Forty-second Session

Forty-second Session

A Portrait of Sacerdos the Flayer

Campaign	The Primordial Campaign
Game Date	January 19th, 2022
Start Date	Morning Kirkuyey 9th 261 IM
Start Location	Jetkizuu Citadel, Jetkizuu and The Golden Citadel, Kazinasi
Ending Date	Morning Kirkuyey 10th 261 IM
Ending Location	Jalinbeti Citadel, Jalinbeti and The Golden Citadel, Kazinasi
Prev Session	Forty-first Session
Next Session	Forty-third Session

The Forty-second Session began with the party split. Panamon Cree and Rayjok Halperion were winding up their trip to the trading port of Jetkizuu while Mira Nephilim and Obsidian Black continued their journey into the deeper understanding of their collection of the Memes of Aspan.

Diplomacy Revisited

As the Garis herald Dastan Beket returned to his ship alongside his honor guard, Panamon Cree made a last-ditch attempt to re-open the negotiations. He and Rayjok agreed that some good should come from the negotiations, and made a case to the herald that they should reconvene in less formal surroundings. The herald agreed and they all met in a tavern on the main street leading down to the docks.

Panamon proposed a cease-fire for one year and an exchange of all prisoners of war on both sides. The herald agreed that this sounded a reasonable deal, though he could not accept it outright because he lacked the authority. He agreed to return to Trappist and make a case for this agreement and then forward the officially approved response to Jalinbeti.

Dracoliches Assemble

Meanwhile, Mira and Obsidian, Asil, and the Eldest of the Aydahar continued their ruminations about what to do with the combined memes. Mira noted that many of the 'restored' souls had died in transition from the other planes to the material. There were some 75,000 souls in total, only 50,000 of which survived the transition.

As the party watched, the dracoliches took to the air, formed into groups, and had small conversations before lining into formations and heading for various parts of the front. As the ghastly airborne beasts got to the font, the Eldest of the Aydahar explained that he simply wished for the return of the departed dragons so that they could rid his borders of the Garis. When he waved his hand over the map, his wishes unexpectedly became commands.

Both Obsidian and Mira noted how the Meme-created map had two settings, simulation mode, and real mode. The simulation mode would allow the meme user to move things around in the simulation without affecting the real world. The devices were in real mode when the Eldest made his fortuitous(?) mistake.

Under Attack

Back in Jetkizuu, a commotion had begun. The party was still discussing the day's events, the Garis herald long since having returned to his ship when people started shouting and running toward the port. When the party made it outdoors, they witnessed an attack on the Garis ship by a gargantuan dragon turtle.

As the party watched the beast try to swallow the Garis ship, Rayjok felt a couple of rifle rounds plink off of his armor. Alas, one bit into his flesh. He alerted the party to take cover, suffering a few more wounds in the process. One of the Jalinbeti Guards was slain trying to take cover. Back inside, this time in a shop a few feet from the bar, Panamon granted invisibility to the Jalinbeti Ministers Rayjok and his Dragon Minister, Togzhan Kuat.

Stepping out into the street, Panamon now disguised as a Kuulik, the volley of shots continued to pelt Rayjok. His armor turned away most, but he continued to take too much damage to close on the snipers directly. Rayjock cut into a building and out the back. Another Jalinbeti Guard was slain. Rayjok made his way closer and closer to the snipers until he could exchange fire with them. Surprisingly, Rayjok and his bow exceeded the snipers' deadly aim.

Descent to the Netherworld

Mira, Obsidian, et. al discussed what would happen if the undead dragons were left to their own devices. After playing out their first command, to revenge themselves upon the Garis, they would immediately begin to seek "the source" to restore their souls. This might prove disastrous, they agreed and Mira was called on to attempt a second command.

For the second command, Mira was to wish that the dragons return to the palace and roost while they wait for 'processing' to return to the afterworld, be it the Nether World or Heaven. She made one practice attempt, then the 'real' attempt. It seemed to be successful, but somehow not completely successful.

As everyone looked carefully to observe the results of Mira's commands, the room started to turn dark. Slowly but surely it transformed. The section of the floor which held the memes were faded into blackness and was replaced by a gigantic statue of an ancient Aydahar Elder kneeling in supplication. The walls turned dark and the sky outside turned black.

