Session 32

### Summary

The Amber Order makes some good headway on discovering how to save Baldirth and end the time loop, despite Zund terrorizing them and despite Helio and Caeli making a questionable decision.

## Setting

### Locations

Baldirth, The Councilors' Tower, Kendrick's Circle

### A Successful Day (Attempt Four)

##### Ten A.M.

Druidcraft. Mending. Discussion.

Gossamer said that at the end of the previous attempt, Mavka successfully collapsed the council's tower, lessening the effect of the earthquake and the tidal wave. The party decided to split up; Helio, Karaa, and Mavka would go to destroy the tower, while Gossamer, Zeema, and Caeli would attempt to flee the city and rest.

They had Karaa message Zund to ask if she was stuck in a loop, and it sounded like she was. Mavka scried on Zund, but just saw the back of her head and a flash of light. She figured that meant Zund was teleporting to come find them, and decided it was probably best if they left.

Caeli messaged Travis, and found that he was not stuck in the loop. She and Gossamer and Zeema started off toward the house where Kendrick's teleportation circle was.

In order to save as much time as possible, Mavka cast jump and longstrider on Karaa and Helio, then wildshaped into a snake so that Karaa wouldn't be slowed down by her. When they arrived, Karaa dimension-doored them into the top of the tower, where the councilors were. She successfully charmed the councilors and got them to leave, then Mavka made an announcement over the horn they'd found in a previous attempt. She told everyone to exit the city immediately, in a calm and orderly fashion; shockingly, for the most part, people listened.

Below, Helio had arrived, and he tried to persuade people to leave. Just as Mavka finished her announcement, the top of the tower exploded. They had fifteen minutes to destroy the tower and leave the city.

Gossamer scried on Zund, and found her leaning against the corner of a wooden wall, waiting in a dark location. Gossamer tried to message her, but got no response. She and her group eventually found Kendrick's house, which looked like it had once belonged to an aristocrat. It was a black-bricked roof with green siding; there were no lights on, and no smoke in the chimney.

After finding the door locked, Gossamer broke a window, and she, Caeli, and Zeema crept inside. There were no rooms; the entire building was hollow and unnaturally dark. The floor had markings burned into it for a teleportation circle. Even with a torch lit by Caeli, it was still difficult to see.

There was a series of rapid-fire clicks as arrows thudded into all three of them. One hit Gossamer in the sternum, another hit Caeli in the stomach, and the third struck Zeema in the ribcage. Zund's laughter echoed up from the rafters.

Mavka and Karaa impatiently descended the el'vator. Outside, Helio put the wall up like he had the first time, to shield the city from the tidal wave.

##### Twelve P.M.

Once they were outside the building and the streets looked clear, Mavka blew up the tower and it started to fall toward her and Karaa. They ran perpendicular to the falling tower and narrowly avoided being crushed by it.

Gossamer tried to convince Zund not to kill them immediately; they heard the clicking of her crossbow reloading in the dark. Zund was pissed, and blamed the Amber Order for her getting roped into this. She said they weren't gonna drag down anyone else. Thinking Zund was a lost cause, they left her and tried to climb up onto the roof after ripping their arrows out.

Helio, Karaa, and Mavka were trying to make their way to the exit of the city. Helio was as fast as ever, despite his exhaustion. Karaa was able to keep a good pace, too, getting further and further ahead with her misty step that filled the streets with fog. Mavka was unable to keep up with either of them, but soon found Karaa slowing down to jog beside her. Mavka had expected this, and tried to convince Karaa to go ahead without her.

"Keep going, Karaa, I'm right behind you," Mavka panted. The effects of her exhaustion and the trauma of the past attempts was beginning to weight on her heavily.

"Sure. And I'm right beside you." Karaa retorted, keeping pace with Mavka.

Behind them, Helio's wall cracked and crumbled. With sudden determination and a surge of flighty energy, Mavka used her last wildshape to turn into a three-legged warsteed and carried Karaa out of the city at a breakneck pace.

Though the tidal wave broke Helio's wall, it was much smaller than the previous attempts they had seen. It was even kind of pretty this time, glittering in the red moonlight. In fact, there were still some buildings standing in the half of the city that was further away from the coast.

On the opposite side of town from the coast where the wave was breaking, Gossamer saw two flashes of light from inside the house. Nobody exited. She figured Kendrick had taken Zund to deliver her elsewhere.

Helio was stuck in a bottleneck at the city gates. Using his earth-genasi powers, he took down a section of the city wall to widen the exit and disperse traffic. Once done, he fled the city; Mavka and Karaa followed.

The wave hit the building that Gossamer, Caeli, and Zeema were on. Gossamer was standing too close to the edge, and fell off the side of the building.

Cold hands grabbed her arms with shocking force. preventing her fall into the murky water below. Above Gossamer, Zeema flew, dragon wings sprouting out of her back. They were charcoal-gray, with black veins, and silvery-metallic bones that matched her horns. Caeli watched from the roof, impressed.

As Gossamer dangled in midair, she cried out, "You're not gonna remember this tomorrow, but I'm really sorry I invited you to join us!"

