Session0054

Episode 0054 - Perspectives
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**Setting:**

Lo'ihi Island - Mycorrhiza - Daimao's Castle - June 7th-10th, 211 AW
**Synopsis:**

* Having completed Amadou Circle's trials and charged the Chaos Core, the party spends a few days resting on Lo'ihi Island and recovering from the last few days' activity.
* Returning to Mycorrhiza after a few days of rest, the party uses the Chaos Core to open the Thousand Year Door and retrieve the Star Shard, which will allow them to safely confront the Earthstar in the Underdark.
* During their final day of preparations before departing for the Underdark, Gragnok reveals to the party that he is responsible for sending paladins to confront XVIII's family.
* After some heated discussion about Gragnok's rationale for his actions, the party - including Gragnok - agrees that it is no longer a good idea for Gragnok to continue traveling with the party. Bidding a tense farewell, Gragnok departs from the party.
* Later, Aristoadle introduces the party to Falgron, leader of the Fable Bearers Circle's monastery, who agrees to accompany the party in their upcoming quest to stop the Kameshimans and fulfill the Fable of the Thousand Year Door.
* Having made all of their preparations, the party attempts to use a *warp whistle* to reach the Earthstar; however, the Earthstar's power to interfere with planar travel prevents them being able to do so.
* Discussing and researching alternative avenues to try to reach the Earthstar, the party learns via divination magic that the physical passages to the Earthstar through the Underdark have been sealed off by the Kameshimans, and that the Kameshimans have created a magical painting which connects Daimao's Castle to the lair of the Earthstar in the Underdark.
* The party decides to try to infiltrate Daimao's Castle and steal the painting, and departs toward Kameshima.
* Arriving at Kameshiman, and under the cover of a *control weather* spell, the party manages to infiltrate Daimao's Castle, where they begin exploring in search of the magic painting.
* After successfully infiltrating and looting the castle's treasury, the party stumbles upon the workshop of The Architect.

**NOTE: Bolded text was retroactively roleplayed during Session0056 and Session0057.**

## June 7th

Having completed the trials within the temple in Mauna Make, and charged the Chaos Core, the party discusses their plans for the coming days. They decide to rest in Lo'ihi Island and recover from the events of the last several days, before eventually returning to Mycorrhiza to open the Thousand Year Door, retrieve the Star Shard, and head into the Underdark in pursuit of the Earthstar. Having seen the Earthstar in a dream in Nimbia, Frog offers to use his *warp whistle* to take the party to the Earthstar when the time comes. They make plans to depart for the Underdark after the next Prime Zenith, on the morning of June 10th.

Returning to Lo'ihi Plaza from Mauna Make, the party spends the remainder of the relaxing and resting.

In the evening, Odell and Pepper speak about the Morningstar, and the possibility of resurrecting Djinni.

Overnight, while they're sleeping, XVIII is contacted by Alvoril Shukura in a *dream* spell. The two discuss Alvoril's findings from researching the blood, as requested by XVIII. Alvoril explains that the blood seems to be a carrier of the Pale Death, and could potentially be used as the basis for a vaccination or cure against any future similar maladies. Alvoril requests permission to keep the blood, to which XVIII agrees. In exchange, XVIII requests to study medicine under Alvoril as his apprentice. Alvoril enthusiastically agrees, happy to partner with a former apprentice of Dr. Johann Conrad Dippel. After discussing some fundamentals of medicine, the two agree to stay in touch via magic as often as possible, until they can eventually meet in person.

## June 8th

The party spends the say continuing to rest and recover on Lo'ihi Island.

Louche plays his Psalm of Absolution, then casts an Spell: Alignment Tuning on himself while under the effects of the psalm. The spell indicates that - at least while under the effects of the Psalm - his soul is bound to the Nine Hells.

**Malkoth uses a *contact other plane* spell to speak with Patches (Deity). He gathers information about the astral plane and the githyanki, and receives a teleportation sigil that leads to a githyanki military outpost near Tu'narath, the githyankin capitol. He also learns that the Divine Gate doesn't prevent travel from the astral planes to the outer planes, only from the astral planes to the inner planes.**

Later in the day, when the party reconvenes to discuss and strategize for the future, Louche expresses concerns about the party's eventual goal of resurrecting Djinni, speculating that the Raven Queen might try to prevent such a thing from occurring. He floats the idea of offering the Raven Queen one or more of the necromancers recovered from the Purgatory in Volus.

The remainder of the day is uneventful, as the party continues to rest and relax on Lo'ihi Island.

