17 - 09/11/23 : Believe in Eternity
"In monochrome melodies, our tears are painted in red."
Halaster Blackcloak
The fight against the Los Bonely Boys continued right on tempo. As Sinelthriandra slew the skeletal tyrannosaurus, Vesper contended with Anbonio, whose music was quickly getting on her nerves. Edea and Hilda focused upon Boneardo, and Ozwik handled Estebone together with Nella. Edea managed to take down Boneardo with her unerring accuracy, who did a final jig before collapsing. Ozwik evened the odds by unleashing a powerful thunderwave that eliminated many of the Boys' skeletal minions, and a powerful burst of radiant energy from Vesper was enough to put Anbonio down, who went out with a bow. Vesper attempted to keep the momentum going by knocking Anbonio's skull into the air and knocking it towards Estebone with her blade, but was unable to make the shot count. Sin was left to focus on the final Los Bonely Boy, Estebone. After he played his last samba to the tune of Sin viciously attacking with her rapier, Estebone offered his hand to her for one final dance. After giving Sin a twirl and a dip, Estebone collapsed, bringing the Los Bonely Boys to an end. The party freed Piece of the Puzzle from his captivity while Halaster mourned his boys. Puzzle explained that he had decided to investigate the assassination of Open Lord Reverie of his own initiative, and delved into the Undermountain by chugging a number of invisibility potions. However, he was eventually captured and bound until the party freed him. Puzzle's line of inquiry related to Duran Stoneborn; a former hero of the Undermountain who had assisted Dagult Ambermantle in famously repelling a purple worm attack on the city decades ago. Puzzle came to learn that Duran was alive and still resided in the Undermountain, acting as a warden of the ancient dwarven ruins that formed many of the tunnels of the Undermountain. Puzzle then decided to entrust his investigation with the party, chugged his last potion, and fled for his life. Halaster reappeared not long after, thanking the party for giving the Los Bonely Boys, one of his favorite creations, their proper due. As a token of thanks, Halaster hacked up a magical diamond; Halaster's Diamond of Duplication, which he gave to Hilda. Hilda promptly shoved the diamond into her forehead, a token of her 'grandpa's affection. This gemstone allowed Hilda to split off an identical clone of herself, with access to some of her spellcasting abilities. The party continued to the next of Halaster's "attractions" ; his 'Hall of History', where he would render recreations of famous events in Undermountain history. His sole event depicted was the fight between his rampaging pet purple worm, 'Purpy', and three adventurers; a younger Dagult Ambermantle, Vaida Sundever, and the previously mentioned Duran Stoneborn. This battle had become famous in the decades since, and served to be the instigating factor for Dagult's rise in popularity and eventual seating as the city's Open Lord. The party observed this event, and inquired if Halaster had any new pets since; he ominously said that there was one he was having difficulty controlling on the lower levels. When asked if he couldn't see that far down, he replied that there were only three individuals he could not magically perceive in the Undermountain; Aezora, Hilda, and Hilda's duplicate. Halaster revealed that long ago, he and the powerful witch Tasha used to meet for tea (as powerful wizards were apparently wont to do). The two at some point made a magical pact to not interfere with each other's affairs to save each other the trouble of a long and protracted battle; Tasha would be unable to plunder the Undermountain of its secrets and treasures, and Halaster would be unable to magically perceive any of Tasha's progeny, preventing him from taking them as apprentices or wards. This reveleation further cemented a connection between Hilda and Aezora, since they shared the property of Halaster being unable to scry or otherwise magically perceive them. To demonstrate this, Halaster showed the party that the myriad eyes lining his robe of eyes were unable to focus on Hilda or her duplicate. Vesper recognized Vaida, as she was the mother of both her companion Contrast and her mentor Izerna. None of the party had ever seen Duran, but recognized tales of him; a dwarf with earth genasi hertiage, who looked like a dwarf hewn of pure stone. The party continued into the last of Halaster's proposed attractions for the fourth layer of the Undermountain; 'The Tunnel of Dark Backstories', which the mad mage admitted was a working title. He showed the party his