Session 2.10

The Search for the Last Master
Party: Chris (as DM), Shane (as Indigo), Rick (as Rael), Ryan (as Carric), Elaine (as Fallynde), Luther (as Buckler)

Through his studies of the journal of the mad Nartox scientist Shar’Ovoth and through the divinations of 23, the reclusive elderly Drow mage residing in Steepridge, Indigo has learned that there still exists one Master in this world, and this last Master (Laster) resides somewhere in the Ashlands to the far west and northwest. Indigo is eager to meet this Master in hopes of finding the answers to many questions. Who are the Masters? What happened to them? What is this world? What’s this “void curse” that’s hungry for our souls? How do we break this curse? Is there a way to break the pact magic that’s slowly eroding my mind through its bonds to three warring patrons? 23 urged Indigo to travel to the Ashlands to find this Master. And so, to adventure, we travel!

Day 1
Finishing up their last-minute business in Hardholme, the party sets out for Viven and makes good time. There’s no bridge across Tastyfish River, but we rest assured, knowing that the plans are in progress with the Hardholme Public Works Department. (Thank you, Councillors!)

Upon reaching Viven, we find our way back to Davros (the bar, not the world), where Rael delivers his next shipment of wine, and we drink and relax for the rest of the evening.

Buckler’s been training very hard, so he’s excited for the chance to get away from Hardholme for a bit. He knocks back lots of drinks, while Rael and Carric compliment him on his chiseled features. “Right…?!” Fallynde rhetorically asks Rael. It turns out Buckler can eat several dozen eggs in one sitting, and he’s approaching Vash-levels of strength. That’s a lot of protein, Buddy!

Fallynde has spent considerable amounts of time with the Hyla, learning their culture and traditions. She’s gained the trust of Jeljon the Green, who’s the leader of the Green Hyla, and she shares with us information he gave her about the mysterious Psora race that inhabits the Ashlands. They’re viscious winged creatures with long beaks and a savage sense of humor. After the Masters disappeared, they hunted and killed Nozzkrinor, one of Kazzaran’s children. The Psora are deft and cunning. They’re scavengers, created this way on purpose. And if one of the Masters remains and lives in the Ashlands, the Psora would definitely know about it and protect it to the death.

Day 2
We make a quick visit to the Bazaar in the morning to stock up on supplies before our trek. Who knows how long this journey will take? While we’re there, Carric buys a sweet set of +1 Veranium-studded leather armor!

Upon the recent destruction of the Leviathan, we learned that the Laster, Master Tusk, resides within the Smoking Mountains. We also learned that the Psora known as Suduk would be able to take us to him. With the help of the Greens, we deduce that the best portal to take would be the one on the shores of Simsum Lake, across the water from Matmar.

The party exits the associated portal, which is in the foothills of a mountain adjacent to the lake, and begins to travel westward between the mountain and lake; everyone is riding their respective Striders except Buckler, who’s riding proudly atop Nobanion, his silver lion mount.

Matmar is too far away to be seen, but we keep an eye out for Red Hyla anyway. We begin to approach the Ashlands soon after dark, and we camp for the night.

Day 3
The Ashlands sure seem… ashy. Very gray and dry toward the north; the mountains all have smoke rising from their summits; it appears this area is a very active volcano field. We decide to continue travelling westward, staying near the swamp. By nightfall, we reach a large river that blocks our path further west, and we set camp at a confluence of this river and one of its tributaries. A nearby volcano has a lava flow that descends down the mountainside and into the river, creating a large, hot cloud of steam in the surrounding area.

Day 4
We turn our trek toward the north, travelling along the eastern riverbank, away from the moisture of the swamp and further into the dry desert of the Ashlands. There are many dried and burnt trees surrounding us. It appears this area was once part of the swamp, but the volcanoes burned it away. The area is very hot, and there’s a haze of smoke in the air, making it difficult to breathe.

Indigo sends Archimicerus, his familiar that’s currently in pseudodragon form, out to scout the terrain. What lies around us? North seems to be the best direction to go for now. Either the Psora will find us, or we’ll find them.

