Eon: The Dark Lantern (Spring 2010)

In which The Company flees the Ruin of Baldur, visits Goneril City and figures out that dictatorships are not very fun, then attempts to become minor drug-and-anything-else-available lords to finance an attack on the Axiomates.
== Episodes ==
===Season Premiere: Baldurdash===
: Two hours after the Battle of Syscian's Tower, Ethan, Ashra and Claire have retreated to the illithid guildhome, accompanied by Sluf and his men. Baudin and Tyro have not been seen since they disappeared into a room in Syscian's Tower. Kruglor and Herr Doctor remain casualties, and Fauxdin disappeared after surviving his fall. Ulfgar is assumed to have wandered off sometime before the battle started, and Snake is providing an extra chair in the guildhome. Marcus Fairlan is their prisoner, unconscious in the guildhome.
: Claire considers trying to talk Ashra into not trying to hate Sluf et al to death, but Ethan tells her not to. They maintain the uneasy alliance for the moment because war is raging outside. The party hears the a pounding that sounds like hoofbeats; Ethan thinks it sounds like the last Ride of Nerull.
: Ethan and Ashra take a moment to examine the amulet Ashra picked up from the fate. It's much larger than the amulets they're used to, and instead of a normal centerpiece could fit an entire other amulet inside of it. It's also made of gold, and in Axiomatic (which Ashra casts Comprehend Languages to read) it has inscribed into it the entirety of Ille Draconum's Book II Verse II. Ashra also studies herself, Ethan, and Claire in the Mirror of True Seeing. Ethan looks pretty gross, but they're all who they claim to be.
: A loud crashing sound comes from the Motherbrain's room. Ashra takes Zaphodel and goes to check, leaving the door open behind her to allow telepathy to pass through in case she needs backup. Given her rather emotional reaction the first time someone was found in there, however, everyone decides it's best to let her handle this one alone. She sees an old dwarf in the corner of the room. He has a long white beard, and when she commands him to stand, he says he cannot. She telepathically calls the others, and Claire immediately recognizes him as Kruglor, only old. She hugs him, to Ashra's consternation, and after some quick confused discussion of the timeline, work out that this Kruglor is some fifty years older, retired, has fought the tarrasque and gained its femur, and didn't intend to be here (and now) at all. His Dimension Die, which Ashra had been holding since Zaph picked it out of the rubble, is no longer in Ashra's possession. Also, he's a pretty decent guy now. Ashra and Kruglor agree to let bygones be bygones, at least somewhat, and Ethan goes off to examine Marcus when everyone hears the sound of a drill. The party realizes that given the resentment against Grax, people are likely to come after the illithid guildhome and find them.
: They need to get out, and fast. Running downwards seems to be the best option; the trapdoor in the Motherbrain room would lead to the tower, where they don't want to go, and the tunnel to the Underdark will run into the drow guildhome in chaos, but there's a way out from the armory which will bring them to the docks, where they can comandeer a ship and possibly stop by Claire's house on the way. Ethan decides he's spent long enough trying to avoid this war. Everyone who wants him dead is involved, and he's had enough. He declares war on the war, in a slightly more crazy voice than usual. Ashra proclaims he has the support of one third of the illithid population.
: The party starts booking downstairs. Ashra slings the unconscious Marcus over her shoulder and leads the way, followed by Zaph, Ethan, Kruglor, and Claire. Claire gives Kruglor her hand and helps him to walk. They reach a bend in the passage, and up ahead the door to the dormitory has clearly been exploded away. Ethan walks up to it and feels a sudden chill of fear. A naga has crawled in through the tunnel the party left. Ethan runs past to the other side. Ashra hands off Marcus to Kruglor, and the four approach the naga. Kruglor is no longer reachable by telepathy, but he recognizes the creature, and through a quick conversation manages to tell Ashra about its capabilities -- weak will -- and its motivation -- defending magical objects. Meanwhile, orcs and Charilus pour into the guildhome above. Kruglor and Claire run across, eating a couple of acid attacks, and as Charilus and his men approach, Ashra charms the naga and asks it to defend her against the men who are going to attack her.
: Everyone else rounds a corner, but as Ashra and Zaphodel are running after them, Charilus sees them from the end of the other hall. "It's Ashra!" he shouts, the first time in a long while that someone has identified one mind flayer from another, and he attempts to cast Feeblemind. It beats her spell resistance, but she saves, says "Bye, bitches!" and runs around the corner with Zaph as the naga begins to attack the orcs.
: Meanwhile, the rest of the party jumps over a single rough stone on the steps and runs one by one into an emotion stone of patriotism. Claire especially feels jingoistic, but they keep on running. When Ashra reaches the stone, however, she is overcome by it and decides to stand and fight. Zaphodel trips over the step and falls prone. The men catch up, and one takes a swing at her. She crawls away, rises, and returns to Ashra's side, and Ashra mind blasts the orcs to no effect. Ethan decides it's distraction time and shouts "Hey, Charilus! Fuck you!" He then runs up near Ashra and Zaph, then summons an enormous zombie to block the hall. Charilus, who had been about to shoot a spell at Ashra, instead disintegrates the zombie.
: Ethan casts Cloudkill on Charilus and his men; Charilus casts Gust of Wind and blows it back in their faces. Ashra and Zaph manage to save, though there is some cursing from the illithid, and Ethan says something disparaging about those who have to breathe. A quick conversation ensues in which Ethan and Ashra's better judgment convince Ashra that the country to which she should be loyal is not this shell of a place, but Ashra herself and the future for the mind flayers which she holds. In other words, it's really okay to GTFO now. The three start running after the others.
: Speaking of the others, Kruglor, Claire and Marcus have been running along the hall until they run into a cloud of poison. Both manage to resist its effects, and run through to the other side. They are finally in the armory, where Claire picks up a purple crossbow with no string and Kruglor grabs a chest with a red cross on it. Both jump into the tunnel. Ethan and Ashra follow soon after; Ashra and Zaphodel are slightly late as Zaphodel dispels the poisonous cloud. On the way out, Ashra grabs a light crossbow for Zaphodel.
: The party emerges in Element City, near a bar and Claire's old home. Death squads uniformed as the Army of the Senate are roaming the area as civilians try to run for the boats. As Ethan emerges, Dread Pirate Lucy, in the bar, recognizes him. He says he didn't mean to bring the fate to Baldur, and he owes the party one because they stopped it from going off. Ethan asks for a ride out of there, and he can definitely provide that. He indicates where the Infinite Horizons is moored nearby. Three ships down from the Infinite Horizons, the party also recognizes The Widowmaker. Claire makes herself, Kruglor, Marcus, and Zaphodel invisible, then heads off for her house with Kruglor. Marcus's invisible body lies on the ground. After a quick discussion with Ethan, Ashra decides to pretend to be Grax, hoping to be able to get some of the death squads to protect the party or at least leave them alone.
: Lucy calls to his crew, and Leilah Maloch and Apple stand up. Ashra, followed by Zaphodel, walks out beside the edge of the tavern. Unlike the others, she stares at the death squads and tries to look as imperious and arrogant as possible, which isn't really any different from her normal manner. Ethan has to stay with Marcus's body until someone can get to it. Kruglor and Claire pass through an antimagic field in a small open-air temple with one civilian, but their invisibility remains intact. Kruglor whispers to the civilian that he should really get out of here.
: A death squad spots Ethan. They command him to stop, and he points out that he hasn't been going anywhere. He asks their allegiance and they reply "Hail Grax." He says the same back to them and offers to take them to the supreme commander. Only one of them fails to buy it. One of them commands he take his hood off, and he pulls it off and repeats, "Hail Grax." He also telepathically asks for help, and Ashra offers to return and be his fake Grax.
: It is not to be, however, as Malicor and his death squad have sighted Ashra. "You! Mindflayer! Stop!"
: "You dare speak to your Supreme Commander that way?"
: Unfortunately, Malicor is one of Grax's lieutenants and can tell by sight that this is not him. Ashra regrets sacrificing Disguise Self for Comprehend Languages as she takes a ballista bolt to the ... leg? Anyway, she can't walk and there's a huge bolt sticking out of her robes and SOMETHING is very broken right now. She was already wounded from the chain lightning in the Battle of Syscian's Tower, and she's not doing well at all now. It is the most she can do to crouch behind a fountain and survive for the moment. She still plans to return to Ethan as soon as Zaphodel can heal her.
: Leilah buffs herself into an enormous glowing god, tosses an Obscuring Mist near Ashra, and wades over to help. Apple throws water on the tavern fire and jumps up the chimney, landing on top of the house.
: Claire and Kruglor ninja over to the front of Claire's house. A civilian nearly runs into Claire, and she grabs him, puts her hand over his mouth, and then lets him go again.
: The death squad shout "It's Ethan of Malvont!" and start to attack him. Their cleric casts Cure Critical Wounds on him, and their paladin smites him. He is in a bad way, but needs to make sure Marcus is picked up from the rubble before he can leave himself. Lucy can take him and Marcus with Dimension Door, but not Apple, as he is too large.
: Zaphodel heals Ashra from the cover of the mist, but Malicor fires his ballista at the fountain, blowing it up and leaving Ashra in the open. A member of the death squad uses Gust of Wind to blow the Obscuring Mist out of the way. He shoots Ashra with his gun, knocking her unconscious. Leilah runs over, picks up Ashra and Zaph, and Dimension Doors onto the Infinite Horizons. Leilah discovers she can tell Zaphodel to cast Healing Circle, bringing Ashra back to consciousness. Ashra crawls over to the cannon and gets off a good shot at Malicor. He doesn't flinch.
: Apple jumps off the roof and lands on his head, then tumbles to the side. He grabs Ethan, pulling him up. Ethan pulls himself into Apple's saddle, and Apple jumps directly over the cleric threatening Ethan.
: Over by the house, another death squad approaches and makes to torch the house, but Kruglor hits one of them with a bone, forcing him to attack him instead. Someone tosses a lightning bolt at him, marking the first time in a long while an enemy has used one against anyone other than Ashra. Maybe it's just something that happens to people with SR. Kruglor also fires light rays at some of the evil death squad members.
: Claire runs into the house, touches something of importance to her, and remembers more of her repressed memories. She gains three Hero Points and a new resolve to kill everyone there, especially Malicor. She announces that either he will die or she will. Upon trying out the shiny purple crossbow, she discovers that it fires magical force projectiles which never run out or require reloading. She immediately resolves to somehow find a second so she can dual-wield and look even cooler. The death squad does manage to set the house on fire as Claire and Kruglor pick off its members. Claire no longer cares, as the house has served its purpose. Kruglor runs temporarily into the house, steals some of their silverware, then runs out since he realized the house is on fire. Fire.
: One of the death squad members who is fighting finds himself suddenly holding a lit triple-F bomb, which he throws at Kruglor, who rolls it back towards the cannons. It goes off and explodes all the gunpowder in the cannons near Kruglor and Claire. These cannons detonate in a chain reaction which also destroys the bar. Hey, it had to blow up somehow. Lucy dives out of the way, Ethan is thrown off of Apple, and Marcus dies in the rubble. Ethan tells Lucy to get the corpse. Lucy grabs Marcus and Ethan and Dimension Doors them over to the boat.
: On the Infinite Horizons, Lucy takes the main turret while Zaphodel starts casting Healing Circles at every opportunity. Malicor takes several shots at Ashra, but does not knock her out again. Leilah cancels her golden god-ness so that she no longer takes up most of the boat; Ashra moves aside to allow her access to the front cannon, but she does not use it. Instead, she attempts to dispel Malicor's magic items, only to learn he wasn't wearing any. Ashra's Arcane Fire bounces off Malicor's spell resistance. The boat next to the Infinite Horizons is shot by cannonballs and sinks. Some civilians make it onto the Widowmaker and manage to set sail, while a death squad takes the other remaining boat and shoots at the Infinite Horizons. The front cannon of this boat is ruined, making it tactically useless to steal.
: Apple charges over, distracting Malicor from his shots at the boat. Apple takes some impressive hits and slams him against the cannon wall. Ashra tries to send a Fiendish Ape to escape on his face and help Apple out, but fails to cast the spell.
: Claire and Kruglor use a combination of force-bolts, light rays, and throwing axe blows to take out the remainder of the death squads. Claire then makes herself invisible and starts focusing on Malicor despite her injuries. At this point, it's the party versus him, with the exception of the enemies on the nearby boat, who are taken out with a combination of Ashra's wand-whip and Ethan's Magic Missile. Apple gets close to dead, pulls out a scroll of Expeditious Retreat, and runs onto the ship for some healing.
: Malicor hides from the boat by pressing himself against a cannon slit. Claire approaches invisibly, still concentrating, and gets in a death attack to the face. Ashra starts considering if there's any possible way for her to eat his brain. Short answer: not really, not even with Time Stop. After the death attack, Malicor knows Claire is there and can usually hear her, and the two run around each other as he takes swings at her. A single hit will kill her.
: Kruglor takes out Ecphrasis and a javelin, then charges towards Malicor. The two trade blows. Zaphodel heals Ashra, then Ashra turns herself invisible, receives a Fly from Leilah, and starts moving out with the intention of offering Claire assistance, then grabbing her and dragging her kicking and screaming to the ship. Apple beats her to it, however, running over, grabbing her and running back. Ethan knocks her out with Inflict Minor Wounds (an easy task) and she is set down on the boat. Ashra moves towards Kruglor and Malicor, but can offer no assistance.
: Kruglor, however, has his own ideas for how to handle Malicor. First he sets off a cask of gunpowder immediately between them, taking advantage of a two which allowed him to automatically make his next save. Malicor is bloodied, and promptly rages. Oh shit.
: Kruglor takes a step back and opens a gate. Unfortunately he didn't check the sides of the die this morning, so he doesn't know where it'll lead; it turns out to lead to the Infinite Beast Lands. Malicor takes a swing at him through the gate, then figures out what it is. Apple runs back from the ship, charges, and with a mighty effort manages to shove him through the gate. Kruglor then closes the gate, and the two make it back onto the ship, which Lucy, Leilah and Apple sail away.
: Leilah and Zaphodel quickly heal Apple so he won't die once his rage ends. Zaph fails to heal Ashra's broken bone, so that will have to wait a day. Everyone has been up for nearly a day straight; Kruglor is completely exhausted, feeling his age, and Claire is fatigued. The party has lost their captive -- well, they have his body, but he may or may not be willing to come back to the random thrall cleric asking him to return. However, they've picked up a civilian, which Ethan immediately claims as his pet and tells Ashra she's not allowed to eat. Bloodied, tired, and out of spells, the party begins to sail away, contemplating their next destination and their new strange mix of good-aligned and evil-aligned members.
: (A lot of this battle was pretty chaotic, so I may have some things misattributed; if I've got things wrong or out of order, please feel free to fix them. Also I'm not really sure what went on in Claire's house.)
===Episode Two: Wooden Gear Tactical Piracy Action===
: The party is still exhausted as they stand on the deck of the Infinite Horizons. Claire's unconscious body is set with Marcus's corpse and the noncombatants on the lowest level of the ship. Kruglor climbs down there as well and begins to take a nap. The rest of the party has a moment's quick discussion with the Dread Pirate Lucy. They discover that Fab Dick has been working with Lucy, and that Leilah has bardic knowledge helping her work out details of the obstacles they're about to face in leaving Baldur's waters. There are cannons on the shore, like the two rows they destroyed, and there are also large battleships which will attempt to blow the Infinite Horizons out of the water. It's already quite damaged, at about half its maximum structural integrity. It is currently manned by a crew of twenty ultramarines and sailors. Apple offers to sail the ship, allowing Lucy to man a cannon.
: Soon it's time to move. Three supercruisers and several smaller ships stand between the party and safety. There are possible areas of cover behind the Lighthouse and The Lady Nocturne, and several currents reveal themselves as well. The party confers over naval strategies, and comes up with several different ways to use a slingshot current to try to get past the nearest supercruiser. Ethan reveals he has great knowledge of ships and will use it if necessary, even if that puts that special kind of stress on him, since he has no spells left to offer.
: Ashra tags Zaphodel with levitation and is healed by her. She pulls out her spyglass, but sees nothing, preoccupied with checking for Explosive Runes. Fab Dick makes himself invisible. Apple begins to steer the ship to the left, bringing it alongside several cannons, which fire. Zaphodel is knocked back and nearly killed by a cannonball. Lucy takes a cannon and starts taking out the cannons on the shore in a particularly manly and awesome manner.
: The ship makes a dash along the shore, taking heavy cannon fire. Leilah is blown off of the boat, grabs the rails, and pulls herself back up onto the boat. Ashra sends Zaphodel downstairs so she won't die, and casts Misdirection on Ethan, redirecting him to Pyotar Umarov. Ethan also takes Ashra's wand of Ice Ball. Fab Dick gives Ashra Greater Invisibility. She levitates up into the crow's nest, then to the higher crow's nest, hoping that lightning won't hit her. Apple takes the ship farther along the shore, taking more cannon shots, then turns it and goes for The Lady Nocturne. He also asks that the supermarines tie him in place, which they do, and starts reciting his life story in limericks.
: Apple pulls into The Lady Nocturne. Several small battleships are approaching. Ashra, in the second crow's nest, finally gets a good look around. Far to the right is the BCS Amphibious Kingmaker, clearly recovered from its unfortunate encounter with a black dragon. The other supercruisers are the Old Lantern and the Octopus Club. The Octopus Club is standing in wait to blow the Infinite Horizons out of the water when it arrives, while its smaller ships are coming around to flush the Infinite Horizons out. The skies are cloudy, but the weather is not being magically affected, and there's no storm starting.
: The Dread Pirate Lucy strikes a pose. "I'm getting out of this shithole! Who's with me?" An admiring crowd appears.
: Ethan decides to test his notoriety, removing his hat and hood and waving at the crowd. "Hi." "Who the fuck are you?" "I LOVE YOU." Satisfied with the knowledge someone doesn't know him, he makes no further effort to recruit.
: Fab Dick decides to call the Vecnaphone and rolls a two. He accidentally has a fog cloud pouring out of his mouth, instead.
: The bar begins to fire its cannon (yes, it has one) at the ships on the other side of the island. One of them retaliates, destroying the cannon and leaving a cloud of smoke. The bar, too, is blown up with a cannon, bringing the party's running total of bars destroyed to five.
: Apple decides to bring the Infinite Horizons out of the shelter of the bar (now much less after the explosions) and ram one of the small ships. It's actually more like a sort of gentle love tap, which is rather unfortunate. Apple also takes a scroll and casts Summon Swarm near the captain's head, sending bats to distract him. Dread Pirate Lucy commands his men to board, and they start swinging over. He dashes up to the captain of the other ship and slits his throat. It's pretty awesome.
:Ethan tosses an ice ball at them with the borrowed wand. Meanwhile below decks, Kruglor wakes up and slowly makes his way to the middle deck, where he sees Zaphodel. Through a quick and awkward conversation with Ashra-through-Zaph, he learns what's going on. However, he decides he doesn't really want to do what Ashra wants and come above decks.
: Another ship pulls up alongside the Infinite Horizons. Fab D starts taking out some of their cannon teams with fireballs. Ashra starts floating over, intending to eat the captain. Since the ship is taking more and more damage, she sends Zaph down to get Claire and carry her. Zaph enlists the pet citizen to carry Marcus, and they take them to the second level and wait.
: The ultramarines and the enemies fire cannons. The ship keeps taking damage. So do some party members. Kruglor comes above deck, bearing some explosive rounds. He takes up a cannon and has a point-blank standoff with the enemy cannon. They fire first. He's bleeding to death, but still up. He fires back, blowing some of them away. The other ship decides it's time to run the fuck away as Kruglor stumbles down to Zaph and asks to be stabilized. She obliges. Below decks, he opens a gate to Limbo and stares into it, waiting for a boat to randomly appear.
: Lucy and his men finish up most of the men on the other ship, Ethan assisting with another Ice Ball. He then sets it to sail away from the Infinite Horizons and takes off. He dodges a cannonball and dives off the ship, but falls into the sea. An ultramarine swings down, grabs him, and swings back up onto the boat.
: With the way clear, Apple steers the ship forward, allowing an ultramarine to cut him free. The Octopus Club bombards the ship, but it shoots past them, riding the end of the current. Ethan notices that Kruglor neglected to close the bag of explosives, and several are now on deck. If anything explodes near them, the ship will sink. He can do nothing, and moves as far away from them as possible; Fab Dick picks them up with telekinesis and holds them in midair, hoping to detonate them at the enemy ship if they end up too close. As they pass the Old Lantern, it shoots at them from half a mile away. A cannonball strikes Leilah and kills her.
: As they are nearly to safety, another cannonball strikes Apple and knocks him out. He is seconds from death. Fab Dick sets down the bombs and flies to the helm, sailing the boat to safety. Ethan tosses his wand of Cure Minor Wounds to an ultramarine, who swings over to Apple and tries to stabilize him, but fails to use the wand properly. Ashra floats down from the crow's nest and carefully drops her potion of Cure Moderate Wounds into the hands of another ultramarine, who swings up to the poop deck and hands the potion to Fab D. Fab D then pours it down Apple's throat, saving his life. It's sort of like a baton race but with potions and not dying.
: The party is finally out of combat. As the ship sails off, they take twelve hours of welcome rest. Ethan looks up during his focus and sees something kind of terrifying: Barron Ganth, the dictator of Goneril, standing right in front of him. Sort of. Ganth tells him that they have both seen Fates, and that he never wants to see Fates ever set off on this plane. He tells Ethan to come meet him in "his city" to trade an activation necklace in exchange for the key to Ethan's destiny. Ganth claims that he will use the amulet to find the other Fates and amulets rather than to set off the Fate that he recently acquired. When Ethan asks what his destiny is all about, Ganth says that he could tell Ethan where her resting place is. When Ethan asks who "she" is, Ganth smiles and says, "The Crusher of the Impious; the begrudger of the ill-gained gift." He disappears, leaving Ethan to process the full implications of that alone.
: In the morning, it's time to attend to business. The most important is to decide where they're actually headed. Port Townsend, being under the Pirate King, will allow Lucy to fix his badly damaged ship. Port Brogan, on the other hand, will allow the party to reunite with Sam and the Jade Kraken III, which will make travel to meet Ganth far easier. Lucy has also sighted a fleet running the colors of free Malvont, probably headed by Edmund Vargus. The party could go with them to help reconquer Baldur. Ashra is interested in knowing whether the freedom of Malvont was enough to inspire the Motherbrain and the mindflayers to return, and thus wants to talk to the Malvont fleet if possible.
: Zaphodel raises Leilah from the dead, using an astral diamond from the party loot. The party offers to pay her debt to Lucy, which would become debt to them, allowing her to join the company if she so desires.
: As it might help with the decisionmaking process, the party decides to cast Speak with Dead on Marcus. Ethan is allowed to ask the questions.
: "When did you first meet Ethan of Malvont?" "4/17/35."
: "Who is Ethan of Malvont?" "Son of Lady Elan ... political brat ... cokehead ... easy chump ... Macavian ... dropout ... lost soul."
: "Who hired Tyro Avampour?" "The vampires ... the Scarlet Brotherhood."
: "What is in the Ruins of Eldergrin?" "The key ... to power ... three fates ... Xenteroth ... the cure ... they hid the cure ..."
: "What is the prophecy regarding the death of Ethan of Malvont?" "There is no prophecy ... I killed him ... now he's back."
: This is enough to start Ethan tweaking out again, and not even in a particularly Living Memory-ish way. He's just really upset. Ashra offers assistance and is told that there will be absolutely no messing with his mind ever ever ever, so Ethan is allowed to pace around and flip out a bit since there's nothing much else the party can do for him.
: Returning to the question of where the party is headed, they realize that there is a significant chance the Malvont fleet will commandeer the Infinite Horizons, even in its current state. There is much discussion about Edmund Vargus and how he's really a pretty cool guy. The party also discusses the Silent Revolution and associated events. It was associated with the death of Lady Elan, and involved a sudden restructuring of the Senate which gave more power to humans, high elves, and mindflayers. The mindflayers were already represented by Grax back then. Ashra guesses that since Grax was chosen as representative for his incredible intellect, without regard for his temperament, she was chosen to counteract him despite her average intelligence (for a mindflayer) due to her hotheaded, adventurous temperament.
: A Speakstone call to Shiolay confirms that Port Brogan has a dock but not a dry-dock, that things are pretty quiet there, and that there's no news from Malvont in re. mindflayers. Fab D knows how to call other people on a Speakstone, but the party doesn't try it.
: Ashra wants to know if the Mother Brains are back, and calls an old friend in Malvont, Prince Avimeus VI. Apparently they adventured together when she was young. She asks if the Motherbrains have returned, and is told no.
: The party decides to vote on where to go. Lucy votes for Port Townsend. Snake, who turned out to be the ultramarine who saved Lucy, votes Port Brogan. Leilah abstains, as she's not sure if she's going with The Company or not and is unsure of how her debt is being managed. Kruglor also abstains, citing a desire to side with Claire when she wakes up. Apple votes for Port Townsend. Ashra, after some consideration, votes for Port Brogan. Ethan, once brought to his senses a bit (he was talking about how much he wants to find a dragon and kill it) also votes Port Brogan. Fab D casts his vote for Port Brogan, and the Infinite Horizons sets off, intending to stop for supplies at Barrensburg.
: Ethan considers how Ganth contacted him in the first place. The most likely candidate is Astral Projection. Ganth is enough of a badass to have access to it anyway, but Ashra notes it would be exceptionally easy if he were friends with a mind flayer, who could take him at will. (Even she could do that, though she wouldn't be too happy about braving the Astral Plane just to have a chat.) If that's the case, then it's probably an unknown fifth mindflayer.
: Zaphodel casts two Sendings for Ethan so that he can reply. Per Ethan's directions, she is unarmored and genuflecting as she does so. Ganth says he knows Ethan doesn't trust him, and he may make all necessary preparations, but that he's sincere. He asks them to come to Goneril City, and Ethan says he's coming.
: Ashra asks Fab D how he met Fauxdin in the first place. After some bluffing, he finally admits that something modified parts of his memory. He makes a call on the Vecnaphone, to unknown ends. He's unwilling to let Claire root around for the truth, but will allow Tobo to do so when they can meet up with him at Port Brogan.
: Ashra asks Ethan to ask Fab D to test a theory of hers by scrying on her. As far as she knows, she is not Misdirected or Nondetected, but she thinks it's really weird that Grax didn't scry on her and kill her soon after the Battle of Malvont. Fab D begins scrying and sees Fauntleroy.
: Ethan encourages him to test it on him, too. Fab D sees Pyotar, on the deck of a battle cruiser, speaking to a man with a crow. He recognizes this man as someone he saw before, connected to a crow which Ulfgar tried to interrogate. He is a druid, therefore probably Circle of the True, possibly connected to Neax Hiss, and probably also connected to the crow which was watching the party in the Ruins of Eldergrin. Fab D hears two words: "Ulfgar ... found ..."
: Ashra realizes that Neax Hiss might well have been also paid by those guys, and that Zaphodel could be a scrying aid or some other type of locator. However, there's no way to tell. Fab D spends his last two scrying attempts for the day on himself and Kruglor. Fab Dick redirects to his mentor Mr. Gucci, but Kruglor is Kruglor. Ashra asks that the next day he scry on Zaphodel to see what the result is, and hopes she hasn't been deceived. In the mirror, Zaph is the same woman she appears to be, though with a spark of sentience in her eyes.
: Kruglor turns his gating die back into a dimension die. Still unhealed from the battles, he takes Fab D on a joyride to a heaven. He prays for a boneyard in the hopes of taking it to the Elemental Plane of Air, but finds that his god cannot help him here.
: The party sails on.
===Episode Three: Scarlet Brotherhood, or How I Learned to Start Worrying and Love Cannons===
: The party is finally free of the Ruin of Baldur, and begin to prepare for the journey ahead. After some discussion, the party decides at least for now to sail for Barrensburg, where they can get some dry dock for the ship. From there, they intend to have Shiolay come with the Jade Kraken III and meet up with them.
: Ethan wakes Claire up and the two talk privately. Claire does not appear to hold her abrupt removal from battle against anyone in the party but Apple, but she's decided she's ready to part ways with the Toggenburg. The party notes that Ashra, unlike any of the CFOs, is actually nominally qualified to be an accountant, and preparations begin for Ashra to become the next CFO. Claire begins hiding fifths of whiskey in Ethan's quarters and all over Ashra's possessions, robe, person, quarters, and bed. Ashra asks that Claire look into Zaphodel's memory, and Claire assents, but reserves the right to do it whenever she wants instead of immediately. By so doing, she hopes to get a peek in while Ashra is not paying attention, thus bypassing any issues with Ashra's control over Zaphodel's mind. Ashra agrees to this.
: Leilah starts casting Make Whole to fix up the ship, and (guest star) Dread Pirate Lucy has some issues with his knowledge of where she should apply those casts. He believes he has been poisoned by anicen. Yes, again. Ethan prestidigitates some whiskey into funny colors, but he sees through that. Claire tries to mix whiskey and Cure Moderate Wounds to give him, but accidentally gets the vial of nitroglycerin that a previous two had provided. No one can really tell, but Lucy isn't buying it. As he insists he's going to die, Ashra Suggests "You're not poisoned" and he believes her.
: Leilah tries scrying on Claire, who redirects to Fauntleroy, and Ethan, who now shows himself again. Ashra uses Arcane Sight to look for marks indicating Zaphodel is a scrying aid, and finds one. While the others are discussing the applications and implications of scrying, Claire looks into Zaph's memory. Her early years have been entirely erased, a fact Claire chooses not to tell anyone. She was of the trading class, and a student at the Caltris School. Also, she was punished severely at the age of sixteen, and these memories were then completely overwritten with a copy of the same day. The trauma was extreme enough to possibly have given her her sole Sanity Point. Claire focuses on her last memories and finds that she was twenty-six, on mission in the mountains hunting feral pegasi, a.k.a. nightmares. She saw a strange cave which appeared to be made of scales and went there looking for shelter or tracks. There she encountered an aasimar paladin, a wizard gnome, and a young male ranger with a goatee. Her consciousness was then suddenly blanked; she never saw the one who thralled her. As Claire leaves her mind, she removes the final day of the fourteen-day thralling process, making it seem like she was slightly faster to thrall than normal, and leaves the message "Fight the power." She relays most, but not all, of this to Ashra.
: Ashra, Leilah, and Ethan debate what might be the benefits of canceling or not canceling Zaph's status as a scrying aid. Given Zaph was acquired by the party soon after Fauxdin's departure, she might have been made such in order to allow him to spy on the party. On the other hand, she could have been a spy, or still be one. Also, she is thrall bred, raised to be non-sentient, yet has memories of being a sentient student of a trading class, not raised as chattel. Ashra guesses that Zaph was thrall bred, then had her memory modified such that she would believe she had been born to the trading class, then was recaptured after attaining enough skills to make her worth more money. After some discussion of the possible effects of scrying, Leilah decides to cast Detect Scrying every day until Barrensburg.
: The party decides to rob Marcus. Among other nice things, they find a bag of holding, a book by Grax, and a codex. The codex has 18 slots, each of which can be A-Z or 0-9, but there are no spaces. The book by Grax has been printed, something the party has never seen before, and is written in Common but titled in Celestial. The title translates to Commentaries on the Revolutionary Struggle. While paging through, Ashra finds that on the very back page, some numbers and letters have been scrawled in a handwriting Ethan recognizes as Marcus's: 44-75-70-6c-69-63-69-74-6F-75-73-20. Claire identifies this as hexadecimal.
: They still have to decide how they will approach Barrensburg. After many options are discussed, they decide to enter via West Docks Towne, pay the necessary bribes to lay low, and have Shiolay pick them up in the Jade Kraken III. Ethan Sends to Marcus, saying he wants to raise him, and gets no response. After repeating the message in case his soul was on another plane and missed it, he decides he won't try to raise him, but will keep his corpse around to talk to. He asks Baudin 1.0 if he's alive and is informed that of course he is, and he's at the Karnov's Bar and Grill. This is highly specific, as Karnov's Bar and Grill is a chain restaurant. He also checks in with Tyro, who is both alive and cranky. Tyro claims that Poetry and Tyrese Brysis were the ones who helped him in the Ruins of Eldergrin, and tells Ethan to keep the Frozen Fates out of "enemy hands."
: Immediately before arriving in Barrensburg, Claire modifies the memory of the party's pet civilian such that he has no memory of meeting anyone but Dread Pirate Lucy. She also implants traumatic memories leaving him with a longstanding hatred of illithids. "He's a sleeper weapon against Grax!" Sure, Claire.
: Claire leaves the party, vanishing and leaving behind some presents and two notes. One is to the party, accompanied by $10,000 Malvont, and reads: "Sorry. Nothing personal. I’ve left some gifts. <3 p.s. have some toilet paper. might be helpful. Claire (the omnipotent) p.p.s. - your cleric fucked up. Something bad happened in school when I prepared explosive runes today." There are no explosive runes on the page. The other note is addressed to Apple and reads simply ">:(". Ashra officially takes over as CFO, and Ethan and Ashra offer Leilah the post of Chief Tactical Officer, which she accepts.
: The party reaches Barrensburg. No one has scried on Zaphodel, and Ashra still redirects to Fauntleroy. Leilah, strangely, is not hated by anyone, so she does not bother disguising herself. Ethan uses his ring and his disguise kit to make himself look alive and like someone else. Ashra flips a coin for gender, borrows Fauntleroy's disguise kit from Ethan, and assumes the appearance of a female human. She ends up kind of grey, pale-eyed, and still pretty creepy, and Ethan says "Oh, honey," drags her off, and paints her until she looks somewhat plausible. She complains telepathically about how itchy hair is and how annoying it is to have to walk along the ground.
: Dread Pirate Lucy goes to meet the representatives on the docks. He takes out an enormous chest of money he was paid by Fauxdin for the Fate, and says he still owes the party one. He pays for his ship's parking, dry dock, and for everyone to have discreet lodgings at the best hotel in town for the five days it'll take Shiolay to arrive. And by best hotel, this is possibly the best place the party has ever stayed. They raid the mini-bar repeatedly for mini bottles of The Purple Whiskey and Remé Chartain du Malvont XXVI. Some of them get bowls of wolves' milk, and some of them really, really don't. They all have new clothes made by expert tailors, go swimming (well, except Ethan), sunbathe, etc. They are generally living the high life when Shiolay arrives.
: Shiolay isn't alone. He's brought Mister Bait Snugglesworth, Sam Ash, and a now healthy Vishnu. Apparently, it is an effective (though ungodly expensive) treatment for the Red Plague to allow oneself to die and then be true resurrected. Snugglesworth stares at Ashra, who explains that she is not a girl and will be dropping this charade the moment they take off.
: They get on and take off. The ship has had some impressive improvements since they saw it last. First of all, three cannons for aerial bombardment purposes. Secondly, they now have a war room with a table which can display a map on which to plot courses and which converts into a water pool for scrying. Thirdly, Vishnu has a present for them: the Life-Suture, a sword that heals a small amount as it deals damage. Oh, and Ethan has a masterwork drug alchemist's lab now.
: Ethan wants another go with the Speak with Dead. Leilah can cast it better than Zaph, so she obliges. This time Ethan gets six questions:
: “Why do you hate Ethan of Malvont?”
: “I don’t.”
: “Where did you find Ethan of Malvont after he died?”
: “The Dark Tower ... northwest Graxboro ... five miles off King’s Highway ... make six ...”
: “When did you hire Baudin Dommilan?”
:“He worked for me ... once ... delivering arms ... to Pyotar ... 1441 ...”
: “What is Grax’s plan for you?”
: “Grax will try to kill me.”
: “Who is Barron Ganth?”
: “Barron Ganth ... supreme ruler ... Goneril ... ancient king ... anti-theist ... minor deity? ... strong-armed ruler ... ”
: “When will the world end?”
: “The world will end ... on the first day of the Injustinia ... 1451 ...”
