Arc 3 - Lost and Unfamiliar (Unearthly Tether)

## Lost and Unfamiliar

The party enter the plane of Ik'erik'gre, determined to find Zhrakenshina and thus a way to end Snelm's curse. However, Yash's long-lost mentor is not the easiest person to find, let alone talk to.

The party must work with old enemies and make new friends if they wish to survive such an altogether hostile place.

 Synopsis

*Act 3 covers sessions 22 through 39 and technically only lasts 4 days, though they experience 20 days in Ik'erik'gre.*

### The Shattered Spire (Sessions 22-24)

Snelm and Jimi are apprehended by an officer in the Royal Guard, Commander Irval. They give him the most dissatisfying reason for their involvement in duel at the ball possible; it seemed fun to them. In a bid to win some credibility with the Commander, Jimi reveals his birth name to Commander Irval: Tharnnien Orval the 9th. The Commander is generous at this show of trust and informs Jimi that a man called Kuornor Aldanaes in Estlarn has put a warrant on the head of Tharnnien Orval the 9th for the murder of Kuornor's father. The group apologise profusely to the Broker and he encourages them to leave for the Shattered Spire before they can put him in any more trouble.
So they set off, but at their first night in camp they are waylaid by men that claim to work for Yash's family, the Zlataya. However, with discussions led by a man named Mordenarr, the hostilities cease and the soldiers agree to back off. They journey continues far less eventfully; they have a lovely night singing with some guards at an outpost at Reiche's Fork and they meet some very strange individuals both on the road to Keinen and in Keinen (to the point that they push on to rest outside the Shattered Spire rather than in town).

They meet with the Custodians of the Shattered Spire, the standing force of Silver Knights of the Arcanum, and are afforded access to the Spire itself. Before doing so they are informed that from the perspective of those within the Spire, the door will be opened very infrequently as time is ten times faster in there. They immediately feel its affects as it begins to distort the natural flow of time, Jimi especially so. They find the corpse of an adventurer and claim their magic items.

They continue to climb the tower and have a very dangerous encounter with an otherworldly puppeteer that seems to have two previous adventurers under its control. In a dire situation, Korrig manages to use the Staff of the Galewalker to sever its control over his friends and end the confrontation, though they spare the life of the puppeteer after it begs them to, revealing that it is not protecting the Spire by choice, but because of arcane geas. They take the two adventurers with them as they continue to ascend, they are Task and Alecia and the duo aid the party in an ensuing fight with a sandstone elemental which they eventually flee from.

After they escape the elemental, they find a place away from it all to rest and Task and Alecia get cold feet on heading into the plane beyond the Shattered Spire and decide to try and leave through the tower exit. The party ascend the to the uppermost floor and encounter a guardian of sorts for the tower and though it is heavily damaged, it packs a punch. The party narrowly escape through the planar portal, with it following, and find themselves in the plane they would find out is called Ik'erik'gre. They hide from the pursuing guardian in some nearby caves, but find it already occupied.
### Velled Threats (Sessions 25-30)

The party are nearly overrun by strange acid-spewing insects, Snelm barely surviving, but they are aided by a strange hamster-like being that refers to himself as Stanley Prosci and as the knight of Zhrakenshina. As he guides them to the main settlement of the area, Ayn'Irosh, he tells them of the plane (like the fact that they are currently atop a giant insect called Og'Irosh and that using magic publicly is dangerous as those that can summon water are kept solely for the purpose of doing so) and what they will need to do to meet Zhrakenshina: acquire the support of two members of the court of the ruler of Ayn'Irosh, Ikisrael. He informs them of viable candidates that are likely to help outsiders and also some particularly troublesome members of the court; these troublesome members are Carava, the leader of the Esk, and Coros Vell, deputy ambassador from the Tyrant. Stanley's reception within the settlement is less than welcoming, he reveals that him and Zhrakenshina are not well-liked.
They are introduced to the Court of Ikisrael, finding out that Ikisrael itself seems to be a giant brain with tendril appendages, it forces them to kneel upon their entry and pays them practically no mind. After their audience they are visited by Coros Vell and though they try to ignore him, Yash spoils this attempt by engaging him in conversation. He makes an offer to them, if they do three tasks for him then he will get them court support for their request to see Zhrakenshina. He asks them to find a certain rebel and coax the information of where the main rebel forces are, to use this information to find the rebel camp and then to recover a weapon from the wastes. He promises that they do not have to kill the rebels in the camp. The group do not wish to do this for him and leave to see if their other option to sway the court, Carava, is viable.