“Awful, this air is,” Carric coughs, “I keep my lungs Pristine!”  Annoyed at the dirty atmosphere, he lights a menja joint and puffs away as we travel. He watches the horizon and the clouds billowing out of the mountains as the day drags on slowly. “Hm. I wonder what THEY’RE smoking?” he muses as the sun begins to set.

As we travel north along the riverbank, the river begins to take an eastward turn; we must cross now if we want to continue north. We pull out our tiny boat, transform it into a big boat, then gather in to make our crossing. We make camp on the other side of the river.

Day 5
We continue our trek north, toward the heart of the volcano field. It’s very dry, the mountains constantly rumble, and there’s a gray tint to everything. It appears that the smoky clouds coming out of the volcanoes are rising up into the permanent cloud layer overhead, and they look the same. Is it possible?? Are these volcanoes the source of the cloud layer?! “How are you Indigo?” Rael inquires, “Are you drying out?”  He hands a jar of moisturizer to Indigo, who’s never needed such a thing before. Indigo proceeds to scoop a palmful of lotion and slather it thickly on his face. Rael and Fallynde look on, horrified, before correcting him on proper technique.

We don’t see any animals around here at all, but we eventually notice winged creatures in the sky, circling high above us, watching us. These must be the Psora, right? Fallynde’s danger sense piques, which puts us on guard against these creatures. They’re too far away for Archimicerus to sense their feelings.

We keep riding north, slow but steady in the oppressive environment. The winged creatures seem to gradually get lower as the day wears on… closer to us… We watch as they continue to circle until the sun sets, the last light of day fades, and we’re forced to stop to make camp among the volcanoes.

Day 6
The night was not restful. It was very uncomfortable, the volcanoes made constant noise, and there was a curious and creepy *crunching* sound all around us, yet we could see nothing. Fallynde rested well, the mountain environment feeling more like home than anywhere else in this world. Carric and Rael both slept well with the help of their menga medication. However, Buckler and Indigo had very hard times trying to sleep, and both wake with Exhaustion.

The Psora are MUCH closer to us now! Instead of continuing to ride while pretending we don’t notice, we decide to get their attention. Rael waves up to the sky, while Carric calls out, “Hey there!” and Fallynde pulling jerky from the bag and holds it out to them. They swoop down closer to us, and we finally get a good look at them. They’re giant green creatures, about 10 feet tall with leathery wings and large hooked beaks, exactly as Fallynde described.

Fallynde sets the jerky down, and one of the Psora lands and begins to devour it as it glares at her. “We’re cool…” Fallynde calmly reassures the creature, hoping to avoid conflict and build a tenuous foundation for a bridge of trust. “You’re not Hyla…” the creature growls in broken Abyssal, with a hint of surprise. “No, we’re not Hyla,” Fallynde confirms in Abyssal, “but I hope you enjoy the jerky we’ve given you.”  “I am not Hyla,” Carric proudly replies, “But I AM “high,” though…”  He waits for a reaction, but the Psora doesn’t understand Common language, and Carric appears dejected as the quip falls flat.

“We’re looking for someone,” Fallynde continues, keeping a calm voice, “Can you tell us where to find Master Tusk?”  Upon hearing the name, the Psora’s eyes open widely, and it immediately takes flight without so much as an answer, in an attempt to get away from us.

Rael is worried that this Psora may get us into trouble, so he quickly uses his Wand of Web on it, ensnaring and entangling it, and preventing it from getting away. This unfortunately results in the remaining flock of Psora (10 strong) to dive down to attack us! In a quick bid to defuse the situation, Fallynde and Carric offer reassuring words and gestures to mitigate their anger, Rael plays a calming tune on his guitar, Buckler stands up to full height and emanates an intimidating presence, and Indigo bluffs that if they attack us, they’d be no match for our power. The gambit is a success! Crisis averted!

