Narrative

Day 57 began in the Black Dragon City in the Underblame, with an expected 08:00 council of towns or states for a treaty signing. Infestus could keep Salinas from causing trouble and agreed to send the party to Brass City with scrolls, respite, and a charged shield crystal. Infestus’s wife gave them scrolls and a powerful shield crystal, smashed an orb, produced a tiny human, and transformed it by chanting into a blue dragon. The dragon carried the party to just outside Brass City.

Brass City was now ruled by “The People.” Two diplomats greeted the party, one smoke-scaled and cobra-headed beneath his hood. The Excellence of Air had left and never returned. Inside the walls, the city was lush, relaxed, and no longer seemed openly enslaved. The Glowscale were excited to see the party. The diplomats explained that elf wizards had caused many problems, that the old masters had enslaved the labour, and that Valenth was best sought at the citadel or Gaol.

The party learned more about the rebellion and the citadel project. Many former slaves had maintained the city while others worked in the citadel on what had been described as a great weapon. The rebellion began when slaves protested being denied bread and burst into flames. A tabaxi jeweller, Facets that Gleam in the Sun, had been taken to cut a gem in the citadel and said the supposed weapon was actually a shield-crystal body or focusing crystal stored in a great minaret. Creatures in the towers had become unruly after the Excellence left.

Dirk spoke to a fountain. The water wanted to go somewhere but had been told by its father to do an important job. It referred to Hydran, blue dragons that had gone bad, merfolk, a purple thing, and babies not going to Hydran. If the party fixed the babies, it promised to be on their side when the end came.

In the citadel, the party found blue dragons, Trixus imagery, a depiction of Garadwal with the Dunnen people, and many corridor statues tied to the Council. The sword was cracked, the necklace was carved into a statue, and one orbiting-coin interaction produced Ignan’s words: “We are close once more. I will help you say his name when you pick him up.” Picking up the cat released Haze as a big dog. Haze warned them not to damage anything in the city, said the Excellence of Air had gone to the dome to make a trap for Sierra so Browning could take her place, brought Bob and Bosh back, and said the sword was in the Earth plane with Tremon’s body. The Trixus throne room controlled several planes at once.

The party recovered the sword through Earth-plane and memory-room sequences: a dark Earth space, a Harn-like cat tavern, a Riversmeet temple vision, a stone Dirk, moon and water memory doors, and Provista about twenty years earlier. They saw Eliana Hartwall arrive in a box from Everchard with the sword, met Bleakstorm, learned he wanted Icefang’s spirit freed, returned to Brass City, and restored the sword. They then recovered the necklace through a theatre/jewellery-box sequence, identified the real necklace as “Drinker beads of wine,” made it real, and restored it to its statue.

The party next pursued the offering bowl. The throne room changed, leaving only two paintings and moving the candelabra to the ceiling. Geldrin touched a painting and was shrunk into Eliana’s waterskin until school biggening juice restored him. Dotharl activated the painting, and the party entered a water-themed replica throne room with a whirlpool, a tropical fish painting, an icy swamp lake, and a calm lake.

Dirk spoke Aquan to Globule in the whirlpool. Globule said he was trapped and served someone above Hydran and Noxia. When asked about that figure, he said, “No, him is forgotten, more than lost.” Behind the throne, two jellyfish-headed guards said the party could not enter, the bowl was theirs, and Noxia had issued a death warrant. They did not attack until Eliana crossed the threshold. The party killed them; one emitted an alarm-like whale noise.

The tropical painting held a large clam and distant shipwreck. The clam said Globule was a bad prisoner and that its friend, a fishman in the icy painting, had the prison key. In the icy painting, the party found a frozen swamp resembling Morgana’s home, dead winter bees, dead or removed trees, salty air, many birds, and a boarded hut. A jackdaw told Morgana, “Here at last,” and said a white-ish, translucent or glass-like dragon was gone.

