Sx22 — Rock Bottom

***Rock Bottom*** is the 22nd session of the campaign. It is preceded by Sx21 — Lucky Rabbit's Throat, and followed by Sx23 — The Fallout.

This session takes place over 2 days, the 18th-19th of Akamentes. Notable moments of the session are: the encounter with Theobald Footstomp's shadow and an allip that was residing in the tunnels below the Palace; Oto going mad after being possessed by said Allip and breaking in to protect the Queen; Khantos and Leoven have a nightmare showing the death of everyone in the Palace; and Khantos and Adrasteia see Stellina Orama perform a ritual, driving Khantos mad. Due to both their madness, an altercation between Khantos, Leoven and Adrasteia occurs — resulting in the destruction of Adrasteia's staff.

## The Storming of the Sewers

Adrasteia, Oto and Neleous follow the shadow further into catacombs. They note that it is a harengon shadow, vaguely male. This is clearly Theobald's shadow which has escaped him now that he is dead. It is very fast. As they travel they start to become more clearly worked and more of a sewer system.

They come into an opening where the water splits off into four different ways and has a platform in the centre. Sat on this platform looking over a number of papers that fly around it like in a tornado is a vaguely humanoid shape — presumably male. The creature, later identified as an Allip, appears dead like a corpse and was muttering something to itself. This muttering Oto identifies is not arcane in nature. The Allip appears to be close to a ghost but more corporeal. This would later be discovered as the spirit of Lenile. Oto grabs one of the papers from the air and sees that it is a letter from Eltin Burrowheart about the shifts and hours needed to complete the tunnels. He also sees one paper with a necromantic rune on it. Oto reaches out for the creature and hears in his head *"finish my work."*

Oto fails a save and becomes infected by a madness that requires him to react upon a single impulse: *"You are now overcome by a sudden urge to protect the people within the palace, with your life if necessary."* The creature itself is burnt away and bloated as if it was underwater, it appears as if someone attempted to hide the identity of the body. The throat is slit; the same way Theobald was killed.

Adrasteia, Neleous and Oto begin a combat as a secondary shadow of a Harengon attacks Neleous from behind. This is Theobald's shadow; why it was attacking them is still unclear. During the fight, Oto attempts to communicate with the Allip rather than attacking it. In the fight, the Allip does a number of bizarre things, including dragging Oto under water and showing him it's own body. This body is identical to the body of the Allip but does not have the wings the Allip has. Presumably this is the body of the dead person of whom the Allip's spirit came from. One of the ways Oto attempts to communicate with the Allip is by casting *Message* on it.

* **Oto:** *"Who or **what** did this to you?"*

The Allip responds with a list of all the council member's names. It also attacked the shadow of Theobald whenever it could and, for some reason, every time it attacked the party it appeared to be somewhat involuntary. At the end of the combat, the Allip helps defeat Theobald's shadow and returns to the dais before dissipating. As it vanishes, Oto hears in his head again: *"Collect my notes. Finish this."*

Oto spends all the following time collecting all of the notes before leaving and began to read them as he was leaving the sewers. These notes were hand written, which made it clear that as the person wrote they were losing their sanity. The most common note is a necromantic rune. Other notes have a profile on most of the council members, however the credibility of these opinions are unsure due to the clear madness afflicting the person writing. The notes also make it clear that servants keep disappearing in relation to the tunnels. The author does not know where the remains in the catacombs are going, but is aware they are disappearing. Adrasteia, Oto and Neleous leave the tunnels and return to the main parts of the castle.

## Leoven and Khantos' Shared Nightmare

Leoven and Khantos go to sleep separately, but have another one of their joint dreams. This one started in a circular room with wings decorating the wall. There is a large desk behind which sits a sleeping man, identified now as Hypnos. The two sit in chairs and are aware of each other in the dream. The man behind the desk gives them a grey slate with a number on it. The slate reads: *'Serving Number: 6803.'* The room is filled with harp elevator music.

They are directed down a corridor with statues of people getting older alongside the walls and intermittent doors. For a moment, the pair think they are dead, however they soon realise it is a dream. They reach their assigned door on the corridor and realise share the same. Together, they open the door and walk into the throne room of Artemis Cove's Palace. The blood runs by their feet, creating a puddle across the entire room. On the steps up to the throne, the King and the Queen lay dead with golden blood running from them and onto the stones below. On the throne sits a figure in shadows, clad in black and with a long black pole resting on their shoulders.

It's then that they hear a voice described as 'beyond mortal' say:

> "Soon you will join the rest / Soon it will be completed / Soon the World will be changed / Soon it will be perfect"
>
>

And then they are pulled out of the dream.

