Session0057

Episode 0057 - Knocking Down Walls
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**Setting:**

Mycorrhiza - Mimrinoth - Karaad - Limbo - June 10th-15th, 211 AW
**Synopsis:**

* Returning to Mycorrhiza, the party finds the Empress Roslyn Alvira and other imperial dignitaries have assembled in response to the return of the prisoners who were sent back to Mycorrhiza by the party.
* The party speaks with the assembled dignitaries, gathering intel from imperial scouts and learning that the eruption of Taru Kazan has destroyed large parts of Kameshima, leaving the remaining forces disorganized and severely weakened.
* A review of Kamm's notes recovered from his quarters reveals that the Kameshiman plot regarding the Earthstar and Araumycos has been largely foiled thanks to the party's actions.
* After some discussion of strategy, at Frog's suggestion, arrangements are made for the remaining Kameshimans to be brought to Mycorrhiza for a discussion of the possibility of peace between the two kingdoms with Daimao gone.
* The party makes plans to travel to Sigil after the next Prime Zenith. In the meantime, they spend the next few days in Mycorrhiza, resting, crafting, shopping, and planning for their upcoming adventure.
* When the Kameshiman survivors arrive in Mycorrhiza, Frog convenes a meeting with their leaders, and a tentative peace agreement is reached, with Frog promising Mycorrhizan aid for the Kameshimans in rebuilding their nation.
* Their days of rest complete, the party travels briefly to Mimrinoth, where Kajido is accepted into the Circle of Architects, and the party receives an update on the excavation and repair of the Imlaq Colossus.
* Next, the party proceed to Karaad to pick up Lane Coronato to accompany them to Sigil, as was their arrangement.
* The following morning, after a violent parting with Baron Millan Watts in Karaad, the party *plane shifts* using Natalie Shaw's tuning fork for Sigil.
* The *plane shift* spell brings the party to Limbo, where after briefly exploring the elemental chaos of the plane, they are attacked by otherworldly creatures.

**NOTE: This session recording includes retroactive roleplay for a previous session, as summarized in the session log for Session0054.**
**NOTE: Bolded text was retroactively roleplayed during Session0058.**

## June 10th

The party arrives back in Mushroom Town at the College of Mycorrhiza's teleportation circle, where they find several soldiers standing guard, including imperial forces. The soldiers seem to be under heightened security, but recognize Frog, who briefly explains the situation. The soldiers reference the prisoners that the party sent through the teleportation circle within the last hour, and explain that they have been taken to the palace. At Frog's request, the party is escorted to the palace by a few soldiers.

Arriving at the palace throne room, the party finds that the Empress Roslyn Alvira and, the imperial senate, and several other dignitaries and advisors are present, as well as the rescued prisoners from Daimao's Castle, and Kajido, who is manacled and being held by Mycorrhizan guards.

Frog reports that Daimao and Kamm are dead. The Empress Roslyn Alvira says that she's presently receiving reports from imperial scouts on the front line - via Grenfi Nackle - regarding the eruption of Taru Kazan, and the large-scale destruction of the majority of the island surrounding the volcano, including Daimao's Castle and large portions of the Kameshiman military. Frog explains what happened in Daimao's Castle with the BFL 4000, and reveals that the party has recovered notes on Kameshima's plans from Kamm's office, but they haven't had a chance to read them yet.

Grenfi Nackle shares the intel that she's receiving magically, which indicates that Daimao's Castle and the region surrounding it has been completely destroyed, but he eruption and its destruction has not reached as far as Fort Obiruk, where the majority of Kameshima's forces are posted. These forces are reportedly in a state of disarray and chaos, their chain of command now unclear with the demise of Daimao.

The party and the assembled imperial council discuss how to proceed. There is talk of the possibility of wiping out the remaining Kameshiman forces while they are vulnerable, but Frog objects, instead proposing that it could be possible to make peace with the Kameshimans now that Daimao is gone, citing the fact that defectors and refugees already come from Kameshima, even prior to the ongoing destruction. Kajido also suggests that the Kameshiman forces could be convinced to make peace, given Daimao's apparent attempt to betray them all using the BFL 4000.