: As the party starts flying towards Landinis, planning on heading to Goneril City directly after, Ethan, Ashra, and Leilah decide it's time for some quality conspiracy theorizing, and decide to throw all of their crazy theories together on the table. Ethan has false memories of being killed by a dragonborn in an inn in Landinis which he knows are false and thinks he knew were false when they originated. He doesn't know where they're from or when they were put into his mind, however.
: Ashra reveals that she has been doubting the Mother Brains could have been forced off the Prime Material Plane by Grax, as mind flayers are constantly in telepathic contact with the Mother Brain. She does not know their true motivations, but thinks they were complicit in some part of the scheme. She also thinks a Mother Brain could have been the one to rewrite Ethan's memories. She thinks that Xenteroth, rather than turning his back on the illithids by becoming an alhoon, sacrificed his union with the Mother Brain to become an eternal guardian. She also still thinks that she is being set up to become him by denying her reunion with the Mother Brain. Ethan, on the other hand, thinks that when the mortal Xenteroth gained the powers of plane shifting and time shifting, it was his meeting with Heckle that piqued his curiosity about his own journey to godhood which had happened some time ago but which he had yet to experience. He was also doing all of this long before the appearance of the mind flayers.
: The leader of the Assassin's Guild is another person who could have rewritten Ethan's memories. Barron Ganth is also an outside candidate. Ethan tells Leilah and Ashra about something he's been puzzling over for years: he is very pretty for a dead man. Especially a dead man who was ripped apart by a black dragon. Someone put his corpse back together. Speaking of his corpse, there is that connection between the Scarlet Brotherhood and Tyro to investigate. No one knows what the Brotherhood's deal is, but there's something about Tyro. His sister seems to have been working with the Saviors. Someone powerful is backing Tyro to the tune of True Resurrections and powerful, unique magical objects. When Tyro took Ming-ui and Prince Avimeus V prisoner in the Ruins, Avimeus was next seen as Brezcar the Bold's prisoner rather than in Tyro's possession. Ethan and Tyro both seem to expend a lot less energy when they're on the same side than when they're having bitchfights over the possession of a tiny neutral island south of Goneril. So, it's either plausible that Tyro is playing everyone else or that someone is playing Tyro in order to keep him and Ethan focused on each other.
: The concept of a savior's gambit makes its appearance. Mostly it's a chess term referring to a ploy in which the only way to win is by getting tempo. It is very high risk, and is analogous to what Barron Ganth may be doing with Ethan right now. Fauxdin also forced everyone's hand with the Frozen Fate in a literal Savior's Gambit.
: Leilah has been displaying her bardic knowledge, and Ashra takes the opportunity to ask about Mechanus. Ethan thinks he knows more. The three put their heads together. Ethan is very excited by the idea of axiomatic dragons. While they now know a lot about the plane, there is nothing directly relevant to the gears. It is, however, a giant machine that serves a function unknown to all. Ashra speculates that it keeps time going. It is also infested with chickens.
: Leilah also knows a bit about Xoth, enough to practically confirm that he was the other illithid with whom Ashra dueled. He has probably returned since his defeat.
: After hours of conspiracy theorizing, the three decide that they really need some catharsis. Landinis clearly has some importance to Ethan, so they decide to go and look for Tyro there. That is, they want to blow stuff up. A lot. Oh, and they'll only have one minute. So stuff will be blown up fast. Crazy grins all around.
: The party approaches in the airship, from which they will drop down on ziplines. Two bars are visible, one with a cannon. There is also an important dwarf who appears associated with the Scarlet Brotherhood. Apparently Tyro is around there somewhere. Everyone spams buff spells at each other.
: As the party sails the ship in, a cannon on a nearby hill shoots at it. Leilah, whose luck seems to be shit with cannons, is gravely injured and must be healed by Sam. Once near the bar, which is full of mooks in poorly painted black armor, the mages and Zaph drop down on ziplines. Ashra mind blasts some civilians, and Zaphodel heals herself after taking some cannon damage. Snipers take some shots, and two of the black armored mooks take sneak attacks on Ashra. Ethan runs around the corner. Leilah covers the cannon in mist, then waits for a better drop point before deploying.
: What had appeared to be an enormous symbol of Pelor on the ground is covered by a swirling magical mist thing. Tyro appears out of it, looking as fabulous as ever. Ethan tells him he likes his town and thinks he'll take it, and calls in an air strike on the bar with a cannon. Tyro sends out periodic pulses which knock everyone back.
: Ashra tosses a grenade through the window of the bar, catching it on fire. As some of its inhabitants come after her, she casts her new modified Negative Energy Ball to take a chunk out of the bar and its inhabitants. Snake lets off the cannon with a "ka-boom!" and utterly destroys the other bar. The dwarf approaches, and Leilah makes her way towards him. Cannon fire hits Ashra and knocks Zaphodel unconscious; Ashra heals Zaph, then sends her back up to be healed by Sam. Leilah and the dwarf trade blows; while she's fighting, Tyro stabs her repeatedly in the back, nearly killing her. Ethan sends a Negative Energy Ball at them, choosing not to beat the spell resistance Zaphodel had temporarily conferred on Leilah. Leilah is nearly dead, however; Shiolay intervenes before Tyro actually finishes her off, and Tyro Dimension Doors away. Leilah manages to knock the dwarf unconscious and nearly dead, and the party expends much of their luck to allow him to stabilize. "I don't know what he's going to do to you, but I'm looking forward to it," she says. Ashra and Ethan are pulled back up as Leilah Dimension Doors back onto the ship, and they sail away with their captive.
: The captive, while unconscious, is looted and examined. His body bears two tattoos: on his back, a hexagon with a solid circle in the center, another circle around it, and a small black circle in each point. On his chest, a version of the symbol of St. Cuthbert with only three circles on the top branch and one on the bottom. Snake claims that every circle indicates ten clean kills. The party will have to wait to interrogate him, however.
: Leilah reveals she's seen these symbols before in her dreams. The prophetic dreams that she has. Because she's an oracle. This sort of thing is nice to know. She saw the cross symbol with dots on all four arms, which is the symbol of St. Cuthbert. She also saw the dwarf, in front of tall icy mountains, and saw the detailing on his armor. She also dreamed of the following: A goddess of duplicity, savior’s gambit, soul at sea, a quest, a mountain. Upon hearing this, Ethan says something along the lines of "FFFFF" and headdesks. Ashra explains to a confused Leilah that she thinks she knows what the goddess of duplicity and the soul at sea might refer to. 'Duplicitous' is a term that has been used to covertly refer to Tiamat, and Marcus's corpse described Ethan as a "lost soul".
: Ashra asks what a universe city is, and Leilah informs her about them. The function of a universe city is to allow planar travel to hone in on a specific location, making it possible to teleport without the extreme margins of error usually involved. It requires both physical infrastructure and an enormous collective consciousness, meaning it is only feasible in large metropolitan areas. Known universe cities are Nyasa City, Baldur (possibly soon to be defunct due to massive population losses), Malvont, and the Ruins of Eldergrin (defunct).
: The party sails on towards Goneril City.
===Episode Four: But I Was Trying to Learn to Flay Minds!===
: Barring poor weather, the party will need eight days to sail to Goneril City. Ashra spends a significant amount of time attempting to analyze the code found in the back of Grax's book; Leilah knows the algorithm, and decodes it as "Duplicitous." The party tries many different combinations in the cryptex, but none are successful.
: Ashra asks Leilah what she knew about the company before joining, to evaluate their reputation. Of Ethan, she knows that his proper name is Ethan Elan, and his father figure was a ship trader from Malvont. No one, not even Ethan, knows who his father actually is. He was raised by his father figure, but killed during the assassination of Lady Elan during the Goneril Border Crisis of 1436. He somehow returned to the Prime Material Plane, and worked under Marcus Fairlan for some nebulous time. He worked for Baudin Dommilan, but when Baudin went to the other side with his Toggenburg Corporation, Ethan founded Shadowwing, Inc. to oppose him. Ethan continued to work for Janadan Vishnu, and became a public figure during the assassination of Highman Grax and the breaking of the Malvont blockade. There are legends of his resurrection (quite likely inspired by the rumors spread by Ashra's illusion during the Battle of Syscian's Tower.) He also allegedly aims to destroy the Northern Continent using Fates, and blew up a museum. Ashra and Ethan clear up some of the wilder misconceptions, including "no, we don't want to blow up the world" and "I'm pretty sure I know who my father is."
: Of Ashra, she knows that she is the first lieutenant of Shadowwing Inc., that she abandoned her post as an on-loan tax collector in the Malvont Outdocks, and that while she worked there she had a reputation for harsh collection tactics. Her major accomplishment is assisting in Grax's assassination. She once explored The Dark Tower by Landover and was thrown at a dragon. Leilah also knows Ashra is an illithid. Good to get that cleared up.
: Of Zaphodel, she knows nothing, as Zaph is not a public figure.
: The party divides up the loot from the dwarf and Marcus. The share-division system has grown noticeably more lax. When what appeared to be a blank scroll is viewed in the mirror of true seeing, it reveals itself to be a complete list of senators from 1440. By population, they are broken up as follows:
:: Popularii: Illithids, gnomes, halflings, half-orcs, drow (some)
:: Ind.: Elves (half), orcs, drow (some), (Non-Guilded)
::Optimates: Humans, dwarves, elves (Half), outsiders, Warforged
: Everyone who should be there is there, as far as the party's cursory check can confirm. Leilah informs Ethan that his mother was an independent.
: The party decides it's time to interrogate their captive. Snake suggests they go in one at a time, which they roundly ignore. Instead, they all go in at once and start talking to the dwarf. Unfortunately, none of the party can be very serious, and Ethan is too damn friendly. The dwarf laughs hysterically; Ashra briefly reads his thoughts and sees he is genuinely amused. He refuses to give a name, and his answers are generally chaotic and misleading, when he answers at all. He shows no fear of death or torture, and frequently licks his lips at everyone. He laughs at Ashra's threats to eat his brain, and she thinks he's a Voidmind: a creature modified by illithids such that most of its brain has been replaced with a filler substitute. For obvious reasons she cannot safely eat such a creature. If the dwarf is a Voidmind, he will have three holes on his skull. Leilah understands her suspicion, and Ethan thinks shaving the dwarf will be demoralizing, so the party has Fab Dick shave him. It's kind of awkward.
: The dwarf doesn't seem to care, though. He and Ashra have the longest conversations, but Ashra has trouble controlling the conversation; the most she can do is keep up. The dwarf is not rational and has no fear of her. He is also fascinatingly crazy, taunting her and responding to her taunts. He mocks her about her lifespan and the loss of individualism involved in returning to the Mother Brain; she claims she has eternity and will be only adding more to her own self. She threatens to thrall him, and he asks if she is ever tempted to eat Zaphodel. (Answer: no.) He repeatedly asks her to let him go, or to untie him; she refuses each time. Sometimes he falls asleep, or pretends to, and the party wakes him with poking, a tentacle slap, or Inflict Minor depending on whose turn it is.
: He dares Ashra to read his mind; she does not in direct response to the dare, but does a few minutes later. She immediately makes a Will save against an unknown effect, makes the save, and sees a strange shape of rectangles and squiggles. She also finds the words: "Dubloon astral order iris dialect open lost crossing pass eagle". By contrast, she usually picks up complete sentences or sentence fragments from sane people's minds.
: She suspects he has four Sanity Points, and knows that she cannot eat his brain; he taunts her to do so. Ethan tells her to go ahead and start attaching tentacles. He plans to stop her before the fourth tentacle. She is very wary because if all her tentacles attach, she will be unable to keep herself from consuming him. As planned, she attaches tentacles; he stares into her eyes as she does so. He appears entirely unafraid, and does not react to her mocking him. She is however very reluctant with the third tentacle. While her conversation with Ethan is telepathic, he can almost certainly tell it is a ploy when Ethan 'stops' her from attaching the fourth.
: He falls asleep, again. The party confers; he seems to have some bond with Ashra, as he enjoys baiting her, though she is beginning to get closer to even ground with him. Ethan he considers an insane terrorist, and blames for the battle on Syscian's Tower. He studiously avoids using the true names of people and things. He claims to have fought Ethan once before; allegedly, Ashra was present, as was "that bitch who put out [his] eye." They decide that Ashra will continue to be the main interrogator.
:It isn't going that well. She gains a little ground, but ends up wasting time over whether life is better on or off wolves' milk, and she explodes when he, probably with no idea of its significance to her, calls her "my son." He tells her she will set him free; she mocks him for trying to tell a mindflayer what she's going to do. He asks to be freed from his bonds; she again refuses, telling him he doesn't call the shots.
:"There is one other thing you could do for me, then, if you won't let me out of my bonds."
: "Oh, is there? And what is that?"
: "DIE!"
: Ashra fails her Fortitude save, borrows Zaphodel's luck, fails again, Zaph also fails, Ethan is immune, Leilah might have passed, and ...
: Oh hell no, that's not what happened. Realizing the danger, a second before he would have spoken the word, Ashra slams her hand over his mouth. Leilah comes up from behind and knocks him out.
: The party has a collective "Power Word Kill?! REALLY?" moment, with Ethan mostly too busy considering causes to laugh at those who need to make Fortitude saves versus instant death. (The spell may actually be worse than that, as it would have affected everyone in the room rather than a single target. In any case, it was scary as all get-out.)
: There is a quick round of conspiracy theories. Arcane Sight reveals that the dwarf has no spellcasting abilities and no current magical effects. Thus, the very powerful spell must have been cast through him. Repeatedly dispelling the dwarf has no visible effect. The most relevant accuse Barron Ganth of wanting to kill everyone but Ethan for reasons unknown. Ethan wants to have Fab D scry on all the relevant powerful spellcasters who have a thing for the party, but too much time has passed and it's unlikely to yield answers. He does ask Fab D to scry on himself and the dwarf. Ethan now redirects to Fauntleroy, who was having sex at the time. Fab D closes the scry quickly and Ashra deeply regrets looking over his shoulder. The dwarf, currently knocked out, appears the same, but on the wall there is a painting where there is none in real life. It looks identical to the contents of Leilah's dream.
: Ashra points out that the dwarf is extremely skillful in gaining control of the conversation and keeping it there. They need to not allow him to ever assume control if they want to get anything out of the interchange. This is what she'd been meaning to do, but she had too hard of a time staying removed from his taunts. The party decides to keep him gagged to prevent a recurrence of the spell incident.
: Ashra demands information about Tyro, but the party learns it is possible to intentionally shut telepathy out; he hears nothing.
: Ethan takes over, fears nothing, and is fantastic. He first questions him about Tyro. As Ethan only has success asking about "the mayor," Ashra guesses that he has no concept of names, or at least refuses to acknowledge them. By watching the man nod, shake his head, and respond in grunts, Ethan gathers that he met Tyro in 1442, that the does not know the Scarlet Brotherhood were involved in Ethan's death, and that they are part of the mercenary army Poetry has been having him build. By using The Map to display it, Ethan manages to question him about where he was the night Ethan died. He learns that Tyro has no idea that the Scarlet Brotherhood had a hand in getting the Revolution of 1441 started via the Silent Revolution, and that the Scarlet Brotherhood seem to enjoy strife and chaos for their own sake. The dwarf thinks that the Scarlet Brotherhood is playing Tyro like a fiddle via Poetry, and they will probably eventually kill him. He gets very uneasy when Ethan tells him that someone is using them, and their sacrifice of self in favor of chaos just makes them better toys.
: Ethan thanks the dwarf for participating in his creation and mocks him for being played by some higher power. He reaches out and casts Harm on the dwarf, then brings him to 1 HP with Inflict Minor as the rest of the party looks on and fanboys. The general consensus is that Ethan is awesome as hell. Ethan contacts Tyro via Zaph and tells him the 25-word version of everything the party has discovered. Tyro does not explicitly shit bricks, but instead tells him that he is infiltrating the Scarlet Brotherhood and there will be an ambush in Traitor's Pass. See you there? The party is out of Sendings for the day, but the crazy grins are probably detectable from space. Ethan goes back a couple of hours later and kills the dwarf with Vampiric Touch.
: Snake points out that there is a snowstorm, and that the Jade Kracken III will need to land to wait out some of the storm. Ashra takes a look around and sees both a river and a lake; the lake is in Elderfey Forest, while the river runs through Pembleton Forest. However, there is logging which will lead to lots of logs floating down the river. The party decides to go with the lake, staggering watches and using Endure Elements to handle the cold.
: During their last hour in the air, the three decide to try a plan Ethan's had for some time. Zaphodel casts Owl's Wisdom on Ethan, and otherwise prepares all the Calm Emotions she can. Then Ethan asks Fab Dick to scry on his father.
: No matter how good the description, Fab Dick cannot find the man. Ethan wonders if this means his father is dead or never existed as he remembered him, and thus it's not that he didn't ever look for Ethan because he didn't love him. Ethan has Fab D look next for his ship, The Diamond Runner. He finds it, docked in Malvont on the other side of the Outdocks than one might expect. Its cargo is grain and lumber, plus a single crate of serpents. Serpents, besides having divine and arcane uses, are also excellent smuggling tools as they swallow things and then take a long time to digest them. Having made remarkably few Will saves, Ethan is for the moment content. Ashra considers whether or not she has sufficient connections to use Malvont tax records to investigate the ownership and status of the ship; it depends on how some people feel about her and the whole thing where she ditched her post to go on a joyride with an illegal organization. Even if her contacts fail, Vishnu may have some relevant connections.
: It is very cold through the night. They douse the fire, as it gives off telltale smoke, and between Zaphodel, Leilah, Ashra, and Ethan, everyone gets Endure Elements. Snake and the three take turns on watch. In the morning, the snowstorm seems likely to last only until that evening, but the lake is already beginning to freeze. After dropping the dwarf's body into the lake, Ethan casts Control Weather and provides clear skies for the next day or so, enough to cancel the rest of the storm.
: Snake and Fab D discover by scrying that there is an enormous cannon in one of two houses in the pass. In order to allow the ship to sail over, the party must drop down two miles away, run over, destroy that cannon, then survive until Snake can bring the ship by and allow them to zipline back. Sendings recharged, the party RSVPs to Tyro's invitation with "See you there". Tyro tells them not to fall for the trap. The party begins to discuss tactics for destroying this cannon, and on Ashra's idea, they use Ethan's whiskey and some old clothes to produce workable Molotov cocktails.
: The Terrorism Arts and Crafts took longer than predicted, however, and the cannon takes a shot at the ship. Ethan, Ashra, Leilah, and Zaphodel are all given invisibility by Ashra and Snake, then zip down into an Obscuring Mist. Leilah uses her belt to boost her speed and takes off running across the ground. Ethan is fast and unhampered by the need to breathe, and he curves around the other way. Ashra has to wait for Zaphodel, and the two move more slowly, with Zaph running and Ashra jogging alongside.
: A zeppelin steers in with two spotlights of true seeing. They curve around, searching for anyone, and nearly miss Ashra several times. The spotlights focus once on Ethan and once on Ashra, but each time the one manning them utterly fails to notice the person below. Some mooks also appear, and everyone tries to move quietly past them. Zaph kind of sucks at it.
: Ethan summons a zombie right in front of a mook; the mook kills it, but it provides enough of a distraction for Ethan to slip past. Ashra and Zaph try to follow the zeppelin, hoping to be close enough underneath it that the spotlight cannot reach them.
: The mooks find what appear to be their own footprints. Then Tyro appears dramatically and fires two wands at the balloon, puncturing it. The ship falls, smacking into Zaph and canceling her invisibility; Ashra jumps out of the way. As it is now on fire and is full of gunpowder, Ashra and Zaph run as directly away from it as possible, running past mooks going the other way. Tyro steals several more pistols from the armory of the ship, then Dimension Doors over to where Leilah and Ethan have already reached. Ashra and Zaph take up the rear, making it after the other party members but well before the ship explodes.
: The party sees two houses, a fountain, and two small cannons with cannoneers and ogres. Leilah prays and buffs the party, Ashra conjures up another Flamboyant Gay Ethan to run off into an open area, and Zaph heals some of the damage from when the ship fell on her. One of the ogres falls for the illusion and runs off to swat at it, while the other remains by the cannon. The cannoneers fire, hitting the entire party. Leilah finishes her transformation and charges off to go toe to toe with them, while Ethan follows more cautiously. Ashra keeps up the illusion while Zaph heals the two of them as the cannons fire at them again. Leilah takes out a couple of mooks with some Neg Ball help from Ethan.
: Then Leilah drops the Life-Suture she'd been wielding, grabs the cannon, spins it around, and fires it into the house where Ethan spotted a cannon exit hole. The house explodes. Its top story goes flying and kills the ogre who had been chasing Flamboyant Gay Ethan. The resultant mushroom cloud makes it easy for Ethan to call Snake and request he pick the party up.
: The other ogre grabs the Life-Suture and goes toe to toe with Leilah. Ethan continues to take out mooks.
: Zaphodel gets hit with a cannon again, and an iceberg falls out of the sky. Everyone kind of looks at it funny and shrugs as Ashra uses her wand to keep Zaphodel alive. Ethan tosses a Cloudkill at the other house, taking out the men who had been using a smaller cannon.
: A long row of Arcane Archers pours onto the field. They shoot flaming homing arrows into the cannons. Ashra tries to line up for an Acid Bolt, but the iceburg is in the way. A volley strikes her and Zaph, and they are reduced to healing each other to stay alive. Flamboyant Gay Ethan fizzles, and Tyro disappears into the still standing house.
: Meanwhile, Leilah and the ogre trade blows. The ogre is benefiting greatly from the stolen blade's healing. Others are attacking Ethan. The cannons explode, hurting Ethan greatly, and everyone in a thirty foot radius bursts into flames. Leilah tosses a Harm at him.
: Ashra and Zaph sink another volley of arrows despite their efforts to press themselves as close to the iceberg as possible without freezing to it. Lightning strikes Ashra thanks to yet another two. She bemoans her fate, and is kept conscious only by her ring. Seriously, what's with that element?
: The ship arrives. Ethan puts himself out. Leilah keeps fighting the ogre and healing, while Ethan's zombies arise and he sends them to help out.
: Ashra and Zaph are each barely clinging to consciousness. If either of them take another volley or even half-volley, they will certainly die, and there isn't time for them to reach the ship before the archers fire again. Ashra has Zaphodel heal her, takes out her spellbook, casts Protection from Arrows on herself, and then lies flat over Zaphodel, shielding her body with her own. She is unharmed by the full volley which strikes her, but does have about fourteen arrows sticking out of her back.
:Finally the ship is ready to take them, and will in fact leave in six seconds. There is no time to bother with airstrikes, which could only be called in by Ethan, who has the speakstone and Ashra's wand of Silent Image.
: Ethan runs over and grabs a zip-line. Leilah wants her sword back. Weak though she is, she grabs the blade of the Life-Suture, cutting her hand, and Dimension Doors onto the ship with it. Everyone cheers. Ashra gets up, has Zaph do the same, then they run for the ship. Ashra grabs the zip-line with one hand and wraps her other arm around Zaphodel's waist. Everyone is evacuated, and the ship sails away.
: They briefly talk to Vishnu. On the other side of the pass is Goneril City, and they are sternly warned against any danger to the ship. Vishnu offers help in his mech if the party is in a tight spot, so long as that tight spot does not involve talking to Barron Ganth at the time. Leilah mistakes Vishnu for Snake. Ashra points out there are fourteen arrows sticking out of her back, and this is hardcore but also kind of ow. Sam and Zaph carefully remove them. The party looks at each other and realizes that, no matter their issues with interrogations, they are pretty damn awesome.
: And they are approaching Goneril City.
===Episode Five: I Think Barron Ganth is a Pretty Nice Guy===
:: Note: As will be made clear in the synopsis, a larger portion of this session than usual was rewound due to literally fatal errors. Therefore, not all events described below permanently occurred in the Eon Prime continuity, but all information gathered from those events is known to the party.
: The ship sails on towards Goneril City. Leilah, Ashra, and Zaphodel are still very wounded from their last battle, and Zaphodel heals Leilah fully and herself and Ashra most of the way. Ethan attempts to cast Gentle Repose on himself and Marcus, and instead casts it on himself and Snake, who is as alive as usual but now minty fresh. He then casts it on Marcus successfully. 
: Considering the shenanigans with the dwarf and her own knowledge of psionics, Ashra realizes that the only way the Scarlet Brotherhood could be a hive mind is if it were decentralized. Standard hive minds such as Formians and bees have only one consciousness, that of the queen; reading the mind of a drone would provide only the information the queen deemed relevant to that drone at the moment, which might well be none at all. However, if every member of the network is constantly receiving and sending information, it might well produce the chaotic jumble she received. There is also the possibility of a hive mind with an insane queen. 
: The main problem facing the party is how to safely approach the city without being blown out of the air. They do not have visas, and paying Vishnu for fakes will take two weeks and 4,000 GP. If Barron Ganth intends to show them off, they could have a diplomatic welcome and real visas, but if not, entrance will be difficult. 
: As they have been up for quite some time, the party is beginning to feel tired. Ashra commands Zaphodel to spend the hour in the morning it takes for her to prepare spells, then the two lie down to sleep. Leilah tries to stay up and prepare her spells as well, but is too tired. Ethan, too, wants his strange kind of rest, but soon after the party lies down, the person on watch spots a giant signal mirror on a hill, attended by orcs. They have yet to spot the ship. 
: Ashra takes a look with her spyglass and sees that the orcs are wearing thick black coats. The party fears this is a border guard, wakes up Vishnu, and decides to hide the three possibly illegal people in the balloon. Leilah decides to come too. Zaphodel gives them each Endure Elements, except for Leilah. The four use a combination of climbing and levitation to get into the balloon, then hide within it. Zaphodel sucks at it, and Ashra and Ethan sort of pull her away from the edge of the balloon. Vishnu waves his arms at the orc guards; they tip the mirror at the ship, then wave it past. 
: Vishnu complains that the party woke him up for that. The party wonders about the mirror and its potential magical abilities; Ashra eventually points out that it allows the orcs a better view of the ships as they pass by. 
: The party finally gets a good night's sleep, and shares some of Sam's new pie as Ethan looks on a little sadly. Upon request, Leilah prepares another Speak with Dead for what is likely to be the party's final interview with Marcus Fairlan. His answers have grown terser; whether this is the age of the corpse despite its unnatural preservation, a sign he has been True Resurrected elsewhere, or simply a result of less productive questions is unclear. This time, Ashra asks five of the questions, and the sixth is Ethan's. 
: "What is inside the cryptex?"
: "... letter... "
: "What is the combination to the cryptex?"
: "... checkmate ..."
: "Why did you kill Ethan of Malvont?"
: "... I didn't mean to..."
: "Why did you give Ethan of Malvont the scepter?"
: Marcus does not respond. 
: "How did you kill Ethan of Malvont?" 
: ".. by accident ..."
: Ethan's single question: "What does Pyotar Umarov want with Ethan of Malvont?"
: "... I don't know Pyotar Umarov ..."
: Ashra thinks about Sending, trying to talk herself out of a strange plan which had popped into her head some time before. Sending can contact anyone with whom the caster (or, in this case, the one controlling the caster) is familiar. Even if they are on another plane, the failure rate is only 5%, meaning that Sending twice, something easily within Zaphodel's capabilities, makes it extremely likely that the second message will be received if the first is not. If the receiver has time-shifted away, the Sending will fail, but there is no consequence to that besides the use of a spell slot. Intercepting Sendings is difficult, likely only in cases of mistaken identity such as Fauxdin might cause. Sending to a being of great power will not harm the caster, nor can any harm be done by Sending beyond the harm of the information revealed. 
: As she shares this with Ethan and Leilah and considers her plan, she repeats to herself, "There is a reason why this is a bad idea, and I can't think of it! This should not be a viable plan! Why is this a viable plan?" 
: Ashra is considering Sending to the Mother Brain, either of Baldur (which spawned her) or of Malvont (which wished her luck and was the one she was last connected to.) However, despite wishing for more than a year now to connect to her and seek guidance, she is not yet sure what she would say, and how she would spend twenty-five words. She decides that the plan will wait for now until she can think of a good message or a reason why she should not try. In any case, the day's prepared Sendings are needed for Ganth. 
: Ethan plans to Send to Ganth and tell him the party can have visas in two weeks, then ask if this is all right with him. His hope is that Ganth will tell them that he has already provided them visas, thus saving the party significant amounts of money. It's not entirely a bluff, since the party can have those visas and they will take two weeks (the illegality of the visas is discreetly omitted) but he hopes they won't actually have to buy them.
: The party considers places around Goneril City where they might visit if they have two weeks to kill before they can enter the city proper. They consider the Deep Tower, which likely contains a pathway to hell, and discount it for that reason. Ethan has an Ille Draconum nerd-fest and, with some help from Leilah, traces the route of Telamore and his companions from where they fought the Angel of Decay, to the river where they fought Simun, and across it. This confirms his suspicion that the Lost Temple is the strange temple to Tiamat with hanging corpses that the Heroes then found. It is a site of study, and has been preserved with personal funding from Barron Ganth. The party debates whether Ashra would stand out there. (Most illithids are not interested in historical study as she is, but since illithids were never common in Goneril, it is unlikely that anyone they encounter would know that, and "we're super-smart so we like to study things" seems plausible.) The party could take the long way around the city, park the Jade Kracken III in the river, and Wind Walk (or, possibly, levitate and walk) to the Lost Temple. However, all of this is contingent on Barron Ganth's reply.
: Ethan, after checking with the other two, has Zaphodel send the most polite twenty-five word message he can to Ganth: "My companions and I are in a position to have visas arrive in two weeks. Is this acceptable?"
: The reply comes: "Don't lie to me. I know you're twenty-four hours away." 
: This worries the party, but after some debate, Ethan realizes that it was just an intimidation tactic. Ganth has proven he can see them, and hopefully set them off guard by accusing them of lying. He wants to see if Ethan will bend and apologize. Therefore, Ethan ignores the intimidation entirely, but replies politely "Under what names and in what manner should we enter the city?"
: "Your own."
: An illusion takes over their scrying table, essentially hacking it. The map appears, and a circle around the entrance to the city indicates where an honor guard will meet the ship. Another circle around the Campus Gloriais shows where the ship will land. The route this shows will take them over the city, showing off it to them and them to it. Ethan and Fab Dick attempt to scry on the locations where the ship will meet the honor guard and land, but is redirected to essentially a tourism video: an apology that "that action is not permitted" from a mook, then some spliced footage of the more beautiful parts of the city, Barron Ganth giving an impressive speech, etc. It loops. The party considers that this is generally awesome enough to make up for not being able to scry, and goes back to discussing how he's trying to impress them and/or the city. Leilah tells the others that the Campus Gloriais was named for Ganth's late wife Gloria, and Ashra tells them that she died in the fifth century and returned as a ghost, making it impossible to return her from the dead. It serves as a training field and generally a large hill. Then they are met by the honor guard. 
: A large group of griffin riders meet them and signal them down to an altitude of 200 feet. Snugglesworth follows their direction, and they flank the ship and lead it over the city. Ashra looks around with her spyglass to see the sights Ganth is offering. At irregular intervals in the city are strange mechanical devices which move sporadically and belch smoke. There are a few airships parked around Campus Drati, and flying animals of unclear type near the Virgin and Nightmare. Throngs of people are on the ground; in the alleyways people are dying of the plague. Groups of dwarfs seem largely uninterested in the party, while humans, orcs, and slight mixes of the two stare as the airship flies overhead. Throngs of soldiers are added to the mix as the ship passes the military district. The overall effect is consciously impressive; the party speculates that the dwarves may have been intended to turn out the populace. 
: Finally the ship arrives at the Campus Gloriais and is ushered down into a manmade lake. Everyone gets dressed in their finest clothing, Zaphodel in a full tacitus and Leilah in a modest one. Ethan and Ashra have their amulets, though concealed, and the clerics hide their holy symbols. Most of the party's belongings are carefully stowed on the ship. The mages have their spell component bags, and Ethan makes sure to bring a mirror as well. Vishnu, decked out in a pimp white suit, announces he is also coming, but he refuses to go first. Ashra asks Leilah to pretend Zaphodel is her own servant, as it is more plausible, and the party decides on the following marching order, roughly linked to importance: Ethan, Vishnu, Ashra, Leilah, Zaphodel. All others will remain on the boat. 
: Nabokil Umarov, an important man from Goneril City, meets them on an extensible dock and leads them past rows of bowing soldiers. An honor guard accompanies them to Ganth Center, an enormous building about a mile wide. They are led up steps, through a very dramatic hall, and eventually down into a small audience chamber for personal audiences. There is one large throne and twelve small ones. 
: Servants arrive and ask if the party would like anything to eat or drink. Everyone freezes and decides to have a long telepathic debate. What they choose will send a clear message about them, but they have to choose what that message will be. Vishnu, who always attempts to negotiate while angry, will order a good steak, Reme Chartain du Malvont XXVI, and then either refuse to eat them or complain about their quality. The others consider whether they want to order local food or food from their homelands. Ashra considers that she is in a position to make the most lavish request (an intelligent, sane human whose brain she could extract) but decides that, whether she consumed them or not, she would be stating that her faction of the illithids (population: herself) expected to be in an adversarial role with the other races if they gained power, a message she does not want to send. Ethan, who does not eat or drink, decides to order a good local drink and not drink it, but gesture with the glass. He quizzes Vishnu and finally settles on a particular vodka. Ashra asks Ethan if drinking the Purple Whiskey would put her at risk of re-addiction to Wolves' Milk due to the trace amounts it contains. He confirms that it would, and then repeatedly confirms to her that no, there is no Wolves' Milk in vodka. She therefore decides to mimic his order. Leilah decides on a local caviar on toast, and that Zaph, who is acting as her servant, should have turnips. However, when the time comes to order, she accidentally orders a turnip. Everyone tries to keep their giggling to telepathy as she confirms that no, it's not a spell component, it's for her handmaiden to eat. 
: The servants leave and then return with food. Vishnu digs in. Zaphodel is brought both a single raw turnip and a bowl of stewed turnips. No one but Vishnu eats, and they wait. 
: Barron Ganth appears; the party waits for him to signal, then does the best Western-style bows they can, and he commands them to sit, lounging himself in the main throne. Zaphodel stands by Leilah's side, and he tells her to sit; her head is higher than his. Ashra does not wait for Leilah to speak the words, but immediately commands her down. 
: The party keeps their heads down. "Are you guys all tired or something?" he asks. When they respond in the polite affirmative, he says "Go away" and leaves.
: The party decides to stay, unmoving -- it's a power gesture, and if they wait, he'll come back.
: Leilah and Ethan begin to smell brimstone and sulfur. The temperature in the room starts to rise. Ethan notes that his Detect Magic won't work. Ashra's telepathy is still up, maintaining her connection to Zaph, but she cannot Detect Thoughts or levitate. An illusion of a chessboard appears, and the first move is made. 
: Leilah reveals a series of letters and numbers from her newest prophetic dream. The letters are in Common and Abyssal; the party thinks the next move is fairly clear. They make it, moving a pawn down, and the chess illusion disappears. 
: The heat in the room steadily increases. Zaphodel faints, and Ashra lifts her up onto a chair, as the heat is emanating from the floor. Leilah faints as well, and does not wake when Ashra slaps her. Ethan looks around the room, searching for any other part of the trap, and finds nothing. Even with the mirror, nothing changes. When he looks at Ashra in the mirror, he sees her as she is, sweating madly; when he looks at himself in the mirror, he is on fire. He is not on fire to the naked eye, but he is being hurt badly by the heat. Ashra and Ethan look around in despair, realizing they failed at the chess puzzle and may have no way out. Leilah and Zaphodel lie unconscious, unable to aid them. The heat continually rises. Ashra faints and dies almost immediately. Ethan simultaneously dissolves into flame. 
: Oh wait no, that would really suck. Rewind to entering the city, Zaph is a level lower, and it's time-out etiquette and chess puzzle debate time like nobody's business. 
