Session 12: Chaos in the Crossing

22cnd and 23rd of Snowmelt

General Summary

The session starts with Killian and Indra still present in the now somewhat silent theater hall. Killian shortly checks the back door of the theater, hoping to spot Uthal and Leaf, but to no avail. Killian and Indra shortly converse with Rae about the events that transpired, during which Killian mentions that Indra is one of the Avindir's, much to the surprise of Rae. A somewhat irritated Indra politely declines Rae's offer to bring Indra to her father. Rae then suddenly and quickly leaves, after apparently receiving a disturbing message about something happening elsewhere. In the meantime, Uthal and Leaf are in slight disbelieve as to the the attack on the city they are watching. They also notice that the little sun at the center of the city is slowly starting to glow more brightly, something it does not normally do. They decide that getting involved is probably not the right idea, and that after losing the person that picked up the mask, they should return back to the party. Just as the party is about to be reunited, with Indra and Killian climbing on the roof of the theater after spotting some mud from when Leaf was climbing the building, a blinding flash is emitted from the little sun monument. The party is surprised by the ethereal golden winged soldiers that have apparently apparated, and fly towards the battle at the walls of the city. However, Indra quickly deduces that this is probably this city's special defensive mechanism: unique forms of abjuration present in only a few cities within the Order.
Before the party can completely decide on what to do next within the new chaos, Killian receives a message from Kithalme, claiming the attack as a distraction and pressing the party to head over to the Tower Scholars to deal with the real threat. The party heads over there without a second thought, but are once again caught by surprise when they cross the river on the eastern most bridge. Behind them, the northern wall of the city's prison explodes. As it is built partially into the river, it starts flooding immediately, as the party spots two escapees. A humanoid appears to be flying upwards, teleporting away, while a in-the-flesh ghoul creature crawls out of the quickly flooding hole. Because Killian knowns that the flooding of the prison is part of its policy to prevent people from escaping, the party continues on to the Grand Library.
They arrive to see a library filled to the brim with people, spotting Kithalme as the seemingly only member of the Tower Scholars not engaged in aiding those that seek shelter in the library. Though the party is slightly suspicious, they agree with Kithalme's demand to let him into their mind, as he promises them that it is only required to get them safely to the destination in the Tower of Mysteries. He opens up a portal, and as the party steps through, they are met by an black void on all sides. Though they can still see each other, nothing else seems present within the tower. Then, after each party member feels a tug on their brain, they suddenly arrive in the room Indra had seen before in one of her visions. They see a green orb inside a glass container, actively pulsating somewhat rhythmically. Kithalme explains that it is now the objective of the LUKI Four to shut down this 'beacon' that he assumes is responsible for the attack on the city without destroying it. The party gets to work, initially attempting to talk to the orb, which seems to slightly respond to the more obscure languages on the continent, such as Abyssal and Sylvan. After this, Killian tries to communicate with the mind of this entity while Uthal attempts to notice if it is speaking a language with comprehend languages. Through this combination they notice that the orb is sending out a panicked message in the form of "Save Me", in about every language known. While the communication is slightly painful to Killian, he pushes the mental connection deeper, asking what it needs saving from. To this, Killian only gets a response which is interpreted as the orb relaying concepts which might cause fear, such as murder and fire.
After this, Killian shows it one of the vials of black ink they had been carrying around and mentions that it had asked them to help, so it should let them help. Just as the thing seems to begin to focus on a starry sky, Indra under the influence of the entity within her removes the glass container around the orb and stabs it. This causes a major psychic burst against Killian, who immediately starts bleeding from the nose, as the orb sends out a large shockwave before imploding on itself. Despite Uthal's attempt to stop Indra, both of them in addition to Kithalme fall unconscious. After quickly checking Kithalme's body for valuable items, they start medically checking the bodies, only to find that their eyes are glowing a vibrant green: they are having another vision. The party also sees that Kithalme's visual appearance changes to that of a neutral almost featureless body of a changeling, explaining his other form as Malekith. While investigating the rest of the room, they hear footsteps approach, and are surprised to see a rather relaxed olive skin thiefling with the robes of the Tower of Mysteries. They converse for a bit, and the party learns that this is Vazeraj, Arch Scholar of Mysteries. Vazeraj seems deeply interested in both what the party has achieved within the room, as well as their mention of a red crow. However, before long he simply begins to walk away again, stating that the assault on the city has passed, his tea is waiting and that he will be in touch with the party.
