3.3 New Moon

With the death of the Maharaja, our
heroes decided to take some time to recover from their recent
exploits. Veller decided to take this time to repair the ship as
well. It is over the course of the week that a number of things
unfolded. In brief: Sajaina felt guilty that she had, by running
away from home, deprived her sister the opportunity to adopt and
raise one of the Maharaja's children. She thus had Thain magically
reverse her sister's infertility. Sajaina told Wrynn who mentioned it
to Travize. Travize and Sajaina had an argument about it. They have
mostly made up by the end of the week, deciding to hope together that
Sajaina's decision was for the better rather than the worse. As a
result of Wrynn's telling Travize about her family business, Sajaina
lost what respect she had for the woman. She approached Karhanza to
ask whether it would be possible to unbind her from Wrynn if she
decided she had had enough of her in the near future. Gruk proposed
to Perlapae (Yay!). Perlapae has not yet given a definitive answer
*(awww).* Baygrith took some
time to inventing few things and contributed to the improvement of
the Ship Formerly Known As Yggon's Wrath's engines. Thain helped
Salachi to gain more control over his “squishiness,” allowing him
to perform more like a rubber man than a putty one. Additionally,
near the end of the week off, Travize developed the ability to
project a telepathic bond with any person he knows thanks to Dal
McLaurin's tutelage- a power which works around Steve's restriction
against the Collective Bond. One the subject of The Collective, Sal's
bond was finally solidified, making him an official member!

One
issue that came up over the course of their time off outweighed
others, however. The party too the time to confront Thain on the
nature of the 'philosophical disagreement' that caused him to kill
his fellow Ascendant, Ronya. Thain informed them that he and Ronya
had been constantly debating whether or not they should tell Wrynn
which memories Albert had taken from her. Indeed, Albert had been the
one to lead the movement calling for the wiping of Wrynn's memories-
memories Thain believed were so dangerous that he could not allow
them to be returned. He had killed Ronya because she wanted to give
Wrynn the details. Predictably, Thain refused to give the part any
details, lest they find their way back to Wrynn. They agreed not to
press the issue at the moment, but their would come a time when they
would carefully consider whether or not forcing Thain to divulge
those secrets was worth it.

Importantly,
while our heroes were resting, their friends (Ithal, Dal'evrin,
Alister, the elvan princess (Sylvas), Zanza, and Elizabel- hereafter
referred to collectively as 'team B') received word of a mysterious
thing called the Archivist. Deciding to let the somewhat more extreme
and eminently capable heroes rest, team B went out in search of the
Archivist. As it would happen, the Archivist was not a person, but a
sentient device that supposedly existed before mortal creation did.
The theory runs that it may have the power to help repel the
voidspawn. Funnily enough, the device itself fell into the possession
of one Cara Darby Wight. Team B actually came into contact with Cara
and a number of her friends from Orange Bend, but were forced to
stand against a major voidspawn attack while the children fled. They
could not find the children after that. Team B returned to the ship
with their news.

Before
the B team could return to the ship, our heroes saw a horrifying
sight. Rising on the horizon was a huge, dark mass, like a second
moon. It writhed with tentacles and distant specks of thousands of
voidspawn seemingly flaking off of it. They urged Veller to speed the
repairs as much as possible and, almost the instant they could be off
again, they headed for what might just possibly be the worst threat
Tirisea has ever faced. Whatever it was, it began drifting northward
in the direction of Crag.

Traveling
for more than a day they came fist upon the site of its origin. The
party found nothing but a massive hole in the ground, more like a
geological feature than a the dark pits they had previously seen
voidspawn crawling from. The thing seemed to have come from
underground somehow and as far as they could tell, was not even
slowing down on its trip towards the north. Making use of Dal and
Timmeron's specialties in time magic, the ship sped north towards
Crag in the hope that they might make it in time to mitigate a
horrible disaster. But before they could arrive they saw on the pale
blue horizon a great bridge of sparkling light, bright enough to be
seen from a days ride away. It seemed to be spearing upward into the
sky, connecting somehow with the massive voidspawn that floated above
the earth. Suddenly the light vanished, taking along with it the
moon-like voidspawn and, as far as the party could tell, a large
number of its cohort of smaller horrors.

Approaching
the city of Crag, they found it overrun. Not only was the city beset
by a veritable army of alien beings, but a force of the church of
Bartos was in the process of trying to defend the city. The High
Justicar of Bartos approached, inviting them to join together in the
defense without worry of reprisal for past incidents. The party
joined immediately. Making use of their varied skills, the Chosen of
Astor reaped a bloody harvest, carving devastation into the ebon
ranks of gnashing teeth and claws. The ravaged city was safe again,
but what had become of the massive- and likely *queen*-
voidspawn? According to reports from the orcish guards and the
paladins of Bartos, the bridge of light had come from the castle's
high tower, called into being by a group of children and an old orc.
With a request to stay in touch and share information about voidspawn
threats, the High Justicar of Bartos bid our heroes farewell.

The
party immediately set their sights on the castle. Being denied
entrance through the main gates- King Grakk was refusing to see
anyone- Sajaina devised a quick plan to break into the castle through
a window. Somewhat hesitantly (except Sal, who was rather excited),
the party forced their way into the castle. It was almost eerily
easy. Grakk, though, was less than pleased. However, when Grakk heard
that the party had been a key force in defending his city he agreed
to escort them to the top of the castle as long as they agreed to
share anything they happened to learn. The cause of our heroes may
have been somewhat aided by Grakk's incredulity that someone would
actually force their way into his castle. He couldn't seem to bring
himself to be too outraged, overcome as he was by astonishment.

