The Day the World Went Away

## Up In Flames

* The Spirit of Fire attacks the Elder Tree. The artillery fire causes parts of the tree to collapse, and the party falls to a lower section of the Tree. Red Sun shows up in her metal dragon form and begins attacking us, trying to get at Nibbler. She downs Wan-Ti and Eli before Pensive Paw appears as a giant tree monster. Pensive Paw attacks Red Sun, revives Wan-Ti and Eli, and heals the party members.
* The Elder Tree continues to crumble under the strain of Arasaka's attack, and the party is separated.
	+ **Group 1** (Eli, Veg, Wan-Ti, Verinen, Ina, and Liluth) end up in an area with a young Tabaxi named Bush and some civilians. Arasaka soldiers have stormed the Elder Tree, and are fast approaching where they are hiding. The soldiers have a device that creates an anti-magic field that neutralizes any spells or magic items that they have to fight back. The fight goes badly for the party tree and the Elder Tree folks until the gnothic (from the Arasaka lab) appears and hypnotizes the Arasaka soldiers.
	+ **Group 2** (Kysona, Franz, ZhuLi, Jaque, Dr. Perry) are in another room with a lot of Elder Tree fighters and civilians. They fight off the invading Arasaka soldiers with melee weapons and a grenade, and either take down or tie up all the soldiers that were in the room. One of the soldiers turns against Arasaka and begs for mercy.
* After a period of time, Yorinobu stops firing on the tree and announces that the party has 10 minutes to hand over the Child and Dr. Perry. If they do, the Spirit of Fire will let them live; if they don’t, Red Sun will attack.
	+ **Group 1**: Pensive Paw appears and tells the group that they need to use the tree’s defenses to protect them from Arasaka. They also need to come up with a way to communicate the plan to the other group. Everyone in the group, including the civilians and Elder Tree fighters, gather around the Elder Tree while holding hands and concentrate on sending a mental picture to wherever the other members of the party are.
		- From the bark, everyone sees a tree push its way out of the bark. Figures around it are bowing and prostrating themselves before the tree. Twisting threads come out of the tree and into the people. People raise their arms and create a shield around the tree.
	+ **Group 2** have defeated the soldiers except for one who has turned against Arasaka. The turncoat is trying to the Arasaka radio working. Meanwhile, some of the NPCs are looking at a 3D map of the tree and comment that when threatened, the Elder Tree should be able to create a fold in the Gaiyu and teleport away. However, the Spirit of Fire seems to be interfering with the Gaiyu. The dark marks seemed to have drastically decreased the Tree’s ability to manipulate the Gaiyu.
		- Dr. Perry examines some of the scorch marks from the artillery fire and notices that they have traces of elementary energy. She identifies it as Archosis (aka Etherium X), an Etherium isotope. It inhibits and forcibly represses magic into a being’s body.
		- Kysona volunteers to turn himself over to Yorinobu disguised as Dr. Perry. Dr. Perry gives him a device that will stop Arasaka from detecting and eliminating his magic. The device is disguised as a monocle.
		- The turncoat soldier finally fixes the radio. They get Yorinobu on the line and communicate that they are a group of civilians, they have Dr. Perry, and are willing to turn her if Yorinobu guarantees them safe travel from the tree. Yorinobu demands that Dr. Perry prove her identity. Dr. Perry replies that she knows that the Lazarus Project is an attempt to achieve immortality for Saburo.
		- At that moment, the group sees a carved picture push its way out of the tree’s bark. It's the image that Group 1 are using to communicate their plan. Group 2 deduces that they must channel their magic and belief into the Elder Tree. Everyone gathers around to do that, and vines start growing out of the tree.

