Session 2-14-09

Maia 6, 23CR: Library of the Lady, Lady's Ward, Sigil

Having noticed that the group has picked up a tail, Acacia wanders over to investigate.  The whisper gnome sees a dark-skinned, hunched figure of medium size crouching by the far wall among the stacks.  As she moves to investigate more closely, the creature notices her and taps a purple-colored jewel on its ornate bracer, vanishing into a glowing circle of runes as it teleports away.  Acacia sniffs disparagingly at the sneaky creature and rejoins the group, who are now searching the Library's stacks for relevant entries on various subjects of interest.

The presence of six newcomers soon attracts the attention of the head librarian, a marrash (winged, Hell-touched gnoll outsider) called Goldfeather.  Named for the beautiful, shining gold plumage of his feathered wings, the bespectacled and well-spoken Goldfeather takes an immediate liking to the diverse and unusual personalities of the six companions.  The helpful marrash points the group in the direction of the Extradimensional Reading Room.  "Ahh, but of course.  The rarest materials - spells, scrolls, books of prayer, sentient books, animated books, rare and delicate books and vile tomes are all kept in the Reading Room, which is carefully warded against scrying, teleportation and the like.  But there is a price, of course.  Information is valuable, and you must have some to trade in order to access the Reading Room."

Jack agrees to write down the history of the Convergence from his personal perspective, including his mother's history and the particular effects of the prime/dreaming shift on his homelands, the Three Vales in southern Talirae.  "We have heard only snippets of the tale of two-worlds-joined," says Goldfeather.  "A few hours of dictation would provide the Library with much in the way of Gaian lore, which has been sadly lacking for the past two decades or more.  I accept your terms.  In exchange for some few hours of access, you, Jack Dunstan, will tell the tale of the Convergence to our dabus scribes, and your words entered into the official records for posterity."  All agree that the terms are fair, and the marrash ushers the party up to the exclusive fourth floor of the Library.  He unlocks the Reading Room and assigns a dabus assistant to the companions, both to transcribe Jack's story and assist with finding appropriate research materials.  A summary of Library research findings follows.

• Within a reference work - "Collected Essays on the Fae Wilds" (various authors) - on the Faerie (Dreaming) realms of the various primes, several references to the "Zadonites" of Gaia and their leader, "the Exile," are discovered.  The records date back to about 13,000 years ago, circa the Gaian year 64,600CD (Calendar Draconae), which coincides with the ancient conflict known as the Banespawn Wars.  However, this particular search proves rather fruitless as large portions of the records have been erased or blackened out.  When informed of these omissions, Goldfeather seems quite appalled and promises to look into the defacement of his valuable books.  No further references to the Exile can be found, but the Zadonites themselves are described in further detail.  They were a faerie race of human sized, red-skinned, pain-loving ecstatic mystics native to Gaia (and not native to their own forbidden plane of Zadythian as is commonly thought), and crossed over to the Dreamlands with the rest of the Gaian fey during the Sundering.  Just to confuse matters, this original Sundering (of the faerie/dreaming and mortal realms) occurred nearly 30,000 years ago around 48,800CD and is not to be confused with the Threefold Sundering of Irindix during the Banespawn Wars (about 17,000 years later in Gaia's ancient history, 64,600CD).
• Another book - "Deific Ascensions Across the Primes" by a consortium known as the "Blessed Six" - details the rise of Gaia's Elder Banes in slightly more detail.  The book claims that the goddess Irindix was accused by the god Jenoic of giving the secrets of deific ascension to the three Banes.  Further, the rise of the Banes somehow resulted in the splitting of Irindix into three disparate entities, perhaps echoing the triple evil of the Banes themselves.  Much of the essay (author unknown) is conjecture and hypothesis, and it concludes that Irindix was sundered into a triple-goddess by her own design, in order to better compete with the Sisters Above (Arinna and Shandae).  Irindix, the book claims, was jealous of the Sisters Above and sought to create her own version of Gaia's "Three Sisters" pantheon from within herself.

