Fin

Thank you all for an amazing, successful, experimental, conceptual, strange, exciting, organic, character-driven, trying, promising, creative, frustrating, memorable, well-cared-for game!

177: Unknown Kadath

176: Memory of Yog-Sothoth

175.5: Ideal Selves

175: Hlanith

The Final Stretch

Here's the schedule for the remaining sessions. I've included a few 'bonus' sessions on Wednesdays for anyone who can make it. I figure in many circumstances, added rp can be possible.

11/5

bonus 11/6

11/12

bonus 11/13

11/19

bonus 11/20

11/26

12/3

12/10

bonus 12/11

finale 12/17

epilogue 12/18

174.5: Heart-Shaped Boxes

174: The Yth-Bound Relics

173: Cat and Mouse

172.5, The Saucer of the Supreme Dalek (Relic)

13th Age Halloween One-Shot, 10/29/13

Hi all!

Just giving a heads up that, besides the schedule planned for Oct - December below, we WILL be having our annual Halloween one-shot. It will be run using 13th Age. It will be an adaptation of "Crown of the Lich King", the first level adventure in the Tales of the 13th Age organized play initiative.

But what's a Halloween game without a twist? You will each be playing one of the iconic undead races (zombie, ghoul, wight, ghost, whatever) and instead of seeking to prevent the crown from falling into the hands of our own resident lich king Azalin Rex the Time Lich, you're tasked with recovering it for him, thus granting him the power needed to further delay the Yth invasion of Cadavera (and maybe reclaim his little slice of the dark continent, too, which is currently in bloody civil war as the regional governors vie for control).

While we could get all fancy with custom races, lets keep it simple for our first go in the new system. I'll be emailing everyone the full rules PDF in the near future. Choose a standard race and make your class/background/one unique thing/powers/appearance thematic to your undead persuasion. You will be level 1, and may use one of the sample arrays for stats, so long as at least 1 stat is below 10.

172: The Slumbering Stairs

Tuesday's Game & Future Plans

Tuesday 10/1 will be the solo exploits of Narra, Relic, and Caiphon. My goal is to have the next two weeks following (10/8 and 10/15) be exclusively for the Dreamlands. Hopefully everyone comes back together on 10/22 to begin the final run and, over the course of November and December, we finish out strong (I also have a lot of days off in those two months, so it only helps my prep for the big finish).

I may take 10/29 to run a solo Halloween-themed one-shot for the whole group, still set in the Legacy setting, and still relevant (delaying the Yth attack on Cadavera, actually), but with lower-level alts. More info to come on that.

This Tuesday's Game

will be for my solo PCs not in the Dreamlands, namely Relic, Caiphon, and Narra. I apologize for alternating weeks, but until things get back to normal (Mom is doing well in the hospital and could be home again the middle of this week, potentially even Tuesday night) I'm going to have to take it slow.

171: The Ythian Conundrum

Patarm 21st, 21st Year After Shalraza

Diana awoke aboard one of the Solis ships, alive and well. A notion and a song in her head, she assembled the party via chaos-bats with some very unusual results. In the Saspish Observatory, the vast array of knowledge collected fro Abdul Alhazred's tomb and the recounting of Diana's ordeal with Nyarlathotep, spurred some heady and heavy conversation.

During the speculations and tentative planning, Eilessa realized one of her bast had at long last arrived. Like Tavishan,

The Doctor was waiting for Relic as he exited the observatory, mumbling about something else having been caught in the temporal snare along with the bast and himself. The machine-man had only to ask when a flying saucer overshadowed the city and a high-pitched voice shrieked via immense megaphones, "Surrender the Doc-tor, or be EX-TERM-INATED!"

Meanwhile, Caiphon spent his time on the song-laced paradise moon of Io (location of the Legacy) imparting what knowledge of star children, world trees, and cosmic prophecy he could to the leaders of the initiative.

170: Natural and Unnatural Worlds

Patarm 20th, 21st Year After Shalraza

Relic and Maven began the exhausting work of organizing the treasure-trove of eldritch knowledge kept within the burial chamber, while Christopher and the Doctor plunged into the Abyss to retrieve Gloriandel. It was a difficult journey, one which placed them deeper than any recorded text. The highking was fleeing for his life against the surging tide of corruption and darkness that was a (presumably) trapped Shub-Niggurath. Which Christopher's aid, the ancient elf narrowly entered the TARDIS before being ripped back into the chaos. The Doctor, in turn, just barely made it out before the Great Old One was able to breach the hull.

Back in the tomb, Gloriandel explained that Maven was a part of something Ythian and horrible in the ancient past, and that his use of the Elder Sign in the binding of his daughter was quite intentional and necessary. Relic insisted her piece was necessary and the elf eventually relented, though forced a promise from all present that - when the time came - Maven would be dealt with in whatever way necessary.

Perusing some of the forbidden literature, various theories were developed to try and utilize the vast store of information contained in the tomb, ideas like binding all the Yth to Maven and, thus, Creation. The others would need to be told of their successes, and with that the five split: Relic and Christopher off to seek the others, while Gloriandel, Maven, and the Doctor sought the lend their assistance in the construction of the Legacy (placing some of the most brilliant and talented minds in this universe and one other on the project).

-

Tyvis, Caiphon, Eilessa, and Narra escaped Xoth and the enraged Toben, who launched a nuclear strike against the city just a few minutes shy of incinerating the party. Once in space, the party was attacked by the Xothi Leviathan, but Narra was able to phase it out of time-space long enough to sever its spectral tether to the planet. When it returned, it thrashed and gulped like a fish out of water and flew with all haste back to the zombified orb. Eilessa and Narra were able to kickstart the Tesseract and make it to the Legacy base, while Caiphon and Tyvis met with the refugees of Barovia (and Helena Weylan had it out with Craius for "being difficult", and Chiela's budding relationship with Nelson seemed to grow.).

-

Diana found herself on the alien shores of Vhoorl, a throneworld of the Ythlords, and in the company of Nyarlathotep. He intended her to be the go-between of Yth and Life, but only in the capacity one would hire a mortician. She had different ideas, namely coexistence. When Nyarlathotep receded under the waves, Diana transformed herself into a Void-being, not so very different from a Yth, and followed. In such a form, she heard the endless voices of the aberrations as a kind of celestial music. Her unusual meeting ended with the intriguing notion Nyarlathotep may want to see creation spared. He even offered her a clue, or the hooks to an insidious and obvious trap, lyrics to a song called "Wrap your Troubles in Dreams".

169: Zombie, Zombie, Zooooooombie-bie-bie

Patarm 19th, 21st Year After Shalraza

Relic and Christopher befriended the shrouded stranger Maven, whose hieroglyphic face-plate told a sad story of unsanctioned love between a daughter of Highking Gloriandel and an elven caliph of Que'tesh. For disobeying her father (the specifics of which were undocumented), she was cursed to suffer eternal living death as a mummy. She didn't seem too upset, her mind addled and her memories foggy after thousands of years of solitude. Similarly, she couldn't say exactly how she ended up bound in a tomb sealed by portions of the Elder Sign.

Christopher was able to recover both pieces of the sonic screwdriver, and Relic and the Doctor were able to reassemble it. Using the screwdriver, the Doctor disarmed the remainder of the tomb's traps. Many precious tomes containing lore on the Yth and pieces of the Elder Sign were recovered. Even Maven's own bandages held a potent element of the sign as if chance, fate, or destiny were almost willing them to uncover the ancient and amicable protection.

The quartet ultimately found themselves standing before the final seal protecting Alhazred's burial chamber, a living expression of the Elder Sign using bound elder elementals ranging fire and water to slime and salt. Like the open rifts earlier, balance was key to unlocking the portal safely. Relic and Christopher used their considerable mechanical and arcane knowledge to draw out elementals two at a time, either combining them (and sending them back to their home plane in the cancellation) or slipping them back through the open rifts. Several elementals threatened to break free, however the automaton and the fledgling dragon god worked quite well in tandem.

