111a: Illusions of Power

Biosh 18th [night]
trickery and magic...

Plot Developments

• The Saviors became trapped in a mesmerizing cloud sent by the Adaj'iil Varlasun, and only Nalua managed to escape it. Arinew attempted to play his way out with a bardic counter, but the mist became supercharged with the fey glamour and things got psychedelic. The party suffered some very bad trips, especially Auro (who burned through the parrot drake Bakoba, killing her) and Arinew (who grew into the likeness of an Unseelie Oberon of old, terrifying and exciting Dewdrop). The high priestess of Eglantine was forced to expend all three stars on her magical circlet to save them.
• After another dangerous encounter with gravity, the Saviors narrowly avoided a wing of dragons sent to investigate the disturbance so close to the Thirteenth Gate. Some had their doubts the dragons were even real, but none were quite brave enough to risk finding out.
  
• Auro befriended the parrot drake Simra after saving her life with an unexpected mind-link focused through one of her head crystals. She allowed the genasi to ride her.
  
• The Saviors decided to continue the journey on foot, forcing them to pay the mage Varlasun a visit, as he lorded the Thirteenth Gate, the only means to the summit. Rogar wanted to visit his brother in any case, to pay him back for his trickery.
• The rest of the day was spend navigating a shaded, cool and mysterious understory of giant trees, leaves as tall as men, and ropey boughs. Shadows passed overhead often, and all the various wildlife were scared into silence.
  
• Nalua continued her tutelage of eager Kriznob on the ways of properly caring for animals, specifically Deshkyr. He might just be getting the hang of it.
• Reaching the base of the gate by nightfall, the party found a number of staircases leading to just as many castle gates, part of a frustrating, time-consuming and trapped illusion. The Saviors managed to negotiate it without injury or detection.
• Arinew deduced the entire castle was draped in illusions, too many to count, and so began an arcanological debate on how best to handle these many figments and phantoms. The easiest would have been to destroy them, but they might have avoided detection by moving them, or turning them against Varlasun. It was ultimately decided to destroy them, as the notion of detecting every enchantment and then somehow altering them seemed too daunting a task, even for such accomplished arcanists.
• In a combined effort, the Saviors pooled their collective magics. The Archwardens and Auro unleashed raw Primordial and Elemental power, while Arinew evoked the Primal and Arcane magics of Annwn itself, Narra using her Psionic will to focus it all through the Orium staff. The result was the total dismantling of every last illusion Varlasun had woven over the last twenty odd years, betraying Reedthagn's glaring weakness: that his armies had been whittled to nothing in the war against Chernobog, and all had been shadows, ghost sounds and floating lights. The mighty green was hiding in his hypercube, pitting the last of his brood as barriers against enemies.
• As Varlasun knelt broken upon an empty plateau, the party could only wonder at the ramifications of their great dispelling, both on the brood of the wyrm whose eyes were now opened, and the opportunistic Chernobogians, no doubt sensing their time to strike.
  

Experience: 2800 xp (119,000 total; LEVEL UP 19)

Personal Resources
Varlasun's troops and dragons may have been an illusion, but his treasure cache and various arcane focuses are not. He kneels broken atop them in a sad and dismal reflection of a true dragon upon his hoard.

treasure: Gloaming Shroud [level 23], Thought-Eater Leather Armor [level 23], Coronet of the Urbane [Circlet of the Urbane, level 23], Cube of Mental Dominion [Orb of Mental Dominion, level 21], Counterstrike Leather Armor [level 20], Spurned Deidre [Dancing Scimitar, level 20], Master's Wand of Illusory Ambush [level 19], Master's Wand of Phantom Bolt [level 19]

Gloaming Shroud: This billowing cloak seems to be woven of the same wispy shadowstuff the circling dragons were made of, like ink floating in dark water, midnight blue near the collar and more of a black-gray mist at its fringes. It saps other lights around it of brightness and heat, and effectively obscures the wearer's movements.

Thought-Eater Leather Armor: This rather nondescript suit is overly supple and weathered thin at the joints, not fit for the lowliest squire's under-armor, but like many of the Thirteenth Gate's holdings possesses a power unbecoming its exterior. The very faintest of patterns carries throughout the gray leathers, wormy tubes like brain matter.