Inside the hut were a preserved white rose, a conch horn, and a wooden fake bowl with wrong remembered runes. Blowing the conch summoned a watery marid-like Lord of High Waters / Myriad one, who claimed many titles, connection to Noxia and Hydran/Hydrus, and offered two wishes if one freed him. He insisted he was trustworthy and that he needed to present the bowl to the clam, but insight suggested he was mostly lying or grandstanding. The conch was a powerful abjuration prison for the entity; the white rose was powerful necromancy and later proved to be a Rose of Reincarnation, extending reincarnate’s time limit to 1,000 years. Morgana took the jackdaw Mourning/Morning, who said he had been imprisoned for “creating funerals” and admitted killing people he judged bad, such as someone who cut down a tree and someone who shot a rabbit.

The party explored the Noxia-side rooms. They found homage-like dragon egg displays of carved salt and porcelain, a quartz dragon skull that shattered and was carefully mended, stored paintings of people they knew dead, and a familiar domed room containing a duplicate Errol. Touching the duplicate stopped the breeze and caused psychic messages: “Message for Errol. Message for Errol. Get back here.” Repairing the door stopped the pain.

The yoke/bowl room held a correct-looking stone bowl beneath a greased glass cloche on a wobbly plinth. The cloche and plinth broke, so the party replaced the bowl with the fake wooden one and repaired the display. Archaic tabaxi text on the door was a prayer to Igraine or a Grain deity. A following room had nine more identical stone bowls. Identify visions gave two clues: “Sacrifice and I will let you have it,” and “The entrance shows the way, a pain you will take with you.” Attempts to fill bowls with booze and pray did not work. Other rooms held a sacrificial knife and nine freshwater globes like pokeballs. In a domestic room, the party found two jellyfish children whose parents were the guards they had killed. The children said Lady Noxie had told them no one could enter and would reward them if they stopped intruders.

The party searched the dead jellyfish parents, finding shells, greenish iridescent pearls worth about 500 gp, and crude wasp and scorpion symbols of Noxia. The Rose of Reincarnation glowed while they considered helping the parents. Globule explained himself as a guide for rivers: “I show them the way to the sea. Without me, rivers would never flow to the sea.” The party summoned the conch entity and pressured him to prove he could free Globule. He did so. Globule appeared as a ten-foot water bull/steer and immediately warned, “Don’t free him,” calling the conch entity a con artist whom Hydran had imprisoned. Globule identified the clam as containing the Lord of Tar, said a spirit of Igraine/light/grain had been brought by merfolk about twenty years earlier, said the real bowl was metal rather than stone, and suspected Stone Sages, snake-headed servants of Noxia, had replaced or petrified the bowls. The freshwater globes held young water elemental babies, which Globule collected for safekeeping.

Dirk entered the lake painting and found a real landscape with lake, savannah grass, rivers, woodland, and a distant settlement. A bird-followed figure threw something metallic into the lake. A pigeon told Dirk he could not get out, then Morgana entered and helped him leave. The pigeon recognized Morgana, said she had fixed its wing 30 or 300 suns ago, called Mourning her enforcer, referred to what Cacophony had done to her, and was surprised she still had her eyes. After Dirk and Morgana left, the painting turned purple and eerie. Globule warned that staying in such places could erode memory like rushing water.

The watertight door led to Hydran’s underwater side. Globule cast water breathing. A Hydran keeper / merlady arrived, saying Lord Hydran said the party needed help. A pact parchment promised that the Pact Keepers would retrieve the captured souls of the merfolk unborn from the realms of darkness. Hydran offered the bowl directly if the six party members signed. The keeper said, “No confusion. No subterfuge,” and instructed them that when they reached the dark realm they must step off the beaten path. The party signed. At their request, the keeper revived the jellyfish parents and placed them in magical slumber. The Noxia-side walls darkened afterward.

