Adventure 12-13

**Previous: Adventure 10-11**

Various events occur in a certain order. Maybe.

## The Kingdom Hearts 2 Prologue, but Zeitgeist

### Session 1

Just after the news about Av, the party meets to discuss their ideas for the planes with individual proposals; Amielle is also invited. Marcel's proposal focuses on general health and culture; Gatria's focuses on resilience and anti-apathy; Hoya's focuses on empathy and connection with others; Cleone's focuses on knowledge and problem-solving; Mona's focuses on the fey and the afterlife. Amielle also proposes a third Watchmakers arrangement that would update itself after a thousand years to focus on self-renewing resources.

Major points of contention include: whether to close Lanjyr off from outside planes (consensus: yes), whether the arrangement should be permanent (consensus: not if we're closing Lanjyr off), the nature/effects of empathy (consensus: it's not mind control, Marcel), the utility of prophecy (consensus: Gatria thinks it's useless but we're including it anyway), what to do with the fey (consensus: find a new plane to relocate them to), whether prosperity is worth a thousand years without free will (consensus: none), how to take care of the seal until a change of planes is necessary (consensus: better given to a single reliable steward, possibly Celeste and hosts).

Cleone has doubts about closing off Lanjyr and leaving their arrangement permanent, though everyone else supports measures against invaders. Gatria complains about how everyone keeps on bringing up the Obscurati, and Mona points out that the real goal is to avoid being like Nicodemus. Marcel has doubts about the nature of an empathy plane, and people gang up on Hoya's inclusion of Meniru because nobody wants to gang up on Gatria. The ensuing discussion accidentally hits on sensitive topics for people, reminding Marcel of his rough childhood and reminding Cleone of Nicodemus. Gatria has doubts about prophecy; she and Hoya tensely manage not to reveal too much personal information about what they saw at the Temple of Ingatan, mentioning their vision of Av but not of Gatria's wedding. Mona throws in her support for Amielle's new Watchmakers plan, though multiple others are against it.

Eventually the party decides on the following:

* Death: Amrou
* Space: Apet
* Time: Ascetia
* Fire: Etheax
* Life: Caeloon (Jiese moon)
* Water: Ostea
* Air: Meniru
* Earth: Mojang (Teykfa moon)

Nathan and his collaborators aren't in attendance, but Cleone will loop them in later as acting liaison.

### Session 2

Harkover prepares to steward Risur as the party leaves for Av. Gatria suggests keeping Gully Foil on Risuri soil, given that the party anticipates Fourmyle being taken out of the planar arrangement when it's time.

The party uses some scrolls to travel to Av and ends up in the Chessboard Forest in the Dreaming, where they find Binniwich leading Rambylon and some other fey into a trap where devils from the Golden Legion lay in wait with golden shackles for them. Enter Celeste, who's cottoned on and gets right to the veiled threats: "Oh, Binniwich would *never*." She grabs Binniwich before he can run, and the guy is incinerated when the devils start throwing fireballs with the trap blown.

The party defeats the devils, leaving one lieutenant alive. He's...cooperative, for a certain definition of cooperative.

> **Lieutenant:** *(Eyes look up at Marcel, then Gatria. Growls at Gatria)* Curse these chains, without them I would yield to you. You are more mighty than His Celestial Eruption.
>
>
> **Gatria:** Tell me more.
>
>
> **Lieutenant:** *(Pause, turn, cocks head)* Indeed I owe them no loyalty. *(Holds out his chains)* I will renounce my freedom and speak against them if you take my treasure, my prosperity, my freedom.
>
>
> **Gatria:** *(Glances at everyone)* You heard him, it’s his request. *(Lops hands off below chain)*
>
>
>
> **Lieutenant:** *(Laughing, after screaming)* You have taken my freedom. What is it you want to know, Master?
>
>

The lieutenant tells the party about His Celestial Eruption Paelyrion the 18th, the god-leader of the Golden Legion who "awaits us in glorious Egalitrix in his fortress where we all ride." The Legion's purpose is to plunder the planes and bring their bounty back to the Gyre. He also mentions that "she" has captured Thisraldion, and that the Legion will soon ride out in a golden airship above Thistle Palace. After giving the party this intel, the lieutenant quickly dies of a black decay stemming from the stumps of his hands - despite having physically gotten rid of his chains.

### Session 3

The party finds out more about the Legion's activities and methods from Rambylon and then Binniwich's spirit. Lerina is gathering holdouts and refugees in Thistle Palace, which is naturally a prime target. Clover itself is dealing with literal fires all over, so Celeste summons a fire brigade of water elementals to put them out. Scouting ahead, Gatria realizes that the Legion's battles around the palace are nothing but a distraction from some greater goal. She also finds some of the Legion's thopter aircraft and steals a inconspicuous yet crucial part from one.

We then fight off some of the Legion's forces and find Lerina and Karrest outside the palace. Lerina reports that Olazdor has fallen and that the Legion is using mortar cannons to pin down those in the palace; she and Gatria talk tactics. Marcel wants to take action himself, but Gatria and Hoya stop him from entering the palace in order to delay and/or prevent the events they saw at the Temple of Ingatan. Cleone figures out that the Legion's airship can be sabotaged via its heat-based levitation; Karrest can help with this, with backup from Celeste.

Cleone also has the realization that an *extremely* well-controlled demolition of the palace can sink its parts into the Bleak Gate at a rate slow enough that Rock Rackus and *his* airship can pick up those who fall. Although it will be an extremely difficult task, she can accomplish it and backup from the rest of the party helps clinch the plan. ~~Once again, heavy Disable Device investment and skill buffs save the day and the DM didn't even troll me this time!~~

Hoya meets up with Rock Rackus and his ship after avoiding him for two sessions and fills him in on the plan, very precisely, please follow it exactly.