Carava offers two of the same missions, to find and coax the rebel camp information and then to find the rebel camp, but he wishes for the group to raid the camp itself and kill its occupants. They decide to reject the offer and find a place to stay and think on their alternatives. Whilst gathering information around town, Jimi meets with a white dragonkin called Resh, who helps them find an inn to stay in. In the inn Yash meets and challenges a cosivn woman called Iska to who can lift a table higher, Yash enlarges herself to get the upper hand, but Iska uses the very ground beneath them to lift their target even higher. They enjoy each other's ingenuity and are fast friends.

Whilst staying at the inn, Korrig and Jimi question Resh further, finding out that he was banished to Ik'erik'gre by a wizard, how difficult it can be to leave Ik'erik'gre and recruiting him to help them down in the wastes. A messenger of Coros Vell visits them and lets the party know that if they are interested in Vell's offer, to meet him in a nearby restaurant the next day. They attempt to rest that eve, only to discover some dead folk outside their doors after hearing sounds, but the management is uncaring.

Jimi and Snelm head to meet Coros Vell the next day, whilst Yash and Korrig go to the palace grounds to train and meet with Stanley. Yash is relatively successful in her sparring and whilst Korrig is less successful in sparring with Stanley, he manages to get some information from him about their predicament, including that Zhrakenshina can offer them a way out of the plane. Jimi and Snelm agree to do the various jobs for Coros Vell, though in return for information the fate of his, Jimi agrees to assist Vell during his time in Ik'erik'gre, chiefly by killing Asguril Imeroth. Coros Vell puts the party up in the Tyrant's Embassy (as negotiated by Snelm) and offers to show Jimi some of what awaits him if his soul is claimed by the Nightmare. Jimi tentatively accepts and brings Korrig in as backup, he suffers greatly in his brief exposure to the Nightmare and strikes Coros Vell when he is taunted by the tyrling.

They head down into the wastes of Ik'erik'gre the next day, but Jimi is so affected by what he has seen that he veers off course and crashes, pulled within the Nightmares that hunt him. The group move to save him, quickly dispatching the earth elemental that moves to impede them with the unexpected help of Kew, or at least a spectre of him that issues from Snelm's Tethered arm. They descend into a cavern, a hole in the wasteland, pushing through various runes of magical power, lava elemental spiders and the lava they spawned from, before coming across the unconscious form of Jimi, with a large green Death Worm and some scant worm hounds that feed of its victims. They defeat it, but Yash's axe is corroded to uselessness by the blood of the Death Worm.

As Snelm tries to get information from Kew, but he simply responds by casting a spell on the party to help them escape the cave before disappearing. Moments after Kew vanishes, the unconscious form of Adora Hawkinsight falls into the clearing. They discuss with her who she is and where she came from (with her tied up for the duration), before deciding that there isn't much they can do but bring her with them. During this time, Jimi wakes back up, bleeding from a wound that did not exist previously on his back.

They hear a voice from beyond them, calling them further into the cave, the voice that claims to be Asguril. He offers them his life, if they do him a favour and submit to a test, that he may ascertain whether they can be trusted with that favour. As they move through the narrow passage, they are each confronted by visions of their past, with Asguril observing and asking about what it means to them. Korrig talks to Abbess LiuSong about his anger and how far tranquillity can temper it, with her recommending that he travel and deal with adversity, to truly temper his anger. Snelm sees his birth parents and the moment he knew of their passing, his adoptive parents and the moment he accepted them and the parents of Nicolas Stonebreaker, as he delivered the news of his passing. Adora sees visions of her grandfather and Mercy Greyshine, the girl that shot her. Yash sees her separation from Zhrakenshina. Finally, Jimi sees what he saw in the Nightmare, but as his life moves past the awful beginnings and to his encounter with Korrig, the start of some meaning to it all.

They rise to the next floor and find themselves in a labyrinth, Asguril telling them that to proceed, they must kill the Minotaur in the centre of it. When they find it, it fights desperately and is protected by a ghost companion, but they defeat it and leave it alive at the ghost's behest. After which they rise to the top of the structure and meet Asguril, the man they were sent to kill, who greets them gently and offers readings from the Tarot deck in answer to questions they have. He takes the time to answer each of their questions; offering direction to Snelm, solace to Adora and grim news to Yash.

