Session 96 "Academia"

Session 96: Academia

With the end of the Waking Dream, Muffy found her friends returned, only some of them were quite different. Dorn had aged 40 years in the span of one night, and Gram was now partially possessed by the cruelest Dragonlord to ever bear the title, Estor Arklander. After catching, Muffy, Bip, and Begbee up, Gram demonstrating his abilities with the ship, and Muffy coordinating meeting back up with Grin, Ezree, Kyrah, and Sky Mouse in Mytros, everyone but Gram went to sleep. With the ghost of Estor in his mind, the two sized each other up. Gram with the hopes of making this unfortunate condition work for him, Estor with the aim of taking control of Gram’s body. Finally Gram did go to bed, but not before appointing one of the undead specters now under his command as his first mate.

As the others slept, Dorn, Muffy, and Rhys all shared a terrible dream, another one of the haunting dreams sent by Lutheria. When they awoke their minds pushed to the brink, they each found different coping mechanisms. Rhys became fixated with Rensig, realizing that to him the reason The Lucky Seven were Lucky was because of the musical gnome. Muffy had a similar realization, only to her it was Dorn who was the source of all of their luck. Each of the Light Bearers realized they needed to be as close as possible to the source of the groups luck at all times. Rhys even started carrying the sleeping Rensig around everywhere he went. Meanwhile Dorn woke up with a different response. Extreme paranoia. If Lutheria could reach you in your dreams, who could get you while awake?

The next morning, arriving in Mytros, a little worse for wear, your friends were already waiting for you, as was a large crowd of onlookers excited to see the heroes of The Prophecy. Queen Vallus made her way through the crowd, prepared to great you, but as she was heading your way, her husband the king swooped in on a full grown bronze dragon. Although he was the one that had suggested acquiring the ship formerly known as The Ultros (renamed The Charm by Gram) he now spoke disparagingly of it, saying more than a ship would be needed, that you would need the power of true dragons to confront Sydon. Saying this more to the crowd of on lookers than to you, Vallus brushed past him and proclaimed to the crowd that the heroes had returned victorious from their latest endeavor.

With the forces of The North being almost ready to strike, you felt it necessary to return home to help with the war efforts against the invading armies of The Nine Hells. You who had struck the biggest blows would be necessary to inspire and lead the rest of the forces. However, your business in Thylea was not concluded, you had not yet acquired the pieces of The Rod you had come seeking, and Gram still planned to head to the tower of Praxis to confront Sydon. The Treasure of The Dragonlords, The Forge, and The Fortress of Telamok, as mentioned in the prophecy, all still "lost". To come back quickly you would need a teleportation circle, and there was one at The Academy of Mytros.

The Queen lead you there, but said it would be up to all of you to convince the scholars of the Academy that you were worthy of entering The Halls of Magic. To that end you were challenged with hypothetical philosophical thought exercises and assessed by a collection of members of The Academy. You did manage to impress them enough, and they even presented Dorn and Gram with some rare copies of signed books in exchange for your performance. You also gained access to the teleportation circle.

While heading there, Gram brought up the concept of transporting his ship, discussing various methods, Ezree said Balistar might know how to accomplish something like that. Gram then asked Ezree about something else he had been hoping Ezree could help him with. De-aging. For Gram the years spent on the other world were lost years, two decades of life gone, but his body still two decades older than when he left and now after all of the hardship there was the chance for a win. Ezree cautioned Gram that she had never done this before but Gram insisted, and so Ezree proceeded, and in a brilliant flash of light, Gram looked more or less as he did before his years on the other world: a young man of his mid twenties with long hair.

You were now ready to return to Amn, however Muffy had one last mission. She wanted to steal a book, and so bringing her good luck charm Dorn with her, they went to the Great Library where Muffy found “The Big Book of Flora and Fauna of Thylea: An Instructional Guide”, and instead of stealing it, Dorn just paid the librarian 500 platinum for it who gladly accepted the bribe. And so now we pick up, after the biggest bit of inflation this world has ever seen, Muffy draws the teleportation circle… but to where?