01/12/2023 Virtuous Age Session 32: Bordering the Shadow Plane and Investigating the Tower.

We pick up this week’s session near the ziggurat. Two factors adjust our arrival: there is a time/magic delay and, our characters eventually surmise this region is extra planar. A remnant from a time before the Dawning. The plane overlap is connected to the shadowplane-a primal mythic landscape. 

There are robed individuals in and around the structure. While around the Ziggurat, large spiders, centipedes, and scorpions wander the landscape. 

A perpetual storm hangs over the area armed with rancid gusts of wind. We feel that we are in a domain of the Opal Dragon.

Easily seen hydra lurks nearby as well as possible golems or constructs move about with purpose. The dracolisk, our characters notice, wanders the nearby sands.

Our characters decide to rest in a magical rope trick. A tricky proposition this close to the shadowplane. In the end, sometime later, our characters awake fully rested. Aevum wakes confident this pocket will be here a while. He comes to reason out that time flows differently here.

Our characters decide to investigate the Tower in the distance before tangling with a hydra or dracolisk. When we exit the rope trick we see the storm has intensified.

It is September 19^th.

Our characters emerge from the rope trick and immediately notice differences: the dracolisk is now near the hydra  and there is a fresh row of stone statues with some kind of ceremony in progress. Six units of six medium sized creatures are actively patrolling the area, some of them Kron notices are wereboars. We feel an overwhelming presence from above.

Various paths lead to the Area of Broken Mountain and the Tower. We come to a stop when we find Scelarus’ arcane symbol on a stone. Both Tena and Eabrossi practice spellcasting in the planar environment. Kron defaces the sigil.

Our characters travel on to the rear of the tower and encounter 8 individuals. Some could be members of the rat tribe, some wereboars as well as a flying evil individual who releases a spell from 30’ in the air. (Theophrastus?) This individuals wears jewelry and bears symbols of Tiamat.

We defeat the wererats and wereboars and chase off the devotee of Tiamat. Our characters continue to the Tower. We come to a split in the road. Our characters take the high road. It leads around the tower to an arena decorated with Tiamat iconography. Here we see magic symbols that Tena spends time studying. They are all the same potency sigils that are draconic ‘tiamat’ in nature.

There is a double wide door in the mists of overgrowth of the tower. It is clearly meant for a giant occupant. We passed through and cross the arena. During the crossing each of us are subject to Tiamats sermons. We all avoid the greater curse and when we do Ziagan realizes what happened to his uncle Bishma: he had his religion changed.

Our characters get to a window opening into the tower and enter. Inside the tower we see a partially ruined tower that has been unkept for some time. Built for giants it is easily 6 to 8 stories tall.

On the northern side of each level are ancient maps of the Ways. Theoretical at the time of creation of these maps, whoever worked on it had great knowledge about how they work. It was a study the Ways when it was unbroken. The Rest of the tower is more recent- these notes and such seems to be trying to reverse engineer the function of the embassy on the far side of the ziggurat. 

Their conclusion assumes the embassy works like the ways. This is not exactly the case due to different creators and different magic. We guess Scelarus and possibly Theophrastus stayed here.

We begin a thorough search at the top floor where Scelarus resided. She has items spread about different work stations. The longer we look the more we see her decent into insanity. She assumed Bishma was sent from Tiamat herself. "Theo" was the end of her isolation and a key to her work. We surmise the priesthood of Tiamat are actively looking for the giants embassies to attack the giants using their own ways of travel.

These Tiamat devotees seem confident they have found an embassy and therefore founded a church here. The ziggurat is considered their new temple to Tiamat. There is no mention or consideration of the hydra, basilisk or the pearl dragon.

Aevum realizes his mother Sanguine and Bishma encountered this temple while looking for Embassies. He was turned to the faith of Tiamat she was not  

In Scelarus' belongings Eabrossi finds a wand of freedom of movement (9 charges). Tena recovers a Selective metamagic rod (6^th level). Aevum finds a wand of invisibility (25 charges). Several cold iron daggers. A Lesser Enlarge metamagic rod. Finally, a type 5 neckless of fireballs. Our characters take all her questionable notes.

We eventually make our way down to the second floor. This resident has not been here as long as Scelarus. There are not a lot personal items of this individual instead this level is filled with Tiamat iconography. One of this man's main duties is making Tiamat holy symbols. He seems to be the only sane one in a sea of madness. He does mention the hydra creature and basilisk and to be cautious around them.

We leave the tower and head to the LakeTower in the direction of the Ziggurat.

Lay of the Land

Ziggurat

Embassy

 

Tower

                                                    

Inner Embassy

LakeTower House

          

Artsy Fartsy Map

01/05/2023 Virtuous Age Session 31: Reunion, An Orb of Agamotto, and the Ziggurat

We begin moments after killing Scelarus and it seems Bishma as escaped for the time being. Our characters quickly discuss and decide to first find King Saxo. Aevum casts a divination and in moments is drawn to a lower level of the castle. We begin to hear an increase in noise all about and eventually our characters will hear bells. Kron picks up the body of Scelarus.

