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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Andrew Moreton" data-source="post: 8061291" data-attributes="member: 6920268">The group set of to attack the Tower of Wax and then got distracted by talking. As they got near the tower the projection of the Savant addressed them, and started trying to get them to talk it was just stalling and trying to learn about them, when Manuel had an attack of honesty and told them they were trying to see which worlds they could save........The Savant immediatly started talking to it's master and also talking to the group. it wanted to avoid a fight and was now willing to lose the tower as long as it could come up with a long term plan. Discussion went back and forth Nevla and William wanted to just attack the tower, while Manuel argued that they did not yet know what was going on and may want to talk to deal with the 'Ancient One' which the Savant was presenting itself as .  They got a bit of information and as a gesture of 'good faith' the 'ancient one' told them about  the ancient boat elsewhere on Mavisha , it also lied a lot. They investigated the tower and decided it was weird , possibly dangerous and weeks or months away from completion so eventually Manuel won out and they decided to leave it for now and look at the ancient boat.  The Savant was relieved it was on the verge of being ordered to attack by it's master and now it had time to come up with  a better plan.I was suprised by all of this I expected the talking to get nowhere and violence to start.  However I think William and Nevla's players were somewhat metagaming in their assumption of hostility and I am very tempted to change the set up here to something more complicated.  I may go with the master aboleth being the same but more powerful while replacing it's minions with surviving slaves  from the underdark , which will make choices more difficult for the pc's. I have not decided yet but overall I think I am going to mess with their expectations a bit.Still concerned about the wax tower they investigated the ancient boat and indeed were surprised to discover that it belonged to the actual ancients,. The tons of Gold treasure they largely ignored, the ancient gold plate navigation device was interesting but did not work in the current cosmology. The undead Orc from the past was more interesting and he confirmed some information about the Shining Legion and they were able to confirm to him that his people had saved the world for ten thousand years or so which they considered to be a good job, he was releived and asked them to destroy the mirror that was trapping his soul. They found it amid Hermit crabs wearing golden armour from legionares as it was easier to find than a good shell. Carefully they unwrapped it and then Ulvaar hit it with an Adamantine axe several times breaking it. Then they saw the Orc's ghost walking north and told him he needed to catch the turtle before pointing it out to him and wishing him luck.Around this time the rescued child they believe to be an incarnation of Ashima-shimtu asked about the 'Ancient one' apparently she had tried to read the childs mind and everyone elses and the child had been able to overhear her argueing with a master who wanted to control or kill everyone. They made a note of this and Manuel considered this evidence that diplomacy was worthwhile although they may have to kill whatever is in charge and then make a deal with any survivors.They then debated going to Shabboath or trying other nearby planes first, they are split between kill it all with fire and talk , and then shoot it if it is hostile but agree they need to sort out Shabboath before deciding if they can use it or Mavisha . In the end they decided to go elswhere first. North of them was another watery world (replacing the southern half of Amrou) which had s fortified island in the middle defended by modern warships. From what they had heard and seen waves of undead formed at the edges of the world at random intervals and attacked the fortress. They decided to Wind-Walk to the fortress and then make a polite and cautious approach.As they approached a major undead attack was underway with undead in boats and walking across the sea floor, the warships were shooting at them and they decided they were smaller versions of the new Dreadnoughts Tinker had designed , more advanced than anything in service back home, they also had extensive high angle AA weapons . Manning the walls of the fortress besides heavy gun mounts were red-shirted soldiers and as an attack lead by several more powerful undead threatened to breach the wall they saw a young women wearing a crown unleash powerful sorcery against the undead. William noticed she was accompanied or possessed by the ghosts of several regal women, and concluded she was drawing her power in the same manner as him.  They picked out another fairly strong undead attack force and made their arrival in the middle of the undead, using high level magic and combat abilities to wipe out a bunch of the attackers to prove their bona-fides as possible freinds.With the undead dispersed (I did not run the fight it was a bunch of CR2-9 Undead so they just got dramatically annihlated without ever having stats) the soldiers on the wall called down to them and provided ropes to climb up, as a ward over the walls dispelled flying magic. They remained at the wall until a staff officer arrived to escort them to a meeting with the Queen and senior officials. Inside the fortress they saw well built but cramped barracks like buildings holding soldiers and civilians, a church with several clerics casting create food spells, some mechanical workshops and several armouries. The palace was just a very nice townhouse probably a Governors mansion in the past. They were politely asked to leave weapons outside and they agreed if they could leave people with the weapons which was agreed Manuel and Padme stayed outside, Manuel passing the time by talking to local artificers , his opinion was they were generally technically superior but without the brilliant Tinker Oddcog inventions and intergrated magic.Inside a herald took the titles of the Pc's for announcemant , Queen Nevla the first of Risur, Duke William Champion of the Unseen court and lord of the coastal bayou, and Duke Ulvaar King under the Anthras Mountains. The Locals were introduced as Queen Elizebeth the Third, Gloriana and empress.  