ZEITGEIST Tizbiz Zeitgeist Campaign

[Lylandra]

Session 42 - through fire and ice

We move to the ground level of the Dragon tower and find several giant runes carved into the ice. We examine them closely and understand that they were used for ancient meditation practices, but little more. Glad that we haven't accidentally stumbled into an ancient ritual site, we move on to the last tower.

On the ground level, we come across some dwarf skeletons who seemed to have found a refuge here. From their looks, we guess that these guys might have been slaves who managed to escape and hid inside the tower. Still they weren't able to escape this hell-hole of a city and died in their hideout. We spot a sleeping female giant on the upper level and agree to leave her be.

As we're pretty sure to have searched all of the towers by now with no Khangitche in sight, we decide to look for him in the places we've not been in yet: The Lich's icy prison and the place where they keep all the other prisoners.

So we move deeper into the gorge past the three towers and reach an icy lake with a connecting waterfall. We approach carefully and find another set of runes that's supposed to suppress frost-resistance magic. Which means that diving through the lake is very much off-limits.

(Not that we were in the mood to take an icy bath anyway)

We cautiously move around the lake and climb the slippery giant stairway behind the icy waters. Finally we spot caves with bars that serve as holding cells for the prisoners. All of them are illuminated in the same strange, blue, calming light from several Wayfarer's Lanterns. We silently take out the giant guard that watches the prison area and drag her into the Absurdist's Web.

Then we search for our missing Kvarty Gorbatiy and find him in one of the icy prison cells. The dwarf sniper is quite surprised to see us in this place at the icy end of the world, but he's also happy to see our friendly, familiar faces. We free him with a fire spell, melting his prison bars with the fire of Srasama. He's also very happy to see that we found his trusted rifle and even happier when we give it back to him.

Fondling the weapon with an earnest smile on his face, Kvarty tells us that he had been treasure hunting down these rifts only to be overwhelmed by the giants and locked up here. He had been working on an escape plan ever since, but those damn blue lights did make his head quite muddy. We explain that these Lanterns are being manufactured by the Obs, which only intensifies Kvarty's negative stance towards the conspirators.

We ask him a bit about Reason and Kvarty explains that this beauty was a custom-made bone rifle that has served him for a long time. He promises to tell us more about the process behind its creation as soon as we're all out of here. In reverse, we tell him about our mission to find the “undead mage” sealed away in ice. Kvarty doesn't know too much about this one, but he heard the “human mage” and the “giant chief” talk about better not getting too close to that frozen creep.

Margit and us discuss on how to proceed from now on. We agree that freeing the prisoners and getting them to safety will have priority, even if they are not part of our mission. Lich won't run away, we say, and have Kvarty's laughs on our side. Regarding the giants, Auryn insists that massacring an entire clan of giants wouldn't feel right at all, especially if they would most likely be simple mercenaries hired by the Obs.

“Think about it this way”, she says “at worst, this might be the giant's original home. The people of the camp near Mirsk told us that the giants are nomadic people, so maybe they returned to their home and made a deal with the Obs. They are savage, yes, but does that justify that us foreigners come to annihilate them? Simply because they're in the way?”

“You do know that they are complicit in the Obscurati's meddling here? Which includes experimenting on those poor prisoners.” Carlyle adds.

Auryn agrees that these giants are most likely not good people, but so were the industrialists in Flint and we surely didn't kill them either. To avoid bloodshed, she suggests that we might challenge the Khangitche to a duel and make him and his tribe let us do whatever we wish to. After all, the giants have no reason to keep the prisoners (they were brought here by the Obs), so a simple demonstration of strength might be enough to make them respect us.

Carlyle agrees that this is a valid plan, but the Khangitche might just ignore all sense of honor and order his people to attack us with full force. Because what would we know about the frost giants' culture anyway? He also agrees that if those giants are mercenaries, then they won't be overly loyal to the Obs. So maybe they might be easily bribed into making way. We also discuss using a disguise to poise as Obs reinforcements who are being sent to replace the two researchers, but see that we don't know enough about the Obs' plans to make this work seamlessly.

Then we got a flash of insight as we remember that we got one Obscurati henchman in our web that might just provide us with enough info to make either plan work. So we retreat to Kvarty's cell and carefully pull Baldur out of the Absurdist's web. We gag him first and explain our situation to the mage. Under the premise that we'll treat him fairly, he agrees to tell us more about the giants and the Khangitche Odul Chuvan.

Confronted with our plan for a challenge, Baldur agrees that this might work and he'd also agree to approach the Khangitche with our challenge, if we promise to defend him should things go south. We are positively surprised that our very first plan might just work, but Carlyle is not so easily convinced as he fears that the Obs' security wizard isn't simply trying to make us run into a deadly trap. Especially if he is both a coward and playing the pivotal role in said challenge.

So Auryn and Carlyle go a bit back and forth about whether or not to follow through with their plan until Auryn lowers her head and sighs uneasily.

“Then I'll make him do my bidding. As you already guessed, my powers are strong enough to force my will upon others.”

As Carlyle doesn't object, she then turns to Baldur and asks him for his consent in her domination while Auryn promises to release him once the Khangitche issue is settled.

