3.4: A Tale of Two Cities (of Glass)

When we last left our
heroes, they were standing around the Night Pool, contemplating their next
move. Through the pool, they saw Cara huddled in the corner of a dark room in
the Coral Isles, and Sal and Sajaina entered first in order to ease the girl’s fear
and protect her from danger. The room they entered, however, was not the scene
that they saw in the Night Pool.

The room was shattered
and blue and red streaked the sky, the voidspawn queen high overhead. The City
of Glass was in ruins, massive shards of buildings littering the stained glass
streets. Salachi and Sajaina stared in horror at the carnage, but their vision
flickered and suddenly the city was restored. They found themselves in an alley
with guards ushering people into buildings; the city was in lockdown. They went
back to the building where Cara should be, but she was gone. Sajaina found a
small piece of fabric with blood on it.

Travize, Timmeron, Caireann,
Baygrith and Bagel traveled through the portal to assist. Outside the building,
there was evidence of a scuffle, likely caused by Cara fighting her kidnappers.
Timmeron peeled back the veil to determine what happened here in the past, and
saw Cara grabbed by a group of men. The lockdown was already in effect and
teleportation off limits, so the men said they were headed toward the coast to
get outside the lockdown range and teleport out. With the help of some guards,
our heroes headed to the beach and Timmeron found traces of failed
teleportation spells along the way. On the beach, Sal found some tracks and
decided to head to the Violet Quarter to enlist the help of his mother, a mage
and professor in the Violet Tower.

Meanwhile, Sajaina,
Baygrith, and Travize went to go look for an object that could help them bypass
the teleportation lockdown; such an object would likely be in the possession of
a high ranking official. Sajaina stopped to get her fortune read for fun, and
as the fortune teller looked at her palms, she disappeared from sight. As
before, she saw the city in ruins. While trying to figure out what is going on
with her, she heard a scream and rushed to find the source, tracking it the
Viridian Quarter where one tower remained standing. Her vision flickered again
and she found herself in front of the tower with the rest of the city vibrant
as ever.

Salachi disappeared at
the base of the Violet Tower just as they were about to knock. Like Sajaina, he
saw the city in ruins again. In the rubble of the tower, a man cried for help
and Sal ran to assist. Before he could use his telekinesis to lift debris off
of the dying man, he found himself back in the Violet Tower, fully restored and
packed with fascinated wizards who are shocked to see a man just pop into
existence and bypassing all of the tower’s security. He answered their questions
to the best of his ability, and was escorted to the office of Chondry Baltos,
his mother. They had a touching reunion as Sal told her the craziness he had
been up to, and introduces her to his biological father, the 1000 year old
ascendant Dal McLoren.

Baygrith and Travize
found Sajaina standing in front of the tower, known as the Viridian Spire, the
most expensive luxury hotel in the Coral Isles. Still wanting to find the
source of the scream, Sajaina stole the hotel registry to find any empty
penthouses, and took the key to 815B while she was at it. They used their
fabricator device to buy fancy clothing and bluffed their way up a lift, as
Sajaina told the employee she was Ms. Debaussy, owner of the room. They entered
room 815B and found a lavishly decorated room; one single article of clothing
owned by Ms. Debaussy was worth more than all of Sajaina’s possessions put
together. Baygrith and Sajaina drank some fantastically expensive alcohol and
Sajaina pocketed a signet ring that she found interesting. As she walked into
another room to explore, an exasperated Travize tried to follow her to chastise
her but she was nowhere to be found.

Timmeron, Caireann Bagel,
and Salachi met with General Abel. He had heard all about their misadventures,
and told the group that he would ignore the Council’s request for questioning
the Chosen of Astor if Sal would take the Coral Mantle, a gem-studded cloak
representing his allegiance to the Coral Isles. Sal gleefully accepted the
cloak, thrilled by the idea of representing his nation as a hero. Between our
skills and the resources provided by Abel, they were able to track down a
likely location for Cara. Abel handed them a communication stone to keep in
touch while they look for the little girl, and on their way out, they found
that Sal had vanished again.