Tena spots an air elemental then a whisper asks “is she truly dead?” to Eabrossi and Tena. Eabrossi does not respond while Tena answers with “I did not investigate.”

Our characters move back the way we came. A disembodied voice says: “Don’t make the mistake on not destroying her body. The Race is on to find your Father.”

On the way down the servants passage we hear behind more noise from the chamber we left. Bells continue to sound.

Our characters run into servants to whom Aevum warns them of an imposter King, at this time Istar breaks from our group to spread this news. Eventually we arrive to the ground floor. There is a panic room somewhere. Eabrossi intuits that the entrance of such a saferoom must be in the Thrown, just beyond the council chambers.

A plan formulates while our characters watch minotaur guards escort council members out of the Great Dome. Protected by an invisibility sphere we eventually make our way up the ramp toward the Council Chambers. 

Zaigan runs into something unseen as the rest of us sees a raven fly from direction we are heading to.

When we arrive everything is as Aevum remembers save for the group of minotaur guards actively guarding the Throne Room.

Our characters enact the second part of the plan. Tena casts an obscuring mist spells to distract the guards. One of the minotaur guards stepped up and, using powerful magic, open a new space within the wall. He is obviously unlike the other minotaur guards. 

Eventually our characters sneak past the alerted guards and enter the room where we find the thrown. Magical lights illuminate the area. More noise originates in several areas in the castle. In the chamber are leavings (food/drink) from a council that was alerted of immediate evacuation. 

Back in the council chamber a lone left side guard retreats into the thrown room behind our characters and away from the obscuring mist. Other minotaurs guards move about as Aevum spots markings on the wall: Scelarus’ arcane mark indicating she has poisoned the food here.

Once our characters make it to the Thrown, Eabrossi quickly discovers the way to unlock the Thrown. The thrown lowers to reveal a spiral staircase down to what is a kind of Royal Archives.

Following the sensation of Aevums divination spell, our characters descend to an area of light.

Aevum calls out to his father who responds with a question only Aevum could answer. 

It is a warm reunion and he was quick to confirm he got the warning about Bishma. We tell him about Bishma and his plan. Saxo says he went into hiding.

There are three forces at play: Our side, the militant titans, and the Scions of hell- those dark giants who embrace Tiamat’s rule through the practice of sin.

Saxo has come to believe Sanguine is alive and that Aevum is proof of the royal bloodline in these times. He is unsure of Bishma’s endgame, but our giant enemies wish to capture the Saxo line and present them to the titans.

Because for either side to get what they want they need all three King, Queen, Aevum as sacrifice. We need to find the embassy Sanguine went and find whatever remains of her there: she is two halves, her physical form is gone but her soul is suspended in time and that saving her is also her release.

There is another (planar) way out of here. The King does not intend on fleeing, he assumes he will be captured and not immediately killed.

Aevum enjoys a few final moments with his father. He warns Aevum that the Scions of hell they will not hesitate to kill for the minotaur who want the militant quality of the giants require the saxos for a ceremony for transfer of the royal bloodline. He will give over notes on the militant giants. (+2 or better to a knowledge-based check)

We go to destroy Scelarus’s but her body is gone.

On the sarcophagus in the Royal Archives are the names Malmeros, Kaithor, Skazer, Garthus, Ekxus, Merut, Arvis. Great thinkers and lore keeper from times of old.

We leave with a future in-game question (for this encounter with the King) and mythic components for spell use and legendary item refreshes. And…

Tena: Boots of Escape; Kron: Glove of Storing; Zaigan: Ring of Transposition; Eabrossi: Veil of Fleeting Glances; Aevum: Robe of Blending. The King writes Kron a letter freeing him of all charges of the murder of Talbot.

Not only do we need to survive but warn others that the dragons of sin have infiltrated everything.

There is a large-scale clockwork artifact here. A large version of Aevum’s symbol and has several uses. It was nn orb of Aggamotto.

After an hour, our characters are keen to get to the ziggurat; Tena decides to use her jaunt ability in conjunction with the orb and the newly acquired mythic component. Magic takes us and we appear near an impressive ziggurat and a three headed dragon-like creature. There is sound of water rushing and flyers in the air. We are surrounded by statuary of the poor souls who traveled here before us. 

After the experience Tena believes she is fated to restore Agamotto and believe she will recover all the orbs. In regards to portals and travel magic Tena believes she can potentially manipulate or shut down embassy portals. 

We pick up here next week. 

12/15/2022 Virtuous Age Session 30: Return of the Prince, The Great Dome, and Bhishma Round Two

September 18^th. We begin this session stepping out of the Ways through a yawning portal with pillars on each side. We recognize the chamber from the Solarium. Aevum’s amulet device adjusts by itself and confirms we have arrived on our home plane and our time of arrival. (Spell focus now grants +1 CL in the Ways)

Our characters experience brief nausea upon our return, Arcanthorth collapses from the travel. We are all tired. We do not see Kailius either. Eventually we see him as an image in the portal- like he is falling away.

For Tena, she feels the Temple react to her presence; she feels she could cleanse the temple and make it her own.