## June 9th

Reconvening in the morning, the party decides that it's time to return to Mycorrhiza to open the Thousand Year Door and retrieve the Star Shard, so that they can be fully prepared for their departure for the Underdark and the Earthstar the following morning. With the aid of the druids of the Amadou Circle, the magic painting at the Lo'ihi Island consulate is activated, and the party returns to Mycelium Palace.

The party finds Aristoadle in the palace, and inform him and the rest of the royal family that the Chaos Core has been charged with all four elements. Aristoadle leads them all to a hidden basement chamber beneath the palace, where they discover the Thousand Year Door, sealed by four elementally-aligned crystals. Using his abilities as a conduit, Jack disperses the Chaos Core's elemental magic, thereby unsealing the Thousand Year Door. Within, the party finds that Star Shard. Heartsong explains that the relic will protect them from the Earthstar's mutative and mind-controlling powers, and its influence over planar travel within its lair.

Afterwards, Gragnok asks to speak to the party privately. They reconvene outside the palace. Here, Gragnok reveals that he sent the paladin of the Raven Queen that came after XVIII's family, and says that there will be more coming. He is unapologetic for his actions, stating that XVIII's family are too dangerous to be left alone, due to their undead nature and their stunted mental and emotional development. Nonetheless, he says that he wanted to tell XVIII and the rest of the party out of respect. He says that he does not see how it is possible for him to continue traveling with XVIII any longer, and that he will be leaving the party to pursue his own goals. XVIII remains speechless, as the other members of the party - especially Jack and Frog - push back against Gragnok's characterization of XVIII's family. Gragnok nonetheless stands his ground regarding his view of XVIII's family, maintaining that undead are inherently dangerous.

Eventually, it is mutually agreed that it is not a good idea for Gragnok to stay with the party any longer. He says that perhaps they'll meet up again when it comes time to face the Morningstar. After a tense farewell, he leaves. As he departs, XVIII warns him that if the paladins come anywhere near their family, they will kill them.

Louche briefly follows after Gragnok, bidding him farewell and wishing him safety. Gragnok expresses some goodwill toward Louche, and gives him a set of magical drums and *dimensional shackles*, as well as some money that he stole from the party. He tells Louche that he might join the imperial forces in their attack on Kameshima.

As the party contends with what's just happened, Frog contacts Valomir Quinn with a *sending* spell at XVIII's behest. He warns them that more followers of the Raven Queen are coming, and urges them to leave and go to Mimrinoth, where they should look for Ursula Wolff.

Later in the day, Aristoadle takes the party to the Fable Bearers Sanctum, where he introduces them to Falgron - the leader of the Fable Bearers Circle's monastery. After some conversation, it's decided that Falgron will join the party on their excursion into the Underdark to face the Earthstar and fulfill the Fable of the Thousand Year Door - the longstanding purpose of Falgron's order of monks. The party spends some time talking with Falgron and getting to know him.

Afterwards, the party disperses to make their last preparations before departing for the Underdark the next morning.

Frog spends his evening with Porcini, talking about the future of Mycorrhiza at peace after the conflict with Kameshima is ended.

Louche donates some of the gold that Gragnok left him to facilities providing care for veterans and soldiers wounded in the war with Kameshima.

Odell spends some time at the library, researching the notion of Daimao's possible aspirations to ascend to godhood.

## June 10th

**Patches shapeshifts into an autognome.**

In the morning, Louche plays the Psalm of Awakening for the party in preparation for the day's adventures, and he and Malkoth each rest in the palace's magical restorative beds.

The party's preparations complete for their departure, Frog plays his *warp whistle*, envisioning the place where he saw the Earthstar in his divinatory dream in Nimbia. His mind experiences a reeling and painful feedback, as he sees visions of the Earthstar pulsing and thrumming with magic. The attempt to teleport to the Earthstar ultimately fails, though the *warp whistle* is not expended.

Speaking with Aristoadle about what happened, the party deduces that the Earthstar's magic must be interfering with their ability to teleport near it. Reconsidering their approach, the party asks Aristoadle about physical passageways to the Earthstar. He explains that, according to their histories, when the myconid made their pilgrimage out of the Underdark, they traveled for many days - perhaps even weeks - before emerging at Poisonbark Grotto in the Tanglewood near Sibillini.

Next, the party interrogates the magikobold prisoner that was formerly Kamm, who was taken from Nimbia. Using a *detect thoughts* spell on him as part of their questioning, they learn that there is a passageway into the Underdark located directly beneath Daimao's Castle, known as the Tusk, which leads down into Kameshima's expansive Material Chaos mining operation. Somewhere within this operation, there is a path that leads to the Earthstar. Malkoth deduces that his *teleportation tablet* connects to this Underdark entrance, which the magikobold's thoughts confirm.

