Geekender's Realm

In which the OGs return to the prime, move the faenare to Myst Sen’s domain (sshhh!), meet with Matonn, the oldest and Serram. The year is 1033

Return to the Prime

We go visit the ghost town plane (Plan W), just out from the Azure Sky. There is a room in the little feather domicile with Constellations named after early gods:

• Sekrumiin — touch yields mild pain
• Pengell — evil guy, brought fire, touch yields mild pain
• The Maker — touching yields extra HP
• Heaven’s Fang — touching yields extra HP
• Goddess of the Suns — touching yields alertness
• Divine Farmer — touching yields extra HP
• Lord of Waves — touching yields alertness
• Roof of Stone — touching yields alertness
• Other constellations too, only one other has a response — Phyrex — touching yields

The constellations turn out to be an artifact: the makers gemstone of instructions. Three effects: extra HP, alertness/paranoia (no sleep), mild pain

(Three gods on triumverature: Nimvha (the Mother/queen, mother time), Perveson, Vimja.)

We run into Utnapishtim’s brother in the village has Ashgar’s tablets.

We return to the prime:

• Celemnum — Queen Edrina continues her revolutionary ways (executing merchants, cutting out old families from Spring of Life water). Has continued to piss off Deus & Healer priests. Executed the most powerful Deus priest in the area. Admiral of Ochalean fleets (Mie) is attacking the shores of Celemnum.
• Tae Ullari — charismatic new priest of Healer priests traveled to Ostland and converted 771 people. Korkorin gathered advisers and agreed to take them in. Need to get them fed
• Master’s Woes — Lich Queen of the Moor is bugging him, he’s devoting his resources to combating her. Wights & Specters. Stopped using undead. Presumably is on an immortal quest. Was down with Innis Freeman back in the day. Calari elves are threatened as well. We meet with them to give them tools to help, and let the master’s envoy know what we’re doing.
• Catalon Update — Archduke Banting is really far gone, but not much of a danger yet. Nameless One is leaving. Recommends two people to be replacement spy masters. Kylus and Clestia (>~12th level). Has something to do on Cluster.
• Talking w/ Nagpa/Planara Specialist on the Prime: have heard of Mt Vsster and Syntheros before, but assumption was that they were in the outer planes, and not very relevant. But now they’re more interested. Gods of Syntheros fought off “immortals from the afterworld/eternity” and “firehome” gods, likely the sphere of fire/energy. Ancient historian has come across a story that says they were under assault and took a staff and punched it into the ground to fracture the worlds. Claim they conquered Syntheros by taking them from the ancient order of Wyrms (others suggest that the firehome people defeated the ancient order of Wyrms).
• There are three multi-planet planes: Prime, Cluster & Haiskfe. No match of the astronomy there

Operation Bird Break

• We find out during interrogation that one of the young boys was meeting an “Elf” named Ney for sexual favors in exchange for information. We zoom in and control her. Ney was previously controlled by Frejena — a higher level nosferatu (can word of recall). We follow Ney to her hideout and Frejena has already left.
• We stone all the faenare, furtively gate to Citadel.
• We find a couple islands about three days flight from the citadel.
• We are instructed to take the Faenarae into the deep interior Myst-sen. The areas that are under the influence of the 3 spires. Vine Spire (Ordana), Storm Spire (Deus) & Tripod Spire (Thurs)
• Can’t travel to the deep interior in an easy way — flight prevented above treeline. Our instructions are to bring only the group. We are supposed to take the Arches trail near to an abandoned town on the toe lake. Follow the yellow river up river. We will meet w/ a Sidhe (Settler Hummer) a day up the river.
• We go to the ruined giant town (3000-5000 years old). Large mound/amphitheater that has recently been dug up — the region that is dug up suggests its a dragon statue. It turns out to be a petrified gargantuan tortoise facing towards the lake. In the lake there is an island with a a trakklan statue (“Statue in the Likeness Boreth”)
• We head up the yellow river and run into trees that point the direction to the town of Faehome where Settler Hummer lives. We enter the house which is a large single room with different spaces for eating, sleeping, cooking etc. A man with vaguely elfen features appears.
• Tells us to use the Door with three knobs or door with five knockers. To the west of the pinnacle arms there are the foggy downs. Warns us about tripod spire. There is a glade around tripod spire — only way to enter is through giant titanic archways. Don’t go through the glade. He warns us about the tripods: appear to be made of timber oozing with amber sap, three multi-jointed legs. Held together by a big blob amber, they store things in the blob. Don’t touch it. Can be temporarily stopped by tripods. Also tells us to avoid the assemblies. Sets of statues; most probably turn people to stone. Warns us about a Wooddrake named Elvebeast.
• We find a village with undead elves (Wyrds & Banshe, Al dies). Interviewing the undead we find out that Deus priests killed a Fallu Dryad and them. We get a map to a magic chariot.
• We find a band of thieves led by Spidersmasher. We find out about the chariot and the Horned Huntsman, chariot is clearly an artifact.
• Chariot battle (no notes!). We kill them and sort of get the chariot, saving a giant they were hunting.
• Lakshmi meets the Fallu Dryad Fousha — known to be the most beautiful, but very independent. Turns out she’s very “cute” — name of Dryad who was killed by Deus people was called Tesku. The red tree grew in her domain, pegataurs came, and elves followed. Developed a reciprocal relationship with Deus — sent envoys back and forth. A few famous clerics & ice lobster elemental creatures came and killed her. We leave the chariot in her domain, but take the helmet to Myst Sen.
• We set out with the giant we saved and two buddies — it turns out they are at some kind of secret mission with Thurs. Mostly things go smoothly. We are able to go right by the tripods. They are exalted creatures with 39 & 40 HD. We pass close to the meadow around the tripod spire, the beating hearts are people who entered and weren’t ready.
• We make it to the pinnacles and the door of the five knockers. Each knocker has a different pattern “knock as you read when the moon is high.” Each is a constellation, and you read them as they appear from right to left) when the moon is high. We pass through a hallway filled with headless statues. Heads are artifacts
• On the other side of the pinnacles, we discover the “tree of the infant enemy.” Al battles a troll and gains lifetime minimum damage from trolls. We find three clerics/paladins of Hendii. Trakklan like? Not quite normal, taller, greenish sky. One has artifact spear, one has artifact boot.
• Sporific hydra plant.
• We finally reach Myst Sen’s Hegemony. It has a giant tree stump at the top of a hill. Surrounded by a solid spider web like wall that reflects even invisible creatures. Treants & Hsiao live there as well as many invisible fae. As we walk up there are five reflective surfaces. Efrim & Carrock choose the pool of water, Lakshmi the shield, Al the pool of water. Those who look in these join a fellowship — if they encounter each other
• We reach Myst Sen and she aura effects everyone except Lakshmi since she is also a b
• We talk about
  • The faenarae — how they need to be protected:
  • Nameless Goddess resurrection:
  • Tower relocation:
  • Kursar the younger: liberator of Trackklans & little people. Myst Sen speculate that Thurs & other gods would love to talk to an old god. Must be supported by many. He was fatally weakened and it was an attempt to re-enslave the Trackklans.
  • We find out that Syntherin was a predecessor language of the Immortal Tongue.
  • The tree — very old (age of dragons?) and the only living one left — intelligent & sentient.
• Carrock reaches name level and sings about meeting with Matonn and meeting with someone who used to have tea with. This friend is likely to provide sanctuary.
• Matonn is from the age of giants, at least 1000 years prior to the current age.
• Boon’s: Pro from Undead, Dexterity +2
• Mounds on the way home, we find queen’s who worshiped: Nost, Hendii, Deckkar, Breetha, Fiira, Kursar the Elder, Kursar the Younger.

Talking with Matonn

We go to the end of the worlds mountains to visit Matonn’s shrine.

• We find out Krysma used to hang out with *Yveny* (Serram — Saanym, Ancient Rune: Life, Growth, Procreation, originally god of creativity), Rethim (Retsugo; once great god of loyalty), Meina (Myrna), and Gar (Garl Glitterload; gnomes & inventions). This group met for about 2 -3 times a year for about 45 years. After that Krysma was missing.
• Far Outer Planes: Night Time, Mutant Dragons, Plane of Scouring Suns, Proteans, The Runners, Sister Mountains, A few rocks in a dangerous sea, Statue of Katash, Syntheros “Apparently a very important place to giant gods during the age of giants. Originally a high mountain on this continent was desired for its resources. It was ruled by the order of Wyrms until an alliance of early Fire deities conquered it and took it away. An alliance called ‘order’, fought with the gods of Fire (it was used a as a base by the gods of Fire). The mountain changed hands several times, eventually the gods of order prevailed, but eventually Fire gods and the alliance called Eternity. Eternity gained the upper hand, conquered other continents and used those to assault the mountain. Gods of eternity opened a vortex to bring more of their supporters into the world, but then fractured their world to protect. Fracturing of the worlds happened way before the age of giants”
• We find out that Yveny was one of the few gods who changed genders, and was into the giant gods.
• On what she was like. We were friends and allies.
• “Surely you can’t know, but all of them were people that loved her and were devoted to her passionately.”
• Why the Faenarae can cast spells: (1) someone is providing spells for the faenarae (2) somehow the nameless goddess can cast spells. Normally I would dismiss the second, but she was exceptional, much like her most famous lover.”
• “Sounds to me that your goddess is trying to tell you that she took shelter in her final days with her trusted and devoted friend.”
• “Her three most often used names: Thya, Thorn, Krys. Her presence has long been absent from the world so you will have to look in.”
• Great Libraries: one in the outer planes that we can’t visit. Two great libraries we can visit to learn about giants: (1) Fel — ruins near the ancient battlegrounds. Still a giant colony that lives in those ruins. Their libraries likely have the oldest extant texts that there are, (2) 3000-4000 BC library kept in a tremendous tower on the plane of Citadel. One of the tower gods was a great historian on the 15th or 16th floor.
• “Sounds like maybe he’s found someplace that no one else has found. I don’t know.”
• Mt. Vsster and what made it so sought after — “I don’t really know. I haven’t taken a great interest in this area. In my experience Myths are often just that, or are profound distortions.”
• Neggendan — Currently serving in Wold. Do a little investigation — look for the greatest political thinkers you can find with a defined ideology. Pick the three or four best ones. Petition Koriteku for permission to deliver the books to people on that plane. Then deliver the books to that plane. Look for those related to ideologies of justice and fairness.

