4.4 Answers Beyond Questioning

ruined as though someone had tried to figure something out haphazardly) the Archmage
was curled up unconscious in magical stasis.
She sat on the floor looking tired and weary.

How could something subvert the tower and turn it into
something terrible when it had all of the ascendant working to protect it?  It didn’t make sense…

The Archbishop comforts her as the group approaches her
knowing she is thinking about whether she should give her life to provide the
group (core group and Cara) with the key to the tower.

They discuss ways to proceed but come to terms that the
Archbishop will likely not survive without help. Baygrith suggests the use of
his anti-magic cloak and Dal provides the use of time-magicks to help The
Archmage survive and allow the gang to enter the legendary observatory.  The Archmage voiced skepticism as she thought
any way to outsmart the tower might result in its destruction or some other
unwanted effect.  But the Chosen of Astor
needed to find a way to fight the voidspawn and the observatory held the
answer.  They couldn’t afford to lose
this opportunity.  The party came to
terms with receiving the key from the Archmage…even at the expense of her life
knowing that they risked too much and might lose the Archmage just as
well.  The Archmage accepted her fate and
embraced her fate knowing that her wrongs may be righted now through her
sacrifice.  In her words: “a fitting
punishment…”

When asked about the skull in the basement that seemed to
exude magic death goop, she revealed that there must be some proof of an
afterlife as it the skull of either an angel or demon kind of being.

The Archmage reveals that the skull should have been in
stasis and not where the party had found it.
The Archmage cautioned about it remaining in its current state and even
advocated for its destruction having noted that it’s research was in
consideration for banned research.  Among
the other things the Archmage stated, she mentioned to learn about what they
found in the observatory before judging it.
In addition to these revelations she let slip that Viti is “not of Tirisea.”  The Archmage hands a note to Travize which
holds the location of an archival warehouse containing some of the most
important and dangerous knowledge the Ascendant had created.

The Archmage bends over, draws ritual runes on herself and
asks for it to be done.  Travize summons
Wrynn and who completes the ritual.
Silence falls upon the chamber and a moment of reverence is had before
she is looted.

### Betrayal Spreads

The party gathers its things and prepares to leave but only
Baygrith can advance toward the Observatory.
The rest of the party is frozen.
Finnean appears!  Dal throws a
harpoon through Baygrith pinning him to the wall.  Finnean taunts the party griping about how
long it has been for him to catch up to the party and end this and TAKES THE
KEY.  Baygrith shoots Finnean with the
light hand cannon and taunts him before being restrained further through magic
portal.  The Archbishop calls on Bartos
and is able to break free of the magic stasis but a seemingly mind controlled
Bagel has None run through the Archbishop.
As Bagel swings a sword at him, Thain is poofed away so they cannot
teleport back throughout the mansion as Muithel would have given Thain preservation
orders compelling him to escape.  Wrynn
takes control of Finnean who loses control of Bagel.  Finnean and Wrynn are locked in battle as the
entire party can only stand in place, thinking to themselves and unable to
move.  Finnean is stabbed with None after
Sal telekinetics None through him.
Magical energy dissipates around him as he poofs away.  Bagel grabs Dal and curses out Finnean to him
blaming him for taking to long in acting before the two of them disappear.  The party regains agency and sees the
archbishop gurgling up blood and general internal issues.  Oh to have Thain around and on their side to
clean up this mess….

The party is in shock from this betrayal.  Cara, who was outside the room when this
happened but was still frozen, enters the room horrified.  Baygrith is unwalled and the anti-magic cloak
is removed so he can be healed by Sal.
None is missing.  It is a dire
scene.  The archbishop conjures himself
up new organs and is able to take care of himself.  The archbishop revealed that time had been
rewound on the party for a long time as part of a scheme to integrate
themselves into the party.  Upon
reflection, the group realizes that Dal never even really looked like Sal.  Wyrnn says the only way to prevent her from
being taken over by Fin is for all of her masters to command her to ignore
instructions to harm each other and actions from Finnean.  The party does so and calls on Karhanza to do
the same and to speak freely.  Karhanza
reveals she was susceptible to time magic and were able to jump in time through
the key.  She also says that her bracelet
is in Finneans hands and that they could either kill or control her at any
moment.  The party urges her to take
whatever action she needs to regain her freedom and safety.  She bids them farewell and disappears to take
them out.  Wyrnn apologizes for her
actions while taken over and they head for the forge.