: Clearly, the party offended Ganth considerably by their actions. Ashra says in annoyance that the etiquette would in many ways be nearly opposite if they were going by Asian customs instead of Western. They look at each other and realize that each one of them had considered and discounted the Asian set of customs for the Western, despite the fact that each of them knows far more about the former. They'd guessed wrong. With some assistance from Leilah, Ashra lays out everything she knows about the appropriate set of customs. For the food, they should refuse it once, allow the servants to insist, then accept, apologizing for the imposition. They should bow to him in the Eastern style; full prostration is the most appropriate, though Ashra's pride will only allow a ninety degree standing bow. They should always be sure to start bowing before he does, as they are the ones of lower rank, and hold their bows longer than his, making no eye contact. Their speech should be in the highest formality, using titles instead of "you" and "That is somewhat..." instead of "no." Due to their social status, territory, gender, and religion, their social ranking is roughly "Ganth (host, supreme ruler, male, old as hell)... Vishnu (older, male, high social rank), Ethan (social rank, guest of honor, male) and Ashra (counting herself as whatever gender is more powerful), Leilah (female, cleric), Zaphodel (female, servant, cleric). The party runs through their list of known languages with multiple formality levels: Infernal and Celestial have three each, Illithid has two, Yuan-ti (which no one knows) and one other have five, and High Elf has twelve. 
: High Elf -- that's it. Ethan realizes that Ganth doesn't necessarily know he lacks (or has issues with) his memory, and is expecting him to have the capabilities of Ethan Elan. Having failed at etiquette, he was pushed to prove his identity in another way, due to the puzzle in the Ruins of Eldergrin. Unfortunately, rumor did not make it clear that he actually hates chess puzzles, or at least he does now. So he will need to prove he is who he isn't entirely. He goes off in a corner to facepalm for a while. 
: He eventually decides to emerge from the Facepalm Corner to plug in the solution to the cryptex. "Checkmate", as Leilah confirms, is nine letters instead of the ten a distracted Ashra thought it was, meaning it will make the required eighteen in hex code. Ethan translates it and inputs the code. The cryptex opens, revealing a letter from Grax to Marcus. 
: The letter is top secret, intended for Marcus alone. It speaks of the "so-called" Shadowwing, Inc. and of their movements in the Ruins of Eldergrin. It states The Company's leader to be the "expatriate Ethan Elan". There is a reference to southern Goneril forces sending two squads to the ruins under the codename "Dark Nosrep". Grax's operative on the inside, whom he has codenamed "Checkmate", apparently told him that The Company engaged one of the companies in order to be able to explore the ruins. The letter states that we may know that the third portfolio is active and has been removed from the Ruins of Eldergrin. Given Marcus's history with Ethan, he was asked to perform a "soft tactical extraction" under the codename "Prodigal Son", with assistance from the Department of Intelligence. Ashra is offended when she thinks "Prodigal Son" refers to her; Ethan reassures her that it's really him. That isn't very reassuring, in the long run. 
: The group considers that "Checkmate" might not have referred to Fauxdin, but rather to a different spy in the party. It is clearly not Ethan. Leilah can be discounted for not being there. Vladomis, suspicious though she would otherwise be, also joined the party too late. Ashra discounts herself. Claire does have strange connections and a capricious manner, but Ashra thinks she's an unlikely choice because she was isolated with the party for too long, and because she allowed Ashra to hypnotize her in an attempt to recover her memories. Were Claire a very powerful psion, she might be able to make a set of false but very convincing memories to lead Ashra to as a way of removing suspicion. However, that would require Claire to be an illithid or other psionic creature, disguised so well the mirror would not reveal her, and that is unlikely to say the least. 
: Ashra hypothesizes that the spy was Fab Dick, and not just because she hates him. He arrived with Fauxdin, his memory of the event was modified, and he left and joined the party through the ruins. There was also the bizarre disappearance and reappearance of Sam Ash, which would make a plausible excuse for Fab D to be doing strange things. Fab D may not even know he is being used; despite his paranoia, he is apparently vulnerable to memory modification. 
: There is also the question of the portfolio. The passage of the portfolio between gods is briefly discussed. The portfolio in question is the one no one knows what happened to.
: All of this is fascinating, but it doesn't address how they'll do the diplomacy this time. They decide to adopt the appropriate culture's formalities, speak in Elven if necessary, which Ashra and Ethan both speak, and hope this does not all end in chess and tears. 
: And we're back at the meal-choosing scene. Vishnu acts the same while the party giggles telepathically, and only telepathically. Ethan and Ashra first refuse, then accept, apologizing for the imposition. Leilah and Zaphodel are ignored as clerics this time. The servants depart and return with the food. Vishnu digs in; Ethan and Ashra do not, waiting for their host. Vishnu complains loudly about the steak, and another round of very nervous laughter is suppressed. 
: Barron Ganth arrives, wearing electrum armor and looking pretty awesome. Everyone rises. Leilah, Zaphodel, and Ethan bow fully to the ground; Ashra bows at ninety degrees. They hold the bows until he has long finished his, and sit when commanded to sit. This time, Zaphodel is with Ashra; Ashra decided it was better not to lie about what she is, as it's fairly obvious. The party responds politely to questions, using the highest formality possible. He asks Ethan what he is, and Ethan says "I place my life in your hands; I am a deathlock." He seems more pleased with their responses, but still steps out of the room, and it starts getting hot again. It's chess o'clock. 
: The same puzzle reappears. The first move is made. Everyone studies the board and the letters and numbers from Leilah's dream, attempting to parse it as algebraic chess notation. The main problem is the Abyssal characters. They do not obviously map onto Common characters; an attempt to do so caused the party's first failure. Ashra does not speak Abyssal, and has to keep asking how the characters are pronounced. Ethan translates one as "Q", likely indicating the queen. They consider whether the move list is incomplete, or only shows one side, but that does not entirely make sense. Nor does the list make sense as is. The party tries another equivalence, then reverts to a save point again, having Chosen Poorly. 
: This time they're going to be very careful. The next move is done by a pawn and has a "5" in it, giving them eight choices for where it could be. Ashra and Leilah use process of elimination to discover the first move on their side; Leilah makes it, and the other player responds. It had been growing close to dangerously hot, but as they move the piece it is not hot enough to threaten their health yet. The response is one of the moves in the set, though one place over from where they would expect it to be in the string of characters. They then narrow the next move to a choice between two mirrored places. Ashra guesses that the Abyssal characters map to one of either of the mirrored places on the board; they were able to translate the previous character to "e" because e is the middle file. They are left with a choice; they must entice the other player to take a specific pawn that they moved the round before, allowing them to advance the other pawn. Ashra and Leilah consider several factors in the other pieces, but everything they can think of turns out not to make a difference between the two moves. 
: Ethan finally looks up and realizes the answer. One of the moves would force the opponent to take the expected piece because otherwise he would be in danger from the queen. And given Ganth's apparent love for queens, this seems like the right answer. As soon as Ethan has Leilah move the piece, the chessboard disappears again. 
: There's a moment of more pure terror, but the door opens again. Though they only solved two moves of the chess puzzle, the win condition was not to play the entire game. Instead, Ganth had been watching and waiting for Ethan to show he could play chess puzzles, just like the Ethan in the ruins. At least, that's Ashra's theory. 
: The man who enters is still Barron Ganth, but more nerdy-awesome looking than shit-bricks-awesome looking. He has them all sit, and he speaks in Common -- very intelligent, formal Common, but Common nonetheless. He is wearing lenses, one red and one clear. The red one is probably the focus for Analyze Dweomer that Ashra had been debating buying for Leilah. He greets the party and apologizes for the body double and the chess puzzle, but says that he cannot be too careful in ensuring people are who they claim to be. He implies that he encountered Fauxdin and was decieved by him, and says that the clear lens is True Seeing to ensure that does not happen again. No one is really in a position to argue. 
: He ignores Leilah and Zaph almost completely, responding dismissively if Leilah attempts to speak. He seems to like Ethan, and he is very respectful of Ashra's intelligence, regarding her as an intellectual equal and praising her. She's a little worried he's trying to get something out of her, though it is later pointed out that she may be the first person he's run into in a long time who has a mind equal to his. 
: He talks about the value of information, and its ability to control people. He controls a great deal of information, and from it stems much of his power. He asks if the party has ever wondered "Where is Ille Draconum?" and knows they have not. Ille Draconum, translated from Celestial, means "That Dragon," yet no dragon is involved in the poem. No one ever seems to question this. He announces he has been responsible for several of the translations. One has to keep the original title in the original language, or a poem would not be recognizable. Hence the name remains, when the 0th chapter -- the one with the dragons -- has been excised from the poem. He has a single copy in his Great Library.
: He asks if the party knows of the Axiomates. Ashra, with assistance from Leilah and a bit of Zaph's luck, does. Tiamat was banished from the Prime Material Plane, but she left a great many dragons behind. They needed a way to breed and reproduce, so she left behind five evil dragons, one of each type. These dragons act as mothers and are the only ones capable of reproduction. Ashra remarks that this sounds a bit familiar. 
: There is also a mountain range in the Northern Continent which is being continually struck by lightning. This, he claims, is where the lost Portfolio is. Its connection to lightning explains the bizarre weather. Were Ethan to claim that, he could become the god of dragonslayers. 
: The locations of the Axiomates and the mountain range are in the hidden chapter of the Ille Draconum. Ganth offers this in exchange for a single one of the amulets Ethan possesses. He makes no secret of his desire to hold a Frozen Fate over the heads of everyone in the universe. But, he says, he does not want to use it on the Prime Material Plane, merely to be able to threaten to do so. He is interested in finding the others, but doesn't want to take more from the party.
: Ethan says he's not strong enough to do anything with this information; Ganth reminds him he's far stronger than he thinks, with his magical capabilities. Ethan asks why he doesn't just kill him and take the amulets, and Ganth says he wants him to remain animate. Ganth seems to respect Ethan, and to want him to know the information he offers. His philosophy of independence may be part of it. Ganth offers Ethan and his ship, crew, and retinue full diplomatic papers which will be valid throughout Goneril, and which Rebecc-is could not invalidate even if they did kinda blow up her army that one time. 
: Ethan talks about his own confusion about what he is. Ganth says he does not know who put Ethan back together, but knows who worked over Ethan's mind, and can undo it and answer questions about Ethan's past. All of this he will do in exchange for a single amulet. 
: Ethan takes the deal. He hands over the Amulet of Moradin. 
: The party are given private quarters in Ganth Center, a boon for those of them who are not popular in the city (which is actually everyone in the party.) Ethan politely declines the offer of better clerics (of Ganth) to replace Leilah and Zaph, saying he's grown fond of these ones. He observes that "Tyro is gonna shit bricks."
: If the party is going to face all five Axiomates, they will need preparation. First of all, they will not manage it alone; instead, they are going to call every friend they have ever had to assist in Ethan's glorious battle. (Since the death of the Axiomates would end dragons on the Prime, it is implied that when they are dead, Ethan will leave to face down dragons on other planes. So it's like a farewell party, too. ... With breath weapons.) It will cost a lot of money to outfit everyone properly. The Company needs funds. Vishnu approves of this new goal. 
: As Leilah devises various financial schemes Ashra considers her relationship to the other illithids remaining. The wise and prudent thing to do for the four (or however many) of them would be to team up: with their combined intelligence, they would be a powerful force, whereas fighting against each other, they are perhaps the only ones capable of countering each other's plans. Grax should know this. On reflection, she decides he probably does. He maintained Xoth's allegiance, and was working with Fauxdin as well; she would not be surprised to learn that Fauxdin was collected after his escape and is now in the care of someone under Grax's control. Even in her own case, the first time she was personally recognized was by Charilus, one of Grax's lieutenants, and he chose to cast Feeblemind on her. While it is a "bitch spell" which gained Charilus her hatred, technically it would be completely possible to Feeblemind her, take her to Grax, poke her with Heal, and then have a talk about whether or not she should join his forces. 
: She wonders for the millionth time what he's really fighting for, and if he was really behind the Mother Brain's departure. She considers out loud going to him and trading her allegiance for funding and/or military assistance in the coming fight. She wonders if he even has enough of that to offer right now, and what it would mean. Ethan replies with his approval, and everyone else shrugs it off as "We all know you'll never really do that." She goes back to wondering whether or not Ganth would be interested in her amulet, and whether she should attempt to trade it for information about Xenteroth, which she really wants. They're going to meet with him again the next day.
: As "Shadowwing, Inc." is now linked in the minds of various people with terrorism, blowing up history museums, and/or "Ethan Elan of Baldur," Ashra asks if the others want to change the company name as they'd been discussing. As no one ever offered another suggestion, Ashra takes her own. Not being an actual offical company anywhere, the name change is at the moment a mental note and a memo in the accounting books that they are now Bona Fortuna, Inc.
===Episode Five and a Half: The Timeskip===
:: Note: No, really.
: The party considers places they could go once they're out of Ganth Center. They think of the Mines of Bikat, which are abandoned due to something being unleashed there long ago.
: They are called to an audience with Barron Ganth. It is at a different time and in a different place than they expected. There is also a large orb in the room, which the party identifies as a Stone of Truth. They bow as usual and ask how they may be of service; Ganth says that's an interesting question indeed. Ethan says that Ashra has a proposition. 
: Ashra takes out her amulet and thanks Ganth for not having his double kill her for it on Syscian's Tower. She then asks if he will teach her about Xenteroth in exchange for the amulet. He takes the trade and gives his lecture, but the information is clearly incomplete, and there are some things he refuses to tell her, most notably why he (he claims) sent the crew of the Rusted Feather after Xenteroth when he fell. 
: He does mention that there are places where planes overlap, and that beings of ordinary power on one plane can become beings of great power on another by passing through. This, he says was Xenteroth's ascension, which he describes as a descent, as it was probably to Hell. He does not, however, tell her the full story such as is told in the Deep Tower. 
: She asks about the pattern of gears; he offers no information beyond confirming that it sounds like Mechanus. He asks if there were thirteen tapestries, the thirteenth of which was the gears; she says no. 
: The party asks about the Amulets of Necromantic Might, and are told that these are the Discordian amulets, which each bear "(Lawful god) has fallen. Nerul will rule all (Lawful god's usual charges.)" They apparently "Awaken that which needs not be" and would be very illegal to use in Goneril. He doubts they could kill Ethan, though. The Harmonian counterparts are Amulets of Infinite Light, which "dazzle" in addition to opening fates. 
: When Ethan brings up the incident in the Ruins of Eldergrin, Ganth says that the horrible negativity was the detonation spot of the Fate. He says, "You also came alive when encountering a fate. Very few people do. Most simply perish. Makes you very special, quite special indeed." The party does not ship it. He says that Tyro captured Ethan's soul, and he can see it. Ethan does not, according to Ganth, contain Pyotar's soul. 
: Ganth ridicules the idea that Xenteroth was an alhoon, and the party swears at Gauve in absentia for planting the idea in their heads. He also doubts the statue was actually casting Vengeful Eye of God. Ganth is surprised that the Number of God was 4 9 13 instead of 4 9 1 3. He grows tired of the party and sends them away. 
: Ashra thinks back to her adventures in The Dark Tower as a teenager. She recounts them to Ethan, and the two realize that the caravan which led her there and the caravan in which Ethan died are eerily familiar. They can't explain why yet, but they think she may have happened on the wreckage of his caravan five years before it was wrecked. 
: The party is not brought food that night. They realize they are being kept in a soft diplomatic prison, and discuss what to do. The general consensus is that Ethan needs to learn to stand up for himself. Ashra tries to outline how to think you're the greatest thing around, and Vishnu steps in to give an inspiring lecture on the topic.
=== Episode Six: Aww, Not in Front of the Kobold ===
: In the morning of February 25, after going the previous afternoon and evening without food, the party hears marching outside. Then there is a knock on the door: Sam has arrived to visit the party. One of the Snakes accompanied him as a tie. Sam had worried when the party didn't return. He has been allowed to leave the ship and to shop, though Fab D has not. Ashra asks about his disappearance, and he says that it was a two Fab D rolled trying to cast a spell. Sam had become invisible to Fab D, though everyone else could see him fine. Apparently Shiolay, who had relayed the news to the party, had not yet met up with the crew of the Jade Kracken III, and thus didn't know that Sam was actually there all along. Sam also tells the party that Fab D has called people on the scrying table. 
: Also, there's been a strange gathering in the city square. Lots of people, all healthy but mostly civilian, were seen gathered with different colored placards in the square. The party discusses various things this could be: a strange protest? a giant image? an airship landing strip? a low-budget illusion? (actually, considering the cost of the low-level wizard needed to cast a spell of pretty colors, a rather high-budget illusion)? a way of sorting themselves or signaling plague victims? They can reach no conclusion. The Goneril colors are black and silver, but there are all sorts of colors here. 
: Sam notes that the party seems pretty busy with this whole conspiracy thing, and the party tells him to go back to the ship and not to worry. Ashra takes a look out the door as it shuts and sees seven guards of various classes. They could be there to guard against intruders or against the party leaving, either way. 
: Zaph attempts to Create Food and Water for the party, since Vishnu has awoken and is complaining loudly. He loves the first few bites of his pita pocket, then drops it abruptly. It is filled with maggots. Ethan asks for and takes it, opens the door, drops it on the ground, and says "My companions will be requiring food shortly. I trust this has been an oversight." Then he shuts the door again. 
: As everyone fanboys Ethan (again), Ethan scans the room for magic and finds that the fountain in the room is holy (lawful, not good) water, and that the runes high above each engraving, reading "Fraternity" "Equality" and "Independence", are power runes. A quick discussion among the three reveals that these runes will activate when read aloud, and could have any number of functions. They guess that Zaph's failure to cast, however, was because she was accessing the power of a god in the antitheist's palace. 
: A butler knocks and says that the party's presence is required. The party dutifully files out in the same order they've been using: Ethan, Vishnu, Ashra, Leilah, Zaph. Six guards for each party member fall in behind them, and they are led to a balcony overlooking Equality Square. Ganth's cabinet, similarly guarded, are also standing around. Before them an enormous army is parading towards Ganth Center, in full dress armor. The placards' purpose is now clear: when held in the pattern they are using, the placards make a pattern of seven (?) patterns of vertical stripes with one offshoot, like a strangely stylized axe, seven (?) five-pointed stars, and seven (?) moons with three circles in them. 
: Ganth the body double appears in his shining armor and strides through the nobles. Everyone saves against his royal aura (Ethan with some luck and a nudge from Zaph) and do not become Goneril loyalists, but they're still impressed. It's hard not to be. He begins his speech. 
: February 25th is an important day in history. Baldur is free. Edmund Vargus took his troops to Port Wyatt, joining with Rebecc-is of Goneril's forces to take it over, then marched on the capitol, which fell easily. Grax and his troops took to their navy and are sailing for the Southern Continent. Vargus's army is not currently strong enough to chase Grax across the sea, but they have recaptured Baldur. 
: He also boasts that Goneril now has the power of a Fate. A large group of oiled, shirtless men carry the Fate in the parade to wild cheering. The Ganth leaves, and games of skill continue for some time as the party watches. 
: The butler then leads them into a spherical room with a radius of thirty feet. The floor is made of force; the walls (or wall; the room is a perfect sphere) are highly magnetic. Luckily, the party does not habitually carry anything heavy and metallic to diplomatic negotiations. When the butler shuts the door behind them, it disappears, leaving the party in darkness. Ethan uses Detect Magic to kind of see, and discovers that the walls themselves are magic. 
: Everyone hears a crackling sound. They realize they are hearing electricity as the enormous electromagnet starts going. Ashra gets really nervous and tags everyone with levitation, looking warily at the wall. There's a good bit of "Okay, don't touch it." "No shit don't touch it!" Ethan tests by dropping his ring of prestidigitation; it bounces as it would from steel off the floor of force, and he reclaims it. The frequency of the sound increases. 
: Then they are transported to another place. The floor of force becomes the snow and ice of a mountain. There is still electricity all around them, but now in the form of lightning striking the mountain they stand on. It sizzles in the snow near them, but is kind enough not to strike anyone directly. Thirty feet from them is a door, the back of which says "The strand of Orc held the holy writ, and only greedy Tiamat, crusher of the impious, begrudged the ill-gained gift." in Celestial. It is the same place Tiemp Hiss once saw. Next to the door is a hat, black with a red feather, which Ethan recognizes as his own. 
: Faced with the strange and frightening place, everyone assumes they're going to fight in a minute. Ashra tags Leilah with Mage Armor, as Leilah's own armor is still being refitted. Ethan protects himself from Positive Energy. Zaphodel protects Ashra from lightning. Leilah puts on the first of her many cleric buffs. 
: Then Ganth appears, the real one this time. He tells them that they are in an extremely realistic illusion of Wroth's End, and that through that door lies a portfolio in the real version. He claims to have reconstructed this version from his memories. He tells them that about forty miles away is a path connecting the northern and southern parts of Goneril. It is rarely used, he says, because once one gets through this part, which is bad enough, then there's still the forest after that. Also, there's all the lightning. 
: Therefore, he says, they should please stop wasting his time. They agree, and he leaves. 
: Leilah memorizes the location in case she becomes able to Greater Teleport. Ashra peers into the distance, looking for something that isn't lightning, and sees the path forty miles away. Leilah intuits that the door faces due east. It's very cold, and Zaph gets chilled. She casts Protection from Elements on herself, and accidentally casts it with a contingency on Ashra. There's a brief shared "wtf" over the presence of Ethan's hat in what is supposedly Ganth's memory, though he could easily have added it in to mess with Ethan. 
: Then everyone hears a horrifying screeching sound. The only one not to be overtaken with fear is Ashra, who quickly mind blasts everyone else so that they don't go fleeing and run into the wall of the superconductor. She looks up to see the source of the screech: a flight of four dragons. They are red, green, blue, and silver. Silver? Yes, silver, even though those kinds of dragons aren't supposed to exist. She knows that this cannot be real, but can't seem to convince herself fully. 
: She needs some way to hide the party from the dragons. She can cast Invisibility Sphere on the group, hiding them all, but the act of casting itself will bring the dragons upon them. However, the dragons will see them anyway, so she might as well conceal them. She thinks that the only way to get out of this is to glitch out by forcing herself to realize she cannot read their minds when they get within her 120 foot range. They would probably stun her, but she will still realize that she's not being stunned. 
: She casts the spell on the party, and the dragons see her and begin to swoop down. She releases Leilah from the mind blast; Leilah shouts and does a war rally, allowing her and the others a better chance against fear. No one but Leilah and Ashra manage to regain or maintain calm, however. Leilah enlarges herself and grabs Ethan under one arm, Zaph under the other. The dragons begin to descend. Ashra releases Ethan from the mind blast, and he flails ineffectually. She also releases Vishnu. 
: Then Ashra gets a better idea. The door is probably the only way out of this. However, she knows what the door really is: part of the superconductor. Given the dickery of the chess puzzle, she would totally not put it past Barron Ganth to force her to touch something highly electric, since he was probably able to guess how much she hates it. She's protected from the first 120 points of lightning damage, but this could do far more than that. Either she'll get them out, or she'll die in the clutches of her least favorite element. 
: But these dragons look pretty lethal too, much as she tries to convince herself otherwise. She walks up to the door and pushes at it with both hands. It does not budge, and appears stone. She tries again, attempting to force her hands through the stone and think about how it isn't real instead of about all the electricity that may be going across her chest right about soon. Still no effect. She reads out the passage on the door in Celestial. Still no effect. 
: Ethan looks up from his panicked flailing for long enough to yell "Try 'Nosrep fle lalah!'"
: The door swings open as the first, red dragon swoops down. Vishnu dodges out of the way entirely and is out the door as soon as possible. Ashra is the only one of the main party who is able to duck out of the way. Luckily, as it's only fake fire, Ethan does not take extra damage and is not instantly destroyed. Leilah drags her comrades through the door, dismissing the spell so she'll fit. For the last few steps, she staggers under the weight of the two people she is suddenly carrying without her super strength. They make it through and she releases them. 
: The butler is standing there. He offers to conduct them to their room. 
: "I trust our food will be waiting," says Ashra. They go back to their room. 
: Their food is waiting. It's a feast: caviar, ham, vodka, and chocolates. Vishnu devours the caviar and digs into the chocolates; Ashra shares one and gets a luck bonus from it. She encourages Leilah and Ethan to share, too. Leilah wants to save them for later; Ethan and Ashra try to diplomatically and telepathically explain that either the party shares them or Vishnu takes them all, so they should share while he's willing. Leilah takes two and gets bonuses to Handle Animal and Appraise for the day. Vishnu slips the rest back into his pack. The party feasts. 
: Leilah's focus for Analyze Dweomer arrives. She decides to wait on the actual casting of the divine spell for when the party is out of Goneril City and any antitheistic effects it may have. It is also much more difficult than normal for Leilah and Zaphodel to heal the damage from the breath weapons, though Ethan's negative energy comes through just fine. 
: Leilah tells the others about the myths of metallic dragons in Nyasa. They were supposedly good dragons working with humans etc. to counteract the evil dragons. They are symbols of freedom in a somewhat arbitrary way, and tend to be lawful and/or good. They have different types of breath weapons (the silver dragon had a prismatic spray) and tend to also be able to cast as sorcerers. The greatest of them is Bahamut, who may or may not have been the mount of St. Cuthbert. However, it's all awfully convenient in its ability to captitalize on the fear and awe of dragons, so no one of any knowledge believes in them. 
: Leilah also lists holidays coinciding with or close to the Nosrep, which is in late October or early November. The Feast or Ride of Nerul is October 31, Grummsh's Harvest Festival is at a similar time on an alternate calendar (and includes slaying a fatted lamb, which interests Ashra given the "prodigal son" reference in Grax's letter), and bills are often due around that time. Ethan also mentions that his birthday is October 30, and for the past two years, things have been kind of crazy on that day.
: Ashra asks Leilah what she knows about illithids from the Southern Continent. On the Southern Continent, apparently, illithids are predatory aberrations who kill and enslave other races. They have a particular feud with drow. Leilah does not know the exact location of Mind's Touch; it's something the Nyasans want to find so they can destroy it, but they can't so far. They might send groups out to go look for it and try to kill any illithids they find in the general direction, but it's not something she can pinpoint. Ashra reveals that, with the news that Grax is headed for the Southern Continent, she fears he will make an alliance with the illithids of Mind's Touch. She wants to get there first. However, she wants at the very least to be able to cast Modify Memory, for which she will have to gain access to fourth level spells and also research a previous form of the spell which was available to wizards. She wants it so that she can leave Leilah with no memory of the location of the city. 
: Ethan begins to speculate on an idea he and Ashra had both lit on individually: that temporal anomalies seem very common in a specific region of Baldur, that which makes a line between Barron's Touch and Baldur City. Ashra had thought that the Dark Tower alone was a place where time tended to run into itself; Ethan thinks it's the whole road. It would explain the ridiculous amount of fighting over King's Reach and Barron's Touch, as well as the strange circumstances surrounding Pyotar and the possibility that Ashra found the wreckage from an assassination that would not happen for five more years. The main source of timeshifting (besides alcohol and other drugs if you're Valera) is travel to the Negative Energy Plane. Ethan was there way longer than he was away from the Prime, every Baudin who came through the NEP was timeshifted somehow, and when Ethan went there briefly due to the Dimension Die while trying to solve the Entropic Reaper's Curse, he came upon a version of Sadzuko Udina who was alive and wielding his negative energy sword, neither of which are true in the present time. 
: As Ashra considers her memories of the Dark Tower, she realizes they are geographically impossible. The Dark Tower is north of Landover. She snuck out of the illithid city and through Baldur, then went north, intending to make for Landover. She met up there with Feetus and Thimblewill Undertow, who had committed some thefts and murders in Landover and thus needed to skip town. They fled north, intending to make for King's Reach. Then, in her memories, she was traveling north towards Landover with those three, fleeing from Landover ... to Landover, and encountering a tower that should be north of Landover to its south. 
: The Mother Brain could easily have rewritten her memory of the incident. She doubts that the dragon's memories were in fact gone, and suspects the Mother Brain replaced that bit of memory. She also suspects that she may have been Geased to go and find the caravan or the dragon, and that other details of the event were changed to make it seem more consistent. Only Ethan's body was never found from his caravan; if this is the same caravan, a memory of following tracks to look for survivors would be a lot less suspect than one of feeling an unshakable compulsion to go looking for a body she'd have had no reason to know was ever there. After adventuring with that group for some time afterwards, realizing eventually that she was above these common criminals, and returning home, she knows she was punished. However, she has no memories at all of this punishment. This could be because she was repressing them in a mundane manner, or it could indicate that the Mother Brain wiped those memories; this makes sense if nothing else because that way all that she would remember is that she did something bad and was badly punished, and thus could not focus on the specifics of the punishment. She looks at Zaph and at herself a few times. 
: Ethan, meanwhile, lists all the strange things that happened otherwise on that road. It explains a lot, really. Apparently, Bookish had believed that Grax was raising an army of undead from the Negative Energy Plane, and there definitely was a zombie contingent to the army which marched on Baldur. If this is a handy gateway to the NEP, it would be fairly easy to pick up an army of non-sentient undead and bring it through to the Prime. Also, the hall in Pyotar's mansion looks like what Baudin threw the door open to when he left, and an iteration of him made reference to "Pyotar Umarov's palace on the negative energy plane." Even Tindersmarsh, with its vampire problems and overprotective Tyro, would make a lot more sense if it's on this strange magical fault line. Leilah comes up with her own theories but does not share with the class. 
: The remaining few days pass; Leilah and Zaph get their armor. Barron Ganth has no further interest in seeing the party, which is really just as well. They are led back to their airship, which has been washed, had its balloon replaced, and has gained another pair of cannons.
: They need to decide where they are going, and soon, because getting out of Goneril City will be a morale boost to everyone except Mr. Snugglesworth. Leilah has some intricate and well-thought-out plans involving drug trading, but it's the wrong time of year and the relevant flower won't be ready for months yet. However, Vishnu has a great idea: Marcus Fairlan is dead, and anyone who's likely to give him a T-Res is dead or on the run. The party can go raid all his storehouses all along his supply route, which will outfit them excellently to be drug suppliers to Baldur, where there seems to be rather a large opening. Ethan is on board as soon as he understands that it means fucking with Marcus. The first stop will be Ulgrof's Pass.
: Ashra compares time and realizes that there is no way she could beat Grax to the Southern Continent and to Mind's Touch; despite the Jade Kracken III's much higher speed, the Baldur army has an enormous head start. Also, Grax could Astral Project or use Sending, Dream or similar means to communicate instantly with Mind's Touch. He could have been working with them before, in which case even if Ashra were to use the same method to try to beat him there, the Mind's Touch Mother Brain could instantly kill her or blank her mind as soon as she arrived. She resigns herself to the likelihood that all illithids on the Prime may soon hate her, and realizes she'll have to put in some time thinking about where her loyalties lie and how she can represent a people who seem to be working against her. 
: Leilah decides to break out her new toy, and over the first few days of the journey, she analyzes a great many things: 
:*Fab Dick: Wizard (diviner); spells prepared: Light x2, Sparkle x3, Normal diviner spells plus magic missile, Scrying x several, Stone Speak x1 (a suspicious spell that rewires the speakstones), basic attack spells (Fireball, Explosive Runes etc), Prismatic Spray, Greater Lubricant, and he appears to be cascading sparks (Sparkle). 
:*Zaphodel: Divine Caster, Pelor; thralled to unknown entity; spells prepared: cure minor wounds, create water, light, mending, read magic, inflict minor wounds, cure light wounds, endure elements x2, inflict light wounds, shield of faith, cure moderate wounds, bull's strength, eagle's splendor, lesser restoration, bear's endurance, calm emotions, cure serious wounds, inflict serious wounds, create food and water, dispel magic x2, cure critical wounds, inflict critical wounds, sending x2, break enchantment, spell resistance x2, heal x2; scrying aid - can easily be the focus of divining spells and have her sensory information used for scrying - done by an arcane caster 10th level; soul partition - divine or necromantic, caster level unknown allows a single entity to break up its soul into multiple pieces for various reasons, may or may not be still there, could be or have a phylactery; memory modified - caster level 4th; consciousness suppressed.
:*Ashra: Fully developed mindflayer; wizard/archmage; spells prepared: ghost sound, dancing lights x2, prestidigitation x2, arcane mark, resistance, disguise self, sonic grasp, mage armor x2, true strike x2, invisibility, minor image, flaming sphere x2, touch of idiocy, major image, tongues x2, acid bolt; telepathy to unidentified others; psionic connection to unidentified other; nothing else. (As it is not a spell, the Motherbrain psionically rewriting Ashra's memory would not appear on Analyze Dweomer.) 
:*Ethan: Deathlock. (When Ashra tags him with Levitation, the spell also reported "Levitating (caster level unknown)". It seems to have issues detecting psionic caster levels.) 
:*Leilah: Cleric, Anahita; aasimar; racial abilities and spell-like abilities; spells prepared; any current buffs; divine connection to other.
:*ScryPad: Illusion focus; speakstone; scrying bowl; table; connectivity with other item x3 (presumably the map, the ship, and the speakstone); made by a master illusionist archivist of 16th level. 
:*Sam Ash: Human archivist, spells prepared up to the 6th level (mostly craft). 
:*Amulet of St. Cuthbert: Amulet of Necromantic Might; legendary item (unknown); power crystal (center) - it is crystalized magical energy, essentially a microfate; Ghoul Glyph of Ethan's caster level.
:*Ethan's pebble: Soul net - an expensive item which captures the soul of a dying person to prevent resurrection, though the soul will eventually degrade, currently full; phylactery - in this case it just means it has a soul in it; ghoul glyphed. 
:*Xenteroth’s Stick: Magical, staff, charges unknown, spells unknown (basically throwing up error messages everywhere).
:*Ashra's Time Stop Wand: Wand of Time Dialation; Caster Level 29; Charges: 1. 
:*Giant Book from the Hall of Many Things: Tome of Gainful Exercise. (This was discovered by Ashra casting Comprehend Languages and looking at the title, not by Analyze Dweomer, but it fits here in the discoveries list.) 
:*1-4th level Spellbook Ashra got from Bookish: Book, paper, glue, leather, string, ink (She asked because of the very similar spellbook which appeared on the body of an illithid in the Hall of Many Things, but with its pages magically blanked and the impressions of the spell Symbol of Death there instead.)
:*Mirror of True Seeing: Mirror of Seeing the Unseen; CL/Spells Prepared: 400x Dweomer Dweomer Tricky Tricky
:*Liquids 1-7 Ethan picked up in the laboratory: Embalming kit for people who would like to become mummies; Magical; CL at least 9th; some of these enhancements might benefit Ethan. 
:*Ethan’s Rod of Something: Rod of Dominate Person, 1 charge, no save, SR will apply, CL 30. 
:*Disguise Kit: Little Lord Fauntleroy’s TM Magical Disguise Kit. 1 charge/day
:*The Map: Legendary artifact, sentient.
:*The Ship: Jade Kracken III. 4 cannons, acadia wood hull, sentient, “fucking flying, man”
:*Leilah and Zaph's armor is exactly what it appears to be.
:*Shield of Ganth: Legendary artifact, cursed
:*Life-Suture: Magical sword; +1 to attack; for every 5 damage dealt heals wielder 1 point; for every 50 points healed bearer this way; it casts Heal on its user; +2 equivalent. (Jokes about killing lots of rabbits then handing the sword to Ethan are met with threats to Harm everyone.) 
:*Cryptex: Magically sealed cryptex with a modified Close Portal affecting it, CL 8; liquid inside is Alchemist’s Fire.
: Ashra takes advantage of a moment when no one else is around The Map to look at the location of Mind's Touch and ask for any information the map has on it. The Map cannot tell her when the location was input or what other locations were input concurrently. However, given how out of date all information not given to it by the party was, and given that no one in the party has a reason to know where Mind's Touch is, Ashra suspects that the city is very old. The idea that illithids really arrived only a hundred or so years ago is wearing increasingly thin. 
