29 Eleint 1385

Session 38
(Occurred before leaving in the airship)

Prior to departing, Us decided to pull from his newly acquired Deck of Many Fates, another variation of the fabled Deck of Many Things. Deciding its best to not do it in the city, the party trekked outside of the city into the forest a ways away from sight. Now away from civilians, Us draw four cards, leading to various events;

• “Hound: You gain the loyalty of a magical animal companion, chosen from among the following: boar, crow, hound, monkey, or serpent.”
• “Legion: You gain the service of a band of 20 level 1 soldiers. They follow your orders unflinchingly, and with complete loyalty.”
• “Masque: Your appearance is irrevocably changed, at the DM’s discretion.”
• “Aperture: An interdimensional portal appears, leading to any one place of your choosing. it remains open for one hour.”

Over the course of the next hour and a half, Us very easily tamed a snake as his companion, got notified from his Second in Command back at Us’ Business of some refugees who have given their lives to him and his cause for rescuing them from the war to the East, Us’ hair grew longer and gained more white/silver as well as a tattoo of an old timepiece appearing on his neck on the left side, and a portal to a dead dragon’s hoard appeared which enabled the party to loot it for a significant gold and item advantage. With these shenanigans out of the way, and knowing that drawing any more cards would absolutely be pushing his luck, he put the cards away and the party headed back to the city.

(Occurred after leaving on the airship)
The next few days of travel were uneventful at best - a slight storm pushed the parties schedule behind by a few hours, they flew around the fey-controlled section of Gwynneth, and overall the party spent some time with the crew and each other. Soon enough, after a few days, the party awoke to the smell of sulphur and smoke in the air alerting them to their arrival. Looking across the landscape, they could see Flamested not too far from them with the active volcano spewing lava at a steady pace and the sound of thunder and lightning emanating from its mouth. From this height, the party could clearly see on the southern side part of the island was not only missing but part of the ocean appeared darker as if there was a large crater in its crust. Knowing that was where to go, Ugir landed above the water nearby the crater as the party decided to dolphin-dive into the VERY WARM water below. As they did so, Axi noticed a few figures in the distance coming towards them, a small creature and two very large fire giants. By this point however the party was already in the water which led Axi to send Lucius to intercept. The raven flew and met with a small fairy clutching something wrapped inside of a cloth. She explained her name was Estrella and she took something from the giants. Very quickly Axi told the party and they all managed to clamber back onto the ship as it began to rise higher and higher out of range of the giants and prepped its ballista’s. Soon the giants arrived and appeared to wait around, but slowly left and gave up as they had no way of reaching Estralla.

After a brief conversation, it was decided that in thanks for saving her, Estrella would help the party in reaching the underwater library and wizard that was supposed to reside there. She left the item she was carrying in Ugir’s quarters, and agreed to come along. From here, the party began to once again prepare to dolphin-dive into the UNCOMFORTABLY WARM WATER and find what was at the bottom of this crater.

Session 39

Upon entering the water and inspecting the crater, the group now accompanied by Estrella descended down into the depths, quickly finding out the lower they got the colder it became, almost as if the heat from the volcano was disappearing. Using spells for those without darkvision to search the surrounding area, it didn’t take long to find the bottom of the crater floor, noticing its significantly larger than expected. Looking around, Us noticed a faint light coming from somewhere in front of them, which was at least a lead. Moving closer towards the light, the party didn’t notice the near invisible water elementals drifting towards them until it was too late. Three elementals appeared and an underwater fight broke out with spells and swords fighting against water itself. After a few close calls however, the elementals were defeated and the party took a breather in an alcove to recover the strength and to gather their bearings.

Seeing the light in the distance again, the party took off and soon enough came to a large opened section of the ocean floor where light filled the entire area. This light appeared to be coming from a point within a domed city, the dome itself being a protective air pocket covering a very intact section of underwater city. The place Axi was sent has been found, now to find the wizard. Looking around the area, there appeared a significant amount of rubble, possibly the result of the city falling into the depths. From here, the party began the swim towards the dome and whatever entrance they could find.

