====== The Bards' Tale ======
//A story of [[o.p.e.r.a|heroes]], shadows, and containers left broken and sealed...//

====== Chapter 1 - The Golden Age ======
===== Session 1 - 14: Exarchs and Errands =====
The tale so far concerns a group of four (eventually six) heroes, initially hired by [[Alforta the Writer]] to transport mysterious and sealed cargo through bandit-infested forests. This was done mostly successfully, with the party uncovering a similar, now-pilfered shipment guarded by [[Sildar Hallwinter]]. This old knight lost his life at the hands of the artificer and criminal known as the [[Black Spider]], who made her presence known once more at a dramatic show given by [[Darius The Calm]]. He was part of the same organisation as Alforta, the [[Bards of Reidathal]], and commissioned the party to recover all of the band's magical instruments and as many members as possible, fearing they were being picked off one by one. The four ragtag adventurers, [[Constance Beaumanoir]] the secretive rogue, [[Anma Inaze]] the commanding sorcerer, [[Orianna Raeburn]] the childish druid and [[Breighlin Pickwielder]] the eager wizard, were soon joined by another, [[Percival Dayblade IV]], a noble [[Whiteshield]] paladin of [[Resotania]].

Many encounters and scrapes were had, perhaps none more dangerous than the investigation of [[Castle Oakencourt]], where a powerful Archfey [[Wormroot]] was dispatched with the aid of [[Feldjaeger Wakel Heldt]], a dying soldier of [[Akselmarch]]. Despite the setbacks, almost all instruments were recovered, and a deal gone awry for the penultimate led the party to [[Cragmaw Castle]], where they crossed paths with [[Yadan-ra Branding Fist]], a powerful [[Hobgoblin]] warlord who informed them of the Black Spider's location and motivation for taking down [[Talos Silverbow]], the crafter of the original instruments.

The agents of the bards were not unaccosted by fate, however. All met a strange figure calling himself [[Pedro Karfski]], who Constance sought out herself. Breighlin sent for the aid of her old friends to help in their quest, while Orianna and Percival frequently put their unique skills to get into and out of various dangers. Anma encountered an Ice Elemental who imbued itself into her instrument, who began screaming bloody murder at the arrival of Chancellor [[Kasan Kagane]]. This firbolg weakly claimed to be of no import, but in fact heralded the arrival of soldiers from the [[Kingdom of Inaze]].

Despite these interruptions, the Black Spider was tracked down to the [[Wave Echo Vault]], a [[vaults_of_ahm]] hidden behind an undead-infested cave. Once she was cornered, her motives were found to be far from intrinsically malevolent, as she worked to dispel a foul [[Shadowless]] spell seemingly sealing the vault that was placed by Silverbow. The devout rogue [[Afaeth]] bailed them out from the wind-swept rock, and with mages from the [[Iris Order]], Silverbow was discovered and apprehended. At the tip of a sword, and with the severity of the magic she toyed with impressed on her by [[Callahen]], her help in destroying the seal was tenuously enlisted. The party sought the aid of Kasan Kagane's rapid method of movement to achieve their goals as quickly as possible, and Afaeth was instructed by his Hollowsmere employers to stick with the adventurers. They took one last rest in Rarte-heim, before their promised departure time of first light.

===== Session 15: Wave Echo Vault =====
With Kagane's help enlisted, the adventurers turned in for the night. The Chancellor went to interrogate Silverbow by himself, and when he was caught in the act, used his position to quickly broker a deal for the Elf to provide her help more willingly than before. The Iris Order had their own questions, and they shared with the party that the Kingdom of Inaze's flight was caused by the Shadowless seal poisoning the waters they relied on.

As the next dawn broke, Kasan Kagane kept to his word, transporting the resolute heroes to the shores of Wave Echo Spire, and even providing a vessel for them to take to the Vault atop the stack. Investigation of the plateau revealed that Martha Heirenfall, the Black Spider, fell victim to the dark magic in her efforts to break the seal with Darius's violin. A dark fissure was spreading on the stone, and it was potentially this that convinced Silverbow to finally lift the seal atop the Vault. Known only to Percival, the replacement magic was but an illusion - and the shared assumption that the Vault would remain sealed was, with the rumble of stone, quickly proven false. In a rage, Talos turned on the adventurers, but was quickly subdued by Anma. The others faced the millenia-old structure as its doors widened, and Afaeth made the first steps within the temple.

Immediately within the structure was a marble, owl-like mask hanging from the neck of a massive angelic statue. When worn, it allowed a ghostly voice to communicate through the mouth of whoever wore it. It told them of the Shadowless, but its awareness and knowledge was limited, and its attempts to help Breighlin extract knowledge from an arcane console within failed to bear fruit. The Iris Order mages were tinkering with a golden frame at the back of the room, and with Orianna and Afaeth's help, a portal to the Plane of Light erupted into life. Seared by the blinding rays, the adventurers pushed nearer the frame to separate it again, but not before an Elemental was able to crawl its way through.

The Luxon Exarch brought a great and otherworldy might against the adventurers, but their finely-honed skill was too much for even it's mighty blows and multiple polygonal aides. Afaeth showed great skill with a bow while Percival and Anma discharged their strongest spells into its body. Orianna kept the staggering humanoids at bay, while Breighlin attempted to save her own skin, leaving floating black masonry to launch fire at the foe in her place. The Exarch's geometric form was dismantled, but with its death came the awakening of more knowledge within the mask - such as its remembrance of its name, Protophylarch.

He had much to discuss - it was once the companion of another Shadowless, Paramedes, before choosing to be sealed within the Vault for unknown reasons. He remembered that he had a home, although any further questions ran into yet more aggravating mental blocks. The Iris Order recommended they turn back for Rarte-heim as Anma buzzed with the possibility of using Protophylarch's knowledge to open yet more vaults. Kagane met them atop the wrecked summoned ship, and despite the removal of the Shadowless threat, refused to change Inaze's course against Brightwood. The ship made its way back to shore, and through another spell, the Keymasters returned to Rarte-heim.

//And, with their attention turned, [[Pedro Karfski|the thief]] stole the light of the vault, and robbed its guards of their lives...//

===== Session 16 - 17: Greenhorn Sailors =====
The interrogation of Protophylarch continued, although little could be ascertained. The party expressed interest in proceeding to [[Resotania]] to learn more about the Vaults, but [[Anma]] and [[Constance]] both wished to avoid the direct route via [[Port Damocles]]. Deliberations were interrupted by the news that the Inaze forces had left their camp - which many suspected to be the workings of a loose dragon. [[Kasan Kagane]] took his leave to attempt to neutralise the problem, while the adventurers helped put out the fires.

Once farewells had been bid to the remaining Bards, the party headed for the nearby Southern port, and attempted to find a less scrupulous Captain, willing to travel by a longer route. Before the search at the fishing village could begin in earnest, they were interrupted by the discovery of a familiar face behind the local bar.

[[Pedro Karfski]] was peddling barely-believable lies about being a travelling bartender, and even seemed to have forgotten his previous alias. The deception wasn't the point - he was here to interrogate the adventurers about the opening of the Wave Echo Vault, and expressed legitimate disappointment when he was told that the party's own information was thin on the ground. He was //somewhat// helpful about locating an [[Orc]] captain willing to travel by [[Port Green]], but was terse aside from that. Disturbingly, he appeared in a rather lucid dream experienced by [[Percival]], taking on an unusual, glowing appearance, but it resulted in little of use.

The Captain found took them by Port Green, ostensibly to help smuggle weapons along the weeks-long route. One of the sailors aboard the ship told them of the "myth" of [[Davy Jones]], who kills any Orc who attempts to cross from land to sea or sea to land more than once. The growing morale between the adventurers and the Crew became very useful once it was clear that a Damocletian ship, headed by [[Jamo Tyrazo]], was going to attempt to intercept them. A fight quickly broke out, in which Percival claimed the Captain's hand, and [[Constance]] attempted to kill any of the marines who had seen beneath her hood. [[Orianna]]'s animal forms caused terror to break out while [[Afaeth]] sabotaged the pursuing artillery. Anma and Breighlin's furious spellwork sent storms of ice and fire in equal measure aboard both ships, until pursuit was finally called off.

Without further interruption, the adventurers were dropped off on the banks of the River Taril, and the [[Motian Black]] weapons were received by another set of Orcs. They set off for the [[Dayblade Estate]], enjoying the open skies and full fields. The horn was blown outside the walls of the castle town, and [[Archibald Dayblade]] received them with glad tidings.

Once the hospitalities had been done with, the core question was asked - who knows of the Vaults? Lord Dayblade told them of a mystical area of land he had recently come into possession of, called the [[Holdings]], filled with arcane lore. To enter it, they would need to seek the [[Defense Council]], a thought that gave Dayblade some measure of apprehension. In addition, the family friend [[Magistrate Vaziri Markus]] would possibly be able to aid them - but before more could be said, Percival's sister, [[Crescent Dayblade]] arrived, and her rebellious attitude immediately caused a repelling response from her father.

===== Session 18: Single File =====
The party turned in for the night, with [[Percival]] leaving to check on [[Crescent Dayblade|Crescent]]. Her recent attitude had been caused by sudden changes in [[Archibald]]'s manner - cancelling duelling, and seemingly ignoring the plights of their workers. He had also been going to the basement more often, a thread which Percival and [[Constance]] chose to investigate. At midnight, they went to this cellar, and discovered Archibald's [[Stone Of Sacrifice]], a magical item marking him as the rightful Lord Dayblade that would glow after some personal sacrifice - and, seemingly, now as well. Its presence was confusing and contradictory with what Percival knew, and the elder Lord's reappearance and muttering to himself gave no answers either. They were locked in once Archibald left, and had to be bailed out in the morning by [[Anma]] and [[Afaeth]].

Soon, they suited up and set off to meet with the [[Defence Council]], aiming to gain access to the [[Holdings]]. Before they could leave, Archibald extracted promises from Anma and Constance that they would keep out of the Council's business, using an apparent warrant for Constance and the offer of shelter as leverage. They tattled on this deal immediately, while Anma grilled Constance privately over just what the hell she was doing. The journey towards [[Oesten's Keep]] was uneventful, and the [[o.p.e.r.a]] quickly arrived at the forest-shrouded headquarters. A quick introduction and letter from Lord Dayblade later, and they were meeting with the leaders of this organisation, led by the [[High Commander Evarian Goldrealm]].

[[Breighlin]] pledged the case as to why they needed access to the Holdings, leaving out any mention of [[Protophylarch]] or their own entrance into the [[Wave Echo Vault]]. With [[Chief Archivist Padallo]]'s blessing, they rode out towards the archive, alongside [[Field Sergeant Audacity Rosk]]. He explained the Defence Council's purpose (an apolitical body protecting the realm from extraplanar or just unusual threats), and once the cairn was reached, gave a briefing of the safety instructions for delving into the Holdings, a magically twisted centuries-old collection of arcane lore and knowledge. With the list of books banned by the [[Ecclesiarchy]] fully digested, the elevator was taken into the subterranean depths.

After establishing some ground rules for survival, the party pushed forwards through the tight corridors, lined by bookshelves filled with empty pages, gibberish, or barely-relevant tomes. An attempt was made to follow the filing system towards mentions of history and the ancient, which eventually opened out into a living diorama of [[Resotania]], circa 500 SA. The reclaiming Humans quickly fell under attack from some Elves, and the Keymasters bravely hid as Queen Avandra Resotania drove them back. When spoken to, she told of Goblinoid creations also haunting the streets - when Afaeth investigated, he was beset by an Intellect Devourer. [[Orianna]] turned into a wolf to rip it from the Rogue's face, while Percival and Afaeth used their blades to promptly dissect it.

A locked spellbook was found, but they chose not to take or remove it. The shelves were traversed once again, and they ran multiple times into a stone door, with a chained copy of the [[Book Of The War]] across its face. After deliberation, Afaeth attempted to pick the lock, but it was deemed beyond his ability. They retreated, and now attempted to navigate towards the stone- and geology-themed section to explore more of this arcane tomb...

===== Session 19: Skeleton Key =====
The party attempted to explore the caves, but quickly ran into the operations of an earth-moving spellcaster, Iridium, who's notice - and, seemingly, ire - was earned when [[Breighlin]] accidentally destroyed one of the glowing crystal deposits. They were unable to outrun the grasping fists sent after them, and when they turned to fight, found themselves roundly pummelled by the antagonist's superior spellwork. Iridium himself warned them away from the caves, but when the visage was smashed by one of [[Percival]]'s guiding bolts, it was revealed to merely be an animate statue. Unsure if they still had Iridium's attention, the adventurers returned the way they came and went further, noticing sections of the wall that had seemingly been removed, but finding little else of note.

After returning to the Shelves, they found themselves sidetracked towards the Curator's Office, finding a quaint and locked hideaway occupied only by a lond-dead, armoured skeleton. When [[Orianna]] smashed the glass case holding the keys to many of the tomes in the library, the skeleton sprang to life, and challenged them all. Aedaphon assumed they were interlopers merely under the guise of adventurers, but was persuaded to stand down for the moment. He claimed to have knowledge of the library's twists and turns, and the party determined his help would be almost necessary after their fruitless searches until now. But, once Aedaphon caught wind that they were planning on perusing the books in the Forbidden Knowledge section, such as those on [[Paramedes]] or the [[Vaults Of Ahm]], he decided that they would have to prove both their moral fibre and physical resilience by sending them on an errand for him - retrieving the Key to the Prism Trap.

With only the hint of the Fairy Tale section to go on, our adventurers made their way to the storyteller [[Clarke]], a cheery halfling who could warp the area around the small campfire he occupied into a hologram of the stories being told. His current yarn placed our heroes as guards of two child adventurers against a tall, straw effigy known as the Midnight Beast - but his failure to guess Percival's response to its attack caused his creation to fly into a rage. Finally on familiar ground, the Keymasters sprung into action. Breighlin lit the effigy on fire while Orianna's arachnid form bit into its longcoat. [[Afaeth]] fired arrow after arrow into its unforgiving body, while Percival struck a thunderous blow against it.

The giant figure fanned its own flames, and collapsed into four walking worm-like creatures. [[Anma]]'s magical missiles quickly destroyed these abominations, but not before they had managed to bring Breighlin down. Orianna turned into a Frog to attempt to trap the creature assailing the Dwarf, while Percival used Ahm's light to bring her back to life. Eventually, each maggot of the Midnight Beast was stamped out, and Anma's ice-cold gaze turned to Clarke. Reading the room, he spun a new tale, first of noble adventurers getting a safe eight hours of rest, and then one of those same protagonists retrieving a crystalline key.

They returned to Aedaphon, who revealed he was a knight of the Second [[Defence Council]] who had been sent to secure the [[Holdings]] in centuries past. As death had not yet deigned to take him, he had continued in his duty, even as his comrades had slowly begun to disappear. Now, it was only him left to secure the greatest treasure within the Holdings - the [[Etherium Crystallis]], also known as a Prism Trap. These gemstone prisons were the Defence Council's greatest weapon against eldritch foes, able to indefinitely hold enemies impossible to kill. Surveying the murals in the Prism's chamber, the party found a depiction of a great angel similar to the one [[Protophylarch]] was found around - Aedaphon confirmed that such elementals, called [[Beasts Of Light]], had been fought by the Defence Council in the past, and may have found their way into Prism Traps across the realm, sparking much speculation.

A promise was a promise, and once Aedaphon remembered the details, he led them to the Forbidden Section, a grand hall containing much lore and a few pieces of arcane instrumentation surrounding a glowing map of the [[Eight Planes]]. Afaeth was the first to find one of the desired tomes: a book depicting on its cover a plain mask, identified by Protophylarch as the mask of Paramedes. With great trepidation, the Rogue attempted to scry the ancient text for meaning, finding very little by himself, until the end of the book. The final pages were, in multiple languages, given to a list of 15 names of a fell and evil order or cult, allegedly lead by the scheming and nefarious Paramedes himself - a claim which Protophylarch strongly opposed, remembering him only as a noble brother in arms and an inspiration and example. The ancient himself was only able to decipher fragments: the book alleged the existence of an evil cult of impossible ancient, ghost-like beings - the [[Shadowless]] - who remained in [[Leurut]]'s shadows, occasionally inducting individuals into their ranks. Once more, Protophylarch claimed no knowledge of such an order.

Also within the book was an unlocking ritual associated with the element of Fire - and Percival was able to find a description of some twenty Vaults, some of which were associated with elements, and one of which with Fire, the [[Rutsan's Crossing Vault]]. With a course plotted to this river crossing within [[Resotania]] and the spell's copied, the party was ready to leave, until Afaeth investigated the celestial map at the centre of the room that held Aedaphon's attention. He noted that it had changed since he last saw it, with the spoke radiating out to the Plane of Light disappearing. Immediately the party mused on what their actions in the [[Wave Echo Vault]] could have to do with it, and while nothing concrete was determined, they all agreed that they must be careful of what effect they were having. With notes taken and books replaced, Aedaphon began to lead them all back to the entrance to the ancient Holdings.

===== Session 20: Dark Skies =====
Aedaphon returned the party to the elevator, and the platform descended after the rope was lit. Sergeant Rosk was delighted to see them, and quickly debriefed them on the journey home. He knew about the old Paladin within the Holdings, but professed ignorance towards Clarke, Iridium, and other such entities. As the chatter continued, Constance spied a winged, flying shape above Resotania - a dragon. At Oesten's Keep, the draconic presence was not unnoticed, and every soldier was on high alert: the same could be said of the Dayblade Estate when it was returned to, late at night, in a state of alarm and in the middle of drills.

With a mind set towards Rutsan's Crossing, the players retreated to Lord Dayblade's solar to discuss further. He remained tight-lipped about any prior dealings with Evarian Goldrealm, even under Anma's withering glare, instead insisting they had no relationship beyond occasional formalities. When Percival mentioned to his father that they were headed to Rutsan's Crossing and the enclosing city of Crusbridge, Archibald strongly recommended meeting with a magistrate in Resotania first, the oft-mentioned Vaziri Markus.

When morning rose, Crescent accompanied the adventurers to Resotania, informing the Ecclesiarchy of the Orc smuggling operation on behalf of her father. Once the grandiose city was entered in its full majesty, they were constantly accosted by merchants attempting to profit off the steady supply of pilgrims and faithful entering Resotania by the main roads. Breighlin and Anma purchased spellcasting supplies while Orianna and the others went in search of the nearest church, one of many within the pious city, to attend a service and try some of the Mercatus, a local delicacy for the faithful better known as Godsbread. At the found church, where the Voice was attempting to reassure the reassured over the dragon sighting, Percival offloaded his worries about his actions afield, while Breighlin tampered with some of the Mercatus after Orianna had her bite.

Constance's legendary perception saw yet another threat - orange glowing from beyond the clouds. Soon, the behemothic shape of Trechtipax, the legendary Brass dragon better known as Flamewing, crashed through, terrifying the city as it landed in the plaza with deafening force. With a bellow, he demanded the Archbishop's presence, then laid out its grievance to her in no uncertain terms. A chromatic dragon had been seen in the skies of Resotania, and if this was allowed to continue, an ancient and unknown deal would be violated, and the consequences terrifying.

Undeterred, and with little hope of affecting anything grand, the players pressed on with meeting MVM within the vestigial Empress's Palace. The Magistrate was inquisitive and cunning, but knew little more than the party themselves. His loyalty to Resotania's ideals was revealed trading barbs with Anma, while he let on that Crescent's visit to Resotania may hold deeper implication than was thought. When directly asked about the "business" with Crusbridge, after sizing up their capability, he informed them of the situation.

Crusbridge was under the grip of a noblewoman named Lord Malagom, but while it was owned by Resotania, its distance had allowed it to be besieged by an army thousands-strong. This Fell Court was led by the Black Knight, but despite a months-long standoff, Resotania had done nothing to rectify the situation. Bishop Vysarius of Crusbridge had used smoke signals to explicitly decline the assistance of Whiteshields, and no other Bishop could override her will. The Archbishop could have declared war on the Fell Court, but although doing so would divert forces from the Marak Dohts front, she seemed more concerned with her ideological project. It was the Golden Age, and she was determined to let piety and diplomacy succeed where before mankind had relied on barbarous violence. Darkwall, on the other hand, was content to merely besiege Crusbridge, and had not yet done anything to warrant immediate retribution.

With no side willing to make the first move to break the stalemate, but the perfect bird-killing stone delivered into his hands, Magistrate Vaziri Markus was willing to cast the first dice. With able adventurers at his disposal, and a position outside of the Ecclesiarchy, he begun to scheme with them as to how to enter the locked city...

===== Session 21: Cold Reception =====
A plan was drawn: the group would claim to be a scholarship collective, and would use the aid of smugglers and captives to sail into Crusbridge unnoticed. Orianna would be sent in animal form to alert the keep, and then the rest of O.P.E.R.A. would slip in unnoticed. In the morning, after a stay at a higher-class establishment, they met with their new guides: a Drow called Isadan, and a Warforged aide called Velru. They lacked a vessel of their own or any immediate knowledge of the city, but promised to use their skills in exchange for their freedom.

By foot and divine steed they set out, pausing to muse on the advancing Akselmarch wall, until the first traces of the Darkwall army appeared, and the main road was abandoned after coming across a ruined village. The next settlement to be found was Kastrer, in the hinterlands around Crusbridge, which was under direct control of the Black Knight after Bertrand Mell (who now stood as an icy statue) failed to lead an uprising. A local village woman caught them in their hiding space, long wary of many magical methods of stealth. In exchange for information and help, and compelled by a moral compass, they joined the villagers in war, and when night fell, launched their attack.

Percival readied a cavalry charge as Breighlin found a vantage point. Orianna prepared to summon a stampede, and then Anma struck the first blow, unleashing a devastating assault of ice and snow inside the barracks. Whirlwinds and missiles followed, injuring the fleeing soldiers, and causing a massacre - however, a small reserve group, in anticipation of an attack, prepared to flank the party and attack Breighlin. Percival's charge killed the emerging Ice Troll almost singlehandedly, but an invisible assailant from within the barracks attempted to take Breighlin prisoner, before realising the situation, and absconding in a burst of flame with his men.

With the troll slain, the icy spell on Bertrand was lifted, and the townsfolk were more than happy to assist the travellers, pointing them in the direction of the river bank, reached by night. Percival smartly chose to rest far from the treeline - a decision that paid dividends when the Darkwall army returned, searching for the interlopers. A spell from the Druid concealed their hiding spot, but soon the Dark Knight, Irsaval, appeared to command his soldiers, crossing the river on an icy path to search for the fugitives himself.

===== Session 22: All That Glitters =====
The Black Knight astride his warhorse stood in the middle of the hidden adventurers, and used a spell to compel any hidden foes to attack him. Percival was able to easily resist such basic trickery, and the search continued downstream. When morning awoke and it was safe to exhale, O.P.E.R.A. made its way to an upstream boathouse that Irsaval mentioned. Recon from Lily and Breighlin revealed the presence of a guard and, fearing, the worst, an elaborate plan was created to draw them out. Percival's summoned steed, Alacrity, was sent off with a magical cloud of darkness shortly behind. The ruse worked, and the guard inside revealed himself and sent away some of his elemental backup, leaving nothing but a beastly yeti to aid in his defence. Orianna-as-a-snake disabled them both as they were hacked away, and the guard was allowed to surrender and flee, warning the party that the Black Knight would discover them before long.

The river ride was uneventful, with Isadan demanding most of the responsibility for piloting the craft. Eventually, the outer city was reached, garrisoned by the Darkwall army. The smuggler kept a cool head as they pelted the small craft with mangonel stones, and the inner city was soon reached. Thanks to Anma's advance warning, the guards met them at the docks, and soon they were brought to the Keep to meet with [[Lord Ulim Malago]] herself.

After the months of siege, she was haggard and tired, but still defiant. Much of Crusbridge's population was within her great hall, and the party was led through a small collection of historical items as they went to her solar for private talks. Malago revealed that it was not her choice to keep the Whiteshields at bay. Instead, she spun a tale of a grand conspiracy against her within the Ecclesiarchy - she had long pushed against the Archbishop's notion of a [[Golden Age]], and in return she had seen her titles stripped from her with the exception of Crusbridge, once merely the core of her holdings. Now, with the Black Knight at the gates, the Bishop was content to let the city and the Lord die as divine retribution - if the gods willed her to remain Lord, then some other intervention would occur.

When [[Bishop Yai Vysarius]] was questioned herself, she did frustratingly little to redeem herself. She was every bit the Archbishop's toady as Malago built her up to be, but her arguments about interpreting divine will were persuasive in some sense, especially to Percival and Afaeth. She did offer one out - if Malago abandoned her titles to the Ecclesiarchy, then obviously the Ecclesiarchy would send its own soldiers to secure its own lands and people. This power grab was seen for what it was, but Malago had a hard time winning the party over to her plan - arresting or deposing the Bishop.

===== Session 23: Disco Inferno =====
Before making any rash moves, the party tried to reconcile somewhat with Vysarius, but found that she had left her room. While Afaeth and Constance ascertained the location of the beacon and Anma and Orianna got the lay of the land, Breighlin and Percival were able to eavesdrop on Lord Malago receiving a furious report from one of her sergeants, detailing the last of the clear opportunities to stop Darkwall and how every opportunity they had been offered so far had been squandered until now, the final post. The group reassembled, waiting outside Vysarius's room, and in their discussions, Afaeth drew on his mercenary experience to make a startling conclusion. Lord Malago had purposefully allowed the Black Knight's army to come as far as possible, right to the walls of Crusbridge, abandoning any earlier decisive opportunity, so that she could take back the titles that the Church had stripped from her.

Vysarius's spite and self-assuredness overcame her in her next chat with the party, and her desire to be seen as smarter than the mere adventurers led to her spilling the beans very quickly as to what she knew of the Vault. Under Bishop Vandire, she had studied the Vault and a potential method of opening it, and actively desired such an outcome. If they were instruments of divine will, then by opening the Vault, it would allow Ahm's judgement to fall upon Crusbridge, merely accelerating what she thought was happening already. And so, a deal was struck: O.P.E.R.A. would be granted access to her notes, and in exchange they would try their damnedest to open the Vault and access the source of power inside, the Obsidian Verge.

With such an agreement, and patience with Malago running short, some of the party went to talk with her while the rest went to meet with a trouble-stirring Druid that had recently been arrested. Percival, Afaeth and Orianna made the trip, with the young Tiefling conversing in Druidic to get the wretch's attention. When he sprung into life, however, he seemed interested only in the Paladin and Rogue. He offered them a tiny, magical rose, "for the proper balance of things", and offered small warnings about the Vault, before retreating again. When next the party checked on him, he had disappeared.

Lord Malago did not take the news of the party's oath to Vysarius well, and immediately became suspicious of them. While before she would have loved for them to retrieve the Obsidian Verge, now that the better-informed Bishop wanted the same, her nerve was instantly lost, and Breighlin failed to get her on side. She commanded them to stop interfering with her affairs, and to leave her room.

A fierce debate ensued about the best way to ensure a favourable solution. Afaeth wanted to solve the situation by removing the Darkwall army, while others wanted to strike against the Black Knight directly, or to override the Bishop and light the beacons themselves. In all cases, the party had their own motive of restoring Protophylarch, and all knew that the Obsidian Verge would be a valuable asset, or at least force Malago's hand. They approached the sergeant who had already gone against his Lord, Lewyn Ursago, and entreated his aid in opening the Vault, ostensibly on Malago's behalf. He rowed them out to the island that concealed the entrance. It was only here that the party realised Constance had been missing for quite a while.

Inside was a large cavern, constantly guarded and fortified against a sudden opening. The alchemical sigil found within the Holdings was drawn onto the seal in Breighlin's summoned chalk, and with a shudder, the ancient stone doors opened into the second Vault to open for hundreds of years.

Inside was a scorched-red statue of a humanoid with a boar's head, wielding a large two-handed sword, and with an extremely fragile mask around its neck that Afaeth and Protophylarch agreed not to touch. Percival found the Titanomachy Lantern, but no all-powerful staff. With great trepidation, the researchers agreed to open the portal at the rear of the structure, preparing for a surge of flames and enemies after Breighlin accidentally triggered the gateway. Instead, there were no foes, merely a portal to a blazing hellscape of orange skies, falling stars, and an imposing, far-away citadel. As Protophylarch's memories of a burning sky, crisis, and other Vaults opening in the past returned, two pockets of magma began to crew, out of which crawled flaming and hostile creatures. The party attempted to close the portal, but the gems wouldn't budge. They tried to flee to safety - only to find Lord Malago, having found them through a secret entrance, giving the order to attack.

===== Session 24: Fired Up, Ready to Go =====

The confusion was great, but the fire elementals were clearly the greatest priority. Percival and Afaeth quickly struck down the Igknight, while Orianna attempted to tackle the Murder Comet as an Elk. Anma fought each beast at once, turning herself into a potted plant before striking everyone with magical confusion thanks to her wild magic. Breighlin grew worried at the hail of crossbow bolts, and Orianna pieced together that Lord Malago was attacking them just as much as the elementals. She summoned magical grease to delay the advancing infantry, before doubling down on fighting the magical beings. The Murder Comet, in its confusion, flew through the portal, into the Mortal Plane, and began harrying the infantry in the Vault, before being chased even further out into the chamber proper. Percival disbanded the salamander, and then with Orianna attempted to help the fight against the Comet, but a magical missile from Anma caused it to detonate. Tapestries were burnt and chaos caused, with Lord Malago herself suffering serious burns, and amidst the screams, Percival found himself unable to help, and carried away by the great beast he was riding. Fearful of the carnage and further combat, and Lord Malago's wrath, O.P.E.R.A. chose to flee away from the Vault - into the Plane of Fire.

It took a while for the party to gather their wits amidst the almost-unbearable heat. Their fury was turned largely towards Malago, even if they understood her reasons, but thought it best for now to claim the Obsidian Verge for themselves, either as a bargaining chip or as other leverage. For two long days, the blasted landscape was empty and unforgiving. The only feature found was a curiously-well carved statue of Ahm in a very traditional style, amidst the land of Their enemies, giving the party much reason to puzzle. A few hours after that, the party was greeted by a scout from the citadel - Ra'varsch. He was extremely excited at the prospect of new travellers from the Mortal Plane, but while his enthusiasm was infectious, he offered little in the way of help. The citadel used to stand in a great city, but now there was little trace of it, other than the duty of guarding the Verge, a task left to a small number of immensely powerful guards.

