Session 1-31-09

Maia 6, 23CR

With their estates now in order and their gear, kits and supplies prepared for what might be an extended planar journey, the four heroes return by owlback to the Vermillion Ridge the next afternoon, following the signs of drow invasion back to the cavern they discovered on the previous day.  Drow footprints, as well as some larger lizard-like prints, are clear and obvious in the wet, red mud of the foothills in spring.  A few boot tracks and horseshoe prints - fresher than the drow tracks - indicate that a small group of people passed through here only a few hours ago, perhaps this morning while the party was in transit. Jack distributes an iron horseshoe from Dunstan's own blacksmith to each of his friends, assuming that Lithara's margin notes are correct and a piece of bent iron brought in close proximity to the planar portal will activate it.

As they approach the cavern, the four companions see a pulsing red light from within, accompanied by a throbbing hum that seems to increase and decrease with the intensity of the red light.  They have no time to ponder this, however, as two mounted drow lizard riders charge out of the cavern to engage them, spinning spiked chains glinting in the afternoon sun.  At the same time, Kaelin hears a female voice calling out for help from nearby.  The crusader turns to look, and sees the struggling form of Kara, a knight of the Luminous Order, pinned beneath her dead horse about a hundred feet away.  Kaelin remembers Kara as the sole survivor of the Order's glorious charge against a wave of bluespawn thunderlizards during the siege of Brindol.  He calls out to the others, signalling Kara's distress, and Ayo moves towards the fallen knight to administer some healing magic.  However, as she approaches, Kara's features twist and fade away to reveal none other than the succubus Laurazhi, who spits forth a paralyzing dart from a tube hidden in her mouth!  The tiny barb connects with Ayo's flesh and sinks in, but she resists the poison easily.  Ayotunde, well acquainted with Laurazhi's deceptions, screams with anger and calls out to the others.  "Laurazhi is here!  This is all a trap.  Guard yourselves!"  As the trap is sprung, two more raging drow vanguard leap from behind a boulder and charge towards Altaer, who rewards them with a searing blast of flames.  Battle is joined as the charging riders smash into Jack and Kaelin with force and ferocity, and a deep, gurgling laugh can be heard from within the cavern... this can only be their old nemesis, the hezrou commander Toargus mocking them from safety, for the moment.

Interlude - somewhere in the Barrier Peaks, Oerth (599CY):

At the same moment in a far-off Prime sphere known as Oerth, two desperate escapees sprint down the dark hallways of a rime-caked frost giant fortress towards a huge, locked iron door.  They are bonded companions, yet as different in appearance as two mortal beings can be.  The first is a female whisper gnome, tall and lanky for her race at 3'9, and about 40 lbs.  She has tawny eyes with an eyepatch over the left -or was it the right?- eye, spiky short black hair, and light olive skin streaked face paint for camouflage.  The light seems to slide off her skin and dark clothing, and she moves with unconscious grace and effortless precision, like a silent blade in the dark.  Her companion is everything she is not: tall, heavily muscled and possessed of the rock-solid durability of the Barrier Peaks themselves.  His greyish skin is covered in mottled dark patterns and lithoderms - bone-and-skin growths as hard as rocks - and stands nearly 8' tall weighing over 300 pounds easily.  This one is a goliath - a nomadic tribal creature of Oerth, though the race also exists in small numbers on Gaia - and he wields an oversized sword strapped to his wide back. 

Their escape attempt was planned weeks in advance, and the moment for egress from their frost giant captors' dungeons finally arrived.  As the gnome approaches the huge iron door, she whips out a set of masterwork lockpicks and begins working with all haste.  The goliath stands guard at her back, sword loosened in its massive scabbard, listening to the distant pounding of the frost giant guards' footfalls as they approach the corridor.  The little one is skilled indeed with her 'picks, and has the quadruple-locked door open in less than 30 seconds.  Quickly, the two friends pull open the door and dash into the room beyond, finding themselves in a quiet, dusty repository of magical items and arcane scrolls. Just as they had planned, the two prisoners move to the far end of the room and pull back a heavy piece of canvas, revealing a hidden portal carved into the wall.  They each take out a bent piece of iron (half a set of work pliers that the goliath sundered), and the portal suddenly flares to life with a reddish energy.  Though it is only translucent and distorts whatever lies on the other side, the gnome and goliath can make out what looks like the inside of a cavern.  The sound of giant footsteps grows louder, and they have only a few moments before the guards arrive.  Joining hands, they step through the portal together into another world, uncertain of their final destination but knowing that anywhere is better than back in the dungeons of their captor, Arbrozzar.