Session 40

The party gazed upon the domed underwater city, in all its glory, uncertain what would happen once they entered. Seeing an entryway, the group swam to the open gate and noticed the air-bubble appeared to be thinner in this section, almost as if it were designed that way. The party entered the city, breathing in the surprisingly fresh air, and began their venture towards the largest building in the city, hoping to find some direction to the library Axi seeks.

Soon, the party reached the large marble doorway, leading into a marvellous building of white and grey. Upon exploring the vicinity, they came across a section labelled “Library”. Taking this as an obvious sign, they ventured onwards, coming across the largest library any of them had come across; levels and levels of books, rows upon rows, scrolls and papers and tables and chairs and walkaways and more books. After some exploring and looking at some of the books, the group noticed a single entity in brown robes walking along one of the ramparts. He didn’t appear to respond to anyone calling out to him or using telepathy, even Lucius flying in his face didn’t appear to bring out a reaction. They instead decided to follow the strange man which eventually led to a separate room that would have been a study back when this place was teeming with life. Deciding to wait and watch, the group saw the man begin to write on a very large scroll, muttering to himself, until finally he declared his work completed. The man said he would sit down now that his work is done and promptly gave up the ghost after many years of study, searching, and creating this piece of work all on his own. Axi attempted to bring the man back however this ancient elven figure did not awaken again. Axi instead decided to take a look at what the scroll was and discovered very quickly it was a spell scroll that, although not perfect, would connect one specific location to another, specifically those of different planes together (The level 11 spell known as Xodast’s Planar Conjunction). He realised why exactly his patron had instructed him to acquire this scroll, realising that this magic is not meant for mortals to use anymore, and how this old elf was able to accomplish something so great was beyond him. He rolled it up and gave it to Lucius, who promptly disappeared to his mistress’ side to deliver the package.

Upon the ravens return, the group noticed a letter on the body of the deceased. Reading the note revealed a few things:

• The man has been here for many years creating this spell in order to fulfil a promise to his late wife.
• He was once a proud and strong mage and was around when the city sunk beneath the waves.
• His lifeforce was holding back an entity named Morgana and if she were to escape, terrible things would happen.

Putting the very obvious dots together, the party immediately began to depart for fear that this Morgana individual would be roaming the building. And roaming she was. As the party escaped, red cracks in reality began to appear, almost as if the very air itself was shattering apart. They sprinted to the outskirts of the city and before heading through the bubble back into the cold sea, they turned back and saw the silhouette of a figure in the doorway to the main fortress, however she appeared to not give chase and turned her back to the party, returning inside. Not wanting to stick around to find out what happens next, the group left and slowly returned back to the surface and to their ship.

Returning to the ship and promptly drying themselves, the party decided to inform Ugir that they’ve arrived. They met with him Estrella asked to take back the item she had given him for safekeeping. He brought them to his room and opened the door only to find Ugir asleep in his bed…what?! Looking around for the Ugir that they had just spoken to, they see no one. Then, in a corner of the room, sitting next to the chest which is now opened, was a figure; pointed ears, sharp but well-kept teeth, orange hair, blue skin, eyes of yellow, and clothes of black and gold. This figure introduced himself as Viren, Estrella’s patron, and congratulated her on retrieving one of the pieces for him. He informed her there were 3 left to get and that he would strongly recommend sticking with these adventurous as without them, she would have failed at the very first piece. With that, he takes his leave and warns her not to disappoint her. Back in her room, Estrella also finds a note under her door, written in the most elegant of gold ink, stating “What you let me take from you, I can return just as quickly.”

Afterwards, the group decided it would be smart to warn the closest village known as Greystone about this Morgana figure and they could get supplies while they were in the village. Ugir agreed and they set sail for Greystone.