Talking with Serram

We meet with the priestess of Serram Lakshmi had worked with in the past, she asks us to directly meet with her Deity. We meet the agent of Serram on the plane of mountains in a broken down hut. Below are quotes/comments from that *long* meeting

• “The deity thinks she is one of the greatest beings ever to grace this universe.”
• “There is nothing more important in this life than to accept your own death.”
• Any alliance depends on her circumstances.
• Serram gives us instructions on what to do:
• Purging the plane of undead, composing beautiful music in her name, teaching her teachings
• Should do this on the plane where her life force currently resides. He doesn’t want to tell us where this is so we don’t compromise her.
• “Now lets talk about your plan. You have beautiful visions. It begins with building an alliance, that she is relatively safe, that she has a sufficient number of followers to bring her back in good form. You already have enough that she will return to us if you went to her plane, but not in good enough form.”
• At the time, everyone involved in the club was interested in innovation and creativity.
• Thanatos’ innovation: something to do with knowing where souls go when they die.
• There has only been one Thea, but multiple Thorns. The early human gods saw themselves as thorns pricking at the sides of an established order.
• The core philosophical dispute with her lover is whether one could have a good and meaningful life with meaning. This includes gods themselves. Greater beauty in birth growth death and renewal. Fynnis influenced Krysma.
• Where the followers are set up. Planes between 270-275.
• Natane didn’t teach them — confluence location, time & people was responsible.
• How did smartest & greatest among them contracted a disease they couldn’t cure. By the point they reached godhood, there was no way to raise him. Assassinated is one theory. Rejects the idea that Natane was a previous immortal.
• The brotherhood of the 27 lasted for centuries, the sacrifices and bonds were unique. Among the 27, they had heroes. Elsitr, Fynnis, Nar, and Natane.
• The best thing you could, but its too risky, is to bring forth the story of Elstir. Idea is to enter the dreams of people to propagate the story. We get the password to Elstir’s memorial. The guide is a metallic immovable thing.
• Another idea is to start the story of the 27 in the public. (YES! Lakshmi thinks this is more inspirational than Elstir alone).
• Serram will speak to other gods who seem to be promising allies.
• The religion be revived beyond the 12th plane to make it harder to find (but still some benefit?).
• Some evidence there are other supporters (Ordana), the owl god (constructions sounds like Garl Glitterload or Wayland),
• Divides gods into different rings of when people would come on board — 1st ring are people who are in from the beginning, 2nd and 3rd coming on when there is some cover/momentum.
  • 1st ring: Serram (), Ordana (Hierarch), Matonn (Eternal),
  • 2nd ring: Feria (), Wayland (unless first ring), Ka (Hierarch), Healer , Ixion (Hierarch), Pflarr
  • 3rd ring: Kronos ()
• 99% sure Utnapishtim is a giant and carried the Shard. One of the powers was luck, one was shapechange, automatic healing, create any monster, maybe charming/persuasion + many others. Doom effect. 8000-10000 BC.
• How she is extraordinary — force of will was unique unmatched by anyone including Thanos. Personality was unique, passion & unconditional love. Could find redeeming qualities in her worst enemies. Uniqueness of her mind, only she and Thanos understood them because she was brilliant.
• Thinks that she will want to come back from being faded, even if it is only for a single defiant last stand.
• How she became faded: Thea/Thorn wasn’t interested in building religion. It was easy for Thanatos to wipe out her followers.

Future Plans/Wrap up:

Future things we want to do:

• Visit Elstir’s Memorial
• Talk w/ Planemaster, search for planes to start a movement on (270-275). 275-3 is a plane that has far-seeing humans.
• Kill Lich Queen
• Talk w/ Pilgrim again
• Follow up on Matonn’s suggestion to go to Syntheros
• Library follow up in Fel (birdbreak).

Additional Actions to Resolve by Email:

• Koyarekist, marketing and temple going. Prime the war machine with Diomedes and Vesubius.
• Collect books & Deliver books to Wold to meet with Titan.
• Potion research, and follow up on master vs. lich stuff.
• Serram follow up (meeting in several weeks?), also placing of Serram priest on the prime (in Wyneitan most likely).
• Find out more Retsugo, Myrna & Garl Glitterload.
• Detail Operation Bird Break stuff; Yaneh, Reason, Simistrum Blue, Cradle, Iecca, EoW mountains, Azure Sky detour to throw people off, (Mitterstorm DONE)
• Find out all of the 27 who are alive (as learned from Serram)

Big Questions:

How does our own immortality quests fall into this picture. Should we each go our own path, or should we stick together focusing on resurrecting the goddess and hope the opportunity presents itself to become immortal at the right time.

Do we/can we start a religion for the goddess? Use of NGs start a movement? Use of Taeu cult of Efrim’s? Serram is willing to grant spells if we bring followers.

Treasure:

• 6000 GP in gems and coins. 3 scrolls — map to a magical chariot of speed and handling, scroll of pro from lycanthropes, magic missile scroll
• From charioteers: 1300 gp coins/gems. Saddlebag pouch — bag of holding pouch of security. Stone of controlling earth elementals. 75000 gp. 2 potions of dragon control.
  • Hydra plants: 8 friendly heads, 8 curious heads, 8 angry heads, 8 indifferent
• Gate vortex magic item from Fousha

RAY’s NOTES BEGIN HERE:

Interviews with Three Gods

RETURN TO THE PRIME

Leaving Azure Sky, we detour back to plane W, the ghost town, where we remembered seeing a likeness of the goddess seen on Azure Sky under the name “The Mother” a.k.a The Maker a.k.a. Little Feather. We visit “Little Feather’s Domicile”. In the basement we find the constellations that match those at the Temple of First Light, and in the Maker’s Mountain. They are marked with names. Nine of the constellations are the names of gods.

Lackshmi uses x-ray vision in the domicile, finds out that the constellations are all one piece. Al, the alchemist, touches a gemstone in the Maker intending to Lore it. Al gains +1 hit point per hit die for 1d6 weeks.

L. uses True Sigh, determines that the gemstone in the ceiling is an artifact and has a name:

The Maker’s Gemstone of Instruction.

Powers:

1. Disintegrate anyone who tries to move it.

2. Alertness effect, with slight hint of paranoia.

3. Increase hit points by 1/HD for 1d6 weeks.

Al touches a star in the Lord of Waves, and chooses to fail his save. There is a bright white light, and Al feels a bit paranoid, but alert. Won’t be able to sleep for 1 day.

Phyrex – last god with a bad effect. Al touches, fails a save, feels pain.

 

We stop in Kriberaseth, visit Ashgar’s home town, visit some memorial’s that have been set up to remember him. We meet Utnapishtim’s brother who is maintaining his memorial and express our condolences.

BACK ON THE PRIME

News: The Master is working hard to beat back the Lich Queen in the swamp. The local Colarhii elves are working with the Master to help as they are starting to be affected. Efrim meets with the envoy of the master, offering some support in the form of CUM spells in exchange for more territory around Klantyre. Efrim agrees to receive all of Klantyre, plus two hexes west of Ostbruck, and a mine to the southwest of ostbruck.

Al volunteers to create a potion version of CUM#, and spends 78 days and 36,000 gold researching the potion formula for Catalonian Undead Magnet 3. [It will take 5 attempts.] Vie researches the formula for Bone Solvent potion, and nails it on the first try.

On Catalon, L. presents all of our ancient giant god information to the planar specialists and priest of Elish. They say that ancient histories often make records to “Syntheros” and “Mount Vsster”, but it doesn’t seem to have had much of an impact on the Prime plane. They agree that Mt Vsster was the biggest mountain in Syntheros, wherever that may have been.

The gods of Syntheros periodically fought off various enemies. Some came from “fire home”, some from the “afterworld”, enemies called the “eternity”. It wasn’t stable. The gods of syntheros claimed they conquered it from taking it away from the ancient order of wyrms. Happened so long ago that it could just be fiction…

Our experts think that “fire home” either was or became the elemental sphere of Fire, which became Energy.

