Session 8: Deals with the Flame, and The Fallen Star
Finishing up in Shadowsong Manor
Aftermath of the ritual
Shortly after assisting Nan in severing the flame's tie to her (an anchor), Moss looks into the broken mirror and briefly sees a reflection a masked figure, a black cloaked figure wearing the mask of the ashen coven
- The party may be being watched
Looting
A stone with markings of snowflakes:
- Traveler’s ember stone
- Resistance to cold one time per day for an hour
A flask:
- Gem flask
- Conjures liquid once per day
Some gauntlets:
- Gauntlets of Bone Grip
- +2 grapple checks once per day for one round
An Amulet carved out of bone
- Marrow bone signet
- Advantage on persuasion against nobles, command once per day (on nobles)
Much ado about the flame
The Party goes to the bar inside the Shadowsong Manor where they find Sol's father drinking. He says he cant believe his father made a deal with the flame
Sol's father leaves, telling the party to sleep well
- Kinda ominous
The party retires to their rooms, but as Moss approaches Sol's room, the candles flicker, and Moss loses consciousness. Sol sees a flaming figure behind her that says:
I'm here to talk
He tries to convince Sol he’s not the bad guy.
I was awakened when the emperor was murdered, it was not me
He claims he was still disapproving of the emperor, and that no one man should have all that power. He then tries to convince sol to join him, saying was captured the entire time up until the emperor's death. Sol and the figure come to an agreement.
- He wants the rest of emperor artifacts and to make sure emperor doesn't get appointed
- Sols asks for prosperity and eternal beauty
The morning after
The party wakes up the next morning after a long rest
- Moss notices a breastplate with a flame mark next to him when he wakes, with no hesitation he puts it on, it feels warm
- The party is informed Gimbol has arrived and is eating in the dining hall
Sol overhears her father celebrating in his office. An emissary slides him a (presumably) business contract, and the flames within the candelabra flicker as the emissary leaves. Sol enters and tries to intimidate her father into letting her take over as the head of the family, the conversation doesn't seem to be going her way until she hears the voice of the flame inside her mind:
New power, darling.
Sol intimidates her father with her newfound power, and he agrees to make her the head of the family. Again she hears the voice of the flame:
It's all yours, make it happen.
Some of party sits down in the dining hall, meeting up with Gimble. Nan sits next to Jin, noticing the gem flask
Oh, my old flask
The two discuss their favorite drinks, then Nan says some words over it, magically filling it up with Jin's favorite drink, and handing it back to him. The two notice vesper juggling while playing violin
- This is very cool
- Vesper is very cool
They talk about circus and Nan mentions the soul well, asking Jin to release the souls kept within.
Sol reveals her conversation with the flame, and as she mentions collecting the artifacts and stopping a new emperor from being appointed, Moss hears the scepter inside of the bag of holding:
They keep us captive and use us
The scepter reveals that without an emperor the artifacts are free to go where they want, and help who they please. They aren't opposed to the appointment of a new emperor, but they want it to be the proper one.
Preparing to leave
Gimbol says he knows where one of the anchors is: back in stormcall clan territory, in the north ridge of the mountains, one of the mountains splits
- Joyboy was near there at some point, he said he could hear the sky humming
The party discusses whether or not to work with flame, but doesn't come to a clear conclusion.
Sol goes to talk to Nan, Nan has aged a lot since last seen, now looking her age. Sol reveals the she is now working for the flame, and claims the flame is outside of everything, and wants to put power back in the peoples hands. Nan questions if the flame is like a god, as the gods have been gone for centuries, and the only one known to remain is the fallen god, Abolys(?). She hands Sol a stone, that will bring her back to the Manor any time she'd like.
- Teleport stone: Once per day, takes 15 minutes, teleports the whole group
Journey to the Stormcall Clans
The party decides to travel to the Stormcall clans.
The party rests at foot of mountain gimbol talked about. Party hears a voice on the wind:
Turn back or be claimed.
Hear wolves As the party enters the fissure in the mountain, they hear the distant howling of wolves, and see a rope bridge leading to a star formation in the middle of a clearing, with a couple of abandoned campsites along the periphery.
- Gimbol makes it halfway across before the bridge breaks, leaving the bridge suspended across the fissure by one side.
- Vesper tightrope walks while juggling and totally kills it
- This is very cool
- Vesper is very cool.
- Moss turns into a spider and crosses but the wind takes him and knocks him out of spiderform halfway across
The star in the mountain
Exploring the surroundings
Now on the other side of the bridge, the party feel a pulsing from the depths of the fissure, and see some kind of opening near bottom. The party check the other camp beyond an ice bridge, there are dead hunters tucked in peacefully in their bedrolls, but they have long frozen over. As the party looks through the hunter's packs, Sol notices something move across the topside of the cliffs. There is little of note in the packs besides a hunting journal. Gimbol reads through the journal:
- There are entries about vision problems, memory issues, something calling within fissure, something luring them, seeing one of the wolves; the wolf was not normal
WOLF BATTLE w/ SKELEFRIENDS
Strange wolves jump down from the top of the cliffs, as the party hears:
‘My pets have found another’
Two tattered creatures with skeletal features rise from the fissure. The party fights the wolves and mysterious skelemen, and as one of them is defeated, it's revealed to be a goliath, one of the twin hunters that Gimbol recognizes from his time with JoyBoy.
- The Star is mutating things, controlling them
Joyboy's Ghost
After the fight concludes, an apparition, apparently JB materializes.
Hello old friend
JB explains that voices always told him to come there, he calls it the hollow star
- It wasn't glowing when he came there as a child
> It's reactivated, it's alive, there's something down there be careful.
JB claims he can't leave until the star is taken care of, and points out steps along the wall going down the fissure. The party bids farewell to JB, heading down the steps, and entering in to the opening at the bottom of the fissure.
- The walls are lined with crystal veins, pulsing with light.
Inside of the opening is a doorway, glowing with light from inside the next room. As the party approaches, memories of past events flash across their minds.
Battling the Sentinel
Within the chamber a crown floats in the air, magically tethered between 4 crystal pillars. Masses of crystal on the ground like a broken constellation form what looks like a torso, and from them a giant sentinel rises. The sentinel appraises the party, as the party hears a voice:
The crown must endure
The sentinel attacks and the fight begins. During the fight, the party destroys the four pillars, dropping the crown to the ground and removing the tether from the crown to the sentinel.
- Solara grabs the crown and flees.
From two openings in the chamber, huge beams of light damage the party, and engulf the entire floor in blue flame, knocking Gimbol out. The area begins to tremble as the chamber starts to collapse.
The main objective of retrieving the artifact being complete, the party attempts to flee.