Beyond, they found the sarcophagus of the learned Abdul Alhazred bathed in white fire, which Relic, Christopher, and the Doctor recognized instinctively as the Secret Fire, the fire of wisdom, knowledge, and understanding (a lasting expression from the positive Ethereal attuned closely with the Power of Creation). It was a rare phenomenon reserved for only the most scholarly and altruistic-- telling quite a revealing tale of the sorcerer who many wrote off as an insidious madman. His many shelves and chests overflowing with notes, journals, and other studies identified him a champion and defender of Creation. However, even his genius was overcome by the immensity of comprehending and combating the Yth. The defense of the worlds is more than any one set of shoulders, one mind, or one soul could ever bear. His curiosity became a duty became an obsession and, finally, pure insanity. However his research into ritual practices for summoning, binding, and commanding outsiders was truly unparalleled. Similarly, his work on deciphering the Elder Sign was more comprehensive than anything the four had ever seen (and the Doctor had seen a lot).

The Doctor recovered his TARDIS with the aid of the screwdriver and the four intended to depart. Unfortunately, Maven was unable to follow into the miraculous device, still bound by the unyielding curse. Relic, familiar with Gloriandel's return, Sent a plea to release the elf lord's unloved daughter. His response was short and stern, that he was busy, and through the highking's eyes Relic saw a nightmarish scene: Gloriandel was buried deep in the Abyss, deeper than any non-demon had ever dared to delve, and was fighting a potentially infinite horde from all directions as he struggled upward (perhaps related to his 'dealing' with Shub-Niggurath).

It was agreed the Doctor and Christopher would extract Gloriandel, while Relic and Maven would begin organizing Alhazred's materials. Hopefully Diana would be along soon...

-

Meanwhile, across the solar system, Tyvis, Narra, Eilessa, and Caiphon hovered above the radioactive planet of Xoth, a futuristic wasteland overrun with contagious zombies which had recently been conquered by Toben the Many. Desperate for the Blackheart in his possession, and with the shadow of the throneworlds stretching over Cadavera, the four determined the Xothi Leviathan was the best target for the Tesseract's rejuvenation beam. Little was known of the leviathans, but their well being could be intimately linked to the health of their planets.

Moving into 'optimum firing range', the hypercube unleashed its ray... with little affect. The planet-wide corruption was too strong, despite a small patch of the creature momentarily returning to a more natural tree-frog orange. The amphibious leviathan retaliated with a tongue lash so powerful it impaled the ship and quickly drew it down toward the fallout-crusted bay serving as its wading pond. Alarms blared, purification exhausts hissed, power cells flickered, and the internal equilibrium of the ship was lost. The party was thrown hard. Narra was nearly killed for the system shock, but managed to briefly phase the entire leviathan out of time-space.

The hypercube made an emergency landing on a nearby helipad and teleported just out of orbit, turning its restorative powers inward (the ETA of which remains uncertain). With Craius facilitating a drama playing out between the Waylans and all the native Barovians they hoped to take with them, the Xothi group was on their own. 

Eilessa was able to sense the whereabouts of an Anubian artifact, what must have been the har'venoth, though pinpointing its location was no more specific than 'that building'. It happened to be the same building Caiphon sensed an immense kind of necromancy, suspecting the actual Toben could be inside. Not far, Narra felt the fragile and trembling psyches of survivors (some only children). It seemed their path was clear, as Tyvis's hawk-like eyes scanned for trouble.

Initially, the Many were oblivious, already distracted from the previous leviathan vs. vessel battle. The leviathan rematerializing in a loud splash and thunderous croark provided a second diversion. Unfortunately, zombies under a singular consciousness proved much more difficult to evade than masses of their mindless counterparts, and it was only minutes later the party was spotted. With the cries of millions, zombies swarmed, heaping and piling against the sides of the building, flooding the lower storeys, and threatening to kill them by leaping out the windows of much higher skyscrapers in crazed kamikaze fashion. As the party took to the air, stray shots from the mingled crowd's gun-toting corpses threatened to take them out.

Once on the roof of the target building, the party plunged through a skylight and inside a penthouse, hoping to extract the Blackheart and escape before the full zombie horde could reach them. Despite ice walls, couch barricades, and old fashioned locked doors, the Many could not be resisted. No sign of the Blackheart, either. The party broke through the floor and delved deeper into the infested building, a combination of Eilessa and Narra's auras the only things keeping a crowded hall of flesh-eaters at bay. There they confronted Toben in the body of a mangled, young gangbanger.

Eilessa appealed to Toben's sense of survival, but he refused to surrender his most prized possession, his partner, his love, for nothing. Toben was already a selfish and twisted being. The Blackheart's influence had only made it worse. And she did NOT want to be surrendered. Narra promised to respect the solidarity of his conquered planet, but still Toben was not satisfied. He wanted Loranna, too, which the party outright refused. Then he asked for the Wyld, for Cadavera, for one of the orphan worlds. He wanted the Many to grow beyond even his four plus billion. When threatened with annihilation by the Yth, Toben had a truly terrifying epiphany, enveloping Yth into the Many, which the goddess immediately regretted inspiring...

Caiphon decided to quickly change the subject by granting Toben the potential for a whole universe in the form of a star child, namely him, which alarmed the group, especially Narra. Eilessa had a vague notion he was misleading Toben when he summoned mirror images of himself, but had her doubts when all of them stepped into the undead crowd and offered their naked wrists. Toben also had his doubts, but the promise of his own universe was just too tempting not to take. He offered up his precious Blackheart, spurring a sudden and half-expected double cross. Narra and Eilessa destroyed Toben's avatar and snatched the heart, even as Caiphon rematerialized in the safety of their combined auras.

What followed was a howl of rage multiplied by the population of an entire planet, enough to deafen and disorient all within the claustrophobic hall as the whole world attacked.

-

And Diana was invited to dine with Nyarlathotep on the scenic shores of alien Vhoorl...

168: Strangeness During These, The Final Days

Liberace Strahd in an alternate universe. 'nuff said? The Yth are playing some dirty tricks, laying dimensional traps in key locations, seeking to confound progress made against them. As it stands, Cadavera has only a few short days, counted in hours, before the throneworlds of the invading Ythlords arrive and annihilate it. Real Strahd is quite adamant he'll survive and has bent every resource at his disposal toward aiding the party. Unfortunately, Narra wasn't having that, at least not until she could go with Tyvis, Eilessa, and Caiphon and supply a safer and more efficient means of approach. The Tesseract and Pyramid circle Xoth, the zombie apocalypse planet, where a corrupted Leviathan, Toben the Four Billion, a very uncooperative Blackheart, and whatever they cooked up as guardians have made a post-nuked planet their stronghold.

Meanwhile, The Doctor and one of Eilessa's Bast were found in brain cylinders installed in Alhazred's tomb. The former was freed and inhabited one of Relic's makeshift bots, helping the party overcome challenges and retrieve tomes. He'd apparently been looking for the same thing as the party, pieces of the Elder Sign, which he took to be a life-giving equation of such complexity it would confound even the Nestene Consciousness, something like a Yth which is wreaking havoc in his home universe. Along the way, he lost his sonic screwdriver and TARDIS, which he intimated was VERY bad if the wrong hands figured them out. With any luck, they're somewhere in the tomb... In fact, Christopher might have found a piece being examined by The Shrouded Man, some entity bound by Alhazred in the days he still breathed.

Creations front lines have been decimated. The remainder of the Gith fleet, the spirits, and the Primordials regroup now on the moon-base housing Legacy. The desert planet Garobus and the blood moon, Kali, have been destroyed.

And Diana's deep and cathartic mind-meld with the Bast led to her following Christopher Blackwing's wormy consciousness through tunnels in space-memory, somewhere dark in the Ethereal most likely, and vacate the cylinder... which caused the Voidpit to ripple... which might have accidentally summoned Nyarlathotep.

Objectives
Narra, Tyvis, Eilessa, Caiphon: Retrieve the Blackheart
Relic, Diana, Christopher: Reassemble the sonic screwdriver, reclaim the TARDIS, collect the pieces of the Elder Sign, and perhaps most importantly recover the rituals for binding djinn and angels (the more preferable means of collecting the Maelstrom and Heaven ships)

167: Seeking the Sign

LEVEL UP 28

Synopsis

• Narra, Christopher, Relic, and Diana
• Becoming Reacquainted
• A lesson on how Diana deals with rejection... (not well)
• Relic's Lab
• Sol Engine
• The Elder Sign (and the tomes of forbidden lore): Knowledge to repel, banish, imprison, and even kill things as powerful as royal djinn, archdevils, demonlords, and of course Yth.
•  The Tomb of Abdul Alhazred
• THREE false entrances? Really...
• An Elder Seal: A combination of holy symbols, clan shields, runes, sigils, heraldry, and esoteric knots spanning Loranna and beyond.
  