Aevum also feels a connection to the portal and feels this has more stability to it than at first glance. The prince also feels Arcanthorth has been reckless with his knowledge of the ways.

We ask Arcanthorth about his strange behavior in the presence of Kailius. He maintains that you do not take from the ways especially someone lost to the ways. He was being cautious around an unknown entity. 

After some magical healing, with time being sensitive our characters ultimately decide to press on to the Dome City and the King. 

On the way out of the temple we revisit the statue of Agamotto and are amazed at how it discerns individual morals as well as his or her level of power with light and intensity. Arcanthorth: Chaotic Good with power intensity lower than ours.

We reach the night sky at 10 pm, it does not look like anyone has been up here since our last visit a short time ago. 

Out side the dome we see a large number of tents and military wagons of knolls. About a thousand “Howlers” and to our characters it looks like the dome is locked down.

We skirt around the Dome to find an entrance to see a wide mix of races and activity. Here there is torchlight with groups moving about. The Dome is on lock down. 

Kron separates himself from the group as they move through the crowd hoping out characters aren’t recognized. A woman intercepts Kron with seemingly benign conversation. 

However Kron notices she is armed with bladed scarves and errantly drops is name. At this, Kron attacks the woman and alerts the party who had a group of individuals following them.

Aevum approaches the scene and scolds Kron. Individuals draw weapons in confusion while the woman accuses Kron of being ‘corrupted and killed Talbot’. Other bystanders take to cover.

Our characters are able to leave the area, pass the gate and see a sign that indicates Kron as Talbot’s killer and corruptor of the prince.

Kron surrenders his weapons to his friends, Eabrossi carries Shieldbreaker.

We approach Garlack Greatskull accompanied with troops. They immediately recognize Kron.

Aevum says we have come to talk to the king. Kron is surrounded.

A lieutenant approaches and by the king’s council we are to answer for the accused crimes. Since the prince has approached honorably- the lieutenant will treat Aevum and our characters honorably.

Our characters are guided to a pair of wagons where we are invited to wait until morning. Word has been sent to the King. Watches are set up and soldiers look very uncomfortable.

Kron rests in a prisoner wagon, Zaigan stands watch. Aevum spends time in the extra dimension workshop. Tena sees one of the individuals that was following our group talking with the lieutenant.

Three hours go by when Zaigan hears the gate of the dome opening and closing- enough for one or two individuals to pass through the gate.

Zaigan has a late conversation with a guard named Iston. 

‘Pyerstrider of the Blacktar minotaur clan has pulled his support for the king. Not everyone believes the Prince is corrupted and believe the king is in great peril. It was Garlack who ordered them out here.’ 

Ultimately it is Aevum’s decision to escape or breach the Dome City.

At 6:30 in the morning we are roused, Zaigan buys Aevum one more hour of rest for a complete long rest and we are brought food.

We are led into and the inner dome. Our characters see several individuals gathered in the council chambers. The Lieutenant speaks with someone we realize is a tengu and Kamun the efrit. There are many resolute clan members here as well.

Iston takes possession of the partys weapons and we are escorted to the King’s council where most of the Clan leaders are present. We are greeted by Quovig who thanks us for surrendering peacefully.

The Blacktar minotaur clan with the members of the Luna clan have levied charges against our characters for the murder of Talbot of the Luna clan (rat clan and handsome beasts).

They suggest a trial in two days. Eabrossi presses for a meeting with the King for the Prince.

Formalities are observed and Kron is trusted in our group and we are taken to the Princes chambers at about 9 am. Arcanthorth is here waiting for our characters. Here we can immediately see this area has been searched and will discover an invisible magical wizard eye.

We leave to meet with the King, leaving Arcanthorth in our room. We reach the hall, turn and find the group of ambushers from our earlier disastrous encounter now guarding the door. They did not see us.

Tena casts a spell immunity on Kron to protect him from dominate person and we decide to try our luck with the servant’s access. Along the way our characters come across Iston who wants clarification on his role for us. We decide to have him accompany us.

Bhishma

Through the halls Aevum sees that he has more who adore him than not but Gossip is Aevum’s worst enemy.

We eventually reach the kitchen and the dining room and come to King Saxo. Seated, Saxo invites us to sit down. Zaigan searches the area, the king protests and at the same time Skullarus steps out from behind the curtain. The once King Saxo dissolves into Bhishma, Zaigan’s uncle.

After 3 rounds Kron kills Scelarus and Bhishma escapes into gaseous form for the time being.

12/08/2022 Virtuous Age Session 29: Rope Trick Fallout, a Tooth and a Horn, and the Orcish Vahalla

We begin this week’s session awakened, as our characters are ejected from the rope trick for unknown reason. Around us the terrain is full of crystals trees and fauna, we see the ground is moving and rotating in large (20’ – 40’) whirlpool-like areas. This region is well lit in the area of the ways. We have not had a full night’s rest.

Some of us are cut by tiny flying crystals that fly in the planar currents. This region borders limbo and somehow Aevum is able to discern that in the movement of the ways and the adjacent planes caused our expulsion from the rope trick.

