Session 1: The Mulhorand Express

16 Eleint 1380 (Wednesday, 2010/09/01)

Events in Brief

• For weeks, the party's attempts to track down Kara Zial have failed. Some wonder if she is dead.
• Desdemona shows up at Keket's temple on a dark and stormy night (actually, day). She has tracked Kara to the City of the Dead in Mulhorand, a place she cannot easily enter on her own. She proposes an alliance.
• Independently, it seems, Raynar arrives to seek the same arrangement. Surely he is motivated solely by the selfless desire to help Keket recover her wayward apprentice, and not at all enticed by the secrets and knowledge within the Hall of the Makers.
• So as to arrive quickly, and without the complications of an obvious public appearance by the Queen, Raynar provides the transportation: the airship Icarus. Recently recovered from a Chessen ruin and reconditioned to full operation, Icarus is an Imaskari pleasure yacht, an unarmed vessel capable of low-orbital altitude and subsonic cruising.
• The flight takes the party over Mt. Olympus, Messemprar, and Skuld, then up the river to the Dragonsword Mountains.
• To avoid interference with any flight or summoning spells upon crossing the city's wards, they skydive, with the aid of mundane parachutes. Upon landing, they skulk through the dark city, avoid patrols of Undying Guardians and Glorious Servitors.
• At the entrance to the Hall of the Makers, they encounter Sandstone Golems in the shape of the guardians of the dead, and of Isis and Osiris themselves. They are challenged to provide authorization to enter; Keket achieves this, but somehow, it seems the guardians were reprogrammed, and attack anyway. They are, of course, defeated.
• Within the pyramid, they find a puzzle, requiring knowledge of the Golden Ratio and the Fibonacci Sequence, advanced mathematical concepts that would be foreign to the "Low Imaskari" and other primitive peoples abundant when the pyramid was built. Unlocking it allowed them access to an elevator, taking them to a sublevel 5000 feet below the earth.
• In the sub-level, they find a chamber called the Vault of Lights, a planetarium of sorts, in which they find Kara pontificating.
• Kara attempts to convince Keket to join her, to join Adamas and the Shadovar; while she rants, the party surrounds her. Raithen cuts off her defenses with silver fire, while Raynar takes her down with a simple poison.
• The party quickly flees the pyramid, with the aid of the Key-Staff of Madryoch, as Pharaoh Horustep III is inbound.

Rewards

Sandstone Golems

• 3,200 xp each
• Chips of sandstone facade, which, as art objects, are worth about 3 gp
• Fragments of a strange, black substance, stronger but lighter than steel, worth 10 gp as blacksmithing components. (Carbon fiber; will require rank 4 blacksmithing to forge)
• 1x Crimson Spinel (Red 4)
• 1x Spinel (Blue 4)
• Various engineering components worth 28 gp.
• Various enchanting components worth 13 gp.

Session 2: Inception

22 Eleint 1380 (Sunday, 2010/09/05)

Events in Brief

• The party returns to Keket's temple and places Kara into an Imaskari stasis chamber to keep her subdued.
• Logan suggests the idea of entering a shared dreamstate--something monks can apparently do, and something the Imaskari technology would make much easier. Raynar and Keket set about crafting more of the stasis devices.
• For several days, Logan trains the party in the rules and ways of shared dreaming. They create totems, to positively ascertain if they are in reality or someone else's dream.
• They learn how to guide the dream of someone else while maintaining control of the world, to fool others into thinking they are the dreamer.
• When ready, they enter a shared dreamstate with Kara. Balthazar stays behind to shock them out of their dream if need be.

;Keket's Dreamscape:

• The first dream was Keket's, a scene from an alien world, with much imagery from modern Mulhorand. She tried to pull a Mr. Charles, but Kara became too lucid and began to take control of the dream. The party put her under and proceeded deeper into the subconscious.

;Ani's Dreamscape:

• The party found themselves in the tower of The Masked One, as various household implements and toys. They were put to work by Propriety, tidying up the house to prepare for the arrival of one Uncle Vic, a distinguished visitor. Once he arrived, they spied inconspicuously as he dined with The Masked One and her apprentices.
• They follow Ani and Natalia as they are shooed from the dining room and locked away. However, Natalia breaks out of the bedroom and subdues Chester in order to eavesdrop. From their position, they hear the two talking about Ani's progress. The Masked One seems to speak ill of her even as Vic urges her to be more objective. When she talks about Natalia, however, she seems to shift, and begin talking about Kara instead.
• Chester overcomes the poison and chases them away to what appears to be Kara's room from childhood. She explains that her mother is a very important woman, hard to please, and that she has been put to some use and has to go. Her personality seems to be a mixture of her as a little girl, Natalia, and this strange new facet.

