On the Homeland
As the sunset, they came upon the radioactive beaches of the Homeland, the last surviving continent. Mena perfected the beach so as to not be radioactive where they landed.
They came upon a half-buried shopping mall. The casket led them down the escalator while Mena cleaned up the radiation where they went. It was an underground mall beneath the city. The casket led them through various sections of the mall to the jewelry section and a watchmaker. A large mutated lion with four arms and two legs was asleep in front of the shop. They crept past it into the shop and it ignored except Sturm, who it grabbed and through out the rotunda window.
Mena put up an Eidolon shield. Cyra cast Stun. Then the lion through Jane and Cyra through the Rotunda onto Sturm. Uther held onto the lion’s arm when it tried to throw him. It ignored William and Mena. William created a perfect cat toy, but the lion was stunned.
Sturm had landed on a giant mutated larva nest. Then Jane and Cyra landed on top on him. Sturm grabbed Jane and Cyra and leapt back down to the others. The giant hornets flying by see them, but do not pursue them. They landed on the lion’s head. Cyra cast a Sleep spell on the lion to knock it out for a few hours. It falls to the floor, knocking over a perfume cart that spills all over Uther.
The casket led to the back of the jewelry shop to a pocket watch. It was the target. William repaired the watch. The casket pointed back in the direction that they had come. The watch was inscribed “to Baudemagus from your wife.”
The wind started picking up, even underground. They teleported back to Nexopolis and commanded the boat to return by itself. Uther fell off the pier into the water.
Mena contacted Baudemagus, who pulled her to him. She returned the watch to him. And he was very happy. She returned Mena to the others.
What is So Great About the Chest?
Uther suggested that since two separate parties had tried to steal the chest, not destroy it, perhaps the team should study it to see what makes it so valuable. Neither Uther or Cyra identified anything amiss with the chest. It radiated primal energies akin to the Grand Stair itself. The import of the chest was where it took those on the Last Walk.
They considered that their route could have been altered to lead them astray, but it seemed that the ritual was too complex to be tampered with, aside from perhaps Lucien, but Lucien did not take the chest when he had the opportunity to do so. Cyra suggested hiring Mordechai’s mercenaries to protect the team on the journey. She suggested talking with Finian about enhancing their security.
Sturm asked Mother Girl why she said that she would have kept the chest. She replied that everyone who had been on the last Last Walk were all dead now, and that she was worried for Sturm. She suggested that perhaps only one of this Last Walk party would be left.
While the others rested, Sturm and William spoke with Finian about security arrangements. Sturm suggested to him that the team was considering hiring the Black Raven Legion and asked if he thought it would be a good idea. Finian replied that other than Mordechai himself, anyone the Last Walk encountered would easily defeat the legionaries. William asked if hiring protection would be beneficial, and Finian responded that they could be under certain circumstances, but given the unspecified nature of the Last Walk, their utility would be uncertain.
They rested for the night before Cyra teleported the team to her domain on Verse Arcanum to evade those who had been surveiling them. From there, there was a single strand local to Verse Arcanum. The rest of the threads led to the Door to the Grand Stair.
Verse Arcanum
From Cyra’s tower, the thread led to another tower atop the Witches Spine, the tallest and longest mountain range on the continent of Uru-aum, Barrowborn’s Academy of Enchantment and the Necromantic Arts, which was surrounded by the Forbidden Forest. The most well attended school of the mystic arts. It was run by Eternal Headmaster Juniper Barrowborn’s, the kind lies told lich you will ever meet. There were two threads leading that way. There was a white and black brick road leading there.
Cyra transported them to the end of his domain. Following the black and white road, they could see that the road was becoming overgrown. Off the path, they could see elves in black masks reveling. One of the elves came up to talk to them in an unintelligible language. They continued down the path.
They came upon a dwarf with a coal powered heart, who also spoke to them in an unitelligible language. Cyra attempted to open a portal to the Door, but it was blocked by Barrowborn’s domain. The elves seemed attuned to the Umbra, while the dwarves were attuned to Eidolon. The team left that domain and opened his portal to the Door. All stepped out and back in it to gain the language attunement to the Exogenesis.