Vermillion Ridge (Maia 6, 23 CR)

Outside the cavern, the battle rages on between the four Gaian heroes and their drow and demonic adversaries.  "Hah!  And so you return to fall right into our little trap," taunts the succubus.  "Toargus and I sooo enjoyed playing with those fools from the Luminous Order, and they made such attractive bait.  I'd say I was sorry for killing your friends, but - oopsie! - I'm just too good at what I do to apologize for it."  The four heroes turn on her with fury, and as Jack and Kaelin cut her with scythe and sword, Ayotunde bitch slaps the succubus with a dimensional anchor spell, causing Laurazhi to glow green momentarily.  The succubus tries to teleport away, but Ayo's spell has locked her in place, unable to use such magic.  Jack finishes off the two vanguards with a sweeping double-decapitation, lopping off heads in a spray of blood.  A wrathful vrock teleports onto the battlefield, facing down the four adventurers after unleashing its stunning screech and spore cloud. Kaelin moves to intercept it, swinging her dragonfang bastard sword with wild abandon and unleashing the fury of the Stone Dragon technique.

Two distinct flashes of red light blaze out from within the cavern, and the Gaians outside hear Toargus' taunting cease and become instead a suprised, croaking "Wha?"  They cannot yet see what has occurred, but the gnome and goliath of Oerth have just appeared through the other side of the portal and now stand mere feet from the goggle-eyed hezrou.  The two Oerthers dash past the surprised toad demon and down a narrow corridor towards daylight, still uncertain of where they are.  Another vrock appears to block their path out of the cavern, but the gnome steps sideways into the ethereal plane, using her ki energy to shadow step past the vulture-like demon and setting up her goliath friend for a bounding leap attack.  He draws his large sword as he jumps in a long arc towards the vrock, and cuts the demon deeply as he lands with a resounding thud.  The gnome, invisibly hidden, follows up with a swift series of stabbing blows from her dagger, and the two quickly cut their foe to pieces.  They smash and cut down a pair of drow guards on their way out into the daylight beyond the cavern, catching their first glimpse of the clear blue Gaian sky.

The drow and demons are surrounded by Gaians on one side and Oerthers on the other.  The two forces converge and proceed to bring down the remaining dark elves, and Altaer steps over the weakened, bleeding form of Laurazhi.  "Back to the Abyss with you," he says as he scorches her bones into melted char.  Laurazhi screams in anguish and frustration as she falls, sent hurtling back to the Abyss to be re-formed as a new demon.  Kaelin cuts deeper and deeper into the other vrock, smiting it with radiant blows until it shrieks with its death rattle and crumbles into a fine, black ash.  Toargus appears at the cave entrance long enough to witness his soldiers' destruction at Altaer's hands, which causes him to grimace in frustration.  After dropping an unholy blight spell over the party for spite, Toargus chooses to teleport to safety rather than face six angry and well-armed adventurers on his own.  "Your destruction of the whore matters not, foolish whelps," he croaks deeply with a fiendish chuckle, "your friend Kara's soul was most useful in powering this portal, along with the artifacts we took from the Walker's Cathedral." (see Azarr Kul's Ambition Session 12-1-07)  He brandishes a fist-sized red gem which seems to glow from within, and then vanishes inside a red and black circle of runes as his greater teleport activates.  The cunning hezrou has escaped again.

Now that the battle is over, the two newcomers face the four Gaians as each group looks at the other with uncertainty and suspicion.  The heroes of the Red Hand have just overcome a demonic and drow ambush which used the illusion of a fallen friend to draw them in, and the two Oerthers are not even sure what Prime sphere on which they now stand.  This prime seems to them like Oerth, but here the land is infused with a sense of sharpness, clarity and living magic that nearly overwhelms their senses, like waking from a long dreamless sleep for the first time.  The goliath steps forward.  "I am called Gorram Rockbounder Ogolakanu, of the Barrier Peaks."  Jack cuts off Altaer before the sorcerer can begin speaking.  "I am Jack Dustan of R'haari Vale, now Baron Dustan of the Elsir.  And I have never heard of the Barrier Peaks."

The whisper gnome seems emboldened by her companion's words.  "Acacia Blackthorne, gnome agent of the Stark Mounds at your service," she says, introducing herself to the others.  "So... where are we exactly?"  Altaer can no longer remain silent, and cuts in.  "Ooh!  Ooh!  You must be from another plane or something.  Well, this is Gaia, and it's twenty-three years after the Convergence, and I'm Altaer Twiceforged, sorcerer-scion of Azramahmoudinaj, the great general of the Thulkarr host, and I singlehandedly defeated Azarr Kul, and..." the young sorcerer goes on at length, thoroughly confusing the two newcomers and vastly overstating his own adventuring qualifications, as is typical of him. 