• A failed Yth breach through the underground river...
• Writings on the Wall
• Names of the 41 Ythlords 
• The Complete G'harne Fragments

•  Failed Apprentices: A trap that kept on growing in power with the souls of those who would follow the Mad Azerbadi for the wrong reasons, power-hungry apprentices, undisciplined scholars, tomb raiders, etc, etc...
  
• Blessings of the Damned, and Merciful Release

•  The Well of the Wise

•  Tyvis, Caiphon, and Eilessa
• The Church of Starry Wisdom
• Ythian Madness
• The Yth Artifact: Shining Trapzeohedron 

• Interrupting the Ritual (with a tornado)
• Encasing the hedron within stone
• Then Things Get Weird...

• Tyvis  
• 
  
• Caiphon and Eilessa are transported to 'New England' (1920s), just outside Providence, where the majority of their powers were neutralized through a very weak spectrum of power sources
• Encountered bootleggers in the woods, then taken to a cabin hideout at gunpoint. 
• Yth had infiltrated this world, as well, and some nameless hunting aberration chased Caiphon and Eilessa through the woods (after their deftly overcame the gunman through a little seduction and a knife).
• After finally opening the rift between worlds with her sacred bolt, two boyscouts appeared on the scene, in imminent danger with the hunter lurking about. Caiphon pulled them close and Eilessa bombarded the Yth with  attacks, not least of which a javelin through the chest, before it went still.
• Caiphon clasped Tyvis's outstretched hands and returned, and after comforting and motivating the conscious boyscout to go and find help for his friend (in shock), she returned as well.

166: Together Again

165: Unspeakable

Synopsis (Partarm 15th, 21st Year After Shalraza):

Prologue: An Archdruid Redeemed

Aboard the Tesseract
Hastur, City of Tombs
Behold, The King in Yellow
Carceri's Destruction, and the death of a friend
Isabella's Sacrifice
The Dragon Reborn
The Merciful Night

Objectives: Complete the Legacy by retrieving its missing pieces: Blackheart and the vessels of both the Maelstrom and Heaven. Bolster the last lines of Yg-Raya's defense by whatever means necessary. Avoid Nyarlathotep and its agents at all costs.

Level: Currently 27

163: The Guest in Yellow

Synopsis (Patarm 14th of the 21st Year After Shalraza):


Diana

Meanwhile,

Endymion apologizes

Eilessa recognized the crystal ball

Drelzna arrived with Diana, Ireena, and Grigore in tow. Caiphon immediately recognized the babe as a star child and rejoiced, quietly informing the goddess. They thought to keep it to themselves until Ireena, at Drelzna's behest, revealed the child's potential to the delegation. The Prince of Hastur's eyes transfixed on Grigore.


Dasein recognized the potential threat, as did many in the party, and feigned his rejection of the peace offering in hopes of distracting the Yth-agent and providing plausible excuse for the attendees to find safe distance. It worked, to a point, as Dasein cast a quick spell which ejected everyone from the curtain-enclosed council table. All, save the Azerbadi prince, who stood slowly and let the great, crimson shroud fall over him. It quickly stained ochre...

The Prince of Hastur was in fact the King in Yellow. Even the most advanced psychic, divine, and arcane detections could not expose it, though the party had a growing suspicion since first laying eyes on him. Isabella provided a magic pearl and instant means of escape for Drelzna, Ireena, and the precious star child, though the Ythlord assured her "nowhere is safe". 

Narra quickly teleported the deserving delegates out of immediate danger (and maybe a few undeserving), though the infamous Divine Inquisitor Valdemar Volker was not one of them. His face melted off as his mind was turned inside out from the growing impossibility of the Ythlord's presence. 

Dasein dropped the illusion, revealing himself as Highking Gloriandel, joining Endymion and the party as one of the most powerful congregations that could possibly be assembled in the light of Yg-Raya.

Sufficiently wounded, the aspect of the Unspeakable One retreated back into Loranna. The planet's destruction seemed imminent. Endymion agreed to help complete the Legacy, Narra's secret weapon involving the hearts, ships, and helms, while Gloriandel decided to dispatch the lesser Ythlord in the Wyld- despite Tyvis's warning of the fragile balance it created with the Green God. Of all people, the emperor agreed to teleport Tyvis to Sev in hopes of salvaging a powerful potential champion- though he couldn't vouch for what happened afterward. Giving Craius proper instructions, the Archdruid again braved the unknown, finally meeting with his antithesis.

Narra took the others to the Tesseract, where she would reveal the details of the Legacy.


Objectives:

Experience: Level Up 27!

162: United We...

Synopsis:

Part 1: Preparations (Patarm 12-13 of the 21st Year AS)
Tyvis and Narra concluded diplomatic relations with the shexill queen quite amiably, even if the alien parasites nature and methods were a little gruesome. Narra gleaned that the majority of the Yth are mindless and easily led/ambushed, however two of their lords were terrifyingly clever: Nyarlathotep and the King in Yellow.

They attempted to beseech the Kr'llyand Leviathan for aid, but it was decided unimpressed. Ultimately, Tyvis and Narra decided to keep the planet out of the conflict for as long as possible given the peoples' primitive technologies and (outside the very structured Great Civilization) chaotic nature.

Eilessa and Caiphon learned a great deal about each other's origins, magic, methods, and the supposed nature of the star children, starry maidens, suns, and Life itself when opposed to Entropy and the forces of the Yth. Later on, Eilessa brokered bodies for her sixty-six wards with the vampire queen. Caiphon also introduced himself to the others, wretched though he was. Apparently there was a connection between Caiphon, wild magic, and perhaps Diana that could be explored in the future.

Isabella and Christopher concluded talks with Kaylan, while Diana took a magic bubble leaving trails of leaping, white rabbits and fluttering butterflies (oh, wild magic...) in order to investigate the state of her commissioned astral ships in Ribcage.

Isabella later provided initial funding into her royal mage's 'counterspell' research, using Christopher's universe's gestures and incantations as a guide. Three times the Dragon Prince questioned Ayasha's methods, though she only bristled for realizing his deeper understanding of magic (and her own limits in the process).

As days passed, the party slowly reconvened in the bowels of Castle Saspien to be whisked away to the heart of the Holy Nors Empire.

Part 2: The Imperial Summit (Patarm 14th of the 21st Year AS)
Jewel of Mankind, Noran, in the Crimson Keep...
Exhaustive list of delegates as follows...
Familiar faces...
Divine Inquisitor and Archbishop shenanigans...
Appearance of the emperor...

Objectives: In the immediate future, maintain peace at the imperial summit and make sure no one tries to use the delegation to enact something sinister. Help the Lorannans steer their world closer to peace and end futile hostilities.

In the long term, address the matters of Sev Torban, Shub-Niggurath, the Ythlord below Hastur, and various personal and secretive plots in anticipation for the eventual collapse of the Yg-Rayan front lines (currently Primordials and their archwardens, Primal Spirits, and the bulk of the Gith Armada slowing the approach of the Ythian throneworlds).

Experience: currently level 26

161: There is Good in This Universe

Synopsis:
Eilessa restored Tavishan's soul and, with the help of Nimue and sixty-six redeemed souls, converted Kostitchtie's Torc into her divine respite for the lost and weary. Nimue transferred her consciousness into the demiplane, becoming one of Eilessa's true angels and leaving the Pureheart vacant of a personality.

Tyvis and Narra traveled to Kr'llyand, encountered the reptilian xill, found a surprisingly insect-like society, and discovered the reason lay in their parasitic shexill queen. Survivor of The Great Civilization (destroyed by the Yth), the shexill queen had selectively bred the xill, cir'nak, quitiesh, and draan over the course of ten-thousand generations toward the goal of establishing a second Great Civilization. She made a few 'improvements' as well to immunize them from Yth attacks, including thinking and communicating through chemicals and pheromone clouds (impervious to most psychic attacks), and giving them a more aberrant nature to resist the strange warps and radiations of the Devourer and its ilk.