“You have power like the Masters!” one of them states, referring to the magic produced by the wand. The Psora that was ensnared, Yuhu, is released from his bindings. Rael continues to play his music unhindered, which successfully charms 5 of the 11 Psora, including Yuhu.

Indigo tells Yuhu that Master Tusk is expecting us, and that he told us to find Suduk, who knows where to find him. The Psora are all shocked! But Yuhu assures us that he will find and bring Suduk to us; they don’t want to anger the Master by disobeying his orders. Yuhu takes flight, and we’re left to wait with the rest of the Psora. They squawk loudly, unable to believe all this crazy shit is happening. What are we, if not Hyla?? How do we have power like the Masters?! Sensing their agitation, Rael offers them Simsum wine to ease their nerves, which seems to work. The party talks with them, translated through Fallynde and Indigo. Carric tells them he likes what they have going on here – very nice, indeed! Small fights break out among them every once in a while, but we learn a lot of interesting information from them, especially from the ones charmed by Rael.

They are indeed scavengers, created by the Masters, and they clean the Ashlands of Hyla that wander into the area and die; from high above, they thought WE were Hyla, ourselves, and they’re surprised that anything other than Hyla exist in the Valley. They were tasked by Master Tusk to keep the volcanoes going so that the skies stay clouded; they’re able to do this through Master Tusk’s magic. When asked about the death of Nozzkrinor, they reveal that they did, indeed, kill the dragon FOR Master Tusk in order to get his heart, which has magical properties. The Psora, who are experiencing various levels of drunkenness and bardic charm, are fighting each other in a sort of dominance play over who gets to tell the most information. As the information revealed becomes more sensitive, the less-affected Psora begin to seriously fight the affected ones, and the revelations cease. Thinking of Suduk, Buckler says the name reminds him of Sudoku, which he used to love playing on Davros; Rael offers to use magic to create Sudoku puzzles for him in the future.

After a short while passes, we see two Psora approaching from the north. Carric muses that they’re literally “psoaring” through the sky! The two arrivals are apparently Yuhu and Suduk. “Is it racist that I can’t tell them apart?” Buckler whispers to Rael. Indigo tells Suduk that Master Tusk is expecting them, and that we understand he can bring us to the Master. Suduk is suspicious of us, but Yuhu assures him that we can do cool stuff. Indigo whispers to Rael to do magic, after which Rael summons an illusion of a verdant, grassy field behind him, reminiscent of the Feywild, sparkly with cute critters hopping about. The Psora all shriek with horror and disgust at the image! Having earned Suduk’s attention, Indigo tells him that we accidentally broke the Master’s toy (referring to the Leviathan), and that the Master wants us to go to him. “You broke the Master’s Toy?!” Suduk exclaims, “We need to bring you right away!”  It’s a little unsettling how much they seem to fear this “Laster.”

The Psora appear eager to eat the Striders, but we’re able to convince them that pain awaits them if they do; that it may anger Master Tusk. They LIFT us with their talons (the Striders too!!!  Poor Striders!), and they carry us up, UP into the sky and to the north! We’re flying above the Ashlands, above the volcanoes! Rael wonders if there’s any danger of anyone falling into a volcano, but we rule that possibility out, since none of us are virgins and therefore completely safe. As the Psora continue north, we reach a huge lake of lava! Several volcanoes are around it, and their flows all converge together to form the lake. The Psora fly FAST over the lake, and we can feel the immense heat rising up to bake us; fortunately we continue past the lake before it becomes unbearable. They seem to be flying toward a smaller volcano to the northwest of the lava lake; they begin to descend as we approach it. Before we get too close to the mountain, we see a shoreline far to the north, bordering a large body of water! Is that an ocean? A giant lake?? There’s little time to inspect it as the Psora race through the air and toward the mountainside.