On
the roof, they made use of their various investigative talents, Sal's
magical knowhow and Baygrith's Ectoplasmic Detector Goggles to look
into the great magic that had been at work on the roof. They
discovered that some great teleportation magic had been at work,
apparently trying to force the queen of the voidspawn to return home.
But some outside force had meddled with the spell, causing the energy
to fluctuate unpredictably. The spell was meant to effect only the
queen, but it had also backlashed upon the children s well. Sal was
able to detect three possible locations the children could have ended
up: The Tower of Apotheosis, the Coral Isles, or the world of the
voidspawn. They shared the vagueries of this information with Grakk.
In the proccess of explanation, Baygrith sold his Detector Goggles to
Grakk for twice their worth (500 coins). They neglected to tell
Grakk that they knew where the children- and the orc- might be. They
were beginning to suspect that the orc with the children was Ulagg-
who had apparently escaped the prisons of Bartos.

Sajaina,
as she does, snuck off to investigate her suspicions that the party
was being spied on. She met an orcish shaman in one of the castle
towers. He offered her a job: she was to steal something for him an
he might be able to provide the party with some assistance in the
future. He was also willing to pay her. As she does, Sajaina took the
chance to steal something from the tower before she left. She met the
party on their way back down from the roof, confirming that the orc
shaman thought Ulagg had been with the children as well. They were
thanked by Crag's military leader for their defense of the city,
after which they left.

Once
they were back on the ship, Travize used his newfound ability to
telepathically reach out to people to communicate with Ulagg. The
connection was very hard to maintain. He was indeed with a few of the
children. The Archivist, he said, was not with him. He was in the
world of the voidspawn. The connection broke.

Given
the events of the past day, our heroes took a quick rest, then
decided it was high time they take the Night Maiden up on her offer
to answer questions abouse vpidspawn and the dangers of crossing
realities. The woods of eternal night loomed ever closer and with
great trepidation, they disembarked the small transport vessel Veller
had leant them and walked beneath the shade of the trees .

The
party found itself greeted by a strange duo. One spirit, like a deer,
was made all of spindly muscle, while the other was more bulk and
tree-bark skinned. They offered to lead the heroes to the Night
Maiden, but only if they could first catch the two spirits. They
vanished in a flicker of shadow and shade, leaving their hunters
alone in a glade of twilight. But where they alone? The glade as
filed with the quiet sussuruss of creeping things and the errie
sensation of too intelligent eyes all around. For his part, Travize
took a few steps into the clearing and was suddenly hurled backards
to land hard upon the ground. Despite this setback, and much to the
mild concern of his companions, he walked into the open clearing
twice more, being hurled away both times. Confused and themselves
unaffected by whatever was happening, the party took a few moments to
consider the trees around them coming to life. Walking with too much
grace for mere things of leaf and bark, they began to approach the
heroes, anger and violent intent clear in their movements. The heroes
ran, choosing one of the two roads ahead of them almost at random.

But
the forest in which they walked behaved with odd rules. Things like
gravity and space worked differently here, and multiple layers of the
same forest seemed to present themselves above their heads and
beneath the soil at their feet. Perlapae's divine magic was able to
offer them guidance though, and she helped lead them through the
seeming maze of oddly shifting ground and bizzare geography. They
found the two spirits and came at last to the fountain of the night
Maiden.

The
Night Maiden didineed answer their questions, but left the party with
anew conundrum in the process. The voidspawn, she explained, were
angry at our world for a reason. They wanted to *exterminate*
it. This was purely a war of survival and revenge as far as they were
concerned. Lukragg, it turns out, had greatly angered the hive queen
by dragging her subjects into our world to use as fodder in his
battles. Our world had tortured and batered her children, and she
would make us pay for it. But there was a way to stop her. The
Archivist was the key to all of this. It's purpose was as a passive
observer, to catalogue the events of the world. But it had also
worked the magic atop the castle of Crag, and it may know how to lock
the queen voidspawn in her world.

As if
this task was not already daunting, she also mentioned that her
'brother'- the being of pure light and order- was getting closer, and
reminded the heroes that the time to fight him was approaching. On
top of it all, she also confirmed that Albert had somehow survived
the sundering immpoed upon him by None. His spirit- or some part of
it- likely lingered somewhere. He may not be able to act directly,
but his influence was clear in some recent events. She lead the way
to the Night Pool which would allow anyone who stepped inside to
immediately teleport to the location or person viewed within, leaving
the group to make their choice. Would they beg her help venturing
into the world of the voidspawn to save Ulagg and whichever of the
children joined him, or would they go to the Coral Isles to recover
the Archivist first. Deciding that the Archivist was their primary
target, the group asked if the Night Maiden could send some supplies
to Ulagg and the kids, hopefully increasing their chances of survival
until the party could arrive. She agreed, sending the offered
foodstuffs and other assorted items to the voidspawn world, hopefully
close enough for the lost Tiriseans to find.

Staring
into the Night Pool, The Chosen prepared themselves to step through.