The Forty-Fifth Session

May 15, 2021, Campaign: As the ground quakes, evil wakes

We're in the Gloom Grove.

Arye Needs to talk

She floats before us, an unaging human in white robes which fade into rainbows, waving in an unfelt breeze. The Gloom Grove around her is dark, the first true darkness we've seen in the mountain.

"We need to talk", says Arye.

"Do you know anything about this," asks Zelrathi. "What do you know of this?"

"Little. All I know is that this the beginning. This is where the next step needs to be taken. "

"Whaddya mean you don't know? Isn't this the place we need?"

"Yes. And that's why we need to talk. One of the most painful things is not understanding why things are. When you know, deep down, there is something to do, and you know what to do, but you don't know how, where, who. Everything I know, evertyhing that I have learned, was in that book. Is in that book. And you see, I have traveled with many vessels."

"What do you mean, 'vessels'?"

She ducks behind her hair, reaches out, and releases Zelrathi's half-mask. The flowing eye is reveales, and the runes spreading across his face. "That's why we need to talk. I was fractured, lost. My mind was fractured. But there was a point where the first thing I remembered, truly, is waking up on the steps of the temple, where a boy was performing."

"Then why didn't you - why between now - why did you hae to confront me in that bar?"

"Like I said, I was shattered. What you saw was … not her. It seems she was what I believe she would be if I was lost."

"And what are you? A shattered angel, fallen?"

"No. I believe you deserve to know." She drifts back, and we see a serpentine tail whip from her robes, ending in a rainbow of feathered plumage. The silk dress spins, and where the white becomes a pale rainbow, the white turns into an emerald green, and her arms reach out into rainbow wings, a shimmer of purple ending in red. Her neck extends into a serpentine face with frills and snakelike snout, with a line of rainbow plumage down her spine.

Zelrathi looks up at her, and whispers, "Couatl?"

She's a celestial snake, with wings. Her mouth doesn't move, but we hear her voice nonetheless. "That is why you cannot find me. I am not the most powerful creature, and I have a duty to serve.Aurora is lost. And from what I gathered, her brother knows where she is. And this place lead us to him."

Zelrathi, exasperated: "Well, we looked all around, there's nothing here."

Ryltar: "This place allowed her to speak to us more freely; it's possible this power gives her more ability to go elsewhere."

"I thank you for your optimism, but I am still tethered to Zelrathi. I can go a distance, but I must return."

Salris: "Like a prison? He binds you here?"

Ryltar: "Like a lifeline?"

"I am fractured, healing. I traveled all those stories in the book. That is why only you can read that book, Zelrathi, because I tell you the words. They are the stories of past adventurers I journeyed with. They come here, and the story ends."

"So does your lady's brother do something here?"

"They say that this place is the stepping stone. The doorway is not yet open. When the sun has been eclipsed by the moon, whatever happens here will happen. Step through, to … unknown."

We discuss ways to get back here on the day of the eclipse. This place isn't between planes, says Arye, but more like an overlapping of planes. "There's no direct way, just a climb. It is a test to see if you are open for great and wondrous things that will happen," says Arye.

"Have any of your vessels traveled up more than once?"

Her form shifts, sighs, and relaxes into a more-humanoid form, and she speaks now with her mouth instead of her presence.

"There are so many things that we don't understand about this prophecy, Arye," says Ryltar.

"It's not a prophecy. It's a story that's told as it happens, and it needs to happen. I will do it."

"And we will," says Ryltar.

"This prophecy is a thing that anyone can do. Are you the people? I believe in you," she says to Zelrathi. "I saw a boy making miracles.

"And that's what you wanted me to do. Make people happy."

She puts her hand on Zelrathi's shoulder, and a spectral rainbow of light travels across his body. He breathes in, and gains vigor, as his level of exhaustion goes away."

Ryltar: "Are you saying that none of this prophecy means anything for any of us until the eclipse?"

"Yes. But I did not know the path here, or what is here. I don't believe I will."

Where to go next?

We discuss ways to quickly get back here; we haven't been granted access to the teleportation circle of the Temple of Ioun in Quadroads. Bugfood muses about Pass through Plants.

