Brave New World • Chapter 10

## Crisis of Fate

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### Elsewhere*(???)*

One by one, the group dive into the Witchlight, and each of them feel themselves sinking into a soft warmth, their vision filled with radiant white light, until they wake in vibrant dreamscapes from their past that, thought they feel, look, and seem entirely real, they quickly notice are a sort of illusion of a happy ending for each of them.

Hector wakes in a pine forest, the same forest near Castle Anastase, the home of his beloved Cassandra. Indeed, walking down the overgrown path, he finds her in the shade of an abandoned gazebo, somewhere they used to meet often when he was still in Radenstadt. Though he initially immediately suspects this to be an illusion, he is thrown off briefly by how earnest and real Cassandra seems. She talks to him of an upcoming trip to Marenhof to go dress-shopping for the wedding, and explains that her father had arranged for everything. This makes Hector realise fully that this was not real, as much as he briefly wanted it to be.

Upon openly rejecting the false reality, it freezes into a diorama of stained glass, and Hector is met by the presence of what he presumes to be the Witchlight itself. It questions him on why he would reject the gift of a happy ending, a full life with his desires granted, and he explains to it that he could never truly be happy since he would always know he had abandoned reality for this false one. Sorrowfully, the Witchlight accepts, grieving that it could not grant him this gift in its final moments. Not wishing to let it die alone, Hector lingers, playing the violin until its death.

Oondak, at the same time, wakes in the Everglades, in a familiar clearing near his old home. He finds himself lying with his head in the lap of his long-dead wife, Yesvyre, who seems to him as real as she was before. The ache in his heart he had buried returns, and he follows Yesvyre into the forest, chasing after the sound of laughter in the trees, which is quickly revealed to be his also dead son, Elnorin, as well as a daughter that never existed. He has a brief conversation with Yesvyre in which she tries to convince him to stay, but though it hurts him greatly, Oondak also rejects the offer, knowing he had made a promise to his family that he could not forsake, even for the chance of living with them again.

Ironstrong-4, finding his mind alone without Nicolaos for the first time since he had been found in Edraxis, wakes in a hallway at the College of Artifice in Rûkmodan, standing in front of an office door belonging to Clovis Lingenhall, creator of the Warforged. Knocking and walking inside, he is met by the elderly, brilliant engineer amidst a cluttered workshop, and is inspected for a "knock to his head".

"*Ah yes, nasty little dent. Knicked some of the wiring. But the core structure seems sound enough. Tell me Ironstrong-4, have you been seeing things? Hearing things maybe? Other voices in your head, strange memories that make no sense? Things like that?*"
 ― Clovis Lingenhall

Ironstrong-4 confesses that he had indeed had all of that, but keeps hidden that even now some part of him felt hollow and empty. Lingenhall orders him to stay in Rûkmodan and rest, expressing his frustration that his wondrous creations had been reduced to nothing more than soldiers and servants.

"*Do you want to know a secret? I never made you to be soldiers. I made you to be...well, to* be*! Explorers. Painters. Musicians. Builders. Acrobats. Diplomats. Everything we can be, you could be too. Don't let yourself be defined by others Ironstrong-4. Remember, each and every one of you is special. You're not tools or weapons. You're people! Don't you forget it.*"
 ― Clovis Lingenhall

Thanking Lingenhall and promising he wouldn't forget, Ironstrong-4 wanders out of the College and into the streets of Rûkmodan. Though deeply wishing all this was real, he begins to notice immediate inconsistencies around him here. Repeated faces in the crowds, filled in textures in the buildings, all minor flaws that he inevitably picks out. Even despite all that, he is tempted to overlook it, to have the peaceful life he could have had. It is only the realisation that the hollow part of him would never go away, that he can never truly be whole without Nicolaos, that causes him to finally reject the gift of this place, which causes him no small measure of despair.

Yuli wakes halfway up a low-lying dune, just outside the seaside city of Llys where she had grown up. Ahead of her, a tiny oasis surrounded by olive trees, in the branches of which she can just make out a figure sitting. Warily, but intrigued, she approaches the trees, walking up the dune. As she walks, for a moment, she hears the sound of a second pair of footsteps behind her, padding softly in the sand, but when she looks over her shoulder, there's nothing. Just a whisper of wind that sounds almost like the echo of a voice.

Upon reaching the oasis, she recognises the figure in the tree to be that of her step-brother, Sebastian, whose death to sickness had initially caused her to leave home and her step-family, in pursuit of her missing mother. He seems alive and well, as healthy as he had been beforehand, and though Yuli is immediately suspecting this to be fake, she plays along with the conversation simply to get the chance to speak with him again.

"*There's so much anger in your eyes. You still haven't let me go, Jules. You don't have to, you could stay here. We don't have to say goodbye ever again.*"
 ― Sebastian Leroux

Even as she considers the offer, down by the water for the briefest moment, the eddies of sand caught in the breeze seem to curl against the outline of a figure. A woman, looking up at her, long curly hair caught in the wind. Then it's gone as quickly as it had come. Upon seeing this, she knows for certain that she could not abandon her search, as much as she might want to. Sebastian reluctantly understands, and asks her to at least stay a while longer, for old times' sake. She does, staying in the fake reality until it breaks apart into stained glass.

Lionel wakes in a neatly-kept garden, one he had walked through a thousand times in his youth, at his family's summer estate in Glenrafon, just outside Winterkept. In a gazebo at the centre of the garden, he sees his mother, playing the lyre to the birds as she always had before her death. Already, at the edges of this false reality, Lionel can see fraying parts replaced by visions of other places, deserts and seas and stars, a product of his fractured mind, but nonetheless he approaches his mother.

"*Hello sweetheart. It's been a long time, hasn't it? You've grown so much.*"
 ― Felicia Forrester

Letting out decades of pent-up anger, sorrow, and frustration, Lionel confronts this shade of his mother, asking her why she had killed herself if she truly loved him, why the blame had fallen on him. The more the anger surges, the worse the fraying at the edges of this reality gets, until it all breaks apart into stained glass, and Lionel finds himself alone with the presence of the Witchlight.

Here, he speaks to the dying archfey about its imminent death, knowing they had failed to prevent it. He offers an alternative, asking
the Witchlight if it would be willing to let him subsume it, to become a part of him. It hesitates, telling him that its incompleteness would transfer to him, slowly killing him as it had for it. With little hesitation, Lionel brushes this away, claiming it to be a small price to pay for the preservation of this ancient creature. Knowing there was no other way, the Witchlight accepts.

