Session 53

Heroes: Ayrin, Azrael, Haurchefant, Kunik

The Heroes defeat the hag Gathra and her evil treantservants, and retrieve the Last Seed. As promised, they mean to plant it in a different crystal sphere, so that a new Tree of Light may be born.

In the same chamber they find journals penned by Gadreel himself during his studies to harness the power of the sun. They learn that the celestial was able to create magical artefacts he calls Sun Seeds; he intended to plant these Seeds in fertile land, and power them through the use of arcane lenses. Through this ritual, the Seed was supposed to bloom into a new sun.

When his experiments kept failing, he started to plant the Seeds into living creatures. Eventually, one individual survived the ordeal, and Satine was born. Clearly, she did not bloom into a new sun, but Gadreel believes that when he will be able to harvest a final component he calls the True Light, she will bring forth the birth of a new sun.

With their newfound knowledge they return to the Conundrum, where they seek Yreldune's counsel. Intrigued by their futile attempts to reach and defeat Gadreel, the spellweaver agrees to guide them to the edge of Realmspace, where they can find a portal to travel through the Flow and reach Gadreel's crystal sphere. In order to open the portal, they'll need the right charts and an activation rod. The place to find these items is Vlindarian's Vault, a beholder outpost on the planet of H'Catha.

The Heroes set course to H'Catha, but before they lose sight of Garden, they're attacked by a fleet from the Celestian Trade Guild. The Conundrum fights against the superior numbers of its opponents, and sends them on the run. During the battle, the Heroes board one of the enemy ships, banish the Fallen Deva captaining the craft, and subdue the crew.

Session 52

Heroes: Ayrin, Azrael, Haurchefant, Kunik

The Heroes explore the inside of the tree, coming into contact with a tribe of myconid guarding a magical maul. the weapon's head is a petrified seed, while its handle is made from hardened bark and vines. The Heroes decide to avoid confrontation with the creatures, and leave the hammer be.

Next they arrive in a vast chamber dominated by an altar and a celestial creature of great power, a planetar servant of Gadreel, standing in front of it. All around the room, giant lenses capture the radiant light seeping through the walls at odd angles.

The Heroes shortly consider surrendering themselves to the planetar to be brought to Gadreel's presence, but then they resort to fighting the celestial. When the planetar is dismissed, the Heroes inspect the altar. By moving the giant lenses in the right positions, the light of the sun activates the magic of the altar, and Haurchefant connect to its power and acquires the Glyph of the Sun.

As the power of the sun surges through him, the will of the tree awakens again. The room becomes sealed, and acidic sap begins to pour in from all sides. Soon the Heroes find themselves submerged in the acidic sap, when magic fields of force appear around them, and they're "flushed" down acid-filled tunnels.

In this way they're delivered to a room of smooth glass, where the Tree speaks with them. Its will is divided among several different personalities, each of them with its own agenda. The Heroes listen to all of them, and realize that the Tree is not a willing ally of Gadreel. They manage to make a deal with the many personalities, and convince them to spare their lives.

In exchange, they shall destroy all of Gadreel's servants still inside the Tree, and free its last surviving seed. To help them in this task, the Tree gives them the magical maul they failed to acquire earlier. After a needed rest, the Tree opens a passage for the Heroes, and delivers them to the room where Gadreel's lieutenant, the hag Gathra, guards the Last Seed.

Session 51

Heroes: Ayrin, Azrael, Haurchefant, Kunik

 

Upon their arrival in Garden's orbit, the Conundrum is hailed by a small fleet of pirate ships. The pirates are led by Clive the Fearsome, but they have no aggressive intentions. In fact, they try to recruit the Heroes and their crew to join their fleet. They've suffered greatly at the hands of the Celestian Trading Guild, who seems to want to evict them from Garden.

 

The Heroes decline the offer, but reassure the pirates that they'll do what they can to oppose the Guild. The pirates guide them to the core of Garden, where the Celestians have been sighted most recently. The Conundrum flies through the plants and trunks making up the core, and eventually the Heroes are forced to leave their ship behind when the vegetable tunnels become too narrow.

 

They make their way to a mile-wide cavern made of vegetable matter. The cave is dominated by a column of leaves, vines, and bark, 500 feet wide at the base, raising from the cave's floor and disappearing in its ceiling. Radiant power flows from cracks in the bark, and spreads a powerful light in all the cave. Living at the base of this Tree of Light is a tribe of orcs subservient to Gadreel, guarding the entrance to the tree itself.

 

The Heroes fool the orcs into believing they are sent by Gadreel, and gain access to the tree. Inside the sentient plant, the Heroes must face the creatures living among its roots, and the malign presence of the tree itself, who has recognized them as intruders.

Session 50

Heroes: Ayrin, Azrael, Haurchefant, Kunik

The Heroes fight more inmates, guardians, and deadly traps. One of the inmates, a crazed human sorcerer of great power, tries to steal the Heroes' possessions, and manages to kill Kunik with his elemental powers.