Coronal of the Urbane: Orium is not the only psionic metal in the worlds, and Varlasun's Ouroboros headband is crafted from a pearly steel known as Delibrium. While Orium translates thought into force, Delibrium translates thought into aptitude and skill. When its power is drawn upon, the metal glows white.

Cube of Mental Dominion: Like a miniaturized Tesseract, this jade-like cube of uncertain mineral is perfectly cut and occasionally shimmers with deep, perplexing lights and patterns. It is small enough to fit in the palm of a hand, but is surprisingly heavy, and holds within it the knowledge of Adaj'iil Varlasun, including his small insights into alien technology that comprises the fallen ships and yes, even the Hearts.

• Reedthagn forbade Varlasun from researching too deeply into the Tesseract or any other alien device, but the curiosity of the mage became so great that he disobeyed his great sovereign. He'd only the intentions of furthering Reedthagn's cause, but it could be that he was punished for his insolence by sustaining more and more illusions, until he broke entirely. Luckily, his original research was copied into the cube...
  
• There are five known alien ships scattered across Creation, but Varlasun suspects there are nine. Nine is an important number in the universe, it seems, and most things come in nines. Nine planes, nine alien ships, nine helms, nine gems, designed and purposed for things far beyond the scope of any terrestrial being.
• Near as the dregoi ritualist can figure, there is a relationship between the ships, the helms- or ancient rings which he believes operate the ships- and the planar gems, which his theories characterize as limitless batteries, like infinity engines to power the ships' time-and-reality-bending powers.
  
• The five known ships are as follows: The jade Tesseract, upon the summit of Reh'na'thagnatar, keyed to the Wyld, under the control of Reedthagn the Green. Varlasun marks that the gem and helm are missing, which is true, as Nalua possesses Parlothon's Key (the Wyld Helm, as it were);
  
• The onyx Octahedron, in the black depths of the Stygian Chasm, keyed to the Void, protected by Delzounian derro and under the control of a nameless force. Varlasun cannot account for its gem or helm, though Arinew would know Diana possesses the Strangeheart and therefore the ship is not fully operational;
  
• The crystal Hendecachoron, operational and roving Creation, keyed to the Astral Sea, under the control of Emperor Endymion Norson and his Nors torturer-scientists. He suspects the gem and helm are accounted for, but the Saviors can already prove that theory false for Nalua's possession of Iluvistria's Key (the Astral Helm, as it were). Endymion must have found another way to operate it...
• The amber Pentagonal, in the city of Noran, once the city of Glorian, keyed to the First World, under the control of Emperor Endymion Norson and his Nors torturer-scientists. He knows the prism ship is somewhere in the city, but he isn't exactly sure where, or whether or not the gem or helm has been accounted for.
  

Counterstrike Leather Armor: This suit is made from the oiled hides of feymire crocodiles, ranging from yellow-brown to black-green in hue, edged along the back with the monsters' own scaly frills. The crocs' crushing bite is imbued as a powerful, wounding ward set against any who would harm the wearer.

Spurned Deidre: Dancing weapons are rare things, and each of them has their own personality of sorts. Spurned Deidre is likened to a jaded lover, shrugged aside when her wielder found a more powerful blade amidst a dragon's hoard. Relegated to a sheath, then eventually forgotten in a chest, the scimitar spontaneously animated, hurt and wild to prove herself. Why the wielder need not wield her at all, simply let her dance alongside him.

Spurned Deidre appears as a slim, black-bladed scimitar with a golden handle, set with garnets and rubies, and whose pommel trails an black silken sash.

Master's Wand of Illusory Ambush: This Orium wand is shaped like a narrow dagger.

Master's Wand of Phantom Bolt: This Orium wand is shaped like an elongated teardrop.

coin: [52,500 gp total]: 371 pp, 392 gp, 74 sp, 60 cp + 3 perfect diamonds (5000 gp each)

loot: alchemical reagents x 10, rare herbs x 10, Varlasun's ritual book (Hallucinatory Item, Banish Illusions, Hallucinatory Creature, Voicecatcher Veil, Hallucinatory Regiment [Book of Rituals])

New NPCs
Adaj'iil Varlasun Thagnbrood: The hermit dregoi proved a master illusionist, terrifying the local jungles and greater mountain alike with suggestive shadows, floating torch light and ghost sounds to make it seem as if Reedthagn's forces were plenty. The reality, as revealed by the undaunted Saviors, was that the green ancient's forces were nearly spent after such prolonged and costly war with Chernobog. Varlasun had become nothing more than a starved, drained and sleepless beggar of a mage after having sustained so many enchantments for so long, all to maintain the facade of grandeur his father once truly possessed.