Averse to the idea of teleporting to the Tusk, due to the likelihood of a teleportation sigil being heavily guarded, the party decides to sail toward Kameshima, and use divination spells to try to find a different entrance into the Underdark. Malkoth asks his magic 8-ball if a physical passageway into the Underdark exists, to which the answer is yes. The party departs from the northwestern shores of Mycorrhiza on Patches' yacht toward Kameshima.

As the party discusses strategy for the upcoming mission, Patches - at Odell's request - casts a *legend lore* spell on the Earthstar. He sees visions of the Earthstar corrupting large portions of the Star Road, and of Heartsong accepting the task of remedying this problem, in a conversation with his astral spirit brethren. Next, he sees visions of Kamm and Benny Barracuda meeting with the deep myconid in the Underdark, and parlaying with their leader, Shroob. They offer to help the deep myconid resurrect the Earthstar and bring Araumycos back into the world, with the deep myconid's cooperation, to which Shroob and the rest agree.

Next, Patches sees visions of Benny Barracuda working with the deep myconid to use druidic magic to create a vast network of mycelia all across Kameshima, which feeds the Earthstar power when creatures shed blood on Kameshiman soil - even in the Underdark beneath Kameshima. He sees visions of Kamm plotting to provoke the Alviren Empire into war once the time is right, and in doing so to shed tremendous blood on Kameshiman soil and revive the Earthstar.

Next, Patches sees visions of Kamm bringing the abyssal tuning fork from the Luxturrim Obelisk into the Underdark, and explaining that it will be used, in conjunction with the Earthstar's connection to other worlds, to circumvent the Divine Gate and allow Araumycos to return to Materi.

Finally, Patches sees Kamm bring a magical painting of Daimao's Castle into the Underdark, and explaining that the painting from Powderbowl has been repurposed to connect Daimao's Castle to the Underdark. With this being the case, Kamm explains that all physical passages through the Underdark to the Earthstar are liabilities, and spends months demolishing and collapsing massive areas of the Underdark around the Earthstar using high tech siege equipment and kobold mining crews, in order to prevent any physical travel to the Earthstar from outside.

With this new information in hand, the party discusses how to proceed, now knowing that the physical passageways to the Earthstar have been sealed. They eventually decide to try to infiltrate Daimao's Castle and steal the magical painting that connects to the Underdark.

With this new plan in mind, the party sails Patches's yacht off of Kameshima's northeastern shore. Louche uses a *control weather* spell to conceal the party's approach in a roiling storm, and the party also uses a *seeming* spell to disguise themselves as Kameshimans.

Approaching near Daimao's Castle under cover of their storm, the party scopes out the castle exterior. They find the castle heavily guarded from the outside, with hundreds of soldiers as well as a number of constructs similar to the ones that party has found amongst other Kameshiman forces. Using an *arcane gate* spell cast by Malkoth, the party teleports into a window midway up one of the castle watch towers.

Heading down the spiral staircase in which they arrive, the party finds the apparent entrance into the Material Chaos mines. At this entrance, they find a lift where mine carts can be lifted up to a chamber above, where they can faintly hear the sound of metallic tinking. Somewhat surprisingly, they find the mine entrance vacant, with no one around.

Making their way back up to the ground floor of the castle, the party hears motion on the other side of an entry door at the base of the watch tower. They quickly burst through the door and ambush a few guards that are posted in the antechamber within, dispatching them before they can alert reinforcements.

Briefly exploring the antechamber, they find several halls and doorways. The castle seems somewhat strangely vacant, with only a few guards posted.

Exploring, the party finds the castle' treasury, though they inadvertently trigger a thundering *glyph of warding* on the door. A few guards come to investigate the sound, but XVIII successfully place a magical charm on them, convincing them to report having found nothing awry to their allies.

Within the treasury, the party finds a massive amount of treasure, including currency, rare treasures, and magic items. Malkoth opens his *demivault door*, and the party quickly moves all of the treasure into the demiplane.

Moving on from the treasury, the party find a room with a lift that can be activated to travel downward. Falgron notes signs of a single kobold using this lift often, but few others using it.

The party activates the lift, which lowers them down into a large chamber filled with high tech arcanomechanical equipment, where they discover The Architect working at an advanced arcanotech work station, guarded by a group of construct soldiers. The Architect orders the constructs to attack, and battle commences.