> **Rock:** So you need ME to rescue the fey and sail off into the sunset?
>
>
> **Hoya:** *(In a manner that might be sincere, or might not)* Yes, exactly.
>
>
>
> *(Time for Cleone and Hoya to go over the plan a second time)*
>
>

### Session 4

Celeste and Karrest successfully sabotage the golden airship; a devil captain manages to see them escape, though she chooses not to pursue them and instead evangelizes the coming glories to her crew. With its levitation busted, the airship begins to crash and Karrest manages to finagle it into a controlled stop on the lawn of Thistle Palace.

On the steps of the same palace, Marcel gives a speech to the frightened civilians to ease their nerves while Cleone and Gatria set up demolition explosives inside the palace. The ship's arrival brings a falling wave of gold coins and escaped prisoners, but Hoya and Marcel manage to command peoople's attention long enough to stop the stampede. Cleone delays the destruction of the palace slightly to try and allow some prisoners to enter the palace first, but ultimately starts it, and the palace begins to sink into the Bleak Gate below as it falls apart.

Rock Rackus is waiting in the Bleak Gate with his ship, ready to receive people. Hoya briefly spots one of her parents, and then loses sight of them. Cleone and Gatria search for the missing fey lords, and after Gatria makes short work of a giant crab monster they rescue Ferg and Sallin before hightailing it back to the ship. Rock begins to pilot it back towards the Dreaming, but Av shatters completely around them - Urim alongside it. A beam of light chases the party, blotting out the churning stars of the Gyre, and everyone blacks out. Mona feels part of Celeste being torn from her: Av taking back its own.

Gatria wakes up briefly in the palace courtyard, frozen over with a lethal cold and a pale blue light from the sky above, and realizes that the party has officially failed to save Av in time. Then she blacks out again and finds herself in a jungle on Ascetia where she meets Callily Buen, leader of the monks of Caeloon.

Hoya wakes up briefly long enough to see some kind of monster before ending up elsewhere in the jungle, She gets lost and finds a graveyard containing the unburied bodies of thousands of eladrin woman and deva soldiers, with occasional gaps (possibly for still-living devas). Dala/Srasama is at their center, with a faint flicker of life.

Mona wakes up yet elsewhere in the jungle with what's left of Celeste, with a path to a lighthouse in view and nobody in sight. Cleone navigates the jungle and comes upon Nicodemus - or William Miller, a broken-off reflection of the man who died between places during Srasama's fall. Cleone listens, but is conflicted given her feelings about Nic.

> **Cleone:** *(Suspicious)* You don’t know who I am?
>
>
> **Nicodemus:** *(Eyes narrow, reading her face, and his eyes widen)* I do know you. *(Looks to the side, to the distance, and then back to Cleone)* I’m afraid it’s not a very nice story, however. It may be easier to show you.
>
>
> **Cleone:** Show me what?
>
>
> **Nicodemus:** Your name, I’m sorry–I don’t think I heard it.
>
>
> **Cleone:** *(Long, long pause)* Cleone Weld. You used to know me as Alastor.
>
>
> **Nicodemus**: *(Closes his eyes)* I see. Then you are a deva. Fascinating. Well, if you prefer Cleone...
>
>
> *(He starts to advance towards her, but Cleone takes a step back and he stops. Puts his basket to the ground, hands up)*
>
>
> **William:** Don’t be afraid. My name is William.
>
>
> [...]
>
>
> **Cleone:** You said it wasn’t a very nice story. What do you know?
>
>
> **William:** *(Sighs)* Well, I know that…I think somebody who looks a lot like me was your enemy once, and despite how I look I am not your enemy. 500 years ago I broke off from him; I am his reflection. Now when I look at my reflection, I don’t like what I see. Will you come with me? *(He holds out his hand)*
>
>
>
> **Cleone**: *(Visibly fighting with herself, afraid. But he holds out his hand and she waves it off)* Fine.
>
>

## Interstellar and Dearly Beloved Mash-Up

### Session 5

Mona finds Marcel on the beach with a skeleton, who mentions a psychopomp before heading back to the lighthouse. Marcel shares his suspicion that the party is now dead. Gatria and Callily sus each other out; Calilly is patrolling on behalf of her monks, and goes to investigate Av with some advance warnings from Gatria about what she might find.

Hoya follows a link from Dala/Srasama to Cleone and William, confirming for Cleone that William has lived a different 500 years from Nicodemus. William notices that Hoya has the Humble Hook and is noticeably envious that Hoya has had been more successful than he has. They reunite with the rest of the party at Ascetia's lighthouse. Nobody is exactly thrilled to see any version of Nicodemus, but they do hear him out about his (and their) situation. Due to the circumstances of his death in between planes he was split into two as a sort of planar glitch - and the same has happened to the party with Av's destruction. The only way out from here for the versions of themselves on Ascetia is to pass on entirely.

> **William:** As long as you are stuck here, nothing you do can change what happens in your world. You are like me. But, there is a way to leave the Gyre, so to speak.
>
>
> **Gatria:** There always is.
>
>
> **Cleone:** The Gyre or Ascetia, specifically?
>
>
> **William:** The Gyre. Ascetia is simply part of that. It can be left like any plane. Those who come here, come willingly.
>
>
> **Hoya:** *(Looking around, like ‘not willingly???’)*
>
>
> **Mona:** We didn't come willingly.
>
>
>
> **William:** At the center of the Gyre, at the teeth, if you let yourself go there...your soul, your knowledge, your everything will be gone. But if you’re like me, I have a feeling–you’ve been reflected like I have. If you want to rejoin your other self, if you want anything you do here to matter, you will have to die. You’ll have to pass through the final door.
>
>

Meanwhile (for some definition of meanwhile), the Lanjyr versions of the party wake up in Reed McBannin's mansion in Flint. Hoya talks to the city and learns that an entire two years have passed by on Lanjyr. The world is very close to its end, and the Obscurati seems to have set up brainwashing lanterns all over Flint - and probably the rest of the world. McBannin and his jaguar experiments have found them, and he seems to be working with Xambria. Antonia was last seen entering the witch tunnels. The rest of Flint seems to be entirely brainwashed and white-eyed. Marcel panics about Dreues' condition, and the party has to convince him to wait until nightfall before they can investigate. Xambria returns to the mansion and reunites with Hoya.

