Session 35: The Temple of the Cycle

The Convolution

Summary

The Temple of the Cycle

Glenn Making Haste

Tracking Vistra through Karasuthra's eternal midnight, the party traded regrets over coriander-scented air -- Lilia naming Minauros as her deepest wound. Six hours on, they sighted the Temple of the Cycle: a mirrored ruin split into "Life" and "Death," Malar tearing a monkey apart on one wing, plant life sprouting from its corpse on the other. Thistle scouted deeper and met a Flail Snail's flail.

Hoping to skirt the temple entirely, they circled and sniffed for Vistra's trail beyond it. There was none. Spiders closed in from the forest; Glenn, Hasted into a blur, slew three in one smooth motion, helped as Lilia burned them with Karasuthra's moonlight.

Inside the life wing, they recovered a rotted oration -- "by mastering and binding the greatest predators, we honor Malar" -- and Octavius orchestrated his masterpiece: mouse and Mage Hand striking gorilla and scorpion in perfect synchrony, three foreseen deaths averted, two displaced friends turned against each other. "Great Kuzzak, why?!" In the emptied dormitory they found Allegon's treatise, a journal accusing Mellegon of hoarding "his half," and a white marble teardrop -- half of a sinuous circle. The session ended, mid-debate over sending Glenn to parley with the toad.

XP Award

• 113 XP for the Troupe of Spiders
• 900 XP for the Convolution of the Gorilla and Scorpion
• The Diviner's Crescendo: 600 XP for Octavius's three-visions masterpiece of portent and puppetry
• 300 XP for recovering the first half of the Cycle
• Total: 1913 XP
• Current XP: 72264 XP -> 74177 XP
• (Required for next level: 85000 XP)

Things That Happened

On Coriander and Regrets

• Date: 4th of Mirtur, morning, 1372 DR
• The party awoke to Diedric's Tiny Hut diminishing and continued their tracking of Vistra and the Spectre through the eternal midnight of Karasuthra.
• Lilia sniffed coriander in the air, perhaps a beverage.
• Lilia restrained herself from howling at a pack of wolves in the distance.
• The party began discussing regrets.
  • Octavius at first reflected on being happy and confident, but upon further reflection, admitted to wishing to have met B'ian Ch'k Ch'k sooner in his life.
  • Lilia spoke of a sheltered life, wishing she had visited her parents more -- then remember Minauros and immediately identified that as her biggest regret.
  • Glenn just smiled.
  • Diedric just reflected.

Sighting the Temple

• Six hours later, the party sighted a mirrored, crumbling temple, with an inset circle in the center.
  • One side bore spiderwebs, the other the corpses of trappers, including an ogre.
• Lilia sent her bat Thistle to get a better luck, and saw through her eyes.
  • She identified druidic writing, labeling the left wing as "Life" and the right wing as "Death".
    • The life side depicted Malar, a giant red-faced monkey god, tearing another monkey in half and eating its entrails.
    • The death side showed the dead monkey from the life side, plant life sprouting from its corpse.
• She sent Thistle deeper into the ruins, identifying the temple as the "Temple of the Cycle". Thistle sighted a giant toad sleeping amidst a group of druid corpses, along with a Flail Snail, who slew and unsummoned Thistle as she tried to fly away.

Sniffing Around

• Wanting to circumvent hours of DM planning, the party cast Pass Without Trace and circled around the temple, hoping that Vistra's trail moved on beyond it. All sniffed together for coriander in the air.
  • This isn't the DM's first rodeo. There was no sign of Vistra having moved beyond the temple.
• In the midst of their planning, Diedric's warhammer rang in warning as spiders moved in from the forest.

Outflanked

• Encounter: A Troupe of Spiders
• Highlights:
  • A spider hissing that a meal had been brought to them.
  • Glenn moving in an incredible blur thanks to the Haste spell, the world appearing in slow motion to his eyes.
  • Lilia Sailor Moon transforming into her humanoid form, calling on Karasuthra's moon to burn the spiders with its light.
  • Glenn decapitating a spider, cutting another in half, and decapitating the other in one smooth motion.
  • Glenn vomiting as the Haste spell ended.

Delving Further

• The party discussed the live vs death side, and chose the life side.
• After some debate about whether or not to use fire, using Mage Hand, Octavius cleared webs as the party traveled.
• Noting a rotted book in the death side, Octavius used Mage Hand to bring it into the party's possession.
  • Lilia cast Mending on it, which restored pages but not the content that had been destroyed.
  • A single fragment of an oration was still legible in druidic: "by mastering and binding the greatest predators, we honor Malar"
• Octavius sent Alaundo, his mouse familiar, to scout further below.

The Convolution

• The mouse spotted a ruined dormitory with a Giant Gorilla and Giant Scorpion sleeping across multiple beds.
• Octavius, reaching into his portend memories from the previous night's dreams, hatched a plan:
  • His mouse Alaundo would bite the Giant Scorpion awake at the same time as his Mage Hand would sting the Giant Gorilla with an imp's scorpion stinger he had from a previous encounter.
  • This would then set them against each other.
• As he unleashed his plan, his eyes turning white as he saw through his familiar's vision, with careful timing, he averted three foreseen disasters, spending all of his diviner's powers in a crescendo:
  • The first vision of mistiming the assaults and the gorilla ripping off his arms was averted with more careful synchrony.
  • The second vision of the gorilla finding the imp's stinger and having his head crushed against a wall was averted by having his Mage Hand sweep the stinger under a bed prior to vanishing.
  • The third vision of Alaundo's bite being ineffective against the scorpion (resulting in the scorpion stinging Octavius's face to death) was averted by more carefully instructing Alaundo to bite a different area.
• Against all odds, the performance succeeded, with the giant gorilla picking up the giant scorpion by the stinger and throwing him about, eventually out of the room.
  • "Great Kuzzak, why?!" the scorpion protested as he flew out of the dormitory. The fighting continued and both beasts receeded into the distance.
• (Lore notes: The scorpion and giant gorilla are both displaced from their native sections of Karasuthra, bonding over their search for their homes. The party went ahead and tried to destroy their relationship.)

Philosophy and the First Half

• Now cleared, the party proceeded into the dormitory.
• Two books were spotted -- one rotted, one perfectly preserved.
  • The preserved book, "Modernity of Nature", was a druidic treatise, in ten chapters meant to serve as an oration, arguing that just as a beaver builds a dam, a person building a structure or other tools is no less natural. It was written by Allegon.
• The smaller book, a rotted journal, had a most recent entry read: "Mellegon has lost his wits, refusing to part with his half in this time of need as the beasts surround the temple. We will bring the bloodlust to him and take it by force. Where I retire is my half kept safe."
• The party quickly found a large white marble tear drop, hidden in a canvas pillowcase, appearing to be half of a sinuous circle with a black dot at is base.
• The party debated sending Glenn to the Giant Toad to speak with it as the session came to a cruel end.

NPCs Encountered (or mentioned)

• Malar, the Beastlord
• Allegon, Author of Modernity of Nature
• Mellegon, Keeper of the Other Half
• Kuzzak, the Duped Gorilla

Memes

• Trying to skip designed content seems to be a recurring theme.

DM Thoughts

• Animal figurines trigger childlike play at the table. It's interesting. Recessive behavior.