Visions of the False Sage

Last session most of the characters were granted a vision by the False Sage: a strange creature posing as the Sage of Lune while the real one is imprisoned on the moon. 

[Take notes or bookmark this one, as you'll probably be referring back to it later on. Some questions got a bigger or more complicated answer than others. If a character got an answer that pointed to a place you already know about, or were maybe planning to go anyway, I tried to give you some bonus information.

Some of you get 'instant gratification' answers that you could go investigate right now with your current knowledge, exploration and power level. Others are more long-term things, or lead to areas of extreme danger. As always, it is up to you to decide which are which and what to do about it!]

Finrod

"I wish to see the Temple of Esma, built by my people of old and since lost."

A cracked and crumbling dome of velvety white stone surmounted by towers is perched among the high mountain crags. Through a great crack in the white dome only darkness is visible, and then a brief blur of green, perhaps... the flap of a massive wing?

"Lost Esma can be found on the edge of the Elphand Lands, in the Pinnacle Mountains, on the highest peak overlooking Lake Pernicus."

After returning to the Night Wolf Inn, Finrod asked about the message he had seen on the notice board during the midsummer party. James Everbleed and the others he spoke to had no idea who put it up, or any information on the adventurer who was named in the flyer (Phanouel the Great).

Uriah

"Show me relics sacred to Seker or Solaris that I could use to make a blessed weapon."

"Beneath Wakelinus' Folly, the demon Varthatov keeps a weapon of light stolen from his enemies, a gemstone of scintillating colours. Seize it for yourself."

"In the undercity deep below Viridistan, underneath the Temple of Sürü Miklári and the Theatre of Sutrali Khibari, in the Court of the Triumphant Wedding lies a lost relic of Seker, the Head of the Hawk. It is in the possession of Uromén the Chortling Death, seneschal of evil. He knows not what he has, but is unlikely to give up his prize willingly."

Getorix

"Where can I learn the secret of the Philosopher's Stone?"

"In the City of Brass lies the Library of Xinraedaal. Contained within is all the knowledge accumulated by the city's builders over millennia. If what you seek is not there, then the library can point the way."

You already know the way to the City of Brass. It can be reached through the magical book your group owns: Evocations of the Doomed City.

Xénos

"Show me how I may obtain a weapon suitable for my skills."

In a field of utter blackness, only a distant archway of purplish-red fire can be seen.

"Venture beneath Wakelinus' Folly where the demon Varthatov stalks and the followers of Uthummaos hold their cruel rites. Pass through the Amaranthine Arch and walk the paths of utter darkness, where no light is permitted. Any sane man would fear to tread these halls, but there is the object of your search."

Owen

"Show me how to enhance my psionic talents."

A great cavern where a bitter cold wind howls, held up by an immense column of natural stone. The entire cave is punctuated with strange formations, both mineral deposits and sheets of ice. On the south wall, a rectangular dais of dun-coloured rock is drizzled with mineral deposits resembling melted wax. At the back of the platform, a 10'x10' mirror reflects a distorted image of the entire cavern.

"Venture into the cellars beneath the Night Wolf Inn to find this enigma built by the ancients and touch your reflection to receive its wisdom."

Salzige

"Where can I obtain the means to use the fireball spell?"

Watched over by five towering columns of white alabaster whose tops have been sculpted into flying seraphim, is an open theatre of incredible beauty. Each tier of seating is broad enough to spread a blanket and cut from a different color of pastel quartz. This rainbow of rose, green and lavender forms a stepped quarry with the stage at the bottom.

The backdrop of the stage is equally spectacular, being constructed of enormous boulders - each one an opened geode of sparkling white calcite.

Your heart pounds and you feel light-headed, for the stage is mired in a great trove of gold, jewels and other delights.

"This is the hoard of Al'lahab the red dragon, ancient and powerful. He dwells in the City of Brass near the Library of Xinraedaal, hoarding his treasure and flying on the currents of elemental fire. Here you will find the magic item you seek."

Joe Spruce

"Show me the location of any natural materials as strong as forged materials, or a way to make natural materials stronger."

