Session 71: The Gang Meets the Architect 2: Electric Boogaloo

The group waits around until they can meet the Speaker. Cho warily observes the oblex and notices that while it mostly acts like the people it copies, its behaviours are repetitive and the duplicates are uncharacteristically intelligent. Around midnight, the blizzard clears up and a bright light appears above the lake. The spirits of eagle, wolf, bear, and mammoth appear, then merge into a single humanoid figure that materialises into Dosek, a long-lost member of Vojta’s tribe. When they approach, he addresses them, already knowing who they are and what their quest is.

Dosek explains that he was accepted by the lake and granted deep knowledge about the world. He can perceive the threads of fate, so he knows the multiple possible futures of their quest. The fate of four adversaries is interwoven with theirs: Gyrraleth, Ruthstin, Suvulaan, and a fourth who they have met many times but whose true face they have never seen. Bretka, Vojta’s lost friend, is currently battling this enemy north of the forest. If they can defeat these enemies, their quest will succeed. In his words, the egg will not hatch in time and they will slay the worm before it rises.

However, other events can disrupt their fate, such as the unexpected death of Vica, which caused ripples in the weave. Now, Disiver threatens their quest. Dosek claims that if he is not stopped within nine days, he will do irreparable damage to their cause. The group asks him about Disiver’s gem, so he breaks it open, revealing an amber tuning fork inside. It’s an invitation that can be used to plane shift to a predetermined location. He makes another tuning fork of compressed earth for them, which they can use to return to the material plane.

Lastly, Dosek speaks to Vojta in private for a while. When they regroup, he also agrees to tell the minotaur border tribe that they are sanctioned to be here and don’t have to perform the rite of passage. The group thanks him for his help and decides to deal with Disiver as soon as possible, then seek out Bretka right after. They rest until the morning. When they say goodbye to Dosek, he disappears back into the lake, as he can only maintain his human form at night. Vojta then casts the plane shift spell with the amber tuning fork, summoning a spectral wolf head that swallows them whole.

They reappear in a barren stone plain with an orange sky. Nearby is a statue of a winged demonic creature, a river, and some ruins on the other side. The statue has a plaque that welcomes them to Koloschei, realm of the First Deceiver. Carvings on the floor welcome those who come invited. As they advance, they are teleported to the other side of the river, into a pristine palace that wasn’t visible earlier. Gold and gems are scattered around, but they are stained with blood, so they don’t touch them. Ti’ireth is painted on the ceiling, depicted as a beautiful but unnervingly proportioned humanoid. An amber statue of him wielding a scythe is in the middle of the central hall.

Two large demons emerge, so Vojta gives them the amber tuning fork as proof of their invitation. They say the master is out, but they may wait for him here while they send him a message. Their items should be in the master’s vault, and they are free to try to retrieve them. The group exits the palace to find a huge crater surrounded by seven other very different buildings. When asked, the demons explain that these represent the eight demon lords Disiver has worked for. Inside the crater is a huge floating mechanical orb, which is the vault.

After they wait a few hours, the demons return to tell them that Disiver is away on a mission and there is no saying how long he will be gone. Nan asks them how they feel about the Cerebarieth situation, hoping they can be persuaded to cooperate, but they don’t seem bothered by the prospect of being erased. The group decides to try cracking the vault. Nan tries to dispel it, but the magic is far too powerful. It consists of many mechanical puzzle boxes, so Nan tries to solve one. After some trying, she can manipulate it well enough to avoid the magical defence mechanism, but her mortal mind can’t solve it.

The group decides that waiting for Disiver will be a waste of time, so they will come back later. Vojta uses the stone tuning fork to plane shift them back to the Horned Forest. They then fly to the northern edge of the forest, where the border tribe tells them that Bretka is out in the frozen plains, coming and going every few days. They give them a map to her approximate location. When they fly there, they initially find nothing but snow and large spikes of ice. Vojta tries a communicative bird call, but is too rusty to do it well. Cho bellows out Bretka’s name instead.

A giant eagle descends and transforms into a squat blonde woman. She suspiciously holds them at spearpoint and tells Vojta to prove his identity by saying something only he would know. He recounts an anecdote about a troublesome hunt they undertook together. She gladly accepts that it’s really him and explains that she has to be cautious because her enemy can change appearance. She then invites them back to her campsite in a small cave. She has been here for a few weeks, repeatedly preventing her enemy from entering the forest from the north. This enemy is a red dragonborn woman with druidic abilities. She appears at uneven times, so Bretka uses divination magic to track her down when she gets close.

The group wonders if this enemy might be Shula, and Nan recalls that Shula warned her not to go north. They explain their situation to Bretka, who was in the dark about the deeper details despite working with Dosek. They then decide to help her catch this enemy, who was last seen yesterday. They give her the potion of watchful rest so she can scout at night and call on them when the enemy is found. She then heads out in eagle form while the others rest at camp.

During the night, a minotaur approaches their camp. It claims to be an ally of Bretka, checking up because there were more tracks than expected. Nan is suspicious and casts dispel, which removes the minotaur disguise to reveal a red dragonborn. They address her as Shula and she confirms that they might call her that. She then shrugs and walks away, but they chase after her. She summons a wall of thorns to slow them down and runs away behind a spike of ice. Nan flies overhead to reach her, but finds her gone when she gets there. Vojta recognises the traces of a plane shift spell in her place.

Bretka returns shortly after and they explain to her what happened. They now understand why their struggle has gone on so long. They figure that the dragonborn won’t come back right away now that they’re here, so they should really move on to their next objective. Nan gives Bretka her pearl of power to aid her in fighting off the dragonborn, and Vojta vows that he’ll come back to her in due time.