Moon pulls from her journal a folded piece of paper with a highly detailed depiction of a teleportation circle. Ryltar supposes that she wasn't supposed to give him that. She nods. "Is that why you can't speak?" She makes some faces. "Part of it, at least, because it was deceitful, because you went behind the backs of people, despite doing something you know was good."

She writes in her journal: "I was not supposed to climb this mountain."

We guess, and she confirms, that they were worried that she would get closer to Lolth. But she didn't. We ask Arye to do anything to help Moon; Ryltar says that she's been "inappropriately punished."

Arye and Moon look at the choker. Arye says it's not a curse.

We discuss where to go next, to lay low until the eclipse, which will be in a year.

• Ren's Teleportation Circle is close to an angry green dragon who wants a cloud giant
• Wint's Lair is close to an angry cloud giant who wants a dead dragon.
• The Arcadia Infinatum, the lost library in the sands of the northern desert, where the Drow are headed
• The South Haven, where Vurguron could meet up with his family
• The mummy?
• The spiders?

Salris says: "The Eta'el-Kerjes problem helps us. The spiders helps us but also a lot of other people. The South Haven lets us visit Vurguron's family, if that's something he wants to do. The desert will let us bring back endless knowledge."

Jerry suggests also perhaps we might head down to the North Haven to bring the Dwarven Emperor against the spiders, but we're not sure that they've been that far south. Arye chimes in that the spiders have been purposefully corrupted, by that black obsidian pumice, but the place where we planted the bean, outside Skyfall, is not in the area where we've seen spiders. Arye doesn't recognize Tula's holy symbol. Moon writes that we should destroy, capture, and study the spiders; they've been sent to capture people and take them away.

"Then let's go find out where they're coming from," says Jerry.

Goodbye Zelrathi

Zelrathi says, "If this is the next step of the prophecy's translation, I am sorry, but I feel that this is where I need to be. I will remain here, trying to figure out what is here, and what does here."

The members of the Party speak up, respectful of his choice. Arye says that his physical needs will be taken care of.

"I still have much to pore over," he says. "Besides, time seems twisted here. It could be one day, or one month. Walk away one day, come back an hour later." And then as an afterthought, he adds, "When you do come back, bring diamonds."

A lifesaving amount of diamonds.

"I do not wish to become fractured once more. I believe in him," says Arye, "more so than any of the others."

We check the corpses' pockets once more, and find 1635 gold.

We take a short rest:

• Ryltar attunes to the Bloodwell Vial, dropping his sunglasses mask.
• Salris drops the Pearl of Power and attunes to the Gripwell Gloves, which he'll swap out once we get back to the ground.\

Salris pulls out his spoon to talk to it, and realizes that it's broken after long neglect.

The Mountain says Goodbye with Spiders

We exit the Gloom Grove, to begin our climb down, and see now the bright sunless sky and the cloud deck below us. A path that slowly winds stretches before us.

And above the entrance to the Grove are three different Aberrant Arachni. The pale spider with one eye, the brute spider with pseudopods, and the split-abdomen spider.