"In the Groves of the Moon grow mighty and ancient trees that can only be harvested by blessed axes, for their boughs are stronger than any steel."

"In a high mountain fortress built by warriors of legend lives a craftsman with the skill to work this wood and many other materials besides. Only those whose hearts are pure shall ever get close enough to ask for his help. This fortress lies in a land of snowy mountains and volcanoes known to you as the Cerebral Cliffs."

[If & when you guys go to these areas, I will mark these spots on your map.]

Cassia

"Show me what you really look like."

A spindly and hideous beast, giant-sized, with an eyeless face and a forest of whiplike tentacles emerging from its head.

"If you must know..."

[If you guys fight the False Sage again and she "reveals her true form somehow" I will show you her stats thanks to the insight delivered by this vision.]

It was at this point that hostilities commenced with the False Sage. It is unlikely that further visions will be forthcoming, so make good use of this information!

Session 56

RETURN TO THE SAGE'S TEMPLE

Blackmoon 14-16, 4433

Characters:

Xénos, Assassin 5
Owen the Vitalizer, Cleric of Shang Ta 3

Uriah Sunstrife, Paladin of Seker 4

Salzige Brauen, Magic-User 4

Young Joe Spruce, Druid 5

Getorix, Magic-User 4

Cassia Tannin, Fighter 4

Finrod, Elf 4

To Question the Sage, Again

After dealing with some details in the Moonlit Zone and resting up, the group ventured westward to the Forgotten Village and then on to the Sage's Temple. They were not troubled by any passing foes during this time... the forest was ominously quiet.

They found the temple mostly as they remembered it, a tall rectangular structure covered in carvings, surmounted by a cupola dome. Scented smoke drifted from the shuttered windows, and it seemed deserted.

The party looked into the first level only enough to find the stairs upwards. They progressed through the top floor, discovering rooms both familiar and new. They were surprised by undead in a dead garden, but Phalaros' necromancy and Uriah's turning sorted them out quickly. 

After learning the undead command was of short duration and the creature would have to be destroyed in a few rounds:
Justin: "Just tell him to picture the bunny rabbits!"

They found the ritual room with a coffin of severed hands, but these proved more dangerous than before, animating and attempting to choke the group! They were turned and quickly sizzled in their coffin with several vials of holy water.

[The group visited some familiar rooms, no need to repeat everything. See the stories of the first visit]

The party found the three crone statues and attempted to trade their statistics, with some success [spending hero points helped here]. 

In a staircase room, they fought a brass soldier which was armed with a throwing discus, and had a sinister red glow in its eyes - the sage's guardians had been upgraded recently. This became clear when it exploded in flames after being destroyed! Salzige harvested a glowing, everburning magma-rock from the construct's remains.

The group ascended to the roof dome where they spoke with the False Sage, accompanied by nine more brass soldiers. Her manner was strange and unnerving as always, but things did not begin with hostilities. She convinced Finrod, Uriah, Getorix, Xénos, Owen, Salzige, Joe Spruce and Cassia to gaze into her moon-reflecting pool and experience a vision [Full report to come on these]. 

The only member of the party who didn't accept the offer was Black Phalaros, who had his own plans. 

Cassia asked "Show me your true face" and was greeted with a horrifying monster reflected back at her. As she was experiencing this vision, Phalaros carefully snuck up behind the False Sage and delivered a touch attack with a rigor mortis spell, paralyzing her for half an hour.

The fight was on! Ominous red light began to shine from the brass soldiers' eyes and a tense battle developed with the party carefully trying to dance around the deadly but slow-moving automatons, while the False Sage was carried to safety by another two. Several were destroyed, but things reached a crescendo of danger when the purpose of the magma-rock cores was revealed: three statues opened their mouths and breathed jets of flame, enveloping most of the group in an inferno!

[Lord have mercy I wish I had taken a screen cap of this moment.]

When the smoke cleared, Owen the Vitalizer was unconscious and Black Phalaros was nothing but a charred corpse [coming all the way down to -20 hit points!].