We land on a rocky ledge, where we notice a giant pillar of smoke rising from the mountain. Up close, it appears the smoke is artificial, and it seems that something is producing it. Machinery down below?? The Psora lead us into a gigantic rough-hewn hallway leading into the mountain; this hallway is VERY tall, and the tunnels are twisty. Fallynde is excited to finally be back inside a real mountain! Rael passed a menga joint to Carric, while asking to no one in particular, “Can we smoke in here…?”  The poor Striders are freaking out at their current life situation, and we’re doing our best to keep them calm. Eventually we arrive at set of giant red lavos doors. As we near the doors, they SLAM open! We enter the next room, anticipation level at max.

This huge room is filled with arcane devices and bits of machinery reminiscent of those found inside the Leviathan. There are great stone pillars around the room, and several glass screens are visible, glowing red and filled with Abyssal writing. The 12 Psora stand in formation on two sides of the room behind us. Near the back of the room is a solitary humanoid figure wearing a long robe, facing away from us, toward one of the screens. Upon sensing our presence, he quickly spins about, robes spinning through the air with him. As the Hyla stated before, the Masters do, indeed, look like us, but also not like us. Whatever body his robes hide, it appears human enough, but his skin color looks… off. And instead of a face, there are two deep glowing eyes with a mass of tentacles where a mouth should be. This is an Illithid, more commonly known as a Mind Flayer!

“Who are you?!” Master Tusk calls out to us telepathically. His language is Abyssal, but everyone can understand him, since he’s speaking directly to our minds. Rael introduces himself to Tusk and begins to flirt with him in an attempt to get this conversation off on the right foot. He’s immediately deflated when the Master shows absolutely no sexual interest in him and is instead put on edge. “We came to meet you,” Indigo says, “We have many questions to ask!”  We all feel a slight twist in our minds, as if the Master is listening more closely to our thoughts.

“How did you find me?”

“Well ah… we um… broke your toy. And you told us to bring it to you.”

“What?! YOU broke my toy?”  Master Tusk begins to sound enraged.

“Well--!” Indigo interjects, “Not us, specifically! It was a friend of ours who isn’t here right now. His name is Celador!”

“You. But you are not Hyla...”  Master Tusk appears to trail off, confused for a moment, “Suduk, come to me.”  Suduk obeys and waddles up beside his Master. “They are not Hyla,” Tusk calmly states, “and you brought them here, to me.”

“No!” Suduk exclaims, “It was Yuhu! He approached me and vouched for these creatures! He told me that you were expecting them!”

“Yuhu…,” Yuhu waddles to the Master’s side opposite Suduk. “Why did you bring these creatures here?”

“They said that you summoned them, Master! I wanted to please you! They—“ but Yuhu doesn’t have time to finish his response. The Master twists a spike into his mind, and Yuhu immediately drops dead to the floor. Master Tusk’s facial tentacles reach down to the body and swiftly tear open the creature’s skull, and he greedily commences to eat its brain, like a small child eating a favorite dessert. Spikes immediately protrude from Rael’s skin as a defensive reaction.

We stand stunned as he finishes his meal. In another effort to diffuse a potentially BAD situation, Fallynde begins speaking to Master Tusk as if nothing horrifying had just happened in front of us, “So! We’ve heard a lot about you! We’ve met your creations, and they all adore you.”  “What do you know?” Tusk asks guardedly. We describe various bits of information we know about the species of Kazzaran’s Valley, taking care to not mention unnecessary information. “Yes, all these creatures are slaves,” replies Master Tusk, “who’ve outlived their usefulness. They’re no longer needed. But you… Who are you? How long have you been here?”  Looking around to each other, the party chooses their words carefully. Deciding that Rael has been in this world the longest, we reply, “About… almost 3 years.”

“Why are you the last Master?” we ask.

Tusk’s answer is evasive, but we get the feeling he was left behind by the others, and not of his own choice. “Where did you come from?” demands Tusk.

“We came here from… the Void!”

“No no. No,” Master Tusk concludes, “This won’t do at all. I’ll have to eat your minds.”  “You can’t flay my mind any more than it already has been!” Carric quickly retorts. With that, Tusk spreads his tentacles out to attack us. INITIATIVES!