: Without revealing the exact location, she discusses the probable timing of Grax's army with Leilah and Ethan. There is no port in the Southern Continent that could fully outfit a navy like Baldur's; even Baldur couldn't support the fleet Grax took. The Nyasan navy itself is weak, given the cleric-heavy population and the fast but fragile design of Southern Continent ships. The army will probably land at a city, pillage it for supplies, then move on, because they'll strip all resources out of anywhere they go. Leilah considers some small civilizations on the western side of the Southern Continent which might or might not be important enough for Grax to decide to land in. If they landed in Yarmoth, which would not lend them supplies but would be the most direct route to Mind's Touch, eight days' hard march would bring them there. Ashra starts a mental countdown until everyone in her people hates her forever, and hopes that no one else tries asking The Map where Mind's Touch is. 
: Since Fab D is not under any memory modification or geas spells, Ashra decides to interrogate him. He claims -- or, at least, implies -- that the Speakstone modification spell is innocent and for some sort of sexual purpose. He does not answer why he'd want to be able to sext his boyfriend on the same ship.
: He claims not to remember where he met Fauxdin; he did not know Baudin, and Ashra and Ethan are surprised that the normally paranoid Fab D would be so willing to join with someone he had never met on their word. He also claims not to remember where he was between the times the party saw him in the Ruins, and is not nearly as concerned as one would expect when told he disappeared. Ashra does much of the talking (and glaring), which doesn't work out as well given their history. She resists the urge to slap him when he brings up her past with Wolves' Milk, but doesn't manage to get much out of him. He claims not to remember, and she accuses him of lying, and they repeat. She suspects after a while that he is telling the truth, but doesn't want to back down, and therefore keeps pressing him, hoping for some useful information or for someone else in the party to be able to change the power dynamic more in their favor. She tells him he's not trying hard enough. He says he'd like to remember, but does not agree to be hypnotized by her. 
: When his sparkles run out, he attempts to refresh them, and each member of the party in turn counterspells the sparkle spell. Ashra takes the last turn at counterspelling and says "I hope I don't get lasered for this." The word "lasered" activates the contingency, and she has Endure Elements on her. Everyone is kind of confused and amused by this. 
:He keeps drawing obscene things in the air with Light, and only stops briefly when she threatens to break his fingers. When asked if he knows Aura Laurellian, whom he has met, he asks if they mean "the girl with the horns". They say no. Ashra tells him that even if he doesn't care about her, he should care about Ethan, who is a pretty pretty princess and has taken good care of him. Ethan says that's the sweetest thing she's ever said to him, and agrees to teach her to be a drug dealer. Everyone facepalms at the bizarre tangent. Fab D mostly just mocks Ashra and suggests that she is either insane, on drugs, or both. He wanders off to go get high with Sam. 
: The party watches him in amusement, but doesn't get anything out of him. The next day, they try again. Ashra lies to him and claims he said a lot of interesting things the night before, implying they were about the lost memories. He instead begins to describe how he managed to apply the explosive runes to the spyglass, and she tells him in a rage that she does not want to hear about that event. He claims to have been sorry about that, which she does not believe for a moment, and he admits he was lying. She points out explosive runes would have killed him, and he says yes, but not her. Ethan, who had been mostly quiet, looks over to tell Fab Dick how close to death Ashra actually came and how she owes her life to Shiolay and a zombie summon climbing up into the crow's nest in a thunderstorm and please don't ever put them through that again. Leilah casts Zone of Truth, against which everyone saves, so all it does is make him trust them less. After a few minutes he simply walks away.
: While trying to gather information about Ulgrof's Pass, the party discovers they've managed to piss off everyone in the intelligence team. Ashra's persecution of Fab Dick, while it might or might not be justified, alienated him and the Snakes. Then Leilah complained about how they needed their time-sensitive information earlier, and Ethan chose the worst time to try to figure out how to scry on Ulgrof's Pass himself, because it sounded like he was trying to learn to replace Fab D. Both Snakes are sulking, and Old Man Kruglor reacts with hostility as well. Aw darn. Ethan promises to fix everything soon with his magic ability to be an actually nice person at times. 
: Ashra takes Zaphodel aside from the others and attempts a Sending to the Motherbrain of Malvont: "Speaking for Ashra: Grax fled Baldur, perhaps to ally with Mind’s Touch. I cannot prevent him. I seek to do your will. What is it?" She Sends twice, in case the failure rate for other planes took effect, but there is no response. She's not surprised by this, but is glad she tried. 
: Ethan goes to talk to Mr. Snugglesworth, and finds that Fab D has been scrying and calling to tailors in all sorts of cities, looking for Mr. Gucci. It's sort of sweet. It also means he didn't notice Mr. Gucci at Barron's Touch Resort. They consider giving him this information: he won't believe Ashra for a moment, but might believe it from Ethan. Ethan decides to sit up in the scrying room all night and talk with Fab Dick when he shows up to scry. 
: Ulgrof's Pass is fast approaching.
=== Episode Seven: In Your Base Stealing Your Drugs ===
: March 1st, the anniversary of Ethan's death and Ashra's Dark Tower adventure, comes and passes. They discuss having Sam make them a cake, but what kind of decoration do you even put on that? On March 8th the party reaches Ulgrof's Pass. They've no use for the town itself, which is probably full of Red Plague, and are only interested in the drugs. At long last, it's time for some straight-up cathartic fighting. Well, sort of. The Jade Kracken III is approaching Marcus's fields about forty miles upriver from Ulgrof's Pass. Ethan has taken the intelligence trio out and gotten them drunk enough that while they may or may not have forgiven Ashra, they're willing to do their jobs and put stuff up on the scry.
: Ashra asks Ethan to detect magic on the spyglass she left behind on the ship during the diplomatic adventure; it detects as enchanted, but after a few minutes worry is revealed to be a Snake brother. Her real spyglass is unharmed.
: The intelligence officers show what they've learned, and everyone analyzes the layout. A river runs through the area. On both sides of the river stand many tall coniferous trees which give cover to the area and will make airstrikes problematic. The river seems to have swollen, perhaps from the uncharacteristically warm weather. There are many different buildings. On the far side of the river, two have flat roofs, strange in the snowy weather, and are therefore likely to double as guard platforms. Another has Absynthium growing outside of it out of the marsh, and is therefore probably a lab. There is also a large fault line which needs to be avoided with any sort of percussive blast. On the near side, there is another potential warehouse and a small building which greatly interests Snake because it is shielded by many trees and right next to the Absynthium marsh. He theorizes that it is an entrance to a series of underground tunnels: how else would the men working there get across the river? Ashra and Ethan wonder if they had a bridge which was washed away, but share his interest in the shed.
: The goal is to destroy all "hard targets" -- anyone who fights back -- and try to preserve all
: The party decides that Snake will go out ahead to scout, reporting in with a Speakstone and being extracted from the area if necessary. In case he needs a flare, Ashra gives him a sunrod from party loot.
: The ship lands stealthily (for a ship) in the woods away from the settlement. Ashra fails to get a look with the spyglass, preoccupied with searching it for Explosive Runes.
: Ashra tags Snake with levitation, and he carefully heads out through the trees. He hears a click and tumbles away from it, hears another and tumbles away again. While looking for traps, he sees some strange signs written on the trees, like a combination of an M and an asterisk. After some time, he also finds bear traps, some of which were likely what made the clicking sound.
: He hears voices. Two men are speaking in a pidgin of Common and a language he does not understand. He runs up and shadowjumps under a tree by the back of the shed. He sees the two human speakers, a few hideous creatures which appear to be unfazed by the drugs, and a bunch of mooks in protective gear dusting the crops. Before they can see him, he climbs up the tree, then grabs the speakstone, quietly turns it on, and reports in.
: He holds the stone out towards the speakers. Ashra listens in and recognizes that they are speaking a blend of Undercommon and Common; she begins to translate telepathically and in whispers to Snake. One of them is convinced that they heard the bear traps go off; the other thinks that nothing could have made that sound given how cold it is. Furthermore, he discusses druid signs in the forest that make one fall asleep. Snake, securely on his branch (while being another branch) notices that he's starting to feel really tired. Aw, shit.
: He suggests that Ashra levitate out to him and take him back to the ship. She doesn't like this plan, but she can't improve on it much. At the height of eight meters where he is in the tree, she should be above the druid symbols, unless she looks down and sees them. However, she could actually comprehend them if she does see them, and that would make them far more effective. So she'll have to not look down.
: The two speakers get curious about the area where Snake is holding out the speakstone at him, so he retracts it.
: Ethan agrees to babysit Zaph, who is commanded to sleep. Ashra critically fails to protect herself from arrows, but manages to make herself invisible, and starts out. Snake is getting sleepier and sleepier as she moves forward. She resists the urge to look down where the druid symbols are, but eventually gets a slightly better look around, noticing where more of the people are.
: Some of the mooks start chanting. Ashra and Snake are within telepathy range now, and he tries to repeat it to her, but can't manage enough for her to recognize the spell. The winds are picking up; a blizzard is soon to arrive. She is buffeted a bit by the wind and knocks into a tree; a Two also makes her temporarily immune to fear effects. Also, she's visible now oh shit. She recasts invisibility, which they hear. She needs to get Snake out of there quickly. He creates a distraction by tossing several twigs at the bear traps and the flowers.
: He suggests that he take her with him shadowjumping to the bottom of the tree, and then the two will shadowjump their way back to the ship in several leaps. Once again, she isn't sure she approves of the plan but can't improve it, so he grabs her and they leap back to the ship. As they arrive, he falls asleep; she catches him and hands him off to Leilah, who manages to at least wake him up. Ethan has the people on the ship start up the hot air.
: The pair are not pursued, but an airship with Marcus Fairlan's symbol on it tumbles by out of control. Ashra (Well, it might have been Snake, but they were more similar than usual) says "Let's Dimension Door onto it and take their ship!" Everyone starts clapping like seals.
: No one thinks to take out a mirror for a quick check, and the party realizes that there isn't really room to store an airship anywhere near there at about the same time they teleport en masse into the middle of an illusion. Oh no wait Leilah couldn't get the spell off and everyone had a chance to think twice. That's totally what happened.
: Ashra notes in annoyance that she could've created this illusion, and the party realizes that she can counterspell it, Ethan can prestidigitate Marcus's logo onto the side of the JKIII, then the party can sail in looking like the illusion. This plan is much better. The illusion is counterspelled, the logo goes off, and it's go time.
: There are mooks on the other side of the river. There are lots of mooks on the other side of the river. There are also ballistae on top of the nearer flat-topped building. A wizard shouts "That's not mine! That shit is NOT MINE!" and Ashra kills him in one shot with Arcane Fire. It's on.
: Ethan casts Cloudkill over the ballistae, knocking out their wielders. Leilah starts up buffing. Snake takes a cannon. More and more mooks of different types pour out.
: Several arcane archers go after Snake, and Ashra casts Protection from Arrows on him. On the far building, four clerics start up a summoning circle to bring something hardcore through. Snake fires on them, but does not break their concentration; Ethan chimes in with a Neg Ball, but it heals them.
: Another airship appears. Leilah shoots an arrow at it and finds that the arrow sticks, but the party decides it's probably an illusion anyway.
: Mooks appear with barrels of explosives. Ethan takes out one with Magic Missile, but another grabs his barrel.
: One of the powerful types grabs one of the party's ziplines and swings himself up under the ship. He is holding a FFFF bomb. Snake says this one is his. Two enemies begin to levitate up towards the ship; Ashra mind blasts them as soon as they are within range, and they fall to their deaths. The party takes some arrow hits.
: The strong winds move the Cloudkill out of the building it was taking out. Snake swings down on a zipline, takes out his heavy pistol, shouts "Get the hell off MY SHIP!" and shoots the man in the head. He falls, detonating the bomb and taking out the other mooks near him. Snake shadowjumps into the building, grabs a ballista and shadowjumps with it, then shoots another enemy from behind with the ballista. Everyone is duly impressed.
: The summon goes through, and a gargoyle takes flight. A couple of wizards fireball the ship to not much effect. One of the summoners was apparently an archmage, and hits Ashra with Arcane Fire. She is the only one standing, as everyone else has been going prone, and is hit with a Flame Strike from one of the clerics. It knocks her unconscious.
: The gargoyle makes it to the ship. It takes swipes at Ethan, Zaphodel, and Leilah, knocking Ethan and Leilah off the ship. Ethan catches hold of a zipline and tags Leilah with Feather Fall, saving her. Zaphodel acts on her gambits and casts Heal on Ashra, who pulls out her spellbook and with a little help from Snake casts Shatter on the gargoyle. Without that kind of help, however, she won't be able to beat its SR again.
: Leilah starts taking out mooks left and right with the Life-Suture. It's pretty awesome.
: Ashra stands in front of Zaph, hoping to take the hit for her as Zaphodel is still injured. The gargoyle does attack only her, snapping her left leg. She remains standing, levitating above the ground, and tosses a Magic Missile from her wand at the mook with the barrel, though she does not kill him.
: Ethan, dangling from a zipline, looks over to the glowing golden god and asks her for a bit of help. The quick game of tether-mage doesn't go entirely as planned; Ethan is pushed in the general direction but ends up having to grab the other side's zipline. He pulls himself up and catches Ashra's spellbook.
: Mister Bait Snugglesworth emerges in Vishnu's mech and says he's tired of not being a part of this fight. He flies off towards the ground and takes out one of the two men holding barrels with the magic missile arm. The barrel begins to fall.
: At the same time, the gargoyle takes another swipe at everyone, knocking Ashra off the ship. She catches herself with levitation halfway to the ground. Leilah casts Fly on herself and starts heading up towards the ship, which is flying towards the cleric because of the storm winds.
: Snake, seeing the barrel, shadowjumps to catch it. He sees the man next to him with a flint and tinder, about to light it. "Catch," he says, tossing one barrel at another.
: There is a spark.
: Ka-boom.
: Most of the mooks die as the river floods the bank which has now been destroyed by the action of the fault line. Snake is killed instantly. Luckily all the party members who weren't on the ship were levitating or flying; Snugglesworth takes off. Party opinion ranges from "that was awesome" to "that was idiotic" to "that was awesome and idiotic" to "wasn't this kind of like an incident I remember from a mansion" to "Oh god I'm on both sides of this fight now".
: Ethan gets off a Shatter from the spellbook, hurting the gargoyle more. Despite its ability to steal life from its enemies, it's looking close to done now.
: Ashra tries to cast Arcane Fire at a cleric, but misses wildly. She shouts at them, hoping to draw fire towards herself and her SR, away from Ethan and his vulnerability to Flame Strike. Snugglesworth, however, saves the day, firing the cannon arm at the gargoyle and sending its body tumbling down onto three of the four casters. The fourth is dispatched by Leilah, and the combat is finally over.
: The party lands the ship and regroups. They fling open the door to one of the warehouses. The front is full of terrified processors, the back an enormous safe. Ashra tells the mooks that they're the party's bitches now, then Vishnu comes to outdo her on the scariness front. He offers them 1.5 times what Marcus was paying them, with the added incentive of not being immediately sent outside to die in the cold.
: Then he turns his attention and ire to the party. He has to admit, they did get the place taken over, but the river isn't exactly where it's supposed to be, they destroyed the mess hall, and he's going to have to import food. After insulting and praising them for several minutes, he tells them to get the goddamn safe open while he and the mooks check the river.
: The party regards the safe. Zaph heals Ashra's leg. The safe has dials which, from outside to inside, have options as follows:
:*ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
:*123456789
:*Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet
:*Red Green Black Blue White (the colors of dragons)
:*Gold Silver Bronze Brass Copper (the colors of the mythical good-aligned dragons)
: Leilah shares some lines from her dream which may be important: The beginning of the end, The end of time and space, The beginning of eternity, And an end to every place."
: Marcus had discussed the end of the world when interviewed via Speak with Dead, and this certainly sounds like the end of the world. Ashra asks what date the Injustinia is on: May 5th. Since that is 5/5, she guesses that the number is "5". She stares at the lines for a few more minutes and announces that the answer is "E": the first letter in "end", final letter in "time" and "space", first letter in "eternity, and the final letter in "place".
: E5? This isn't chess notation, is it? Aw fuck. Some chess puzzles are considered, but nothing comes of it.
: She guesses that the color is blue, as that's the color of infinity apparently. Ethan guesses that the normal dragon color is black because black dragons have been involved in everything with Marcus. The answer to the good-aligned dragon puzzle is more difficult. A Snake suggests that the answer is gold because Marcus loves gold. Ethan says that the metal equipment needed for dealing with Absynthium Orientalis is silver. Ashra starts playing with anagrams of "Saviors of the Revolution" and notes that 'silver' is the only one to fit. Leilah asks Anahita and confirms that "silver" is correct but "blue" is not.
: Back to the drawing board on the colors. Ashra points out that "Violet" is the only one which has all its letters in "Saviors of the Revolution," while Ethan notes that "indigo" is what he'd pick because no one ever thinks of indigo. They decide to go with violet.
: The solution they're going to try is e 5 violet black silver. This is similar to a word for the creation of golems; the party discusses how boned they are if they actually face a golem. Well, at least Ethan won't be able to see it.
: It also doesn't work. Indigo also fails; Leilah changes the "E" to "F" as a test and the sound of the safe refusing to open is the same.
: Leilah and Ethan discuss possible other solutions while Ashra wanders off to deal with some accounting business. Then she comes back, looks at the solutions, and gets a funny look in her eye.
: "Try 'E 5 red black silver," she says.
: Click.
: The safe is open, untrapped, and its contents are unharmed. As everyone stares greedily at the contents, Ethan asks Ashra how the hell she managed that.
: Short answer: she's a mindflayer. Long answer: E for Ethan of Malvont. 5 not for the Injustinia, but for May, the first day of which was Ethan's death date. Black for the color of the dragon used, and silver for betrayal (selling someone for pieces of silver). Together it makes nearly a sentence: at least, everything has a double meaning. Of the available colors, only red has a second, homophonic meaning as "read", which seemed appropriate for Ethan, though Ashra cannot quite parse it. "Ethan of Malvont, in May, read?, black dragon, betrayed."
: Ethan says how thoroughly creeped out he is that Marcus was using him as a password for random things. Ashra reflects that really, "red" could have meant "the Scarlet Brotherhood", too. "The Scarlet Brotherhood betrayed (me about?) Ethan of Malvont in May with a black dragon," perhaps.
: The party surveys their winnings. They've picked up a lot of weapons and armor from the mooks, as well as receiving a lot of everything they'll need to make some great Wolves' Milk. They also have a lot of hits of The Green Liquid. Oh, and they're actually going to be rich for once.
: Time to move on to stage two.
===Episode Eight: On the Internet===
This is for the two-week hiatus while Ashra is on Spring Break and the DM is doing his Quals. Let's try this like a play-by-post thing.
Setting: still at the ruined camp at Ulgrof's Pass. Right after we opened the safe.
Overarching Goals:
Complete the (Re)Learn How to make Drugs minigame
Gather the party for the Five Fight
Start gathering info on the Five.
/begin [Leilah]
*Leiah: So, we need to get down to Point North Docks, destroy that, then raid the South City Secrets districts in Baldur. Meanwhile, I've thought up a list of spells that we might find in the Baldur library that will be a great help during our fight with the Five, and as Ethan has helpfully reminded me, we need to get hard current intel on the Axiomates. For that, I'm going to spend the transit time asking my goddess about them and scrying on them. But to scry, I need a holy water font.
*K religion 28/Ask the DM: How much is it to install a 100 gp holy water font on the JK 3's map table? Can Vishnu's team do it at the processing camp at Ulgrof's Pass? Can we get it cheaper/easier if it is a seperate installation?
*Bardic Knowledge 31: Point North. Pirate King? Cannon resupply? Trading Partners? Reason for existing so deep in the godsforsaken north?
*To Ethan: "Hey, didn't Marcus usually caravan drugs through Goneril City, shen ship it by boat from Point Farpoint Down to Baldur? How does Point North factor into his drug network? Oh, and when we leave, you and me are going to start scrying on the Axiomates. Calm the fuck down, get Misdirection and Nondetections from Ashra's spelbook so they don't see who is scying on them, and remember that acting calm now measn a better chance for defeating them later. Fab D can join us later, if he ever does."
*To Ashra: "I agree with spending time at a library. I have some spells I want to find copies of for the Fight."
:: //Ignore this
:: [Leilah will decide wether to say this after a reply from the DM regarding Holy Water Fonts.]
:: Leilah to Vishnu: "Lord Vishnu, sir? I was wondering if we could trouble you to install a holy water font in the Jade Kracken 3 before we leave for Point North Docks. This will double the scrying capabilities of the crew by allowing divine casters to use the Map Table as a focus, thus allowing us to be that much more prepared when it comes to attack your suggested targets."
::Y/N questions to be asked to Anahita. Feel free to add suggestions, just sign them, prioritize them, and add "gambits" on questions you might ask.
: 3 Yes/No questions per day, as Commune No lying, unless major secrecy is going on.
::Tier 1
:::How many Axiomates are in existence currently?
:::Do the Axiomates merely guard the Portfolio/divinity of Halal, or are they empowered by that divinity?
::::Do the Axiomates count as demigods?
:::Are any one of the Axiomates isolated from the rest of the Axioamates by physical or mental communication for more than 2 minutes once or more per week?
:::Are the Axiomates Great Wyrm dragons, +/- an age category?
:::Do they act as a team?
: Is Ethan of Malvont currently animating his original body?
::Tier 2
:::Are there any former Axiomates?
:::In their lair, is there a body of water deep enough to hide an Axiomate?
:::Do they have a lair in which they spend much of their time?
:::Is their lair trapped or populated by minions?
::Tier 3+ - Related to other plot aspects, not the Axiomates.
::::Ashra does not know the extent of Anahita's knowledge and predictive abilities, so this may presume more than she can or will answer. Given Anahita was able to confirm dials on Marcus's safe, Ashra is assuming that she has some access to what mortals consider "secret" knowledge. Also, she's assuming there isn't a word limit on these things, though nothing is that long. And these are pretty much all the ones I can think of at the moment, so there's kind of a lot. I don't expect to get through all or even most of these, but when we have timeskips...
:://Ashra's suggestions
:::Is "Checkmate" a code name for the fake Baudin Dommilan?
:::Is Vladomis Primakov a spy for Grax?
:::: if yes -> Is "Checkmate" a code name for Vladomil Primakov?
:::Is there a living spy for Grax currently on the Jade Kracken III?
::::(Wording note: This is to stop getting a false positive from Marcus's body. It excludes Ethan by necessity, but I think he's pretty much clear of suspicion, and you could ask separately if he's a spy if you really wanted.)
:::: if no & hasn't been asked already -> Is "Checkmate" a code name for Vladomil Primakov?
:::Was there ever a portfolio in the Ruins of Eldergrin?
::::(Wording note: Hoping to exclude ancient Eldergrin 'cause who knows what went on there...)
:::Are there illithids currently in Mind's Touch?
::::if yes -> Is there an illithid Elder Brain currently in Mind's Touch?
:::::if no -> Is there an illithid Elder Brain currently on the Prime Material Plane?
::::::if no -> Does an illithid Elder Brain exist on any plane at this point in time?
::::if not already asked -> Is there an illithid Elder Brain currently on the Prime Material Plane?
::::::if no -> Does an illithid Elder Brain exist on any plane at this point in time?
:::Did Grax plan for the illithid Elder Brain to leave the Prime Material Plane?
::::(Wording note: This is better than the wording I had before but I'm still not entirely sure this will get the answer we're looking for. Also not sure if your god can tell us people's intentions. Suggestions to improve this welcomed. ._.;; )
:::Has Marcus Fairlan's corpse lied to the party?
:::: (the answer is almost certainly yes so this may not even be worth it)
:::Is all of Zaphodel of Nyasa the Dutiful's soul currently in her body?
:::Has Zaphodel of Nyasa the Dutiful been actively used as a scrying aid since she was first taken as a thrall by Ashra the Puzzlesolver?
::::(Wording note: What I'm going for here is avoiding a false positive because we had Fab D scry on her. As I understand the whole "scrying aid" shebang, and I can double check with K Arcana if we have to before we ask, only the person who put it on her could activate it, so Fab D's scrying can't have since it didn't use her senses.)
:::Was Zaphodel of Nyasa the Dutiful made into a scrying aid before she entered the possession of Neax Hiss?
::::if no -> Was Zaphodel of Nyasa the Dutiful made into a scrying aid to facilitate spying on Shadowwing, Inc. or it's members specifically?
:::Is all of Ethan of Malvont's soul currently in his body?
::::if no -> Is Ethan of Malvont's soul in the soul net pebble Tyro threw at him in the Ruins of Eldergrin?
:::::if no -> Is Lady Elan's soul in the soul net pebble Tyro threw at Ethan of Malvont in the Ruins of Eldergrin?
::::::if no and maybe with Ethan out of the room -> Has Lady Elan been unmade?
:::Has Ethan of Malvont ever been to the Dark Tower?
::::if yes -> Has Ethan of Malvont ever been to the Dark Tower while alive?
:: //end Ashra's suggestions
:: //Ignore this
/end [Leilah]
/begin [Ashra]
*Ashra: "Zaphodel has prepared two Sendings for the day; while I have a personal message to send within the next few days, both of today's can be used for the party's needs, and she can have three per day after this. If we are going to begin contacting our allies, I suggest we start with those likely to be in or near Baldur City -- perhaps with Claire. After Point North I believe we're headed straight for the city, and while Sending can't give us much, a few words on the situation from an ally may be worth more than all the Goneril propaganda we heard as far as describing the current state there goes."
*To Ethan: "I'll have to see if I ever learned the story about Baldur being possessed by some great creature. If I know it, I'll share as soon as I can figure out how to prestidigitate a light under my chin. (The tentacles are proving a bit of a hindrance in that regard.)
:"Also, whenever you have time to copy from my spellbook, I'll gladly lend it to you."
*To Leilah: "Oh, honey. I don't recall you being around for one of Ethan's full blown ... episodes, but I can tell you now logic can't snap him out of it. Even Suggestion-assisted logic is unlikely to suffice. I'll let Ethan say for himself whether there's enough Calm Emotions in the world to get him to scry on the Axiomates, but I've a few reservations myself about whether Misdirection and the like will suffice to protect us. Depending on how much we can learn from the next few battles, I may be able to scry myself before too awfully long, in which case I'll lend my assistance if we can be reasonably sure it's safe to look.
:: Leilah:
:"We ought to set things up such that we're already making money when we get to the library, so that the weeks we spend there won't be a financial waste. Though as I recall Baldur was once famed for its books, we may have to wait until Malvont, as I doubt those resources remain intact. I'm not sure what we'll need to do to gain admission to the library.
:"The money for your font is in the party's budget unless it's far more than we've predicted, but we may not be able to find the proper technicians until Malvont; there is nothing I'll expect to find intact in Baldur beyond South City Secrets itself. And even that may be damaged, but we won't know until we've scried. In any case, have you investigated whether the water source within the ScryPad could itself be made holy? Holy water won't harm Ethan, and no negative energy clerics need to scry on the table, so I don't think it'll interfere with the other uses if that will serve for the spell."
/end [Ashra]
/begin [Leilah
Re: scrying, Ethan: "Thank you kindly for that info." /facepalm. *groans "Why couldn't things have gone better in Gonerill City? OK, we'll stick with you and my divine connection for now. Fab D a (distant and desperate) second choice."
Re: ScryTable: I've asked the DM weeks ago and he still hasn't given me an aswer. At this point, I might just keep casting Bless Water on the ScyTable until it does something. In fact, over the travel time, I think that is exactly what I will do.
/end [Leilah]
/begin [Ethan]
*To Leilah: "It's okay. I'm used to being sent far, far away while people do dragon-related. Things. That might make me go a little funny in the head. So if you want to scry on those motherfucking fuckers, I'll just...go over here...and daydream...a lot...Oh! And Shiolay knows how to scry. You know, if you want to scry on your scrying so you can scry while you scry. That's the look that means 'Ethan, you're already going crazy', isn't it. That aside, I'm guessing the advantage of Point North is that it's at the fuck-ass end of nowhere. So, if you're trying to quietly move a lot of drugs, pushing it down the coast through pirate territory is probably advantageous in terms of making it confusing as fuck to track you down legally. There might be another reason, but I kind of suspect convenience. Your Bardic Knowledge may turn up something more specific."
*To Ashra: "Let me know when you want me to start up the Making Wolves' Milk for Fun and Profit in Twelve Easy Steps thing. Also, I'll copy from your spellbook whenever; I expect I'll have more than enough free time. I am also excited for scary story times. If you could somehow swing a knowledge:history on that letter, too, that would be pretty ace."
*To Marcus: "FUCK YOU. Hey, I feel better now!"
/end [Ethan]
/begin [Ashra]
*"When Vishnu returns, we may want to find a way to ... delicately inquire if any parts of Snake survived the explosion, since the bitches have been dredging the lake and might have found him. If it will fall on our shoulders to bring him back to life, a Resurrection is significantly cheaper than a True Resurrection. Unfortunately I'm not sure how to tell bloody chunks of Snake from bloody chunks of anyone else..."
*To Leilah: "Much as I dislike and distrust him, Fab Dick's scrying skills are superior; there will be some time yet before I have access to those spells. His assistance may prove useful. And if they are able to see who scries on them and take some vengeance, better him than me. As for the water-blessing, do you have five pounds of powdered silver? If you think it's likely to work, we can arrange for the expense once or even twice without much trouble, but we still have to find it, and repeated casts will become prohibitively expensive."
*To Ethan: "I was hoping to begin when we are settling in to produce the drug in transit, either on the way to Point North or back down to Baldur. If it comes easily to me I can then assist you with the rest of the processing. I will see what I know about the letter as well. ...Perhaps Sam and Zaph can conjure vegan s'mores. On another topic, have you ever tried speaking to that staff? I know it has not detected as sentient, but it might be worth seeing if it is enchanted to reply to anything. Like that mirror in the Nautilus ... though it would probably be a bad idea to look at it in a mirror. However, did anyone ever look at your stone in a mirror? It seems an obvious thing to try, but I can't remember anyone doing so."
*To DM: My knowledge (history) is +16; I don't know that you're accepting rolls here so I won't make them unless you say you are, but I want to try for:
**What does "temples or eminences of the city were possessed by some terrible creature" in CdBP refer to?
**Anything I know from other sources/my own knowledge about the political scene/events described in CdBP, especially the letter from the beginning.
/end [Ashra]
/begin [Ethan]
*To Ashra: "I've looked at the pebble in the mirror and it has one light in it -- like the lights we saw in the lantern, only just one of them. I've never tried talking to the staff. Weird things happen when I talk to inanimate objects sometimes, I guess, so it's worth a shot. I mean, what would I say? 'I'd like to disable the anti-theft mechanism' in Infernal?"
*"Also, something occurred to me: at one point we were trying to figure out if anyone would want to engineer a machine of dargon destruction. Freaky as it is to consider, I'm willing to believe that someone might have at least capitalized on it, though I don't know how anyone could have predicted it...anyway. If there's a portfolio hidden behind a lot of lightning and a lot of dragons, I could see someone figuring that a would-be psycho dragon killer might eventually be an asset rather than a hindrance, if raised correctly. And, I must admit, if Grax is behind that, he's played us very neatly. Separate the dragon killer from all the help he's ever known, deny him resources by making him super-wanted, and otherwise force him into a corner where he has no choice but to grow stronger and keep participating in the Revolution or die trying. Then the Saviors get absolutely owned in the face and someone with all the information a wannabe dragonslayer would ever need offers the only outside non-fellow-adventurer aid said dragonslayer has seen in years. Sit back and wait. Grax has used the tactic of 'ooh look at me I'm so far away and can't possibly be involved' before: he was running around making speeches or something when I -- that happened, and he was twiddling his thumbs in Landover while Baldur City kind of imploded, if CdBP is to be believed. He might be doing something like that again. I don't want to rule him out as an opponent or as a resource, since he certainly has information coming from somewhere. Perhaps that druid with the eagle-crow is being useful to him. I don't know why, but I think the Dark Tower might tell us something. Anything. Even if it is only how to puppeteer Grax's entire army into taking on the Axiomates while I -- I won't go off on that crazy tangent, shall I?"
/end [Ethan]
/begin [Ashra]
*To Ethan: "I was thinking I could try talking to it in Illithid; it is an illithid's staff, and that worked in another relic of Xenteroth if I recall correctly. We could try all our various languages, I suppose; it's not like we won't have time. I was hoping 'What are you?' or some such would bring results, but it does seem unlike Xenteroth to include a manual with usage tutorials. We could also try reading it Xenteroth's Number and the code that the wall was spouting. ...Though I hope none of those will turn out to be the 'the world is exploding please destroy everything' switch. We should avoid Xenteroth's Number with the last number used off by one, since that blew up the fate room, but hopefully he doesn't need more than one such trigger. Hopefully other things will be safe, and the worst risk will be looking like fools talking to a staff.
*"That is ... very plausible. I suspect you had some strange talent at school: if the memories Claire retrieved were correct, you were in the Macavian school with the sorcerers. But if you were classified as a sorcerer, there would be no reason for you to try to learn wizardry. If we take the newest version of your memories to be correct, then I suspect you possessed some other strange talent to earn you a place there. Perhaps whatever you were was able to tip someone off that you would make a good deathlock. Most people probably would not know what predisposes a person to crawl out of hell, but anyone with the resources and plots to actually engineer such a creation would probably have a great deal of forbidden knowledge.
*"It is, however, strange that Grax or any other would go to such trouble simply for the Portfolio. I do not mean to insult the power of a demigod (even one of ... lightning...) but surely it would be far easier to manipulate a group of extant heroes. The crew of the Rusted Feather, or some such. I do not know for sure, but if the Portfolio is the final goal then this all is a Rube Goldberg conspiracy of epic proportions. Awesome though it would be to watch something like that unfold successfully, I hope that Grax would not ruin his own people just for that. That someone took advantage of you after the fact, or had you as a side project, I would believe, or that you played some other important roles along the way to make it all worth it.
*"I am not sure how much Grax knows of the portfolio's location. There are few people I'd trust to keep a secret from Grax, but he is definitely one of them. And he warned that a portfolio was missing in his letter to Marcus -- but I wonder how trusted a lieutenant Marcus truly was. He thought he would be killed for something he had done or intended to do. While he may have been easily manipulated enough to serve Grax's needs perfectly, he probably would not have been honestly given the most secret of information, such as about portfolios. Then again, perhaps he was higher-ranking than he seemed.
*"I too want to return to the Dark Tower. I think the Mother wants me to, as she placed that flag in my memory; if I were misremembering, I would be less sure of the memory because it is illogical, and if she wanted to remove entirely any information I had gathered for her, she would have done a far cleaner job of it. And there are those gears. But I feel I should ask - have you thought of how we'll handle your approach to the tower considering your memory issues, Ethan? I can carry you over my shoulder for a good while, but not through battles and traps, and in any case I do not want you to be destroyed."
/end [Ashra]
/begin [Ethan]
*"If I have any memories of the Dark Tower, they're news to me. King's Road is a mess in my mind -- I have lots of memories of it from after I was dead, and I have that weird memory-glitch that seems to be protecting me, but I can't be certain. I didn't really know anything about the Dark Tower before this. If I saw it while I was traveling on King's Road with Baudin, I've forgotten. I had a lot on my mind then. If it's bad enough to kill me, I'll usually panic and run before I get close enough. It's an embarassing method of self-preservation, but it does work."
/end [Ethan]
/begin[Leilah]
Re: Ashra / Holy Water "Oh. Right. Material components. I forgot that we don't have a stockboard of magical components available. No, I don't. Mfph. Accordng to standard protocol, Holy Water is sold to the public at cost, impliying that one may see results after 4 castings of Bless Water. Excluding cost overruns for the 'font' part."
Re: Ashra / Fab D: "Alright, if we have to make use of him, make sure to keep more than 10 feet away from him when scrying. Barring divine vision, a counter Detect Scrying should only reveal the target and the 10 ft around him. Also, clear off anything incriminating from the table when he scrys. Oh, and I've decided to drop the Detect Scrying I've had up for the past couple of weeks."
Re: Ethan / Shiolay: "Right, because he carried around that holy font in the temple of the raptorans so he could use it as a focus scy on anything. Unless he pisses Holy Water, Shiolay isn't going to help get some divine casting scrying when he joins that party. For now, any divine scrying he does will have to come to use second hand, assuming that he has a holy water font he can access."