Aevum spots the probable location of the rope trick about 100’ away. Arcanthorth casts levitate on Kron while the rest fly or ride campus back to the rope trick.

The way was tense, Tena was almost pulled into a maelstrom. We took some damage but made it back to the rope trick. Tena heals us including a critically hurt Binki. Eabrossi also heals the small chimp even more.

We are able to finish our rest, we don’t know how much time has passed but we feel completely rested. Time flow seems slowed in this area.

September 20^th.

Before we leave the rope trick Tena casts Lucky Break. When we exit upon the crystalline terrain we hear a beautiful music. On one of the crystalline masses is a tall man playing a flute.

The piper notices Campus and announces, ‘friend or foe- I’m not alone’. Incredibly beautiful man with pointed ears bids us closer.

Eabrossi returns the instrument play and the man bids us ‘come closer to Kailius- I will teach you a song and provide food’

The area he is in is about a 30’ area in the midst of a constantly moving canyon-like landscape where reality from adjacent nodes create a tidal flow of material around us. In the distance there is a large draconic shape in the sky.

Magic is deployed to get us closer to the area Kailius occupies. He has a rapier on his hip and moves gracefully. He seems unbelieving of our presence. He doesn’t know where he is and is confused. He described other creatures we have fought and paranoia from most other travelers.

He is alone and does not know how he got here or how long he has been here. He is from Elysium, one of the goodly planes.

Our characters invite him to travel with us as our path seems to lead toward the dragon shape in the distance.

We travel on when our new companion realizes we are getting closer to the dragon in the distance.

Along the way Kailius talks about encountering dwarves who regarded him with sadness. “said I was from off the path.” We consult Arcanthorth who looks pale and nervous, he simply says “I’m Eabrossi’s manservant.”

Strange thing to say.

In the distance the dragon shape dives into the ground, crystalline debris flies in all directions  

Closer to us, crystalline worms burrow out of the ground- these creatures have a natural confusion effect. These are void worms.

Along the way Aevum is becoming more confident as our characters traverse the Ways and his sure we are becoming nearer.

We come out at a high ridge above individuals trying to avoid the dangerous fauna. The individuals medium sized, probably human half are men wearing chainmail armor or better and the other half being women wearing robes.

Our path will take us near them but they have not noticed us. The men have sinister skull symbols on them.

Arcanthorth gives a subtle word of warning to Tena. We travel down the slope and the 8 individuals notice us and react. Tena recognizes a Summon monster 5 just as 2 rhinos charges.

As this happens a large dragon burst out of the ground. One of the rhinos immediately disappears and half of the fighters attack each other.

The dragon attacks the group and ends his movement near us. The dragon is strange and riddled with void worms. Kron kills the havoc planar dragon. This kill grants Stormbreaker a bane against dragons. Kron and Aevum each take a horn and a tooth. Kron vows to add a jewel to his tattoo crown each time he defeats a dragon  

Our characters turn our attention to the other group. In the crystalline landscape we can see reflections of the group but we have lost sight of them As they have fled. 

Our characters travel onward until we come to a wall of darkness and a border in the ways. Concerning because there is a reality current flowing here as well. Aevum’s amulet activates, and an aperture opens in the darkness.

This next area still borders Elysium with some differences. We all avoid the mythic slow, our first indicator of the mythic quality of this area of the Ways.

We enter a chamber with faded murals of orc battles. The walls are scarred in this chamber that echoes with various strange noises. This location has been lost in the ways.

We are set upon by large horrific destrachan beasts with mouths for faces and orcish wrath priests and giant slayers in the distance. We defeat the destrachans and gain a mythic trial and emerge back at the solarium on the evening of September 18^th at 9 pm. The second mythic trial comes from being in two places at once (mythic achievement). 

12/01/2022 Virtuous Age Session 28: Aevum Takes the Lead in the Ways, Vrocks are Abyssal Tengu, and Little Limbo

We begin this week’s session sill traversing the Ways. Arcanthorth, having lost consciousness in the fight with the Chaos Beasts expresses fear about losing concentration. 

The area our characters are in is stale and silent- darkness surrounds our group as Tena spends a few minutes healing. We’ve been here about an hour.

From here Aevum takes the lead. As a minotaur he feels he is best to lead through the labyrinth of the Ways. His awareness brings prince Aevum and our characters to a direction with slightly better vision th Aevum concentrates on the Agamotto Temple September 13^th, the day our characters became mythic.

Eabrossi keeps time with spellcasting and another two hours will go by. At four hours Aevum is able to lead us to another bubble-like node in the Ways. Here, there is about a 30’ drop.

In this node there is a rolling hot wind with difficult terrain in most places. Where before there was deeper darkness, here the darkness is not enhanced. Tena points out his area is heavily influenced by Abyss. Pockets of poison gasses linger in low areas and tall granite buttes are common features.  

Binki spontaneously draws a wand a restores Eabrossi some Wisdom. Our characters reach a rift and steep bridge. Our characters decide to fly across and were eventually set upon by Vrocks. With great spell work and decisive strikes from Kron our characters are able to defeat one Vrock and run off the second.