Narra agreed to link minds with the shexill queen in hopes of discovering some advantage against the Yth in her memories. However the queen herself seems rather Ythian...

Isabella and Christopher continued their visit with the prophet, the Dragon Prince being met with a surprising amount of grace from his alternate-universe mother. Their meal was interrupted by a very rude agent of the Solis, an ugly crone who claimed to have usurped leadership from Sleria. It was only in the last moments of the act that the women realized this hag was in fact Diana returned! A joyful reunion was had by all and minds set to new purpose, the emperor's impending summit and the remaining terrestrial and extraterrestrial enemies on their doorstep.

Objectives: see 159
Experience: level 26

160: The Importance of Being Epic

Synopsis: (pending side completions)

Tyvis met with several of his fellow archdruids in Eglantine, discussing strategies for the inevitable confrontation with Sev Torban. They also located the world tree Tyvis transplanted from the Siege to the Wyld, safely hidden in the likeness of an unassuming tree amidst thousands in the Silverwood.

Isabella and Christopher visited Kaylan Gloriandel in the camp of the free elves, situated around the fallen Celinduil in the ruins of New Veluvia. Kaylan took the news of Thamior's demise better than could have been expected, though her love for the small glimmer of that noble prince would never diminish.

The prophet's efforts to resurrect the golden wyrm remain fruitless, though the late dragon's daughter Rees Duilbrood holds out hope. Isabella and Kaylan made political plans and reaffirmed their undying friendship to one another.

Kaylan also revealed her grandfather had visited her hours prior, and that he and her mother have gone ahead to Corellon to join with the Seldarine and begin transplanting the elven populace from Othyr to the virgin continent. Kaylan's best paladins were already en route to Hastur to retrieve Bella, who would go on ahead of herself and baby Christopher.

Later on, Narra and Tyvis met within the Lord Archdruid's alabaster pyramid to discuss the orphaned worlds which now took shelter in the light of Yg-Raya. A miraculous technology known as arks had allowed for the safe movement of whole planets and their moons, created, Narra surmised, by a civilization long since destroyed (neither the Ibha Varana or Anubians). The pair intended to approach Brilantium and Kr'llyand in hopes of forging peace and new allies before their enemies could do likewise. Narra also warned the planet Xoth was to remain off limits, as a deep-seated evil had overtaken the entire world.

On Brilantium, they encountered the native species, the empathic and joyful solara, as well as their more socially-savvy protectors in the mercury dragons. Narra learned the living arks were called leviathans, and Brilantiums whale-like leviathan was completely harmonized with the world it inhabited- a truly awe-inspiring and moving creature on an already awe-inspiring and moving world. Alliance was forged, sworn in the name of Oxozebius, elder mercury dragon, and The Seven Dawns, some sort of deciding body of the solara.

Eilessa secluded herself in The Sunny Side Inn's royal suite and began unlocking the mysteries of Kostitchtie's torc with the aid of Nimue (Heart of Heaven), intending to transform the soul-trapping amulet into her own divine plane. She was interrupted by a strange character claiming to be a failed star child, drawn by her renewed divinity as a goddess to wanderers and the weary. He called himself Caiphon.

And a young woman emerged from the shores of St. Sulpice, making her way to Saspien with all haste.

Objectives: (see 159)
Experience: level 26

Sacking the Siege

Free-floating Coin
> AD 1400
> PP 23, 008
> GP 1, 345, 628
> SP 34, 568
> CP 200,000,000 (Charon's Hoard)

Companion Boons
Combat Synergy: When you flank an enemy with your companion, you and your companion gain a +5 item bonus to damage rolls against that enemy.
     Special: Each PC may only use this boon on one, specific companion character. 

Encouraging Presence: While adjacent to you, your companion gains a +3 item bonus to all defenses.
    Special: Each PC may only use this boon on one, specific companion character

2 x Companion Slot: Add a semi-permanent companion to the party, understanding there will be occasions he or she is not viable depending on their life, duties, and the dangers or circumstances of Epic play.

Consumables

• 4 x Alchemist's Essence
• Potion of Life

Armor

• Mundane (totaling 1, 239 pp; mixture of scale, plate, chain, and leather from various civilizations across the Yg-Raya system and the two unknown universes siphoned by the Siege)
• Magical (enchantments are able to be transferred)
• +5 Skeletal Chainmail
• +5 Soulforge Plate
• +5 Mindpatterned Feedback Hide
• Unique (enchantments are unable to be transferred)
• +6 Darkhide Ebon Robes of the Archfiend [Darkhide + Ebon Armor (Hide) + Robes of the Archfiend]
• +6 Spectral Godplate of the Displacer [Godplate + Spectral Plate + Displacer Armor (Plate)]
• +6 Voidhide Robes of the Elven Archbattlemage [Voidhide + Elven Battle Armor (Cloth) + Robes of the Archmage]
• +6 Obsidian Kingmail of Dark Deeds [Kingmail + Obsidian Chain + Armor of Dark Deeds]
• +6 Mindpatterned Robes of the Ectoplasmite [Mindpatterned + Robes of Avoidance + Ectoplasmic Armor (Cloth)]

Weapons

• Mundane (totaling 7,309 pp; mixture of swords, spears, maces, hammers, bows, and crossbows from various civilizations across the Yg-Raya system and the two unknown universes siphoned by the Siege)
• Magical (enchantments are able to be transferred)
• +5 Aftershock Maul
• +5 Manifester Quickbeam (Staff)
• +5 Pinning Spear
• +5 Luckblade (longsword)
• Unique (enchantments are unable to be transferred)
• Pixie (+6 Accurate Rebounding Point Blank Dagger) [Accurate Weapon + Rebounding Weapon + Point Blank Weapon + Dagger]
• Glaumerok (+6 Accurate Exsiccating Icicle Totem/Wand) [Accurate Weapon + Exsiccating Weapon + Icicle Totem + Wand]
• Crond (+6 Aura-Killer Elementalbane Cutting Wheel) [Aura-Killer Weapon + Elementalbane Weapon + Cutting Wheel]
• Redwind ( +6 Strongheart Shapechanger's Sorrow Double Scimitar) [Strongheart Weapon+ Shapechanger's Sorrow Weapon+ Double Scimitar]
• Gray Martyr (+6 Reproachful Healing Blade of Annihilation) [Reproachful Weapon + Healing Weapon + Blade of Annihilation]
• Skire (+6 Subtle Executioner's Axe of Retribution) [Subtle Weapon + Retribution Weapon]
• Taurogair (+6 Swiftshot Skyrender Greatbow)[Swiftshot Weapon + Skyrender Weapon]
• Artifact (enchantments are unable to be transferred)
• Twinned Scythe of the Exgod (+7 Deathmark Frost Fury Deathsteel Scythe of the Reaper)[Deathsteel Weapon + Deathmark Weapon + Frost Fury Weapon + Reaper's Axe + Scythe]

Head Gear

• Artifact (enchantments unable to be transferred)
• Helm of the Exgod (You are immune to necrotic damage; Undead that hit you must save or be dominated (save ends); Ignore the first time you would die and all damage and conditions that would otherwise come with it [daily usage])

Footwear

• Magical (enchantments are able to be transferred)
• Time-Jumping Boots
• Boots of Teleportation
• Boots of Quickness

Waist Items

• Magical (enchantments are able to be transferred)
• Sash of Heroic Inspiration
• Wraith's Cord

• Unique (enchantments unable to be transferred)
• Dragon's Girdle of Titan Strength [Girdle of the Dragon + Belt of Titan's Strength]

Arms

• Magical (enchantments are able to be transferred)
• Reflective Shield

Rings 

• Magical (enchantments are able to be transferred)
• Gargoyle Ring
• Greater Ring of Spell Storing

•  Unique (enchantments unable to be transferred)
• Opal Ring of Fluid Memory [Opal Ring of Remembrance + Ring of Free Time]

Neck

• Magical (enchantments are able to be transferred)
• +6 Soul Shard Talisman
• +6 Greater Necklace of Fireballs
• +6 Star-Strewn Scarf