### Almeras Wilderness*(3rd of Allfen, 4E 776)*

In the wake of their visions in the Witchlight, the group finds themselves scattered throughout an untamed valley in the Almeran wilderness. Though initially alone, they quickly contact each other and begin working their way towards a central landmark, a waterfall at the edge of a nearby lake, where the river winding its way through the valley meets the lakeside.

Some of them, closer to the others, meet up quickly. Hector and Oondak are the first to run into each other. Ironstrong-4 and Yuli bump into each other separately a short while after. Both pairs walk for as long as they can before stopping for the evening. Oondak discovers they had lost 8 days in the Thornwood, thanks to a quick message to his sister letting her know he was alright.

In the meantime, Lionel wakes up alone by the side of the lake. He immediately feels different, noting a burning heat beneath his skin, and seeing radiant light seeping out through the gaps in his scales. Upon looking at his reflection, he notices that his eyes too are solid orbs of burning white. Taking all this in stride, he heads towards the waterfall, but is too exhausted by his ordeal to get far.

That night, before they go to sleep, Ironstrong-4 and Yuli have a lengthy conversation about what each of them had experienced in the Witchlight. Ironstrong-4, or more accurately the part of Ironstrong-4 that was Nicolaos, reveals that he had not had one of the same visions as the rest, but rather had once again found himself in a strange dreamscape, recalling parts of his life with his brother. The two note that both of them had these seeming echoes of the ones they had sacrificed to the Starseer calling to them. Ironstrong-4 suspects all this to be connected to what they would find in the Desolation, and wishes to pull on that dangling thread.

### Almeras Wilderness*(4th of Allfen, 4E 776)*

"*Brethren. I send warning. Those who pursue me in thy stead hath been drawn elsewhere. I fear they may have learned of our deception. I can do no more for thee until we find each other again. I head now to the remains of mine people's demise. Find me there when you can. I have much to show you.*"
 ― The Singer

The next morning, they are woken up by a message in each of their heads from the singer they had rescued beneath Creuser, warning them that the solari which had been chasing her in their stead had broken off the pursuit. Ironstrong-4 and Yuli use planar to contact her in return, wherein they discover that the singer had recovered the relic which they had lost back in Edraxis. She informs them that the relic held information she wished to share with them, but that she could only show them in person.

Over the course of the day, the group finally reunites near the riverside and discusses what to do next. Ironstrong-4 and Yuli are all for pursuing the lead around their lost ones, and trying to find more answers. Oondak, Hector, and eventually Lionel suggest instead that they take up the offer given to them by Thyakos and recover Balthamos, hoping this would net them important information and potentially powerful allies. Eventually, outvoted, Ironstrong-4 and Yuli, agree to go along with the latter plan. They contact Thyakos, who is happy to hear from them, and promises to come fetch them that evening.

### Oblivion*(4th of Allfen, 4E 776)*

Thyakos takes the group via plane shift to Oblivion, the divine realm of the Sovereign. They step out in an office room, tastefully decorated and comfortable. Here, they hash out the details of their agreement. The group agrees to go with the plan Thyakos had laid out for them: heading into the Avarice Pentant in secret, breaking into the safehouse where Balthamos was held, and escaping with him back to the Desire Pentant, where they would be "arrested" and then spirited away in secret.

In exchange, they would be given whatever information was recovered from Balthamos after interrogation, provided it was not deemed too dangerous. In place of other riches or aid, Lionel asks Thyakos if his Mistress had in her possession any remnant artefacts. Thyakos says he was not certain, but that he would inquire if that was possible, and that it would be on the table if yes.

On these terms, the group agrees, and they are given one hour to prepare themselves while Thyakos fetches some additional supplies in the way of potions and other equipment to aid their efforts. When he returns, he brings the group the potions they requested, but also informs them that regrettably his Mistress did not presently have any remnant artefacts in her possession. In exchange, they offer the current position of three remnants, a well as a month's grace period wherein none of the Mistress' agents would attempt to retrieve those specific remnants. The group agrees.

Once they've divided the potions, Thyakos uses a teleportation circle to take them to the interior of a strange building, every surface covered in lit candles dripping wax. The presumed owner of the building, whom Thyakos refers to as Nazarin, greets them and leads them to a tunnel opening which would take them into the Avarice Pentant.

"*Pay my respects to the Mistress. She has my undying devotion as always.*"
 ― Nazarin

Once Nazarin leaves, Thyakos gives them the last few instructions on how to find the safehouse where Balthamos is being kept, and what to avoid once through the tunnel. He departs with a final word of warning to make the fake arrest seem plausible, as they cannot afford to give undue reason for suspicion if this is to work.

The group sneaks into the Avarice Pentant, and under the illusory disguise of Greed Guard, elite servants of the Lord of Avarice, traverse the ringed streets of the inner city towards their target. While walking, they note the black sunless sky is crimson with strange blanket of flame, and the air smells pungently of ozone, to an unbearably acrid extent.

"*Lionel. At the sight of all this, you feel a strange echoing sensation in your chest. That hollowness you've felt ever since your return from the Endless Athenaeum, that emptiness of something taken from you, now pulls you, calling you towards the burning sky where you can immediately tell some part of you is scattered still in these violent waves of arcana that are spreading through the World Stream. The death throes of a god, spreading like a vast wave across all the Divine Realms.*"
 ― The Storyteller

Through cunning and some luck, they manage to sneak through the guarded streets of the Avarice Pentant without too much trouble, though they have a few close shaves of alarms almost being raised, and arouse the suspicion of a so-called Taxman devil that was investigating a pair of dead guards that were apparently killed by intruders."

"*Dead. Recent. Alert the Greed Guard and send word to the palace. We have intruders in the Pentant.*"
 ― Taxman Devil

The taxman catches scent of Hector's fey magic, and though Hector puts on a show and fends off the taxman's questions, he is unable to be convincing enough to erase suspicion entirely. The taxman leaves to surreptitiously fetch an armed guard with which to apprehend them, but the group manages to stay ahead all the way to the safehouse.

While scouting for a way in, they notice a trio of individuals on a rooftop adjacent to the manse that is their target, and Hector sneaks close invisibly to overhear their conversation, discovering them to also apparently be in pursuit of Balthamos. Before he can inform the group, the trio let off an explosive that blasts a hole in the wall of the manse, just as the taxman from earlier catches up to the others. Everything kicks off all at once.

