Session 123

The battle with the party's would-be assassins raged on as the vanishing archer reappeared and put several arrows in Dain, putting him down for a third time. Using his transformed might, Sindri fought off the armored knight and his Black Blade, managing to deftly dodge several attacks before plunging his blade through the man's throat, finishing him off for good. Seeing Dain fall, Summer popped out of hiding and landed a devastating blow, getting the archer straight through the eye, putting him down permanently. With all of the attention focused on one side of the street, the shadow-cloaked assassin went after Merrick, severely wounding and blinding him. Merrick attempted to escape but was dealt a brutal blow as he scrambled away from her. Vargas and Mahani attempted to intervene, but the assassin was dexterous, dodging their attacks and shrugging off Vargas' attempts to transpose her. Summer and Merrick fought back, using light to banish the woman's dark aura, but she was able to create another veil of shadows, rapidly sucking the energy out of everyone on the street, and using the opportunity to plunge her dagger into Merrick's chest, putting him down. Skinner charged past the assassin, taking an attack meant to finish Merrick off, and pulled him out of the veil. Meanwhile, Mahani used her superior vision to track the assassin and put her down for the count using a heightened Magic Missile spell. On the opposite end of the street, Dain, and Sindri pursued a panicked spellcaster who was lobbing spell after spell at them and failing, due in part to Dain's repeated countering of his spells. Sindri caught up to the spellcaster and began to assault him, and Summer managed to finish him off for good with a well-placed arrow to the throat. With the streets fallen silent, they began to search the bodies, finding several artifacts of interest, including an amulet which upon touching, Summer felt something attempt to overcome her senses, hearing whispers in her head. However, she was able to overcome this assault and quickly covered the amulet in cloth, recognizing it as a cursed object. Meanwhile, while checking the body of the assassin, Merrick was startled to see that she was still breathing, the pink having faded from her eyes as she struggled to breathe and seemed to be desperate to say something. She managed to give them one piece of useful information, revealing that her master which was always watching through their eyes, made his home in a place called Kethiken Sholar beneath Thalassarion. After relaying this information, her head exploded as the enchantment enslaving her turned on her. As Dain began to attempt to identify some of the items they found, some Enforcers approached on the road, flagging the party down and drawing their weapons, ignoring the party's attempts to explain the situation saying that they were under arrest. Summer noticed with a start that several of the Enforcers seemed to have a touch of a pink glow to their eyes. The party prepared for a fight, but as they did, they saw a burst of flames from behind the crowd of Enforcers and a whirlwind of intense flames erupted into a large column. The flames whirled about, sucking in the Enforcers and flinging them all over the road, still burning. After their charred bodies finished falling to the ground, the column disappeared as Nashar touched down and asked the party in an annoyed tone what was going on. The party quickly explained the situation, and Nashar, figuring that perhaps the creature had a hold over the entire city, suggested that they not stay the night, and to find Tyllaetha and Anael to leave immediately. Proceeding to the inn that Nashar claimed they had sought to get rooms for the night, they found Tyllaetha and Anael drinking, already tipsy. They quickly explained the situation and made their way out of the city, avoiding the main roads, until they reached the outskirts of the city. Dain used a spell to clear their heads and went into more detail, after which Tyllaetha agreed they should camp a few miles away from the city for the night and leave immediately in the morning.