Wondrous  

• Magical (enchantments are able to be transferred) 
• Charm of Abundant Action
• Mummified Hand 

Anubian Technology

• The Demonstar (Cinnabar Polychoron Vessel of the Abyss)
• Iggwilv's Ring (Helm of the Abyss)

159: Death Has a Name, Mercy

Synopsis

•  

Objectives (in no particular order)

• Seek and destroy the two entrenched Ythlords: Shub-Niggurath in the Nightmare Court (Wyld), and the unnamed menace rooted beneath the sands of Hastur (Loranna) before the Yg-Raya system is lost from within.
• Destroy, defeat, or otherwise deal with the Green God (Sev Torban), whose powers have grown immense with the revival of the five world trees. His vast fey and elemental armies currently battle the dark young of Shub-Niggurath in the blackest reaches of the feyworld.
• Attend the emperor's peace summit between the sovereign powers of Othyr, Tir'buk, and Corellon and ensure this isn't something more sinister.
• Find resolution with Emperor Endymion Norson, be it as friend or foe (or father).
• Gather the errant har'venoth and Anubian vessels in a bid to dupe, stop, or at least slow the approaching throneworlds of the Greater Ythlords (5 on their way).
• Only one har'venoth is unaccounted for- Blackheart of Cadavera, stolen by Toben the Many during the events at Castle Ravenloft. 
• Four ships remain out of the party's control, two known and two unknown. 
• Castle Ravenloft, vessel of Cadavera, remains firmly in the control of Count Strahd von Zarovich. 
• The Palace of the Ur-Pasha, vessel of the Elemental Maelstrom, lies beyond the twelfth gate on the City, under the control of the Ur-Pasha. 
• Loranna's vessel remains unknown.
• Heaven's vessel remains unknown.
• Explore or make contact with the six new alien worlds sheltering in Raya's light, and the living arks bonded with them (allowing for their movement at all). 
• Brilantium, Fomalhaut, Xoth, Kr'llyand, Cykranosh, and Garobus.
• Discover the whereabouts and motives of Gloriandel Returned.
• Avoid at all costs the arrival of the Devourer and the end of the setting.

Experience: currently level 26

158: Springtime for Gabriel

Synopsis:

•  The party reconvened in the ruined seminary and decided to press ahead toward the Mothers' Cloister, where the Altar of the Seven World Trees would allow Isabella to summon two orbs.
• Karana was able to guide them, sensing a deep wrongness with the Primal power to the south of the ship, no doubt tied to whatever offense Gabriel was committing against Nature.

• They passed some vile studies, a collection of clay tablets, and an unusually-placed mirror. At a fork in the passages, Eilessa smelled the distinct aroma of sweet oils and rose water intended to mask the stench of decay. Something undead lay at the bottom of twin stairwells, something that began to sing along with Narra's hopeful aura. Though Narra took this as a potentially good sign, the others feared an enemy that displayed even a portion of the psion's power. Mercy sealed it away behind a thick wall of ice, and Karana agreed to keep it bound with all the force of the glaciers is need be.
• Tyvis was stricken by the defilement behind a set of rather plain-looking double doors, having hears tale of anti-druids that betrayed their sacred trust to actually drained the life out of things in order to fuel their wicked magic. Such was the immensity of the aura, enough to prove fatal to those entirely constituted of primal or arcane essence. Even normal living beings would succumb to their power eventually, but between two archdruid's staving the worst, he believed a quick and direct summon and grab could work. He implored Karana remain behind, which she did, and Narra stayed also to guard her.
• In their waiting, Narra again reached out to Terris-Thule, who deemed it wise to appear before the two. Her aura of terror was not so unlike Narra's aura of hope, and the two saw much common ground between them. Terris-Thule, above all things, desired her true divinity back, feeling, as Karana had once put, trapped, stupid, and small. Narra assured her, in time, she would again be whole, and that in the party's company she might benefit. Terris-Thule accepted the invitation. 
• When Kishar kicked down the defiler's doors, a blast of pollen swept over the party, yellow, itchy, stinging, and irritating the lungs. Tyvis dispelled it with a blast of cold, clearing the corridor ahead for their delve.
• The Mothers' Cloister looked like a massive terrarium, the interior a dust bowl, a desert, with wicker huts and a basket-altar on stilts in the center, emergent from a pentagram of terrible age and power. Gabriel's trident had been freshly etched around the pentagram, hijacking the old magic, but the specters which lurked unseen amidst the dry stillness were epochs old. Circling the pentagram were seven stunted, twisted, petrified trees, the hollow shells of what once were living world trees, the spines of seven Creations long since destroyed.
• Isabella began work on summoning forth the orbs, despite her great apprehension in doing so. Meanwhile, Kishar, spurred on by the uncertainty of the party, hacked into one of the trees with her divine render. It spewed back such a concentrated plume of pollen it threw the goddess back and coated her entirely. She began to gasp, as the pollen coated the interior of her throat and lungs. She was suffocating before their eyes.
• Kishar was saved by Eilessa's quick thinking, using water to forcibly flush out Kishar's airways despite her natural instinct. The goddess vomited back up the water and the pollen and was able to takea breath.
• The pollen began spewing from all seven world trees, and Mercy, with an almost forgotten power, summoned forth rains which cleared a minute area. Tyvis expanded the area with his own orison, around which time the draing and the defilers appeared...
• Clearly undead, ghouls with holes drilled into their heads and bodies constantly gasped in one, long, uninterrupted inhalation, threatening something no one in the party really wanted to discover. Curck's aura kept them at bay, though the mindless swarm might have all been destroyed upon the wolf's moon-cold glow if not for a bellowing order barked from the far corner, a creature horned and withered, a defiler.
• Two others emerged from the yellow fog, one wielding a massive flail and the other a thin, wheeling chain. They attacked, but proved little threat to the archdruid or the angel of death, who avoided their attacks and unleashed painful replies. 
• In the midst of the fighting, so moved by the corpses of five trees and the systems they once belonged to, Tyvis did something he promised he would never do again, something he had to do, and sacrificed his life in a combination of the greatest Primal powers at his disposal. It was a risk, certainly one that shocked the rest of the party, but proved, ultimately, to revivify five of the world trees!
• Narra immediately felt the loss and became almost mad with grief. The Abyssal portal was moments from consuming her, when the Primal power source sky-vaulted and Narra and Terris-Thule bore witness to Karana's ascension into true godhood. She assured the grief-stricken Narra that all was well before vanishing into planes far beyond mortal ken. 
• The resulting backlash of life-giving power blasted away two of the three defilers and dispelled every last ounce of undeath from the chamber. The trees, renewed, began to grow. It was a time for rejoicing when, from the swelling roots and widening leaves, Tyvis emerged, reborn from the reintroduction of five more world trees into the Yg-Raya system. He was nothing short of a demigod of Nature now.
• Narra made it a point to appear before Tyvis and slap him hard across the face for such a bold and potentially final action, and yet their exchange was cut very short...
• Isabella continued her ritual, but was almost immediately interrupted when the trees' growth became violent and unchecked. They burst the walls of the Siege chamber itself and threatened to explode further into the ship. All became chaos as the floors, walls, and ceilings exploded around them, and other chambers began to fall or flood into one, massive well where the trunks and roots held dominion. 
• Isabella scrambled to salvage something from the chamber, making her way to the woven basket and exhuming, to her shock, the mummified corpse of the Highking Gloriandel. Why would the fallen king of the elves be entombed in a place like this? And how in all the heavens and hells did he get here after his legendary defeat at the hands of the God-King Nor? Terris-Thule appeared beside her, asking similar questions, and the two found a strange and sudden connection in their unfinished apotheoses (and in their fashion senses).
• Mercy, terrified in the most calm way possible, made a decision somewhere along the lines that the Gate was threatened and that all must be done to protect it, however not even Kishar's blade could deliver any lasting damage- not unless she used its ultimate slaying enchantment, which would only kill one anyway. Tyvis did not consider that an option.
• Matters were made worse when a bubbling thunder and a hideous roar marked the waking of the bloodyth at the bottom of the draining pit, whose thick, bloody tentacles exploded from the churning waves and crushed then nearest branches and roots effortlessly. Something several hundred yards wide like a cross between an octopus, a humpback whale, and a bleeding human skull lurched its way to the surface. A Ythlord...
• Narra attempted a truly long longshot to reverse their fortunes involving the Ethereal, the ships, and herself in an earlier time, but failed to make the proper connections across the infinite gulf of possibilities. Eilessa, frustrated at the apparent waste of time and resources, looked for an alternative means of slowing the trees down, and mid-sentence inspired an idea. 
• Tyvis would utilize his Wyld summons (proven to work within the Siege) to create a momentary portal, which Eilessa and Narra could build upon through ship manipulation and mental amplification, and create a rift in which the other ships could help transplant the trees and maybe nullify the threat of the waking ythlord. It was another longshot, but not quite that long...
• As the Siege crumbled and fell around them, the blood pits from the Well of Souls was breached. A tidal wave of boiling blood, ectoplasm, and dying souls raged toward them.  Terrified of true death in such a state, Terris-Thule fled back into the Ethereal. She took Isabella and Gloriandel's corpse with her. 
• Mercy, Curck, and Kishar fled the wave by racing deeper into the heart of the Siege, led by the angel's nether-senses to the Gate. The passage they used was momentary, and closed just after.
• Tyvis, Narra, and Eilessa were left to face the oncoming wave, then attempt to move the trees, defeat the ythlord, and somehow spare the Gate (and the people who now fought for it below).