magical glyph trap that, when stepped upon, forced the victim to reveal their past in broad and revealing strokes. Halaster then accidentally stepped on and subsequently destroyed the glyph, and began to speak in an uncharacteristically lucid tone. Halaster began to describe the beauty of the ancient Hyperborean city of Tsen, which the party realized was his former home. Halaster recalled the works of arcane wonder and the might of the empire that was once his motherland, and how the Hyperborean arcanists sought to challenge even the gods themselves. Halaster suspectged that this was why the 'White Wyrm' of legend descended upon Tsen and obliterated it in an instant; a fate that Halaster survived only because he had the luck of being away from the city at the time. The explosion claimed his tower, his apprentices, his many pet cats, and the lives of all those who resided in Tsen. Halaster further elaborated that the Undermountain was his attempt to recapture the magical glory of his home city; his tribute to Tsen at the height of its glory, and his challenge to the gods that he believed to have taken everything from him. The party came to understand Halaster's madness better; that of a man who had lost everything and everyone he loved in the blink of an eye, all for the ambition of himself and his countrymen. That he contained himself to his dungeon instead of taking his fury out against Lloegyr at large was an apparent miracle. Halaster concluded his surprisingly coherent ramblings by saying that he was far happier maintaining the Undermountain, and wished to show the party its next and fifth layer; 'Wyllowwood', a sliver of the feywild of Halaster's own creation, where a supposedly insane elf named Wyllow resided. He disappeared to prepare the way, leaving the party to reflect on what they had been told. Surprisngly, the display had moved Vesper to ask the party a personal question. Vesper asked the party if they thought the Open Lord would relinquish the katana that was his personal weapon of choice and had been for several years. The katana once belonged to Urstul Floxin, Vesper's lover and confidante during her time in the Black Network, who had been killed after his encounter with the Red Spirits in Maleficarius Towers. Although she no longer lived a life he would approve of, she missed him and their time together, and was still somewhat in love with him; she felt that it would only be right to have the katana herself, as a piece of him to keep with her. The party, particularly Ozwik, encouraged her to ask Renaer when everything was over. Ozwik emphasized his people's belief in objects of significance, such as their blades, having 'spirits' that resonated with the people that created them and used them, and that the spirit of the katana would likewise resonate with Vesper. The knight-in-changing mused that the spirit of the katana was all too real, and told them about the vengeful revenant of Urstul Floxin that occasionally hounded her steps and sought the destruction of all things. Vesper then decided she had opened up quite enough for one evening, and bade the party continue to the fifth floor that Halaster had discussed. They made their way through the last of the tunnels, eventually finding Halaster trying to painstakingly stabilize a portal. Edea, who had become passingly familiar with extraplanar theory (particularly that of the fey variety) thanks to her association with Reilly Springs, offered to help solve the problem by placing a few crystals near the portal and attuning them to the proper frequency. With the harmonics around it stabilized, the portal became anchored and less chaotic, allowing passage. Edea said that there was still work to do to make the portal more permanently affixed to the material plane, and insisted her party move on ahead while she stayed back with Halaster to reinforce the portal. Although wary to leave Edea, Ozwik and the others relented and proceeded through the portal. The portal led to a beautiful, moonlit forest grove, illuminated by soft glows eminating from braziers and marbled runestones. A large structure of several arches of runestones crossing over one another stood in the center of the grove, and in the middle of the structure itself stood a hooded woman, who warily instructed the party to approach her. The hooded elf introduced herself as Wyllow, and welcomed them to the place she called Aelinthaldaar; the graveyard of the ancient elves. Speaking somewhat erratically and vaguely, she told the story of how before the Undermountain belonged even to the dwarves, the elves of old laid claim to it as a burial place of their dead, and