The group decides to look through Kamm's notes regarding Kameshima's plot prior to making any decisions. Reviewing the notes, they learn that Benny Barracuda has used druidic magic to spread the mycelia of the Earthstar throughout all of Kameshima, such that any death on Kameshiman soil would serve to empower and revitalize the Earthstar. With this work complete, the Earthstar was isolated in the Underdark by collapsing all physical passages leading to it, as a protective measure against the party and other possible dangers in the Underdark, such that the magic painting now serves as the only way to access the Earthstar.

The plot - known only to Daimao, Kamm, and Benny Barracuda - was to wait for imperial forces to make landfall and for the war to commence, then activate the BFL 4000, causing the violent eruption of Taru Kazan and the vast-scale destruction of all of Kameshima, the intent of which was to kill all the invading imperial forces, along with all of Kameshima's own civilization, thereby fully revitalizing the Earthstar. With the Earthstar revitalized, Kamm was going to complete a ritual using the abyssal tuning fork to open a portal to the Abyss, which would bypass the Divine Gate and allow Araumycos to enter Materi.

The notes also explain the nature of Kamm's continually being brought back to life, and indicate that only Daimao was capable of bringing them back. As such, with Daimao defeated, it is impossible for Kamm to return.

Reviewing the implications of these findings, the party deduces that the scale of destruction caused by the eruption of Taru Kazan was not as drastic as intended, thanks to the party's quick thinking with placing the *bead of force* over the BFL 4000 before it could release its entire payload. As a result, the Earthstar has likely not been revitalized to the extent planned. In addition, it is unclear if the ritual to open a portal to the Abyss could even be completed without Kamm to complete it. After some discussion, the party deduces that they should still go to the Underdark and resolve the issue eventually, but that there is now much less of a rush to do so.

The party discusses whether Daimao is truly permanently destroyed, or if he might be resurrected or otherwise return. Louche speculates that as a result of the Divine Gate, Daimao's essence is likely unable to leave the Inner Planes and return to the Abyss to reform.

Given all of these findings, plans are made to attempt to make peace with what remains of Kameshima. The Empire agrees to facilitate the movement of the remaining Kameshimans to Mycorrhiza, such that Frog and Porcini can have a meeting with their leaders and attempt to broker peace. Kajido also agrees to help facilitate this process, wielding his influence as a general of Kameshima.

Empress Roslyn Alvira states that otherwise, with the return of the captured imperial senators, the Empire's interest in the war has largely been resolved. She leaves the remaining matters of the peace talks in Mcyorrhiza's hands, and offers the party the Empire's gratitude and favor for their actions, should they ever need to call upon it. Afterwards, the Empress and her advisors, along with the imperial senate, departs from Mycorrhiza. Grenfi Nackle remains behind to continue to gather intelligence and provide magical aid to the process.

After the imperial interests depart, Frog and Aristoadle discuss whether it is still necessary to keep the Mycorrhizan colonies and other aspects of the Fable of the Thousand Year Door secret. Aristoadle says that it will be considered by the Fable Bearers Circle, and suggests that their mission is not truly complete until the Earthstar is fully dealt with.

Discussing their plans moving forward, the party decides that they should rest until the next Prime Zenith, and then head to Sigil to address their many concerns there. In the interim, the party decides to spend the next few days resting in Mycorrhiza and recovering from the past week's ventures.

In collaboration with Frog, Queen Chantrelle begins to make arrangements for a month-long festival to celebrate Mycorrhiza's victory and the hopeful end of hostilities with Kameshima.

Falgron heads back to the Fable Bearers Circle to debrief with Aristoadle and discuss the business of their order. The two also discuss whether or not to continue keeping the circle's business secret, and they decide that they should wait for a while before deciding.

Odell spends some time reading Kajido's notes regarding salt refinery, and learns the basics of how the process works.

Louche casts a *legend lore* spell on himself, in an attempt to learn more about his nature as a valkyrie and his connection to Israphel. He learns that, as he has suspected, their actions have an inverse relationship with one another, such that as one tends towards goodness and selflessness, the other tends towards selfishness and evil. Their nature as valkyries causes their moral codes to balance against once another - seemingly the reason that Louche is capable of selflessness despite being a devil, and Israphel is capable of selfishness despite being an angel.

