Session 55 - Closer to Bliss

General Summary

30th Harvest

The next morning saw everyone gather in their private common room. Most of the party had had a pleasant night's sleep but Jilken's dreams had been plagued by large, shadowy insectoid forms that never came into focus. Discussing how folks wanted to approach gathering more information on the Taken. Denye insisted that she was going to find a local library headed off directly after finishing, saying, “Call me if you need me. Maybe this Kosyn has popped up before and we can geta better idea of who or what she is.” Unsure of what other leads to the follow, the others decided they would go to this religious service at noon and spent the morning discussing various plans of infiltration.
It didn't take long for Denye to learn of the Dreford Municipal Library and within an hour the wizard found herself standing before a large, three story marble building with sweeping wings to either side. Sets of columns flank two sets of double doors at the top of a short flight of stairs with bronze lions crouching on either side at the street level. Heading up the stairs Denye found a short hall beyond leads out onto an interior balcony and an atrium that extends two floors up but also several floors down. There is also a long desk, bearing the seal of the Guild of Scribes, Scriveners, and Secretaries. Several figures are seated along the counter wearing light gray robes with sleeves that were bound and wrist and elbow. One appears to be reading something, one was speaking to another patron, and a third seemed to be eating.
Denye approached the third scribe and as she did so the young halfling quickly sat the bowl aside and wiped his mouth primly with a napkin, clearlng his throat he said, "Ah, hello, welcome to the Dreford Municipal Library, how may we be of assistance today."
"You aren't on break are you?" asked the wizard, not wanting to impose. But with the scribe assurance that he was only taking a free moment to finish his breakfast, Denye pressed on, "I'm here to do some research, but this is my first time at your grand library. Do I need to check in first or am I free to just go looking for the books?"
The young man smiled and replied, "Not a problem, not a problem. While the Library is open to all, we do ask that everyone check in, just so we can keep track of patronage and all of that. May I enquire as to your area of research?"
Denye nodded and turned her attention momentarily to her bag, pulling out a sheaf of papers and handing them to the clerk. "As you can see," she said, "my research skills are well acknowledged and I am a member of Obscure Veritas. As for subject of today's research, let's start with ancient religions." 
"Excellent," said the clerk, making a note in his ledger. He returned Denye's credentials as well as providing her with a thin long strip of white cloth with four beads of semi-precious gems. "Just wear that if you would, and return it here to the front desk when you have finished with your research. Ancient religions will be two floors down, over in the west wing. If you have any further questions or need assistance, just look for the nearest librarian and they will be happy to help."
Nodding, Denye slipped the lanyard on over her head and thanking the clerk headed for the nearest staircase. It took a few minutes to find the correct section, but the Corva wizard quickly began scanning through stacks, looking for any mention of Kosyn or similar cults in the past. She spent several hours going through various tomes, but found nothing that specifically mentioned either Kosyn or the Taken. What she did find were numerous occasions where powerful beings from other planes would pretend to be gods, gathering mortal followers to them to gain power in one form or another. 
That felt right to the young wizard and she began narrowing her search to those kinds of encounters, and the beings and creatures who would do such things. Over the party earrings, Denye sent, "Vellikar, if you and the others find any sort of literature let me know. I'm following up on some leads, but any sort of ritual descriptions or dogma will help me cross-reference who or what is behind this Kosyn business." 