Asguril then leads them to his daughter, Lucirialla (or Lucy), and asks that they take her to find her mother when he is gone, though he can offer them scant information as to where the mother is. In return he will not resist them. So the group take the time to play and get to know her, Lucy taking to Adora, Snelm and Yash very quickly, but Korrig keeps his distance. Jimi waits until the group have gone to sleep and he goes to a final conversation with Asguril. The doomed man gives Jimi a reading that tells him of hope, hope in his friends, but little alone. Asguril also repeats that which he told Snelm, of a Starry-Eyed One who knows all, and then gives his Deck of the Fatesharp to Jimi. Their talk meanders slowly towards the Tyrling's end, Jimi burying him in the sand when it is done.
### New Worries (Sessions 31-34)

The party lie to and console Lucy about her new circumstances, though she is not loudly despondent about them. As the group pack up Lucy's travelling items and various other goods they think will help them on their journey, Korrig chooses to give Adora a strange item they found in the caves below, an alien whip made of liquid silver.
The party make their way back to Ayn'irosh, throwing Adora for a loop as she comes into contact with the incredible amount of new sapient species that make up the settlement. They spring for rooms in the Tatros for those that aren't staying at the Tyrant's Embassy before the party gets to making some friends; with Adora chatting up some Nriti travellers (elemental-type statue creatures) and Korrig getting drunk enough to agree to sparring Iska the next day. Meanwhile, Yash is visited by a secretive Zhrakenshina, who gives her a stone and bids Yash not stay in this plane much longer. This leaves the young warrior distraught.

Whilst most retire to their rooms in the inn, Snelm, Korrig and Yash head to the Tyrant's Embassy to meet Coros Vell for discussions about what must be done next. As they move through the compound, they encounter a dark figure who refers to himself as Ido guarding the entrance to Coros Vell's quarters. Vell himself seems begrudgingly please with the party's work and offers them the option to see Zhrakenshina after the next task, but he still wants all three completed and he wants to meet Jimi before they depart.

The next day Jimi takes the time to attune to the Deck of the Fatesharp, feeling that Lucy is also attuned to it, before the group splits up for the day. The majority of the group go to shop and play with Lucy, whilst Adora and Korrig head to the training grounds for Korrig's match with Iska. The shopping group get Lucy a small stuffed toy with an appearance that implies insect inspiration: their young charge calls the toy Fred. Elsewhere, Korrig prepares to spar with Iska and a match against a warrior named Uru is arranged for Adora.

Korrig's bout is short and brutal, Iska unleashing a powerful blast of sandstorm that nearly takes him down in a single blow. When she offers him mercy, he counterattacks intensely and deals her a few severe blows, though the match was already decided and she knocks him unconscious with another, more restrained, sandstorm. The rest of the party show up just too late to see, with Snelm and Resh following after the cart that was to take Korrig to the Tyrant's Embassy to find a healer. The rest stay to watch Adora's duel.

Adora's fight with Uru is close, but her hesitance to engage and attempts to use the whip that she is not yet accustomed to provide the Ilex warrior with all the openings he needs. Though as Adora falls, Lucy heals her in a panic, being fully unaware of the dangers of using magic publicly. Jimi quickly scans the crowd to see if anyone saw and catches a significant glance from a dark skinned humanoid with smoke emanating from their head. As the figure turns to leave, he loses track of them due to a poorly timed attempt at physical comedy from Lucy.

Korrig, Snelm and Resh meet a person with a radiant form who refers to themself as Sol. They heal Korrig and comment upon the rude manners of Snelm, encouraging him to be a bit quieter. Meanwhile, Jimi attempts to follow the person he saw, but alerts them and has a brief spoken confrontation before they flee. The group reunite temporarily, but Korrig and Resh split off to go talk to Iska about their fight, Snelm and Jimi go to visit Coros Vell, and Adora and Yash take Lucy to the park and teach her valuable skills, like hiding.

Korrig is taken to the Visi Arena after asking Iska about how to get stronger. She does not ask him to enter the pits of monster fighters, but instead gives him a strange silver seed and tells him to sit alone in a cell and ingest it. When he does so, Korrig is confronted by a manifested image of his older sister, Shrakee Giantsbane. The fight does not go well for him, with Shrakee beating him down without hesitation, but Korrig manages to stay conscious through force of will, taking advantage of his state of dreaming to claw back a victory from her.