The ancient historian has come across a story saying that the gods of mount vsster found that they were under assault, and took a great staff, stabbed it into the earth, and created a fracturing of worlds, sundering the land, so that mt vsster could be safe from the threats. That’s one story anyway. Other stories say they just successfully fought off the fire home people and the eternity people.

Fire home is a separate place from mt vsster, and some stories say they opened a gate and brought in people that took over mt vsster.

 

Meanwhile, the party debates ways to cover the trail of moving the faneare to Godlands. We devise a plan to move the flock, and then run decoys into planes that could hold a likely sanctuary. Al further suggests that we plan decoy sightings headed toward likely places of power, such as the preserve of the Ieccan Guide, and going to Oronnico, headed to the Gravelands, as if seeking the protection of Pilgrim. The fake faneare can be seen by the falconikes, and then disappear.

Strategies for covering our tracks, i.e. “breadcrumbs”:

1. 1. Research security upgrades for “shelter in place”, seed some false leads, COPs,
   2. Process faneare at Catalon, put up illusions of them at the preserve
   3. Catalonian allies do security upgrades on the ground
   4. Move to Godlands
   5. Ask around about options to move to secure places. Places to consider moving to:
      1. 1. An End of the Mountains shrine
         2. Iecca
         3. Gravelands
         4. Other safe spots forbidden planes, planes with mountains, planes with natural lightning. Simistrum Blue for lightning. Cradle for mountains.
   6. Go to Koryekist and ask around at temples to see if we can get help from some friendly gods.

Party gathers the faenare clan, Carrock gives a big convincing speech to ensure their trust and cooperation.

We debrief every single faenare to try to weed out any spies. Most are normal, but a psychopath faenare has a normal interview, but the interview with his younger brother shows that they have had contact with an unknown new elven woman. She has been offering sexual favors in exchange for information. Her name is Ney. She first approached the older brother, and she requested that he introduce her to the younger brother. They last saw her 6 days ago. Sometimes she casts spells to see if they are telling the truth. She has asked them for locks of hair (feathers). Second interview with the older brother shows that he has given her tons of specific information. Info on specific speeches, weaknesses, etc. We capture her. It’s a 6 HD vampire. We rainbow back to her hideout where her last liege was, and she and her coffin are already gone.

In between Al’s research failures, we launch operation Bird Break. The haunted windsingers mildly protest, and don’t want to go get cooped up in the Godlands. We decide to leave some of them on the Prime so they can continue to level up and aid in the destruction of undead.

 

OPERATION BIRD BREAK

Plan:

1. 1. *Invisibility 10’ radius (artifact)
   2. *transport via plant to the node on Prime
   3. *furtive gate to Citadel
   4. Use WISH to alter the rules so that the surface of the ocean is considered the “floor” for determining the maximum height of magically assisted flight over the ocean, for one day. Each person must cast the spell.
   5. Split up the stoned faenare among the party for safekeeping.
   6. 3 of us fly magically, and polymorphed as sprites in case our Wish doesn’t work and we need to be carried. Carrock uses natural flight. Carrock uses Disguised Disguise to appear as a female elf. Party does polymorph as Sprites.
   7. Transport via plant from the Node to the edge of the ocean.
   8. Just start flying.

Once on Citadel, we are leaving the shore, day one, no encounters. Just ocean in front of us with the land to the back. In between some swells, each party member sees part of a colossal squid type monster. Suction cups as wide as two trucks side by side.

3^rd day, Carrock awakens to hear some birds calling, about a half mile to the south. He flies over there, speaks to the birds, asks where the nearest land is at. They give some directions to “two islands, with sheep shores and rocky.” We do a fly by. The “islands” appear to be mountain tops, connected by a ridge that is mostly under water. One island has a lot of green, and is covered with bumps. The other island has a large cairn on top of it. Al casts Alestria’s Mapping Lore to get some planar coordinates, and we continue.

4^th day… uneventful. 5^th day… we see the shore of the Godlands appear on the horizon. We see the sun pass overhead and sink behind the spires. The party arrives at shores of the Godland.

Our instruction (via avatars) is to go into the deep interior, to the hegemony of Nyst-Sen, the most powerful dryad. The area is under the sway of the 3 spires. (There are only 3):

• • Vine Spire – Ordana
  • Storm Spire – Deus
  • Tripod Spire – Thurs

The spires are shrines where the gods can appear.

The interior is not meant to be traveled easily. You can’t fly above the treeline. If you do, you become heavy as a boulder and fall to the ground. No Transport via Plant, no teleport, no Word of Recall. You must travel by foot, below the treeline.

The territory “resists mapmaking”. There is no map of the deep interior.

Nyst-Sen gives us directions to take Arches trail up north to an abandoned town at the Yellow river (in the direction that we found the camouflage creatures). (Drinking from the yellow river focused the mind and you heal at double the normal rate. Don’t drink from the blue river). Instructions to meet a Sheia named Settler-Hummer. His home is at the base of a tree. Leave all your iron outside. He’s very powerful. He has lots of powerful invisible friends. He understands the magic in the area. He will provide us with very nonspecific directions to get to the dryad, and a very rough map. The map cannot possibly be accurate, so you’re on your own to find it. Even the location of the spires seems to change overnight. There is just no way to create an accurate map.

She estimates that on foot, the journey should take 2 weeks from the ruined town.

Shee: rogues and warriors. Both can cast faerie spells.

One other word of warning about Settler Hummer. The ghost town looks like a ghost town that was abandoned yesterday. The town is full of immortals (fae) that just disappear when anyone comes by. Recommended that we don’t mess with them. There is a ruined tower with a diamond gargoyle with scimitars called “the lookout”. It usually sits there, statue still. If we see that the lookout is not there, DO NOT look behind you. If you turn to look, and it’s behind you, it will steal your soul. If it’s gone from the perch, go into the nearest shelter. If you hear heavy sounds behind you, just ignore it. Ignore it. If you use a mirror to look at it, it won’t steal your soul, but it will use that as the cue as it is time to attack.

Nyst-Sen thinks the sentry is activated randomly. One more word of warning. The interior is the land of immortals. Both gods, and immortals. Never ever impersonate an immortal in any way. Not a pixie, not a sprite. No fae impersonations. Do not appear to have “immortals” as your servants in any sense.

We teleport to the ruined town, which is as far as we can go using magical transport. In the ruined town, on the shore of the big lake, there is a huge mound, the size of a big hill, with some moss pulled away, and partially dug out. Efrim casts Lore. It detects as a petrified gargantuan tortoise. It’s facing toward the lake. There is an island we can see way out in the lake with a collapse gazebo structure, fallen on top of a statue. A giant sized rowboat, parked on the shore of the lake, and covered in moss.

We fly low out over the lake, passing over the island, looking for the yellow river that feeds into the lake. AS we fly out, we startle a flock of birds are something, a bunch of large birds perched on a tree on the shore. They can fly over the 20’ limit. They leave in a hurry. We continue toward the island. On the island, there is a marble dias. The gazebo collapsed onto the statue. He’s a giant sized man, face down. Something on his back. His head has broken off and rolled into the water, half in the water. Could be a trokklan. It has the scaly plate skin that male trokklans are required to have. The rowboat is made out of marble. There are oar slots, no oars. The boat seems to be part of the statue. Lore: statue in the likeness of Borath. Efrim polymorphs into a trokklan, and moves the head out of the water and places it next to the body. Efrim uses the scroll of Seeing we recovered from Ney to draw the likeness of Boreth.

Lackshmi uses Clairvoyance to follow the birds and see what they are seeing. They follow the water going north. The water in the river turns green in color. The birds perch and settle down, northeast from our current location. Figuring yellow river + blue river = green river, we fly out over the lake, and head in the direction that the birds went.

Northeast branch where it’s green… the sun is coming down, and we see our two rivers, yellow and blue. We camp at the end of the yellow river, not by the lake. A mist rolls in, we all make saves versus spells, and have no weird effects. Al fishes in the yellow river. Everyone drinks from the yellow river. Our minds are focused, making it hard to sleep, but we find that we would be healing at twice the normal rate. We set up camp, and set up watches.

Next day, we can see the watcher thing in the distance as the sun strikes it. From here we move inland up off the river.

Up ahead we hear hushed voices arguing and suddenly go silent. Up ahead the village where Settler Hummer lives comes into view. The “village” is mainly trees with doors in them. “Fae Home”. It seems completely empty, but there are sounds. Carrock calls out in fae, “Greetings! We mean you no harm!” Carrock then Finds the Path to Settler Hummers home. We make our way through the town. It’s maybe 1 square mile. The area is cleared of foliage enough that we can tell there is a lot of foot traffic, even though it looks freshly abandoned. We’re winding our way through the trees, when we hear the sound of squeaky hinges open. Carrock is walking right up to the door. He enters, descends into a room with lit candles. A table is set. A fire in the fire place. Nothing is there. “Please deposit your poison metal items in the chute. Belts too! There are ropes for your belt if you need one.” The home looks like one giant room inside the tree. There are three tables, one in the kitchen. One where people can sit. The table is stepped for different sized creatures. A man appears. He looks human but vaguely elfin. Wears leather armor. Carrying weapons: short bow, spear, staff. Looks young. His spear is leaning against the wall. The staff is in his hand, but he’s not threatening us with it. “Who do I have the pleasure of having in my home?” we introduce ourselves in elven. There seem to be invisible helpers setting the table with food and moving out chairs. One creature makes itself visible – a little sparrow like bird.

