While traveling we encounter a tentacle of the void and another larger translucent appendage with red veins and two smaller tentacles of its own. We have fought the larger one in the fey realm; it reflects damage and has a very long reach. We kill them and Ishtar takes some of the lavender puss from a puddle to study later.
We encounter the Heralds—Alistar is not among them.
We leave tomorrow. Tolm and Ralzer will practice working on the chrysalis today at his manor.
We go over what we know about the heralds.
Ishtar uses memory dive on Ralzer to see if he has had any contact with Kaajh’Kaalbh, but finds nothing adverse.
We head to the Temple of Enchantment (Adira). During our briefing we start to feel a very slight unveiling™. When we mention this, Tolm has no idea what we are talking about. A giant tentacle, like the one that Ty saw in the ice cave, appears and grabs Tolm. Riding that tentacle is a masked man that looks just like the person that kidnapped Ishtar and the mask looks like the one we took from the halcyon druid Tolm. Both of the Tolms disappear through the tentacle and we kill the tentacle. Sandoval then opens the portals for us.
The plane is very fleshy, pulsing nodules about. Teeth and puss, very inviting. While here we all feel an unveiling™ effect and must now try to find Tolm.
Archmage Sandoval pays us a brief visit. She asks who we are traveling with and how we are getting there. We don’t have a specific answer for this.
We then visit Protector Lt. Keldross. He doesn’t have any news for us, but says that he Empyrean Council wants a meeting with us.
We head to the Courts of Inequity (Sarama) to meet with Advocate Greatbear and schedule a meeting with the Council for tomorrow morning.
Tolm and Ishtar return and we discuss how Sandoval mentioned that Ralzer has only a red aura now. Some previous red aura interactions have been:
We go to our meeting with the Empyrean Council. The entire council is not present, but many are here. They offer a bonding ritual to grant us power. Sgaeyl, the blue one, picks Ty immediately. Feirge, the green scholar, selects Sigmund. Cath, the red, selects Ishtar after sniffing his dragonhide armor, and recognizes him as ancient. Aotrom, the brown, picks Graynor. Tairn, the black, selects Ralzer, but remarks that he has taint on him and that it must be cleaned if he wishes to bond. This taint was not present when they first met, which was before the baby power. We, sans Ralzer, complete the bonding.
We discuss the taint that Tair detected. Ralzer is non-committal on any course of action and we settle on doing some research first.
Ty and Graynor visit Sandoval. She can perform another ritual to remove the paper power, if we decide on that route.
Sigmund performs a commune:
1) Is Razler’s weird aura/soul condition the result of two competing souls? — Yes.
2) Is Razler’s red aura his natural aura? — No.
3) Is Ralzer’s blue aura his natural aura? — Yes.
4) Is Ralzer’s aura issues the result of the Baby? — No.
5) Is Razler’s aura issues repairable via Sandevol’s treatment? — No.
6) Will Ralzer be harmed if he receives Sandevol’s treatment? — No.
7) Are these auras representatives of souls embued with mythic power? — Yes.
8) … Representative of raw mythic power? — Unclear.
9) Is Ralzer, the man that I met and have traveled with for years, the same Ralzer that I know now, in a literal sense? — No.
10) Can the draconic bond be dissolved via any methods other than death of both parties? — Yes.
11) Did Ralzer’s red aura overtake his blue aura? — Unclear.
12) Will removing the red aura allow Ralzer to regain the blue aura? — Unclear.
13) Is Ralzer being manipulated by his red aura? — No.
14) Does the red aura indicate that the subject has received power from Kaajh’Kaalbh? — Unclear.
15) … Received power from a god of any sort? — Unclear.
Ishtar confers with Thelessa at the Assembly of the Four Corners (Namas) about this dual soul conundrum. Maybe a raise dead or resurrection could help?
When Sigmund confronts Ralzer with the knowledge that he got from his commune, Ralzer tries to disintegrate him and then teleports away. Ishtar scries on him right away and it appears as if he fled to Carcosa.
We fetch Tolm and fill him in and discuss our options. Since Ralzer is on another plane, Tolm can gate Ralzer to us. We can then kill him and Tolm can sequester the other soul so that we can resurrect him with his original soul.