As night falls on Sigil, the heroes' stomachs begin to growl and Acacia, Rockbounder and Kaelin head out of the library to bring back some meat pies, Odo's fried potatoes and other snack foods.  On the way to the Grand Bazaar, Acacia spots their lurking, dark-skinned tail once again skulking among the carts and stands.  She focuses her ki and vanishes from sight, sneaking up on the clueless stalker until she stands close enough to hear his breathing.  "Why are you following us?" she asks curiously, still invisible.  "Hrrrm?" growls the slope-jawed creature, whirling around and looking for the source of her voice.  "Gaaahh!" it exclaims in frustration, slinking away in embarassment at being out-stalked.  After the gnome's stealthy stunt, the creature is not seen again, but Acacia makes a thorough study of the branded markings on its body.  After she rejoins the others, they converse with a pleasant dryad named Fara who sells meat pies and kabobs featuring game meats from the Beastlands.  Fara informs the group that the Beastlands can be accessed through the branches of the World Ash, Ygdrassil, and that friendly guides can sometimes be hired from among the Ratatosk squirrel-people that live among the branches.  The three companions return to the Library of the Lady with food enough for an extended study period.  Night has fallen, but the research continues:

• The identity of the party's skulking tail is discovered in an unnamed academic work about evil outsiders.  Apparently, he is an astral stalker, a race hunting horrors from the astral plane who have a reputation as relentless trackers.  Astral stalkers show their tribal and religious affiliations as well as their other loyalties by branding their coal-black skins with intricate ritual patterns.  Carefully studying the cipher, Acacia identifies the markings of her particular stalker, identifying him as loyal servant to the frost giant wizard Arbrozzar and the demon lord Kostchtchie, as well as a worshipper of "the Spiral God," a secretive and extremely evil deity of Oerth.  Ayotunde's knowledge of religion prompts her to remark that this Spiral God bears a frightening resemblance to the Overlord Khyraundros, who nearly brought Gaia to her knees during the multiple invasions of the Heirarchy of Souls.

The Library stays open at all hours, and Goldfeather wanders in from time to time to check on the companions' research efforts.  They search the stacks in turns, napping at intervals so everyone remains reasonably fresh for their shift of poring over dusty old tomes and scrolls.  Before long, morning breaks in Sigil.

Maia 7, 23CR

Finally, on towards lunchtime the companions discover a rare one-of-a-kind tome deep within the Reading Room's collection.  It is entitled "Songs of the Stormblade" and lists no author by name.  The writer's mark is a teardrop pierced by a great, black sword, but his or her identity remains a secret.  "Songs of the Stormblade" first appears to be a collection of songs and poems dating back to the ancient, ruined Empire of Sen'ryar on the Gaian continent of Asarya, but a deeper reading indicates that these tales were probably dictated to some bard or scribe by the Heirarch Alec Stormblade himself, and represent lore gleaned by him personally and then re-told.  Within this book, much is revealed:

• The realm of Faerie - also known to some as the Dreaming - is echoed across the various prime material spheres.  It is a massive plane, coterminus with all of the primes (including Gaia, Oerth, Eberron, Aebir-Toril, Athas, Aereth, and countless others) at various points.  There is a central realm, the feywilds, and peripheral faerie realms that orbit the feywild and reflect the material reality of each particular prime sphere.  So the Dreamlands of Gaia, for example, are a mere peripheral portion of the greater feywild, and it is theoretically possible to travel from one prime to another through gates within Faerie itself.  Further, each of these peripheral "prime echoes" maintains its own Seelie and Unseelie faerie courts, which in turn answer to the larger court of the feywilds.

• Around the time of the Sundering (48,800CD) the Dreamkin, as the collective fey beings of Gaia are known to mortals, discovered a terrible secret. Though the specifics of this secret are not recorded in Songs of the Stormblade, it caused the Dreamkin to believe that they would bring "terrible danger and destruction from beyond" to Gaia if they stayed connected to the prime material plane.  The companions find an obtuse reference here to a "web of dreams" that the dreamkin intended to construct as a semi-permanent quasi-plane between the worlds, but whether the web of dreams is related to the "danger from beyond" is unclear.

