2.9 The Ones Who Walk Away From Mura'Kesz

Oh, Kebrio, how many of you does it
take to screw in a lightbulb? Three apparently. One to actually be
Grukk in disguise. One to be the real Kebrio. Oh, and one to be the
Maharaja's brother in disguise who is attending the Council of
Nations in Kebrio's place. Odd enough that our party should stumble
upon the house of Kebrio's mistress, but to find him there? Ah,
serendipity itself.

 For his own reasons, Kebrio agreed to
help the party navigate their way through Mura'Kesz secretly. Or
rather, we suspect he agreed to help *Sajaina*
and the rest of the party just happened to be a ride-along clause.
Before they could leave the house, though, Kebrio made a stop
upstairs to pick up a ring he had left on the bedside table of his
nighttime companion. Sajaina immediately picked it out of his pocket.
It turned out to be magical but Timmeron couldn't quickly identify
what it did, so it was left for Wryn to figure out while the party
worked on not being caught and murdered for either being, or being
friends with, Sajaina.

So it
was that Kebrio lead the way through streets deserted, not trusted by
the party at all. He had no idea how much trouble our heroes could
get into, however, and things quickly became more complicated.
Without giving any reason- and asking Sajaina to “trust that it was
necessary” when she asked, Travize opened the window to a house
they were passing and went inside. He refused to explain what he was
doing in there, but Sajaina was only able to dwell on that for so
long when she realized that this was her parent's house. Travize went
to leave some money on the dresser for them, but when they turned
around, Sajainas adopted father was standing in the doorway.

Meanwhile,
Baygrith received a message from “Mercury,” warning him of some
“bad mojo” that was on the way. Mercury also hinted that one of
Baygrith's family members were in the area, though Baygrith couldn't
get much more out of him. Suddenly, the Etheric Emitter Torch let
loose a howl of sound. Mercury came on again, swearing that is was
for Baygrith's own good, before warning him of the Bad Mojo again and
cutting the connection. Kebrio hurriedly tells the group that hell
meet them over in the performance hall and leads the guards away
while the rest of the group circles back.

The
rest of the party join Sajaina and Travize in Sajaina's parents
house, interrupting a rather parental discussion of what on earth
Sajaina thought she was doing, young lady! Once they see that they
cant stop her from leaving, Sajaina's mother declares that she is
going with the party. In a moment of inspiration, Sajaina agrees to
this, with the stipulation that the rest of her family would, of
course, come as well. After all, if her family isn't in Mura'Kesz,
the Maharaja can't possibly harass and torment them. The group did,
after all, have quite a few extra rooms aboard the Sky Fortress
Formally Known As Yggon's Wrath. In an unrelated aside, they *also*
needed a cleaning crew and would probably benefit from a skilled
cook. So, you know, win win.

Getting
the rest of Sajaina's familly required trekking across the district
to their Tavern, in which Sajaina's sister, Jamel, as well as her
husband, were hiding. The building had been closed down and boarded
up, but that made it a *better*
hiding place, not a worse one. It did mean splitting the group,
though, since someone had to go tell Kebrio where to meet the rest of
the party. Thus, two teams were formed. Timmeron and Baygrith went
with Grukk, Cairean, Ithal and Yatirem to meet Kebrio while Sajaina,
Salachi, Travize, and Perlapae/Adalon went to recover Jamel and her
husband.

Sajaina's
group stumbled upon a dead guard laying in an ally. Something seems
deeply off about the situation, the feeling confirmed when they see a
minuscule disturbance in the air atop a guard tower that they have
come to associate with an invisible something skulking about. They
stealthily investigate, getting Wryn to dispel the invisibility to
reveal a dwarf wearing a full body suit, covered by an oiled cloak.
Beneath the body suite seems to be some kind of plating or armor and
a Laputian body stone glitters from one of its eye sockets. That
doesn't sound too bad, but remember that, to the Laputi, that would
be like ripping out someone's kidney and turning it into a rain hat.
Effective? Maybe. Absolutely horrifying? Yup.

The
dwarf seemed to have been spying on the party, even taking notice of
their disappearance to look for her. We say 'her' because her voice
and beardlessness implied she was female. Whoever she was, she
wielded a crossbow with great precision, nearly shooting Sajaina as
she tried to apply her Goldenroot poison to get some answers. Before
she could touch the woman's face, though, a metal mask not unlike a
smelters faceplate slid down to protect her. Sajaina was able to lock
eyes with her though, and the dwarf woman froze. Wryn informed
Sajaina that she seemed to have tapped into some of the magic in her
body- very weird for a sun elf. Whatever it was, the Dwarf woman
could not look away from Sajaina. A Compulsion of sorts, Wryn said,
suggesting that Sajaina try ordering the woman to do something.
Sajaina did- demanding information. All the group was able to learn,
though, was that she was following the party- and specifically
Baygrith- because she cared about him. After that the magic broke,
and the dwarf woman leaped from the tower, sprouting mechanical wings
from her back to glide away. So cool! Baygrith would be pissed that
he wasn't there to see it.