When Tolm gates in Ralzer he is able to control him. He then kills him with a phantasmal killer and soul gems the red soul. Sigmund resurrects Ralzer and he comes back normal, saying that he’s been dead for two weeks.
We will need to decide what to do with the soul gem. We could break it and allow the soul to be released for judgement, or destroy the soul within it.
We then confirm with Sandoval that we have the right Ralzer. We spend time catching Ralzer up and go back to the Empyrean Council. Tairn is pleased that the taint is gone and commences the bonding.
Tolm goes over the plan. First, Ty summons Xhal’ith. Graynor will then use the power of the shield with magic circle against evil, making sure to keep his concentration. Then, Ralzer and Tolm work on the chrysalis. Once Kaajh’Kaalbh is susceptible, Ishtar must use his primal flame to ignite the chrysalis.
We’ll likely have to deal with the remaining Heralds before this.
We will meet with Tolm on the 23rd, and the planar excursion is on the 27th.
We perform a discern lies attestation amongst ourselves to confirm we are all on the same page and discover that Ralzer has some other plans as a back up if something goes wrong. It’s mostly about dispersing the power that Tolm attempts to gain—He doesn’t have anything specific in place.
Through commune we discover that, unlike other gods, there is only one Kaajh’Kaalbh across multiple realities.
Tolm arrives via gate at Ralzer’s place. He gives Graynor a shield, the Bulwark of Unyielding Dawn—an artifact of Madri, and informs him that it will be needed for the power transference ritual. He states that he is the only one who can use it.
He explains his motives a bit more. He takes exception to Kaajh’Kaalbh’s ability to just ignore all laws and rules of existence. He says that he doesn’t seek power, but authority over that which has no control. He says that we would be given the ability to revoke his power.
Our roles in this plan are as follows: Sigmund will confer with Illithia to pick the right day to do this, Graynor protects us, Ty summons Xhal’ith to hold the planar boundaries together, Ralzer will help Tolm to activate the chrysalis, and Ishtar will tap into his primal elemental fire to ignite the chrysalis.
Sigmund performs some rituals and concludes that the best day is during the morning of the planar excursion.
Graynor visits Jarveth.
Ishtar visits the Assembly of the Four Corners (Namas). He has some herbal assistance in reaching his primal essence. He has visions of fire, magma, and large tigers. He sees himself as an fire elemental lord, along with the other elemental lords in Namas’ presence.
Tolm arrives at dawn to collect Ishtar. They teleport to an old stone building, where there is a symbol of a six-fingered black hand, snakes in alcoves, and men in black robes that pay them no mind. Tolm says that this is the Well of Hidden Truths, one of the Wells of Knowledge. Ishtar learns to manipulate fire in new ways, but it’s difficult to control.
We treestride™ to the Ice Cave, formerly known as Unreasonable. The ruined town is being rebuilt by the Inevitable Order (Nissa), which makes sense since they have been here for a while now—there are a lot of people out here too. Much of the cave itself has been excavated; it’s easier to travel through and much of the ice has been chipped away to reveal more stone features.
We meet with Tharivol, tell him why we are here, and ask if there is anything here that we should know about. He takes is to the calendar room. The calendar is no longer blank, like we had last heard. It shows a new split, and splits are rare. This one has multiple paths, unlike a normal prophecy. It appeared yesterday, the same day that the baby exploded. He can figure out two paths—the creation of a new god and the destruction of a world. We fill him in on the situation with Tolm.
Sigmund and Ralzer spend time trying to decipher the “god path” on the calendar. They find reference to an entity known as The Gatekeeper throughout the path, across several eras. This Gatekeeper is what attains godhood. There is also something about two existing deities gaining power; darkness and light? This is power that already existed, but is redistributed to them.
Using tectonic communion, Ishtar finds evidence of another larger structure, in which he goes in search of as an elemental. He finds several connected chambers that have symbols of crescent moons within them. We use creative methods to transport ourselves there. The symbols look like the ones in the main chamber and there is a wrap-around hallway with many unique statues in alcoves. Each statue is covered in ice, so we can’t see their features very well. Ishtar, however, is able to melt it pretty quickly. Each statue is dressed very differently from each other; some are in armor, some in robes, some in normal clothing.
Sigmund recognizes one person as a priest from the Church of Flames (Sharra) from around 1200 years ago. He was known as Sharra’s Hand Unrestrained, and was said to be able to wield his god’s devastating power without harm to his person.
