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Being unwilling to allow Morgrim to suffer further, the party devotes their full effort into solving these extradimensional riddles. They need three of the five, plus Quintessence.
1- Bolt from the Guardian of the final machine
2- Gummydrop from Mamaseet's Tree of Life
3- Hair of a good immortal queen
4- Ashes burned by the purest light of Turallyon
5- Dust from a Xennish corpse
Initially having no idea what the ominous "final machine" is, the furthest in that direction that they get is remembering a priestess of Kylum that Rigby met in Monshiro. She shared fragments of a vision dream where Kysum was writing a letter to "The Guardian", and had mentioned that Caelum was now able to help, with the implication that this time was bought by the PCs. However, that didn't tell them where the "final machine" was, exactly how "final" it would be, etc. By implication, they knew that it couldn't be on Caligo, and they have already learned that making a planar tuning fork, while within their wealth boundaries, can be stressful on time, especially if they don't know the name of the reality or all that much about it. They passed on this one.
The Gummydrop was the last one that they obtained. They sort of brute forced this one, having noticed that Alenka, under feywine, is somewhat suggestable to certain outside influences, and had already had a dream of "Mamaseet". Ash had as well, in a terrible vision he prayed to Latukefu for, but Alenka had been able to interact in a limited way. The party's solution involved her being out for nearly the entire month of Obdurate, with a couple days to recover in between. During this time, they took to dressing her up in amusing ways, Weekend at Alenka's. In the first of two dreams where she appeared on an endless rolling green plain, she was paralyzed (as she always was when in this area), and small brown limbless happy things rolled/waddled up. She could "talk" with them, and they brought her to Mamaseet, a larger version of themselves, who has both a hut, a tree of life, a garden of peace, and pond of unity- but the tree of life was obviously the important part. Mamaseet said that she needed to roll down the hill, took her in that direction, and pushed her down. While pleasant and harmonious, and probably not the worst afterlife one could hope for, Alenka has places to be and things to do, and eventually woke, with no gummydrop. Other sleeps issued no strange dreams, and a disturbing vision of Alenka at a Voriphan party, first with a persuasive female who offers to bend the rules a bit for her, showing her a possible family tree that could somehow be better than she believes. While vague, this causes intrigue, and a moment later the scene is wiped of partygoers and night, and now she is at a daytime meeting in the same locale with "Logisticians", who tell her not to give in to her passions. The player, confused by catching the last few minutes of a long confusing TV show, changed the damned channel, and in the final sleep she ends up back at Mamaseet, convinced utterly that she can be given a gummydrop, despite not really being there physically. Her conversation with Mamaseet is a bit unsatisfying, but Mamaseet does want to help her. Her advice is vague and pretty nonphysical, but she does put a gummydrop in her pocket and then roll down the hill with her. When she wakes up she has the gummydrop, but she's also in Queris. She spends a day and a half walking near the edge of the fire forest until the rest of the PCs teleport in and pick her up, goal in hand.
Getting hair from a good immortal queen was their first task, though they didn't exactly know it at the time. Knowing that they had to leave Caligo, and having only one tuning fork, they headed to Kylon. When transporting, the casters get the impression of being inside a kind of beam of light, one of several, but not one of countless or infinite or any of that stuff. However, as they near their destination, they are "diverted"- still inside the overall beam, but a jarring sensation twists them. They end up on Violam, bound in summoning circles, as a mad mage screams at them that they are "DEEEMONS" who must "OBEYY". Some of the PCs resist and can bargain, but most think that working for a small copper chip is a splendid deal. The others don't settle for anything more, and they are released from their prisons. The two, B'r'k'm and Al-th'nm, are both mad at times with brief streaks of sanity, but both are trained as Mages. The Al-th'nm recognizes right away that they are not demons. THe task they are bound to is to kill the "triwisp", a ghostly creature a small island away. They get to the island (over a sea of mercury) by riding a lead tree, which the locals question them about. It's obvious that everyone in this mostly ruined coastal city is insane. Upon arriving, they fight a creature that grows stronger and attacks with three different claws. While an appropriate encounter, roughly, for characters of this level, it's honestly not that appropriate a fight for Keichis of this level, and the mighty tri-wisp is cleaved down without the party having to be all that clever. Well, honestly, if dual wielded katanas don't substitute for strategy at least SOME of the time, what