Hydran’s keeper then showed warning rooms. A tiefling-like man with a staff and jagged hand was the one who captured the party’s allies; his body had awakened in his laboratory, his spirit had occupied a stashed body at his base, and he had used power over crystals. A living-flame prince was in the party’s next destination and wanted to “pull a Noxia” by becoming a god; going through to the Realm of Fire meant literally walking into his house. A Morgana relief showed birds, Igraine, a knife, and young dragon bones; when asked who the bones were, the keeper answered, “You.” The final room held the true bowl and a relief of Noxia wounded by arrows, with the six party members opposite her. Invar took the bowl. Asked about the vessel used against Valenth, the keeper said it was a fragment of creation in Sancery/Sankery [uncertain] and that more information would come soon in a friend’s home. She briefly showed a hammerhead-shark / waterspout form before returning the party to the throne room. Only the fire painting remained; the chandelier blazed and an inky shadow lay across the floor.

Globule stayed with the fountain elementals because he could not pass the barrier. The party restored the bowl to the Priestess of Igraine statue, healing its cracks. Remaining objects were the tongs, cat, and dragonborn tail. The party entered the fire painting. Invar felt Stolchar’s presence lessen. The fire realm was wrong: black cracked lava stone, smashed doors, no throne, no paintings, and Haze could not smell Sierra. Red-skinned horned guards served Grand Sultan Azar Nuri / Azanari and said Haze was not welcome.

Geldrin’s information about Tremon’s arm and Envi/Envoi won an audience with the Sultan, a fifty-foot, six-armed, red, horned, brass-armoured fire prince. The Sultan confirmed he had the tongs, objected to Invar’s Stolchar symbol, and said Envi worked for him. He wanted passageways to the mortal plane opened, his crystal/entrapment device completed, and the god of death provoked into manifesting on the mortal plane so she would break the ancient contract and could be trapped. He offered the tongs immediately and later 10,000 platinum with trinkets or power. He threatened to destroy the party if betrayed. Geldrin suggested making him god of death instead of fire. The Sultan referenced wizards’ ascension notes, Throngor, a piece of creation/orb, and Valenth, and said the Noxia/Sierra plan had been working until the party interfered. The party accepted under duress, and he threw them the stone tongs.

Because normal exit from the fire realm was blocked, the party explored. An imp merchant sold a turban and deck of cards in exchange for white paint and 15 feet of rope, then revealed that a wall hanging could be entered by lighting candle and incense, taking travellers back before the guards. Invar forged a goblet for Stolchar; the cup refined itself after prayer, proving Stolchar could still hear faintly. The party restored and lit the marketplace tapestry and entered old Brass City.

In the old city, coins read 2842 AP. The city was thriving with tabaxi, blue dragonborn, blue dragons, and traders. The party met Gleams in the Forge Light, a tabaxi priest-smith of Stolchar, and his apprentice Serpus, a human-seeming woman later connected to the blue dragon Serpus Alsepherus. Serpus had just completed the marketplace tapestry the party had used and understood that visitors would come at the creation point. She had visions after meeting Icefang. Using future-linked items, she sent them home through another tapestry of the citadel hall. Back in the present, the page about Serpus Alsepherus had been torn from a dragon book and aged, suggesting she removed knowledge of her future warning.

The party restored the tongs. Only the cat and tail remained. Lowering the chandelier allowed entry into the light. In the Grain’s realm, Morgana followed a woodlouse’s advice to “seek more of us, talk with us, play with us,” and learned to act through connected animals. She recovered the dead cat spirit and gained a crow-like life elemental teacher named Bruce, who said, “No, I don’t kill people. I’m more of a talker.”

