30 - 1/23/25 : The City on the Edge of Forever

"This winter will end Ragna, of course. But we must not risk shortsightedness. The Mythallar is an extremely powerful artifact, and the chance to wield such a thing may just be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We must not waste it. We must look beyond the winter, look to what more we could do with the Mythallar to achieve our goals."   "Yeah, I'm sure the wizards here thought the same way too."   - Veszaltyrr Oussndar & Ragna Alfsbur

 

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  Observing the strange, alabaster man that the party discovered on the gurney, the magically-inclined members of the party realized that he was a doppelganger; what's more, he had been frozen in time for what was likely several millennia, being the victim of a sequester spell.   After some consideration, the party agreed to free the doppelganger from his bindings. A light slap was all that was needed to break the stasis encasing him, bringing him to conscience for the first time in centuries. Delirious and confused by the new arrivals, the doppelganger spoke to the Lonesome Few in the old High Boros tongue, but when they could not understand him, he switched to the 'lower tongue' of Common.   The doppelganger introduced him as Xerophon, and explained that he had been imprisoned for the crime of murdering a low-ranking sage of Ythryn, with the intent of replacing him and subtly making a home for his fellow doppelganger brethren in the city. His jailer, the warden of Ythryn's prison, liked to perform cruel experiments on Xerophon, and kept him under the bonds of the sequester spell when he was not needed in order to hide him from inquisitive peers. The last time had been frozen, the party realized, was just before Ythryn was mostly destroyed, and Xerophon must have been left behind in the chaos.   Deciding that Xerophon was not a threat, the party cut the doppelganger loose in exchange for his knowledge and assistance in exploring Ythryn. Although still in shock from the world he knew being gone, Xerophon agreed to tell them what he was able to learn during his infiltration thousands of years ago, as it seemed only weeks ago to him. He warned them, however, that his knowledge was not comprehensive, and may be out-of-date given the state of the Necropolis.   Xerophon shared some small details about the city, including the location of the Nether Oak spoken of in the Tower of Abjuration's inscription. Most interestingly, he spoke about Ythryn's defining feature; 'The Field', which was an invisible layer of the great arcane Weave generated by the Mythallar and superimposed over the Undercity and Hollowfaust above. The Field granted spellcasters within its bounds powers beyond their normal capabilities, with mere apprentices learning to conjure fireballs and old masters creating entire city spires out of mere flicks of the wrist. The Field made Ythryn a wizard's paradise, but also proved to be its downfall, and fell when the Mythallar was originally sabotaged.   After learning about The Field, Melfina came to realize that she had been suffering a nagging, nauseating feeling in the air around her as they had explored Ythryn. She realized that this was the sickening fallout of The Field's former presence; Ythryn had become so tied to this personal pocket of Weave that its very absence gave the place an air of eeriness and death.   Following Xerophon's directions, the party came across Ythryn's arboretum. Despite being unmaintained for centuries and stuck in a gigantic ice cavern with no access to sunlight, the trees within were still quite alive and were displaying stunning autumn colors. When Professor Skant mentioned that the arboretum simulated the passage of the seasons in order to provide the wizards of the Ythryn conclave an opportunity to experience some measure of nature; the mention of seasons perplexed Alith, who had no experience with them after spending her life in realmspace and her brief time in Lloegyr locked in the Endless Winter.   After taking a painfully long moment to explain the passage of seasons to a continually confused Alith, the party approached the massive tree in the center of the arboretum, believing it to be the Nether Oak. Ragna was easily able to reach up and snap a branch from it, but by doing so he awoke the sentient Nether Oak from its slumber. After summoning fellow trees and autumnal needle blights to its side, the Nether Oak attacked.   The trees of the arboretum put up an unexpectedly fierce fight, inflicting great harm to the Lonesome Few. However, with their ample supply of magical fire, the trees were put down in short order. Alith, a proficient woodcarver, took some time to whittle a wand from the Nether Oak's wood while the rest of her companions took a moment to nurse their wounds. As an hour passed, the group suffered another bout of nausea brought on by the sickening magical aura of Ythryn, but were mostly able to endure. Xerophon developed a slight cough, but otherwise remains hale.   Their next destination was the Tower of Divination, which the party found to be mostly empty. Where the inscription should have been, there was a large hole in the ceiling, making the location of the divination step of the Rite of the Arcane Octad a mystery. However, there was something else in the top room of the tower; an orb filled with floating eyeballs, resting atop a stone plinth upon which was written "Ask and we shall find" in High Boros.   Ragna elected to ask the orb where the lost inscription was, and immediately felt a sharp pain as her left eye was subjected to an invisible force trying to pull it right out of her skull. Ragna clenched and threw the force off, and then watched as they were bestowed a vision; a piece of the Tower of Divination, crashed through an entirely separate building on the other side of the city. Within was a large, green frog-like creature that was dressed in robes and spectacles, which was fiddling with a massive telescope. After the vision ended, Ragna described the creature, and both Alith and Veszaltyrr realized it was likely a slaad - a creature of pure chaos from the plane of Limbo.   Xerophon identified the building as likely being the observatory of Ythryn, located across the city on the northern rim. The Lonesome Few decided to head straight there, passing through the nearby Wellspring of Answers and Bazaar of the Bizarre. As they departed, they again witnessed an echo of Nevara - whom Xerophon named by her title of 'High Evoker' - as she reminisced over the tower's former master before disappearing  