Still, they were guided to the base of the citadel, made of magically cooled and refreshing metal, and granted a barrel of water taken as a spoil of a past war. Tentative plans were made towards a heist, but in the course of the investigation, Percival found a grass grove completely incongruous with the boiling surroundings. He placed the flower received from the Druid within the offering bowl of the grove, and roots burst from the ground to drag the party elsewhere.

//In a dark and sunless council, the [[Shadowless]] took stock of their recent losses. One of their number had been slain, but instead [[Paramedes]] was more concerned with adventurers daring to upset the balance he had delicately thumbed for years. [[Ivalicai]] was given the hunt, and the order to destroy them, body and soul. All else must wait...//

===== Session 25: Down to Earth =====

Percival and Afaeth-as-Protophylarch awoke in a verdant grove on the shore of a vast lake. The Whiteshield explored the strange locale, finding a hollowed tree trunk filled with ticking pocket watches, and old statues of ancient peoples. Atop one such statue was the aged, crooked figure calling himself the Druid, but with a spin and a flung-off cloak, he revealed himself as Mimir, a quaint man with a youth belying centuries of life. He had orchestrated events to rescue O.P.E.R.A. from the Fire Plane, and hurried with Percival to rendezvous with the others.

Breighlin and Orianna came to surrounded by sandstone ruins: a planar orrery, a fountain, and an ancient throneroom, belonging to Queen Bohdana Mepenzi Amekanda, a tiefling of ages past. Quickly, they too were reunited with Mimir, and Orianna and he embraced. Years ago, Mimir had trained Orianna in the practice of druidry, and he was overjoyed to see her again. However, a bird's screech soon came from the forest, and the heroes rushed once more to find their remaining companion.

Anma was alone within a twilight part of the forest, trying to follow discoloured trees to some clue of where she was. Soon, however, she instead found the Black Knight himself - who tried to convince her that they were not so different, and to join forces. These were rebuffed, and Irsaval attempted to remove one more unknown from the equation. Anma used ice and earth to slow him and his steed down, buying her enough time to meet again with her fellow travellers. They fought Irsaval to a standstill, until magically-compelled fear from Breighlin convinced him to retreat for now.

While most were happy with the escape, Anma was less than pleased, and it quickly became clear that although Mimir's happiness was genuine, there was more not being told. He spun a tale of being a wistful, sentimental old man from the dead Kingdom of Amekanda who snuck the adventurers out into the Feywild itself despite the possibility of retribution. However, Anma pieced together that the Black Knight had made a deal with him to deliver O.P.E.R.A. into his clutches, and the Druid had complied maliciously. He insisted Anma was never supposed to be in danger - Orianna was meant to take her place. Disgusted with his actions, and with Mimir thrown into sorrow, they departed through the Orrery to the Dayblade estate.

On the way, Ser and Lady Gustaf of the Flying Lance were encountered, warning of an assembly of many monarchs to deal with the new "Dragon" problem. At the estate, Archibald was off on business - instead, Persephone Moonstone, Percival's mother, was present, entertaining the Chancellor Kasan Kagane. Perturbed by the encounter, and with the reports confirmed, the party proceeded onwards - to Magistrate Vaziri Markus, and to plans for what to do now...


===== Session 26: Hello, Goodbye =====

MVM quickly ejected the researchers, as he had a meeting planned with Defence Council representatives. As they felt no need of further preparations, O.P.E.R.A. set off immediately to the Taril River, hoping to follow it upstream to the Iron Grip, Irsaval's Headquarters. While all options for potential leaders of Crusbridge were disliked, the Black Knight was identified as the worst of the bunch, and the party felt compelled to remove this ultimate threat. The destroyed village from before was found, and the same off-piste path taken.

On the journey, a group of four travellers with a broken wagon were found, and Afaeth quickly made contact with the Intercessors. They claimed to be a group of travellers of no importance, but the rest of the Keymasters were unconvinced. The leader, Osman Fallon, a rogue with a legerdemain flair, claimed to Percival in trust that they were employed by the Iris Order, trying to secure the Obsidian Verge so it couldn't violate the Arcanigreement. With smooth words, Fallon convinced them that this close to Crusbridge, safety was better in numbers, but their three companions (Heth, Varok, and Lord Hellow) had suspicious gaps in their knowledge.

Castrer was found once more, and the party were received as heroes. When they went to the Inn for the night, they found a recovering Isadan, found by the villagers after being dragged by a horse in her escape from Crusbridge. The omen of resting in the same place as the ill was realised when Fallon abruptly began attacking Afaeth after a brief discussion about their apparent shared pasts. Osman yelled for his allies to help, but Anma and Percival's timely intervention, not to mention Afaeth's pacifism, caused the whole situation to merely become confused. Heth lit the tavern ablaze while Afaeth merely tried to hug it out, causing Osman to go from threatening Anma to stabbing the mercenary, causing him to drop unconscious. Percival retaliated with an air-shattering smite while Orianna summoned giant insects to block off Varok and Lord Hellow, before constraining the noble as a giant snake.

Osman realised the assassination hadn't been as smooth as he had hoped, and threw out an orange marble for his final trick, causing a great detonation in the top floor of the building. It nearly killed Percival and Anma, but they were soon evacuated and the fire extinguished by the villagers. Lord Hellow was killed, Afaeth saw Osman disappear, and the other two were also able to flee. Anma instantly turned on Afaeth as Breighlin summoned shelter for the night, demanding to know what else from his past could turn up, to which Afaeth responded, apparently truthfully, that he really didn't know. Tensions remained high as they finally turned in for a night, with opinions ranging from treating it as the most important thing in the world, to just another threat among many O.P.E.R.A. would have to deal with.

Thanks to the help of a wonderfully useful drunk, the Iron Grip was located, and the garrisons dodged. The great steel citadel was located, and a plan to infiltrate it was devised once Percival and Afaeth noticed that it was far emptier than expected...

===== Session 27: It Came From Below =====

Once a spot for an ambush was found, the party waited for the time of the fell and daring gods, after the sun falls behind the March Mountains, and sprung the trap on a carriage-driver light on cargo. Percival was reticent to kill the magically-vacant rogue, forcing Orianna to slit his neck before the sleep wore off. Anma dragged the body off the road, and returned in a magical copy of his form and clothes. With a horse un-shod a bit too well to provide an excuse for turning back to the Iron Grip, Anma bluffed past the guards in meek persona, O.P.E.R.A. in tow in the back under the canvas. The carriage was parked by the wall, while Anma was forced to find a blacksmith to actually drive the carriage out and fulfil the bluff. Breighlin imbued Orianna with a spider's climb, and a rope was slung over the wall - one which Anma used to return.

The remaining party had to move to avoid being found, picking their way from place to place until they found cover in an outhouse. Breighlin used Lily as her eyes and ears to scout out the Iron Grip, finding a barracks and an armoury before three Orcs playing a game almost killed her. Instead, the wizard summoned the familiar to her side in an instant, which Percival realised may not be received well inside the citadel. As this was happening, Anma picked her way across the courtyard, but quickly drew attention, and was commanded to go inside the Iron Grip and find some proper armour and weapons. She stole a book as cover for her absentmindedness, and found her way to the top of the ramparts.

While trying to think of how to spin the disappearing snake, Orianna was reminded of the tale of Davy Jones, the undead hunter of cursed Orcs and the closest thing they had to a personal Beelzebub, and with the others, hatched a scheme. Dressed in torn robes and with a shapeshifted crab upon his back, Percival strode towards the Orcs, and easily got them to turn on each other, especially with Anma's aid. A caster saw through the ruse immediately, but Anma had stolen his spellbook prior, and in the chaos within the main hall, surreptitious passage upwards was easily found.

A room of scatter-brained mastiffs was calmed by Orianna's druidic communication, but the guards in the room beyond were still alerted. A snowball spell from Anma caused the entire floor to be blanketed in fog, causing the battle to rage upstairs instead. However, despite a quick show of skill from one of the assailants, both were dispatched without much issue. The stairs further up led to a locked trapdoor, and so the current floor was investigated by the researchers.

Orianna found the Black Knight's armoury, each weapon engraved with an Elven message espousing his supremacist views. Breighlin discovered a scrying device, used to keep tabs on an assault on the Obsidian Verge's citadel. Anma found a small office filled with the Black Knight's musings, as well as a sketch of a potential vault at Scale's Gap. Percival arguably found the greater prize - a chained Angel from Caleo. Although the chains appeared magical, with Protophylarch's aid they were relieved through mundane means, allowing the celestial to speak. It was summoned by the people that Irsaval displaced, but chained by him as a prize to his benefactors. However, Irsaval's magic appeared to be running out - and one of his remaining allies had the key that reached further up the tower.

Before he left, Protophylarch asked why the land around Resotania had changed since his time. The angel seemed on edge, cautious of saying too much, but allowed them the truth they had earnt by rescuing him. Between the First and Second Age, the world advanced prodigiously after the openings of other Vaults, but was plunged into calamity. The god Rozmajin performed some great sacrifice, changing the face of Leurut forever, but saving the world - a trick that, if the world was under threat again, could not be repeated. Protophylarch was left wondering if he fought in this great calamity, and if he did, on which side.

===== Session 28: The Iron Grip =====

Percival and Anma were encountered almost immediately by two guards, and quickly took down the path of a lengthy janitorial bluff. Anma led the guards away for hours of cleaning chat, while Percival danced around the Runesmith within, an enslaved Hobgoblin. Breighlin and Orianna tried to help - Breighlin was felled almost immediately as Percival attempted (with the help of Saint Percepto) to peek into the storeroon. Orianna's constricting form was eventually able to dispatch the captive, and then Percival broke the magical collar enslaving the smith, and stole the helmet and pauldron that she was repairing and that belonged to Irsaval.

However, no key was found, and so the other rooms were searched. The upper floor was almost scoured of any traces of people, until a jail holding a Gnome and a captive Whiteshield was found, as well as a hag preparing to sacrifice the latter. After the hygienic bluff failed the second time, Percival burst down the repaired wall between the jail and the Hag, and began to kill the cultists aiding her. Anma's thunderwave cleared the floor of candles and injured the foes, before the surviving cultist froze her and Ori in a slowed passage of time. Breighlin caused one cultist to drop unconscious while Percival continued to duel the fey. Eventually, Anma and Ori's delayed spells blistered the hag and killed the final cultist, allowing Percival to catch her off balance with his longsword and melt her face in her own cauldron. The final key was obtained, the prisoners freed, and a rest taken on the assumption no-one would search the jail.

Near the end of the rest, the Black Knight realised the Runesmith had vanished, and called for a search of the tower - although the jail and Hag were left alone for fear of incurring her wrath. Orianna spied on the proceedings, and found the Black Knight making another deal with Mimir: in exchange for ordering his Southern troops to leave, Mimir would in an hour's time grant the Black Knight knowledge of where O.P.E.R.A. lay. A second, invisible voice offered another deal, but one that Irsaval's principles forbade him to take. With the clock ticking, the party decided to hurry to the Black Knight's chambers. But first, they walked through gilded, mirrored halls and a private office - spaces for Lord Irsaval to use after his successful conquest.

One of the mirrors provided the portal to the top of the tower, where the Black Knight waited. After a soliloquy about his wish for victory and freedom, he revealed himself as merely a double - appearing in a flash of fire to quickly target Anma. After her slaying, he flashed back to the top of the stairs, while Percival gave chase. Breighlin summoned the Black Stand to help weather any storms, while Ori conjured giant, surprisingly lethal insects, which Irsaval quickly dispatched with a Necrotic Wave. His spells and flames flickered, having lost the confidence of his fiendish backers, and as Breighlin summoned demons and Percival tore a vein in the Black Knight's neck, he grew ever more desperate. A shadowy figure appeared, and promised power. Anma's Dissonant Whispers broke his mind down, but in the end it was shrapnel from Orianna's Ice Knife that sealed his fate. This shadowed figure retracted the offer, and as Ori ran to Irsaval to ensure his death, he bellowed a warning - the Shadowless were coming for them. He demanded a warrior's death, but lunged at Orianna - forcing Anma to end his life once and for all.

There was much debate about these final words. Percival and Ori desperately wanted to regroup, while Anma wanted to hide Protophylarch in the hope that it would somehow stop //whatever// was allegedly arriving - a decision Protophylarch protested, and Breighlin backed him up on. In any event, all agreed that it was best to immediately leave the Iron Grip, and present the Fell Court forces with their resignation notice.

===== Session 29: Defence of the Realm =====

With the Protophylarch issue set aside and the Black Knight's head taken, O.P.E.R.A. quickly fled the Iron Grip, and haltingly convinced the mercenaries to abandon their cause. With a commandeered wagon, they quickly left to attend to the Crusbridge situation - only to find that the Defence Council had arrived first. Field Sergeant Rosk informed them that the mustered forces had swept through the weakened forces, and were preparing to take the city and then somehow wrangle Lord Malago's doomed crusade into order.

Evarian Goldrealm, the High Commander of the Crusbridge Operation, made it clear that events were beyond the researchers' consent. A Defence Council army would stabilise the city and neutralise the Obsidian Verge. The party's help would be appreciated, but he felt success was almost certainly assured, thanks to information from an unknown contact. There was great deliberation over the situation, but none felt they could force others to pledge their life to a cause they did not believe in. Percival called for a unanimous vote to pledge themselves to the offensive - one that, largely thanks to Breighlin's reticence and persuasion, failed. Satisfied that the situation would, in some sense, be resolved, the group made their way back to Resotania City.

The city was aroused in panic, for by the time the party arrived, Light's Army propaganda written by the aliased Puncher and Wattman covered almost every square foot of the entire city. The Whiteshields were busy while the citizenry was outraged at what, to them, amounted to an act of terrorism, or a direct invasion of their consecration. The party led themselves to the Empress's Palace's back door, only to learn that MVM was at the Dayblade estate regardless, meeting with Percival's sister.

A lot of conversation occurred at the Dayblade's - Archibald was overjoyed, MVM was proud but perhaps expectant, and Chancellor Kagane was as hungry for gossip as ever. Percival learned that his father had aided the Defence Council in the past and had absolute faith in Goldrealm's fervour, but didn't get anything about his apparent deal to no longer be involved in Defence Council business. Anma also had her own correspondence, and was given an odd package from Archibald to be discreetly given to Crescent. Afaeth and Protophylarch got more of the lay of the land, and tried to tease out more of the past from the mask - Protophylarch was still resolute in his desire to see Paramedes for himself, and to gain some answers, being certain that the Black Knight's apparition was not him.

The guests found themselves at crossroads. Part of them wanted to go to Hollowsmere, and meet the Iris Order to learn exactly what they were up against in the Shadowless, and to glean more information on the Vaults of Ahm. Chancellor Kagane was also bound for those far-away lands, and the prospect of travelling with his wisdom and protection was enticing. However, eventually they settled on taking up Archibald and MVM on their offer to travel North. Given the [[Flamewing Threat]], relations needed to be established with the Draconic League, but Resotania was occupied, and the Empty Wall was effectively an unknown. Adventurers with a broad skillset were needed, and once Breighlin realised that another Vault of Ahm lay within the vast desert, their minds were set.

===== Session 30: The Little Magic =====

They could //walk// to the Empty Wall, but it would be a journey of months. Persephone had gotten to know the Gustafs lodging nearby, and was able to extract a deal from them - securing Hippogriffs within the week to vastly speed up the travel time. With seven days on their hands, the party split up, to better their situation as they head into unknown lands. Percival trained with Augusto Paravin, a Mantleguard Whiteshield, to better use the Dawnbringer he took from the Black Knight. Orianna brewed healing potions, taking into the woods with Crescent and earning some small amount of trust and admiration, as well as a necklace of Rozmajin, God of Magic.

Breighlin left for the Temple of Bahamut, the chief court of Resotania, and over several days of conversing with the young Virafel, learnt much of the nature of the metallic dragons - their long lives and memories, and their absolute adherence to their laws and deals made prior. However, there was little kept written down, and Virafel was as in the dark as anyone else when it came to Flamewing's fury. However, it did not go unnoticed that no-one from the Ecclesiarchy had sought the help of the Temple, despite them having much to offer.

Anma came to Bishop Eselsis, with the patronage of Lord Dayblade, and learnt a little about Oleg Vandire, his combative attitude, and his intense focus throughout his life on the Vaults of Ahm - as well as the other Bishops' relative indifference to the topic. She was directed to Bishop Tyran Fisadi, and entered the grand Ecclesiarchy itself. Fisadi was a curious sort, clearly well informed and greeting Anma with her full name, but was utterly uncaring about the Vaults. Clearly, his main aim was taking cheap shots at the deceased Vandire, who clearly earned himself few friends. What was obvious were his attempts to dissuade Anma's "little collective" from investigating the Vaults, recommending doing literally anything else. Eager not to keep the time wasted, he had two messages for her to courier back to Dayblade - the church was displeased both that he had turned down the Defence Council's request for help, and that he had not sent Crescent for her Whiteshield training.

Percival was eventually convinced that the inevitable confrontation with his father could be put off no longer. Crescent was dismissive of even the possibility of her being called as a Whiteshield, given that Percival had already taken up the role. Curiously, the mysterious package that Archibald had asked Anma to give Crescent was nothing more than more of her rebellious makeup. It was clear, however, that Crescent new nothing of any greater plot. Only Archibald had the answers - and after a few softball questions, revealed an inconvenient truth. For whatever reason, he was not only unwilling, but entirely unable to divulge everything he knew, though he alluded to it being somehow related to Flamewing's rage. What was clear, however, was his conviction. He was fully aware of how much his actions were driving Crescent to resent him and Percival to suspect him - he merely considered it a price worth paying to avoid playing into the hands of his supposed "enemies". Indeed, he thought Crescent being summoned as a Whiteshield was fraud intended to deprive him of a child, and nothing more than a plot. Dissatisfied at the lack of answers but with some direction, the two retired for the night.

In the morning, the Hippogriffs were herded by the Gustafs and their wyvern mounts, and Orianna was sent to negotiate. The potential mounts were pompous and clearly thought their intelligence greater than their actual capacity, but were still easily won over by the offer of centipedes, bees and real, actual spiders. Eventually, through a mix of negging and food bribery, terms were reached. The Silver Feather would deign to carry our intrepid heroes, IF they took sole responsibility for their own safety, and declined to saddle their mounts. Ser Gustaf seemed alien to the idea of negotiating with the beasts, but the rest of the party found the terms acceptable, and began to approach their new mounts.

===== Session 31: All As True Equals Die =====
//Great men are forged in fire. It is the privilege of lesser men to light the flame... no matter the cost.//

Gently and then quickly, the researchers learned the ropes of Hippogriff riding. Percival immediately planned to renege on the saddleless deal, but for now was content to ride the matriarch back to the Dayblade estate, and turn in for the night before intensive training over the next few days. Lady Gustaf ran them through the likely route to reach the Empty Wall in several "hops", and commanded them to be ready for the coming trials.

Percival was steadfast in refusing to bow to the whims of the creature he had mastery over, and thought the entire idea of negotiating with them to be ridiculous. Ser Gustaf didn't disagree with the latter, but was downright offended by the notion that he was unequal to his own steed. The knights words came through, in at least some fashion, and Percival joined the others for the airborne exercises soon after. The training was gruelling, and Lady Gustaf was a harsh teacher, but quickly they all became quite adept at managing with their steeds.

On the final training day, the Gustafs challenged them to a competition of sorts, seeing who could reach the highest point of Shire Mountain. Percival, Afaeth and Orianna made it to a mid-way shelf, Breighlin almost reached the peak, but only Anma made it all the way. Her steed was panicked, but she was unable to find a source of their fear, and so she returned to the party with Breighlin in tow. Afaeth saw behind them Onschustrasz, in silent pursuit, and quickly raised the alarm.

Anma tried to fight back with an Ice Knife while Afaeth baited the dragon, but a wild magic surge turned the sorcerer to a vulnerable potted plant. With a single burst of flame, she was killed instantly, and Breighlin sent tumbling through the skies. Percival and Orianna saw little use in fighting as the chromatic shrugged off spell after spell from Afaeth - the Paladin magically commanded the Druid to flee, before circling back to attempt a rescue of Anma and Breighlin. Afaeth stood to the end against Onschustrasz, and spent his final moments charging into the beasts mouth.

The survivors escaped the red dragons notice, and it quickly wheeled away back into the sky. Percival and Orianna met up with each other in shock, and Orianna confirmed that Anma was indeed dead. In the form of an eagle, she searched for Breighlin (just about alive) and Afaeth, recovered Protophylarch, and fled to the Dayblade Estate. Percival spent hours figuring out what to do with his fallen comrades, before simply gathering both of their bodies and returning himself. Breighlin, herself, had a [[Death|strange experience]] near to her own death, and was silent in bed for the rest of the day, as Percival and Ori grieved, stunned.

In the day after, all parties new that the situation had obviously changed. Breighlin tried to find out how to resurrect the fallen, but the Dayblades were firmly against the idea. Percival refused to head into the Empty Wall alongside Ori despite his father's insistence that they hadn't the luxury of waiting, and when challenged on this, left the estate. Breighlin, for once, seemed focused on a greater good, and tried to organise with Dayblade how best to resolve the Trechtipax threat. She asked how best to reconnect with his son, and Dayblade sharply responded that he has no son, and was astoundingly lucky to have been granted two Whtieshield heirs by Ahm. With little idea of what to do, with Percival walking into the distance, Orianna distracting herself outside, and Breighlin planning in vain, what remained of O.P.E.R.A. tried to find some purpose in this loss.
====== Chapter 2 - Just Us ======
===== Session 32: A League of Their Own =====
Breighlin and Orianna took off from the Dayblade estate, with some spending money from MVM and advice from Lord Dayblade to gather whatever allies they could. The weather was harsh and unforgiving on the lonely journey, and by the end of the first day, rest at Shelter Highhome seemed more than welcome.

In the words of Protophylarch, people with swords to their necks do not have time to mourn.

Cynara Althespa awoke in the Elven Shelter, and immediately met with the elderly Mystara and his grandson, Mystaralil. Hippogriffs were approaching, and they ate enough for a column of soldiers, and Mystara was willing to part with a small amount of coin if Cynara would help hunt enough game to feed them. Owlbear-like beasts roamed the nearby woods, and a single one of them, Mystara reckoned, would be enough to feed the pack. She met with the other hunter, a Denizen named Osman Fallon who also seemed to be a practitioner of legerdemain on the side, and they made small talk on the way to hunt, kill, and drag back the beast. Cynara felled it with great skill, but Fallon left the party the second the treeline was cleared, claiming to be in a rush to meet some friends.

Cynara was paid for the butchery and the food preparation, and when Breighlin and Orianna landed, she met the unusual envoy from Resotania. In the event, their interests aligned quite neatly - Cynara was interested in extraplanar phenomena, much like Breighlin, and her path also took her towards the Empty Wall. Orianna was desperate to include her as an ally, and while Breighlin was slower to come around, she eventually agreed, but was firm that Cynara should not be let in on the Vaults of Ahm. In the next morning, the Hippogriffs flew again, with Cynara taking an unnamed mount and christening it Penwing.

In the Dwarven town of Kerdit-mal, known to the people as the Niflheim, a mage of the Iris Order finished up their business about the day, and fed their superiors their report through an imp familiar. They had sorted out passage further North, in a caravan that left at midnight, but when they went to check on the rain-blasted preparations, Vito instead met an obviously shifty man introducing himself as Forte, though it was obviously not his real name. Forte directed them to Mr Fallon's magic show in town, and politely asked them to divert the trickster to the other peak by the time his "friends" landed for mutual benefit, before walking into the night. Vito observed the end of Osman's basic magic show, and when he told the magician that the people he was waiting for were on the other peak, he quickly left.

When the party landed at the town hall of Kerdit-mal, Vito was there waiting, and quickly surmised they were the friends of Forte - more likely, they thought, Oleg Vandire's ever-present shade. Vito pieced together quickly that this meeting was set up by the ethereal traveller, and asked to accompany them to the Empty Wall, as they too had business with the Draconic League. When they met in Vito's room, the fact he was part of the Iris Order was revealed, and when the travellers were gone, Vito debriefed on the curious diplomats from their superior. Orianna was equally keen on adding the spellcaster to their party as they had been with Cynara, but the presence of Vandire and Fallon both made Breighlin very reticent. They saw no harm in taking Vito along in the end, but planned to leave after morning, believing Vandire's advice to be a trap. As a result of this decision, Fallon almost caught up with them, and the Hippogriffs departed as Osman yelled at the townsfolk to stop them.

As they travelled to Bonli's Garden, Trechtipax found them through the skies, regarding the miniscule envoy with curiosity at best, and indifference at worst. He rocketed away and disappeared into the desert, and Cynara made a note of the direction he travelled. In Bonli's Garden, the Ranger and the Druid were easily able to source food for the mounts and a bit to get them through any dangerous leaps in the desert, and when morning came, Cynara took the navigator's instruments, made note of Oestenblade and the march mountains, and asking the party to trust her, led them for hours in an almost-straight line, beyond the hippogriffs' usual capacity. Night fell on the yellow sand, but after following the only living creature they had seen so far, they found small red stars, camp fires, to soar towards.

===== Session 33: Kiln-Ready Deal =====
The place they landed was [[Kijn Uyasid]], a small desert town filled with Gnolls, Drow and Firbolgs. They spoke in Kiln, a pidgin mishmash of all their native languages, requiring Ori to frequently serve as halting translator, but some basics were quickly ascertained as shelter was secured for the night. The desert town was reliant on the Cornucopia Arborite, a magical machine that provided food and water, which was maintained by Tulrusk, who was also the current Vizier. Elections were to be held soon for Vizier, and there was one other contender, a brilliant thinker but poor speaker called Campiar ibn-Bisal.

Once the sun rose, the party tried to both find directions to Diatonis, and secure a greater food supply to allow the hippogriffs to fly again. Inquiries got nowhere, although they quickly discovered that a woman from the South lived in Uyasid, Amalia. They were forced to swear an oath not to act against the community in a temple of Bahamut, and when their investigations ran into dead end after dead end, they returned to this place. Here, they met Reynold Grower, a gnome and a traveller like them who had been in Uyasid long enough to learn Kiln, who claimed to be after the dragons to cut some business deals from Freeport. Cynara's attempt to learn a great deal from a merchant came to a halting stop, and so they contented themselves, for now, with watching the election speeches.

ibn-Bisal was shaky on stage, repeatedly decrying stagnant leadership and imploring the citizenry to care about the Orc threat, but failing to win many hearts beyond those already devoted to his and the Gold's cause. Vizier Tulrusk, on the other hand, was an aged lich who had won every election for 136 years with fiery temper and appealing to the long-lived members of the community and his impressive reputation. Once the fervour was over, it was determined that he would be a valuable ally, if a distasteful one, and so a meeting was chalked in while other aspects were investigated. The idea of raiding some of the Orc nomads was floated briefly but discarded.

Hoping that the Thinker would know something useful, they decided to meet ibn-Bisal directly, who could speak in broken Common. He was a defeated gnoll, ready to relegate himself to philosophy forever while Vizier Tulrusk continued uncontested. Much of what he knew had come from Amalia's books, and while many wanted to keep listening to Campiar's thoughts, it was eventually determined that he knew little directly. Amalia, an Akselian-accented preacher of the Light who was the only remaining member of a long-ago mission, was dour and hateful of the entire settlement, and wanted the party to just burn down the whole thing, the lich especially. However, she did reveal that Akarro, of the Defence Council, had been in town a few days ago. Soon after, a gnoll guard fetched them: the Vizier was free.

In a chamber decorated with the faces of his predecessors, Tulrusk brought them into his confidence. While ibn-Bisal was hardly a threat, his ideals were, especially if dangerously misunderstood. If these could be destroyed, Tulrusk would exile them in the direction of Diatonis, and rejuvenate the mounts to boot. Breighlin took the lead in bowing to the lich, but immediately planned to double cross him, and planning ensued. These discussions were long and hard, with Cynara especially not wanting to engage in any activity that ibn-Bisal didn't know about, fearful about the effects on the man of destroying his entire life's work. Eventually, it was agreed to involve him in the plan, and together, a deception was devised, and his agreement was bought by promising to publish his works. Before the plan was actioned, however, Osman Fallon made another unwanted appearance, and threatened to bring hell with him back to the town unless the party handed over Protophylarch, and allowed him to rest at last.

Reynold, Ori, and Breighlin "snuck" into the Gold hideout, and as ibn-Bisal stuffed his notes and filled the bag of holding, they took some forgeries to the well, and Cynara loudly threw them in, turning papyrus into pulp and ruining the ink. ibn-Bisal despaired and fled, but couldn't resist from leaving behind a final promise to his town: "ONE DAY I SHALL RETURN TO YOUR SIDE." Vizier Tulrusk publicly exiled them and gave directions to Diatonis, and in disgrace, the group left, bringing the gnoll with them on their journey to at last meet the dragons.

===== Session 34: Diplomacy by Other Means =====
The diplomats and vagabonds soared in Tulrusk's direction, marvelling at the fallen, ancient statues before continuing Northwards towards Diatonis, its pyramids, and its pillars. After several hours of uninterrupted flight, in which all debated their motivations for finding the dragons: Grower would remain guarded throughout.

Eventually, the Drakeforge was found, surrounded by six pillars, one of which was itself shrouded in rickety scaffolding and cranes. O.P.E.R.A. tried to get closer, but was immediately shot at by longbow arrows, and the hippogriffs scattered and reconvened on another of the pillars. Vito had gotten a vague sense of their numbers and count, and also saw that a large stone warhorn was being somehow affected by the construction work. The ruins of a similar horn, covered in destructive runes, was found on this pillar: Grower believed the colony was repairing them, while Cynara was inclined to believe they were the ones destroying them, and seemed to have the slightly more provable argument. Vito's imp was revealed and sent to inspect the other pillars, while the adventurers themselves went to investigate the pyramids.

It was quickly found that they were magically imbued, staying in impossibly good condition and holding with construction unlikely through any other means. Orianna turned into a Giant Badger to attempt to tunnel through the sand to an entrance, and although one was found, no obvious way of opening it could be discerned. With regret, the party slowly came to agree that it would be preferable to brave the colony's attacks than to attempt to force their way into the pyramids, especially after hearing the imp's unhelpful report. While many, especially Breighlin, were reticent, ibn-Bisal's analytical and self-preservational attitude eventually swayed people. A strategy was sussed out, in which Breighlin would cover much of the pillar in a magical cloud of fog to disable the archers and workers, while devastating area attacks would pummel the remaining foes.