Chaos ensues, in which both "rescue" groups are attempting to break through the guards in the manse and find Balthamos before the other. Ironstrong-4 sets loose a monstrous creature that was chained in the courtyard of the manse, causing even further chaos as the gluttonous monstrosity goes into a feeding frenzy and begins attempting to eat everything, breaking through walls to do so.

Meanwhile, much of the group manages to reach the attic, where they find Balthamos being kept in a binding circle. They fight the trio of the other group, led by a figure who identifies himself as Blink, and are just about turning the tide when the entire building collapses as the glutton fiend Ironstrong-4 had unleashed brings the entire place down.

Amidst the rubble, trying to escape the jaws of the glutton fiend, they manage to use the manacles Thyakos had provided to knock Balthamos comatose in the nick of time before he can escape. Close to death, Blink surrenders, claiming to know more than Balthamos, though he takes off at a run when he sees the group getting surrounded by an approaching host of devils. Ironstrong-4 takes off in pursuit through the chaotic mess in the streets, while the rest hop onto a polymorphed Lionel and attempt to fly towards the Desire Pentant, with the enraged glutton fiend still in pursuit.

They make it almost all the way there, before a tangling net catches them and forces them to crashland within sight of the gateway between pentants, now caught between the wave of guards approaching from the gate and the glutton fiend crashing through the streets right behind them. By the skin of their teeth, they escape the clutches of the gate guards and the glutton fiend, and manage to cross through into the Desire Pentant, where they surrender to Thyakos and his own retinue.

Meanwhile, Ironstrong-4 and Blink manage to stay ahead of the devils pursuing them just long enough to reach the tunnel they had crossed into the Avarice Pentant from, with Ironstrong-4 collapsing it behind them to prevent pursuit. Down in the dark, they take a few moments to catch their breath., and Ironstrong-4 questions Blink about what he knew.

Blink gives him the full story: how we was recruited to serve Oblivion as a young kid, how he served relentlessly but was never rewarded for it, and how he was recruited by the Broken Chain that sought to bring down the oligarchy that was the pyramid structure of Oblivion. He gives Ironstrong-4 a list of safehouses the Broken Chain used both in Oblivion and in the material plane.

"*That's how he wants it, see? Give people a glimpse of a chance, tell them the only thing keeping them down is the other poor sods on their level, and the wretched bastards are more than happy fuck each other over to try and grab it. Keeps them all in line. Keeps him on the throne.*"
 ― Blink

Ironstrong-4 presses him on the Broken Chain's relation to the Warbringer they had encountered previously, but Blink tells him that the two weren't the same, only that their goals aligned in some part when it came to gods and the status quo that was in place.

"*These Warbringers...you've met one, yeah? It's a title, I think. There's two of them, best I could gather. Your girl's meant to be the third. Don't ask me what the hell it means though, I couldn't tell you. All I know is, I was with some folks in Anar a few months back that are awful keen on getting her where she needs to go, one way or the other.*"
 ― Blink

He tells Ironstrong-4 how he had ended up in Anar, the elven kingdom in the underdark, fighting alongside factions that served the Sporemother and the Spider Queen. He speaks of the final battle for the capital, Alyth Loth, and how there they had encountered an obelisk of obsidian with rings of radiant gold along its length, which they had somehow activated in some fashion.

"*We were too late to stop it. The fucker went off. Sucked in all the magic in the room, ate her up, and took the rest of us all to some other place. All stars and no ground 'neath our feet, or anything holding you down to it either. No air to breathe. No noise. No nothing.

And we saw this obelisk let off a beam of light. Two of them actually, headin' off into space towards another two dots just like it. Except when it got there the other spots didn't do nothing, so it stopped, and dropped us back off where we were, though this time the obsidian was covered in this layer of golden light. Real bright. Real hot.

And he showed up didn't he. The big one. Veil on his head and all. Seemed mighty interested in it. Rambled some nonsense about tests and truths, then told us about your girl. Called her the third disciple, whatever that means.*"
 ― Blink

Blink doesn't know what the obelisk was, or why it was so important, but he's certain that it was some fundamental part of whatever these so-called Warbringers wanted. He didn't stick around long in Alyth Loth afterwards, but tells Ironstrong-4 that the obelisk chamber had seemingly come under attack by various other celestials, such as solari, after he had left.

"*I wager we turned something on. I wager that obelisk is part of something bigger. And I know there was something like it under the ocean too. I overheard that crazy woman that works for the spider bitch talking about it, said they'd captured the second in the Sunken City, and had almost everything they needed.*"
 ― Blink

When it's clear that Blink has no further information, despite former assurances that Nicolaos had made, Ironstrong-4 betrays Blink and kills him in the dark of the tunnel, leaving him there. He heads back after the job is done, emerging back in Nazarin's candlelit manse. Here, he quickly realises why Thyakos had told them not to come back through this way, as Nazarin attempts to turn him into a candle as part of his collection for entering the manse without invite.

Ironstrong-4 manages to escape the place by cutting his way out through the enchantments with his scythe, and wanders through the Desire Pentant attempting to find Thyakos until he is arrested and brought to him. Here, he exchanges some of the information Blink had given him, the list of Broken Chain safehouses, in return for a single-use package of ash that could allow him to plane shift to the Ashenfade. Finally, he is placed in jail with the others, where they rest and recover from the near-deadly events of the day.

### Oblivion*(5th of Allfen, 4E 776)*

The following morning, Thyakos visits the group to congratulate them on their success. As promised, he shares with them the locations of three remnant artefacts: Coverre, Warsong, and Khepri's Sting, the last of which is revealed to be bound for Ain'alaard, the capital of Domar. Given a way out of the prison by Thyakos, in the form of an arcane implosion that opens the side of the fortress they are housed in and allows them to flee down to the alleyway below, they plane shift away from Oblivion, aiming for the city of Ain'alaard.

### Ain'alaard*(5th of Allfen, 4E 776)*

They emerge outside the sandstone gates of the vast metropolis in the early noon. Intense heat immediately hits them, and they quickly realise their northern clothing was far too heavy for the climate. Under the baking rays of sunlight, they work their way into the city, joining the vast crowds that are moving through the gates at every moment.