Re: Ethan: Deathlock creation theory: "It strikes me as a far shot to make a rare and inherently unstable (and historically ineffective) undead caster, sensetize him properly, and sit back with the expectation that he would mature into a credible threat. Certainly not a Xanantos Gambit. My mind switches betwean thinking that it's too complicated to ever work, or that is precisly what he is depending upon to make it work. At which point you need a SHUT UP slap to the face. Maybe some of what has happened recently is a Xanantos Roulette by someone in Baldur after you started drawing attention, or maybe even an last-minute Indy Ploy by Ganth. I serioulsy doubt that anyone would create a deathlock as an anti-dragon inevitable as anything other than a lark, or as part of a legion-sized test group."
Re: Ethan / Spellbook copying: "Oh, I have some good ones for you. False Life, Heroism, Haste, Slow, Shield, followed by Ray of Enfeeblement, Ray of Exhaustion, and Dispel Magic. I don't know how much ink or spellbook space you have."
Re: Snakes Parts: "*Sigh. Find the Path for his closest physical remains? IF anything survived unpulverized, uncarbonized, unscattered, or uneaten."
Re: Dark Tower "Alright since everyone seems to like this idea, I'll go along. Typical enemies? Traps, epic magical fuckery traps, mooks, cannons, dragons, devils? Just outside the borders of what several months ago was one of the major concentrations of Baldur troops? Am I getting this right?"
To Party: "It seems like most of us are not walking around with a daily regime of protective hr/lvl spells. Why is this? Didn't your mothers teach you better?"
/end[Leilah]
/begin [Ashra]
*To Leilah in re holy water: "I suppose some of it would depend on whether the scry table recirculates the water, and whether it is the font or the water itself that matters. If blessing a part of the scry table will suffice and will not interfere with its other uses, any place on our itinerary where we can buy twenty-five pounds of silver may also be able to arrange for the font, and I'd prefer to spend our money once and have something likely to work in the long term."
*To Leilah and Ethan in re spellbook copying: "The previous owner of my second-to-fourth level spellbook banned Conjuration and Necromancy, so I do not have False Life or Ray of Exhaustion for Ethan to copy. Ray of Enfeeblement I have, as one of my spellbooks contains all first level spells. All the others are within my books and available to you."
*To Leilah in re Dark Tower: "The tower is to the north of Landover. The alteration of my memories may have obscured its exact location from me, but The Map may contain a marker for it, and in any case I think we can find it. I do not know the condition of the roads near Baldur; if there is general unrest in the area, there may be ruffians about. I believe I have described its contents before. The first room contains only twelve or thirteen tapestries displaying a battle of orcs against a great enemy which they defeat using Vengeful Eye of God. The final tapestry in the sequence is those gears again. The next room is a water trap which one defeats by adding an "S" to the "IX" written on the wall. The ceiling is an illusion; climbing up, one finds the final chamber with its altar of filth. At the time I was last there, there was a black dragon, but I killed it, and I do not know if it has been replaced. My friends and I explored the entire place when I was fifteen and could not yet hover. I am not sure if I even knew how to mind blast at the time. Nothing there now which was there then will prove any great threat to us ... but I cannot say what may have been modified between now and then."
*To Leilah in re buffs: "First of all, do not speak so lightly of my mother. As for your question about the protective spells, many of them are illegal in most civilized places in the Northern Continent. Even Mage Armor was illegal in republican Baldur, as I recall. We rather like to act civilized. While we are far from such areas, however, you may have a point given the likelihood of ambush."
/end [Ashra]
/begin [Ethan]
*To Leilah: "Because I have a heavily limited spell list and never know what spells I'll be able to cast and what I can't. I don't even know if I can cast the transmutation buffs because I've never tried. Also, it is only because I have survived that I consider it at all. I shouldn't have. Also, my mother rolled her eyes and looked in the other direction while I got hooked on Wolves' Milk and then died. Fuck, my head..."
/end [Ethan]
/begin [Leilah]
"I have 4 non-domain 4th level spell slots. For me, Detect Scrying (and Sending) is a 4th level spell. You still want to keep Zaph as the Send-box? Also, I've discovered a potential flaw in my plan. Detect Scrying is a 40 ft emanation. I need line of sight to a target of a Scry. *facepalm I needed to keep you guys in my sight to check scrying. No wonder I missed Fab D's search for Mister Gucci. Also, any questions you think are relevant? See my first post for a list."
/end [Leilah]
/begin [Ashra]
"I think it better to preserve your anonymity as much as possible, especially as we should have more than enough Sendings from Zaph. The flaw in your detect scrying is ... significant. When I gain access to fourth level spells, I will have two such non-illusion spells each day, and I do have it in my spellbook; while it takes one of my two slots to keep it cast, it might be worth it as Zaphodel will nearly always be within the spell's range. Theoretically she could cast it, but her 'awareness' that someone is scrying on her may not do anyone any good, as I doubt she could relay such information to me. I assume your notes on questions are for later development, as a few of the questions cannot be answered by yes or no in their current state. I have a few questions of my own, but they address other concerns and are therefore secondary. I shall suggest, however, that while our other theories and areas of interest may need to be set aside for the moment, you may want to consider asking about other threats related to the battle besides the beasts themselves."
/end [Ashra]
/begin [DUNGEON MASTER] 
"So you're going to Point North. It's a pretty cool town, and not only because it's freezing. You'll be back in a somewhat open economy for the first time this season, so here are a few things you might want to know."
FOR SALE:
*Boots of the Winterlands-- 2,300 GAD. Walk on snow or slippery ice at full speed and without leaving prints, and have a permanent endure elements versus cold on whenever you're wearing them. New.
*Lightning Greaves-- 5,500 GAD. These magical boots increse your base land speed by +10, and give a +2 enhancement bonus to inititive. New.
*Boots of Sprinting-- 5,500 GAD. These magical boots increse your base land speed by +10, and, one move action per day, the bonus increases to +30. Used.
*Lucky Rabbit's Foot-- 3,500 GAD. Wearer (neck slot) gains +1 luck reroll per day (for herself, unless she also has the Good Karma feat).
*Circlet of Blasting, Minor-- 6,480 GAD. Wearer gains the ability to blast searing light for 3d8 points of damage once per day. Activates as a free action.
*Cloak of Resistance +2-- 3,910 GAD. Provides a +2 resistance bonus on saves.
*Elixir of (Ice, Acid, Lightning) Breath-- 1,040, 1,120, 1,190 GAD, respectively-- drinker gains, for one encounter, 3 breaths of the relevant element targeting a single creature up to 25 ft away, dealing 4d6 damage. Use is a standard action.
*Spell: Scrapnel Dodge-- Level Zero Arcane, Transmutation-- 1,000 GAD into the spellbook. Casting time: standard action. duration: 1 minute / level. A single touched subject gains a +1 dodge bonus to saves against bombs, guns, and cannons, and DR 5 against the same.
OPEN BOUNTIES:
*BAUDIN DOMMILAN: Dead or Alive. Enemy of the people. 10,000 GAD + 30,000 citizens match + property.
**Human revolutionary Baudin Dommilan ordered an attack on Point North last year, causing the death of 1,311 legionaries and 730 civilians, including 230 women and 46 children.
*MARCUS FAIRLAN: Dead or Alive. Drug trafficking, money laundering, extortion, corruption, treason. 10,000 GAD.
**Human Fairlan is involved in the smuggling of drugs to support the enemy war effort.
*JANADAN VISHNU: Dead or Alive. Drug trafficking, money laundering, extortion. 10,000 GAD
**Gnome Halfing Vishnu is involved in the illegal production and transportation of drugs and weapons.
*WHITE DRAGON: Dead. Illegal species. 10,000 GAD
**Sixty miles north a white dragon of at least Young Adult age has made a nest, terrorizing outgoing ships.
*BRUTUS FAIRLAN: Dead or Alive. Drug trafficking, false imprisonment, murder. 8,000 GAD.
**Human Brutus kidnapped and murdered Gloris Tabbernaccle, a halfling maid, in 1439 in a drug related insident.
*JACKIL THE JACKAL: Dead. Murder, criminal conspiracy (Scarlet Brotherhood) 8,000 GAD.
**Dreadlocked dwarf responcible for leading gang with 36 counts of murder, 4 acts of terrorism, cannibalism, rape and extortion.
*BLACKGUARD OF THE DOME: Dead or Alive. Murder, torture, black magic. 8,000 GAD
**Identity unknown, this half-elf man has black hair and wears black leather armor, and kidnaps young people from the dome for the purposes of performing black magic. Body markings suggest possible Scarlet Brotherhood.
*HAYWARD SISNER-IL: Dead or Alive. Drug trafficking, murder, impersonating a soldier. 7,000 GAD
**Hill Giant enforcer for the Fairlans, has killed 12 civillian mercinaries and 4 soldiers.
*SARAHIS OF NYASA: Dead or Alive. Treason. 5,000 GAD.
**Southern aasimar leader of illegal cult of Cuthbert.
*GIBBERING MOUTHER: Dead. Illegal species. 4,000 GAD
**There is a gibbering mouther interfering with the proper function of the last winterwyrm tunnel.
*LOWDY THE DISAPPEARING: Dead or Alive. Drug trafficking, murder, extortion. 2,500 GAD
**Halfling wiseguy for the Fairlans, accomplished assassin.
*EDVARD KEVIL: Dead or Alive. Drug trafficking, illegal weapons. 2,500 GAD
**Hobgoblin engineer known to posess an illegal arcenal of firearms for the drug trade.
*ANYONE BEARING GUNPOWDER OF ANY KIND: Dead or Alive, as posted, 500 GAD.
**Any amount is actionable. Reward doubled for shell-type bombs or rigging. Deadly force authorized only in response to deadly force.
*ANYONE CARRYING WOLVES MILK OR GREEN LIQUID: Dead or Alive, as posted, 250 GAD
**An actionable amount consists of two or more doses. Deadly force authorized only in response to deadly force.
/begin[Ethan]
*...treason, you say. Baudin (or, more likely, Fauxdin) is simply an enemy of the people, but Marcus Fairlan made it all the way up to treason, and we have some other Nyasan "traitor" as well. Ashra, Leilah, what say we throw down some knowledge rolls and/or pick up some local rumors about why someone from Baldur and someone from Nyasa would be wanted specifically on charges of treason in Goneril?
**Sub-witterings on same: we'll want to know what, specifically, Goneril terms as treason. Does petit treason exist in Goneril? That kind of thing.
*Do we have any further use for Marcus's corpse? Does he even respond to SwD any more? Because as much as I enjoy breaking his ribs posthumously, sometimes we must set aside the crazy in favor of practicality...
/end[Ethan]
/begin [Ashra]
On finances:
*Is this a place where there's interest in the mundane weapons and armor we've got? The main things to unload are longbow x 18, dagger x 41, and human chainmail x 13. Would we be able to sell that here? What kind of prices would we be looking at?
*Also, is this economy big enough that there'd be interest in the silver +1 plantbane greatsword at anything close to what it's technically "worth"? That sounds from the description like it could be useful with the absynthium etc -- is it an inherently sketchy-sounding weapon?
*We will want to do Find the Path or something similar to Snake's remains before we leave Ulgrof's Pass. The difference between a Resurrection and a True Resurrection is a matter of some 15,000 gold that I'd rather not spend and we may not even have on hand. We'll still need to find 10,000 for the diamond, but that should be doable what with the drug money. Leilah, won't you get seventh level spells at level 15? If we keep the relevant chunk Gentle Reposed and acquire the diamond between now and then, you could raise him and we wouldn't have to find an outside cleric.
*In the case of the greaves, "lightning" is just an expression, correct?
On bounties:
*Given the low price on the head of the Nyasan compared to Baudin's, "enemy of the people" may be a greater designation than traitor.
*I am so glad not to see Ethan's or my name on that list. (Seriously, people, I swear I like the Northern Continent in one piece!) I do not know how we go about ascertaining what bounties are on whom where, but we may need to investigate again before reaching Baldur. Grax et all may be on the run, but I doubt everything has entirely resolved itself there, and if too many people have bought into the fiction that Ethan seeks to blow up the entire Northern Continent, there could be trouble.
*We could try Speak with Dead again to test Marcus's body; there is no material component, and enough time has passed. I am unsure as to whether the increasing terseness of his answers was due to his corpse or to the nature of our questions. We should also consider the security of whoever collects, and whether or not it is worth it to us to retain his body so that no one else could raise it. He is long past the range of Raise Dead for any but the most powerful clerics, I believe, but someone could certainly resurrect him from his body, and that is still easier and cheaper. Still, given the reasons these people have to want him dead and the fact that most of his allies are on the run, it is quite likely that his body will be destroyed or kept for the same reason by the one offering the bounty, so this is not too great of a concern.
*Vishnu's presence on the list will affect our approach. We should consider approaching from the river, and looking for somewhere discreet to park where not too many questions will be asked. We should probably also not stay too long. Baldur shenanigans aside, there is danger to Vishnu and by extension to us. I do not know to what extent this "Baudin" is associated with the Toggenburg or with Shadowwing, but even as Bona Fortuna, we run some risk of being recognized as "that company run by the illithid and the dead guy" and getting associated without him.
*We may have to do the raid without air support, but given the possibility of collateral damage from the cannon strikes, air support was probably a bad idea anyway.
*The designation of treason interests me as well. I am certainly willing to collaborate on knowledge rolls, but the only immediately relevant skill I have is knowledge (history).
*I am also interested by the implication that at least one Scarlet Brotherhood member has been associated with a name.
*That's a pretty fucking big bounty. Fauxdin must have messed these people up a lot. I wish I'd managed to tackle him before he ran away. Or that a fall off a three-story tower had killed him... Not that we could have received that bounty anyway from an illithid who'd only been in his shell, but still.
/end [Ashra]
/begin[Ethan]
*WHITE DRAGON: Dead. Illegal species. 10000 GAD
**Sixty miles north a white dragon of at least Young Adult age has made a nest, terrorizing outgoing ships.
*GUYS GUYS GUYS GUYS GUYS YES (I'm sure you all called that.)
*I'm kind of curious about this blackguard, too, but in a more "professional interest" kind of way than "HE MUST BE STOPPED", though depending on what he does, I might start inclining towards the latter.
*Traitor does seem to be a very loose designation, so that's probably less interesting than it initially seems. Perhaps the Baudin who ordered an attack on Point North was the one who had Nyasan backing and was looking for Ravinia...?
/end[Ethan]
/begin[Ashra]
*Well, it would be a lie if I pretended my immediate response to reading that was not to facepalm and say "There goes an afternoon." But I am not resentful of the venture; we will hopefully be permitted to retain the beast's hide, and also I am hoping that nest means hoard means treasure. Let us try to be efficient about it, however.
*The blackguard sounds interesting, but I am not sure to what extent I want to spend time in the city. While our passes will assist us, the more we have to set aside our weapons, the less comfortable I am. Also we have two clerics, and those aren't the most popular around here. Also a thrall, though wrapping her face in a tacitus and having her stand by Leilah will hopefully make her seem not too out of it.
*Perhaps. I am trying to think of what he stood to gain from it. And that does not tell us whether that Baudin, if it was the same one, was Fauxdin or not...
*Miss PhD, can we get the rundown on gibbering mouthers so we can tell if it is worth going after?
*The dwarf we killed had dreadlocks. He is also currently bald at the bottom of a frozen lake. I wonder if he is the one they meant. We cannot collect either way, but it would interest me. Perhaps the name was given to him. And if that was the leader of the Scarlet Brotherhood, I wonder who has succeeded him.
*We will have to smuggle our goods, clearly -- the Absynthium is doubtless illegal, and we also have a significant quantity of the Green Liquid to hide. At the moment we have no Wolves' Milk, at least not in party loot. I do not know yet how we will accomplish this. Hopefully the ship is set up to facilitate smuggling, though I believe we are less liable to search due to our pass. Still, if they expect us to declare our goods, we risk discovery. Similarly, the gunpowder will prove a liability. If any of the main party tend to carry bombs, we should expect not to have them with us for our ventures up here. Thankfully Ulfgar is not with us, and Oldglor seems content to enjoy his nap. Fab D may be a general liability, however.
/end [Ashra]
/begin[Ethan]
*Efficiency means killing it faster means I spend more time covered in its blood and giggling. I can do efficient.
*I'm not sure how much time we'd need to spend in the city/dome looking for the blackguard. I mean, given how he appears to operate, we might do best trying to figure out exactly what they mean by "young people" and how the kidnapping functions -- spirited away? Visibly abducted? Lured? Any and all of the above? Unless we accidentally run into this guy, our only shot at finding him is probably going to be to use one of us as bait or something ridonkulous like that. (It's such a long shot, but it would be so fucking cool if we actually pulled that off.)
*I kind of um have a ton of Wolves' Milk. We should look into the smuggling capabilities of the JKIII. Like. A lot.
/end[Ethan]
/begin [Ashra]
*We should also try to be efficient about finding it. If that adventure will get a day to itself, perhaps Leilah could provide a Find the Path. We should also consider where we want to leave the ship and how we intend to travel (unless you think we should engage with the dragon in the ship.)
*I had thought of that as well... it's very classic. Somehow it seems unlikely to work, but I agree it would be awesome if it did. It might be worth trying just for how awesome it would be. Our best bet for bait would probably be either you (as you are I believe the best actor among us, and also by far the most attractive) or me in disguise (as I am the best able to defend myself alone and unarmed if necessary, and could appear whatever age we needed.)
*... Of course you do. Leilah and I had been debating smuggling techniques on the Wave; I have been advocating the Bag of Holding (which would then be carried by one of us, and searching our personal belongings would be excessive when they're technically not allowed to search us at all...) while she is convinced you can cast Rope Trick from my spellbook and hide everything up there while the ship is being searched, should it be searched. We should ask Vishnu what smuggling mechanisms are built into the ship. I remember there not being too many when we thought we had to hide ourselves from those people with the mirror, but that was for people, not drugs.
/end [Ashra]
/begin [Leilah]
OK wow things are awesome over here.
Ethan:
* From personal knowledge, it's likely that the aasimar is an example of 'petit treason'. Treat it as a splinter sect of Fauln Gong. Or maybe the aasimar converted. Both Baudin and Sarahis can be double checked by asking the local police.
* I'm split betwean the dragon or taking on a group of the local criminals. Dragon is likely doable, with terrain hazards (snow, ice, sleet, burrows, ect) being the main source of time. Taking a suitable group (Marcus's gang or the SB) might be simpler, but tactically more difficult. If we go balls to the wall and cram two combat encounters in 9x09, shall we make a save point?
* This decay in the corpse's reaction in unknown to me. We will have to see if it responds at all this time. I'll ignore potential Xanantos/Indy Ploy's to resurrect Fairlain's body and vote for dumping him in the city for a reward. But first, check if we can get some affidavit of death, so we can collect on any bounties in Baldur/Malvont later.
* The best idea I have for hiding our illegal cargo in case of a 'ceremonial' search by customs is you casting Rope Trick and stashing the drugs (and maybe Vishnu) up there. 13 hours of hiding that will need a True Sight to break for a 2nd level spell.
*Also, while not 100 % convinced you can cast it, Rope Trick is the least visible way of hiding all that loot.
Ashra:
* Oops. I think Find the Path will not help us locate any remains. We need Discern Location, 8th level spell.
* Gibbering Mouthers. If Zaph is able to restore my Con Drain in combat and none of you accidentally blast me while blinded by it's spit (fort saves, wizards), worth it. Barring having to go through the Sewer from when Hell Freezes over to get to it, of course.
* Unless we are worried about Lycanthropic Half-Dwarf Half-Plants riding on Fiendish Treants, we should probably save it for sale in some larger city with an bonus to magical weapons. I was just thinking about what sort of creature you would need a silver Plantbane sword for...OMG, guys the leaves, they're th-
* Heh, one of us could always submit to a Zone of Truth in case we can prove that the dwarf we shaved was in fact wanted here.
DM:
* B. Know 26 (Baudin) & 28(Sarahis). What did Baudin do in Point North that could merit such a charge; Is Sarahis likely charged with treason for her religious beliefs?
* Installation of Holy water Font. Price doing in in the drug camp from Marcus, and the cost and conditions if installed in Point North. /end [Leilah]
/begin[Ashra]
*We have to go after the dragon. We do not really have a choice in the matter. Welcome to the fascinating world of hanging out with deathlocks.
*Locate Creature should do it. Fourth level arcane divination. If Leilah doesn't have it as a Weird Cleric spell. Ethan can read it out from my book, or we can ask Fab D -- he may not want to do it for me, but he's fond of Snake as I recall. We spend a few minutes playing warmer, colder and dig out a bit of his remains.
*Zaph can prepare lesser restoration as necessary. Ethan will probably either be immune or make will saves, so he has less to fear from the spit, and I will attempt to evade it as best I can.
*Zones of Truth are not all that powerful. The only reason I did not attempt to break Ganth's was because it was his, and because there might be repercussions. No one will believe a wizard, an illithid, or a cleric in such a zone because it would be too easy for us to make the Will save.
*I suggest the Docks be last. That has the greatest chance of collateral damage, and it is the only adventure in town which does not require us to interact further with the local government to get paid. Best to leave it for last in case we need to run away afterwards, though that is a worst case scenario.
/end[Ashra]
/begin[Leilah]
*Running Water blocks Locate Creature. His explosion redirected a river, so I think any remains will be on the river bottom. And if we do find any scraps of flesh hanging off a tree, do you think being exploded counts as being Polymorphed? Which also blocks the spells. Lalz.
*We'll see how the reception goes. My choice is that by doing normal adventure stuff first, we lower our public profile. After we take care of the docks, we can hunt at our leisure. But NM, order of battle for social standing is recursive.
*I'm sure that someone must have been smart enough to make a prestige class or use Heightened spells to make up for this.
/end[Leilah]
/begin[Ethan]
*Something to note: I just looked over the questions-to-Anahita suggestions because I am slowpoke.jpg, and we should take under consideration that any questions involving my "body" could have false positives/negatives. As far as I know, I'm using my own corpse, but it was clearly heavily modified and we have no idea or guarantee that it was the original, if that makes sense. (Hey, yet another reason to hunt down some crazy blackguard who likes to Hojo it up with unsuspecting innocents! "Hi! Does this corpse look modified to you? You know, aside from the walking-and-talking part.")
/end[Ethan]
/begin[Leilah]
Nice catch. Added to the list. But my divine link is better than that: I get Yes/No/Idunknow with no annoying lying. Also, what do blackguards know about raising dead. They need two ranks to enter. They need three fighter feats. They get 2+Int skill points! THEY DON"Y EVEN GET REBUKE UNDEAD. *pant pant. You need a cleric or a dread necromancer. /end[Leilah]
/begin[Ashra]
*Heh, I doubt explosion is the same as polymorph, but you've a point about the running water. If "a chunk of the flesh of Ulfgar Solid" counts as an object, Locate Object seems not to have the same restriction. Perhaps that would work. I'm reluctant to set aside the chance of finding a piece, as fifteen thousand gold ... well. I am not sure we've seen so much in one place, and that's just how much more it would cost on top of the ten thousand GP diamond we'll already need for Resurrection.
*I think anything we do will raise our profile, and I doubt they'll immediately forgive us for the docks. Well, we could consider delivering Marcus to them afterwards, and claiming the destruction was a part of his capture. I am not sure how fresh his body appears given the preservation. However, that risks our not getting paid if they either get suspicious or are too angry at us for the docks, so that plot may not be worth it.
*"Blackguard" may refer to the word, meaning a scoundrel, rather than to the particular class. Or he could be multiclass, or have items or followers that assist him. Also, it is an assumption we have made that "black magic" means specifically necromancy of the dead-raising type. He could be sacrificing people to Nerull for EXP, or fucking with their souls, or torturing them for the lulz, or whatever. I am increasingly interested in taking him down out of curiosity. Oh, and because the Scarlet Brotherhood are fuckers. *cough*
/end[Ashra]
/begin[Ethan]
*I'm also more interested in the "black magic" than "blackguard" part. I'm a little vague on black magic, but it sounds like fun...? My only concern with my "body" is not that Anahita will try to mislead you, but that we may be mistaken about what constitutes my body and therefore might not be asking the questions that we think we're asking.
*Marcus...probably looks pretty fresh, since Gentle Repose and all that, but he did die when a building exploded and fell on him. So. If we claim we killed him during the docks incident and somehow nothing explodes spectacularly (HAHAHAHA YEAH RIGHT), we'd be a bit caught there.
*Looking for rumors and poring over maps always slows us down. We should ask The Map about the layout of Point North, if we can, and let's not get too distracted by the vast and unexplored subterranean caverns. (That's what she said.) (Is than an innuendo check or should we just take it as written that Ashra and Leilah both punch me?)
/end[Ethan]
/begin[Schedule]
*1. Recover, load cargo, prepare to leave, see if Vishnu can install the holy receiver, Two Sendings
*2. Look quickly for Snakes remains, leave, three questions: Is "Checkmate" a code name for the fake Baudin Dommilan? Is there a living spy for *Grax currently on the Jade Kracken III? Is there a living spy for Ganth currently on the Jade Kracken III?, three Sendings
*3. Travel, Questions (Ethan/Elan; Axiomates, Vlad/Zaph, White Dragon, Docks, Bountys), Sendings
*4. ...
*5. Arrive in Point North, hide illegal cargo, make nice and connections with local government.
*6. Gather info on sidequests.
*7. Take out monsters, then the Docks/ bounties.
/end[Schedule]
===Episode Nine: The Best 10,000 GP We Ever Spent===
: Before setting off to Point North, Ashra asks someone to find a bit of Solid Snake's body so that they only have to shell out ten thousand gold instead of twenty-five for the resurrection. Fab Dick steps up, scrying with a bowl, and is led to the river. It's dangerously cold and fast, and would probably kill him. Ashra points out that the bitches had been dredging the lake, and the party summons some bitches and commands them to pick out the chunks of remains from the river.
: "What god do you worship?" Fab D lies, "Pelor." "You will almost certainly be cursed." But the bitches dredge up some body parts. There's a bloody cloth which will be sufficient to resurrect Snake, and a red-painted fingernail which is reminiscent of Leilah's dream. Leilah keeps the fingernail and Ethan keeps the cloth, and the party is ready to set out for Point North.
: The journey to Point North takes thirteen days, and the party is determined to make the most of it. Leilah wants to make the ScryPad's water holy, for which the party will need to find 1,000 GP worth of silver dust; she asks Vishnu for a bucket, and receives it. A day later she is sternly warned by Vishnu not to fill it with Wolves' Milk.
: The party start Sendings. The first is to Claire, asking if she's in for South City Secrets and asking about the general state of Baldur. Her reply comes, "SCS is guarded by state spy institution. I will fuck up those fuckers and Malicor. Vargus isn’t back yet. City filled with refugees. Most infrastructure intact. Supplies very short."
: Next they contact Shiolay, who is wearing adamantium armor and a very swanky coat as he strolls through the Port Brogan marketplace. Ethan asks how he managed to get so rich as Leilah drools over the armor. It turns out that his expedition to the Southern Continent was extremely lucrative, and that he took about half of the proceeds to buy an adamantium mine by Mt. Malawi and staff it with fire dwarves and kobolds. He now lives quite well off the dividends.
: Shiolay is most definitely in for the Axiomate fight once it's established that there will be no drugs and no falling. He says that Sil'meelen is in too. Also, she's now nobility as of a few weeks ago, thanks to Vargus.
: The party wants to know some Port Brogan gossip, so they call up Tobo. Vladomis left, saying she had to go north, but she headed off towards the south. Contrary to what Claire said, Vargus is in Baldur already, and he's been giving a lot of speeches. It seems he talks a lot about hope and change.
: That seems a bit odd. "Peace, too?" asks Ashra. Tobo replies in the affirmative, and Ashra and Ethan stare at each other in horror. Fab Dick asks what's up, and the two chorus "Mutatio, spes et pax." That's not Vargus's style. That's not Vargus's style at all. Would Grax really disguise himself as -- oh fuck yes he would.
: A final test: "Is he really boring?" "Well, he uses a lot of semicolons."
: Swearing and high fives later, the party huddles to discuss the implications of Vargus being Grax in disguise. He might not have even left the Northern Continent at all; the stories about his departure were from Ganth.
: They send to Shiolay immediately to warn him. Sil'meelen they tell only to stay away from Vargus and not say why. She asks what's up, they tell her she needs to be loyal to Malvont and that what's good for Malvont will probably not be Vargus. She says she'll always do what's best for the city, but seems a little skeptical.
: Leilah starts praying to her goddess for information, and Fab D plays around with Contact Other Plane.
: Fab D tries for Vecna and receives the answer "I am gelatinous," for which no question is really good enough. He asks Corellon Larethian who his father is, receiving the answer "Richard the Smith", and a part of Elemental City in Baldur where his father was from. He asks Pelor "What is the light in the darkness?" and receives a long string of numbers. He asks Vecna "What does Grax want?" and receives a nonsensical answer.
: Leilah confirms that "Checkmate" is a code name for Baudin Dommilan, and that there is no living, construct, or undead spy for Grax on the Jade Kracken III. She learns that Marcus is not alive. Her goddess does not know the answers to many questions that do not involve water, but she would know about Grax's navy. She is able to confirm that they left and that Grax was with them then, but she does not know if they are still on the water or even on the Prime. Asking if they are on the Prime Material Plane receives no answer, indicating a syntax error in the question. Ashra and Ethan wonder if it's part of the general issues with Baldur, and test by asking if Sluf is in Baldur. The answer is yes, indicating that it is possible for Anahita to gain knowledge about things in Baldur. There is a bounty on Ethan in Point North (it must be an illegal one) but not on Ashra.
: Fab D hears from a god that Grax's army is in Hate's Torch by Port Townsend. The party tries to Send to Dread Pirate Lucy, but he doesn't pick up. Leilah hits up Lucy's lieutenant Lando Jackson and hears that the Pirate King and the others, including Lucy, are in conclave, which given the time of year is almost certainly an emergency conclave. The party tries to warn him about Grax's army, but he replies that it's impossible, they can't be here as he's here. However, he mentions that there have been a lot of holes dug in the forest.
: Ashra remembers the phylactery they found in that forest, and wonders if that's what the diggers are searching for. Ming-ui secretly sold that phylactery to Vishnu, and Ethan secretly knows about it because Shiolay told him. (The party is that much of a soap opera.) Ethan and Ashra ask Vishnu what happened to it, and eventually get from him that he sold it to Prince Avimeus V. They send to him, warning him to conceal it, and he gets the message.
: Leilah hears that Anahita does not know if Vladomis is a spy for Grax. Ashra suggests she ask if there are currently fates under Point North. No, there aren't. Were there within the last fifty years? Yes, there were.
: "Ravinia, my ass," says Ethan. Well, there's one mystery solved, and a pretty good reason for Baudin or Fauxdin to have attacked the city some time ago. Speaking of the city, they've arrived. It's depressing as hell. The outer buildings are shacks. The dome looks pretty awesome, however.
: On the way in they see four ships, all titled in Illumian. Ashra speaks Illumian, but has never seen it in real life before, and is impressed. Their names are "The Nauteloid" ("X’qnifloote-t’z" is the original vowel-less abomination), "The Balrog", "The Bloodfoe", and what looks like "The Crna Ruka" in Illumian characters (Црна Рука). That last one showed up in Leilah's dream.
: Vishnu is wanted there, so he is going to stay on the ship. The gunpowder, cannons, and drugs will be hidden with Rope Trick, which Ashra has in her spellbook. Ethan can't cast it, but Fab D can. They're going to be fairly quiet about their approach, but will be fairly clear about their diplomatic connections to avoid things getting messy later.
: When they arrive and show their passports, they get a warm welcome. The emissary says that the state will handle all the normal fees, and offers to find them lodgings. They settle on Vatislavil's, the inn for merchant adventurers, which is also the best inn available. Leilah is courteously warned that there's another Nyasan woman, Sarahis of Nyasa, who has a bounty on her head, and thus that she might want to look a little less like her to avoid embarrassing mix-ups with bounty hunters.
: To enter the dome they'll have to surrender their weapons. Most of their weapons and Ashra's wands are left in the safety of the ship, and the mages surrender their component pouches. They are led to their inn. On the way through the common room, Ashra notices a white-armored, pale man with black hair and two greatswords see the party and duck into the kitchen. They wonder if it might be Pyotar Umarov, and Ethan's head begins to hurt in that special way. That may just be attempting to think about Pyotar, however, and not a sign it was really him; only Ashra noticed the man in the first place before he went into the kitchen. The party goes up to their room. Ice seems to figure heavily in the architecture here, and there's hot water and steam from a pipe.
: Leilah decides to go explore the other inns, as she's not well known there. Ethan disguises her to look a bit less like an aasimar, and she heads out. At Dodge the Bulette, she sees heads of all sorts of monsters mounted on the walls. They even mounted an ooze ... somehow. There are also jobs posted, which tell her about some possible buyers for the plantbane greatsword and the slime boots. At The Laughing Rogue, she is pickpocketed and hit on, and sees some people with tattoos and other generally sketchy stuff. There are a couple of tough guys sitting at a back table with a smaller, nerdy-looking guy wearing glasses and tinkering with a small machine.
: Meanwhile, Ashra and the others decide to go down to the common room, get some food, and check people out. Ashra checks the consciousnesses in the room and finds no one of illithid intelligence. Fab Dick notices a secret dumbwaiter.
: Soon after they sit down, the waiter brings Ashra a plate and a cup of tea, saying it is a present from a gentleman who just left. On the plate is a fresh cow's brain. Fab Dick tells her it's not poisoned. Cow's brains are not particularly tasty, but she realizes that a message could have been imprinted into the cow's memory. Ethan agrees to trip-sit her if there's something really weird in there. She eats it and extracts "It is good to see another aberrant" in a polite, Illithid voice.
: She asks the waiter about the man who just left. He was a dark-haired elf-ish man with green eyes, but surprisingly tall, closer to her own height than to Fab D's or Ethan's. She thinks about creatures and people that could possibly learn Illithid. It's definitely a weird message to get. She goes back to sipping tea.
: Leilah returns and the groups quickly compare notes, then head off to their meeting with the mayor. Mitch is a very friendly fellow, clearly very interested in promoting the image of his city. Leilah handles the talking to him with surprising ability, gaining lots of information about the different bounties. The white armored men are the Black Hand Corporation, and they've just come up with a cure for the Red Plague which has proven at least 50% effective. That's pretty incredible to the party. Mitch claims that it's permissible to carry merciful weapons in the dome.
: He tells them the dragon they're thinking of taking out has been preying on ships. Lately it's been taking much more, which everyone takes to mean oh god it laid eggs. Ethan points out that it's also possible Fauxdin's attack disrupted its normal hunting grounds. They're allowed to sell weapons and armor here; they should arrange the price in the dome and then conduct the exchange outside. If they want to talk to someone to get other sorts of information, they should go to Vladom-il Archangelsk, an aasimar who should be drunk in Vaitslavil's by now.
: Leilah asks why Ashra is getting so much attention, and Mitch politely explains that she's an oddity as a "hive" creature. She is mildly surprised that it's the hive aspect he mentions instead of her status as an aberration. Considering illithids a "hive" even though they do not technically qualify as one just means that unlike her, Mitch is not a psionics geek. Quite understandable.
: The party makes their way back and finds Vladomil. He recognizes Leilah as a fellow aasimar and the two start chatting. She gets a good bit of information out of him about the various bounties available while Ethan and Ashra look on and drink casually. He gives a rough explanation of how stone clocks work: each block is set to one of two options: "day" vs. "night", "first three hours" vs. "second three hours", "last half of that three hours"... and so on. Ethan says he'll let Ashra spacebrain it out. Leilah asks a bit more about the Black Hand Corporation, and the party starts discussing telepathically whether or not to mention seeing a man with two swords inside the dome. Vladomil joins the telepathic conversation, at which point Ethan decides that they can wonder about how Vladomil can do that later and use this relatively secure way of asking questions now. Vladomil tells them that not even merciful weapons are permitted in the dome, contrary to what Mitch said. When Ethan asks who the leader of the Black Hand Corporation is, Vladomil says, "Umaro...something..." If only they knew whether or not Umarov was a common name.