Returning NPCs
Gliadim, Fonnig, Dewdrop, Bakoba (dead), Kriznob, Yat, Deshkyr, Simra, Ashenthe

Lore
See above.

Next Session
112a: Rogar confronts his ruined brother, while down in the valley Arinew confronts his suspicious coz. The path to the highest reaches of Reh'na'thagnatar is clear, but the party must still contend with Anoximoia before proceeding to the hypercube at last.

108b, 109b and 110b: The Edict Gambit

Patarm 14th [12PM - ]
trap set, sprung...

Plot Developments

• After the events in the Ruins, what Diana affectionately named the Battle of the Ruins, the king demanded an explanation. Thanks to the princess's involvement, the Dark Three and their constituents were not thrown in the dungeons, rather allowed free reign until a mandatory dinner at the palace.
• During that time, Astraea was able to resurrect Renato's better half, and he returned decidedly different, happier, lighter, but incomplete. At an early age, Lord Ruiz fragmented his son's soul and hid the soulshards for many reasons, not least of which was so Renato could maintain the level of detachment necessary to function as an Ordo assassin.
• Isabella and Diana each questioned their captured Ordo. Isabella learned the infamous Shadow Cabinet, ruling body of the Ordo, demanded the Dark Three and all their efforts be wiped from existence, no doubt to preserve the solidarity of their Tirbukkan agenda. When he'd nothing left to offer, she drained him dry. Oppositely, Diana managed to convert her drow, Korm, and utilize him as a double agent in a plan she'd hatched to ensnare Olivianna.
• Diana devised a sort of Edict Gambit, using a false copy of the Cultu Solis' edict to bait the marquess into proving her affiliations with the assassins by producing it at dinner. She would, of course, retain a true copy, to show the obvious differences. Her hopes were, with Olivianna out of the way, the main thrust of the Ordo's efforts would be diffused.
  
• However, given the alarming ignorance the king showed to the very existence of the Ordo, and disbelief his lover would be so intimately involved with this coup, gave him pause when the trap was sprung. Olivianna claimed the false edict had been left on her desk, and that she was compelled to inform him, even going so far as to say the document was being distributed illegally on the streets, with the forged signatures of Dante and Diana.
  
• Diana could at least counter she did not sign, given the lack of 'Huma' in her name, revealed to her during a private meeting with Alistar Huma, one in which it was revealed she was his granddaughter, and Gianna his daughter, formerly a Huma. More startling, the pair were part of the original Ordo's plans to take the city, but Gianna's change of heart led to a two year delay in the assassins' plans, plans that at long last are gaining momentum again.
  
• Admittedly, Dante was already overwhelmed before the topic of the edict, as this drastic allegation had come after a just as startling admissions of the princess. Isabella confessed to everything that had gone wrong since leaving over a year ago, Mara, Strahd, her deaths, and ultimately her appointment as prophet. It was enough to make any king father reel, but, he ultimately forgave her and regretted that she did not come to him sooner. Still, what was done could not be changed, and though he disliked how much Isabella was acting as his over-informed and over-involved wife, he could never stop loving her.
  
• Diana and Olivianna were ordered to stay until matters were resolved, a polite form of arrest, as three relevant court members were summoned and Isabella sent to fetch Korm, perhaps the only living claim to Isabella and Diana's story. Olivianna acted very peculiar just before the princess left, fondling an obviously magical ring.
• Meanwhile, Renato reconvened with the Gilda, having inducted thirteen new members in the way of Maarth and a dozen drow assassins who were unhappy with the imbalances of the Tenebrean Ordo and likely marked for death given their horrid failure in the Ruins.
• The Darklord sent scouts to the Night Gallery in hopes it could be taken quickly and another Shadow Door key gained (the others lost during his death and now in the possession of Asmodeus). Another party was instructed to remain in the Gilda's new base, an abandoned manor in the Lords, while a third would come with him to the Ruiz Estate so he might say his goodbye to his mother.
• Lady Manuela Ruiz was a ghost of her former self, alone and bitter, but still filled with love for her son. She feared his Yith warnings and urged him to make peace, somehow, with the cabinet, but he refused. She blamed Gianni and the slut Gianna for their ruined lives, and the two ultimately parted on quiet, tragic terms.
  

