Session 28: Vessel of Remembrance

"Vessir di'vharastrix, shindar ekess!"

Summary

Portal to the Elemental Plane of Negative Energy

Khan Borcha knights her new guards

Lureene tolls vengeance

Lilia cures Cyrus of his affliction

The party was hit with a last-ditch defense at the ruined altar--sahuagin, undead, and a dominated giant shark with a pearl bracelet--before finishing the job. Lilia sealed a tight corridor with Wall of Fire, Diedric's summons echoed Unit 137 and Smokescale, and Glenn wrestled the shark long enough to break the fight; once freed, it complained and swam off claiming the cave. Shattering the altar revealed spinning bronze rings around a tiny gate to the Plane of Negative Energy, and when it collapsed the gate vanished and every undead in the area dropped inert.

While sweeping the facility, they found an ornate "scholar" ghoul with a bronze circlet, took the circlet, and bagged the body for later questioning. Back at the Lake of Mists, they saw the battlefield littered with undead that had simply gone still; Lilia moved through the wounded with healing magic. Borcha arrived with Qara's severed head and confirmed the party's work had ended the undead threat; she recounted Qara's betrayal, claimed the kill, and handed the head over as an offering for Hoar's people. That night, Octavius scryed their next stop.

A routine planeswalk went sideways and briefly dumped them near hostile ruins, prompting an immediate retreat. They reached Doomwatch Hold soon after, where Lureene accepted Qara's head and performed Hoar's thunder-answering bell rite, then allowed them inside. Lilia depetrified Cyrus, who woke swinging, vomiting, and very confused, then got a rapid-fire update on how badly the world had changed.

A sending stone message pulled them back to Galdren's estate, where they arrived amid departing foreign caravans. Galdren shared the deeper story--Navarra's death, his new memory-capture spell, and the Fell Tower lead--and then completed a dramatic graveside ritual that successfully filled the Grand Sensory Orb. He demanded oaths to protect it and tasked the party with carrying it into the Outer Planes to find Navarra's spirit and deliver it, with Ember as a likely guide. The session ended with the party settled on an Astral-to-Outlands route and launching into the next planar run.

XP Award

• 963 XP for defeating the final defenders of the Imaskari Altar
• 500 XP for the altar's destruction -- along with the deaths of all undead ever empowered by it
• 800 XP for securing both Tuigan tribes' aid in future conflicts
• 800 XP for securing the Order of Hoar's aid in future conflicts
• The Rule of Three: 333 XP for affirming this planar truth as Lureene rang three bells and three thunderstrikes responded.
• 1000 XP for unpetrifying Cyrus and setting him on his path
• 1200 XP for aiding Galdren in the capture of Navarra's memories
• Total: 5596 XP
• Current XP: 49610 XP -> 55206 XP (Level 9)
• (Required for next level: 64000 XP)'

Things That Happened

Encounter: Defenders of the Altar

• Date: 26th of Tarsakh (The Claw of the Storms, April), evening, 1372 DR
• The altar still smoking with radiant and fell energies, the party was beset by a group of sahuagin warriors, a sahuagin priest, a clutch of ghouls and ghasts, and a giant shark bearing a pearl bracelet around its fin.
• Highlights:
  • Diedric conjuring divine entities look like Unit 137 and Smokescale.
  • The altar being destroyed, revealing three concentric bronze rings spinning around a small gate to the Elemental Plane of Negative Energy. Upon shattering, the gate vanished and all undead dropped inert.
  • Lilia turning a thin hallway into an inferno with Wall of Fire.
  • Glenn wrestling a giant (blighted) shark and rotating it into inertness.
  • Lilia using Speak with Animals to talk to the shark after its telepathic domination by the sahuagin was broken.
    • It complained that they killed its friends but departed, saying this cave was his now.

The Unknown Scholar

• Scouting the rest of the facility, the party found a lone female ghoul, inactive due to the destruction of the altar.
  • She seemed important, wearing a bronze circlet and a scholar's robes.
  • The party looted her circlet (crushing her ancient skull), then looted her entire body into the Bag of Holding for later questioning with a Speak with Dead spell.