Once inside, they make their way through the dizzying maze of streets to an immense market of tents and pavilions and vendors of all forms, stacked several layers high in places. Here, they purchase new clothing and supplies, amazed by how hospitable and friendly all the locals seem to be, particularly when Hector and Oondak speak to them in the local tongue.

While the others are shopping, Ironstrong-4 peels off from the group to follow a priest in white robes that he recognises as wearing the same uniform as the Domaran priestess they had met months ago in Edraxis, flanked by the same jackal-like humanoid guards. Since Ironstrong-4 stands out, the priest in question quickly realises he is being followed, but speaks to Ironstrong-4 with patience, instructing him to head towards the Temple of Sút if he wished to ask questions of his order, the Malevistari.

The temple is easy to spot, a vast six-sided pyramid with the temple at its peak. One side, the one facing east, is stairway plated in splendid gold, that is referred to as the Thousand Steps. The rest of the sides are covered in smooth limestone, mixed with some form of glass that catches the sunlight and causes the temple to gleam. Ironstrong-4 works his way towards it, climbing the Thousand Steps (which he quickly realises have less than half that number) alongside other pilgrims that are travelling to the top.

Once at the temple proper, he heads inside, into an inner courtyard ringed with sandstone pillars, where he sees four large braziers lit with purple-black flames, into which the lines of pilgrims are throwing various offerings and sacrifices: money, jewellery, food, and various other objects of all types. Beyond the brazier is another few steps, that lead to a closed door guarded by more of the jackal-like guards.

Curious, Ironstrong-4 tries to walk up the steps to the door, but is hurriedly stopped by one of the priests in the courtyard, who informs him that the High Priest was in prayer in the inner chamber, and could not be disturbed. Ironstrong-4 apologises and backs away to continue inspecting the proceedings from the edges of the courtyard.

He is approached a few minutes later by an elderly Domaran man, who strikes up a conversation with him. Ironstrong-4 tells him that he wished to speak with the High Priest, and would wait until it was fine to do so. The old man informs him that the High Priest had been in prayer for a few months, and to not expect an end to that soon. When Ironstrong-4 says that he would wait regardless, the old man also points out that the temple would close at last light, since during the night it "belonged to the dead".

Pondering his next move, Ironstrong-4 leaves the temple building and spends some time taking in the sunset over the vast urban landscape below, stretched over miles and miles of river delta all the way to the ocean, while the rest of the group find an inn to stay in far below. He's about to leave back down the steps when he hears strange noises coming from the temple.

From within the temple courtyard, behind doors that closed at last light, a sorrowful voice begins to sing a lament that tethers on the edge of being wailing. Curious, Ironstrong-4 quietly scales the outside of the temple to take a look inside. In the otherwise empty courtyard, he sees a singing woman kneeling with hands in her lap, head raised to the sky, eyes closed shut, and a stream of tears streaking down her face. She is sitting in the centrepiece of the large carving that fills the floor of the courtyard, of a winged scarab holding up a sun.

From the edges of the courtyard, more voices begin to join the first. Off-pitch, jarring, and only really a few steps removed from wailing screams. A ghostly, wraith-like figure drifts into the courtyard, dressed in tattered ethereal rags that drift of their own will in its wake, seeming to be the source of the wailing voices that have joined that of the weeping woman at the centre of the courtyard.

The wraith drifts across the courtyard towards the kneeling woman, stopping just in front of her, and the tatters of cloth seem to billow out and reach forward to touch the woman's face, where tears continue to fall. The woman's eyes burst open, boiling with midnight black flame, the tears now turning into a thick, black, tar-like substances that sizzles against skin. The burning liquid drips down past the woman's chin and begins to pool in the carved circle at her feet, spreading outward through the channels into the rest of the scarab.

The woman's wails grow shrill, turning into cries of ecstatic agony, as more and more tar pours from her burning eye sockets. Her eyes are fully aflame now with black fire, until at last the wailing begins to turn into choking, gasping, and then silence. The last of the echoing wails fade. And the wraith seems to let out a long, drawn out sigh, and crumble away into nothingness. The woman's lifeless body slumps to the floor, tar still pouring from its eyes.

Ironstrong-4 watches all this unfold, and observes a number of white-robed priests emerging from the edges of the courtyard shortly thereafter, holding bowls of bone which they use to scoop out the tar from the carving of the scarab, taking it back into the shadows of the pillars at the edges of the courtyard and disappearing within. Once all the tar has been removed and the woman's corpse taken away, the now empty courtyard grows silent.

Stealthily, Ironstrong-4 descends into the courtyard from the rooftop, and pokes around for any clues about what had just happened. He notes that the stone of the scarab carving is still warm to the touch, but there is no trace of tar remaining. He also finds no doors or secret passageways along the edges of the courtyard, leaving him pondering how the priests had entered and left the space.

Eventually, surmising there was nothing else to discover that night, Ironstrong-4 leaves the temple, and heads back to reconvene with the others, who have had dinner at a Domaran *serai*, a sort of inn, and are resting there for the night. While the other sleeps, Ironstrong-4 stands guard outside on the balcony, having a chat with a tabaxi that works at the *serai*, who is outside keeping an eye on things for the night. Ironstrong-4 questions the tabaxi about the priesthood of Sút and the lengthy disappearance of the High Priest.

He reaches a revelation when the tabaxi, confused, notes he cannot remember the High Priest's name or appearance. Ironstrong-4 realises with a shock that the High Priest was in fact his brother, who he had erased from reality as part of the price paid to the Starseer.

### Ain'alaard*(6th of Allfen, 4E 776)*

The following morning, Ironstrong-4 shares with the rest the things he'd seen the previous night, his revelation, and also talks about what he had discovered from Blink back in Oblivion. The group decides to split up. Hector heads off alone to try and poke around and find information regarding the caravan that carried the remnant artefact they were hunting. The rest, in the meantime, return to the temple to try and uncover some secrets.

Here, they discover a few things. Yuli observes the priests using a clay seal of some nature to open passageways in the rock at the edges of the courtyard, surmising that was how they left and entered unseen. Ironstrong-4 in the meantime speaks with one of the priests about funerary rights, trying to determine if what he had seen last night was some bizarre burial. When he tells the priest that he had heard singing from the temple, the priest tells him that he must have heard a lamentation of Sút, a visitation by the goddess' presence to the temple. Ironstrong-4 doesn't mention that he had spied on the goings-on in the courtyard, and notes that the priest mentions nothing about the woman bleeding tar.

