Session 8 - The Wall of Vapors

The Dogs of War left the house of Dyaspagon and headed back towards the front lines. On the way they met Caedryll, who had a message from Slyy to deliver to Xentax. He accompanied them. As they approached the front lines, they came across a party of elves led by a human sorcerer and his personal guard, a nasty-looking devil with a steel mask. The group was preparing to execute a group of civilians. After a difficult battle, the party defeated the soldiers and took one of the elves prisoner, saving all but one of the civilians. Jeddak used his psionics to interrogate the elf prisoner and found out that there was a hidden passage in the sewers that led under the main lines.

The party found the passage and moved quietly under the streets back towards friendly territory. Along the way, they encountered a group of modrons, probably acting as sappers. and destroyed them. The modrons had a sort of clockwork box which they were using to sabotage the walls of the sewer and the party took this with them as they continued along their way.

Upon arriving in the Lower Ward, they headed to see Zyndar. He was glad to see them and summoned Xentax to join them. The party delivered their prisoner to Xentax and gave Zyndar the modron box to study. They were desirous to reach the ethereal plane so they could look for the Wall of Vapors, as described in the letters between Beorhisto and Dyaspagon. They asked Zyndar if he knew a way to get there. Zyndar said there was a well known portal to the ethereal plane which was in an opium den owned by a very old tabaxi named Strange Box.

The party went to see Strange Box, who told them he could send them to the ethereal plane, but they needed to bring him a brightly colored stone disc to use as a focus for the spell. The party split, with Augustus and Caedryll fabricating a brightly colored stone disc from a cobblestone and the ink in Augustus' disguise kit. The other group went to the library at the Shattered Temple. Gwyonor greeted them warmly. He had one of the books referenced in the letter from Beorhisto, the Velvet Tome of Hospanykka, but his copy of the other book, the Annals of Rejeralaan had been destroyed and he did not know of a replacement. He agreed to search the Velvet Tome for references to "Adaranth," and the party left him.

They returned to Strange Box who led them into a clean room at the back and set up and enormous hookah. As smoke built up in the room, the party found themselves in the ethereal plane. Caedryll used one of the scrolls from Dyaspagon's house and the spell transported them to a giant wall of smoke with rolled constantly like a waterfall with flashes of purple lightning. There was a door, but when Augustus approached it, he was attacked by a giant woman made of smoke who materialized from the wall. Not wanting to fight, the party tried to contact the spirit. With the help of the others, Nedra succeeded in making contact with the spirit and found herself in a black space standing in front an old but formidable looking woman. This was the famed archmage Katalii and she explained that she had been tricked by the Adaranth into exhausting her magical and material resources to imprision the marid Abbar Savi. She had died as a result and she explained that her soul was trapped in the ethereal plane, unable to find rest. When Nedra asked if she could help, Katalii said said, "helping Abbar Savi will help me." Nedra offered her body as a vessel and Katalii entered Nedra's body as a passenger.

The party entered the door in the Wall of Vapors and found themselves in Katalii's keep in a pocket dimension. They found a temple to the god Thoth where they took some valuable relics. The then found Katalii's tower, at the base of which was a fine library. In the library they found many valuable books to sell to Gwyonor, and a journal apparently written by Katalli. Two passages caught their attention:

> I know the Adaranth is using me. I know this will not end well for me. But I cannot see another way forward. I am in a deep canyon of dead futures with a single path laid out before me. Abbar Savi is powerful, imprisoning him will be no simple matter. It will require all my resources to accomplish it, and then I will be left weak and friendless. But the Adaranth has tied my hands. My fate is sealed.
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> I have discovered a tether with which to hold Abbar Savi in his own plane, even within a single region! It is dangerous, but I believe it will work. I have created a gem, using power from the spark of Istishia himself, with which I can create a sphere of containment to surround Abbar Savi. But then this Ember of Istishia must be flung far into the cosmos so that the agents of Abbar-Savi can never find it. If he goes free, and I yet live, I would face the wrath of the Adaranth. Over many weeks I have devised a spell to hide the Ember deep in the Astral Sea, in a region unreachable by normal means. I have prepared the spell in my tower and will perform the ritual tonight. Thoth guide me.
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Above the library was an observatory and a door leading into the tower proper. In the observatory they found three copies of a spell written onto scrolls. It was unclear what the spell did.