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--- bards_tale [2026/03/31 18:32] – [Session 91: The Paraclete and Prisoner] spiffgent
+++ bards_tale [2026/04/15 17:55] (current) – [Session 93: The Spinner, The Smith, and The Saint] spiffgent
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 Mearis was gleeful and apologetic, while Kasan Kagane retrieved his effects, and quickly shewed the party away. He told them that the Crown of Sanilir was on a ship bound for Orbrir, currently early in the Green Sea. The party swooped after a ship matching the description, placed all their magical buffs upon Cynara, and she dived from her hippogriff. Falling through a cloud, she detected the Crown's precise location, and used etherealness to fall directly onto it through two decks of the ship. She tried to open the box, and elected to steal the whole thing after escaping a warding rune. She sneaked up the ship, including past Tore Dhukav himself, cracked open a port compartment, and escaped into the water. Dhukav suspected a thief, and threw his magical hammer into the water to pursue: Cynara was adept at swimming underwater, smooth in the turbulence of the ship's great wake, and conjured seaweed in the hammer's path to thwart its pursuit. After some minutes had passed, the ranger signalled for the party to return, and she was evacuated without incident.
+===== Session 92: The Battle of Alum-kazir =====
+After the party returned to the Cliffs, Anma discerned the properties of their new prize: a crown capable of casting many spells and, at great intervals and for a brief time, calling Saint Sanilir himself down from the heavens. Frustratingly, however, there was no clear way of relating it to the ultimate goal of freeing the Splinter from its cage of force, and so the party pressed onwards to pursue their other lead. After a rest, Orianna took the tuning fork and transported the party to the Heaven of the Silver Smith. They saw space around them bend, and found themselves in a twilight forest with donated items falling all around them, blazing from the sky.
+The party took to a church upon a mountain: Alum-kazir itself, as it was when Saint Miro had burnt it. A wind blew the doors open, and the Saint himself received them. He had donated the church to keep it out of Elven hands, and he believed strongly that O.P.E.R.A. was who he had been saving it for. The researchers studied the stained glass windows, seeing in turn: Saint Sanilir handing over the body of van Døschri's staff; a dragon and Dwarves of Strom-Kreft forging some detailed plans for its head (dutifully noted down by Breighlin); the goddess of the frost in Ubarikahdri guarding the pommel of the staff; and the New Monastery above the Planar Shard. Breighlin was from Strom-Kreft, and Anma was from the frost — surely it could not be a mere coincidence that they had been called here? But before the questions of fate could be pondered in any great detail, the Church of Alum-kazir was suddenly transported. Avery watched as the cosmos turned black, the rest of the plane fell away into shadow, and three great chains tore themselves from the firmament and bound themselves together in the sky. With Saint Miro praying for them, Cynara led the party through the twilight to investigate what was likely to be a Shadowless ploy.
+The Shadowless who greeted them was none other than Paramedes himself. He saluted O.P.E.R.A.'s efforts so far, but would not let them interfere with his plan to resurrect his people. There was no question that the heroes would stand against him, and Protophylarch was firmly set against him once Paramedes said that he didn't even recall who he was. Anma unleashed a //Storm Sphere// unto him and evaded his attempts to prevent the attack, but the party watched in horror as all twelve of the Shadowless revealed themselves from hiding, and Satunar Iljoyce appeared in the sky above them. Many of the Shadowless had a great number of counterspells between them, frustrating the party's attempts to use their most powerful weapons. Avery and Protophylarch rushed towards a chain on a nearby mountain and to engage Paramedes directly, while Cynara pursued a chain amongst some ruins. Orianna rushed towards a chain embedded in a crater, while Breighlin and Anma stayed on their starting vantage. If all the chains could be cut, the party could be saved.
+Immediately, the Shadowless unleashed a devastating counterattack. Between the twelve, they unleashed great spells and hasted attacks, one pursuing Anma and another pursuing Cynara. Magic missiles flew while Orianna found herself caught in Darkness summoned by Chamaedes. Paramedes himself unleashed his bow and seeking arrows upon the party, before summoning, to the other Shadowless's seeming surprise, a fragment of Yeenoghu himself, burning and nigh-unstoppable.
+And yet O.P.E.R.A. was undeterred. Anma froze Ivalicai in place and nimbly dodged its counterattack, unleashing a cold blast against numerous Shadowless without them being able to respond, and then running to aid Cynara. Avery's acid proved adept at destroying his chain which Anma weakened, and he and Protophylarch rushed to the furthest anchor. Cynara unleashed Doomlord upon a Shadowless which had feared her, before stepping through the Plane Ethereal to join Avery: the trio was completed by an Earth Elemental summoned by Breighlin, ducking behind the starting vantage to avoid being disrupted. Orianna attempted to heal Anma, but she was made a target for the Shadowless's counterattack: she quickly fell, and magic missiles sent her to a final fate. Breighlin was pursued by Ivalicai and was killed by his furious axe, while Paramedes unleashed the full might of the piece of Yeenoghu, which turned its great claws against Cynara, slashing and scorching her while another Shadowless enraptured her with fear again despite Avery's efforts. Telemediae blanketed the chain that Cynara had fled in a noxious gas, a //Cloudkill//, and all parties converged on the chain hidden in ruins.
