Session 97

The party begins their climb up the Rotspire, intending to eliminate Nox's resident commanders before hunting for him.
== Summary ==
The party arrives in a teleportation room in the Rotspire. They then take a moment to actually make a plan. The ritual is supposed to be set up at the top of the spire, and presumably Nox will be located there. There are three leaders within the Rotspire: Haaken the Ravager, in charge of melee combatants; Chirak the Unhallowed, a Necromaster, possibly a lich, and responsible for all the undead not caused by Nox directly; and Anarith the Supreme, Nox's primary arcanist in charge of magical forces. Killing any one of these commanders is recommended to throw Nox's forces into disarray. They decide to attempt to take out Haaken, more easily able to blend in with melee warriors than the others. 
As they finish their plan, they are hurried out of the teleportation room. They debate how to go about actually finding Haaken. They go up a nearby flight of stairs, finding themselves surrounded by mages more than warriors. After more discussion, they make no real decisions and just keep ascending floors. They reach a seemingly unused floor. The pick a random hallway — always go left in dungeons — and pass a set of doorways, leading into what seem to be empty rooms. Under two of the doors was evidence of a single candle burning behind them. They find effectively a pillow fort and a desk with a single candle, and not much else. Most of the books are focused on necromancy and a tome with instructions on how to create a specific kind of golem. On the desk are several notebooks written in either code or very bad handwriting. Ultimately finding nothing, Kiono takes one of the notebooks, and the party continues along their previous trajectory. They ascend another staircase, arriving on a floor where the air is musty and fowl-smelling. Here, the doors are barred from the outside, presumably keeping whatever is inside in the rooms. Not wanting to draw unnecessary attention to themselves just yet, they continue onwards still. 
There is more activity on the next floor and some odd architecture, large bones having seemingly been used in the construction. Zombies stand in the area, and a four-armed, draconic zombie is patrolling on the ceiling. It notices the party, but does not immediately approach them. One hallways has torches at regular intervals and zombies standing scattered through, while a final hallways is unlit. They wave minor greetings at the creature on the ceiling, and proceed down the unlit hallway; the creature follows at a distance. The hallway is apparently actually unused, dark and dusty and empty. Entirely uncertain about what to do, Ephemera turns and asks the creature for directions to Chirak; it does not respond in any way. They continue and find an open and empty landing that leads to outside air, providing a view to the west, showing the battlefield some distance away. It is a seemingly recessed portion of the Rotspire, so they approach the edge to take a look. 
The Rotspire is situated in a mountainous region, floating in space over a deep crater. In the distance they can see Bahamut and various dragons - alive and undead - fighting above the foot soldiers. The corpse of Zamai enters the fray as they observe the battle. Distracted by this, they are caught off guard by a young woman with a long black braid. She wears round glasses and the Nox wardrobe and carrying a tome with a large skull on it. She offers the party a deal; she does not wish to continue working for Chirak, but cannot simply leave. She will leave them alone granted they successfully kill Chirak. She tells them that Chirak has a shard embedded within their form that must be bound to a space before destroying the shard. The party agrees, returning her notebook as part of the agreement; she leads them to Chirak, commanding the undead around him to stand down. 
The spell previously cast on Teer when he opened the door to her room is released. Esteem opens the door leading to what is assumed to be Chirak's chambers, taking 62 points of necrotic damage. The room's floor is packed dirt and gravel with bones protruding from it. Piles of meat and gore are scattered about the room. In the center of the room floats an eight-armed, three-eyed, fanged skeleton missing the lower portion of its body. Seagreen robes with gold accents are draped over it, in a trance and not seeming to notice them just yet. Before attacking, a voice fills the room, demanding to know who they are. They reveal that they had killed Hedemora; Chirak in turn reveals that they created Hedemora. Combat begins. 
The party is able to murder the form Chirak had taken, but just before finishing them off, Ephy and Belle were sucked into the ground. Ephy digs herself out, and Belle is exhumed before she suffocates beneath the ground. Ephy digs through Chirek's corpse to find the shard described to them, finding it embedded in their spine. She wraps the smallish sliver of sapphire in cloth and puts it in her bag of holding. Teer instinctively attempts to Prestidigitate her clean, but does not have magic and also Akaros' gun pops out instead of magic. They rest up a bit and opt to head back down in search of Anarith or Haarken. Before they can do that, they hear a group coming upstairs because their dude is dead and they need to check that out. 
Upstairs is becoming more labyrinthine, easy to hide in, easy to get lost in. There are small, glowing eyes in the dark, seeming wanting nothing to do with the party. They eventually come upon a choice, a passage sloping gently upwards and a downwards, cavernous chapel, complete with broken pews, stained glass, and a vine-covered pulpit and altar. Against their better judgement, they enter the chapel. As they approaches the pulpit, a wall of flame closes off the exit. In a burst of flames on the altar appears Matsumae and Saiyo. Saiyo tells Kiono it's time to go home, to avoid this waste of time. Ephy snarks back that she's a waste of time. 
== NPCs ==
=== Introduced ===
* Haakan the Ravager (mentioned)
* Chirak the Unhallowed
* Anarith the Supreme (mentioned) 
* Unnamed necromancer who will absolutely come up again later
=== Returning ===
* Bahamut (seen in the distance)
* Zamai (seen in the distance) 
* Matsumae
* Saiyo
=== Mentioned ===
* Nox
== Items ==
* Coded notebook (taken by Kiono and almost immediately returned)
* Chirak's sapphire shard (stored in Kiono/Ephy's bag of holding)