Seeing no better option to get information about the High Priest, Ironstrong-4 decides to contact Lifebinder Amira bin'Moussa, who had originally told him to come to Ain'alaard on the High Priest's request. The Lifebinder agrees to meet them in private at the *serai* district later that day. The group picks up a few things from the bazaar, and inform Lionel (who had stayed at the *serai* to experiment with a new spell) and Hector (who was still trying to dig up information about the caravan from around the city) of their plans.

Later, they meet with Lifebinder Amira, where Ironstrong-4 gives her the spellbook that had been the original reason he was requested to come here, and asks some probing questions about the High Priest. He notes that, just like the tabaxi the previous night, the Lifebinder has moments of confusion where she cannot remember vital details about the High Priest, such as his name and motives for sending her to fetch Ironstrong-4. The Lifebinder hides these hesitations well, but is clearly rattled. Ironstrong-4 asks her to, in exchange for his spellbook, simply speak with other priests about the High Priest and see if any of them could remember his name. The Lifebinder agrees and swiftly leaves.

While they wait for hopeful news from the Lifebinder, Oondak visits a physician at the bazaar, and convinces him to run some alchemical tests on a blood sample of his in the hopes of discovering more about the illness that plagued his people. He also procures an instructional document on basic alchemy, which he hopes to study from.

A few hours later, Lifebinder Amira contacts Ironstrong-4, telling him to meet her at the western base of the pyramid at last light. Ironstrong-4 agrees, and together with Yuli and Oondak heads to the pyramid for the meeting. At exactly last light, Lifebinder Amira emerges from the side of the pyramid wall, using one of the same clay seals Yuli had observed earlier to liquify a passage into sand.

Making a pretence of walking casually through the streets, with Ironstrong-4 and the others as her "entourage", the Lifebinder speaks to Ironstrong-4 about his request. She reveals that her conversations with others in the priesthood had yielded similar results: none could remember the High Priest's name or motives. Unfortunately, the more veteran priests had simply dismissed this as a divine veil put down by the Mournsinger to disguise the High Priest's divinings.

Lifebinder Amira, who says she is comparatively newly-awakened, is sceptical of this assessment, and becomes more so when Ironstrong-4 uses planar to tell her his full story, about the brother he had thought lost and the decision he had made in the Starseer's cave. He asks the Lifebinder to help them discover what had really happened to the High Priest, and she agrees to give them a way into the inner temple by providing them with her clay seal, which would allow them to open and close passageways in the temple walls. She warns them that entering the inner sanctum was sacrilege of the greatest degree, but acknowledges there was no other choice if they wanted to find out the truth.

Thanking her, Ironstrong-4 promises they would be careful. They part ways, with Ironstrong-4 urging the Lifebinder to keep to her faith and not let ongoing events diminish it, to which the Lifebinder replies that her faith had survived her own death, and that this would not rattle it.

At midnight, the group travels back up the temple and uses Lifebinder Amira's clay seal to enter the hidden tunnels that ring the courtyard. They navigate their way through the narrow passage towards the inner temple, accidentally drawing the attention of something that was wandering the passageways on guard. They manage to use the clay seal to enter the sanctum before the creature, whatever it was, catches up with them.

Once inside the sanctum, they find it empty as expected. The massive vaulted chamber is dimly lit, but not completely dark, and has a large altar dominating the very centre of the room, a brazier on either end of it, and a basin at its middle which is filled with a clear oil of some kind. Ironstrong-4 notes a lingering scent of ozone on the dry, dusty air of the chamber, and finds shattered pieces of clay at the base of the altar, as well as a carved figurine of a serpent wrapped around a skull inside the oil basin, that seems to have been fashioned into the stopper for some kind of jar.

Meanwhile, Oondak uses truesight and spells to detect magical auras to inspect the room, and immediately becomes aware of a strange pinprick of magic at the centre of the room just near the altar. From the pinprick, which was little more than a tiny fragment fixed in space, he sees minute cracks in reality spiderwebbing outward from that single point, as though space had shattered and been resealed in place by magic.

He points this out to Ironstrong-4, who decides to use his scythe to pick at the pinprick. The blade catches in an invisible point in space, and cuts open. With an eruption of force, a small window opens into an endless black void. Ironstrong-4 is thrown violently backwards across the chamber, and Nicolaos is fully shunted out of the body, spiralling back to the misted memoryscape he has been falling into of late.

Here, he comes to a revelation about his past, and hears a distorted voice calling to him, speaking a foreboding passage as though reciting from a book.

"*Strike, brother, strike. The world be damned. Set. Me. Free.*"
 ― ???

From the tear in reality that Ironstrong-4 opened spill out strange serpentine demons, their sides alight with fire. The hallowed temple floor begins to burn away at them immediately, and the guardian creatures of the temple soon after burst into the room to kill the intruders, which included Oondak, Yuli, and Ironstrong-4. The trio fight off the ferocious creatures as best they can, but find themselves hopelessly outnumbered and quickly overwhelmed.

The temple's defences build up in intensity as the battle proceeds, until finally the statue at the end of the chamber lets off a beam of purple-black light that disintegrates the demons in the chamber and starts to seal the wound in reality, closing off Ironstrong-4 from the part of him that he can feel is still tethered through it, and he decides to take matters into his own hands, jumping into the tear and disappearing within, while the other two manage to escape the temple by using Oondak's shield as an impromptu sled to slide down the pyramid's side, crashing into the bottom and being knocked unconscious.

### Ain'alaard*(7th of Allfen, 4E 776)*

Back at the *serai*, unaware of what is going on at the temple, Hector begins to grow increasingly worried when he receives no further updates from Oondak about their efforts, and then sees a beacon of purple-black light erupt from the summit of the temple pyramid. Realising something had gone wrong, he hastens towards the temple, sticking to the rooftops and the shadows.

He finds the area around the temple alive with activity, guards and priests mustering to search the streets. Around this time, Yuli wakes from unconsciousness, head pounding and dried blood stuck to the side of her face. Unable to get very far, she manages to teleport herself and the still unconscious Oondak some distance away from the temple, and contacts Hector, who retrieves them and helps them get back to the *serai*.

Here, they rest as well they can, while Hector keeps an eye out for guards searching the city. He drifts off to fitful sleep later during the night when things stay quiet, but is awakened by a commotion outside, with people gathering in the streets to observe guards moving from building to building, searching for intruders that had desecrated the Temple of Sút last night.