A basic dialogue is finally established between the two groups, and the six adventurers decide to finally sit and share a meal together, but only after discovering Kara's withered body inside the cavern and properly administering the last rites of Shandae and Bahamut over her.  Acacia is kind enough to help Ayotunde with the digging of the cairn, and during the dig she comes across a curious thing: a shining garnet the size of a man's knuckle resting gently in the earth.  As she picks up the stone, Acacia's vision swims and she sees the landscape for a moment as a writhing, blighted realm of corruption, with worms oozing out of every edifice.  Just as quickly, the horrible vision fades, and Acacia is left with an unnerving sense of being pulled east.  She keeps it to herself for now. 

Meanwhile, the other Oerther watches solemnly as the Gaians administer last rites to Kara.  "She was your friend, and demons killed her?" asks Rockbounder, as Jack and Kaelin stack the last few rocks atop Kara's cairn.  "The frost giant who kept us as slaves, Arbrozzar, also worshipped demons.  He spoke the name Kostchtchie numerous times.  It is from his fortress to this place... Gaia... where we have escaped only just now." 

"So this gate connects to your home plane, Oerth, as well as to Sigil?" asks Altaer.  Rockbounder responds.  "Yes, it would appear so, 'Chatty Dragon.'  I know little of this, save that Arbrozzar had a portal through which he travelled to other planes.  We used this same portal to escape his grasp."  Jack chimes in.  "Well, you're none the worse for wear, and we happen to be on our way to Sigil through this very portal.  We have some unfinished business with that demon, Toargus, and not just for poor Kara's sake.  I'm sure we'd be happy to have you along, and from Sigil you can return to Oerth or start a new life elsewhere.  If Ayo is right about the City of Doors, all you have to do is find the right door and the right key, and you can get just about anywhere."

Acacia and Rockbounder discuss this possibility quietly among themselves as the six adventurers share food and drink.  At last, it is agreed.  "We will travel with you, 'Blood Sickle,' to this Sigil, City of Doors, and see for ourselves what will come next," says the goliath, addressing Jack with a tribal honorific.  "Until recently, we were forced to serve as a circus act for the whims of Arbrozzar, may the mountains crush him at last.  Your companions are skilled and strong, and you fight bravely against evil.  That is enough for us.  For now, we are with you."

Sigil, City of Doors, the Outlands (Maia 6, 23CR)

The six adventurers gather up their gear and sundries and prepare to pass through the cavern portal to Sigil.  As each of them approaches the portal, they hold up a horseshoe (or half a pair of pliers) and gently touch it to the portal, causing it to flare with a red glow.  A split second later, they find themselves in the bustling Grand Bazaar of Sigil's Market Ward.  The Grand Bazaar is an immense plaza packed full of shops, tents, food stalls and carts laden with exotic wares from dozens of planes and strange worlds.  As this is the first planar jaunt for each of the six adventurers (excepting Rockbounder and Acacia's hair's-breadth escape from Arbrozzar's dungeons), they are nearly awestruck by the diversity of beings that inhabit Sigil.  Humans, elves, halflings and dwarves from the various Prime spheres and outer planes still make up the majority of inhabitants, but devas, tieflings, mephlings, dryads, neraphim, aasimars, devils, demons, angels and even stranger beings are represented as well.  Sigil is truly the concordance of the outer planes, where all meet and trade under the austere auspices of the Lady of Pain. 

The companions weave their way through the Grand Bazaar, finding themselves drawn to the delicious and familiar smell of frying potatoes.  A spindly, four-limbed ethereal filcher operates four deep-frying vats at once, his many arms moving rapidly as he tends his stall.  "Greetings, friends, and welcome to Sigil.  First time here?  I can see that it is.  Well, they call me Odo, and I sell the finest julienned fried potato curls in the Bazaar entire.  Care for a sample?  I have russets, butter-golds, sweet yams, and more exotic varieties to choose from."  Glad to have some normal food that one might find at a Gaian tavern such as Sandy's Fish-and-Chips in Aerendale, or the Green Dragon Inn at Greyhawk City, the adventurers each buy a paper cone of their favorite variety of potatoes.  As they conclude their purchasing, a black-skinned horned devil with enormous batlike wings strides up to Odo's stall, shoving Kaelin rudely out of the way.  "Big boy's here, feather-child," he sneers at Kaelin, plucking the crusader's prized feather out of his cap.  "Hrrm.  I like it... think I'll keep it.  Order and law will ever shape chaos.  What do you say to that, freedom fighter?"  Kaelin wisely does not rise to the bait of this lawful evil creature, keeping his thoughts and his sword sheathed.  "Hrrm.  I'll take five cones of the butter-golds, Odo," says the horned devil, who pays and makes off with his snack, holding all five paper cones in one large black hand.  Rockbounder makes a show of ordering six cones, just to show up the the devil.  "You see, I have six and you only have five," he taunts.  If the devil cares what Rockbounder said, he makes no show of it and moves away into the crowd.