Apparently there was only one empire worth considering. She was a teenager who looked exhausted and left most of the meeting to her advisors, apparently the title Eternal Gloriana was not an empty title and she could channel the powers of her predecessors but she lacked the strength to do so for long .  The players explained why they were here and their plan to save their world and hopefully others from the Gyre. The locals were interested and told their story , their empire had slowly united the civilised states of their world and then brought the less civilised areas under control then they encountered a barbarian kingdom ruled by mage-priests who practiced large scale human sacrifice and immediatly invaded. The leader of this kingdom carried out a great necromantic ritual which resulted in the world being overrun by undead. The Empire fought but this last stronghold was under siege when the sun went out and they ended up in the Gyre. The players agree that at the least they will try and evacuate the people here to another world they are saving but before a final decision they need to assess the planes nature. It is agreed they will meet with the Royal Astrologer and the Queen who will be able to channel a predecessor who is an expert on these matters.  The group spends the night in a repurposed officers quarters were they can maintain their own security.The next day they meet and discover that this plane is Water and Earth and that it;s essential nature is 'Civilisation triumphant'  which they think is excellent, after some time they are fairly certain that the undead curse will either be broken or restricted to this world and agree with the locals that a proper effort at the ritual site would break it , so if necessary they will provide flying ships and their own high level help to break the ritual.  They may still depending on their final choices need to evacuate these people to a world they can use  and given the danger here consider using the Coal Tongue , the Storage picture and the Absurdist web to evacuate people to Av .   The locals agree to provide a liason officer, repairs and if necessary can provide some troops to fight the Pirates.They also share what they know about local planes. Shabboath they probed but after several sleeping soldiers tried to leave the camp they retreated in the face of Unknown mind control, the salt wastes of Amrou to the north are safe but of no interest and none of the other local planes seem to have anything of interest to them, except for Dunkellveiss which as a visiting dwarf from Risur and Beer although that Beer cannot be transported.The players agree to return and continue their planar sweep. Amrou is indeed a salt waste, but William catches a pickpocketing goblin mummy Sargon of Uggat, whose father was the cupbearer of Ur-Zubaba,. They find him an interesting conversationalist and quite like his world, they agree to bring him back a bunch of gold from Mavisha and place his world on their list of worlds under consideration. He also enthused about his recent visitor Rock Rackus! Much to the annoyance of William , Manuel was pleased to here Rock was around but sad he had been missed he is after all a Rock Rackus! fan. They are uncertain about the world but appreciate it's properties and offer to move Sargon of Uggat, whose father was the cupbearer of Ur-Zubaba, if they don't choose the world but he insists he stay here to protect his ancestral lands.From there they moved to Dunkelveiss, the bearded Eagles impressed all, the running beer impressed Ulvaar, as did Ecanthia the Dwarven scholar and bard whose family they had kept running into. She was a picture of dwarven beauty and accompanied by a snowy white ermine which was also a scholar although with an emphasis on history rather than the arcane sciences, it turns out the Lightning Weasel had read some of her essay's. The rest of the team left the 2 dwarves to get aquainted. The dwarves stood around embarrassed and discussed dwarven history.Seeing that things moved slowly with dwarves the others returned and began to study the plane, they discovered it's natural properties and thought it would be useful and may also cheer up all those terminally depressed dwarves in Drakr and make the world better plus Father Thunder would owe them one. Discovering the pirates had stolen the axes added one more thing to their list of reasons to kill the pirates. After a little time they moved on accompanied by Ecanthia heading for the plane of Killer mists. Wilanir, they were disconcerted that their seeing through fog effects did not work, and started to investigate the ruins when they saw an incorporeal dragon maw drain a deer of blood. They debated challanging him or keeping searching and settled on a challange in case their search took them to his horde and triggerred a fight. As they called out to him the mist shouted out "It' not my fault " and ran away.</blockquote>

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