Session 25: So many quests. So little time

We are standing in the rubble of Passin's house. Elias's father just threw his bag of gold into a portal. At that moment an imp shows up and tells Elias that he owes 5GP to Mammon every month or 50GP for the year. Elias pays up for the year.
 
Elias's father has a really bad feeling about whomever turned the house upside down. Franz asks Elias's father if he knows where the vampires are and if he will help us kill them.
 
Elias's father brings up that he though his daughter would be at this dinner. Elias is like "I have a sister" and his dad is like "yeah. you're mom never told you?" Mr. Hoccleve then demands to see Elias's mother, Marion. She has never mentioned a sister to Elias. Elias says he's going to ask her himself and tells his dad to go make himself useful somewhere else.
 
Elias's sister was 18 years old when Mr. Hoccleve died.
 
We ask Mr. Hoccleve how the necklace works. ONce he dies, he will be sent to the fuge plane and be recreated there. However, when he didn't pay mammon, his body didn't get rebuilt. IN the past, when he would get "rebuilt" he re-spawns by this necklace thing.
 
Anyway, Andromeda ends up convincing Mr. Hoccleve to get out of here, and Elias is going to talk to his mom about his sister Oska.
 
Andromeda says that it is very well known that Passin despised Mr. Hoccleve and was jealous of him, even though Mr. Hoccleve insists that things were amicable and that they got along when he was alive.
 
Andromeda mentions the estate should have actually gone to his sister, Oska, and it didn't go to her. Why?
 
We walk towards Marion's place. People start waving at Elias in recognition as we walk.
 
We go find her. She with Remish and a pretty barmaid. As Remish is talking to the pretty barmaid, Franz sends franz over with a bouquet of flowers to compete with Remish. It's cute.
 
Elias pulls his mom away to talk. He asks his mom if he has a sister, and Marion says, "No. Not anymore"
She tells him that when he was young, his father wasn't bad per se, but he wasn't a good man. He did make a good life for them when he brought them over from GreatSpear.
 
They had a child....Oska....his half sister....when Marion started dating Mr. Hoccleve, she was also dating Passin. However, Mr. Hoccleve won her over and didn't mind raising the child as his own. Passin apparently didn't know about the child.
 
He was a different man back then. His ambition changed him later. Elias's grandfather was a powerful man, and did not help either of his sons at all. They ended up doing some shady things such as smuggling and fell into a bad crowd. Elias's grandfather stripped them of the hoccleve name and kicked them out of the city. (GreatSpear)
 
Thats when they came to Eldoria. He continued his smuggling business and got involved with Demons. One of those demons being Avalora. Mr. Hoccleve thought he could get the best of Mammon, but in the end died. That is when Passin took over. Passin released demons upon the city causing chaos.
 
There was a temple that fell down. All the council members were in it when it fell.
 
Oska decided she was going to rise up and fight Passin. As tear whel up in Marion's eyes, she tells Elias that Passin killed Oska. She starts to sob into Elias's shoulder.
 
That's why she left the city. So that Passin wouldn't also kill Oska. and she didn't tell Elias because she was afraid he would go after Passin and get himself killed.
 
She wants to leave Eldoria. Elias tells her that she should leave the city. He then pulls out the resurrection stone and resurrects Andromeda and tells them both to go anywhere far from here and have a happy life together.
 
Elias tries to convince her that he will be ok here, because he is surrounded by capable friends. She tells him Oska was a powerful wizard and couldn't defeat Passin.
 
Elias tells his mom that he's so sorry, and then uses pressure points to knock her unconscious and tells Andromeda to take her away. He instructs Andromeda to first go to Blackwood and request 2 armed guards to escort them out of the city.
 
Andromeda warns Elias that Passin has the entire academy at his heels and that the vampires are beyond powerful. Also Andromeda seems to have his vampire teeth still. He's not as pale....what can this mean?
 