### Session 6

On Lanjyr, Hoya feels a shock of deja vu upon physical contact with Xambria. Xambria starts to fill in the party about what they've missed: the Obscurati has taken over in the party's absence, spreading Millerism to prop up Nicodemus' power as a god and using the blue lanterns in conjunction with Gidim hiveminds to keep people brainwashed. Harkover has left Flint. Aside from Xambria and McBannin Antonia and the Family have survived and are hiding underground in the witch tunnels, as have Kasavarina and the eladrin.

> **Gatria:** *(Looking at McBannin, lingering as Xambria leads everyone out)* Are you gonna be a problem?
>
>
> **McBannin:** Not to you. I’ll be here if you need a base above ground. I knew you’d be back to save the world, it’s pathological to you folks.
>
>
> **Gatria:** I’m not gonna take that from the guy who took on the Obscurati convention with a *knife*.
>
>
>
> **McBannin:** *(Smirks)*
>
>

Xambria leads everyone to the tunnels to meet Antonia, who fills them in more regarding the world situation. Antonia herself has been holding the Flint survivors together. Outside of Risur, Ber is the best off and Brakken remains unaffected thanks to a Ring of Mind Shielding and is with the Executores, but Bruse Shantus is under the Obscurati's control and has ordered their execution. Danor is full of Millerist and Obscurati propaganda, which has backfired and caused mass suicides among those who feel unable to "contribute." Crisillyir has also seen a rise in Millerism thanks to the support of one Morgan Cipiano, which has bad implications any which way that happened. Drakr is constantly mining oil for the lanterns, although their sources are starting to run dry. Nathan and his astronomers were subsumed by the hivemind and left Flint, although Toni managed to grab their research and planar icons first.

It's possible to mess with the pipelines in Flint to disrupt the lanterns there, although they still need to deal with the hivemind. Kasavarina was about to go to Ber, so the party meets with her before discussing plans further. Hoya meets with Granny Allswell by screaming curses from Cauldron Hill and accidentally attracts the Obscurati's - and Nicodemus' - attention in the process, but Granny does offer her help with the tunnels in Flint. Hoya yeets Nic out with the power of Ki Shout.

The next step is to weaken the Obscurati's power around the country, both to protect people and to make sure we have enough cooperative people to maintain the chant needed to ensure the party can access the Axis seal safely. Time is short and distance is long, so Toni suggests use of Tinker's duplicants as a last-resort time-saving measure. Most party members decide to use them, although Cleone does not.

### Session 7

On Ascetia, William emphasizes that the only ways for the party to return to Lanjyr are to pass on or to wait until Lanjyr is within the teeth of the Gyre - which is an even worse scenario. A discussion on the nature of souls leads to Hoya informing Cleone about Srasama/Dala's presence and Kasavarina's name is brought up, at which point William learns she's still alive.

Mona stays back to ask him questions about the lighthouse. Within the lighthouse, she encounters the spirit of Ascetia itself. She also sees a vision of the Voice of Rot in the Gyre: "I witnessed the last word of a dying land. If you can, I await you at the end of time."

In the graveyard, Cleone talks with Dala. Dala, as Srasama's avatar, has a little bit of power left in her. She offers Cleone the long-forewarned decision of what to do with that power before Dala passes on entirely:

1. Maiden/vengeance: Summon Srasama once in a time of need
2. Mother/resurrection: Bring all the eladrin women killed in the Great Malice back to life in the present
3. Crone: Take on the mantle of a new minor god of womanhood, after proving her worth to Srasama

When asked what she would want, Dala says she would like to see her mother one last time. Cleone needs a little time to make a decision, but will have one by the time they leave Ascetia.

> **Dala:** All right. I know this looks easy to you but I don’t have that much energy left.
>
>
> **Cleone:** And Dala…on behalf of…many of my past selves…I want to say I am also sorry, for everything that happened.
>
>
> **Dala:** *(Stops, tilts her head)* Why?
>
>
> **Cleone:** You deserved so much more than to be used and killed like that. And well, I guess someone should’ve seen that.
>
>
> **Dala:** *(Shrugs)* Well, perhaps this isn’t exactly right coming from someone that has an aspect of the past but I don’t think carrying around that burden does you any good really.
>
>
> **Cleone:** *(Gives a pained smile)* You could say it’s a burden I bear from my past lives.
>
>
> **Dala:** Well, Cleone. I think that’s something that you can forgive yourself for.
>
>
>
> **Cleone:** I think the person who needed to hear that most is already dead, but I’ll take note of that. Thank you.
>
>

Once the party regroups, Hoya and Mona together are able to make an Icon of Ascetia. The group discusses Dala's offer, and the implications of different options. Gatria meets up with Callily, who's found Rock and his ship of Av refugees. They have the option to try and liberate Caeloon first or go to the root at Egalitrix; the party chooses Egalitrix.

## Hey Wait, Zeitgeist: Gyre Side Seriously Is Kingdom Hearts

### Session 8

Gatria scouts ahead on Egalitrix. Callily, who gives her a lift over to the fortress ship, asks that Gatria not kill a specific monk named Chyak should she see him.

The Legion fortress is full of weapons, slaves, and overseers...and a white snake sneaking around the place. Gatria follows the snake to a meeting between Paelyrion and Star Marshal Lacacia, the leader from Av's invasion who is now having trouble impressing her way into a promotion. Gatria sees her reflection in a mirror moving independently and trying to get her attention, but brushes it off with suspicions that it isn't another (another) version of her at all.