Thinking fast, Hector disguises Oondak and Yuli just enough to escape the guards' attention, and once things have calmed down, the group discusses what they could do next, and how they would go about finding Ironstrong-4. They decide to go to Elysium to speak with the Earthmaven, since that was the only viable location to which they had a plane-tuned item. With no time to waste, Lionel swiftly plane shifts them there.

### Elysium*(7th of Allfen, 4E 776)*

Upon arriving, they find themselves in a lush landscape of flowering trees and swathes of tulips, amidst a forest of gigantic towering trees. The air is filled with a natural perfume and thriving with birdsong and the rustling of leaves in a soft calming breeze. Not sure how to proceed, Oondak decides to place a hand to the trunk of a nearby tree and speak through it, hoping to catch the Earthmaven's attention.

This proves successful, but has unintended consequences. The avatar of the Earthmaven appears through the trees, a sorrowful expression on her face, and tells Oondak that he shouldn't have come here. In her immediate wake, two dozen solari that must have been guarding the realm burst into view, surrounding the group, who has no hope of fighting back nor the means by which to escape. They surrender, their items are all taken from them, and they are taken away to the Ardent Citadel to await trial.

### The Slip*(???)*

Meanwhile, Ironstrong-4 passes through the tear in reality and spills out onto jagged, bare black stone in pitch darkness. The pull in his chest fades, and feels distant, though no longer painful. Nonetheless, he continues to feel hollow inside, as though an important part of him was missing, and realises that despite having come here, Nicolaos has not been restored.

Around him, the landscape is barren. No sight or sound or life, and the oppressive darkness is so thick that he can barely see further than a few feet in either direction. The smell of rust is pungent and cloying and all-encompassing. However, strangely, there is no sign of demons in this place either, and nothing attacks him, though he had expected to be swarmed.

Not sure what else to do, Ironstrong-4 begins to walk across the jagged landscape. There are barely any landmarks aside from strange outcroppings of stone that look almost like curled fingers and pained hands. Keeping track of the hours he spends in this place by a counter in his head, he picks a direction and goes. Days pass with no change, and he increasingly worries he had made a terrible mistake coming here.

As the hours on the counter creep closer to three digits, something finally changes. He hears a strange, wet, slapping noise, which upon investigation is revealed to be a fleshwarped demon with a bulbous head that has a dozen eyes peeking through raw flesh. Ironstrong-4 prepares for it to attack, but it never does. Instead, it stays where it is, repeatedly driving its fleshy head into a stone spike on the ground.

Confused, but curious, Ironstrong-4 watches the demon for a few moments, then decides to put it out of its misery, and beheads it. It does not resist. Not sure what to make of this, he continues on. It does not take long for him to come across another demon, smaller than the first, perched on an outcrop of rock. Ironstrong-4 notices quickly that this one, sitting completely still, seemed to have gouged out its own eyes. He beheads it as well, and once again it makes no motion to resist. He comes across a third demon a short while later, which pays him no mind, instead continue to repeatedly drive a knife into its eye sockets.

Realising something was very wrong about all this, Ironstrong-4 takes some time to contemplate his findings. Concentrating, with eyes closed, he catches a whiff of sound from afar: screaming of a thousand voices, incredibly distant, and oddly the sound of wind rustling through grass. Seeing no other way forward, he walks toward the distant sounds, keeping his eyes sealed shut.

Days continue to pass, the landscape remains uninterrupted, until with eyes closed Ironstrong-4 walks into a solid surface. He finds himself at the base of a vast dome-like structure made of completely smooth, textureless, ink-black darkness, large enough that the curve is barely visible. Across the entire surface are thousands of heavy black chains, which are searing hot to the touch.

Resolving that he had nothing but time to investigate, Ironstrong-4 begins to walk around the perimeter of the dome, hoping to find an entrance or a way through. Hour after hour, day after day, he walks, finding no sign of a change in the dome or its chains, until up ahead he finally sees a strange ethereal glow: a spiral of arcane light that appeared to have glanced a part of the dome, severing the chains and cracking the surface. Around the edges, like a scab growing around a wound, he sees red and white flowers, growing in clusters.

Forcing his way through burning pain, Ironstrong-4 climbs the searing chains towards the crack in the structure, and finally reaches it after immense effort. Looking through, he sees a wide field of grass and flowers, a pattern rippling repeatedly through it, exactly as he had seen the garden in his mind. Carefully, he descends through the crack, floating down a few hundred feet until the crack was miniscule and nearly invisible in the sky, and landing in the flowers and grass.

Here, hoping to run into the same stranger that had spoken to him before, he walks the garden, taking care to try and avoid the rippling pattern of flowers all around him. His search through the seemingly infinite garden proves fruitless, and he finds no answers or a way out. Finally, the counter in his head glitching between numbers rising into the thousands, he decides on one final course of action, knowing that sooner or later, Yuli would have to come here herself and she would find him. So, with nothing but time, in the middle of a field of flowers, Ironstrong-4 powers down and waits.

### The Ardent Citadel*(7th of Allfen, 4E 776)*

After being left in their cells for some time, Hector, Oondak, Yuli, and Lionel hear a drumbeat begin to beat through the tower, a summons to the denizens of the realm to a Trial of the Flame. Shortly thereafter, a group of solari arrive to take them to the trial, but they take only Hector, Oondak, and Yuli, refusing to explain why.

The trio are taken to the great hall of the Allfather, part courthouse part cathedral, where they come face to face with the Allfather himself, a three-hundred foot high figure in sunlit glory on a massive golden throne. Gathered in the hall are hundreds of thousands of solari in civilian-like clothing instead of armour, flowing white robes that somewhat resemble togas.

The three party members are led into the hall and brought in front of three particular solari that are sitting on smaller thrones at the base of the Allfather seat. One, at the centre, seems higher ranking than the others, and begins the proceedings by speaking in a clear voice that reverberates around the great hall.

"*Denizens of the Ardent Citadel. Godwoken and Flamebound. We gather here today to pass judgement on these three mortals, who stand accused of breaking the most sacred of our father's covenants, of crimes against their fellow men and against the gods. By the Allfather's light, we will hear their words and speak ours, and in his wisdom find the truth of their innocence or guilt. You are tasked only with listening, with clear hearts and open minds, such that the judgement you pass be indeed just. May the Allfather's holy truth fill your souls and guide you to honest justice.*"
 ― Flamebearer Aerisa

After the announcements, she instructs the trio to step onto three pedestals at the centre of the hall, one each, which promptly light with a warm flame that, though it does not burn them, would sear them to ash should they knowingly speak an untruth. Once they do so, and announce their names to the gathered jury, the trial begins.