It was not long after- about 20 minutes, when three Advanced Unhallowed Bodocks come at us in vicious horrible fashion. 

After the Bodocks a few more hours of travel our character begin to feel tired as the mental anguish of demonic voices echoes in our minds. Our characters know that if we stop or lower our guard something will catch us.

At twelve hours of travel our characters make it to a Ways intersection where the path could go into to border areas. The pathway is unstable but gives us two options. Aevum casts Ally across Time to ascertain the desired direction.

Arcanthorth and the other Avuems across time agree to pass through the left archway. This mystical archway leads our characters to a very small empty space. We experience a loss of time in a short distance and are roused by kindly earth elementals. They tell us we were charmed by 'the empty' and recognize the symbol of Agamotto.

The next area we enter a windy area with explosions creating rifts in the sky. Gravity and all direction is chaotic and chaging. The area is strongly connected with Limbo.

Our characters are tired, Aevum creates an extended Rope Trick for our characters to take a long rest. 

11/23/2022 Virtuous Age Session 27: Downtime On the Plane of Air, Time Travel, and Entering The Ways

We begin this week’s session with the plan of five days of downtime. The first day is a chaotic day, hastened with many callers and gift givers with Eabrossi given air elemental sheet music.

Eabrossi discovers a collection in his research with Ustra. While restricted from the Annuls she does provide Eabrossi with magical copies she thinks is worthy of sharing. She does, however; share access to gift room: the collected gifts to Fallaciter over the eons.

The Collection (she shares) is a salvaged collection of research papers from many sources from our world of antiquity. Today it would be blasphemous because does not recognize Tiamat. If fact it names: Chronus as the titan ruler of the universe and refers to our world and a goddess of the earth Gaea. The author that cites this is Tirit Konol. The Collection also contains a family tree of numerous titan-gods descending from Chronus and Gaea.

Eabrossi discovers in the Gift Room they have entries of visitors that claim to have come from the Cloud Continent and mentioned specific flying citadels that named after titan-gods.

These visitors include Echtur, male cloud giant and Isase a black giant of unknown origin but elf-like in appearance. Buriru a human and Ryn’pol and elf. (None of these names previously appear anywhere on the blog)

An’agei Wor’atay

Aevum observes Fallaciter his leadership style to learn about him. Zaigan spends time renewing his bond to his mount. Kron spends time in meditative training for Iron Will.

On the subject of ways back home: there are ways to barter for transportation to our world- but a direct route to the cloud continent: our characters fail to achieve a way to properly communicate what the ‘cloud continent’ is to our host. 

Deep in the downtime Eabrossi find a notation- from An’agei Wor’atay who seemed to be a troublesome individual to Fallaciter. The entry ends with the successful negotiation to close a portal from here on the plane of air and a flying citadel that An’agei Wor’atay arrived from. The note does not indicate the cloud continent specifically. This was about ten years ago. It was noted An’agei Wor’atay is described as a medium sized humanoid covered by a silver sheen.

When this is shared, our characters realize there are portals to our world. There are a lot of air elementals who are pacted with beings from our world. We also believe that Fallaciter could send us back.

Ralikanthae

When looking for key words Embassy, ambassadors Tena comes up with Ambassador Chraumnys a storm giant and Ambassador Osrad, a human of Bouvldia and Ambassador Orvor an Elf of the Great City. (Newest to oldest entries) Aveum believes Chraumnys and Adele were here at the same time.

Eabrossi searches for wars or conflicts on the cloud continent or maps of such. He comes across a map in the gift room and has the cloud continent on it but the map is in old king’s tongue. The gift was left here ‘so that it wouldn’t be destroyed’. This would indicate the Cloud Continent is in battle with the Evening Isles.

Ustra reveals she has a lead on Tena's father. She found an entry by using Tena's mother’s name. They have a record of her and someone else vising Faliciter castle about 85 years ago. They are on the same line indicating a bond of some kind. His name was Ralikanthae.

Eabrossi learns of a gothic planar-ship that is capable of sailing the planes, in his research on avenues to our home world. Over the years there are numerous entries of visits from this vessel however there has not been an entry for the ship in some time.

Tinold Keleme

Pergoyt of Bouvet Keep, a visited Fallaciter castle looking for Tinold Keleme, and to warn them of Keleme- (possible human, tall thin and red hair); and to be on guard against corruptions (‘sins’ in our world and to our characters) and to beware. This entry was within a year.

At the end of the fifth day Tena reveals her belief Milath Ustra is held in Citadel Coeus. Aevum gains awareness in Fallaciter’s leadership and also discovers a previous unknown ability in his weapon during downtime. (initiative bonus)

On our final day Aevum inquires about a precious metal native to the elemental plane of air. He finds an oddly shaped pearl of power 2^nd level.

An idea is brought to the group about manipulating the time flow in the Ways so our characters recover the past five days of downtime: arriving at the moment we left our home plane. Then it was proposed we arrive on the moring of Talbots death thereby providing an alaby to us being indicated in his assassination. 