Later in the evening, Louche does some shopping for costumes and jewelry.

## June 11th

The party spends the day selling their unused magic items and dividing up the spoils of the adventures of the last few weeks. In doing so, they open Malkoth's *demivault* and retrieve the treasure recovered from Daimao's Castle. **While the *demivault* is open, after some discussion, they also decide to store the magic painting from Daimao's Castle within the vault.**

Louche asks Heartsong if he has fulfilled his end of the bargain they made several weeks ago, and secured passage through the Star Road to another universe for himself and his friends. Heartsong says that the Earthstar still poses a threat until it is truly destroyed, but if it becomes urgent for Louche to depart, he will consider their deal fulfilled.

Frog spends some time talking with Queen Chantrelle, King Trumpet, and Porcini regarding the upcoming peace talks. He learns that, with Kajido's help, and having been provided evidence that Daimao had betrayed them, the Kameshimans have been convinced to lay down their arms and come to Mycorrhiza to discuss the possibility of peace between Kameshima and Mycorrhiza. Grenfi Nackle, providing updated intel, shares that about 15,000 Kameshimans remains - under of half the nation's former population. Minimal violence occurred during the transition, and the Kameshimans are en route to Mycorrhiza currently on imperial vessels, and will arrive on the 13th. King Trumpet takes charge of making arrangements for Frog and Porcini to meet with and address Kameshima's remaining leaders.

Later, Malkoth and Odell speak in private with Grenfi Nackle. Malkoth asks her about Johann Conrad Dippel's theory that the Weavers Conclave in intentionally suppressing the use of magic to cause an increase of dangerous magical phenomena in order to justify its own existence. Grenfi is familiar with the theory, and reveals that Dippel leveled these accusations against the Conclave prior to his ousting. She rejects the theory's validity herself, but admits that some others did consider it possible. When asked by Malkoth, she says that Immanuel Belder was one who agreed with Dippel's concerns, but Natalie Shaw considered the theory nonsense. After the ousting of Dippel, the theory was subsequently dropped from further discussion by the Conclave.

During the conversation, Malkoth also divulges that Dr. Johann Conrad Dippel has been killed.

Before bed, Patches shapeshifts into a kenku.

## June 12th

After finalizing plans for the upcoming festivities with Queen Chantrelle, Frog and a few other party members head to the Fable Bearers Sanctum hot springs for a morning of rest and relaxation. While at the Sanctum, Louche sneaks over to the monastery to spy on Falgron, who is training with another monk. Falgron spots Louche spying on him, and later sends his monk underling to spy on Louche in return.

Jack spends part of the day working on a spell scroll for Malkoth.

XVIII uses Kamm's *magic mirror* to check in with their family. They see Ursula Wolff getting the family settled in at an apartment in Mimrinoth. Ursula assures XVIII that the family is safe now, and that as wards of the College and the Weavers Conclave, the church has no jurisdiction to bring any harm to them.

Odell privately asks Louche the make a holy symbol of Odell for him, referencing Louche's creation of a holy symbol of Israphel that he uses to cast divine magic. Louche agrees, and begins sketching up a holy symbol. Odell asks him to keep it secret, and in exchange, agrees to tell Louche everything he knows about the Star Road for Louche's upcoming planned trip to another universe. Working together, and making use of Spell: Alignment Tuning to deduce that Odell doesn't have any particular bond to another plane of existence, the two create a holy symbol of Odell. Louche asks what the holy symbol is for, and Odell says that he is going to use it for a rune that he's developing, though he doesn't provide much detail.

Unbeknownst to Louche and Odell, Falgron's monk underling, who had been spying on Louche, overhears this conversation. Afterwards, the monk reports back to Falgron with what he discovered. Falgron reports this to Aristoadle, and the two discuss the party's upcoming plans to go to Sigil. Aristoadle suggests that Falgron should remain with Frog to keep him safe and keep an eye on Louche and Odell.