They are firstly accused of conspiracy to break the First Covenant, the oath put on the world and its gods that hides a particular set of truths about the nature of gods. Of this, the trio plead not guilty, at which point witnesses are brought forward that speak of the night during which the party had spoken to the Singer, and had come under attack by solari seeking to prevent the Covenant from being broken.

Once the witnesses have spoken, the trio speak in their own defence, arguing that knowing and understanding the secrets kept by the First Covenant was necessary for them to keep the world safe from the various grave threats that were presenting themselves, and that all they wished to do was know the truth in service of a greater good. They also emphasise that they had no wish to kill the solari that came to stop them, but admit that they had done so while trying to escape the conflict.

Their arguments are heard, but no judgement is yet passed until the end of the trial. The second accusation is then brought forward, and the group are accused of entering the sacred realm of a god and causing the destruction of its divine well. Of this, the trio have no choice but to plead guilty. Flamebearer Aerisa asks for the evidence to be brought forward.

Back in his cell a few solari arrive to escort Lionel to the hall. When they open the bars of his cell, he is hit by a sudden flash of a dark cloud, and a thousand voices momentarily speak into his mind in that split second. The voices fade as quickly as they came, and Lionel catches a momentary glimpse of a veiled spectre in red and black just as his vision returns to him.

"*The pattern reaches its close. The question is asked anew. Will you be the subjugated or the spear? When the time comes, you must push the disciple to embrace her destiny, or else accept damnation.*"
 ― The Stranger in the Garden

Mind racing, Lionel allows the solari to escort him to the hall, where he is brought in front of the Allfather and his jury as evidence that the trio on trial had killed a god, the Curator. Through some nature of spell, Flamebearer Aerisa reveals his soul, showing it to be a twisted amalgam of three beings all mashed together.

"*I invite the jury to observe. These are the marks of a soul that has already passed into a divine well, already rejoined the cosmos, and been torn away so violently that it draws with it fragments of its new existence to patch its own incompleteness. The colours of a murdered god remain within its essence, eternal blood on their hands. But a divine well cannot be sundered from within. Only from without. Speak now to the jury, Mr. Forrester, and speak true. Who destroyed the Curator's Divine Well?*"
 ― Flamebearer Aerisa

Lionel quickly comes to the realisation that the solari believed his companions to be wholly guilty of the Curator's death, and also understands that he could play along with that belief to rid himself of any suspicion. However, never willing to let others claim his own accomplishments, he instead begins to tell the jury of his own guilt, how he had struck the blow that incapacitated the Curator, and how the others had only finished the job he had started.

As Lionel speaks, and the growing angry murmur from the gathered crowds begins to rise, Yuli begins to feel a buzzing grow at the back of her neck, and a high-pitched whine filling her ears. Amongst the crowds, she begins to see veiled spectres appearing, one by one, each adding to a rising chant that drowns out all other noise.

"*Warbringer. Warbringer. WARBRINGER. Subjugated or spear? Spear. The spear. THE SPEAR.*"
 ― Veiled Spectres

Noticing Yuli looking into the crowds, and realising that what he had been told earlier was now occurring, Lionel moves towards her while he continues his speech, and once finished attempts to draw her attention away from the veiled spectres that only she can see. He tells her to stay calm, tells her that even though she was being given only two options, that did not mean there wasn't a third. In response, as the jury around them clamours for a sentence, Yuli tells Lionel that she would be a spear, but her own spear and nobody else's.

She attempts to claim the power building in her chest, attempts to wrest control of it, but is overwhelmed by the sheer ferocity of the psionic energy that is released. The chant growing to a crescendo, Yuli fully loses control. A great noise rips through the hall, the rush of a crack running through glass at the speed of sound. Lines of silver cut through the air around Yuli, fractal lines that shatter reality.

She begins to lift off her feet, eyes closed in rapture, hands breaking fiery shackles into cinders, and lifting to her side. The rags fall from her arms, and the perfect black circles on her palms ignite with power. The crystalthorn erupts from the base of her neck, more tendrils than you've seen before, and one skewers Lionel, dragging him with Yuli into the air.

The air thrums with strange harmonies that cut through all the uproar in the hall, a hundred thousand solari crying out in horror. And forming from the air around Yuli's head, as though shaping themselves from the very fabric of the air, strands of red and black, binding together, beginning to form a silken veil.

The Allfather rises from his throne, and releases a beam of sunlight that would have felled even a god, and should have reduced Yuli to atoms. But against the invisible force that radiates from her, it breaks like water against stone. A bubble of rippling psionic force pulses outwards, repelling the beam of sunlight, breaking the pure white into lines of a thousand colours. And where the bubble meets the beam of sunlight lines of black begin to form, tears in reality, from which begins to pour thick, ink-black darkness that begins to form grasping, reaching, fingers.

Hurricane winds buffet the hall, ripping up marble paving, tearing banisters from the stands, forcing the rest to crouch and huddle against their pedestals lest they be torn away into the abyss, and through it all they can hear thousands of voices raised in the chant. Reality sunders, and the very air begins to split, until the Allfather, seemingly with no other choice, roars with a booming voice that rattles the entire plane.

"*ENOUGH.*"
 ― The Allfather

Both his hands clap together, and the sun that is his head burns ever more brightly, letting off a great flare of light that hits all four of the group like a truck, passing even through the psionic barrier around Yuli, sending all of them tumbling away through space and cosmos, ejected from the Ardent Citadel and the realm of the The Allfather.

### Elsewhere*(???)*

Lost in subliminal space, amongst a circular cascade of golden strings, Nicolaos's mind continues to ring with the words he had heard at the end of his revelatory visions. Eventually however, as time wears on, his mind begins to clear, and he turns instead to his current predicament. He discovers that in this strange incorporeal form he had a more acute sense of certain bonds that drew on him. One in particular to Ironstrong-4, that seems distant and faint, but another, a much thinner bond, remains to the Singer, who had taken part of his spirit to draw away the Allfather's forces.