> **Mirror!Gatria:** You want what I want don’t you? To overcome this place. To be stronger than them. To be on top.
>
>
> **Gatria:** Angry you got stuck in a mirror?
>
>
> **Mirror!Gatria:** No.
>
>
>
> **Gatria:** You’re gonna have to try harder than that.
>
>

Gatria captures the snake in a dimensional pocket and sabotages of one of the ship's big-yet-finicky guns by clogging it with non-gold metals. She spends a few more days hiding out and spying on plans to let Av starve into submission before regrouping with the party. The plan is to split the party and sabotage both the fire crystal supply and the engine room, then reconvene and take the boardroom together.

### Session 9

Gatria, Callily, and Hoya use a fire crystal to explode the armory while Cleone cuts the ship's power. In the ensuing fight Cleone nearly gets dismembered a second time, Gatria dislocates her shoulder for like the fourth time, and Hoya compels Paelyrion into a stupid dance. Paelyrion attempts to call for negotiations, which the party accepts after knocking him out and breaking some limbs. One of the first items on the agenda is freeing all the Legion's slaves.

> **Gatria:** So anyway, I noticed the jewelry does magic.
>
>
> **Paelyrion:** Yes.
>
>
> **Gatria:** And the time we took it off, the person turned to ash.
>
>
>
> **Paelyrion:** Indeed.
>
>    **Gatria:** I want to know how to prevent that?
>
>
> **Paelyrion:** *(Grin)* They entered the contract of their own will.
>
>
>
> **Hoya:** Where is your paperwork? You said that they were signing, then where did they sign?
>
>

They find the paperwork and yeet it into the Gyre with Callily's help, then evacuate the slaves - Thisraldion among them - before flooding the ship with magma. Gatria, who had the final idea to dispose of the paperwork in the Gyre, gets stuck with the spirit of Egalitrix and its planar icon. Hoya, displeased with how even a brief encounter with its spirit has affected Gatria, yeets *that* into a volcano (third verse, same as the first).

### Session 10

Backdated: Cleone talks to Dala alone on Ascetia, having come to a decision on what to do with Srasama's power. She hopes to find someone on Lanjyr to take up the mantle of godhood - ideally Kasavarina, especially since it would mean she and Dala got to see each other one last time. In lieu of an eladrin, Cleone is willing to challenge Dala/Srasama for her power as a last resort. Cleone and Dala say their goodbyes, and the remains of Srasama's divinity condense into Cleone's being and a clay pendant.

Once William realizes what's happened, he believes he has no reason to linger in Ascetia or the rest of the Gyre - but if he passes on, he becomes part of Nicodemus and fears being subsumed into the other self he hates. Hoya and Gatria bring up the possibility that it could work out the other way around, William influencing Nic instead, and remind him that he has all the time in the world to find the resolve to do so.

Back in the present on Egalitrix, the party finds Thisraldion among the slaves. They make plans to return to Av where Rock Rackus has returned with the refugees they saved.

Caeloon is their first stop after blowing Egalitrix up, though. Calilly reunites with an unimpressed Master Chyak, then teaches Gatria a technique and teaches Cleone how to make and operate some of Caeloon's papercraft tech. Cleone manifests the Icon of Caeloon in the process. Working together, Cleone and Calilly build a biplane similar to those Calilly remembers from her childhood on Caeloon. This also serves as the party's future transportation in the Gyre.

After a pit stop to stab the stashed-away white snake, the party arrives at Av's remnants. Rock Rackus and the remaining fey lords are more or less holding together a camp composed of Rock's refugees and a scant few survivors of Av's destruction. Celeste pitches a move to Caeloon for those interested, and Thisraldion's support helps.

Hoya, meanwhile, sneaks off to find her parents and successfully reunites with them this time. Although the encounter doesn't go badly, it doesn't go great either. Eventually Gatria comes to grab Hoya and, unimpressed with what she's observed of Hoya's parents, casually tosses out the fact that Hoya's become the Second Saint of Triegenes. Her parents' responses are, unfortunately, not any more understanding.

### Session 11

Hoya seeks out Marcel after reuniting with her parents, frustrated with how they still fail to understand her. The two of them talk about the hardships they've been through, and the inevitability of their coming final deaths.

> **Marcel:** ...I always thought that even if I died you’d have a way of letting me say goodbye to Dreues, and I never imagined that you’d also be in danger. That I wouldn’t be able to protect you.
>
>
> **Hoya:** *(Visible sputtering)* W-well, you know, I can talk to planets! Maybe we can find a way to make sure you say goodbye to Dreues if–if, you know, we have to.
>
>
> **Marcel:** *(Looks sad)* Maybe, but I don’t want to believe something that’s not going to happen. I’m so tired of it. [....] I don’t know how you and the others can handle all this so easily, but it isn’t so easy is it?
>
>
> **Hoya:** No.
>
>
> **Marcel:** I’m sorry about your parents.
>
>
>
> **Hoya:** Me too.
>
>

After evacuating the remains of Av, the party moves on to Amrou. There they meet Sargon of Urggat, an undead pharaoh in need of magical tributes. Sargon is unable to leave his pyramid and can't (and won't) help the remains of his people without awakening his retainers, so the party offers some of their items for that purpose. Sargon sends his retainers to find any survivors after a 10,000-year slumber, and the party earns the Icon of Amrou in the process. The party investigates what they can do for the handful of survivors, but Amrou's harsh environment leaves few options and they consider whether evacuating to a different planet might be a better option.

Conveniently, their next stop is Etheax. After talking with some of the locals the party confirms they have room for a few dozen more people (i.e., all survivors on Amrou) and share the plan to get out of the Gyre. The people of Etheax are reluctant to leave the Gyre, however, because of a millennia-old deal with Hunlow where they raise livestock for Hunlow and Captain Thrusty of Hunlow...has said they'll pay Etheax back any time now, for 20,000 years.