• Regarding echoes of other primes: "Songs of the Stormblade" explicitly calls out the three Elder Banes as false gods, declaring them outside the natural order and of lesser stature than the Great Heirarchy of Souls.  This last bit smacks of Heirarchy propaganda, but as the three Banes are described in detail, certain elements of their natures seem to parallel other fell beings from beyond Gaia.  Rockbounder remarks that the bane Tyraudon, the Warscourge, shares a portfolio with the deity Hextor of Oerth, known as the Lord of Tyranny.  Further, Ethoar the Soul Burner has startlingly similar characteristics to Oerth's Erythnul, God of Slaughter.  Perhaps most chilling are the similarities between the bane known as Yshunor the Plagueherald and the powerful yugoloth lord Anthraxus the Oinoloth.  The three (four, if Irindix is included) Elder Banes of Gaia frequently cooperated with the forces of Khyraundros' Heirarchy of Souls, just as Hextor, Erythnul and Anthraxus supported the Spiral God Tharizdun's terrible workings on Oerth.  Clearly, the various prime material worlds are separate entities, but the spirits of certain beings and deities seem to resonate across the worlds as well.

The party's research has been fruitful, but many unanswered questions about the Threefold Sundering and the current situation regarding Irindix's three aspects remain.  Goldfeather offers to accompany the six companions to the Styx Oarsman and provide an introduction to Rule-of-Three, who according to Goldfeather is a well-respected scholar with an abiding love of knowledge.  "As a marrash, there are few places that serve food and drink so agreeable to me as the Oarsman," says Goldfeather, "and it will be a pleasure to see Rule-of-Three again.  His curiosity will no doubt be peaked by the arrival of Gaians with so many stories to tell."

The walk across Sigil from the Lady's Ward to the Lower Ward, wherein lies the Styx Oarsman, takes over an hour.  As they enter the Lower Ward, the party's breathing becomes somewhat labored within the clouds of brimstone and ash that billow forth from thousands of chimneys in the ward.  Home to denizens of the many lower planes (hence the name), the Lower Ward has a reputation as the most dangerous and deceitful ward in Sigil.  The famous tavern known as the Styx Oarsman stands over two stories high, and from the outside it appears to be a massive replica of the very boat used by Charon himself to ferry souls on the River Styx throughout the lower planes.  "Don't be concerned," says Goldfeather, as Acacia yet again tries to pluck a loose feather from his plumage, "the crowd can be rough, but Rule-of-Three is well respected here, as am I.  There will be no trouble for you."  The marrash adjusts his gold-rimmed spectacles and leads the group inside.  Within the tavern, demons, devils, yugoloths and other creatures of the lower planes briefly look up at the newcomers, but none move toward them aggressively.  A six-armed marilith hisses a friendly welcome as she serves drinks at the bar, all of her arms moving in a blur of motion yet spilling nary a drop of precious booze.

Goldfeather leads the six companions to a quiet corner of the Oarsman, where a nonassuming githzerai clad in brown velvet robes sits casually glancing at what looks like a thick tome of spells and incantations.  He looks up and greets the party.  "Ahh, Goldfeather.  The librarian, the keeper of records, that is to say the loremaster, returns to my presence.  And with new friends, compatriots, allies, it appears... how intriguing!  New in town?  Your type, your disposition, your shining characters don't generally come to the Lower Ward, the wrong side of Sigil, the Styx Oarsman.  I like the cheap beer, the rough company, and rampant rumormongering, myself.  What brings you here?"  This triple-speaking scholar can only be Rule-of-Three, and he introduces himself as such.  "They call me, I call myself, the world knows I am Rule-of-Three."  He motions for the party to sit with him, and each of the companions takes a chair.

"You were mentioned in a drow communication as a potential sacrifice," says Jack dryly.  "And we were hoping you could shed some light on their recent movements."  The githzerai takes a longer look at each of the adventurers, narrowing his eyes and then widening them.  "Ah, of course... you are Gaian.  At least, four of you are Gaian," he corrects himself, nodding to Acacia and Rockbounder.  "There has been an increase in Gaian traffic through Sigil of late," says Rule-of-Three, "and many of them are those damnable drow, the dark elves, spider-worshippers, if you will."  Kaelin interjects himself into the conversation, offering lore of Gaia's recent years.  "I have heard, m'lord, that you are a loremaster of some repute.  Let me share this story with you."  He performs a stirring re-telling of the occupation of Hathorae and the execution of Supreme Elect Weylorn Orren (see Falling Stars Session 10-11-08), impressing Rule-of-Three with his penchant for drama as well as accuracy.

