The Unicorn's Plea

Izar's Story

In Session 33: The Beginning of The End, the party tasked Izar with going to the Elemental Plane of Air to warn them about what was going on. The original mission from Penguin involved slowly and quietly informing someone in every plane about what was going on so that everyone could be informed simultaneously. According to him this was the best hope he had to break the gods free from their contract.
Izar knew all of this because Mazu had hastily written him a letter explaining everything. There was a catch, though. The letter also said to be careful who to trust. It was true that Penguin might be able to fix things, but he had to have some sort of ulterior motive. She also had another, much more private request. This second request confused Izar, but Mazu was a goddess and he was a Unicorn, which meant it was his duty to do what she asked. It was time for him to step up and start taking things seriously.
After the others left, Izar's first order of business was to make sure that someone would keep an eye on Rainy Grove while he and Pestle were gone. He gave a brief prayer to Corellon Larethian, who agreed to have one of the other unicorns take over for him until one of the Grove's rightful guardians could return. After this was taken care of, Izar followed Mazu's directions to the letter. He went to The Cobalt Sanctuary and from there he went to Sigil and found The Window. The doorways to the Elemental Plane of Air had all been barricaded, but all Izar had to do was tell Pixo that he was doing a favor for Penguin and not only did he agree to open the door, he also provided an escort!
Jane was a lovely woman. Not only was she an accomplished wizard and a renowned religious scholar, she was also a skilled linguist. The two went into the Elemental Plane of Air without much trouble, and Pixo made sure to bar the door behind them. The two were immediately accosted by guards, but Jane conversed with them in their local language and they were free to go.
At first everything seemed fine. They went from one floating island to another. Jane did most of the talking, since she knew the language. At first this seemed fine, but then on the fourth island Izar saw something strange. Jane had been getting frustrated with someone she was talking to. She repeated the same sentence three times in a row, and then when that did not garner results she made some sort of strange gesture with her hands. Izar didn't recognize the sign, but it got his Unicorn intuition tingling. He also noticed that the aarakockra they were talking to changed his entire demeanor after that. It reminded Izar of his own reaction the day prior, when he was first told he would have to go on a secret mission.
Once they were alone, Izar asked her about it, and she said it was just some local custom akin to waving a hand in front of someone's face to make them pay attention. Izar could tell that she was lying, but he didn't say anything. He knew from his decades of experience negotiating with fey beings that sometimes it was best to just let a liar think they had gotten away with it. He just gave the usual smile and nod and left it at that. Ever since that point, though, he made sure to keep an eye on his human companion.
About a day after they had arrived in the Elemental Plane of Air, they reached a swirling mass of labyrinthine winds that surrounds the Vale of Aaqa. The Vale is the inner sanctum of the plane, where the Dukes of Air themselves reside and hold court. The route through these winds changes regularly and is known to only a select few, but Jane navigated them through these winds with ease.
It was only after they had already breached the Vale of Aaqa that Izar found out that plans had changed. Jane explained (and Penguin later confirmed) that they had less time than they thought. Originally the expectation was that they would have as much time as they need, but now it turns out that Deep Sashelas was going to reveal what was happening. That meant that in order to keep control of the message they would need to not just inform the Elemental Plane of Air within the day, but also every other plane as well. Jane was alarmingly calm about this:

Jane: There is still a way we can do this. The Dukes of Air crafted an extremely powerful crystal orb capable of sending dreams to the entire multiverse. It was their backup plan in case they failed to defeat The Hanging Tree.
Izar: Wait, they were at war with a tree? And they thought they might lose?
Jane: It's a long story. The important thing is that I know where they keep it. If we steal that then we can use it to warn everyone.
Izar: But stealing is wrong! We should just talk to the Dukes of Air and ask for permission. They'll listen to me. I am a Unicorn, after all!
Jane: If you're wrong about that then we lose our chance. They'll put it under guard and even an army couldn't get to it within a day. If we go right now, though, we can steal it easily. Its being moved to a different facility, so if we act now we could get it and use it before they catch on. This is our best shot at warning everyone.