Upon reentering through the door, they found themselves at the top of a spiral stairway. Cyra teleported them back to the end of the black and white path, where the elves enthusiastically invited them to come to their party. They declined politely. The path led to a stairway of alternating black and white steps leading up to the Witches Spire.
They climbed about halfway up the stairs when the mountain moved. They stairs were unaffected. They realized then that the mountain was not a mountain, it was a dragon. It was put out by their presence and not impressed by the architecture. The dragon was actually the entire mountain range. The dragon interrogated each about their place of origin. It was not impressed with William or Jane. It was not annoyed by Uther, and satisfied with Sturm. It was displeased with Cyra, who had built his tower on the dragon’s world. It was annoyed by Mena, but let her pass as she was properly polite. They continued up the stairs.
At the Academy
At the top of the two mile stairs, they came up to the main doorway of a crystalline academy. The place looked burnt and blackened. There were some blackened students with burnt out eyes nearby. No one answered their knock. Entering, they found that the once elaborate chamber was now a soot filled tomb that was till smoldering. Cyra sought out a professor type outside the building to cast a Speak with Dead spell end. She noted that there was no evidence of magic anywhere.
They observed that the magic appeared to be bolts, summoned monsters, and such, and appeared that the students and faculty had destroyed each other. The area was naturally steeped in Eidolon. The bodies were completely devoid of magic. Cyra concluded that the effort to restore the bodies enough to communicate with would be too expensive.
The threads led deeper into the academy. Uther detected two psychic presences. One seemed to be multiple entities, while the other was a lone entity high in the tower. Uther concluded that the group was probably Higgins from the thing in the tower. They climbed up past a dormitory level full of corpses. The next level was a laboratory. As they approached the next stairs, the entity above disappeared. The thread still pointed to the same place.
The next level appeared to be a dozen different libraries. They dragged William and Jane up the next steps. The next level contained a number of open-air balconies with summoning circles, etc. This caused a sense of disorientation. As they senses seven opsychic presences coming down the stairs. They braced for combat. Then duplicates of the team emerged from the stairwell.
The duplicates prepared to attack. Sturm examined his duplicate to identify his own weaknesses. Jane invoked her True Name and all the duplicates disappeared. The illusion was dispelled. Then a pit appeared beneath Cyra and a block a over her. She sensed that someone cast a spell to make that happen. They all searched for the intruder. Sturm detected an incomplete air pattern before the stairwell. Cyra stone shaped the block to free herself. She noticed a black mist moving down the sides of the pit.
Uther screened for psychic presences in Sturm’s path. Sturm split the effected area in two to reveal Juniper Barrowborn, who cursed him to be an Umbral gaunt after death. And then Sturm fell asleep. Mena used Eidolon to create a rope to lower to her. This shattered the spell, and Cyra was at the surface. A shadow creature touched Jane and her strength was reduced to normal human levels.
Uther clubbed Barrowborn. The shadow grabbed hold of Uther and reduced his strength to normal human levels. A Gossomer portal appeared behind Cyra and tried to suck her in, but she resisted. William pushed Eidolon onto Jane and restored and improved her Strength. Mena pushed Eidolon to shatter the portal. She then put up the Eidolon Shield and stepped between Cyra and the lich.
William attacked the shadow with Eidolon. Jane pulled Strum out of danger and woke him up. Sturm destabilized the lich’s reality. The lich cast a spell and Uther, William, and Cyra dropped to the ground under increased gravity. Cyra cast Magic Drain on Barrowborn, and the physical ward and barrier spells. William grabbed the shadow and dissipated it. Jane threw a rock at the lich to distract him. Mena charged the lich, broke his focus axe, and stabbed him with it. The lich then began lecturing the team on magical strategy. Uther touched him with the casket. He greeted Tsien and told her that someone released spell eaters in the academy and killed all the students.
Cyra determined that ther was a curse, a fire and a massacre. That turned the academy into a soot-covered ruin haunted by Barrowborn and infested by the scavenger spell eaters. Malevolent spirits that eat spells, going after the strongest magical beings and items. They infest spell casters, strengthen them, and use their powers to find more magic. Spell eaters do not have a psychic presence. The presences in the vault were probably hiding there.