While they had winged the False Sage with some arrow fire, her brass soldiers lifted her on to the reflecting pool and they floated up through the cupola dome, disappearing up into the night sky!

The party knew that the crucial moment had arrived, and chose discretion. They hustled out of the room ahead of the pursuing brass soldiers, with Joe Spruce heroically dragging Owen behind him under a storm of discus-fire. After reaching (relative) safety outside the Moon Temple, the group packed their treasure out of Room I and returned to Viridistan to offload all their loot, identify magic items, study their treasures and plot their next move!

Stay tuned for:

- Treasure, magic item & XP breakdown post

- Black Phalaros' last will and testament

- Moon visions for everyone

- Downtime thread!

Session 9

THE SAGE OF LUNE 

15th-18th Meadowlark 

Characters: 

Gorr, Ranger 2
Suba-Jin, Cleric 1
Robert the Swift, Fighter 1
Eric Withakay, Cleric 3
Lothos the Undesirable, Elf 2
Meep, Dwarf 2 

The Trade

Continuing from the cliffhanger last session, Lothos & the 'talking book' Pheldrazash discussed using the crone statues so that the book could use Lothos' body in exchange for teaching the elf some of its magic. After discussing it back and forth, they asked the statues to go ahead. There was a pause, and then they said "IT IS DONE!"

Lothos felt a bit dizzy, but not that much different, and the group decided not to press the issue further. Many odd wonders were discovered on the second floor of the temple:

-Talking wooden statue holding up the ceiling, covered in graffiti. It offered to explain the workings of a few rooms, and asked for an offering in return (explanations are written in the room descriptions). After some sullen negotiations, Eric threw it a few of his (fake) gold coins.

-Candlelit room with a tiny coffin, filled with severed skeletal hands & arms. Pictographs showed a man severing his own hand in a ceremony of some kind. The ceremony allows anyone to make contact with a true Power of the universe (god or demon), at the cost of a hand or limb.

-Room with illusionary walls of a dense, sunlit forest inhabited by naked, giggling nymphs. They responded to the players. Gorr managed to convince one to come closer and take one of his magical cherries and an acorn from Grandfather Tree. He asked it to come out of the wall, but it seemed too scared.

-A bare room with a 4' crystal sphere in the middle, filled with churning smoke. Once in a while, a great golden eye would press itself against the glass from the inside.The group tried rolling the sphere around, but ultimately decided to leave it here for the time being.

In the room with four pillars, Meep the dwarf discovered a hidden switch on the pillar guarded by the brass soldier. It opened on a set of stairs, leading upwards. The group managed to distract the brass man enough that almost everyone could dodge past.

Meeting the Sage

Lothos, Robert, Suba-Jin and Meep climbed the stairs. At the top, a broad cupola was dominated by a pool of still water reflecting the moon. Nine brass soldiers stood at attention, but took no notice of the group. A (real human, not a shadow!) woman wearing delicate robes and ornate jewellery (a gem-studded silver ring, a silver sceptre, silver brooch and an engraved brass bracelet) greeted them warmly, apologizing for any mistreatment by the mechanical soldiers.

Her manners were welcoming, but little details were odd. When she walked in her thin slippers, her feet made a ceramic clack-clacking on the stone floors. Close up her face looked inside-out or inverted, like an optical illusion or something.

The Sage of Lune said that she almost never received visitors and offered to show the group visions in the reflecting pool of past and present things:

Suba-Jin asked about the origin of the land's curse and how it might be stopped: 

This land was once held in balance between the sun and moon. A cultist of Uthummaos, the God of Empty Darkness, drew that evil deity's attention to our world. This grim god spread his demons and shadow creatures throughout the land, and has plunged the world into a perpetual twilight, with no day or nighttime. I do not know how to break the curse, but Uthummaos has four demonic lieutenants in this world who enforce his will. If anything is at the core of the curse's power, it is them. The pool showed a man with indistinct features at the candle-lit shrine, cutting off his own hand and throwing it in the small coffin. Then hordes of shadowy monsters climbing forth from the deep, misty crevasse below Wakelinus' Folly (session 4).