Arcanthorth Vigmatto concurs time flows erratically through the Ways and it is possible for Aevum to manipulate time when / if we travel.

Arcanthorth Vigmatto takes Tena aside and says he has prayed to Agamotto and has also made notes and wants to make a confession to cleanse his soul.

On our last day, our characters travel for about an hour from Fallaciter Castle. Arcanthorth takes us to a cloudy archyway. We are followed for the first few minutes. At mist cloaked archway we can feel at least one draconic presence however our characters do not see a dragon. The arch has elven markings along the edge. Arcanthorth takes time to ready and activate the symbols. Aevum, Tena, and Eabrossi pay careful attention to Arcanthorth as he does this.

When the portal opens the space in the archway changes color with sparkles over darkness until a stone pathway materializes.

Arcanthorth and Tena lead us through everyone tied to Campus.

The first area is dominated by darkness and stale air; our voices sound hastened. It was not much longer before our characters are attacked by chaos beasts.

11/17/2022 Virtuous Age Session 26: Fallaciter Castle, Arcanthorth Vigmatto, and The Shrine to Agamotto

We begin this weeks session September 14^th joined in a circle, our characters feel a upended pulling and the sensation of flying. Some of us are shaken, however those with a fly speed feel quite at home. Gwelldar did not make the journey.

Moments later the clouds part and we see a magical tower below. 

Magic envelopes our characters and transports us to a circular room with a red jinn statue holding a trident. 

Emulating the statue is a true jinn looking down upon what looks like a human man held in magical bonds.

“If you gods are real, prove yourself now.” The jinn told the man. 

The man our characters eventually learn is Arcanthorth Vigmatto puts voice to his pleas: "Vishanti Agamotto help me now"

These words are what brings our characters into the audience chamber because when we arrived we could see various figures and races. Some, Tena noticed include people of her own race that bear her house symbol.

Arrived, our characters are briefly disorientated but we soon realize we are on the elemental plane of Air buttressed actually to the plane of water.

The janni looks surprised at us and briefly lowers his trident before regaining his composure. "Arcanthorth Vigmatto has spoken true, release his bonds immediately."

At this command there is an audible swear-word from the crowd and a dark haired individual quickly exits.

Arcanthorth is released by the sylphs who looks coyly at Tena. “I swear I’ve always donated."

Our characters arrived in a containment cylinder but are soon addressed by the jinn. "I assume your intensions are true and do not wish any one harm." 

To that we all agree and eventually The Great Fallaciter welcomes us to Fallaciter Castle.

Eabrossi properly introduces Tena as priestess of Agamotto. This comes as a great surprise as Fallaciter is excited to welcome as Agamotto a new deity.

“Prepare the dining Hall and the Orchestra!"

Fallaciter flies about in preparation and bids us to one of the castle's adjacent flying towers. His sylph attendants offer air elementals to carry us to areas of the castle. 

Our characters marvel at the splendor of the populated castle and our new environment. In the distance we even see dragons at flight. 

Our characters follow Fallaciter who talks incessantly and not just to us but also to other citizens some near, some far and out of conventional ear-shot. 

We and about a dozen others fly into a chamber where our characters see more slylph servants and even briefly see his wife.

We feel honored as we are treated very well. Our characters are given time- two hours to clean and compose ourselves.

But before we could do anything Arcanthorth knocks and wishes to speak to Tena.

Our characters learn Arcanthorth originates from the Evening Isles and a member of group of scholars that do magical research and who works on the North East Continent.

He has been here for a couple of weeks.

He and and a man named Theophrastus came here looking for information. Arcanthorth, an arcanist, claims foul play and and when captured claimed his mission was one of faith. A faith that served his self interest, but a faith that would also appreciate his life-work. So when Arcanthorth’s claim of faith was questioned, and proof was ultimately demanded.

Arcanthorth claims to have done things in Agamotto’s name and in a sense has been his calling in magical research and collection. 

Information he was gathering was in regards to Rilenia. She was a wizard-expert in his area of expertise and he came to see if the line of elementals that Rilena was aligned with- was located here.

Arcanthorth was hoping to question individuals familiar with that time in history. Rilenia was one of the elves that worked on the Ways. Theophrastus was a competing individual.

During our two hours Tena preaches to Arcanthorth the ways of Vishanti Agamotto.

During this time Tena also concludes Fallaciter is a progenitor of Tena's Sylph tribe.

We learn Campus is from here and that Binki was born on the plane of air. 

Our characters learn there is no ruler of the plane of air, but there are city-states. And that elementals have deeper ways of communication and will change their names at will.

During this brief respite Aveum seeks to finish his weapon in his extradimensional repository. During so, Aveum receives a vision as he finishes the weapon of his mother laying in a pool of water, she is unmoving and seemingly giant sized. Aevum completes his +1 keen falchion.

Also during this time, Tena uses mythic power to awaken the ability for Binki to use a wand of healing on Kron. It works but in combat situations a confusion could interfere the process.

A sylph arrives and leads us out, it is here when Campus reunites with Zaigan and again our characters witness a lot of activity.