Experience: 6,000 xp (130,481 total)

New NPCs
Korm Shal'Rhe (formerly 'drow assassin'): Once a member of the drow Ordo, the destruction of his temple and subsequent capture led to his redemption through Kalinda's light. He acted as a double agent for the Solis, delivering a false edict in a plot to ensnare the marquess. He is currently been summoning to bear witness against the marquess.

Lady Manuela Ruiz: Renato's mother and wife to the captured Lord Gianni Ruiz, she's fallen far out of favor due to her husband's betrayal and son's offenses. Lonely and embittered, she proved to still love her son, despite opposing his plans and sensibilities. She still harbors a quiet hatred of Lady Gianna Savrano's memory for stealing her husband, and blames her for ruining their lives.

Bloodlord Hatna al'Zareef (impending): Commander of the king's personal protectors, the Crimson Guard, he is a steely, grim-faced blackguard from the days of the more agreeable Sire Husifar al'Zareef. He is never far from the king and protects him during all official, and many unofficial, court gatherings.

Dame Merna Scarios (impending): Knight of an Il'spanian banner-house, she was chosen as Bloodlord Hatna's squire as a show of good faith between Houses nearly thirty years ago. She's since proven her worth enough to join the Crimson Guard, and many whisper her and her mentor are now lovers.

Royal Mage Ayasha Malhotra (impending): Mage of an al'Zareef banner-house, she was Victoria's fourteenth apprentice and the only one to survive its tests and tribulations. There is little love lost between former master and former student, but Ayasha often vouched for the queen and went to her for guidance in matters arcane. She acts as a formal arcane counsel in court, provides all the necessary wards and detections before, during and after court gatherings, and monitors arcane orders within the city limits.

Royal Justice Valente Il'spana (impending): A distant cousin of the king and brother to the extremely powerful Sire Pinello Il'spana, under Dante's reign he is the kingdom's chief arbiter. His authority sees vampires freed or jailed, absolved or sentenced to execution. He is a careful vampire, who accepts his brother is of greater stuff and seeks to maintain his own secondary role in the Il'spanian dynasty. This very rarely amounts to leniency of family members in court, however, for the sake of reputation and rule, but the law has sometimes been known to bend for the right people. Valente holds formal matters behind the imposing, black pillars of the Nemeseia, one of the Il'spanian Citadela's loftier domes. His jurisdiction stretches over the many dungeons, prisons and torture chambers throughout the kingdom, and the city guard is answerable to him during certain escorts and manhunts.

Royal Spymaster Stefano 'The Whisper' Il'spana (impending): An ancient scout and accomplished spy dating back to the Abyssal War, he is a distant great uncle to the king and an immediate uncle to Sire Pinello Il'spana. Remarkably, Stefano passed up the opportunity to become leader of House Il'spana, quipping how much power he'd be giving up. He has been acting Spymaster for thirteen Kings of the Night and maintains a web of informants that spans the greater continent. He has made himself indispensable to each dynasty, and has quietly kept Saspien going for over five thousand years.

Returning NPCs
'Grandpa' Alistar Huma: The mad astrologer met with Diana privately and divulged his former ties with the conspirators, as well as Gianna Savrano's. In the process he revealed Gianna was originally a Huma, his daughter, making him Diana's maternal grandfather.

King Dante Il'spana: The host of a very fateful dinner, Dante was struck with a number of revelations, few of which were good, before the second course, concerning Isabella's time away and the idea his lover is in fact a conspirator. He's forgiven his daughter, but is far from happy with her, and has called a meeting of certain court members to decide truth from fiction. The fate of the marquess and the Cultu Solis in Saspien hangs in the balance.