(mind control is generally still a deep red flag for her. But Auryn agreed that making sure that Baldur wouldn't double-cross them and endanger everyone in the process would have priority. Especially if brutal combat would be the alternative)

So Auryn puppeteers Baldur towards the main hall of this icy caverns where the Khangitche and his people usually hang out. We follow him to the leader of the giant tribe who's accompanied by four guards and a death bear. Baldur properly introduces us as challengers who'd claim dominion over these frosty halls, so we'd challenge him to a duel. The Khangitche isn't really amused about our demand that he and his clan shall leave this part of Knütpara should we win, so he throws a bone and then points at one of his guard to smash our challenger to pulp.

To Carlyle's shock, Auryn takes a step forward and draws her rapier to meet the foaming giant in melee. She throws a powerfull fireball at her opponent, then takes a side-step to dodge the gients' initial attack. Two strikes later, the giant warrior lies flat on the ground.

“You should have chosen to fight me yourself. This one was an easy target. I'm not even sweating.” Auryn says calmly, locking eyes with the Khangitche.

A few moments and a couple of stares later, Khangitche Odul Chuvan seems to understand that we're actually both quite serious with our demand and generous enough to not simply slaughter him and his guards.

(Totally nailed that intimidation. Not taking a single hit from that giant surely did help as well. Also, after that episode Tiz was quite sure about what to do with a certain Hook)

We suggest that the giant clan might just move deeper into the depths of Knütpara as we're only interested in the upper caverns, including the prisoners. The Khangitche tries to keep his face by saying that the lower city will hold even more treasure than the towers, so we're basically fools for letting him venture deeper, but we just shrug it off. After all, treasure is not what we came for.

As soon as we're sure that the whole giant clan is on their way towards lower Knütpara, we free the prisoners and organize their return to their original homes – most of them stem from the area around Trekholm – via teleport. Kvarty accompanies the other dwarves and humans and thanks us for rescuing him and his kin. We also take our time to collect all the Wayfarer's Lanterns and their fuel so the Ob won't be able to salvage their items should they ever decide to return.

Then we turn to the wall where the Lich is sealed in ice. We see one giant undead who's apparently frozen in place and who doesn't seem to be able to communicate with us. But as soon as we place our hand on the ice (after we protected ourselves with various protection spells of course), the Lich's eyes start to glow and we hear his deep voice in our heads. We introduce ourselves and basically agree on the deal Grappa made with him: that we'll release him in exchange for his soul switching ritual.

In return, we hear an unsettling laughter that just sound as if the Lich's plans finally come to fruition. But before we can release him, he says, we have to undo the divine seal of Triegenes. When we ask him how we could possibly do that, the Lich suggests that we'd find a sympatheticum of Triegenes, something that's still imbued with the man-god's presence.

“As for where you'd find such a trinket? Why don't you ask the lady of the forked tongue? She knows everything. At least that's what she claims.”

Then the Lich laughs again as he realizes that the prison of Ashima-Shimtu is possibly one of the last places we'd ever wish to return to.

 

[Lylandra]

Dark Omens

So it seems as if it is time to pay the Crypta one more visit. We remember that our last visit required the weight of both Ottavia and her summoned celestial, so taking Margit and none else with us wouldn't be sufficient. And as Flying Spark is leaning towards the featherweight class as well, we agree that we'd better ask for someone else's help. Someone who's really heavy and tall. So it might be the right time to ask out Andrei von Recklinghausen again.

We take Margit and return to Flint via teleport and then pay Auryn's old home a visit. But when we ask Isobel about Andrei's whereabouts, the young Eladrin seems both worried and scared as she hasn't seen him for a while. She explains that while it is not too uncommon for Andrei to work overtime and sometimes even for a couple of days without coming back home, he never outright disappeared without any notice.

We comfort Isobel and say that this might just be a case of miscommunication which we may easily solve by sending Andrei a sending spell to check up on him. But to our surprise, we don't get an answer on our friendly greeting. Carlyle reassures Isobel that Andrei might simply be sleeping or blocked off by something, so he uses a short ritual to discern our friends' location. But once he has finished his ritual, Carlyle strokes his beard in confusion as he cannot locate Andrei at all.

Needless to say that this worries Isobel even more and the thought of not knowing where her love might be brings tears to her eyes. Auryn wraps her arms around her young friend and tries to comfort her by guessing that Andrei might have just been involved in a secret project. After all, he made quite the impression in Ber and we'd mentioned him positively in our report.

We still head to the next police office to report Andrei von Recklinghausen as missing. And while Carlyle does his best to reassure Auryn that Andrei will most likely have caught the attention of Risuri officials who might use him as a highly proficient worker, Auryn replies that she really has a bad feeling about that as Andrei values Isobel and being close to her more that he'd value any prospect of payment.

(Oh how right she was... Andrei missing without a trace was the perfect foreshadowing for what would happen at the ObsCon)

Still we don't have time to conduce a proper search for Andrei right now, as the Obscurati gathering will happen very soon and we still haven't made too much progress regarding the nameless Lich. We empty our Absurdist's web at the RHC and release Baldur, as well as the two researchers to the care of our fellow agents. Regarding Baldur, we hand them a report on his cooperativeness and release him from the domination spell.

So we travel to Odiem without Andrei and take Margit with us instead. When we enter the Crypta, we find out that this place has changed quite drastically. As soon as the main gate closes behind us, we are in a large hall with seven small alcoves containing seven chalices which represent the deadly sins. We discuss how this change might have occurred and assume that this, being a structure meant to contain the most powerful and wicked of corrupted souls and even demons, could just be another level of security. After all, the version we visited last time had some dimensional tricks as well.