Sajaina turned around the
room to see Travize and Baygrith were gone. She heard the scream again and
followed it by grappling out the window and up to the 9th floor. She
found an Elven woman having a panic attack. Sajaina helped calm her down enough
to get her name, Serrah Tonlin. The elf had just woken up to find the entire
city devastated. Sajaina tried to console her and learned that Serrah had been
in the hotel for a week; suddenly the woman vanished. On her way out, the
bellhop stopped her to question why she was in this private area, and the rogue
escaped by using her siren ability to make him leave. After meeting back up
with Baygrith and Travize, Sajaina stole another sip of exorbitantly expensive
alcohol and also peeked a glance at the ledger. She found that Serrah had
checked in 6 days prior.

The Violet Tower
disappears as Sal found himself falling a great distance; his mother’s lab was
near the top of the tower. He slowed his fall by pulling a massive piece of
glass from the ground to use as a makeshift parachute. After landing somewhat
safely, he saw a man holding a glowing ball. He approached the man, only find a
hideously disfigured Albert…or more accurately, half of Albert. The ascendant
had one leg and one arm and was missing half of his face. Despite his apparent
injuries, a one-sided fight (pun intended) commenced. Sal made himself
invisible while hoping that things would go back to normal soon, but Albert
releases a wave of lightning that grievously injured the bard. Albert is about
to strike a killing blow when Sal is saved by…Albert? It appeared that the
other half was still about and less evil and insane. EvilAlbert is knocked away
and LessevilAlbert exclaimed “How are you still alive?” before Sal was once
again shunted away into his regular reality. Caireann and Timmeron found Sal a
few blocks away from the Violet Tower, beaten to within an inch of life.

Baygrith, Sajaina, and
Travize track Cara to the Cerulean Quarter. Working with the guards, they determined
that she was held up in the Hall of the Sun, a renowned Sun Elf theater.
Travize, realizing that Baygrith and Sajaina are too drunk from the
mind-blowingly expensive alcohol to be of much use, had Thain remove the
alcohol from their system. The dwarf and sun elf are unamused by this.

Caireann, Timmeron, and a
healed Sal meet up at the theater. A Gnome paladin of Bartos was investigating
the scene and suggested that they might have taken her the crypts below. In the
crypts, Sajaina chatted with a human paladin and discovered that the crypts
seemed to be part of an old abandoned temple. The rogue detected that a statue
of Bartos had been tampered with and was likely trapped; if triggered, it would
have detonated and devastated the entire block with a poison that permanently
affected the mental faculties of the victims. She disarmed the trap and
pocketed the jar of poison. On the other end of the theater, Baygrith
investigated a wardrobe and found a false door. Upon walking into it, he was
immediately blasted back out, protected from a violent, fiery death only by his
anti-magic cloak. A group of people wearing black and red cloaks with black and
white masks come through the door to finish him off. Caireann hears the
commotion and together, the fighter and artificer fight out the enemies.

In the crypts, Sajaina
turned to see EvilAlbert (henceforth known as Left Eye, because he only had his
left eye). The half-ascendant attacked the paladin and grabbed the vial of
poison from Sajaina before vanishing. Knowing the devastation he could inflict
with this, Sajaina had Dal rewind time. As time reset to right before Left Eye
attacks, Sajaina had the paladin hide and sent Wrynn to protect him. Expecting
the attack, Sajaina calls for help and fends off Left Eye, who fails to steal
the poison. This time, however, he just blasts it with fire. Before the poison
can spread to anyone, Sal and Travize put out the fire and contain the poison
with the help of a water elemental summoned by Sal’s lute.