Robert the Swift asked about these four demons and where they might be found:

I know three of their names, but the fourth eludes my sight. Eralion, who dwells deep beneath his old fortress in the moonlit zones. Varthatov, who presides over the First Temple of Uthummaos, somewhere beneath Wakelinus' Folly. Vashundara, the snake-demoness. The vision showed first Eralion's fortress, then the ruined colosseum again, then a woman with coal-black skin sleeping on an opulent bed covered with cushions, wearing only golden jewellery. A gold key hung on her necklace, and her belly was bulging and distended.

Lothos asked a question, but the Sage required a kiss in return. He was unwilling to do this, feeling the situation was too suspicious.

Meep asked about the crystal sphere filled with smoke, and the group learned about the cave squid inside and the ancient cult which once worshipped it. Finally, the group asked if the Sage had any useful items or magic that might assist them in their quest - she mentioned the shrine to Usham Ta, the lucky cat, might contain some treasure if they made the right obeisances, which she demonstrated for them. Not everyone had asked a question, and the Sage begged them to return later so she might grant them further visions.

Investigating the cat shrine on their way out, the religious gestures opened a secret compartment with a chest and a message: 'Tis better to give than to receive! Donate, so the chest never remains empty! They looted some valuable bricks of incense, and left some silver coins and an ornate dagger.

Return

That night when they camped, Gorr felt seized by a blind, unreasoning fear, and could not figure out its source.

Eric had a vision during the night: The forest was light by bright sunshine, and an armoured knight with kindly eyes reached out to him. He knew this was Solaris, the almost forgotten god worshipped by Shandril and a few others. Solaris praised his valour and wisdom in wielding the enchanted mace Lua Saka, asking Eric to abandon his current faith and follow a new path. Eric shook his outstretched hand feeling a sense of joy, acceptance and relief. The god departed, fading into the overwhelming radiance.

After returning to the Forgotten Village, Shandril showed Eric the rites of his new religion and the group decided to return to Viridistan with their loot. 

Returning found the Night Wolf's tavern packed with strange people from the far corners of the world. A stage-hypnotist was performing for the crowd. Eric spotted a group displaying a solar insignia and went over to talk. They followed a deity called the "Unconquered Sun," spoke with strange accents and said they called The Wardale Rogues from Verulamium. They had never heard of Solaris, but seemed friendly enough.

Returning to Viridistan by the coast road, the group passed through the Moon Gate in the great wall and over the Emperor's farmlands. Entering on Market Avenue, they were back in familiar territory for the moment: the greatest city in the empire, beckoning adventure from every door and alleyway!

Remember, temporary bonuses such as the +1 luck from the cat shrine have long expired now. 

If you haven't already gotten back to me with downtime actions (carousing, studying, rumours, etc) please do so!!!

Treasure: 

A huge amount of treasure was redeemed from the last 7 sessions in the Forest of Dreams. Having arrived in Viridistan, it can easily be offloaded & converted to local currency in the city's grand bazaars.

220 electrum coins (worth 3 sp each - 660 sp)

3846 silver

10 copper (1 sp)

50 gold (500 sp)

ancient china tea set (400 sp)

gilding pried out of skeleton's helmets (300 sp)

7 bricks of Forest of Dreams incense (3500 sp)

animal pelts (1100 sp)

coat of chromatic peacock feathers (700 sp)

ivory Y 'crucifix' (1000 sp)

scented Forest of Dreams woods (1000 sp)

cracked quartz disk (400 sp)

TOTAL LOOT VALUE: 13,407 sp

I've deducted cost-of-living (1% of total xp) from your awarded loot automatically, since we're starting next session in the city.

Per character

Suba-Jin: 2289 sp

Robert the Swift: 2287 sp

Gorr: 2128 sp

Lothos the Undesirable: 2075 sp

Eric Withakay: 2081 sp

Meep: 1563 sp

Aladar IX: 500 sp

Viegar Thricescarred: 157 sp

Current XP totals

Gorr, Suba-Jin and Robert the Swift have gained levels! If anyone wants to carouse, let me know before next session.