So then it's off to Hunlow, where Hoya and the sea god of Hunlow do not get along. The party ends up drawing aggro from Captain Thrusty and a whole bunch of pirate ships, so this is predictably going to be a whole thing.

### Session 12

The party fights Captain Thrusty and the pirates of Hunlow. Eventually Gatria beheads Thrusty, sending his head into the water, and sarcastically offers it as a sacrifice to the sea god of Hunlow asking it to "go fuck yourself." The sea god recedes, and on the Admiral's boat they find a key to prison cells on Drozani as well as Calilly, niece to the Calilly the party met previously and daughter of the elder Calilly's deceased sister Primrose. Calilly Jr.'s children and descended family is on Drozani, so the party heads over there to pick them up after rigging the Admiral's boat to fly via Caeloon tech. On the way, they also pick up Calilly Sr. and introduce her to her niece.

Drozani turns out to be the plane the Clergy summons their angels from, and is only open to angels and gods. Thankfully Cleone is essentially a god now that she's carrying Srasama's power, providing a diplomatic means of getting into the city and politely taking custody of Callily Jr.'s family.

> **Angel:** You are not of this plane. You are not a god. Leave.
>
>
> **Gatria:** We get told that a lot. It’s never worked out well for anyone.
>
>
> **Angels:** *(Wait for us to do something)*
>
>
> **Cleone:** *(Stepping forward)* What about me?
>
>
> *(The angels stare at Cleone, pause, and push open the gates)*
>
>
> **Cleone:** *(Pointing at the party)* Let them through.
>
>
>
> **Gatria:** *(In the background, hand-puppeting)* *~What about meeeeee~*
>
>

There's still thousands of other slaves left on Drozani, but the party opts to leave them be given they don't have good alternatives. Hoya talks to Drozani and asks if it can ease up on the torture just a little, but Drozani refuses as it sees its torture as a natural duty.

The party drops off Calillies and Company back on Caeloon and heads back to Etheax, where the locals are...glad the Hunlow stuff is sorted out, shrug. They're game to come along for Lanjyr's new planar arrangement. The party hasn't yet gotten the Icon of Etheax out of all this, so Hoya tries asking the plane directly. Etheax goes "Sure!" and just lets her have the icon. Subquest complete, shrug.

## Now We're Playing Dream Drop Distance With Ourselves

### Session 13

On Lanjyr, the party steals some duplicants from Tinker and begins splitting themselves off and around. In Seobriga, Bruse Shantus has gone full tyrant under the hivemind and is mass executing Glaucia, other Executores, and Brakken; among many, many others. Glaucia remains defiant - viva la revolution - and her protege Dabo begins a revolt in the crowd. The party enters the fray, and Gatria takes Shantus down.

> **Bruse Shantus:** TASTE THE FURY OF THE MIGHT OF BER!
>
>
> **Gatria:** I *AM* THE FURY OF BER!
>
>
>
> *(KO!)*
>
>

Nic possesses a soldier while the party cleans up, but Mona cuts him off before he can say anything. Bruse Shantus is officially deposed, and the Executores (including Dabo and Acredo) start organizing liberation for all others imprisoned and enslaved. Glaucia thanks the party for their help.

> **Glaucia:** You’ve caused me much grief, Gatria. However, of all of my charges who have come before me to judge I am most impressed with you. Congratulations on your rehabilitation.
>
>
> **Gatria:** Are you feeling okay? Are you dying? Are you about to keel over?
>
>
>
> **Glaucia:** And congratulations. On your wedding.
>
>    **Gatria:** *(Looks away)* I'm told she's a good influence on me.
>
>

The party gives Glaucia the chant needed for the party to access the Axis Seal, with Melissa Amarie's help promised to help disseminate it. Cleone and Mona run interference between Kasavarina and Sor Daeron, who is also present, so that any murder happens *after* the world gets saved. (Ber Duplicant Mona is still gonna harass Sor, though.) The Strange One transports Cleone to Danor for the next operation, and Glaucia asks the party to deliver the crown to Corta Nariz for coronation. Gatria performs the coronation by tossing the crown onto her head Frisbee-style, and once the shock wears off Corta gets to work.

### Session 14

In Cherage, the party finds Gardienne de Cherage and some Obscurati guards attempting to hold off a crowd attempting mass suicide by train at a station overlooked by an Obscurati lantern. Ashima Shimtu, now the human Raziela Michaela Cyfrin, is also present with her adoptive mother also preventing her from trying to die.

Mona attempts contact, but Raz turns on Mona to paralyze her - only to be paralyzed by Hoya in turn. Raz rants about how she's found life as a human to be restrictive and not worth living, which nobody really has any sympathy for.

Meanwhile, Gatria disables the lantern and Cleone works vaguely together with Gardienne to break the crowd's hivemind to prevent the mass suicide. Cleone then exposes Gardienne as an Obscurati agent, at which point Nicodemus possesses one of the guards and leverages a threat towards Gatria and the rest of the party.

> **Nicodemus:** I am going to kill everyone in Alais Primos if you don’t listen to me right now.
>
>
> **Gatria:** *(Rolling eyes, buying time)* And how, exactly, would you do that? You could’ve done that a long time ago.
>
>
> **Nicodemus:** I didn’t want to, but I see now that you are going to interfere and I tire of throwing men at you. As I said, it’s not worth it. My conscience can abide a scorched earth. Can yours, Gatria?
>
>
>
> **Gatria, big fan of scorched earth if you press her:** How many times have you said this, that you need more time? How many times have we cleaned up your messes, William?
>
>

Unfortunately Nicodemus has the ability to follow up on his threat, using massive planar oil repositories to create mass casualty events. Gatria tries to buy time while the Strange One (in rat hivemind form) teleports Cleone to Alais Primos, and in the process Nicodemus openly admits to planning to use Amielle's new Watchmakers configuration.