So we guess that we have to play by the Clergy's logic once again and examine the hall more closely. We find more alcoves and several magical items secured by force fields: a golden chain, a sword, a demonic judicial codex and an ivory helmet. As we didn't come for the shinies and these are obviously no elfaivaran artifacts, we let the items be and proceed with our investigation. We find a beautiful mosaic of the Crisillyiri crest and symbols of the Clergy on a ledge, and also spot a suspicious, strange globe of darkness at the ceiling in the back of the room.

Auryn decides that this crypt has had enough darkness already and summons the holy light of Srasama to banish the globe. Only to be shocked to see what had been hidden behind these dark veils: An angel, tormented beyond recognition, hanging from chains and screaming in anguish. After the initial scream, she starts muttering mostly incomprehensible words, but we get that she's trying to warn us to not believe a word from Ashima-Shimtu's mouth and should rather listen to the voices inside our hearts.

Carlyle tries to relieve the angel of her pain by casting a levitation spell and asks her for her name. After a while, she seems to understand that question and we get that she's called Linia. Carlyle remembers that name vaguely as he once read about an angel by this name who helped Triegenes found the Clergy and combat the demonocracy. She also advocated the priests to follow a path of humility and forsaking splendor, but disappeared some time after Triegenes' death.

As we don't know whether Linia is being kept her due to her being corrupted, Carlyle calls for the memory of the chains that bind her. First, he watches a scene where Testamenta enters the room, looks at Linia and then casts the darkness at her and the chains as if she's trying to hide the angel. Then he sees Miller and Kasvarina as they unsuccessfully try to break Linia's chains with all their powers. The next scene very much breaks his heart as he witnesses the torture of Linia at the hands of the Clergy Hierarch who had the Crypta built and then sees how she was chained up and hung on the ceiling. The last and oldest vision shows him how the chains were forged and ritually empowered to become the powerful artifacts we see now.

(Yeah, Testamenta is just that kind of ruthless b****)

He tells Auryn and Margit everything he saw in his visions and they are as disturbed by his tales as he is. Even more so as he adds that Linia's disappearance might have been the justification for the first great war against the Elfaivaran empire.

“After hearing all that, I don't know if the Clergy has any redeeming qualities left. So much for defeating the demonocracy... only to replace its reign of terror with something similarly wicked.” Auryn comments with utter disgust and Carlyle doesn't see any reason to object.

Despite the fact that we just saw Kasvarina and Miller (both whom we know to be really powerful people) try to break the chains with no success we still try again and again with everything we have: from trying to cure Linia with a heal spell to breaking the chains with magic to using antimagic and brute force. Meanwhile, Linia begs us to end her torment and kill her already.

After what feels like endless tries, Carlyle takes a deep breath and says “Maybe this is our only option if we want to show her mercy. To end her tormented existence. Even if I know that you won't like it.”

Auryn shakes her head in return. “No, I understand and I agree. Even if every fiber of me wishes there was another way.”

So Carlyle focuses on the divine spark of Srasama inside him and begs her to channel her essence through him and take everything she needs to end Linia's suffering. And, like a divine miracle, the mother seems to answer his call. Energies swell up inside Carlyle, enveloping him in divine fire. This creates a resonance in Auryn, thus evoking the maiden aspect, allowing her to channel her own power through him. The conjunction of both maiden and mother create a powerful flow of divine energy through Carlyle, a flow that manifests in one ray of holy fire that utterly consumes Linia and leaves no trace of her existence.

Carlyle falls onto his knees, ready to collapse every second. But instead he hears a familiar whisper in his mind: “Thank you for letting me free her”

Auryn helps him back on his feet, but this act of mercy cost him quite a lot.

“I'm sorry, I won't be of much help for a while. I gave her all I had. But I couldn't just let Linia... hang there. To be honest, I've never seen such a horrifying act in my entire life.”

Auryn then wraps her arm around Carlyle's shoulder and states that this was the right thing to do and that she's thankful that Srasama lent both of them her power. Still she disagrees with that Carlyle being of no help idea as he's so much more than his magic or his connection to her goddess.

(So as you can see, Tiz found an excuse to bring us to the adventure 4 version of the Crypta Heraeticorum

Ah yes, Linia... the final straw we needed to see the Clergy for the despicable machinery controlled by power-hungry hierarchs that it is. Auryn and Carlyle both knew too well that they saw every “other” people not like them as potential demons, but taking one of their own heroes, the companion of Triegenes himself and torture her over centuries until there was nothing left of her is on a wholly different level. Blaming her disappearance on the Eladrin to start a war was only the icing on the cake.

Which.. also led at least Auryn to the belief that maybe the whole “summoning of Srasama” had merely been a trick of the Clergy to eradicate their hated neighbors once and for all.

All in all, we agreed that this Clergy wasn't really different from the demonocracy Triegenes had given his life to abolish. Which might also mean that the Hierarchs and high-ranking Clergy turning into Tieflings could very well be the death curse of their goddess.

Also, wasn't it quite ironic that those Crisillyiri who seemed to know honor and morale were also considered criminals?