"Don't apologize," Zeema snorted. "This is the best fun I've had in three months."

The entire city filled briefly with water, and it then began to recede. The spray hit the backs of Karaa, Mavka, and Helio, along with some minorly-injuring debris, but they made it out of the city.

Zeema tried to land back on the rooftop, descending slowly as she was guided by Caeli and Gossamer.

It appeared safe for them to descend the building, now; the wave had mostly receded, leaving a couple inches of water and debris on the streets.

Mavka, however, kept galloped and galloped until she reached the base of the mountians outside the city, where she eventually stopped to rest and fell panting in the snow. Helio caught up with the two of them eventually. When Mavka had caught her breath, she tried to set up a makeshift camp, but she was very distracted and it didn't turn out very well.

At about 1 pm, Zeema, Gossamer, and Caeli started looking for somewhere to shelter in place, as Caeli felt the weather begin to take a turn for the worse. With a message from Karaa, they left the city to rendezvous with the others in the mountains. When they arrived, the group decided to go back to the city and take their chances there.

On their way back to Baldirth, they couldn't find the horse or the tent that they had left the day (real day) before, when they first snuck into the city.

The group made it back to the city a little before 2 pm. This was easily the longest that any of them had survived on any of their attempts.

##### Two P.M.

Other people were going back into the city, too; most who did so were stronger folks or casters willing to risk more potential dangers. The townsguard who had survived were trying to bring order back to the city, identifying the dead and collecting bodies.

Many of the buildings further from the coast were still standing. There were people looting or salvaging anything they could find, all throughout the city.

The skies were still red, and the moon was still full. Mavka, figuring if she had to be in the city for her party they might as well be staying somewhere half-decent, looked around for a place that might be suitable to stay. She found an orange house, two stories tall, with water damage in the bottom half. The top half was dry, though, with two bedrooms and a fireplace, and it was unoccupied.

##### Late Afternoon

Once they were inside, safe from the snow and the wind, Helio mentioned the unnatural presence that Gossamer had been sensing, which Karaa knew nothing about. Mavka wanted to change the subject, so she brought up Relidyr; the strange not-elf had encountered all of them in the mountains of Isaldul. As far as they knew, he had only touched Zund, Mavka, Gossamer, Helio, and Caeli, not Karaa or Zeema, which would be why they weren't experiencing the time loop.

The group decided to have Karaa send a message to Relidyr. He was so shocked by hearing voices that he wasted almost all of his reply, but he said yes to one of the questions they asked, so they had reason to believe that he had something to do with the time loop after all.

Karaa circled back to the whole "unnatural presence" thing. Caeli told her the truth of the matter bluntly, without giving anyone else time to explain. Karaa, understandably, did not take it well, and said she was going to go for a walk. Mavka asked if she wanted company and Karaa said no, but Mavka was worried.

Gossamer went to the roof to see if she could spy Karaa. When Mavka tried to follow her, she slipped and fell two stories into the freezing puddles below. Her prosthetic leg flew off and clattered down the street, and Mavka had to drag herself through freezing, brackish puddles to get it back. Just as she was about to grab it, Gossamer beat her to it and put it back on. Mavka was extremely embarassed. They went back into the house, and the others went to sleep.

##### Evening

Mavka watched the sunset, alone, as she waited for Karaa. Eventually, her clothes soaked through and the air still freezing, she nervously lit a fire in the fireplace, then sat across the room from it, waiting for the air to warm.

Eventually, a couple hours later, Mavka heard someone open the door.

"Karaa?" She called into the darkness.

There was no response. Mavka heard footsteps coming up the stairs.

It was Karaa, her cheeks wet with tears. Mavka breathed a sigh of relief. She offered to make room by the fire for her, but Karaa said Mavka should get some rest while she kept watch. Mavka agreed.

### A Less Successful Day (Attempt Five)

##### Ten A.M.

Druidcraft. Mending. Discussion.

The group decided to attempt to repeat the previous day up to a certain point; Helio, Karaa, and Mavka would destroy the tower to save the city, while Zeema, Gossamer, and Caeli would try to convince Zund to help them get to Relidyr.

The latter party was successful in their endeavor. Well, partially. Caeli offered on behalf of the Amber Order to have them to a favor for Zund, no questions asked and no code considered. During their discussion, Zund talked a lot about how she'd love to torture and kill Mavka and her loved ones. Like, a very unnerving amount.

They conviced Zund to stay, and Gossamer marred the teleportation circle in an attempt to prevent Zund from leaving.

Across the city, the top of the council's tower exploded; Karaa had the councilors and everyone else in the tower evacuate as Mavka made a mandatory evacuation announcement. Mavka brought the tower down as Helio brought up the city's wall in defense against the tidal wave at the coast. Afterward, they found their way over to the teleportation circle.

##### Twelve P.M.

Gossamer messaged Helio to let him know that Zund was there, too.

Mavka came out of her wildshaped warsteed form and caught Karaa in her arms as they approached the house where the others were, scowlling as she caught sight of Zund on the rooftop. She was furious that the others had agreed to do Zund any favor of her choice, with no regard for their code. Karaa had the idea to trade information with Kendrick in exchange for him retreiving them from the city so that they could go talk to Relidyr.