Snelm and Jimi make their way to the Tyrant's Embassy, encountering Ido once more, who smiles and acknowledges Jimi as a mark. Coros Vell tells the duo of their plan to infiltrate the primary encampment of the Esk and fire off a signal to his people so that the camp can be located. He assures them that they need not kill any of the occupants. He also makes a deal with Jimi, there is a sword he wants found out in the wastes, if they find it for him, Vell will get Jimi a copy of the contract for his soul.

As they reunite (save for Korrig and Resh), they have a bit of trouble as Lucy uses magic again to make water to bathe herself. In an effort to conceal the magical nature of it, Adora runs the basin out of the building and pours it into the playground that they hung out in earlier. During the night there is a strange juxtaposition between a conversation about mortality and home between Yash and Snelm, and Lucy's attempts to make Jimi mad by hitting him and spraying him with conjured water. However, these pranks don't end well when Lucy startles Jimi by sneaking into his room (with Adora's help) and his first instinct is to draw his dagger.

As Korrig and Resh are still not back from their side endeavour, the party decide to go shopping, stumbling upon a rather obtrusive store called Orivisili's Ostentatious Oddities. When they meet the proprietor, one Caryll Orivisili, he offers to guess what items they might need. In the middle of this endeavour they are interrupted by the panicked return of Caryll's brother, the man who Jimi had chased after Adora's arena fight, who claims that he is being chased. Caryll offers them items that he had chosen for them in return for driving away the intruder, which they accomplish with the assistance of Stanley Prosci, who arrives in the nick of time.

They talk about what has happened, provoking Dlago (Caryll's brother) to reveal that he was observing them under the employ of Coros Vell and that he believes such people are under watch. Caryll panics, believing this to be the machinations of Ikisrael, and decides that they all need to leave quickly and subtly, beginning to pack up his belongings and begin preparations for a teleportation spell. When Stanley offers his room within the Palace as an option for their destination, the party jump on the chance to go see Zhrakenshina.

They arrive in the palace and immediately set off towards Zhrakenshina's room, but it is too late, for they have been discovered. The palace around them seems to twist and distort as Ikisrael fixes its awful sights upon them, and whilst they attempt to fight back, they are captured. Thus Korrig is left near alone and unknowing during his training.

Korrig is informed by Resh of what has happened and what he and his organisation know of Ikisrael. This includes the knowledge of Ikisrael's identity, Orseid of the Shattered Sky, and his reliance on Zhrakenshina for her arcane magicks. With that in mind, Korrig puts into motion a plan to meet Zhrakenshina and gain her assistance, confident that she would move to help Yash. He and Resh infiltrate the palace with the help of the easily-bribed Iska, who assists them in scaling the isolated tower that Zhrakenshina stays within.

He comes to an agreement with Zhrakenshina to distract Ikisrael as he frees his friends and convinces her to look after Lucy whilst they are in the wastes below for their next job for Coros Vell. As she confronts Ikisrael, Korrig rescues the party from their cells, though Yash splits off to confront Zhrakenshina as they leave. Though she doesn't make it to her, receiving a message from her adoptive mother telling her that they will talk soon, but not now.
### Time Amongst the Sands (Sessions 34-38)

The party meet up with Coros Vell, who informs them that things have changed: they are no longer finding the camp of the rebellious Esk, but instead delivering a message and offer of allegiance. They will have to find his blade (which he reveals is within an old keep in the Wastes) during the same timeframe, as the timescale for things have been moved forward significantly. They drink and prepare to leave the next day. Though before they leave, Caryll thanks Korrig for saving them and gives him a magical ring called the Ring of Stored Momentum.
The group (now minus both Lucy and Resh) travel down beneath the many legs of Og'irosh, seeking the nomadic tribes that travel betwixt its legs. They approach these nomads and convince them to help the party reach out to the Esk, gaining transport upon the back of a huge wyvern called Gregarious. Their diplomatic route brings them directly to Lady Alisandre, who demands they prove their dedication by slaying a cerberus that she has in her capture.

The Cerberus fight is short and brutal, but some key highlights please the crowd. Adora manages to briefly mount the creature, slashing it with her scimitar and successfully avoiding being bucked. Yash manages to withdraw a rusted bastard sword from where it had been left within the Cerberus' leg, and as Yash does so the rusted blade bursts into a ruby-red light.

