Session0047

Episode 0047 - Is It Over?
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**Setting:**

Asaria - Crypt of Ramesses the Great - June 4th-5th, 211 AW
**Synopsis:**

* Having defeated XXX, before the party has much time to regroup, Valomir Quinn rushes in and tells them that something is wrong with XV.
* Hurrying to the dungeon, the party discovers XV is rapidly disintegrating to ash, seemingly due to the death of Dr. Johann Conrad Dippel.
* Despite their best efforts, the party is unable to prevent XV's death, as his body fully disintegrates. Looking into the Ethereal Plane, the party sees that XV's soul lingers nearby.
* Aware that XV's soul will be carried away to the afterlife at the following morning's Prime Zenith, the party scrambles to try to find some way to resurrect him.
* After searching through Dr. Johann Conrad Dippel notes for clues, the party uses *reincarnation dust* on XV's ashes, successfully returning him to life as a gnoll.
* The party spends the remainder of the evening recovering from the day's ordeals and exploring the laboratory and notes of Dr. Johann Conrad Dippel.
* After some discussion, XVIII teleports back to Dr. Johann Conrad Dippel's former keep, along with all of their siblings, to drop them off to start a new life with Valomir Quinn.
* The following morning, XVIII bids farewell to their family, and teleports to return to the party.
* Patches uses one of his magical matches, and receives access to a *wish* spell, which he uses to summon a luxurious otherworldly airship.
* Departing from the crypt, the party flies on their new airship to go investigate the ruined chapel of Nerull that they spotted the day before. Along the way, they discuss future travel plans, including the possibility of returning to Volus to try to sabotage its flying mechanism before the city is populated.
* At the ruined chapel of Nerull, the party battles and defeats celestial protectors watching over the place, and begins searching the ruins for information and valuables.

## June 4th

Having defeated XXX, the party begins searching through the crypt for valuables, finding a few weapons and magic items, and a chest of platinum. Afterwards, the party rejoins upstairs with XVIII, who is accompanied by Dr. Johann Conrad Dippel, now having been killed and raised as an undead zombie thrall.

As the party starts to regroup, Valomir Quinn - who had been with the other siblings in the keep's dungeon - rushes in and asks the party what has happened, noticing the now-undead Dr. Johann Conrad Dippel. XVIII is too shaken up to respond, but Malkoth explains what happened with XXX. Valomir tells the party that something is wrong with XV, and urges them to accompany him, and the party rushes to follow him to the dungeon.

Arriving in the dungeon, the party finds XV slumped over against a wall, and clearly in great discomfort. Examining him, XVIII discovers that his body is rapidly disintegrating into ash. With a *detect magic* spell, Malkoth discerns that the necromancy magic is fading from XV. XVIII asks XV what is happening, but XV does not seem to know. Valomir Quinn seems to have a realization of some kind, but does not say anything for the moment. Using his magical 8-ball, Malkoth deduces that there is nothing that the party can do to prevent what's happening to XV.

XV apologizes to XVIII for everything that has happened, especially for putting them into the body pit in the wastes after their death. XV seems to express a greater sense of individuality and free will, having been freed from Dr. Johann Conrad Dippel's influence by his death. As XVIII and XV share an emotional farewell, the party attempts healing and magic to stop his disintegration, but none of their attempts succeed, and after a few minutes, XV's body fully disintegrates into ash.

After XV's death, Malkoth uses his *etherean torch* to reveal the Ethereal Plane, and sees that XV's soul lingers nearby. The party discusses what will happen to him, acknowledging that at the following morning's Prime Zenith, agents of the Raven Queen and her psychopomp Charon will come to take his soul to the afterlife on the River Styx.

Valomir Quinn explains that XV died due to the fact that he was a revenant - an undead creature that, by its nature, only exists to fulfill a certain purpose, and dies once that purpose is completed. With Dr. Johann Conrad Dippel dead, XV's purpose was effectively concluded, resulting in his death.

