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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pour" data-source="post: 6127964" data-attributes="member: 59411">After so many questions and too few answers regarding the dead ship, fused alien corpse, and strange telescopic device, the warlock decided to ask the cadaver some questions. She cast a necromantic ritual and reanimated the elephantine creature (making the necessary Arcana check to allow for three questions). It 'spoke' in a mixture of psionics and "whale songs" from several desiccated blowholes, which spewed clouds of dead skin particles with each usage (thought that was a nice detail hehe).While difficult to narrow questions down to just three, the warlock managed to learn the aliens, which called themselves the Ibha Varana, were in fact a civilization of hunters which used the device, the woven ceiling, and a compass (found just prior by the ardent) to snare the remnants of gods, demons, angels, and spirits who survived the Yth. Using planetary spheres, the telescopic device could be activated and used to snare beings from any point in the universe (with the proper combination of sigils and planets as described last play report) and deposited into something called an isochron crystal. The crystals surrounded them in hidden antechambers. No telling what could still be trapped within them, if the Exgod hadn’t gotten to them first.There was a real vested interest throughout the questioning and just about every party member offered up good suggestions on what to ask. Three questions, which I initially thought was a lot, turned out to only fuel the curiosity and add to the mystery (go figure, revealing more actually enriching the strangeness and curiosity of the whole place). They were enough to convince the archdruid not to summon forth his patron. In fact, the ardent linked minds with the archdruid and scryed the World Tree for good measure (normally impossible, but with this miraculous technology and a good check very possible). Yggdrasil had taken the form of a giant manta ray made of petrified wood, seeding the universe as it sailed, and looked content. Though he desperately desired the old spirit's council, the archdruid was at least heartened by evidence of his safety.Rereading my play reports, I'm also struck by just how much the party uses rituals. I've read on these forums countless times how groups don't even touch the stuff, but our playgroup loves and relies on them.Spurred by the quest for knowledge, the psion reached into what we like to call her 'forbidden knowledge' for more answers on the Ibha Varana. Previously, the psion came into contact with a greasy, ochre spheroid which turned out to be a protrusion of Yog-Sothoth in time/space. She was left comatose and it took the most powerful psion in the setting, her father, to twice-bend time in order to rescue her. He placed a powerful mental block afterward, however stored in the deep recesses behind that psychic wall lies the answers to untold questions, memory of caressing the infinite knowledge of the Outer God. Unfortunately, dipping into those memories risks the unknown, particularly when Yog-Sothoth is concerned.The psion learned that the Ibha Varana were immense psionists and used a form of crystal technology native to their planet to extend their lives  and philosophical conversations for millions of years at a time. They would sit for ages, conversing through constant 'songs' which also had a hypnotic property (the undead whistling seemed to have lost its potency). During even one congregation, whole epochs of their planet would pass, civilizations of lesser, simian species rise and fall, and in fact many built themselves around the Ibha Varana, so entranced with their great conversations- tending to the unmoving giants' every need, be it washing, cooling, grooming, feeding. Through great prescience, the Ibha Varana were able to predict the arrival of the Yth 65 million years before it occurred, and used that time to grow vast ships of crystal, marble, and metal circuitry. What they could not anticipate was their dependency on their planet and the crystals their race had evolved to use. After a time, new crystals were needed and a food source as abundant as the crops of their world. They turned increasingly savage, and the wisest of them feared, before long, they would devolve into short-lived walking mammoths. Though the matter of food was easily remedied by raiding verdant worlds (and eating the inhabitants if necessary), they did not solve the crystal dilemma until they realized by harnessing divinity and power of broken gods and scattered, weakened spirits that they could emulate the life-and-wisdom-expanding affects of their native crystals. Yet after countless centuries of hunting, they finally encountered an entity not quite ready to be deposited into an isochron crystal, the venomous Lyth (previously encountered). She slew the operator (the one now animated) and led to the destruction of the entire race.But the price for such knowledge (a failed save by the psion) was a translucent, ochre orb appearing in the center of the chamber. Thanks to keen perception skills, the assassin noticed the orb first and did EVERYTHING in his power to distract and direct his love, the psion, from registering its arrival. Remember, should she remember too much of her ordeal with Yog-Sothoth, she could lose herself again (never mind her hope being all that prevented a portal to the Abyss from opening in her chest).He successfully exited the chamber