Regarding Linia specifically, we did everything we could to try and save her. Auryn especially wanted her to survive at any cost as she'd be a potential powerful witness for the Clergy's atrocities past and present. Still showing Linia mercy had been more important than any long-term political strategy. And they were both thankful that Srasama listened to their pleas.

Oh, and there are the parallels between Miller/Kas and Carlyle/Auryn again. Even if their individual roles and traits are somewhat mixed up, but this will become way clearer after the ObsCon. Right now, it is pretty straightforward with Carlyle → Miller due to his Crisillyiri background and his connection to spirits and Auryn → Kasvarina with everything regarding Elfaivar, the Vekeshi/revenge theme and the loss of a family member as motivator. But I think you can guess who's going to end up with a certain artifact)

 

[Andrew Moreton]

The corruption of the upper ranks of the clergy does seem to be a theme, from pretty much after Triegenes death until the present Even Nicodemus can't manage to be wrong about everything and his dislike of the clergy seems to be one of the few times he is right,
There are two clergy members my pc's got on with at all and they killed one of them The deaf oracle from the train is a genuine good person who happens to serve the Ob and the Clergy, and Vitus Sigismund they respected for being honest, incorruptible and opposed to the Ob, if only his zealousness had not cracked into fanatical insanity.
Poor Linia mercifully put to death by Carlyle, and the Reaper in my campaign she does not often seem to get rescued.

 

[Lylandra]

From our point of view, Nic is right about many issues regarding Lanjyr, it is his methods that are often wrong or simply ruthless and his decisions seem unwise or too impulsive at some points. really looking forward to that one scene in adventure 7 when this finally starts to surface

Regarding Linia, Tiz made it really clear that there was nothing we could have done to rescue Linia. Maybe a miracle could have helped, but that was simply beyond our power. And from a GM's point of view, I can understand that as she could have been a political game changer in our campaign...

Remember that angel that made you go to war? Yep, your own hierarch imprisoned her because she wouldn't let him walk his path of corruption and greed. And she's more than willing to tell you all about what happened back then. I can easily see a Martin Luther effect should Linia spill the beans on Crisillyir.

 

[Andrew Moreton]

Rescuing Linia for my group was not something they could do when they first got here and they left her planning to rescue her in the future, then when they came back they were 19th level and could provide a Miracle if needed , but they could sidetracked by rescuing Ashima-Shimtu and let Hexeropheol the Reaper deal with her.
Then regretted it during the God Trials when she would have been a great witness for theur case.

Nicodemus does have sound principles , just the longer he has been dead the more he strays from them and the more he starts using the Ends to Justify the Means

 

[RangerWickett]

I've been working on the Crisillyir section of the new setting book, which takes place twenty years after the adventure path, and it's been fund to ponder the fallout of the God Trials and the general lack of a hierarchy to keep the old corruption in place. In many ways this just means new corruption, but it also gives chances for people who were devout and believed the dogma to actually rise to positions where they can try to live up to it, without entrenched politics limiting them.

Then, of course, there are the fascists who are coming to power because the God Trials let out demons and such, and many people just want stability and security.

 

[Lylandra]

did Ottavia survive in your setting? Because she's hell of a candidate for a "new Clergy"

 

[RangerWickett]

I've tried to minimize the importance of adventure path NPCs who might have fought PCs. Sure, probably only 5 GMs will run all of The Gears of Revolution and then decide to run another campaign in the setting, but I may as well reduce the ways they have to rework things.

So Ottavia does get a small mention as being the liaison between the heavenly hosts that have taken up the Isle of Odiem as their bastion. The angels can't get back to the rest of the multiverse, so they commit themselves to hunting and imprisoning all the various fiends that escaped during and after the God Trials. Ottavia's job is to meet people who want help from the angels and, most of the time, tell them sorry, the angels don't take sides in mortal affairs.

 

[Lylandra]

The Architect

We let everything we just witnessed sink in for a while before we continue to examine the Crypta and its content. We start with the five objects on display. The first one is a mere collection of judicial text and doesn't seem to harbor any more secrets. Still we believe that understanding the logic and system of the demonocracy might come in handy someday, so we take it with us for later study. The ivory helmet works as translating device for the demonic language, another object that could be of use should it not be cursed. The golden chain is nonmagical, but it nonetheless reminds us of the depictions of the golden legion we saw on the Ziggurat of Apet.

We really don't understand why these items would be considered dangerous enough to be kept in the Crypta, but joke that maybe the Crisillyiri deemed the minds of their own to be so fragile that they'd be corrupted by merely looking at relics of old.

(That belongs in a MUSEUM! We sincerely regretted not bringing the Dr. Meredith/Flying Spark team with us)

What is cursed though is the sword of remorse, which would impale a random person as soon as its wielder would put it away. We handle it very carefully after it tried to stab Carlyle, but keep it nonetheless as it might come in handy should we ever wish to cause a commotion among our enemies or so.

The last object is the one that truly draws our attention as it turns out to be the first spellbook of Giovanni the painter. It appears to be of the more illustrative kind and, on a closer look, reveals a pocket dimension inside. As soon as we open the book, a cat jumps right out of it and introduces himself as Augunn, familiar of Giovanni.

All three of us look at each other in confusion and Carlyle whispers that this Giovanni had been a notorious legend even before his childhood, but he disappeared someday never to be seen again. So that guy would have been long dead as he was most likely a regular human. Still, should Augunn truly be his familiar, then this would mean that he'd be still alive.