The party attempts to comfort the other siblings, particularly XIII, who seems especially shaken by what has happened. XIII explains that he freed Dr. Johann Conrad Dippel from his cell, and was told to remain here and wait, which he did. The siblings ask XVIII what has happened to Dr. Dippel. XVIII, still in shock from what's occurred, does not respond. Malkoth bends the truth slightly, explaining that Dr. Dippel was killed by XXX, and XVIII turned him into an undead thrall in an attempt to save him. Everyone seems to believe him.

Louche heads up to the dining hall to prepare a celebration of XV's life before he has to depart to the afterlife. Meanwhile, Odell, Malkoth, and Frog go to Dr. Johann Conrad Dippel's laboratory to start reading through his notes and books, in hopes of finding some way to resurrect XV before it's too late, and also to research some other topics in his writings. While exploring the laboratory, they recover a few magic items and potions, as well as Dr. Dippel's spellbook. They then begin reading through Dr. Dippel's notes and books.

Looking through Dr. Johann Conrad Dippel's notes regarding his experiments, the party learns that Dippel's intent from the very beginning was to create a living phylactery to achieve lichdom, with the eventual intent of completing his potion of life to immunize mortalkind against death. Over the decades, his attempts to create a living phylactery had repeatedly ended in failure, as the various undead that Dr. Dippel created were for some reason incompatible with becoming phylacteries. Later, Dr. Dippel learned of Tamrius Grimm, and his similar experiments in creating an undead phylactery, which led to Dr. Dippel's eventual exploration of Grimm Manor, and attempts to recover Grimm.

Notably, Dr. Dippel's writing insinuate that his test subjects - the children - are still carriers of the Pale Death, and that the necromancy magic that he used to cure it simply suppresses it.

Based on these findings, and other information that they've gathered, the party speculates that they could successfully resurrect XV using the *reincarnation dust* that they retrieved from Grimm Manor. Using his magical 8-ball, Malkoth confirms that this will work. They tell XVIII about this possibility, and XVIII agrees that they should try it.

Using the *reincarnation dust*, Patches successfully resurrects XV, who returns to life in a new body as a gnoll.

With XV returned to life, the group spends some time recuperating from the day's ordeals in the dining hall, while a few members of the party continue reading through Dr. Johann Conrad Dippel's writings and books. The party notes that the other children, XVIII's siblings, seem to be very troubled and acting strangely, seemingly deeply affected by Dr. Dippel's death. XXIX explains telepathically to XVIII and Malkoth, when asked, that Dr. Dippel's death likely released whatever magical influence he held over their minds, not unlike the process that XVIII went through upon drinking the vampire blood given to him by Valomir Quinn. Nonetheless, the party suspects that this will remain a difficult transition for the children. Valomir begins consoling them and talking them through what has happened, in hopes of helping them to process the situation.

Meanwhile, exploring the laboratory and writings, Malkoth finds some notes written by Dr. Johann Conrad Dippel regarding his opinions of the Weavers Conclave. The writings detail Dr. Dippel's belief that the Conclave is intentionally suppressing spellcasting by charging great amounts of money for spellcasting licensing. He speculates that their motivation is to deliberately prevent spellcasting from being available to the masses, which would theoretically result in an increase in the prevalence of other magical phenomena, such as elemental and magical disturbances, the rapid magical mutation of monsters, etc. An increase in such occurrences would effectively justify the Conclave's existence, make them more necessary for the sake of maintaining peace and order, and increase their power and influence. As evidence of these claims, Dr. Dippel cites the Pale Death, and the slowing of Ley Phases and Zeniths over the past several decades coinciding with an uptick in magical phenomena and dangers.

Odell searches for writings regarding Nerull and the Raven Queen, but finds little of interest on these subjects in Dr. Johann Conrad Dippel's writings.