Ralzer recognizes the Surgeon of Continuance, a famous healer from around the year 700. He was treating a plague and there are rumors of him being able to reverse aging.
The stone on the statues is remarkably good, better than the stone around it, and has incredible detail. According to the surrounding stone, the statues were brought here, not all at once, over a long period of time. Then the ice came at some point and everyone left.
We got back to the calendar room and brief Tharivol. This area could be the fabled Stone Mountain; a fairy tale prision, which may be wardened by Nissa. If true, then the statues could be people that were deemed too powerful and they would willing let themselves be interred, knowing that they were dangerous.
Ishtar tries scrying on the baby, but it doesn’t work.
We discuss our Tolm plans. We need a list of concessions from him before we agree to help. What is he going to do with this power? What are his motives? We need a security council check on his actions.
We word of recall to Silverdale, then wind walk to Ironwald Downs.
We head back to the Lonely Hearth Inn and discuss our options. We could allow Tolm to succeed and help shape his godhood, allow him to become a god and then kill him, or figure out a different way to defeat Kaajh’Kaalbh.
The overnight commune results:
1) Are the things that we learned about the coming of Kaajh’Kaalbh from the Tolm we talked to accurate, outside of whatever he personally believes? — Unclear.
2) Are the things that we learned about “Tolm Prime” from the Tolm we talked to accurate, outside of whatever he personally believes? — Unclear.
3) Are the things that we learned about Tolm Prime, and the other Tolms, accurate, outside of whatever he personally believes? — Unclear.
4) Does Tolm Prime possess the T’llax Blades? — No.
5) Is there actually a way to kill Kaajh’Kaalbh? — Yes.
6) Is there a way to imprison or contain Kaajh’Kaalbh? — Yes.
7) Does the knowledge of the method for either or both of these options exist in a way that we might find? — Unclear.
8) If so, would this information be stored on an archive made by the Architects? — Unlear.
9) If so, would this item be held in the Vault of Ages? — No.
During the day, Ishtar makes magic items and Ty does some oblivion meditation.
In the afternoon we receive a message from Orvelle that he has secured access to the vault in Derth and will be waiting for us.
Ishtar finishes his crafting and in the evening we head to Derth. We meet with Orvelle at the Gilded Reed and he takes us to the vault.
Although inside it looks as if it’s been used relatively recently, according to records, no one has accessed this for a very long time. It looks to be a combination lab and living space, and is very dusty. Nothing detects as magic. There is a painting of an old man labeled, Master Archivist Valden Harrow, 4th Era, that is leaning face down. There is nothing recognizable in the painting. There are ledgers full of predictions; when certain shipments will be late, when guild members will die, when noble houses will fall, etc. We take the ledgers and the painting. Ralzer takes some alchemical books and diagrams.
While investigating, we start to hear a light thumping noise. A passageway opens in the back of the room as the stone there moves unnaturally. It leads to a similar looking room. We feel a change in air pressure as we enter this room. Inside are some surgical tools and instead of a thumping, we hear a humming. A cloak rests on a peg in the corner; based on its fashion, Ralzer believes it to be centuries old. There is a strange crystal plate growing out of the floor, it’s some kind of quartz known as Aeon Fract. It could be Null Crystal that is mentioned in some of the Architect books that we have. It has something to do with collapsed timelines and extinguished universes. They referenced it as material of the last solution, something not to be used unless as a last resort.
A shimmering starts at the end of the room and begins to take the shape of a person. It looks like Tolm Prime. He looks at the crystal and breathes an annoyed sigh, greeting us with, “You’re early”. He refers to the Null Crystal as a solution to a problem that we do not yet understand, and to not touch it again or it could be catastrophic.
He is aware that Kaajh’Kaalbh knows of his plan and he explains what he needs from each of us. From Ishtar he wants controlled ignition, a fixed thread from Sigmund, access to Ralzer’s designed memory, Graynor’s judgement, and from Ty, he wants Xhal’ith to observe Kaajh’Kaalbh when he is intersected.
He says that he did not create the Gilarabrywn under the citadel and that the monoliths are not his, but are instruments of the Architects. If they are from the Architects, then why is Kaajh’Kaalbh concerned with their destruction?