At the forge, Wyrnn is able to determine that they haven’t
taken over the tower yet and they still have time.  Sajaina comes up with the idea of naming a
new archmage to create a new key to own the tower. Travize brains to the
Collective that Bagel and Dal are not to be trusted.  Wyrnn gives Baygrith a vial of wisdom and he
can know create magical items as well as artificery and is at the worlds
greatest workbench as far as Baygrith is concerned.  The arch bishop gives everyone a piece of
cloth that will protect them from being scryied upon.  Wyrnn says that if one of the ascendant were
to go recast themselves at a pedestal, they would be the new archmagi.  Until that happens the next one in line would
be Kya Wight (Cara’s mom).  Wrynn
provides a time anchor to make sure that if time moves, they would remain static.
 Wrynn & Saj to go to the mansion’s Arcanium
to look for the codex to look for the pedestal.
It appears that Kya could be named archmage in absentia which could
save some time since they did not know where she was.  The pedestal was a way to bring ascendant
back to live in emergencies to retrieve the knowledge of someone who would be
indispensable.

### Locked in Time

The party meets at the catacombs to search for the temporal
anchor.  Upon entering they find a mummified
body WHICH THE ARCHBISHOP MELTS WITH HOLY BARTOS NOISE.  They go into a new catacomb that reveals a
floating magical mobius strip.  It is the
temporal anchor.  Baygrith, Travize and
Wrynn hold the temporal anchor which the party can now benefit from.  They party is now resistant of mind
control.  A portal is made and they come
through to find themselves in the hall of ceremonies wherein they find the
pedestal.  Wyrnn expresses doubt thinking
that she not be the same person after the pedestal ceremony which would unbind
her.  After not much ceremony, Wyrnn
casts the ritual and she receives a tattoo on her head.  Wyrnn is a member of the tower again.  She then proclaims herself archmagi and her
tattoo glows.  Light applause occurs (it
is a surreal moment as she is the first dead archmagi in the tower’s history).  The secrets of the tower revealed to her,
Wrynn makes the key appear on her back.
The party rejoices as they have retaken the key from Finnean.  As the plan to go to the observatory, reality
is messed up as they realize the world around them is going back in time but
thanks to the temporal anchor, they party members themselves are
unaffected.  Finnean and friends must be
going back in time to find us in a place where the party isn’t.  As Karhanza wasn’t temporally locked, they
were worried if she was affected by the evil team coming back to the time but
it doesn’t seem the bracelet’s link to her is in danger.

They debated how to get to the observatory but the key won’t
be enough somehow.  The tower rocks and
shakes as though it were beginning to come down.  The party leaves the hall and goes to the
observatory and Wyrnn teleports them to a rock.
They see a tunnel ahead of them.
They go down the long tunnel into a room with a human heart made of life
with its ventricles going all throughout the room.  A literal heart room as it were.  Part of the heart seems to be black and
spreading; the result of a None-based attack most likely.  The running hypothesis is that it was dying
and cannot be healed.  The Heart reveals
that knowledge was taken for reasons that weren’t shared with it.  The heart was forced to inscribe the whole of
the tower’s knowledge and happily repeated the process for the party.  It is revealed that 5 mages are alive in the
observatory along with fragments of a spirit being.  She reveals the archivist is a sentient
construct placed here to record everything for the Overseers: the creators of
Tirisea.  The archivist’s intent seem to
bee only for the preservation of knowledge.
The Heart promised to allow the group into the observatory if they
promised to destroy it.  Saj asks of her
pregnancy and the tower reveals that the birth would be fatal to her mother.  The tower offers to teleport the group to the
observatory which she does.  They find a
large great door and the party prepares for whatever they might find.