---

Back at the inn, the rest of the party had spent the morning discussing how they wanted to go about this visit to the Temple for the religious event. Not wanting to commit everyone in case this was some sort of trap, the six adventurers decided that they would split up. Vellikar, Ell, and Jilken would go inside, while Ranunkel, Janora, and Tear would keep watch and stand by incase they were needed.
With a plan in place, Jilken took a few moments to secret several weapons on her person before going downstairs to fortify herself with several large tankards of ale. Just as the group was getting ready to leave, Denye's message came through. Vellikar jumped a bit at hearing her voice in his head, but then started nodding vigorously. Realizing the wizard couldn't see the reaction, the druid gave the others a sheepish look before thinking back, "Yes, of course," almost shouting it in the minds of his teammates.
It did not take long for the party to make their way down to the Temple. Vellikar took a moment to slip into an alley and changed their appearance to that of the beggar from yesterday. That accomplished, the druid led Ell and Jilken thought the gates of the courtyard, while the other three found out of the way spots where they could loiter and keep an eye on the building.
Inside, the main chamber was much like before with several trestle tables, the main difference being that almost every seat was full. Today, the pair of doors on the left wall were open and folks were slowly beginning to drift inside in ones and twos. Vellikar headed in that direction, the others following. The room beyond held several concentric circles of cushions arranged around a central pillar from which hung four tapestries depicting the outline of a woman with wings against a background riot of colors. 
As they entered, Vellikar scanned the room looking to any kind of broachers or pamphlets. The druid spotted a small stack of papers on a table just inside the door and picked one up. Scanning it quickly, it seemed to be much of the same information that the greeter, Chad had told Vellikar of yesterday. As the three took seats on cushions near the door and towards the back, Vellikar quickly read the entire paper, keeping his head bowed, and sending it all to Denye, who back at the library was taking rapid notes.
"Thank you," replied Denye when the druid was finished. "My current hypothesis is that this Kosyn is either some sort of celestial, fiend, or fey. And I'm pretty sure we can cross celestial off the list....unless of course this group is actually telling the truth about Kosyn's goals, which seems unlikely. Keep me posted on the ritual itself, anything might be the clue we need."
Vellikar gulped, and looked to Ell, who smiled and began providing Denye with a description of the chamber, paying particular attention to the tapestries, assuming that these were depictions of Kosyn. These glittered with the faintest bit of magic, which Ell was able to identify as a minor enchantment to draw the eye. The effect could be easily resisted with conscious thought, but without that hint of effort the effigies captured the senses, each of which displayed the woman in a different pose. Large candlesticks stood at the corners, each holding three tapers as well as an incense brazier which trailed smoke into the air.
Jilken caught a whiff of the incense and detected a overly sweet scent but with acrid undertones that she recognized. Subtly pulling her mask over her face, Jilken shared through the link, "Keep out of the smoke and try to keep your breathing slow and shallow. That incense is sumata, it's not poisonous, but it is a psychotropic and will mess with your head."
Of course that proved to be somewhat difficult a moment or two later as the service began. A pair of the Taken in long green robes entered, each carrying two silver bowls containing a dusky purple fruit. Each of these clerics were following by one of the novitiates in the sleeveless robes, carrying a large censer on a short chain filled with the same incense. The two Taken proceeded into the middle of the circle, placing the bowls in front of each of the four tapestries as the assistants began circling the room swinging their thuribles and filling the room with the smoke.
After placing the bowls, the pair of Taken turned to address the crowd. In unison, the pair raised their arms and called, "Be at ease in the embrace of the Mistress of Light.” 
The crowd, many of whom had clearly been here before, chanted back, “We are one in the Family.”