They speak with Alisandre and she expressed displeasure at their association with Zhrakenshina after reading the letter from Coros Vell. It is hard to tell if she is more displeased with the contents of the letter or the group's acquaintance with Zhrakenshina. Regardless, she simply tells them that their will need to dismount soon to complete the rest of their tasks and that they have about an hour until then.

Adora spends this time talking to the Esk, finding a devout of Incomo and deciding that her and Jimi should get matching Incomo-themed tattoos. Despite Korrig's disapproval, two draconic serpents end up wrapping around their ankles; Adora's purple serpent wrapping her right ankle as Jimi's green one wrapped his left. Yash spends the time adjusting to her new blade, Remnant, and Snelm trades a few items to get a composite longbow.

They drop into the Wastes and Snelm uses his magics to help find a path through the sands, but there is too far to travel in just the one day and they have to spend the night in the freezing cold. Jimi spots some strange golems that seem to be constructed of sand and ice in the distance, but they stay out of trouble. They spot the keep on the horizon and make it there before the day is out. They scale the side of the structure making their way to the only aperture above the level of the sand, a tower that juts forth from the desert. As they rest in the spire's peak, Snelm is sure he hears breathing below.

Descending the tower itself turns out to be rather perilous, with both Snelm and Korrig falling from the derelict steps, only to be caught by Yasheritska's *Feather Fall*. There appear to be two main routes out of the tower, as the primary doorway is caved in; these routes are far further down and a break in the wall that appears to lead to a ten foot drop into what appears to be a grandiose hallway. Jimi and Adora drop down first, giving the all clear before swiftly moving into the nearby dining room, which is huge. They are attacked by some strange constructs made of sand, holding them off effectively, but only pushing them back when they are assisted by the rest of the party, Korrig recovering a strange green gem from the core of the constructs.

With their newfound safety, the group decide to look over the dining room itself. The majority of the group are intrigued by a series of tapestries depicting significant moments in the history of arcane magic (Planecrosser Aegil, the first enhancing Transmutation of a sapient creature, the taming of raw elemental energy and the first uses of Evocation for the transference of souls). Meanwhile Adora finds herself entranced with something else entirely, a strange and faint presence in the corner of the room. She finds her way to it, softly introducing herself to the spectral figure, to which it responds in kind; her name is Elessa Alcroft and she has been here for quite some time. Adora offers to provide her with some company, the group could use some help getting around this place after all, and Elessa accepts.

Korrig, Yash and Snelm move on whilst Adora was making her new friend, looking to explore around the floor. They find a strange source of heat, finding semi-liquid arachnids seemingly formed of lava. They defeat them in short order, finding a nest not far behind them. Finding themselves lost for direction, they change tack and consider searching the other exit to the tower. The party climb back into the tower through the hole and descend the staircase, finding a plain chamber that is occupied only by a large door with four distinct key holes. Snelm identifies them as needing to be unlocked by four different schools of magic. As Snelm attempts to look through the keyholes, the party hear a strange roaring from within and from all around them, small translucent reptilian humanoids rise to attack them. The party leaves immediately, but Snelm notes that the creatures seem defensive and Yash reveals that the roar from within was the word "Father" in Draconic..

As they ascend to the previous floor, Snelm recovers a strange and cracked gem that seems to be from one of the magma spiders. He notes that the gem appears to offer an aura of evocation. The party argue for some time over a door before they begrudgingly agree and break the door open to reveal a decrepit library. They each collect some books: Adora finds a book about the creation of Chimaera, Korrig's book is on the Transmutation magics used by Vis, Snelm finds a book on the biology of Dragons (though he agrees to lend it to Yash) and Jimi finds *The Observation of Fate* by Adeline Quinn. Adora and Jimi begin to notice a trend in many of these books: they are related to the increasing of life-span.

After taking some time to read their findings (with Jimi finding some rather telling notation from Orseid in his), the party move up to the next floor of the library. Jimi discovers the body of a seemingly long-deceased knight and that one of the walls is illusory. Snelm relieves the knight of his enchanted morningstar, Dusklight, and Jimi peers beyond the wall, discovers an orange light that is concealed by shifting masses of black. Both Korrig and Snelm attempt to cross it, but are forcibly rebuffed and harmed by it. Snelm notices that the swirling shapes seem to both block an obscure the light of the gem, but also the light of his new weapon, and suspecting the darkness to be essentially defending the light sources from those that can see it, he uses a spell to temporarily blind himself. The party waits outside as Snelm disappears with the dark until it utterly dispells, revealing Snelm with orange gem in hand.