constructed great works of art and arcane ingenuity on the site. However, after so many years, all that was left was the grove she tended. As the party tried to convince Wyllow that she was in a pocket of the feywild and all that she guarded as 'Aelinthaldaar' was in fact an illusion, Hilda got a closer look underneath Wyllow's hood and realized she looked very much like Edea. When Hilda spoke aloud about the resemblance, Ozwik made a connection and greeted Wyllow by her true name; Quistis Lockehart, Edea's mother. Hearing her true name shook Quistis from her hallucinatory episode, and the shock of having held the guise for so long sent her into slight hysterics. She realized that she had lost near a century of her life to being trapped in the pocket of the feywild, where time passed differently than out in the real world; and it was all for nothing. Her life's mission had been to discover the ancient lost kingdoms of the old elves, and she had lost so much time merely standing guard over an illusion. Ozwik tried to center Quistis by calling attention to the fact that Edea was here. This furthered Quistis' anxieties; she had originally given up her dream to settle down with Edea's father and raise their child after recovering from an injury, but the realization that she would live far longer than her half-elven daughter and would have to watch her grow old and die filled Quistis with enough dread to convince her to return to her quest and abandon her family. However, Ozwik was able to calm the elf at last. Quistis wondered what she would even say, for she hardly felt like a mother after leaving her daughter long enough for Edea to grow to her mid-twenties. Oz assured her that Edea spent all of her time trying to find Quistis, and it would be better to know her than to continue running. Edea finally emerged from the portal and Oz broke the news to her, stunning the young gunslinger. Her journey to find her mother had finally come to a conclusion, and despite having rehearsed dozens of speeches a thousand times for the moment, she was unsure what to say; unsure if she wanted to hug her mother, slap her, or just stand there and say nothing. Eventually, Edea simply asked her mother 'why', and Quistis revealed the whole of her story to Edea, apologizing for leaving her alone for so long, especially after the death of her father. She also entrusted Edea with Rose, the twin pistol of Edea's signature revolver Pearl, saying that it had always been hers. Edea decided that the reunion wasn't going to make up for what Quistis did or substitute all their lost time, but it was at least a start. As the two talked, the trio of Ozwik, Sinelthriandra, and Hilda heard a voice in their head; Aezora the succubus, speaking to them to tease them. She lamented that with Edea's goal fulfilled, it would be much harder (if not impossible) to tempt the gunslinger, but Aezora was thankful that she at least had options. She also mentioned that she longed for Vesper to learn her name so that she could speak to her as well, for Aezora could sense Vesper's inner conflict and desires even from afar. As Ozwik admonished Aezora and affirmed that they would save Yzzan from her clutches, Aezora laughed and decided to warn them that a creature of burning, insatiable desire was fast approaching; a 'ghost' from Vesper's past, bringing with him an inferno to match his rage. With this warning, Aezora bid them farewell and promised to see them again before disappearing from their thoughts. Ozwik warned Vesper and Edea to prepare themselves for the arrival; when Vesper realized who Aezora was referring to, she drew her blade and warned everyone to be prepared for a deadly fight. As if on cue, embers and ash in the air began to coalesce into a swirling vortex before forming the shape of a man; Urstul Floxin the Ash Revenant had found his lost love once again. Urstul taunted Vesper for finding 'false comfort' in the embrace of her 'whore goddess' Desna, and admonished her for not joining him on his crusade against all life. Vesper could only lament that she wished for Urstul to rest, and promised to keep fighting him until he finally stopped. Satisfied with his posturing, Urstul summoned an array of flying fire snakes and engaged the party and Quistis in combat. While Hilda's summoned goo-panthers and Sin held back the fire snakes, Urstul tore into the party with his aura of intense heat and his deadly bladework. Even the ordinarily stoic and composed Ozwik was briefly paralyzed by the fury and hate in Urstul's dreadful gaze. The deadly fight in Wyllowwood would surely claim their lives if they could not withstand the inferno…
