Session 8-1-09

Maia 23 - 24, 23CR -- Kingdom of Oberwald, Gaia:

Upon returning to Gaia from their journeys across the outer planes, the six friends spend two days catching up with estate business and relaxing in their home realms.  Rockbounder and Acacia rest at Shandae's Furrow with Ayotunde, while Altaer returns to the Forge to oversee the crafting of new demon bane weapons and to continue his other research projects.  Kaelin checks in at the Hexahedron, re-investing the tavern's monthly profits of 450 gp into further expansion projects.  Jack travels home to Dunstan, where he spends a pleasant two days with his lover Sorrana, and also warns her of potential incursions from the agents of Graz'zt.

By the morning hours of Maia 25, the heroes have flown by owlback across the Valley of Obelisks into the Elsir Vale, having agreed to meet at the Dunstan manor house.  Ayo takes a slight detour across the Wyrmsmoke Mountains to stop at the Fane of Ijruk and introduce her new friends from Oerth to Klar Bloodflayer, Lord of the Fane.  Klar is so impressed by Rockbounder's martial prowess that he offers the golaith free use of a trained wyvern mount, far more suited to Rockbounder's bulk than the light-boned owls.  "This wyvern will serve you loyally, but don't get him killed!  You'll have to answer to me," growls Klar, grinning from ear to ear.  Soon the wyvern is aloft with Rockbounder astride, keeping up with the owls as they speed towards Dunstan in the blue-tinged sky of pre-dawn.

Over a fine breakfast of fresh eggs and flaky biscuits with Sorrana's first batch of strawberry preserves, the companions agree that their first objective is to locate and unbind the Fiery Huntsman aspect of Jenoic's Wild Hunt.  Jack notes that the fires in the Thornwaste seem to have subsided, and that searching from the air on owlback seems a logical choice.  Ayotunde takes a walk in Jack's fey garden and casts her seeds of divination upon the ground, but there is no clear answer given to her question, "Where is the Fiery Huntsman?"  After breakfast, the party prepares its gear and magic for any potential danger and departs Dunstan, flying due south across the borders of the Thornwaste.  The thick, choking black clouds which once obscured sight there have been replaced with a lighter, gray rain of ash.  From high above the thorny brambles, the heroes can clearly see the wreckage of the Ghostlord Urikel Zarl's stone lion edifice atop the largest mesa in the 'Wastes, as well as the small dwarf-camp that has been recently set on Altaer's orders up to begin excavation of the site.

Traveling deeper into the twisted maze of the Thornwaste, the companions note that the Fiery Hunt is nowhere to be found, but that he has burned a repeating pattern of curved, thorn-like runic patterns into the bramble-hedges (similar in style to the rune-art employed by the Exile at the Temple of the Forest Hart in the Beastlands), as well as a single word, rendered and repeated in a stylized script using all known languages of Gaia: "Pain."

Acacia scouts out the land from above with her survival and orienteering skills, directing the others to a safe landing spot.  Ayotunde senses a wrongness in the land, and eats a small handful of Walker's Wisdom mushroom caps while summoning forth the personal energies to attempt another divination spell.  This time, her effort is far more successful.  Ayo's vision swims and she is taken by a vision of the four goliaths from Sigil wandering the burning Thornwaste.  Akala Fishstringer leads his fellows -- Silentbear, Skywatcher and Firespeaker -- directly into the path of the raging Fiery Huntsman, and without hesitation, the four goliaths engage Jenoic's aspect in a quick and brutal battle.  The goliaths' tactics are efficient and remorseless, and despite receiving many burns from the flaming attacks of the horned aspect of Jenoic, the four tribesmen of Mavortung dispose of their foe in stunningly quick fashion.  Surrounded by four superior warriors, the Fiery Huntsman lashes out again and again, but soon falls dead beneath a rain of blows, its flames extinguished and stamped out by the Exile's warriors, sending spatters of blood-like liquid fire in all directions.  Shocked by what she sees, and reaching out with her senses, Ayo shares her vision with the other five heroes.  Considering what they see of the battle, the goliaths led by Fishstringer are undoubtedly an equal or superior force to their own.  Rockbounder shakes his head sadly, pondering the downfall of these four refugees.  "They have fallen fully under the sway of their 'master,' the Exile," he rumbles quietly.  "We are responsible for this."

"What must I do?" Ayotunde prays to the planet itself.  The burning wastes whisper back at her in the voice of her dragon lover, Beshavathaur: "Find the path, and awaken the dragon.  Only then may the spark of hope be rekindled."  After a quick casting of find the path, a series of molten footprints leads off to the east, towards the foot of the Wyvernwatch mountain range.  Unsure of what the rest of Gaia's message meant, Ayo leads her friends away through the tangled, smoldering wasteland of thorny briars.  A two-hour hike leads them into the lower foothills of the Wyvernwatch range, where the mouth of a small cave can be seen hidden between two stony edifices, like the shoulders of a slumbering giant.  Here and there, small geothermal geysers erupt in sprays of steam and boiling water, and the ground is slick with the spew of many such vents.  The small cave, too, seems to be quite geothermically active, with a bubbling pool of mineral water just inside its mouth.  Aside from the steam and water, all seems to be quiet and uninhabited.