Lackshmi offers the +2 staff as a gift, he accepts. Al pulls out the liter of whiskey from Klantyre, “I brought a taste of comfort from my homeland. Please accept?” “That is a good idea!”

“My name is Settler Hummer, I understand you’ve been told to meet me. Sent by the “one kind goddess”, and will be headed to her spire? I get the sense that you are not from the Godlands, or even from the Towerlands…”

He’s fun, gets a little tipsy. He laughs a lot at our stories. “Well, the night grows long, and we grow weary…. Please choose a place on the floor. In my old age, I need an elevated space to sleep.” Efrim uses Clothform to make a giant futon so we can sleep like a slumber party.

That night there is a big party in the middle of the night outside. There is a big cheer of something happening, and the door slams shut. The host turns over in his sleep and he goes back to sleep.

Next day, Settler Hummer helps us out with a lot of local maps, tells us which paths are dangerous in which ways, gives some advice on creatures to avoid, which are certain doom, etc.

Also, we may encounter a master thief wood drake by the name of “Elf Beast”. If he sees us, he will try to target us, unless we can entice him to speak with us.

Efrim makes a wood formed statue of a female sprite with a sky green emerald base, with emerald eyes, as a petition gift to the dryad that wants to meet with Lackshmi (and only L).

Final advice: before you lay down at night, if you’re in the bushes, make sure there are no faces in there. If there is a face in there the bush will slowly creep around you and strangle you while you sleep.

He mentions “hydra plants” to avoid. One kind with human faces and tusks (dangerous), one kind with humanish faces with no jaw (friendly), and a third kind with boney foreheads (indifferent). And another with huge oversized eyes that are curious. They are all plant creatures, but they speak. “Get one of each and you get an amazing blessing!” You have to collect their heads.

When you get close, ask the plants if they have seen servants of Nyst-Sen, and have long ago, how many? The more plants that see them, the closer you are.

We head up the river, flying over the water, using artifact invis, with Al in the lead, with the other three holding onto ropes to stay within 10’ at all times.

One of our stops is at a burned out village in the trees. We find one house that is more or less intact, Al peers in through the broken door. Inside he sees an elven female, sitting on the floor hanging her head. She lifts her head and screams. Al makes a save against paralysis, and fails a save against death. He is killed. Carrock rushes in and kills her in the next moment. We are surrounded by wyrds, and Lackshmi and Efrim begin destroying them as Carrock Raises Al. Al emerges alive and bleary eyed, but rushes at a greater wyrd and destroys it. Carrock and Al circle around, find another and destroy it. Carrock casts Speak with Dead and we learn that the village was destroyed by worshippers of Deus over a dispute he had with the dryad worshiped by the villagers. We search the intact house, find a map to a magical chariot, a scroll of protection from lycanthropes, and a scroll of magic missile.

We continue. We cast Find the Path to the chariot, and it points in a direction that is not the same as the map.

We continue. We meet another shee called Spider Smasher who is pretty cool. We drink heavily with him. He tells us to watch out for these giants that charge around in a magical chariot hunting people. He also tells us to meet up with a shee called Elf Beast. He’s da bomb.

We continue. We come around a bend in the river, invisible, and see some people that must be Elf Beast, so we back up, drop our invis, and come back up singing elven drinking songs. We come around the bend and the shee, dressed like a human, appears mirror imaged along with a pixie, a human, and a bunch of other in their gang. We finish our introduction in barbershop quartet style, extending cups of whiskey. The scene launches and immediate party. At some point doing the raucous, Al partners up with a lady centaur for a highly romantic and highly public encounter. By morning, he shows his appreciation by giving her a permanent protection from normal missiles. Elf Beast gives us more tips for negotiating around the spires. Warns again about the hunters in chariots.

We are almost to the dryad’s hegemony when we hear a tremendous noise. We prep for two rounds, creating phoenixes, a mek, and a nugglavee. A lone figure appears, a young trokklan male. A spear appears sailing through the air above him, and spears him through the leg. His leg is ripped off as he falls, and the chariot appears, Time stops begin. We use a series of walls and effects to try to trap the chariot. Carrock heals the young giant.

Long story short, we knock the one with the spear off the chariot. We chase down the charioteer. Carrock hits him hard with x4. As Al jumps into the chariot and melees him for a couple of rounds while the party resets Haste, etc. The Giant Heals himself and starts attacking. Eventually we kill the driver, and the horses, and commandeer the artifact. The artifact has crazy dispel properties. Al uses Lore to get it’s properties. To take control of the chariot, you have to be crowned in the temple (big giant sized amber crown). It’s powers include Haste, Vegetative Entanglement, and magic resistance.

After we go back and find the guy we saved, he reminds us to permanently kill them. Al collects a pound of flesh from the dead chariot driver. They’ve been hunting, terrorizing the area, and they decided that he was the target. So he got separated from his group, and he was running for the dryad’s hegemony, hoping that she would help him. He’s very gracious, and wants to know how he can thank us. We ask him if he knows anything about going toward the vine spire. “… in fact I do.”

Al takes a pound of flesh from the spear throwing giant too. Both are disintegrated.

Lackshmi goes inside the hegemony and talks to the dryad. She offers the artifact chariot to her for safe keeping, and tells her that we’re giving the helmets to the other dryad. Hopefully they can work something out.

The giant we helped introduces us to two of his friends and they help us navigate the area near the Thurs spire. We see some of the tripods, they come near, but the giants pull out Thurs holy symbols and they leave us alone. They walk us up to a tunnel entrance, covered with knobs. There is a trick to waiting for the moon to come up, and aligning them according to some constellations. We get in, go past an assembly of stone figures, headless, some holding heads.

We get past that. We reach an intersection going left and right. Vines to the left, tripods to the right. Labeled “Vine Hollow” and “Tripod Hollow”. They look like rooms. We keep going. We reach another door. It’s beautiful, pictures of the heavens. Starry firmament. No lock on this side.

Efrim polymorphs into a trokklan, and pushes the door open. It pivots in the middle. Efrim pushes on the right, gets a glimpse of the outside, a huge basin, a colossal tree with a huge face on it. It’s not the vine spire, it’s just a giant tree. Birds flying around the upper branches must be giant rocs. By our logic, that should be the Deus side, but that doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense. Efrim closes it, and pushes from the left. That opens a view that is entirely different. It’s a thick forest, dark forest.

Lackshmi uses a Wizard Eye to look through the door on each side. She sends it right and looks around at the giant tree side. She sends it left and up to the top of the trees and can see that the vine spire is on that side. It’s further to the left, and appears that it’s well in the wooded area. No range of mountains between us at the end of the tunnel and vine spire. There is a range of mountains off to our right. It’s more like having two views of the same place geographically. The spire looks like it’s further away on the right side. The door exits are right next to each other, but separated by a magical separation. We take the exit on the left. Lackshmi continues to use the Wizard Eye to surveil the area.

Entering the wooded area, Carrock casts Find the Path, and we head down the path/tunnel created by the tree canopy. We see eyes off in the plants. Al casts Reverse Plant Growth, removes the plant barriers, walks up to the plant, and calmly takes 5 heads.

Later, find a willow-like tree with fruits shaped like fetuses of various creatures. We lore each of the fruit, and the tree. The tree is a magic item. It has two powers: Timestop and Summon Creature. Al picks a fruit shaped like a troll fetus and begins eating it. Time stops. A troll emerges from a nearby cave. It’s 18 feet tall, detects as 51 HD, and it attacks. Al attacks with his sword, they exchange damage. Al is nearly killed, but is able to fell the troll in the third round, having done over 300 points of damage to it. When it disappears, the time stop ends, and Al forevermore takes minimum damage from troll attacks. Efrim tries to game the system by creating a Wall of Force tube, activating his elastic power to hide in the tube while he eats a fruit. The troll appears, is unable to attack Efrim, and 5 rounds later disappears. Efrim does not gain the boon.

Resume Find the Path. We leave the path, we see 3 giants, 2 appear to be paladins and 1 appears to be a cleric. They all hold holy symbols of a god we recognize as being of snakes and poison. They carry an artifact spear and an artifact boot. We leave them alone (still invisible). We come out past the last level of cascading water where there is a clearing. We come across a giant sized bedroll next to a hydra plant. We’re about to leave and we hear a human being us, making sound, and trying to start a fire with a tinder box. We turn. There is a scruffy man wearing scale armor. Cursing while he tries to start a fire. He detects as 5^th level. Efrim goes behind a tree, lights a torch, casts Telekinesis and sends the torch over to him. He doesn’t seem to notice it, doesn’t change behavior, and the light in the area does not change when the torch enters the area. Lackshmi activates True Sight from the specs. True Sight reveals him to be a 5^th level fighter. We hear a crashing through the woods. We see an apparent very large trokklan giant coming down the hill. He detects as 30 HD, 9^th level shaman. He comes in pulling up his pants. The guy gets up, speaks in a language we don’t understand, and opens up the bedroll for him. Giant speaks, sighs, lays down on bedroll looking up. The human appears to be a servant for the giant. Another human, woman, appears as a 5^th level fighter. She runs in, drops a bag that appears to have a hydra head in it. They say something, giant grunts, sit and start making dinner. The other giants never should up either. We conclude this is some kind of window into a different reality or something. We choose not to interact further.