Whilst they are dealing with this, the green gem they found earlier seems to coil sand around itself and hurriedly escape from the group. They chase it to another wing of the ground floor and are ambushed by more sand golems. The fight is difficulty, due to Adora and Jimi having catastrophic difficulty in coordinating acrobatic stunts, leading to them prone in the centre of the constructs. Korrig manages to pull a gem from the chest of one the sand automatons and they hurriedly flee, much to Adora's chagrin.

They flee up a still-intact staircase up to the floor above, opening the first door they see, only to be greeted by an incredible explosion. Luckily Snelm is on hand to fix up the most wounded and they have a look around the now-damaged room, finding a book with Orseid's name on it and some still intact silk robes (Adora, Korrig and Snelm claim one each). As they leave the room, they find a decent portion of the corridor collapsed due to the explosion and to work around it they enter the gallery. It is filled with exhibits of various powerful creatures, a dire lion and a halden standing out most to Adora, but it is the draconic skeleton marked as "Glyrix, Adult Blue" that piques Snelm's interest. Adora takes a smaller stuffed animal from the exhibit and whilst doing so notices a Painting, pointing it out to the group as she does so. Snelm can feel in his soul the link this Painting has to his affliction, but as he is drawn towards it, some more of the spectral reptilian humanoids begin to climb forth from the skeleton of Glyrix.

Unlike the last time the party crossed path with the spectral dragonkin, these ones are fully set upon conflict and set to both attacking the party and possessing some of the more threatening exhibits. This leads to Jimi being mauled by the stuffed dire lion, it leaving an incredibly obtrusive line of scarring as Snelm brings him back from the brink of death still in its jaws. With the group's combined might, they manage to thwart the ambush, even scoring a yellow gem from within the draconic skeleton, but they are incredibly weakened and Adora solicits Elessa's advice for where they might rest.

The spectre leads Adora, and thusly the rest of the group, to what was once her quarters. They raid the area, finding a jewellery box and her old spellbook, before settling down for some rest. Jimi keeps watch as the rest sleep fitfully, dreaming of a unimaginably vast serpent. They are rudely awoken as two of the gems they have taken attempt to spring back into action, Jimi barely stopping the newly forming sand construct from cutting Korrig's throat as he sleeps. After a brief scuffle, the party decide to head down to the vault with the four crystals to open the door in their possession.

They arrive at the door, but have trouble deciding which gem should go into each keyhole and their first failed attempt reveals that such misguided attempts release a strange crystallising gas into the room. Due to multiple failures, Jimi is temporarily encased in this crystalline substance and even after Snelm frees him, it seems that his recent scars from the dire lion have been left glinting as crystals. However, they do eventually move through the doors and into the vault, lined with marble pillars and filled with mounds of gold. Each of the party take the item that first catches their eye from the hoard: Korrig takes a strange vial of silver liquid, Adora takes what appears to be a potion of cure moderate wounds, Yash finds an expensive silver bell, Snelm takes a strange tome that appears to thrum with power and Jimi takes a shard of glowing pink gemstone. It is then that they spot a sword that has been thrust into the ceiling, the sword they came for.

Though they have little time to plan, as a gigantic azure serpent with a red mane erupts from the coins beneath them. It is difficult enough to keep track of, let alone fight, as it easily slips in and out of the coins that encompass its lair. Yash transforms into an owl to fly past the Wurm to the sword, but lacks the strength required to draw it, and as Korrig attempts to leap upwards to help, he is struck from behind by a lightning bolt from the creature, scorching him and sending him hurtling into a pit of shifting sand beneath the pit. Whilst the rest fight the creature, Snelm dives into the pit, using his divine abilities to teleport the both of them out just as Adora uses her Flamedancer's Scimitar to behead the Wurm, cauterising the wound as she does.