"High Diviner Apius relished in admonishing me for any and all of my faults. I could call upon storms and blizzards with a mere flick of the wrist, summon pandemonium with a breath, and all he saw was a commoner in a tower that did not belong to her. He never approved of our courting. I believe the sight of us, arm in arm, drove him to madness. He could foretell many things, but always had a way of missing things right in front of his eyes."

  At the Wellspring of Answers, the party came across an unfathomably dark hole that stretched deep into the city's foundation, deep enough that even Veszaltyrr and Melfina's superior darkvision could not broach its lowest depths. Melfina and Veszaltyrr observed the immediate area, finding a memorial plaque nearby with a still-legible message engraved upon it.  

"Herein lie the immortal remains of the Telepathic Pentacle. Sit, meditate, and learn."

  However, Ragna and Alith had already decided to investigate in their own way, throwing Lofnheiðr and a fire bolt into the well respectively. The brief flash of fire and the sound of an axe cutting flesh confirmed that there was indeed something within; a massive, horrific creature akin to an undulating sack of pulsating flesh with several heads and slithering pseudopods used for locomotion. From the creature came screeches and haunting screams, some from the heads and some from small mouths forming at random locations on the creature's fleshy main body. Alith suffered worse than just a frightening visual and aural experience, for her psionic senses were quickly assailed by telepathic cries of pain and suffering from the aberrant creature.   The party readied themselves and did battle with the Telepathic Pentacle, which attempted to birth new heads from its corpulent mass. However, when singed with magical fire, the creature became unable to replace the heads cut off by the party with any new ones. Though terrifying, the telepathic pentacle was soon forced back into its hole, seemingly dead. However, the word 'immortal' etched on the memorial plaque left a haunting thought at the back of the minds of the party. Veszaltyrr in particular was disgusted that such a creature was kept at all instead of being properly disposed of.   Continuing on to the Bazaar of the Bizarre, the Lonesome Few found the open-air market hall to be mostly empty and in an irreparable state, save for one store labeled as the Hall of Silk. As they looked around, a hulking iron construct took giant strides into the market's courtyard. As the party witnessed the arrival of a patrolling, headless iron golem, they realized that they had found the body belonging to the iron golem head they had encountered in the Caves of Hunger. Since it was unable to see or hear them, the group was able to easily avoid its patrol as they entered the Hall of Silk.   The Hall of Silk was guarded by several stalwart, but otherwise non-hostile magen of the demos and galvan variety. Upon entering, the party realized that the hall was a tailor's shop, and many threads and sheets of cloth remained relatively well-maintained by the dutiful magen within. In the center of the shop was a pedestal, upon which was inscribed the instructions to "stand upon me, and imagine any image your heart desires".   Melfina leapt at the chance and stepped onto the pedestal, and was soon greeted by the appearance of an illusory tiefling wielding threads and scissors. Introducing himself as Silksmith Mixyll, the illusion asked Melfina what she would like to have made for her. Melfina requested a robe, and thus Mixyll summoned his assistants; phase spiders lurking in the rafters that began to weave their threads down for Mixyll to take and begin to spin.   Soon, Melfina was outfitted in a beautiful (but otherwise non-magical) white robe, the likes of which called to mind snowy winds and frozen glass. Ragna decided to go next, placing the heel of only one of their giant feet on the tiny pedestal and requesting a cloak. Mixyll got to work, fashioning a blood-red mantle draped over Raga's massive shoulders that added a fiery silhouette to the barbarian's already imposing figure.   Mixyll offered to craft pieces for Alith and Veszaltyrr, but both refused. Veszaltyrr in particular seemed disgusted by the establishment and by the spiders in the rafters. When Ragna asked about this, Veszaltyrr explained that he saw such dalliances like the Hall of Silk and the Chain Lightning Stadium or wasteful memorials for failed creatures like the Telepathic Pentacle were wasteful and frivolous. A city with such power as Ythryn, he said, was wasting its full potential by choosing to engage in such superficial pastimes instead of dedicating its full magical strength to achieving progress through arcane perfection.   Veszaltyrr affirmed that when the party was in control of the Mythallar, they would be able to do far more than the wasteful wizards of Hollowfaust ever could. Ragna reminded Veszaltyrr that their priority was using the Mythallar to end the Eternal Winter, but Veszaltyrr remained firm on his ambitions beyond this.   As they made ready to leave, an echo of Nevarra mused on memories of the Hall of Silk.  