Objectives:

• Mercy, Kishar, and Curck have taken the opening between crashing debris, roiling roots, and and heaving walls- guided by Mercy's nether-senses to the Gate far below; They will undoubtedly meet opposition, but time is of the essence. Gabriel's hour is at hand, but can three do what the entire party originally meant to accomplish?
• Tyvis, Narra, and Eilessa remain in the growing blood pit, now consuming the majority of the ship, as five world trees reach and rage against the confines of the Siege and the surfacing Ythlord. They must transplant the world trees, spare the Gate, and defeat the bloodyth. But can they be enough?
• Swept away into the Ethereal by Terris-Thule, Isabella must overcome the effects of the pure plane of thoughts, dreams, knowledge, and nightmares and turn the desperation of the goddess of fear to the party's advantage. And why is Gloriandel's corpse beginning to look... well?
• All pray for Christopher, who became separated in the chaos.
• Orcus remains the untapped ally or unseen enemy in the bowels of the ship, his prison potentially breached. However, without his prized skull he is not at his full strength. He does have minions, though, including the Confessor, that make seek to obtain his property during the carnage.

Experience: Level Up 26!

157: Feast of the Bloodyth

Synopsis:

• Narra overcame her immediate despair in order to keep her Abyssal portal in check, vanishing for a time to collect herself (and maybe something else, too).
• Meanwhile, the rest of the party fled the wider destruction of the ship, following Mercy's lodestone to the far south wall. With concerted effort, they broke through the wall, circuitry, a force barrier, and the very hull itself thanks largely to the archdruid's quickened ritual 'earth elemental form' and a massive spike of damage (I think we got near 1000 dmg in a round, didn't we?).
• The ruined ship plummeted into the boiling blood pit seen previously through the glass floor of the seminary. Those who could magically fly caught those who could not, all still in their earthen form. Rocky skin provided protection from the intense heat and allowed a grisly view of thousands upon thousands of skewered souls slipping slowly, inexorably, into the churning soup. Eilessa sensed without doubt that below the bubbling cauldron lied a powerful Yth, perhaps even a Ythlord.
• Guided on instinct, Mercy tried to pry two souls loose from their spikes and watched helplessly as the spirits disintegrated into nothing. She quickly shrugged off the maddened souls reaching for her and entered one of the portals. The others followed, adamant the party not be split again.
• The party materialized on a rose-colored gem-asteroid floating in STARRY space, emblazoned with three seals marked Hate, Terror, and Destruction. Beneath, three terribly potent souls powered a funnel of other souls across this universe (Narra discovered this was, in fact, a parallel universe!) back to the Siege proper.
• The bloodyth of the Siege was being fed potentially trillions of souls from multiple afterlives across several universes. The likelihood this is a Ythlord has greatly increased...

• Isabella decided to recreate her own sort of explosive runes set on a timer and destroy this place, but not before an Eilessa/Mercy tandem could fish out the genuine orb from two false ones embedded in the crystal core. Upon retrieving the real sphere, two stairwells on the edges of the asteroid extended upward into infinity. As something slowly descended the one, the party took their cue to leave..
• Isabella, last to escape as she finished setting the timer for her impromptu explosive runes, recognized those clicking heels growing steadily louder on their way down. She met with the lich-wraith Queen Victoria. Yet the young Shade Queen was no longer daunted by the shadow of her mother, having come too far and suffered too much. She detonated her runes and fled through the portal. 
• Without a power source (orb) or a crystal isle, it's very likely the Siege is no longer able to draw souls from that universe. The portal connecting them ceased and the fate of the lich-wraith Victoria is unknown.
• Those materializing back in the Siege found a similar fate and the tortured souls, impaled on hooks and spears, but Narra's speedy intervention prevented prolonged agony and potential soul drain (though the ordeal inflicted 2 necropotence on everyone). 
• Faced with trying another portal or flying up into the ruined remnants of the seminary, the party took shelter on a shattered outcropping of thick glass near the ceiling.

Planetary Orbs Tally: 2 (need 4 to pass through the archway, need 5 or 6 for secret boons)

Objectives:

• Use the ritual books in Isabella's possession to summon forth two planetary spheres upon the Altar of Seven World Trees within the Mothers' Cloister (somewhere in the unexplored halls adjacent the seminary).
• Retrieve Orcus's prized skull from the white baths of the Shrine to Kishar (a great boon being you actually have Kishar as an ally) in return for two planetary spheres and his aid in the fight against Gabriel. 
• Brave the other three portals along the blood pit into parallel universes to retrieve orbs.
• Kill Gabriel and claim the Gate (whoever lands the killing blow).
• Perform the ritual to attune the Gate to Mercy.

Experience: With the conclusion of the Siege efforts, the party levels 26.

156: Ascension

Synopsis

• Eilessa's argument that all the gods would be needed, even the ugly and evil ones, in the campaign against the Yth won out in regards to the foreboding war goddess frozen mid-swing of her axe. The Erdune goddess felt a deep-seated connection to all lost and wayward divinities, of course being one herself. 
• Her containment crystal broken, Kishar made a defensive flourish and prepared herself to fight the group. Eilessa appealed to her while the party recoiled, and Kishar's axe stopped within a hair's breadth of splitting her head open like a melon. Kishar then grabbed Eilessa by the throat and lifted her off her feet. Narra might have foiled the attack, but Eilessa chose to be grabbed, allowing the conqueror-queen to process the immensity of her situation in her own way. Suddenly, she planted a deep, voracious kiss on Eilessa's lip, biting her tongue with jagged teeth and drawing knowledge from the blood. When Kishar pulled away again, she understood, and tossed Eilessa aside. 
• Isabella and Kishar shared a brief moment, involving the licking of an ear and a promise. After that, Kishar agreed to join the party in their defeat of the Exgod, and the Yth afterward. 
• Kishar seemed somehow challenged by Karana and Mercy, though neither let it bother them.
• The party continued their exploration of the isochron chambers, coming upon several unusual god-beings, including a cobrasaur (Vertigo), a giant white ape (Blizzard), and a fel with a startling likeness to the late Thamior.
• They released the god, only to discover he was no god at all, rather Christopher Serenor from an alternate reality, one in which the Yth succeeded in destroying Creation in the time of his adulthood (in this reality, he's still an infant). In his system's final moments, alternate Kaylan enacted the "Gloriandel Contingency" or the ritual of combining select har'venoth into forming a new reality. In her ritual, she omitted the Strangeheart, hoping to create a sanctuary without threat of the Far Realm (as Highking Gloriandel intended to do thousands of years prior). Instead, the ritual proved only to jaunt Christopher into a reality where the Yth had not yet won, perhaps the only reality where they had not yet won. Zerthimon had been correct in calling the contingency a fool's hope. Christopher's reality was devoured.
• Christopher had been transported millions of years into the past, frozen until this very moment. However, he radiated power enough to lure the Ibha Varana into snaring him alongside divine vestiges. Why? He explained this was because the soul of the ancient gold dragoness Celinduil fused with his own soul during a failed resurrection ritual.
• Thanking all the gods to be found by "Auntie Izzy" and other dear alternative family, the hopeful, young "Dragon Prince" joined the rest of the party. Eilessa and Narra in particular were interested in learning more about his past and their future, hoping to garner some advantage in the days to come.