+Orianna remained hidden in shadow, and bore Chamaedes's counterattacks to unleash a //Moonbeam// on the chain covered in poison, greatly weakening it. Cynara hid behind Breighlin's now-rampaging Elemental to avoid the frightening spell of the Shadowless, and then could unleash her full strength on the remaining chain, almost breaking it before escaping from the blazing fray. Protophylarch rushed as far as he could and then threw his sword the rest of the way, shattering it on a critical strike and breaking his own xiphos in the process. A single chain remained, and Avery realised that if he could make it into the poison fog, a counterspell would be impossible. He chanced it, suffering a strike from the Shard of Yeenoghu, and seemingly being saved from the //Cloudkill// by Ahm's luck alone. He made his way to the Moonbeam, blazing in the fog, and summoned acid upon it.
+The final chain shattered, and Alum-kazir began to drop back down to the Silver Smith's heaven. Some of the Shadowless wished to evacuate, while Paramedes was intent on taking the moment to finish off O.P.E.R.A. once and for all: before either could act, however, the island slammed into the firmament with a great, destructive force.
+===== Session 93: The Spinner, The Smith, and The Saint =====
+Orianna woke first, aching and wounded, and shouting for help under a tapestry cover and a bright summer sky. She was in a forest clearing among the covered bodies of her other comrades, surrounded by dozens of identical Dwarven women, spinning wool on spindles and wheels. Cynara and Avery woke soon after, and quickly ascertained that they had not left the Silver Smith's heaven, but Rokas had come to them. Twilight had turned to day as the gods conferred, having seen the party's  battle, but these ninety-seven fragments of Rokas had snuck out. She was glad that the party was planning on dispatching Yeenoghu, knowing that it was not likely that Rozmajin's trick could work again, and she planned to help them in any way she could — Avery saw that it had been a long, long time before she had been woken by Alum-kazir crashing back down, and she was desperate to be of use.
+With the party and Breighlin's agreement, she moved a week from the end of Breighlin's life to now, instantly waking her. She took the opportunity to, without any circumstance, summon Sanilir from the heavens, and command the saintly angel to resurrect Anma. The party would need to wake to truly return Breighlin to life, and so the Silver Smith spun a week in an instant, forcing Breighlin to pass seven days by revising her notes (confirming that all extant Shadowless confronted them earlier), brewing alcohol from the rations, trying to survive the hangover, and attempting to investigate the area around the forest and the Silver Smiths. On day 5, a Shadowless also slipped into the frozen time, or at least an illusion of one. It amiably congratulated her and the party on being able to survive Paramedes's assault, and offered instead a chance for both factions to work together, instead of trying to destroy the other's people for the sake of their own. Breighlin demanded some kind of knowledge to show the deal was genuine. In response, it told her why only some of the Shadowless had singular, full souls: Ahm sundered the souls of 12 on purpose; was forced to leave Paramedes intact as it channeled Yeenoghu's power; left Menoetes as second-in-command and a negotiating partner; and one (presumably Crypt) was not part of the Shadowless's ruling council, but was spared while their people died simply by being next to Paramedes at the right time. With such new secrets imparted, it left. When the week was suddenyl up, Breighlin summoned a not-too-pleased Sanilir, and balance was restored.
+The sun drifted away as the gods concluded their business, and the Silver Smiths began to sleep again. Syl's light showed the way back to the bell that would bring them to Leurut, and by the bell the party found Protophylarch slumbering. He survived the fall directly, tried to find Saint Miro in the wreckage of the church, but instead went to guard the bell (and rest). The party caught a night's rest, finally, watching the sun traverse Leurut above them, and they transported themselves to Leurut when, there, it was night. Rokas had mentioned something to Anma, "the river is different but the bridge does not move," and the party had an idea.
+Avery marched to the North of the Elden Cliffs, with Breighlin and Cynara by his side, and began to name the angels of power and beseech the might of Ahm. He brandished Cynara's pole, refused to name Yeenoghu, and added Sanilir to his catalogue of angels as he reenacted Prophet van Døschri's miracle. With Rokas and Rozmajin begged for aid, he pushed on the brandished pole, and suddenly it met with great resistance. As Elves began to investigate, Cynara, Breighlin, and Anma added their might, with Orianna lending a mammoth's might to the force. The metal budged, and a golden glow lit up the night — for as long as Avery remained.
+The party proceeded to the New Monastery, gathering hopeful monks, gnomes, and humans, among them Brother Spark, and Cynara led the way through the basement to the shielded splinter. Breighlin and Anma used the blood of their own recently-suffered wounds to prime the ritual, while Breighlin liberally sprinkled the collected demon ash upon the blue shell. Each panel began to dissolve and collapse, until the entire case was destroyed, and Avery caught the piece of the Planeblade in his new-fashioned staff.