The first priest, an older man with thinning hair and short cropped beard spoke passionately, “Let me tell you of what the Blessed Kosyn has done for me. I had become a wreck. I once had a good life as a merchant, until one night when I was visiting my aging parents, there was a fire in the shop and I lost everything; my business, my wife, even my children. I began drinking heavily, unable to cope and soon all of my savings were gone and more often than not I found myself waking in a gutter. That was where Speaker Bhalo found me and showed me the peace and succor that Kosyn offers, with a sense of purpose.” Stepping back the crowd once more chants back, “We are one in the Family.”
The second priest, a younger man with gray eyes and sandy blond hair stepped forward and gives his own testimony, saying, “I was lost before finding light, a wharf rat without opportunity, doing what I could to get by, with no purpose no future, but then I found the bliss of Kosyn. She has given me new purpose and direction and here I stand, shoulder to shoulder with my brother. and with all of you. This is the bliss that Kosyn offers.” The crowd chants once more, “We are all one in the family,”
The two priests took turns speaking of this Mistress of Light who accepted all, a lighthouse of hope in a cruel world, and how in the Family all worry, confusion, and pain is gone, replaced with love, joy, and acceptance. All that Kosyn required of her followers it seemed, was that same level of acceptance and support within the community and that you share word of her Bliss with others.
Armed with the warning from Jilken, both Vellikar and Ell managed to resist the effects of the sumata, recognizing the gentle fuzzing at the edges of reality and focusing on the business at hand. Ell kept up a running commentary, feeding the information back to those outside as well as Denye back in the library, as the two votaries came up and shared their own testimonies and spoke of how, while they had not been Taken into the Family, still the blessing of this goddess had become evident in their lives.
In what was clearly the climax of the ritual, the four celebrants each picked up one of the bowls of fruit. Lifting them high over their heads, the four chanted, "Mistress of Light who offers eternal bliss in your embrace, grant us, your mortal emissaries, to act as your hand. Bless these voddero, may the juice be a balm in your name." Lowering the bowls, the celebrants turned and began distributing the fruit among the congregants.
Hearing all of this, over the link Janora growled, "None of you are to eat the fruit, if you do I will NOT be coming in to save you."
The three members of the exploration team accepted the fruit and made a show of examining them, it was not like anything any them had seen before, smooth round skin, in a shade of deep reddish purple with a dusting of frost lines. Vellikar trying to subtly cast Detect Poison or Disease, but found that the fruit was neither. Still following Janora's warning all three slipped the strange fruit into their pockets with various degrees of stealth. Looking around it seemed that everyone else was slowly consuming their fruit, the interior was quite juicy with a pale translucent flesh. 
As folks were eating, the votaries went to large drums on either side of the room and began pounding out a slow heartbeat rhythm. Once finished the fruit, folk relaxed on their cushions and began to sway side to side with a wide grin on their faces, eyes locked on the banners depicting Kosyn. The inside team tried to emulate the rest of the seekers and listened as the pair picked up hand drums and began to play a counterpoint while chanting in a whispering, sing-song tongue that might have been Sylvan but both Vellikar and Jilken reported that if it was, it was gibberish.  
The drumming and chanting lasted for 15-20 minutes but eventually the Taken brought it to a close and as the novitiates moved to open the doors, the pair of priests raised their arms once more and called, "May you all find the Light within and carry it outward in your community."  With their arms raised, Vellikar noticed that both of the Taken had black bands tattooed around each wrist. Neither of the votaries had such tattoos, but with a start Vellikar recognized one of them as the dockhand he had spoken with yesterday. 
While Jilken and Ell headed for the fresher air outside, the druid watched the fellow and was rewarded when one of the Taken approached him with a wide grin, gesturing for the other votary to join them. Vellikar overheard the Taken tell them that  their time had come and they were invited out to the Sanctum tomorrow and at nightfall, Kosyn would take them into the Family.
Both of the novitiates looked incredibly pleased by the news, but didn't dwell long on it, but began to straighten the room. Vellikar considered approaching the dockhand, but decided not to push his luck. After relaying what he had overheard, word for word, the druid took a few long moments to study both the dockhand and the other novitiate, a halfling woman with curly brown hair and a scar down one cheek. Satisfied, the druid headed out to find his friends.