Timmeron found LessEvilAlbert
(henceforth known as Right Eye, for obvious reasons) in a hidden room while
Thain fought Left Eye in the theater. Left Eye overpowers Thain, says some
crazy gibberish, and leaves. Right Eye yelled at Sajaina while holding Cara,
and Caireann tried to grab the little girl with her sticky shield but failed.
Timmeron succeeded in weakening Left Eye with his magic. They follow Left Eye
while others go to follow Right Eye.

Baygrith, Travize, and
Sal chase Right Eye, who is scaling a tall blue tower in the Cerulean District.
Baygrith and Sal shoot at him while Travize blasts him with wind. Right Eye
pulled out a bomb and threatened the city with it, and Sal promptly pulls it
out of his hand with telekinesis before sending it back at him and detonating
hit. An injured Right Eye gloats that his saner counterpart will bring Cara to
the Hall of Doors and head to the smallest island so he can teleport out. Near
the Hall of Doors, Timmeron, Sajaina, and Caireann protect civilians and take
down a group of cultists with ease.

Right Eye, weakened by
his injuries, tried to escape by turning into smoke. Karhanza blasted him with
lightning and he solidified on a nearby roof, smoldering. Rather than try to
decipher his incoherent blabber, Karhanza helped obliterate him while Travize
pulled out his Skein of Soulsight to get information of his goal. The skein
gave him a muddled answer about power and trying to fix the world with magic,
through half-baked and poorly thought out ideas of a perfect society. The group
thought that the situation felt weird but they could not put their finger on
why. Right Eye dissipates from the major beating his just took.

Sajaina, Timmeron, and
Caireann set up an ambush in the Hall of Doors while Thain set up traps. The
rest of the group headed over to the Hall of Doors to help out, but on their
way they saw a massive hole open on the ground with voidspawn crawling out. A
prince voidspawn starts to crawl out, but Travize shapeshifts into a boulder
and blasts into the prince. With the help of Timmeron and Baygrith, they held
the voidspawn at bay while Travize controlled the earth around him to swallow
up the prince and close the hole. Meanwhile, Sal followed the cultist that
summoned the voidspawn and found a group of them. He easily took out the
cultists, and the last one standing pulled off his mask to reveal Elasmus
Baltos, Salachi’s older brother. Sal calmed his brother down and convinced him
that Albert and the cult are pure evil and would do nothing to help the
injustice that Elasmus was so upset with. Elasmus decided to come with Sal to
help stop Albert.

Left Eye entered the Hall
of Doors and defused the traps and ambush. While he fought off the ascendants,
Smitty appeared out of nowhere and impaled Thain with None, dealing massive damage
to the ascendant. Travize, Baygrith, and Timmeron rushed back to help. The tide
of the fight was turning and it seemed like they would successfully stop Left
Eye from escaping with Cara, when everyone’s least favorite dwarf appeared
through a portal to “save the day”. Left Eye escaped through the portal opened
by Storan to the smallest isle of the Coral Isles and Caireann and Sajaina
immediately gave chase before the portal closed again. Karhanza spent one of
the two magic crystals created by Sajaina and the font of energy to prevent
Thain from dying. Salachi called Abel with his communication stone and told
Abel to open a portal momentarily, letting them also follow suit. Caireanne
threw her Sticky Shield at Albert, distracting him enough for Sajaina to grab
Cara and slash at Albert with None, which she had grabbed from Smitty. Albert
spasmed in pain as Right Eye chose that moment to reassert himself. Weakened,
the two forms argued while the rest of the group caught up. Knowing that they
were outmatched, they dispersed into mist and escaped.

Salachi informed Abel
that situation was dealt with and they returned to the City of Glass to take
part in an emergency meeting of the Coral Council. The Chosen of Astor were
lauded as heroes and they gave some information to the council concerning the
voidspawn threat and the “superweapons” that we had access to. Elasmus joined
our crew on the ship and Sal’s parents decided to come along as well. Crisis
averted, the Chosen of Astor returned to the ship with Cara to figure out what
to do with her and the Archivist.