The flying formation attacked at Breighlin's whistled signal, and flew in to attack the spellcaster atop the horn's scaffolding. The various cultists were Chromatic dragonborn, and were led by the caster, who quickly abandoned them once things went South. They were aided by two much more durable and much deadly orcs with seared skin and metal armour, while an elemental Disconcert Core soon spun up and started to attack the researchers also. Breighlin peppered the fog cloud with fireballs after its creation, while Vito's black tentacles crushed many fleeing dragonborn. Orianna summoned a wall of fire to scorch the remaining survivors, while Vito started shooting at the Disconcert Core once it drew close.

The fleeing caster flew to avoid harm, and was able to resist Grower's multiple spells. Cynara leapt from her steed to tackle the fleeing, flying spellcaster, and while she was almost able to kill him, it was in the end the imp's bite which sent him plummeting to his death. She clambered up the cliff and the horn to protect Grower, now unconscious after an attempt to disable the Disconcert Core. The elemental construct detonated some source of power within, and was ready to fight, swirled in fire and darkness and death...

===== Session 35: The Perpetuals =====
Battle continued, as the Disconcert Core grew in elemental power. Cynara and Orianna drove off the Orcs, with the ranger stealing a device from one of them - they clearly prized it highly, but valued their lives more. A telekinetic spell forced Breighlin into the fight, and she made the decision to drop the fog and save her own skin, allowing Cynara to kill the final spellcaster. Vito continued to strip layers from the Disconcert Core, while Pickwielder used sleep spells to remove more Dragonborn from the fight. Orianna saved Grower and dragged him away, allowing him to help with magic from afar, while Cynara turned to the now-visible cage, occupied by Akarro of the Defence Council.

She was eventually freed as Vito and Breighlin studied the Core, an ancient and rare weapon from the Arcaniconflict. She began the process of trapping the calamity within an Etherium Crystallis. Orianna killed the cultists trying to scavenge the fallen spellcaster's body, and retried a purple mask emanating with a foul energy. Breighlin, then Grower, then Orianna tried to force close the Prism Trap, as Vito and Cynara continued to weaken its multiple defenses. Eventually, Breighlin was able to snap the snare, and it was collapsed and imprisoned within a new, huge gem, glowing and orange and perfectly balanced on its diamond-like point.

Akarro re-introduced herself while Vito resummoned the Imp, and others inspected the various bits of detritus about the platform - Protophylarch gave Orianna a nervous warning against wearing the purple mask, though he could not place why. While it was quickly ascertained that a blow of the bugle would help clear the path to Diatonis, assurances were sought, and so Breighlin decided to interrogate the corpse of the spellcaster. It told of a plot to seal the Metallics away by destroying each horn, to appease Tiamat. The Orcs were mere allies from the Dominion, while the mask was more interesting - it spoke to the Dragonborn, teaching it secrets. It called itself Monoeices.

While the information was disturbing, it was not inherently illuminating, and the plan was unchanged. Vito finished summoning their familiar, and was immediately met with a panicked call from their wife, who had been trying to reach them since the imp's death. The situation was defused, and the removal of the Prism Trap arranged, and the call ended with Vito only mildly furious at the imp's poor timing.

After rest, the Jormungandr Bugle was blown, and the sands cleared from the entrance to Diatonis, before two dragons erupted from the sand and met the new interlopers. Verdapax, the World Maker, was excitable to meet new people, while Imperapax was much more standoffish, and appeared to have some history with Cynara. The party flew over to Diatonis, and greeted the Perpetuals, the most important dragons in Diatonis, who quickly dispersed while Verdapax tried to get a conversation going. Each case pleaded before them seemed to touch quite deep nerves, so instead the copper dragon cheerily invited them to look around the vast halls of Diatonis, and come to their own conclusions, before meeting him in the final chamber.

The first room entered was Verdapax's own Forge of Bodies, where Ildapax told much of metallic dragon biology and history, and how their way of life revolved around the Forges. Food was produced for the griffons, while a mural and statue of the Perpetual were investigated, appearing to show Ahm creating Bahamut and Kona - along with the Vaults, as old as history itself. The next room was the Nursery, looked after by the silver Kextiripax, where the young were nurtured and imprecisely-crafted souls recovered. The motherly dragon was wary for her young, but more or less allowed O.P.E.R.A. the run of the place. Her mural depicted the battle between Bahamut and Tiamat in which she was elevated, and she tried her best to answer the party's many questions about divine workings. She and Ildapax together revealed that, while dragons could be slain like any other creature, the Perpetuals were different in that their soul could survive after death for a small time, allowing their divine gifts to be married to a new body. With reticence, Kextiripax also revealed that some of the Vaults of Ahm had opened before, at the turning of the ages, and that their purpose was as inscrutable to the League as they were to our mortal adventurers. With some pointers as to where to go to find more information on the Xanthous, a destructive entity Cynara was hunting, the party continued to new rooms inside of the Dragonhome...

===== Session 36: Bishop's Gambit =====
Imperapax was the next to be met, atop her Focus Octavia, preparing for spells. From her and her statue, Vito pried knowledge of the Demon Lord [[Yeenoghu]]. They were a powerful demon who nearly ended the world, but thanks to the gods' plan, they were buried beneath Leurut. Cynara was shocked to learn that this was the same entity as the Xanthous which Imperapax had beckoned her here to learn about. Knowledge of it was actively being suppressed, so that it could never return. Sargerapax, controlling a desiccated dragon's corpse, tersely concurred with the found knowledge.

The final chamber was entered, and Seneyepax's statue was found, weathered and with no glowing gem, and with the other four Perpetuals watching the party's approach. Verdapax told the tale as Trechtipax arrived: after the start of the Second Age, Seneypax used her knowledge and many, many secrets to help humanity restore itself, and in return, she was killed. Trechtipax was there to witness her final act: she compelled humanity to work for the metallic dragons' cause and keep the skies clear of chromatic dragons. In return, the metallic dragons would be forced to forgive. Even the cheery Verdapax still clearly carried some weight with him when interacting with mortals.

While the dragons' grief and Trechtipax's anger seemed insurmountable obstacles, together, they found cracks in the story. Why only attack now? Because an eclipse was due, and while Trechtipax insisted this would make Tiamat's brood more dangerous, the other dragons talked of a myth claiming that she herself was more vulnerable then, and that killing her was an obsession of the elder dragon. A dangerous question to which no answer could be found, and from which much offense was taken, was why Trechtipax hadn't recovered Seneyepax's soul. Once it was learned that a great weapon was said to dwell within the Air Vault, one that only Seneyepax knew how to open, a story began to fall into place. Trechtipax seemingly wanted to open the Air Vault, and this was the first time the eclipse and chromatic dragons had coincided: the deal Seneyepax had struck had merely served to stop Trechtipax so far. Trechtipax seemed determined to find what remained of Seneyepax, somehow using that to open the Vault, and seemed resistant to the idea of any new deal being made, or the old bargain being upheld once again.

Eventually, there were no further answers to be found. Breighlin put on the obsidian mask to try to interrogate it, but it simply disappeared into purple mist. While she was heavily resistant, everyone else was keen to fulfil their original purpose: to open the Vault of Life. Sergerapax accompanied them to this end, and apologised for Flamewing's nature. He noted that Seneyepax had always refused to open the Vault of Air for him, and suggested treacherously that the weapon within could be turned on Trechtipax should push come to shove.

Once everyone was ready, he bellowed to the sky, and the Vault of Life opened. Inside was a copper and verdigris wreck of machine with an insectoid statue standing guard - wearing a mask that Orianna soon destroyed. The item held within was this time a Tablet of Resurrection: concerning, given how stringent the Writ was about Ahm detesting all forms of resurrection. Vito held onto it for now. Orianna opened the portal to the Plane of Life by splashing the tree-like structure with water. A colossal bear, a life elemental, tried to roar through, but got stuck. However, a humanoid figure on the other side briefly appeared to cast eight globes of green light into Leurut, before the portal crashed shut.

The insectoid guardian animated, and attempted to fight, but Orianna, Cynara and Vito quickly dispatched its gangly form while Breighlin studied. It was a fight it had no hope of winning, and it quickly began to scream in pain and despair before Vito finished it off. Cynara investigated the world beyond, finding verdant lushness and a few stone pillars, while the others watched the body of the creature turn to plaster, revealing a human figure inside. Protophylarch recognised them. He remembered fighting Yeenoghu and its minions while the world ended around them. He remembered fighting the insect creature, but also saying goodbye to it: the name of the figure within was Syphogrant.

//Hold fast. Keep the faith. At duty's end, we will meet again. We will...//

The party elected to rest for the night, and return quickly. Vito gave a mission report to their superior, while Cynara explored the re-opened Plane of Life further, finding a small Celestial plaque venerating Ahm, and returning with samples. As she returned, a voice came from behind her, asking if she enjoyed the sights beyond, because she wouldn't be able to see them again. The penumbrous form of Oleg Vandire appeared and ripped the Life energy from the structure: Cynara watched in horror from the Ethereal Plane as thirteen hooded figures tried to stop it. The figure disappeared, and then bones formed from the dust in the room, then flesh, then clothes.

Light gave him knowledge, and Fire gave him purpose. Now... Bishop Oleg Vandire returns to **life!**

===== Session 37: Darker in the Day =====
Several months ago, Bishop Oleg Vandire drew close to the end of his natural life, no closer to his life's goal of ushering in the paradise that Humanity knew in the First Age. Convinced he was damned for his failure regardless, he performed a dangerous ritual to contact a Shadowless, a forbidden but wise being. Due to some fault in the spell, rather than contacting one of these creatures, he //became// one, and seemingly killing one of the original 15. Formless and disorientated, he floated through the world until the Vault of Life was opened and restored much of his mind. He had followed O.P.E.R.A. until now, and with the Vault of Life opened, he could take on a permanent physical form. This he explained as Vito and Cynara held him at knife's point, though he seemed to lack any regard for his own life. Now full of vigour, he intended to continue with his journey to the golden age, and offered an alliance with the researchers (whom he considered to be Breighlin and Orianna only). He would offer them their notes, and they would continue to open Vaults and allow him access to the power within. As their goals seemed to align, and as all agreed that Vandire's insane fervour was at least genuine, this pact was agreed.

The morning after, preparations were made to leave. They would follow Trechtipax's wings to Resotania, as he was the only dragon who knew the best path, and as they left, he warned them to save their own lives, and avoid interfering in his affairs. Just before departure, Cynara asked Verdapax if Vandire's purported golden age was ever real: the dragon seemed unable to deny this.

The journey back was largely muted and uneventful, as the steps were retraced along the hops towards Resotania. They talked, and Vito conferred with their far-off wife. On the final night, once the countryside was reached, Breighlin finally faced the repercussion of wearing Monoeices's mask: a pleasant, dreamlike chat. She seemed to detest notions of secrecy, and spilled the beans quickly. She was one of the Shadowless: ostensibly 15 in number, but three of their members had disappeared or been killed (Kyriotetes being the one replaced by "The Enemy"). Monoeices merely introduced herself, and complimented Breighlin on her intelligence and practicality, compared to the other party members. She promised she'd be in touch soon, and that they shared a goal of sparing the world from whatever lay inside the Vaults.

In the morning, the Dayblade estate was reached. It was curiously empty, and at the door of the manor, Sir Viosius greeted them instead of Lord Dayblade. He revealed that Resotania, three days ago, had decided to formally muster an army against the Orc Dominion, and both Dayblades were part of this. He was holding down the fort, and securing the best equipment he could by the time Crescent had to leave for her Whiteshield training. The researchers wanted little from him; just the Prism Traps keeping their friends in stasis. They were led to Dayblade's solar, and with their new knowledge of the world, realised that his curious glowing paperweight was itself an old Prism Trap: Viosius confirmed that Dayblade used to be close with Goldrealm and the entire Defence Council until rather recently.

The crystal holding Anma was retrieved, and then broken on the floor to release her body. Orianna used the Tablet of Resurrection, given to them by Vito. With a flash of green energy, and intense weariness in her bones, Anma was restored to life.

===== Session 38: Since Time Immemorial =====
The group was torn between going towards Scale's Gap as soon as possible, and returning to Resotania's capital to inform MVM and learn what they could from Vandire's notes. Eventually, they decided to fly towards the Empress's Palace as soon as possible, drawing no small concern when they brazenly landed, and quickly they organised a meeting with their contact. Magistrate Markus was pleased to meet them, and eager to hear of the news: he was fascinated, but could draw no more conclusions than O.P.E.R.A. had. He informed them of what had happened: a few days ago, Goldrealm had been placed in command of Resotania's entire forces, and all of her armies were mustered, to drive back the Dominion near Scale's Gap. Even MVM, with his open and astute mind, was puzzled by this shift in priorities. In addition, after much insult and perhaps some deliberate negligence, King Threandir had ordered all of his knights to return to Dragonfall.

There were many questions about the Defence Council's illogical moves, and Trechtipax's conflicting accounts. Why must he wait for the eclipse to destroy Resotania on unrelated grounds? Why was he unable to retrieve Seneyepax's soul when she had died? Why was the DC trying to stop the Orcs instead of Trechtipax, and if they depended on dragons to produce their Prism Traps, how could they come by so many? Eventually, enough clues and serendipity collided for the party to come to a startling theory. According to that, Seneyepax still lived, in some form, buried beneath Resotania City in its vast and ancient catacombs. The Defence Council knew of her, and used her for her gifts, while Trechtipax would need to raze the city to free her and learn her secrets.

Still firm that it was merely a theory, MVM hurried to secure permission for O.P.E.R.A. to "research" the Palace's catacombs. With some hours to spare before the appeal's result would become apparent, the party spent the day in the city, securing lodgings at Ye Bvmme Fvck. Breighlin managed to find a position for ibn-Bisal at the Temple of Iol, though not before pilfering a silver coin that she pretended to donate to the war effort. Orianna talked to Protophylarch, while Cynara and Anma tried to sift fact from legend in regards to these catacombs.

Eventually, in the evening, a Whiteshield arrived to take them to the vast and grand Ecclesiarchy, where they would plead their case before the Bishop's Muster, under a strict set of conditions and customs. Before all 50 Bishops, and the ornately decorated Archbishop herself, the party told of the Empty Wall, and Diatonis, and of secrets buried deep, and of a city that could be saved by delving into it's secrets. The bishops seemed moved, although no answer would be forthcoming. They waited in the gallery for the next request to be heard by the Convening Majoris. The representative of Dragonfall, the Kingdom of Inaze, and their allies entered, and in his rough, red jacket and heavy, metal boots, Chancellor Kasan Kagane addressed the powers of the land.

===== Session 39: Tooth and Nail =====
Kasan Kagane, acting for both Dragonfall and Brightwood, was rude and more-busting — as Anma judged it, almost certainly on purpose. He announced that Resotania's decision to leave Whiteshields in Dragonfall even as the war ramped up was unnecessary, and they would be "donated" to the parent empire posthaste. He also asked for the Archbishop to, as is custom, approve the marriage of Queen Inaze to the youngest son of King Threandir of Dragonfall, and then left before the other petitioners could be heard. The bishops erupted, and the ripples of this action stayed with the unfortunate remaining petitioners, seeking exemption from the battles ahead. O.P.E.R.A. was asked by the Archbishop herself why they Defence Council couldn't handle the danger themselves, and Anma offered that it would be a better use of their resources to tend to the frontlines.

While they waited for an answer, they explored the Ecclesiarchy to try to find Bishop Vandire's room, but the hallways were so twisting that news of their successful petition arrived before Cynara found the precise location — and immediately smelled smoke behind its sturdy oak door. The entire room was ablaze, the fire destroying Oleg Vandire's notes and artefacts, and he knelt in sadness and shock in the centre of the room. Anma summoned a torrent of water, extinguishing the blaze but ruining whatever remained of his life's work. Bishop Fisadi didn't even try to hide that he was behind the attack, revealing himself to be the Shadowless known as Ivalicai. He gloated that all those who would seek to open the Vaults were doomed to the same fate, and warned O.P.E.R.A. to deter themselves from their course before he was forced to "dispense" of them too.

In Breighlin's dreams, later that night, she spoke with Moneices, who apologised for her brother's disposition. All of the Shadowless were more used to subtlety, as one of Paramedes's many seemingly-arbitrary tenets, and while all of them chafed against this somewhat, it brought Ivalicai to boiling point more than most. She also gave a little bit of detail on the mysterious figures: Paramedes was the de facto leader, wielding millennia of experience and intelligence to turn their meagre abilities into fate-changing forces. This influence was exerted usually by possessing others, as Ivalicai had done with Fisadi, although something seemed to be protecting the adventurers. There were two other notional leaders, older than all the other Shadowless: Menoetes, who had not been seen for thousands of years, but who had an unstable track record; and Cryptomerioedes, a lone wolf who got excellent "results", although details were not forthcoming on his schemes. Monoeices herself was largely relegated to more menial tasks, such as the destruction of the dragon's warhorn.

In the morning, MVM gave the party an expansive map of the catacombs, although it was old, and had no detail on where the party would enter, and told them to meet the Defence Council at noon to be taken into the tunnels: seemingly, they had offered no reticence at leading O.P.E.R.A. into the heart of their garrison. They spent the day buying rope, pitons, picks, and other adventuring equipment (and dropping off ibn-Bisal's notes), before being ambushed by Kasan Kagane himself in the market stall. He was highly suspicious of the Defence Council, and cautioned that O.P.E.R.A. was walking into a trap. Despite his token of goodwill, the return of Asa, <del>his offer of an alternative route was turned down, and the party met Seeker Darak'ji Tar and her guards, and were lowered into the tunnels beneath.</del>

<del>Seeker Tar questioned them as to why the Council couldn't simply handle matters, and Anma put all of their cards on the table: they suspected the Defence Council of harbouring a dragon, and that this captive was what was dooming Resotania. She barely reacted to the information, instead saying only that the party would be led to a briefing room for an audience not unlike their experience before the Holdings. Slowly, the guards dropped off, and she ushered them into a darkened corridor. Cynara took the lead, and struck a torch only to find that the room was much smaller than they expected, and that the thick wooden door was locked. Acid shot into the room from tubes hidden behind a panel in the statue, too strongly hosed for Breighlin to stop. Cynara tried to phase through the door, only to find a contingency of six armoured guards waiting for her, and Darak'ji Tar herself moving to stop her. She tried to open the door for her comrades, only to get locked back inside. Breighlin and Orianna's flame, Anma's shatter, and eventually Cynara's spear destroyed the door, as the guards were frozen in place and the earth turned to liquid around them, but the alarm was raised, and the formation began to close in on their captives...</del>

===== Session 40: Resotania Catacombs I - Next Time, Don't Bother to Knock =====
...the party stilled harboured suspicions: namely, as to the nature of the favour Kasan Kagane would extract from them. Once he assured them they would be kept to strictly "internal" affairs, and that he himself would be leaving Resotania for good shortly, they accepted the offer, and planned to mislead the Defence Council as to their egress. Breighlin followed the Chancellor, watching him extract some sort of favour from a weakened water elemental, and then they reconvened and headed to the old grating concealing the entrance. Orianna and Cynara pried it off, Anma cast Light on a stone for vision in the dark, and with the Chancellor waving them off, climbed down into the old cobbled catacombs.

Cynara always kept one eye on the map, trying to locate themselves as soon as possible, as they stumbled into old tombs and bat-filled chambers, and proceeded through old stone tunnels, ranging from centuries old to millennia. It only took a few rooms for the party to reckon quite confidently with their location, and on the map they chose locations Seneyepax was likely to be held in, and tried to pick as short a path there as possible. They were blocked by thick magical bars to their ideal destination, and so were forced to take the long way around. The precarity of their situation was made quite clear when Cynara and the party as a whole were distracted by a pair of ghasts, one of them halting for as long as possible to allow the other to flank them, although in the end they posed little threat.

Their route continued, past old statues and through a chamber of ancient scholars of eld, until Breighlin (through Lily's eyes) saw a tunnel just like the others, but seemingly unmarked on the map — assuming their cartography was correct. This they followed slowly and carefully, arriving at a beautiful marble tomb of a Whiteshield, no more than 200 years old, and of much higher quality than the others. Orianna braved the dragon's-head handle, and opened into the Tomb, where she was helpfully told by literally everyone else that it belonged to a Lord Galison. Even Lord Galison himself knew this, manifesting as a ghost on the edge of his own coffin. He told them that he had sworn to protect Resotania until all of her enemies had been laid waste. However, he had not truly considered the weight (or length) of this task, and now, a shade in the catacombs, he was coming to regret it.

===== Session 41: Resotania Catacombs II - A Lesson in Adventuring =====
Lord Nord Galison had died some two hundred years ago, and such the party's stories of Defence Councils and dragons were foreign to him, although he did share a story of Oestenblade, the great statue in the North-east of Leurut in the shape of a sword, said to be used by Ahm to vanquish some great demon long ago, in response to being asked about Yeenoghu. He also told of a small shrine somewhere, where apparently the sun itself was visible from, which the researchers went out to look for. Cynara stumbled into an enchanted exam hall watched over by a demanding portrait, and the psychic assault of her failed Leuruti history questions started to cause her enough harm that she had to leave. Anma entered next, and braved the failed arcane minutiae test to retrieve scattered change and a magical Oil of Slipperiness.

The journey continued to two smaller side chambers, one holding more smashed relics — and seals apologising to Erebos for their state — and the other holding a gleaming marble chamber, with two sharp and fancy swords crossed over a huge stone shield emblem. One sword said YORETTI, while the other said RESOTANIA. They took this divine chamber as their place to rest, and soon they left to try and find a room marked on the map but not visible. Through Cynara's ability to shift through objects and Orianna's Stone Shape spell, the chamber was unlocked. It contained a bound Death Elemental, restrained by chains and prayer, who was just about strong enough to talk, and introduce itself as Calafrazzo. It was hunting undead within the catacombs, and offered to give a favourable introduction to an even more powerful hunter somewhere within if they set him free — a condition that was ultimately accepted.

Their turned back from trying to find the shrine, and hoped to find this powerful hunter in the area of the map filled with circles. Along the way, they came across a collapsed dirt cavern, with a dead monk and a buried automaton, which immediately activated once Anma interacted with it. She, Cynara and Orianna immediately launched into panic mode, attempting to slow and restrain the creature until Anma's wild magic made it susceptible to spear, arrow, and ice knife. Breighlin had opted to instead try to sketch the creature, although in 12 seconds she didn't get very far. Once the whirring had died down, Breighlin used sending to pass a message to her friend Reuel, although she received no reply. Instead, Cynara called her out for failing to contribute in a life-or-death situation, while Breighlin merely insisted that it was what she had always done. The issue dangled in the air, but they pressed further into the catacombs.

A large chamber lay beyond, an old sunken building with a colossal sandstone statue buried up to it's waist. It was extremely similar to the calcified Beast of Light that Protophylarch was found around, although he couldn't provide a great amount of detail. Anma identified it as currently dormant, although she couldn't discover what would bring it back, and it was unweakened despite being beneath Resotania. With some trepidation, the party decided to try exploring North, although they immediately ran into a party of undead zealots, believing them to be treacherous demons. The party unconvincingly pretended to be banished by their litanies, and opted to instead travel South without really questioning the encounter — only to find that the stone statue had turned to face them without making a sound. Nervously, they stepped into the next corridor, only to be beset by a flock of floating, green-eyed skulls...

===== Session 42: Resotania Catacombs III - This Is Not Meant For You =====
The skulls were quickly shattered through spell and spear (and Orianna's mislobbed fire), although the last one offered little resistance. Further exploration revealed a crypt to the Monks of the Peacegiver, and a stone door leading to a corridor made of packed skulls. Although suspicious, Cynara took the plunge and braved the entrance, and immediately the door vanished, leaving Anma, Ori, and Breighlin alone. Unable to force the stone back open or contact her, they retraced their steps, and eventually found Cynara covered in frost and unconscious on the ground near the door in a new part of the catacombs. With the reappearing door marked permanently as a write-off, a path was again traced towards the mysterious circular chambers.

The remnants of a battle between the dead (and, seemingly, the undead) were found in the triangular chamber. The party picked a path South, but were stopped in their tracks by a booming telepathic voice, telling them not to disturb the plan, and to turn back. It responded to Anma's demands only to reiterate its desire to see the party banished. They heeded the warning, and went North to where the undead acolytes had been found (and were now absent), after a brief detour to take a diamond from a room needing to be filled with water. Protective scrolls had been placed over the entrance by a Bishop Carpenter and a Priest Shoe, and care was taken to avoid disturbing these. Enlarged rats were found fighting over a mundane compass, which Cynara took; a mural and offerings to Agrade, the kindest of the judges of the dead; and a trap of burning green oil was averted.

Beyond here, another veiled automaton was found. The party went back and forth about them, but decided to tepidly and slowly send Anma in to inspect it, and ascertain that it was not the same one as before. This was pristine, and had a religious seal near it warning people not to disturb "the Maker's Creationse, whiche Muste Nott mean ous Harme." Similar seals were found near the two other creations, inside the other alcoves. The long path round was picked, and although they seemed to be staring at Cynara as she went past, they made no move to intervene. Another floating skull was found, and the voice once more asked them to turn back. Anma was filled with a belief that there was some thing that could be said to elicit a more helpful response, but she could not find the words. Feeling the long hours, wounds, and expended spells, the party elected to find a place to rest, coming along a riddled door in their quest...

===== Session 42: Resotania Catacombs IV - Blood of my Brother =====
A small piece of chalk was placed in the door, animated, and swiftly caught by Cynara and placed among her change. Among five old heroes did our party rest, with nothing interrupting their respite. When they awoke, however, stiff skeletal scouts were inspecting a nearby room: Anma and Breighlin were ready to pounce when Cynara opened the door, but they did not attack. The arrival of Calafrazzo quickly cleared up matters, and he made good on his promise to get them a good word on the undead hunter. With his help, sufficient gifts were offered to get past the door guarded by the skull, and the party began to investigate the strange circles on their map.

The elemental's instructions were vague, and mistakenly they walked into a room with a broken tetrorgan before the main Angel's Amphitheatre was reached. Inside the vast chamber was a colossal centaur-like angel of Erebos called Dispaterus — and the chirpy undead being used as his voice, Left Hand. He was perfectly amiable, explaining the various factions that lay within the underground, and quickly an accord was reached. The Unpassed possessed some strange weapon against Dispaterus's forces, and our heroes would find out their trick and put a stop to it: in return, Dispaterus helps evict the Defence Council, and rescue Seneyepax from the caverns beneath their feet.

Breighlin noticed a dangerous area nearby, on Dispaterus's map, and so they investigated the tetrorgan once more. Unable to discover the mechanism behind its three keys, Anma instead went in for breaking apart the wooden panel potentially concealing items behind it. A warding glyph activated, and Anma was forced to hold on for dear life against a gust of foul wind, until Orianna tried and Cynara succeeded in breaking apart the panel and stopping the trap. A book, dripping with blood between its pages, lay behind: with horror, Breighlin identified it as the [[Book of the War]].

All were disturbed by the discovery, and Anma cast Identify to ensure they all knew exactly what they were dealing with. This particular tome could grant a boon to spellcasters who attuned to it, but when she stated her intent to do so, Cynara wrenched it from her grip, protesting that it almost certainly came with hidden downsides, and asserting her suspicion of Anma's eagerness to own the tome. The standoff was tense: an initial solution was proposed, keeping the Book in the Bag of Holding to contain the blood, and to leave that with Cynara, but Orianna and Anma were themselves suspicious of leaving all of their possessions with the relative newcomer. Instead, the Ranger kept only the Book, wrapped in Anma's unused leather armour, and the journey deeper would continue.

The travel North was interrupted by a corridor of swinging axes. Breighlin was able to step through relatively easily, and Orianna could abruptly stop the pendulums altogether, but the ruckus sent shocks throughout the catacombs, and immediately the Defence Council was alerted and gave chase. Breighlin literally gave them the slip, and they returned to the safety of Dispaterus's domain. An alternative route was planned, the long way round, potentially through a second pocket of Unpassed territory. Before they could go, Cynara's curiosity led them to a dead end containing the tomb (and lively ghost) of the ironically convivial Lord Bomboir of Iyator, and with only a light bit of deception, the self-absorbed spirit let them go.

===== Session 43: Resotania Catacombs V - Through the Fire and Flames =====
After kindly excusing themselves from listening to another thrilling tale of Lord Bomboir’s adventures, the party of four continued winding their way north. They soon heard movement ahead of them and were able to sneak up on a group of Unpassed performing a prayer ritual. Going against the preferences of their employer, they chose diplomacy: Cynara played the role of a devout follower of Ahm, easily winning the favour of Priest Rey Boot.

After some discussion, our heroes were ingratiated in to the outpost of some two-score undead believers. They learnt that this was a meagre satellite colony of the main cadaverous congregation, and moreover that said faction was led by none other than the long lost last Emperor of Resotania, Arvos Yoretti. Yet, even such a revelation was entirely overshadowed by the most startling discovery: that this group of Unpassed included in their number none other than the recently undeceased Afaeth! Despite being in a weakened state of unlife, and missing a wing, the Aarokocra insisted upon rejoining the party. But before they could be on their way, there was need for one more reunion, and Protophylarch could not have been happier to see his dear friend again.

Four became five, and with OPERA as close to whole as they had been in a long time, they pressed on. They had a brief moment of respite, and a glimpse of daylight, in a flowery and grass-covered room littered with small, wisp-like elementals; it was the tomb of Queen Bohdana Mohpenzi Amekenda, whose throne the party had once come across in the Feywild.

The area they proceeded to next bore tell tale signs of humanoid - and indeed, Defence Council - occupation. Given the hostility shown in their previous encounter, and the odds clearly being stacked against the party if open, protracted combat were to occur, the adventurers attempted to proceed with caution and stealth. But all paths forward risked encountering folk who the party assumed to be hostile, so another approach was required.

Spearheaded by Anma, a plan was formed to blast a path through while attracting as little attention as possible. To her chagrin, this plan was almost immediately blown to the wind when her magic surged wildly, producing a fireball which singed her compatriots, but also incinerated a number of the bandits whose lair they had wandered in to. She doubled down her assault with a blast of ice to freeze a further number, and the party blitzed forward, neutralising several more brigands as they went. Scarcely stopping to read the message engraved upon it, Afaeth immediately dispatched a riddle-bound door by smashing a conveniently placed vase of fiery liquid against it, and one more vagabond soon surrendered when Cynara promptly ruptured a major artery in his shoulder with a well-placed arrow.