So we turn to Augunn and introduce ourselves as visitors who don't know about Giovanni's whereabouts either. The cat appears to be both cocky and courteous, so we treat him like the intelligent little kitten that he is. Augunn welcomes our company with a nice purr, but he also warns us that he knows how to handle his claws and that the last visitor who mishandled him had to pay for his transgressions. Then he paws in the general direction of the dead body we found in front of the spellboook's pedestal. We agree that he may accompany us as we'd be interested to learn more about Giovanni's true fate as well.

Before we leave the room, Auryn takes a last look at the other wall, depicting the seven virtues of the Clergy.

“How strange...” she says “... I can see no fault in these virtues, still I've yet to see a Clergyman who'd embody them.”

Or a Clergywoman who isn't also a member of the Obscurati”, Carlyle adds with a short laugh.

We then place all of the exhibits in the Web and continue to the next room. Auryn is the first one to cross the portal and disappears all of a sudden as soon as she sets foot into the other room. Within a second, she finds herself chained with holy golden chains to a pyre of books that's set aflame the moment she appears. After a sudden shriek of surprise, she remembers the story of Miller's death and sees a forced atonement written on the ceiling above her.

“You crazy fanatics, I will not yield to your corrupted vision of righteousness. And neither am I William Miller. I will not fuel your flames!”

Meanwhile, Carlyle and Margit hurry after her and realize that all of their gold items have been turned to lead. Fearing that Auryn may just suffer a tragic fate if they don't intervene, they rush forward and exchange a few words with their comrade. This way they get that Auryn's chains may very well be ineffective as they cannot possibly be made from real gold.

“Use the dreampath! There is no gold in this room!” Carlyle shouts before literally stumbling into a group of pyromaniac dretches. He leaves the demons behind though as making sure that his comrade is saved from the Clergy's cruel trials is the more pressing issue. As soon as they arrive at the pyre, they find Auryn next to the pyre, strained with soot, while she's trying to put out the flames. Margit helps her with her water conjuring and the fires die in no time.

As soon as the dust has settled and the three are reunited, we hear a feminine demonic laughter from afar, followed by a familiar voice: “So, you've come to bring back the light to poor, poor Ashima-Shimtu? Still you stole her pretty doorbell, pah. Let's see if you can undo what the nastywoman Testamenta has done to me. I've heard that you are no friends of hers”

“Quit playing games, demon. We didn't come for you, and we also didn't 'steal' Linia. We gave her the mercy she asked for”

“Uh, I see”, she cackles, “you've finally found the pride of your people and put away that unfitting fear of your inevitable doom, my dear descendant of Kasvarina. Interesting.”

Then Ashima-Shimtu goes quiet again. Auryn then tries to leave the thoughts of doom behind and tells her comrades how she ended up chained to a stake like Miller. She curses the Clergy again and then tries to find any salvageable texts, but finds none that are still intact enough. We continue searching the room and stumble across the Dretches again who are busy munching books or what's left of them.

As soon as they see that we're still around, they charge at us. Carlyle shreds the first one of them and the fleshy mass turns to black smoke as if some sort of demonic soul left its body. It tries to enter Carlyle's lungs, but he rejects it. Margit then immediately seals off any further attempt to possess us with a magic circle. We understand that slaying the fiends will cause more trouble than it's worth, so we knock the others out, tie them up and let them be.

We then search the room more thoroughly and see another pedestal marked with the inscription “scroll of the gods” and find that it had once been warded off with a powerful spell. Which means that someone powerful must have broken the seal.

“Guess we know now where Testamenta got her artifact of resurrection from”, Carlyle says and the other two agree to this deduction.

We venture deeper into the Crypta and are attacked by invisible rust monsters all of a sudden. They manage to hit Auryn who feels as if the blood in her veins is starting to corrode which is really not a pleasant sensation. As soon as she realizes that these critters must be invisible, Margit purges their invisibility and we end them quickly. We find two golden eggs with them and decide to keep them for further research or use. Also, there is one cursed staff of negation which will slowly end its wielder if he doesn't break it in time and we guess that the resulting backlash would easily cause the biggest explosion of magic since the Malice. Of course, we stow it away as well.

(Right now I think that we got so many relics and items that could be potentially used for mayhem that we could easily start a war somewhere... We didn't use too many of these in the campaign, but oooh the potential. Yep, we're basically horders. But you were the one who gave us the Absurdist's web...)

We then enter a tunnel which appears to be one giant loop of infinity as we see one headless statue and a corresponding head that keeps rolling through the loop-shaped corridor. We stop the head and try to re-attatch it, but the lever next to the statue fails to respond. So we go looking for another path and curse Testamenta for her destructive nature.

We soon find a room filled with more cursed souls where we find a dead body wearing a cursed cyclops helmet. Now this one we don't really wish to use and proceed deeper into the room where we find one man who's whimpering in anguish as he appears to be perpetually trapped in a pyre. We approach him cautiously and try to explain him that we're not here for more punishment but that we'd wish to help him get free instead.

At first he's skeptical, but when we assure him that we are neither Clergy nor friends of them, he confesses that he's Enis Adolini, the very man who built this Crypta. We briefly ask him why the Clergy would imprison a fellow faithful man like him who did them a grand favor, but find the obvious answer the moment we utter the question: The Clergy wanted to hide their secrets. Even if that meant to imprison and torture yet another innocent man for eternity.