Izar paused. His Unicorn Senses were being quiet, and that worried him. If his Unicorn Senses were calm, then that meant she was telling the truth. If she was telling the truth, then that meant she knew a lot more than any normal person should. Izar was convinced that Jane was working for Vecna, and that couldn't be good news.
On the other hand, Mazu's letter did mention that Penguin and Vecna were allies. He also still had a promise to keep, not just to Mazu but also to his best friend Pestle. Vecna was scary, but a promise is a promise and he was a Unicorn, after all.
With great reluctance, Izar agreed to this plan. The orb was lightly guarded, and taking it was surprisingly easy. Once the orb was taken it set off alarms across the plane. One of Jane's "friends" gave them shelter in inside of the staff only area of a house of mirrors. Outside of their small room was a giant labyrinthine maze of mirrors, but Izar knew it would not last for long.
Penguin was informed and soon he had arrived with a small army to help protect them. Izar thought this might have been the plan all along, because help arrived far too quickly, but there wasn't time to question anything now. Instead he set about attuning himself to the orb while fighting started upstairs and more reinforcements were called in from Penguin's other allies in Ysgard and the Elemental Plane of Water. It took Izar an hour to attune to the orb and another hour to figure out how to use it, and all the while he could hear armies clashing and mirrors shattering in the distance.
By the time Izar managed to start sending his message there was a full scale war going on outside. Penguin, Olidammara, Istus and Mazu had sent in armies of their own, which were now doing battle with the three remaining Dukes of Air. The Dukes of Air had a significant territorial advantage and so the battle was a losing one. Izar steeled his nerves with a brief prayer and then activated the orb. Soon after he was speaking to millions of sleeping people throughout The multiverse.
He did his best to ignore the fighting and carefully explain everything that was going on. He started with the Forms, incredibly powerful abstract forces that existed outside of The multiverse, neither living nor dead. These forces, he said, were the source of all forms of magic both divine and arcane. Some people, known as Conduits, were able to tap into that power directly to perform incredible feats. Unfortunately, however, these Forms bear considerable control over The multiverse.
By now the Duke's armies have found his location, and the fighting had gotten much closer. Izar tried not to let it distract him and kept going.
One form at a time can send an Avatar into the world, which might take the form of an inanimate object, a plant, an animal, or even a sapient creature. In this particular case the current Avatar is Iapetus, associated with the Form of Mortality. Iapetus had managed to get himself classified as a god under the Preservation Proclamation and thus was under its protection. At first that did not seem like a big deal, but when Iapetus attacked Bahamut, the most highly respected deity in the pantheon, it was clear that something had to be done.
There was a massive explosion outside, followed by screaming. Izar was vaguely aware that some third party had arrived to the conflict and was wreaking havoc. For a second he thought he saw a massive squid of some sort, but that couldn't be right. People were attacking him directly, now, and Mazu was going to great lengths to protect him using walls of water. With great mental effort he refocused himself on the orb, trying to explain as much as he could before something cut him off. It was time to fulfill the second part of his promise.

At this very moment, however, there are those that are fighting back and trying to stop Iapetus. Among them are a few hundred heroes, come from all walks of life. One of the ones you need to know about is Penguin, the new ruler of Avernus. He has the power of a lesser god but is not a part of the Preservation Proclamation, meaning that he is the only deity capable of fighting back against Iapetus directly. There is also Zerrof, a hero from the Elemental Plane of Water who currently works in the service of Mazu. Zerrof is not currently a god but he might be soon. He is a bastion of honor who has not once compromised his principles even in the wake of enormous hardship and bloodshed. I would like to ask you all to lend these two your prayers in these trying times so that -

Izar was cut off abruptly by an explosion in the room. He momentarily turned his head away from the orb just in time to see large wave of massive spikes resembling porcupine quills flying in his direction. Mazu was behind him, and tried to block them, but there were too many. The first few were absorbed by the wall, but then the wall collapsed and dozens more broke through, piercing both Izar's Mazu's bodies in several places. One of these went into Izar's eye, and out the top of his mouth. He lost his focus on the orb and fell unconscious.