Sturm and William used their powers to attempt to restore the lich to a proper mental state, but Barrowborn resisted them. Failing that, the team elected to head down to the vault by themselves. The lich went back up the tower. Cyra detected the presence of spell eaters, and then they attacked.
At the Vault
Cyra, Mena, Mindel and Uther were possessed by the spell eaters. Jane knocked Cyra out. William used Eidolon to restore Mena. Mindel gouged Williams eyes. Uther activated his shotgun and shot a destructive damage plasma shell at William. Sturm destabilized the reality of the spell eaters and cleared the room, except the ones possessing Mindel, Cyra and Uther. The one jumped from Cyra to William. Mena perfected Wiliam back to normal health and destroyed the spell eater. Mindel attacked Mena.
William perfected Uther back to normal health and destroyed the spell eater. Jane perfected Mindel back to normal health and destroyed the spell eater. Mena perfected herself back to health.
Then they disabled all the wards at the vault and opened it. Inside was a lone professor and several frightened students. The casket led them to an icon card of Lady Kitabu where a student had been sleeping. Sturm noted that a child was missing. The teacher identified him as James Kitabu, Lady Kitabu’s son. The thread was leading to the icon. Cyra collected him. He said that the last time he contacted his mother, everyone went crazy.
Cyra probed James’ mind and determined that he had attempted to contact his mother and was possessed into releasing the ward and allowing access to a horde of spell eaters that was waiting. Mena convinced James to contact his mother. He wanted Jane to speak to her first. Jane was unable to make contact. Cyra was unable to locate her with Wayfinding. James mentioned that if she was in the back office, she would not pick up. Jane returned the icon to him. The thread had stopped.
Uther queried the professor on James Kitabu. He said that Callius had sponsored him. The professor said that the lich was now required to seek vengeance on whoever betrayed the school, and that was James. Jane suggested reporting the situation of Vala. Cyra recommended contacting Lucien as there was already an association with the academy.
William contacted Lucien and informed him that the Last Walk brought them to Barrowborn’s academy, and that it was destroyed. Only one teacher and 30 students were saved. The headmaster was now insane. Since Cyra was unable to restore Barrowborn, Lucien said he would contact Vala. He suggested destroying Barrowborn’s body and forcing him to find a new body. Lucien asked about Tsien’s daughter, and Sturm was able to determine that she had been the first one killed. He suggested letting Baudemagus that his was daughter dead.
William asked Lucien if he could get Callius to remove a curse. Lucien said that he would ask when he next saw Callius.
Mena left the academy and contacted Baudemagus. She asked him to pull her through to inform him of his daughter’s death. He was unaware that he had had a daughter. He asked about the circumstances of her death.
They considered why Tsien was on everyone’s hit list. The only thing that stood out was that she was the last survivor of the last Last Walk. She had found something and was taken out. The intent had been to have her disappear completely. Now she was trying to communicate her discovery through her Last Walk.
They collected the daughter’s body and preserved it until they could return it to Baudemagus. Then they questioned the lich about Gossomer Lords who had attended the academy. Vala had not, but Lucien had. Lucien’s did not have a great appreciation of Gossomer. However he absorbed any information, read every book, and liked to have and keep secrets.
Lucien had sponsored Callius to attend. Callius had been more social and optimistic, but he only been a Gossomer Lord for about a century and did not have the baggage that the others carried.
Bastiano had not been teachable. Dale had been his first student.
Mena asked what had been Tsien’s best feature. Barrowborn said that she had been especially adept at dispelling wards. In the mean time, William sought out. Student records and Jane per used the what was left of the libraries. She found only one book intact, Cal’s Grimoire. She gave it to Cyra.
The Team:
- Sturm von Krieg the warrior (Joab)
- William Edwalton the scientist (Greg)
- Jane Edwalton the explorer (Jenna)
- Mena the traveler (Stephanie)
- Uther the gatherer (Dave)
- Cyra the sorceress (Mike)