Session 95 - A Plane Trip

25 Flaurmont 1011 - 1 Yarthmont 1011

General Summary

After verifying there are no signs of any more larvae, the party takes a short rest, while discussing what to do next. The very real threat of the mature False Hydra has been dealt with, but it is unclear what Argosyl will do. The party is in no condition to deal with the dragon without taking a long rest, andeven then it might be very dangerous.
They decide to play it straight with the dragon, gathering up all the heads of the False Hydra and dragging them back to the lair of Argosyl. He seems to be expecting them, and greets them. They show him the heads of the False Hydra. He takes one and appears to breathe deeply of its scent despite his lack of lungs or much of olfactory senses. After examining it closely he seems satisfied with the veracity of their story and he says he has no further need of the heads, and to please take them outside.
From this point on, Argosyl follows through with his promise to allow the party to claim the artifact they seek. As Leo casts detect magic and searches for the artifact within the vast treasure trove, Seraphina seeks to get on Argosyl's good side by asking about his great exploits and what he is most proud of. This gets the dragon boasting and he seems to warm up a bit. Among other exploits, such as dispatching would-be dragon slayers and adventurers, Argosyl explains that the ruins above were a monastery of chaos worshippers that he very much enjoyed destroying. He also admits that the loss of his original form merely accelerated his plans, so he is not overy bothered by it. He looks forward to checking back in on his "people" who seem to have stopped paying their tribute. He will need to exert his influence back on his territory.
Yet, despite all of this, when Leo finally finds the next piece of the Orrery, Argosyl informs the party that the deal is complete, however, they have not paid him tribute for either of their two visits to his home. This gets Leo's hackles up. "At a minimum, the second visit was to fulfill your quest! We shouldn't have to pay you to deliver the heads of your enemies to you!" Argosyl angrily replies that the deal for the heads and artifact were agreed on, but they have not paid him his proper respects. Tork offers a +1 dagger to Argosyl, which he accepts. As the rest of the party works through their inventories, they all ultimately decide to give him tribute - divesting themselves of items they weren't using but that all had some value. It is likely that, if they were well rested, things may have gone differently but, for now, they decide to depart peacefully.
When they get back outside they make a point of seeking out the fairies and checking in with them. The wee folk inform them that they can feel that the wrongness has departed and they seem unbothered by the imminent return of Argosyl's influence. They may in fact benefit from his control over the area, as they benefit from his protection while being beneath his notice.
The party decides to seek out the elves in the region to give them fair warning of the changing tides. Ultimately, they determine that they must be in Elincia's old stomping grounds and perhaps they can find the Druid enclave that took her in and taught her. They head back south and past the abandoned town, eventually working their way down various forest trails until Elincia comes upon an area shew recognizes. She leads them to a small glade where they come upon Brightleaf, an Ent she spent many a day with in her earlier days. Brightleaf, a birch-like Ent with gold and orange leaves, is happy to see her and asks if she is coming home to rejoin them. She informs him she is only here for a short while as she has more to do on her current adventures.
From this glade she knows her way well to the Druids. She leads the party into a wooded village where they meet some of the druids. After some pleasantries, the party informs the elders of the coming return of Argosyl. Much like the Fairies, the Druids do not seem overy concerned about this as, while demanding, Argosyl was a good protector of the woodlands. When they mention that he is now undead, they seem a little more concerned, and do promise to let the Elves (who they say are scattered deep within the Dymrak forest) know of the changes. The druids do make some effort to entice Seraphina to spend time at the enclave, since she clearly has a druid-like love of the forests, based on her armor and mannerisms - she politely declines.
The party, feeling that their immediate duties are resolved here, head back down to Rugalav to inform the town of the likely return of a dragon, who may or may not consider the mouth of the river within its territory. They decide to map out the route, since Alexius Corrigan probably also needs to be informed of the dragon situation, and may not have much detail in this region, and take cloud form to make this trip. Lord Vlad Lutescu there says he will have to reach out to Mirros for guidance - the party offers to bring a message to Alexius Corrigan, since they have some connections in the palace. He takes them up on this offer, and they decide to depart for Mirros while it is still daylight. This time they travel using Transport Via Plants.