;Talrendis' Dreamscape:

• The dreamscape changes. The party finds themselves hurtling through a primal forest, toward a massive, red plateau. They are all purple-skinned elves, bearing tribal markings and bringing with them only loincloths, bows, and spears. They are young hunters, part of the family of Ysana and Elwrynn.
• They climb the massive cliffs of the plateau, over 1000 feet, then run further through the wilds, arriving at the eastern face. There, they must leap from the cliff, saving themselves only by claiming a giant eagle as a mount on the way down. Ysana demonstrates. They follow.
• After their first flight, they fly down to the shore of a great lake to rest. Talrendis doesn't rest, opting to spend the night with Kara, in the guise of one of the hunters. By morning, she has disappeared. He follows her into the jungle; the further he goes, the more the dreamscape seems to change.
• He emerges into a battlefield from his own memory, a brutal Thayan attack on a Rashemi village. In this dream, Kara plays Danika Valkas, a woman he once knew, who would lose her life in this fateful battle. Though he and the PCs turn the tide in the dream version of the battle, she still falls.
• The scene suddenly resembles the flattened field of forest where the infant Ani was almost claimed by Valik, but Kara-as-Danika stands in for Ani, while she stands in for the unicorn who comes to save her. As the unicorn dies, she is there once again, finally able to thank the creature for its sacrifice.
• At the urging of the witches, Talrendis bears Kara through the forest toward a sacred lake. There, Ani, dressed as a Hathran, takes her into the waters and casts an incantation on her, to guide her spirit from darkness and undo the madness the Shadovar have inflicted upon her. As she revives, Talos appears to wing her away.

;Raithen's Dreamscape:

• The dreamscape changes, to reveal an ash forest bordering a rolling meadow. It is Evermeet, the grounds of the Halls of Cedar, a scene from Raithen's past.
• Children frolick, Raithen included, until the arrival of a literal knight-in-shining-armor distracts them. Ardigen, newly inducted Bladesinger, has returned triumphant. A great feast follows. Boy Raithen looks on with admiration, but soon removes himself. Keket follows.
• He leads her to the White Cliffs of Nymrais, the final destination of most elves. Restored to adulthood, he explains the purpose and meaning of this place. Then, a funeral party arrives, including Ellenor, who removes herself from the party out of grief.
• As Raithen consoles her, she is Kara, not Ellenor, revealing her grief at the loss of her people, her home, hinting at its true nature. Then, the Wolf attacks, but this time Raithen is ready. He becomes the Bladesinger, deflecting its foul evil with pure light. It plummets into the sea and is swept away. However, Kara is wounded in the battle.
• Raithen shouts out for help, trying to save her, but Keket brings him back to reality. He realizes he is at her funeral, amongst the party bearing her to the pier. She is there, bearing the wounds he gave her as the wolf, but walking and talking despite them. She seems content and at peace. She forgives him, and promise to reunite with him in Arvandor, then, sent by Keket as a priestess of Sehanine, she goes into the West.

;Raynar's Dreamscape:

• The party arrives in the bedroom of young Raynar, in Castle Thrul. By this point, Kara is almost fully lucid, and counsels the party that, the deeper they go, the more they try to learn about her, the more they will learn about themselves. Raynar brushes her off.
• They observe as boy Raynar attends his father to greet a distinguished visitor: Dmitra Flass (by then already Zahl Fe'rya]). The adults dine and chat politely, then proceed to Aznar's bedroom for more grown-up activities. Raynar seems to have blocked out this memory.
• Flashing forward to years later, they follow Raynar and his father to Eltabbar, where the boy is consigned to play with the many children who live in The Tharchioness' care, including a little boy, barely a toddler, whom Raynar took a liking to. Young Adam was somewhat simple, but devilishly clever. The two only met once every couple of years, and thought they were only friends. Adam always showed more aptitude in maths, sciences, and Artifice than even Raynar, much to his chagrin. He stopped seeing the boy over 10 years ago.
• Having put it together, Raynar realizes that the boy, his half-brother, has grown to be Adamas.
• Kara chooses this moment to take over the dream, plunging the party into her world: Deep Imaskar.