Thus, flinging spells behind them and sealing as many doors as possible, the party caught their breath in a cheaply-carved shrine to the Twelve, satisfied that their pursuers were unlikely to trouble them immediately.

===== Session 44: Resotania Catacombs VI - As Good as Their Word =====
As the adventurers pressed on - deeper into the catacombs, in search of the Unpassed’s hive - they came to a long corridor, stretching out into darkness further than any of them could see. Two red pin pricks briefly flashed down the hallway, and, while Cynara and Anma fumbled trying to light a ball bearing, a low whine slowly built in intensity. As the noise seemed to reach a climax, Cynara tossed the lit orb forward and our heroes fled back down the hallways, narrowly avoiding some sort of blast of light. The shining ball bearing revealed the source of the noise and the light down the corridor: an iron golem, monitoring a three way intersection.

As the golem was routinely checking down three different corridors in turn, the party carefully waited for a gap in its patrol to sneak past. Exploring a path unmarked on their map, they found the web-laden corpse of a knight of the Ember Shield, and Anma uncovered a princely box containing a mysterious metallic orb: upon identification, it turned out to be magical device which could be used to ensnare a foe in fiendish chains.

The party pressed on towards the large chamber marked on their map, forcing their way through several barred doors. However, they found the entrance to the cathedral proper sealed by a mysterious barrier which glimmered with caustic light. Continuing around to its other entrances, they found a great multitude of opened, empty sarcophagi, presumably recruited as members of the Unpassed. Curiously, they came across several bodies who had either had their tombs bricked over, or the corridors they lay in sealed off, and one destroyed statue of a previous Emperor of Resotania.

Though their minds were full of questions, they soon had to be set aside when they came across a fearful member of the Unpassed. Stammering as he read from a scroll, he proclaimed that the adventurers must pass a trial to be admitted to the cathedral - several bells were to be struck in order, to produce a chord that would purge the adventurers unless they were pure of body, mind and soul.

Though our heroes quickly found the five bells (they could be sure there would be no more, as Breighlin knew holy chords always consisted of five notes), their plan to each take a bell and listen for the prior bell to be rung before striking their own was scuppered when Anma, upon striking the first bell, discovered not only that they did not ring out as expected, but that, for a period after striking it she was seemingly transported to a realm where the rest of her surroundings fell away from her. Once she gathered the party back, they decided on a new plan: to yell before striking the bell, and in the case of Breighlin, who would be unable to hear Cynara’s cue due to the bells being too far apart, to count precisely to time her strike.

Upon execution of their plan, all other than Orianna experienced that same strange phenomenon as Anma, but when the druid struck the fifth and final bell, instead the tones finally rang out. Their trial completed, the adventurers were permitted to pass through the barrier, but not before an unusually tall member of the Unpassed, seemingly their leader, asked them to take an oath, on Ahm and on their word, not to harm him or his flock. Each adventurer swore the oath, despite the apparent contradiction to their alliance with Dispaterus, and were admitted.

The 8-foot-tall man claimed, as the adventurers expected, to be the resurrected last Emperor of Resotania, Arvos Yoretti Resotania. Though he was far from the oldest Unpassed, he was the first to finally organise them. He expressed great frustration at the apparent lack of purpose to the unlife Ahm had granted him and those of his kind, but no solutions were forthcoming in their discussion, nor did the party find any indication of the weakness they had been sent to find.

While the adventurers mused amongst themselves, the Emperor excused himself to see to another guest. However, the party found the Emperor’s guest first, when, ceremoniously as ever,  Oleg Vandire sauntered into the main hall. The Bishop had already toured the catacombs, and indeed seen the cavern below and Seneyepax within. Once they departed the cathedral to talk away from prying ears, he also revealed that the Unpassed were not in fact undead reincarnations of their former selves, but rather puppets controlled by elementals that had broken through the walls between the planes due to the immense faith within Resotania. Still, they believed themselves ardent followers of Ahm, and therein lay a potential weakness: Dispaterus and his army were holy agents of Ahm, and therefore surely the Unpassed should have to yield in the face of a revelation of their true nature.

The party learned one other intriguing piece of information from Vandire: that he was assembling a team to pursue the vaults. Should they be interested in learning more, they should visit Brightwood, but until then, he would reveal no more. Given the Chancellor of Inaze’s prior invitation to Brightwood, it seemed the party had a natural course of action once the crisis in Resotania was resolved. He also left them with a cryptic reference to Percival, which led the party to speculate he may be part of the Defence Council contingent present in the catacombs.

With that, the five of them made their way back to Dispaterus’s domain. They had two new goals: bargain for Afaeth’s life, as the Celestial wished to destroy all elementals in the catacombs; and agree that when they battled the Defence Council, Percy, if present, would be protected from harm. Led by Anma, the negotiations were surprisingly smooth, with a coin toss indicating Ahm’s approval of Afaeth being spared while the party promised to find a way to restore his life fully. So, with a warning of the spiritual jeopardy the party had placed themselves in with their oath not to harm the Unpassed, Dispaterus set to preparing his army to march on the congregation, and left the adventurers to rest…

===== Session 45: Resotania Catacombs VII - Angels of Death =====

“Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.”
- //Gandalf the Grey// (The Fellowship of the Ring)

“Let us be keen, and rather cut a little, than fall, and bruise to death.”
- //Escalus// (Measure for Measure)

Dispaterus’ army marched on the Unpassed, and they were obliterated. And the adventurers stayed behind, for they had made an oath not to harm them.

Once the terrible wailing had stopped, the party set out to confirm the outcome of the battle, and find Dispaterus that he might uphold his end of their bargain. They found Left Hand with the corpses of the Unpassed now under his control, himself inhabiting the eight foot tall body of the man who had claimed to be Emperor Arvos Yoretti.

The empowered undead army was more than enough to easily destroy the Defence Council, but our heroes hoped to minimise the bloodshed, so they first issued an ultimatum: leave the catacombs or be destroyed. However, no surrender was forthcoming, so they gave the order to demonstrate the force of the army backing them, and take the lives of a fifth of the soldiers. For an army of undead commanded by an angel of the god of death, such an act was effortless, and the rest fled the catacombs, save for a small contingent that retreated deeper into the cavern below.

With Dispaterus having fulfilled his end of the bargain, the party continued alone into the Defence Council’s territory. Pressing on past mangled corpses, they found records of the Council’s presence in the catacombs going back at least 18 years, and evidence of the involvement of many of their members over the years - including, to Anma’s shock, Archibald Dayblade.

They came to a corridor that sloped down and followed it deeper below until it opened into a much larger chamber. There, they found what remained of the Defence Council’s outpost in the catacombs: the Wizard Padallo, the Fire Genasi Akarro, and the Githyanki Darak’ji, accompanied by several knights. They firmly informed the party that they had no right to be in the catacombs, no jurisdiction to demand Seneyepax be released, and certainly would not be permitted to talk to her. They had a plan to stop Trechtipax: there was a weapon in one of the vaults, and they would find a way to have Senneyapax tell them how to open it. The adventurers were not convinced, so they resorted to force.

They made the stronger start to the battle. Cynara tore through their lines with draconic speed, while Anma rained down devastating spells over large areas of the battlefield. Orianna transformed into a giant scorpion and dominated the field with her claws and stinger, while Afaeth struck brutally from the shadows, and Breighlin brought chaos with her summoned demons. But soon, the ground beneath them began to move, as the Defence Council set into motion great chains which began rapidly lowering the floor of the room down and away, through a great cavern overgrown with crystals and flooded with water.

Even worse, a gold dragon leaped from the pool, and turned her laser eyes upon the precariously-travelling platform...

===== Session 46: Resotania Catacombs VIII - "More Than Anyone But I Could Know" =====

The brawl continued with Senneyepax circling the platform. Cynara knocked Padallo unconcious, but Darak'ji healed him. The wizard summoned several more knights, only to immediately be frozen to death by a ray from Anma, who also loosed a volley of magical missiles to thin the knights' numbers. Meanwhile, still held in Orianna's scorpion claws and pummelled by Afaeth and Breighlin, Akarro soon fell. 

Now, the golden dragon came crashing down on to the platform, her imposing form occupying about half of the battlefield, causing the chains supporting the platform to buckle as it rocked wildly. She roared in a scarcely intelligible cacophony, though the adventurers sensed she was confused as to who was friend or foe to her.

That the party was distracted by trying to reason with Seneyepax could have been a costly error. Darak'ji was still a formidable foe and, working with her knights, delivered an attack on multiple fronts as she teleported around the battlefield. The soldiers pinned Anma in a corner of platform and, though Cynara made her best efforts to protect her, they were both eventually overwhelmed.

Meanwhile, Darak'ji attempted to convince Seneyepax that she was her ally, and that the party, as interlopers, meant her harm. She fortunately failed, and was too occupied with fighting Afaeth and Orianna to spare a second breath. This gave Breighlin the opportunity to bring some much needed reprieve to Cynara, whom she dosed with a healing potion, and Cynara in turn brought Anma back up.

Now the battle took its final, decisive turn in the adventurer's favour. The Wizard, Sorcerer, and Ranger quickly dispatched the remaining knights, while Darak'ji, despite bringing down Afaeth, took a bruising from Orianna. Cynara gave the Githyanki one final chance to surrender, but, when she refused and then failed to snare Cynara in a prism trap, Anma used her magic to transform the Gith's stalwart defiance into utter fear. She fled, flinging herself off the platform to the waters below - a fall which no ordinary person could survive.

With the chains supporting the platform strained to their limit by the dragon's weight, the party quickly made plans to avoid falling to a watery grave themselves. Though Cynara tried to continue talking Seneyepax, she flew off into the darkness, and so, with the burning, crumbling platform falling to pieces around them, the party dove, swooped, and teleported down to make a safe descent to the water below.

They came ashore on an outcrop of crystals by the base of one of the huge, ancient pillars that supported the cavern. Anma called out to Seneyepax, and soon, the golden dragon joined them. It did not take much conversation for the party to realise that all was not well.

The dragon was agitated and confused, with clarity only piercing through her mad cacophany in brief sputters. Through trial and error, the party came to realise that she could not acknowledge her entrapment, nor the reality of Trechtipax's threat to Resotania. Such topics seemed to contradict too deeply her beliefs: she knew that as a dragon, the skies were hers and she could not be tricked or trapped by lesser beings, but she could see that she was in fact in a cavern beneath Resotania; she loved her brother and knew him not to be a discompassionate monster, but she could see that he would destroy the city above to get to her. 

The contradictions between what she knew, and what her power allowed her to see, seemed to have shattered her mind. Thus, though she lived, her statue at Diatonis, said to glow so long as the dragon's mind remained intact, lay dormant.

Though they were frustrated in every attempt to find a way to get through to her in order to help her leave the cavern, through delicate conversation Anma was able to lead her to disclose information about the Air Vault. She granted Cynara the gift of her sight, allowing her to open the vault, and causing the Ranger's eyes to glow blue. When asked, the dragon was also able to transport the adventurers out of the cavern to Resotania's holy fountain, though attempts to ask why she was not able to similarly extricate herself only lead to more shutdowns.

The threat of Trechtipax still imminent, and all avenues apparently exhausted, the party had no option but to somberly depart the catacombs, leaving Senneyepax to her madness. As golden tears tricked down her visage, bolts of energy whizzed around the adventurers, and the soon found themselves back in the city of Resotania, ankles deep in the Raimapirit. While they worried that word may have passed from the Defence Council to the Empress' Palace, and considered fleeing the city, they heard the shout of a guard, and, with her newly dragon-enhanced eyesight, Cynara saw two guards approaching the fountain, alongside a fuming Bishop Fisadi; the party would have been so lucky to find that he was merely upset to find them soiling the Raimaspirit...

===== Session 47: Bad News Travels Fast =====

On the frontier of the war against the Marak Dohts Dominion, Percival was summoned by High Commander Goldrealm to report on a recent battle. However, their meeting was interrupted when a runner arrived with news from the Capital - grave news. The Defence Council's outpost in the catacombs had been slaughtered by a legion of undead in league with a group of researchers, who had also felled Akarro, Darak'ji and Padallo. 

Percy's shock to hear of the alleged actions by his former compatriots overshadowed the revelation that the Council had been keeping a dragon in the catacombs. Before he could learn more, Goldrealm sent him away so that he could make a contingency plan for the Air Vault, which he guessed O.P.E.R.A. would move to open. He had started to turn his anger against the Whiteshield, blaming the Lord Dayblade for plotting against the Defence Council and bearing a grudge over years. Percival was left with no other option but to follow his orders and continue marching in the column.

Meanwhile, in Resotania, Fisadi aimed to make good on his threat to stop the party's continued investigation of the vaults, and moved to have his Whiteshield guards arrest the party as criminals. However, the party drove a wedge between him and his soldiers by focusing on his "insane" suggestion that they had a mask that could talk, and by claiming to be innocent foreigners being scapegoated by an authoritarian regime, in increasingly dire military times.

When the Whiteshields began to suggest that Magistrate Vaziri Markus, as their representative, ought to be consulted, Fisadi lost his temper, and a shadowy form burst out from his body with what looked like a mask, before disappearing. The party, being vindicated in the eyes of the guards, fled the scene, and, concerned for their safety in the city, grabbed their Hippogriffs and flew outside the city to recuperate in the quiet safety of the woods nearby.

Their strength renewed, the adventurers felt confident enough to return to the city, and made to rendezvous with Markus. They soon realised that word had spread of what had happened in the catacombs, and the magistrate was furious. Their actions had not only endangered the party's reputation, but his as well. As tempers cooled, the adventurers came to better understand his position as a man trying to use what influence he had to maintain peace and stability. Despite their actions, he still believed that the party needed to claim the weapon from the Air Vault to keep it out of the dangerous hands of Goldrealm or Trechtipax. He extracted from them a promise that, if the opportunity presented itself, they would turn whatever this weapon was against Flamewing himself.

As they would be moving through an active combat zone, the party couldn’t travel by air on their Hippogriffs, so they set out on foot, hoping to reach the vault before the Defence Council.

===== Session 48: Stormcall =====
As the party made their way through the Resotanian woods, Cynara soon spotted the telltale signs of a wood-elvish path. Following the path until nightfall, they found their way to Thistlebrush shelter, run by a blind, elderly elf. The adventurers were surprised to realise that their exploits had gained them a degree of fame, as the elf eagerly asked them to leave their signatures in his guestbook, knowing them as the scholars who were breaking open Vaults. He kindly provided them with several rations and opened a path through the woods for them to continue on their way the next morning.

Though their passage through the forest was eased by the elf's offering to Syl, they soon came across another traveller making his way with much more difficulty. While hiding behind some trees, the party saw the lone Leonin figure of Consul Dwenn Fahro stumbling through the forest. The party ambushed Fahro, posing as bandits, and gleaned several useful pieces of information from him: that Goldrealm believed they could control necrotic energy, due to the events in the catacombs; that he had pulled the Defence Council's forces away from the vault, and planned to ambush the adventurers only after they had opened it; and that he had sent the Leonin to deliver a coded message to the Archbishop in Resotania. The message was one word: Aroton, which Breighlin knew to be a reference to the first dragon slain by Dragonfall - but beyond that, the meaning of the code was unclear. However, Fahro was so cowardly that he seemed willing to abandon delivering the message and desert Resotania altogether, as long as the party left him alive and with some dignity.

After lightening the Council member of the gold in his pocket, the party continued travelling for the rest of the day. Before they made camp, they discussed whether Afaeth should use the blood-cursed Book of the War to mitigate his weakened state, but decided the risk was too great: Afaeth was willing to suffer great personal risk, but not willing to do anything that could harm his companions. They also discussed Breighlin's situation with the Shadowless inhabiting her skull, and, for the first time, Breighlin initiated contact with Monoeices as she slept that night to ask her some questions. Though she learned more about the way different Shadowless could move between possessing different bodies, and that, due to being less powerful than other Shadowless, Monoeices was stuck inhabiting Breighlin for the time being, the conversation eventually devolved into the two making jabs at each other's lifestyle choices. The conversation ended with a little sincerity from the Shadowless, admitting it had been many years since she had been able to enjoy the small things in life.

Travelling the next day, the party soon found themselves back on the main road, where they bumped into three Orcs. One of the Orcs moved to attack the party, but another stopped him and, speaking in broken Common, asked the party for help. They had been separated from their unit during a battle and now could not return to the Dominion as they would be executed for deserting. They needed food, and direction to Brightwood, which the party offered them, forfeiting a few of their rations.

As evening fell, the party knew they must be close to Scale's Gap. Cynara used her magic to attempt to locate the planar portal inside the vault, and found it to be located one mile due north of their position. Suspecting that Goldrealm might have scouts that could have spotted their approach, the party feigned resting in a Tiny Hut summoned by Breighlin but in fact snuck out under cover of night to try to open the vault with as much an element of surprise as possible.

They found a stone pedestal just in front of the sealed vault doors. When Cynara stood on the stone, her eyes glowed an even brighter blue, and energy rushed forth from her body to the vault. Suddenly, lightning lit the sky, and rods of electricity rooted in the ground like chains, tearing the land the vault stood upon and lifting it towards the maelstrom that appeared above them. The vault doors opened, and a huge, crow-like elemental composed of wrought storms flew out and began surveying the area. As the party began to climb  the floating island, a whistle rang out, which soon materialised into the figure of High Commander Goldrealm, riding astride a small green drake. Breighlin reached the summit first, soon joined by Afaeth, but the stormcrow Lathspell came to stop them, and blew the Aarakocra off the island with a gust of wind. Cynara made steady progress scaling the underside of the rent ground, and Anma followed the rope she lay close behind.

Meanwhile, the Defence Council columns responded to Goldrealm's signal and the still chains of lightning, and began marching towards the vault. Percival Dayblade summoned his steed Alacrity to charge ahead, determined to get to the bottom of what he had heard had happened in the catacombs and, if necessary, bring his former friends to justice.

===== Session 49: Sic Semper Tyrannis =====
After Orianna resuscitated Afaeth, the full party finally summited the floating isle. Inside the vault, Breighlin saw several lightning barriers blocking the path to a levitating battle-axe, intermittently supported by zaps of electricity. As High Commander Goldrealm approached, Cynara drew on her to draconic speed to rush inside the vault. She deftly dodged through the barriers, and narrowly evaded the clutches of Lathspell, which teleported ahead of her, to arrive at the pedestal above which the axe floated.

As Cynara grasped the weapon, absorbing a shock of current, time around her seemed to slow to a standstill. In this frozen tableau, Cynara was approached by a purple-skinned elven figure, with white hair and a single flaming eye, who revealed himself to be Rozmajin, God of Magic. He told her the story of the axe, called Ukonkirves: how it had been forged Urgrin, wielded by Zil'jir, and used to build an empire of terror through it's indomitable might, until it was used to challenge Ahm himself. Only the Almighty managed to defeat the weapon, and it came to be a part of Rozmajin's vast collection, until it was lost during the Turning of the Ages.

He also told Cynara that when it was created, it had been designed with a safety measure: the user must name the targets the axe was to be used on, and it could be turned against no other foe; once the named targets were destroyed, the Ukonkirves would turn to dust. Unfortunately, the creator had failed to foresee that a malicious bearer may choose to name "everyone" as the target of the weapon. Thus, Rozmajin asked Cynara who she would name as the victim of the weapon.

Cynara named Trechtipax her sole target, as she had promised to use the weapon to protect Resotania from him, but was surprised when Rozmajin asked if she wished to list any other names as objects of the axe's destruction. They discussed the merits of turning the axe towards the leaders of malignant empires, such as that of the Marak'Dohts Dominion, or the Emperor of Owls in Orbrir, but Cynara ultimately turned away from what she saw as a slippery slope and maintained Trechtipax as the only one who the axe could be used against.

Rozmajin smiled and shook her hand, and Cynara found herself returned to the battle.

No sooner had she done so than Goldrealm arrived, leaping from his drake to rush into the Vault. With a cry of "That belongs to Ahm!", he shot a bolt of energy from his arm, imprisoning the Ranger in a prism trap. The rest of the party turned to fight him, but he crowned Afaeth with madness, forcing him to lash out at Breighlin with his claws. This provoked Anma to cause magical fear on Goldrealm, causing him to flee towards the edge of the levitating landmass. As Afaeth cowered in his madness to avoid harming his allies, Breighlin spewed fire forth from her fingertips, burning the High Commander, before Anma froze him in place with a bolt of ice, then set him asleep. Shattering the shackles binding the prism trap, the Sorceror freed Cynara, who made to confront the Defence Council leader.

Before any course could be decided upon, the gigantic figure of Trechtipax came bounding and roaring towards the vault. As the dragon roared that the "weapon is mine!", Cynara tried to tell him it would be useless to himCynara hesitated to use the weapon, hoping Flamewing would see reason, giving the elder dragon time to launch a colossal fireball at the floating island. All were heavily burned, but by some miracle, Cynara managed to withstand the blast without being knocked unconcious. With Trechtipax still bearing down on her, and no other choice, she flung the axe towards the dragon: as it left her hand, it transformed into a bolt of lightning, rending the gigantic being from head to tail, severing a wing and causing his whole form to scrape along the earth

Reviving Amna from unconsciousness, and leaving her to sort out the rest of the party, Cynara peeled off towards Trechtipax's soon-to-be corpse, hoping to recover his soul - but it was a fool's errand. She later realised that Trechtipax, though the oldest living dragon, was not one of the the Perpetuals, and against her hopes, his death was a permanent one.

The party reassembled and recovered outside the vault, but one figure lay dead and lifeless atop the isle: High Commander Goldrealm had been reduced to a smouldering pile of burnt flesh by Trechtipax's flame. But the party could not delay, what with the armies of the Defence Council fast approaching: they opened the portal within the vault to further restore Protophylarch's memories.

But as his memory streamed back, the mask yelled: "Close it! Close the portal now!".

Breighlin and Cynara quickly halted the cogs powering the portal, and Protophylarch explained the terrible memory that had returned to him: the creatures the adventurers had found in the vaults had deliberately been sealed within by him and his compatriots to stop the return of the terrible demon that lay dormant beneath Leurut - the Xanthous, also called Yeenoghu. In fact, by opening the vaults and releasing the beings within, the party had been accelerating the return of the demon. Quickly, our heroes agreed on a new purpose: to prevent the return of the Xanthous.

Oleg Vandire made his scheduled appearance, and requested to absorb the elemental energy from the portal. Though the party briefly debated whether they should allow this, and they even discussed formalising a deal with the ex-Bishop to work for him, in exchange for him removing the curse from the Book of The War they had acquired, they ultimately found his terms too restrictive, and chose instead to continue cooperating as allies, and allowed him to absorb the Air energy.

Now the adventurers made to hurriedly depart before the army arrived, but as they descended from the island one-by-one, they were met by the familiar figure of Percival Dayblade, arriving aboard his steed Alacrity. The reunion was hardly a warm one. The Paladin was sceptical of the party's actions in the catacombs, but Anma's harsh criticism left him with much reflection. In the end, he declined her invitation to return to the party, insisting they should leave before the other soldiers arrived. They left as Percy stood, gazing up at the suspended island, rain glancing off his plate armour, wondering. Wondering if he should have let them go; wondering if he should have gone with them; wondering, just how in the hell he was going to get up there?

The party made the journey back to Resotania safely, but were surprised to find Magistrate Vaziri Markus' office newly re-occupied, apparently having been vacated. They sought out the Archbishop to ask after him, but were surprised when a guard remarked that they had "some nerve" showing themselves in the capital. Still, they were eventually ushered into the Bishop's Muster, empty but for the lone figure of Vaziri Markus, standing alone, forlorn. He had been dismissed from his post for aiding and abetting the party in their apparent efforts to decapitate the Defence Council, and given one day to leave the city. The adventurers had been granted some grace due to their defeat of Trechtipax, but the mood towards them in Resotania, or at least from the Archbishop and the Ecclesiarchy, was hardly warm.

The party agreed to accompany the disgraced Magistrate and his family as they travelled to Brightwood, as offering them protection was, clearly, the least they could do - they agreed to meet at the southern city gate the next evening. Thus, the party made to rest at an inn, before what was to be their final day in the Holy City, at least for some time.

====== Chapter 3: Heaven and Earth, and the King on His Throne ======
===== Session 50: Restless Wandering Feet =====
Afaeth and Cynara purchased new supplies of varying esotericity, while Anma got slightly conned trading a bullet of gold for a pearl for casting identify — while also learning the diamond found within the Catacombs was valuable enough to potentially bring someone back from the dead. Orianna, after some trial and error, was able to sneak a message to Crescent within the Whiteshield Training Grounds. Breighlin lead the charge on reconnecting with Campiar ibn-Bisal, who was pleasingly getting better day by day from his mysterious illness (with the concerning implications of that fact put to one side for now). He had partnered with a scholar called Hieryphyl to get his notes published, and this drifter had taken the notes with him. O.P.E.R.A. bade him good health, and made to meet MVM (now just VM) at the South Gate.

Crescent had made the clandestine rendezvous, and although the time had passed for too much frivolity, she and Orianna wished each other good luck. MVM said farewell to his friends and introduced the party to his heavily pregnant wife, the half-Elven Iliyuri. Persephone, Lord Dayblade's wife, gave the party a gift that Archibald had left for whoever killed Goldrealm — it contained 200 gold pieces and a letter that Anma swiftly forwarded to Crescent. The party had planned to take the road to Port Donsacato and to leave their Hippogriff mounts there, but Markus pointed out that the time saved reaching Brightwood would be lost on the next two or three travels they made without their steeds. In addition, in hushed tones, he warned of the fell god Ekol'ik's influence making the seas unsafe for such important figures, let alone the Orc pirates apparently proliferating. With this in mind, the party set a course overland, charting a several-months journey through the Charmwood Shire and over river and hill to the Acres Brightwood.

Over the weeks, Markus and Iliyuri had much to say to the party. The administrator finally spoke with Protophylarch, and Cynara revealed the full details of her meeting with Rozmajin after claiming Ukonkirves. Iliyuri drew on her past as a ranger to help them scare off bandits in the day, while Breighlin tried to get updates with Sending and Cynara and Anma trained Asa by rest.

Several weeks into the travel, a pale and soft-spoken mind by the name of Jasporos introduced himself as a fellow traveller to Brightwood, hoping to tag along and pay the party for the protection they offered him. He mentioned he was known to several other thinkers in Brightwood — ones that Breighlin recognised as quite radical thinkers. In fact, he himself was quickly revealed to be the Hieryphyl who had taken Campiar ibn-Bisal's writings for publication, and was laboriously using a sending spell to transmit its contents to a partner. Despite misgivings over his odd nature, he was good for coin, and so his offer of companionship was accepted.

The party made rest in a hamlet's barn a day before entering the Shire when Breighlin finally received news from her contact in the Acres. Queen Inaze had taken a lurch closer to the city walls — and instead of a defence being mounted, the leader, Baron Karovik, had instead fled, leaving the fate of the city in turmoil.

===== Session 51: The Greatest Adventure =====

As they continued their travels south, the adventurers passed through rolling green fields, wherein they soon noticed several patches of uneven grass that seemed to disguise watch-houses of some kind. Though they failed to spot any scouts, it soon became apparent that they had been caught by a halfling border watch, as they were approached by a small group of guards. Each traveller was required to pay a fee of three gold for passage through Charmwood Shire, in return for which they were granted a wax seal certifying the legitimacy of their travel. Jasporos, however, had papers establishing himself as a "friend of the Shire", and hence was allowed to travel freely.

As they travelled further through the halflings' land, the party soon gained an understanding of the small folk's way of life - these were a peaceable people, with few troubles and an equal love for smoking pipeweed and spinning yarns, and for whom a group of "big ones" passing by was a notable sight. But they would also find there was more here than met the eyes.

While staying in a tavern several days into their travel, in an attempt to ingratiate the party with the locals, Anma accepted a job from the Grayde, an administrator of the local county, to tidy up the local records house. The task was mostly menial, though they came across a set of paintings which, curiously, seemed to depict the rocky pillar of Oestenblade in the Badlands growing slightly larger over a period of several hundred years. In return for sorting through some of the halflings' record books, they were granted passage through a secret route that would speed their passage further through the Shire.

To maintain the secrecy of the route, the party were required to wear blindfolds before entering and exiting the path, though just before they were blindfolded Cynara sensed the presence of a portal next to a small stack of stones. Once their blindfolds were removed, the adventurers found themselves in the Feywild - looking up above their heads they could see the green hills of Charmwood, as they walked along a vibrant autumnal path. The Grayde explained that the halflings had a longstanding deal with the fey, allowing them custody over this region in return for maintaining it as a safe haven for any fey creature that may wish to retreat there. Suddenly, the adventurers were approached by a centaur, wreathed in autumn leaves, laden with stone sigils and with a cloak that looked like a pair of butterfly wings draped about its body. It called itself Danaan, and foreshadowed that the party would find him in Brightwood, though offered little concrete information.

At the other end of the path, they were delivered to another tavern and the party continued their travels, pursuing several lines of investigation during their downtime. Cynara investigated the mysterious stacked stones, and met a faerie called Strange, who was apparently the gatekeeper to that portal. She learned that she needed a particular kind of payment to open the portal, but not what it was - and though she tried spying on halflings using the passage, she could not discover what the necessary payment method was.

Orianna investigated the comings and goings of the Shire, to find out if anyone important had travelled through recently. She found her way to a bar frequented by the wide-hat-clad enforcers, where she befriended the leader of the local watch. He told her how, not long ago, one of the two members of the mysterious duo Puncher and Watman had rushed through the Shire and evaded capture by the watch using a faerie portal, knocking the stack of stones over in the process, which caused much discord between the halflings and fey. She also learned that Consul Dwenn Fahro had recently passed through, as had a member of the Iris Order. Vandire had also travelled through the Shire some time ago, pursuing information about the vaults of Ahm, but his search had failed because, "as everyone knows, there are no vaults in the Shire".

Afaeth, pursuing information about the religious order of the Shire, instead found information about the Xanthous, the demon known as Yeenoghu. From a halfling priest, he heard that the Xanthous was a demon from the Abyss, a place somehow outside of and between the elemental planes. As a demon, it could not be slain - demons simply returned to the Abyss after they died, before eventually making their way back to the mortal world to sow chaos. As an Archdemon, like the Demogorgon, the Xanthous could command lesser demons by bullying them, but that also meant it took longer for it to return from the Abyss after being slain compared to less powerful demons. Afaeth also leaned that Yeenoghu took on the appearance of a giant hound standing on it's hind legs, with a hunched back and wings of flame, typically wielding some kind of fiery weapon. He got the name of a storied scholar of Demonology in Brightwood, the local Bishop.