## The Power of Belief

* **Group 1** (Veg, Verinen, Eli, Liluth, Ina, the gnothic) also channel their magic and belief into the Elder Tree. Each character is pulled into the memories of another character (PC and NPC) and interacts with the memories as that character
	+ Veg experiences Bush the Tabaxi’s memories. They save one friend from a stampede of dinosaurs, but in the process another friend is injured or possibly killed. Veg/Bush feels *HEARTBROKEN* because it had been Bush’s idea to come here in the first place.
	+ Verinen experiences Wan-Ti’s memories. They return to Wan-Ti’s monastery which Wan-Ti had been kicked out of due to anti-Orc racism. Wan-Ti is back to prove to the head monk that she is worthy of being a monk there, but is rejected again. Verinen/Wan-Ti leaves the monastery feeling *STEADFAST***.**
	+ Lilith experiences Ina’s memories. They are meeting with Horace and Madame Thomson, owner of the Sirex Herald regarding the article that Ina published. They promise Horace that she will drop the BMD issue and lay low until the mess blows over. Liluth/Ina leaves feeling *HOPELESS***.**
	+ Wan-Ti experiences Liluth’s memories. They are tied up in Dr. Perry’s lab and coerced into looking into the orb of planar melding. They wish to return to Liluth’s village and are instead brought to an empty void where they find a horrified Barnabus. They are pulled back into Dr. Perry’s lab and left feeling *CAGED*.
	+ Eli experiences the gnothic’s memories. An Arasaka scientist forces the gnothic to probe into Nibbler’s mind, and they come upon a story about a gnothic befriending jungle creatures. After the gnothic escapes from the lab, he encounters a fake psychic and helps him out with his psychic business. Eli/the gnothic are left feeling *HOPEFUL***.**
* **Group 2** (Kysona, Franz, ZhuLi, Jaque, Dr. Perry) are waiting for Red Sun to come for "Dr. Perry". Red Sun arrives and grabs Kysona (disguised as Dr. Perry), Jaque, and another Kenku and brings them to the Spirit of Fire.
	+ On the ship, Kysona successfully evades their anti-magic measures and convinces a guard to let him drink his water spiked with a Detect Thoughts potion. He is brought to Yorinobu who interrogates him about why “Dr. Perry” is working with the Tyger Claws and what she knows about the Lazarus Project. Kysona communicates with Group 2 and the real Dr. Perry through Aria and passes Yorinobu’s line of questioning
	+ Yorinobu has some scientists bring out Tolbo and asks Kysona to examine it and give his opinion on whether it’s suitable for the Lazarus Project. Kysona does some A+ bullshitting and concludes that it would be a good vessel for achieving immortality. Yorinobu seems disappointed and has Red Sun cut Tolbo’s head off. Kysona is shocked and believes that Tolbo has been destroyed.

## Interlude: What's Up with Tolbo?

* Session opens with the incredible recap of events: T0180 style. Separated from his body, T0180 (affectionately called "Tolbo" by friends), is reduced to just his head and brought to Arasaka under the care of the scientists Hal and Aegnar as they attempt to explore his inner workings.
	+ Through their analysis Tolbo learns that his newfound sentience (of which he understands practically nothing, although he's excited to find out) is somehow tied to changes within his inner workings, specifically a change to the golden leaves within his head, which now flutter with unimaginable potential. Neither scientist seems to be able to understand or replicate what makes his leaves unique, not helped by the fact that Tolbo is uncooperative at best.
* During his brief periods of time online, Tolbo discovers that in addition to his sentience, he is also capable of changing portions of his programming through a new deviant protocol, which he immediately begins trashing other skills in order to develop. His progress here is hindered however, as he is repeatedly turned off and back on again, perhaps in an attempt by his captors to resolve whatever is wrong with him.
* During these flashes of time, it is revealed that Tolbo was privy to a number of details surrounding the adventures of the rest of the party while in Nymeria.
	+ He overhears a conversation between Yorinobu and Aegnar and discovers that they gave up the Child of Bombyx Mori to the party on purpose. Scriptures, discovered by Red Sun at the temple where she killed Master Qutt, suggest that the child needs to grow before it is capable of revealing the location of the Etherium Vault. In addition, the informant from the Zion Festival was apparently killed (a fact that Tolbo missed due to being distracted from flirting with another android, and forgetting to pay attention).
	+ In the last flashback before we caught up to the present, Tolbo was finally given a body by Hal, if only a poor mockery of his previous form. Hal seems pretty lonely, and even tried building a fake Tolbo as a friend, before realizing it sucked and inviting real Tolbo to come make fun of it with him.
	+ New information from this exploration did also reveal that Tolbo wasn't killed, but rather his fake substitute, probably as punishment for how boring he was.