with her (the party has two portal guns, which are very, very handy), and most others followed. Though warned repeatedly, the swordmage was slow to depart. His Arcana check revealed a certain truth, that the orb was the gateway to infinite knowledge. The character always had a dark side, including a xenophobic alternate personality that wanted nothing more than to wipe Creation of all its humans. His demon lord side certainly wasn’t an improvement. Accepting the risk, he grabbed the orb.I was torn after all the warnings, all the risk, both in and out of character, that the player went for it. Part of me loved how adventurous he was, and for that I wanted to reward him. However, the other half of me knew he’d more or less accepted the risk, whatever it might be, for a shot at this infinite knowledge. This had resulted in frying the brain of our psion, previously, and even his demonic nature did him no good against the Lovecraftian price of temptation over forbidden lore. Though I promised no save or dies, I kept coming back to it as I made my decision. Ultimately, I ran the save versus death like a sort of save-based skill challenge. He needed three successes before three failures. Natural 20s would count as 2 successes, and natural 1s count as 2 failures. He rolled a 3 and a 1.The protective swordmage, the secret demon lord, the emperor of the eladrin was instantaneously ripped out of space/time and into the infinite embrace of The Dweller on the Threshold. He was dead. And the backlash was one of shock, blame, but ultimately resignation and a newfound wariness amongst his contemporaries. The party reconvened in the halls and began searching out for the isochron crystals, hoping to garner, at the least, knowledge which might aid them in combating Gabriel and finding planetary spheres enough to pass the archway. Discovering some new divinities, allies perhaps, couldn’t hurt, either. And the psion, almost fearing what had transpired, decided not to delve too deeply on the ‘how’ of the swordmage’s death.I spoke with the swordmage in private messages and luckily for me he’s an easy-going and game-oriented guy. Despite losing a character he’d played for four years, he was gracious, eager, and had some exciting alternate character concepts already lined up. Thank goodness some players actually take the reality of character death, even in Epic, seriously. It can happen. He decided on a very intriguing new character and went to go build the sheet while the rest of us continued.The psion’s player also remarked how much he liked the risk of this ‘infinite’ knowledge, Yog-Sothoth stalking her to get back into reality. Combined with the Abyssal portal in the psion’s chest, I think we’ve created a really entertaining, allegorical, and important couple of dynamics for the character moving ahead. It’s more for the DM to tie into goings on in the endgame, at least, hehe.Out in the hall whilst the swordmage perished, the assassin has examined two sets of ancient doors crafted of a strange, black metal in the likeness of deformed heads and embracing bodies. His keen senses discerned, in actuality, only one was metal. The other was a dormant black pudding fit into the threshold in a similar likeness. He immediately withdrew, and I wonder if part of that was for the fact A. The swordmage had just died from touching something and B. When this playgroup went through the 1e Tomb of Horrors, his Halfling touched a curtain which immediately melted his face off and killed him without even a save. Sometimes you have to play on those expectations, using what you know about a character and a player.The angel and our companion druid (an awakened wolf chosen by the Primal Spirit of the Hunt to be one of his Celestial Pack in the ceaseless stalking of all Yth, and a fellow member of the archdruid’s Circle of Ten) ultimately tracked this ooze when, while their backs were turned on the other door, it skulked off in a very horror movie ‘uh oh’ realization. They tracked it back to a whole nest of the black, cancerous blobs. True to old school sensibilities, I peppered the blobs with treasure, items left over from a few dead gods, angels, and demons, however the very shrewd angel was not tempted. She sealed the oozes away with liberal use of her ice powers after repositioning some of the ship’s paneling. The angel’s player is always good to play the character before his own wants, even though there were some nice items in that mess which he knew about (two artifacts among them). The angel had only one objective here, the reacquisition of the Gate (see earlier session notes). She already questioned the party’s preoccupation with the telescopic device and the crystals, but given there was no return tile to the watchtower, nor any other open avenues, she tolerated the exploration for what it might bring her sooner rather than later.The warlock, risking the northern doors into a smaller chamber, found evidence of a failed ritual circle laired with three spells. Two were meant for detection and enervation, but the third was… explosive runes. POWERFUL explosive runes, linked to no less than 49 other instances of explosive runes, enough to scour any last trace of life from this entire sublevel, or ship, whichever it turned out to be (the ardent deduces the latter, the Ibha Varana ship enveloped by the Siege). The warlock thankfully defused the five runes in the circle, though failed one check and used a reroll ability provided by the aura of the psion representative of the hope and possibility she brings as Oversoul. It