Session 96

* Bilehall
* Small Hamlet near Bilehall

**Previously...**

## And Now...

### An Unexpected Shopping Trip?

Having his spirit forcing hauled from his material form into a frigid black void, Leshrac is puzzled to awaken within the narrow allies of a busy urban market. The location feels vaguely familiar and he recognizes a stall-holder as an old contact of his who supplied him with difficult-to-procure and dangerous-to-own items. He walks over and completes a transaction with the stall-holder, but as he does so, a profound and unnatural feeling of deja vu settles in.

He begins to realize that wherever he really is is not what it seems and begins searching for an exit.

### Look, but Don't Touch!

Back in the Mistlands, our heroes are standing around Leshrac's inert form and trying to figure out what the hell just happened. Azrah casts a healing spell on him which, while able to cure a number of minor scrapes and bruises sustained by being flung across the room, has no effect on restoring him to consciousness. Everyone else is completely confused, and more than a little panicked, with Gar out of his depth, Dandy not really terribly good with magic stuff, and Kakeru still in crow form.

Azrah examines his eye, trying not to touch it, but accidentally brushes it and immediately drops like a marionette with its strings severed as her spirit is similarly sucked out of her body. Chaos ensues.

### The Circular Market.

Back wherever Leshrac, and now Azrah, are, Azrah apprises Leshrac of what's happened with his body. He's had some time to explore the environment and, despite the seemingly endless criss-cross of branching alleyways stretching off around them, they would appear to be trapped in a small stretch of street. There are a number of roads they can walk down, but each one seems to somehow imperceptibly loop around, leaving them back at or near the same intersection of narrow alleyways. In addition, while each stall is stocked with appropriate goods, and has an appropriate stallholder, none of them seem capable of more than mundane, rudimentary interactions.

The unfamiliar sound of clanking armour begins to be heard over the ambient market sounds and, looking down one street, Leshrac and Azrah can see a group of armoured guards moving down the street. Occasionally, they stop and interrogate a stallholder and cast an eye over their product before moving on. They definitely seem to be looking for something and, as they draw closer to the original stallholder that Leshrac interacted with when he first arrived, they would appear to have found it.

### Methodologies and Messages.

Even more alarmed, and lacking their two majorly magic-focused allies, Dandy and Gar seek alternate ways to figure out what's happening to their friends. Gar considers asking Chance for advice because he has some insight into being a disembodied spirit forcibly removed from his physical form. Meanwhile, Dandy consults The Tome of Secrets. The tome informs Dandy that Leshrac conjures visions of the future by creating a Mind Palace within which future events can play out and be safely observed. Unfortunately, in doing so, he has to briefly leave his mind vulnerable and, at that moment, Waiqir was able to exert his malign influence to transform the palace into a spiritual trap.

Chance confirms this. He adds that, even without the ability to animate their physical form, spirits within the palace should still have a connection to the physical world. Gar and Chance begin discussing the artefact that Gorbmaw took from The Beholder and whether that could be used to communicate with Leshrac and Azrah. Meanwhile, Dandy grabs a stick and starts poking and tapping Leshrac very rapidly on the back of the hand. This is gnomish tunnel-speech, a language similar to Morse code used by various underground-dwelling races to communicate over long distances.

### Oh, For A Muse of Fire!

Within the mindscape, Leshrac received Dandy's message despite several attempts by the Lord of the Mistlands to disrupt the communication. Leshrac latches onto the link between him and Dandy and, drawing on his power and Azrah's attempts to invoke Dandy's Kellosian Elemental Aspect.

As this is occurring, Gar sees Leshrac and Azrah's eyes glow fiercely. Looking closely at the matching gemstones, he can see an image of Dandy within, all wreathed in flame. He asks Dandy if she feels weird at all. Dandy grins and cheerfully replies, "Pretty much, most of the time!"

Sensing what Leshrac and Azrah are attempting, Gar inscribes a symbol and builds a ritual flame within it. Looking for a way to help, Dandy takes out a Kellosian penance token, winds a lock of her hair around it and throws it into the fire. As the fire grows, Gar and Dandy begin to see shapes forming in its depths... eventually seeing Azrah and Leshrac, and vice versa. Gar grabs a length of rope to tie around Dandy's waist as a safety line and muses that it'd probably work better if the rope was made of Dandy's hair.

Thinking quickly, Dandy rummages around, pulling out a magical comb Goldie bought for her as a present back in Greyhaven. She uses it to create a long plait and, slashing it loose, hands it to Gar. She climbs up onto a stool and braces herself, ready to jump into the fiery portal but Gar, impatient, gives her a friendly (?) kick along.