## Oto Talks to the Queen

Oto shared the information he found on the notes with Adrasteia and Neleous and then ran ahead of them to find Leoven and Khantos. When he found them he heard about their dream and immediately ran off to go and find Queen Ione and check on her safety. In attempting to get past the guards he comes into an altercation as they will not let him pass. They are confident that the Ione is safe because they have heard no noises from inside. Oto points out how ridiculous an idea that is, as many assassins could break in and kill someone silently. This does not fill them with faith. Eventually the noise makes the Queen come out of the chambers and invites Oto into the room. He talks to her about how she is in danger and she responds by saying the guards are very good. However, Oto scoffs at this and points out how idiotic the guards are. The conversation goes nowhere and Oto leaves frustrated, and now decides to go looking for Stellina, who he wants to give clarification on what she believes might be the cause and look for evidence.

## An Apollon Disaster

After Oto leaves the group together, Adrasteia comments on the fact that Oto is behaving weird but no one seems to agree. Neleous fails an insight check to notice Oto's madness. Khantos and Leoven fill the others in about the dream they had in more detail and Khantos decides to go and visit Stellina as he believes she might be able to give insight to the dream. Adrasteia decides to follow him, while Neleous runs off to look for Oto and Leoven goes back to bed. Khantos and Adrasteia go to Stellina's room to try and find her but it is empty, instead they start to walk around the castle looking for clues to where she might be.

In the end, they find a strange golden light coming from the cracks around the door. When they open the door, they are covered in a divine light similar to the sun that seems to be emanating from Stellina, who is deep in the midst of some kind or ritual. When the pair are hit by this light, they are forced to make a Wisdom Saving throw, which Adrasteia succeeds but Khantos fails. This causes Khantos to be filled with madness and become extremely paranoid. The ritual ends. Stellina says *"The next step has taken effect"* and then immediately passes out.

Adrasteia summons one of the guards that is nearby and tells them to take Stellina back to her room. Khantos runs off away from Adrasteia to find Leoven, and Adrasteia follows, concerned.

### Meanwhile, Oto and Neleous look for Stellina

Neleous goes looking for Oto and finds him in the corridors heading towards Stellina's room. Wrapped up in his madness, he believes that Stellina (as a seer) will have answers for what is going on and believes that she is hiding something. When they get to her room she is not there and Oto decides to wait for her to arrive. This is convenient as the guards Khantos and Adrasteia sent with Stellina's unconscious body arrive with her. Oto lies and says that they are healers here to care for her. The two guards leave and Oto chooses to remain until Stellina wakes up. Neleous attempts to persuade him out of it, but he is focussed on getting answers and chooses to remain.

Neleous finds this frustrating and excuses himself to go and talk to someone.

### Neleous deals with Bureaucracy

Neleous uses an *Iris Message* to call his boss who is revealed to be Hedylogos, one of the Erotes and god of sweet-talk. Neleous clearly holds some resentment for Hedylogos as their relationship isn't great and seems to be based on a previous agreement. Neleous requests to be taken off the mission as it is causing too much stress. During this conversation Neleous reveals that he was sent to the party because he has been tasked to find Adrasteia's soulmate. He also describes the party as "insane", which resulted in him being patched through to a different God. This time he saw Dionysus sat on his throne and voiced his concern. Dionysus commented that his son (Oto) was there and gave him 6 grapes that he said would cure madness's. Neleous then returns to Stellina's room with Oto.

### Oto and Neleous Fight

Neleous returns to the room where Oto is; immediately Oto can sense the magic of Dionysus in the room, but when he questions what it is Neleous is extremely evasive and defensive which causes Oto to become much more suspicious of Neleous. They have a brief argument in which Neleous keeps avoiding the question and eventually Oto gives up on the questioning and begins his long rest in Stellina's room waiting for her to wake up.

## Leoven, Khantos and Adrasteia have the MOST emotional moment of the campaign.

While everyone else was running around the castle, Leoven returns to her room, claiming she is about to go to sleep. However, she does not. Instead, she takes a chair and barricades door. She sits down opposite; her weapon in hand, where she remains, watching it closely; extremely paranoid due to the madness infecting her mind.

Khantos returns to Leoven's room, with Adrasteia following closely behind. Khantos knocks on the door to wake up Leoven, not knowing she is already awake. She opens the door a crack to see who is there to which Khantos says: *"Let me in, Adrasteia is chasing me. I don't think she's herself."* In response, Leoven opens the door to Khantos and lets him in, attempting to close it quickly after him to block Adrasteia.