The golden poem door led to Attabre’s civilized halls. The party passed etiquette rooms, relaxed, drank, and sat to eat meals from their ninth birthdays and campaign memories. The lion-like tabaxi host revealed himself as Bynx’s father, a god of knowledge and civilization. He explained the First Pact: five original gods met in the Grand Tower and agreed to rule from afar, making later divine pacts binding. He said Icefang’s blessing explained the party’s repeated visions of past and future. He told Eliana she was Icefang’s daughter and also his, that she resisted the wizards’ magic and mind wipes more strongly than her sister, and that they killed her. He described Browning as alive but enslaved to his chair by parasites and magics, said Cardinal, Rubia, and Onwe had died and been brought back through the barrier’s power, and admitted he had made a pact so civilization would flourish. He warned that in Kasia’s realm divine power would be hard to reach and that death there would give souls to her. Geldrin gave him the Carnox / forbidden-knowledge item to keep in the library. The god said the barrier was a net trapping souls on the mortal realm; Kasia had used her pact to get precious souls, including the merfolk babies. Mortals could steal souls from her because they were not bound like gods. He produced the stone cat body and head; the party mended them. He allowed the party to rest, with only minutes passing outside, then returned them to the throne room with the light gone and a black shrieking pit open.

The party entered the dark realm. Dirk’s ancestors answered “weal” when asked whether they would land safely. The party met Sauver/Sawyer, a huge goat-man, then Throngore, who first appeared as a monstrous demon and then a goat-headed man in a black suit. Throngore said the party’s divine favours hid them from Kasha’s eyes, but only until she learned they were there. He wanted them to free one of his men from her prison, warned them to leave other prisoners and avoid the main fight, and gave them the stone tail. He said, “The deal is done.” Although Throngore said to stay on the path, Hydran had told them to step off the beaten path. The party followed a seashell clue instead. A cockroach tried to mislead them by saying, “No, not this way. Definitely not. This is wrong,” and Morgana, realizing it lied, ate it and gained temporary freedom from restraint.

The party reached an alternate prison tower topped with a purple crystal and surrounded by blue-purple wisps. They found dead wasp bodies, a bored goat-man at a smashed rear door, and 15 cold black wailing discs like but not identical to the Void communication puck. The goat-man guide, Santiago / [uncertain: Shevolt], malfunctioned, claimed he was there to free “Fred,” and the party attacked.

Inside the prison tower, wasp jailers struck with spiritually cutting blades that caused necrotic damage, death-save disadvantage, and halved healing. When Eliana was struck, everyone briefly saw her as a silver dragonborn with horn ribbons and an elf teddy bear. A leader dragged her toward a cell and shouted, “Master! The prisoner has returned!” The cell contained a pigeon feather. Eliana recognized the six-armed stone prisoner nearby as Stone Rampart, her former neighbouring prisoner. He called her something like “little heart wall.” Her mother had killed him and dedicated him to Kasha; he had initially resented Eliana but came to like her. The party stole keys from jailers, freed Stone Rampart, and he helped fight.

A freed goat/demon betrayed them, saying, “Look, I can’t trust that you won’t betray me, so I need to do it first,” and became a huge horned demon with flaming horns and molten axe. Stone Rampart held him off while the party freed other prisoners. Nuts the squirrel restored 40 hit points to everyone. A dead halfling woman gave Geldrin a bell and said, “Just ring it when you want to go home.” A fire-bearded dwarf linked to Stolchar granted +2 AC. A water cow/bull was found but had lost its memory. A dove-headed Bridske/Bridge woman opened the god-locked top door. Lord Briarthorn, a thorn-bearded elf, recognized Eliana and remembered her sister and an Everchard/Razor farm hedge. Below, Kasha broke in as a colossal skeletal hand and hollow-eyed female face with wasp wings.

Lord Briarthorn restored the Water Bull’s memory by touching him. The Water Bull’s eyes blazed blue, he grew enormous, and he pulled the party into the seawater chamber. He said Kasha’s realm was against the pact, that the seawater was pain, and that he needed an envoy because he could not enter the sea. Eliana called Globule. Geldrin used the mother-of-pearl conch and Song of Harmony to let the party breathe and speak underwater. Globule addressed the Water Bull as “my lord.” The Water Bull commanded, “Free the babies.” Globule replied, “Salamis’s curse cannot hurt me. From the river to the sea, these babies will be freed.” Thousands of unborn merfolk spirits gathered. Kasha said, “There is no escape.” The Water Bull declared, “No, I will retake my place, demon.” Globule told Geldrin he was ready; Geldrin rang the bell. The merbabies’ song repelled Kasha, and the party returned to the mortal throne room in a cascade of water.