We find one more hydra plant, the tusk type, and we take 3 heads, bringing our total of that type to 8.

We pass a storsa buried deep in the thickets. We camp for the night unmolested.

The next day the trees start to thin out so we could go any direction, but still have to bushwack. We pass another hydra plant – the curious kind. There are 6 stalks but only 3 heads. We take 2. We’re going westish toward the hegemony. Suddenly carrock veers to the right, but we see a wood drake off in the direction that we were headed in….

Carrock leaves the invisibility, and heads over to talk to the wood drake. This is the hegemony of a different dryad. They talk for a few moments, mention how we destroyed the hunter chariot people, but move along, resuming Find the Path. We’re about one day out. We are making our way through part of the woods where the paths are more trampled, more highly trafficked. The hunters trail we are vaguely following veers to the left, and we continue straight. Carrock is going straight toward a thick area where suddenly t here are many large carved poles in the likeness of snakes. We stop, decide to avoid, and go back to the trail. Following the trail we approach a hillside. At the top there is a very large hydra plant with different kinds of heads, 8 heads, with glowing eyes. It detects as 12 hit dice. Carrock casts Speak with Plants, and approaches the large hydra plant. The plant itself looks a little different from the others. When he gets close, all 8 heads stretch out toward Carrock and focus on him. “What are you called?” “Sporific hydra plant.

Do you know where the nearest dryad is? Yes.

Where? It looks in a direction.

What do you do when people come to cut your heads off? It bites and releases spores to incapacitate them.

Carrock uses x4 to detect metals. There are some in its gullet.

What do you do when you kill things? We eat them until they become too foul.

What do you do when they become foul? They sit here and rot. Become soil.

 

ORDANA / NYST-SEN the FALLUD DRYAD

We head back to the direction we were coming from. The trail is becoming more defined. When we get close to Nyst-Sen’s hegemony, we come over a slight hill and see another great beautiful hill ahead of us. It’s covered with mostly trees, but the top is bald. There is a dried out stump on the top (like the one we saw through the other door). There are holes that are person sized, and birds flying in and out. It seems to be a shelter.

To the west there appear to be something green and flash gold when the sun shifts. The spires are now to our east. This is as close to the vine spire as we have gotten. We descend the hill and approach. We approach a shimmery wall that looks like it’s made out of spider webs. It undulates in the wind. There are shimmering images of things passing in front of it. The trail moves alongside the wall and moves south. We see our own images reflected in the shimmering wall eventually. It’s capturing shadows of invisible people. So we make ourselves visible. Creatures that meet us remain invisible, but they greet us. “I’m Brownflick, and I will escort you to visit the fallud dryad that you have come to visit”. She shows herself, and it’s a small sprite woman with brown hair with a streak of silver. We enter the hegemony.

There are lots of fae things here that we’ve seen before. There are also Hsaio here. There are many tree ents here. There are four standing together in rich soil, and there appear to be many green shoots of new plants appearing in the soil where they are standing.

Brownflick takes us up a corkscrew trail up the hill. We pass 5 reflective surfaces. The first is a pool of water. Second is an old vanity mirror still sitting on a desk. Next the back of a shield. Polished giant sword. Last is a cup, a carnivorous pitcher plant with a still surface. You can look in one and only one. When you do you form a spiritual kinship with all who have looked in the same reflection.

Efrim and Carrock both look in the pool of water. You look at your own face, but you feel like you are looking at a thousand eyes. You get the feeling that the differences between you don’t matter. It’s a harmonious experience. When they turn to look at each other, something happens. Everyone carries with them some hardness, some bitterness deep down. The things that annoy you. But when they look at each other, the hardness for each other dissipates. And for one round they are incapable of harming to other. Pass the vanity. Pass the shield. Lackshmi looks in the shield. Sees 1000 eyes. Pass the sword. The pitcher plant is left. Al goes up to see it. It is very large, and off the trail a bit. Al climbs up and peers over the lip of the pitcher at the reflection. Sees his own reflection, and that of 1000 others.

We finish the climb to the top of the hill. We are brought in to meet Nyst-Sen, the planes oldest living fallud dryad. Brownfleck leaves us alone with her. The dryad stands right next to her fallud plant, which extends up to the top of the broken stump to the sunlight. It has a purplish flower that is open.

The dryad is still super sexy. She wears it classy though. Lots of exposed shoulders, cleavage, etc. She uses her aura effect on everyone except for Lackshmi, because they could not ever wish each other harm (She is a spiritual kin, by way of the shield reflection).

Efrim and Al are charmed. We kneel and lower our heads. After a few seconds she says “please stand”, so we do.

“It’s a pleasure to have a new cousin, and a great pleasure to meet all of you.” She’s unlike anyone that we’ve ever spoken to, not even Novis who we have spent a lot of time with. We could just watch and listen to her all day. She’s completely enchanting. Talking to her is nothing like the memory of talking to her via the strand of hair. We have to start our story from the beginning. She’s received some instruction from Ordana to receive you , but needs to know how she is supposed to help. At some point she starts just talking to Carrock and dismisses the rest of us. Before we go, we would like to present her with our gift (the amber crown). She says “this device has haunted our people for as long as I have been here”.

L: we didn’t know that there would be giant sized occupants of your realm until we saw the tree ents… “There are not many places that are right for a tree ent to grow, but we are working on it.” L mentions the priest of Serram and the problem we have been trying to solve with faenare fertility. She says “Interesting”.

Carrock gets the opportunity to enter TIME STOP, and chooses to. He incurs a penalty. Loses all 7^th level spells.

She ignores Carrock, but she’s mumbling to herself. Talks… “I can look into that… let it be.” Time stop ends.

“Please get in touch with your cleric friend.” Give lackshmi a strand of her hair. L tells her about her legendary item, which grants the affect.

Carrock is given the option of entering time stop again, but declines.

She says “that is something we should discuss. It’s possible that I could keep that safe, and use to the benefit of [the faenare] people.”

She was going to offer us the blessing of Death’s Dispassion (2d4 rounds, all immunity to all undead creatures), but she’s going to give us a better blessing since we’re giving her half of an artifact.

She probably knows what’s going on with the faded god, and we want to talk to her about the actual steps that might be involved in unfading the nameless goddess. During that discussion, she is constantly time stopping.

1. 1. It’s possible to bring someone back from faded without knowing where they are, but it’s better to know where they are. Why? Because if she’s in an outer plane more than 12 planes out, being in doesn’t do her any good.
   2. If you know where they live, you can make petitioning trips to them, which brings them greater power. That means visiting their home plane. Find the final resting place. Not just the shrine, but it would help.
      1.  
   3. How will you be vigilant in keeping them safe here, and secret? We have a lot of eccentric species here. Most spies (which are mostly from Mon) would not know to go pray immediately just because they saw some elves with wings. There are a lot of things around here that look like that.

We tell her about our plan to put out decoys in other planes. She is still time stopping like crazy during this conversation.

We all notice this time, by grace of godly wisdom.

Al and Lackshmi get a hunch when she is pausing that time is stopping for her. We feel, just for a second, that time slowed down.. like we’re reliving a memory. Hyper-awareness of magical effects.

 

We spend a few days talking to her. We ask her more about Kursar the Younger. Why is there such a need to bring him back???

 

He’s known as the Liberator of Trokklans and Little People… Trokklans were also slaves to other giants. The Trokklans love him. She speculates that Thurs would love to speak to a god that predates them by 1000 years and knows stuff. Why Thurs thinks it’s a sacrifice worth making? She has no idea. There are of course political complications too, but that’s why to speculative…

When Kursar the Younger was fatally weakened, his species was left defenseless, which appears to be the idea. They were trying to re-enslave the trokklans. But it failed.

Do you know the Maker/Mother, or Little Feather? Yes, she recognizes the name. Was she ever on this plane? No, she was from a far flung outer plane.

Syntheros??? We speak a few words of it. “That’s interesting. That’s similar to another language that I know that most mortals do not know.”

“Are you referring to the Immortal tongue?” “Yes, some of the syntax’s of the immortal tongue come from Syntheran.” Uhh… we’ve known some children of the gods. That’s how we know this. “Oh, I would love to meet some. I would love to travel, but I can’t.” Al offers to keep an avatar safe and have it travel with us, if she can make one.

 

We give her all of our undead related spells: Catalonian Undead Magnets.

Efrim’s Everlasting Elysiam is a disanimate. Bonesolvent, Sunkill. Invis to Undead.

 

Carrock asks her careful questions related to Ordanna fading. She time stops. She says Ordana made a calculated decision to support the immortals, and even though that has a cost she does not regret that decision. Basically, she made the decision to represent the fae, even though they won’t worship her. So she doesn’t get the power for it, and it costs her.

 

Is there any way we can help her? Say, help with something outside her hegemony? We offer to help

 

We suggest they integrate everyone slowly. First we unstone the leaders. This must be done when Carrock is still around. Then everyone can be slowly released once the system is figured out and things are safer.

Walking around the hegemony, we suddenly realize that everyone here has looked into the reflections and our kindred spirits are everywhere. We feel like we’re part of a much bigger family.