1. Round 1: The spiders attack, the Party counterattacks. Moon runs. Ryltar releases his shadow hound.
   1. Vurguron runs towards the spiders; he casts Firebolt at them and misses.
   2. Bugfood casts Spike Growth to cover all three spiders. He says, "Alright Jerry, kill them."
   3. The splitcaster spider turns around and fires webs at Vurguron and Ryltar. Vurguron is restrained, taking 20 points of bludgeoning damage.
   4. The brute rears up, with a human-like roar, frightening Jerry, Salris, Ryltar. It advances towards Vurguron, and tries to attack him. He uses Shield and only takes 20 bludgeoning.
   5. Moon runs 30 feet away. She can't help.
   6. Ryltar summons his Hound of Ill Omen and has it attack the spider group. He then casts Slow on all three spiders, slowing all of them.
   7. The slowed psychic fang spider moves closer to the trapped Vurguron, taking damage from the spikes, and bites him, dealing only 7 psychic, and failing to stun him.
   8. Salris casts something at fifth level, dealing a lot of necrotic damage to the frightening splitcaster spider, and then puts his Hexblade's Curse on it.
   9. Ryltar's shadow hound bites the brute spider, dealing 11 piercing to it.
   10. Jerry casts Lightning Arrow and hits the center spider with a dart, It takes 20 damage; the adjacent spiders take 12 and 8, and Salris' hound also takes 8. Jerry is no longer frightened. The electrical discharge turns to dust, and the spider starts to levitate sideways, around/off the mountain.
2. Round 2: The Party begins to experiment with manifesting things, but the spiders still attack.
   1. Vurguron manages to escape the grapple and restraint. His Second Wind heals him for 15, and he walks away from them.
   2. Bugfood heals Vurguron with Balm of the Summer Court, then fails to hit the center spider with Toll the Dead.
   3. The slowed splitcaster attacks the spirit wolf with a tentacle, dealing 14 bludgeoning and grappling the dog.
   4. The brute attacks the wolf as well, splattering it into shadow. The spider gets some damage from spikes as it walks towards the group.
   5. Ryltar tries to manifest an oversized boot to crush the spiders, and fails the charisma check. He gets a normal-sized boot, which he throws at the spiders.
   6. The slowed psychic fang spider moves forward to Vurguron, and bites him, but he Shields.
   7. Salris is still frightened against the brute spider, so he can't move to flank the psychic fang, so he makes two Cruelpesh attacks against the slowed psychic fang spider, which connect. Then he bonus actions a twinned Eldritch Blast on the psychic fang spider for 44 damage.
   8. Jerry spends her action meditating on Eta'el's Skystaff, trying to manifest it. Nothing happens. She casts Hunter's Mark on the psychic fang spider as a bonus item.
3. Round 3: Manifestation attempts continue. Bugfood expends Randyl's holy symbol.
   1. Vurguron attacks the psychic fang spider with his sword, dealing 19 slashing, 4 radiant, 16 slashing, 4 radiant.
   2. Bugfood uses Randyl's holy symbol to cast Spirit Weapon. The weapon forms next to the psychic fang spider in the shape of a giant wave of water, which splashes futilely. Then Bugfood casts Toll the Dead on the splitcaster for 7 necrotic. He runs away.
   3. The splitcaster moves out of the spikes, taking 18 magical piercing.
   4. The brute advances, slowed, swiping at Salris and missing.
   5. Frightened Ryltar closes his eyes to see if that can hold off the fright, and then imagines a giant flyswatter. It appears, but it misses the attack, by 10 feet. He notices that we're fighting against something that is based in our fear.
   6. The slowed psychic fang spider tries to bite Salris, and succeeds, for 17 piercing and psychic damage.
   7. Salris attacks a spider twice with his Cruelpesh, activating extra fire damage, for 25 slashing plus 7 fire. He notices that the spiders take less damage than normal. He casts two more Eldritch Blasts with the last charge of the Ring of the Arcamag, critting once.
   8. Jerry continues focusing on the Sky Staff, and fails.
4. Round 4: Our attacks continue to be ineffective; it's as if they're apparitions of the mountain brought on by our earlier discussion of the spiders.
   1. Vurguron attacks with fire, and does little.
   2. Bugfood attacks with the spiritual weapon, and then raises Spike Growth once more, making a big hazard between the advancing spiders and the party.
   3. The spiders continue to advance through the spikes.
   4. Ryltar casts Cone of Cold on all the spiders, which is worth 16 apiece.
   5. The psychic spider attacks Salris. He makes two Cruelpesh attacks against it, doing almost 40 damage to it, but whiffing through it like it's barely there.
5. Round 5: Salris is downed by the spiders, but is saved by Ryltar. Bugfood summons Giant Eagles to carry off the Party, and takes the form of a Giant Eagle himself to leave the scene.
   1. Vurguron backs up and casts Dragon's Breath with acid, for some damage.
   2. Bugfood attacks with the Spiritual Weapon, which does only half damage. He asks the Party if they want to leave, and he summons 4 Giant Eagles. He shouts, "take flight, you fools," and commands the eagles to save the Party. The Eagles can carry two creatures apiece,
   3. The splitcaster makes a web attack against Salris, grappling, restraining, and knocking him unconscious.
   4. Salris is attacked by the Brute, failing his second death saves.
   5. Moon gets on a bird.
   6. Ryltar rubs Salris with a magic stone from Sky Diamond Academy, reviving him to 40 HP. He gets on the bird.
   7. The Giant Eagles grab anyone not webbed, leaving Salris and Bugfood on the ground.
   8. The psychic fang spider bites Salris for 13 piercing and 14 psychic.
   9. Salris pulls out a platinum card from Sky Diamond Academy, leaving behind a perfect illusion of himself as he Misty Steps onto an eagle.
   10. Bugfood takes the shape of a Giant Eagle and then flies off. He catches up with the Party, and speaks in the "Giant Eagle" tongue that all Giant Eagles know, telling the summoned creatures to follow the trail down the mountain.