Tusk opens with a Mind Blast attack, targeting our entire part! Everyone except Buckler and Indigo fail their saving throws! Fallynde, Rael, and Carric are stunned in place and can do nothing!

From the beginning of the fight, we’re already in a perilous predicament. A murderous Mind Flayer stands before us, and we’re surrounded by 11 now-hostile Psora who are glaring at us. Our bards and barbarian are incapacitated. Buckler and Indigo share a meaningful glance at one another; not only are we desperately outnumbered, but neither of us slept the night before and are in no condition to fight. *Cue the melancholy choir soprano music that precedes a hopeless and epic struggle, as the camera pans 360 degrees around the two exhausted party members looking toward one another, with the 12 attackers slightly out of focus around the perimeter.*

Sensing the impending doom, Indigo reaches into the Bag of Holding and withdraws the Horn of Valhalla. He glances to his party, seeking their approval. Buckler gives a slight nod while maintaining intense eye contact, while Fallynde, Carric, and Rael stare at him without blinking. Indigo senses through his familiar that they are screaming for him to blow the horn. He raises the horn to his lips and blows as hard as he can. The sound is thunderous and causes halt to everyone in the room. A divine light immediately fills the chamber, as 9 glowing warriors descend down into the room, touching the floor in a circle around the surrounded party, ready for battle!

Wasting no time, Buckler runs directly up to Tusk, ignites both his blades, and brings them both down against Tusk in a blinding X-strike! The Divine Smite releases a loud ringing sound (and 58 damage!), and blood spills to the floor as the Mind Flayer staggers back a step!

Tusk regains his composure and waves his arms in the air. “What are you waiting for, you idiots?! Destroy them!!!”  The Psora and the Valhalla warriors immediately break into a chaotic melee against each other! Tusk then attacks Buckler with his tentacles, grappling the warrior’s face (Ew) and tries to stun him, but Buckler saves against the stun.

As Buckler tries to release himself from the tentacles, Indigo casts Chaos Bolt against Tusk. A rainbow cluster of orbs fly from his hand and soar through the air erratically toward the Mind Flayer. As they fly, most of the orbs flicker out of existence, only a few yellow ones remaining to hit Tusk for acid damage.

In an effort to escape this monster called Buckler, Master Tusk mentally orders Suduk to remove him from the melee. Suduk takes flight and lifts his Master from the floor. Tusk releases his grapple on Buckler, prompting Buckler to land a good slash against Suduk before falling out of range. The warriors continue to fight the Psora, resulting in several casualties on both sides.

Buckler rushes to protect his party, crashing back through the Psora. He casts Protection from Evil and Good on Indigo, adding a significant defensive boon to his one able-bodied party member. At about this time, the stun hold on Fallynde, Carric, and Rael breaks away, and the three are able to fight again!! Yay!

Suduk carries Tusk to the air above where the party is standing, where Tusk Levitates himself; Suduk then rejoins the melee. Wary of Buckler’s intense strength, Master Tusk casts Dominate on him from the air, attempting to gain control of Buckler for himself, while throwing vicious taunts at us. Fortunately, Buckler is able to resist the magic and retains control of himself. The warriors and Psora continue to battle each other; there are now only 3 warriors and 4 Psora remaining (one of the warriors critically missed, resulting in maximum damage to himself, thus killing himself.  Yikes!)  Indigo feels a sudden itch in his mind, which moves down his left arm, into his fingers… they’re grasping harder at the Ars Goetia in his hand. “The Book is hungry…” Indigo whispers to himself. The pages begin to flip rapidly of their own accord. His eyes move upward to the Illithid floating mid-air above them.

Rael and Carric have headaches after the Mind Blast; this type of magic fucks with their own source of power. Able-bodied again, they seize their chance to trap Master Tusk! They quickly cast a dual tech, placing Carric’s Thorn Wall above Rael’s Flame Wall, coining “Ring of Fire”!! Rael’s Flame Wall is a cylinder that’s underneath Tusk, burning upward toward him. Carric’s Thorn Wall is a cylinder that’s above Tusk, growing rapidly downward toward him. Each cylinder encircles him part-way, closing down from above and below like a gargantuan mouth on a yummy piece of fried calamari!!! Tusk is trapped within this magical cage and takes damage from Carric’s thorns!