From
the top of the tower, thr group saw a fire in the distance, growing
larger and spreading through one of the districts of Mura'Kesz.
Travize said that he didn't feel right not helping, and his ability
to speak to the spirits might help him protect people from the fire.
He flew off to help while Sajaina and the rest continued on to her
parent's tavern. Of course, since dramatic events tend to follow our
heroes, things were about to get even worse. We're sure Kebrio
regrets signing up for this.

Timmeron,
Baygrith and the others met up with Kebrio, claiming that they
weren't able to figure out where Sajaina went off to. Kebrio
expressed some skepticism, but Timmeron was able to convince him to
press on anyway. Disguising everyone as members of a traveling troupe
so they could walk around without calling excessive attention to
themselves, Kebrio lead Timmeron's group towards their new meeting
place with the rest of the party. It wasn't long before they found
the hole. It was a dark, deep thing, over ten feet across; a scar on
the landscape that never should have survived the constantly shifting
sands of the desert. And forth from it sprang the void spawn. Acting
quickly, they asked Karhanza to seal the hole while, with the staff
they had recovered from Murag, Timmeron corralled the void spawn to
keep them from doing too much harm. But there was another thing
lurking there, dark and full of savage fury and hunger. A huge
serpentine *thing* tore
itself from the hole, borne aloft on insect-like wings. It's mouth,
more akin to mandibles than a jaw, let fly with a volley of blazing
flame entwined with bitter cold. Houses lost their roofs to flame
while their bases froze solid, doors stuck shut. And the staff
couldn't control it.

Travize,
attracted by the fires, arrived to help Timmeron's group as they
wielded time magic and druidic art against the flames. Baygrith
proved himself an able marksman, taking shots the the horrid
monstrosity as it flew havoc circles around the town. While they were
able to save people from the fires, or even distract the thing long
enough for others to run, nothing the three could do seemed to do
more than annoy the thing. Karhana had rigged the hole to implode
upon itself and an idea occurred to the three. Using the staff,
Timmeron demanded the attention of the sky-terror. It swooped down
towards him, opening its mouth to catch him and swallow him whole.
Running towards the dark chasm in the ground, Timmeron paralyzed its
wings with his nimble magic, causing it to fall face-first into the
hole that spawned it. Timmeron himself was nearly caught in the trap
they had set as Karhanza trigger her magic and the hole swallowed up
the winged thing.

Similar
things seemed to be happening all over the city. Sajaina's group,
too, encountered void spawn, though they did not see the hole from
which they came. They found themselves beset by a hideous thing made
all of grasping arms and claws, ambling towards them with murderous
intent. For the first time, Sajaina drew her new daggers, usable only
against an enemy she is willing to kill. She lashed out with them,
dealing devastating blows while Sal blasted away at the thing with
chords of sharpened song. Adelon practiced Viti's magics, decaying
the thing's arms and pouring out healing to her.. er... his? Allies.
Sajaina's parents.... cowered. Justifiably, we feel.

Through
all of it, Sajaina's group finally made it to Jamel's tavern. They
found parts of the floor broken, with some void spawn lingering about
the place. They dispatched them quickly and went downstairs to find
Jamel and her husband unconscious, but alive. They agreed, upon being
healed, to get out of the city alongside Sajaina's parents. But
before they could leave, they found the upstairs of the tavern
completely repaired and full of people. Mystified, they searched for
the possible cause, only to find the basement they had just left now
in a similar state. After some time they revealed a glyph on the
ground, hidden from their site by magic. Dal recognized it as his
brothers work. Uh oh. The last time our heroes encountered Finean's
work the armies of nations had turned against one another. This was
starting to look really bad. Fortunately, Wryn was able to dispel the
effect, though it exhausted her. Deciding to get out of there as soon
as possible, they hurried to the rendezvous point.

Once
the group managed to get back together, they shared information. They
wanted to get Sajaina's family out of the city before they made their
way to the palace to investigate the message Travize and Sajaina had
discovered in a prison cell there. Taking care not to reveal their
plan to Kebrio, Sajaina pulled Baygrith aside and had him contact
Veller with his Emitter Torch. Veller told them they needed to take
down the electrified shield around Mura'Kesz before he could do
anything and they made that their immediate goal.