As their travels continued, the party stayed one night in an Elven shelter. That night, they were all awoken by a commotion, and soon found that had a new companion on their travels: Iliyuri gave birth, and they welcomed Ilrothesyl "Ruth" Markus to the world.

===== Session 52: Mister Sandman =====

After a further couple weeks of travelling, the party passed through the southern border of Charmwood Shire, and found themselves in more rocky, mountainous terrain as they continued towards Brightwood. On their way to an Elven shelter, they came across a dwarven figure stood by the side of the road, by what looked to be the corpse of a mule. He hailed the adventurers, and asked if they are travelling to Brightwood.

The adventurers were immediately suspicious, as Cynara noticed that he seemed to be hiding something beneath his jacket. Confronting him, Cynara pulled aside his collar to reveal a bark-like growth on his skin. The dwarf, Sindris, claimed that it was due to a curse a fey placed on his father, which caused all of his bloodline to slowly turn into trees. Anma's use of Identify indicated that Sindris was under the permanent effect of the greatly powerful spell True Polymorph, a fact that the adventurers couldn't quite reconcile with Sindris' story and that made them immediately suspicious of his low-scale story. True Polymorph causes a one-time change in a creature, not one which takes effect gradually. Still, despite their scepticism, the party agreed to travel with Sindris at least as far as the next shelter, although he wished to travel with them to a shelter on the edge of Brightwood where he was wanted for his talent at playing the lute.

As Orianna and Afaeth walked with Sindris, he offered to play Afaeth a song of his homeland. While Orianna watches an apparently average-to-poor lute performance played on a sorry instrument, Afaeth was instead transported to the Ubarikahdri Desert, beholding images of things far away known only to Afaeth — the sand of an old battlefield, the heat of the Southern Sun, and the haunting silhouette of Osman Fallon.

The party arrived at the Elven shelter, an unusual one housed inside a cave whose mouth of speleothems could open and close. The party debated whether to allow Sindris to continue travelling with them, balancing their concerns about his inconsistent story and possible fey involvement against their sense of duty to help others. Anma talked to the Dwarf about her homeland in the Frozen Wastes, and he told of how far he has travelled from his native land, North of the Empty Wall. Eventually, by a vote of 3-2, with Cynara, Orianna, and Afaeth in favour, the party decided to continue travelling with Sindris.

That evening, sitting by the bonfire's crackling heat, Sindris played a song for Anma, Afaeth and Cynara, the tale of a lost traveller in the dunes of Ubarikadri. The man, cruelly abandoned by his companians for no reason other than there being too little water to go around, resorted to killing water spirits to survive. Eventually, he absorbed enough power from the spirits to leave Ubarikahdri. Still, according to Sindris, the story had a happy ending. Once building enough strength to leave the desert, the man made a name for himelf as the Chancellor of a far-away kingdom. The party immediately took it to be Kasan Kagane, and Sindris made no effort to contradict them.

As they continued onward, the party came to a bridge levitated by a "bridge wizard" to allow tall ships to pass through - quite a sight to witness. They finally joined on to the main road to Brightwood, bustling with many travellers in both directions - either going to Brightwood, or to Light's Heart. Cynara chatted to Jasporos about his research, which he vaguely claimed to be "logical consequents", and he discusses how he debates with several friends in Brightwood about different theories about what one can believe and what one must believe, given their other beliefs. It quickly became apparent that, like ibn-Bisal, his thoughts wandered to politics and states, and that he was far more in favour of the Light than could be openly spoken in the party's old home of Resotania.

He also demonstrated at last his ability to transform the leaves from trees into written text. It became fairly apparent that the stunt Puncher and Wattman pulled in Resotania could only have been achieved with a very similar ability, which only left one apparent conclusion as to the nature of Jasporos's aims, and the identities of Puncher and Wattman...

===== Session 53: Already Talkin' the Talk =====

After passing through a quaint town, it came time for the adventurers to part ways with Sindris, as he would continue on to the Elven Shelter while they made for Brightwood City. As a token of thanks, the dwarf advised the party to take a left turn off the main road, for a shortcut that would ease their way to the region’s capital.

They heeded his advice, and as evening fell found themselves entering a small village called Korotky. Suddenly, a gnomish lady seeing them enter branded them as interlopers, and demanded to know how they had found the village. Though she did not recognize their description of Sindris, a dwarven man drawn by the hubbub did, and he welcomed them into the tavern where he promised their meals and rooms would be complementary. It seemed that their acquaintance with Sindris came as a “good recommendation of character”, and the party wondered what sway the draft might carry, with some speculating that they may have travelled with a transformed god who was testing their disposition.

The remaining week of travel passed without incident, and the adventurers soon found themselves passing through areas where trees had been felled to make way for livestock and fields, and eventually come to the tall walls of Brightwood City itself. However, the gates were barred: the party learned that, due to the tense ongoing negotiations with Inaze, only those with papers would be permitted entry.

Fortunately, as a resident of the city, Breighlin had appropriate documentation, so the party sent her in to the capital in search of a sponsor of the rest. Jasporos was also able to enter due to his residency. Breighlin made to seek an academic benefactor who might help the party enter the city on the grounds of continuing their research of the vaults, and of the Xanthous, and so headed to her Alma Mater. After a non-starter at the College of the Exterior, she went to Strayitsva College, to seek out the esteemed Bishop Telkruv. The man was clearly in high demand, and involved in negotiations with Inaze when Breighlin arrived, but once the discussions concluded she was permitted to present her case to him.

The Bishop was very happy to meet the adventurers, and not long after Breighlin arrived back with the good news, Telkruv entered flanked by a Copperplate and a Whiteshield. The Bishop inquired for the party’s story, and he and the Whiteshield listened intently as Anma recounted the story of the Vaults they have opened and how they took down the dragon threatening Resotania. The Whiteshield was satisfied that their story is true, and so the Bishop offered them papers to enter the city, on the condition that they attend a college-wide meeting each week, followed by a private meeting with himself. Telkruv also sponsored the Markuses' entry, agreeing to employ the ex-Magistrate and host his family.

Finding the terms amenable, the party accepted their primitive passports, and took their first steps into the bustling city, commencing the exciting task of budgeting their stay in the mercantilist metropolis.

===== Session 54: Secret Society =====

Breighlin went to try and find Oleg Vandire, and was able to track him down to a secret meeting happening that night after bumping into Voice Kutska Briarwhit. Orianna and Cynara were able to dispatch a letter to Kasan Kagane informing him of their arrival. Thanks to some time in watering holes, Anma learned of the stalling pace of negotiations, particularly over the sticking point of appointing a sheriff to oversee Brightwood and enact Inaze's laws.

Before meeting Vandire or securing lodgings, Breighlin insisted the party meet her old friend Rumi, a witch-for-hire who had become somewhat respected in her elder years, who studied with Breighlin. She offered her services to them, wishing to use her modest wealth before she passed, and brought up the idea of seeking Afaeth's resurrection at Light's Heart. Breighlin wanted to know where Kay's willed belongings were, and obtained a key to them from Rumi — but she could tell there was a further wrinkle in the tale, although Rumi was not forwards with details.

At night, the party tried to access the Church of Brightwood, and were noticed by Ivan, a Leonin with blazing golden eyes. He led them through an illusory passage to a meeting room encased in anti-magical stone, where they found Oleg Vandire — with a crew of Ivan, a Whiteshield, and Voice Briarwhit in tow. Vandire's attention was split: he was trying to gain access to Akselmarch's Vault, although something clouded his magic and power there; and he was investigating a possible Vault in Mt Realtik, replete with hobgoblins, despite the insistence of their leader no such Vault existed. That leader soon appeared, the one-time ally of O.P.E.R.A. Yadan-ra Branding Fist. He had recovered the statue from the Vault of Fire after it had run amok near Crusbridge and killed hundreds — and Oleg Vandire wanted it killed to observe the body potentially inside.

Protophylarch protested this, and the party took his side. Anma and Vandire spat venom at each other, as Vandire revealed himself a petty tyrant who would not accept being overruled in his own operation. Yadan-ra pointed out that, with the Beast of Fire's death toll, execution would only be justice. Anma somewhat accepted this, but insisted more could be learned from an Identify spell, an offer Vandire considered an unacepptable risk. However, when Briarwhit joined the party, he sighed and allowed them to proceed.

The identification revealed that the Beast was True Polymorphed with exceptionally powerful magic from something else. When it was killed, the antediluvian within was revealed, appearing to be of the same people as the previous body found in such a statue. Breighlin hit on the idea of feeding it to the Head of ibn-Raja'ka'san, both learning from it and, as Cynara pointed out, preventing its soul from going to the Abyss and potentially empowering Yeenoghu. The head revealed that the man was once known as Syphogrant, Son of Phylarch. He submitted willingly to be transformed into a Beast of Fire to fight another rampaging creature into the Vault of Fire, and then being sealed within to hold eternal vigil. The last thing he remembered was being sealed inside the Vault by Paramedes and Syphogrant's brother.

The revelations were fascinating but difficult to place without further research. The party retreated to the Drunken Horse's Water, tended by a much more casual Kanarshi, and turned in for the night, with Anma setting Breighlin a list of questions to ask Monoeices. In her mind, Breighlin asked the Shadowless details of her earliest life, but when two people tried to answer the question at once, Monoeices was forced to give more background to explain.

According to her, the Shadowless were the original inhabitants of the world that became Kona, living in peace and prosperity in thier elysium, before Ahm came. The creator came as a destroyer, and Paramedes, their leader, also led the effort to resist. Ahm was victorious, of course, and while Paramedes and the other leaders of the Shadowless managed to escape the destruction, everyone else was slain and paved over. Paramedes was able to rescue some souls, and within Ahm's bastard order, restore the Shadowless — Monoeices herself being Completed from a farmer's daughter. Monoeices spoke of their goal as freeing their friends, family, and loved ones from Ahm's crushing grip, and asked Breighlin if she wouldn't wish for the same in Monoeices's position. Breighlin considered it a matter of a difference in perspective, but Monoeices still mourned the elysium after living through and seeing the First and Second Ages. The Shadowless was tired and somewhat upset after revealing the history, and the dream ended soon after.

Everyone else dreamed too, a dream similar to Cynara's recurring nightmare. The orange, raging breach of the Xanthous burned in the empty black sky, and everyone could only stand and look up — but this time, with three heroic, glowing blue lights by each of their sides.

===== Session 55: A Little Bit of Lux =====

In the morning, over Lupisov's breakfast, Breighlin told them of the Premonition she had had. Everyone more or less agreed that the details were suspect and that this was a Shadowless manipulation, but there was a hint of disagreement as to just how much was given lie. Still, there was no reason to divert from their plans. After Breighlin purchased scholars robes, Anma led the party to the Church within the city to meet Kutska Briarwhit again, and found her in the middle of a Garatz-oriented rite. She expounded on the myths of the Hobgoblin Vault in the mountains: she believed the common legend of a Hobgoblin King opening a vault and claiming the power within indicated that such an opened vault lay within these Hobgoblin infested mountain. With her theories shared, she offered to include the party in the performed rites — an offer that Afaeth took up. He prayed for revenge on Osman Fallon, and willingly gave into the resultant certainty that his blood should be spilled.

The next aim was to formally meet Sergeant-Yefreytor Anastara Vyadivich. While looking for guards, Orianna found them deserting their posts, listening to music that Cynara and Anma could listen to. They climbed the walls to find the civil militia looking over the parapet to a band of peasants playing at a funeral. While musing, they met Ana, and her talking sword of state, Gebeltsor. Orianna, Cynara, and Anma went to investigate the cacophany, but found no apparent reason for the music. While talking to some old wool-spinners returning home, Anma accidentally struck on what it may have been — a firm message to Queen Inaze that they are here, and that Brightwood will not be entirely hers.

At this time, Afaeth and Breighlin went to the Ad Lorum college to search for Jasporos and their pay, but heard only rumours that he was a drunk. When they went to the nearby watering hole (and were allowed upstairs by Telosov), they instead found why he spent so long in the tavern — it was where he and his compatriots met to discuss the Light and the future politics of Brightwood. Elder Maksarav and Jadivir Kelverova introduced themselves as the Lux Parliamentarians, and when the rest of the party convened, they explained their plan to force Brightwood to transition to an elected parliament to represent themselves to Queen Inaze. While a topic of interesting debate, the party was more interested in Maksarav's knowledge of the Light (as someone who had gone so far as to meet the Dawncaller himself), and he explained its nature as a communal force that people can draw from and hope to return and contribute to — and is anathema to rulers and tyrants who wish only to hoard power in life, and cannot stand to create anything bigger than themselves. Sadly, even Maksarav knew nought of the Shadowless, although a full manifest of their sixteen members was found by an attendee.

The group adjourned for lunch while Jasporos retrieved the group's payment. Anma got to know the other members present, and learned that Jadivir (whose Elven name was Jalisorafal, since amended for the Brightwood tongue) was once a slave in Kannak who had stolen money to buy her freedom and passage to Leurut. She pried into Anma's past, pressing her on her dislike for the proposed parliament, and gently extracting her support in taking an imperfect-but-better step forwards for Brightwood. She took a special liking to Cynara, however, and her suggestions of stealing Gebeltsor and other daring actions. The group planned to learn more from Brightwood, and Jadivir proposed petitioning gods for aid, while Maksarav liturgically suggested they were chosen for some grand purpose and should search their own histories. The group bandied around ideas over flowing wine and fresh bread, and left just after midday to continue their ventures to stop Yeenoghu.

===== Session 56: Not So Blest As Thee =====

To swerve Cynara away from stealing Gebeltsor, a plan was made to secure Breighlin's inheritance from Kays. The robed entrees to Brightwood made themselves known at the College of the Exterior, and using the ring Rumi gave Breighlin, opened the way to the demiplane that Kays's tower was kept in — with a sign announcing it had been "decomissioned" by someone. Through the portal, the tower stood in its own small void, with the first floor missing without impeding the structure, and a floating ship attached to the top floor. In the ground floor, some Giff, astral mercenaries, were looting the place, and Anma let loose spells upon them once requests for peace were ignored.

The Giff wielded strange crossbow-like contraptions that belched smoke and melting lead, and they wielded their great weight and force as a weapon by charging through the thin entrance to the tower. Despite that, Afaeth's blades and Cynara's quick strikes felled several, while the others were finished off by a flurry of snowballs and Orianna's flaming blade.  With the mercenaries dispatched and bound, access was gained to the second floor by Cynara while Breighlin inspected the few remaining contraptions.

As the party slowly filtered upwards, Cynara saw in the mirrors dotting the upper floor a figure seen only in the mirrors, in the centre of the octagram wrought in chalk on the floor. The four-armed, two-mouthed, pallid figure suddenly turned and rushed at Cynara, and her attempts to shatter the mirrors failed to stop Ivalicai's astral arrival. He summoned other reflections of himself through the remaining mirrors and even trapped Breighlin in one, reversing her flaming cone, but his strikes were weak and the party fought as a honed blade. Orianna turned into a water elemental and turned the blurry Ivalicai into a static and targetable form, and admirable strikes from Cynara and Afaeth let his blood. It was Anma who defeated him in the end, shooting magical darts through his heart, and as he faded, he congratulated the party on winning this first bout. He turned into anti-light motes which quickly disappeared, but it made Breighlin recall her many experiments with Kays in this room in years past, and she realised that his death looked exactly like that of a shadow elemental.

The party then climbed up a rope to the top floor, and when Orianna separated some of the Giff from the rest of their spelljammer craft, they promptly wished each other better in the next life, before blasting out their own lights. They searched the room for anything left, but it had been picked clean of anything notable. A service bell was rung on the desk, and a few minutes later, a dragonborn appeared, demanding to be let up the rope. He introduced himself as Yoskays, and to Breighlin's dismay, he called himself the greatest apprentice of Kays. The majority of Kays's effects had been left to him, and he certainly established himself as arrogant with no delay, but he was also possessed of a sense of duty, and was pleased to finally meet Breighlin after so much time. He quickly produced all the items she had been left by the master: a powerful device to identify fully magical devices, at a harsh cost; and a seemingly-mundane but expensive teapot; and a note which Yoskays insisted had been left but could not, in the event, be found. He made vague commitments to meet O.P.E.R.A. later, given his research into summoning and fiends, but gave no concrete times or places, and the party was quickly finding their distaste for him. They made their excuses and left the tower, and quickly exited the demiplane to allow Yoskays to pick up the pieces — they, and Breighlin especially, thought glumly about their next moves.

===== Session 57: Robbin' Goodfellow =====

Still reeling from Kays's apparent abandonment, the party distracted themselves by focusing on the plan to reincarnate Afaeth, which Ivan appeared from the shadows to help with. Needing to fill time until the evening meeting, Anma and Orianna met a bugbear called Tov, who gave some information on goblinoid beliefs and offered to be a translator, while Cynara, Breighlin, and Afaeth found information on the Branding-fist Clan's main settlement, within the mountainside itself.

When evening struck, Danaan went to their tavern under illusion, brought them to stones outside the city walls, and instructed the party to build an arch from them to pass into the luminous-blue feywild, the city suspended above them as in the Shire. The centaur-like creature guided them to Jothun's Stones, a safe haven for the Knights of Green, under the watchful eye of Vyeshal, claiming to be a daughter of Syl. Ivan, called "Goodfellow", was suspicious of them and other mortals while Danaan was more welcoming, but everyone quickly put up their guard when Orianna revealed herself to the demigoddess to be an apprentice of Mimir. With fear, the fey exposed a hidden mark on her arm, and then quickly ran into the forest, as laughter echoed around them. Vyeshal revealed that a creature hunted Ori across the Feywild, and that this same creature (the Beast, real name Chamaedes) had killed every other student of the Druid's. Afaeth immediately drew his bow in case his protection could help, and Vyeshal was taken enough with this show of heroism to allow the reincarnation anyway.

The diamond was given, and Afaeth's body covered in sand. While in stupor, he was shown a vision of raining stars and burning cities, and a giant in them all, before awakening in a new form — that of a fairy, with three gossamer wings and one feathered, and light green skin and dark red hair. The assembled fey saw it as a good omen, and permitted the party to remain in good standing.

Vyeshal wanted them to meet with Kasan Kagane, and inform her of if he was to be an ally to the forests or not, while Ivan was certain he would be an enemy. The party put this task in their minds, but took their leave to sleep, get used to a new Afaeth, and begin their other tasks. While the rest of the party slumbered, Breighlin spoke with Monoeices. She learned that Chamaedes was indeed a Shadowless, and an unusually powerful one serving as an Archfey thanks to a gift Paramedes bestowed on them. Breighlin accidentally struck a nerve when the two got to talking about their families. Monoeices lost hers to an illness that she was forced to become a Shadowless to prevent in others, and when she took a comment from Breighlin to suggest that this loss could somehow be replaced, the conversation quickly froze over.

In the morning, the party sought to prepare to go to Mt Realtik after their weekly meeting with Bishop Telkruv. They met with Rumi to see about getting fake brands, and she revealed that she could either prepare a powerful but brief illusion, or a weaker but permanent one. Cynara suggested making both, to be told the options were either to wait a few weeks, to find some from far away lands, or to rob the Dyakova Shipping Company. The party was somewhat taken with the latter idea, and so they went to the docks to ascertain the plan's possibility.

They loitered around the dock's entrances and exits long enough to draw the attention of Piotr Dyakova, though he preferred to go by Pedro. He took them to a nearby shop serving a foreign drink to discuss a business proposal. He was a Costiliano (identified by Breighlin as both a citizen of Costilla and one of its famous mercenaries), and was in charge of a shipment from that town to Brightwood that had been intercepted by goblinoids. He was offering a supreme reward of 100 platinum upon the return of three large crates of equipment. With the proposal from Brightwood royalty considered, the party began to rethink and recalibrate their future approach.

===== Session 58: Information Economy =====

Without an immediate "in" to the Dyakova shipyard, the party took up Rumi's suggestion, and met with the prospective parliamentarians. Although Maksarav cautioned the action in general, it quickly became apparent there was no love for Mr Dyakova, his businesses, or his family, and there was a swell of encouragement for even drastic action. The only hesitance shared by all was that being criminally caught out could exacerbate the Sherrif debate between the Consortium and the Kingdom. The party also learned that Piotr was //a// Mr Dyakova, but not the one that everyone knows. The original founder was still alive, and had fingers in pies all across the city: Wotin Dyakova.

Thakav, one of the quieter Luxites, was an ex-dockworker and knew the layout of the interior of the warehouse. One wall held a room of guards and expert mages monitoring all events: the other held the main warehouse, low to river level and accessed through two cranes. An office was central, and an office and holding cell sat near the water front. The plan was debated at length, and then Orianna sent into the shipyard to confirm Thakav's information. The Luxites wished them luck: Jadisav wanted Dyakova to burn, Jasporos merely wished him ill, and Maksarav urged great caution.

Orianna's arachnid exploration found a wizened elf tending to the books, and a tall, heavyset guard called Tore who dragged one of the two prisoners, a tiefling, to parts unknown from the first cell while Ori found a female gnome in the other. She fed back her information, and the party went back at length over what to do with the information, settling, in the end, on a two-stage plan.

Cynara turned invisible and scaled a nearby building. Anma cast sleep from within a nearby tavern, and then she and Ori, under the guise of two arguing theatre students, caused a ruckus aided by an ear-splitting thaumaturgy. It gave Cynara enough cover to cast a spell on Asa and send her flying, before stepping her way across into the office containing the ledger. The target had been made unconscious, scoring a strike on the page, and Cynara very quickly found the location of the water (2A) and the eyes (1F), leaving through the Ethereal Plane just as the quartermaster began to wake. She returned to the compatriots, and they prepared for phase two of the plan — before slowly realising that Asa had not returned to them.

===== Session 59: Keep On A-Runnin' Around and Around =====

Distressed by Asa's disappearance, Anma immediately drew all their attention to trying to retrieve her oldest companion. Orianna turned into an owl, flying above the dazzling lights on Brightwood's river, finding that Tore was surreptitiously waiting nearby in the event of some signal from the warehouse, but finding no clues as to the bird's whereabouts. When the social angle was tried, the party found that the Brightwood citizenry were clearly hesitant to talk about stray and missing animals. Concluding that it was possible that the Dyakova Shipping Company was holding them and others in a menagerie, the original plan to breach the warehouse was set into motion.

Avary (as the reincarnated Afaeth wished to be known by now) broke the lock on a nearby warehouse, and the party snuck past a guardswoman and her dog, and breached the offices. Orianna melted the concrete around a pillar away to form an entrance, and once Cynara confirmed the coast was clear, the party split into two groups. Cynara and Anma snuck to the top floor on the riverside of the Warehouse to find the water from Mt Elcan, inside a huge and heavy barrel. Avary, Ori, and Breighlin went Northwards to try and find the Astral Eyes, somewhere in the main hangar that the cranes fed supplies into. Avary spent so long observing the people at work that they started to unload the crane, and with a Charm Person, made allies of two of the labourers, despite a premature attack from Breighlin getting things off to a rocky start. With a bit of blagging, one of them was convinced to fetch the Astral Eyes for inspection, returning soon after with the crystal-encased artefacts.

Cynara and Anma probed multiple angles of breaching the barrel, but neither of them were trained in boring spigots, and no non-destructive opportunities presented themselves. Biting the bullet, Cynara drove a spigot through the barrel but caused a larger hole and leak than intended. They quickly made their exit downstairs to search further, running into the dockhands, and immediately the pair sprinted for the exit. Cynara leapt over shelves and brought them tumbling down while Anma's wild magic caused fog to impede escape attempts. While they were fleeing the compounds into the alleys, they brought attention onto the trios escape attmpt, which started with a saunter and ended with grease all over the floor of the warehouse and a barrier of flame between them and their pursuers. All three flung spell after spell, and the run ended with Breighlin transposing herself into a nearby attic, while Avary and Orianna played captives and witnesses — until Tore purposefully made his way towards them.

He knew who was responsible for the break-in: he claimed that they had never taught Asa to lie. Avary quickly cast Suggestion on the behemoth, forcing him to attend to the flame now spreading across the warehouse. As Cynara watched from the roofs, Tore expediently collapsed the section of building that was on fire with just his small hammer, but not fast enough to catch O.P.E.R.A.'s escape. Once people gathered around the carnage, Pedro Dovakolla laughed off Tore's insinuation that a pet could be a credible witness, and tried to keep the heat off their backs — but Tore still gave some kind of message to a nearby worker.

The party reconvened at the Drunken Horse's Water, shared their spoils and sights, and then turned in to recover, ready to face the music tomorrow.

===== Session 60: Fall Swooned =====

Immediately, the party was summoned to the courthouse at noon by an employee of Dyakova's. They sought representation from Jadivir upon Jasporos's recommendation, and waited for reckoning a few rooms over from where Wotin Dyakova himself was holding court with the Consortium. An advocate who recognised Breighlin, Gelena Dewshovel, began laying out a list of demands. It was somewhat generous, assuring no criminal prosecution or witch hunts, but it demanded substantial financial recompensation, four hundred and forty five standard gold pieces. In addition, Dyakova demanded the party accept guilt. Asa was held somewhat as a hostage, with Gelena happily promising to let her out of her cage — if the agreements were accepted.

Cynara and Anma had issues with some of the wording and technicalities, but when Jadivir told them of the deal's genorosity (likely to avoid raising the question of law enforcement during negotiations with Inaze), they were inclined to agree. Asa's immediate release was put in writing, and Cynara extracted a promise that no further retribution would be incurred under any circumstances, and that news wouldn't travel far either. The price was set, both copies of the agreement signed, and the party was free of the noose or the blade for their brazen assault on the warehouse.

In the next day and a half, the party got ready for travel to Mt Realtik. They met Vaziri Markus in his home, bringing a housewarming gift of home wine, and confirmed that the family was settling in and that the hippogriffs were ready for travel: he asserted that checking out the Goblinoid Vault was indeed a good move. The potions, one short term and one long term, were retrieved from Rumi. Supplies were bought by the party, and after conversing with Asa (and severely bumming out Orianna) and deciding to leave her behind, the party turned in for the night to meet Telkruv later. The lecture was largely irrelevant, but the Bishop was happy to know and understand their expedition's purpose.

With Tov in tow, they landed at the foot of Mt Realtik, and began to ascend. Some goblins investigated the fake welts from the forged branding, and let them in, with two bugbears in two. Camp Branding Fist, built within the middle peak of Morningstar, was alive with colour and commerce: Orianna noticed that one of the Bugbears bore Motian Black weapons from the Darak Orcs. Their guides bore them to the centre of Morningstar, where they met Father Katros, the Second Speaker and historian of the Branding Fist Clan: a metal Hobgoblin trapped within a huge tree.

He claimed to have witnessed all of the First Age, and to know much of the events of the events post and ante. However, before he could be pressed for answers, a colossal shape blotted out the cave mouth. A gigantic snake, Ssemeyyitssa, spoke in infernal and commanded Katros to cease, before leaving. The Second Speaker informed O.P.E.R.A. of the situation: the Serpent protected the Branding Fist Clan, but demanded regular sacrifices, and had command over every goblinoid within the triple peaks of Morningstar, Spear, and Dagger. The party started to ponder their next move in light of the unexpected challenge.

===== Session 61: Hope and Hell Lie There in Deep... =====

Anma tried to introduce herself to the hobgoblins standing to explain the sitatuation, claiming to be friends of the Chancellor of the newly-invading Kingdom of Inaze: to equal parts jubilation and dismay, Kasan Kagane was himself present on a diplomatic mission, and was pleased to see the party there. He was also discomforted by the serpent business, and was trying to offer guarantees of peace to the goblinoids, with no success. Along with the party, he doubted how willing much of the society was in feeding themselves to Ssmeyyitssa, and they pieced together that it was a deal that Yadan-Ra inherited, and now forced on his Branding Fist Clan.

Through Tov's translation, Cynara and Anma spoke to some leatherworkers, one of whom was aged, to try and learn more of the serpent prince. To their horror, the picture became clear: Ssmeyyitssa demanded a full 10% of their population each year, mostly but not entirely drawn from prisoners. Some of the goblins even looked on the sacrifice with pride, seeing it as a duty undertaken to protect their people. They even expressed surprise that none of the party lived under a similar arrangement. Still, there was some solemn hope — one of the goblins relayed a rhyme they had heard, telling of an old prince, one who exacted no cost. They knew naught of a Vault of Ahm in particular, although some kind of holy ground lay beneath the Dagger mountain. Cynara's paranormal senses confirmed it, while Anma's investigation found a secluded cave guarded by a Hobgoblin, one of Yadan-Ra's lieutenants, along with a Nilbog to ward off the numerous goblins. Orianna confirmed that the deepest mountain would be the logical place for a Vault of Ahm, away from the devil's nest at the top of the tallest mountain.

However, the defences were nothing to the adventurers' determination. Anma magically put both guards to sleep, Cynara subdued them, and the party entered through the barred door into an old holy place of Ahm, covered in murals — and filled with robed goblinoids. Once combat broke out, two of the cultists sacrificed themselves to summon Devils to harry the party, identified as Bearded Devils and a Merregon by Breighlin's expertise. They were dispatched in short order, but it placed the party on high alert. Similarly, they fought their way down a chimney that once held multiple stone floors, and was now full of cultists who had time to prepare. Anma's snow spells, Cynara's strikes, and Orianna's crushing tides dispatched them quickly, while Breighlin ducked fire to drop ladders and open the path for the rest of the party. Eventually, they all battled to the bottom, watching a bugbear cultist sink into the dark material at the bottom of the tower.

===== Session 62: 'Til Our Old Prince Awakes From Sleep =====

The room at the bottom of the chimney was an old burial ground, where three giant Hobgoblins were buried long ago in coffins made of stone taken from the ruins. Anma pilfered the Brazen Wreath, while Cynara guided Breighlin in making note of strange runes surrounding an octagram, intending to read into their meaning later. The next room beyond was a huge amphitheatre, slightly flooded with water dense enough to float stone, and guarded by an infernal contraption, and two metal-skinned hobgoblins big enough to fit the huge coffins. They wielded blades shaped like keys: perhaps for the two mechanisms surrounding what was undoubtedly a Vault of Ahm. However, someone distant spotted the party enter, and Anma realised that they made to flank them. Cynara prepared an ambush, but the creature was much more subtle than expected, getting the drop on the party.