Angered by her previous inability to help and the lack of control of her own body, Fallynde activates her Berzerker Rage and goes into an adrenaline frenzy against the nearest enemy she sees- an unfortunate Psora that had no idea of her capabilities! By the time she finishes taking out her anger on it, it’s reduced it to a fine blood-mist that showers down upon her face. Reveling in the opportunity to make everything right, she casts a gleeful glance at her beloved, who’s right there fighting beside her! Buckler meets her glance and grins at her as he thrusts his sword into a nearby Psora that he’s fighting.

Sensing the time is right, Indigo forcefully lifts the Ars Goetia up, above his head. Or was it the Book that pulled his arm up?? The Book floats a few inches above his hand as the pages stop flipping, a brief flash of light erupts, and a black vortex opens above the book. A giant maelstrom forms about it, causing a cacophony of sound and swirling air, as everything inside the maelstrom is pulled downward, into the book. Master Tusk desperately tries to escape the pull, but black tendrils of negative light slowly ascend from the vortex, encircle him, and pull him the rest of the way inside. The Book slams shut – the maelstrom and cacophony are gone, as if nothing ever happened. Satisfied, the Book emanates a small black aura, bestowing a gift of the Illithid’s magic unto Indigo. Indigo’s right eye briefly glows purple.

Master Tusk is now destroyed, all the Vahalla warriors have been destroyed, and only 2 Psora remain, one of which is Suduk. Rael, Carric, and Indigo work to charm and dominate them to prevent further fighting. Upon inspection of the chamber, Indigo realizes the glowing red screens with writing appear similar to those found inside the Leviathan. Can we glean something useful from these?!

Days 7 – 13
=== === The screens are very difficult to understand; the technology is alien. The party agrees to camp here until Indigo has time to study them and decipher what they mean and how to use them. This process takes an entire week! *Cue montage*  Buckler and Fallynde spend their time keeping guard against other Psora, while Carric and Rael enjoy the quiet time, smoking their menga and playing tunes to keep us entertained. Carric gives guitar lessons to Rael, Rael brings coffee to Indigo, and Fallynde gives shoulder massages to Indigo as he intently studies the red screens (she’s careful to not break his shoulders with her might!)  The components of the machinery are magical, the same as with the Leviathan. The result of the study reveals that there are 3 additional Leviathans that are still functioning in Kazzaran’s Valley. Perhaps the one we destroyed was different from the one that chased the expedition party to Matmar? It appears possible to control the Leviathans from here, although our control may be unpredictable, given that we don’t have the same psionic power as the Illithids.

Over the course of the week, the party speculates on what we learned from Master Tusk and the Psora. It appears that Tusk was left here by the other Masters, and that they currently reside above the cloud layer. We knew that the Hole was the location of their city; it seems that their city and the land around it has somehow risen into the sky, leaving the gaping Hole behind. Master Tusk created the cloud cover to hide the other Masters from the Hyla, Nartox, and Psora and set himself up as the lesser creatures’ god. Is it possible to remove the cloud cover? SHOULD we remove the cloud cover?! It appears there’s an entire city of Illithids living up above the clouds. Has the cloud cover actually been protecting Hardholme from the notice of these creatures for the past 72 years? While speaking of the Void surrounding this world, Indigo speculates on a divination that 23 revealed, claiming that Cyrus Hardholme did not actually discover the Void that led him to this world. Instead, the Void found Cyrus Hardholme. Is it possible that Cyrus was somehow made aware of this world on purpose??

Days 14 – 20
Master Tusk’s control over the Psora has faded away. While they’re not entirely friendly toward us, at least we don’t have to charm them any longer. The party convinces them to carry us and our Striders out of “Laster Mountain.”  They deposit us safely at the foot of the volcano, and we travel home over the course of another week.