• The next isochron chamber contained a faceless beauty with small horns, flowing purple locks, and a black, tattered dress. The crystal read "Terris-Thule". Isabella and Kishar both took an interest in the goddess, which many guessed was a deity of secrets, spies, and subterfuge. Mercy disapproved of her release, but then again she disapproved of every release...
• Kishar and Eilessa simultaneously broke the crystal, and the former grabbed the goddess by the waist and claimed her for her own. Such was the goddess of slaughter and conquest's nature. However, claiming Terris-Thule was not such a wise move.
• Terris-Thule proved to be the goddess of nightmares and fear, bringing even bloody Kishar to her knees in a sudden, black-lit moment. Though Isabella used her power to delay her, Terris-Thule ultimately fled against the might of the poising party. 
• Narra's empathic probing revealed that Terris was, in fact, just as terrified as trembling Kishar. Her system had been destroyed. She herself had just been released after potentially millions of years in stasis. And her first interaction was one of potential slavery. Narra tracked her flight to the ethereal realm of thought, dreams, and emotions, close and yet impossible far at the same time. She appealed to the goddess, but received no response.
• Kishar, humbled for the first time perhaps ever, was quiet for a long while afterward, brooding after being overwhelmed by fear.
• Tyvis, from his experience interfacing with the Varana vessel as an illumine, had learned where the crystals and their ropey cables and veined circuitry led: a crystal seat in a removed chamber called the Throne of H'sinn, where the aliens would sit and assume the energies of their captives. However, he was quite unwilling to share the information with the party upfront, as the potential was there to simultaneously slay all the prisoners and catapult one of their number to godhood, or perhaps something much more abominable (a new Ythlord?). The process was all too similar to the Emperor's distillation, and he hadn't the stomach for such deviancy.
• Faced with a new series of explosive runes, Isabella enlisted Narra's aid in diffusing a potentially lethal, ship-wide conflagration. However, initial difficulties only partially deactivated the enchantment before a massive necromantic spell was cast over the entire Varana vessel. Gabriel, knowing the party was somewhere in the ship but (because of Isabella's amulet) unable to pinpoint their exact location, rose whatever alien corpses resided in the ship into active service [what Josh accurately coined a carpet-bombing maneuver]. Likely, Gabriel knew the isochron chambers had been unlocked (the amulet's blanket scry-block was only fifty feet). More importantly, the Throne of H'sinn had been unlocked, and there was the potential for Gabriel to resume his godhood. 
• Liquid-metal corpses (bodak) rose from stasis freezers to combat the party. They had the startling ability to reflect energy attacks, and possessed mutable limbs that could be fashioned into stabbing weapons. Eilessa warned they could pierce psionics and magic with ease, but that intense cold with return them to hibernation. Tyvis managed to re-entomb many of them with a Karana-bolstered wall of flourishing nature, but others across the ship raced to secure the throne.
• Though Mercy's lodestone sensed the nearest portal lied to the south, exiting the Varana ship entirely, Tyvis was forced to divulge the location of the much more strategic throne north. The race was on, bodak and party members alike making north with all haste, Renato and Mercy in the forefront. 
• A massing force of bodak met them at the entrance, and while Tyvis, Narra, Eilessa, Curck, Chris, Isabella, Karana and Kishar made quick work of them, Renato cast his darkest shadow magic and slipped ahead unseen. Finding his way into a formidable array of bodak, one false move would prove his certain demise. 
• Mercy, sensing mischief, flew in just after, casting a powerful scroll which repelled the futuristic undead despite their most ardent wish to slay her.  
• Renato found the giant-sized Throne of H'sinn, thrumming deeply and swimming with strange lights. Three isochron crystals overshadowed it, containing deities from some forgotten realm: Tempus, Ilmater, and Auril.Vaguely familiar with Varana technology from his meddling during the unlocking of the isochron chambers, and sensing, at long last, an escape from his eternal debt to the Grave, he leaped upon the chair and activated it.
• The entire ship trembled and quaked as the chair was hacked. Thirteen captured divinities were extinguished in moments, their power feeding into the chair and the one who sat upon it. Thus began an epic struggle of wills between the Darklord and the remnants of a baker's dozen of the universe's vanquished deities. Renato won...
• With anger, fear, and great trepidation, all the party knew what had happened as the Varana's cables began to burst and the circuitry overloaded. Renato had reached apotheosis. Gabriel, too, knew of the crippling turn of events, and one of any number of sources began to dismantle the ship in thunderous tremors. The party's only avenue then was south, to the portal, to the Siege.
• Outrage, betrayal, regret, and in some cases quiet acceptance of the inevitability ricocheted throughout the party, though of all those hit by the turn of events, Narra was struck the hardest. The Abyssal portal in her chest roiled, burning away the paltry gauze. 

Objectives:

• Defeat Gabriel by passing through the archway in the Watchtower, a task which requires 4-6 planetary spheres in the Standing Stone. Narra possesses one. Orcus possesses 2. Others scatter the ship, including 2 Isabella can summon upon the Altar of the Seven World Trees (located in the Mothers' Cloister).
• Reconcile Renato's ascension to godhood.
• Prevent Narra's chest from exploding and gating in potentially infinite hordes of demons...

155: Mortuary of the Gods

Synopsis

• Isabella reanimated one of pilot aliens, which communicated with a mixture of psionics  and "whale songs". She was able to ask it three questions, confirming the alien race were hunters of vestiges, which powered their technology and sustained their immense lives (in the millions of years). She also discovered how to properly operate the device, and that "isochron crystals" in the chambers beyond held whatever might be left of the stolen gods.
• Eilessa discovered a compass embedded in the chest of the alien corpse which leads to planetary spheres.
• Narra risked delving into the forbidden recesses of her Void-born knowledge to learn much and more about the alien race, known as the Ibha Varana. In the process, Yog-Sothoth was able to enter the ship as a floating, ochre orb. Renato quickly distracted Narra and led her from the room, knowing the very sight could risk tearing down whatever skaffolding Endymion might have placed to support his daughter's sanity.
• Sensing truly infinite knowledge, as Narra had once before, Thamior ignored the warnings and reached for the floating sphere (and failed two saves, the last a natural 1) resulting in his immediate destruction. The party was considerably shaken,
• In the hall, Mercy kept a close eye on a dormant black pudding posing as a door, ultimately tracking and trapping a massive nest of them with Curck's aid.
• Isabella continued on to a northern room, discovering a failed ritual circle and explosive runes designed to trigger and destroy the entire level. After disarming the local runes, she realized Gabriel has not been able to access the isochron crystals the alien mentioned.
• Powerful divine and primal power emanated from the walls of the ritual chamber, and Eilessa and Narra summoned the control panels through a mixture psionics and song, not unlike the Ibha Varana might have done.
• Tyvis harnessed his wildshape to transform into a specific alien species, an psionic-singing illumine like the archdruid Arent. In such a form, he was able to interface with the consoles.
• Between the intense concentration of the party psionists, Tyvis' biological permutations, and Renato's manipulation of the underlying machinery, the isochron chambers were opened throughout the level.
• The party found two stunning speciments of divinity, one a nature goddess labeled in the foreign tongue 'Karana' on the exterior of her crystal, the other an axe-wielding war goddess labeled 'Kishar'.
• Tyvis, with a rudimentary understanding of her ethos and much hope for a new goddess of nature, freed Karana, who at least approaches his expectations. Though initially confused, she caught on quick, though lamented her diminished limitations. She was small within the Siege, which prevented her full divine power from flourishing.
• The goddess agreed to help defeat Gabriel and the Yth, and the party is left to decide what, if anything, to do with the apparent war goddess and whatever other divinities they might find.