"I wish we had waited. I know that every second lost to planning and hesitation meant more souls taken by the Mythallar. As the one who convinced you to do away with the thing, I should know this better than anyone. But I wish I could have paid a visit to the House of Silk. The beautiful golden ring you gave me would pair only with the grandest wedding dress the magen could ever create."

  Melfina made the silent realization that the Ring of Winter, which saved her life before its destruction, was also a band of gold formerly in Nevara's possession at her distant tower.   Departing from the Hall of Silk with Veszaltyrr in silent contemplation, the Lonesome Few finally reached the observatory, outside of which stood a platoon of demos and galvan magen. The platoon, standing watch over the observatory, was led by a new variety of magen dressed in dull, monastic robes. This magen appeared to be capable of communication unlike the others, using telepathy to give a warning to the party that the observatory was off limits to citizens for their own safety.   Alith made and vocalized the logical conclusion that since they were not citizens of Ythryn, they were not subject to such restrictions. The hypnos magen considered this for a moment, and then agreed that they were not subject to its warnings, allowing them passage.   The party was immediately attacked by a slaad upon opening the front door, although this one was blue instead of green like the one Ragna had foresaw. The creature viciously clawed at its prey, but was fended off easily enough. Ragna took a scratch during the fight, and the wound briefly shimmered and fluctuated like a distant mirage. Ragna's superior constitution was able to fend off the deadly chaos phage disease, however, and they continued forward to the top.   The green slaad was there as foreseen, fiddling with the large telescope and ignoring the party entirely. Alith realized that the telescope was badly damaged, likely far beyond the slaad's ability to fix it. In addition, once she saw that the apparatus pointed at a nearby wall and not at any observation port, she realized that it was likely a planar telescope; a magic item capable of gazing into the outer planes and summoning creatures from them.   The party found the Tower of Divination's missing piece in the same room, the stone chunk somehow having been launched nearly 300 feet to its new location. The inscription was written on the bottom side, and after flipping the stone over, the party acquired another step of the Rite of the Arcane Octad.  

"Third, a burnt palm loosens the tongue. Shed a secret about yourself for all to hear."