The fight against the Los Bonely Boys continued right on tempo. As Sinelthriandra slew the skeletal tyrannosaurus, Vesper contended with Anbonio, whose music was quickly getting on her nerves. Edea and Hilda focused upon Boneardo, and Ozwik handled Estebone together with Nella. Edea managed to take down Boneardo with her unerring accuracy, who did a final jig before collapsing. Ozwik evened the odds by unleashing a powerful thunderwave that eliminated many of the Boys' skeletal minions, and a powerful burst of radiant energy from Vesper was enough to put Anbonio down, who went out with a bow. Vesper attempted to keep the momentum going by knocking Anbonio's skull into the air and knocking it towards Estebone with her blade, but was unable to make the shot count. Sin was left to focus on the final Los Bonely Boy, Estebone. After he played his last samba to the tune of Sin viciously attacking with her rapier, Estebone offered his hand to her for one final dance. After giving Sin a twirl and a dip, Estebone collapsed, bringing the Los Bonely Boys to an end. The party freed Piece of the Puzzle from his captivity while Halaster mourned his boys. Puzzle explained that he had decided to investigate the assassination of Open Lord Reverie of his own initiative, and delved into the Undermountain by chugging a number of invisibility potions. However, he was eventually captured and bound until the party freed him. Puzzle's line of inquiry related to Duran Stoneborn; a former hero of the Undermountain who had assisted Dagult Ambermantle in famously repelling a purple worm attack on the city decades ago. Puzzle came to learn that Duran was alive and still resided in the Undermountain, acting as a warden of the ancient dwarven ruins that formed many of the tunnels of the Undermountain. Puzzle then decided to entrust his investigation with the party, chugged his last potion, and fled for his life. Halaster reappeared not long after, thanking the party for giving the Los Bonely Boys, one of his favorite creations, their proper due. As a token of thanks, Halaster hacked up a magical diamond; Halaster's Diamond of Duplication, which he gave to Hilda. Hilda promptly shoved the diamond into her forehead, a token of her 'grandpa's affection. This gemstone allowed Hilda to split off an identical clone of herself, with access to some of her spellcasting abilities. The party continued to the next of Halaster's "attractions" ; his 'Hall of History', where he would render recreations of famous events in Undermountain history. His sole event depicted was the fight between his rampaging pet purple worm, 'Purpy', and three adventurers; a younger Dagult Ambermantle, Vaida Sundever, and the previously mentioned Duran Stoneborn. This battle had become famous in the decades since, and served to be the instigating factor for Dagult's rise in popularity and eventual seating as the city's Open Lord. The party observed this event, and inquired if Halaster had any new pets since; he ominously said that there was one he was having difficulty controlling on the lower levels. When asked if he couldn't see that far down, he replied that there were only three individuals he could not magically perceive in the Undermountain; Aezora, Hilda, and Hilda's duplicate. Halaster revealed that long ago, he and the powerful witch Tasha used to meet for tea (as powerful wizards were apparently wont to do). The two at some point made a magical pact to not interfere with each other's affairs to save each other the trouble of a long and protracted battle; Tasha would be unable to plunder the Undermountain of its secrets and treasures, and Halaster would be unable to magically perceive any of Tasha's progeny, preventing him from taking them as apprentices or wards. This reveleation further cemented a connection between Hilda and Aezora, since they shared the property of Halaster being unable to scry or otherwise magically perceive them. To demonstrate this, Halaster showed the party that the myriad eyes lining his robe of eyes were unable to focus on Hilda or her duplicate. Vesper recognized Vaida, as she was the mother of both her companion Contrast and her mentor Izerna. None of the party had ever seen Duran, but recognized tales of him; a dwarf with earth genasi hertiage, who looked like a dwarf hewn of pure stone. The party continued into the last of Halaster's proposed attractions for the fourth layer of the Undermountain; 'The Tunnel of Dark Backstories', which the mad mage admitted was a working title. He showed the party his magical glyph trap that, when stepped upon, forced the victim to reveal their past in broad and revealing strokes. Halaster