Objectives

• Use the ritual books in Isabella's possession to summon forth two planetary spheres upon the Altar of Seven World Trees within the Mothers' Cloister (wherever that is).
• Retrieve Orcus's prized skull from the white baths of the Shrine to Kishar in return for two planetary spheres and his aid in the fight against Gabriel. 
• Use the Ibha Varana compass to locate other planetary spheres and insert them into the Standing Stone in the watchtower in order to cross the archway and reach the Gate.
• Tailor a new pantheon from the isochron crystals to bolster Yg-Raya's defenses and aid in the trials ahead.
• Kill Gabriel and claim the Gate (whoever lands the killing blow).
• Perform the ritual to attune the Gate to Mercy.

154: The Starcellar

Synopsis:

• Isabella, Renato, and Thamior met with the vile Tammuz Orcus, one of the four sovereigns of the Abyss, in a diminished state. He offered an alliance, which the three accepted, his prized skull (and subsequent freedom) in exchange for two planetary spheres and his aid in the battle against Gabriel. The witch, assassin, and swordmage cleaned themselves of Orcus's taint and tracked down the others.
• The rest of the party moved on, taking the trident-etched tile into the Starcellar, finding a kind of subterranean observatory crafted of ancient technology more alien than demonic in feel. The ceilings were millions of woven strands of circuitry, at first the suspected Underworlds of the universe, but in actuality a map of the universe (all of it dead and destroyed, save the Yg-Raya system).
• The exact nature of the telecope, cannon, or simply 'device' with the fused alien corpse strewn upon it remains unclear. Tyvis was able to translate the symbols into a kind of zodiac, four of which were needed to operate the machine. The reason for even trying (besides potentially valuable knowledge) were the dead world trees he noticed mingled with the impossible intricate knit of cords. The scope may have had the ability to bring Ygdrassil back from his long wandering, or deliver the archdruid to him.
• Narra retrieved a planetary orb from the ceiling (still largely suspected to be either a power source, prison, or both), with the party's aid, and drew the ire of the primeval Lyth, either some diminished specter of the former goddess of beasts, or perhaos a vestige pulled through from the circuitry (which Shard and Narra found to be more of a gateway or bridge between points). Isabella forced the creature back to whence she came, though the questions only compounded what the exact purpose of the device was. Theories range from some sort of transportation device, an instrument to hunt vestiges and weakened divinities, to a nice conversation piece.
• The alien corpse- this pilot or engineer- , like a pallid giant with an elephantine snout and octopus-like hands, was apparently burned from the inside out. Isabella's ritual revealed something fired from the ceiling mesh, a black stream that killed him. Some assumed Lyth, others suspected the wild vessel, proven to kill those who tamper with it. 
• Tyvis eventually speculated that Yth may in fact be anti-gods, something of the vengeful and maddened divinities after being drained of all divine essence. They'd seek out life-rich worlds out of instinct, only to destroy them. Their creations, the Yth, and truly anything they touch would become warped and wretched. And it could be this device actually did capture and drain things even as powerful as gods. Was the party standing before a Ythmaker?

Objectives:

• Use the ritual books in Isabella's possession to summon forth two planetary spheres upon the Altar of Seven World Trees within the Mothers' Cloister (wherever that is).
• Retrieve Orcus's prized skull from the white baths of the Shrine to Kishar in return for two planetary spheres and his aid in the fight against Gabriel.
• Locate other planetary spheres and insert them into the Standing Stone in the watchtower in order to cross the archway and reach the Gate.
• Kill Gabriel and claim the Gate (whoever lands the killing blow).
• Perform the ritual to attune the Gate to Mercy.

DM Notes: Session 153

I've been posting to a thread on ENWorld with several other Epic DMs, getting a repository of game play examples and design philosophy going. Sadly, I feel like I'm the only one contributing at this point, but it's only been a week and a half. Hopefully this post spurs them on. Otherwise, if you're interested in some of my design intentions and perhaps a more detailed summary of Tuesday, read on here.

153: Lord of Ignorance

Synopsis:

• The seminary imps returned with reinforcements. The party faced the Lord of Ignorance, an amalgam of undead demon, angel, devil, and mortal souls, including Isabella's late father King Dante. [a dozen level 28 standard brutes with modified hp and a few nifty attacks and auras, combined with a mini-boss whose effects spread battlefield wide.] Mercy was able to draw the tortured souls from the abomination in order to destroy it. The imps were all of them destroyed.
• The curse of undeath now threatens all beings, not just mortals. Gabriel has also solved the riddle of radiant vulnerability in undead.

• The Bleak Seminary was destroyed in the fighting between Tomeburn and Archdruid Curck. An unknown amount of lore was lost.
• The stairwell connecting the watchtower with the lower levels (formerly the seminary and any adjoining room) is closed.
• Narra discovered the Siege was a strange breed of Anubian ship, with heart intact. It is a wounded, angry, and maddened AI that lashed out whenever contacted. 
• The Confessor of Orcus invited the party to parlay with his lord and master. Mercy vehemently disagreed, but not all the party followed suit. It became painfully apparent that there is no one leader amongst the coalition, rather all were leaders (who more or less were used their judgements taking precedent and their wills being done). 
• Renato, Thamior, and Isabella followed the confessor to Orcus, who is apparently detained by Gabriel, whatever that means. Tyvis, Narra, and Eilessa remained with Mercy, finishing her analysis of the trident-etched teleportation tile.

Objectives:

• Try to prevent Prince Orcus from becoming a hostile enemy.
• Use the ritual books in Isabella's possession to summon forth two planetary spheres upon the Altar of Seven World Trees within the Mothers' Cloister (wherever that is).
• Locate 4 other planetary spheres and insert them into the Standing Stone in the watchtower in order to cross the archway and reach the Gate.
• Kill Gabriel and claim the Gate (whoever lands the killing blow).
• Perform the ritual to attune the Gate to Mercy.

Experience:
From now until the end of the campaign, I am changing the way in which we level. I've decided to base these last few level ups on accomplishment and story progression and not necessarily a target number. Resolving the Purgatory Siege will be enough to level up to 26. 

152: Purgatory Siege

Talsil 20th in the 21st Year After Shalraza




Pantheon of the last creation...



KISHAR, GODDESS OF SLAUGHTER AND RETRIBUTION
Patron deity to clerics, fighters, and paladins, Kishar revels in violence and ceaseless war. She often manifests as a black-haired human woman in bloodstained plate mail. For worshippers of Kishar, there is no greater deed than slaying an enemy that has wronged you.

Holy Symbol: A gauntleted hand crushing a heart.

 


KOTARESH, GOD OF TRICKERY AND SECRETS
Patron deity to bards, thieves, and many wizards, Kotaresh is a genderless and voiceless being that protects those who seek power and fortune through lies, manipulation, and betrayal. When Kotaresh appears to mortals, it takes the form of a hooded shadow wearing an upside-down mask.

Holy Symbol: Upside-down mask.

LYTH, MOTHER OF BEASTS

Patron deity to druids, rangers, and barbarians, Lyth is said to be the mother of all that lives. Legend tells that, after birthing the first man and woman, she conceived monsters to ensure that the couple and their descendants would always know humility and fear. Lyth manifests as a nude, winged woman covered in crimson tattoos and emerald slime.

Holy Symbol: A winged snake coiled around an egg.




ASAR-SEGT, HAND OF RITUAL SACRIFICE

Patron deity to wizards, clerics, and other practitioners of ritual magic, Asar-Segt, or ‘Eater of the Pyre,’ is said to be the source of all magic in the world. He demands constant sacrifice in return for this blessing, and those zealous in their worship of Asar-Segt feel a gnawing hunger that drives them to madness and suicide in the Hand’s name. He manifests as a six-armed ghoul shrouded by a cloud of ash.

Holy Symbol: A six-fingered hand bathed in flame.

Naia, Mother of Pestilence. Naia appears as a pale woman wearing sackcloth and clutching an empty wooden bowl. Holy symbol: skull smothered with flies


Teurama, Handmaiden of Fate. Teurama appears as a woman in funeral garb wrapped in silver thread. Holy Symbol: silver spool of thread

Euryale, Queen of Gorgons. Euryale appears much as the mythological medusa. Holy symbol: viridian snake eyes

Marduk, Slayer of Tiamat. Marduk appears as a nude, muscular man wearing a scaled crown. Holy symbol: a slain dragon with five heads