1.9: Eating Eggs in the Dark

An adventure with everything! Political and magical intrigue! Murder! Devilish deals! Romance! International Travel! Puzzles! Revelations! Long lost reunions! We got it all in Chapter 1.9!

### The Party Escapes the Party

With Travize still unconscious from his near fatal event, the protagonists head up the stairs to escape the horrors of the dungeon and secure the door behind them. The adventurers make their way to the party where most of the guests seem to be released of mind control. The king of the party told the guests to get out of his house and get out they did. Our heroes then told their tale and explained what was controlling everyone and then a fact finding mission was under way to prove this with Salachi and Timmeron leading the way. The king and Elf dudes were led to the door that had previously been secured which was broken down and the party led them to see the magic setup the Archmage had got going on, the ruins of the fight and the mind control runes. The king of elfs and parties doubted the palace to be habitable with all this magic noise in his basement. The king then ordered his two most stalwart guards to lead Tim and Sal out of the dungeon.

### Success at Breakneck Speed

While the tour of the thing they just did was under way, Perlapae took Travize to the tavern to help him recuperate while the rest traveled to Lynn via portal. They made their way to the Earl's house where they hope to find the orb with information on their loved ones and by way of secret tunnel, Caireann, Sajaina, Grukk and Baygrith open a bookshelf-door into the library. Sajaina leads the way as they sneak into the auditorium where they orb should be. After experimenting with several orbs, and fabricating scenes from his own imagination, Baygrith realized the machine was capable of creating false images, putting the Earl's promise of information as a fraud. Upset but not wanting to be caught by the Earl's staff, the party makes its way to the second floor of the manse. Sajaina sneaks into a door and closes it behind her when Countess of Linn gets the drop on her and stabs her in the back. The other three bust into the room and restrain her with bedsheets and gag her as she shrilly accuses them of having murdered her husband.

To say the least, chaos ensues from this point on for our heroes. Baygrith worked upon dismantling a viewing device the Earl had been using to apparently spy upon the palace dungeon while Caireann learns that some orbs do have a legit live feed to different places. Not long after these breakthroughs, guards burst into the room and demand the Lady's release. The group defenestrates itself with varied success. Baygrith and Sajaina rocket boot to safety, Caireann misses the window hitting the wall instead and becomes a hostage of the guards and Grukk holding the Lady makes a rough landing wherein the lady lands on her head killing her by way of broken neck. The guards meet the team outside the window holding Caireann and the party has the Elf Lady as hostage in Grukk's threatening pose while propping her up as though she were alive. Baygrith tried to impersonate her voice by way of Etheric Emitter Torch but his own voice comes out instead. The jig being up, a fight begins to break out. Sajaina dashes at Caireann and is able to teleport out thanks to the magic bracelet and Baygrith and Grukk follow close behind with rocket boots launching them over the gate as they make their way out of Lynn.

### "So...how did your night go?"

All party members meet at the tavern where the stories of their night are relayed to one another. Thinking that they would need to relocate for safety fearing reprisal from the Earl's supporters, the group makes its way under the docks for lodging. As they travel, Travize finally wakes up in pain and inquisitive drama regarding who probably met Steve and isn't allowed to talk about it follows. As a result, it seems to be implied to all involved that Travize's abilities to naturally commune with the Collective have been reduced. Once they arrive at the under-docks tavern, a game plan for who should talk to the king about the situation is drawn up and Travize uses the Etheric Emitter Torch to contact his fellow Amalgamans who promise to do their best to better his situation and help him speak to them again. The Amalgama call finished, Sajaina leads Baygrith to **Captain Veller's** airship where Sajaina gifts Baygrith **Derek's** hand cannon schematics he saw earlier at the tavern, and Veller gives him an upgrade to the Etheric Emitter Torch that will allow him to contact Veller's airship directly. Sajaina and Veller have a moment to themselves to say goodbye. Meanwhile Caireann leaves the tavern to go to Karreck's place where he shows her how to change her appearance. Caireann spends the night at his place.

In the middle of the night, Perlapae has a messed Heliod dream and that guy from the outcast's camp with the hoods and the tattoos showed up. Perlapae was in Adelon's body and heard Viiti play a song before she wakes up outside her tavern room. It is here that Perlapae rises up into the air, no longer simply floating but more like flying and out of control. She knocks on a tavern door and a goblin called Pronk opens it. Virtuously trying to bring her back to the ground, he tries to pull Perlapae down but effectively can only pull himself up. It wasn't until everyone basically came over to help her regain normal altitude that she got the hang of floating and Perlapae was delighted to have her power back.