We ask him about what happened here so we may have a bigger chance of actually freeing him from his torment and he explains that he's been bound here for over 800 years now. We ask him about other visitors and Signore Adolini tells us that there were two others, just like us, who tried to free him: Kasvarina and a young cleric named Miller. Miller, he says, was one generous and benevolent man who was both kind and clever when it came to his situation. Kasvarina on the other hand was more resourceful and impatient at first, but she also did her best to free him, and it was him who insisted to be left in peace.

Regarding Linia, he doesn't know much about the angel, but he guesses that she'd become a nuisance for the Hierarchs. He also shares a secret spell with us: “No lime tangere fraetis saepiam fide nobilis”, and explains that we should use that to call out to the skeletons of the holy brothers so they'd know that we're on their side.

We then go back to the story of Miller and Kas and ask Enis Adolini why he would send his best hope for freedom away. To which the man replies that he really doesn't wish to unleash “the monster” onto the world again.

“Which monster? We can see none.”, we reply.

This is when Adolini's face twists and something else starts to speak with his voice. Bit by bit, his face transforms into the hideous figure of an ice devil and it appears as if this devil is imprisoned inside Adolini's body.

“Yesss, free us. We deserve freedom. We will make the Clergy pay for what they've done. Isn't that what we all want?” the devil says with an all too pleasant, velvety voice.

We agree very much surprised by this turn of events and agree that the Clergy has done some horrible deeds worthy of punishment, but letting a devil roam free in our lands is the last thing we'd want. Else we'd already freed Ashima-Shimtu as well. The devil replies that he doesn't intend to stay in this cursed and boring realm either as he longs to reunite with his kin in hell. We insist that should we ever consider freeing him, he'd have to leave Adolini's body and make sure that the man remains unharmed in the process. A suggestion that the devil accepts and he also suggests using the rod of negation to cancel the pyre.

We laugh quickly at this suggestion as we'd rather not die a slow and painful death, but we'd surely find another way. Then Carlyle takes Auryn aside as he's having second thoughts and isn't really comfortable with letting a devil roam free just to save one man.

“Listen, I know that this man suffers. But he knows as well as we do that keeping this creature contained is worth it. Even if it was forced upon him. There is a reason why he sent Miller and Kasvarina away. The demonocracy is the worst reign of tyranny that could ever happen to Lanjyr and I don't want it by any chance repeated.”

To which Auryn shakes her head calmly.

“I think that this innocent man has suffered enough. You Crisillyiri surely have a habit for self-sacrifice, I know. But I disagree about the demonocracy. From my point of view, the Clergy after the death of Triegenes is the worst that happened to these lands. And it is still around. Let Adolini have his peace. And maybe he and his knowledge can help us shed light onto the atrocities of this regime. We can handle one devil, don't you think?”

The two of them argue back and forth for quite a while and the Gelugon seems highly amused at the argument. After a while, Auryn and Carlyle agree to free both devil and man if the Gelugon promises to leave Adolini's body for good and swears that he'll never harm either Risur of Elfaivar. To this the devil would gladly agree, but as soon as we're ready to examine the pyre, Carlyle intervenes.

“Stop. Just a second. I think I found a loophole. What if he tries to free Ashima-Shimtu. She isn't bound to our contract.”

“You cannot simply add more layers of ifs and whens to our agreement, human. Maybe I do like this body after all...”

So the argument starts anew. This time, it appears as if Carlyle is really terrified of the thought of one free Ashima-Shimtu in the world while Auryn is far more fearful of the Clergy and what they could do if left unchecked. Carlyle argues that if one would have all the knowledge, ambition and power of prophecy that Ashima-Shimtu has, then this could upset the entire world. Auryn finally agrees that the demoness is one big, dangerous wild card and so we settle on a compromise: The devil will not try release Ashima-Shimtu for 100 years and we will seek for a means for him to return to hell. After all, this could be Ashima-Shimtu's ultimate goal as well.

(And yep, this argument took a really long time.)

 

[Lylandra]

The blade of the maiden

We walk down yet another strange corridor and reach an entrance to a room guarded by two soldiers clad in leaden sashes and jewelry. The two call themselves members of the leaden legion and we quickly put one and one together and conclude that these guys must have something to do with the golden legion - that name is just too obvious. We guess that they, too, must have had their golden items turned to lead and ask them to talk to their leader to find out more about this group.

The two agree as we're just looking like promising recruits and so they introduce us to a bearded devil called Belcamp. We're surprised to find yet another devil in here, but decide to gather all the information we can get on these new rooms. Belcamp appears to be quite the cocky and self-confident one and he mentions that he is in an open feud with Giovanni and his allies which is why he could need helping hands dealing with this pest. So if we wish to join the Legion, we better gather information about Giovanni so Belcamp may take the painter's territory for himself.

We're not really keen on joining the devil, but play along to gain his trust for now. Especially as we suddenly hear screams of a high and strong pitch. We ask Belcamp what's going on and where these screams might come from and the devil simply refers to an ally of Giovanni that's currently his “guest”.

Being both intrigued and alarmed, we fake that we might lend him our help in interrogating said guest as we know quite a bit about this subject. Belcamp is a bit surprised that mortals like us might be interested in interrogation, but he agrees that we might see the prisoner if we prove that we're more than just words. So we show him the rust monster antennae as proof of our prowess. The devil is quite impressed as these monsters were harassing his troops before, so he allows us to enter his “prison”.