Later in the night, Odell and XVIII discuss rune magic, and XVIII expresses an interest in using rune magic to achieve some healing magic using their own blood.

## June 13th

In the morning, Frog is informed that the Kameshimans have arrived in Mycorrhiza, and that their leaders will be assembled for a conversation with him and Porcini this afternoon.

After making preparations through the morning, Frog meets with the Kameshiman leaders, accompanied by Porcini, King Trumpet, Queen Chantrelle, and some other dignitaries and security elements, including Kajido. Frog tells the Kameshimans that Mycorrhiza has no intention of harming them, and that they wish to come to an agreement and establish peace between the two nations. The Kameshimans express some skepticism, but after some discussion and convincing from Frog, Porcini, and Kajido, they tentatively agree. They ask to return home to Kameshima to start rebuilding, and Frog assures them that Mycorrhiza will provide them aid in the rebuilding efforts. Porcini invites them to remain in Mycorrhiza for a time before returning, and enjoy the upcoming festivities celebrating the peace agreement.

After this meeting, the celebration festivities begin.

During the day, Jack continues working on his spell scroll for Malkoth.

Malkoth meets with Boletus to purchase drugs, and the two briefly discuss members of the Potpie cartel.

Odell speaks with Kajido, who asks to be taken to the College of Mimrinoth as promised now that he's fulfilled his end of the bargain and convinced the Kameshimans to make peace. Odell assures him he'll be taken to the College soon, and offers to return his tools to him if he will help create an arcanomechanical rune scribing device for XVIII, to which Kajido agrees.

Malkoth uses *sending* to contact Immanuel Belder, saying that he heard about Belder taking the fall for Malkoth's crimes and being placed in prison in Hartwell, and asks if he's alright or if he needs help. Belder responds that he is fine and didn't want Malkoth to worry about him. He says that he could escape if he truly wanted to, and urges Malkoth not to worry about him.

Overnight, Louche is contacted by Titivilus in a *dream* spell. Titivilus angrily tells Louche that things are in motion in Sigil that can no longer be delayed, and threatens Louche that if he continues to delay coming to Sigil, Mahadi will suffer for it.

## June 14th

The party makes preparations to depart from Mycorrhiza and head to the College of Mimrinoth to drop off Kajido, and to Karaad to pick up Lane Coronato, before traveling to Sigil the following morning. They tell Falgron about their plans and their business in Sigil, and he agrees to accompany them.

Louche tells the party about his dream with Titivilus, and warns that devils may already be in Sigil. He asks the party not to kill Mahadi if he is there, and says that they might want to try to get information from the devils before indiscriminately killing them, if possible. Otherwise, he warns them to expect violence in Sigil.

After concluding their business in Mycorrhiza and saying their farewells, Malkoth teleports the party to Mimrinoth, bringing Kajido along.

Arriving at the College, Odell takes Kajido to the Circle of Architects. There, he introduces Kajido to Jonas Lionwood, and gets him set up with a workshop where he can begin setting up shop.

Jonas Lionwood also explains to Odell that the Imlaq Colossus has been fully unearthed, and that mundane repairs to the hull have been mostly completed. Mordus Moonbeard explains that they have been marginally successful in using rune magic to animate the Colossus, but that without a way to distribute the magic throughout the whole system, they would be relegated to having individual rune scribes activating individual minute details of the Colossus' movements, such as the bending of single joints. Jonas expresses the need for some way to accumulate and distribute the rune magic throughout the Colossus. Odell explains that the party is headed to Sigil, where hopefully they will find the Conjuration Anchor described in Natalie Shaw's writings, which could be used to distribute the power as needed.

Afterwards, Odell speaks with Mordus Moonbeard privately in his office. He shows Mordus a new rune that he's working on, which can transfer divine power from one entity to another. He asks Mordus' thoughts about the idea, and Mordus defers to Odell's judgment, expressing his trust in Odell. He cautions him, however, against doing anything too reckless.

Mordus Moonbeard also reveals that to power the Colossus, the Circle of Rune Carvers has developed and has been utilizing a rune of Asmodeus.

Meanwhile, Jack takes Pepper to meet up with Lo, and the two spend their day together. Jack spends the rest of the day finishing the spell scroll he's been making for Malkoth.