Ascent to the Surface

• Lilia, Glenn, and Octavius swam up from the underwater cave mouth.
• Diedric was carried by the celestial smokescale, after stowing his Ioun Stone.
  • Party members asked if they could get a hit of the Ioun Stone later.
• Rising over the Lake of Mists, the party sighted a finished battle, with Tuigan soldiers tending to wounded -- and ghouls and ghasts that looked like they suddenly dropped and stopped fighting.
  • One particularly paranoid individual was going to each undead corpse and stabbing it through the head with a saber. The saber got stuck now and then.
• The party rode their flying carpet to the lake's shore, Lilia activating an aura of vitality to heal the wounded as she walked by with a constant drip of stars. Tuigans eventually flocked to her the party progressed toward three riders.

Qara's Fate

• Borcha rode up on her steed, flanked by Jochi and Saran. Jochi held a wounded stomach.
• Spine still attached, the head of Qara was tied to Borcha's saddle.
• Borcha asked if the undead dropping was the party's doing.
  • They confirmed. She asked what happened, and the party relayed the Imaskari Altar and their experiences. She cursed ancient empires not staying dead.
• Saran explained that the ghouls caught up to some of the horses and broke their lines, dragging Borcha from her saddle.
  • Qara, mounted and feigning to provide aid, instead took the reins of Borcha's horse and rode off.
  • Jochi and Saran, who ran into the camp after hearing the assault, held their ground with Borcha.
  • She then cut her way across the battlefield to decapitate Qara.
• Borcha threw forward Qara's head, saying she saved this kill for herself. She ululated and raised her saber, most of her tribe following her example.
  • Her horse kicked the head around a few times, prancing at one point.
• Borcha reflected on their conflict, saying that she had outridden her grief, and that Laash was a fool like she was, and if only he could have grown older to learn as she did. She spoke for Qara, affirming they agreed to the terms set forth in the Speaking Circle.
  • She offered Qara's head to the party to provide to the paladins, saying it would make Hoar happy. They stowed it in their Bag of Holding.
• Borcha, recalling the provision about exchanging troops, made a mockery of knighting Saran and Jochi with her saber as her new favorite guards. She said she'd send an outrider to Khan Temuj before he shits himself.
• Borcha affirmed that the Tuigan peoples would respond to a call for aid.
• She kicked her horse, hurrying to introduce her new guards to her tribe.
• Octavius approached Ordugher at the lakeside, saying that if their people ever needed help, to come to him in his dreams. He nodded in romantic silence.
• The party shared onion and yam stew with the Tuigans, then retired to their speaking tent.
• Before sleeping, Octavius scried tomorrow's destination, Doomwatch Hold, observing the red-haired squire Jarrod adding more wood to a brazier.

An Unexpected Detour

• Date: 27th of Tarsakh (The Claw of the Storms, April), morning, 1372 DR
• Deciding not to yet summon their infernal companions, Octavius prepared the party for a routine planeswalk to reach Doomwatch Hold.
• They thundered within bowshot range of the ruins of Citadel Rashemar, demonstrating that a lack of deep familiarity with the origin or destination could sometimes result in reaching a similarly-envisioned destination.
• Shocked bugbears ran to blow warning horns and goblins mounted on giant black spiders took aim with shortbows. An ogre bellowed.
• The party immediately flew away from them.

An Offering to Hoar

• Date: 27th of Tarsakh (The Claw of the Storms, April), noon, 1372 DR
• Several hours later, the party landed outside Doomwatch Hold.
• As they neared, the portcullis opened, and Lureene appeared in her gunmetal armor, holding her helm by her side.
• She asked if it was done. The party confirmed, proferring the head of Qara and explaining the backstory.
  • Noticing the dead man still had the vial of elemental water, the party took it before Lureene threw the head into the brazier.
• She rang each of the three bells above the portcullis. As she did so, distant thunder from a storm in the east responded in tandem.
  • She explained that this was a manifestation of Hoar.
• The party inquired if they could enter the grounds to depetrify Glenn's master, Cyrus. She agreed, explaining that while Sir Valthor was more interested in his retirement to Evermeet, he was out training the gray tiefling initiate, Myrren -- and that she expected there was not much left for her order to do here now that the Tuigan matter had been settled -- and that they would likely assist in the Thayan matter.