The Heroes defeat the sorcerer, and Azrael brings Kunik back to life. With all their resources spent, the Heroes decide to take a breather, safe behind a Leomund's Tiny Hut spell.

When they resume their exploration, they reach the quarters of the prison's warden. There they find the illithid noble dead in a pool of its own blood, with a spellweaver sitting next to its corpse. Yreldune nods to the Heroes, apparently calm.

From her the Heroes learn more of Gadreel's history. The fallen angel hails from a "dead" sphere, where the sun has died. He sought powerful magic to create a new sun, eventually creating powerful artifacts called Sun Seeds. He planted these seeds in the soil of far away planets, but they never managed to bloom into a new sun.

His studies led him to meet with more powerful arcanists, among them Terigamar and Yreldune, and to eventually experiment with living creatures. Still, no success.

Yreldune then explains how her theories begun to diverge from Gadreel's, but the true meaning of her words is lost on the Heroes. She suggest they visit the planet of Garden, where Gadreel has greatly advanced his studies on Life Force and Radiant Energy.

Following the spellweaver's words, the Conundrum sets course to Garden.

Session 49

Heroes: Ayrin, Azrael, Haurchefant, Kunik

The Heroes force their way inside the prison, triggering the alarms in place at the gates, and alerting the compound. They fight their way through the golems and begin to investigate the prison. It seems that their arrival has given the chance to some inmates to riot, as they find signs of conflict in many of the areas they enter.

They fight through more illithids, and even a cryohydra guarding the lower levels of the prison. on their way they meet a few inmates that made it this far in their escape, and strike a deal of sorts to help each other. Eventually they reach the gates of the dungeon level. In front of the gates, two fearsome undead creatures stand still, ready to point their deadly gaze on any intruder.

Session 48

Heroes: Ayrin, Azrael, Haurchefant, Kunik

The Conundrum suffers heavy damage from the Nautiloid attack, and the Heroes decide to board the enemy vessel. They kill several illithid, and subdue the survivors. They then force the captain of the vessel to guide them to the nearest entrance to Glyth's Underdark.

The Heroes find a place to land their ship, and then begin the slow descent to the bowels of Glyth. After several hours they encounter a caravan of illithid and mind-controlled slaves. The slaves are working at clearing up a recent cave-in. While their illithid masters idly watch over the slaves, the Heroes ambush the abominations and slay them. Most of the slaves go crazy upon the death of their master, but Kunik rapidly restores the mind of one of them, the duergar Murghol, with his divine magic.

Murghol guides the Heroes to a side tunnel, not wide enough for the caravan to travel through, and leads them to the gates of Manzessine.

The gates are guarded by a pair of flesh golem made from discarded illithid parts. As the heroes approach, their minds are filled with the telepathic voice of a mind flayer, urging them to state their bussiness before the guardians rip them apart.

Session 47

Heroes: Ayrin, Azrael, Haurchefant, Kunik

The answers of the soul pillars are shrouded in riddles, but the Heroes learn that Gadreel is not currently in Realmspace. Hoping to find more information about the fallen angel's plans, they continue their exploration.

They arrive at a huge domed room, where more of the soul pillar can be found. Guarding them is an ancient dracolich, an undead wyrm of great power created by the spellweavers centuries ago. The creature is willing to parley, and offers the Heroes a deal; he wishes the Grigori knights gone from the asteroid, and the skull of the demilich leading them to add to his hoard.

Not wishing to fight against a dracolich, the Heroes tentatively agree, and go looking for the undead monster. When they find it, they're not so surprised to see Terigamar, the lich they met several months back in the Flow, attended by two Grigori knights.

Terigamar is quite talkative, and explains to the Heroes how together with Gadreel and a surviving spellweaver called Yreldun, they succeeded in creating portals of such power as to "transport" entire asteroids from one sphere to another, albeit not in one piece, but by slowly eroding their surface.

Their research has recently met with a delay, as Yreldun has decided to withdraw her knowledge, due to a disagreement with Gadreel. In order to give her time to re-consider her stance, Gadreel has sent the spellweaver to Manzessine, a mind flayer prison on Glyth.

As if summoned by Terigamar's words, from a nearby scrying pool the image of Gadreel appears, scanning the room. when he spots the Heroes, he orders Terigamar and the knights to capture them. The Grigori knights attack the Heroes, while Terigamar hesitates. When the knights are defeated, Terigamar allows the Heroes to leave.

The Conundrum Tertian makes its way to Glyth, hoping to find Yreldun and learn more from the captive spellweaver. They land first on one of Glyth's moons, where they meet a stranded paladin, Justing "Do Good" Demonslayer, who warns them of the dangers of the illithid planet.

Guided by Justin, the Heroes make their way around Glyth to find an entance to the Underdark. While they're still in Wildspace, a nautiloid ship approaches.