Forty-Seventh Session - Gates and Keys

Session begins with the Keepers awakening after a troubling night of divinely-linked dreams. Ishaq takes the Little Black Book to Celia, asks her to defuse its defences. She does so, and Ishaq carefully opens the book. He can’t read the language, but believes it’s a wizard’s spellbook.

Jainith offers them breakfast. The party compares dreams at Ishaq’s prompting. Max guesses that the stone in his might symbolize the sundial they have to retrieve. Alana asks their hosts if they also had strange dreams, and they confirm they did.

Jainith confirms that the Temple often inspires powerful dreams, but they weren’t expecting the party to be affected in one night. Ishaq convinces Jainith to share her dream, and she shares that she was in the bosom of her god, as she always is, and he told her that Alana’s trust was his trust.

Markoris is particularly perturbed by his unclear dream. Jainith tells him that it’s always difficult to connect to the overwhelming mind of a god. After Markoris describes his dream, Jainith suggests that Sarashim herself visited him. Sarashim is a weaker god, so items that pertain to her rituals are important and rare.

Jainith asks Alana if she trusts the gang, she admits she trusts some more than others. Jainith says that she can’t reveal all to the party, but assures the group that Sarashim is honest and just.

Ishaq asks which side Sarashim would be on in a Godwar, Jainith doesn’t know. Ishaq shares that a Godwar was prophesied in his dream. Max asks if Sarashim ever communicates in shapes. Valren says he saw shapes last night, and indicates the stolen stone acts as a conduit/vessel for communicating ideas.

After much bickering and arguing over trust, Alana gives Jainith permission to spill the beans. V/L casts expositive magic and explain that Alana’s Druidic order are Guardians of Gates to the home planes of different Gods and that the Gates can be unlocked with artifacts called Keys. The Apocalypse Orb is one such Key, and the Sundial is the Key to Sarashim. The Guardians’ sworn duty to possess the Keys while ensuring they are never used by those who would abuse them, as they could cause immeasurable damage.

Jainith believes the Starred Guard are studying the sundial, without knowing its full importance. Bad things will happen if they figure it out. Max asks if they can defend the Stone from being taken again if it’s retrieved, and is told they would need to move the Lock (the Temple itself) to a safer place, a lengthy ritual. Side note: the Starred Guard are linked to the Sky Knife, an arcane deity aligned with the Raith Pantheon.

Max asks for any additional assistance, everyone gets Enhance Ability cast on them for the next 8 hours. Alana says her goodbyes, then they depart.

Max and Celia keep a close eye out during the trip back (about three hours). On the way back, they discuss and plan. Alana shares that the Crownsguard stole her temple’s Key before she ended up in Traitor’s Keep. Ishaq notes that the Empire’s authority is the common thread in these thefts, and speculates that the Keys are being stolen in emulation of the God-Empress’s original ascension - that the current human-Empress wants godhood

The lock-moving ritual is a Plane Shift of the entire temple, difficult as hell and lengthy. Celia speculates the Lady might be against the Empress in the Godwar. Max and Markoris discuss whether the Bishop could help, and whether he’d ask for payment.

Back in line at the gates of Azkaresh, searches being conducted of inbound travellers. Ishaq realizes the Little Black Book probably counts as contraband, he casts invisibility on the book and puts it in the Bag of Holding. The Keepers make it through inspection and re-enter Azkaresh around noon.

Ishaq suggests he and Max go to the archives, Celia and Markoris look around for the redhead to stake her out, and Alana does whatever she wants. Alana is more concerned about the redhead and decides to go with that group while Raul accompanies the archive group.

PERCEPTION GROUP goes down to the neighborhood the Starred Guard hangs out while off duty. Celia dons her human disguise. Markoris suggests going by shops and smithies first, because it’s early in the day. After about an hour, Markoris and Alana spot their quarry coming out of the blacksmith in uniform with a broadsword. They decide to follow her and meet Celia back at a tavern she indicates. She doesn’t seem to notice that she’s being followed as she goes about her route.

She meets two other SGs and they start chatting -- Markoris picks up bits of the convo and she says “yeah we’ll meet up tonight in the bar and discuss things then, it’s been a long day already” and she reveals herself to be their captain.