Mona and Hoya eventually convince Raz to trust them, helped along by Nic being Nic. Mona tells Raz the chant needed for the Axis Seal, which she'll spread. Nicodemus eventually leaves knowing they're only trying to buy time, and over in Alais Primos the party is about to have a scramble.

### Session 15

In Alais Primos, Hoya gets the situation from the city: oil of Av (the current plane of death) is being transported piecemeal by individuals towards four bell towers in the city and the Temple of Triegenes on Enzyo Mons. The bells will activate the oil, so the party hauls ass to dismantle the tower bells before heading to the Temple of Triegenes.

At the Temple, the party finds Morgan Cipiano acting as the epicenter of the worldwide hivemind supported by his brothers. Morgan is controlled directly by the hivemind because he cannot be merely influenced, but all the same he sheds a tear when forced to attack Gatria directly: "I do this, truly, for a better future for you and Antonia." Gatria strikes him down in return to save him, taking out the worldwide Millerist hivemind in the process.

### Session 16

Gatria reconnects with Morgan and gives him the Axis chant. In Flint, Cleone, Gatria, and Hoya hurry to the planar oil refinery to shut down the flow of oil around the city while Mona and Marcel stop a hiveminded Gale from activating said oil. Gatria uses witch oil containing Roland Stanfield's soul to power Flint's heating for a day while they work out a more permanent solution.

> **Cleone:** Why do you have… *(Connecting the wrong dots)* Is that Vicemi?
>
>
> **Gatria:** *(Beat)* Yes.
>
>
>
> **Hoya:** *(Giving Gatria the stink-eye because she knows via Hook that it's Roland and why does Gatria have Roland's soul in witch oil. She's not gonna narc though)*
>
>

In the Cloudwood the party finds the Adamanteens hiding from the hivemind; Cleone patches them up and sends them back into hiding. Marcel makes a big speech broadcast to all of Flint via magic about deciding his right to remain king after the Obscurati has been dealt with. Afterward, he brings up a question to the party: with Borne incapacitated, how will they move the Axis Seal?

Mona reveals the truth of her foreseen death, which until now has been a secret to everyone else: the Greater Sacrament of Apotheosis requires the subject to die and ascend to godhood, and she will be that subject. Marcel refuses to be the one to kill her as seen in her vision, until Hoya threatens to do it in his place. Mona will be gone to them once she ascends, and the party works out their grief accordingly.

The party uses the Vortex Array to scope out Axis Island, where the god Nicodemus awaits with Lya Jierre and Amielle Latimer. Harkover is also on the island. Nathan and the astronomers are kept brainwashed and hostage on a boat near the island. Marcel assembles the fey titans and gets their agreement to lend him their power during the battle for the Axis seal.

## Breath, should I take a deep?/Faith, should I take a leap?

### Session 17

In the Gyre, Marcel requests they help out Iratha Ket: he's heard more about its ongoing situation with a disease complicated by its king's actions, and he feels the parallels to his own kingship keenly. The party is welcomed warmly on Iratha Ket by the queen Atchafalaya, treated to a grand party with resplendent fashion and food...and the knowledge that the young couple being celebrated will die within three weeks due to a worldwide parasitic infection no doctor has been able to diagnose or cure.

Cleone examines the young couple and concludes it must be an issue related to the nervous system, while Hoya tries to talk to Iratha Ket's king Catahoula and finds him unhelpful. After hearing that a charm against compulsion caused someone to start screaming in pain, the party starts to suspects Gidim-related effects and tracks the source to a crater in Iratha Ket's first city. There Hoya finds thoughtform worms that function as pre-vanguard bioweapons to make populations more susceptible to hiveminds.

Unfortunately the worms infect the party, but Hoya figures out that focusing the power of "fuck you die" hard enough will kill the worms without a need for invasive procedures. She advises the planet to do this large-scale, and the few remaining living people of Iratha Ket are cured. She also advises Obliatias to rethink its position on the morality of undeath after the queen lures the king out of his room in the face of sun-induced oblivion.

The party is invited to enjoy further, even grander festivities now that the plane has been saved but everyone is so exhausted they just get on the biplane and leave. Gidim suck all the fun out of an experience, man.

### Session 18

The party returns to Ascetia, where William Miller admits he isn't sure he has it in him to overpower his other self. Gatria motivates him by telling him what Nicodemus did to Launga and Kasavarina, which has the intended effect.

> **Gatria:** So tell me. Do you want to make up for everything that Kasavarina has suffered at his hands, or do you want revenge?
>
>
> **William:** *(Pauses, considering)* I was right in some way. There’s nothing I can do to make everything up to Kasavarina. But I can make sure that he can never touch her again, and I think that’s enough.
>
>
> **Gatria:** *(Gives him a little nod)* Look. The reason I keep bringing up the fact that we’re similar is because I’m the same way. I know how easy it is, just to let the pain make decisions for you. It’s a lot easier to be angry, isn’t it? But…you have enough time to think about it. We have a few more stops to make. This time, think about what you would rather point all that energy at. You are capable of as much good as you are destruction, I guess, but you’re the one who has to see it through. We can’t do that for you.
>
>
> **William:** You’re right. I need time to think. I know what I am capable of.
>
>
>
> **Gatria:** Yeah, so do I. It’s not pretty.
>
>

On Caeloon, the party allows Rock Rackus to help build shelters for people with some trepidation. They warn Calilly of the expected meteor shower with a planar shift, and discuss plans for protecting the people as well as what to do once Caeloon is connected to Lanjyr and the version of the party there may no longer remember Calilly. Gatria entrusts Calilly with her wedding ring as proof of their acquaintance, and Cleone entrusts one of Calilly's nieces with Floyd so that he won't die in the Gyre with her. Marcel also knights Calilly for Risur, cooperation for protection.