: Fab D gets really drunk. Vladomil shows them a picture of the Blackguard of the Dome; he fits the description of the man who sent the brain. Ashra says that's his way of announcing interest in her, and that the party should go meet him at night. There's a suggested curfew of 10 PM because of the Blackguard of the Dome; he's been abducting people. Vladomil says that the description of the victims as young girls was sensationalist; there's been one female victim, an eighteen-year old half orc. It's just people who are getting taken.
: Leilah expresses her reservations, but Ethan and Ashra insist that they'll meet the guy tonight, get some sleep, and then do the dragon battle tomorrow. They decide to go out to the forum at 11:50 to give him time to appear at the stroke of midnight. Ashra thinks a half-elf describing himself as 'an aberrant' might be kind of a poseur, so she figures he'll like appearing then.
: In the remaining few hours, Ashra finds buyers for several of the items the party acquired from the drug raid, and turns down a few other bad deals. She accepts Ethan's request for a cloak of resistance +2, which is cheap there, and Ethan lets Leilah use his old cloak of resistance +1 until the party can make it to Malvont and buy her some proper Bracers of Reflex. Even after the new purchase, the party is richer perhaps than they have ever been before. Ashra gleefully shows Ethan the numbers in the party ledger. They are very happy numbers. And they're not even counting the drug money the party is planning to make, nor the bounties they hope to collect while in Point North.
: Eventually it is late enough. They make their way out. It is very dark, and everyone else is inside, even the guards. Leilah and Fab Dick go up onto balconies of ice, while Ethan hides inside a building with Zaphodel, who has been commanded to obey him. Ashra stands alone in the middle of the forum, waiting.
: At midnight, Ashra hears dripping. When the others examine the ice they're standing on, they realize that the vents have been diverted and the ice is beginning to melt. Ashra levitates enough to not be troubled by it. Ethan and Zaphodel cannot properly see.
: Leilah casts Invisibility Purge. A cloaked figure appears, pressed against a pillar; Ashra cannot see the figure's face.
: She levitates forward as though she hadn't seen the figure, then stops when parallel to it and turns. "Hello," she says telepathically in Illithid.
: "Hello, Ashra. What do you seek?"
: "Many things. All in service of the one. And you?"
: "Many things, all in service of the one." The figure tells her to follow if she seeks greater power. It then turns and begins to walk up towards the thrones.
: Ashra follows, telling the party to follow after but not too closely. Fab Dick casts Fly and begins ice dancing around; Zaph casts Light to allow Ethan to see. Leilah leaves her building, and the party begins slowly falling in far behind Ashra.
: Ashra follows the figure to an ice wall near the throne area. The figure touches the wall and it opens. It stands next to the door, gesturing for her to enter first.
: Zaphodel slips and falls. Ethan tries to help her up and fails. She gets up by herself. Progress is similarly slow for the others.
: Ashra enters the door. The figure falls in behind her, and the wall closes behind them.
: The party makes its way forward, with some trouble. Fab D is close to the wall when someone stabs him with a bastard sword, yelling "I've got you now, my pretty!" He succumbs to the blade's poison and falls asleep.
: Ashra follows the figure down a long hallway.
: Leilah makes it over to Fab D. His assailant is a crazed-looking half-elf. It sort of looks like the Blackguard of the Dome, but a bit less ... stylized and a bit more creepy and pedophilic. The party realizes the figure leading Ashra off and the blackguard are completely unrelated. They decide to deal with the blackguard at hand.
: Ashra follows the figure into a room which is a 20' cube in the ice. The way back disappears. A magic circle on the floor says "The Enlightened One" in Illumian. Suddenly the figure begins to convulse.
: Leilah Greater Commands the blackguard to surrender; he sets down Fab D, but then Dimension Doors over behind Ethan. Ethan Dimensional Anchors him, and Leilah casts Divine Might for a beatdown.
: Ashra grabs the figure's hood and pulls it back. She sees an eighteen-year old half-orc girl, muzzled and terrified. A magical gas pierces her spell resistance and gets about halfway to knocking her out. The girl faints.
: Fab D wakes up as Leilah is going after the blackguard; he uses Telekinesis to lift him twenty feet in the air and drop him. The man's right leg shatters. Ethan says that's enough and this is going to be his pet.
: Ashra looks down at the magic circle. What is affecting her seems to be a sigil of sleep, but made incredibly powerful so that it threatens her despite her spell resistance and toughness. She considers whether Acid Bolt would get her out of the ice prison. Not really, it'd be more likely to kill her horribly. Well then.
: The blackguard takes a swipe at Ethan from where he lies on the ground, cutting him slightly. Fab Dick picks him up and drops him again, cracking his ribs. Ethan insists this is really enough now.
: Ashra is barely conscious. She pulls out antitoxin from her bag and chugs it, then scans the room with the mirror. Nothing about the walls is different; there are no vents and no exits. The circle, however, is actually a magic circle with "Sleep" in Draconic. These circles are activated and deactivated by code words. She starts guessing: "Nosrep fle lalah!" has no effect, and several other standards similarly fail. "Gas chamber gas chamber tricky tricky" wasn't even worth trying. Finally she guesses "the Strand of Orc held the holy writ, and only greedy Tiamat, Crusher of the Impious, begrudged the ill-gained gift. "
: The symbol changes.
: Leilah takes out her sap and knocks the man out with it. Fab Dick is happy to ignore whatever happened to Ashra, but the others are starting to wonder.
: Ashra holds on to consciousness for long enough to see what the symbol has become. It now reads "Since you know, you will be a better meal for the Great Mother." It is now a circle of Greater Teleport.
: "Bona fortuna, mater!" she guesses. Nothing happens, though she's proud of herself for coming up with that one. She figures if knowledge will make a better meal for someone, that means a Mother Brain. She takes off her pack and sets it down beside her, wearing only her robe in case she has to Plane Shift. In her last moment of consciousness she stands tall, looks up, spreads her arms wide, and says: "Mother, into thy hands I commend my spirit!"
: This is witnessed by no one, which is just as well really.
: Outside, Ethan finds that the wall detects as transmutation magic. Suddenly Zaphodel, who had been following orders, goes completely blank and still. Then she animates, sentience springing into her eyes, and turns to Ethan. "We have to find Ashra!"
: It turns out that paying for the best quality thralls has certain advantages. One of them is a Greater Geas if contact is ever broken to recover the master and, failing that, to return to the previous master.
: Zaphodel is a bit different than everyone expected. Instead of her normal lawful neutral, she is chaotic good. She is determined and dedicated, and tends to get a bit bitchy. Thanks to the Geas, she is also obsessed with finding Ashra. She thinks he's "such a fucker" otherwise, however, and admits to preferring Ethan. She remembers everything she has been in the party for, despite her lack of sentience at the time. She finds the "fight the power" written in her mind fairly amusing.
: They gather their prisoner and their weapons, then return to the ship. When told of the situation, Vishnu cusses them out for not calling him on the speakstones he'd provided each of them in case something bad like losing the first lieutenant happened. Fab Dick scries for Ashra's body and sees Ashra unconscious, apparently asleep next to a muzzled half-orc girl. They are lying on twisted logs, and those things near them ... oh god, it did lay eggs. And it's presumably a dragon. And that's its nest.
: Ethan joins the ranks of the mind-influenced and crazy. He'd been excited about the dragon before, but the fact that aforementioned dragon is now threatening the life of one of his closest friends pushes him over into the bad kind of tweaking. Leilah and Zaph take him aside and ask him what would cause Ashra to willingly be teleported away. A chance of meeting the Mother Brain, a chance of talking to Grax, possibly a chance of meeting another illithid. Or she could have been taken against her will.
: When there's not something for him to do, Ethan gets more freaked out. Zaphodel offers Calm Emotions and general support. He refuses the Calm Emotions, but accepts hanging out in the crazy corner together to feel a bit better.
: Leilah wants to wait until the next day, because she used up her Divine Power and without it isn't nearly as effective at combat. She's worried they'll all die if they aren't at full power. Zaphodel thinks that long of a wait is excessive and risks Ashra's life. Ethan can't wait any longer than it takes to get from Point North to the dragon. Fab Dick would be perfectly happy to see Ashra become dragon chow and is only along for the ride. There is a lot of yelling. Zaph and Ethan tell the others that they should sleep if they can, but if the ship arrives before it's time, the mind-controlled contingent is going with or without backup.
: The clerics agree to pray every hour to be allowed to prepare their spells early. Zaph stays up the five hours, while Leilah naps for some of the time. On the very last hour, both of their gods grant their request. Zaphodel asks Leilah what to prepare, and the mini-team cleric works out how to distribute the spells for Leilah's complex anti-dragon buffing routine.
: Zaphodel goes through Ashra's things that she left on the ship, as well as the party loot. She brings out Ashra's wand collection. Fab D borrows the Wand of Fireball. Zaphodel is warned off the strange green potions in party loot, and flicks the wand-whip around while wondering how she even thought to put wands in a thing like that anyway. No one has the Use Magic Device to make it worthwhile to use, so she puts it back, but decides to carry Ashra's things to her so that she can help with the battle if it comes to that.
: Sam comes out with a pie. Since it's March in Goneril, when they find Ashra, she'll be in the process of freezing to death. Half the pie will cure her enough to wake her, and also protect her from the cold and cure her hypothermia. The other half of the pie can go to someone else; the party decides it should go to Fab D.
: The dragon lives in a cave with two entrances, one larger and the other small. There is deep snow in front of the cave, and some ice by the small entrance. Some people wish they could levitate. There are three opal statues of dragons in front of the cave entrance. The dragon will have to be drawn out in order for the cannons to be able to strike it. The party considers dropping gunpowder on the dragon and then lighting it, but that would cause a large explosion which might kill Ashra as well were she nearby.
: After buffing themselves and each other, the party drops down and begins making their way through the deep snow. Fab D flies around, while the others walk carefully through the snow. Ethan checks for magic, and Zaphodel keeps Dispel Magic at the ready in case the statues try to dispel the party's buffs as Leilah fears they will. The statues are magical, but don't do anything to them as they approach. Ethan finds an alarm spell over the large entrance; Leilah's Find the Path (set to locate Ashra) suggests they go through the small passage.
: Fab D looks down the passage and sees some glowing red fungi. Ethan confirms they're not magic, but when Fab D starts down the passage, they glow more brightly and start spitting out spores. He books back towards the party, and Zaphodel tosses Ethan one of Ashra's spellbooks which has Gust of Wind in it. After making sure Fab D is out of the way, Ethan casts the spell and blows the spores down into the cave.
: The party hears choking and watches the spores fly out the large entrance. The suggested route changes to going through the large entrance.
: Several dragon cultists come out of the large entrance. Zaphodel goes after one with her mace and shouts to the others what's going on; Ethan ragemages. A cultist with a crossbow takes a shot at Ethan. Ethan finishes off both with some Magic Missiles, and then the dragon appears.
: It is greeted with a Flame Strike from Leilah, a Fireball from Fab D, and a Neg Ball from Ethan. This is clearly not what it had expected, and instead of emerging to divebomb the party, it starts to retreat. The party chases after it, tossing more spells at it. Fireballs and neg balls go off one after another. The dragon screams, scaring first Fab Dick and then Zaphodel; Leilah uses her War Rally. It breathes on the party, but the Protection from Elements and Resist Energy soak up most of the damage. The statues behind the party also activate; Fab Dick yells a warning as they begin to shoot ice at the party's backs. The clerics have given themselves spell resistance, which the statues can't pierce, and the energy protection spells help the wizards.
: After her last burst buff goes off, Zaphodel throws in her own Flame Strike. She is still taking thrall penalties from lack of her master. Ethan runs up to the dragon, which shatters his arm by taking a swipe at him. He manages to control himself enough to take the few seconds to Harm himself before reengaging.
: Leilah is caught by the dragon shaping a wall around her. Zaphodel comes up and dispels it. Once Leilah is no longer stunned, she goes into full golden god mode and starts after the dragon with the Life-Suture. Fab Dick tries to line up a trick shot from the other side as the dragon retreats. Another couple of cultists reappear and are destroyed by a Neg Ball.
: Leilah keeps chasing after the dragon, sinking its attacks of opportunity every time. Zaphodel tries to follow, but isn't tough enough to take those hits, and doesn't manage to engage the dragon. Ethan goes running after it like the crazed mage he currently is. Fab Dick fails to cast Lightning on the dragon, but gets after it with Magic Missile a moment later.
: The dragon backs around a corner, and the party charges after. Leilah, who is badly wounded, hits with the Life-Suture and is fully healed by it. Going toe to toe with the dragon knocks her nearly back down to dangerous levels. Zaphodel takes out a heavy pistol Snake had loaded for her before the battle, but the gun won't fire. She runs up to Leilah and heals her, allowing her to deal the killing blow.
: Ethan jumps on the dragon and starts gnawing on its eyes. Zaphodel runs past the few remaining cultists to where Ashra is lying unconscious. She is on some twisted logs, apart from the nest with its three dragon eggs, and is unharmed besides the effects of the sleep spell. Zaphodel takes the pie, finds Ashra's mouth somewhere behind those tentacles, and begins to feed her. As soon as the pie's magic begins to take effect, she loses sentience.
: Ashra wakes up. Instead of with the Mother Brain or being killed and/or consumed by some creature, she's being fed pie by Zaphodel, who is still under her command. Ethan is nearby, covered in dragon's blood, and might have some bits of dragon eye by the corner of his crazy grin. The party exchanges accounts of how they got there, and Ashra mutters "best ... pet ... ever" as she hugs supports herself on Zaphodel.
: There are still the three dragon eggs to deal with. Leilah wants to sell them, and tries to convince Ethan that if they sell them someone will cook them. Ethan wants to destroy them. The matter is put to a party vote. Fab D abstains, and Ashra votes with Ethan. Ethan, Ashra, and Leilah each destroy a dragon egg.
: The party loots the dragon's lair and finds a set of wands, including one of Fox's Cunning which Ashra immediately claims and starts stroking a bit creepily. They also find universal solvent, dust of tracelessness, elixir of truth, another cloak of resistance, sovereign glue, and goggles of minute seeing.
: Fab Dick promises to help teach Ethan to make various clothing out of the dragon's hide. Ashra wonders who was able and inclined to make such an elaborate trap tailored to her -- she suspects the Scarlet Brotherhood -- and hopes that the rest of the party won't go on too much about all the crap she's apparently just put them through. Leilah looks around for more things to search.
===Episode Ten: Rocks Fall Everyone Swears===
: It is 6:30 AM, April 1st, 1443. The party is huddled inside the Jade Kracken III, having carried Ashra and the half-orc girl into the ship for warmth. Sam helps treat Ashra's moderate hypothermia. He warns that she should warm her core, not her extremities, and that if she suddenly feels extremely hot, this means she is getting worse not better and should stay bundled up and inform him immediately. He gives her a mug of tea. Ethan offers whiskey in it, and is about to accept when Sam says that she should stay away from alcohol completely as it will thin her blood. Ashra tells Ethan he should get her drunk later.
: The half-orc girl recovered with Ashra is in a significantly worse state. Sam can help treat her, but she will need medical attention from real healers. The party decides they will take her to the Black Hand Corporation, but they need to rest the night so Snugglesworth is competent to steer the ship. It will take twenty-four hours for Ashra to recover, and Leilah and Zaph will need almost as long to get a new preparation of spells ready. The party worries that some spells were cast on Ashra and/or the girl which they don't want to return to Point North with, so they need to wait for Leilah to pick up an Analyze Dweomer to scan everyone again.
: Ashra has Zaphodel cast Heal on her, ridding her at least of the subdual damage from the gas. Sam doesn't know anything about the gas she was subject to, but conferring with each other they guess that the trap was transporting in mundane toxic gas, thus allowing it to bypass her SR.
: Ashra gets the story from Zaph's mind and says something is weird about the dragon's cave. The cultists had no visible living quarters, not even anywhere properly sheltered from the cold. Also, what was she doing on a pyre? She carefully examines herself, worried someone has messed with her in her sleep, and finds two small holes in her ankle, as though blood had been drained with a needle. Given how the cold would constrict the blood vessels, it was taken either at the beginning of her captivity or in the warmth. She asks Ethan what sort of necromantic spells would need blood; he says all sorts, including some that duplicate people. She has them check the girl's ankle as well; she shares the same marks.
: Ethan agrees that the cave is weird. As he's already had his four hours of focus, he wants to explore it with Liquid Snake while Leilah, Zaph and Ashra rest. Ashra says they should feel free to Speakstone her if they want to consult on anything, since she's going to spend the whole next day essentially resting and doesn't mind if she doesn't get eight uninterrupted hours of sleep immediately. She asks Snake to see if he can bring them back a dragon cultist without Ethan ripping out their vital organs first.
: The two use their remaining Resist Energy (Cold) to run past the breath weapon trap, then enter the cave and start looting the bodies of the cultists. They have weapons, rings of natural armor, and one has a blank red book which, with Read Magic, is revealed to be about dragons. There is also a sealed letter and some red potions.
: In the nest room Ethan finds something small and magical in the pile of logs Ashra and the girl had been lying on. After extensive searching he uncovers a small T'nari coin, magical, with the word "沒" on it. (This means "not" in Eastern Common and "to set in the west [as of the sun]" in poetic Yuanti.) There are no other signs of a hoard, though, which is strange: dragons are usually pretty big on the shinies, and this one has been preying on trading ships for quite some time.
: Ethan goes to the spore-shooting mushrooms and collects one as a sample. Behind the mushrooms, he notices a secret door. Liquid picks the lock and they find a long, Stone Shaped tunnel. They follow it to a room with a scrying bowl, some chairs, and a lot of steam. Ethan doesn't want to be in that room too long, but he takes a while to search it. It includes tools of mummification to Nerull, a pegasus feather which Ashra later identifies by guesswork as a feather token, eyeballs including a beholder eye on a stick, a pearly white powder, ground rubies, lots of amber dust, a glass rod with 14 gold strings in it, bones, and more than a gallon of different kinds of blood. This includes green, blue, and red blood. Red blood is most humanoid creatures as well as illithids ceremorphized from humanoid hosts. Blue is elves and some half and three-quarter elves. Green is a rare mutation among wood elves, and is more standard among plant creatures that have blood and aberrations which are not made from other creatures.
: Ethan can't really tell where the steam in the vents is going; he calls Ashra, but she's too out of it to give any coherent help. Ethan checks the room for magic and finds that a wall detects as illusion. He calls Ashra again.
: "... did you seriously wake me up for me to tell you you have a Mirror of True Seeing?"
: In the mirror, the wall is replaced with vertical bars. That looks like the way forward, but Ethan and Liquid are ready to return for now and explore the rest with the full party. They come back and rest while the rest of the party finishes their recovery. The half-orc girl stabilizes but does not improve; Ashra's condition improves steadily and once a day has passed, she's feeling back to normal.
: While waiting around for everyone to recover, Ethan asks Vishnu about the smuggling situation on the Southern Continent and if he's heard of The Diamond Runner. He certainly has, but it's not a smuggling ship. It runs actual diamonds, and does so in a scrupulously legal fashion, such that Vishnu couldn't afford one when he needed one and had to use ... other channels. Ethan doesn't remember his father actually running diamonds. As for the smuggling situation, the main people involved are Vishnu himself, Jenka, CorinthianBlue Corporation, and a lot of independent agents.
: Once Leilah has her spells again, she breaks out the Analyze Dweomer.
: Ashra detects as normal, indicating no spells have been placed on her.
: The half-orc girl is normal but has been hit by an abjuration in the last 24 hours. This freaks everyone out until Ashra points out that she'd been tagged with Endure Elements to help her with the cold.
: The rings are Rings of Natural Armor +1, which will stack with Ashra and Ethan's natural armor if they so wish. Leilah is the only one to wear one, however, as the others are each wearing a ring and don't feel like wearing two. These rings work by covering the wearer in scales like those of a dragon, which fascinates Leilah and grosses out Ethan.
: The girl has an unusual coat, which they analyze; it is a Handy Coat with seven pockets, each of which will permanently become an item when removed. It contains a rowboat, a sack of 100 coins, two 10 foot ladders, a scroll of Create Food and Water, and two adamantium daggers.
: The coin is a T'nari coin, smaller than a regular coin but made of a more valuable metal and thus worth the same. The only magic on it is a permanent prestidigitation to keep it shiny.
: The beholder eye on a stick will function as a wand of disintegration.
: The glass rod is just a glass rod. It doesn't really look like the Wand of Time Stop, but it's strangely familiar to Ethan and Ashra, though they can't quite pinpoint why.
: Zaphodel no longer detects as "consciousness suppressed", lending credence to Leilah's theory that that reading actually referred to the Greater Geas. The party does not know if that is permanent, though it probably is.
: Analysis complete, the party is ready to explore the rest of the dragon cave. Leilah sets her Find the Path to "the nearest secret door". Liquid, Ethan, Leilah, Ashra, and Zaphodel make their way up to the mushrooms. They levitate over them and into the path. When Leilah rounds the corner, she sees a man who matches the description of the half-elf who gave Ashra the brain. Ashra follows her and says "Hi. Surprised to see me?" He does look surprised. He was busy trying to siphon water out of the scrying pool for reasons unknown.
: Leilah charges. He yells "Stop right there!" but she ignores him ... running straight onto the detonator for the putty which had been wired to the walls of the tunnel the others are still in. Luckily the tunnel is well made enough that it is not entirely caved in, but heavy rocks fall on the rest of the party. Ethan dodges most of the rocks, is not struck by them, and manages to save himself space to cast spells. Ashra and Zaphodel do not fare so well; Ashra gets struck on the head and gets a mild concussion, while Zaphodel fractures a rib.
: Not one to let a good charge go to waste, Leilah runs up and slaps the half-elf with her off hand. He casts a spell and poofs into pink smoke.
: Meanwhile, faced with a lot of rocks and some fucked up comrades, Ethan falls back on a time-honored solution to everything: enormous zombies. He creates one around him which pulls the rocks aside, freeing Zaph, who heals herself. In a few moments it frees Ashra as well.
: Leilah casts an area dispel over the entire room; the pink smoke disappears, but the half-elf is nowhere to be seen. She goes up to the illusory wall and looks at it in the mirror, then returns to help the zombie clear out a path into and out of the room.
: The party is reunited at last. Ashra detects thoughts and doesn't find the half-elf, so he's out of the picture. She looks through the bars in the mirror and sees that the other side is a closet with a necromantic altar in it. This fascinates Ethan and makes Leilah want to destroy it. Ashra recites the Ille Draconum quote again, but these bars are not enchanted and don't open for poetry. Ethan casts Chill of the Grave, shattering several bars; the zombie pulls out the rest. Ashra is pleased that Ethan learns from previous experiences.
: Ashra looks up. The entire ceiling is wired with more putty. The steam, now that she gets a good look at it in person, is going up into cracks in the ceiling that are filled with that putty. "Uh ... guys?"
: Leilah examines the necromantic altar. When she comes close to it, she hears voices in her head; they're speaking some sort of evil gibberish. Ethan walks up to the altar, hears nothing, and pokes it. The alphabets of Common/Celestial, Dwarven, Eastern Common, and Illumian appear. He pokes the "e" on the Common alphabet and the letters become "From ashes to ashes, from dust to dust." Leilah recognizes it as a part of Pelorite scripture, coopted here by Nerull for its respect for death.
: Ashra decides to come and look too, hoping to hear the voices, but critically fails her save. She is suddenly sucked onto the altar, held immobile as blood begins to pour from her wrists, palms, and ankles onto and into the altar. There are no visible cuts, but she will bleed out in a few minutes at most. Ethan pokes the altar and finds that while Ashra's blood is fresh, there is older, congealed blood beneath it which is about a day old. As she thrashes and screams uselessly, Ethan licks her blood off of his hands and pulls out the Necronomicon. He looks up blood sacrifices to Nerull. Her blood is being sucked down into the altar and powering it; some will go to the final product of the sacrifice. The owner of the altar would be able to gain great power (in the form of EXP) by drinking her blood once she died. Someone as powerful as Ashra could have been sacrificed to grow dragons from baby age into respectable mounts without the passage of time. It's an actual dragon factory, though a small-scale one. Well, shit.
: There's also the issue of how to get her off the altar before she dies. Leilah pokes her with a Lesser Restoration, buying her a bit of time and incidentally healing her concussion. Zaphodel tries two Break Enchantments, but neither succeeds. Ethan wants Leilah to use Wall of Force or a similar spell to block the blood from entering the altar, but it isn't logistically plausible, nor is using Wall of Stone for the same purpose.
: Ethan pokes the "e" again. It lights up. He types in "f r e e" from letters on the first line, all of which remain lit. All of the letters in "from" light up when touched, as do the "u s" from "dust", but that is not enough to end the ritual. As Ashra is moments from dying, Ethan solves the puzzle: "from ashes to ashes, from dust to dust." Ashra is released, Leilah picks her up off the altar and hands her to Zaphodel, and Zaph quickly stops her inexplicable bleeding.
: Without warning, the putty that had been on the ceiling detonates. Everyone jumps into the altar room as everything else collapses. The four squeeze into the non-altar space. Ashra is leaning heavily on Zaph as she is not strong enough to stand independently with her current 3 Con. She mutters things about not my day ... not my week ... maybe not my month...
: Ethan asks her to rebroadcast the gibbering voices, since he's the only one who can't hear them. When she does, he recognizes it instantly: some undead use this sort of nonsense as an attack, confusing their enemies with it.
: Now they've got to figure out how to escape. Air won't be a serious issue for the living party members for a few hours, but still.
: The first clear idea is Dimension Door, but that runs the risk of being shunted off in a random direction if Leilah guesses the direction and/or distance wrong. Normally that'd be painful but all right, but in Ashra's current state it would kill her. The challenge thus becomes finding a way to let Ashra sink that damage without dying.
: Well, they have met a delver, and Leilah thinks Ethan can polymorph Ashra into a delver. Not only would this temporarily raise her Constitution, it would let her dig them a tunnel out! Ashra is very wary of this plan and not sure she wants to be a delver when Leilah realizes the spell won't allow her to do that. Ethan retreats into a corner and tries not to think too hard about the fact that they've kind of been buried alive.
: Ashra points out that she did pick up a beholder-eye wand of Disintegrate, and that is awfully good at clearing things. (Well, technically Ethan picked it up, but wands tend to sort of gravitate to Ashra.) Each charge will only clear 10 feet of rock, though. Since this thing is pretty precious, they should try to conserve charges as much as possible.
: Ethan starts consulting with The Map. It recognizes the mountain they are in, and says that 1,000 feet below is a place where dwarves dig deep and there is lava. It also says the way to Ravinia is some thousands of miles north of here. It estimates 120 feet would have to be disintegrated for the party to get outside: 12/17 charges. That's harsh.
: Ashra gets a Sending from Sil'meelen: "I have good news and bad news. Good news is Baldur government is returning to normal. Bad news is Grax just landed in Corinth."
: The party is interested, though they're not sure they believe Grax really landed in Corinth.
: Ethan's Speakstone rings. Vishnu cusses them out for being gone so long, and has little sympathy for the part where they're trapped in tons of rock and Ashra is white enough to look like Xenteroth. He wants them to get a move on.
: Leilah begins brainstorming other forms to turn Ashra into, including hill giant and treant. Ashra and Ethan work out between themselves that a single cast of Bear's Endurance, which Leilah has, will be sufficient, though in the worst case scenario she would need to be immediately stabilized by Cure Minor Wounds.
: Then the only problem remaining is making sure that there is a source of some kind of restoration on the ship so that Ashra does not immediately die once the Con buff wears off. She calls Sam. It turns out, he's learned to bake Restoration cookies, like the ones given out after one donates blood. That'll be enough to save her on the other end. She thanks him.
: A short discussion with Leilah later, the party decides to do Bear's Endurance and then the Dimension Door. They do undershoot the distance and are shunted painfully to the outside as their bodies intersect solid rock for a moment. Ethan's right arm breaks, which is more of an oddity than anything else; Zaph's breaks as well, Leilah breaks a rib, and Ashra's right leg snaps. Again. They are able to get to the ship, however, and Sam hands out the cookies. Once Ashra is no longer in danger of death once the buff wears off, she, Leilah, and Zaph share the cookies, and Zaph sets any unset limbs.
: It turns out the girl woke up in their absence, and they decide to talk to her. She speaks only Orc and seems very scared, especially of Ashra, as she has never seen an illithid before. Her name is Ruska of Point North, and she has a fiance in the dome who will be worried about her. She thinks Leilah is an angel; Leilah says through translation that she's a bit of an angel. Ruska's memories from the time of her domination are spotty; she remembers the face of the brain guy and of the pervert both, but not in context. She allows Ashra to read her mind as she tries to remember, but this only corroborates her story. She'd been taken well before Ashra was from her work at a rope shop. She was suddenly kidnapped there after curfew and was dominated afterwards.
: While Ashra and Ethan talk to the girl, Leilah wanders out, casts Detect Evil, and wanders back in. The girl herself is not evil, but her coat is. Ruska refuses to wear Ashra's greatcoat instead until Ashra Suggests that her Handy Coat has become cold and she won't get warm again until she takes it off and wears Ashra's coat instead.
: The next day, Zaphodel prepares lots and lots of Lesser Restorations. Leilah, with Ethan's boots and Ashra's help, manages to take apart the dragon. She confirms it is a female dragon, and loots its stomach, yielding lots of interesting goodies and a Shatterspike. The party reassures each other that Ulfgar would have escaped such a dragon if nothing else through force of sheer manly. Leilah also obtains dragon hide, teeth, heart, and breath weapon elixir.
: At Ashra's suggestion, Ethan tries to scry on the brain guy, but it turns up a black screen.
: Vishnu tells the party he did manage to pick up a bottle of Harvest Eye '14, and since they've got nothing better to do, they might as well share it on the way back. They're in the mood for this. Ashra has lost a lot of blood, though much of it has been magically replaced, and drinks heavily. It's a very long four hour ride back with a very drunken illithid.
: On the way, Leilah learns from Anahita that Pyotar Umarov is not in Point North. Ethan asks if Marcus put the bounty on him, and Vishnu says he knows that's the case.
: By the time they reach Point North, Ashra has sobered up and everyone is ready to rock. The guards are astonished to see the Jade Kracken III, which everyone had assumed was destroyed in an attempt to kill the dragon. The party makes its way as subtly as possible back to Vaitslavil's, where they intend to interview the Blackguard of the Dome.
: He's a somewhat amiable man, who seems to think this is a job interview. The party gets out of him that he's been working with the cultists for a few weeks now, ever since he was caught by the brain guy and offered a job stealing people instead of his usual prey, small magic items. He'd been abducting people for them no questions asked. The brain guy had him refer to him as "Alphabet"; his mooks, who sound like the dragon cultists, called him "Sir," "Lord," or "Master". He preferred the more powerful, though he tended to go for easier targets.
: They ask him about the bounty on Ethan of Malvont. He doesn't realize that Ethan is one of the people asking this, and can't describe Ethan of Malvont when asked. He says they'll never catch Ethan, he works alone, and he was last seen flying around outside Syscian's Tower. He does tell them that the bounty on Ethan's head is 30,000 GAD. Ethan whimpers a bit at being seen as so much money on legs.
: He has a bit of warehouse storage in Warehouse I, and he explains to the party that the no-questions-asked storage is handled by two people at The Laughing Rogue who mindwipe themselves so as not to remember anyone's face. Different warehouses are rented out by different people, and some of the more powerful rent entire warehouses to themselves. He tells them where the storage is. In exchange for all this information, the party says they will turn him in alive and with his clothing.
: As the party is finished interrogating him, he mentions in passing that he once dated Poetry, and that she tried to blood sacrifice him. The party agrees that Poetry is pretty fucking crazy.
: Mitch arrives again. Leilah talks to him, arranges to meet with him in the late afternoon to hand over the dragon's head and more, and gets invited to a party that evening. Ethan gets a quick telepathic reminder that "I ate its eyes!" is not a normal part of... any conversation, really.
: The plan is to go take the girl to the Black Hand, who the party has heard can cure severe hypothermia such as she is suffering. After chatting with the Black Hand for a bit, they should have plenty of time to make it to their appointment with Mitch. Most of the guards will be at the party in the evening, so they can use that as a good time to go after the warehouse.
: The JKIII docks near three ships: The Nauteloid, the Bloodfoe, and the Crna Ruka. The party disembarks, helping the girl along. There are lots of guards on both The Bloodfoe and the Crna Ruka, and they all appear to be wearing that white armor. Leilah approaches the Bloodfoe with the girl and asks if they can heal the girl. They tell her that they are not the Black Hand, they don't know where the Black Hand is, and she should go away.
: She approaches the Crna Ruka, which Ethan recognizes as meaning "Black Hand". A man there is very interested and willing to take the girl, asking kindly if she will permit them to treat her. Ethan gets a bad feeling about it, but Leilah hands the girl over. The ship itself detects to Ethan as good-aligned. Ashra tries to take a surruptitious look at it in the mirror, fails, but manages to look like she's just preening. She pretends to notice something about Ethan in the mirror over her shoulder, tells him to look at himself, and telepathically adds "actually, look at the ship because you have Sleight of Hand and Bluff and I don't."
: To Ethan, who is much better at this, the ship in the mirror is actually made of darkwood. It is only disguised as good, and is actually a lawful evil ship. Well shit.
: Leilah and Ashra call after one of the healers, asking for information about the girl when she gets better and expressing interest in returning her to her fiance when she's well. The healer seems to try to get information from them, though he's willing to make promises about returning her. He offers to have someone meet them in Vaitslavil's when she's well.
: Suddenly Ethan gets a Speakstone call. He takes it as quietly as possible, and hears that some people in "fucked up" armor are arriving. It's not the shiny white armor, but Liquid can't explain what it actually is. He wants to take off immediately. Ethan says okay, and the party starts booking it back to the JKIII.
: Two hitmen from the proscription list appear: Lowdy the Disappearing and Edward Kevil. They stare at Leilah, who turns around, explains that she is Leilah Maloch and not Sarahis of Nyasa, and they seem to believe it. Everyone gets back on the ship. As they sail away, Ashra looks through her spyglass at the ships. The captain of one of them seems to look up straight at her, and she finds him disconcerting. Ethan takes a look and thinks he's pretty scary. Oh, and there are bloodstains on the deck.
: Well, they just handed the girl over to a Lawful Evil group. That probably wasn't the best thing to do. They're not exactly majority good-aligned themselves, but those bloodstains didn't look promising. Ashra wants to just leave the girl for dead, but Leilah kinda wants to save her. Ethan has a full-fledged conscience and downright insists they save her. The other two decide that's okay, and they'll go with the saving the day plan. It feels pretty weird to do good things.
: Ashra asks Fab D to scry on Ruska. He finds her immediately, strapped to an altar in the Crna Ruka similar to the one Ashra ended up on. However, she is bleeding out very slowly. On the altar in Infernal is "There are worse things than being banished to the 237th." Near her is a priest wearing a symbol of Duplicitous.
: Ashra's explanation of the Duplicitous symbol actually meaning Tiamat and how the lich in the Ruins of Eldergrin was wearing it but they didn't tell him because they were getting along so well breaks the deathlock for a minute, but when he's recovered he tells the others that Tiamat was banished to the 237th circle of hell. Well, shit.
: The party decides that since the warehouses are near the docks, they should kill two birds with one stone and go after both the Crna Ruka and the warehouse. Leilah considers Commune, which would give them 13 questions; Ashra throws together an algorithm which would allow them to have the correct letter of the alphabet in six questions. However, Leilah doesn't have Commune prepared, and it wouldn't work because the goddess has already given her that information -- it's in her dream, though she doesn't know that.