 

LEAVING the DEEP INTERIOR

We return to the infant fruit tree, Efrim, Carrock, and Al all try. Carrock and Al get the boon for goblins. Efrim defeats the troll, but does not get the bonus for some reason. We leave going west.

 

We see a man-made mound. There is a stick on top. There are two man skeletons standing looking at the mound. They are covered in dust and vines. No secret doors. We move on.

Moving west, we find a bush full of bone forehead hydras. There are 5 heads. We take four, Carrock casts Cureall, and we take four more.

Continuing west we encounter some more fae that we don’t need to play out. We find a hydra plant with indifferent. 6 heads. Al takes 1 head. Before we enter the foggy downs, we look for the friendly heads. We take three (Al takes one more for research).

 

To make the potion, you cook them, make a broth, add additional ingredients. We have the instructions to make it. Al makes four soups when we camp, and we all drink it.

 

Now we have Luck in our Hearts. At any time, we can choose the results of one roll instead of rolling at random.,

 

We make it to the Foggy Downs. It’s basically rolling low hills, in which trees are sparce. We enter. We get totally turned around Mapping Lore is not working. We shapechange into sprites, hitch a ride on Carrock and have him cast Find the Path to the other side. Find the Path is not working. Carrock calls some birds, and eagles show up. They fly above the fog, and we follow them for a couple of hours. We lose them, almost panic, and then step out of the fog.

 

 

We reach the shore, prep, and set out on our journey across the ocean back toward Towerland. We are intending to go the same route, stopping at the “two islands” that are mountain tops. The cairn on the top of the one is in the holy symbol of Deus. A stylized plus sign in a circle. Like a Jerusalem cross. One stone in the cairn detects magic. We land. Lackshmi uses her specs for detect secret doors (finds none). Efrim casts Lore on the magic stone. It is imbued with a spell called Record Image.

 

There are 13, they are all queens. They are all very elderly. They are all very proud. They give short, terse replies, even about who they worship. They give us names, tell us they all rule very large queendoms. Some of them remind us that they know little creatures like us are slaves.

 

These are the gods they worship:

Nost – braided hair and beard tied together.

Hendii

Deckkar

Barrthe

Fiira

Kursar the elder

Kursar the younger

 

Lackshmi casts Dispel Magic and the stone is no longer magical.

 

Al casts create monster, and creates 20 seals to explore underwater. They find steps going down, find a structure, a 2 story shack, giant sized. It’s all worn away. They continue down and get attacked by a large shark like creature. Some are eaten, some continue down. Down down down, more structures.

 

We finish our business, finish the trip across the ocean, teleport to the node, and furtive gate back to the prime.

 

MATONN

 

Side note: by virtue of our mineral diet for over 10 years, we would have developed immunities to many poisons now.

 

We launch our efforts to start laying down smokescreens.

 

Side note: We talk to the Matonn priest on Catalon before we start visiting planes. He is a name level sphinx. Priest says Matonn shrine is at the edge of the End of the World mountains because Matonn is friendlier than 95% of the other gods. People there play a lot of mind games with you, for fun. He provides the location, and reminds us that Matonn can visit. Efrim asks what kind of gifts we should bring. Artifacts or legendary items are great if you’re on an immortal quest. “I was thinking a tea set?” He says, “funny that you should say that, there is a tea table in the Shrine”. Anil suggests a scene of Matonn and the young Chrysma from her mortal form. Use sky green emerald for his eyes. Incorporate venom light gemstone dust. Vssgon worker silk as filigree, wrap it, make it somewhat unbreakable. Add all of our rare materials. The Catalon appraiser says it’s impossible to appraise, given the unique materials, it’s like the Ocean Celeste. But his guess is in the neighborhood of 500,000 gp to a collector, just based on the materials, especially if you can tell the story.

 

The Matonn priest gives us the info that one needs to visit the shrine. First step: make a big urn, line the inside with platinum, grey wax pellets, tree sap, burn it to create grey smoke. Make the smoke go to the mountain wall where his shrine is, and then stairs appear. By the time you start climbing, there should be no magical aid on you whatsoever.

 

We make a gigantic fancy urn. And teleport out to the edge of the EoW mountains. We light our fire, and a huge ancient blue dragon shows up and starts questioning us. We answer him successfully and he leaves. Then we blow the smoke at the mountain wall and the steps appear. As we start climbing, the stairs which became visible. The visibility starts to fade, and we come up with a plan to keep on the stairs as they disappear. Lackshmi uses Detect Invis. There is a gap that everyone jumps across. Al falls, but is caught by Lackshmi.

 

Up ahead there is a platform and a 20 feet high marble platform, invisible at first. On the platform are ancient runes. In the fluting on the columns are inscriptions going top to bottom in these languages: Dragon, Sphinx, Ancient.

 

“Defeat your enemy through word and will alone”

 

An obsidian golem appears holding ties, four ties. Efrim steps forward, and the golem ties his hands. He points for us to go down the stairs, so the other three of us go down. The golem follows us to block our view.

 

From over the mountain comes a bronze golem in the shape of a sphinx. It looks extremely lifelike. Efrim spends two rounds trying to cast Mirror Image without somatic components. Doesn’t work. He tries talking to it, and hides behind the pillar. It can’t attack at first, but it comes in to land. Efrim grabs his staff and tries to dispel it. It’s about 60 feet away from the platform, and it starts to fall, hundreds of feet off the edge of the cliff. It explodes on the side of the mountain, lava bursting everywhere like a smashed watermelon.

Side note: We talk to the Matonn priest on Catalon before we start visiting planes.

 

The obsidian golem comes back up, unties the tie, and leads Efrim up the next set of stairs up to a new viewing platform. The golem comes back down to the first platform, and beckons to Carrock. The creature that appears is a slightly larger bronze version of a displacer beast. A bronze displacer beast pops into existence behind the pillar and steps out. It’s back on its haunches with it’s weird tails whipping around.

First round Carrock attempts to speak to it in various languages. Carrock sings the Harmonic Song (mirror image). He creates four images of himself. The beast looks intrigued. Round 3, Carrock sings the Song of the Whirlwind and creates a 16 hit dice air elemental. He commands it to push the beast off the platform. Round four, the action starts. Carrock sings the Song of the Snowstorm, and sends an icy snowstorm at the bronze cat. It is moderately affected. The beast hits one image, the whirwind hits it twice and tears it apart.

 

Al is next. A giant 9 feet tall, looking like a stone giant appears behind the column. It’s a bronze golem. It begins praying. Al yells at in Immortal Tongue “LEAVE!” The golem seems to notice, but then goes back to praying. Al casts Power Word Stun, and the golem lolls, stunned. Al then attempts to cast Ice Storm without somatic components. He fails. He tries again. He fails again. On the third attempt, Al rolls a 1* and succeeds in casting Ice Storm without moving. The golem freezes in the storm, and is destroyed. The obsidian golem leads Al up and fetches Lackshmi next.

*Uses a Luck potion.

 

For Lackshmi, Squat Mountain Giant golem appears. Lackshmi attempts to Create Any Monster without using somatic components, and fails. She tries again and rolls a 1 on a wisdom check and succeeds, creating sphinxes.

*uses a Luck potion.

She commands the sphinxes to attack.

The golem is destroyed.

 

The golem leads the party further up. There continues to be a well defined path of cobblestones with an invisible castle at the top of the mountain. We take the path.

 

Classic castle. Two towers, banners of Matonn’s holy symbols with sphinxes and a sun. Six heralds standing equally spaced apart in front of the castle, holding various banners.

 

When we ask them where they would lead us, they say…

Storm Giant

To the roof…

Fire Giant

To the hearth…

Cloud Giant

To the roof…

Nithian

The library…

Sphinx

To the cages…

Human of unknown ethnicity (Blackmoorian)

To the resting place…

 

We talk to the unknown human… where are you from, and when?

“I’m from the Prime plane, in ancient times, 1000’s of years ago. Hintaghast.” Hintaghast was the town in ancient Blackmoore, and they were suspicious of all the activity, so they resisted the changes.

 

Talking to the Nithian.

“I’m not here to talk about my city, I’m here to show you the best path for you around the castle.”

 

Do you have a recommendation if we want to have tea with the oldest?

“If you want to talk to the oldest, you indicate your interest by choosing your porter.”

 

We’re interested in talking about the ancient acquaintances of the oldest…

We go down and talk to the cloud giant porter…

We want to have tea…

Well look inside, there’s a tea table.

We want to talk about people that he used to have tea with

Well that seems like a good topic to talk about at the tea table.

Must Choose a herald of the six to escort us in.

We choose the Blackmoorian porter.

 

The courtyard has a stream running through it.

A waterfall running down a wall to a lake

A graveyard.

A bunch of cages with lions. An empty cage

Two tables, one giant size one human size.

 

He gives us a very difficult mathematical problem. We can work on it as a group.

 

We inscribe our answer. And the portcullis lifts. The porter lets us in.

 

Inside the court yard, an area of about 200’ x 200’, there are two doors leading out of the courtyard. There are about 12 tea tables. One giant sized. Leads us over a little bridge, past the lion cages to the tables, and steps up to one of the human size tables. We request to be moved to a table with 5 chairs. Porter walks away, and opens a door at a guard tower, and bows low. Out comes an old man in a shimmery wizard robe. Mostly bald, ever so pointy ears, and walking with a cane. He follows the porter and comes this way. He crosses the bridge very slowly, like he is actually feeble. Finally he passes the cage area and comes over the tables where we are kneeling.