The devilish hunter paralysed Cynara with strange ammunition while directing the other assailants to advance on the party. The machine, a Hellion, belched fire, and at Breighlin's analysis, the party scattered to avoid its flames. Avary and Orianna dived into the water to protect themselves and to gain a vantage to attack the Hellion, a move that ended up causing Avary to narrowly avoid drowning and get knocked unconscious. Breighlin summoned an elemental composed of the strange holy water to especially harm the Hellion, while Cynara, Anma and Breighlin opportunistically attacked the hunter whenever his gadgetry caused him to reappear. Breighlin's elemental dragged Avary to shore, where Anma could revive him, while Shatter spells turned the Hellion into scrap. However, neither that spell nor any other tried, nor any mundane methods of attack, could scratch the hobgoblins.

Eventually the hunter was harmed beyond his ability to respond, and with a begrudging smirk, he absconded, leaving just the metals guards. The elementals dragged them into the water, and their key-weapons were taken from them, and used to open the Vault.

The sanctum was in a state of disrepair, with damnations and prayers scratched into the floors and walls, and it was littered with the partially-corrupted bodies of ancient humans. The ancient machinery was in pieces, and no light was cast. Orianna advanced to the centre, and placed her hand on the mound of feathers at the centre, which unfurled to reveal Prince Phos, a creature resembling the Beast of Light, but with an Ahmic, avian head and a spiked sword. Any illusions of grandeur were immediately dispelled at its frantic movements and ravings. Like other Vault-dwellers, it knew naught of the Second Age — in fact, the goblinoids had fed it worng information, and it still believed the mogunoids ruled Leurut and Gunkolorz Ra still ruled. Still, even once told of the true state of affairs, he was extremely hesitant and manic. He clearly still grieved the loss of the people he sheltered in the Vault with and had an extremely dim view of his new charges. Phos quickly remembered that others had sworn a vow to keep silent about the end of the First Age, and that in principle he should do the same. Apparently, he was a great supporter of Ahm's vision, but the ending of the First Age had soured him on that. Still, with Anma's impassioned pleas, he was convinced to at least look at what the world had become, and to look around the goblins to see if he could //consider// saving them from Ssemeyyitssa.

===== Session 63: Better the Devil =====

The party diverted into a side chamber, tracing the path of the audience of the colliseum, and found an undead (similar to Knight Aedephon), standing watch over a Hellmouth. He spoke of a passage to the First Layer of Hell itself, Asphodea of Azun, that he guarded and judged people worthy of. Anma and Avary quickly noticed cracks in the story: the figure was quick to suggest that they enter the Layers, and its voice seemed to match little with its movements. With a Detect Thoughts spell and an impressive repertoire from previous tours, Avary realised that the voice belonged to Scratch, one of Azun's chief negotiatiors — but an honest one, if such a thing is possible.

Confronted, Scratch gave up the ghost. He was being honest about the portal's destination, and the fact that it led to a weak point for the Serpent Prince. He was upfront too about the risks, and didn't mind much that the party remained reticent: so long as Ssemeyyitssa fell, Scratch was content. He also revealed the party had made a name for themselves: Azun had noticed that Flamewing had been killed, and Scratch was impressed with the work. The party left him and his offer alone (albeit with a feeling that he would be back soon), and took a disguised Prince Phos to the surface to bed for the night.

In the morning, the party were confronted by a goblin who thought they were responsible for the path of carnage cut through the abandoned curch. To Anma's dismay, she was unable to convince her of the Serpent's evil, but at the least they evaded suspicion in the end, and learnt of the mentality of the devil's supporters. Much earlier than Phos expected, before he could have a chance to ingratiate himself, the drums sounded, and the prisoners were forced to climb to the top of the Spear mountain. Cynara spotted a path to clamber upwards quickly after, and guided O.P.E.R.A. to just about beat the next meal to the Serpent's cave. Like true heroes, they burst in, and immediately set to fight Ssemeyyitssa.

Ssemeyyitssa spat poison and, when Cynara and Orianna and Breighlin's summoned elemental clambered onto its head at Scratch's suggestion, immediately tried to soar out of the cave, only to be largely pinned in place by an arrow from Prince Phos. Avary's spells kept one of the hobgoblin guards at bay almost permanently, while Anma hasted Cynara, and everyone placed attack after attack into the Devil's open eyes: Cynara's spears, Orianna and Breighlin's thunderous strikes, and occasional bursts of frost from Anma. With poison breath, flaming eyes and deadly fangs, Breighlin was eventually felled, but the beast had little answer once it had been scaled, especially with Prince Phos using his blade to slowly carve the Serpent's body into pieces.

It was eventually a thrust from Cynara that broke Ssemeyyitssa's final eye, and the Prince began boiling into the air, bemused at how it could have been dispatched so easily, and refusing to believe that the party were mere humble adventurers. Once the body had disappeared, the party could finally see what lay within Spear: another Vault of Ahm, closed and sealed with Shadowless magic, the same as the first Vault they ever chanced upon.

===== Session 64: A Brighter World Beyond Myself =====
With Phos translating, Anma and Cynara warned the goblins that they were saved but should not impede them as they went to meet with Father Katros. All the goblinoids heeded this warning, and a few even seemed to herald the new Prince's arrival, and so the party could freely meet with an interloper to the camp: Oleg Vandire, who, having caught wind of the party's exodus, arrived too late to contribute to the devil's defeat, but thoroughly glad the party had done it at all.

Before the party could really interrogate Katros, Sindris rocked up, confounding the guards with music and dropping any pretense of being anything other than the god of music and nature, Bonli. Warmly welcoming the party (and with a new, brilliant lute), he asked for permission for his "friends" to arrive, and the party felt in no position to refuse him. And so, an angel of Caleo and Erebos both came into Camp Branding Fist, summoned by a single desperate prayer each during the upheaval. While they each had their reasons to be there, they were also there to just gaze at the breaking of the Lock for the first time in 2724 years. Katros bellowed at them not to interrupt, as they had never helped the goblinoids, and in silence, they all listened to the Second Speaker's tale.

Katros told them much, of a world that Ahm forged with Their Vaults, and one arrayed in perfect order once those Vaults were opened (either by humans and brute force, or Ahm and predestiny), like that which originally held Prince Phos. However, at some point, the order broke down, and the mortal races chafed under Kona's state. The discontent gave rise to civil wars, and hatred, and prayers to Garatz, which enabled the birth of Yeenoghu, a demon that had infected the god of carnage and that was now free to run rampant on the world. He pulled down the heavens to decimate the armies that stood against him, and defied every attempt from the gods to stop him until Rozmajin resorted to crushing Yeenoghu under the heavens, changing the geography of Leurut forever. This was a temporary victory, and only trapped the demon: the gods considered it a trick they could not repeat.

While the Shadowless's involvement was something of a blindspot for Katros, he knew they held some sway over the Vaults. They were allied with Yeenoghu, and none benefitted more from the Vaults' opening than they. When Yeenoghu's defeat became obvious, they rallied heroes under false pretense to fight the entities back into the Vault, retaining their arsenal and allowing them to try to cause such chaos and calamity again. But, for now, Yeenoghu slumbered far under Light's Heart; above him, a Vault rested, beneath the mountain. Bonli, once asked, could only speculate as to the connection betwixt Ahm, the Shadowless, and the Xanthous: but he hinted at his own personal thoughts, that Kona had held some //thing// that stirred feelings of kinship in Ahm, and that was why Ahm seperated it from the rest of the universe and constructed Their order around it.

Oleg Vandire heard a slightly different story, as is his wont. According to his deductions, as a firm believer in Ahm's benevolence and absolute knowledge to the end, those saints who opened the Vaults at first ushered in a Golden Age of order only to see it ruined by Yeenoghu's presence. However, Yeenoghu was now gone, and for whatever reason, the Shadowless had preserved many of the means: a second attempt to bring about the Golden Age, a real one, would surely work. He twisted the words and meanings of the gods and angels present, and every interjection from the party seemed only to embolden and embitter him. With his mind set in steel, he teleported away, ominously warning the party that he had a lot of work ahead of him, to herald in a new Ahmic order.

===== Session 65: Adaptation Inevitable =====
Several days after the Lock's breaking, Percival stood and overlooked the land that is now his mandate. He reviewed the end of the harvest as winter drew in, finally accepted the triptych being painted by his artist, and accepted an immediate summons to his superior, the Prelate Asorva. After a brief misunderstanding, and the customary questioning as to the absence of any bride-to-be, he was informed that all of his fellow lords had been convened to advise Asorva on an impending topic: the sudden appearance of a new potential prophet, Oleg Vandire. Percival knew the resurrected Bishop personally and was hesitant thanks to that, whereas others had more immediate objections: Magnate Bakdi Kenz-ta-ben was unconcerned, Lord Bellamy was concerned with his own borders, Lady Clara was unconvinced of the Bishop's veracity, and Lord Ellian Bridleby thought it was improper for the Prelate's office to be making such decisions. Prelate Asorva, thanks to the consultation, delayed the decision two weeks, but seemingly wanted to ally herself with the new Prophet, and his many and varied other seeming alliances.

Lord Bridleby, in private, shared with Percival his concern that the Prelate was coming for the aristocrats and their autonomy, and later Percival was moved to share what he knew of Vandire with the Prelate. She was largely unconvinced by Percival's warnings, and so he left to return to his manor, and after much distraction, finally read the letter Anma left him. He resolved to send for a wizard, and instructed his Marshal, the newly-dispossed Audacity Rosk, to travel and fetch one that he knew.

A few days earlier, and atop the three mountains of Branding Fist, the party resolved to leave Prince Phos with the goblinoids and to leave Avery with him to learn from the angel of Ahm (and to help sand off Phos's rougher edges). After a night's sleep to prepare a teleportation spell, the party was ready to retrieve Pyotr's lost supplies. Bonli bid them farewell, but promised to help more if he was sought out personally. With their farewells made, Breighlin teleported them, the hippogriffs, and the supplies to a teleportation circle in Brightwood City, and immediately Sent for their Dyakova contact and their payment.

Pedro arrived within the hour, with enough wagons to destroy the gardens and collect his heavy plate armour. He delivered the hefty payment, and ominously told Cynara that if he needed their services again, the party would make time for him. Unsettled but laden with wealth, the party left for the courthouses to pay off their debt to Mr Dyakova. Anma surmised that the jubilant mood throughout the city, despite the rain and winter, was thanks to them fighting off a raid from Inaze on their ships and barges. Soured by this development and the rain, Kasan Kagane soon made good on his promise, and took the party through to Galen's Deep, the castle that Queen Inaze was organising the invasion from.

===== Session 66: Mazes With Words =====
Before they were received by Queen Inaze, in Galen's Deep, O.P.E.R.A. bore witness to an extremely jubilant Marquess Crowmill, ambassador from Dragonfall, and a warning that his dealings with the monarch had left her in a foul mood. When the Chancellor and the Queen were finally ready to meet them, the austere throne room fell short of their expectations, but Inaze proved to be an intelligent wit, verifying Kasan Kagane's tall tales for herself, and gauging the characters of the adventurers she wished to take into her confidence.

She revealed to them that the siege could go on indefinitely, but that Wotin Dyakova had exacerbated the crisis to fill his own coffers, only allowing food to be provided through the routes that he monopolised. Thanks to the earlier failed attack, Inaze had been forced to strike a deal with Dragonfall, offering them Riverrun (a major jewel in the Brightwood crown) in exchange for the ability to strike Dyakova's ships. The first such strike would be that night: Queen Inaze wanted to meet with the heroes to ensure that they would not intervene, restraining their instincts to help those in need to secure a greater good. Shifting the conversation, Anma revealed their possible shared connection, which made the Queen reveal that indeed her ancestors hailed from Ubarikahdri, and that she had sent an expeditionary group to Karlanmar, Anma's home — but she tied up the full knowledge of this with vowing to meet her earlier terms.

While Anma, Breighlin, and Orianna acquiesed and swore not to intervene, Cyanara refused to take such a step, which Inaze respected, but she still kept them out of their confidence. The party took their leave of the castle to interrogate Cynara: she didn't want to tie herself to Queen Inaze's will, accusing the rest of the party of pledging themselves to her authority for far too small a reason. Anma was furious, as Cynara's refusal kept information about Inaze's interest in Karlanmar, and Anma's own family, unacceptably in the dark, and Anma did not believe that they were benign: the ranger promised that there were alternative routes to finding these out, and that the influence the party would wield was considerable, although she wasn't forthcoming on what these possible alternatives were, either. Cynara thought that the idea of attempting to support Dyakova was worth considering, and despite promising to defer to Breighlin's informed experience, continued to champion opposition to Inaze. The specific circumstances made strange bedfellows of general beliefs, with Breighlin seeming to favour an absolute and powerful monarchy for Brightwood as a slightly greater good over Dyakova's entirely cynical reign.

Eventually Cynara was convinced that the rest of the party would not intervene against Inaze, and so the point of what Cynara would do became moot in any event. The consensus was that it would be best to have an alibi for the attack in case their friends in Brightwood became suspicious: Breighlin informed her two associates of what she could, including the plans to divy up Riverrun. In search of such short diversions, the party decided to investigate the Light Vault for themselves, and find what became of its now-awake inhabitant. Orianna used a powerful spell to instantaneously transport them there, and Anma used her power over water and ice to finish the trip: the Druid then realised that the trip would be one-way until tomorrow, finally precluding any possibility of their intervention in Brightwood.

Atop the mountain was found a master intransigent, an invisible enforcer of the Iris Order's cordon around the plateau, along with sealed Vault Doors. The party's best and worst negotiators attempted to talk around him but were handily outmatched by an ingeniously simple, one-track mind utterly unconcerned with their motives, methods, or status, leading the accustomed adventurers to be stumped. Genuinely debating diverting their travels all the way to Hollowsmere to obtain permission to enter the Vault, Anma while attempting to inscribe a rune with chalk discovered the doors to be an illusion regardless.

Undeterred by the bobby's shouts, the party reentered the first Vault they had opened, seemingly unchanged in state save for the Beast of Light, more threatening in stature and unknowability than the amiable Prince they had left not hours ago. When they gave a simple greeting, Protophylarch, in a strange and halting voice, responded.

===== Session 67: The Sun In My Eyes =====
Soon, the concert in the voice of the Beast of Light and Protophylarch broke. The towering elemental acted as if it had been granted clarity by the Light, accusing Protophylarch of moral compromise and abandoning the steadfastness with which he had entered the Vault. The Beast told O.P.E.R.A. that it would not permit the mask to leave the Vault, and when the suggestion of placing the mask on its empty hood was met with some level of fear, the party decided to take it up on the challenge.

It's strength was great, but Breighlin, taking cover behind a cog in the Vault, identified that as it was worn down it would be easier to restrain it and place the mask upon its face. Orianna shapeshifted into an Air Elemental, leveraging its primal strength to try and force the mask, but it was still far too strong, and so she resorted to pummelling it. Anma's biting frost spells ignored its resistance to many other strikes, while Cynara's magical blows caused the golden form to degrade again and again.

The beast was far from defenseless, leaping forward using its wings as forepaws while slashing with its arms like a wild beast. The damage inflicted upon it only fuelled its attacks, and fought with both spells and sword, forcing Anma between the wall and a cog and throwing Cynara with great force against the portal in the Vault, cracking the wall behind it. Even still, it was unable to truly fend off the adventurer's assault, and the white cloth adorning its form flew off, casting spells from afar and floating in the air — and taking the mask's target with it.

Cynara used the Iron Bands of Bilarro to restrain the Beast of Light, forcing it to remain on the ground and restricting it to futile thrashing, and then chased the Raziel through the air by clambering up gears and the walls of the Vault. Breighlin and Anma escaped the zone of silence, and turned their ice spells and Azun's Black Stand upon the restrained Beast to weaken both parts of the entity. The Raziel's stronger spellcasting ripped a cog of Ahm's machinery and threw it into Orianna and against the environs, but soon it was unable to escape the party's relentless pursuit. Orianna grabbed it from midair and wrestled it to the ground, at which point everyone else piled on. Breighlin's latest counterspell foiled its escape, and with a mighty push, Orianna forced the mask onto its face, and the room was consumed with a white flash.

When their vision was restored, they found a humanoid figure in the Beast's place, an old man wearing white robes. As he pulled himself up, with the party's assistance, he introduced himself as Protophylarch again, and they saw the strigine mask sewn into his hood. Cynara saw a large xiphos in the ash where the cog once was, and Protophylarch claimed it for himself, while Anma noticed that the wall behind the portal, where Cynara and the gear had made impact, was damaged, allowing something to shine through the other side. When the bricks were torn away, they found a smaller chamber that had seemingly been there the entire time. A small wooden shard, crackling with power, hovered on a plinth in front of a mural. When Anma took it, the image of Syl giving Ahm a shepherd's crook transformed into one of the God of Paths leaving the Almighty, who held the shattered staff in their hand. As Anma beheld the immense power in her hands, she formulated a clear directive: find the other pieces of what seemed to be Syl's Staff.

===== Session 68: Near, Fast It's Here =====
Attempts to learn anything more through experimentation about the Splinter were unsuccessful, so the party turned in for the night: they exited Wave Echo Vault, and encamped on the shore. In the middle of the night, Cynara climbed a tree to witness dragon-fire burning the river and Dyakova's ships. With no way to intervene, and Protophylarch attempting to soothe her doubts, they rested for a troublesome night and then, in the morning, made to see the Fey.

Vyeshal, the daughter of Syl, did not recognise the Splinter or the mural in the Vault, but recognised the gravity of the situation, and she commanded Ivan to open a path for the party in a day's time to where Syl may be hiding, near the Plane of Dark. The party was warned as well that the Beast of the Feywild would almost certainly attempt to attack them in its quest for Orianna: although Anma lay down many precautions and rules for this possibility, they eventually accepted this possibility.

Some quick persuasion allowed Protophylarch into the city alongside the familiar faces, and the scholars met with Telkruv. He revealed that Mr Dyakova was planning to surrender, and quickly, now that the last line of food into the city was cut. He was dejected, and to take his mind off of things, Anma and O.P.E.R.A. obliged his small lecture about Prophet Yroþ van Døschri. The information he missed, especially with respect to the Splinter, was notable, and the party quickly concluded that his staff could utilise the power contained within: they noted that they could look in the Elden Cliffs, where van Døschri passed away eight hundred years ago.

While Breighlin and Anma chased that lead down, Orianna went to check on Vaziri Markus, only to run into him in the street in a panic. He immediately led her to a watchmaker's, and the charred body of Pedro Dovakolla: he was mutilated, burnt, and near death until Orianna had healed him. Vaziri Markus was merely the guise for a shapeshifter named Klepikiv Donarova, who had been instructed to fetch the heroes. Klepikiv saved Dovakolla without anyone else noticing, and was obliged to his paymaster to heal him without detection, doing what he could with the other watchmakers in his employ. Pedro asked Orianna to find a more permanent healer, and so she left in a hurry, with Klepikiv Donarova.

Cynara went to find a permanent solution to the cursed Book of the War, and went to Jadivir, hoping to rely on her unscrupulous morals and eagerness for adventure. The Elf was happy to oblige, being fascinated and revolted, but also was short on answers. She did promise to work on it in her own time, but revealed that it would have to be a side project, as the Ad Lorum college had been contacted by Mr Dyakova to aid in making an interim government while Inaze transferred power. Cynara was interested in this as well, hoping that Avery and Prince Phos would be able to learn too: with a drink they sealed a deal, to work on each other's projects in each other's presence after any work day was done.

Anma discovered that van Døschri's famed Implement was made in secret either in Orbrir or by Strom-Kreft, while Breighlin's inquests made her reflect on previous facts, of odd stories involving Syl adventuring with crook and sword, and the trickster god seemingly arriving on Kona without Ahm's knowledge. The questioning ended as Cynara returned, and the party left only to immediately meet Orianna and Klepikiv: with the situation quietly explained, they rushed to Pedro's side.

On the way there, they were intercepted by a sharp but queerly-dressed, wealthy tiefling claiming familiarity: when he was met with a bemused response, he (re)introduced himself as old Scratch, the voice from within Mt Realtik. He had "inherited" property in Brightwood from someone who perished in the dragon-fire, and reiterated his offer of help for the party. Anma ventured that he might know where Breighlin's missing letter was, and he in fact did — he even promised to retrieve it for the party, if they did something for him. He wanted the Crown of Brightwood for himself, despite the fact it was bound to be sought after by Queen Inaze and Dyakova both. The party neither agreed nor rejected his offer, instead keeping that surprisingly achievable offer in their minds as they bid him so long.

===== Session 69: Waste Not, Want Not Borrowed Time =====
The party quickly met with Rumi, but she was apprehensive about subverting Wotin Dyakova: Anma agreed to place the party in her debt. With her led to Pyotr's side, the party returned to their fey preparations. Orianna and Cynara met with Vaziri and Iliyuri Markus, where the ex-magistrate warned them to interact with the fey and their madness as little as possible. Cynara noticed he was under a burden apart from that of raising their child. Anma, on the other hand, bought rations, inflated in price thanks to the siege: a better price was earnt with the promise of future patronage. As they reconvened and rested for the evening, in the tavern they all heard from Lupisov that the Consortium was "no longer willing to fund" resistance to Inaze: surrender would be imminent.

It snowed Ilarion's Snow, unseasonably early, in the morning. The party met Ivan, and was lead for several days through the Feywild, on a path laid through stones protecting Orianna and O.P.E.R.A. from the Beast, and among the strange and ethereal creatures. At the end of the day, the party found the faerie ruins of Castle Magnava: Ivan told Anma that it was once a key castle of the Volantivan dynasty: the plan was to reach versions of it that were increasingly forgotten, and increasingly closer to the Plane of Darkness, where Syl wandered. Orianna found the fey keeper of the castle, a creature called Dome, who then found for them the stone that needed to be activated to reach an old, rebuilt castle. Anma slammed the planar splinter into it, and they were off, in a flash of runes and travelling light.

When the flash cleared, the party was in a labourer's quarters, breaking down a statue of the old Mad King Ilarion. As they explored the first two floors of the abandoned castle, they found Fey cosplaying as period workers, and a quickly slain group of mice acting as guards. The party found quarters for labourers and servants, and a portrait of the last King of Brightwood, King Ivan Volantivan II: a leonin whose son was stolen. A dragon-chess board was found by Anma in a bedroom adjoining a study, while Orianna identified a tapestry showing King Ilarion binding a fairy within a mirror. The party pondered aloud if Ivan was King Ivan II's stolen child, and Anma wondered more quietly if the lost Crown of Brightwood would be found someone here.

In the King's gothic throne room, Orianna blasphemously took the throne, earning Ivan's ire, but feeling quite at home in its golden arms. In the adjoining kitchen, a burnt note with the words "Key" and "Roof" was found, along with a nine-digit combination entry on one of the walls. Cynara lifted a shadowy knife from a nearby room, but when the party tried to climb the stairs, they were attacked by Phase Spiders, ripping open portals in the walls. Cynara and Orianna quickly tore apart many of the arthropods, while Anma and Breighlin were more constrained in their options. Ivan proved himself to be a capable fighter, while Protophylarch revealed his true colours as a Barbarian, also tearing into the assailants. Eventually, Orianna as a water elemental destroyed the last of the spiders, clearing the path to the third floor…

===== Session 70: The Years Have Been Long =====
Immediately, the party encountered a pair of fairies who played a false mockery of the Two Guards riddle, which Cynara was injured by. Now on their guard, O.P.E.R.A. carefully explored a scriptorium, a senile archmage's chambers, the old rooms of the captains of the guards, and a gorgeous room decorated with family trees and the Volantivan family crest. In that enclave, a door further on was sealed with prayers to Ahm, warning of and warding against a powerful and lying devil in the room beyond, which was placed on the back burner for now.

Anma found a rope leading out of the captains' room, and they ascended to the roof. She then found a key on a recent corpse, killed in a siege battle, but the party's activities on the roof attracted the attention of a spirit in the form of a great, bellowing gorilla. Although the adventurers seized the initiative and began to fight and flee, quickly the Sær produced magical runes across its body, Orianna's, and Breighlin's. The red runes on the druid were dispelled as the gorilla was shielded from Cynara's magical attacks. The blue runes on Breighlin ruptured as she studied the spirit, drawing everyone who had attempted to flee to her position, and allowing the Sær to pummel all of them in a heap. Cynara noticed that the beast only fixated on those attacking it, and drew its notice while everyone else escaped. Once again, both runes were dispelled, as Ivan futilely tried to aid Cynara. Once everyone had fled, Cynara dropped off the side of the tower, while Orianna grabbed its attention for the final time before ducking down a path it could not follow. 

As an elemental, Orianna proceeded to the unexplored part of the second floor, finding a wall completely incongruous with the rest of the castle, made of cobalt flecked with golden stars, and containing the next Linestone. With the found key, Anma soon was able to access it too with everyone else, and the party took a rest. They desired to explore every inch of the castle fully before using the linestone, and Cynara used her ethereal stepping to find fey spirits inhabiting armour, stealing the Narcissist's Shield, and finding a room with dried paints she couldn't ascertain the use of.

Before entering further into the Darkness, the party breached the sealed room, finding a raided and empty cabinet room filled with bare garderobes: and a mirror. Warned by the tapestry of King Ilarion, Anma had covered it with a sheet, and after the room had been investigated, it was whipped away. Reflected in the mirrored room was a small fairy with magenta hair and a broken demeanour: Hollyhock. She was resigned to the fact that there was no proof she could offer as to her innocence that couldn't be interpreted as the art of an expert devil: she claimed to be the previous attendant of Queen Magnava, first Queen of Brightwood, and kept her secrets, including (to Anma's frustration) the digit code to the locked room. The party debated, with Protophylarch and Ivan on edge against a possible threat, but decided to take the risk. Cynara smashed the mirror, and Hollyhock came close to weeping with joy, and didn't lift a finger against the party, only wishing them well in their travels.

Ivan offered to stay in the castle to guard the party from behind, and so O.P.E.R.A. activated the Linestone, and were warped to a castle even further in the past. In fact, it was the same castle, in the time of Queen Magnava, in the midst of preparations for a feast. A head steward (though not //the// head steward) took the party for summoned fey help, and quickly enlisted them in solving the many woes that had befallen the preparations — and begged them to be dressed properly.

===== Session 71: Penetration Testing =====
The party explored the rooms tentatively, finding bustling servants and grieving nobles. It became clear, speaking to Princesses Arnava and Akova Minsrata, that in the period of time this castle emulated, Queen Magnava had recently passed, and the food and festivities were being prepared for another Queen, Amakenda, who was stopping off to witness the coronation of the new Queen. However, preparations were not proceeding apace: O.P.E.R.A. found the younger archmage, refusing to provide entertainment now that his employer was passed, and Dome (in that time, his arcane servant), politely insinuating to the party that they needed to acquire heraldry.

The domestic requirements were soon interrupted by a thudding from the ceiling, which everyone quickly realised was the returned Sær. While they were braced for a rematch, all were stunned to see him throwing around Avery, who was quickly returned to consciousness by his cranial impact. Cynara and Orianna drew the beast's attention, and despite another flare-up of sigils, it took only a few seconds for it to be dispatched, Cynara's final blow shearing its left arm. Avery, once the calamity was passed, explained that he and Prince Phos had seen off Yadan-ra's return, only for a cloaked stranger to arrive and banish Avery to, evidently, the feywild. The rouge was caught up to speed, and the party proceeded with their re-exploration of Castle Magnava.

In their travels, the party found through observing the court mage and asking a Dwarven armourer a property of the fey previously unknown to them: each fey could be disarmed by a certain, precise phrase of music, akin to the power granted over a devil by knowing its true name. This was seen acting on Dome (and the party separately learnt the Crown was his responsibility), and while exploring a musician's practice roon, Anma heard the tale and composition of a piece of music that Queen Amakenda used to banish a great fey enemy, that was being replayed in her honour when she arrived.

O.P.E.R.A. did meet with the head steward, and got a list of haggard tasks that had to be completed before the banquet could be considered presentable:
  * The court wizard was refusing to entertain since the Queen's death. Dome informed the party that he was somewhat infatuated with Hollyhock, while he himself claimed that he had no employer and was not intellectually stimulated. Avery briefly aroused his interest by mentioning Dragonchess, and so they endeavoured to find a board.
  * One of the Queen's entourage had requested something inane: something with a "bit of tragedy and a bit of life" as a gift.
  * The fey help that the party had been taken as were required to be dressed well and to acquire coats of arms. Couture was promised to them by Hollyhock once Avery and Cynara helped break into the sealed chambers, and while the master heralder was fed up with the entire artform and had no faith in its future, they at least got from him his specialty paints.
  * The statue of Queen Magnava had a brief illusion placed on it to hide some damage, but it was missing its left arm.

The party met Hollyhock again within her room, and were still unable to get the code from the more cheery iteration of the Queen's assistant, fervent in her belief that her Queen would reincarnate or otherwise return to her side at duty's end. Frustrated by the lack of obvious options, Anma used Detect Thoughts to peer into her mind, only to be met with a barrage by the effectively insane fey. She stood fast, and was briefly able to communicate with the broken, future Hollyhock: when she too was uncooperative, Anma was met with a vision and temptation from the Skeleton King, appearing mentally as a crowned ossiarch, entombed and chained within ice. He whispered to her that she knew the music that King Ilarion had used to bind her to the mirror, and could compel an answer. Anma did not immediately deny the offer, but in the end rejected the Archfey: but Hollyhock's defences slipped for a second, and the code to the Queen's Vault was nevertheless recovered: 6-8-9-0-4-5-1-3-9.

===== Session 72: Back and There Again =====
Before speeding to the sealed room, Orianna discovered a secret door behind the maps in a small corridor, revealing the room that Queen Magnava's suitors had slept in: and the fresh Dragonchess board within a cupboard built to last. Tool in hand, the party made for the vault, opening the door but finding little of use inside, only some long-forgotten diaries and tomes.

Frustrated but rested, the party set on a three-pronged attack: Avery and Cynara went to battle the archmage at Dragonchess, being soundly defeated at each attempt, and theorising that the older archmage could be coerced into revealing his secrets; Orianna and Breighlin inspected the damaged statue, missing a left arm, and determined the great difficulty involved in restoring it to a satisfactory state; Anma attempted to compose some music incorporating both life and tragedy, and while her music caused a small fey flower to grow, increasing in size and complexity in response to nearby conversations and sounds, she was unable to discern a pattern or piece in fullness.