;Kara's Dreamscape:

• Bereft of their magic, the party must navigate the strange streets of Deep Imaskar and find Kara. To this end, Raynar hijacks a car and hunts for a vehicle that can take them up to the High City.
• They enter a nightclub, where hundreds of Lowborn dance and grind to heavy techno music. Two Highborn have come down to enjoy the decadent pleasures of the Lower City, and stick out like sore thumbs. Raynar tries the direct approach, punching out the one with the keys to his flying vehicle and committing Grand Theft Flying Auto. The party takes to the skies, pursued by agents; they lose them with some fancy flying, and proceed to the High City.
• There, they proceed to the Halls of Ilphemon, government center of Deep Imaskar, and hack their way past security with some help from Keket. Their search for Kara takes them to the Library, where kiloquads of priceless information beckon. Keket and Raynar are distracted.
• Raithen discovers that all official records of Kara have been redacted from the library archives. Kara shows herself, explaining that her mother, head of the Pillar of Law, wanted to use her in a secret capacity to overthrow the government, to lead her people from Deep Imaskar in advance of a cataclysmic end foreseen by Ilphemon.
• Mira Zial was foiled by a party of adventurers from the surface world, seemingly led by Zahl Fe'rya, who personally cracked the Great Seal of Ilphemon that had kept the city safe and secret for millennia. Zahl's party would do battle with Mira, then with the Machine Intelligence at the heart of the city. In doing so, they uncovered Ilphemon's Great Lie: that the entire city was a simulation, run by the Machine Intelligence--that Kara, her mother, and everyone she ever knew was a computer program.
• Though Deep Imaskar has gone silent, as the computer running it has been destroyed, Kara somehow survived, her personality uploading into the body of a young, autistic girl in Keket's care. After years of training with Keket, she had distinguished herself enough to get the notice of Adamas, who personally recruited her. Not understanding human emotions, and thinking herself immune to them, she didn't realize how she had fallen in love with Adamas. There was no compulsion, no reprogramming, just the hormones of a teenage girl, with no knowledge or wisdom to protect her from herself.

;Back in Reality:

• As the party emerged from the dream, Kara extricated herself from the induced coma. Seemingly pacified, she explained herself, and seemed to be coming to grips with her feelings about Adamas, as her love turned to hurt, then anger, at his betrayal. She revealed that she has much private knowledge about the inner workings of the Shadovar, which can be wielded against them.
• For some time, no one was able to notice the mysterious disappearance of Logan, and his absence from the dreamscapes.

Rewards

• 3,500 xp each

Session 3: Hatching a Plan

23 Eleint 1380 (Wednesday, 2010/09/15)

• Kara informs the party that the Shadow Lords will be coming, in person, to Thay, during the Highharvesttide Festival. This may be the only chance to take them out.
• Additionally, there is a very large machine being built on the Thaymount, one that will mean the doom of the entire east when activated.
• The party conspires to destroy the device, to assassinate the Shadow Lords, and, if necessary, to remove Zahl from power in Thay.
• They keep Regent-King Aleric in the loop, and bring Raynar into the conspiracy. He adds a crucial element: a nightmare shard, which they can use to annihilate the Shadow Lords.
• They journey to Thay, where they meet with the Red Tide, a revolutionary band who can get them inside the Empress' palace. They'll have to enter the festival in disguise, blending in with the other nobles and dignitaries.
• With less than a week to work with, they begin to fervently memorize names, practice dances, master accents, and prepare to infiltrate one of the most secure facilities in Faerun.

Session 4: Deliverance

30 Eleint 1380 (Saturday, 2010/09/19)

• Assuming false identities, the party infiltrates the Highharvestide Ball, intent on swaying the opinions of Zahl's privy council, and sneaking into the meeting with the Shadow Lords to off them once and for all.
• Talrendis sows the seeds for an alliance between Unther and Myth Drannor, while Raithen plumbs the depths of High Thayan politics for support against the Shadovar.
• Ani is apprehended by Tarkasian. She is bailed out when Radduk murders Tarkasian and tries to secret her away; however, Zahl was onto him, and she captures Ani.
• The party tracks Ani down, only to be caught by Zahl themselves. Imprisoned, with nothing to lose, they make their case. The plan changes. Zahl herself will deliver the shard, and Raithen will contain the destruction.
• Resolve to their fates, Zahl and Raithen put their plan into motion. At the critical moment, when the Shadow Lords have emerged from their portal, the trap is sprung. But then, Raynar appears, spoiling the trap, giving the Lords time to escape. Before the portal can close, he thrusts the stone into it, and shoots it once it is on the other side. The resulting maelstrom destroys the portal.
• Wasting no time, the party hops into Icarus to set upon the machine at Thaymount. Zahl lowers the shield, and Raynar deals with the armies protecting it by calling down Daedalus. The party lands, and Kara begins reprogramming the device.
• All seems lost as a portal opens, and, presumably, the Shadow Master himself emerges. However, he seems pleased at the turn of events, and only encourages them to go on. The machine activates, and a pulse of energy surges forth from the machine...

Rewards

• "A"-level rewards for social minigame:
  • 5000 xp each
• Major quest complete:
  • 5000 xp each
• Additional rewards to come. (Get those 5 ideas in ASAP!)