Episode 180 - Oh The Places We’ll Go

## Synopsis

The students looked around them at Isathil, the brightly coloured trees and pink sky reminding them of not too pleasant memories. Integrity attempted to move towards the temple, but as she moved away she appeared to hit a wall. For the others, the vision of Isathil shimmered and rippled around her as their friend started to be dragged away by some invisible force.

Mira, Serinepth, and Winsler rushed over and managed to drag her back. Outside of what she now understood to be a circular tunnel, Integrity had seen the same void as before, confirming the Isathil they were seeing was an illusion. Looking at the door, she noticed the rune had changed and now said, “*Guests*.”

Deciding she didn’t want to be reminded of Isathil any longer, Serinepth moved towards the door. As she got close, it again jumped backwards, the scenery around them shifted, and the rune changed to say, “*Look*”.

Now around them, the students saw the illusion of floating crystals, bright orange or jet black in colour, suspended over a dark tiled floor. There were stairs leading nowhere, going sideways, floors on ceilings, ledges that shouldn’t be there. Covering the walls were books, chained to the walls. Far in the distance they saw a floating lectern with a grimoire, half bound in bright orange, and half bound in jet black leather.

From the imagery, Mira beloved this to the be the Plane of Siltran, the deity her family followed. Thinking back to his schoolwork, Winsler came to the conclusion that they were in some sort of space where all the planes overlapped simultaneously.

Winsler then zoomed over to the door and slapped it again. The students suddenly found themselves floating thousands of feet above a perfectly still, endless ocean. Below them was the most perfect marble citadel they had ever seen. Stretching upwards from it seemingly forever, was a massive marble staircase. Emerging from the perfectly sculpted clouds above were massive brass gears, slowly making ticking sounds. On the marble stairs, they saw little brass modrons. The rune above the door now read, “*Upon*.” From the description of the marble staircase, the students realised this was the Plane of Estar.

Integrity ran towards the door again, the run shifted to say “*The*”, and the illusion around them showed the Plane of Stivus. The ground was much closer, and made of a sharp, glassy, obsidian-like rock. Nearby, a massive ship was half embedded in the rock, it’s sails rippling in the violent breeze. In the distance, they saw flashes of red lightning, and massive tornadoes. Around them, massive chunks of obsidian burst into existence before slamming back into the ground. Below them, littered on the ground, were hundreds of dead bodies. The students decided they wanted to get out of this plane, which they assumed to be the Plane of Rell, as quickly as possible.

Mira again floated to the door, it lurched back, and the rune above it read “*Broken*”. The world around them drained of colour, and they found themselves on the flat peak of an incredibly tall mountain. In the centre of the mountain was a pool of water, half coloured red, and half coloured green. Around the pool were the bodies of travellers, who had died before reaching the water. The students saw the true Plane of Rell.

They moved the door again, the rune changing to “*World*”. They suddenly felt an intense heat as though they were melting. Around them were pits of bubbling tar and ash-stained rocks, they heard constant screams of anguish and terror from every direction. In one of the tar pits, they saw a massive chalice filled with brown, wooden coins, signifying this as the Plane of Lem. Mira pleaded to go back to the library of Siltran, and Winsler ran over to slap the door again.

The rune above the door read “*Below*”, as the illusion shifted once again. It was nighttime, the students stood on a lookout above a massive city of stone. The buildings had started to crumble and decay, and the trees in and surrounding the city looked half-rotted, as though they had started to decay and were then frozen. The sky above them was a uniform black, devoid of any stars. In the distance, they saw a great, pyramid shaped building that looked as if the massive spire on top had broken off and smashed through its side. The doors to the temple were open.

As Mira looked at the scene in front of her, she recognised it as Sheoran. When her friends asked where they could be, Mira explained her theory, citing memory of the orb that they had seen in the Loft of Elders. She then noticed that, for this entire trip, her left arm had been missing.

Serinepth went to the door, as Integrity looked around the broken city, memorising every detail. This time, the door did not run, and as Serinepth’s hand touched it, it began to glow with moonlight. The light faded and through the door they saw an ordinary stone room. The students and Graist all floated through and returned to walking on solid ground. As soon as the last of them came through, the doorway sealed into an identical doorway to the one they first walked through to reach that void.

Looking around, the room was made of a porous stone, different to the rest of the catacombs. Floating in the air were small, pinkish spores giving a very faint glow. In the corners of the room were basins lined with a lavender coloured moss, and filled with crystal clear water. A hallway stretch out across from them.

Serinepth’s turned to Integrity, and asked if her cousin’s tattoo had returned. Where the inky squirrel should have been though, they saw nothing but the same burned and raised imprint as before. Graist blurted out to Mira, “*So you really expect me to believe you’re not some sort of prophet or speaker for the gods, or in tune with the gods, or anything like that?*”

Mira vehemently denied this, saying that none of them wanted to be a part of what was happening. They discussed what they had seen and the rune message: “*Honoured guests, look upon the broken world below.*” Serinepth’s suggested that the message could refer to a point in the past when all the planes were combined, then they had been broken apart.

After some time, they decided they needed to rest, and then to get out. Mira looked at her snake arm, seeing it was still iridescent and didn’t hurt as much. Serinepth decided to look at the water basins, she noticed that as she approached the moss seemed to flinch away from her touch.

Winsler walked over to the open doorway, and spent some time forming the loose rock on the ground and walls into a thin, locked door to seal off the chamber.

As Serinepth tried to figure out if the water in the basins was drinkable, Integrity started chanting, “*Drink it, drink it, drink it!*” After she decided the moss wasn’t poisonous, Serinepth drank some of the water, finding it quite refreshing. She also took a sample of the moss, to try and figure out what it was later.

As they settled in to rest, Winsler told the shocking story of how he once tipped a cow over on the farm. After recovering from this, Serinepth sent Kurt a message saying that they were ok, and asking if he also knew the cow story. However when she sent it, none of the others received it. Mira suspected it might be similar to when she failed to find Artis, something was blocking the signal.

Integrity asked Mira about the Sheoran plane they had seen, and whether there was a god besides Meaphidae that they had forgotten. Winsler suggested that perhaps all the planes they had seen where what had been left over after the downfall of Sheora.

Graist asked them to explain what Sheora was, why they were always talking about it, and why Mira thought it was connected to Sésul. She gave him a brief explanation, and he still denied any knowledge of what she was talking about.

Before resting, the students took the time they were alone to ask Graist questions and discuss Crowe. Graist revealed that Crowe had gotten his start with mining, and had bought the town of Troisle with gems. The students discussed why he had been chosen as their new headmaster, despite the faculty’s apparent disdain for the choice. Serinepth also asked about Virgil, and whether his quills might have any useful magical properties when Graist told them that some of the giants worked with magical jewellery.

With their questions answered and the room secured, SWIM and Graist lay down for a long rest, ready to return to the mysteries of Troisle in the morning.