Marquess Olivianna Ruiz-Lorein: False edict in hand, she made her opening accusations against the Cultu Solis as expected, and is seemingly confident she can still turn the king against them before they can firmly establish themselves.

Lore

• Alistar Huma and Lady Gianna Savrano were once part of the Ordo conspiracy to take over Saspien, the last members of the fallen House Huma. Huma were magic-users of the highest order, every bit the match of the al'Zareefi, and in their lowly state ripe for rebellious enterprises. They were tasked by the Ordo's vanguard, Lord Gianni Ruiz, to study and weaponize the Strangeheart. In the process, Alistar grew increasingly unstable, and Gianna increasingly enamored with the foreign lord. The feeling was mutual, and the two became lovers, and even had a child together: Diana, who was passed off as Davos Savrano's for everyone's safety.
  
• The cannon atop the Saspish Observatory was key to the original Ordo plot to takeover the city, intended to hold Saspien ransom and facilitate an easy coup. It was nearly in place two years ago, before Lady Gianna Savrano had a change of heart and convinced her father and her lover to sabotage the plan for the sake of the city and, perhaps, the world. She was murdered for her efforts, Alistar was forced into hiding amidst the Ruins, Lord Gianni dragged away a traitor, and Diana sent 'safely' away from the capital, taking the deadly gem with her.
• Alistar Huma and Erasmus Ruiz were the initial founders of the Cultu Solis, inspired by Lady Gianna Savrano's memory and fearful of the urgent messages hidden in the stars. He collected some of the most powerful and influential Kalindians in the worlds, numbering High Priestess Finduilas Oranar, Celunduil the Gold, the mysterious Lady in the Light, and perhaps even more intriguing the being known as Zerthimon- who possesses intimate knowledge of the alien technology scattered across Creation, knowledge Celunduil is convinced he will share in good time.
• Of all the Ordo temples, the Night Gallery is the least, set in the inconsequential Lords District and overseen by Deathdealer Kandar Ruiz, Renato's talentless uncle.
  

Next Session
111b: The fate of Olivianna and the Cultu Solis in Saspien revealed!

109a and 110a: The Grim

Biosh 17th - 18th
chaos on the mountainside...

Plot Developments

• While flying through the night, the party noted methodically-soaring dragons above, postulating they were either hypnotized or illusions all together.
• Rogar and the twins felt strange emanations from the grizzly rock face, who bore teeth like sharpened mountain peaks and a headdress of titanic bones, ugly, twisted, serrated things, sometimes marked with eyes and tentacles. The Archwarden soon realized this Grim was in fact a Primordial.
• Against better judgement, Narra prodded the Old One's mind, and was met with a psychic feedback the equivalent of fifty-thousand years of hatred and anger. It was a wonder her head didn't explode outright, speaking to a lineage she greatly feared.
• Storms picked up because of the Primordial's angry breath, and many drakes and kobolds fell to their deaths miles below in the lowlands nearest the titan's belt. The party just managed to survive themselves, even escaping the monumental jaws which sought to grind them to nothing.
  
