the far side of the sphere, and the Phlogiston portal towards Greatspace.