### They Were Not Prepared

Door opens, blood on the walls, floor made of rotting
tendrils…at the end of the hall they see 5 mages including Kya Wight.  They are next to a glowing voidspwan
stone.  It is a red stone from the
voidspawn’s home and larger than all others they have seen.  It is clearly the tether voidspawn have been
using to enter Tirisea.  On the floor
beneath it, there is a spot that isn’t covered by the rot.  Out of this spot, a creature made of two
beings arrives.  A shard of Smitty the
cleric shows up merged with Ranya.  They
are merged into a ball of twisted energy.
They speak as though both voices were speaking (like the master in
Fallout 1) They spoke of knowledge from the Overseers: That the truth is alchemy
and its methods. They spoke about letters of recommendation and other things
typical of applying to an institution of prestige.  Apparently Ronya was about to become nothing
until Smitty came by seeking his own answers but was forged with Ronya becoming
their own new being.  They have since
taken over the tower.  They claim that the
whole of Tirisea was all a part of the experiment.  They then summon several mages which are also
scions of affected rotted mages.  The
Ronya/Smitty entity claimed the 3 primes: mercury, salt and sulfur and fire the
elements: water, air, earth, death and life are the only true ways of
manipulation on this plane.  The mage
scions attack our heroes as well as the party looks around the chamber and
finds the alchemical elements around them.
Cara runs to her mother but a monster mash gets in her way.  Cara “makes it go away.”  The Archbishop says to focus on the little
weenies of the ex-mages while he works on the Ascendant scion.  They throw different combinations of the
alchemical elements at the creatures.
The salt (representing “body”) proves to burn them when imbued with
life.  The Archbishop draws white light
runes in the air before a holy flame appears to engulf the remaining creatures
including Ronya/Smitty.  It survives
although is in pain.  It draws its own
symbols in the air and is surrounded by a bubble made of mercury (mind) and
air.  All the while treating this as a
sort of entrance exam for the tower of apotheiosos, the Scion Ascendant sends
fire spirit creatures their way.  Travize
uses earth salt and his body is improved as a result of imbibing it.  Sal, makes sulfur water which when thrown at
the flame spirits instantly dissipates them.
Cara is spotted by her mom who, horrified by seeing her daughter here,
lashes out at the archivist for not keeping her out of danger.  Caireann uses sulfur air to try to break the
Ascendant’s barrier to limited effect.
The Ascendant blob hurls a fireball at her, disappointed she had the
incorrect formula.

Baygrith realizes the mages are being held hostage and are
behind a magic field and that only the anti-magic cloak could allow him to cross
it.  He does so and encourages Kya that
her daughter is safe and the rest of the mages want to stay behind the field
but give Baygrith a ring to prevent him to defy death.  Sajaina takes out her Karhanza-wand and makes a
stab at ruining the ascendant scion’s day using salt water, leaving only one
fire spirit left and destroying the scion’s shield.  Travize turns into a Gecko/Octopus/Horse made
of rocks or whatever to pick up a bunch of elements to throw at the
ascendant.  Baygrith puts the Voidspawn
stone in a tricked out wheelbarrow he pooped out of his vending machine for a
quick get away before returning to the fight outside the magic field.  The ascendants summon a fire eel and earth
elementals.  Different combinations of
elements and primes are increasingly effective combinations are used.  Cara comes to the field that protects/traps
her mother and the other 4 mages and voidspawn boulder and breaks down the
magic field with Dandelions.  As each use
of the elements and primes is thrown, the air begins to vibrate worrying
all.  A spell is down by Wrynn to undo
the process and in doing so…BRINGS ALL 18 DEFEATED SPIRITS BACK TO LIFE.  The Archbishop great purging spell to thin
their numbers.  The mages, now free of
their magic shield, start raining magical assault on the reborn creatures.  The Ascendant scion makes several fire gremlins.  Kya saves Cara from a stone zombie and breaks
her arm in the process.  Baygrith farted
down the shield using sulfur air to take down the shield protecting the
Scion.   As a result of the air
vibrating, it occasionally resulted in hurting all creatures made of flesh
causing pain and confusion for all.  The
battle took an unfriendly turn.