They follow for four hours until she goes back to HQ, at which point they duck into a little knickknack shop where they can see the entrance. When the redheaded woman emerges in plainclothes, they follow her towards the cop bar.

Celia has been playing cards at the tavern they left her at — she didn’t win much but she had fun. The people she’s playing with seem very friendly and buy her a drink and she makes friends. (Their names are Reginald and Matthias.) They say goodbye and invite her back anytime when she departs with Markoris and Alana — they think she’s cute!!

The three of them follow her back to the cop bar, where she goes in. They decide to follow inconspicuously, so Alana is a mouse, Celia changes up her disguise, and Markoris just does his thing. It’s about 5pm.

Inside, Markoris spots her at a table by the back and sits at the bar as close as he can get. He can pick up snippets of the convo — Alana  tries to sneak under the table. She gets noticed by the redheaded woman and kicked, and turns back into Alana, and then has to Misty Step outside. In the middle of a cop bar.

There are 20 different guards getting up drawing their swords and yelling and rushing outside to see if they can catch anyone. Celia pretends she doesn’t know Alana, who is right outside the bar. She casts Fog Cloud and runs, goodbye. Markoris orders a drink because dear gods. Alana changes into a bird and flies away. Celia is in the fog cloud as the guards rush out and dispel it, and one grabs at Celia’s shoulder. She’s not who they’re looking for, and they run past her!

Alana is currently a sparrow; she flutters up to a rooftop and hangs out to watch them search for her for about ten minutes before they give up grumbling and go back to the bar.

The redhead, inside, is saying, “I swear to god, if Dierdre is pulling another fucking prank on me I’m going to tear her hair out.” Her companions eventually convince her to sit back down. Markoris remains eavesdropping, undetected, and Celia enters and sits equidistant from the redheaded woman, who is still ranting.

“I swear to god if she’s got wind of what we’re up to and is trying to money in on my position, I’m not going to stand for it. It’s fine, whatever, we’ll deal with her if she gets here but we’ve got more work tonight. Make sure that we’re prepared, meet me by the palace gates and we’ll go from there. […] I want to smash something, we’ll do it today.”

Celia gets up, speaks telepathically to Markoris who follows her out, and a little sparrow lands on his shoulder. They make their way down to the first level and an alley and Celia shares what Captain Leona was talking about, re: Dierdre and the job tonight, that they’re going to meet at the palace gates. They decide to go to the archives to meet Ishaq, Max and Raul.

INVESTIGATION GROUP heads to the archives. Ishaq goes up to the desk and takes out his writ, sliding it across all smiles. It’s access to catacombs information only. The secretary bird Arakockra at the desk asks if they need a research room, and he says yes for 5 gold an hour and then 1 gold/hour for each book. Max takes out a platinum piece and says “How about all of that and some privacy? This is a city issue we’re dealing with right now.” “Are you sure you don’t need more time than that?” And he puts down two more platinum pieces.

When the secretary asks if they want all materials on the catacombs, Max asks for information on the Negative Plane. She seems surprised and says she’ll get the catacombs works first, which seem fairly extensive.

Ishaq takes over and says they’re expecting a Lord Roe to come by, please give them a heads up if he comes by, and the bird starts fussing immediately over whether she should be wearing something fancier. Max rolls insight and she definitely recognizes the name “Lord Roe.”

Ishaq lays it on very thick with the secretary, who’s still fussing, but agrees to give them a heads up and says she should ask Arabelle, the head librarian. Ishaq asks her to keep it on the down-low because this is a matter of state and he might not be instigating his usual pomp and circumstance.

The secretary nods, says she’ll get books on the catacombs and negative planes, and Ishaq also asks for books on the old god and Sarashim. Max butts in and says he’s just muscle and isn’t familiar with Lord Roe, is there anything in particular he should know about him from the secretary? She seems very timid and says to be polite because he doesn’t like rudeness, and keep your eyes down.

Ishaq starts bullshitting that they’re going to continue Lord Roe’s research and when she asks for a writ, searching his pockets and getting frantic that he lost it. Max plays along as they both freak out and apologize to the secretary who says Lord Roe’s research is “extremely top secret.” She fusses more and flees the room to go get their books.