Awakening in Hay

• The party proceeded to the yard in the middle of the keep, which bore training dummies made of stray.
• Removing the (heavy) Cyrus statue, they placed it prone on a bale of hay. Glenn positioned himself, shield up, between him and the party as Lilia cast Greater Restoration using an astrolabe as a focus, causing starry motes to fall on his form, each drop turning stone to flesh.
• He thrashed, swinging his longsword, shouting for Glenn to get behind him, then fell from the bale.
  • Dressed in plate bearing the purple dragon of Cormyr and a purple tabard, he was paler than Glenn, with a soldier's cut of gray hair and blue eyes.
  • He immediately vomited white bile.
• Glenn caught him up on the keep having fallen, his father having fallen, and the keep having become a Zhentarim stronghold, selling dreamsilk in the region without a response from King Azoun IV. They discussed Shrieker, his curse, its cleansing, and demonstrated his frog form.
• Glenn offered Cyrus 300g for provisions. He accepted.
• When Octavius spoke, Cyrus replied with "By the gods, the chicken talks." The party explained it.
• Lureene introduced herself, and she and Cyrus did the cool arm knight handshake.
• Diedric's sending stone began humming warmly, and he heard B'ian Ch'k Ch'k's melodic voice in his head: "Well hallo master Diedric! I hope that you are not dead during your travails, ya? Master Galdren has made a breakthrough with his research and I am pleased to say that he is ready for your return. If you have not used such a sending stone before, I am pleased to say that you can respond back briefly in your mind and I will hear, ya?"
• The party summoned Unit 137 and Smokescale. They were grouchy.
• Wide-eyed at a flying carpet, and a flying broom, Cyrus hopped onboard as they took off past the Sunrise Mountains to the west, departing the Endless Wastes and heading for Galdren's estate north of Lirensk in Rashemen.

Departing Caravans

• Date: 28th of Tarsakh (The Claw of the Storms, April), early morning, 1372 DR
• Flying the red-eye through the night, the party sighted Rashemi forests and the Rebel Estate as the sun rose.
• The party arrived as caravan delegations from other nations were departing, including:
  • Thay, with red and black banners and bald red wizards.
  • Aglarond, a very independent frontier nation, wearing black with bronze and silver embroidery.
  • Thesk, with sea-blue and gold tapestries, a nation of mercantile city-states, with an important port town on the Sea of Fallen Stars.
• B'ian Ch'k Ch'k was patted on the back by a laughing Theskian merchant as he boarded his caravan.
  • Galdren Murendar, dressed as a Red Wizard, watched them depart.

Catching Up

• The party approached as B'ian whispered something to Galdren.
• The party caught up Galdren on their activities. He was impressed to hear of their accomplishments in the east.
• He politely ushered Cyrus into the estate under the care of B'ian, unsure of how much their new companion could be trusted.
• Octavius relayed visions from the grasses of the Tuigan people, including a white dragon assault on The Grove of Stars.
  • He and Lilia compared notes on the position of stars in his vision, which may correlate to the attack happening in three month's time.
  • Galdren said he would communicate this to the Rashemi.

The Dark of It

• Opening up to the party, Galdren explained that his spell to capture memories of the deceased into the Grand Sensory Orb was to capture the memories of Navarra, a fellow adventurer that traveled with him and Azar when they were younger. Rejected by the wychlaran for her extremity and rebelliousness, she had joined their cause in bringing instability to Thay to probe for weakness and reveal its secrets.
• Their investigations had led to a doppelganger who had taken the place of a noble in Aglarond. When questioning him, they experienced a skip in time (noticable by candles having burned low instantly) and the doppleganger had been disintegrated into ash.
• This led to a dead end, but Navarra conferred in secret with the Monolith of Stars, and learned of a powerful weapon inside the Fell Tower in the Mulhorandi purple desert -- and a way to enter it safely. The tower is described as anathema to any visitors.
• Tharos, however, divined her plan. On her way to the tower, her party was intercepted and slain by Tharos Orakul's forces. Her body was too damaged for a Speak with Dead interrogation.
  • Galdren also stated that, despite spending much of Azar's fortune, her soul refused a resurrection by a High Priestess of Tymora.
• Galdren explained the high necromantic theory behind the spell's mechanism.
  • When a person dies, their soul goes to the City of Judgment in the Fugue Plane (which is a layer in the Astral Plane). There the soul is recorded by Jergal and judgment is awaited by Kelemvor if the soul is not claimed by a god that was worshipped. Once the soul goes to its destination, its memories are left behind in the Astral Plane. Upon a ressurection, the inverse happens -- memories from the afterlife are replaced by the mortal's memories as the soul passes through the Astral back into the Prime Material Plane. Galdren's new spell, which he offered to Octavius, is a hack on top of the Speak with Dead spell that cuts the connection to the Astral before the memories can return after five questions are asked. They then instead reside in the Grand Sensory Orb.
• He called to B'ian, saying that it was time.