---

Meanwhile back at the library, Denye had not been having any particular luck. The wizard was deep in the stacks having moved on from old religions to extra planar explorations and the kinds of beings who had posed as gods. The list was long; fiends, archfey, elementals, and even stranger things. Cross-referencing the dogma reported by Ell and Vellikar wasn’t a significant help...that is until Vellikar shared the name of the fruit. The voddero proved to be a fruit from the Shadowfel, noted for its sickly sweet flavor as well as its hallucinogenic properties.
That realm sounded very familiar to Janora, but beyond identifying it as the home of the Raven Queen, the witch could not dredge up any information. Denye was able to supply more, identifying it, as the name implied, as a sort of shadow of the Material realm. It was a place inimical to mortals, strange and unearthly where even the shadows you cast could be dangerous.
That sounded like a bad place to everyone and along with the hallucinogens used in the service that the Taken were up to no good and needed to be stopped. Before Denye left the library to meet up with the others, she went looking for city records to see what the Temple had been before the Taken had moved in. Unfortunately the library did not have anything in the way of deeds or blueprints. However, by consulting census data and old maps, the wizard was able to learn that building was originally built as a warehouse, but had stood vacant for the past two years or so.
Feeling satisfied that she had learned as much as she was going to, Denye returned the lanyard and head back down toward the docks and her friends.
Not wasting time for the wizard to get there, the party quickly began discussing what all of this meant, with Janora saying, "We should ask around, see if anyone knows of any new buildings on the edge of town. This sanctum is probably where we are likely to find whatever or who ever is behind this." 
"The clerk at the religious guild said the Taken had purchased an old estate," said Denye, "I'm pretty sure he said it was less than day's travel from the city."
"What if," suggested Ell, "we get here in the morning, then we can just follow this group that's going to the sanctum."
"I'd rather we stop it before more innocent people get hurt," said Denye, with a touch of reproach.
Jilken said, "So we follow them and then capture them. Tie them up and we can take their places...shouldn't be too hard to get in."
"What we need," Denye sent, "is someone who can scry. I'm not sure who I could contact on short notice." 
"Well if it's scrying you want," Janora replied with a bit of a huff, "I should be able to do something. Just give me a moment to think of the best way to approach this."
Denye found the party in a quiet park, barely more than a patch of grass with a couple of trees, just as Janora came to a decision on the best spell to use. Plucking one of the large raven feathers out of their hat, the witch uttered a prayer to the Raven Queen, describing what they sought and asking for a direction. Throwing the feather up into the air, it flew higher than it had any right too. Rising vertical with the tip down, the feather spun in a tight circle before shooting off north-northwest.   
Nodding, Janora dropped their eyes to scan the rest of the party, "Looks like we have a direction, this sanctum is north-northwest of the city...or at least the part we are in now."
Jilken nodded, "And how long to we have before that next group of people are taken?"
"They said it was going to happen tomorrow night," replied Vellikar, "so I guess they are going to have to leave at some point during the day."
"We've still got a handful of hours of sunlight left," suggested Jilken, "maybe we should go for a walk and see what we find."
Denye nodded, "That's not a bad idea," agreed Denye, "I would rather find the place first. Without knowing when those seekers will be leaving, there is a good chance of missing them."
Janora looked thoughtful for a moment before saying, "How about this? What if my giant raven and I go take a look. We can fly fairly quickly and if we keep to that heading we should be able to spot it from the air."
That seemed like a good idea to everyone else and the witch quickly spent several minutes calling up the giant bird before taking off and flying off in the direction the feather had shown them. It was a little more than an hour later when the bird let out a loud caw and began circling lower over a large grey-sandstone structure. U shaped and two-story in size, except for a small third-story tower at the center, the building had a wall extending around an open courtyard. While the building itself looked somewhat run down and overgrown, massive earthworks behind the building stood testimony to some sort of new construction process. 
A half-dozen Taken in the familiar green robes stood on a second story balcony confirmed that this was indeed the sanctum the party was searching for. Additionally, as Janora flew over the house, their planer senses pinged on some sort of rift or gateway between realms within the house. Janora immediately shared this news with the others through the link, but when the witch didn't get a response they realized that they were probably out of range and turned back toward Drefored.
As the witch neared the city, they tested the earrings again and found they could once more speak to their companions. The team had relocated back to the inn and as Janora descended, they shared "I found the place, it's an older looking stone building in a low valley, about 10-15 miles outside of town. I felt some sort of gate or rift inside...I think Denye's research is right and we're dealing with an extra-planar threat." 
Surprised that it was so close, the team quickly began discussing the merits of heading out there tonight or going first thing in the morning. In the end they decided that the best bet would be to leave right away. If they hurried they would be able to get a look at the place before dark and then work on an infiltration strategy.  
This seemed as good a plan as any and the party set off, with Janora flying ahead and leading the way. The party did in fact manage to reach the estate just as the sun was setting. After getting a good look, the party retired aways to find an inconspicuous place to set up camp. They found it under the low drooping branches of an enormous weeping willow on the edge of a stream. Just to be on the safe side, Janora cast Tiny Hut, tinting the exterior a deep grey so it fades into the shadows under the tree. 
As they had walked, the party had been discussing how they wanted to get in and once settled, while Tear took over the duties of setting up a small campfire and beginning to prepare dinner, the party continued that discussion. 
"Now that we are out here," suggested Ell, "I think the best plan is to ambush these candidates and take their place."
"That would get them out of harms way," rumbled Ranunkel.
"Exactly," replied Ell with a smile, "and then we be on the inside."
Janora looked skeptical, "Do we even know what these candidates look like? or if any of us can impersonate them?"
Vellikar shrugged, "We know at least two, my dockworker friend and that other halfling woman. I can probably do Disguise Self to look like one of them for a time. I might be able to describe the other well enough for some to do something."
Janora shook their head, "You do realize we'll actually see them, for this to work we''ll basically have to kidnap them."
"Yeah," replied Denye, "that's why I'm not so crazy about the ambush plan. If we just get into the sanctum and deal with the problem before the candidates get here, it will be a lot easier."
Ranunkel groaned, "Which brings us back to the question of how to get inside?" 
Jilken shrugged, "We have two options I think, either we go up to the gates and ask to be let inside or we find a way to sneak in." After a moment's thought she added, "I didn't see any doors around the back and only the one gate into the courtyard. But the wall wasn't that high. If someone could get a rope over we could easily climb over it."
Denye nodded, "That might work. I don't think we should in there at night. If these are shadowfel creatures we should wait until at least dawn. I doubt they are at all happy with sunlight."
"Maybe even wait a little longer," suggested Janora, "if we wait until the sun is higher in the sky, surely it would be better. That will give us some more time to study the place in better light. Perhaps we will see something we missed." 
The Corva wizard lifted her wings in a shrug, "Assuming I am correct that does makes sense, but we shouldn't wait too long. If we can we should have it finished before those others get here."
That seemed to be the general sentiment and folks turned their attention to the mouthwatering stew that Tear had prepared. After Denye finished eating, she pulled a brass ring off of one claw and muttered a few words over it as she gave it a twist and flicked it out of the Tiny Hut where it enlarged into a 5ft brass ring. Turning to the others she said, "I'm going to go check on a few things. Don't wait up, I might come back down or I might sleep up here." Dropping an Alarm spell around the ring, the wizard began climbing an invisible ladder and vanishing in midair.
Janora chuckled and through the earrings said, "You've been holding out on us...someone got a new toy." 
Denye trilled a laugh as well and explained, "A gift from Aubergine, it will make my work so much more effective. I'll explain more in the morning."

Report Date

09 Sep 2022