Links

• Anastasia of Thay
• The Court of Empress Anastasia

Plot notes:

• E0
  • With Alexander in a bjorn, Ani fights elementals along with Zahl and Kek, to get past them to stop a ritual bloodline curse against her. Mysterious priest mocks them after they win. (Mostly a system test)
• E1
  • Ani gets a letter. Summons Zahl and Kek. Fly to Arnrock. Confront Meran. Kill. Save Alexander. Return home. Nadia and Wilhelm have been taken.
• E2
  • Nadia's body is fine, but her mind was taken. Kara figures out it was psions from Deep Imaskar. Go to City of the Dead. Plug into the Matrix. Find it's under martial law. Get kicked out by god-tier machine intelligence. Float in space. Rescued by Ptah. Explains that this is another Universe they found or maybe made. This is where the aliens all went to. Helps party back to their world after Kek realizes she's the One. Kek vs Mr Smith while Ani and Kara rescue Nadia's mind. Deep Imaskar is created in the flesh on the surface, computer unplugged. Kek learns how to connect to the Matrix from anywhere. Osiris is reborn in Balthazar's body.
• E3
  • Wilhelm is being held by a coterie of Witches and Red Wizards, who are priming a Bloodline Curse to kill Ani, Tchazzar, and their progeny. They count Morgana and Vexas as allies. To defeat them, they need Captain Planet. Travel to Bezantur to buy Kaliya's allegiance with the heart of a primal fire elemental. Attacked by Heartless. She joins. Yaphyll tries to divine location of next sage, but fooled by Morgana. Party attacked by Vexas; sent to negative energy plane. Recuperate at Ani's tower. She sleeps, Kek does dishes, and very nearly screws Raithen.
  • Raithen goes off to recruit Amalia (sage of Air). Rest of party goes to find Sage of Earth, which Zahl knows where to find. Journey through Thaymount reveals Zahl's Grand Seal built into it. From there they go to a weird cave filled with underground life. Luminescent, thorny, and entirely unlike surface growth. Party fights Mezzrym's Monster Factory, then himself, before Briar Rose shows up to put a stop to it. Nyth is the Sage of Earth. He joins. Party travels to sacred lake in Rashemen to make Ani a true Witch so she can cast the Captain Planet ritual. Zahl reluctantly accompanies. Job interview with the Crone, who wants to be cynical, but her nearly-dead sister goddesses convince her to give the PCs a chance. Ani is approved by the Goddess (and, tacitly, the other two as well). She is a Witch. She starts the ritual, but the Telthor attacks, spurned by Morgana. The Sages fight off an army while the PCs fight the Telthor, defeating it with the power of Bonds. Ritual complete, the Nentyarch rises...and it's Briar Rose.
  • In a session that wasn't actually run, the party defeats the witches and wizards.
• E4
  • Tchazzar is watching over Treygar and Zehra. They're in Doria, capital of Threskel. Party arrives, treated as royal guests by the twin monarchs. Big party is thrown, PCs black out. Morning comes, kids have somehow escaped, despite many wards and guards. They're ascneding Olympus to prove their worth to the gods. K, Z, A, and Charizard venture forth to follow them, in their own ascent. Explore each relationship: Desi is his friend, confidant, and occasional sex partner; Keket is his mental equal, his guide to understanding his complex nature; Ani is his love, his romantic aspiration, mother of his children. They find a weird Imaskari thing that makes Keket see a vision of Tiamat, as if she were one of the alien god-kings. Ani has a similar vision in a dream. At the summit, they are questioned by divine guardians who make them admit uncomfortable truths. Keket doesn't love Osiris, Desi doesn't love Tchazzar, Tchazzar has at least one child he doesn't love, and by the way he's a dragon, but apparently that's not "true" in their eyes. Kek realizes it's all just Imaskari voodoo anyway. Ani is mind fogged and can't perceive or remember her own answers to her questions, which is weird. Beyond that, they find the eldest children, who have just given "Zeus" their truenames willingly, even though Zeus is actually the creepy weirdo priest. He snarks at the PCs and bugs out. Audience reveal: the priest has all 5 components for his ritual. As does Zahl.
• E5
