| Session Date | September 7, 2024 |
| Start Date | 7 Iceback 1273 |
| End Date | 8 Iceback 1273 |
| Starting Location | Party quarters, Kazakh |
| Ending Location | Planet Mavros |
| Player Characters | Helga, Burt, Nesticus, Mord*, Deaglan, Sirius, ZZ, Havok |
| Base XP Gained | Carry Over |
| Player Notes | ZZ's Notes |
After much time conducting varied business, the party had once again reunited in the dwarf city of Kazakh. It was a quiet morning, and they were enjoying breakfast, with Nali as a guest. As they chatted about their recent activities, there was a knock at the door. Their butler informed them that a woman and a bird were art the door, begging admittance. Neither woman nor bird were willing to give their names, he intoned. The party bid him let her enter, admitting none other than Astraharsis (and her white owl).
The sorceress was clearly disturbed and asked to speak with the party privately, without Nali or their servants present. This the party accepted, the servants sent for a free pint at the nearby pub and Nali off to work, looking at the woman quizzically. When they were alone, she spoke quickly and quietly, informing the party that she’d learned that the Apsis was upon them and would occur in 21 days, on 28 Iceback (November). Past instances of the close approach of the Black Planet of Yrimith always resulted in widespread trouble – mass disappearances, strange plagues, and rampant madness. However, this time there were indications that this was going to be worse than normal, far, far worse. She was unsure in what manner, but she knew for certain that all of this was the doings of the Ashen Magi of Yrimith, specifically those dwelling in the Citadel of Mavros on Yrimith. She added that “others” had seen the same signs and had urged her to seek a manner to head off the impending catastrophe.
Astraharsis added that the Ashen Magi knew of her and were sometimes able to locate her; traveling there herself would be suicidal. In response to questions, she informed the party that the Black Planet orbited the same star as their own world but in an eccentric orbit (all this likely far above the heads of most of the party, of course). Every 80-90 years it would make a close pass to this world, allowing the Ashen Magi to do all sorts of mischief, though with what end was not clear. The planet itself, which she admitted to having never visited personally, was a dying world, a barren and cold desert under a dark sky. She had located a means for the party to make the journey to Yrimith though admitted, when asked, that she did not have a means for them to get back (the party was unconcerned since, if they did not find a simple way, felt they could use their own magic to do so). The means of travel there was a large ring of a strange grey metal, lined with alien runes. Travel could be effected by holding hands in a circle around the ring while someone read it aloud (she provided a read magic scroll for that). That should put the party on a landing platform of sorts near to the Citadel of Mavros.
The party next asked about the Ashen Mage, which she described as vaguely elf-like in appearance, but with dead black eyes, elongated features, and strangely clad. They were the dominant, albeit not the only, power on Yrimith. She began to discuss an appearance of the creatures across the seas in distant Vladikavkaz, when out of thin air appeared three jackal-headed creatures in each of the four corners of the party’s common room. Astraharsis’ eyes grew wide as she said, “they’ve found me.”
A melee in the party’s own common room erupted as the large jackal-heads leapt to attack, striking at random. Just then, their front door blew inward, revealing the glow of fire from the street outside (the source was not visible). Sirius threw a web to block the entry as more jackal-heads rushed in, but Astraharsis hit them with a spell of her own, chain lightning, which killed nearly a dozen of the things, a most impressive display of magical power! Sirius was then knocked on the head and stunned as attacking spellcasters threw two fireballs, a lightning bolt, and a flame strike at the party. Happily, by then they had a minor globe of invulnerability up (and Astraharsis had put up a full Globe of Invulnerability as well). Only the flame strike hit some of the party. And, largely forgotten, out charged Havok, warrior priest of Hashrak, the god of war, striking with his battleaxe and finally loosening up his long dormant limbs!
Meanwhile, Deaglan and Sirius took the secret passage through the adjacent hovel to flank the attacker. Getting around the corner they found that they had put up walls of fire to block the street leading to the party’s quarters. There were four spellcasters, Ashen Magi by Astraharsis’ description. One she took out with a power word stun. ZZ used his wand of wonder which caused a bell to ring very loudly, making further spellcasting impossible for a short time. But it did not stop device use, and both attackers and the party shifted to wands and staves as most of the rest of the party rushed into melee with the Ashen Magi and their remaining jackal-headed bodyguards. The Ashen Magi mostly drew silvery sabers as Astraharsis summoned an earth elemental to join the fray. They proved very tough. A tremendous backstab by Deaglan did not even kill a stunned one! However, their inability to cast spells and the destruction of their guards meant that the battle could not go on much longer. Eventually, they were all slain and quickly plundered.
Astraharsis was breathless, though. These were merely an advance group and many more would be coming any moment. They must know of the party by now and would certainly hunt them down; they would certainly be attracted to Astraharsis until she could get back to a place where she was safe from detection. When asked if she had anything to help them, she pointed at a ring of dull grey metal worn by the leader – that would help in the thin atmosphere of the planet once they got there. The party agreed to go immediately, pausing only to leave some coin for the servants to repair the damage and clean up the mess, as well as to cast invisibility 10’ radius so they would not be seen on this supposed landing platform if it were guarded or observable. The party now began to start the process Astraharsis had given them, as a new pack of jackal-heads appeared in their quarters. The Jackals could hear the incantation and tried to attack the party as they finished the process. (the party lost initiative which meant they had to rush the incantation lest it be disrupted all together).
Suddenly the party was elsewhere. They were in a dry desert, the air very thin and quite cold. There was vegetation here and there, and much of the desert was more rocky than sandy, so not all was lifeless. The sky above them was a weird purple. They could see the sun but it was dim for some reason and everything felt like they were in twilight. They did have a good sense of cardinal directions and could see a range of hills to the east a few miles distant. Gravity was less but this did not make a big difference (no in-game effect). More importantly, the clerics could still sense their deities, meaning they were not cut off and could still pray for spells.
The party decided to move into the hills, which proved to be a bit tougher than expected given the thinner air, which grew even thinner as they climbed. Once into the hills, the still invisible party ran into a group of hostile apes that sensed the party’s presence and tried to attack them. The party made short order of most of them thanks to a fireball from Nescitus, and the rest fled, only to be shot down by Deaglan and ZZ. They gathered some ape meat to dry for emergency rations while Deaglan now tried the ring they’d taken from the Ashen Magi leader – it seemed to inure him from the cold and thin atmosphere. Nearby they found a cave, likely the nest of the apes, and decided to camp there. As “night” fell, the sky grew less purple and more black, and stars began to come out, much the same stars as they were used to except one very bright blue-green one towards the horizon. A quick flight on the flying carpet proved to be most unpleasant due to thin and cold air, and the party was able to see little more than hills and desert in every direction – worse, the dullness to the air seemed to sap their ability to see too far, and they did not spot any lights or other features of interest (the vision at night actually seemed better than during the “day”)
The party now used speak with dead to query the Ashen Magi leader’s head. In response to questions, it said The Kettle constellation as overhead of the Citadel of Mavros at this time, and he gave a rough idea of its configuration. Also, he told them the Ashen Magi could track them magically on their own world, if they wished to. As for the citadel, he knew of no secret ways – entry was through the front gate! The party opted to rest that night and would continue onward when what passed for dawn broke.