The next day, the party set out south towards the Savage Frontier, the island landmass off the coast of the Arakian mainland. Coming upon the Yawning Strait, Tyllaetha unpacked a magical folding boat she had found among Kyran's possessions, which she explained he had used in his expedition to Thalassarion centuries ago. They crossed the Yawning Strait and disembarked in a desolate wasteland, seeing nothing but rocky, sandy flat lands with the occasional dry, dead bushes. They moved inland, walking for days, before eventually coming across what appeared to be a small village, or the remains of one at least. Walking among the dilapidated buildings, they saw the remains of a number of trade good shops, and found a few items of interest among them. However, upon exploring what appeared to be an old tavern, Summer noticed that the embers of the coals in the ancient fireplace were still warm, indicating a recent fire. She ran back to the group outside the trading post building and began to explain, just as they heard some glass break inside the building. Merrick produced an Arcane Eye to explore the building and came upon a figure in the darkness, hunched behind a shelf. He could only make out a handful of features, including horns, underneath a cloak. As he moved the Arcane Eye closer, the figure stopped moving briefly before turning and crashing through the back wall, causing the entire building to come crumbling down. Summer saw a dark figure dart past an alleyway between the building and the neighboring one and pointing it out to Dain, who used Vortex Warp to teleport the figure directly to them. The figure turned and they saw a strange reptilian looking creature with red scales and predatory yellow eyes, reaching for its weapon. Skinner and Dain's Steel Defender attempted to grab the figure, but it deftly dodged them. In a tense stand-off, the figure addressed them in the Myrian tongue, asking what they wanted. Tyllaetha, startled, addressed him asking how he knew their language, and explained their purpose for being there, learning that this figure already knew of Thalassarion and its denizen... the creature they sought, named "Andozar". He explained that his people had been slaves, used as cannon fodder in a crusade to recover this "Andozar's" artifact for their masters the Sithi-nas, but that because Archmage Kyran had recovered it first and used it to destroy the gateway to their home world of Proxon, they had been stranded there. Afterwards, his people were liberated from the Sithi-nas by one of the very members of the group Kyran had traveled with to destroy the gateways and established their own home, rarely visiting the Arak mainland as the people there thought they were monsters, probably thinking they were some kind of goblins. When asked more about Andozar, the creature said he knew only that it had the ability to enslave his brethren's minds and turn them against each other, and that it had command over a vast number of dark creatures whom their weapons passed straight through and whose touch rotted their scales. The creature said it was called Nalath, a member of a species called the Yakan, and wished the party luck, saying that if they sought Andozar, that they were courting death. Put off guard by their brief encounter with a creature from another world, Tyllaetha suggested they press on, as the village held nothing else for them -- but not before Evaryan marked it on the map, noting that he wanted to explore it again on their way back.

After trekking another couple of weeks to the west, the party crossed some narrow bodies of water dividing the Savage Frontier and the Dreaming Wastes, finding an even more barren region reminiscent of the Blasted Lands, but bleached white from years of nothing but intense sun beating down on it. There wasn't a trace of life anywhere, not even dead shrubs. The group followed Skinner's lead to a barely visible road leading south, suffering under the intense sun in the middle of summer, as they approached the ancient city of Thalassarion. When Skinner told them that they were coming close, the party began to feel their senses drawn elsewhere, as they were pulled into visions portenting disturbing things.

• Dain was shown a memory of a conversation with Mara Netheridge, where she had portented a disturbing future for Sabine in which she would wreak havoc on some city with an image of death looming behind her; followed by a replaying of Sabine's departure from the group, her anger lashing out at Dain. Finally, he saw her appearing in a flash in what appeared to be a cave, and as his senses returned to him, he saw a shadow appear behind her, with glowing red eyes.
• Skinner saw a vision of his journey to Thalassarion and his tribe being wiped out by the Kevite crystals lining the entrance to Kethiken Sholar. He then saw the creature they now knew as Andozar having his Enthralled minions recovering the bodies, including several Soulstones hidden in the passage. Finally, he witnessed Andozar beckoning the spirit of Skinner's father, explaining why Skinner had been unable to beckon him since his death.
• Summer saw a vision of her youth, wandering the streets of Eldham, seeing signs posted in a ghost town explaining the quarantine, and briefly catching sight of a Human near the quarantine zone who looked just like Quinn, Evaryan's apprentice. She then saw Quinn in their camp as they set up for the night during their journey between Eldham and Geledon, going to wash his face in the water in the nearby forest; and noticing with a start that as he stood from the lake, his reflection in the water lagged behind his movements just enough to be noticeable. Finally, she saw the inside of a house, and felt tears run down her eyes as she saw Quinn lying in bed, darkened veins all too familiar, as she witnessed him take his final breaths before dying.
• Merrick witnessed a man with silver eyes and hair approach a woman with blue skin in the darkness, placing his hands on her head and producing some sort of spell which caused the woman agony, and briefly splitting her into two forms, one a shadow of herself, before she recovered, producing a blast that sent the dark figure reeling and disappearing into the shadows. Then, he witnessed the woman in a cave, doubling over in agony as her form darkened and shifted, becoming black as night and her voice dropping in pitch to a monstrous roar before dark tentacles emerged from her form. Finally, he witnessed a memory of his childhood, sailing on a boat south of the Dreaming Wastes with his parents, whereupon the Whispering Abyss formed beneath them, causing the crew and then his parents to walk into the waters to their deaths, bringing Merrick with them. As he felt himself drowning and heard the maddening whispers of the Deep One in his mind, the whispers were suddenly silenced as the familiar voice of Orick comforted him, telling him it was not his time, before a Letheni woman whom Merrick did not remember pulled him from the water and embraced him.