Haze smelled that something watery had changed. The party restored the final tail. All six statues cracked open like shells, revealing living tabaxi including a king. His last remembered year was 2034 AP, approximately 34 BD / 1,050 years earlier. He remembered the curse, learned the city had fallen and Salvation existed, and said the old society had been built on two races before a parting of ways, likely instigated by “her.” The Igraine priestess, likely Lies with the Morning Dew, sensed the palace was sick and sorrowful, with restless fire spirits and Sierra/Stolchar absent or distant. She could sense Cardonald/Cardinal in a minaret and offered to guide the party.

At the fountains, Hydran was reported very happy, with Globule taking the babies to the sea. The party rested in an empty Brass City house. Dirk allowed a scrying attempt. A gush of water brought Queen Moon Coral and six mother-of-pearl-armoured merfolk. She said Hydran had told her priests of the party’s deeds, that the party had righted the greatest wrong done to the merfolk, and that the first birth outside the dome had occurred an hour earlier after perhaps a thousand years. She pledged merfolk aid in the final battle and in bringing down the dome, gave a barnacled sending stone, agreed to look for Jingwoo, and gave a Ring of Fire Resistance for rescuing Cardonald. The party slept, and the next page begins Day 58.

People, Factions, and Places Mentioned

People and name-like figures include Infestus, Infestus’s wife, Salinas, Valenth, the Excellence of Air, Facets that Gleam in the Sun, Dirk, Eliana Hartwall, Morgana, Invar, Dotharl, Geldrin, Bynx, Haze, Bob, Bosh, Trixus, Garadwal, Dunnen/Dunnan people, Ignan, Tremon/Treyman, Mama Hartwall, Hannah, Icefang, Rubyeye, Cacophony, Bleakstorm, Globule, Noxia/Noxie, Hydran/Hydrus, the Lord of High Waters / Myriad/marid, the Lord of Tar, Mourning/Morning, Igraine / the Grain, Errol, Lady Fred Thorpe, the Ancient Lion, Thomas James [uncertain], the jellyfish parents and children, Stone Sages, Hydran’s keeper / merlady, Kasha/Kasia/Cash, the living-flame prince, Serpus / Serpus Alsepherus, Gleams in the Forge Light, Stolchar, Tor, Sultan Azar Nuri/Azanari, Envi/Envoi/Ennui, Sierra, Throngore, Browning, Cardinal, Rubia, Onwe [uncertain], Attabre, Carnox/Car Nox, Bruce, Sauver/Sawyer, Shylow/Shiloh, Santiago / [uncertain: Shevolt], Fred, Stone Rampart, Nuts, the dead halfling woman, the fire-bearded dwarf, the Water Bull / God Bull, Lord Briarthorn, Queen Moon Coral, Lies with the Morning Dew, Cardonald/Cardinal/Cardonel, Jingwoo, Lady Hartwald, Paradita, Salanus/Soulless/Selanis, and the revived ancient tabaxi king/Council.

Groups and factions include the party, The People of Brass City, Glowscale, old masters, former slaves, blue dragons, blue dragonborn, tabaxi, cobra/snake people, Stone Sages, Noxia’s servants, jellyfish-headed people, wasp jailers, scorpion/wasp symbols, Hydran’s Pact Keepers, merfolk and merfolk unborn, water elemental babies, Azar Nuri’s guards, efreeti/fire servants, gods bound by the First Pact, Throngore’s goat-men, Kasha’s wasp forces, the old wizards, Dunnans, Snow Serene people, Bridge followers, and the ancient tabaxi Council.