"Rude fellow, pay him no mind," says Odo. Now, you'll be wanting some of my melty marshmallow dipping sauce for the sweet fried yams, and I have other sauces both sweet and savory for the other varieties.  And you say you're looking for the Styx Oarsman?  A well known place, though the crowd is a bit rough at times.  You might also consider a visit to the Lady's Ward to visit the Library of the Lady, which contains books and scrolls of exceeding rarity and value.  Ah yes, and I'd highly recommend purchasing a copy of the Traveler's Guide, which can be had for a relative pittance from various merchant kiosks around the city.  Enjoy your potatoes, and come back soon."

Exiting the Market Ward and moving towards the richly decorated streets of the Lady's Ward - the most prestigious ward in all Sigil - the six companions purchase a copy of the Traveler's Guide from a friendly earth mephit for 25gp.  The streets of the Lady's Ward are slightly wider and less cramped overall than the other wards, and the power and prestige of those who inhabit the ward is advertised loudly by a wide variety of differing architecture from across the multiverse.  On their way to the Library of the Lady, the heroes pass a tall obsidian tower where devilish imps and mephits cavort around the brimstone clouds surrounding the tower, as well as a fantastical mansion-temple dedicated to the sahuagin of Sekolah, the Shark Father.  Formed out of cascading sheets of water and swiftly flowing currents that carry water across a network of specially engineered canals and tubing, the entire temple resembles a multi-level ziggurat made of nothing but constantly flowing water.  The sahuagin invite the companions in "for dinner," but none of them is so foolish as to accept such an offer from the Shark Father's servants.

Kaelin stops at a lushly appointed merchant stall decorated with fine silks and gilden bird cages.  The feathers on display catch his eye, and he needs a replacement feather for the one that was taken by the rude horned devil.  A tall, lovely olive-skinned woman of indeterminate age minds the stall.  "Greetings," she says in a thick but unplaceable accent, "I am Karinna, purveyor of rare birds and rare feathers from across the planes.  You are Gaian, yes?" she says to Kaelin.  "Gaians are always welcome here.  We have not seen so many of you since the past twenty year-cycles of Sigil or so.  But you are here for my wares, of course.  For you, master, a rare feather, given to me as a gift by Tualotec, feathered rainbow serpent and protector of Pascorel."  Karinna tells a sad story of an ancient eladrin invasion of the Abyss, and of a pact made by a foolish eladrin prince - Royal Consort Ascodel of the Court of Stars - which caused an entire generation of fey offspring to be forever bound to Androlynne, 471st layer of the Abyss, subject to endless waves of demonic assault from the forces of Pale Night - the Mother of Demons.  Couatl, foo creatures, and others continue to protect the dwindling numbers of fey children from Pale Night to this day.  After listening to this sad tale, Kaelin thanks Karinna for the couatl feather, and Ayotunde also purchases a feather (this one a fiery little specimen plucked from a miniature phoenix-finch of Malo on Gaia).

As they leave Karinna's bird stall, Rockbounder cannot help but notice a group of three frost giants - two warriors and a shaman, bearing the symbols of his captor, the wizard Arbrozzar - coming down the street towards the party.  The muscled goliath moves towards them with blood in his eyes, but the others manage to pull him away before violence can erupt.  For their part, the three giants don't seem to recognize Rockbounder or Acacia... they are likely in Sigil on some errand for their master unrelated to the escape of the two prisoners, and they ignore the angry goliath's challenge to them.  Even so, the presence of Arbrozzar's agents here in Sigil may spell trouble later for the refugees from Oerth.

At last the six adventurers arrive at the Library of the Lady, a four-storied building lined with carved pillars along its outer edges.  These stone pillars depict various beings of the outer and prime planes studying and reading books and scrolls.  A floating dabus greets them at the door, stating (in illusory symbols which appear above his head) that all are welcome in the Library, so they step inside and head to the stacks on the second floor to begin their research into the Threefold Sundering, the Spider Queen Lolth, and various other subject of interest.  The ceilings of the Library are tall and vaulted, and the mottled black marble floors polished to a keen shine.  Not long after the party settles in for some research, Acacia - who has busied herself standing watch while the others peruse the stacks - notices a dark-skinned, medium-sized being with a sloped forehead skulking behind one of the shelves, watching the party intently.  The gnome signals to her ally Rockbounder, and she and the others tense up in anticipation of battle.

The Threefold Sundering