Trantor and the Sage

"Trantor and the Sage" is the 84th session of the Legend of the Leaves campaign.

It took place in the Mystilon Promises questline of Arc 5: Dead Souls Rising.

## Synopsis

The Leaves arrive at the Grand Cemetery in Mystilon and reunite with old friends to fight with new enemies.

# Story Development

## Part 1

Luvian tells the Leaves about what happened to him after he died by Gambino's hand in Helm's Hold:

* He spent an "eternity" in Mechanus to see what will be decided for him.
* He ended up in Mount Celestia and became a celestial.
* For the past 70 years, he has been doing missions for the lawful good gods.
* He was after Yeenoghu for several years.
* He explains that the gods don't care about the material plane.

After explaining to the party that he also stopped caring about the material plane, he admits that he still cares about Lena Safeguard and Janus Safeguard. After recapping how he saved them from Zhentil Keep and brought them to Xanathar the Beholder, he asks the Leaves to bring Lena to Janus, so she can bring him to his senses.

While talking about the subject, Luvian tells them the following additional information:

* The Kai dynasty, a clan from Kara-Tur that dethroned Raijin's Shou Ho dynasty, was responsible for trafficking children to Zenthil Keep to be used as lab-rats for creating Delirium.
* When the Shou Ho dynasty put an end to it, the Kai dynasty organized a *coup d'etat* and became the new rulers of Tabot.
* Yeenoghu was the demon lord who gave the Kai dynasty the means for defeating the Shou Ho dynasty.

Luvian leaves and the party continues their journey to the Grand Cemetery.

On their way, Lorilon spots two wood-elf children hiding in one of the houses by the road. As he and Bambara enter the house to tell the children not to worry, the children's guardian Milovan steps up. He first tries to sell the children to them, but then brushes it off as a joke. He is not very convincing and is satisfied by the party giving him rations to not sell the children. Furthermore, he thanks them and asks them to retrieve his guitar that he lost.

## Part 2

Arriving at the cemetery, the Leaves encounter a lot of undead roaming among the graves.

As they investigate the buildings near the cemetery chapel, they discover cemetery caretaker Gideon's log-book. As Lorilon reads the pages, he realizes that Gideon recorded the rise of demons, and praising the ones that were coming from the basement of the chapel. When Bambara analyzes the handwriting, he is certain that whoever wrote it, wrote in ciphers and has lost his mind.

Entering the chapel, the Leaves are greeted by four skeletal minotaurs who ask them if they are here to pray or to fight. A familiar voice answer "to pray". As the party turns around, they see Naeric stepping from an adjacent room.

Naeric informs the party that he teamed up with a goliath named Trantor in retrieving The Hand of Vecna from Avernus. The mission was bestowed upon Trantor by Odd, a female high-elf from Silverymoon. They arrived in Avernus and were looking for clues in Mystilon, where they came across Lulu and her refugees. Trantor promised Lulu to take care of the danger coming from the Grand Cemetery, and that's what they were doing for the past month.

Naeric then takes them to the basement, where a strange necrotic energy from a stone sarcophagus twists the parties minds for a bit. Naeric apologizes for not warning them about it.

They arrive in a room where a portal to the Abyss spawns demons. Next to the portal is Trantor, who kills them at the moment of spawning. The party learns that they have been doing this for the past 30 days or so, not being able to find a permanent solution.

As the party discusses what to do next, Bambara gets into an altercation with Trantor, which results in Trantor grabbing Bambara and throwing him into the portal. In the last moment, Malcer becomes large and slams Trantor and Bamabara against the wall, cooling the tensions for a bit.

The Party decides to investigate around the chapel to find traces of Gideon, who might know more about the portal. As Lorilon and Bambara share their insights into the book they found, Naeric explains to them that he read it as well. Combining their information, Naeric realizes that the portal to the Abyss was opened deliberately long before the descent of Mystilon into Avernus.

## Part 3

The party returns to the basement and investigates the sarcophagus that emits the energy. After Bambara deciphers the provenance of the material the sarcophagus was built with, Lorilon suddenly has a vision in which he sees his parents and other citizens of Mystilon performing a ritual in which they sealed away something in the tomb.

They decide to open it, releasing the demon lord Baphomet from it. As they fight the demon and his gravity defying spells, Baphomet manages to banish Lorilon into a nightmarish demiplane. The manifestation of that demiplane in Lorilon's mind is Nidfor.

Bambara manages to land a devastating instance of his ice storm spell and puts the other party members once more in danger. However, he manages to freeze Baphomet, who with his last words thanks them for granting him the possibility to be reborn in the Abyss.

Just before Lorilon is sent back from the demiplane, he sees Lakrima's house and realizes that they never visited it in the material plane, and just investigated its shadowfell counterpart.

Trantor arrives with the news that the portal suddenly closed up. As he is thanking the Leaves, he has a short back and forth with Bambara and the situation from before. As they speak, Trantor realizes that he knows Bambara's parents and shows him a small glass trinket he carries around his neck. It is a glass mosaic of him carrying his daughter. He tells Bambara that thanks to his mother Pulsa Greystone he has the only tangible memory of his late loved one.

Naeric and Trantor say goodbye to the Leaves and make their way back to Avernus searching for the artifact. As the Leaves argue what to do next, Malcer casts his word of recall spell and teleports them back to the sanctuary underneath Corellon Citadel.

They are greeted by a happy Lulu, who informs them how she, as soon as she sensed that the threat from the cemetery was gone, accompanied the refugees back to the safe eastern part of the city.

Lulu tells them that she remembered the two Kenkus that drowned her in the river Styx and is ready to lead the party there. As they get ready, Lulu approaches Lorilon and gives him Vendova's trinket and a message from her, sharing with him that they picked the wrong brother for her to marry.

# Featured Characters

## Leaves

* Lorilon Duskwalker
* Darius Lonewalker
* Malcer Lynk Hornraven
* Raijin Shou Ho
* Bambara Grimmgrin
* Naeric

## New

* Baphomet
* Milovan

## Returning

* Luvian Mahkeep
* Trantor
* Lulu

## Mentioned

* Gambino Marino
* Lakrima
* Xanathar the Beholder
* Lena Safeguard
* Janus Safeguard
* Gideon
* Yeenoghu
* Odd
* Pulsa Greystone