Largely to confront the archmage, and with Avery urging the party to use their unique ability to their advantage, the party returned to the future Castle Magnava, only for Ivan to confront them with the news that something had appeared atop the roof: like a treehouse or nest suspended above the stones of the floor. Avery breached it first, and once again was brought face to face with the Sær, carving wood serenely and surrounded with previous anatomical creations. Avery fled, and, with the rest of the party rallied, returned to face it down for the final time. However, no battle occurred: since its defeat long ago, the Sær had abandoned violence, taking up wood carving. He agreed to produce a replica of Queen Magnava's statue, but not before revealing upon Orianna the mark that the Beast had placed upon her: in his opinion, it was unlikely that her tutor had placed it on her himself.

Avery and Cynara, with Anma's honeyed words, battled the elder archmage at Dragonchess, and learnt an uncouth strategy guaranteed to throw him off. The flower that the bard had grown was, however, nowhere to be seen. Back in the past, the new statue was accepted, and the archmage was fought to a stalemate, with the game's desperate prolongment being the price of his aid. Anma thought hard about the slowly-developing fey flower's music, until the idea struck to hide it in the vault. She dashed to the future castle, and from the fully-grown vine understood the music that would fit the scene.

All that remained was to be dressed appropriately: Hollyhock picked out for them all gorgeous gowns and uniforms, and Anma designed unconventional heraldry for Orianna to execute upon six shields. At that moment, the guests began to arrive, and O.P.E.R.A. appeared to greet the teleporting-in dignitaries. Eventually, the Queen herself appeared, the majestic tiefling Queen Amakenda — alongside her, young but immediately alert to the party's presence, was Orianna's tutor, the druid Mimir.

===== Session 73: Photon Readings Negative =====
Once the procession had entered the main hall, Anma followed, playing a beautiful tune derived from the flower. The entire room was brought to the edge of tears, and Mimir himself was stunned into silence. While the party was not pleased to see him, with a little bit of time, he was able to explain his position through wine and conscious efforts to drag the conversation away. He had not marked Orianna, but Chamaedes had: he taught Orianna druidism so she could protect herself, as he had taught many other marked individuals beforehand. The Beast of Brightwood would hunt her down until it was defeated permanently, but Mimir hoped that with the protection of her allies she would stand a greater chance. Queen Amakenda, Mimir's liege lady, briefly spoke to the party about the victories that Mimir had told her of, and remarked that Orianna seemed familiar: their appearance was superficially similar, after all.

After a rest for a meal, the steward asked the party for their reward, and O.P.E.R.A. requested to be shown to the next Linestone. The bridge to the tower was raised, and the party crossed, descending the tower further out of Mimir's memories until they found an empty room within nothing in it but the way out. Agreeing to search for the Crown of Brightwood later, they embarked on the next stage of their quest.

With the Splinter used, O.P.E.R.A. found themselves either in or very near the Darkness, on a single stack in an under-construction castle, surrounded by void on all sides. After a small light was summoned by Anma and the party picked their away around the ruins, a burst of polychromatic lightning streaked from the sky and radiated from a ball of lightning, from which Chamaedes stepped forth. He wasted no time in bringing his sword to bear against Orianna, while the chaotic planar energy emanating from him brought areas of the Plane of Life and Shadow to the arena, as well as the returned and charred Wormroot. When Orianna tried to wildshape to counter, she found herself unable to maintain a stable form for long: Chamaedes knew how to counter her druidic magic. The party noted the Planar Splinter embedded in his gruesome heart, and decided as one to not even attempt reason, and to battle the Beast.

He and his allies proved worthy foes, and he survived being set alight, Cynara's magical strikes, and Anma's frost, while throwing out spells of his own. Breighlin was able to shut down some of his spells while Avery constantly loosed arrows at his weak points when he exposed them. When Anma was frozen in place, a hasted Cynara made to cut off Chamaedes's escapes, redirecting his own lightning back into his exposed organs. Anma used the binding song to allow Orianna to become a mighty fire elemental, while Protophylarch set himself about dispatching the Beast's minions. A rotting, diseased bear brought Orianna down, but before Chamaedes could press the advantage, Breighlin took off the gloves and let loose her full arcane might: a Disintegration spell burnt through his carapace, while an imp from Azun's Black Stand launched himself at the Shadowless and ripped open his heart. Chamaedes swore on his blood that he would return, and exploded into a chaotic planar release.

Where he fell, a small Linestone dropped. Once Orianna was revived and the party caught their breath, Anma thrust the Splinter into it. No transportation happened: instead, three explosions shattered across the pitch-black sky, a single thread between them holding the Castles Magnava on it, strung like beads. That single bolt of lightning raced towards the party, struck the Linestone, and engulfed them all in a white flash.

===== Session 74: The Shepherd and the Sword =====
Once the blast faded, the party saw among the green lightning great branches growing from their stone island in the void, and insects and fairies crawled through the fissures in the world along them. Avery and Orianna felt a pull along one of the trunks, and the party followed it into the darkness under a cloud of drifting fireflies. Orianna picked up a small millipede, a fey and talking creature, and dubbed it Milicent, as a companion for the trip — there was no wind or sound as the party pressed onwards into the darkness.

After some minutes, they saw the edge of a statue of a colossal Ahm, sword held aloft. Breighlin noticed the sword had purposefully been carved in a jagged and organic way, even as the rest was exacting in detail. The party mused on it and prayed, but continued uneasily. When Avery turned back, he was shocked to see a smoke-formed Shadowless observing them: the party returned, with Cynara firing an arrow at it but elicitng no reaction from the watching figure. When Avery cast Fairy Fire upon it, the figure disappeared. Cynara noticed that its body was being eroded even by the gentle light of the fireflies: Protophylarch confirmed that it was a Shadow Elemental.

The branch stopped at a stone plateau surrounded by a cloud of fireflies, and a figure meditated in the centre. When O.P.E.R.A. approached, he took his staff, lifted a gentle lanter, and Syl inquired why they had come so far.

The party introduced themselves and their aims, seeking to stop the Xanthous. Syl seemed somewhat unmoved until the Splinter of his old staff was shown, and then he was excited that //it// had started — whatever it was. He told them that his crook had been offered as a gift to Ahm to cease a war across the Planes: Ahm had shattered it into Splinters to close the portals and starve out the war. Syl seemed to believe that Paramedes likely held the rest, in the Shadowless stronghold and old city of Satunar Iljoyce. Cynara spoke to the fireflies, and they drifted out to reveal the stone form floating very nearby. A direct assault on the city now would be foolish, the trickster god cautioned, but would be possible and even necessary once more power had been obtained.

O.P.E.R.A. mused as to how the Shadow Elementals could be killed permanently, and came to the conclusion that pure Light, from the core of the selfsame Plane, would be able to destroy them. Syl showed them the nature of the enemy, revealing rows and rows of dead and living Shadowless watching their very conversation: briefly, he also revealed the Chorale, the screaming and howling mass of their noises and please all overlaid. He felt great sympathy for the Shadowless, and made clear that Monoeices's account was essentially truthful, but he also was firm that they had to be stopped. While the tragedy dealt to them had been severe, it had //happened//, and it could not be allowed to be rewritten.

Lastly, Syl sorrowfully told them that his plan to stop the conflict in the Planes had failed, and that he had reassembled the Splinters into a sword that, in a moment of weakness, he proferred to Ahm. The Planeblade was used to bring Ahm's order to all reality for a time, and could also be used to kill elementals forever.

The party decided on a basic plan of retracing Prophet Yroþ van Døschri's whereabouts and obtaining his staff to gain this greater power Syl said they needed, before seeking to breach Satunar Iljoyce. Syl led them back to Castle Magnava, promising to return to Brightwood himself and send his gifts soon, before disappearing on his own paths. The party retraced their steps to the Feywild, collecting Ivan along the way, and found Dome, who was overjoyed that the Grandfather had returned.

While Dome was packing for a pilgrimage to see Syl, Cynara asked him innocently where the crown was, drawing flustered deflections and Ivan's notice. The Goodfellow was stern that they should leave, but Avery persisted, whistling the True Song of Dome to compel him to try and get away from Ivan: the soldier followed, and while Avery released Dome from control without forcing him to relinquish the Crown of Brightwood, Ivan was infuriated. He drew his sword at Avery, accusing him of drawing the status of Goodfellows and the Fey into disrepute, sullying a title Ivan had worked a lifetime to uphold. While Avery truthfully said that Ivan was held in great respect, his heart was unmoved, and the ire was shared by the rest of the party for tolerating Avery's frequent infringments. The party left — Breighlin attempted to return once Ivan recovered the Crown himself and fled, but was stopped by Cynara. With everyone unhappy, Orianna transported everyone to the stones that led back to Brightwood.

There, the party found a deep snowdrift and a deep winter midnight. From the walls of Brightwood City flew the flag of green and yellow, but also the heraldry of the Kingdom of Inaze.

===== Session 75: A Wager with Now and Later =====
Once Anma had sufficiently and thoroughly chewed out Avery for his actions, the party wondered as to how long had passed while they were in the Feywild. Some passing travellers assumed O.P.E.R.A. were fellow pilgrims, and the party pieced together that Oleg Vandire had been passing himself off as a New Prophet in Brightwood, and amassing followers. The gates of the city were closed at night but swung open with no paper inspection.

At the Drunken Horse's Water, Kanarshi informed them all that over a month had passed since their feywild excursion. Luckily, they owed no fees: "Markus" had paid to have their belongings transported to a watchmaker's, and the adventurers instantly pieced together Klepikov's game. They dropped round, and found that a grateful and healed Pedro Dovakolla had, as charity, secured their possessions and granted them the house he was laying low in, connected to the watchmakers. The party was too glad to rest their weary boots...

...except Breighlin, who demanded answers from Monoeices, but found only an empty room in her mind. She inspected the expert stonework, unlocking a secret passageway seemingly inside of Satunar Iljoyce. She followed it left, coming to a room filled with a breathing stalactitic mass of Shadowless masks, and one of their number waiting for her beneath it. Coarse in voice and uncomprehending of Breighlin's status and social norms, he haltingly tried to engage in the conversations that Breighlin had come to expect but that he so disapproved of. He wondered why, if all of Breighlin's connections were passing or leaving and even her city had turned a new leaf, she did not fight on the Shadowless's side, concluding that she did not believe that the Shadowless's success would truly grant them all they wanted. He disapproved of Breighlin's individualistic streak, another difference between them, and she was able to draw out of him that they were near the Chorale, a collected mass of Shadowless fears and wants from the past. He warned that Monoeices would return soon and that Breighlin did not want her to discover anything amiss — he announced himself as Crypt, before opening the door for Breighlin to leave.

Over a breakfast prepared by the watchmaker's staff, the party strategised. Once they heard of Breighlin's dream, they decided that removing Monoeices was a top priority: Anma and Cynara would go to see Jadivir and hear of the progress made on the Book of the War, while the others would take Breighlin aside to get in touch with a master of possession. They initially thought to contact Telkruv, only to be informed by Pedro that he had passed several weeks ago. Neither he nor Breighlin were overly concerned by this: and it was here that O.P.E.R.A. learnt of the Brightwood practice of contacting dead Bishops for some time after their death.

Anma and Cynara learnt that the Book of the War had been gradually slowing its rate of bloodletting, and Jadivir was concerned that it would start shedding its ink soon, becoming unusable. She spoke of a Master of Tomes who may be able to put the matter to rest once and for all, but he lived on the other side of another continent — in Orbrir. With deliberation, Cynara decided to accompany Jadivir on a sail across the Green Sea in a few days time: there was no doubt that great secrets lay within the pages. As they were leaving, they also heard that someone, undoubtedly Osman Fallon, had been asking after

Orianna, Breighlin, Protophylarch, and Avery theorised that the answers, if not in Brightwood, would be in Hollowsmere, and sought a Telemancer to get them there sharpish. And so they found Telemancer Onascho, an unhinged, skull-headed Professor who instantly dismissed the idea of going to Hollowsmere but was a treasure of, among other things, alternative plans. Once Breighlin's situation had been explained, he eventually produced a lead: a Lich who lived under the "fissures" of Echo's Eye Lake, who could sequester Breighlin's soul and craft a replacement in its place. He produced a teleportation scroll that would aid in contacting them, and gave it to Breighlin once he was certain that she didn't leap at the idea //too// strongly. Warning Ori that "it is on this path that your destiny lies" (as he warned everyone), they left his tower to reconvene with the rest of the party.

===== Session 76: Better Than The Alternative =====
At Pedro's house, Breighlin lay out three options for her future: they could take the chance with Monoeices as she is, go through with the Lich's appointment, or she could accept Monoeices's offer to join their fell ranks but leave the party out of danger. The first choice was too dangerous while the last was unacceptable to O.P.E.R.A., and so they decided to embark for Echo's Eye immediately. The party went to collect their hippogriffs, and found that Syl had as his gift enhanced them with speed, agility, and speech.

At Echo's Eye, they extorted a tip from the Iris Order mage posted at the Vault, and searched for the fissures in the lake bed. Predictably, nothing could be found from above the lake, and so Orianna searched underwater in an elemental form. Blindly, she followed larger and larger fish and eels, coming to a great mass of creatures that she couldn't track them through. With a light from Anma, she made a second expedition, seeing that the eels bore extra, engorged eyes along their bodies, and swam to a glowing blue fissure in the bed.

Orianna followed, finding a small chamber marked with signs to keep interlopers out. Reckoning that the Lich's lair was beyond, she stumbled into a magical vision of Mimir finding a baby tiefling in the snow: when he ound the infant, the magic faded, leaving her in a stone room with Old Scratch. He forgived the party for not following through on the crown, and offered Orianna and Orianna only a time-limited deal: not only kill the Lich, but also find and destroy his phylactery, and Scratch would separate Monoeices from Breighlin without any consequence. Orianna refused to make such a deal on Breighlin's behalf, and so Scratch left empty handed — but, against protocol, he warned her that Monoeices had been offered a similar deal for her own survival, and that //she// had accepted.

After discussing Scratch's news and Orianna's report, there were various candidate plans to ferry the rest of the party underwater, but the successful candidate was, in the end, a third expedition from Orianna. Anma uprooted a large bush, and Orianna took it down in the bag of holding to the entrance to the lair. With a reliable spell, the whole group was transported to the plant, and ventured into the lair.

Once there, the soul-viewing device engaged again, but the presence of both Breighlin and Monoeices caused the visions to fracture and overlap, before the entire device failed. When Orianna inspected the obsidian left over, they all found themselves able at last to converse with Monoeices. She viewed her own deal with Scratch and attempts to stop the party as simple self preservation, and while she was disappointed Breighlin chose not to side with her, she was unsparing in her criticism of their abilities as adventurers and their stances as heroes. Her harshest words were for Breighlin, who she directly judged a self-sabotaging failure. Cynara tried to ascertain how much the Shadowless had affected the mage, and was slightly chilled to find that it was both a lot and only a little at the same time. Still, the party had a Lich to meet, and so they set off further into the lair.

===== Session 77: Like a Flash in the Night... =====
The party, after investigating the finely-crafted statues, entered the righthand door, coming to a room with seven hovering globes of water each saturated with eye-studded eels, and surrounded by their preserved organs. With Avery meeting paralysis attempting to pick the further door, the party had to investigate the grotesque menagerie. Cynara magically sensed through one of the eels, and was able to hear the psychic relay of all of the eels, psychically withstanding long enough to hear that the "master servant" had the key to the room, and that there was a glowing light behind the shelves. Sure enough, Breighlin found a sigil on the wall, but elected not to strike it out.

The other pathway held a makeshift barricade made out of standing mirrors. While Anma almost pushed her way through the breach in it, Orianna startled the cultists defending behind it, and in a brief missile exchange, the party negotiated a parley and willingly surrendered their weapons. The eye-covered, sullen wretch who spoke with them quickly established that they were all after the same thing, having the lich, who was named Danatper, extract their soul. These many wretches throughout the lair, it was found, wanted the lich to take their souls, not willing to chance it the afterlives that may be in store for them: to a man, they were downtrodden and depressed, but hoped to earn Danatper's favour by performing menial tasks for him. The leader of the wretches, Valik, clearly kept the key to the further room on his person: Anma saw through him and realised that he didn't want his soul to be gone, but simply enjoyed his sodden authority.

Desiring to know where to use the scroll, Anma decided to show it to Valik: he clearly knew it too well, and immediately lunged at her for it, while the other wretches made to bear arms. Anma tried to resolve the situation through a Sleep spell, but when it was ineffective, Breighlin and Cynara quickly dispatched the leader while Orianna bored a path through to the next room. Protophylarch and Cynara covered their escape, while Anma was brought to within an inch of her death by the wretches' attacks. The next room proved no respite, however: Orianna saw the same sigil as on the teleportation scroll, but her noise caused half-operated patients and cadavers to awaken and immediately spring for her. She was able to remain silent even as one sunk its talons into her head and face: Avery used his daggers to distract it, while Breighlin, Anma, Cynara, and Protophylarch filtered into the room. The elder barbarian drove the experiment away, and Cynara read from the scroll, teleporting the party away.

They appeared in a glass chamber within Danatper's laboratory, as he was mid-operation. He looked up from his work, clearly expecting most of the party, and confirmed the nature of his future work with them. He exposed Breighlin's composite soul, and explained that a regimen had been devised to weaken Monoeices. In this way, Breighlin (or what remained of her soul after the process) would be able to determine a suitable //new// soul to inhabit her body, one that would not be tainted or rejected immediately. The party was clearly distressed by the idea, but had come too far to see another option, and so they acquised to Danatper's "healthcare programme." There was one worry to sort out, however: the process would be physically and mentally intensive, and the consequences of failure would be unknown: he wished to put the party through combat to ensure they were hardy enough to survive what was to come. Warning Breighlin that, by deciding on her future life, she was joining the ranks of the gods themselves, Danatper selected his staff and brandished it against the interlopers...

===== Session 78: ...With My Arms Open Wide =====
Danatper brought poison gas and fearful spells against the party, but while he was capable of inflicting great physical and pyschic harm, it became apparent that he was not a highly durable combatant. He burnt all of his energy avoiding being caught by Cynara's Ensaring Strikes, while she palmed a knife to Avery to enable him to inflict great harm. Orianna brought a flaming blade against the Lich while Anma levied frost spells against it. As it neared defeated, Breighlin was forced into the open against her will, and began to cast a Disintegrate spell against it, puppeteered by Monoeices. Anma quickly paralyzed her body, and soon Danatper shifted away, conceding O.P.E.R.A. held sufficient strength to pass his gauntlet. Orianna was revived and Breighlin restrained, and the Lich revealed the first stage of his gauntlet.

Breighlin was placed in a mental recreation of a scene from Monoeices's past, along with a statue of Paramedes and Monoeices herself travelling towards it. Danatper, with a booming voice from outside, explained the rules as the arena shifted into ten towers. Monoeices must bring three reagents to the Paramedes statue, while Breighlin must deny her access and find a hidden weapon to destroy the statue. Outside of the illusion, Danatper explained that Monoeices would burn all of her energy and might to achieve such an aim, and that it was in effect a trap — if Breighlin succeeded in her aim.

Monoeices got the jump, grabbing one of the reagents, while Breighlin searched an ran. In panic, Monoeices accidentally feared Breighlin towards her own aim, and with her spells effortlessly Counterspelled, she called in the other Shadowless to help. Danatper was delighted that Monoeices had decided to cheat at the game, since it meant he could out-do her easily. Breighlin's allies appeared in the mindscape, and immediately set to work: Protophylarch duelled Ivalicai while Anma summoned storms upon Omeganeme and Telemediae. Cynara and Avery pursued Monoeices, with both trapping the other, while Orianna attacked an unresisting Crypt before. All of O.P.E.R.A. searched the towers, and eventually Orianna found a replication of Ahm's Planeblade. She handed it to Breighlin, who brought it almost to the tower before all of the Shadowless attempted to paralyze her. Cynara took it from there and used a Misty Step to come before Paramedes, before herself being stunned. Breighlin herself recovered, transported herself into the chamber, grasped the Almighty's weapon, and destroyed the statue of Paramedes.

Breighlin awoke, and Danatper smoothly explained that Monoeices had been put to rest. Soon, the party was led to the next chamber in the process, a meditation room. At Danatper's invitation, the party gave Breighlin their farewells, and soon, the dragon-inspired machinery put her to rest…

And quickly Danatper sprung forwards, noticing an interruption in the process. After a quick inspection of the arcana, he resorted to grabbing Breighlin and shaking her out of her meditation. Incandescent with rage, he roared that something had gone wrong, and there was an exceptional circumstance to this already dangerous procedure:

//"A **THIRD** Soul?!"//
===== Session 79: Am What I Am, Know What I Know =====
Monoeices was not one soul but two: the newer, once-mortal part of herself had been subdued, while the ageless and more powerful Shadowless core had survived hidden. Danatper departed for the night to engineer a solution, leaving the party to recuperate, and discuss what modifications to themselves and their own souls they would make were they in Breighlin's shoes.

Fully rested and re-armed, Danatper led them through the room that the wretches had made their home (albeit with them now, quite casually, slaughtered), and produced a new method of O.P.E.R.A. entering Breighlin's mind directly. They were tasked with manually piercing each layer of defenses to get as close to the Shadowless core as possible, and manually subdue it. With the apparatus lit, the party manually entered through the door that opened. They wandered a mental mish-mash of Brightwood and the Stroms, met with Breighlin's self-image, and pursued the illusion of the moment Breighlin donned the mask for the first time. Cynara took it, put it on, and opened the path to Monoeices's first mind.

It was a ruptured vision of the gauntlet Breighlin had just been put through. Protophylarch saw the distant Light's Heart mountain, and realised that they were in a memory the First Age. Entering the healer's house, they found a replica apparatus to that in the real world, with Monoeices (or, the mortal part of herself revealed to be called Nara) as the subject. It suddenly burnt with a shadow light as Anma inspected it, and Monoeices proper was summoned, fractured and imperfect but powerful. The party failed to shatter her grip on the machine as she forced a lightning bolt and gravity swells at them. Breighlin's Fireball is what broke the dark fire; Orianna moved her Flaming Sphere into the glass to power the device; Breighlin stopped Monoeices from disintegrating Nara; Protophylarch shoved her out of the way from the revealed door; O.P.E.R.A. piled in.

The party saw a gleaming white, complex and vast city. Nara stood in it, telling all of them her story of attempting to cure an illness, slowly realising that it was likely Paramedes who spread the plague in the first place. Over years, a voice in her head that came along with her new found power convinced her to Paramedes's side: that same voice and its tolling bells, the core of the Shadowless that is Monoieces, now confronted the party as an enormous statue, summoning strange technology and roaring with the voice of the Chorale. With fire and blade it was dispatched, with Avery's arrows and Anma's lightning storms proving especially effective at tearing apart the soul's defences. It was Breighlin who landed the final blow, incinerating the statue's form.

As it fell, the party saw a vision of the Shadowless in a panic, desperate to summon Yeenoghu to stave off Ahm's attack. They caught a glimpse of Paramedes in a white robe as the vision faded.

Danatper quickly removed them from the mental arena, and hurried Breighlin through to the meditation room, wary of a Shadowless retaliation. This time, when she sat down, her soul was wrenched from her body entirely (for the Lich was in no mood for further misadventures). As, on the shores of the Styx, she discussed with Kays the brave and respectable figure she wished to be, the draconic machinery whirred and forged ­— and when the body opened its shining eyes again, they were the windows to a new soul.

===== Session 80: Wisdom of the Masses =====
The new soul was replete with memories and abilities, and began to register experiences for the first time. With quick introductions, the party established how much Breighlin had left them: in the event, it was magic ability and memories up until a year before the party originally formed. The more recent memories, of Orianna and Anma and the Feywild and Vaults, were merely clouds in the new soul's mind. Still, it seemed brave, and she did not hesitate to join the party on their quest despite not being familiar with them at all. It was a good thing, to: unceremoniously, Danetpar ejected his test subjects, and they returned to Brightwood through a Teleportation Circle.

Immediately, a royal soldier accosted them, first accusing them of unstudious loitering, and then informing them of dissident groups using the colleges as cover. Despite the unpleasant encounter, the party only wished to spend the day meeting with Jadivir and resting. On their way to see the Elven lady, they found none other than Chancellor Kasan Kagane had met with her first. He was glad to see them after their fey absence, and seemed convinced that O.P.E.R.A. was privy to some larger scheme that he was not in on, and mentioned trying to limit the Lord Governor's "damage". He bid them farewell: Orianna noticed that he seemed stronger and more confident, likely suffused by its druidic power.

Jadivir was making ready to take a ship the next morning, and had organised a stay with her friend Folluin, in the town of Bulfengel in the Elden Cliffs, for several days. While tired with wrapping up loose ends, she was more than happy to extend this invitation to the rest of the party. In the interests of speed, the party decided to take the hippogriffs to arrive several days sooner: Jalisorafal was clearly disappointed that she would be taking the ship alone, but acquiesced regardless. O.P.E.R.A. decided to rest, and soar first thing tomorrow on their journey. Avery got in brawls at bars, while Cynara purchased brandy for her new companion; Anma purchased spell components while Orianna prayed to Ahm and gathered holy water; Breighlin, adopting her predecessors name, tried to recall the events of the last year but made no headway.

In the late evening, a drunken gang of Dyakova Shipping Company crew went to their house, courageous with drink and suspicious of how the party had been seen with Inaze's camp. When the party retaliated with silence and insulting-but-non-lethal spells, the blackcoats turned to throwing stones. Anma and Cynara intercepted them with restraining snow and thorns while Breighlin webbed even more of the desperate louts: those unrestrained then turned to throwing lanterns at the house, almost incinerating themselves and setting parts of the house alight. Avery sent their leader away with magic and turned to physically battling them along with Orianna, tempering his killer instinct but accidentally allowing the leader to return and throw yet more lanterns. Anma paralyzed all of the assailants while Cynara zipped between them, but the invincible-feeling thugs continued to attack her and Orianna. Only the ranger saw a hooded figure stride up the street, and with a smite from its black broadsword, knock all the foes unconscious. Anma tricked all of the gang into thinking they were fleeing alone, and soon the entire sortie fled: not a single person had been killed, or even wounded too badly.

Percival and Cynara did not recognise each other, but he saw Breighlin: he had just run in to help, seeing a fight break out in the street. Quickly, all of O.P.E.R.A. returned to greet their returned ally, wearing a heavy blue cloak that covered his armour and with white streaks in his hair. All he said was that he was in Brightwood investigating "personal matters".
====== Chapter 4: The Prophet van Døschri ======
===== Session 81: The Sky and Sea =====
Once Klepikov bundled them all inside, Percival explained that he had traveled to Brightwood to search for his sister, Crescent, who had fled the Whiteshield academy — he presumed that she had gone to join the new Prophet's growing flock. The party filled him in on what had happened, and their  own quest which was taking them to the Elden Cliffs, but they agreed to help him search for as much time as they could spare. They all retired for the night, with Anma walking Percival back, and the latter admitting his regret at their parting in Resotania.

In the morning, a Knight of Dragonfall arrived, with the lead instigator in tow: under Inaze's law, it was up to the party how he would be punished. Anma extracted from him a hefty fine and a few days in gaol. The guard let him off, expressing his amazement that Anma and Orianna had not gone for the "regular" punishment of a public hanging. With no small amount of horror, O.P.E.R.A. split into two groups to use their little time to track down Crescent.

Anma, Breighlin, and Percival put in feelers around everyone they had met in Brightwood, from Lupisov to Makisav, before going to Rumi. She attempted some witchcraft to locate Crescent, but was thoroughly shattered when she heard of Breighlin's lost memories, seeming to fall into great thought about her own mortality, and how Inaze and Dragonfall had stripped away much of what she loved about Brightwood and the legacy that Prophet Lex Poppolo had left it. Once she completed the ritual, the paladin could see a brief vision: Percival saw that she had cut her hair and was clearly sleeping in rough conditions but was otherwise unharmed, while Breighlin deduced that she was staying at Mt Realtik.

Orianna, Avery, and Cynara went to see Jadivir, who had little advice more helpful than to ask either the D.S.C. (unlikely), or to ask around at the church, hopefully getting an answer from what was left of Bishop Telkruv. The party thus rejoined, and Percival steeled himself to explore Mt Realtik. Anma, Cynara, and Protophylarch collaborated on a letter for him to take to Prince Phos, and the paladin set off to the Northwards mountains. The rest of O.P.E.R.A. spoke with Jadivir, learned about their contact Folluin, bade her a safe travel across the sea, and then flew across the continent to the Elden Cliffs. Avery noted that she was reticent to tell them Folluin's exact position within Bulfengel.

Airborne, Avery and Anma watched in horror as Onschustrasz once again rose out of the clouds to pursue them, but this time he was bound in chains and a saddle, and ridden by a gilded Knight of the Flying Lance, who spoke with them and claimed to be a Prince. He was also bound for the ELden Cliffs, and he extended an invitation to the party to stay in the castle of the Marquess Evolo, amused as he was by the presence of fellow skyfarers. When he fled, Anma and Avery resolved to never take him up on that offer, while Cynara remained open.

Landing in the gorgeous and warm Elden Cliffs and town of Bulfengel, the party experienced no small culture shock in the expensive town, built with imported stone and filled with scantily-clad Wood Elf citizens of the Orbrir Empire, but they eventually got directions to Folluin's estate (Cynara, who could translate, noting that he was a senator, or an Ieldranir), where two guards respectfully allowed them to enter under the supervision of the Éaðlære (head steward), a human named Nadaz. The party was expected, late in the night as it was, and Nadaz treated them genially as they crossed the compound to the great doors of the main building. When Avery wondered as to the provenance of the Elven statues around the town and estate (noting they were all of the Companions and not the Twelve or of Ahm), Nadaz was sure to inform him in hushed tones that Writ-like worship and religion was simply not done out in the open: "they don't know Ahm like you and I." One led to the great stones doors, with a whistle Nadaz opened them, and the caped and grand Ieldran Folluin greeted them.

