Session0024

April 27th
Outside of Osh Thilivern, Kamm and his airship depart, leaving the party with Princess Porcini, who remains unconscious. With identify and detect magic spells, the party deduces that she is not under the effect of any magic. With medical examination, the party deduces that she is in good health, but has been temporarily rendered unconscious by some sort of poison, which is unusual given that myconid are typically immune to poison. They equip her with a magical pin that nullifies the effects of poisons. The poison's effect ends, and she comes to consciousness; however, she seems woozy and tired, and ends up falling asleep. The party decides to give her time to rest and recover.

When asked, Buttonsworth explains that they were ambushed by the Kameshimans. He tried to resist but was incapacitated. Elnorath corroborates this story when she is resummoned by Gragnok. Buttonsworth apologizes for failing to protect the party's belongings and offers his resignation to Frog, but Frog declines, assuring him that it wasn't his fault.

The party sets up camp outside of Osh Thilivern, setting up a watch order for the evening, and using Malkoth's tiny hut spell for safety from potential dangers. Buttonsworth stays up for the night to watch over Porcini.

Over the course of the night, the party notices several strange elemental disturbances, such as lightning strikes and shifting earth.

During the first watch, Rye and XVIII discuss Israphel's plan for ascension and freedom. XVIII expresses their dissatisfaction with their own experience of freedom, and questions why Israphel would want it. They also explain that they tried to send a paper bird to Lane Coronato in hopes that he could mediate the party's interpersonal conflicts, but that the letter turned to ash, indicating that Lane was either dead or on a different plane of existence. Rye attempts to send Lane a message with a sending spell, and the message is successfully sent, but there is no response. He also explains that Israphel returned to Karaad a few weeks ago in search of Lane, but he wasn't there.

Meanwhile, Gragnok is awoken in the night by several ravens gathering around him - seemingly representatives of the Raven Queen. After attempting to ignore them for a short time, he eventually asks what they want from him. They speak to him telepathically, praising his deeds in the service of the Raven Queen. Furthermore, they task him with stopping the Morningstar's ascension and destroying the rites of ascension, referring to the ascension of a mortal being a travesty. Gragnok accuses the Raven Queen of hypocrisy, based on her own ascension from mortality to godhood, and says that he's no longer willing to follow her orders. He expresses his resentment for the trouble that's befallen him since entering her service, and explains that he wants to prioritize getting the abyssal tuning fork back from Kamm, and will no longer be pursuing the Raven Queen's service. The Raven Queen's messengers seem unphased by this, stating that Gragnok's destiny will come to him whether he pursues it or not.

As the raven messengers begin to fly away, XVIII, who had been watching from nearby, catches one of them and holds it. A few of the ravens gather around them, and a telepathic voice tells then that there is life within them, and a destiny for them to fulfill as well.

On the next watch, Patches shapeshifts, transforming into a myconid, taking on Buttonsworth's appearance.

On the next watch, Frog thanks Jack for his assistance in rescuing Princess Porcini. He offers to use his shapeshifting ability to take Djinni's shape, perhaps by using a detect thoughts spell on Jack to learn her appearance, so that they could see her again. Jack evasively suggests that it would be better for Frog to use the spell on Pepper to learn Djinni's appearance, but is otherwise amenable to the idea. Pepper seems to like the idea, and offers Frog some paintings that he has done of Djinni.

April 28th
Early in the morning, Princess Porcini wakes up. Ecstatic to see Frog and Buttonsworth, she asks them where they are and what has happened. Frog briefly explains the situation at hand, assuring her that they'll get her back to Mycorrhiza as soon as possible. She asks about Prince Marcello, and Frog says that they unfortunately could not rescue him.

Frog asks Porcini what she remembers from her time in captivity. She explains that she and her entourage were ambushed by Kameshimans who used weapons that emitted a poisonous gas that rendered them all unconscious. From that point forward, Porcini's memory is hazy and disjointed, but she recalls being kept in a cage somewhere underground, along with the Senators and Prince Marcello. She describes the guards keeping watch over them as monstrous mushroom-like creatures which never spoke - presumably deep myconid. She recalls one occasion wherein Kamm and one such myconid stood outside her cage for an extended period of time, looking at her without speaking.

Over breakfast, Porcini introduces herself to the rest of the party, and thanks them for their aid. Noticing the party's wounds from the previous day's events, she offers some healing magic, utilizing her own holy symbol of the Star Road.

Discussing their plans moving forward, the party decides that they should head toward the Taruki Jungle and search for the Death Cap Temple, in hopes of finding the Chaos Core to begin Frog's mission regarding the Fable of the Thousand Year Door. In lieu of a solid lead on the location of the temple, Jack suggests that they visit the city of Ntambu in the jungle, and ask around there. Plotting their course, they decide to first return to the nearby farm where they discovered the Rune Magic monolith, to retrieve their mounts and stock up on food. From there, they plan to traverse the Golden Wastes towards the Taruki Jungle, with a stop by a settlement in the Wastes known as the Red Towers for supplies.

