The Light at the End of the Tunnel - 9/2 session recap

The party found themselves in a ten-foot wide circular tunnel. The floor was flat, and the passage ran perfectly straight in opposite directions. Thoric was unable to see a teleportation circle etched in the surface of the floor, which was somewhat curious. Ander was able to remeber which way they had come out of the portal, and suggested that direction for travel.

For five days, they marched along the tunnel with only Boreas' staff to light the way. The tunnel remained straight the entire time, and Thoric was able to determine that dwarves had made it. They dropped refuse along the way to make sure that they were not in some sort of moebius loop, but they never encountered their own leavings.

One the sixth day, they saw a light up ahead. After another half-hour, they came to the end of the tunnel. Before them stretched a flat plain of stone. Perhaps ten miles away, a city stretched to the horizon on both their right and left. The tunnel emerged from a vertical wall that appeared to have been carved from the base of mountains, and the wall ran enevenly for as far as they could see to either side. The city was lit by occasional twinkling lights, and dark forms flitted through the air like crows.

As they took all of this in, Boreas noticed a dark shape moving towards them from one side, partially along the wall, and partly on the ground. As it got closer, it became apparent that it was a large swarm of fist-sized metallic insects. The spell casters unleashed destructive energies as the bugs approached, and the swarm split up to attack separate party members. When a bug managed to crawl onto someone successfully, they ground through clothes and armor with circular three-part mouths. Eventually, the party thinned out the swarm, and it retreated to just outside of spell range. The bugs formed a perimeter that moved with the party, and expanded to accomodate lone party members venturing away from the group.

A light from the city seemed to be approaching through the air, but was many miles away when John Oldhamshire suddenly appeared amongst them. He said that they must grab ahold of him, and that he would be able to keep them from being detained. Confused, but trusting him, everyone did so. Immediately they were somewhere else.

They found themselves in a small stone chamber with strange metal ornamentation on the walls that contained glowing and glittering gems. Six glass cylinders stretched from floor to ceiling, three on each side of the room. There was no discernable door. The party tried to ask John questions, but he seemed distracted. He stood in concentration, unmoving, for about a minute. He then asked them to take hold of him again, that he was going to take them to safety. Boreas grabbed his ear, and was politely chided. Again, the party found themselves standing somewhere else.

This time they were standing on top of a teleportation circle at the center of a small clearing in a forest. The air was cool and refreshing. John made the party take a magically binding vow not to reveal anything he was about to tell them. Then he started answering questions.

The party asked about the city they had seen, and John seemed confused for a moment before he realized what they were talking about. He said that it wasn't a city, but an apparatus that covered the remaining suface area of their world. When asked what the purpose of that apparatus was, he said that it was designed to kill what they might call a god. Who created the apparatus? Angels and other astral beings.

He explained that a bit over twenty-six thousand solar cycles ago, seed stock of elves, dwarves, men, and halflings had been transported to this world. Their memories had been modified, and they settled naturally from there. An area of about five thousand miles in diameter is the known world for all of the races. Any intrepid adventurers who seek to cross the border are detained, and have their memories modified before being turned back. Stronger adventurers who make it past the mindwipe barrier are usually destroyed.

The rest of the world has been shaped by golems into an apparatus for killing Qualghma, the World Eater. Countless worlds have been devoured by the World Eater. It apparently derives sustenance from psychic energy, and is attracted to worlds with certain profiles of sentience. The golems are not sentient, and therefore will not alert Qualghma to the trap.

Qualghma needs to be summoned, however, once the trap is set. And this summoning requires a vast sacrifice of many people by the agents of Qualghma. These agents are active in the world today, subverting or working with other evil cults towards this end. John said that it is of utmost importance that the agents of Qualghma never learn of the trap. They must be allowed to continue their work, though they must be delayed until the trap is finished. He said that the apparatus will not be completed for another twelve and a half years.

The reason that John saved the party from being detained and mindwiped was that he had been given a mission by a faction among the architects of the plan. This faction does not condone the sacrifice of thousands of innocent sentients for the sake of this trap. Thus John was created and instructed to recruit agents to further this faction's agenda. He called himself an advanced automaton.

The party asked where they were at the moment, and he replied that they were in an ancient druid's grove, somewhere near the city of J'harsuguda.

Circle of Mirrors - 8/12 session recap

Boreas and Orvalion repaired and adjusted the mirrors that would be used in the ritual. This took about a week. Ander scouted the surrounding mountainside, and Thoric mastered several rituals from Boreas' spellbook.

Finally, all of the mirrors were positioned properly and activated. Orvalion produced the dragonstone from his satchel, and placed it in the center of the chamber floor, under the open sky. Everyone except for Thoric gathered around inside the ring of mirrors. Thoric remained outside, in case something happened. During the ritual, everyone within the circle of mirrors started to become blurry, and afterimages trailed behind them. Ander tried to move quickly enough to catch his own afterimage, but was not able to do so. The dragonstone started to glow. After an hour of chanting, the time had come.

Orvalion raised the mallet, infused with destructive energies from the four elemental planes, and brought it down in a smashing blow. On impact, the dragonstone exploded, hurling everyone back. Ander instinctively sidestepped a large piece of shrapnel, but he heard his own voice scream as one of his afterimages was slain by it. Then the afterimages ceased, and there was silence. Orvalion stood dazed, and said, "I don't know what to do now."

Slowly, our heroes became aware of a rushing noise from above that was growing louder. A shadow covered the room, and everyone looked up to see a massive blue dragon descending. Ander cried out that they had destroyed the dragonstone, and the dragon responded that he would grant them mercy in the form of a quick death. It breathed a blast of lightning that struck several party members. Two smaller blue dragons descended to either side of the larger one.

Thoric rushed forward to heal his companions with blessings from Linitheriva, and Kylian stood his ground to allow everyone time to retreat. As quickly as possible, everyone fled the chamber for the sheltered cave to one side. This was the room with the partially activated teleportaion circle. As the dragons roared and belched electricity, Orvalion and Xakoraki did some frantic thinking. On a hunch, Orvalion sliced open his palm, and dribbled blood upon the circle. It started to glow, but was not fully activated until Xakoraki added her blood as well. Kylian followed the last party member into the room just as the portal snapped open. Beyond was a dark stone tunnel, and everyone quickly dashed inside.

The portal snapped shut a moment later, shutting off the heavy sound of dragons smashing rock.