  With the inscription notated and the tower clear of threats, the party was able to leave in peace. However, Melfina advised slaying the slaad anyway, not wanting to suffer a creature so antithetical to her worldview the right to live. The party joined her and Veszaltyrr in setting upon the creature, which had little chance to fight back before being brought low. After the creature was defeated, Alith elected to further destroy the telescope, ensuring that it could not be used to summon any interplanar entities. The party departed soon after, seeking their next destination.   Near the cleared observatory were two other prominent structures; the menagerie, which was a large glass dome encasing several small animal enclosures, and the theater, which appeared to be a similarly dome-shaped stone building clearly built with acoustics in mind. The Lonesome Few decided to check out the menagerie first.   Within the menagerie, the party encountered several animals kept in small, simulated biomes, all of them kept in stasis by the sequester spell. This practice repulsed Ragna, who disliked seeing animals kept in such a situation. The center of the menagerie was home to a strange device strewn with glass tubes and sharp needles. Professor Skant loudly and happily declared the device to be the chimeric creator, able to create living creatures out of a donor's blood.   Alith gave some of her blood to the machine to test its capabilities, and from her sanguine donation sprung a fully formed flumph that floated lazily through the air. However, several seconds after appearing, the flumph immediately collapsed into a puddle of dull, viscous liquid. Professor Skant blamed this on a defect in the chimeric creator, which would have to be repaired by the city's staff.   Ragna wanted to see what his strange blood would do to the device, and donated a helping of his own. As predicted, the chimeric creator did not respond well to it. The device began to whir and spin dangerously fast until finally exploding, rendering it entirely useless.   The party departed from the menagerie, leaving the animals in stasis until such a time that they could be provided for once the city was cleared out. They entered their next destination, the theater of Ythryn, which was populated only by the skeletons of long-dead audiences.   In the back room behind the stage, the party found a desk kept under padlocks and chains. Curious to see what was within, Melfina used knock to free the desk from its bindings. Within, she found five scripts for the same play, titled A Blasphemy of Kings. Each script was written for a different character; The Martyr, the Traitor, the Bewitched, the Haunted, and the Fool.   Skimming through the scripts, Melfina learned that the play told the story of five siblings, each expecting to claim the throne of their late father. As the protagonists try to prove their worth, it is revealed that they're all in fact dead, having perished alongside their father in the cataclysmic event that destroyed their kingdom.   Melfina's eyes were strongly and unnaturally drawn to the script of the Traitor, who planned to feign assistance to one of his sibling's claim to the throne before turning coat at the last minute to claim it himself. Melfina soon fell victim to the curse placed upon the script, dooming her to be unable to willingly render any assistance to her companions.   Veszaltyrr, however, was on hand with a remove curse spell. He commended Melfina's curiosity, as he always tended to, but reminded her that the wizards that had created the city were frivolous and mercurial, and their creations were not to be trusted until studied. That being said, he recommended holding on to the cursed scripts in case they could be useful.   The Lonesome Few departed the theater and made their way to the nearby Tower of Necromancy, which was little more than a completely demolished pile of rubble. However, the ruins appeared to be teeming with hundreds of small, disembodied hands, all of which seemed to be excavating something in the center of the debris to little success. Figuring that the inscription they sought was underneath the mess, the party elected to spend some time removing the broken stone. This was made easier by Ragna finally growing into her new and fully giant size, bestowing even mightier strength than before.   The hands seemed overjoyed that the party was rendering assistance, and within an hour the crushed skeleton of a humanoid was discovered below, draped over a large chunk of stone. When the skeleton was moved, the inscription of the Tower of Necromancy was revealed, giving the party another step in the Rite of the Arcane Octad.  

"Seventh, trace a circle with the ashes of the dead."

  The time that had passed subjected the party to another wave of the negative energy that permeated Ythryn, this time badly affecting Melfina despite her new icy form. Xerophon too was struck by this malady, his cough worsening and his mood becoming brusque and thorny. Melfina noted that the doppelganger's hands were beginning to slowly sharpen into claws, and that his eyes were ever so slightly drifting closer together on his face. As the party looked at the strange hands gingerly moving the skeleton, another echo of Nevara appeared, giving scathing remarks concerning the former high necromancer.  

"High Necromancer Cadavix was a pretender among fools. He believed ascendancy in his art amounted to making skeletons dance, and crafting worthless abominations of flesh. There was no artistry, no drive but the desire to control and dominate. How it must have vexed him, serving under Antecedent Iriolarthas; the most talented necromancer the empire had ever known. You wove the magic of death in such a way that made life seem a pale imitation of something much greater."

  The echo faded, but soon did another spectral figure appear; the ghost of High Necromancer Cadavix, awakened by the party's unearthing of his crushed remains. The Lonesome Few braced themselves, unsure if the specter meant to harm them or merely converse with them…