• While a token sacrifice was first on the being Grimagol's mind as recompense, he was convinced by Auro to instead choose a worthy servant and herald. When presented with three suitable choices for his Archwarden, the Living Massacre devoured the most unlikely of them all, Kiri-Raina, whose simple love proved a curious and unfamiliar strength. It weathered his many tortures within the Grim, and the genasi showed herself to be more than an imperfect elemental. Grimagol rebuilt her an eight-foot giantess of smooth crystal and boiling energy, his Archwarden.
• While Kiri-Raina underwent her extraordinary changes, Narra fled into solitude, overwhelmed by her mistake and the consequences of it. In the cold dark, she was met by the psychic projection of the Emperor himself, a man she came to know and even accept as her father, learning of his history and the existence of her mother. He was in possession of an alien artifact that revealed potential futures, though not the circumstances which allowed them to come about. He was driven by the desire to increase the potential futures where Othyr survived the impending Yith holocaust and the coming of Chrysaor Abhorrent, which, to his shame and horror, demanded he be the cruel, domineering and utterly merciless figurehead the larger world knew him as, and to continue with his strange and brutal experiments. It also required Narra, along with her party, continue to oppose him. Despite the evils he had done, the injustices, she sympathized with him, saw some of herself in him, and found new resolved in trying, perhaps, to redeem him.
• Nalua went after the impetuous girl, a flurry of emotions herself, in the process teaching Kriznob and Yat the proper way to train animals, before camping outside Narra's shielded cave. She'd communed with the whole of the lowland's manitou, millions of blinking spirits, in order to find her, something she had not been able to do on such a large scale before. Was it, perhaps, the robes, or maybe Iluvistria's Crown? Or was facing these constant, immense and near-impossible challenges with the Saviors forging her into something almost Seelie?
• Narra and Nalua encountered one another the next morning, where lessons were proven learned, apologies handed, and something quite unexpected, but overwhelmingly joyful, found between them: a budding love. Narra was a different woman now, her confidence tempered with wisdom, fear and doubt doused by a responsibility to the future, and knowledge of a possible companion in the priestess. In turn, Nalua was inspired to release some of her rigid control and ease into a more 'fey' mindset, trusting, at least a little, in emotions she'd not felt before. Immediately, many of her frustrations melted away and she found the closest thing to happiness she had in a very long time.
• That next morning, Arinew set out to find the girls, but in the process found a Chernobogian sidhe in the jungles below, a woman named Ashenthe, who wished to put aside petty squabbling and traded insults long enough to see a task done: the murder of Reedthagn. She'd been following the party up the mountain, and now wished to join them in completing the task set for her by the Green God himself, citing whatever means necessary included a temporary alliance with the Summer Prince. He declined outright welcoming her into the fold, but agreed she might aid where she could, marking safe trails and aiding in combat from a distance. He certainly did not trust her, though, and in fact got a pang of awful familiarity from the woman. She proved to know his story, and that of his mother's, quite well, and even intimated being a descendant of lost Chenussean.
• Ashenthe marked the cave she'd spotted the women fly into earlier, and Arinew managed to interrupt some intimate exchanges between Nalua and Narra. Better yet, his keen bardic insight saw exactly what was going on, despite quick and flimsy efforts to say otherwise. He was hardly one to judge, and seemed rather pleased, truth be told. He left them to their privacy with one or two hinted remarks, much to the chagrin of the priestess.
• Meanwhile, the whole of the Grim quivered and out came Kiri-Raina, reborn the giantess Archwarden, smoothed and perfected, energy lines reformed into Primordial brands. The present party stood dumbfounded by the strength and presence of the sorceress returned. Rogar was moved, and embraced his love with a new fervor. Their shared Primordial element was cause for celebration and intimacy, and little did the dregoi care who was privy. What could only be described as an erotic tornado kicked up around the pair as they consummated their love in the plateaued palm, the heat of the exchanged converting stone to raw glass.
• Auro, too, was overjoyed to see her sister alive and well, perfected, but she also felt... unfamiliar, and negative, feelings, not least of all jealousy. Raina was new, and possessed a love she herself knew nothing of. She fled to the heights of Grimagol's middle finger, where she stewed until the arrival of the fey knight Gliadim. He, too, felt a sort of lonely rejection, and offered the genasi a rose. This led to the sucking of a wound on Auro's finger, and the offering of making her feel better. Yet before his hands could get anywhere near the genasi's sacred temple, Gliadim was knocked unconscious by a wrathful Dewdrop hugging a cooking pot.
  
• Dewdrop warned her about beautiful fey like Gliadim, and poisoned Auro's mind against the knight, even as she revealed her own jealousy and lustful feelings, feelings uncovered by the returned Arinew with a surprising amount of patience and understanding. Gliadim did look remarkably like Arinew in half-elven form, and the sight drove the nixie mad with jealousy, even longing. The Summer Prince absolved her of any guilt, and tried making amends with Gliadim, who forced himself to swallow his anger over his circumstantial looks upsetting the fickle future queen. It is uncertain how resolved the issue truly was, save Dewdrop's promise to act more according to a princess and a queen, and Gliadim's obvious avoidance of the nixie whenever possible.
• Curck was also struggling to reconcile the added loss of Narra, still wounded from Tyvis's death, and the uncertainties of her return. Added the appearance of a second Archwarden, never mind another awoken Primordial, the servant of Kharrush fled to the heights of the pinky, where he communed in private with his celestial alpha.
  