### Plans and Pyrotechnics.

Within the mind-realm, Dandy appears in her divine, flaming form. At this point, Leshrac asks for the three remaining artefacts of the Seraphic Regalia to be gathered and placed around his body. With Gar anchoring Dandy, it falls on Kakeru to do this. They do a creditable job given their size and lack of hands and it's eventually done. Leshrac conjures up a doorway, though which the companions escape the market and arrive in the ballroom of the Steward of Archaut, where Dandy first manifested her Kellosian Presence. As they enter through the doorway, the market makes a final, heaving shudder and collapses behind them.

Within the ballroom, the battle is still in progress. The form of Tovric turns and stares balefully up at the newcomers, his eyes glowing with a strange, icy flame. In a voice not his own, he hisses, "You may have escaped one trap, but you've only managed to place yourself in a new one." The strain of holding back Waiqir's power is obvious on Leshrac's face. We are in his realm, now, and it's all Leshrac and Azrah's combined powers can do to hold him in check even momentarily.

Seeing this, and hoping to give Leshrac more time to put his plan into action, Dandy moves the fight forward, merging with herself and channeling Kellosian Flame into the bodies of Preceptor Tusid and her Kellosian Paladins, using their powers to shore up the reality of the realm against Waiqir's power. Even then, she can see the power faltering and flickering against the tremendous power of the Lord of the Mistlands.

Trying to shore up the realm for a few more precious moments, Leshrac draws the Seraphic Regalia into the flame and uses them as the pillars of a magic circle, but even that is not enough, as the walls of the Ballroom crumble, shatter and fall. Cursing, Leshrac calls for a retreat. He staggers over towards Dandy, aided by Azrah. Dandy calls desperately for Gar who, straining against the tremendous force of the realm's collapse, begins to haul all three out through the flame portal.

With a final, desperate burst of strength, Gar hauls on the rope as the flame collapses into cold ashes and all lights in the room suddenly extinguish.

After a moment, a lantern is lit and everyone look around. Dandy, Gar and Azrah lie sprawled across the floor. Kakeru sits perched atop the lantern. There is no sign of Leshrac. Dandy and Gar suspect the worst, but Azrah calms them. She felt a force seize hold of him as they escaped, hauling him sideways, "He's not here, she explains, but he's not *there* either. He's somewhere else," she shivers momentarily, "somewhere... cold."

"Ah," muses Dandy, "I expect that'll be Nordross, then. Probably wants to have a word about that whole scythe thingie." It's at this point that Gar realizes that, while the Plate of Communion and Tome of Secrets has been returned safely, the Censer of Circulation is missing. It would appear to have vanished along with the mind realm.

### Meanwhile: Somewhere Cold.

Leshrac awakens, just as Dandy suspected, within Nordross' icy realm. Assuming his harpy eagle form, he flies up to a tower in which a vast number of owls are busily working, attending to an equally vast number of scrolls drawn forth from banks of pigeon-holes. At times, an owl will take a scroll and fly off with them to deliver them who-knows-where, or relocate them to a different pigeon-hole. They all seem tremendously busy except for one who appears to be overseeing the operation, occasionally swooping in to offer some correction, but for the most part, merely observing.

The Observer wings his way over to Leshrac and informs him that The Master is awaiting him and that he is (he sighs) obliged to offer assistance should it be needed. "Should it," he asks gazing at Leshrac quizzically, "be required?"

Leshrac replies that assistance is unnecessary, but that he'd appreciate directions. The owl nods and points him in the correct direction. "Thank you," replies Leshrac, "I'll see you later."

"I expect so", responds the owl, "Everyone does."

Leshrac enters Nordross' presence. Without turning, The Lord of Death remarks that he can feel his time drawing to its close. He will, he explains, require a replacement and feels that Leshrac is uniquely qualified. He presents Leshrac with a pristine owl feather. "When you need me," he says, "use this once." In return for this gift, Leshrac presents Nordross with the remains of The Beholder. Nordross gives it a long look and smiles grimly. "This one was not on my list, however, I *do* know whose list he *was* on, and it is a good gift."

### Meanwhile the Second: Somewhere Else.

Waiqir stands up from his throne, his eyes burning with a cold rage. He moves purposefully though corridors, up stairwells and through anterooms until he reaches he pauses before a heavily-secured door. Beyond the door, he knows, is one of his many magical laboratories... one he has not had cause to visit in centuries.Before the door, an ancient, eyeless orc woman sits slumped at a writing desk. At Waiqir's entrance, she had grabbed a long, feathered quill in one claw-like hand. The hand hovers expectantly over a dusty page. For a moment, she coughs and splutters, clearing a moist wad of phelgm from her throat and spitting it into a nearby jar.

"You require something," she states. It is not a question.

Waiqir's voice is little more than a whisper, but it carries effortlessly across the room. "Release it," he says.

She makes a series of scratches on her page before raising her head again. "Where?" she asks, "Which village?"

"All of it."

The clawed hand spasms momentarily. The orc woman tilts her head as though she had misheard. Her voice, when she is able to regain it, is tremulous, hesitant, "But that will leave... no survivors...?"

"All. Of. It."