We fly down the trail, straight into the cloud layer.

Immediately upon entering the clouds, we're out. Below the clouds is the green ground, placing us two days' climb up the mountain. We're on the southwest corner of the mountain, with the two large lakes to the south. The spiders are to the east of the mountain, so Jerry calls out, "Head East!"

We follow the edge of the mountain down.

As we pass below the cloud level, Jerry and Salris feel their bonus Bless and proficiencies go away. The sky passes into night. We see a ledge on the side of the mountain, and Bugfood lands the eagles there, dropping the Party off.

We take a long rest, and wake in the morning, very rested.

Bugfood summons the eagles once more, and we fly down to the base of the World Spire.

As we fly, Ryltar thinks to the wand: "Can you still speak to me?" He looks at it, and sees the rune of the once-use spell, and underneath that, he sees that the icy veins of the wand have grown, broken forth by Cone of Cold.

Potent Flurry: You add your spellcasting ability modifier to any cold damage dealing cantrip or spell that doesn’t add it already. You also ignore three quarters cover when making a spell attack. Frigid Vortex: You can use your bonus action to gather and harness the powers of wind and snow. This lasts for one minute or until you end it as a bonus action. Once you use this trait, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest. When you first activate this trait, and then as a bonus action on each of your turns until the trait ends, you can impose one of the following effects on a creature that has taken cold damage from you this turn:

• Slipping Ice: It must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or be knocked prone.
• Forceful Wind: It must make a Strength saving throw or be pushed up to 15 feet away from you.
• Shivering Cold: It must make a Constitution saving throw or it can't take reactions until the end of your next turn

We fly over the House of the Zenith, scaring the acolytes, and land at the base camp where people's names are recorded. The crowd gapes; Bugfood asks them if they've not seen an eagle turn into a druid before.

Ryltar talks with a gawking old man. It turns out that it's the sixth and last Forn of the month of Marpenoth. Tomorrow is the Fall Equinox. It's about two weeks after we went up.

Jerry and Moon go inside to check our names off the list. The three attendants are still there, and Jerry and Moon get to affix their name-plagues to the Wall of the Blessed.

Ryltar looks for the name "Samuel", and finds his plaque. It's good to see that the man we gave a drink to on the mountain has found his way off of it.

We don't see one for Randyl. Bugfood points out that he may not have chosen to list his name.

Do we want to go back to Quadroads? We discuss it with Moon.

Ryltar asks her, "Do you want to go back to the Temple of Ioun?"

She writes that she will be in a lot of trouble, but she wants to go back, and stands taller at the thought.

She leads the party back down the mountain, into Quadroads, to the Temple of Ioun.

The Temple of Ioun

Moon looks up at the towering temple of Ioun, walks up the steps.

We follow Moon through the double doors, into the reception area. The male elf with runic tattoos and a parted mohawk still sits at the reception desk. He's talking to four Drow, who are led by Dirius. Moon walks over to the desk and nods to the elf. This punkish elf is practically standing at attention — he's very formal; he's on duty; his boss is in the room and watching him — attending to Dirius et al. At the sight of Moon, he turns to her and says, "They want to speak to you, in the lecture hall at the right."

We're now standing in the reception hall, with Dirius and a retinue of Drow.

Next session

The Party levels up! Level 10 is finally here.

Oh shit! There's Dirius in the Temple of Ioun!

Other stuff:

• We know how to trap the Jester, with Magic Circle
• What's going on with the stars? Are Ryltar's theories about colors and significant plot-relevant things' colors correct?
• What's left to complete the Ice Heart of Winter? This is completed.
• How can the Mummy Lord be defeated?
• Determine how to resolve the Eta'el-Kerjes plot
• Remember to un-petrify Ockoh in the Ice Lord Wint's Lair — if Dirius didn't shatter him. Grab the de-petrification potions from the Elven town.
• Is Salris' brother also a bearer of the curse?