At the ground floor of Fallaciter Castle our characters are seated at a great table as guests of honor. Many others seated here with Fallaciter to witness the novelty of a new religion. Arcanthorth is also seated with us.

Fallaciter keeps banter light during dinner before the business at hand. We are also treated to an air elemental orchestra- which is splended, emotional, and breathtaking. Whirls and winds create beautiful music with wind instruments that threaten to overfill our characters with emotion.

Various scribes visit each of us and ask us questions to be recorded in The Great Book. Fallaciter likes to document all great deeds, visitors and occurrences. Our arrival is a great ‘mythic’ event.

Almost an hour goes by eating, drinking and socializing.

A sylph woman approaches Tena and introduces herself as Ustra. She is a member of Tena’s tribe. Ustra vows to add Tena’s name to the Annuls and offers to find Tena’s father in the Annuls. She comes to Tena for aid however. She says her daughter Milath Ustra is on our world and in a titan’s castle, a flying citadel. All she has is the name Coeus. 

We have heard that name and eventually we learn Adele also had come here and was more or less treated with the same honors as us.

Eventually Tena is given a moment to preach to the dinner party and have her words recorded by the scribes. She entertains all questions including Fallaciter who is an eager listener.

Eventually he orders a shrine erected to Agamotto and with a ceremony there will be a name day ceremony on the morrow. 

Fallaciter speaks with Kron and gives him a warning about Stormbreaker and not to use it to kill a unique individual. That which there is only one. 

Our characters meet many individuals including the entire elemental orchestra. Almost all of them name them as "of Fallaciter". Our characters also see Fallaciter’s wife organizing the gathering.

Fallaciter identifies Aevum and Zaigan’s bond and probes their relationship with some questions. He then makes the Campus connection. Now the quality of this event has multiplied. Fallaciter asks if Zaigan would honor him with Campus bearing Fallaciter’s royal symbol- the castle. Zaigan agrees. 

Ambrosia is served and by the end of the dinner our characters realize we have all de-aged one-year and permanently gain an ability point. 

After that we don’t remember anything and wake in our guest chambers. We are not hung over but it is the day after the most powerful drink known by the gods. We also gain our second mythic tier.

When our characters wake it is September 15^th – Naming day at The Great Temple.

We are summoned for the morning meal at the ground floor where there are vastly more individuals taking morning meal and curious about the miracle yesterday.

After breakfast Eabrossi digs out the Adele books and searches for a proper song for the naming ceremony for Agamotto’s shrine. Kron upgrades Stormbreaker to a +2 and Zaigan takes campus for exercise. Aevum begins the process of crafting a clockwork device and Tena spends the day supervising the construction of the shrine throughout the day. 

Later that night at the planar Temple we hear music signaling the beginning of the ceremony. Unique togas are brought to us before our characters are led up at the top ring of the tower. Scores of individual attendees are either standing or flying around the area.

Our charcters fly out where above and below an adjacent tower are blue disc shaped auras and lights. We enter a long magical hall lined with countless statues, fountains and shrines to the gods of the multiverse. Our characters are yet in another place.

Mephits carry in pieces of the shrine into the great hall where Fallaciter anoints each piece from the harmful effects of aging.

Playing in the background is an Adele song Eabrossi recognizes as one of her earlier masterpieces- one he now hears in its entirety.

Tena is pleased to see the shrine is given a place of prominence. Aevum vocalizes a prayer to Agamotto at success against the plague of sin on his world. Kron finds the shrine to Stronmaus and presents Stormbreaker activates mythic power and awakens the shrine.

The locals here refer to Kron as Troll King a honor he takes to heart and has a tattoo of a crown placed there by an artesian by the end of the night.

After the ceremony our characters decide to look for Arcanthorth. We eventually find him with all his equipment. He wanted to be sure he was square with everyone before he left for his home plane. Tena asks how Arcanthorth intends to return home. He mentions the Ways- the elven ‘laylines’ of traveling.

We end this week’s session agreeing to spend 5 days of downtime (End September 19th): researching with Ustra. Finding alternative routes to our world that does not involve the Ways and not creating extra travel days. We are also interested in finding direct transport to the cloud continent.

In the five days Tena retrains her dual path feat, Kron trains for Iron Will and completes another 1hp. Aevum retrains a feat. Eabrossi will spend the days in the library with Ustra. 

11/10/2022 Virtuous Age Session 25: Green Soup, You Are Under Arrest, and Polurn Falls

We pick up after our battle with the werewolf gnolls and the demonic minotaurs on the evening of September 13^th.

Our characters recover four +1 scorpion whips, two +1 short swords, one +1 scimitar and one +1 long sword. These blades bear markings akin to an organized guard or unit and were carried by the gnolls.

A dozen masterwork javelins and eight masterwork light steel shields. Four cloaks of resistance +1 (Butch) and two oils of invisibility (Butch). Four potions of barkskin +2 (Kron and Rob),

Even party Split: 20 potions of CLW, 10 potions of CMW, 5 potions of pass with out a trace, 5 potions of protection from good, 10 potions of remove fear, 10 potions of shield of faith +2, 15 alchemist fire, 5 tangleburn bags, 20 tanglefoot bags, 5 tanglefoot bundles. 20 thunderstones. +1 great axe (Polurn). Two rings of resistance +1 (Russ/Campus). Two 10 lbs bags of viridium, similar to obsidian but tainted and toxic.