"That was well told, and valuable indeed, my Dissident friend," says the githzerai, referencing Kaelin's faith in Gwardo.  "I belive I have information to trade of equal or greater value.  I have heard rumors of a forthcoming Abyssal Pact, the architect of which is the Demon Goddess Lolth herself, which shall heavily increase her power, that is, her potency, her deific sphere of influence.  The drow across the primes have been stirred up by these rumors, they are agitated, and they come forth with fury against the surfacers across many worlds.  And among the Gaians, there are two factions if not more, yes?  Those loyal to the Spider Queen, the Lolthblessed... and the hunters-in-darkness who pledge their souls to the Dark Huntress.  I know, I surmise, I expect that these factions are working at cross purposes."

The githzerai scholar takes a sip of his cheap beer as Jack and the others confide amongst themselves.  Finally, Jack speaks.  "We wish a meeting with those loyal to the Dark Huntress," he says.  "Our world is under attack from below, by raiding parties of Lolthblessed drow.  We hope to broker an agreement with those who oppose Lolth's plans."  Rule-of-Three nods, considering these words.  "I believe, then, that I can be of assistance.  I trade information with both groups, but truly only for the purposes of collecting more data on the movements of the Lolthblessed.  I should not like to see the Spider Queen's plots bear their bitter fruit, come into fullness, and see completion.  Return here tomorrow, same time, and I shall arrange a private meeting between you and my contact among the Huntress' faithful."

Satisfied with those arrangements, the six adventurers bid farewell to Rule-of-Three and Goldfeather, making their way out of the Oarsman (but not before the marilith, who is apparently called Marilith, flirts suggestively with Jack).  Outside, they find themselves nearly caught up in a macabre parade of shuffling undead and heinously decorated underpriests of Orcus, Demon Prince of the Undead.  The parade of death chokes off all normal traffic in the Lower Ward streets, forcing the heroes into an abandoned alley to avoid the crush of Orcus' parade of undeath.  The alley seems quiet, until Acacia and Kaelin spot a swarm of rats further down the shadowy street.  These rats are clearly not the ordinary sort - what is ordinary, in the City of Doors - as they have beady, glowing red eyes and hideously exposed tiny brains.  Suddenly, a chorus of tiny, squeaking, chittering voices erupts in the minds of the six adventurers.  These cranium rats seem to have developed a hive mind, and are attempting to communicate: "You must listen to us.  Listening?  Yes?  Scuttle very carefully through this sewer.  Demons are triple liars, but angels are eager to make you martyrs.  Go and trust neither heaven nor hell.  We mean victory for you and defeat for the Spider Queen!  Tell us you don't trust anyone and we'll let you go."  The rats' request seems strange indeed, but the heroes speak back through the mind-link to the rats, assuring them that they are properly paranoid and don't trust anyone.  This seems to satisfy the swarm of cranium rats, and they slink away back into the sewer grates.

After their strange encounter with the rats, the party returns at last to the outskirts of the Market Ward to take their rest at a fine inn called the Sylvan Glades, which was recommended to them by the dryad merchant Fara.  Magically enchanted with living grass upon its packed-earth floor and a flowing stream of clear, drinkable water that flows right through the main common room, this inn is home-away-from-home for unicorns, brownies, pixies, elves and other fey creatures.  Acacia and Ayotunde manage to convince a pair of mated unicorns - Amaya and Yail - to give them a ride through the Glades.  The unicorns mention that Gaian dreamkin sometimes visit the Glades, but far less often over the past twenty-three years or so.  After a pleasant, light meal of herb salads, fresh oat bread, mead and grilled fish, the heroes retire for the night, intent on meeting the Rule-of-Three and the Gaian drow loyal to the Dark Huntress the next day.  They sleep in a private suite among the branches of one of the Glades' great oak trees, dreaming peacefully of soft wind rustling through leaves.

The Threefold Sundering