Session 6: Stealing Hearts

This was a short session because apparently AMERICA (!!!) controls the flow of time and therefore the rest of us are expected to know when they have daylight savings and adjust our schedules accordingly. If indeed you guys want to start one hour later that’s fine though – Discuss in the comments.

~~~

Not pictured: Citizens huddled atop giant rocks screaming in terror, the giant flying squid*.

Having narrowly escaped the dismantlement of the colony, the party found itself within a forest consisting of a hoard of golden-feathered ostrich-birds that was slowly being rooted to the spot via living metal. The colony was ruined and the ancient city below it was visible, wreathed in a bright green glow.

Understandably, those of them that cared about the colony (read: not Crias) were a bit upset at the development that left their homes suspended far above their heads on jagged metal vines. To that end they demanded some proof as to the assassins’ good intentions.

Dak’kel insisted she could not have been responsible for sabotaging the tower because she came straight to the camp upon leaving the biome. In addition, her feet had no cosmic paint on them, nor did her boots. She suggested that the trees covering the door were placed there by Tuatha himself, citing the fact he was the only druid who knew they were going into the tower, and he would easily have the power to summon some trees that wouldn’t cut. The party didn’t totally buy it, even though Bob pointed out that the defining feature of a druid was the ability to shapeshift.

He also offered up a signed letter from the Huntsman which Julie and Lachlan were able to verify, the ink shifting so that the party could read Bob’s orders. Basically the assassins had given him a note explaining in as many words “You owe me, do what you can for the people holding this” after killing Kraall and Yorick, and signed it so that only his allies could read it. After they did so he threw it in the orrery that they were using as a campfire, incinerating it in the miniature sun. He also took the opportunity to confiscate Crias’ damaged shock stick because it was technically stolen. For those following on at home, this means that Bob was not one of the assassins, and did not lie about having no idea Yorick was dead – his only involvement is as a facilitator, and he doesn’t particularly like being associated with any of these people.

The party then confronted them about their allegiance with the Astrosage to which they responded by summoning Kraall’s spirit. It turned out that Kraall had been working with Tuatha to reinvigorate the primordial heart (literally the heart of one of the old gods), but after he began to suspect his friend of infernal dealings, he began to get cold feet. Verifying his suspicions through a bound demon in a secret room within his tower, he confronted The World Builder, soon realizing there was nothing he could do to stop him. In secret, Kraall began working with the Astrosage to stop Ceylon’s plan. He locked the controls of the tower so only the apprentice of Grayson Faraday could use it, not anticipating Aladraian. After doing so he had himself assassinated, replacing his own soul with one of the local ghosts (hand picked), in order to deny Ceylon himself as a resource. Believing his tower could not be piloted he was rather dismayed to find the plan going ahead anyway.

He explained that Tuatha had come into possession of the true name of the Primordial whose heart rested beneath the village – With that name he could command the heart to do his bidding, though there was always the risk of those who chose to bend it to their will falling under its control themselves. Tuatha was arrogant enough to disregard this caveat, and set in motion a plan to access it. To do so he would need Kraall’s expertise in opening the primordial seals located the ancient city under the mountain. Luckily, Crias through an act of extraordinary incompetence(?) had destroyed Kraall’s notes on the procedure, denying Ceylon an important resource and buying them all some time.

The Astrosage was vehemently against The World Builder’s plan, and hired the Huntsman to steal the name, which he did, storing it in an ornate pendant, that when either invoked or broken would sear the name into the mind of whoever used it either until it was spoken correctly or forever, respectively.  Bob, being the Huntsman’s representative gave it to Zasahl for safe keeping, and because he and the assassins meant to return to the colony, help the people there and hopefully distract Tuatha until the party could put the heart back to sleep using the name. In theory this should prevent it from waking up again, and set the colony back to its original state. Of course, it would be at the cost of keeping the world a barren desert for the rest of time.

The party decided it might be a good idea to take a rest before they did anything else.

Meanwhile, Zasahl confronted Dak’kel about murdering Yorick, which she expressed regret about, though justified her actions by pointing out that not only could Yorick be raised (she’d do it herself if need be, though she suspected Ceylon would deal with it first) but she had acted under the assumption that their success would save the colony. She revealed that she had been brought up as a street thug, and that the church of Bahamut had taken her in, asking her to use her more unconventional skills to help others, which she agreed to do even at the cost of her own soul. As such she felt obliged to make tough decisions so long as eventually her actions ended up helping people. To that end the fact she’d killed two innocents (despite one being a favour) for an ultimately futile purpose was weighing rather heavily on her conscience. She nonetheless refused to turn herself in to the World Builder’s justice under any circumstances.

Afterwards, Aladraian talked to Kraall about where the Psiontist was. Kraall stated he was unsure, but suspected this to be part of some grand design on Grayson’s part. He had provided Grayson with the  location and astronomical details of the Bellerephon Cascade – it’s a nebula that apparently doesn’t give off primal magic, instead it’s surrounded by masses of dark matter and charged with abundant amounts of dark energy. Those qualities make it difficult to analyze, but Grayson seemed satisfied enough to presumably leave to go to it. Unfortunately, The Psiontist was just as cryptic as his destination so Kraall can’t be of much help until he gets himself raised.

*The scene is shot from the squid’s point of view.