Awakening to find themselves surrounded by a startled Tyllaetha and Nashar checking on them, the party explained what they had seen, and did not know what to make of this -- though some of their visions were clear, with Skinner revealing with emotion that Andozar had stolen the spirit of his father; others weren't so keen on sharing, with Dain saying nothing of what he saw. Summer revealed her vision, with Quinn acting disturbed and asking if this meant that the Grave Rot Plague could return after Summer made the connection and deduced what was happening in the vision. Hoping for more solid answers, Merrick then communed with Orick, questioning him about what he had seen. Orick said that he could only confirm or deny what Merrick suspected, but was not permitted to give him information he had not already deduced by himself. After a line of questions, Orick confirmed that the entity Merrick witnessed attacking the woman was indeed Maven, and that the woman with blue skin was indeed a deity, though Merrick had only theories about her identity and assumed she was potentially an "eighth sister", but Orick denied this, stating that there were only seven, leading Merrick to wonder if this meant the Deep One was one of the Seven Sisters, or if it was some sort of separate entity created from them, but Orick was unable to confirm or deny this. Orick then reminded Merrick of a time while in the Royal Court of Reshyk where the Deep One had demanded information be brought to him, and he had provided it -- an event which both he and Dain remembers, but which they could not recall the details of. Orick revealed that the true nature of the Deep One involved an ability in which he could obliterate knowledge of any information provided to him, so that even the gods would lose access to that information, saying that only information written in texts was safe. He also revealed to Dain that the information contained within the Dwarves' Runetech archives was also subject to this ability, so it's possible they had lost other information without realizing it. He reminded Merrick of the warning Estrea had given him to not divulge certain information, with Dain being reminded of his refusal to hand over knowledge of Flow Cells to the Deep One, which Orick confirmed would have been the end of their knowledge to create such things, making them vulnerable. Orick revealed one last bit of information that piqued Merrick's curiosity, revealing that Thalassarion was once his home, long ago, before departing. As the party digested this new information, they continued along the road.

After ten long weeks of travel, the group finally arrived in Thalassarion, finding structures barely recognizable as buildings. They had the eerie feeling that they were not alone, but could not tell why. As they moved about the ancient ruins, they followed Skinner's lead, eventually coming across a large crater in the center of the city. They briefly speculated about what could have caused such incredibly devastation before Mahani spotted a structure still standing in the distance. They followed her to the entrance of what appeared to be a crypt in a graveyard. Steeling themselves, having finally arrived at their destination, the group began to descend the steps. Nashar briefly commented on the layout of the place, which had been demolished, marveling at how the Grave Rot Plague could have originated from such a "shit hole". Quinn interjected, demanding to know what Nashar meant, and Tyllaetha briefly explained what they had discovered in Kyran's journal. Quinn had an outburst of emotion regarding Kyran's selfishness, which drew the attention of something down below as they heard footfalls of something rushing toward them...