===== Session 82: The Gaslight and Gatekeep =====
Folluin invited his new guests to change and then dine with him under the stars, and they enjoyed traditional Orbrir and Bulfengel foods among him, his household, and his //Lausafé// — his slaves, of whom Nadaz was the most trusted. Also present were ambassadors from Dragonfall, Lord Beckory Crowmill and his entourage, there to discuss trade with the Æthelweald. Crowmill dismissed Inaze's contributions and Kasan Kagane's notoriety, and made the invasion of Brightwood sound like entirely Dragonfall's doing. Folluin explained some of the myths of Prophet van Døschri, and recommended they check out the New Monastery, the ruins of the old burnt church Alum-kazir, the State of Grace where van Døschri had last been seen, and the statue of Sanilir in the old town centre. Avery spoke aside with Nadaz, and got his devotion across to the servants: he also learned that Nadaz had no desire to go the State of Grace himself. A massive dinner that the party was invited to with multiple Ieldran attending was happening the day after: but Nadaz was merely using that as an excuse to avoid going.

At night, after trying to explain to Breighlin why they allowed the Beckory-orchestrated attack on Dragonfall to go through, Anma raised a plan: convince the world that Avery, not Vandire, was the real new Prophet. Cynara was so inspired by the germ of an idea that she attempted to kick-start a genuine realisation in Avery himself in the night. While the Fairy instantly knew that Cynara's booming voice was not the word of the Almighty, he incorrectly assumed it was Osman Fallon come again to slay him. At his panicked cry, everyone rushed to intercede — but when Cynara cast a locating spell purely to sell the illusion, she found to her horror that Osman Fallon was genuinely within Bulfengel, within the New Monastery.

As one they rushed to confront the supposed intercessor: a mechanical doorman, Brother Gatekeeper, refused them access, and a Gnome monk informed them that "Brother Fallon" had specifically warned the church against people matching their description. Dejected and locked out, the party returned to Folluin: Orianna briefly spied on Fallon in the guise of a seagull, but someone locked within the Monastery basement detected her presence, and she was seen by Fallon as she escaped.

In the morning, after they rested, a breakfast with Folluin was interrupted by Chancellor Kagane, arriving like the storm. He was incensed that Orbrir had been negotiating with Dragonfall and not Inaze, insisting that the Dyakova Shipping Company and Brightwood's wealth was the Queen's to command, not the King's, before leaving in a rage. Cynara eavesdropped on Crowmill's attempt to repair the situation. She learned that a great sticking point in Dragonfall's new negotiations was the price: Folluin wanted the New Monastery and its one hundred permitted monks destroyed.

Perturbed but insistent, Folluin led them all to Alum-kazir. Avery, with Cynara's help, read the story of Saint Miro, a man who introduced Dwarven artifice to the Gnomish geniuses at Bulfengel, and who Donated the church and sent it to the Silver Smith's heaven by burning it to the ground, all to keep it out of the clutches of Húfhildfruma, an Elf known as the Emperor of Owls, who Cynara knew and hated. Among the Duguþnæmere tour groups, Anma found four promising inscriptions of further clues: one for Sanilir, one for the Splinter, one for the Talisman, and one for a Fork. Whatever images those inscriptions once referred to were lost when Saint Miro destroyed the church, however, and Folluin didn't know of any memory of them (or even what a library was, for them to look at).

Folluin decided, at their suggestion, to take them past the Statue of Sanilir. He told the story of Prophet Yroþ van Døschri's death: he brought to the Elden Cliffs a sunlight to shine perpetually for the rest of his life, but they were both cut short by an apprentice seduced by Azun, Kasimir the Bloody Handed. Sanilir, a Drow, witnessed this crime but was disbelieved and sentenced to death for his perjury. Upon his execution, he was translated into an Angel by AHm and ascended to heaven, proving his virtue — almost eight hundred years ago. Avery inspected the statue in awe, and saw above Sanilir's head a unique circlet: one identical to the tiara that Folluin had worn at dinner the night before. The Duguþnæmere's smug response was as good as confirmation as to the depths of his crime.

===== Session 83: The Coast and Communion =====
From there, the party paid the admission fee to visit the tourist site erected around the State of Grace. Breighlin deduced that the statue was no transformation but had been regularly sculpted, and was now worn away by centuries of wind and rain. There was little latent magic around the statue, although the prayers and charms left by pilgrims were lousy with them. The Elves watched oddly as a Leonin pilgrim arrived from Poseidea, and neither Avery's interrogation of him nor Anma and Cynara's talk with two elder Elves gave great clarity on the origin of the State of Grace, although it was plain that the natives of Bulfengel visited it little.

Lastly, the New Monastery was visited, and with an oath of non-violence sworn to the suspicious gnome at the door, Brother Rickitock Spark, the party was allowed in under heavy supervision and suspicion. He explained that Osman Fallon had turned up a week and a half ago (after a coincidental decapitation of a Sister of the monastery), and had been helping them with the automata that had gone "awry". O.P.E.R.A. was unable to easily find out what "awry" meant, although Ori noted that the trap door downstairs had been hidden, and they spoke about the increasing pressures from Folluin to reduce the number of monks (which the Sibling Automata had been created to circumvent). Rickitock couldn't help but be assured of the goodness of the party but still trusted "Brother Fallon", and so he proposed a trial of sorts to reconcile these two views.

The Monastery of the Elden Cliffs was famed for its mechanical recreations of the Prophets, used to commune with them as if they were alive. But since things went "awry", they had been unresponsive: Brother Rickitock set them to the task of restoring the recovered construct, that of the First Prophet Ilf Engtērach. Avery read the simple and fearful thoughts of whatever was inside it, while Anma lifted its paralysis, and it began to move — although Avery could tell it was animated by a second spirit. The thing-inside asked them to remove its battered iron heart, which they did, and then asked them to insert the Planeblade Splinter into its core, which the heroes steadfastly refused to do. The thing-inside gave up the pretense, and immediately moved to attack — it punched Anma hard enough for her soul to cleave from her body, screamed at Cynara to frighten her, and launched three shard grenades at Avery.

Anma summoned a storm to shock it while Avery distracted it with his Mage Hand, and then Cynara cast Banishment upon it to force out the Shadowless that possessed the machine. Once cast out, it attempted to invade her mind again, but Cynara was able to fight it off, and the elemental was barred from Kona — for now. She heard snippets of its threats, of how Paramedes had considered the idea of breaching the defences around the party verboten: defences that had so far kept them safe from possession.

With the Communion destroyed, Brother Rickitock was utterly convinced. He told them how Priest Goldbraid's modifications to the constructs had turned them murderous, and how Osman Fallon had been helping subdue them: the remainder were sealed in the other two monasteries and in the basement vaults beneath them. The party pledged to return tomorrow to help deal with the automata, and to see if anything of van Døschri's lay in their possession. With that plan set in stone, the party left to greet Jadivir upon the coast, under the watchful gaze of Mr Dyakova, his face stamped even here. Her journey had been pleasant and brief, and they went back to Folluin's (walking past a Chancellor Kagane oblivious in his concentration) to prepare for the grand feast and Ieldran dinner that awaited them.

===== Session 84: The Mingling and Masters =====
The party went to market before their engagement, and while shopping for some local art, Orianna happened upon an etching made by TXR. The helpful gnome at the desk identified the artist as Telwuth X. Roarscatter, a local eccentric who had not been seen for some time. Avery purchased the painting, and the adventurers retired to prepare themselves for the ball. Anma bemoaned their inability to find anyone who knew of the stained glass paintings and their tantalising secrets, until Breighlin pointed out that, if Alum-kazir had been Donated to the Silver Smith, it was entirely possible to visit that heavenly realm directly and see what remained.

Before dinner was served, Anma and Orianna learned from Beckory Crowmill that Resotania had its eye on the Æthelweald's many plundered Ahmic relics and that Folluin was not wearing Sanilir's tiara today; Avery pushed Nazad for Ahmic information but heard little; Breighlin kept an eye out for particularly attractive Elves, preferably ones not obviously taken. Cynara and Jalisorafal psyched each other up to speak to the famous orator and Ieldran Glythíndel: despite his off-putting references to mythology and non sequiturs, they made enough of an impression to earn his patronage and protection for their trip across Orbrir. In return they had to carry messages for him: messages that may well help Húfhildfruma, an ally to almost all at the dinner. Cynara was perturbed by this, but Jadivir seemed keen to count their blessings and dwell little on the impact of their actions.

Then, the meals were served after a small and self-congratulatory speech by Folluin. Avery and Protophylarch indulged heavily in the wine, before the Fey left to speak once more to Nazad, and ask him for his help with the monastery. The slave was resistant to the idea, seemingly psychologically averse to visiting any of the Ahmic sites: he revealed to Avery that he had been captured as a pilgrim to this site, and he was afraid to look up to Ahm in his current lowly status. His talk with the self-convinced holy man did seem to bring him some measure of relief, and Avery lit a small spark of faith again in his heart.

Breighlin flirted briefly with a Dwarven-speaking Ieldran, who spurned her advances and attempted to earn an introduction with the beautifully-dressed Jadivir. The Elven scholar was having none of that, however, and left immediately, earning Breighlin the senator's ire. Anma and Cynara followed Folluin and his party to the Southern shore, and Anma expressed thanks for their invitation, before leaving Cynara to listen to his speech at the coast. Folluin wanted to throw open the gates between Orbrir and a new Brightwood to extract as much wealth as possible, but his advertisement to his fellow Ieldranir was interrupted by the appearance through the gloom of a huge D.S.C. fleet. None other than Chancellor Kagane was its emissary, assured that his sudden actions were within his permits, and he began to unload the cargo while the other Elves bickered about how best to ensure the safety of the ships. Cynara, smelling a plot instantly, tried to figure out what the Chancellor was up to and brought Folluin to him directly, but the Firbolg insisted that it was nothing more than gifts meant to sway the Ieldran to Inaze's side.

With everyone bemused but accepting of this latest development, the party reconvened and prepared for their monastic delve the day after. Jalisorafal was still missing, so Cynara elected to find her: their Elven guide was alone in the moonlight, clearly upset and with much weighing on her mind...

===== Session 85: The Adventurers and Automata =====
Jalisorafal felt alone in the night. She was cracking under the weight of constantly compromising to aid distasteful or evil people, and worried that she would never have the core to stand up for what was right in the end: the moral core she admired greatly within the other adventurers but especially in Cynara and her clarity of purpose. The Ranger assured her that she was ultimately a decent person and that a time would come for her to show her colours. The Elf hoped that she would be able to learn as such from Cynara on their journey, and so the two retired for the night, and Cynara lead Jalisorafal to her room.

Day broke, and the party soldiered to the Monastery and entered the dungeon to find Goldbraid, subdue the Communions, and put a stop to Osman Fallon's machinations. Brother Rickitock Spark assured them that he would allow the party to turn the weapons and treasures of Ahm found within against unholy enemies.

Cynara led them first to a room with multiple colours on its floor: each would cause a flying object to strike a transgressor who did not act according to the proper "See, Hear, Speak No Evil" aphorisms. Cynara was able to liberate a small diamond, and led the party onwards to an old room used for making pottery and ceramics. Within its ancient kiln lay an ancient fire elemental, which rumbled its name as DOOMLORD, and noisily demanded tribute from the party. Avery offered it a steel grenade looted from the Orthon: DOOMLORD hungrily consumed it, before it detonated and put the fear of Ahm into the now-weakened outsider.

Craven in its begging, it answered the party's questions easily, and expressed great fear at the prospect of seeing Priestess Goldbraid again. Orianna found a Djinn's lamp very similar to the teapot that Breighlin had been left, and DOOMLORD identified it as a modified Prism Trap capable of repeatedly trapping elementals. It had bargained away this knowledge in return for being materially slain and returned to the Plane of Fire: Cynara offered it instead the chance to power her Wuurtz-steel Pistol taken from the Orcs, a chance that DOOMLORD leapt at.

One unexplored door led far, far away: two others had automata clicking beyond them. And so the party went to the last room they could: an archive with a locked door, half of a written message "//Devil’s blood and Demon Ash//", and Brother Scribe, an automata with a riddle carved on a tablet on its neck who healed them upon entry. Haltering and damaged, it provided little helpful guidance to its library and did not open the door, but it did advise the party that a second library lay beyond one of the already-discovered doors, and that "The course of justice is long and winding. The words of evil are pleasing and short."

That second room was entered, and within it was a Communion of the Prophet Ieremasi Telemach. It placed its censer down, and then manifested a sword and shield to fight the party with, alongside her magical armature and three moving statues. Cynara plunged into the fight while Avery helped with distraction and well-placed shots. Anma and Breighlin's spells melted the marble statues, while Orianna turned into a blazing elemental to rival DOOMLORD, spreading flame throughout the room. Telemach's armature could pierce armour and blast opponents back, but in short order Orianna tore the figure open.

Orianna investigated the censer, finding it to be a powerful magical item, so she then pocketed it after Anma's Identify spell. Anma investigated the room, finding the story of a Locutor Heirinfall who used a crown of Sanilir to summon the angel and be delivered the Primus Heart, and who then built the first Communion. The party strode onward to the next room, only to find a rotten and sinking abandoned library, with a huge chained vase in the centre littered with cobwebs and prayers, and with a foul air around it...

===== Session 86: The Fire and Foes =====
Orianna cleared a path to the jar, which Breighlin quickly identified as being infernal in nature. An //Identify// spell made it clear to Anma this artefact's purpose: it was a Prison of some kind, likely for a Demon of the Abyss. Despite Cynara and Avery's innate curiosity, the decision was made to leave such an item alone. With only two routes left open, the party went to the room that Cynara had previously heard ticking behind. It was a workshop for props and costumes, filled with a ludicrous number of flammable barrels of lantern oil, and Communions of the Penteregis, which, as with the other automata, took arms quickly.

Cynara ran in, and with a flaming arrow detonated the barrels near two of the Kings, only for the reaction to spiral out of control and engulf half of the room in flames. Cynara was almost killed, saved only by the Grace of Ahm, and quickly she was spirited back into the corridor. Orianna, in elemental form, walked unharmed against the flames and drew much of the automata's efforts: they attacked in sync and with great speed. The most powerful spells of the party were used to keep them at bay as they advanced on the party, one by one, down a corridor which impeded their ranged attacks and left the heroes no escape. Through //Walls of Fire//, //Shatters//, and a //Vitriolic Sphere// (as well as precisely-placed attacks from Avery and Protophylarch), the machines were dispatched one by one. However, their thundering projectiles forced Avery into their clutches, where he was fully slain by one of the Penteregis as the battle drew to a close.

Immediately, Orianna transformed to an air elemental, took Cynara's newly-thieved diamond, and flew to Brother Spark and the rest of the monastery, where Avery was able to be quickly revivified. As the party rested, Brother Spark made note of the sheer number of explosives contained within his basement; Avery was given a weapon salvaged from the remains of the Penteregis by Protophylarch; and Spark was convinced to explain the presence of the foul jar within his vaults.

He led the party back after an hour, and explained that a powerful demon was sealed inside the jar: better sealed away than slain and returned to the Abyss. Each monastery held a single jar, and the other two could be accessed through passages underground. However, he refused to explain how or why the monks had acquired such items in the first place, and claimed to know nothing of the demons trapped within.

Avery noticed in an instant an attempt from Osman Fallon to attack them with a fireball and break the jar: he shot the projectile out of the air and, with Cynara, immediately gave chase. She saw Fallon disappear through a trap-door in the ground which, itself, disappeared without a trace, but she could sense the exit portal in a nearby room. She pursued, spying on Osman Fallon, Ivan Goodfellow, and an unidentified third voice, attempting to enact some kind of spell in a room containing a Planeblade Splinter and a magical shell around it. Once her compatriots caught up, she kicked down the door, and unleashed Doomlord upon their new enemies.

===== Session 87: The Ambush and Alliance =====
The party slung spells at Fallon as he used legerdemain to teleport around the room, turn the ground into thorny terrain, and quickly change into a suit of armour, but he and the unseen third presence failed to heed Ivan Goodfellow's coordination. Fallon struck out at Avery while Ivan tried to focus on the high-value spellcasters. Orianna and Breighlin attempted to breach the shell around the Splinter while Anma, Cynara and Avery visited great violence upon the motely crew, with Avery even finishing off Osman Fallon, who disappeared in a flash of flame once killed. When Orianna attempted to transform into an Air Elemental, her Wild Shape failed, revealing the third presence as Chamaedes, the Beast of Brightwood. But, when Fallon was killed despite Cynara's attempts to keep him interrogatable,  Ivan Goodfellow immediately begged for parley.

Despite Chamaedes's chortling interruptions, Ivan revealed that he, Fallon and Chamaedes had attempted to reach the Splinter before Avery could: Avery with a heartflet plea convinced Goodfellow of his guilt over his actions in the feywild and many more besides, while Anma was also able to persuade him that Chamaedes was only attempting to play him for his self-interest. Their efforts in concert were enough: enough for the Shadowless to attempt to kill him, inviting retribution from Breighlin and Anma and a banishment from Cynara.

And yet, despite the unexpected intrusion, the party still had not found Priestess Goldbraid. When their cursory attempts to breach the Ahmic shell (which predated even the monastery) failed, Brother Spark led them to a remaining unexplored room, containing a rampaging Communion of Prophet Lex Poppolo. Despite its ability to summon Water Elementals from the monks' cider reserves, Cynara's ensaring strikes followed by a //Grease// spell unintentionally spawned by Anma incapacitated it very quickly, and through repeated trauma it was quickly finished off, with Avery getting the final blow from his new Hand Cannon.

Bruised but intent, the party continued, following a trail to the vaults underneath the North monastery, finding a kitchen and a second part to what was either a couplet or a tetraplet. Once Avery picked a lock, the party found undoubtedly the oldest room of the complex, an ancient sandstone chamber with old, old Common writings on it. Seemingly inscrutable at first glance, Avery was able to read it with magical tongues, and he spelled out the exact process and circumstances of the Prophet Yroþ van Døschri's Miracle of the Cliffs.

===== Session 88: The Deception and Demon Unleashed =====

The party returned to the surface so they could rest and recover for the rest of the day. They checked in with Folluin, finding out that the Company ships had been surprisingly sparse with their gifts — and that, predictably, Folluin disapproved of their aiding the monks. The party turned in for the night, with Breighlin considering the unsettling implications of the uncovered couplet: Anma and Avery were awoken in the night by explosions rocking the New Monastery, casting red glow into the night. The heroes rallied, and fearing the worst made for the scene of the attack.

The Monastery was ablaze and collapsing, with butchered monks being watched by bystanding Elves. Plated soldiers in Dragonfall heraldry stalked the flames, putting down survivors, and the party made sure to try and subdue them non-lethally through paralysis and melee strikes. However, Kasan Kagane stormed up to the monks and, seemingly incensed, began unleashing his full druidic power against the soldiers, killing them outright. Anma, Orianna, Breighlin, and Cynara were intent on stopping his rampage, and Cynara banished him temporarily: this was to help Avery, who magically charmed one of the soldiers, escape with a surviving hostage, as they began to deduce that Dragonfall was not precisely behind this assault. Avery handed him over to Folluin, and he revealed himself as a Donsacatan mercenary named Cante Alvieri. When Chancellor Kagane returned, he begrudgingly helped with a more mundane rescue. Brother Spark pulled himself from the wreckage as the party healed the monks, and he confided in the party that, were it not for Cynara's earlier explosion, the damage could have been much worse. Cante confirmed that explosives had been smuggled in earlier by the unknown mastermind of the scheme: fearing that the basement could be the site of further calamity, the party decided to rest there for the night and keep watch there.

In the morning, the party found Priestess Goldbraid in the dungeon nearby, and explained to her the situation. She had managed to subdue the communion of Prophet Quelí, and had in her possession the original Primus Heart. She confirmed that the machines had gone murderous after the hearts of them had been replaced with largely-unknown new iron creations, although she also asked if the party had found anything else suspicious. The party saw the slumped communion of Prophet van Døschri in one room, and so they decided to breach another, having been told by Goldbraid that it contained another one of the three demon jars. Avery, Cynara, and Breighlin confirmed the room was filled with webs and giant spiders closer to devils than to beasts: Avery even got the attention of one of the other creatures within the room, a drider. Fearing the worst and believing the demon to have already escaped, the party prepared to fight, and Orianna caused a conflagration within the chambers.

The screams from inside were interrupted by shattering ceramic and the sounds of slaughter. The fire suddenly extinguished, and the door swung open (and then was immediately shut by Orianna). Although filled with fear, the heroes nevertheless determined that if they had unleashed a demon, it was their task to put it down and return it to the Abyss immediately. They entered, and Breighlin, gifted with magical sight, saw a demon in the poor guise of an aged man. He expressed sadness at was inevitably due to them: the party wasted no time in unleashing storms, spells, and spear against it, bruising its form but eliciting little reaction. Instead, he called forth a faint demonic essence: Orianna and Cynara found themselves overcome with visions of flame, and sick, biting bloodlust directed at their allies…

===== Session 89: The Triumphant and Turning Tide =====

Quick spellcraft from Anma and Breighlin dispelled the haze on Orianna and Cynara, leaving both of them with growths on their backs that tried to pull free of their bodies. Orianna expelled the elemental form, while Cynara pulled away from it by stepping into the Astral Plane. Both separate parts squealed and crawled while the party turned their focus to Benlor, with Avery targeting it with precise strikes and bolts of lightning being summoned upon it, while he fought back only with weakened, ash-choked flames. A bolt from Anma finally sent him back to the Abyss, leaving Cynara and Protophylarch to help mop up the remaining masses on the ground. As the adrenaline faded, Cynara saw lines trace themselves upon her skin, and felt something change, something leave her as the part of her body that escaped was killed: it was shocking enough to make Orianna terrified of returning to her Tiefling form. The change seemed permanent to all inspection.

Breighlin investigated the smashed jar of the Demon, and discovered among its powerful wards no signs of it being kept within the monastery for longer than 80 years — much shorter than the time claimed by Spark and Goldbraid. She collected ash from inside of Orianna from Benlor, and drew Devil's Blood from the bodies of the charred driders. Avery wondered if there was anything that they could learn from the other jar, now that the party had a better sense of the foes they were up against, but the greater priority, the party agreed with a boulder-parchment-shears, was to explore the second monastery fully. The other door in Benlor's cell went to the workshop that van Døschri's communion lay in: the party saw it was clear, and entered.

The workshop was cavernous, and very dark: it was only when lights and torches were struck that the party could see the communion was dismembered, and the room was strewn with strange tripods of scaffolding and plate. Goldbraid was coaxed in, and she confirmed that they were made of an outside metal, while Avery and Cynara inspected the staff and arm of van Døschri. When Breighlin went to study the towers, the voice of the Shadowless launched their ambush. Ear-splitting waves radiated from the towers, causing the world to be split into seven visible, shaking parts as their minds filled with overlapping, chattering voices. Two Shadowless, visible to Breighlin's enchanted sight, possessed the loose pieces of the Prophet, and began to attack with powerful spells and lightning, only some of which Breighlin was able to bat out of the air with counterspells.

Slowed and battered by the mental assault, the party started to destroy the towers from the which the Sacred And Terrible was emanating. They were pushed over by Orianna, shattered by Anma, precisely knocked loose by Cynara, melted through with acid by Avery, and their components scorched by Breighlin. Lightning and walls of flame continued to appear, but as the party found their footing they could evade and counter these spells faster. A third voice was disrupting their minds further, one dropping Breighlin unconscious until Cynara healed her, but a wave of flame from the Dwarf revealed a third Shadowless possessing van Døschri's head. Orianna's tidal slam dispelled Telemediae; Cynara sent Omeganeme back to the Plane of Darkness with a well-placed arrow;  Breighlin's fire foiled Ivalicai yet again.

Each killed Shadowless released their piece of the Communion, which attempted to reform, too quick for the party to intercept. Once reformed, the Communion of van Døschri rose to its feet, and scorched a message on the wall, before collapsing again.

//Blood of Sacrifice mixed with Demon Ash//

===== Session 90: The Melody and Malefactor =====

After Avery and Breighlin inspected the Communion for any sign of tampering, and found its iron heart damaged, they asked Priestess Goldbraid to explain the message it had carved on the wall — she had none. Confused by the message and its disparate meter, the party mused if a devil or demon could have caused its movement. This theory gave Priestess Goldbraid pause, but she did not explain why and quickly came to disbelieve it herself. As thanks for their efforts, she offered to them all a holy relic, the Fist of Saint Severo, which Avery gracefully took (though without great belief in its practical utility). The party rested, failed to communiate with the demon inside the other jar at all, and decided to move onto the final monastery.

The room they came into through a secret entrance was a burial crypt, with some coffins arranged, to Orianna's quick observation, like the keys of a piano. Two musical clues were inscribed on the doors and the sarcophagi were somewhat sonorous, and so Anma decided to open one up. The lights magically went out, and when they returned, the five dancing monks began the remarkably catchy rites of battle. The party, now well-tested against combat, made quick work of the prancing priests, through spell and blade. Two attempted to draw Anma into their dance, one thwarted by Breighlin, but very quickly they too were dispatched. With the robes of Saint Vala recovered, the party began using the bells within the coffins to play the tunes that opened the other doors. Orianna found within one of the tombs a secret message, about a secret library and the C# coffin, but nothing seemed to produce a physical effect.

Cynara noticed that spiders ran out of the dead monks and turned invisible. Breighlin pursued them with her enhanced sight, but the party left them alive. They pressed onwards through the Southern door, finding an empty series of shelves and a poorly-hiding ghostly gnome. It quickly became apparent that the spectre was few in manners or knowledge, knowing that he hated demons but not being sure of where he was, his name, or what he wanted. With some test, the party offered him freedom, and he lent his small might to Cynara's bow. Avery explored the shelves, finding a series of receipts for items the Elves had ransacked over decades from the Monastery, including the tiara of Sanilir. The only thing that remained was a Tuning Fork adorned with images of the Silver Smith: possibly the party's ticket to her heavenly domain.

The next room was constructed like a church, similar to those of Resotania, adorned with murals of Sanilir being summoned and a statue with an oil in its hands. As the party investigated, exhausted from their previous fights, the ceiling collapsed: a Communion with a powerful Demon inhabiting it and splitting its frame open. Anma summoned the storm with her last major spell slot: Breighlin used her own to ensure the corruption was unable to stop it, //Counterspelling// the beasts own magical countermeasures. Cynara, Protophylarch and Orianna made strong efforts to always stay near the foe while Avery took advantage of the distraction to deal precision strike after strike. It retaliated to push the melee fighters away, but their pursuit was dogged, and despite its summoned poison, the demon was not strong enough to fight these heroes of legend. Cynara threw the Irons Bands of Bilarro over it, and Avery aimed a precise shot, causing the shattered prophet to cease its writhing and turn into ash, as with Benlor before it.

===== Session 91: The Paraclete and Prisoner =====

Anma took the Oil of Prophetic Anointment for later use, and the party found a busily-filled prayer room as the final room to be explored — and on a tapestry was the final part of the Celestial rhyme. The party decided that it was the more trustworthy of the couplets: and with the final Communion vanquished, returned to Priestess Goldbraid. With some convincing, she placed the Primus Heart within the Communion of van Døschri, but it was barely able to communicate, and with permission, ejected many of its limbs. Anma led the effort to replace its damaged parts with other limbs from the other Communions, with a head taken from one of the Five Kings.

The Prophet shuddered into motion, speaking with some effort through cryptic and twisting sentences. The party tried asking it about the Monastery's secrets, but the Heart was unhappy with the current construction, and so they put loftier questions to the amalgamation of every prior Prophet, speaking with one voice. It was asked what Ahm's will was, and while the answer of goodwill to all was inoffensive enough, Avery was disturbed by the suggestion that the intended audience was not yet hearing the message. The Prophet's side of the story of Yeenoghu was that all the Shadowless had to be slain after their leaders made a pact with the Xanthous: it also said now that it and Leurut's fate were intertwined, obviously and mysteriously. As its final response, when asked who the intended audience was of Ahm's messages and preaching, the Prophet posed a question of its own: if Yeenoghu was meant to be slain, why would Ahm have left it alive in the first place? The Primus Heart finally failed, and Goldbraid rescued it before it overheated.

Goldbraid resisted the idea of Anma seeking the hidden room now that the threat was gone (which didn't stop Avery trying and failing to find it), and the party returned to the surface after almost a full day within the New Monastery. Brother Spark was immensely thankful for their help, and the party theorised ways of applying their new mystic instructions to the shielded Planeblade splinter. Breighlin mused if the steps that Yroþ van Døschri could be repeated to cast the Cliffs under eternal sunlight once more; Anma hoped that the location was simply enough; Avery, Cynara, and Orianna mused on the possibility of opening a portal to the Plane of Light. All agreed, however, that they were weary and should rest at Folluin's before taking rash actions. The Elf was delighted to welcome back such danger-rushing heroes, but didn't care much either way as to O.P.E.R.A.'s actions. The party feasted, rested, and were greeted by a summons to Dragonfall's castle in the region delivered by Crowmill himself.

The part soared, and met Prince Mearis Threandir, Lord-Governor of Brightwood, in his private chambers. He advised them that he broadly agreed with their assessment of the Chancellor's actions, and so had placed Kasan Kagane under arrest in a magically-sealed chamber. He wanted the party, heroic and trusted, to get to the bottom of the matter and that he would trust their testimony totally. They were led into the antimagic cell that Kasan Kagane rested in, severely weakened and manacled. Information was slowly teased out of him: he spoke first of the Dragonfall attack, revealing that it was he who helped plan it and ensure its success, and that he was convinced that it benefitted everyone for the obvious story to be the one that survives. It would be a blow to Dragonfall and boost Brightwood. At Anma's questioning, he spoke of his lonely early life in the desert, desperate and surviving off elementals, and how he was nourished by Brightwood's strength and would do anything to return and maintain access to that font of magic.

The party seemed ready to condemn him for his part in the murder: he gave an unconvincing argument that he had slain murderers and possibly prevented the attack spiralling even more out of control. To great consternation, he had more practical motives too: Dragonfall's occupation of Brightwood failing would prevent a more bloody uprising against Prince Mearis later, and he promised Breighlin that he would allow it to be run in any method the party liked if it would earn him his freedom and Mearis's failure. He sweetened the deal with knowledge of the Crown of Sanilir, which Locutor Heirinfall had been wearing when he summoned Sanilir and received the Primus Heart. Whether the party agreed with his actions or no, with the power in their hands, no one believed that it would be better for Dragonfall to be in charge and to deal with Queen Inaze after her Chancellor had swung: they emerged from the cell, and told Mearis that Kasan Kagane had not planned the attack.

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.