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On Aiqasóma 21st [DOY 161] and party enters the basement of Nylsanna in her Optimistic Vengeance (owned and operated by the Rationalist Church of Nylsanna), weighed down with various metals and hoping to engage in peaceful economic exchange. Instead they found themselves met with an empty room and a note - "Aomm alone knows who you are. Think better of it. If this was an honest mistake, here’s two gold to forget about it”.
The places where the machines had been connected to the floor looked burned, and only a few fragments remained.
Disco cast detect magic, and found divination on one of the two gold pieces. He dropped that one in a passing carriage and kept the other.
The party exchanged the silver and some of the other metal, and began to head in the direction of their hotel, when they heard an explosion, and saw three winged demons- a Winged Bearded Demon, a Winged Rat Demon, and a Winged Mantis Demon, all flying towards the ocean as fast as they could. Because this path brought them reasonably close to the party, Cyndra cast Earthbind on the Winged Mantis Demon, grounding it. The Winged Rat Demon descended as well, and the Winged Bearded Demon continued on its way. The party raced over and fought the two demons- the offense was overwhelming enough that the Winged Rat Demon had no chance to escape once he figured out that this was, in fact, the correct call.
These demons defeated, the party rushed over to the other explosion, which had everyone screaming about even more demons. A humming demon and a rime demon had risen out of the ground after the explosion, and so had several chopper demons. The humming demon's wings produce a humming sound which causes magical slumber, and the rime demon activated a fun point blank snow storm. The chopper demons, of course, began trying to chop the PCs with the blades that they have instead of arms because blades are all that they need because they chop.
This battle featured a lot of fun things, the best of which was an auto-crit on the sleeping Geddreng, who died and had all his blood drained and also had a huge demon proboscis shoved into him which is how the death happened. This is a VERY damaging attack. You should NOT fall asleep around this guy! The Rime demon did some cool cold damage and stuff, and the chopper demons, well, they really didn't get to chop as much as they hoped, but lets be real, no one has seen the last of the chopper demons. Think about how much still remains unchopped, reflected in the knowing and pained eyes of the chopper demons.
Once the demons were all destroyed, Disco cast Gentle Repose on the mangled artisinally sourced 100% blood-free Geddrengesque skinwrapped skeleton, which kept it fresh until the next morning, when Cyndra could cast Revivify. Maybe revivify should only cost 300 gp if you have it that very round, maybe it should be like 900 gp if it's longer than that. I dunno, I'll consider that.
The party then explored the strange pit, which had a bunch of demon corpses, mnay strapped to stone slabs. It looked like this undergruond area was unknown to the people above it, and it looked like it had just a whole lot of the same types of demons- mostly lesser demons- that the party had dealt with and heard of in the demon armies back in Aykaiton. No one was willing to claim the dead demon storage, but Sir Renith Laeting, a Dark Knight in the service of King Irediln Rosewill of the Kingdom of Sendrelan, was there to rudely ask questions of NPCs, and he even asked the PCs some questions. Once asked about his very visible Ioun Stone of Mastery, he was sure to strongly imply he had gained it by killing a good dragon, and also wore a symbol of Dysilret, which is probably not totally legal to do.
The party bet on some wallboat races, which, despite basically being 50/50, somehow turned into a free cash bonanza. They also spent time shopping for some magical stuff, including conjunctive reagants and Kenda gems. The necromancers who they had run into last time were still around, trying to recruit to the last legal day before it became illegal to promote Burolibarrian Necromancy- the new type of necromancy created and promoted by the black dragon Burolibar Beentamathelebius. News was about, that necromancers matching their description (they dye their beards with white and black stripes- or in the case of the women, their hair) had been sighted near a graveyard and upon arrival the party found that there were around a dozen citizens keeping watch on the graveyard. The next day, Aiqasóma 24th [DOY 164], pamphlets making claims of how it is moral to use necromancy to force dead bodies into servitude because of this new way of doing magic were again found all over the city, and this appears to have been the absolute last straw for the party.
They continued their search and found one of them, and Disco approached him and expressed interest. Both Disco and the blood-filled Geddreng were welcomed, as their faint touch of shadow from the rewards of Azarellen negated the need to really trick their way into good graces or anything. They got to meet Ivurus Dantheed for the second time (the first time being before they raided the vault), and he made a good case for his beliefs.
At this point, the party decided to do some research. Did these documents represent anything real? The necromancy, while fancy and presented differently, did seem to be doing something novel, but they consulted an expert- the priest Brig Toolar at the biggest church in town, Nylsanna And Aomm Hold Strong (part of the Twinned Church), explained how to tell that the actual necromancy in question was the same soul magic doing the same evil deeds, but in newer, and deliberately obscured way. Assuming that a black dragon did come up with this, it seems to be for the purpose of recruiting the sort of people who wouldn't normally be necromancers.
After some debate, the party split into two- Geddreng and Disco both went to the meeting, the others stayed far enough back. Since the necromancers were all planning to levae the next day, and this was their last chance, they killed them all. All except for the potential recruits, Bracro, Ilessa, and Enkna, all of whom ran away as soon as the party had given their speech about necromancy being wrong, and this not actually being different necromancy.
Disco and Geddreng then used Disguise Self to pretend to be the dead necromancers returned to the inn they were staying at, and stole everything they could and headed out, burning anything they didn't need later.
Aiquasóma 27th [DOY 167] saw Imali Tanut arrive, at which point they handed her the Wiliotope. She suggested everyone head to the Soothing Tree Reservation, a couple days travel away, and the party agrees. She explains that it has a nearly unlimited amount of mosquitoes (created by Eschcamit to spread disease) and also has buildings that are suited for study. But that if somehow there's a big explosion, it wouldn't blow up a bunch of people, or anything important.
The party arrives on Tarancalim 1st (summer solstice, DOY 169), finding the Soothing Tree Reservation exactly as described. Two party members fall victim to a mild mosquito-borne disease, but not Nyxara, who keeps the parasites away with shaped water.
It only takes Imali a couple days to map out the places that the Wiliotope recorded extreme etheric currents, and the time, and the place- the cage was created in Ghelmidais- the southeast area. She will eventually have an exact location. But her real tasks now begin- first logging anything related to the Branch of Palendis and the imprisonment of Azarella, and second, looking for anything else that occurred. This task will take many days.
On the 5th of Tarancalim [DOY 174], Nyxara recieves a message from Saintallaine:
“Found Master Iliphar. Captured by Wyvern Clan. Unbreakable Promise plans to meet them but not to save him. Come to Precious Metal Immediately. 17 days”
Nyxara responds with: “In CourageousCape weird necromancers in precious metal, be careful. Will try to be there soon.”
Cyndra whisks the party back immediately, and is presented with a shopping list by Arinthia. They set out promptly, and on Tarancalim 6th [DOY 175] just before Beat 30 (a bit after 2 PM) they see...
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