### She Was Such A Nice Girl...

The Scion relented that they were losing but then brought up
a acidic rune that threatened the party.
Things were desperate as the group was taking serious beatings.  In a desperate attempt, the scion casts a
lightning bolt at Caireann.  Despite
Baygrith’s best efforts to save her, Caireann is struck…the half elf warrior was blasted across the room and her body went limp as it hit a wall.  Caireann stands up and sees her body on the
floor as the rest of the battle seems frozen in time.  A female half elf appears out of nowhere, approaches Caireann and
introduces herself.  Caireann is told
that Steave has met many of her group before and she acknowledges how random a
pick this was today.  Steave offers a way for
to stay alive: to help him balance the order of good and evil.  And to do that: Steave would have Caireann do
“an act of wickedness every day.” (turns out good is winning somehow overall so she is the balance in the world)  She would not be judged in any afterlife for
her actions done by fulfilling this role.
She would know this by an inert feeling of internal stress whenever she neglected her vile duty.   Caireann
agrees, they shake hands and he disappears.
Travize (time still frozen) speaks with emotion to Caireann and explains
the rules of a post Steave encounter including not speaking about it to anyone
living (including her fellow-Steave acquaintances) then wakes up to healing
from Sal.

Several attacks on the Scion make its attacks more and more
haphazard.  It exudes multiple great long
tentacles. one of which constricts Sajaina.
Baygrith frees Sajaina by cutting it down as the rest of the party takes
advantage of Sajaina's poison hurting the aberration of ascendency for extra
amounts.  Sal quips as he deal the final
blow to the monster leaving it a small weak ball of energy which made it easy
to destroy.  Cara and Kya say goodbye to
the tower and go through a portal to the Elfataina (not Yggon’s Wrath which
might be compromised by Dal & friends).

After leaving the Voidspawn stone in B-Team’s hands.  Checking to see if they can trust him,
Travize tries to brain-speak to Thain.
Thain responds and explains that he is now ordered to be silent but can
still communicate through brains.  He
expressed remorse for being ordered to leave the battle under Muithel’s
commands to preserve himself and explained that he and his master were in
hiding but were likely on the ground somewhere on Tirisea.  He also said that magic had branded him and
that they wanted to purify him of it before he returned to the ship.  He wished the party luck and explained that
he was still sympathetic to their cause.

### What Even Is Tirisea?

With that, the party portals back to Yggon’s Wrath to ask
Veller what he remembers.  Apparently the
time-fuckery in the tower has cost them a week of time in the rest of the
world’s perspective.  At this moment,
they could see the tower rumble and collapse.
As the party watches the event unfold, they hear a goblin voice behind
them.  “Now THAT was cool…”  A battered and singed Karhanza was a sight
for sore eyes and even better news, she had retrieved her own bracelet back and
gave it to Sajaina.  She explained her
encounter with the others went well (obviously) and then asked to rest.  The rest of the party decided to do the same
after divvying up the loot but before they do Caireann runs into Travize.  Caireann swiftly kicks him in the shins.  Travize, seeming to understand why, gives her a book on secrecy he wrote.

The next day, the party had a talk to catch Kya up on how they
got to the tower, the tattoo now order to keep it glowing or in existence.  She explained that she and her fellow mages
were used to keep up work on various experiments.  She then asked who the group was (they needed
to start at the beginning since she was unfamiliar with the Chosen of Astor
ceremony and it’s significance).  They
catch up on each other’s stories and they allow her to stay on the ship.  Cara is chosen to be a part of the closing of
the portal on the Voidspawn end with Kya wanting to accompany her.  Priority is now for Baygrith to work with the
Architect and complete the use of a construct capable of closing the portal
from the voidspawn end (so no sentient life dies).

Before they go to their respective areas for the evening,
(good half) Albert appears before the party.
He claims that he did not know what had happens and says that it was
more likely his other half made a deal them and it is likely that Finnean is about
to do such a thing as well.  It is unknown
what they could possibly want from the other world but it.  He also explained that there was a possibility
to survive on a different home than Tirisea, even possibly all of its inhabitants
as well.  He left them with this choice
while making it clear that it might be too much to risk in fighting for this
single chance to close them off but the empty void of space would give plenty
of opportunity to spread out and avoid the issues of Tirisea including its mysterious
Overseers.  He began ranting about not
living within a lie but it seemed clear he preferred leaving Tirisea wholesale
rather than fretting about how and when to address the mess that is the
voidspawn.  Thain left the Chosen of
Astor with that with a promise to visit us tomorrow and offered to be bonded
with one of us the next day.