worked, thankfully. Though they didn’t realize it, had the explosive runes been triggered, I was prepared to deal 46d10 fire damage or half on a miss with a successful trap attack. Some would have avoided it, perhaps, or returned through destiny features, but I know the players want to save those for the actual confrontation with the Exgod (wisely so).The side walls, both of which emanated intense divine power, had been gouged into, but with nothing but the sepulchral mineral which made the ship seem so tomblike to show for it. She correctly guessed that they had been seeking isochron crystals, and whatever was held inside of them, but that ‘hidden’ meant somewhere between dimensions, in a place that could not simply be excavated. The ardent was quick to point out that, despite the best efforts of the Exgod’s underlings (the ritual circles were good, but not godly, nor the warlock’s level of expertise) he had not uncovered the vestiges. Well, well, thought the party, an advantage.Remembering the nature of the Ibha Varana, the psion reached out with psionics and song (throughout the campaign she has delivered many of her powers and utilities through song, and even spent resources on improving a homebrew Performance skill). The ardent assisted, and together they summoned forth quartz control panels not unlike the one on the telescopic device, save the imprints were not of squid hands, but alien snouts. Further attempts to interface with the ship proved fruitless. They were missing a biological component, which the archdruid stepped up and attempted to provide. An exciting new precedent was set for his wildshape when, with a successful Nature check, he was able to  transform into another race, specifically an alien one he’d encountered several times before, another ‘psionic singer’. Through his newfound psychic song, combined with the support of the more experienced psychics, and the deft thieving of the assassin to ‘help along’ the funny, mechanical bits as they revealed themselves behind the paneling, the party unlocked the isochron chambers.Revealed were two stunning feminine beings, Amazonian and around fourteen feet a piece, in perfect suspended animation behind the planes of giant crystals. One was clearly a goddess with a nature portfolio, while the other, from tell of the black plate and wicked-looking axe, was more aligned to war. Names were lightly etched in the crystals, Karana and Kishar respectively.Talk of course turned to whether or not the presumed goddesses should be set free. There were clear advantages and disadvantages. Ultimately, they decided to free Karana, especially since in recent campaign history the weakened former goddess of nature had been destroyed, her essence used to fuel the birth of a greater goddess with dubious benefits. This was his chance to restore a little balance to the star system and regain a powerful natural force.She was, as you can imagine, disoriented, but quickly gained a sense of things thanks to the party and psychic imparting of knowledge. She remarked feeling so small, so finite, and so stupid for the lack of her typical omniscience. The angel took it upon herself to make a quip about fitting right in ‘with the rest of these stupid mortals’ and was immediately bitch slapped across the ship as an auto-hit. Karana was diminished, but not her pride and sense of importance.That was a sobering moment, I realized just afterward, even as Karana stood to full height and warned the servitor (meaning angel) to mind herself with the rumble of thunder and the flash of lightning. Since the angel’s inception in a different campaign set in the same setting, she was curt, honest, oblivious to social moray, and often rude. It’s a fun quirk that she’s ported over into this game, but here I felt it had to be met with an immediate consequence. You don’t just stand there and insult a goddess, no matter her state.Tensions eased back down, however, as the archdruid appealed to her on a number of levels. She obviously felt a connection for his strong ties with primal power, and also with our ardent, warlock, and yes even the angel (the first is a goddess in the process of reconstituting, the other two still kind of incubating). She agreed to help defeat the Exgod and battle the Yth, encouraged that her powers could return to her and that, despite the destruction of her native world, there would be a place for her in this one.So the party is left to decide what to do about Kishar and the other, yet unseen, entities trapped in isochron crystals. The party has an impressive advantage moving ahead if they can garner a force of angry vestiges by their sides. And the Exgod, as of now, is none the wiser. Not only was he unable to access any of the crystals (his lack of psionics and primal power has proven a detriment), he has no way of scrying them thanks to one magic item on the warlock’s person.I should note, that little trinket has been saving the party a LOT of grief, namely an amulet which shields from all forms of scrying. The Exgod is not a fool, nor is he blind, but the warlock forces a bit of both on him at the moment. The group has had a very free reign of the Siege thus far, despite the abominations summoned by the imps. The only time this wasn’t true was when the warlock, swordmage, and assassin went to treat with Orcus, leaving the rest open to scrying. Now what, if anything, the Exgod might have learned or seen during that time remains to be seen, but it was a relatively small window.</blockquote>

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