## Negotiation

* After spending far too long following Tolbo as people asked far too many questions he didn't know how to answer, we come back to Kysona, whose half baked infiltration is falling down around him as he realizes he doesn't know anything about science -- an unfortunate weakness to have when pretending to be a scientist to a group of other scientists, especially when they're evil (and also kinda dicks).
	+ Jaque and Kysona are seconds from being executed, but Yorinobu ultimately spares them in order to use them for the upcoming confrontation with the survivors of the Elder Tree.
* **Group 2**: On the ground (or rather tree) below, Franz and Zhu Li finally get their shit together and finish the ritual that was supposed to save them all. During this time, Dr. Perry begins investigating the ship sent to escort the civilians to safety, announcing she would be capable of re programming it, directly before the entire group decides to cower in the vine ball instead, which ends up dropping to the ground.
	+ Also at this time, Franz and Zhu Li get their flashback, a brief vision of Verinen's past, as they watch his village in the Outerlands be invaded by Orcs, killing his mother as she saves both Verinen and another child. As the battle rages around them and the vision ends, Franz feels *ANGUISH*, while Zhu Li feels *REGRET*.
* **Group 1**: In another part of the tree, the other party members slowly come to. They're recovering from their visions as Pensive Paw stands before them, battling off the solders attempting to overwhelm the location. The group attempts to aid her, but she is slowly overwhelmed as one soldier after another find their way through her defenses. Before she falls, she pours the last of her power into the bubble, completing the ritual.
	+ The Nothic seemed to have some kind of last minute communication with Pensive Paw
	+ As Group 1 falls to the ground, safe within their bubble, they find themselves pulled into another vision. Here, instead of a vision of their past, they instead see a horrifying scene, as they watch a captive and mutilated Zhu Li, attack them, helpless to stop herself as death and destruction rein.
* Finding themselves back on the ground, surrounded by troops, both groups (each in their own protective sphere) watch as an ornate airship land before them. Yorinobu, in full Darth Vader Samurai gear, walks forward surrounded by his guard. Kysona, Jaque, and the Kenku civilian are bound and kneeling before him.
	+ The group does their best to negotiate, despite Yorinobu's strong hold on their position. After removing a small portion of his troops in a show of good will, he threatens to kill his prisoners if they don't turn over Dr. Perry and Nibbler (although he of course used the title "child" like the pretentious asshole he is"). Completely surrounded, exhausted, and near death, they have no option but to give in to his demands, sending Wan Ti in along with the group to protect Nibbler.
	+ Before they're taken away, Franz gives Dr. Perry his gun and Dr. Perry gives Eli pages of her notebook.
* As promised, Yorinobu releases Kysona, Jaque, and the Kenku. He returns to the Spirit of Fire with Dr. Perry, Nibbler, and Wan-ti in tow. Nibbler is very scared (understandably). Yorinobu runs the same test on Dr. Perry that he did for Kysona. Dr. Perry examines "Tolbo's" golden leave circuitry and correctly identifies that the warforged is not and was never senient, passing the test. Dr. Perry is told that her job is to make a second sentient warforged for the Lazarus Project.
	+ Dr. Perry pulls out gun Franz gave her and declares that she will not work for "him" (unknown fucker) or any Arasaka scientist. Also, she will not work with him if he hurts Wan-Ti. Yorinobu is unfazed, and agrees to her demands.
* Back on the ground, Red Sun is sent down to “negotiate” for the soldiers. Not much negotiation occurs, because the party has already lost. All the Arasaka soldiers are let go except for the turncoat, who decides to stay with the party. All the Arasaka soldiers clean up their mess and get back on the airship. The Spirit of Fire warps away, leaving a trail of devastation behind it.