Said place is nothing more than a separate area in the large hall of the Crypta. Inside, we see a couple of dretches who are trying to torture a lillend. Then, we suddenly hear ancient Eladrin songs and spot one giant sword mounted to a wall. Both Carlyle and Auryn exchange surprised gazes and they both instinctively realize that this must be one of the six blades of Srasama.

To assess both lillend and sword further, we dismiss the dretches and claim that this work should better be done by professionals, so off with you. As soon as the little buggers are out of hearing range, we turn to the lillend and quietly explain that we're not here to torment her, but to help her get free. She appears to be relieved even if the dretches wouldn't be able to cause much pain and she faked the screams anyway. She introduces herself as Somnia, a friend of Giovanni.

Somnia explains that she got a bit too curious while wandering around these halls, and she was caught by the Legion when she wasn't as cautious as she should have been. We promise that we'll get her free, but this would need some more play-along on her side. Our plan, we explain to her, would be to fake torturing her even more until she finally agrees to lead us to Giovanni's sanctum. We'd promise Belcamp to massacre Giovanni and his minions, but would instead lead her “home”.

Somnia is grateful for our help and agrees to scream as best as she can. After making quite the impression on Belcamp this way, we tell the devil that we broke Somnia to the point that she'd lead us to Giovanni's hideout and introduce us as her friends, which will obviously lower their guard. But, we add, we're also interested in a trade: One hellish relic for a religious eladrin sword. The devil shrugs as no one can handle the oversized sword anyway, so he could care less for one fewer wall decoration. So we exchange the Blade for the ruby-clad tablet of Knütpara we found along the way.

We then let the sword's song guide us back until we're both directly in front of it. Then, Carlyle feels strangely drawn towards the blade and he reaches for it with his hands. The very same moment his fingers touch the weapon, the blade shrinks, then liquefies and merges with his two kukris. Carlyle is very much surprised by this, but feels strangely renewed as the maiden aspect of Srasama calls to him for the first time.

He takes a moment to get in touch with this younger voice, then turns to Auryn as if trying to apologize.

“I hope you're fine with this. Me accepting one of your people's most holy relics.”

Auryn shakes her head in return, carrying a disarming smile on her lips.

“No need for explanations. She wants to be whole and it is her blade. Why would I ever envy my goddess?”

Carlyle seems satisfied with that answer, so he accepts this new gift without further questions. We then leave the interrogation room with Somnia and plan to enter Giovanni's territory. Before we leave this place, we ask the leaden legionnaires whether they are affiliated with the demoness known as Ashima-Shimtu. To which the men reply that they do respect her on paper, but never dared to enter her domain.

Session 43 - Pictures of you

We let Somnia guide us through the corridors of the Crypta to the rooms where Giovanni and his people reside. On the way there, she tells us that we should put away our weapons as they may turn against us. So we put them into our interdimensional bags, which seems to impress the lillend.

Somnia leads us past a three-dimensional carpet with one deep shaft and we're quite astonished by this kind of craftsmanship. Carlyle even calls this one “really deep art”, a pun which gains him a heartfelt laugh from Somnia, Auryn and Margit.

We then come to a room with one big set of armor on display. Somnia explains that this one is called the Hilde Guard and that she's guarding her room with great ferocity. She then points to several other wicked looking weapons who'd join Hilde should anyone dare to try invade the realms of Giovanni. She then utters a passphrase and we hear a deep, feminine voice welcome the lost lillend back. Only to ask about her companions the next second.

“These three are friends, Hilde. They freed me from imprisonment in Belcamp's lair. Let them pass, please.” Somnia says, almost singing to Hilde. This seems to calm the armor and we may enter the realm of Giovanni freely.

(Sweet naming choice. For a fan of FF9, Hilde brings up all kinds of weirs associations, as Hilda Garde is the name of three airships, named after Queen Hildagarde/Lady Hilda who transformed her husband into several creatures because he had an affair. There is also the famous Hildegard of Bingen, but she was an abbess, not a warrior. And yeah, the name basically means “war” and “protection”, so... more than fitting for a magical suit of armor)

As soon as we open the door to Giovanni's place, we find ourselves in the middle of a giant party and are quite surprised that some people are actually able to celebrate in such a dark and desperate place. When the first guests notice Somnia, they flock to the lillend and welcome her back, embracing her and singing songs of joy. We dive deeper into the crowd while Somnia introduces us as her saviors and friends who managed to trick wicked Belcamp. This draws everyone's attention to us and suddenly we're bombarded with questions and invitations to what appears top be more private parties inside enchanted paintings.

We politely decline the private invitations, but answer all other questions with honesty. As soon as we get the chance, we then ask about the mysterious painter, Giovanni, as we got someone with us who misses him dearly: Augunn, his cat familiar. The party-cipants tell us that Giovanni never leaves his painting, but if we're looking for him then we'll find him near the pious mount that he calls the “altar of love”. As soon as someone mentions said altar, another reveler suggests that we might just take our turn on said altar as Giovanni wishes to constantly watch at least two people having sex with one another.

Needless to say that Carlyle is both baffled and distraught by the mere thought. And now that he's heard about the altar, he finally gets where these strange, muffled moans must be coming from...