: Leilah tries to pray to Anahita, asking to be allowed to Commune with her, but she critically fails and a divine wind starts blowing the ship back towards the Crna Ruka. Well, the wind had been blowing Big Damn Heroes-wards for a while, and now it literally is, so they'd better work out this warehouse thing fast and get ready to rock. Not thinking of the dream riddle, Leilah and Ethan use the Map's information about the layout of the warehouses, combined with the information about the angle Lowdy and Edward came from, to work out that the only plausible warehouse is Warehouse H. That decided, everyone starts buffing. Ashra makes Leilah and Zaphodel invisible, protective spells are tossed around like candy, and Ethan makes his hair black and eyes blue.
: The ship has a new toy: a Heal beacon which will heal people who run over it. Leilah decides there's no tactically advantageous place to put it, plus every party member can heal themselves, so they leave it on the ship for now. As they approach, they see the Bloodfoe, the Crna Ruka, and an unknown ship. Mooks are on the decks of the two known ships and around on the ground.
: Leilah takes the Shatterspike, hoping to break through the ship and free the girl that way. There is some discussion of the fact that killing people without a bounty on their heads is illegal, and Ashra takes a hit from the Fox's Cunning wand to make her mind blast more powerful. She spends the next few moments giggling and telling the party about her Int of 30.
: Zaph casts Prayer. The ship moves into position. Everyone drops down. Leilah takes off flying for the Crna Ruka and advises Ethan to cut the ropes on the abandoned ship, as the current would then take it towards the Crna Ruka. Ethan is initially wary of this idea, but starts walking over towards the abandoned ship. He identifies as The Fair Weather, which is one hell of a coincidence. He also summons a bunch of large zombies to start smacking around the mooks.
: Ashra looks at the patches of ice around and gets a very interesting idea. She moves to line up so that her spell will not hit any of the mooks, then stoops and casts Acid Bolt along the ground. Clouds of toxic nerve gas blossom in the air, killing one mook who was caught there. Suddenly there is a line along the docks no living being can cross. She spends a few moments being congratulated by the others and chortling happy things about battlefield control and oh god it worked and science!
: Leilah flies over to the Crna Ruka and blows a hole in it with the Shatterspike. She takes one look at the High Priest and cleaves him in two, then looks very confused for a moment and starts swearing about how being high priest means something in Nyasa and now she went and killed someone by accident.
: Ethan's zombies shove some mooks into the gas. The Bloodfoe starts to turn, opening up its cannons. Cannons? Well, then, there's a bounty on the heads of everyone on that ship! Awesome.
: A gunslinger starts waddling towards Ashra. A foe no one properly sees starts up a Gust of Wind to blow the gas at Ashra; she counters with her own, so the gas is billowing out in the middle of the docks. Someone shows up with a cannon and takes a couple of shots at Ashra and Zaph, who survive and share a Healing Circle.
: Archers from the Bloodfoe and the Crna Ruka take shots at Ethan and Ashra; Ethan is hit several times, while Ashra has managed to buff her AC high enough to take it.
: Ethan says sarcastically that The Fair Weather is totally Marcus's and therefore worth fucking up, dissolves the ropes on the Fair Weather with a Negative Energy Ball, and jumps aboard so it can sail towards the Crna Ruka and smash into it while hiding behind the upper deck. This makes him more of an annoyance than Ashra, so the Bloodfoe takes out any semblance of cover on the Fair Weather with cannons, allowing the archers to focus fire on him. Well, damn.
: The enormous frenzied berserker starts striking Leilah. She takes the hits, lifts the Shatterspike, and strikes down the altar, breaking it into four pieces. Pelor thinks she's a pretty cool cleric right now. Hopefully so does Anahita. She turns to the girl: "Take my hand if you want to live." Her hand is taken.
: The cannoneer disappears. The captain of the Bloodfoe, who has been shifting around strangely each round, tosses a Lightning Bolt at Ashra. It had to happen at some point. As she utterly fails to dodge, she feels something bizarre in her mouth. The gunslinger finally waddles into range. She opens her mouth, holds her tentacles out of the way, and spits lightning at him. It isn't very effective, perhaps because she's distracted by how many levels this is so deeply wrong on.
: More and more archers start shooting Ethan. Leilah transfers the Protection from Arrows Ashra had given her to Ethan, allowing him to laugh off the arrows. The archers keep after him, perhaps because they don't have much else to do.
: Still holding the girl, Leilah trades blows with the frenzied berserker and nearly dies. She takes off more than half his health, but at the first strike he frenzies. She takes the girl and Dimension Doors off the ship, then calls Snake and asks the JKIII to come pick up the girl.
: The gunslinger shoots Ashra twice, each time nearly killing her before Zaph tags her with Heal. One of his shots fractures her rib. She tries to hide from him with Invisibility Circle, but he shoots without needing to see her. Asking Ethan to help finish him off, since the next shot will kill her, she hits the gunslinger with Arcane Fire and kills him instantly. Well then.
: Ethan starts taking out mooks right and left with Neg Balls. Ashra tries to toss an Arcane Fire at that guy who cast Lightning Bolt at her, but fails. The captain of the Crna Ruka jumps onto the Bloodfoe, and it sails off. The combat ends.
: The Jade Kracken III medevacs the girl to be treated for the second time. The party makes it around the poison gas, which Ashra is still gleeful about. Together they look at the door to the warehouse ...
: Ethan points out that in a few seconds, at least they'll have an army of zombies to send in first.
=== Episode Eleven: Missiles and Epistles ===
: Ethan is, however, still on The Fair Weather, which is floating out to sea. The Jade Kracken III sends down a grappling hook and starts towing it back as Ethan and his zombies loot the Fair Weather and the Crna Ruka. In addition to various goodies from both ships, his zombies pick up the strongboxes for later examination. At the very bottom of the Crna Ruka he finds three coffins with Darkness cast on them, two of which are open. He isn't strong enough to open the coffin himself, however, and decides to deal with it later. 
: Meanwhile, Ashra takes out her mirror and checks the warehouse. As soon as she sees the power runes on the door, they explode, blowing the doors open. Luckily, she was doing this from a good ways away and at an angle, so she, Leilah, and Zaph are not caught in the blast. 
: Ethan will take nine minutes or so to get back to land, by which time several of the party's buffs will have worn off. Leilah gets annoyed, casts Fly, flies out, picks him up, and carries him back to where they all are. 
:While Leilah is fetching the deathlock, Ashra levitates up and checks the roof (normal), then takes out the spyglass and looks out to sea. 
: The Bloodfoe is about five miles out, and has turned around and is coming back. Aw shit. They need to start things now.
: Ashra and Leilah check the other walls of the warehouse with their mirrors, and see nothing. 
: Through the opened doors is a small hallway with plywood walls and four doors. Ashra shouts "Nosrep fle lalah?" as a joke, but nothing happens. After checking with the mirror and Detect Magic and finding nothing out of the ordinary, Leilah decides to start Shatterspiking doors. The first is destroyed ... revealing the stone wall behind it. The second and third are similarly unsatisfying, but the final one opens into an actual warehouse. It is large, dark, and strangely laid out, with many shelves full of crates, all with strange numbers in the form (0-9) - (0-300). Ethan and Ashra take looks inside, then enter. 
:Ashra tries detecting thoughts, and finds that her normal 60-foot radius has been suppressed to 30 feet, though she can't tell why. She also can't levitate in there, nor can anyone else, though she re-tagged all of them. In the Mirror of True Seeing, Ethan looks like he normally does, instead of like a rotting corpse. Ethan's Detect Magic functions, but he can't even see his own inherent magic when he looks at himself. Telepathy isn't working, either. Well, shit. Zaph's connection still works, at least, and the buffs the party had cast before are still active. 
: Ashra hands Leilah the crowbar and walks out of the room. 
: Leilah opens the first crate she finds. It is full of a strange, incredibly heavy metal. She recognizes it as Futurium. Well, that'd explain the antimagic. 
: Ashra goes outside and puts an illusion of the closed over the real broken doors. She then casts Alarm, setting it to go off audibly as the mental ping wouldn't reach her. Zaph delivers the bag of holding to Ethan. 
: Leilah passes off the crowbar to Ethan and takes out her pick. The two start opening crates. They find several more crates of Futurium, but also some vials and some finished wolves' milk. As Ashra returns and opens another crate of Futurium, Ethan picks up a vial of wolves' milk and finds it has a string attached to it. An alarm sounds. Ethan shovels all the wolves' milk into the bag of holding. 
: Two guards emerge from the back of the warehouse and start leaping over shelves. Without access to magic and psionics, Ethan and Ashra are surprisingly at a loss. Ashra figures out a way to cut the shelf so that the guard will fall, but can't manage to do it with her adamantium dagger. She hisses at the guard who's standing on the shelf above her, but he doesn't appear fazed. 
: Leilah walks out into the hall and disbelieves Ashra's illusion so she can see outside. It is momentarily thereafter that Clint Walker arrives outside the illusion door. That wasn't Marcus's alarm that went off, it was Ashra's. But it summoned the guards. ... Well then. Ashra sends Zaph to wait in the hallway with a readied action to turn undead, since he might be undead. After he starts chugging Baldur Battle Cocktails, Ashra decides Zaph belongs safely in the warehouse with her. Leilah tiptoes backwards away from the illusion and starts quietly buffing herself. She's terrified of Clint. 
: One of the guards tosses Alchemist's Fire at Ashra. He's trained in its use, and it instantly sets her on fire. Another takes a shot at Ethan, who is still protected from arrows and shrugs it off. 
: Ashra runs up to the shelf that the alchemist's fire guard is on and hugs it, trying to light it on fire. It's pretty metal, but doesn't actually work. Ethan takes out his bow, muses aloud on how long it's been since he actually used it, and starts shooting guards. The guards shout "They're armed! Release the troll!" 
: Leilah slips through the door back into the warehouse as Clint bursts through the illusion. It fades at around the same time, as Ashra hadn't been keeping it up. 
: One of the guards sets Ethan on fire with more Alchemist's Fire. Zaph runs over to him and shoves him behind her as Ashra puts herself out. Ashra tries to climb up onto a box and then onto the shelf, but trips and falls down on the box. Ethan tells the party he really needs to get where he can heal himself before he gets deanimated by the fire, and Ashra swears about how much she hates gravity. 
: Ethan puts himself out, but the guard drops more Alchemist's Fire on him. Leilah continues retreating from Clint, and in so doing rolls a two that turns him female. He looks displeased by this. The troll arrives and looks in Ashra's general direction. 
: Leilah wants to create a rubble barrier to stop Clint, so she Shatterspikes a shelf. It collapses, but Ethan, Zaph and Leilah herself are pinned by the rubble. Ethan would have been deanimated by the fire damage but manages to be put out instead. He then pulls out his scroll of Chain Lightning, apologizes to Ashra, and reads. 
: A huge arc of electricity destroys the troll, then arcs to take out the two guards and strike Clint. Clint frenzies and rages. Leilah swears a lot. Ashra covers her head and stops making fun of the other two for being terrified of something in that battle. 
: Clint bursts through the stone wall. Leilah starts climbing through the rubble. Ethan and Zaph do the same. Ashra successfully gets up onto the shelves. She wants to use the disintegrate wand on the stone wall, but it is too unlikely to go off. Leilah tries to Shatterspike her way out, but the wall is stone and she blunts the sword instead. 
: Clint starts smashing shelves. Ethan manages to dodge and crawl his way back to the hall. Zaph is pinned under debris and Clint takes a couple of swipes at her, missing once and hitting once. Ashra, Zaph, and Leilah manage to escape further attacks from Clint, but it's slow going through the debris. 
: Ashra and Zaph climb up onto a shelf. Ashra decides to distract her. Fire is distracting! What's more, most of these warehouse shelves are made of wood. She takes out Alchemist's Fire, plans her shot, and tosses it over to Clint's right. A small fire starts. 
: Clint walks over and smashes the shelf Ashra and Zaph are on, throwing them to the ground and creating more rubble. 
: Leilah makes it to non-destroyed floor and has a clear way out. She grabs Zaph and picks her out of the rubble, then carries her part of the way to the door. Ashra tries to climb on her own, fails spectacularly, and causes everything around her to burst into flames. She decides she doesn't really mind this. Clint runs away from all the fire. Now they just have to get out before they burn to death. 
: Ethan Harms himself, then talks to the nice Goneril 18th Legion men outside, breaking out his best "I am scared and they were throwing fire at me and please let me get out now." After some confusion over the casting of Harm, the 18th Legion accepts this.
: Zaph gets down and runs out, followed soon after by Leilah. Ethan explains that there's one of his friends still in there, at which a Legion member says he has to save him and runs in. The "legion member," actually Liquid Snake, shadowjumps into the middle of the room and then fails to make it any further. 
: Ashra asks him if he needs any help himself. He replies that he doesn't. She isn't in any position to offer it in any case, as she fails in that special way again and causes all the fire to move five feet to the left. He makes it over to her and offers an arm, then shadowjumps them both to safety, remarking that she's slimy. 
: Everyone makes it out. The Imperator of the 18th Legion wants to take their statements. He doesn't need them after he sees their fancy passports, but they decide to offer a bit of help off the record. They claim that this must not be the real Black Hand, explain how the impostors were involved in blood sacrifice and other fucked up stuff, and claim to have been attacked and to have wandered into the warehouse because it was open and they wanted to investigate. They claim to have no idea where that nerve gas came from, it just kind of showed up. They also explain how the cannons on the Bloodfoe beat the shit out of the Fair Weather. Ethan manages to convince the imperator by implication that they're actually secret agents. The imperator asks to send some men around to take statements the next morning, and they agree. 
: Back on the JKIII, Vishnu asks what the fuck just happened. Ethan explains how something was very wrong there: it was like a dummy warehouse, or at least it wasn't for what they thought it was for. They didn't manage to find what was in there, though. They guess that the Fate was stored in there at one point, and Ashra is really glad that it wasn't any more considering she yelled "Nosrep Fle Lalah" through the door. 
: They got almost nothing from the venture, having fucked it up royally, but they've got a good bit from the ships. They decide to open the strongboxes. The log from the Fair Weather reveals it to be the ship of Professor Kaney, who writes about deciding to switch to using the XSS Magic Missile. It also contains the Crown of the Goblin King, which Ashra drools over before Vishnu grabs it as his first pick of items. 
: Kaney's strongbox wasn't trapped, but the Crna Ruka's is, and Ashra provides a Fiendish Ape to open the box. A puff of gas accompanies the opening of the box, and the ape instantly dies. The party lets the gas dissipate before looting the box, which is embroidered with Clint's name. They score some Potions of Dragon's Stun and other fascinating items. 
: Ethan and Ashra sort out the loot Ethan picked up from the ships. The party reads the letter picked up from the dragon cultists, which is as follows:
:: To ABC,
:: I hope preparations are going well. The new breed should prove quite useful. This area’s getting much too used to this type. Send word soon, maintain a low profile. Several days ago units in Landinis were destroyed. We’ve lost a major operating arm and we’ll need to step up Operation C. 
:: XYZ
: Ashra casts Read Magic and takes a look at the dragon cultists' book as well. It is a series of short phrases. They begin:
:: "Dragons are the essence of majesty and power. They exist to eat. They are the ultimate predator. They feed upon the world, balance it and master it. Dragons are the elements." 
: This continues for some hundred pages, which also describe how St. Cuthbert hassled Tiamat into leaving the Prime Material Plane to plot her return. She sent her weakest sons, the Axiomates, to the plane. It describes Tiamat as all-powerful, and says that it is possible for a normal being to ascend to a position of great power second only to her.
: Clint had a letter too, which reads: 
:: To Captain Clint Walker
:: Your shipment will be ready in a few days. The old one will be ready by tomorrow night. 
:: ABC
: The party divides loot. Ethan gets the creepy magic stuff, Ashra claims the non-lightning wands, and Leilah takes some magic items and weapons. Ashra convinces Leilah to prepare Fox's Cunning for her before battles. 
: They meet up with Mitch. First Leilah gives him the Blackguard of the Dome. Then she begins to introduce the dragon, but gets annoyed with Ashra's interrupting her. Ashra takes over the narration, and Ethan brings the dragon's head. Mitch vomits repeatedly but agrees it's awesome, and gets it mounted in the forum. Then they bring out all the gunpowder mooks and the two who had drugs on them. (Drugs that were totally there before. Yes. Nothing at all suspicious about this.) They bring out Edvard Kevil. Best for last, they throw down Marcus Fairlan's body. Ethan expresses concern about how the body will be handled; the standard is burning and scattering of ashes, but Ashra offers to disintegrate the body instead, and Mitch agrees. He pays them with a suitcase of astral diamonds, then announces their deeds to the populace, crediting them as Bona Fortuna, Inc. 
: Leilah makes a remark about whether Ashra would eat her brain, and wonders aloud how it feels to have tentacles attach to your skull. Ashra explains she's eaten human brains before and has no compunction about it, nor would she have a particular issue with doing so to Leilah, but she likes Leilah and has no reason to kill her. Ashra points out that Leilah has been insulting her since the warehouse, where she'd made several remarks about wanting to kill her in irritation. She's traveled with people who hate her before, but she'd like to know what the problem is. 
: Leilah says she's been terrified for the first time by Clint. She says she's interested in how well Ashra can control her Sanity Point. Ethan says it sounds like she's trying to live on the edge by baiting the mindflayer, and explains that it is not a good idea and needs to stop now. Leilah says that's not her intent, and Ashra says she has nothing against Leilah. The two reach a peace. 
: Ashra buys the silver necessary to make the ScryPad usable to Leilah, then gives it to her. The party decides as a whole to donate the dragon meat they have to the town, as it'll go bad anyway and this way everyone will like them more.
: It's time to go to a party. The party is underwhelming; the four are by far the best-dressed individuals there, and there's not much to do. There are no half-elves besides the one they brought, and no one gives anyone any internal organs. They bring Mitch the dragon's heart, which he eats a bit of, vomits again, then praises as metal. Once the clerics of Ganth leave, the moonshine starts flowing. Leilah cleans up at some concentration games, and rebuffs the advances of a soldier. Ethan makes some iced mixed drinks and serves them. To people from Point North. He's pretty persuasive. Ashra is mostly quiet, listening to the drunk people and trying to figure out what they're up to. The party is, by this point, fairly well-loved in Point North. 
: When they get back to Vatislavil's, Ashra explains a theory she'd come up with and asks Ethan to help her test it. When Alphabet sent the brain and the tea, they paid attention to the brain because it was so unusual. Fab D looked for poison on it, but not on the tea, which Ashra had consumed without really thinking about it. Her SR would have remained up even when she was unconscious, but the Circle of Greater Teleport went off. It could have just had a very high caster level, but the captain of the Bloodfoe had also had a far easier time than he should have hitting her with lightning. 
: Ashra thinks the tea had poison which damaged her spell resistance, but which she did not feel taking effect. Leilah confirms that such poisons exist in her readings, and that they require knowledge of a spell that lowers SR in order to make. Ashra asks Ethan to hit her with Inflict Minor Wounds while she keeps her SR up so that they can test whether or not it's easier to overcome than it should be. A few pokes on the arm later, they determine that it is, and she was right. 
: The next morning they give their statements to the 18th Legion and leave. They will take the full month to travel by sea from Point North to Baldur City, stopping by Port Townsend. Well, that's Vishnu's first idea, before the party explains about how Grax's armies might kind of be right next to there and also the Pirate Kings are in an emergency conclave. When he's done shitting bricks, Vishnu explains that conclave is very rare. For example, the Revolution of 1441 didn't merit a conclave -- hell, it merited humorous skits. The pirates are so powerful that almost nothing phases them. They can demand ransoms for people from countries and get well in excess of what it would cost to True Resurrect the person. 
: They haven't gone into conclave in three years. Whatever this is, it's big. It could happen because an overwhelming majority of the pirates disapproved of the actions of the Pirate King, or because of something that required the combined actions of all the pirates, such as fighting the kraken or an elder aboleth god. 
: To put it mildly, the party probably won't stop in Port Townsend. They'll Wind Walk to the Dark Tower and back to speedrun it before quick shopping in Baldur and then South City Secrets. 
: Ashra and Ethan test her SR further and determine that it has been lowered by seven points; it will take two weeks to recover fully, which is slower than Leilah's readings led her to expect. Then again, Ashra has been beaten to hell and back in the last week and is probably taking a bit longer to recover anything these days. The strength of the poison matches the strongest one Leilah has heard of. 
: Leilah starts asking questions of her goddess, while Zaph handles Sendings for Ethan. The two clerics also get the water made holy so that Leilah can also scry on the ScryPad. 
: Leilah learns that there is not a Graxian fleet within 30 miles of Corinth. There isn't one on the ocean, in fact. One has come within 60 miles of Port Townsend in the last two months. He or his troops have landed in the last week. In the past month they have made contact with supply ships coming from Nyasa. Edmund Vargus is alive. 
: The Bloodfoe is sailing from Point North, and it is going south. Anahita does not know if it's heading to Baldur. During its last two sea transits, it was holding sacrificed prisoners. The Bloodfoe has a sacrificial altar, but the Nauteloid does not. 
: The Awakening has not come to pass. There are not multiple incarnations of Baudin on the Prime. There is a military fleet off the east coast of the Northern Continent. 
: Faced with the confirmation that Grax's troops are near Port Townsend, not Corinth, Ashra reveals that given the location of Mind's Touch that she knows from the map, its population -- if there is one still -- would be a prime candidate for Grax to send to mess up Corinth so it looks like his troops did so. Anahita does not know if there are illithids in Mind's Touch, though. 
: According to The Map, Mind's Touch is in one of several hollowed out mountains and is populated by aboleths, a race of enormous aquatic aberrations which even illithids consider hyperintelligent and antisocial. Ashra guesses that it was originally an aboleth city which the illithids later took over. Leilah tells her that the Nyasans have destroyed "Mind's Touch" three times since the illithids arrived, but each time they regroup in a different location. 
: Shiolay confirms that the fake symbols of "Cuthbert" (actually of Tiamat) which Ethan recovered from the Crna Ruka are doing it wrong -- the circles are in the wrong places. He's never heard of the "ten clean kills" idea, and the one who offered it was Solid, who can't be resurrected until the party can find an economy big enough to afford a 10,000 GP diamond. 
: Tobo has a house now. He played in Baldur at the liberation -- they called it Baldurbash. Apparently the government is working pretty well now, but he hasn't been back since then. 
: Sil'meelen offers that Pyotar was reported killed in action during the Liberation of Baldur, according to enemy records. The party does not believe it for a minute. The undead are still illegal in Baldur, she tells Ethan, and she's got no idea about illithids. It hasn't come up, what with there not being any. 
: Andrey says she turned Jose back to flesh about a month ago, and they are now in a small village near where Yarmoth was, staying with Alton Hilltopple. No, it's okay, don't visit. 
: Ashra asks Ethan to help her figure out what they know of that can lower spell resistance, since Leilah's knowledge, while vast, isn't always applicable. All they can come up with are Frozen Fates. Well ... well shit. Frozen fates and tea, two things they didn't really expect to put into a category together. 
: The party also takes time as they're sailing to compare notes on history. 
: Vargus was moderately good at making deals during his presidency -- he certainly managed to work something out during the Goneril Border Crisis, but he didn't build coalitions well within his own government. He was terrible domestically because of his extremely conservative reform ideas. Ethan heard his speeches in the past, and found him charismatic. No one knows where he was after the revolution, though the rumors had been that he was alive and in hiding. It was thought by some that the king of Malvont hid him, but the king didn't mention him during the important meeting to which the party was invited. That could just mean that the king really wanted him to stay hidden, though. The fleet to retake Baldur wasn't funded by Vargus, it was almost entirely Malvont and Goneril, which is strange because Rebecc-is and Baldur didn't tend to get along so well. 
: After illithids appeared under Baldur City, they lived as a Southern Continent-style predatory civilization for about an (illithid) generation before their leaders decided to meet with the human leaders and work out how to integrate them into society. The fact that the humans threatened to obliterate the illithid city, which they vastly outnumbered, might've had something to do with it. In Malvont they stayed secret for far longer before attempting to see if they could integrate into society. (Hence why Ashra was sent to work as a tax collector there.) 
: Since drow weren't legally people at the time, the illithids used to raid their communities for thralls whenever they felt like it. The drow were starting to organize enough to fight back. The President of Baldur gave an executive order that Malicor negotiate a truce between the two, which he set about doing by wiping out a drow settlement. While this ostensibly was shifting power back to the illithids, Ashra notes that destroying their main source of thralls would not do them a favor. Lady Elan, President of the Senate at the time, vetoed the order and forced Malicor to stop. Her action kept the Ruling Council from having a monopoly on force, but also was the first move towards drow rights. The drow being acknowledged as people dramatically cut down on the illithids' source of thralls and thus their population growth. 
: The humans treated the illithids with cautious optimism; the longer-lived races were far less accepting. By the constitution, the illithids should've had a seat on the Ruling Council, but in all the years since they entered the Guildhome System, they were never allowed it. Illithids are traditionally Popularii, even before Grax, because if they applied their usual philosophy of "let the strong win", theirs would be the civilization deserving of destruction -- as long as they accept the limits placed by the government on their aquisition of thralls, they will never be able to reproduce quickly enough to keep up with the other species. Also, the other Popularii species seem to be the ones that don't get invited to parties or Ruling Councils, either. 
: On the subject of Grax's bizarre age, Ashra mentions that assuming he was very young when he ran away to Malvont University, he could still be within the forty year lifespan. If he intends to become an alhoon, or to seek some other immortality, or to somehow meet with the Mother and be absorbed, he could be spending the last years of his life bringing his plan to fruition. 
: About that being very young thing. Illithids are ceremorphized with basic skills and the ability to speak, but they don't yet know how to think and process, and they're very emotionally underdeveloped. Ashra suspects her own abnormal personality is in part due to leaving the resonance stones and traveling with a group of adventurers; with no magic teaching her how to feel, she may have learned to be hotheaded and adventurous from her human companions. (That's also probably why it took her a few extra years to gain her psionics.) Ethan imagines aloud what it might be like if Grax had been extremely young when he left, growing up with no information from the Mother and the Macavians as his only guide to emotion. He laughs and wonders if he was friends with Grax, too, back in life -- he does seem to have a talent for stroking illithids' egos. 
: The strange star device Ethan picked up on the Crna Ruka is a portable star, which requires invoking one's deity to activate. The party figures this out by way of Ashra learning she can never say the command words, and thus spends a while thinking one has to hold the star and apologize. Ashra doesn't have a god, either, though there is that one god she thinks is a pretty cool guy. But that's not really worship. Also, given that one incident with Barron Ganth and an amulet, invoking him and apologizing might be pretty similar for her, so whichever way you look at it, that's not going to work. Leilah is probably the only one who can use it. The party still doesn't know what a portable star actually does, only how to activate it and that it isn't used up when activated. 
: The party decides to scry on Claire to make sure she's out of the tree before they Send to her. They see her sitting in a small medical facility, without visible wounds. Her face is completely blank, and she does not reply or react to a Sending asking about the general state of herself and Baldur. It seems to be a mental institution, and that's weird: she'd been cured of her insanity the last they saw her, she was fine when they Sent to her before, and there's no one near her to take enough care of her to bring her to such a hospital for her own health. Ethan reveals she's the daughter of the old leaders of the Assassin's Guild who had been mindwiped for her own protection, and as such people might want to go after her. She is so still Ashra wonders if she's been thralled until Ethan Sends again: "We're coming to get you, Claire." 
: As she rocks back and forth, an insane grin spreads across her face.
===Episode Twelve: Dimension Door Solves All Our Problems===
: As the party sails on, Leilah twitches in a corner for the first couple of weeks, going through withdrawal from Divine Power. Ashra and Ethan take another corner to conspiracy theorize and discuss their desire to blow up everything. Ethan has Zaph Send to the Blackguard of the Dome "You be good. Signed, Ethan of Malvont." The party hopes he will shit bricks.
: They eventually get to another round of Sendings and scrying. Ashra thinks she's gotten the hang of scrying, and Leilah now has access to the ScryPad, so everyone can join in on the scrying party. First they begin to ask who's in for the Axiomate fight, scrying beforehand to ensure it's safe to Send.
: Andrey, still in the tent city near where Yarmoth was, agrees, provided that anyone becoming a god will ally with Yondalla and become the patron deity of Yarmoth. Bear Force One will come, too.
: Ulfgar is in the Underdark, and is in. Yolanda is in The Stumbling Duck. She's in too.
: Tobo thinks it sounds awesome. He's in, and it'll make a great song afterwards.
: Lucy spends the first two weeks in conclave, then responds. He is on another mission, so he and his crew can't come, but when Ethan has time, has he ever got a story. Ethan replies in kind.
: Ariana/Queenie is spending all her time as Queenie. The party decides to convince both of them separately, but start with Ariana; they scry repeatedly but never see Ariana. When they'd met last Ariana had been steadily becoming the more dominant personality, so this is surprising.
: Valera Oak III is in.
: Jaxis says when Ethan asks that his sister is still in stasis, and he's in. He's in Landinis right now, actually; when asked if any major upheaval has taken place recently, he says that about a month back some people blew up two bars. This is too recent to be the party's destruction of two bars; also it was obviously them when they did it.
: The real Baudin Dommilan is in the church of Farlanghn when the party makes contact, but he's in. He also agrees that he will be on the same ship as Ashra without trying to kill her for that whole mutiny thing.
: Apple wonders who the hell is calling him anyway, and says no.
: A quick check of the crew reveals that Fab Dick, Sam Ash, Oldglor, and the Twin Snakes will all aid the party in their epic battle. (Liquid speaks for his BROTHA!, who cannot be resurrected until the party reaches Baldur.)
: Neither Ming-ui nor Gauve can be found.
: Sendings done, the party moves on to scrying.
: The party scries on Claire repeatedly over the timeskip to make sure it's not a False Vision fooling them. She does appear to really be there. Leilah uses Greater Scrying to observe her over the course of twelve hours with several detect spells up. She learns that Claire is once again chaotic evil, and that she is in Hellfire Prison in South Baldur. Hellfire Prison contains everything from comparatively minor criminals to powerful creatures that can't be contained anywhere else. It is also where people awaiting trial wait, and where those awaiting a death sentence would wait. Death sentences in times past consisted of being delivered to the illithids to be thralled and then ceremorphized; those who were unfit hosts for new illithids would instead be shot in the courtyard. Leilah manages to ascertain that Claire is on the fourth floor in a mental ward, in solitary confinement in the northeast corner.
: Attempting to scry on The Dark Lantern, last seen in Claire's possession, reveal merely that it is somewhere in Baldur. Scrying is difficult, as though it were obscured by Futurium or a similar magical suppressant.
: Alphabet does not turn up, indicating he probably is permanently Nondetected. So he wasn't just chilling in Warehouse H the last time the party looked. Aw, well.
: The Blackguard of the Dome is engaging in, er. Intimate relations with someone probably not quite of legal age. The kind of relations that make Ashra go walk to the other end of the ship and stare at things that are not the ScryPad, and make Ethan request that Zaph Send with "I see what you're doing there". A short discussion on whether or not Pelor approves of trolling pedophiles ensues, with the eventual conclusion of "I dunno, man, Pelor."
: The white dragon's cave is empty, its hidden room destroyed.
: The illithid guildhome is occupied by Sluf and his men. There are a lot of dwarves there. They appear to have converted it into a base of operations of some kind, but are leaving its structure intact. Ashra moves the scry to the illithid city itself and finds it full of drow.
: While Ashra is pacing and swearing in Illithid, Leilah tries looking for Corinth. The streets are empty. The docks appear to have sustained heavy damage, but the buildings are intact. The tent cities are gone.
: Ashra looks for her old companion Thimblewill Undertow and fails to find him; he may be protected against scrying in some way.
: Tyro cannot be found.
: Poetry is on a beach, riding a brown horse, armed.
: The sword Ethan lent to Fauxdin does not detect, even when he uses the jewel from its hilt as a focus. Ethan hands the jewel to Fab Dick out of curiosity whether or not the evil aura extends to the jewel. Fab Dick is burned by the evil jewel and immediately drops it. Ethan and Ashra laugh at him.
: On May 19th, they get close enough to the Dark Tower to windwalk there and speedrun it. It's a nice warm morning, very different from the winter in Goneril they've been used to. The tower is about ten miles off of the road, and there are tracks leading there. There are the ruins of battlements surrounding it, and it's more clearly broken down than it was when Ashra remembers it. It doesn't look very different from what Ethan remembers from when the party was on King's Road a year ago.
: The party resumes corporeal form to examine the door, which has magical writing on it:
::My first is foremost lawfully
::My second spirals outwardly
::My third leads all in victory
::My fourth leads twice in nominee
::My whole is what all people speak
: On close examination, Ashra finds that the "l" in "..fourth leads..." has a small slot carved into it. She does not recognize the riddle on the door. Saying "love" and "lean" does nothing; after some failed guessing at the meaning of the puzzle ("What all people speak? Money!" "... I thought it was Common. Now I feel naive.") the party fires up their Wind Walk again and slips under the crack in the door.
: They find themselves in the tapestry room. Mud has been tracked through the middle of this room, while Ashra remembers it as undisturbed. Also, the tapestries have degraded from when Ashra saw them last. Leilah starts checking her bardic knowledge on the events depicted, then remembers that the one who told her about the tapestries is in the room with her. Ethan says that none of the tapestries are magical. Ashra examines the tapestry of gears. In the mirror it is no different from normal; she has Ethan lift up the tapestries with Mage Hand, and there is nothing on their backs.
: The door to the next room is white and offers no cracks for glitching through. It has a well-made mechanical lock on it. This lock is also made of metal, so it meets a quick and ignominious Shatterspike-induced death at Leilah's hands.
: The next room is a ten by ten foot room, pure white, with a ring on a chain hanging from the ceiling. The ring is magical. This room looks like the "make six" room that Ashra remembers and Marcus alluded to, but there is no writing on the walls and she doesn't remember seeing a ring.
: After some discussion about the safest way to approach this, Ethan summons a zombie to pull the ring. A stone wall slams down between the zombie and the party, cutting off Ethan's connection to it. The party looks at the wall for a bit; Ashra estimates that from the sound it was a wall, not a block, so it should be hollow on the other side. She knocks on the wall with her fist, then after a moment's consideration sticks her hand right through it. Hello there illusion.
: The party walks through the fake wall into the room. Once they're all inside, they have Leilah pull it. Ashra hears the sound of falling water.
: Oh, right, this was a water trap. As Leilah considers Shatterspiking the bolt holding the chain and the ring to the ceiling, the letters "IV" appear on the wall. The whole room is magic now.
: Ashra stares at it a moment and then decides this has become the "Make Five" trap, but can't remember how on earth her previous party managed to get the letters on the wall. Ethan tries prestidigitating them on, but it won't allow that. Ashra tries tracing them with her finger and pressing on the wall, to no effect. Leilah warns that when the party is about to drown, she's going to destroy the bolt. Ashra draws the letters with her adamantium dagger, but that doesn't work either. The party hasn't actually been asked to do anything. Ashra and Leilah each try pulling the ring with pauses in between pulls to input Xenteroth's Sequence, but it doesn't work either time. Ashra tries to disbelieve the ceiling, but it appears to be solid stone.
: The water is reaching rather high now, and when Leilah guesses they have thirty seconds of air left, she destroys the bolt. The chain and ring fall down uselessly. With ten seconds of air left, Ashra says she has a better idea. She grabs everyone's hands and Dimension Doors fifty feet straight up.
: The party is now hovering (thanks to levitation) forty feet in the air in the main room. Below them is the illusory patch of floor leading into the water trap -- the ceiling was an illusion, just one incredibly difficult to disbelieve. There is a large mosaic on the floor of a six-fingered hand clutching lightning bolts. Three levers are near it, labeled with red, green, and blue. On the other side of the room is an altar of an unknown white stone. There is a shattered, hollow obsidian sword lying on the altar.
: This looks familiar to Ethan, so he pulls out his books and starts flipping through. Leilah hovers nearby to fangirl the books. According to Ethan's research, this altar is to Erythnul and was used in a particular kind of sacrifice by the Discordians. It's like Blood Sacrifice but worse -- in addition to consuming their experience, this ritual would allow the caster to steal some of the soul of their victim, gaining a portion of their abilities. This magic splices souls together; if such a person were to try to repeat the ritual on another such person, the soul would shatter. Even to the Discordians, famous for killing each other as a system of political advancement, this was crazy illegal and one of the more horrifically evil acts Ethan can think of. It's also very expensive, requiring a specially made obsidian sword from the Southern Continent which is filled with dragon's blood. Oh, and the dragon had to have given the relevant blood willingly.
