To Slip the Surly Bonds of Earth (2COT33)

Session begins on 25 Kythorn 1381.

Act 1

Party is summoned to the new Covenant HQ: an underground facility in the Alaor, originally built by Aznar Thrul. Its golem factories, powered by limitless geothermal energy, are churning out defenders according to Initiative blueprints. The Initiative has stocked the base with hundreds of soldiers and artificers.

Raynar and Yaphyll explain the situation. There are at least 4 keys not in the possession of the enemy:

• The Lantanese Falcon, Talos' key, which Raynar had Desi steal for him in Episode 1
• The key of the Raven, located in Raven Rest, beneath the Firefly Tree
• Relkath's key, located in the sacred barrows beneath Relkath's Foot
• The key of the Eagle, located somewhere beneath Delhumide

Raynar's theory is: if these keys can be secured, then the enemy will not be able to unleash Kozah. It would be easier to defend the keys in a secure installation like the Alaor.

Kara has been dispatched to Delhumide as a ghost agent; she's determined that the Red Wizards definitely have some sort of operation going on, likely to uncover the key.

The rest of the party is sent off to go get the remaining keys. Raynar has hired some help for this one: Desdemona, the only person who has breached a Yuir tomb without the use of Shadovar technology.

Act 2

The party flies to the Firefly Tree, and meets with the Raven Parliament. They don't seem too upset about the idea of the PCs breaking into their sacred burial ground; they seem to feel like the tomb will do a fine job of judging their intent. Eboshi warns them not to bring weapons, but they choose to bring them anyway.

The Parliament leads them to the door, and Desi reveals how she was able to get past the one guarding Talos' barrow. It's a ritual that can only be performed by a witch--a supplication to the Dark Goddess. In Raven Rest, Her energies are so abundant that it proves effortless to duplicate the feat.

As soon as the door opens, they feel a rush of pure fear, a palpable, liquid dread that crushes their hearts. Nevertheless, they struggle on through a confusing maze of passages, bridges, and stairways through the impenetrable darkness. Physics does not seem to rule in the barrow, nor does any magic of light seem to ward away the ever-present haunting spirits, visible only through strange, purplish windows into the spirit world that wander through the air.

Choosing the left-hand path each time, they find their way to the heart of the caverns. Passing through a narrow, earthen canal, they find a cluster of spirits flocking around something terribly, terribly shiny. Before they can claim it, they are confronted by their own darker sides. A battle ensues!

When they triumph over themselves, the spirits clear away, revealing the Raven Key: a massive, glittering astral diamond. Only one favored of the dark goddess may enter to retrieve it--Ani fulfills the task.

As soon as it is claimed, the spirits of Raven Rest coalesce into a darkly radiant, vaguely feminine form, a divine being of single-minded intent: regain Her lost Shiny. They flee.

The Raven Goddess possesses Ani, but only in an attempt to retrieve the Shiny. The party passes it around like a hot potato, finally landing with Raithen, who, when possessed by the Goddess, doesn't seem any worse for wear. They flee.

Having run uphill for thousands of feet, all the while enervated by the suffusing dark energies of the cavern, they succumb to fatigue the moment they exit the barrow.

Act 3

The party awakens in Desi's villa. Apparently, she carried them out of the Firefly Tree and to safety. They spend some time recuperating there, until Icarus arrives to bear them back to HQ.

Back at the Rock, they are introduced to a new Covenant ally: Zahl. She seems different, somehow, maybe a few years younger, trading some of her cold demeanor and regal bearing for a dose of vim and vigor. She has much to answer for, and she begins forthwith.

She explains that she is lying low for now, to give her enemies a chance to show their faces. In fact, she has already divined, to a reasonable degree of certainty, the identity of the true mastermind behind the entire plot: the White Queen, Odessa Aslani.

Decades ago, during the rise of Aznar Thrul, Odessa sought to hitch herself to his rising star, successfully seducing him and conceiving a son: Raynar. However, Aznar was too independent, too willful for her to completely control, and soon tired of her manipulations, exiling her from his presence, but keeping his son. To add insult to injury, he soon warmed to Zahl, in the same manner he'd done with Odessa, though Zahl kept her son, Adam, a secret.

:Odessa always wanted power. She wanted to be a kingmaker, the brains behind the brawn, in the vein of the witches of the north. She saw Aznar as her ticket to that destiny, even after falling out of his favor. Perhaps it was misandry, or maybe even an atom of real human emotion, but she didn't blame Aznar for any of it: she blamed Zahl. As Zahl destroyed Aznar, so she destroyed Odessa, and thus became her nemesis, the focus of all of her bitterness and jealousy.

:Thus, it seemed only natural that Odessa would ally herself with the Red Wizards and the Cult of Twilight, both sworn enemies of the Thayan crown, both betrayed by Zahl. She connected the remnant of Rhym's super-soldier program with the remaining cultists, who both wanted to pursue the same means for different ends. She propped up the restored Aznar Thrul as a new leader for the Red Wizard remnant, who would rise to become the Emperor, and she his Empress.

:She couldn't have guessed that such able foes would arise, warned of her intent by a series of odd coincidences. Talrendis' connection to the super-soldier program wasn't exactly common knowledge, nor was his alliance with the Covenant, or with Zahl herself. In making an enemy of the Covenant, Odessa spelled her doom.

((The record of the remaining events of the session is missing.))

• XP: 7,200 each (new total: 161,000)
• GP: 40 gp each