In the meantime, Uthal, Indra and Kithalme are trapped within their visions. While the party does not learn what Kithalme exactly saw, both Indra and Uthal find themselves floating in a starry sky, above a somewhat twisted map of the continent. They seem to feel a slight connection to various places: Am Galar, the old capital city of Novram, a location within the Xayamid Desert, one within the Lizard Groves, and one near the great tree in Golden Oak Forest. Indra decides to allow her mind to drift towards Novram, but is overwhelmed by the quick and vast amounts of information. She only seems to notice a large crater, followed by a cracked open rock underwater, and some creature slowly walking away. Uthal on the other hand is able to somewhat focus his mind and get some information about his vision. His vision brings him into the ruined city of Am Galar, through a series of hallways towards a throne room. This room, which is filled with corpses, has an eve stranger corpse of a small humanoid creature with the symbol of the feaster carved into the front of its skull. After this, his vision brings him ever more down until he reaches a barricaded door, which seems built to keep something from escaping the other side of the door. He is just able to see a faint green glow coming from the other side, before his vision fades.
Eventually, everyone comes back to their senses, and the group quickly discusses what they have seen with Kithalme. Despite his visible annoyance at the mention of his boss visiting the room while he was out, he offers the party the opportunity to travel to Am Galar in an attempt to gain further knowledge on Uthal's vision. He does however need the better part of two weeks to prepare this expedition, leaving the party to ponder what they should do in the meantime. Their first priority however, is to finally get some rest after an extremely long day, and they head towards the Red Dragon Inn for some well earned rest. They also receive their compensation for clearing out the United Order Mansion from earlier in the day.
During the night, Killian is awakened by a black mist that enters their room, and forms into a skeletal figure with a diamond inlaid skull. The creature carries a black lead box, which has a note sticking out of it. It is a message from Lady Juliet, who would like her tiara returned. Initial denial of having the item does not seem to work, and as the party does not want beef with the necromancer they decide to instead head over the item. However, something again gets a hold over Indra, who instead stabs the creature. By now, the creature starts emitting a dark smoke, Indra is grappled by Killian, and a recently awakened Uthal decides to again try to give the item to the skeleton. He succeeds, but the creature suddenly seems unable to move. Before the party fully understand what is going on, Indra transforms. All the shadows in the room seem to cling to her, as she forms into a shadowy humanoid with ibex horns and wings. This new creature raises its hand, and with an incredibly powerful blast of necromantic energy destroys the skeleton send by Juliet, before returning to the normal form of Indra. Shaken by what just happened, and terrified of the implications of Juliet hunting the party, both Killian and Uthal start asking questions to Indra to try and understand what just happened. Before they can reach a conclusion however, the entity within Indra alters their memories, making them instead believe that Lady Juliet attacked first, as a retaliation for destroying her undead beneath the city a few days prior. This leaves only Indra herself to know what exactly happened, and Leaf who has heard the discussion between the rest of the party. Despite the remaining fear that Juliet might be attacking them, the party decides to back to bed and think about this problem another time.
The next day, the party awakes normally, but are disturbed during breakfast by Rae and four guards. They tell the party that their presence is requested by the Grand Overseer of this city. The party decides to follow the guards, noticing increased security in and around the city. They arrive at Founders' Fortress, and are lead into the audience chamber of the Grand Overseer, a room that mostly resembles a cold and somewhat empty marble throne room. They meet the Grand Overseer and her husband, who is the captain of the city guard, who praise the party for their continued aid towards the Order. She offers the party a deal: they hunt down a man known as Cerval Orfalx who the party saw escaping last night, and in turn they are awarded with a 5000 gold reward. The party swiftly accepts, seeing it as possible way to pass time until their expedition to Am Galar. The Grand Overseer orders her husband to create a list of contacts the party might contact for more information about Cerval, and mentions that he used to have a lair near where the river that flows through Brothers' Crossing meets the Serpent's Head Mountains. A new adventure awaits the party!
Next session: Session 13: Prisoner Pursuit

(Noteworthy) Characters Interacted With:
Rea, Second in command of the Griffon Knights,
Lady Juliet of Maurkin,
Kithalme of the Mystery Tower Scholars,
Vazeraj, Arch Scholar of Mysteries,
Grand Overseer Imaldra Moore Amria,
Captain of the City Guard Morris Amria

Report Date

08 Jan 2023

Primary Location

Brothers' Crossing

Vazeraj, Arch Scholar of Mysteries