Meanwhile, Adrasteia had been attempting to catch up with Khantos correctly identifying something was wrong after they were hit by the light coming from Stellina's ritual. She is running slightly behind and sees the above interaction, and, knowing that Leoven is also acting unusual, attempts to get into the room as a way to help them. She does this by instinctively putting her staff into the door as a way to keep it closed.

Adrasteia pleads with them to let her in, stating they are not in their right minds and she can help them if they just let her in. Meanwhile, Khantos is whispering in Leoven's ear talking about how he believes that she may be possessed — or turned against them, or a doppelgänger — that had replaced the real Adrasteia. The extremely paranoid Leoven keeps trying to push the door closed against Adrasteia.

Firmly believing that Leoven is on his side, while Adrasteia tries desperately to push the door open. Khantos takes his axe and, in two swift swings, snaps her staff in half. As the staff snaps, it bathes the room in moonlight and surrounds Adrasteia in a strange glow. It is in this light that something changes in Leoven, curing her of her madness and bringing her to her senses, but does not cure Khantos of his madness. Distraught, Adrasteia runs back to her room, leaving her staff pieces behind and sobs behind a closed door. That night she cries herself to sleep sat against her door.

After the explosion of light, Khantos leaves to his room, believing that this room is compromised (mostly because the staff's explosion has actually destroyed the door). he closes the door behind him.

Now alone in her room, Leoven notices that her hands begin to glow with the same moonlight that healed her madness before. This was similar to her *Lay-on-Hands* which usually glows with sunlight. This light also would vanish if she moved away from Khantos, demonstrating two key things: this magic wanted to heal Khantos of his madness and also that it is somewhat sentient. Leoven also notes that the moonlight magic looks a lot like the magic Adrasteia casts.

Leoven goes to Khantos' room and walks in without knocking. Khantos is stood there holding his axe ready to fight. Leoven attempts to persuade him to put down the weapon and let her help him. Khantos is not persuaded and the two look like their about to fight. It all comes down to an initiative roll, looking at who could move the fastest. Leoven wins the initiative roll with an 9, beating Khantos' roll by only 1, and cures Khantos of his madness.

Khantos and Leoven both immediately pass out. When Leoven wakes, she spends the next four hours monitoring Khantos' sleep and writing her second letter to Rigani.

### A Magical Breakfast

Neleous that morning attempts to get Leoven and Oto to break out of their afflictions, by feeding each of them a grape. He manages to convince Leoven to eat one, which was ineffectual as she was already cured. They then throw one into the back of Oto's head which seems to do the trick in stopping the compulsion.

### Khantos Talks to Atlas

The next morning, Khantos wakes up and heads up to the balcony overlooking the courtyard, looking towards Quintus' tower. He takes out his globe pendant and grips it tightly. He looks up to the sky, which begins to get cloudy. A wind starts to rush through the castle and clouds that begin to swirl around where the throne room is. Khantos speaks out into clouds that he believes the power of the gods is stronger in the castle and that Atlas' power is is weaker. Khantos also asks for guidance. Atlas says that it is true, but Khantos must maintain the path. Khantos asks if Quintus truly is his enemy and Atlas says that Quintus' aims do not align with Atlas'. Khantos steels himself for the pair's plan to break into the tower. He ends his communion with Atlas and goes to look for Leoven to figure out what their plan is to break into Quintus' tower.

### Adrasteia Goes Almond Picking

Adrasteia heads to the courtyard garden looking for an almond tree. She finds one there and attempts to druidcraft a blossom from the tree however is unable to due to her lack of arcane focus. Adrasteia begins to pray to Artemis, using the tree as a focus for the prayer.

> "I miss you. It broke and I lost your magic and the part of you I had I think I disappointed."
> — Adrasteia, to Artemis
>
>

As she completes the prayer, an almond seed falls into her hands and it seems to function somewhat as an arcane focus. She places it in the end of her staff where Cynthia the Spider lives.

### I Wanna Swing from Quintus' Tower

Stood on the balcony together, Leoven explains her plan to Khantos. Leoven sends out her *Binding Chains* and suspends Khantos from a gargoyle. This brings Khantos half way towards the tower, which means he is close enough to vortex warp Leoven onto the balcony of the tower, where Leoven could pull him up. However, the gargoyle begins to slip above the courtyard gardens that Adrasteia is below in. It is Adrasteia who sees it first and turns into a giant Elk to draw attention from the crowd. She moves to the other side, so that no one is looking at Khantos hanging from the wall. Leoven then successfully pulls Khantos onto the balcony.

Immediately, Leoven *Divine Senses* the area and detects nothing evil or good in the tower. But, there is a slight celestial presence above them. As they enter the chamber, they see that four emerald eyed celestial bronze dragons begins to jump down from the rafter and appear to be enraged, they are clearly going to attack.