Back in the dining hall, XVIII, Valomir Quinn, XV, and the other children discuss their plans in the wake of what's happened. Eventually, they decide that they should all return to Dr. Dippel's former keep - now the home of Valomir and Berty - to begin a new life together. XVIII agrees to go with them, providing the teleportation with Malkoth's *voyager staff*, and then return to the party in the morning after the Prime Zenith.

Before the siblings depart, XIII asks to see Dr. Johann Conrad Dippel and say goodbye. The party cleans Dr. Dippel up and makes him more presentable, and the siblings bid farewell to him, though he is braindead and little more than a moving corpse. Afterwards, XVIII teleports the siblings to Dr. Dippel's old keep, where they settle in for a night of rest.

Meanwhile, the rest of the party discusses there travel plans for the coming days, making arrangements to head towards Powderbowl and the Tremella Circle in Nimbia to progress Frog's quest regarding the Fable of the Thousand Year Door. They also discuss the possibility of diverting to Volus to try to sneak into the Lightspire and destroy the mechanism that grants it flight, in hopes of destroying the city before it is populated with civilians. Malkoth proposes entering the Lightspire via the Ethereal Plane. Odell speculates that given the amount of time that has passed, the city could have already moved elsewhere.

Before bed, Patches shapeshifts, turning into a half-elf.

Late at night, as everyone is sleeping, Patches awakens from a bad dream and decides to light one of *Patches' Matches*. When he does, a birthday cake appears, and he learns that by blowing out the candle in the next 24 hours, he can make a wish (as in the *wish* spell).

## June 5th

In the morning, at Dr. Dippel's former keep, XVIII asks Valomir Quinn what to do, expressing their regrets for the way things have happened, and bemoaning that their actions always lead to unintended negative consequences, regardless of how hard they tries to do the right thing. The two discuss the nature of good and evil, and eventually agree that XVIII should return to the party, though Valomir admits that he wishes XVIII could stay.

Shortly after, XV joins the conversation. XVIII apologizes for what happened to XV, but XV assures them that there's nothing to apologize for, and thanks them for freeing him and the other siblings from Dr. Johann Conrad Dippel's control.

After bidding farewell to the family and assuring them that they will return, XVIII teleports back to the party.

Meanwhile, back at the crypt, Patches shapeshifts again in the morning, becoming a tabaxi (notably, the same tabaxi that he appeared to be when he was observed with *truesight*). During this transformation, he has vivid dreams of memories from his former life, wherein his soul was transferred out of its tabaxi body and into an automaton by Folenor Joris.

Reconvening with the rest of the party, Patches shows them his birthday cake, and explains that it will grant him a wish. After some discussion about what to wish for, Patches wishes for a luxurious airship. An extremely futuristic, solar-powered luxury flying yacht appears outside, and Patches immediately learns how to operate it.

Making preparations to depart the crypt, the party discusses what to do with Dr. Johann Conrad Dippel. XVIII decides to bring him along, storing him within his *bag of holding*.

Boarding Patches' yacht, the party departs from the crypt and proceeds toward the ruined chapel of Nerull that they spotted the day before, as a few members of the party wish to investigate the ruins. Arriving about an hour later, the party scouts from a distance, but doesn't see any sign of danger or activity. They approach the ruins, Gragnok leading the way. As he nears, Gragnok uses his *divine sense*, and detects that there are several celestial presences near the ruins, and that the grounds are hallowed. Using a noise-making device given to him by Odell, he creates a distraction nearby, and a pair of celestial beings appears from invisibility and attack the distraction. With the diversion created, the party attacks the celestials.

As the battle commences, a few more celestials appear outside the ruins, and they express particular hostility toward Gragnok as an agent of the Raven Queen. The party battles and defeats them.

Afterwards, the party searches through the ruins of the chapel. They discover the remains of an ancient skirmish between followers of Nerull and followers of the Raven Queen, as well as a hidden ritual sacrifice chamber. Amongst the ruins, they find that a stained glass window depicting the holy symbol of Nerull is seemingly gradually shifting into the holy symbol of the Raven Queen.