 

He says in Elven, “Hello hello, no bother, no bother. Take a seat. “ He pulls up a chair, sits down, and we are looking into the eyes of the oldest creature in the universe. He picks up the teapot and admires it, asking questions about the pot. We explain that the parts are from the vssgon, he pretends like he knows what we are talking about. Lackshmi says “Sir, do we have the pleasure of speaking to the Oldest?” He lights up and says “You do not! Follow me…”

He takes us to a door closer opening into the main building. He leads us through a labyrinth of hallways…

He brings us to a big door that says “LIBRARY” in four languages including Ancient, Giant, and two others. He says “what language would you think that information would be in?” We say… the immortal tongue? He opens the door…

 

There are 23 bookshelves from floor to ceiling in a giant sized room with immortal script on the bindings of all the books. He leads us in and says so what is it would you like to talk about?

 

“We are interested in this members of a tea group that the Oldest used to meet with during the age of giants and was favorable to Chyrsma”. Like a diary.

Are you the librarian? “No” Is there one? “No, not really.”

 

The books are organized by a date system that we don’t recognize.

 

There are 5 guest books.

Carrock sings the faneare song about Matonn, and understands that they had tea during the reigns of certain people. Turns out, all three reigns are covered by a certain book. Out of the five, it’s in book three. We take it down.

Old man says “found it?”

 

We ask if we should be signing our names in the 5^th book, and he says “well you’d need a quill for that wouldn’t you?” and he hands us a quill that detects as having immortal magic. We sign in.

 

In the third book, it appears that there are names of everyone who has been here. We’re pretty sure that they are not gods at all, until we see the name Yveny – one of the 27. They are the personal names of the gods, not the official name.

Looking for patterns… we notice one. We notice Chrysma’s name. It is in an idiosyncratic script. Her own writing.

Are we allowed to take notes? He will loan us some special paper, if we let him look at it before we leave. We agree.

 

Lackshmi is recording and looking for patterns. Carrock helps Lackshmi. They start to see certain names appearing with Chrysma’s name repeatedly.

 

Chrysmas group: GAR, Rethim, and Meina, and Yveny.

It looks like this group met regularly for about 45 years, and then suddenly they were meeting without Chrysma.

 

There are four or five times when just Yveny and Chrysma come. “Old Man! Who did Yveny become known as in immortality?”

“Yvengy? You mean Saangnym. But knowing that is not going to be as helpful as knowing the ancient rune that was used for his name.” he quickly sketches it. Only lackshmi can read it.

 

The rune stands for: Life, Growth, Procreation

 

[sounds a lot like Serram. The theologian said this sounds like a time god of procreation that has followers on Mitterstorm (1999).]

 

Gods don’t come here anymore, other than Matonn. Can you tell us about Yvengy’s visit? I’m not at liberty to say…

 

Efrim asks if he can look at another book, one about Zakared. He says “you’d have to look around”. What about Drydons? You’d have to look at the topics… Al helps Efrim look.

We find:

Extraordinary Oddities, Lesser

Extraordinary Oddities, Greater

^Oddities here refers to non-human creatures.

EOL refers to ordinary mortal creatures. Things like hook horrors.

EOG refers to exalted creatures. We start reading that one. Efrim comes to the drydon section.

 

The section on Drydon is long, but reads like a scholarly dispute about drydons rather than a lot of factual information about them. “According to so and so, they went this way, but according to this other person…”

 

The porter comes and goes. Brings drinks that taste like sweet nectar, and pisspots so we can relieve ourselves without leaving.

Efrim finds a book of astronomy that is only ¼ finished. He asks the old man. Old man says it wasn’t worth copying apparently. Well, let’s look at it…. “Ah… Look at this! [page Full of numbers] Does that answer it for you??”

 

Al looking for Syntheros. Nothing on Syntheros specifically, but Al Finds a book on ancient languages, and books on outer planes. Outer planes North, Outer Planes East, Outerplanes Southeast, and Far Outer planes.

Al copies down headings since reading is so hard. There are lots of plane names we don’t know…

Names/Descriptions:

Nezzerzhe,

Night time,

Mutant Dragons,

Plane of the Scouring Suns

Proteans

The Runners

Sister Mountains

A Few Rocks in a Dangerous Sea

The Statue of Katash

Syntheros

 

Al calls Lackshmi over and asks her to read the section on Syntheros.

 

“Apparently very powerful and important place during the age of giants. Originally a powerful mountain on this continent was highly desired and values for its resources. It was ruled by the Order of Wyrms until an alliance of early fire deities conquered it and took it away. There was another alliance of Gods that called themselves “Order”, and the gods of fire used it as a base to attack the gods of order. The mountain changed hands several times but eventually the gods of Order prevailed. But then the mountain was assaulted on several sides by several rivals, most notably by the gods of fire and an alliance known as Eternity. Eternity gained the upper hand, conquered more continents and used them to stage more assaults on the mountain. Eternity, in order to bring more of their servants/troops onto the plane, opened a vortex to their home. The gods of Order decided in the interest of protecting the mountain Syntheros they would fracture the world into many pieces.” The timeline is deep in the age of dragons. The fracturing happened early in the age of dragons.

 

When we are done in the library, and the old man is trying to get us to wrap it up, we ask for him to lead us in an Honor Matonn ceremony. Leads us through the labyrinth. Gold cups come pouring out of a door he opens. We pass that test and don’t steal any. Next he leads us through, it feels like we’re spiraling inward through hallways. We end up in a room that is much larger than we would expect, given how tight our turns are getting. We walk out into a great open area with vast emptiness below, with stone bridges spanning the open spaces. The bridges are 10 feet wide here, with light coming from above. Water is falling on each side. The bridge arches slightly in the middle, we reach a platform with two statues, one of a sphinx and one of a giant (cloud?). We pass under the shadows of the statues on the pillars. Those are in the middle of the bridge. We pass under them and continue down the other side. At the other side there is a greek style temple. Giant sized throne/chair. The roof of the entire chamber flashes. The faint glow changes to full sun, we look back at the throne and the giant from the statue is sitting on the throne.

Everyone makes saves. No one is paralyzed with fear.

 

The giant has a gratified look when we bow. When we stand back up, he’s not looking directly at us.

He’s bigger than a giant, but it’s clear he’s a cloud giant. He speaks:

It was convenient to meet with you, and I have some interest in hearing from you.

Carrock says “You honor us by meeting with us”. I do.

 

“We shall talk, but first I have questions for you.”

To Carrock: wants to know more about the faenare. Carrock sings some psalms… he says “What did her voice sound like?” He looks annoyed for a second, then looks distant… and says … “it was musical”.

 

To Al: “You were able to change a magical effect without using magic on the way up here. How did you learn to do this?”

He says, I knew that this was possible, and this time, I got lucky. I knew that this is how the gods cast spells, and I was trying to do the same thing.

 

To all: you all know some immortal tongue, which is unusual. But it also requires intelligence that humans, faenare, and elves can’t normally have. How did you do this?” Efrim gives the Sky Lantern reward explanation.

 

He also asks:

Why are you so interested in guest books?

Why are you so interested in extraplanar creatures?

Why are you so interested in the outer planar due north region? And in particular Syntheros?

 

He seems quite interested in our Syntheros research. We fill in some information about the shattering of the planes, protecting ourselves from outer planar creatures, warring factions of immortals, and returning faded gods. While we are talking, a map of the northern outer planes appears on the throne behind him, and a new plane shows up 2 off of demigods hearth, with a halo.

 

He confirms “The Maker’s Mountain is small compared to Mt Vsster. The firmament breaks in different places. [It’s a smaller vein off the main mountain.]”

 

“You want to ask about Mt Vsster… Few mortals have ever heard me say this… I don’t really know. I haven’t taken a great interest in this area.”

 

The Tea Party…

“I will say that we were friends and allies, but I won’t tell you why. You’re too young to understand, but friendships that seemed like they would last forever seem like ships passing in the night.”

 

“We discussed our common interests, our shared plots, our love of things, knowledge, and life. We were friends.”

 

We are hoping to find allies among some of those that were in your tea group. Are there some that we should not pursue as we look for support for our god?

“You surely can’t know, but surely everyone of them will admit that each one loved her.”

 

You are correct, you can’t guess what is in someone’s heart. Can you direct us to any of those from the tea group so that we can ask them directly?

 

[The book Efrim was reading says Serram was one of the 27. The god of originality and procreation. He was one of the few human gods who freely changed genders.]

 

Al asks about libraries of giants to learn more about the age of giants.

“There is a great library in the outer planes, but I don’t think you would be allowed to visit. Many of the immortals have impressive libraries, but you won’t be allowed to visit. There are two libraries you could visit though. One on Fell. If you go … there some ruins near the ancient battle grounds. There are still some giant colonies that live in the ruins. Their library has some of the oldest texts there are. There is also a well preserved library, collecting books until about 3 or 4,000 BC in a tower on Citadel by some of its occupants. That tower was originally occupied by different gods. Like interior States. One of them had a great collection of books. Probably the 15^th or 16^th floor. ”

 

Can you tell me what names Chrysma has been known by?