The party found itself surrounded by demons, three of which were occupied in magic circles, and the largest, who announced himself as Sacerdos the Flayer stood at one end of the room on some sort of throne. The room carried an odor made up of a subtle melange of death, fecal matter, and rotting things.

The party's arrival appeared first to startle the demons, and then anger them.

The Snipers are Chased Away

Meanwhile in Jetkizuu, Panamon Cree and Rayjok Halperion continued to close on the snipers' location. Rayjock continued to take the occasional hit but was doing more damage than he was taking. The Garis snipers were undoubtedly wishing they had brought the big gun. After a time, they stopped firing and the party closed in on the inn from which they had been making their shots.

Panamon approached the innkeeper who for a pair of gold pieces offered him access to the Garis' rooms. The rooms were empty with a trace of lingering magic, which they assumed (probably safely) to be the remnants of a teleport. Left behind were some hair, a few spent shell casings from the rifles, and a dossier. Panamon opened the dossier to find a great deal of information about Rayjok. His assassination orders were contained in the dossier, signed by an as yet unknown Garis general.

Meanwhile, down at the docks, two Garis wizards appeared over the Garis battleship and unleashed a torrent of magic upon the dragon turtle skeleton. This appeared to be enough to either kill the skeleton or send it away. Regardless, the damaged Garis battleship steered for open waters.

Panamon returned to the room to conduct a scrying ritual on the snipers who had fled, using their shell casings and the dossier as focal points for his magic. He was able to pinpoint one of the snipers, who was almost certainly in a ship's mess. There he told his mates of how close he had come to killing his target if only the bastard hadn't been wearing so much armor. Panamon deduced that the Garis thought of the Herald as somewhat of a rube, and wondered if he, even now, was privy to the knowledge of their attack.

Return to the Golden Palace

The leader of the Nether World demons, a giant of a beast, announced himself as Sacerdos the Flayer. He expressed his displeasure with the intrusion on his domain, in proper, if not terrifyingly gruff Otani. Mira did a reasonable job of explaining to him that the party had been brought to this place, not of their own volition, and would leave immediately. Obsidian attempted to further the conversation in hopes of mitigating the chance of combat.

As the demons prepared to close on the party, Asil approached Sacerdos the Flayer and in a defiant tone said (and I'm paraphrasing), "You have no dominion over us and will rue this challenge. Now be gone from this place while we prepare for our departure."

"By Woden's beard," said Obsidian.

Sacerdos the Flayer and the demon Asmodee closed on Asil swinging their blades and razor-sharp tails. The demon Kharen closed on Mira, striking only her armor while the demon Belail struck a deadly blow to the dragon-wyrmling Zhamila. Obsidian engaged a planar shift, transporting the party at once to a demi-plane, a place consisting largely of emptiness and white noise.

After some thought and reflection, Obsidian explained that he had no way to get them out of their predicament and would have 8 hours until the battle resumed. Mira Nephilim informed the party that she had the power to complete the planar shift and take them back to the material, back to the Golden Citadel.

In some moments Mira cast her spell and they were all returned to the physical. Mira healed Zhamila and all was back to as it was before the departure. The air smelled very good to everyone. Obsidian immediately began to check the results of the previous order on the Meme apparatus. The 50,000 dracoliches now numbered a mere 4,000. There were no numbers accurately reported back regarding the Garis, however, the reports from all fronts indicated that the Garis were in full retreat.

It was then that the dracoliches assembled on the palace walls and rooftops, even in their reduced numbers, the 4,000 of them was an oddly refreshing and terrifying sight. They sat patiently and waited as ordered. Then Obsidian gave them the order to return to the afterlife. Nothing happened. Mira tried the same order. Nothing happened. Finally, Kurban, Eldest of the Aydahar, tried giving the order.

The dracoliches slumped, fell to pieces, and dropped in their places. Some fell into scattered piles of bones. Others with more muscle still attached to their bones fell into puddles of rotten flesh, their skeletons protruding where the skin had broken away. It was a horrendous sight, but a great relief as there would be no more fight from these now-resting souls.

Jalinbeti, Ho!

