Forty-third Session

Forty-third Session

A Portrait of a BloodCaster

Campaign	The Primordial Campaign
Game Date	January 19th, 2022
Start Date	Morning Kirkuyey 10th 261 IM
Start Location	Jetkizuu Citadel, Jetkizuu and The Golden Citadel, Kazinasi
Ending Location	Depths of Eriquat, Nether World
Prev Session	Forty-second Session
Next Session	Forty-fourth Session

The Forty-third Session began once again with the party split. Panamon Cree and Rayjok Halperion had returned to the city of Halperion with the help of their Minister of Dragons, Togzhan Kuat. Meanwhile, Mira Nephilim and Obsidian Black were invited by the Eldest of Aydahar, Kurban Aldijan, to discuss the recent events surrounding their researches of the Memes of Aspan.

Jalinjeri Cabinet Convenes

The return of Rayjok and Panamon heralded the need for a Cabinet Meeting of the Jalinbeti Ministers. Hedgewind Jalinbeti presided over the meeting. He asked for briefs from the First Ministers and both Rayjok and Panamon described their successes and failures in the embassy mission.

Hedgewind's first order of business was his announcement of the fall of Ontustik to the forces of the Garis Triumvirate. He said the that Ninth Lotus of Aspan was now a resident of Jalinbeti Citadel, and that she would be establishing a government in exile to manage the affairs of her state as best as possible during the occupation.

The next order of business was to announce that the Garis herald Dastan Beket had come to Jalinbeti with some sort of offer in hand and presently waited for an audience with Hedgewind. The exchange of prisoners, he said would be a problem, as he moved on to the next order of business.

The third order of business was that a creature, recently dubbed Bloodcasters by troops on the battlefield had overrun Hedgewind's forces guarding the [{Garis]] prisoners in camps to the south. The prisoners were freed and escorted to Garis-held territory, formerly northern Ontustik.

The last order was that Hedgewind announced that Jalinjeri was in open hostilities with Shardenzar and the Council of Nine. Hedgewind announced that there would be a swift and immediate counter-attack against the Council of Nine and that he could be called upon to be part of the strike team. He said his aide-de-camp would bring the team details of the strike as soon as they were prepared.

After the meeting, Rayjok and Panamon expressed concern toward Hedgewind that perhaps he was spending too much time with the Death Machine. Hedgewind demurred the conversation and suggested that they would test his mettle soon enough in the upcoming battles.

Entertained by the Eldest of Aydahar

Meanwhile, Obsidian and Mira were invited to clean themselves up and prepare for a formal audience with the Eldest of Aydahar to discuss the recent visit to the Nether World and the fate of the Memes of Aspan. Kurban Aldijan announced that the Garis Triumvirate forces had fled the front lines and that many of their airships were destroyed. "While these tidings are grand, they came at a great cost," the eldest said.

In total, roughly 75 thousand dragon souls were returned to the material from Heaven and the Nether World. Of these, some 20 thousand were lost in the journey. After the battle, a mere four thousand souls returned to Kasinazi, their bodies having recently fallen where they stood as their souls were returned to the afterlife.

The Eldest posited the question as to what to do with the memes. He wept thinking of the great tragedy of the souls lost forever in this battle, declaring that the victory came at too high a price. He then asked if either Obsidian or Mira had seen these Memes put to similar use. Mira had not, but Obsidian told of the research being done by Hedgewind Jalinbeti.

Kurban Aldijan asked directly if they thought it would be wiser to join these memes to Hedgewind's research or to destroy them outright since they had already served their purpose. Eventually the Eldest and Obsidian Black came to an accord to join the memes with Hedgewind's research under the watchful eye of Asil.

Gift of the Magi

The business concluded, Obsidian and Mira returned to their rooms to find considerable quantities of platinum left for them as gifts for their service to the Aydahar Confederation. The pair immediately went shopping, eventually meeting up with an elderly Kuulik of much renown, who sold them magical items including special magical robes and a bag of holding.

Shopped 'til they dropped, the pair headed back to Jalinbeti, Asil in tow. It took both of their teleport spells to bring all the Memes along for the ride. When they arrived they greeted Hedgewind, discussed the news as it happened in the Aydahar Confederation and supplied him with the four additional memes to add to his research.

The Away Team Prepares

Hedgewind's aide-de-camp advised the party on the mission at hand. The Bloodcasters were made of some kind of blood-like ooze that dissipated to nothingness when they were killed. This was indicative of matter from the Nether World. The aide-de-camp explained that a gateway to the Nether World was found near the Towers of Eriquat and that they believed the Bloodcasters probably originated there, a place newly dubbed the Nexus of Eriquat.

Their missions, should they choose to accept it was to enter the nexus and destroy whomever or whatever was creating these Bloodcasters before Shardenzar had a million of them to command. The party was issued special 'fire resistance' potions to aid them in their quest and was instructed to wait for Hedgewind, who would join them. Meanwhile, Obsidian Black asked Asil to join in the quest, having learned that she had some experience with demons and the like.

Hedgewind joined the group, armed with a pair of plane shift scrolls, and moved the party from the material world to the Nether World where they alighted at the Nexus of Eriquat.

Hell Hath Fury

Hell is really an awful place. The party arrived in a pit, lined with what were undoubtedly Pit Demons supervising the pit in the capacity of foremen. Besides themselves, the pit was crawling with smaller bearded demons, clawing in pools of lava. Their apparent goal was to dig up nuggets of a white-hot mineral they would later identify as hematite. There was no clue as to whether this activity was related to the Bloodcasters.

The arrival of the party raised the immediate ire and concern of the Pit Demons, who seemed to agree that it might be a good idea to destroy the new intruders. At the very least, they should put the intruders to work. This is the way in the Nether World.

Before they could impose their fury (and as the party hesitated), Asil shouted "Begone!"

So convincing was her command that the demons did indeed heed her words as if shouted by a god. All but one of the Pit Demons scattered away. The party struggled to destroy it, eventually destroying three of them as two others came to their senses. The remaining demons, big and small retreated down a dark tunnel... a very dark tunnel and away from the party and the frightening Asil.

Victorious, the party recovered several nuggets of the hematite the smaller demons were digging for. Hedgewind and Asil were both left moderately wounded from the scuffle.

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, though the siege on the capital region has been broken.
   2. Obsidian Black and the Eldest of Aydahar awoke a great number of dead dragons. This has disturbed members of the Nether World.
   3. There is a nexus to the Nether World in the Kazinasi Citadel.
   4. There are strange experiments going on there that appear related to the Memes of Aspan.
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 is openly hostile toward Jalinjeri and performing acts to benefit the Garis.
   2. The Council of Nine are manufacturing Bloodcasters in the Nether World and using them on the material world to further their goals.
   3. 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.
   4. The Council of Nine seems to be in league with at least one of the 4-armed creatures.
   5. 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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