We agree that we should probably speak to Giovanni as soon as possible, but find that the revelers still seem to enjoy our company. So Auryn volunteers to give a spontaneous dance performance to draw the attention upon her while Carlyle uses his special skill of “party maneuvering” to get to the pious mount.

He ignores the two naked bodies next to him as good as possible and finds Giovanni, one titan of an old man, inside a gigantic painting.

(As disgusted as Carlyle might be by this public sex show, he's kind of used to such sights as he has served many different Vantrys Lords and Ladies over the centuries. Some of which had fetishes of all kind and who needed someone to discreetly clean up any messes. So he's also mastered the art of biting his tongue and moving on professionally.)

“Move away, boy. You're blocking my view.”, the painter grumbles, before taking a closer look at Carlyle and, on a second thought, finds him just as attractive as the usual display of carnal activities.

Carlyle greets the painter and immediately mentions that he's quite astonished to find that Giovanni, this legend, is still alive today. He then tells Giovanni about Somnia and our task and asks the painter why he'd never left this cursed place along with his guests as there are places of much greater beauty. Giovanni gets upset by this question and it appears that the man is somehow trapped inside his own painting. And not watching other people party hard and making love is the only joy that's left for him. But that's not too bad, he explains, as being inside the painting gives him god-like powers in his own little domain.

“Yet you'll never truly feel another person's touch again if you just stay in there. All you can do is watch and imagine.”

“I can do so much more than that! They didn't get me and you won't either!” Giovanni shouts all of a sudden and in a short fit of rage, he hurls a lightning bolt in front of Carlyle's foot. Which doesn't really impress Carlyle too much.

“I see, I hit a nerve there. Now tell me, Giovanni, if you had the choice: won't you rather taste the sweet melons of Alais Primos with your own tongue? Smell the locks of the person you loved the other night after waking up in the morning? Feel the soft skin of the lady you're dancing with on your own? The world has become so different and exciting over the centuries and I bet you wish to experience it.”

“Don't you tease me!” Giovanni replies, but he lowers his head as if to say that, yes, he would love to be outside as long as it is safe for him.

A few moments later, Auryn finally manages to make her way through the crowd and reunites with Carlyle and Margit.

“Sorry that it took me so long. But they wouldn't let me leave unless I promised everyone of them a 'romantic adventure' and now I got this... love-card I guess? But I made sure that you're the first one on my list, so no worries”, Auryn chuckles while pointing to the long list of names written on a sheet of paper.

Carlyle and Margit quickly tell her about Giovanni, and Auryn tells the painter that he's just one of many innocents who were falsely imprisoned here by the Clergy. She then retrieves Giovanni's spellbook from her bag, opens it and releases Augunn who is really glad to see his master once again. So Auryn promises to reunite spellbook, familiar and painter once we find a way to break the seal on Giovanni's painting and Giovanni becomes even more enthralled with the idea of venturing to the outside world once again. He allows us to examine his painting to maybe find out what the clergy had done to seal him away and find that these are merely permanent wards that could be dispelled with standard magic.

So we remove the seal and hand Giovanni his spellbook the moment he sets his foot outside after so many centuries. His mortal body is that of a human man, not a towering giant, but he seems to have remained a lot of his vigor. Then we discuss the matter of Belcamp since we promised the devil that we'd bring him Giovanni's head. We suggest that Giovanni might just paint a version of his head so we may fool Belcamp, but guess that this would make the devil try invade this vault.

So we go for a different route: As we learned how to escape the Crypta from Enis Adolini, we'd offer Giovanni and his party people to bring them outside to the island of Odiem. This way, Belcamp could technically “invade” the artist's wing (even if he'd have to be able to get past Hilde first) while Giovanni and company would be free. Giovanni is impressed by our logic and agrees, as long as his friends are in for the plan.

We also chat a bit about previous visitors and learn that both Kasvarina and Miller had been here before, but they had ignored him and his paintings. Regarding the “red haired beauty” Testamenta, he wasn't able to convince her to stay with him either, but he sensed that she must have brought something with her that changed the Crypta's magic. Something which upset “the serpent at the end of the path”

So we head back to Belcamp and his leaden legion as the ritual to get Giovanni and company out involves visiting six pious mounts, including the one in the legion's room. We tell Belcamp that we didn't want to kill the famous painter, but we'd compromise on letting the legion invade the room after the party people left the place. Which would result in a win-win situation for all involved parties. Unfortunately, Belcamp insists to have Giovanni's head and the moment we tell him that he'd have to fight us to get close to the painter, the devil attacks us and orders his men to aid him.

This doesn't end too well for Belcamp as we fell him in a few quick blows before we turn to his companions. Preparing for an attempt of intimidation, we try to warn the legionnaires, only to see them age rapidly and turn to ash in mere seconds as the centuries of suspended life catch up with them. Belcamp dissolves as well and all that's left of the devil is his glaive. We agree that we should add this one to Hilde's collection as a parting gift. The enchanted armor seems to accept the glaive with great pleasure before we move on to whatever lies behind the vaults of the legion.

(Giovanni and his party people surely came unexpected for our second visit of the Crypta. We found the scenery to be both grotesque and hilarious at the same time. Still none of us thought that just because he did paint some blasphemous or risky artworks in the past, he should be imprisoned for all eternity. Funny how this motif returned in adventure 12...)