As the party makes preparations to set out for the day's journey, Gragnok pulls Patches aside, and tells him that he has left the Raven Queen's service.

Over the course of the morning, the party makes their way out of the Scar, and returns to the farm, where they recover their mounts and gather food and water for their travels.

Pressing onward, the party begins traversing the Wastes towards the Red Towers. Traveling through the Wastes, they experience several strange magical anomalies, such as odd flares of elemental magic and bursts of chaotic magic. Jack explains that such occurrences are fairly commonplace in the Wastes, and Odell explains that this is likely due to the aftermath of the Severance.

In the evening, the party discovers a ruin of an ancient elvish military rampart. The rampart is adorned with flags depicting the holy symbol of Bahamut, and there is a gargantuan dragon skeleton half-buried outside. After some discussion, the party decides to investigate the ruins, in hopes of finding treasure and respite for the night's rest.

As the party is exploring the ruins' exterior, they begin harvesting bits of the dragon's skeleton. XVIII objects, stating that the dead are to be respected, and begins attempting to bury the dragon's skeleton. Meanwhile, Gragnok investigates the interior of the ruins. As he steps inside, there is a low rumble from deep within the rampart, and a skeletal dragon emerges.

The party battles the skeletal dragon, as well as necromantic oozes that rise from the earth near the skeleton outside. During the fray, Rye uses Syntithenai to grant Malkoth infernal rage. In doing so, Malkoth temporarily loses control of his infernal magic, inadvertently conjuring a barbed devil which he eventually loses control of. The party defeats the undead creatures and the conjured devil.

After the battle, the party finishes searching the ruins. They uncover the remains of several other smaller chromatic dragons, as well as elvish skeletons. Piecing together the scene, they deduce that the larger dragon was a silver dragon, which battled against the smaller chromatic dragons at this site. They recover a valuable platinum dragon statuette from within the rampart, as well as a magical gemstone from within one of the dragon skeleton's eyes.

After finishing their investigation of the ruins, the party sets up camp for the night.

While setting up camp, Rye privately speaks with Malkoth, and raises concerns about his infernal magic. He speculates that Malkoth might be somehow involved in the prophecy regarding the Trumpeter of the Apocalypse, and that Asmodeus may wish to use Malkoth as a host to bring himself in to the Material Plane. Rye also tells Malkoth that he learned from Israphel that Natalie Shaw's immortal soul is lingering in Sigil, awaiting Lane Coronato.

During their evening's watch, Rye speaks with XVIII about their notion of respecting the dead, and the two discuss unforeseen consequences of their actions. Rye suggests that burying Serafina Edelstein and Jannik Kastner may have been a mistake, as their families now can't provide their loved ones a proper memorial.

April 29th
Early in the morning, Odell receives a letter from Mordus Moonbeard - the Paragon of the Circle of Rune Carvers - requesting that he return to the College of Mimrinoth as soon as possible to catch up on his findings. Odell shares the contents of this letter with the party.

The party sets out for their day's travel through the Wastes. Early in the day, they come upon the ruins of an ancient elven civilization. Searching the ruins, they find a temple to Ioun, which is in remarkably good condition considering its age. Inside the temple, Malkoth places some coins and other valuable trinkets within on offering shrine. Upon doing so, his mind opens to magical knowledge, and he gains the ability to ask three questions, as in a commune spell.

After consulting with the party, Malkoth asks if Syntithenai has any further features that could be unlocked, and learns that it does not.

Next, he asks if it is a good idea to meet with Passeri, at Rye's request. The answer to this question is unclear, as it requires speculation and judgment, but he does not sense that it would be an inherently poor idea.

Finally, at Odell's recommendation, he asks if the party was set upon their current journey together - beginning with their acquisition of Syntithenai - was instigated by a knowable entity. The answer to this question also remains somewhat unclear. Malkoth gains the knowledge that an external force with its own interests has acted upon the party, but it is unclear if this influence would qualify as a knowable entity.

After finishing their brief exploration of the ruins, the party presses on with their day's travel. Throughout the travel day, they continue to witness and experience strange chaotic magical phenomena and stray elemental disturbances.

Later in the afternoon, the party spots a group of thri-kreen fishing at a river. Further upriver, they spot monstrous liondrakes flying toward the thri-kreen. After quickly discussing, the party decides to intervene and try to help the thri-kreen. They quickly ride toward the thri-kreen, warning them of the impending danger.

Together with the thri-kreen, the party battles the liondrakes. Two of the thri-kreen are killed in the fray, but the party manages to defeat the liondrakes and rescue the rest.

After the battle, Jack asks the thri-kreen about getting to the Red Towers. The thri-kreen seem mostly unable to speak any of the party's languages, but one of them communicates with Jack in broken gnoll, and offers the party a reward for their aid. They beckon the party to follow them, and the party agrees.

The thri-kreen lead the party to a cave at the mouth of the river, inhabited by dozens of thri-kreen - seemingly the entrance to their hive. Here, they give the party a reward, including food, drink, and magical items. They also offer to let the party use their network of tunnels to travel in safety to the Red Towers.