Andromeda grabs Elias's hand and puts it over his chest. He has a heartbeat. He's NOT a vampire. We think he's actually a dhampir.
 
He leaves with Elias's mother.
 
Elias returns and tells us what is going on. We don't think Passin realized Oska was his daughter when he killed her.
 
We learn that we didn't actually kill one of the vampires. If they are "killed" outside of their resting place they will come back. You have to steak them and decapitate them in their resting place.
 
Andromeda takes Marion out of the city in a wheel barrow. Other people are also leaving the city with wheel barrels of gold.
 
We end up just escorting Andromeda to the outer parts of the city rather than getting them guards.
 
We know that the academy has a list of really powerful magic users. If we find this list then we can maybe figure out how REverse Gravitied us.
 
we start to wonder where certain folks are like RedStone, Spite, and Bryza. Bryza and Redstone are in Remish's portable hole. Spite is no where to be found. Ashe is worried that if Passin finds her he could manipulate and use her for nefarious means.
 
So we discuss what do we need to do?
 
Investigate the red frogs
Elias's father lying about his relationship with Passin
Passin killing his daughter
The academy and getting a list of powerful users
The drow that ran this way with a skull go gems
The duregar that brought the gold here
QM and his red frog possession issue (He's with Angst)
The fire at the south from last night
Find Spite?
Look out for Joe's people in the city
 
We sleep and think about our plans. When we wake up the next day, Ashe goes down to get breakfast for everyone and learns that the hotel is on a barter system now. She trades a random mysterious potion (invisiblity potion) for 4 days more at the hotel.
 
WE decide to go check out the place where the fire started, which excites Redstone. Redstone licks the ashe. HE tells us it's not quite like the fires from in the wilderness.
 
He says the fire that was here doesn't smell like the plane of fire. It's just dragon fire. HOwever, there is a spot where it looks like there was a portal, but Redstone says he doesn't think there actually was one. He wonders if a dragonborne or a dragonkin of some kind of spell to mimic dragon fire was used here. Perhaps this was all used as an elaborate distraction. Franz has Fred sniff out the smell of dragon fire to see if we can track it down. He starts heading south out of the city.
 
We decide to halt here and go inform Blackwood about what is going on and what all we have found. Elias tells her that years ago Passin was working with Avalora (aka Isolde). He swears to her that this is true.
 
She also says we should NOT tell the dwarves about their gold being here, because they are likely to raise an army and send them here. Whoops.
 
Blackwood is going to put an APB out for Spite. She's going to send some men to investigate south of the city where Franz was sniffing.
 
She also needs to talk to Emelia, the thieves guild leader.
 
Our new headquarters will be ready in 2 days. Blackwood is going to try to take care of QM, the fires, spite, and she tells us to stay away from Passin whom is likely at the academy. We are like ....suuuuuurrrrrreeee....we'll do that. *wink wink*
 
Franz tells us that Aria Sivermist used to work at the academy and held the same seat as Passin does now. We decide to head ot the academy against Blackwood's wishes.
 
Elias transforms himself into an oldman wizard and Ashe turns into a hamster and sits in his pocket.
 
Franz walks up to some of the boy guards and tells them he graduated from here a long time ago and he just wants to show his friends around. They fuck with Franz pretending that they know him and have seen his picture. They also pretend they don't know the password to let us in. Franz charms them and
 
There are 3 towers inside. ONe a bull, one a fish and one a goat. Franz used to be a bull. Ashe remembers the riddle and squeaks it to everyone.
 
Turn left at the spire dedicated to the fish
you'll find me on the second floor
Although, I'm not there
Instead, I'm at multiple places at various heights
 
We got this riddle from Charon a while ago
 
We go the direction of the fish. WE get up to the second floor and get stuck behind a locked door. Elias isn't able to pick it. However, he is able to mold some water into an ice key that fits perfectly and we get in. We lock the door behind us.
 