After swinging by Ascetia one last time to pick up William, the party heads to Teykfa via the lighthouse. Cleone, as technologist, recognizes how to use the plane to ensure Lanjyr's resources cycle renewal and Marcel asks her to show him how so he can do it as well. He obtains the Icon of Teykfa in the process, and has a final talk with Cleone.

> **Cleone:** Are you scared?
>
>
> **Marcel:** Yes. But I’m ready anyway.
>
>
> **Cleone:** Think of it not as the end of your life, but as paving the way for the Marcel on Lanjyr. He will continue your work.
>
>
> **Marcel:** Right. It won’t be me, but it’s almost like reincarnation, right?
>
>
> **Cleone:** That’s how I see it.
>
>
> **Marcel:** And you’ve said that reincarnation isn’t so bad, right?
>
>
> **Cleone:** I find it comforting. Wouldn’t you, knowing that somebody will be there to continue your legacy?
>
>
>
> **Marcel:** Right. I guess that means there’s no reason to be scared, right?
>
>

Marcel has his farewells with Hoya and Mona as well. Gatria attempts to use their Methian stone rings to contact the Lanjyr Gatria and fails. Once things on Teykfa are settled, it's time to move on to Reida.

The Voice of Rot, of course, awaits the party at the end of time. He talks a lot about his ambitions, the time and eras he's witnessed, and his plans to feast on all of history with Reida. The party is less than impressed. As the party steps forward on Reida, they're bombarded with history itself and the moments that defined an age...

### Session 19

The party fights the Voice of Rot. Gatria finishes him off with a shard of Mishados, and he thanks her for it. Afterward the party revisits past events through Reida, willingly or not: Hoya sees herself talking to Tifa at the fountain. Gatria sees her newborn self cradled by her birth father, which melds into being cradled by Morgan after a battle. Marcel sees what really happened at Daewin's death and asks his older sister to come see a play with him, one a little gnome has come to every showing of. Mona sees her wedding day with Vihan, before her foreseen death. Cleone goes on a memory tour of loved ones starting at the beginning of her life and ending with Nathan and Kasavarina.

Gatria sprints to the heart of the Gyre and jumps. The rest of the party follow sooner or later. The Gyre unmakes them all into stardust, but not before each person has a conversation with the person they trust the most.

Cleone talks with Kasavarina about the possibility of leaving the world worse off, and trying to avoid that fate together: "I love you. Dala does, too." Ashima Shimtu/Raz calls for the goddess Desdemona, who reassures her that life is still worth living despite the hardships: "I'm sorry that I broke your heart." Hoya and Xambria have a moment together, missing the times they shared a head: "It's kind of lonely, isn't it?" Antonia asks Gatria to come back home, and escape from a life trapped in the Family's service together: "Save me from it–that fate neither of us want." Marcel confessed to Harkover that he wanted Harkover to think of him as a good king, and Harkover reassures him that he still has the potential to be.

And then they all cease to exist in the Gyre.

## In You And I, There's A New Land

### Session 20

On Lanjyr, the party takes one last night in Flint. Mona tells Vihan about her fate, and the two of them have a quick wedding with Gatria officiating. Marcel makes his excuses not to attend, knowing he'll be the one to kill Mona the next day for the Sacrament, but everybody else attends.

> **Vihan:** Well you better get that brat king of yours to officiate something quick.
>
>
> **Mona:** Officiate what?
>
>
> **Vihan:** Our wedding.
>
>
> **Mona:** What wedding?
>
>
>
> **Vihan**: *Our* wedding.
>
>

Everyone checks in on and/or spends time with their loved ones. Gatria has a moment with Toni, and then they get to business. Cleone talks with Kasavarina, who asks to come to Axis Island with the party - she wants to face Nicodemus, one way or another. Cleone agrees, asking her to take care of Nathan and the astronomers. Hoya has a dream talk with Morgan Cipiano on eradicating the Gidim, and Morgan points out that a matter can be both personal and just.

The next morning the party meets with Delft and the people of Flint. Delft requests a budget increase for the Flint RHC that everyone besides maybe Marcel thinks is honestly less than they deserve. Afterward the party teleports to Axis Island and Gatria scopes out the ship where Nathan and the astronomers are being kept, finding plans for how the Obscurati can stay ahead of the party on the icon-swapping game. The ship is suspiciously unguarded and mostly untrapped...so of course, Amielle contacts the party via their radios the moment the party swap out the ship's oil supply.

> **Amielle:** I know you’re there.
>
>
> **Cleone:** You didn’t think we were going to come?
>
>
>
> **Amielle:** Oh, I absolutely knew you would. Why do you think I set it up so that I could see the lights from here? I figured you’d still be using this frequency.
>
>

The party debates with Amielle, but in the end they come to no agreement. Amielle challenges the party to prove themselves at the Axis seal. Afterward, with the astronomers safe and slapped out of the hivemind one-by-one Cleone reunites with Nathan.

> **Cleone:** I’m sorry I left you.
>
>
> **Nathan:** No, no, you don’t have to apologize, Cleone, I’m just glad you’re here. You came back, like you promised. …I’m so sorry. I gave them the icons, Cleone. I helped them do all of this…their plan, for the entire planet. I helped them.
>
>
> **Cleone:** That makes two of us. You know what I’ve done. *(She presses her forehead to his)* ...We’re going to stop this.
>
>
> **Nathan:** Please. You have to. I can’t live knowing I let this happen to you.
>
>
>
> **Cleone:** And I’m so, so sorry that I let all of that happen to you.
>
>

### Session 21

Marcel, Mona, and Gatria collect components for the Major Sacrament from a weakened Harkover, who must stay at the seal or else tip off the Ob. Marcel gives Harkover a hug before returning to the party.