They keep the act up even alone, because they don’t know if the place is bugged, and Max rolls a 19 searching for surveillance. He deems this one of the safest places to talk in Azkaresh, and also deems Lord Roe a prick. Ishaq agrees, she’s afeared of him. They consider talking to the head librarian Arabelle about Lord Roe since she probably helps him directly with his research.

Max suggests charming her, Ishaq explains she’d know, and he isn’t certain there aren’t magical wards even if there’s no surveillance. Max defers to his expertise and wants to try and figure out where Lord Roe lives, since he’s obviously local. Ishaq thinks this is a good idea and in addition he could turn Max invisible.

The librarian comes back with a bunch of books and maps  that don’t really match up to the current catacombs, from before the expansion. The books are compilations of the history of the city, about monster hunting in Azkaresh, about LOTLE’s temple, and a biography of someone who spent a lot of time in the catacombs. She did ask Arabelle about the Negative Plane and she said she’d take a look but doesn’t have anything yet. She bows and says if they need her to come to the door and call for her down the hall.

Ishaq is reading about LOTLE’s underground temple to see when it was repurposed and by whom, and copying the early catacombs map to see which parts don’t match or are unknown, possibly exploited avenues they haven’t considered yet. It turns out no one knows when the catacombs were originally made, they’re pre-historic and as old as the city, while the temple was made 500 years ago, relatively recently, and the whole thing is considered her domain. There were five priests that used to work the catacombs and many more rituals but when Azkaresh was dominated by Raith they changed a lot of those practices and built the temple, etc etc.

The maps don’t seem to line up with Markoris’ — the major pathways do, but the old maps (although not as complex) have branches that go far longer. One out to the west and one to the northeast. There’s no indication of what those branches Markoris; map is missing might be for. They’ve stopped using those extended parts of the catacombs on more recent maps, it seems, as they’re also missing on those.

Culturally: West tends to be the direction people’s heads are buried. Her river also runs to the west in her dominion. The temple of Sarashim lies to the Northeast, not directly under the paths but in the same general area.

Ishaq feels like he knew something else that lies to the Northeast that he can’t quite recall, something significant he learned when he was a child, but he knows the directions are important and thinks they should go West ritualistically speaking.

Max asks if they know which god the orb was a key for, and Ishaq says no, he doesn’t think even Alana knows, but he doesn’t think it’s LOTLE. Max indicates the NE tunnel and that it’s leading in the general direction of the temple of Sarashim, which could have been useful to the SGs who raided the Temple. It continues off the map.

Mas suggests calling the Warden for information. Ishaq pops out the stone and calls the Warden. Nothing happens. The spell isn’t going through, this place is probably too warded for it to work. They’re in a no-service zone, and will have to try again later. He tests the no magic theory with a minor illusion, nothing happens.

The secretary bird comes back as they’re discussing leaving as soon as their time runs out just in case Lord Roe does show up — she’s got the only book on the Negative Plane that their writ allows, essentially an encyclopedia entry on the Negative Plane. Max asks if she’s sure sure that’s all she can show them? She fusses that she’s helped them as much as she can without being punished for exceeding the writ. Max grumbles that he understands. Ishaq says “we don’t want her to be a jailbird” and Max never speaks to him again.

A researcher who was looking into the Negative Plane once went mad after trying to write a manifesto in his own blood in a gibberish language. One theory is that the Negative Plane is a God Plane that reverted or experienced an apocalyptic event. It’s not great for sure, but it’s thought that the negative plane was a god plane that reverted?

Ishaq is super interested in this God Plane theory, as God Planes are not a physical space or structured or always in the same place. He tells Max about the theory that the pantheon gods are not like the ancient gods, and that there are stories of people who ascended - but before that a cataclysmic shift needs to occur.

“Do you know what would be a cataclysmic shift? If a god died.”

Max notes that some people are big fans of gods dying while looking meaningfully at Ishaq, who seems to have made a connection between the negative plane and the coming god war. Max would rather focus on the flesh and blood man who’s trying to kill them (Lord Roe) but Ishaq thinks all of this is connected and Lord Roe may be on to the same ideas. The two agree that they are criminal investigators, albeit with varying meaning to those two words.

Ishaq also asks the secretary bird if she can read the Little Black Book and she says yes, it’s in Abyssal. Session ends with the team about to research Sarashim and other pre-Raith gods.