Sigmund and Ishtar want something from him to prove that we can trust him, and he will return to us in a week. In the meantime, he wants us to get him a spot on the outer planes strike team. He then asks us not to deviate anymore from the timeline or risk correction. As he states this, his voice and demeanor change subtly.
On the way out, Ralzer steals as many gems as he can fit in his backpack. We then tree stride to Ironwald Downs.
We go to find Lt. Keldross and ask about the mission to the outer planes. He says that the raiding party is scheduled to be ready within ten days.
In the meantime, we have some magic items made. Sigmund and Ty visit Nadal, after he requests an update via sending. He seems pretty on edge. It turns out that the baby is gone; it’s box exploded about 11 minutes before we got his sending. He wants to know if Ralzer still has the baby power, which we don’t know for sure and have to ask.
Back at Ralzer’s, Ty and Sigmund fill everyone in on what happened with the baby. Ralzer states that he tried to use his baby power during the Azhrak fight, but it was gone.
We discuss what to do in the ten days leading to the outer planes excursion and settle on investigating the leyline node at the Ice Cave.
Sigmund spends his off day proselytizing while Ishtar works on upgrading his headband, Ralzer works on his spell, Graynor works with Jarveth, and Ty commissions a small monument for Xhal’ith and petitions the city for placement.
During the day, Ralzer gets a visitor at home; a page delivers an invitation with Magnus Orvelle, from the Parish of the Prolific Coin.
Once we all reconvene at Ralzer’s, we then hard out for out meeting.
Orvelle informs us that he has a few leads, most notably in Silverdale and Derth. He’s found evidence of Tolm in nearly every city over hundreds of years, with Silverdale and Derth having the strongest current leads.
Tolm has often worked in government jobs, or close to them. He’s had a vault rented in Derth’s Coinwright guild for a very long time—same ownership with money coming in from various sources. Orvelle will work on getting us legitimate access to the vault.
We then word of recall to Silverdale.
We start our surveillance. Hearthmere is a two story house, very well kept on the outside; the windows are shuttered. It looks normal while ethereal, but we do not enter it. There is no magic detected.
Sigmund and Graynor visit the clerk that handled the deed of Hearthmere. They don’t learn much and fear that they may have raised red flags.
Sigmund then gathers info on Tolm’s alias, Aderin, in the city. He hears goods things about him, but nothing extraordinary. He has a wide client base with lots of different occupations and estates. He’s fully accredited, passed all of his exams on the first try, and his work never has errors. Sigmund finds a client who has glowing reviews of him and obtains a work address that is not his house.
Graynor visits a civics lawyer to get opinions on Aderin from others in the business. He finds one named Merreck and also hears similarly good things. Graynor mentions that he is the target of an investigation and Merreck is surprised to hear this.
Later in the afternoon, Ishtar sees someone resembling Tolm enter the house. He opens the curtains and Ishtar peers inside, watching as he settles down and starts working on papers.
We meet up at the Lonely Hearth Inn and discuss our options. We settle on moving on this location tonight.
We approach the house and knock. He greets us with, “you’re either very early or very late”, and offers for us to enter. He knows that we are chasing Tolm and that he is one of them. He’s from another reality and is aware of Tolm’s plan to kill Kaajh’Kaalbh and consume his power. He agrees that Tolm should be stopped.
He is not sure how Tolm is able to travel between realities and time. Tolm has done his plan to summon and capture Kaajh’Kaalbh many times in other realities and has never succeeded, but keeps trying. He never summons Kaajh’Kaalbh himself; he observes worlds until he “conditions” are right and then begins his plan. Aderin believes that our presence is the current best chance for Tolm’s success; Tolm has never had what we represent together all at once before, and we would be a check on his power.
Aderin thinks that the painting we have could be Tolm Prime, since he is known for being very particular about certain things, in this case the eyes.
It will take about 7 hours for Ishtar to cast enough move earth spells to get to the top of one of these pillars.
During this time, Ralzer looks at some of the scrap from Azhrak. The pieces from the main parts of its body are an adamant and the golden bits look like gold, but definitely is not gold.
Sigmund hunts for food and makes the camp more hospitable, while Ty reads and Graynor does nothing.
When Ishtar finishes his hole, we meet at the top and Graynor puts mythic energy into the pillar. It takes a little more and we start to hear a humming, which lasts about ten minutes.