### Fancy meeting you here

The next morning, through divination, Salachi is able to determine that **Zanza** and **Ithal** are captives of the **Tezzick**; a primitive and violent race. Sal also finds Elizabel was imprisoned and sick while Baygrith's parents are hidden from divination at the moment but are most likely together. **Abe and Alita Fernheart**! The group then splits up with Sal, Tim and Baygrith returning to the palace while Caireann and Travize go to the Elven rebels and explain to them that there is hope for their cause now that the spider is now dead.

At the palace, the team meets with the Elven High Priest who explans that in order to prevent panic and protect Dyffryn Caidrian interests, the party must be silent on the recent matter that went on in the palace. As a show of gratitude, the high priest gives us the word that he will see what he can do to address the charges Mura'kesz has against Sajaina and our group in exchange for the wand of Ka'door since that wand holds evidence of the king killing his brother. Just when everything seems to be going well, **Murag** shows up in the palace and is introduced as a trusted adviser in the committee dedicated to combating the Dragon Wings. He reveals that Elizabel is underground in Crag being prepared for what is likely to be a feast ceremony. The members present privately counsel the High Priest saying not to trust Murag but he seems to have been giving them enough information for him to be trusted by the nations actively fighting the organized sky pirates.

Meanwhile, Sajaina investigates and learns the horrors of the Tezzick from various peoples. Oh yeah, then all the magic loot got divy'd up. Grukk got Grasshopper Boots, Sajaina got "healing" fire poison and Bracers of teleportation, Baygrith got Cloak of antimagic, Sal got the Necklace of Spell Storage and Caireann got the invisi-necklace. The money that was looted was all split up.

### The Butthills of Crag

After stocking up on supplies during their last hour in Dyffryn Caidris, the protagonists were joined by Derek who sought "the good sort" of employment with riches with the party as a part of the deal with the hand-cannon arrangement. The team plus Derek then headed to the portal area of DC where they traveled to Great Trench and then to Crag (Crag only having portals to Great Trench adds to GT's reputation as a international hub) where once they arrive, they are greeted and given an overlay of Ulag's Code by a guard. The guard recognizes Grukk as a general but Grukk calls it a case of mistaken identity.

From there the party hikes through Crag's city taking in the sights along the way. Leaving the city of Crag, they hike through the Butthills before finding a cave entrance. After entering it, several traps were triggered! Rocks fell but no one died! Several charred remains of Tezzick were littered around the cave. Through divination, Sal determined that Zanza and Ithor were still tied up but in danger nearby. The group then came across and ruined lounge that the Tezzick had desecrated before coming across a room filled with statues of various elementals including Stone, Fire, and Storm forms before running into some real elementals. Travize is able to speak to the Stone Elementals and they inform him of a chamber where Zanza and Ithal are held. The Stone Elementals break down a lot of stuff along the way to the chamber and various animal bones litter the floor. Then an Elemental fight happens! Sal and Travize examine sphere and find out where everyone is located while turning the lights on and off while the rest of the party is taking a beating from the storm and fire elementals.

Then just when nobody expected it, puzzles surrounded them! Escaping the fight, the party meets up in a dank dark chamber where they find out in order to leave, they must eat an egg which gives them a value in their mind. However, they learn that in this space, all of them are deaf. They realize they must order themselves by the exit in the appropriate order without seeing or talking to each other. Against all odds, our heroes more or less pull it off.

It was here that the team met a giant restrained supreme elemental being combined of all the forms of elements they had seen the cave and he had Zanza and Ithal tied up near him. While Perlapae and Sajaina flew up to rescue Zanza and Ithal respectively, Travize spoke on behalf of the "flesh ones" to free the multi-elemental so that he may fight for his kind while buying time for the team to escape. With Timmeron's magic, this was done in the nick of time as the cave around the party collapsed. The group was transported to nearby cold lake where the group fell with varying degrees of success. Pulling themselves ashore, the adventurers warmed up and celebrated the freedom of their friends as they learned the fates of the captured friends and family.

The *true heroes* of this story had quite the adventure themselves which included a fair share of escaping downed airships with style and fighting off sky pirates. Micah was able to fly away on bat-like wings he apparently has while Elizabel firepacked her way out. But the joy was cut short by the knowledge that every divination Sal made, was under the watch of Murag!