good are they? Once they get back to the ruined city, they find out a little bit more, and are able to temporarily (with a Heal spell) remove B'r'k'm's insanity. He explains that they are a cursed people, and that their world is Violam. They are able to survive, but become progressively more and more insane. They subsist by eating metals (Rigby gives some cheese to Al-th'nm, but it poisons her, and the party burns a neutralize poison potion to save her) mostly, and also vegetables, and their world is pretty awful. The PCs discover an economic point, wherein gems are overly common, and they trade very nicely for some. The "curse" supposedly is thousands of years old, and while they can physically leave, their arcane magic is not able to allow them to live in another environment, or cure their insanity. They were cursed by the First Gods, for siding with the wrong side in some long forgotten revolution (none of the First Gods are still around at this point, all having been dispatched by the New Gods, who have been in charge of the universe in a stable fashion for a long time). B'r'k'm teleports without error the whole group to Kylon, more specifically, Nerito, by the large lake they saw when they were there once. Some interrogation of the locals (specifically a guard) lets them figure out that the capital is both close by and that, while she no longer rules actively, there is in fact a good immortal queen-grandmother. Upon finding their way to the capitol, the party finds that Astrid is one of the members of the "Savior Party" and are revered as living demigods by cultists who are tolerated (though looked down upon). The cultists have many small "artifacts" touched or used by members of this party, including, thankfully, a hair brush used by Astrid. One pixie-theft later, and the PCs plane shift back.
Ashes was the second piece that the party got, and the simplest. After an inventory review, the players found that one of their futuristic weapons, Disshoun, was known as "Disshoun, gem of Turallyon", a Laser Rifle +7. Since none of the laws of physics needed for lasers were around, they decided to move themselves to somewhere where they were- and again, having just the hammer, everything appears to be a nail, so back they were on Kylon, blasting the shit out of the landscape. There was some morality discussed with trees, with the dwarf having a demonstrable anti-tree agenda in his recklessness, and the rest of the party mostly being anti-rock with theirs. The dial on Disshoun is a clear exponent, and Rigby set it up high enough to die, costing the party a revivify. After a bit more partying with heavy weaponry, ship full of mindflayers teleports in. The PCs blast it to nothing with a ranged touch attack, taking a bit of damage from seeing the beam, and then head back with rapidity, putting the weapons back in the vault, ashes aquired.
The dust from a Xennish corpse was discussed. It was found via extradimensional research and communion that the Xen's were the defenders of an "Alliance", and the parry-ball one of their defensive devices, and also that all the Xens were long dead. The PCs were prepared to put in the time necessary to shift to their home reality and scoop up some dust, but put this lower on their list because of the explicit warning from Latukefu that it would be dangerous.
The Quintessence they aquired from Ryan the Ring. Mixing it together with the mortar-and-pestle, they produced enough for two doses as promised, and cured Morgrim of his void-sense. I don't know what they were so worried about- this entire evening demonstrated that 10% never even fucking happens!
Unlike Parry Ball, where 8% is a WHOLE lot.
Mission accomplished, they decided that their next step was to attempt to meet up with the "Voriphan Resistance". Teleporting into Tura, on the docks, they meet with the brother of a prominent member of the resistance, who directs them to an inn, where they meet a coordinator and a disguised silver dragon. They provide them safe transport to Fen, the floating city on the coast of Ato-Lar (the small island next to Ato-arn, the northwest isle of the nine large ones). Once there they meet with the head of the Voriphan resistance, who is discussing plans when the group is set upon by a group of guards and some heroes of the empire- obviously, the Voriphan resistance was under SOME manner of observation, and bringing in a bunch of powerful foreigners is the sort of thing that causes you to tip your hand.
It is Obdurate 48th. You are facing a large physical combatant with long golden hair and pale white skin (he introduced himself as Orix Merakek, and has a mercurial greatsword), and behind him stands a male Voriphan dual wielding Turals with unnaturally green eyes and stylized blue hair on the left side of his head, two armored females, both with the holy symbol of Miryanna on their chests, and with a couple illusory streamers on their armor (hard to stylize in a feminine fashion in full plate), a pitch-dark skinned Voriphan male with no hair at all and what looks like a Tura-glyph on his forehead, wearing an ornate robe of orange and purple, and at least two guards. The enemy party is prepared for battle- you guys better get to it!
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