• The party, reunited by midday, made their peace with one another a second time in so many days, more resolved than ever to see their task done. They mounted and took off for the summit, intent on avoiding the thirteenth and sixteenth gates to the best of their abilities.
  

Experience: 5600 xp (116,200 total)

New NPCs
Grimagol the Living Massacre

Yat and Bakoba

Deshkyr

Ashenthe

Returning NPCs
Kriznob


Lore

• Reh'na'thagnatar is greater than any Othyrian mountain, the greatest in all the Wyld, each of the Sixteen Gates lording over the equivalent of a mortal mountain, heaped one upon the other, divided into low shelves, mid shelves, and the sprawls before the final summit.
  
• Grimagol the Living Massacre has been awakened, a Primordial known for his prowess destroying the get of Shaitan. His was a rage so concentrated he broke apart the moon Erudiran in efforts to continue the battle against spirits and demons alike. He crashed to the Wyld itself, ripping the great expanse in Reh'na'thagnatar, where the Primal Spirits then bound and buried him.
  
• Emperor Endymion's first Anubian discovery was in fact the Imperial Gulag, which imbued him with a powerful and evolving intelligence, and psionic powers. He used these to navigate the ranks of the church, until the death of his father-figure and the realization Nor did not grant his priests ANY divine power drove him back to the ship many years later. There he trained three years to emerge the undisputed Overmind, setting events into motion that led to his coronation. The next twenty were spent discovering new ships, conducting all manner of experiments, and cultivating a future beyond the visitation of Chrysaor Abhorrent upon Creation. It required he be without morals or mercy, though Narra inspires a bit of humanity from him even still.
• Endymion is in possession of an alien artifact that allows him to see potential futures, though not how to achieve them. Most show desolation and defeat at the hands, tentacles and mouths of the Yith, but more and more begin to show shades of victory the further he perpetuates his evil and the longer men and women oppose him.
• Reedthagn's power is more diminished than any could have guessed, and according to Ashenthe is more or less hides in his cube. Her very presence proves the Green God has access to his mountain of power, and that he wishes the wyrm's territory for his own.
  
• Ashenthe told a different tale to Arinew than he'd known, that his aunt was not tricked or coerced into murdering the Summer Queen, but that she went to Chernobog and begged for the power. The Green God refused, even went to Queen Meliai and tried to warn her, but she would not hear him, having twice refused to join his cause and thinking it some ploy. The results were tragic, as Arinew's aunt went to the Autumn Court and used their power and her knowledge to launch a surprise attack. When all was said and done, Chernobog- for the good of his unifying movement- aligned with her, now the Queen of Fallen Leaves.

Next Session
111a: The Saviors fly further up Reh'na'thagnatar in efforts to reach the summit and the ancient dragon therein. His is the sword, Solstice, necessary for Arinew's war with the Autumn Court. His is the rule Rogar might usurp, and with it the command of his remaining draconic forces. His is the hypercube, the Tesseract, Narra might utilize for good or ill.

106b and 107b: The Ordo Strikes Back

Patarm 14th (2AM - 4AM)
eliminate with extreme prejudice...

Plot Developments

• DeWitt betrayed the party, claiming Greedites and Envites were making a move on the observatory as part of an ambush he'd set up. Instead the Dark Three rushed into an ambush, one set by the Ordo.
  
• Renato was caught in the Ordo bombings, losing his life. His soul was given short reprieve by Astraea, who desperately clung to it despite the pull of the Dark Powers. Yet no force in Creation could forestall his pact long, and he was entombed for all eternity in the black, soundless vacuum of the Vale's eighth tomb.
• Thanks to the events DeWitt set in motion, Asmodeus was able to confront Isabella and Minka in a dark place not of Othyr, baiting the Maidenmother Crone to rescue her. He underestimated the witch, however, and she managed to gain the upper hand. Yet when she might have slit his throat and ended it all, she hesitated, and he nearly knocked her head off with his ruby rod- the Hellheart.
• Isabella was saved by the Maidenmother Crone, who reaffirmed her belief she had chosen the prophet wisely, where as Asmodeus chided her for putting all her eggs in one basket-case. Though Isabella was loathe to leave the avatar and her love, she had little choice, and managed to slip away as both were lost to her forever.
  