Deciding
that Perlapae (Adelon-we're never going to be used to that) and
Sajaina stood the best chance of pulling it off stealthily, the two
headed off to one of the control centers for the force field.
Interestingly, they found the Maharaja in the tower and hid while he
spoke to the guards. Apparenty he was expecting Sajaina to show up at
some point and had some kind of device set up to detect her... or
something. Waiting until after he left, Sajaina and Adelon made good
combined use of wind, poison, and Sajaina's yet uncertain ability to
ensnare a subject with her gaze and together they got the guards to
tell them what they needed to know about the force field and the
“device” the Maharaja mentioned before knocking them out. Even
more curious was that Dal recognized the device as the work of Thain,
one of the Ascendant supposedly still sealed away in the lost tomb
beneath the mountains near Mura'Kesz. Uh oh. PerlAdelonpae disabled
the controls for the field and claimed the so called “beacon” for
later investigation. They also managed to grab one of the devices
that the guards used to communicate with the Maharaja.

While
the party waited for the duo to return, another of Finean's glyphs
appeared, ensnaring them in a vision of Mura'kesz as it might have
been during a busy day in the market. {The vision was a clever trap
to disguise very real voidspawn, which attacked while the party's
senses were ensnared. Wryn came to the rescue again and the void
spawn were dispatched. Much more worried about Finean and Albert, the
group was practically tapping its toes in wait for Sajaina and
Perlapae. When they returned, Baygrith contacted Veller and the group
quickly ushered Sajaina's family onto one of his fast moving skiffs
before the shield could be fixed.

The
party finally lets Kebrio help them to the palace without explaining
any of the delays. On the way there they ask Karhanza to examine the
devices they recovered. Her cunning use of magic enables her to
figure out that the 'beacon' is not only tracking Sajaina, but
keeping track of her effect on other sun elves, though they are
unable to see why or what effect there should be. On the positive
side, she *is* able to
break the communication device to allow the party to listen in on the
Maharaja if they wish. They try it, but nothing interesting is being
broadcast at the time. Additionally, the beacon seemed to be giving
off a signal of some kind, sending information to somewhere in the
palace. The party resolved that they would find out where that was,
ecause there was clearly more going on here than they knew, and it
was probably important. Wryn, for her part, identified Kebrio's ring.
Apparently the bastard picked it up because it was a tracking device
that would report his location to the Maharaja. Without much time to
discuss thing with the party- Kebrio was right there, after all-
Sajaina makes the hurried decision to throw the ring in the river.
Speculation ensues about Kebrio's reasons for helping the party and
the likelihood that his help is part of a trap.

Getting
into the palace proves to be an adventure of its own when, at the
servant's entrance along the side, the party comes face to face with
Sajaina's niece, Nopia, whom Kebrio asks to fetch her sisters.
Sajaina's sisters, we mean. Well... you know... her sisters that
share a mother with her. (Incest. Yaaay?) When they see Sajaina, both
of them demand she apologize for the hurt and inconvenience her
leaving the city placed upon her family. They say this, of course,
clad in fine silks, working good jobs in the palace, and having
distanced themselves from Sajaina's mother and father to avoid the
Maharaja's ire falling upon them. They say this without having
offered their help to their mother and sister They say this without
suffering so much as a mild annoyance themselves. Bitches, we feel,
is an appropriate word for them. But Sajaina decided to be the
bigger person and offer and apology, especially since this seemed our
best way into the palace.

Once
inside, Timmeron used his time magic to pause Kebrio so the group
could share information they had learned and discuss what to do next.
Deciding to use him as much as they could before they ditched him to
leave the city, they waited for him to reenter normal time. Once he
did, they followed his lead up a magical lift and deeper into the
palace. There were guard patrols to dodge around, but Kebrio lead
them well enough. There was one close call where he had them hide in
a side room used for storing musical instruments- not an unexpected
sight for Mura'Kesz, even in the palace. Personally, we wouldn't be
surprised if there were a dozen such rooms in the palace. Kebrio said
something about Ithal hiding something private in the room and no-one
was to touch anything. So, naturally, the group eventually decided to
search the room and find out what it was.

Kebrio
insisted that it was a private matter concerning Ithal, and no-one,
especially Sajaina, should be trying to violate that privacy. The
group discussed it some more and eventually placed Sajaina in a
bubble of silence so she could not hear what turned out to be a song
about Ithal's unrequited adoration of Sajaina in poetic verse. They
kept the subject matter from Sajaina, but told her it was rather
private and she should talk to Ithal if she wanted to know what it
was.

From
there they followed Karhanza's tracking of the Beacon's signal deeper
into the palace, eventually coming up against a wall. It being clear
that whatever the beacon was sending information to for recording was
located on the other side of the wall. Despite searching, no sign of
a secret dooor presented itself. At this point, Timmeron decided to
try a trick he had been practicing which allowed him to send his mind
wandering from his body. Using this clever piece of wizardry, he was
able to pass through the wall to inspect the room beyond. What
greeted him was a magical laboratory of uncommon quality. The place
was strewn with magical apparatus of all kinds, including a few
containers of liquid holding apparently dead sun elves. And in the
corner, working on some inscrutable piece of magic, was a cloaked
figure. Its visible flesh showed hints of scales and a tail poked out
from beneath its garments. Its hands bore extra fingers and thumbs.
Though gnarled and oddly jointed, its hands were clearly extremely
dexterous. This was Thain, master of arcane biology, apparently
working for the Maharaja. Timmeron too the liberty of exploring the
intendedentrance to the room, finding it to be a secret panel in the
Maharaja's own bedchambers.

