Session 37: The Deeper Game

## Stillwater

The party witness a robbery in the distance. The perpetrators reveal themselves to not be common bandits, but adherents of the cult of Sever and not at all pleased with anyone trying to reach the decrepit village.

To earn passage and prove himself worthy Eppa decides to demand single combat with their leader and he wins without upsetting the moral code of the cultists, deciding to spare the half-elf that he battled.

The rest of the cultists, a Satyr Woman and Tortle man leading them, lead Eppa to Artevic who eagerly begins explaining his plan and Eppa's purpose in it. He freely shares information, including the faith of the man he was waiting for in Goldenview, as well as the fact that the magical weapon he will use to kill the Dragon was provided by Inadal Brightstone.

Eppa sees a dubious vision via the Divination spell and decides to rejoin the rest of the party outside the shoddy walls of the village to formulate a plan to deal with the boisterous Artevic. Whilst brainstorming they meet two former Preserver druids who hint they will do something about the cultists infesting their village, hinting that the party should not remain close to the buildings the cultists frequent.

Deciding to see what other approaches they might be able to take, the party leave Stillwater and attempt to reach The Sprawl by nighttime.

## The Sprawl

The party reach the settlement after running into some guards who warn them about the less than humorous ordinators patrolling the camp.

After eating and leasing a plot of land to camp in, they engage in roleplay as Ixxy makes some dubious claims about her circumstances to Dummin whilst keeping to the terms of her contract with the party. Eppa goes in depth about all his visions and learns that the name of the Kheltian expedition leader, Perric Chandler was known by another title by the Gloom Gnomes: Az'kerash, He who returns.

As they sleep, Christopher loses his vision virginity (will be added on his page)

On first light, a coach is leased so that they might reach the capital in a timely fashion.

## First Landing

The carriage stops at the edge of the city walls, that loom over the party. They quickly learn that some sort of martial law is instated in the city by the guards at the gate who write down their names and basic description, as well as give them tokens that denote them as temporary visitors.

They reach for the places Eppa saw in his vision and find themselves in the Faith's Accord, one if not the largest temple in the City. They ask about the Dragon and realize the temples are tracking it in real time.

A day of contemplation goes by and they find themselves in the Silver Vigil Inn for the night.

The penniless, yet proud Dummin attempts to live on the streets, whilst Eppa decides to ask Taegen for help via sending.

A day and multiple Sendings later, he manages to impress the grim nature of the situation and is promised assistance. During that same day the Faithfull of the Great Mother, headed by Isandra, finally arrive at the city. The party greet her and Eppa and her begin sharing visions to try to find commonalities, the apocalyptic version of Eppa's vision lead Isandra to a radical solution she would need time to brace for. A meeting is arranged, as she promises she will do her best to change the Dragon's course.

The party arrive at a square occupied by all the Dragonborn, at the center, they meet Isandra, who claims that she finally realizes the message behind the Great Mother's vision. She was not called to a place, she was called to Her directly. She thanks the party for allowing for her to reach this realization by keeping her alive and bids them goodbye as she calls for all the Dragonborn to join her in prayer. She slowly begins shedding her scales, her new ones glowing a vibrant silver as she almost hovers in place, free from the bonds of her old age. Unfortunately the grim nature of her well wishes and the ceremony in general is revealed, as Silveran beheads her with a single swing of his long-sword. Isandra, or at least her metaphysical body begins glowing blindingly and flying towards an unknown direction, hopefully to the Dragon.

Obviously chaos ensues. Silveran gives himself up and the party leave to see if their plan worked.

## The Fly realizes the web was wide indeed

Panic reigns in the temple as Clerics realize the Dragon has sharply deviated from its course, diving headlong into the Inbetween and being lost its spatial distortions. The danger seems to have passed, but any kind of revelry is postponed as Eppa hears an excited voice he has heard two times already, that of a young girl, asking for her grandpa to let her see the Dragon.

The girl approaches and begins throwing a tantrum at the lack of Dragon on the temples Occularium. Suddenly she innocently points at Eppa, declaring him to be the Dragon. As he begins to humor him, she speaks his name, casting away all doubt about her identity.

Then Bellavierr:

>Greets the party cordially

> pontificates on the futility of Eppa defying her during their previous meetings, claiming he just did what she wanted him to after she repackaged it all nice for him

> Thanks him for helping her bring the entire Third Ring to ruin

> Returns the second part of the scissors Eppa had lost in Fissival. (Eppa gathers them)

> Declares that they will meet again and that by then she will be made whole again (whatever that means)

> She declares that even Gods owe to her, then decapitates the girl, throwing the entire temple into a panic.

The party become invisible and escape as quickly as they can back to their Inn. Deciding to escape possible fallout they begin teleporting to Goblinhome but a combination of factors lead to Dummin deciding that it would be more prudent to stay.

## Goblin-home?

Eppa, Christopher and Ixxy arrive in the teleportation circle leading to the entrance of the tomb. They are surrounded by mist and half built fortifications and with dread realize that half buried forms begins shifting out. A horde of undead humanoids wearing chitin armor rise up and begin approaching what remains of the party.