##### Two P.M.

The group decided to go investigate the fallen tower that Mavka had destroyed. Gossamer found the broken portal frame in the wreckage, where a rift seemed to be spreading from it and into the ground.

Curiosity got the better of the group; they wanted to see what was on the other side. Mavka volunteered to go in, but Karaa vetoed the idea. There was some arguing; Karaa, Gossamer, and Mavka all wanted to be the one to go in, but none of them wanted the others to go in. Karaa was creeping ever-closer to the edge, and Mavka prepared a hold person spell to stop her.

Before they could reach a decision, Helio and Caeli clasped hands and stepped off the edge, into the abyss. Mavka turned her spell toward them at the last second, she was too late; they both fell through.

Stunned, the three elves were frozen, waiting for them to come back. Seconds passed. Then minutes. Half an hour. Nearly an hour.

A storm started rolling in from the distance.

##### Late Afternoon

Suddnen darkness enveloped the area as lightning erupted up from the rift and into the sky. Caeli appeared, covered head to toe in black oil that smelled like it was fermenting.

"*Why* did you do that?!" Mavka demanded. "What were you thinking? And where's Helio?"

Mavka trailed off as she realized there were infected, angry gash wounds in Caeli's chest. The monk looked nearly petrified, and extremely tense. Mavka quietly fuming, began treating her, and cast dispel magic (17) on Caeli just in case she was possessed.

"He... he said he'd be right behind me," Caeli whispered. "He promised."

Eventually, as Caeli was fading in and out of consciousness, Mavka began wiping the black grease off of her in an attempt to keep her from freezing to death.

##### Evening

Hours passed in the cold, and it began to grow dark. They began to doubt whether Helio would return.

Suddenly, another flash of dark lightning illuminated the sky from the rift, and Helio fell to the ground, unconscious. Mavka cursed, leaving Caeli to cast cure wounds on him. He was covered in the same strange substance that Caeli was, and he bore the same kind of infected wounds on his chest. Mavka cast dispel magic (22) on him, as well.

When questioned, said they fell into a lake of oil. They said there had been a growing light, which they had followed to some kind of monstrosity in a tower. It said names were power, and would not tell them its name, but Caeli accidentally told it their names. Helio followed the monstrosity to the Cyrric Sea (apparently you could say the name Cyrric there with no repurcussions). The sea was made of waves of fire and ice; everything was black and purple and toothed. The monstrosity said that people who went there only went there to die. Helio accidentally said Cyrric when he was retelling the story, and Caeli shoved a vial of something down his throat that was supposed to stop it. He said that the people dabbling with Beetroot were trying to escape him.

Zund, who'd been waiting the whole time, appeared surprised and impressed.

They told Gossamer that they asked it about Vestelle, and it said it wasn't sure where to find her. They said the thing that helped them had moss growing out of it, and talons, and could fit through small spaces. Mavka thought it sounded like Navis.

Even after Mavka healed them, their wounds were still festering. She began preparing poultices to treat their infections.

Gossamer was furious. She chewed out Caeli and Helio, then left to go for a walk to calm down. Mavka went to go check on her.

While they were gone, Zeema almost wandered into the rift, but Caeli levitated her safely over to them.

Karaa sent a message to Gossamer and Mavka, telling them that she and Zeema would take the others to a nearby house to rest.

Gossamer told Mavka that she'd be spending the night elsewhere; after all, they'd all wake up together tomorrow anyway.

While Karaa was taking Helio and Caeli to shelter, she asked if they saw anything else. They said they saw someone on a boat, and some statues of elven women.

Upon remembering the statues, Caeli tried to get a vibe check on Karaa. When she did so, she felt a connection between Karaa and the statues she'd seen, but she didn't know what it meant.

Mavka went back to the rift to see her friends gone. She was about to leave to go find them, when she saw Zund throwing rocks into the rift. They had a tense talk. For a moment, she thought Zund was going to push her into the rift. For a moment, Mavka was tempted to cast hold person on Zund and turn the tables, but she found herself rooted to the ground, unable to move.

Zund did shove her, but only to the ground, not into the rift. Mavka stayed down on the ground until Zund was out of her sight; once the doppelganger had left, she picked herself up, wiped frustrated tears from her eyes, dusted herself off, and trudged away to find her party.

Gossamer had gone back to the old house that the party had stayed in the night before. She didn't sleep.

Mavka found Zeema leaning against the wall of the house where everyone else was staying; apparently Karaa, in the stress of caring for a half-dead Caeli and Helio, had told Zeema to go watch outside for Mavka and Gossamer. Mavka tried to convince Zeema to go inside, stating that Gossamer could take care of herself. Zeema, understandably offended, disdainfully said she'd rather stay outside.

Nobody slept restfully. Mavka sweat restlessly by the fire the whole night, tossing and turning; Helio and Caeli were tormented by nightmares of what they'd seen and done in the rift that day; across the city, someone strangled Gossamer before she could fall asleep.

The party awoke the next morning being strangled by vines.