However, as the six friends enter the cave proper, they realize that they are not alone.  A familiar figure of hooded drow steps out of the shadows, touching his black-skinned hands to his temple.  "Ahh, I had expected you would come here at last," he wheezes.  All recognize the psychic drow sorcerer Mindshard from their previous encounter at the Temple of the Forest Hart, where his claims to be a servant of the Dark Huntress were proved lies.  "Yes, it is regrettable indeed that you have chosen this course of action.  My master wishes only to return Gaia to wholeness and protect her from danger.  Our purposes in this are not opposed.  Yet, I cannot allow you to proceed into this cave. The master's work cannot be so easily undone."  A second combatant, a hissing yuan-ti snakewoman, slithers forth from a shadowed hiding place.  Unsheathing a keen poisoned scimitar, she prepares for battle.  "Yess, fools.  I am called Zellirah.  You know little or nothing of our master's true goals and origin.  There is no need to ssstand in our way, for we too wissh to protect Gaia." 

Mindshard begins the battle without another word, revealing his illithid-tatooed face and drawing forth the doubts and anger from the heroes' minds in the form of three phthisics: 10-foot tall psionic humanoids, monstrously distorted, with daggerlike teeth, claws and hoarfrost hide.  The strangely altered features of these phthisics remind each adventurer of someone they know: lovers, friends and allies alike.  Focusing their attacks on Rockbounder, they mentally lash into his ego, debilitating his charisma and inner confidence.  Zellirah charges forward, stinging Rockbounder with her scimitar, but Ayo's heroes' feast renders him immune to the poison on her blade.  Sensing this, as well as the fact that Altaer has hasted his companions, Mindshard snaps his fingers and attempts a powerful dispel magic effect, puling down some of the party's magical enhancements.  The battle is swift and tense, with Jack and Acacia closing to melee range to face down Mindshard while Rockbounder and Kaelin focus their strikes on Zellirah and the phthisics.  Acacia finishes off the drow with a salvo of arrows from Thaas, the last of these striking him in the crotch.  After watching the drow die, Altaer believes that he is just a portion of the being known as "Mindshard," and they have probably not seen the last of his iterations.  Just before the phthisics can reduce Rockbounder to a drooling mass, he and Kaelin cut down and discorporate the last of them, leaving only Zellirah standing.  Jack offers her a chance to live.  "You fight skillfully, Zellirah.  Why die today, for a master who is only using you for his own purposes?  We will let you walk away, though we know you likely cannot do so without facing punishment."

The snakewoman considers this offer, her forked tongue licking out between her fangs.  After a moment, she sheathes her scimitar with a flourish.  "If you are offering me a chance to preserve my life, I will take it.  The battle is yours, and honorably won.  Mindshard underestimated you.  Should we meet again in the future, you may be certain I will not do so.  And you think that my master the Exile will punish me for retreating in the face of a hopeless battle?  If you truly think this, then you are far more ignorant of him and his desires than you appear.  Mindshard is a liar, but he did speak some truth: the Exile wishes Gaia to be safe and whole, and we will not stop until this goal is accomplished for all time.  Our paths may differ, but our ends are more alike than you imagine.  We are all Gaians, are we not? She will be saved through transformation, as the master completes his work. Consider this!"  The snake warrior turns her back to the party and quickly departs the cave, her tail leaving a wide trail of wet mud behind as she slithers off.  "One lassst thing, ssince you have won the battle honorably.  The cavesss below you do indeed house a sssleeping dragon, a mature ssspecimen of the ancient world.  Awaken him at your peril.  He sssleeps in the deepest caves, near a ssseries of geysers and lava floes, far beneath where we now ssstand.  I will certainly report your passing to the Exile, though I depart now in peace."

After looting Mindshard's body of some treasures, the heroes continue to follow Ayotunde's find the path spell, which leads deeper into the cave complex.  Passing through the outer geothermic cave area, they soon find themselves in a 20' wide passageway spiralling steeply downward, undoubtedly created by a series of stone shape spells to appear as a natural type of lava tube.  They travel for nearly an hour, spiralling ever downward as the air grows dense, moist and superheated.  Altaer's orb of environmental adaptation protects them from the conditions, but as the trek grows longer and the passageway heads deeper into the earth, the heat becomes deadly and unbearable, forcing Ayotunde to protect her companions with resist energy and protection from energy spells against fire.

INCOMPLETE

• We met Kaukemar
• We heard a bunch of prophecy
• We killed Kaukemar
• We were all very sad, cuz killing Kaukemar sucked.

The Threefold Sundering