Penguin's Story

Penguin stood outside of a hall of mirrors in the Elemental Plane of Air and tried to settle his nerves as he saw the primordial armies approaching. Izar was inside, preparing to use the orb, and so it was Penguin's job to buy him time. He had called in a few favors, and so Istus, Olidammara, and Mazu were all nearby as well. To buy time they would have to fight, but of course the Preservation Proclamation was written to prevent exactly this kind of scenario. Fortunately, Penguin had an ace up his sleeve.
The plan was simple. By making the first move he could make the Dukes of Air think he had broken the treaty. He made sure to only just slightly singe them so that it could like he miscalculated and struck one of them by accident. The idea here was to goad the Dukes into attacking. Later, Penguin knew, there would be a trial. The Dukes of Air would claim Penguin shot first, and Penguin would say that he was never a god to begin with, so it didn't matter. Technically that made the Dukes of Air the aggressors the moment they cast a spell at any of his allies. The Dukes would try to fight this, of course, but if everything went according to plan the matter would be settled before it ever reached a courtroom.
Taking to the air, Penguin unleashed a massive Fire Storm spell on the encroaching armies. He made sure to aim it very carefully, so that it would just barely catch one of the Dukes of Air in the blast. He also made sure to be standing directly next to the others when he did it, so that when the Dukes of Air shot back they would inevitably hit one of the other three. That was enough to give his allies just cause; they were officially acting in self defense.
Once the fighting had begun in earnest, it was time to get to work. He did his fair share of the fighting, of course, but he made sure to stay back a bit and let the others take the brunt of the attacks. He knew they couldn't hold the Dukes of Air off forever, but that didn't matter. Just so long as Izar could could seed a little doubt in the hearts and minds of those who were listening, Penguin knew time would take care of the rest. Fear is contagious, after all, and in times of fear the desperate had a tendency to turn to The nine hells, and to people like Penguin in particular. All he needed was to gain enough power that the others would take him seriously when he got summoned to The Arena.
It was an almost perfect plan, really. First he gets himself power from the panicked denizens of The multiverse, and then later that same day he would talk himself out of having to face the restrictions normally placed on that power. A lot hinged on "losing" the vote, but he was confident he had talked some sense into the others. The ones who Iapetus had already attacked were pretty easy to convince. They were like cornered animals, and Penguin was providing them a way out. It didn't matter how ugly the door was if it was the only door they saw.
That wasn't to say that there weren't any loose ends, though. Pestle was a pretty big one. He could easily ruin everything with a well-placed question to that eyeball of his. Zerrof could easily talk Mazu out of her vote, and of course there was still Aria's music box. On top of that, he had to contend with the rulers of Gehenna. Vecna was already on his side, at least temporarily, and he had seen to it that Tiamat would be the next one drawn. He just had to hope that the Hands of Fate voted against her. That still left Bhaal, though, and the god of murder was not one to be trifled with.
Almost as if on cue, there was a loud popping sound as Bhaal himself appeared just in front of the hall of mirrors. Penguin cursed under his breath. He hadn't planned for this development at all, and he could tell by the stunned faces of the other gods that none of them had, either. Even Istus was startled, and the list of people who could do that was pretty short. Penguin had a sinking feeling that he was being outmaneuvered, so he kept his distance while the giant spiney monster that was the god of murder cut a swath through both armies as if they were mere tissue paper. Strangely, though, he was not focusing on the people. Instead Bhaal was systematically smashing every mirror he could find.
Penguin was halfway through asking Vecna what was going on when he got his answer. The mirrors all looked identical to each other, but there was one one that did not break when Bhaal hit it. Not only that, it didn't even have a scratch. Bhaal spoke a long incantation in flawless auran and a bright light shone from the mirror... followed by a gush of water and a very angry Kraken.
While the others were tangling with the titan, Penguin was thinking. He knew from his research that this had to be the creature that destroyed Neprius, but what was it doing here? He made a mental note to have someone look into that, later. In the meantime, though, Bhaal was charging straight into the building to attack Izar. Mazu was there protecting him, but Penguin knew they couldn't hold off Bhaal for long. He gave chase, while simultaneously casting sending.

Bhaal in Plane of Air. Dukes had Kraken captive. Bhaal broke it out and violated the Preservation Proclamation. Witnesses are the Dukes, Olidammara, Istus, Mazu.

A few seconds later The Bronze Prince responded:

Understood. Will confirm and then take corrective action. Thank you for the report.

Penguin hoped some of the others had the foresight to send similar messages, but wasn't going to rely on it. He arrived on the scene just in time to see Bhaal pounding on Mazu's water wall. Penguin did his best to help, but the two of them combined were still no match for the likes of Bhaal. Bhaal broke through the wall just as Izar was getting to the good part. He knocked out both Izar and Mazu. Penguin himself would have followed shortly after, but that was when the Preservation Proclamation kicked in. Bhaal exploded violently, and then was no more.

Meanwhile, in Vigrid...

In Vigrid, the party is playing through Session 39: Game of Boats Part 1 - Love, Vengeance, and Sacrifice. They had just slain The Drunken Surgeon, and Tornac was investigating the corpse. He finds a holy symbol of Bhaal, and the symbol explodes at the same time as the deity it is associated with. Tornac is knocked unconscious in the ensuing explosion.
The next day Mazu returns to the party, seriously wounded from her battle with Bhaal, but still alive. She presents Zerrof with the Titan Slayer Trident and they use it to bring down the kraken, which the Dukes of Air had summoned to Ragnarok so that it would stop terrorizing the Elemental Plane of Air.
Shortly afterwards, Penguin is summoned into The Arena. He is still seriously injured, but he manages to hide the pain for long enough to enact the second part of his plan. Mazu, still grateful that Penguin had saved her life, helps the plan along by voting "against" him. Bhaal, meanwhile, is no longer alive to vote. So far everything was going according to plan, but he knew he couldn't relax just yet.
Meanwhile Vecna was watching from the stands as Tiamat was summoned in. She took a moment to enjoy watching the fear on her old rival's five faces. Soon she would be the only god left to rule Gehenna. Just like she had planned it.

Related Historical Events

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  A unicorn's Plea