Places include the Black Dragon City in the Underblame, Brass City, the Brass City citadel and minarets, Gaol, the elemental throne/control room, Earth plane, Harn-like cat tavern, Riversmeet temple, Provista, Everchard, Morgana’s home/swamp, Hydran’s underwater realm, the Realm of Fire, old Brass City in 2842 AP, Serpus’s tapestry rooms, the Grain realm, Attabre’s knowledge/civilization halls, the Grand Tower, the dark/death realm, Throngore’s throne room, Kasha’s prison tower, the seawater chamber, Salvation, Seaward, Lake Azure / Azuroside, and the Brass City house where the party rested.

Items, Rewards, and Resources

Items and resources include scrolls, a charged shield crystal, the shield-crystal body/focusing crystal, the sword, necklace / Drinker beads of wine, offering bowl, candelabra, conch horn, Rose of Reincarnation, wooden fake bowl, stone bowls, greased cloches, sacrificial knife, freshwater water-baby globes, pearls and shells worth about 500 gp, Noxia wasp/scorpion symbols, true bowl from Hydran, mother-of-pearl/coral throne, the tongs, imp’s turban and deck of cards, white paint and 15 feet of rope traded away, Invar’s refined goblet, Serpus’s marketplace and citadel tapestries, future coin, torn Serpus Alsepherus dragon page, dead cat spirit, Bruce, stone cat body and head, Carnox/Car Nox forbidden-knowledge item, goodberries, stone tail, black wailing discs, prison keys with god/floor symbols, Chain of Entanglement, bell from the dead halfling, fire-bearded dwarf’s +2 AC blessing, Queen Moon Coral’s barnacled sending stone, Ring of Fire Resistance, and future merfolk aid.

Clues, Mysteries, and Open Threads

Globule says the figure above Hydran and Noxia is “forgotten, more than lost,” leaving a major identity mystery. The conch entity / Lord of High Waters is a con artist imprisoned by Hydran, but may still have useful knowledge. The Lord of Tar remains imprisoned in the clam. The Stone Sages and Noxia’s replacement or petrification of bowls remain unresolved.

Hydran’s pact has been fulfilled for the merfolk unborn, but the barrier still traps souls and the root mechanism may continue until the dome falls or Kasha’s claim is broken. The Water Bull has retaken something of his place, Globule is taking the babies to the sea, and Queen Moon Coral’s people are recovering, but the long-term state of merfolk souls remains a strategic concern.

The fire prince / Sultan Azar Nuri wants the party to open passageways, complete a crystal entrapment device, provoke the god of death into manifesting, and allow him to seize divine status. The bargain granted the tongs but remains dangerous and unresolved. Envi/Envoi has Tremon’s arm, a laboratory body, a stashed body, and crystal influence.

Serpus Alsepherus tore out her own warning page in the past. Her eventual future as a blue dragon and the consequences of changing that warning remain unclear.

Morgana’s connection to Igraine, Mourning, Cacophony, her eyes, the pigeon, Bruce, and the dragon bones identified as hers is unresolved. The keeper said the bones were not a murder but a choice.

Eliana’s past imprisonment in Kasha’s tower is strongly implied by the silver dragonborn form, horn ribbons, elf teddy, pigeon feather, and Stone Rampart’s recognition. The reason she was stolen from the prison and the full identity of her prior self remain open.

Throngore’s bargain and the identity of his intended prisoner are uncertain. Stone Rampart was freed, a goat/demon betrayed the party, and several prisoners were released despite Throngore’s warning. Consequences may follow.

The vessel / fragment of creation in Sancery/Sankery [uncertain] remains important to Valenth and divine-scale change. Attabre says mortals can steal souls from Kasha because they are not bound by divine law. Dirk’s pact over Garadwal/Guardwell’s soul remains dangerous.

The revived tabaxi Council and king may change Brass City politics. The palace remains sick and sorrowful, Cardonald/Cardinal is trapped in a minaret, fire spirits are restless, and Sierra/Stolchar’s presence is absent or distant. Queen Moon Coral has pledged aid, agreed to look for Jingwoo, and identified Salanus/Soulless near Seaward as a threat whose salt/poison curse affects land and sea.