“Yes, there are three. Thya, Thorn, and Crys.”

 

Any ID on the other tea friends?

Gar is Garl Glitterload the gnome. Meina is still alive, her name is Myrna. And Rethim now goes by Retsugo (god of honor, allegiance and loyalty. Matonn says that he’s retired and declining).

 

Carrock asks about the titan that he’s always asking about.

 

“Well, you’re in luck. He’s in service to the sphere of thought. He’s currently serving in the outer plane Wold. It’s a permission based plane. Only members of the council can grant access.”

 

Might we have access, or petition the council? Need anything carried there?

 

“I tell you what. Investigate on the prime, look for the greatest political thinkers you can find. They have a defined ideology. Pick the three or four best ones. Petition Koritiku for permission to deliver the books to people on that plane. Make good copies of their best books, and go to Wold bearing these books. As long as they are books that they don’t have books on that plane you’ll get permission. Increase your chances of meeting that titan, look for leaders that have themes of justice and fairness.”

 

SERRAM (also OPERATION SMOKE SCREEN)

Lackshmi does communication with the priestess that helped make her preserve tower, from Mitterstorm.

 

On the other hand, as she often said, there’s nothing more important in this life than to be ready to accept your own death. So one should be ready to accept… it also means that you shouldn’t overvalue your own life too much.

 

Whether the deity you seek would be in any position to form any kind of alliance with your mother depend on the circumstances under which this happens. How formidable the alliance formed around her is.

 

*did the deity know that we’ve been speaking with other powers, and with whom? She mentioned that she knew that we haven’t been completely mentally forthright.

I don’t know what motivates these stories, but I suppose they knew that she was in the far outer planes, and they encountered a drydon. I don’t know why they did that, or that you could survive being swallowed by a drydon.”

 

Do you know that she was in the far outer planes?

Yes

Do you know where she is?

Yes

Will you tell us where?

What would you do if you knew…

 

We’d prep for unfading, we’d check alliances, we’d ensure sanctuary…

 

She tells us what we should do when we go to that place.

1. 1. Purging the plane of undead. The entire plane.
   2. Composing beautiful music in her name
   3. Teaching her teachings
   4. A bunch of ceremonies

These are the things you would want to do. It would be best to do it on the plane where her life force currently reside. She’s reluctant to reveal it until the time is right. Because if anyone gets a hold of any of us, and forces the secret out, then the secret would be lost.

Can you temper our eagerness to give us some way to know when it’s an appropriate time?

She asks: how many children are there? Where do you get your spells? Do you get all the druid spells? Do you have any idiosyncratic spells? [yes] then it’s not just like druid…

So it’s outside the normal rules, just like thanatos’ power structure is outside the normal rules…

The plan………

I know you have grand ambitions. How can it be brought to fruition? Building an alliance, making sure there are many that would support your mother, making sure she’s relatively safe. Making sure you have a sufficient number of followers… you already have sufficient number of followers that she would return to us if you went to her and did the ceremony we described. But we would want her to come back strongly. And for that, the more the better. Twice what you have currently would be great.

She says the bump in fertility in the preserve was indicative of a third party getting involved and further helping. Only a god or goddess, involved in fertility or life could do that.

She does not recommend pursuing Garl Glitterload as an ally. At the time, everyone in the tea club was interested in creativity and innovation, and didn’t like the direction the rebel sphere was going in…

Any insight into the trick her oldest lover figured out?

Has something to do with knowing where souls go when they die. Knowing the location……

Who else might we want to talk to? Who would be safe?

Having you go around asking questions and probing with little clues about the plot would not be safe.

You should let the deity you seek probe and see how much sympathy there is for her cause. The problem is that the deity you seek can’t communicate with you, even by dream, on the plane where you reside.

We suggest that the deity send a priest to the Prime and start recruiting. Suggest a couple of possible bases.

What about worshippers following an alias? Like Thya or Thorn?

She says, there has only been one Thya, but there have been multiple Thorns, so that would be less threatening…

“Thorn” has a great historical meaning because the early human gods saw themselves as thorns in the side of the established order.

Is there a current Thorn?

Not in the sense that you’re looking for, but in the figurative sense there is. Immortals use the metaphor all the time.

To make sure they are honoring this “Thorn”, make sure they are using her teaching and using the ceremonies of her.

Efrim mentions that he has a foundling religion already in the works. All we need is a divine power source to plug in. We could turn over the Tae Ullari religious structure to Serram.

Ok…. The spells would have to be totally vanilla, nothing that could be traced back. Do you think these “clerics in waiting” could easily be turned over to the mother’s teachings?

It’s a duel goddess, day and night, so we could power up one aspect. Give them turn undead. Realign the teachings so that they are completely in line with that of the nameless goddess.

The core philosophical debate was whether life could have meaning without any kind of end to that life. If you just have an infinite possibility for your own life… all gods and goddesses should be prepared to accept their own deaths. And that all people should do the same. Yes, she believes in the cycle of life, like druids, but it doesn’t have any meaning if there is no end point to it.

Just for reference, the mummy says that a new movement should pop up somewhere between planar coordinates 270 and 275.

Outkopf Preserve, that protected plane, is 268. Pflarr is part of that council, plus Serram, plus the other tea club. There are no enemies on the council of that plane. It would be perfect as a place to set up base, if we can get in. BTW, this is a pre-white wave plane. So it’s reserved for magical research. It also has strange magical properties.

We come out and ask her about Natane, and a possible teacher that led the way. She says that Natane was one of them, a fellow traveler. And he didn’t make it. He contracted a disease that he could not cure. The 27 were just the right people, in the right location, at the right time.

Can you describe a disease that felled him?

Let’s just call it a soul sickness.

Is there a theory that he was assassinated?

Absolutely.

What is under the bakka plates????

You’re talking about Nar’s memorial? I guess Nar’s corpse. Right? The deity doesn’t remember…

He chose to die. Nar could not join them because he was not a magician.

There was another of the 27 that was a magician that still allowed himself to die of old age, and he and Nar grew old together. It’s depicted in a painting.

The 27 went through so much together, cooped up together fighting for survival. Acts of tremendous generousity, tremendous regret, and that went on for centuries. And among them they had their own heroes. Nar, the guy who chose to die – Fynnis (the one watching calmly looking up), Elstir, and Natane. For 1000 years you couldn’t reflect on them without coming to tears. But as time passes, even those truly exceptional acts of generosity can fade. So, it can be said that Finnis influenced the nameless goddess.

The story has inspired us…

The best thing you can do is bring forth the story of Elstir, copy the images, and tell his story. Go to his memorial. If you think it’s such a good story, tell it, and that may move many people to rally around the cause and support the original rebel sphere.

There was a guardian at Elstir’s memorial, we couldn’t get in.

Clay’s idea: Al could use the Eye to enter the dreams of mortals, and give the story to a playwright, or a travelling troupe of actors or something.

So how do we get into the memorial?

There is a guardian that will only let one of the 27 immortals in. She thinks…. There’s a password. THE MUMMY GIVES US THE PASSWORD.

The guard is a metallic immovable thing, with huge magic immunities. [JT: he’s a tough ass.] The servitor would *probably* let us in even invisibly. Use the password, don’t try to engage.

Ideas to talk about further when we meet with the mummy again:

1. 1. Outsource the story of the 27, make it public knowledge
   2. Start a movement, located in the vicinity of where the goddess rests. (270-2750
   3. Adopt the existing religious structure in Tae Ullari (Tau)
   4. Serram speaks to other gods that seem to be promising allies. Probing without committing or revealing too much.
   5. Revive the religion of the goddess beyond the reach of other gods (further than 12 out).
      1. 1. There’s a certain protection if no one is even aware of it.
         2. It’s out in the wild. Not much influence on the inner planes. We’re also not sure if we are hardy enough to survive ourselves.
         3. But as soon as you can cast spells without the yance artifacts you should be fine (but then you detect as immortal, so that’s not good).
   6. We think there is some evidence that there are other supporters already. The 2^nd fertility bump is part of that. Know of anyone else? … Jaigon? Owl god, whoever that is. Who? She asks. We come clean. She says Construction sounds like Wayland or Garl Glitterload. But it sounds like someone who’s really devoted to this rebel idea. It seems like a younger god.. it’s probably Jaigon.
      1. Retsugo?

What would be critical mass?

OTHER OPERATION BIRD BREAK SMOKE SCREEN DETAILS

(Side note: Equus brought Ornit’s Lance of Doom to the Healer, and she said thanks, and destroyed it on the spot).

First stop is 9 Kingdoms. We go in via the node by the Bite. Short trip. Enter, create some faenare to hang out. Do some scrying. Use Immortal Eye to look around various kingdoms. (can look at a site on a plane where the immortal is running plots (and has followers)).

(Side note: Cradle, Reason, Citadel are the planes with Jade Towers)

Simistrum Blue is often described as declining. Ruled by humanoid gods of entropy. Famous for abandoned blue steel hearths. There is a famous moment in beastland where the Blue Knife appeared and all the humanoids were fighting over it.

(Side Note: we took some Azure data to our Nagpa phenologist who is interested in how pronunciations change over millennia, and he confirms that “Sakkrad” would have been pronounced “Zakared” originally.)

Koryeskist – magic item shopping. Temple visiting.