It's pretty dusty in here. It looks like there may have been people in here a couple of days ago. There didn't seem to be any entrance to the first floor underneath us.
 
Ashe finds a hold in the floor and see that on the first floor, there is an outline frame of a door on. On the outline of the door is a sigil. It's an 8 sided inside a circle with smaller circles at the points of the star. there is also a portal to another room on the other side of the room and a dias in the middle of the room.
 
Ashe describes the sigil and Elias recognizes it as a sigil that represents what the weave is. the weave is what mystra has created so that magic is able to be cast. When you cast a spell, you go into the weave and you pull the strings to create what you want to create. Each circle on this sigil represents each school of magic.
 
WE go back down stairs and do not find any sign of magic on the other side of this tower where this door outline WOULD be on the outside.
 
Bael decides to misty step into the room through the hole at the top. Ashe and Joe in rodent form jump down into his hand. BAel tries to catch her but she hits the floor and reverts back to her form. Joe jumps and Ashe is able to catch them.
 
In the portal there is another staircase that goes down. ON the dias, there is an inscription we can't read, but underneath it, it says "Who am I" Ashe guesses "Mystra" but it's incorrect.
 
She draws a picture of the inscription and sends it up through the hole in the floor. Neither Franz nor Elias can figure it out.
 
We decide to go through the portal which takes us to multiple sets of stairs that go down. The others go upstairs and we meet in the middle.
 
We go back *UP* the stairs which gets everyone to the basement. Franz gets down there and is able to use Comprehend languages to study the dias more.
 
He is able to decipher the riddle. It's the same riddle we've heard before:
 
Turn left at the spire dedicated to the fish
you'll find me on the second floor
Although, I'm not there
Instead, I'm at multiple places at various heights
Who Am I?
 
Joe figures out that the answer is "Nothing", but when we are there there is something....Something about the shadow weave and empty space. Not exactly sure what this is, but Franz has heard about it.
 
Franz says the word Shadow Weve, and the secret door opens up.
 
In side is a large room with the statue of a woman. There is a sword stuck in the ground stuck at the base of her feet with cracks all around it. It looks like some kind of wizard's study.
 
there is a giant symbol hanging above head of the statue. A purple circle with a black center.
 
Elias notices his family sigil on the hilt of the sword. It's shimmery and magical. It's got a reddish glow to it. As Elias puts his hand on the sword, it feels like home and salt water at the same time.
 
Joe recognizes the statue of the woman. She is a goddess. The symbol at the top of her head is the symbol of Shar.
 
Elias grabs the blade after cutting his hand. His blood starts to get pulled down and the ground starts to drink it up. Elias hears a voice saying "Another Harcleeve." It's Shar. Since he has given her a blood sacrifice, she is now asking for his dedication. He asks what that means, and she says you will know soon enough. She offers to grant him power in order to accomplish what she needs done. When he asks what kind of power, he feels magical shadow energy flowing through him. He instantly knows she is the one who created the shadow weave.
 
She feeds him information and spills out everything that she needs him to do in this mission. The DM doesn't tell him what she says, but he just asks if he agrees.
 
She also lets him know that she CAN get him out of the deal with Mammon. It's optional though.
 
Elias Agrees! Wowzers.
 
At this point she feeds arcane power into him and then he forgets everything she told him. It offers him a level in wizard and gives him enough experience to get to the next level. Also he gets 2 charisma points (so he can keep warlock if he wants)
 
Elias always dreamed of going to the academy before he know about his dad. So, he accepts all of this.
 
However, he knows he has to leave the sword here. Ashe prys his hands off the sword and he comes too, but he remembers nothing of what happened other than he talked to shar and that he was her disciple now. He just doesn't remember the mission she gave him. He finds a holy symbol of shar, a spell book, a locked box with the symbol of shar, and a ring of spell storing.
 
It's a little weird this whole thing, because Elias has never been one to put any merit or faith in the gods. It's strange for him to feel belief in one.
 
This is where we end.