XVIII spends some time studying rune magic further, before briefly stopping by the apartment where their family is staying. They don't go in or let the family know they're present, instead remaining outside and looking in through the windows for a while, before returning to the party.

After concluding their business in Mimrinoth, Malkoth teleports to the party to Karaad, where they head to Bordello Mariposa to find Lane Coronato. They tell Lane that they're leaving for Sigil in the morning, and make arrangements to meet up at a nearby inn in the morning.

The party spends the rest of the day relaxing in Karaad.

Jack and Pepper talk about Lo, and Jack tells Pepper that if he wants to stay behind and stop traveling with him, he can. Pepper considers it, but says that he won't leave Jack or give up on trying to bring back Djinni so they can all be together again. The two also talk about Jack's parents.

Frog gives Pepper a set of *sending stones* to share with Lo. Malkoth agrees to send one of the stones back to Lo in the morning using *galder's speedy courier*.

Later, Odell gives XVIII the device that Kajido made for them, and the two work together on some rune carving practice.

Malkoth uses a *contact other plane* spell to speak with Patches (Deity), finding him preparing to take Tamrius Grimm through the Star Road to another universe. When asked, he says that he plans to remain on the Star Road afterwards, at least for a time.

Malkoth asks if the Weavers Conclave's suppression of magic is causing an increase in magical phenomena, as Johann Conrad Dippel theorized, and Patches (Deity) confirms this to be true. Malkoth asks if he can *plane shift* from the Astral Plane to the Material Plane, and and Patches confirms that he can. Finally, Malkoth asks why Ley Phases and Zeniths on Materi are synchronized with the Outer Planes, and Patches explains that it is the bidding of Aedra to keep the power balanced between the Inner and Outer Planes.

## June 15th

In the morning, Patches lights one of his magical matches, and receives magical sealing wax that can create perfect forgeries of signatures and signets.

Lane Coronato meets up with the party, and Louche plays the psalm of awakening. Afterwards, Lane asks XVIII about Valomir Quinn. XVIII explains the situation with their family, but assures Lane that Valomir is now safe.

XVIII asks Lane Coronato about Baron Millan Watts' whereabouts. Lane says that the Baron will probably check in at Bordello Mariposa soon, as he does every morning. XVIII expresses a desire to say personal goodbyes to the Baron, to which the party agrees, and together they head to the Bordello.

Arriving at the Bordello, the party finds Baron Millan Watts berating a courtesan, angrily searching for the missing Lane Coronato. XVIII stabs Watts to death, and Lane tells the Bordello's workers to help themselves to the business' treasury.

Their business and preparations complete, Malkoth casts *plane shift* on the group, using the tuning fork attuned to Sigil from Natalie Shaw's inheritance. The nature of the tuning fork is to bring the party into the vicinity of a door to Sigil somewhere within the Outer Planes. The party finds themselves arriving in an infinite weightless sea of constantly-shifting elemental chaos, which Malkoth and Pepper recognize as the plane of Limbo.

Getting their bearings, the party experiments with shaping the matter of Limbo into their desired forms using their force of will. In doing so, they create small pockets of safe, stable space around themselves to protect them from the elemental chaos. Further experimenting, the party discovers that they can create matter in any form they desire, but that nothing they create can be living or magical, and that when they attempt to place created matter into a *bag of holding*, it disappears.

Looking around for a door to Sigil, XVIII spots a miles-wide area of seemingly stable space, where a number of seemingly manmade stone platforms are suspended amidst a field of spheroid planet-shaped bodies. The party heads towards this area, where they find that they are no longer able to shape the matter around them, seemingly having encountered an area already controlled by another entity.

Heading toward one of the stone platforms near the largest, central planet-like sphere of the area, the party finds a pedestal with an inscription in a language they don't know. With a magic item, Malkoth is able to read the text, which is a poetic inscription describing overcoming one's fears. As the party stands on the platform above the massive spheroid body at the center of the area, they can feel a powerful force pulling them physically toward the sphere.

As the party is investigating the pedestal and the area, they see otherwordly monsters approaching from the distance.