With some healing and teamwork, the group help Korrig remove the blade from the ceiling, only to reveal that it allows in a torrent of sand to the vault. It fills the room rapidly and the party flee, Korrig using his Stave of the Gale Walker to create a windwall that slows the sand to allow them time to escape. Jimi notices some weaknesses in the structures and collapses entrances as they escape, but it doesn't hold the sand long. Whilst Yash easily escapes as an owl, Jimi and Snelm have trouble with the old tower steps, so Snelm uses his gravity stones to transport the two of them to the top. The party look out across the horizon and see Og'irosh moving towards the tower.

### No Time to Reflect (Session 39)

Jimi draws the blade they have to come to collect from the floor of the tower, where it stands perfectly upright after Korrig let it drop to the floor. The group begin to move down quickly from the tower itself and towards the gigantic approaching centipede, with Snelm and Yash (still in Owl form) flying up to the city to send down transport for the rest. They come across Carava, who sees that Snelm is casting magic and immediately sets upon them with his men to try and capture them, but they are saved by Resh and some of his allies, buying Snelm time to activate the glass capsules to retrieve Adora, Jimi and Korrig. Though he is downed by the strange shrieking Krii that defend the settlement and has to be moved away by Yash so as to not be killed, who is heavily injured as she retreats.

The grounded trio use the capsules to ascend to Ayn'irosh and assist Resh's group against the Erin'va, with Korrig quickly running ahead to deliver the sword to Coros Vell. The rest follow after dispatching Carava and his cronies, making it to the Tyrant's Embassy amidst the rebellion raging in the streets. Coros Vell hurries them along as they give him the weapon, only needing to be reminded once about upholding his end of the deal to give Jimi a copy of the contract for his soul.

They find Zhrakenshina and talk to her of the steps needed to stop the Painted God. She tells them of a legendary weapon with the power to severe all context from any creature it strikes: Bondbreaker. It is in pieces, she tells them as she hands them the hilt, and she only knows the location of two: the blade is kept by the Wyrm of the Wastes and the sheath is kept by the Crypt Keeper, who once abused the power of Bondbreaker and now jealously guards the sheath below the mountains of Caelda. The last piece is an orb that contains the breath of a powerful dragon called Oriliax, though she knows not where it is. She tells the group that she cannot leave due to the advanced state of her Tether, but that if they can get the stone of sending she gave to Yash to Felicia, she may be able to bring Felicia to this plane, which will slow the advancement of her own Tether.

With all that said, Zhrakenshina uses the spell *Plane Shift* to send them all home, stifling objections from Yash by telling her that the rebellion against Orseid, is not their fight. Before they accept being sent back to Ix, the party collect both Lucy and the Orivisili brothers to bring with them. They are told to choose a place to go back to, the strange mishmash of ideas sending them to the hillock where they were ambushed by Mordenarr.

Safe once again in Ix, they talk of investments in the Orivisili brother's prospective new business and get to setting up camp.

## Characters

#### Player Characters:

* Jimi Jostar
* Korrig
* Snelm Brightstone
* Yasheritska
* Adora Hawkinsight

Non-Player Party Members

* Lucirialla Imeroth, or Lucy
* Resh, Silver Dragonkin Slayer
* Elessa Alcroft

#### Non-Player Characters:

* The Broker
* Commander Irval
* Dryll, the Gnommish Inventor
* Captain Morris, of the Zlataya family guard
* Mordenarr, the Rashiid
* Task, Knight of the Lady's Wings
* Alecia
* Stanley Prosci, Knight of Zhrakenshina
* Coros Vell, Hand of the Tyrant
* Ikisrael, or Planecrosser Orseid
* Carava, Head of the Erin'va
* Resh, Silver Dragonkin Slayer
* Iska, Cosivn Kineticist
* Asguril Imeroth, traitor to the Tyrant
* Arvyl, Innkeep of the Tatros
* Zhrakenshina
* Ido, the Debt Collector
* Uru, friend of Iska
* Sol, the Tyrant's Ambassador
* Dlago Orivisili
* Caryll Orivisili
* Vylo, nomad beneath Og'irosh
* Wyvern Gregarious and their rider
* Lady Alisandre, Queen of the Esk

## Locations

* Tasir, Nemar County
	+ Reiche Outpost
	+ Keinen
	+ The Shattered Spire
* Ik'erik'gre
	+ Ayn'irosh (the city atop Og'irosh, the centipede)
		- The Palace of Ikisrael
			* Training Grounds
		- The Tatros Inn and Tavern
		- The Tyrant's Embassy
	+ Asguril's Home
	+ The Esk Encampment
	+ The Buried Keep