Ishtar then tries to talk to it with stone tell. It doesn’t want to talk, so he talks to the surrounding, normal, stones. They confirm that the black rock has not always been here, but it’s been here for a long time. It “burrowed” downwards, extinguishing the earth it moved through. There is something at the bottom, and there were several visitors here at different points in time.
We try to use mythic energy to activate the pillar as a method of transport, but it doesn’t work. Our new plan is for Ishtar to follow the black rock down, find the opening at the bottom, plant a tree token, and then treeport everyone back there. We’ll try this tomorrow morning.
After nearly two hours of burrowing, Ishtar reaches something. The stone around here is very compressed and inside is total blackness; his darkvision sees nothing. He enters from another area and finds a ringed walkway, in which he can see. He burrows into the middle dark spot and casts daylight, but the spell is “absorbed”. There are evenly spaced grooves in the ground of the ringed walkway that extend radially from the center.
He then finds a suitable location to place the tree and brings everyone else in.
The walls in here are very straight and unnatural. Ralzer says that this place shouldn’t be able to stay in this shape. Spellcasting feels much easier in here. There are several abjuration and transmutation auras here, with the strongest potency being strong. Divine connections gradually weaken in here.
We find a room that can only be entered with mythic energy. Inside is a barren study, save for a few books. We take them and word of recall to Silverdale, then go to Ironwald Downs.
We meet with Jarveth and catch him up on what we have been up to. He mentioned that some people are planning an excursion to the outer planes and we express our interest in joining. Angelique, Barnabas, Breen, Madri, and Sarama are the churches that he knows are going. They are also reaching out to the envoys of the old gods that were at the convocation in St. Serena, as well as the Empyrean Council.
We head back to the hills to enact our plan. While we wait for Azhrak to show up we investigate the area, like originally planned.
Ishtar travels through the earth and finds one of the pillars. It looks like smooth volcanic glass; there is a faint pulse coming from it as well. He’s able to break off a piece and bring it back up—it radiates an overwhelming magic.
After a while, Azhrak finds us and the battle begins. It’s dangerous, but after a well-placed disintegrate, we defeat it. Upon death, it implodes in a very violent manner. We take some scrap material that was left behind.
Unable to find any clues here, we decide to visit a location that we have never been to before that is a center of leyline energy. We settle on the one north of Bremer; we’ll be able to transport via plants to the area before calling it a day.
We will search the area from the air to see if anything stands out. Before we take to the sky, Ishtar will cast tectonic communion. He is able to detect something strange around our area of suspicion—there’s a scattering of what looks like large pillars descending into the earth.
While moving towards out destination, we see an enormous creature of some kind. It tosses a huge chunk of earth towards us. Ralzer identifies it as Azhrak, the Iron Cataclysm; a defense mechanism from the Architects. During the battle, he recalls that there may be methods to deactivate certain features of the construct by damaging key points on its body.
We end up making a retreat via word of recall, but Ralzer doesn’t make it back. He was out of position and tried to teleport himself, but was got. However, somehow, he was able to teleport back to his house. The rest of the party recalled to Silverdale, then transport via plant to Ralzer’s house.
We try to get information on this giant while in town. Graynor talks to Jarveth, who’s heard the rumors and it’s been around quite a lot. Usually it’s sighted close to where we’ve been the last several days.
We strategize our plan for fighting this. Ishtar and Ralzer with use ballistics from the sky, Ty will climb it and strike, and Sigmund and Graynor will provide support.
Sigmund’s overnight commune:
1) Are Azhrak’s weak points the red embellishments across its body? — No.
2) Is one of Azhrak’s weak points on his left hand? — Unclear.
3) … Right hand? — Unclear.
3) … Left Arm? — Unclear.
4) … Right Arm? — Unclear.
5) … Chest? — Unclear.
6) … Right Shoulder? — Unclear.
7) … Left shoulder? — Unclear.
8) … Head? — Unclear.
9) … Neck/Collar? — Unclear.
10) … On the sword? — Unclear.
11) … Back? — Unclear.
12) Does Azhrak have any ability to repair itself? — Yes.
13) Does Azhrak have spell-like abilities? — Yes.
14) Does Azhrak have abilities that we have not yet seen? — Yes.
Each question is answered within a strange warding symbol and smells like it was written in ash.