: He also recognizes the sword from Ille Draconum, where the legendary heroes saw such a sword stabbed into a door leading to a fate. The sword shattered at the time, and they didn't know what the liquid within was.
: Ethan considers the alchemical implications of the colors on the levers, since they look like the levers from the wizardry and alchemy puzzle in the Lighthouse of Telamore. Red is usually fire, such as alchemist's fire. Blue tends to be things that give HP buffs, and is the color of wolves' milk. Green is the color of many other potions, such as barkskin. Ashra points out that the blood they recovered from Alphabet's lair was also red, blue, and green.
: This is all fascinating and quite different from Ashra's memories, but the party decides that they really need to make it to Baldur City, so they leave it at that.
: Before they go back, Ethan uses Wind Walk to go back to King's Reach and look around. It is now a demilitarized zone, and shows the signs of having been used as an army camp and battleground during the revolution. The temple to Pelor has been completely razed, but it is still impossible to tell that there was a secret lair underneath it. The black dragon is gone. The bar has not been rebuilt. There are no obvious signs of vampire lairs, dead best friends, or portals to the Negative Energy Plane, so he returns to the JKIII.
: The next day, they're ready to enter Baldur. Vishnu says he owns this town now, and he wants Ethan to tell everyone he's the new guy in town. He also would appreciate it if they didn't destroy any major buildings, set anything on fire, or otherwise fuck up his reputation. As for South City Secrets, he's got no idea what's in there.
: At the docks, the JKIII is greeted by several priests of Farlanghn, who ask for a donation. Ethan tries to convince them he knows someone, which does not stop their shpiel. Leilah points out, to herself more than anyone else, that she's the daughter of a water goddess and doesn't really need anyone else helping out with her sea travel. After confirming that the party doesn't usually donate to the Church of Ripping People Off, Ashra pokes her head above decks, screams "FUCK OFF," and goes back down. This deals with the annoying priest problem, though one of them wishes that Farlanghn will curse Ashra with storms. She starts swearing, and Leilah reminds her that both Leilah and Ethan can control the weather now.
: Ethan takes his stock of wolves' milk and sells it on the market, netting the party a lot of money. He hits up all his old contacts, as well, though they don't really recognize him. From them he learns that Vargus has declared a term of state emergency and extended his own term until at least 1450, a rather ballsy move for someone who was supposed to be out of office already. There are some issues with restoring the republic, as well. First of all, no one wants to serve on the Ruling Council because it's a death sentence. Some guildhomes, such as the orcs, are afraid that if they select a representative who'll really represent their interests, their political views will be too close to those of the ousted Graxians, and they'll be assassinated or imprisoned by Vargus's men.
: The ranks of the separationist humans have grown, as well. The elves lack leadership, having lost Lady Elan to her assassination and Charilus when he fled with Grax. A couple of dwarves have taken the dwarven seat, but that is worth little. There have been calls to reorganize the Ruling Council to better suit the racial makeup of the city.
: There's also the issue of the censors -- namely, there aren't any. Since there aren't any, Senate elections can't be held. But since there are no elections, there's no Senate to appoint the censors. Eventually Vargus will have to appoint his lackeys, and they are sure to vastly favor humans, elves, and dwarves, Vargus's favored races.
: There are a lot of partisans. Elan's death in 1436 destroyed the Moderate faction, and everything is generally agreed to have gone to hell after that. There are a lot of holdover Graxians, and a lot of people who are glad that the revolution is over but hope some of its reforms will remain.
: As for their feelings on counterrevolutionaries, sentiments differ depending on who Ethan talks to. The Holy Returners definitely like them, but the people on the street have heard only horror stories about them for the last three years. Ethan meets a man from Tindersmarsh -- the same man who did not recognize him at The Lady Nocturne during the party's nautical escape from Baldur City. Ethan asks him about Tindersmarsh. Apparently Tyro is a great mayor, and he voted the hell out of that mayorial motherfucker (eight times). They have a really nice public library and public schools. There are also vampires, which Tyro did not install. They try to be a secret society, but they're known about. They tried to steal something of Tyro's, but he stopped them.
: Meanwhile, Ashra remains on the ship and makes more Wolves' Milk. Ethan brings her another couple thousand vials to put it in, and with some luck from Leilah and Zaph she manages to fill all of them under the time pressure. Besides needing most of that time to do the work, she does not want to mingle in Baldur, where stressed non-illithids who have only seen Grax and Xoth for the last few years might mistake her for one of her revolutionary brothers.
: Leilah hits the bars to look for information. She goes to a military bar and ends up chatting up the orc captain of the guard. She asks about South City Secrets and learns that several adventurers have been trying to get in. They have been arrested and sent to Hellfire Prison. The Goneril Third Legion is guarding the place, but there have also been attempts to get in by the government. These have failed completely after the first few rooms -- either they've left in defeat or died outright. There are concerns that the revolutionaries hid large parts of the city treasury there where the republicans couldn't find it, so that the government would be bankrupt and the revolutionaries could retrieve it on returning. The captain notes it was nice of them not to burn the city behind them as they left.
: The human guildhome has been abandoned because separationist humans don't want to have a guildhome at all and are keeping all others out. The illithid guildhome has been converted into a base of operations for Sluf's organization. Ashra, who'd been listening in on the ScryPad out of boredom on a break from making Wolves' Milk, starts pacing and swearing about how she's going to extract his brain one day and no one will stop her.
: The orc captain says there's been no sign of the drow. He then starts on a racist tirade about how it's good riddance really, and at least they know how to manage their minorities in Nyasa. Ashra's colorful language is not communicated across the scry, which is just as well really. Leilah feels a bit taken aback by this assertion as well, and decides it's time to talk to a civilian in a civilian bar.
: The civilian tells her about Vargus's speeches. He's trying to explain the political situation. They're making lots of raids on towns in Baldur, trying to recapture all the Graxian holdout towns. It's especially problematic because of land distribution: Grax made a lot of land reforms, giving land to its orc tenants and leaving the human landowners chilling in tents in Corinth. Now he's got to undo those reforms. He makes a couple of speeches a week, many of them in the city. Many of them are even in South Baldur.
: Asking about history, she learns that Vargus made a lot of changes in 1436. He made a change in how censors performed their duties, causing them to take the census much more often. He increased the frequency of election of the Senators to every four years, intending for it to match the Guildhomes. Then a lot of his enemies got elected.
: Leilah returns and the party concludes their shopping. Ethan gets True Testimony written into Ashra's spellbook, the clerics get Bracers of Reflex, and Leilah Resurrects Solid Snake. They're ready to go after the prison.
: The prison has magic on it prohibiting use of teleportation magic, but there's a courtyard in the middle of the building which is not so protected. The staircase between levels borders on that courtyard, so from the staircase it should be possible to Dimension Door as well. Snake suggests a plan involving bombs as a distraction and forged papers. The party decides to go with the forged papers, with Ashra pretending to be the leader because she looks very official, having worked in government her entire life. The others will be her interns. They won't try to smuggle bombs in, but the others will make a distraction while Ashra and Zaphodel retrieve Claire.
: They approach the gates of the prison. Ashra shows her faked papers, claims official business, and is shown in, the party following. They walk between two Walls of Force into the main door, where they are scanned by several mirrors. Leilah is told to take her robes off, as they have Magic Vestment cast on them; Ashra chastises her. Ethan has an amulet on him, but luckily the guards completely fail to notice it when searching him.
: The party shows their paperwork; Ashra's uses her real name, as there are so few illithids there is no point in pretending to be a fake. Leilah's is under Hannibal Baldur, and Ethan uses Richard of Baldur as his fake name. The head of the prison wants to know who they're there to see; he needs a prisoner number, not a name. He gets suspicious when they don't know the prisoner number. (It never showed up when Leilah was scrying.) After some hurried telepathic flailing, they try to convince him that they don't need it and that's his problem. He asks who sent them, and Ashra offers Sil'meelen's name. He calls her, and luckily she recognizes Ashra's name and covers for them. Ethan and Ashra share a mental note that they owe her a favor.
: He insists that they provide a prisoner number, then asks which magistrate sent them, starting to grow suspicious. Ashra attempts to intimidate him, which doesn't work very well. Ethan explains telepathically that they're the same as guildhome potentates; he recalls the names of the elven potentates, sinking a bit of Wisdom damage as a result. The potentates for the illithids were Xoth and the Mother Brain.
: Ashra shrugs and says the Mother Brain sent her. Hey, it's not even a lie ... kind of ... well, he doesn't believe her. She yells at him that she is sick of this shit and no, she's not lying. He screams back, and she loses her temper and Suggests "The Mother Brain did send me and I'm not lying!"
: He falls for it, but an alarm goes off, and guards start running towards the party. The door to the prison slams shut, and as Ashra stars screaming at the captain to open it, he explains that he can't, as the alarm goes off whenever magic is used and he doesn't have the ability to open the door now.
: A lot of shouting occurs. "Up against the wall!" "I am against the wall!" "Stand down! Put it down!" "I'm not holding anything, you morons!" The captain pulls out two pistols. Meanwhile, Leilah presses up against the door, shoving Ashra out of the way. She uses her Travel domain power to pop open the door despite the Hold Portal affecting it. While holding the door open with her foot, she grabs the captain's pistol and shoots him with it, blasting him back through a secret door into a secret room. Ethan slips past Leilah and starts running down the hallway; Ashra mindblasts most of the advancing guards and then follows with Zaph, and Leilah takes up the rear.
: As they turn the corner, another group of guards runs up to meet them. They take some swipes at Ashra and Ethan. Ethan hits some of them with Cause Fear, then adds a Blade of Pain and Fear. Ashra screams at them that they're going the wrong way, and all but one run obediently away. Leilah comes up behind Ashra and tags her with Find the Path, which tells her that they need to double back to reach the staircase.
: Coming up behind them are more guards. Ethan makes a three-foot long corridor of gnashing teeth appear in the hallway, which doesn't scare the guards but is pretty freaky looking. Ashra Suggests to the first guard, "They're in the courtyard; go get them!" and he runs off, telling the others to follow them. Most of them do follow him. There is one standing next to the stairwell who shrugs off Leilah's Greater Command.
: As the party is considering how to get him out of the way, the door pops open, knocking him back. It's ... Yolanda? Wasn't she at her bar? Apparently not. She's as surprised to see the party breaking in as they are to see her breaking out. She knows of no others of the party's friends who are in there. The party dashes up the stairs and pushes open the fourth floor door.
: The fourth floor is clearly a mental ward -- the walls are padded, and the orderlies there carry swords and scrolls. Ethan identifies them as ragemages. Apparently most ragemages aren't as weird, smart, or cute as Ethan.
: Leilah tries to summon something to deal with the orderlies, but it fizzles -- magic is very suppressed here. Ethan runs past the first orderly, but Ashra would be enough of a threat for him to swipe at. Well, if he's going to hit her anyway... She runs up and tries to grapple with him; he fails to hit her, but she can't manage to attach anything. Leilah runs past. Another orderly down the hall stands in the way; he has a halberd. Leilah shoves him out of the way so Ethan can run on. Ethan screams Claire's name.
: A nerdy-looking mage holding a bowl of antimagic runs toward Ethan. Ethan runs towards him and punches the bowl, shattering it.
: The antimagic hits the ground. All along the ward, cell doors open. Claire staggers out of her cell towards Ethan's familiar voice; she looks messed up, but together enough to recognize him. Ashra leaves the orderly alone and runs after Ethan, shouting to Claire who she is and that it's going to be okay. Claire recognizes Ashra as well and comes forward; Ethan starts leading her.
: Now they only have to get to the stairwell. Everyone starts going back. As they pass by, an old man reaches out and hands Claire the Dark Lantern. Ashra asks him if they know each other, and he says no. She thanks him for the powerful artifact, he acts confused, and she laughs at him. The others reach the stairwell one by one. Last of all Ashra reaches the stairwell, trailing Zaph, and the two grab Claire and Ethan's hands. As the archers begin shooting at them, they disappear to a safe place. Leilah grabs Yolanda and follows momentarily.
: The falling antimagic did more than the party had expected. All the doors had been held only with hold portal. All the doors. As the antimagic ripples down to the levels where the balors are held, someone shouts out "ASHRA!"
: "... did anyone else hear that? ... I might be as hated as Ethan now, almost... Guys ... guys, this is my home town. I ... I would want to live here if the world were ever sane again. And I wasn't even the one who dropped the antimagic. ... Guys?"
===Season Finale: Now You're Thinking With Portals===
: It's a cold day in Wroth's End. After some hardcore shopping in Malvont ("So is this okay?" "Yes." "And now this?" "Yes. I gave you a budget. I am delegating. See? This is me delegating." "Okay.") the extended party has gathered in a pathetic shelter to discuss and plan their attack. Ethan, Ashra, and Leilah are there. Baudin has come to join them -- the real one this time, standing on the opposite side of the room from Ashra. Oldglor has arisen from his nap. Shiolay is there in all his saintly glory, having really ascended to power. Yolanda and her upgraded bag of futurium are making an appearance, and Ulfgar is with her. Claire is there -- or rather, Mister Bait Snugglesworth is standing in front of two mechs, and Ashra finds an extra consciousness on Detect Thoughts. Sil'meelen has come and brought Fauntleroy with her.
: A strange man has also arrived, and claims they can call him Arin. He claims his employer wants him to get up the mountain and retrieve something, and he's very annoyed to hear that there are also epic dragons involved. He's clearly not all that fond of Ashra and illithids in general, and generally confused by how fucked up the party is, but he comes to terms with it fairly quickly because he wants to get up the mountain. He warns that teleporting up is a Bad Idea, according to his employer, and eventually reveals that his employer is Barron Ganth, and that he's been sent to punish "that hubristic motherfucker." He confirms that this does not refer to Ashra.
: Ashra decides to open the division of useful items with one that's not that useful at all. Ethan confirms that if he does ascend to godhood, he's going to leave the party -- they're wanted enough as is without bringing all the rest of the heat down on them. As a going away present, she gives Ethan a wand of light. He laughs and swears. Leilah hands out cure potions to everyone in the party who can't heal themselves.
: There's some general confusion about their mission, so Ethan and Ashra decide to lay it on the table. They explain about the dragons and the portfolio. Then the party divides into teams: Ethan's team to kill dragons, Ashra's to go find the portfolio, and Leilah's to keep Ethan's team alive. The picking process is rather like middle school PE. Ethan gets himself, Yolanda, Baudin, Arin, Snugglesworth, Kruglor, Fauntleroy, and Ulfgar. Ashra gets herself, Zaph, Claire, and Kruglor. Leilah gets herself, Sil'meelen, and Shiolay.
: Teams chosen, the party begins their ascent. The dwarves and Yolanda scramble up. There's quick debate of whether levitation will work or not. Ashra sends up Dancing Lights ahead of her to test for antimagic fields, and on finding none begins to float up with Zaph. Lightning promptly strikes the two of them, and they return to the ground as she swears. Baudin starts tying people to a rope, then tosses the other end to the people on the top. As they start hauling, they hear "I'LL HELP." Jaxil Motherfucking Icewinton, now a male half-giant, reaches an enormous arm over them to help them pull their comrades to the top. Everyone goes up one by one, Ashra and Zaph on the same rope, and last of all Baudin ties himself to the rope. So the party reaches the top of the cliff.
: It's rather like the illusion sphere: there's the door with "And only the Great Mother, Crusher of the Impious, begrudged the ill-gained gift" written on it, there's the red hat, there's the snow and the wall. There's a flash of silver, too, as Claire sees, but no one else notices it. The illusion sphere showed a hat in Ethan's colors rather than Tyro's, and said "greedy Tiamat" instead of "the Great Mother", but just about everything else is the same. A lot of people see the red hat and simultaneously have a "FFFFF-" reaction, but Tyro does not appear.
: Ethan and Arin talk about Barron Ganth for a bit. Arin is pretty annoyed that Ganth didn't tell him anything -- no dragons, no adventuring parties looking for portfolios, no nothing. He overhears Ethan and Baudin's discussion about giving Baudin lots of magical items with inflict spells (the words "and if I'm really fucked, you can just break the wand over my head" might have been uttered) and is kind of curious about that. Baudin distracts Arin for the moment by telling him that Ethan's mother was cursed and Ethan is grave-touched, so he needs to be healed with negative energy. Arin kind of buys it, while Ethan telepathically reminds Baudin not to stay on this topic for too long, but thanks for the help.
: Arin tells Ethan that he and Ganth go way back. He owed Ganth a favor. Ethan is kind of starting to remember why Arin looks so familiar -- something about gargoyles, maybe -- and ventures that maybe Ganth owes Arin more favors than Arin does Ganth. Arin says that it's more of a mutual favor-owing by this point, and hey, wait a minute, where are you coming up with that? Ethan says that he reads a lot. Arin mutters something about literacy being overrated.
: The party starts buffing. Leilah passes out scrolls of Stoneskin and has various party members read them out. Soon everyone has most of their stats buffed and is resistant to most energies; Ethan has used a skull to give himself several permanent effects while the party was shopping. Claire tries to buff herself and instead finds herself in possession of a +2 silver surfboard. Ethan moves over to Ashra and tells her that she might remember Arin from a certain gargoyle that they defeated with a music puzzle. Ashra wasn't very awake when they fought the gargoyle, though, and doesn't specifically remember it. Ethan gives her a hint: think epic poetry.
: Kruglor walks up to the hat and is suddenly teleported into the middle of the dragons' lair. There are four of them, asleep: red, blue, green, and a strange orange dragon. There is also a nest full of dragon eggs. A sarcophagus is in the middle of the room, borne up by a waterfall, and at one end of the room is a giant magical portal to Tiamat's realm on the 237th layer of the Abyss. There seem to be other portals dotting the room.
: Baudin notices the teleportation and tells the party with his senses learned from his time spent on other planes of the multiverse that the teleportation was tied to the square, not the hat. Claire jumps on, and finds herself on the other end of the same portal. The place where she and Kruglor emerged is on a high ledge, and there's a ramp down to the ground. She surfs down, breaking her surfboard but managing not to wake the dragons as she does so.
: Ethan tells Arin that, okay, fine, he's undead, and if Arin has a problem with it, he's kind of stuck, isn't he. Arin says that he's okay with the undead, but none of this was what he expected, really. Arin and Baudin move towards the teleportation square. Ethan follows, casting a few last-minute buffs.
: Ashra asks Fauntleroy to come with her, as the rest of her team just disappeared. When she points out that she is not going directly after epic dragons, he readily agrees. Ashra walks up to the door and says "Nosrep fle lalah." The door slams open. Inside there are loud screams as every dragon wakes. Well damn. Fauntleroy and Claire are paralyzed with fear. Sil'meelen provides her Aura of Courage to everyone who is still outside the dragon's lair. Baudin yells, "Ashra, what did you do this time?!" Arin asks how the hell Ashra knows that phrase. Ethan tells him that the party knows their history. Also, their electromagnet-induced illusions courtesy of Barron Ganth. Arin vows to have words with Ganth.
: Snugglesworth zaps in in his mech and lands on the floor. One of the dragons divebombs him, attempting to smash him into the ground. He takes some damage and considers allowing the mech to explode. Kruglor throws bones at several dragons, causing them all to come after him, then zaps back up to the outside through the same portal. The strange orange dragon flies up through the passage and sits waiting for the party to enter the now open doors. Arin shadowjumps behind it and sneak attacks it with a powerful magical rapier. As he does so, he shouts, "When you get to hell, tell them motherfucking Telamore sent you!"
: That's right. Captain Elrand Telamore, legendary hero, sea captain, and purveyor of the best dick moves is fighting the Axiomates with them. They hadn't even realized he was still alive. This day just got even more awesome.
: Ethan yells, "I FUCKING KNEW IT!" into the tunnel after him. Ashra immediately curses Telamore out for that antimagic trap. Claire praises him for the same. Telamore relishes in their reaction. He blames his first mate Party Cat for the alchemist's fire trap that Ethan blames him for, but accepts the credit for the antimagic trap -- he really doesn't like tax collectors. Ashra says he'd better stick around long enough after this to tell her the solution, and he laughs -- "solution?!" "... so the solution is to use another route?" That is in fact it. She swears a bit more, though she did technically find the solution at the time. Just, you know. After dropping many feet.
: Baudin joins Telamore in the tunnel, and the two have a flanking party. Ethan reaches Leilah on his way to the tunnel, receives a Shield of Faith, and resists the urge to go crazy before he has anything to actually attack.
: The group in the lair sink a breath weapon. Claire recovers and starts hiding.
: Ashra takes a hit from the wand of Fox's Cunning, looks around, and notices a strange patch of water. When she looks from far away, it seems far deeper than it should. She approaches with Zaph and stares deep within, then freezes for a moment as her mind breaks a little more. She isn't sure what she saw, but given that it had that effect on her, she guesses the portfolio is down there ... not like she's going anywhere near that water again. She does communicate that to Leilah, however, and suggests that she Control Water to reach it. Sil'meelen notices how twitchy Ashra has gotten and moves over to Restore her, but doesn't reach her yet because of the deep snow on the ground.
: Jaxil zaps down into the lair and joins in the fray, attacking the dragon sitting on the platform everyone's coming onto. He's wielding two enormous draconic axes, and by a strange stroke of luck deals twelve times damage to one dragon. It's pretty hardcore.
: Snugglesworth looks over at the eggs, then opens up the mech's cannon arm and destroys the nest with one blow. Now all the dragons are pissed. Ulfgar zaps into the main group and bombs the blue dragon. A dragon hits Claire; she barely survives.
: Leilah takes Ashra's suggestion and attempts to control the water. It instead starts boiling madly and two great hands reach out and pull Ashra and Zaphodel underwater. No one knows where they went. Well, fuck.
: Claire Dimension Doors over to the portal. Kruglor works out some of the portals and manages to find the right one to appear near Claire. Jaxil slides down the ramp and takes a few swings at the green dragon.
: The sarcophagus begins to spin. The pool below roils and then spits out a very cold Ashra and Zaph, who were sucked through many tunnels of freezing water before being ejected in the dragon's lair. Ashra is whispering to herself, "... everything dies." Ashra takes a look at the strange dragon and realizes it looks strangely similar to her adamantine dagger. Another dragon flies over her and Zaph, and a thunderclap sounds, dealing Ashra some sonic damage and pissing her off even more. Yes, it technically wasn't lightning. No, that doesn't really make it better.
: The dragon that was getting attacked by Baudin and Telamore decides that's no fun, sweeps Baudin out of the way, turns around, and flies back into its lair. Fauntleroy cautiously walks along the hallway and finds a room full of the stripped bodies of adventurers. Baudin runs back to the teleportation square outside. Telamore runs through the room full of bodies, steps on a different teleportation square on the other end of a fault line, and appears in the main lair under the ramp leading up to the platform. He steps off of the portal and back onto it again, which teleports him back into a hall full of long columns. Ethan and Shiolay step onto the teleportation square outside. They end up on the platform in the massive inner chamber with Baudin.
: The adamantium dragon spews razor sharp slivers at Shiolay, Ethan, and Baudin. It's a strange breath weapon. It'd be pretty fucking awesome if it weren't pointed at the main party, really.
: Claire walks up to the portal, pulls out her +2 Goblinbane Short Sword, and stabs it mightily. She gets blown across the room as a massive busrt of flame erupts from teh portal, hits a teleport square, is teleported to another part of the lair, and hides. The sarcophagus starts floating and is surrounded with roaring pillars of energy for 20 feet in all directions. The party hears that Tiamat's mate will arrive.
: The red dragon breathes fire on everyone around. Shiolay, failing to save, decides to dedicate his sect against twos.
: Telamore hops onto a portal and is taken to the a chamber deep in the rear of the lair, where he finds the Spear of Myrkul and picks it up. He and his six temporary levels are feeling pretty awesome about all this. He walks up to the door out, pops it open with his thieves' tools (still in their kit) and finds himself faced with four levers. He pulls one.
: Baudin jumps from the platform to the low portal under the ramp and finds he's transported to a different place than the portal had taken Telamore. Apparently pulling the lever changed the portals.
: Ethan breaks out the first Negative Energy Ball of the night. It's a beautiful one. The red dragon sinks it to the face. Not to be outdone, Jaxil climbs the green dragon, but fails to grapple it. Ulfgar jumps on the dragon as well.
: Meanwhile in the hall above, Sil'meelen watches Fauntleroy skeptically to make sure he doesn't shoot her. He continues not to shoot her.
: Shiolay heals himself. Kruglor starts chatting to the portal in Infernal. It asks who he is. He says he isn't sure, but he thinks he's a barbarian. It asks if he is of Ork-kind, and he says no. Claire Dimension Doors to the sarcophagus and hides.
: There is a great rumbling, and a hole erupts in the wall. The Jade Kracken III blew their way through the mountain to provide air support. Everyone is pretty grateful to see them.
: The red dragon manages to cast Heal on Ethan without touching him; luckily he's protected from positive energy and that helps soak up most of the damage he'd have taken. He swears at it profusely.
: Telamore uses his spear to pull the remaining three levers at once. He is teleported to one of the teleport squares ... then another ... and another ... it's a game of Epic Rogue Portal Pinball, essentially, which ends with him rocketing out of the central portal three times before losing enough momentum to land spear-first on the red dragon in a glorious sneak attack. Baudin steps on a nearby teleport square and ends up joining him after a similar teleport pattern. He also lands weapon-first, in his case using a crossbow. Ethan tosses a Negative Energy Ball their way and they both jump aside, letting the dragon sink the damage.
: Jaxil disengages from the green dragon and jumps into a portal, is teleported a few times, but instead of being flung at the red dragon ends up popping out of what Ashra had thought was an interesting door. It's actually just another portal.
: The green dragon still has Ulfgar attached to it as it dives into the pool in the middle of the room. He calls in an airstrike from underwater, targeting the blue dragon. The blue dragon smashes into the red dragon as the rogues jump free. Ethan Feather Falls Baudin, and Telamore tumbles to safety.
: Just then, the previously invisible Zoroaster Jones Dimension Doors over, takes a running jump and footstools the colliding dragons, then uses his whip to swing off one of the dragons' legs and lands on the sarcophagus. All the while, he is whistling a jaunty tune.
: Fauntleroy traverses the room of bodies without incident, but when Sil'meelen tries to follow, she runs into Pyotar Umarov, who had been hiding beneath the bodies. That guy turns up at the weirdest times. He does not move to attack her.
: Leilah tries to send a Cone of Cold at the dragon, but it doesn't go off. Ashra's Arcane Fire fails as well, and her attempts to talk to the portal telepathically are in vain.
: Fauntleroy looks at the distintly vampiric, distinctly unfriendly soul (or...er, not) who's just appeared next to his boss, takes out the potion of Cure Light Wounds that Leilah gave him, and dips in a crossbow bolt. Sil'meelen runs and jumps off of the ledge, aiming for the pool, but misses and smacks into the ground.
: Kruglor tells the portal he'll assume it's Io the Dragon God unless told otherwise, then taunts the god and throws a bone at the shadowed figure in the portal. The sarcophagus starts repeatedly bumping and it's countdown to Jergal time. Claire gets the hell off of there and back onto the ground.
: The red dragon kicks the shit out of Telamore, and he pulls out a Bubble Burster: he is now surrounded by his own personal Wall of Force hamster ball. No one can heal him, but nothing short of a disintegrate attack can hurt him, either.
: Snugglesworth charges the dragon with his sword. Jaxil goes after the green dragon with his axe. As it emerges from the water, still being ridden by Ulfgar, Ulfgar sets off fireworks.
: Zoroaster Jones, annoyed at not being the center of attention, attempts to set off his rod of wonder. He fails.
: The green dragon uses a portal to get under the ramp and go after Leilah. Leilah gets an idea. She runs away from the dragon, taking a couple of swipes on the way, and calls in an airstrike on the ramp. The air support doesn't quite get the location she meant, but the ramp definitely blows up. As Ethan dodges out of the way, the ramp crushes the dragon, hits a portal, teleports to the main portal, is shot over and smashes the dragon again ... rinse and repeat for a few more repetitions until the ramp is rubble and the dragon is quite thoroughly crushed. Ulfgar's bombs all detonate at once, and he crawls from the rubble, born on by rage and three hitpoints. Ethan dodge-rolls enough that the rest of his Protection from Fire and Resist Fire soaks the bomb damage for him, negating 196 fire damage to exactly 0. Shiolay dies, but will respawn in a few more rounds because he's just that awesome. Leilah dodgerolls the massive explosion for full.
: Baudin stabs the red dragon with another sneak attack. The blue dragon shoots lightning and kills Ulfgar.
: Fauntleroy shoots Pyotar. The bolts do their damage, cure poison and all, and as they are technically stakes they mess him up a bit more than usual. They also crit. Apparently now the most fail undead ever, Pyotar doesn't go after Fauntleroy.
: The adamantium dragon shoots Ashra and Zaph after Zaph healed them. There's a part of Ashra saying "Think of something crazy and take this fucker out soon before the elder god arrives."
: Kruglor rolls the die and prays to Yarnwell, then disappears. Claire shoots the dragon, steps back, and hides again.
: Telamore holds up his spear and shouts at the dragons that it will consume their souls in twelve seconds. Ashra telepathically asks if he's serious, he replies in kind that it's a bluff, and she explains this to the party, all of whom had fallen for it.
: Baudin tumbles around the red dragon and stabs it, bloodying it. Ethan casts Harm on himself. Jaxil beats up the adamantium dragon with his axe, but it's still barely damaged.
: Zoroaster Jones manages to make his Rod of Wonder go off. A bright light illuminates the blue dragon, making it easier to hit. Sil'meelen restores herself to fix the injuries from her fall, then stands.
: Leilah heals herself and tears into the red dragon. The blue dragon goes after Ethan.
: Ashra's had a bad day. Week. Month. Half-year. Whatever. She has a horribly crazy plan, and no one is around to talk her out of it. Besides, they need a dragon that's almost fine to die in about sixteen seconds tops. And hey, this totally worked before.
: Zaphodel takes the two potions of Dragon's Stun from the party loot Ashra is holding. As ordered, she lobs one at the adamantium dragon's head. It is stunned and slams to the ground, unable to fly. Meanwhile, Ashra pulls out a vial of The Green Liquid and downs it. The effects are milder than they would be, as her body is used to Absynthium derivatives. She's still suddenly the quickest moving motherfucker in the room, intensely strong, and temporarily insaner. After the trauma of the water, though, it brings her to a strange clarity of psychosis for the moment. She jumps onto the dragon's head. Then she takes Fauntleroy's turn and attaches her first two tentacles to the stunned dragon.
: Kruglor reappears 6 seconds after his disappearence, having spend four months on the home plane of the Beastlands, flying on a giant owl. He hits the dragon with his eyebeams, then throws his bone at it three times. Thanks to another lucky Two, he then does it all again. Claire sneak attacks the red dragon. Since it was hit repeatedly with the bone, the red dragon goes after Kruglor, and Baudin and Leilah take stabs at it while it does. Telamore takes advantage of the dragon's shadow to shadowjump on top of his forcebubble and sneak attack the dragon with the spear. The red dragon falls.
: Baudin stabs the blue dragon with his rapier. It's a tremendously masterful strike, and he kills it instantly. Ethan kisses him, grabs a scroll of Inflict Critical Wounds from him, and fixes himself up. Baudin is left very confused.
: Zoroaster Jones sets off his rod of wonder again and is asked in five seconds what he wants. He says "The world!" and disappears. He reappears a few moments later holding The Atlas. He does victory laps of the sarcophagus.
: Jaxil moves towards the portal, axes in hand, ready to attack whatever comes out. Sil'meelen cures herself and Leilah cures Telamore.
: Ashra attaches her final two tentacles and extracts the dragon's brain. It's the best thing she's ever eaten in her life, and not just because she's high as balls right now. As she pulls the last particles of it into her mouth, Pyotar appears from the portal and shouts "No! You've ruined the ritual! The Nosrep must be observed!" Then Jaxil hacks him to pieces with his axe. The battle is over.
: The party gathers at the sarcophagus, which is full of incredible epic treasure. Zoroaster Jones pockets a new magic whip before being shooed off. Ethan looks at Ashra and does a double-take as he realizes what she's on. Leilah considers using Restoration on her, but realizes that would only suppress the drug's effects; Ashra asks her to leave her be, since she feels better now than she will in a few hours. Among the treasures, Leilah pulls out a compass streaked with many colors. It appears to point south.
: Telamore pulls out a speakstone and says "It's been fun. Party Cat, beam me up!" He disappears back to the Elemental Plane of Party Time.
: The party loads the treasure onto the ship and sails away. After a few hours, Ashra comes down off her high and curls up in a corner, twitching from sanity damage and physical cravings for more Green Liquid. She protests as usual to the others that hey, it worked and it was awesome.
: Ethan looks at the portfolio. It's a slim document, bound in leather, titled "The Ill-Gained Gift." It is in Infernal. He reads.
: So Ethan of Malvont, born Ethan Elan of Baldur, ascends to godhood. Ethan Dragonslayer sits on the JKIII amongst his friends, old and new, rejoicing in his newfound incredible power. He is free from Living Memory, and remembers who he is: the only child of Lady Elan and Barron Ganth. He stares into space for a moment upon realizing this, and then says, "I fucking knew it." He gives Hero Points to Ashra and Leilah for their work in killing the dragons.
: He asks around for a spellbook; Ashra offers hers, and he reads out Dimension Door. He teleports with ease to the other end of the ship. He realizes he now has the knowledge to teleport without error. He tries Light and fails. Ashra looks up from her twitching to laugh. "That's why I bought you that wand..." Baudin says he has a present for Ethan, too: his journal, with details of all the planes he traveled to over those seven years.
: Ethan is surrounded by his friends, but one is missing. He asks Shiolay for a Resurrection. Shiolay does him one better, and offers the final Greater Wish.
: "I want Fennyn alive and strong enough to keep up with me."
: She appears, naked, covered in universal solvent. She seems dazed, dead for a couple of years, but says she knew Ethan would come for her. "After all, Eon never ends."
: "Here's a robe. How do you feel about being a high priestess?"
: It is a bittersweet parting, but one with many promises to keep in touch. Ashra tells Ethan there will be regular Sendings and sacrifices of any dragon eyes she should happen to be in a position to rip out. It's totally possible to consider your patron deity to be your pet, too, right? Ethan recruits Baudin and Fennyn to go to Prospero with him. Sure, godhood still won't get his undead self drunk, but they certainly can be. And after that, there are dragons all over the Prime that need to be put out of their misery. And after that, there are dragons all over the multiverse. Adamantium dragons, earthquake dragons, fang dragons ... every kind of dragon one might possibly imagine.
: Leilah tells Ashra in secret from Ethan that the multi-colored compass might be a symbol of Io the mate of Tiamat, and, well, it is pointing south. She's been wanting to go back where things Mean Something, and Ashra wants to go search Mind's Touch for a Mother. It looks like they've found a destination, or at least a direction to sail in.
: There are hugs, and handshakes, and brofists, and maybe some tears. Ashra takes her tricorn hat and sticks in another feather. Ethan says goodbye, and is gone.
Season Nine Complete.
== Previously/Next Time on Eon ==
Previous Season: Season Eight: The Sword of Destiny
== Characters ==
Starring:
*Ethan of Malvont
*Ashra the Puzzlesolver
Introducing:
*Leilah Maloch
*Apple
Holy shit, man, where have you been? WHEN have you been?:
*Old Man Kruglor
With some very special guest stars:
*Fab Dick
*Claire Finelan
Joining us for the Grand Finale:
*Ulfgar the Drunken Master
*Yolanda the Gallant
*Sil'meelen Maiweyen
*Fauntleroy
*Shiolay the Sainted
*Baudin Dommilan
*Zoroaster Jones
*Jaxil Motherfucking Icewinton
*Captain Elrand Telamore
Category:Seasons