They are able to arrange an audience with Alexius Corrigan that same day, fitting in a short meeting before dinner. They inform him of all the encounters - the Purple Worm, the Mimic-House, the False Hydra and, of course, the now re-emergent Argosyl. He seems concerned about the Dragon, however, as they mentioned, the Dragon seems to be Lawful, so negotiation are an option. They ask Alexius to add his name to Leo's book, so that they can check in with any kind of emergency. He is amenable to this, but asks if he can bring in a Wizard to evaluate the request and the book. Leo of course agrees to this, and the next morning they meet with Alexius and the wizard Terrari, Headmaster of Karameikan School of Magic. After examining the book and looking over Leo, Terrari gives his assent and Alexius adds his name to the book.
After the meeting, Leo reaches out to Ynyr to inform him of their successful acquisition of the next segment of the artifact. Ynyr is extremely excited and hopes they can get to his place as soon as possible. The whole party comes this time, via plants again, emerging near the Tower of Zenopus. They drop down into the Tower and Ynyr is animated in a way they have never seen him before. He asks if they have all the pieces of the artifact, which Leo confirms that yes, they do.
He waves them down the hall and more stairs, into a section of the residence they have not seen - a lab where he asks them to put the pieces out to help him assemble it. Ynyr begins the process of integrating the different pieces together, and when it gets to the point where the next piece is clearly not one of the ones in their possession, he opens a drawer and pulls out the 6th piece, holding it up triumphantly. Before he completes the assembly, Leo says "Wait! We didn't realize you already had the 6th piece, we may not be ready for what happens next!" Ynyr seems impatient to complete this process, but understands that they are not quite ready. He also gives them his reward for their completion of the artifact, a very large bag of 2000 platinum. He clearly is excited by what comes next, but the party wants to tie loose ends in town before departing for another Plane of existence. Ynyr negotiates them down to coming back the next day, promising to make them a metal fork tuned to this plane for a spell the party may need, and they agree that they can work with that.
The party all go their own ways tying up loose ends. Elincia visits Totoro, while Leo and Stavos meet with the Captain to arrange for an extended time away. They instruct the captain to give half their share of the earnings to the crew, and the other half to the orphanage while they are away. Leo also reaches out to Alexius and Horrobin to let them know they will be away for an extended period, and for Horrobin to take good care of his father. Seraphina writes a letter to her mother explaining that she will be away for an unknown time, and Tork visits the orphanage to make another donation, and to make sure they will be okay for a while.
As Seraphina is walking through town, a nice older elven gentleman asks if she happens to be headed toward the bridge, as he has heard there is excellent elven bread for sale there, and he would love to have some. She of course happily does so. He gives her some coins to buy the bread and she notices that they are very old coins of some elvish mintage. She gets a little suspicious that he is in fact Ilsundyl, but goes along with it. When she comes back with the bread, he mentions she seems to be preparing for a trip. She explains that she is getting ready for a trip of unknown duration to help a friend. He asks her about her friend and she gets into Tork's spear problem, and that they have to go far away to resolve that problem. After some further pleasantries, he seems to be giving her his blessing on this expedition.
Their loose ends tied up, the party heads back to Ynyr, who is once again very animated. He places the final piece into the Orrery, which expands and unfolds to show the planet, its moon, and now a second moon, which doesn't seem right as there is only one moon for Mystara (so they think). The planet spins and the moons orbit, faster and faster, until there is a big flash, blinding everyone!
As they regain their vision, they find themselves in a vast, silvery void, windless and silent and seeming to float in place. Ynyr explains that he believes that this should be the Astral Plane, a plane powered by thought, where you move about by thinking of what you seek and you will start to "fly" there. When they ask about themselves and if only their minds are there, he explains that they are truly here, not astral projections. If they were merely astral projections, there would be a wispy tail going back to their bodies on the material planem so they must truly be here in the flesh. As a plane of the mind he explains that they will not age or hunger as time passes here, but will do so when they leave the plane - in fact, the lost time will catch up when they do so. He seems to want to move on, eager to explore and seek more knowledge and travel the planes. The party says they would like to accompany him for now. He starts thinking on this, and begins very quickly moving away, the party members moving much slower as they concentrate on drifting in his wake.

Report Date

08 Feb 2025