• Diana, with but a handful of Solis and the mad astrologer, were forced to defend the tower from a small army of Ordo drow, who emptied out of the Ruins in order to annihilate any legitimate threat to their end game. The party had poked and prodded their last, and it was time to destroy them all.
• Isabella, with a humanoid Astraea, rode Minka through the drow hordes, resorting to mobile attacks to stay alive and sustain the observatory long enough for the Solis to piece together an unlikely victory.
  
• Through the Starry Maiden's leadership, some genius artificing and Strangeheart replacing a fractured focus crystal were the Solis able to pull victory from certain defeat. However, Tiberius grew mad with the power, as every obliterated soul was drawn into the Void, utterly destroyed, finding neither Hell or Heaven, and momentarily sating his hunger. Though Diana tried to play mother and offer him gifts and promises, Tiberius was beyond her influence, and Astraea was forced to step in. Her life-giving energy met his soul-crushing beam.
• The phalanx of city guard stormed the Ruins, killing fleeing drow as they went, and nearly stormed the observatory themselves upon seeing the light show between Astraea and Tiberius. The princess was able to ease their fears, and garner command, the captain honoring her station and offering his aid in escorting the prisoners and preparing them for questioning.
• Diana congratulated her frightened and battered flock for all they'd done and assured them many more victories in the future. They were not so stupid as to believe they would have won without the firepower of the Tiberian Cannon, but she made no promises as to its use in the future...
• Strangeheart, having been reeled in by Diana and Astraea's combined meddling, forsook the sorceress forever more, entering a state of extreme dormancy and taking on the qualities of large, burnt-out quartz- robbing her of all his power. Astraea warned he would seek another more suited to his own ambitions.
  

Experience: 5600 xp (124,481 total; LEVEL UP 19)

New NPCs
Asmodeus: The Prince of Lies, the Deceiver, self-proclaimed King of Hell and Lord of the Nine Treacherous Archdukes, wielder of the Ruby Rod, dark master of the subterranean labyrinth known as Gehenna (Helldark) cornered the Prophet in a black realm of his making and nearly claimed her life, if not for the desired interference of Hecate's only avatar. Isabella slipped through his fingers, but the Maidenmother Crone was destroyed in the process.

Captain Sercer: The vampiric captain of the city guard in so far as the Ruins are concerned, who honored the command of the princess, save when it suggested opposing the law of the king. Offered his local dungeon for her uses.

Hand of Doom (prisoner): The only surviving drow warcaster, captured for torture and questioning.

Ordo Drow (prisoner): A surviving drow assassin, captured for torture and questioning, and potentially an object of Sleria's deviant fascinations.

Returning NPCs
Deloth DeWitt: Traitor through and through, he appealed to the Asmodeans in the Chapel of Gluttons and spoke with his father, the Archduke, who gave him a task in order to return home. He succeeded, tricking the Dark Three back into the Ruins, where they might be ambushed by waiting Ordo and Asmodeus might have a turn with Hecate's one and only Prophet. He presumably returned to Hell.

Sleria Dovili: Sleria remains loyal despite the treacherous nature of her mother's kind, even charging hopeless odds to protect Diana.

Alistar Huma: The mad genius and sage astrologer met the Maiden at the observatory, resolved to convert the telescope into a light-focusing cannon to repel the drow forces.

Hellheart (Cinell): The ruby Heart was seen topping Asmodeus' imperial-looking scepter, and nearly bashed Isabella's brains in if not for the intervention of the Maidenmother Crone.

Maidenmother Crone (dead): The avatar of Hecate, only woken shard of the goddess's consciousness, was murdered protecting Isabella, leaving the Prophet without a shred of guidance.

Strangeheart (Tiberius): The purple amethyst had a achieved a perfected, weaponized state, but was robbed his meal of the city, the kingdom, then the world by the interference of his sister and his keeper. He then went into an extreme dormancy, intent on finding another more suited to his own aims.

Next Session
108b: The Saspish Observatory momentarily secure and under the protection of the city guard, and living evidence of the Ordo within their possession, the Dark Three, now with Astraea in their ranks, prepare to make their case to King Dante Il'spana and officially establish the Cultu Solis, that is, if they can...