Added to Party Fund:

Four +1 scorpion whips 2,305 gp ea; two +1 short swords 2,310 gp ea; +1 scimitar 2,315 gp; +1 long sword 2,315 gp; 3 cloaks of resistance +1 1,000 gp.

Everything else- the masterwork items we leave behind and destroy the viridium.    

It is close to the midnight hour as we pick up and begin the trail again. Pairing up again our characters begin to experience an increase in heat and humidity. Gwelldar rides on Zaigan's mount, Eabrossi partners with Tena and Polurn walks with Kron.

We travel for a time and begin to notice large gorilla prints were the path ends and the climb out of the rift begins. Our characters feel eyes upon us. Stepping out in front of us is a grillion who points up and steps back.

Zaigan and Tena fly up to investigate while the rest of us take cover. After a few minutes Zaigan and Tena see Rob’s uncle’s dragon terrorizing the area with flybys. These two fly back and report.

We decide to look around for a place to rest our characters eventually find an old single level building and a barn in the back. Two individuals ride out on horses, they don’t seem to see us. The two riders meander in our direction then head off toward the cavern wall. They had armor and substantial blades on their backs. They soon pass out of sight.

Zaigan suggests our characters keep looking for shelter. Not long after we come to a grain silo that seems ideal. We set up a rotation of watches. On Kron’s watch the dragon performs a flyby. This action incites the animals in the area. This also includes Kron who set a new long distance personal record in his frightened state

Our characters awaken and by 11 am September 14^th. It is hot and humid, there is a mist and eventually a green mossy substance begins to settle upon everything.

The next four hours are slow going but eventually we step out of the Rift, the difference in air quality is immense. On the Steppes it is clearer and much cooler. Our characters hear voices. This is a common passthrough area so the voices hailing us is not uncommon. There are wagons and a number of individuals.

Then one of us hear “I think that’s them.” Scattered about the area is a horrendous harry giant “Blisters” and two females. One wearing some sort of hide armor and an owl. A halfling- he was the one who challenged us “Identify yourselves.” He has a wand. 

There is maybe another human with daggers and no visible armor. This one does not look special at all. Two individuals in breastplate one male and one female armor with bows and swords. They have weapons that bear the same symbol that marked the weapons from last nights encounter. There is another human.

aberrant giant

Erabrosi introduces himself and states our travel intentions. The lady in the Breastplate states clearly. “Prince Aevum you are wanted in the conspiracy and murder of Talbot.” The halfling states wryly, “Looks like you are under arrest.”

Human woman Sharroa Diviri, a wererat conjurer, Hellknight Signifier, aberrant giant, a halfling Arcane Artillerist, a woman Alviana Shadowsworn, and the mysterious Exander Runethorn. 

They completely neutralize Kron in the first few seconds and keep most everyone grappled with black tentacles. Tena retreats back into the soupy climates of the cliffs as Aevum similarly takes defensive actions. A wall of fire further complicated things before ultimately Polurn falls and Kron succumbs to a dominate person. 

Tena cast a spell and we are magically transported away in cliff-hanger fashion. 

10/27/2022 Virtuous Age Session 24: Worgs, Werewolf gnolls and demonic minotaurs

We pick up at around 8 pm on September 13^th in the hill cave of Alrog after gaining our 7^th character level.

As we prepares to move on after our long rest, Alrog exits the cave for a morning routine. Outside it is still raining and when we leave Alrog acknowledges the Prince Aevum with respect and watches us depart- anxious to work off some aggression.

Our characters travel into the rainy evening and into the gloom. Returning to the common path out of the Rift our characters travel without any light. Those of our party without darkvision partner up with individuals capable of darkvision. Gwelldar rides on Zaigan's mount, Eabrossi partners with Tena and Polurn walks with Kron.

Some of us notice a change in the area and find tracks leading away from Laketown. After a time our characters find a location with many prints where mayhap an ambush could be made. We find giant boots, 8 gnoll prints, as well as trail markings higher up indicating flying minotaurs. Portents as to what was to come... 

A group of individuals were waiting here for a time and seem to have given up the wait.

Not much further the foot trail ends, here the area becomes wild and unkept. The wind also picks up in the misty night as we enter an area of old structures and a trio of aggressive worgs. These creatures bayed calling attention to our battle. 

Kron kills one as Aevum’s slow spell spooks the remaining two worgs and they flee. Moments after the slow effect expires the two worgs return but this time around a trio of humanoid flying shapes begin to materialize in the mist. Flying demon minotaurs!

These flying minotaurs come in burdened with invisible werewolf gnolls. They deposit them onto the battle field. Round by round these demonic minotaurs would bring more werewolf gnolls.

Our characters defeated the worgs, two demon- minotaurs and the werewolf gnolls.

We end this weeks session before our characters are able to search our attackers.