Marcel kills Mona so she ascends through the Sacrament, with the domain of family. Mona/Desdemona carries the party to the Axis seal, where the Obscurati awaits.

Mona repairs Borne, who turns his back on Nicodemus. Between Borne and Mona Threefold, the party is able to outpace the Obscurati in moving icons and seal pillars around as their Gyre memories and icons slowly come to them. Lya engages Cleone and ends up temporarily re-killed. Hoya convinces Amielle to hedge her bets further against Nic by revealing his scorched-earth attempts, and Amielle delivers a ghost-banishing knife to Cleone via trickshot.

Nic ends up further draws everyone's ire by trying to mess with Ostea's icon in the Water pillar to try and get a Wish. Between the knife and a shard of Mishados, though, he never gets the chance. He denounces the party's plans one last time before disappearing into stardust.

### Session 22

The party closes the Axis seal with their chosen arrangement in place, and make their wishes. Hoya wishes for the erasure of the Gidim. Gatria makes an intellectual wish different from a wish in her heart, and the Axis seal chooses to resurrect Nilassa. Cleone wishes for a new form of reincarnation, no longer related to Srasama's power. Marcel wishes to keep Mona on Lanjyr, effectively making her a different flavor of deva, and in return Mona wishes for Dreues to become a true mortal. Borne wishes for his and his brothers' own mortal forms.

With the seal properly closed, the sun comes back and everyone watches the sun rise, Amielle included. Hoya talks with Amielle, who is satisfied and ready to pass on via blowing up her witch oil battery.

> **Hoya:** Please don’t let any of the ashes fall into my hair. It smells really funny. And thank you.
>
>
> **Amielle:** For what?
>
>
> **Hoya:** Your help here, and the confidence to make a difficult decision.
>
>
>
> **Amielle:** Like I said, I want a better world. I’ll do anything to help. And besides, I think you were the first one to genuinely engage me in philosophy in a very long time. I should correct myself: no, you were the first one that listened.
>
>

Marcel claims Axis Island for Risur and reunites properly with Harkover. Gatria makes a small memorial for William Miller. Cleone reunites with Nathan and Kasavarina, and gives Kasavarina the opportunity to put Dala to rest in battle.

> **Kasavarina:** My Dala, you were never as interested in combat as your older sister. I am not strong enough to defeat a goddess, but my own daughter? I could win against my daughter.
>
>

Kasavarina also has a talk with Borne: she's not his mother, but someday she could be someone else important to him.

After the party returns to Flint, Mona and Vihan celebrate their marriage again with Mona's death off the table. She remains Royal Skyseer, and maintains a group of them at the Cloudwood observatory. Eventually she gets a visit from Lauryn Cyneberg about the future of Cauldron Hill, and they talk about the planes.

Hoya stays in Flint to help out Marcel, still king of Risur, and Mona. After a while she's invited to dinner with Morgan Cipiano, who gives her a proposal: Gatria and Antonia are leaving Flint and the Family. Would the Second Saint be interested in guiding Flint in a new way? Gatria, meanwhile, is approached by Glaucia about a potential Risuri branch of the Executores.

Cleone returns to Danor, marries Nathan (with more politics than she'd like), and successfully runs for president of Danor against Eloise Duffet with Vice President Remy Duvall. She moves to reform Danor, maintain peace with other countries, and establish an international school for aviation arcanotech.

Three months after the battle over the Axis Seal, Marcel invites various leaders and public figures for a ceremony celebrating the alliance between Risur, Danor, and Crisillyir and memorializing those who died because of the Obscurati and the eclipse. It'll probably go something like this.

### Session 23 [FINAL SESSION]

People begin arriving for the ceremony. Aodhan makes an appearance with Atsla, who trades snipes with Hoya and Gatria. Gatria chats with Bree as Finona makes moves on Heward, and Mona finds Raz among the crowd.

> **Raz:** Once again I prayed to the goddess Desdemona and she did not answer. What made you change your mind?
>
>
> **Mona:** There’s more good I could do here.
>
>
> **Raz:** (Thinking over that answer, accepting it) You could’ve been the only one. The only true god. And you truly think that a short mortal life is much better than that?
>
>
> **Mona:** What makes you think I’ll be stuck with a mortal life?
>
>
>
> **Raz:** (The smallest hint of a smile) Well, it seems that you have work that transcends more than one lifetime after all.
>
>

Cleone, Nathan, and Florette arrive in Flint and encounter Beshela, spurned and grieving the breakup of a relationship Cleone didn't know she was in. Marcel arrives last with Dreues, who thanks Mona for what she did for him.

The ceremony proceeds...only to be interrupted during Marcel's closing speech by Rock Rackus' arrival with the fey and the people of Caeloon. As Rock sings again about crazy fans stealing his gun, Calilly reunites with Gatria and Gatria promises her a food tour of Flint. Cleone sees that Gyre Floyd is doing well with Calilly's niece, and Lanjyr Floyd is very confused by his twin. Cleone also talks to Athrylla, who thanks her for the eladrin's survival.

Once all that is done, the next part of the proceedings involve christening a new passenger airship and actually this was the GM's troll all along after three years of asking why cameras specifically can't have been invented yet. Goddammit.

Afterward Cleone talks with Kas and hints at her fears regarding the legitimacy of her election; Kasavarina reminds her that what's done is done and that she ought to trust in the others. Gatria talks to Marcel about leaving her position as spymaster, and Risur entirely, for Antonia's sake. Marcel agrees to let her go, and Gatria reassures him that she won't give up Risur's secrets...or do anything she doesn't want to, ever. Hoya goes to Morgan and accepts his offer meanwhile, mentioning that she's decided to take Xambria's last name in the process. She gives a heads-up to Gatria about becoming the Flint Family's head, and they talk about the challenge of enduring the position while trying to make things better.