Timmeron
returns his mind to his body to find that Sajaina and Adelon have
turned his robe backwards as a joke. More importantly, the group had
had to ask Baygrith *not*
to mess with Timmeron's arm wile his mind was elsewhere. His plan
seemed to have been to mess with it only a little so Timmeron would
ask him to fix it, whereupon Baygrith could do so- potentially
experimenting with some additional improvements as well. Timmeron was
most upset at Baygrith, and Baygrith was most upset at Travize for
ratting him out.

Telling
Kebrio that he would wait for their return- Kebrio being accompanied
by Grukk, Caereann, Ithal and Yatirem as lookouts- the group went to
investigate the Maharaja's private rooms. Or, you know, not so
private, since he and all other Maharaja's had it as their duty to
sleep with virtually every woman in the nation. That the current
Maharaja preferred men did not change the lack of privacy afforded
his private chambers. That said, they found the hallway oddly
unoccupied, with naught but a *very*
locked door in their way. When Sajaina tried to unlock the door,
though, it popped open of its own accord. As did the secret- and
magically booby-trapped- panel in the room! The Maharaja was nowhere
to be seen. Probably, now that we come to think of it, because he was
busy guiding his nation through a void spawn attack

Once
inside, the group met Thain and its magical laboratory. Thain itself
was actually quite accomodating, suggesting that the party *not*
look at that book over there. Nor were they to read *this*
journal. He would answer questions not directly pertaining to his
research just fine, though. It did not, they quickly discovered,
enjoy being a slave in all but name. They did have a time limit to
investigate, though. Thain was bound by the Maharaja's brother- not
the Maharaja himself, interestingly enough, to tell the Maharaja when
his experiment was done so he could teleport over to see for himself.
So about 15 minutes. The aparty was able to stretch this a little by
messing with Thain's experiment, gaining precious time to beg answers
from him and search through research notes.

Through
questioning Thain, as well as stumbling upon a magical journal full
of memories, they learned of a few rather important things. First and
foremost, the Maharaja had freed Thain to try to devise a way to save
his failing people. Hundreds of years of inbreeding had rendered
their population unstable as a species. Even with magical disease
cures, Thain projected that within two generations, sun elves would
no longer be able to bear children. The Maharaja rejected mixing with
other races as an option, instead deciding to find a way to keep
Mura'Kesz as it was in order to preserve its culture and way of life.
So instead he sought out the old High Tender of Laputa, Adelon (yes,
the same man now sharing headspace with Perlapae). He had begged of
Viti her ability to grant life, asking her to save his people. She
had refused his proposal, but Adelon had not. While many tactics had
been tried over the years, all had failed. Even Thain was unable to
extend the sun elf lifespan and restore fertility to their people
easily enough to manage it as a solution itself. So instead the
Maharaja had worked with Adelon to embed one of the stones of the
Motherborn directly into a child in an effort to force a specific
confluence of traits that would allow the child to be sacrificed in a
magical ritual that could help the people of Mura'Kesz repair some of
the damage their cultural habits had foisted upon their bodies. The
child in question was Sajaina. The ritual in question was the one
Thain was about to finish preparing for. At least now we know why the
Maharaja was so angry that Sajaina left Mura'Kesz, so that's good
news. Right? … Right...?

Working
fast, the party sought to convince Thain to join their cause and
fight against the trouble fast approaching Tirisea. It wasn't being
able to be a hero that moved him, though. When Sal suggested that
Thain would get to act against Albert by joining the party, he agreed
immediately. That still left the issue it being bound to the
Maharaja's brother, currently in the Coral Isles at the Council of
Nations. But Karhanza had a way! It was a little risk,y she said.
Mind you, her definition of 'risky' generally means that, if it
fails, things might start exploding or ignoring the laws f the
universe. Desperate for anything to stop Thain from finishing the
ritual and summoning the Maharaja, the party went for it. In what may
have been a 50-50 chance at success, Thain was suddenly free! It
stopped its work on the ritual immediately, calling upon blood magic
to eradicate the laboratory. It did inform Sajaina, though, that it
could set up the ritual again, if she decided she wanted to give her
life for her people...

Horrified,
and with much to think about, the party prepared to venture deep into
the tunnels beneath the palace to investigate Thain's door in case a
second Ascendant lay inside. Woe betide the Maharaja if their path should happen to cross his this night.