After some experimentation, he manages to draw upon that bond, pulling himself free of the well-like fall of gold and tumbling away into the cosmos, before at last appearing, little more than a shade, back in the material plane, near to the Singer who does not appear to see him. He finds her feeding on the corpse of a wyvern, and remains hidden as she finishes and takes off into the sky at great speeds, where he follows.

### Elsewhere*(???)*

Ejected from the Allfather's domain, Yuli finds herself back in the garden, facing the stranger she had spoken to several times before, in what she now understands to likely be it's true form, the celestial being with a black wound through it's upper chest, with thousands of tendril wings splayed behind it. Standing before it, one to either side, are two veiled figures. One she recognises, a tall man in woad-painted armour, as the Warbringer they had faced before the Witchlight. The other, though similarly veiled, is shorter and skinnier, but is not a figure she recognises. There remains a conspicuous open space between them in the centre.

The stranger in the garden speaks to Yuli, congratulating her for finally taking the step on the path to salvation. Yuli insists she will not serve him, or it, or any cause other than her own, and the stranger asks in return why she would think it needed serving. All it desires, so it says, was to lift all chains from all creatures, and it seemed Yuli had chosen to be the spear, not the subjugated, and in so doing follow that same cause. Yuli continues to remain sceptical, and she does not take her place as Warbringer, to which the stranger does not respond with anger or frustration, merely patience, though laced with a reminder that to dally on such matters may yield consequences both of them wished to avoid.

### Almeras Wilderness*(7th of Allfen, 4E 776)*

Once her conversation is done, Yuli awakens in unfamiliar open plains and grasslands, along with Lionel who she seems to have dragged with her. The two get their bearings, eventually surmising they were somewhere in central Almeras, just a few days of travel north of the Desolation by their calculations. Here they discuss what had happened, with Lionel noting that the veil across Yuli's head and shoulders had remained, and though it was tangible and felt like silk, it proves impossible to remove.

With most of their items having been confiscated and seeing few other options, hoping to find some semblance of civilisation, the duo begin to travel north, pointedly heading away from the Desolation. They do not get far, before the ghostly spectre of Nicolaos spots them on his journey in pursuit of the Singer, and decides to instead float down towards them and attempt to communicate. Lionel manages to spot him with truesight, and the trio establish a planar link to communicate. Nicolaos informs them of his ordeal, and tells them he was pursuing the Singer invisibly, hoping to understand where she was going and why.

By the end of the conversation, Lionel and Yuli determine that they need to figure out some way to get back to the rest, while an incorporeal Nicolaos states that he wanted to continue his pursuit of the Singer, and leaves to do so. The others, tired from the day's ordeal, find a place to make camp in the wilderness, and rest for the night.

### The Slip*(???)*

Similarly thrown through the cosmos away from the Ardent Citadel, Oondak and Hector tumble into a place familiar in some ways to both of them. An open field of grass, dotted with clusters of flowers in red and white that open and close in strange patterns. Hector in particular is taking the day's events badly, and is close to having a nervous breakdown. Oondak, unsuccessfully, tries to calm him down.

Not sure how they had come here, the two find the items that had been taken from them scattered about the garden, including some belonging to Lionel and Yuli, and manage to retrieve all of them. They discuss what to do next, and see few options before them other than resting and hoping to find a means to plane shift away from this place the following morning.

Before they can do so, Oondak spots a tiny silhouette against the horizon, an almost humanoid figure. Curious, he begins to walk towards it, and an exasperated Hector, still on the edge of a breakdown, follows. They travel a good distance before the figure properly comes into view, and to their surprise they come across the completely overgrown form of a dormant Ironstrong-4, who appears completely powered down.

The two take the time to remove the overgrowth, and eventually, though with the painstaking sound of long-dormant gears grinding against one another, Ironstrong-4 comes back to. After waking, as his machinery begins to slowly try and repair itself, he notes that the counter he had started at the start of his arrival in this place had hit ten thousand, one hundred and fifty-three years, throughout which he had slept in as low power a mode as he could afford while remaining partially aware.

Ironstrong-4 explains to the other two what had happened to him, detailing his journey through the Slip and his arrival in the garden, as well as the protective dome wrapped in chains that surrounded it, noting in particular the crack that he had entered through and his beliefs that the same force which had struck down the Curator had glanced against this protective dome, breaching it partially. The trio debate on the nature of this place, and generally surmise that it was a cage of some kind, meant to keep something in, perhaps without it realising it was imprisoned. Through some experimentation, they realise that would not be so simple to teleport out, since the same dome seemed to bar any magic from leaving it.

Seeing no other way out, the trio decide to travel towards the crack in the dome after they had rested, hoping that leaving the dome would allow them to plane shift away. They rest without trouble, and the next morning take the oddly long walk across the flowers and grass in the direction that Ironstrong-4 leads them.

They eventually come to a point where they can see the strange black crack in the otherwise pristine sky. They fly and teleport their way up to it, reaching the same opening that Ironstrong-4 had fallen through previously, and here note the broken chains and the lance of arcana that had glanced the dome and still marred the otherwise black emptiness. Deciding investigating further would be too dangerous, they cluster together and plane shift away to the material plane, hoping that the others had managed to find their way back to Domar so they could reconvene there.

### Ain'alaard*(7th of Allfen, 4E 776)*

Upon landing, somewhere in the serai district, the trio duck into an alleyway to disguise Oondak, hoping to keep away from the attention of whatever guards might still be searching. They return to the same place they had stayed before, and here settle down to discuss what came next. They contact the others, discovering them to be across the planet, and discuss some options for joining the two groups back together, which may prove more difficult than they expected.

In the wake of all that had happened, Oondak confides in the others a faltering in his faith, noting that the Earthmaven hadn't helped him in the altercation with the Allfather and his court, and that she had been silent of late. The others point out that by continuing to provide him his divine abilities, the Earthmaven was already providing a great boon, and that she could not have directly confronted the Allfather, her brother, for his sake.

Somewhat convinced, Oondak decides to try and commune with the Earthmaven, hoping that the Allfather's forces would not notice in the wake of the chaos Yuli had caused at the Ardent Citadel. They find a quiet spot amongst some palm trees, and Oondak asks the Earthmaven a few questions to calm his own faltering. On the third question, instead of the usual answers of yes and no, he is momentarily whisked away to the same forest they had briefly seen in Elysium, where the divine avatar of the Earthmaven speaks a singular warning.

"*The girl you travel with will doom us all. For all our sakes, please, Oondak. She must be destroyed.*"
 ― The Earthmaven

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