  • Big meeting in Olympus Station. Tchazzar invited to station, waits outside for meeting. Daedalus under refit, getting new armaments. Everyone is there except Zahl. They explore facts, ponder at the motive of the mysterious priest, and about Zahl. Decide that Raithen and Desi will track down the priest, Kara will investigate the Imaskari weirdness of Olympus, and Kek/Ani will go find Zahl. Raynar will upgrade Daedalus, and everyone forgot Tal exists (but he has a role to play later). Kek/Ani take Icarus to Zahl's location, which is a weird, frozen village, where even the fire is frozen, no less the town's defenders and innocents, but no attackers. They are attacked by a Shadow of the Void and two Winterwights. Ani goes full Dark Willow, dominating one WW and returning the SotV's Malleus Mallificarum back onto himself (after being wounded by Kek's divine blast). Other died in a corpse explosion. They track down Zahl in her parents' cabin. She uses it as a sanctum sanctorum, so heavily warded that it's the only place she can truly confide in them. She reveals that Szass Tam has bugged her, and has leverage on her that she's planned for decades to deal with. She opportuned on Ani's misfortune to find a way to power her secret ritual meant to give him godhood...then destroy him. They enhance her plan with better odds of success, and confront the lich. He agrees--with great reluctance--and they begin. Just when it's going well, Ani is assaulted by Natalia, whose mirrors knock all 3 into the mirror realm, where they behold their bodies continuing to chant the spell, no longer under their control. They are found by the Timewalkers, who explain that they've been helping them secretly. Leshara offers to help them get back into their bodies, but first she says they need to understand some things, and the best way is to go back in time...
• E6 (Memory Lane)
  • The heroes slowly remember who they really are. Zahl teleports to The Masked One's tower and convinces her to loan Ani to her service. They then teleport to an Imaskari dungeon, wherein Keket, Raynar, Kekat, and Balthazar are adventuring. At this point, they're back to their old selves--at least mentally, because their powers are lagging behind a bit. Leshara possesses Kekat to inform them that this is their real timeline--not some parallel reality--so they must take care not to change history. Keket says she needs to finish this dungeon, so off they go. There are some fights, they chat with the Goddess, and ultimately, it's revealed that this dungeon is Keket's temple, which she teleports to Aglarond. The Masked One appears, reclaiming Ani, and Zahl/Kek determine to go after her.
• E7 (The Masked One)
  • Uh...um...gimme a minute.
• EA-1 (Damsel in Distress)
  • Raithen is approached by Lurue, in the company of the Elven Queen and the Coronal of Cormanthyr (not to mention Mielikki), who begs him to aid her "brother", none other than Malar, who is apparently ill in some manner. They offer the assistance of Cassandra, who presumably owes them some sort of favor. They set off, following rumors of a colossal, corrupted beast, leading into the Rawlinswood, where they find a twisted forest--not quite dead, but not the sort of life one expects--and ultimately find an ancient mound concealing a daemoncyst. They delve inside, and find...no corrupted beast, but rather Aurora, claiming to have trapped the beast, and demanding that Cassandra restore the demon seed from Mezzrym. She didn't have time to make good on her threat, because...
• EA-2 (The Wolf)
  • Talrendis appears! Aurora chooses not to fight them all herself, and instead lets the dead man's switch trap activate, summoning Zariel, arch-fiend and lord of Avernus. They do battle, and nearly suffer a calamitous defeat, but manage to prevail over the mighty devil. From there, they follow the trail of the beast (it isn't too hard), leading to a high mountain peak, where he has been trapped by ancient giantish magic, reactivated presumably by Aurora. There they find...not Malar, but a colossal, white wolf, tangled in a mass of black, slimy brambles, that constantly torment him. Raithen finds a way to remove the corruption (at great expense to himself), and Wolf, one of the Ten Yuir Gods, restores himself to health. His mind and vitality restored, he easily shatters his bonds, and flees the prison. Not sure what to do next, the party seeks the counsel of Ysana. She offers a few words of wisdom, and a place to rest. Raithen sleeps well, and dreams of a great hunt as a werewolf. Only, when he wakes up, he realizes it wasn't a dream. He is hundreds of miles away, in the Yuirwood, and has been found by Kirna Howling-Moon of the Wolf clan. She returns him to her village, and introduces him to someone she felt he ought to meet: his 8-year-old daughter.
• EA-3

Notes:

• 1358/1389/1586