then accidentally stepped on and subsequently destroyed the glyph, and began to speak in an uncharacteristically lucid tone. Halaster began to describe the beauty of the ancient Hyperborean city of Tsen, which the party realized was his former home. Halaster recalled the works of arcane wonder and the might of the empire that was once his motherland, and how the Hyperborean arcanists sought to challenge even the gods themselves. Halaster suspectged that this was why the 'White Wyrm' of legend descended upon Tsen and obliterated it in an instant; a fate that Halaster survived only because he had the luck of being away from the city at the time. The explosion claimed his tower, his apprentices, his many pet cats, and the lives of all those who resided in Tsen. Halaster further elaborated that the Undermountain was his attempt to recapture the magical glory of his home city; his tribute to Tsen at the height of its glory, and his challenge to the gods that he believed to have taken everything from him. The party came to understand Halaster's madness better; that of a man who had lost everything and everyone he loved in the blink of an eye, all for the ambition of himself and his countrymen. That he contained himself to his dungeon instead of taking his fury out against Lloegyr at large was an apparent miracle. Halaster concluded his surprisingly coherent ramblings by saying that he was far happier maintaining the Undermountain, and wished to show the party its next and fifth layer; 'Wyllowwood', a sliver of the feywild of Halaster's own creation, where a supposedly insane elf named Wyllow resided. He disappeared to prepare the way, leaving the party to reflect on what they had been told. Surprisngly, the display had moved Vesper to ask the party a personal question. Vesper asked the party if they thought the Open Lord would relinquish the katana that was his personal weapon of choice and had been for several years. The katana once belonged to Urstul Floxin, Vesper's lover and confidante during her time in the Black Network, who had been killed after his encounter with the Red Spirits in Maleficarius Towers. Although she no longer lived a life he would approve of, she missed him and their time together, and was still somewhat in love with him; she felt that it would only be right to have the katana herself, as a piece of him to keep with her. The party, particularly Ozwik, encouraged her to ask Renaer when everything was over. Ozwik emphasized his people's belief in objects of significance, such as their blades, having 'spirits' that resonated with the people that created them and used them, and that the spirit of the katana would likewise resonate with Vesper. The knight-in-changing mused that the spirit of the katana was all too real, and told them about the vengeful revenant of Urstul Floxin that occasionally hounded her steps and sought the destruction of all things. Vesper then decided she had opened up quite enough for one evening, and bade the party continue to the fifth floor that Halaster had discussed. They made their way through the last of the tunnels, eventually finding Halaster trying to painstakingly stabilize a portal. Edea, who had become passingly familiar with extraplanar theory (particularly that of the fey variety) thanks to her association with Reilly Springs, offered to help solve the problem by placing a few crystals near the portal and attuning them to the proper frequency. With the harmonics around it stabilized, the portal became anchored and less chaotic, allowing passage. Edea said that there was still work to do to make the portal more permanently affixed to the material plane, and insisted her party move on ahead while she stayed back with Halaster to reinforce the portal. Although wary to leave Edea, Ozwik and the others relented and proceeded through the portal. The portal led to a beautiful, moonlit forest grove, illuminated by soft glows eminating from braziers and marbled runestones. A large structure of several arches of runestones crossing over one another stood in the center of the grove, and in the middle of the structure itself stood a hooded woman, who warily instructed the party to approach her. The hooded elf introduced herself as Wyllow, and welcomed them to the place she called Aelinthaldaar; the graveyard of the ancient elves. Speaking somewhat erratically and vaguely, she told the story of how before the Undermountain belonged even to the dwarves, the elves of old laid claim to it as a burial place of their dead, and constructed great works of art and arcane ingenuity on the site. However, after so many years, all that was left was the grove