Vessel of Remembrance

• B'ian ran from the kitchen entrance, the Grand Sensory Stone, wrapped in silk, in his arms.
• Galdren led the party to a mound covered in bluebell flowers, now clearly a burial site.
• He bid them stand back, as he may only have one attempt.
• Thrusting his arms to the side, he boomed in Draconic:
• Rhaalkor vur thurkear -- "Flesh, remember thy tongue."
  • The air stilled. Galdren twisted his hands together, roiling silver energy appearing, darkening his face against its light.
• Astrixxan darastrix svern -- "Star-soul, answer--then come forth."
  • The bluebells leaned inward, and a silvery cord appeared above Galdren, passing through the Grand Sensory Stone and into the earth.
• Navarra, melikthar durnaara'an -- "Navarra, bind to distant echoes."
  • The silver cord began to glow.
  • Galdren pressed his hands into the earth. The silver light spread across the mound. B'ian shielded his eyes.
• Vessir di'vharastrix, shindar ekess! -- "Vessel of remembrance, drink!"
  • The silver cord shattered in a bright flash, a shockwavefollowing, knocking B'ian's stupid quarterling butt to the ground. Galdren managed to remain standing.
  • As the afterimage of the explosion faded, the Grand Sensory Stone began to glow with a silver light, a bright orb now in its center.

Galdren's Oath

• His hands steaming, he carried the filled Grand Sensory Orb toward the party.
• Galdren: "What I bear to you now is of import greater than my life. I require oaths from all of you that you will defend this with yours."
• Most party members agreed, but Glenn was like wait-a-minute, but acquiesced to defending it to the best of his ability.
• Galdren: "You must venture once more into the Outer Planes and find her spirit where it rests. Give her this orb -- and she will do the rest, Tymora willing."
• He suggested the party seek out Ember, as she may have knowledge on how to find those who have been judged by Kelemvor.
• He handed the party Navarra's cracked Wychlaran mask, which bore blue-bell tinted swirls, in case it would help them find her.

Rest and Plans

• The party proceeded into the anti-divination receiving room of the Estate.
• The party updated Cyrus on their general plans with assisting Galdren and their backstory.
  • Galdren had indicated that he had contacts with War Wizards in Cormyr and that he could arrange for use of his teleportation circle to return him.
• The party discussed various options, including assessing Ribcage in the Outlands vs the Palace of the Winds.
• They settled on heading to the Astral Plane, to the body of the dead mollusk god of fractal patterns, using a piece of it that Glenn had claimed as a travel anchor, then proceeding to the turquoise color pool to the Outlands, then walking to the town of Ribcage, using the portal under the barstool in the Ice Devil's tavern that would lead to Sigil.
  • They also devised a plan to use the faeress crystal while on the Astral Plane to avoid detection by the githyanki.
• They rested for the day.
• Date: 29th of Tarsakh (The Claw of the Storms, April), early morning, 1372 DR
• Faeress crystal in hand, Octavius drew upon his connection to Rashemen and the party thundered its way through the Blind Eternities as motes of golden light.

NPCs Encountered (or mentioned)

• Cyrus, the Unpetrified Swordmaster

DM Thoughts

• The party is quick to develop theories about inter-NPC romances.
  • I think they're "thirsty"?