Having concluded their business, Rayjok and Panamon gathered the two ministers, the remaining guard, and their two dead guardsmen. Togzhan Kuat performed the teleport spell to return them to Jalinbeti, where they planned to assemble the Jalinjeri Cabinet and debrief Hedgewind and the other Elemental Ministers.

Everything Amiss in Otan

A continually updated list of anything and everything that is possibly not good in Otan.

1. Jalinjeri Issues
   1. Hedgewind Jalinbeti is the Garis' enemy #1.
   2. Hedgewind Jalinbeti seems to be in very poor health, possibly from over-use of the Death Machine.
   3. The Council of Nine might very well be interested in the destruction of Hedgewind and the entire country.
   4. The Garis might very well be interested in the destruction of Hedgewind and the entire country.
   5. The Tsar of Ortalyk (if he lives) might very well be interested in the destruction of Hedgewind and the entire country.
   6. The entire country is overrun with refugees and may run into massive food shortages with winter coming.
   7. Halperion Prefecture has a lot of dragons in a small space.
   8. None of the Jalinjeri prefectures have seasoned governments and may not be up to the task of managing the country's everyday problems... let alone the exceptional problems.
   9. There are few trees for building and the nearby Balagash forest was burned down.
2. Garis Issues
   1. There is an ongoing shooting war. The Garis, though greatly diminished in troop size, have a strong navy and air force able to dominate most of the rest of Otan.
   2. The Garis occupy Ortalyk. The Tsar of Ortalyk is missing and presumed dead. The heir apparent to the Tsar is missing and presumed dead.
   3. The Garis occupy the eastern country of Sigis. The Emperor of Sigis is missing and presumed dead.
   4. The Garis navy sunk the Araldar navy. The Grand Admiral of Araldar is missing and presumed dead.
   5. The Garis occupy most of the Aydahar Confederation and currently encircle its capital region, which could fall at any day.
   6. The Garis occupy most of the Caliphate of Ontustik and currently encircle its capital region, which could fall at any day.
3. Ælfgarad Issues
   1. The warrior elites of the Ælfgarad navy took advantage of the sinking of the Araldar fleet and currently occupy the capital port of Jagalik and various other Araldar ports, who were helpless to defend themselves.
4. Aydahar Issues
   1. The Aydahar Confederation is occupied by Garis forces and the one remaining province is under siege.
   2. Obsidian Black and the Eldest of Aydahar appear to have awoken a great number of dead dragons.
5. Sewochi Issues
   1. There are green 4-armed creatures who seem to float upon Otani shores and kill everything from turtles to whales to sailing ships.
   2. There is a portal near the Towers of Eriquat where there are more varieties of the 4-armed creatures, many of whom are very powerful. Can they come back through the portal in great numbers? Will they?
   3. The 4-armed creatures are not communicative and seem to want to simply kill any living (Otani) thing they encounter.
   4. The green 4-armed creatures dropped golden stones that enable deep-sea navigation, explaining how they got to Otan.
   5. The lava-loving 4-armed creatures dropped blue stones that yell at Panamon's brain.
   6. The lava-loving 4-armed creatures have a Fire Qurilissi held hostage.
   7. Dragons, which seemed to have an easy time of killing the green 4-armed creatures, have been mostly murdered by the Garis and no longer clean the creatures off the southern coast.
6. Council of Nine
   1. The Council of Nine, who caused and then brokered the peace between the humans and non-humans favored the actions of the Garis in their bid to take over the entire Otani continent.
   2. The Council of Nine seems to be in league with at least one of the 4-armed creatures.
   3. The Council of Nine seems to be in league with at least one never-before-seen creature.
7. Otani Issues
   1. Death doesn't seem to work properly for everybody. Re: Death Machine, Obsidian's afterlife, rising undead.
   2. The price of diamonds (for resurrection/reincarnation) has risen 100 fold and might be hard to find at that price.
   3. Every five days, clerics and warlocks lose their power and are unable to create magic for a day.
   4. Mira Nephilim has learned that the reunification of the four remaining Qurilissi (builders) might be important. She has learned that there are only four in all of Otan and that there were once many many more.
8. Other Issues
   1. There's stuff going on that you don't even know about, and it's really serious!

Player Notes

Add some notes here if I have any (important) errors or omissions.

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