she tended. As the party tried to convince Wyllow that she was in a pocket of the feywild and all that she guarded as 'Aelinthaldaar' was in fact an illusion, Hilda got a closer look underneath Wyllow's hood and realized she looked very much like Edea. When Hilda spoke aloud about the resemblance, Ozwik made a connection and greeted Wyllow by her true name; Quistis Lockehart, Edea's mother. Hearing her true name shook Quistis from her hallucinatory episode, and the shock of having held the guise for so long sent her into slight hysterics. She realized that she had lost near a century of her life to being trapped in the pocket of the feywild, where time passed differently than out in the real world; and it was all for nothing. Her life's mission had been to discover the ancient lost kingdoms of the old elves, and she had lost so much time merely standing guard over an illusion. Ozwik tried to center Quistis by calling attention to the fact that Edea was here. This furthered Quistis' anxieties; she had originally given up her dream to settle down with Edea's father and raise their child after recovering from an injury, but the realization that she would live far longer than her half-elven daughter and would have to watch her grow old and die filled Quistis with enough dread to convince her to return to her quest and abandon her family. However, Ozwik was able to calm the elf at last. Quistis wondered what she would even say, for she hardly felt like a mother after leaving her daughter long enough for Edea to grow to her mid-twenties. Oz assured her that Edea spent all of her time trying to find Quistis, and it would be better to know her than to continue running. Edea finally emerged from the portal and Oz broke the news to her, stunning the young gunslinger. Her journey to find her mother had finally come to a conclusion, and despite having rehearsed dozens of speeches a thousand times for the moment, she was unsure what to say; unsure if she wanted to hug her mother, slap her, or just stand there and say nothing. Eventually, Edea simply asked her mother 'why', and Quistis revealed the whole of her story to Edea, apologizing for leaving her alone for so long, especially after the death of her father. She also entrusted Edea with Rose, the twin pistol of Edea's signature revolver Pearl, saying that it had always been hers. Edea decided that the reunion wasn't going to make up for what Quistis did or substitute all their lost time, but it was at least a start. As the two talked, the trio of Ozwik, Sinelthriandra, and Hilda heard a voice in their head; Aezora the succubus, speaking to them to tease them. She lamented that with Edea's goal fulfilled, it would be much harder (if not impossible) to tempt the gunslinger, but Aezora was thankful that she at least had options. She also mentioned that she longed for Vesper to learn her name so that she could speak to her as well, for Aezora could sense Vesper's inner conflict and desires even from afar. As Ozwik admonished Aezora and affirmed that they would save Yzzan from her clutches, Aezora laughed and decided to warn them that a creature of burning, insatiable desire was fast approaching; a 'ghost' from Vesper's past, bringing with him an inferno to match his rage. With this warning, Aezora bid them farewell and promised to see them again before disappearing from their thoughts. Ozwik warned Vesper and Edea to prepare themselves for the arrival; when Vesper realized who Aezora was referring to, she drew her blade and warned everyone to be prepared for a deadly fight. As if on cue, embers and ash in the air began to coalesce into a swirling vortex before forming the shape of a man; Urstul Floxin the Ash Revenant had found his lost love once again. Urstul taunted Vesper for finding 'false comfort' in the embrace of her 'whore goddess' Desna, and admonished her for not joining him on his crusade against all life. Vesper could only lament that she wished for Urstul to rest, and promised to keep fighting him until he finally stopped. Satisfied with his posturing, Urstul summoned an array of flying fire snakes and engaged the party and Quistis in combat. While Hilda's summoned goo-panthers and Sin held back the fire snakes, Urstul tore into the party with his aura of intense heat and his deadly bladework. Even the ordinarily stoic and composed Ozwik was briefly paralyzed by the fury and hate in Urstul's dreadful gaze. The deadly fight in Wyllowwood would surely claim their lives if they could not withstand the inferno…
Portraits
HALASTER BLACKCLOAK
THE FAIRHILL FOUR & CO.
NON-PLAYER CHARACTERS
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