GM: William
Session: Autumn 810 wk
Night: Tuesday
Location: Royal Oak
Level: EXTREME

SUMMARY

A while ago an evil being was chained and confined beneath the hunting lodge of a remote province. Now the stars are right and it's awake, hungry and angry.

During the Elven Civilised War it was discovered that the floating city of Eidolon was in fact a powerful fortress guarding a trans-dimensional prison. This came as a surprise to many of the current inhabitants. Even more surprising was that the prison tapped into one of the earlier Elven portal networks. Two years ago an adventuring party led by Engalton brought a reprieve for the custodians of the prison. During the final battle one of the adventurers, Liessa devoured a balrog's essence gaining enough power to spontaneously ascend as a new Power (goddess). Due to all the fate magic being thrown around the ascension sparked off a number of shadows, alternate versions and lives of Liessa. Most were short lived and vanished. The version where the balrog subsumed Liessa when she foolishly ate it's brain is one of the survivors.

To make matters worse the imprisoned being is prophesied to escape / be released. So it may be a good thing that Isil Eth has united all the elves into at least agreeing to not letting the Great Enemy escape.

Party

Sabrina Party Leader, primary Military Scientist
Dalran Primary sneak theif, secondary Military Scientist
Lath Primary shopper
Keshah Primary Supporter
Vychan Primary goat
Isil Eth Healer, Fashion critic, Scribe

Employer:
Introduce.

Mission:
To deal with the threat to the elven empire that resides under the lake beneath Eidolon. We must find out how to destroy, contain further or divert the evil chaos demon and thus preserve the empire. An Evil version of Liessa stands guard before the fortress gates and we will look at how to restore her to the rest of Liessa's soul and end the Balrog's contract of servitude. ....

Pay:
If you have to ask.

Briefing and the Knoweldge We Learn

How little we know. And the more we learn the less we are certain of.

Balrogs

Balrogs are free-willed fire entities, native to the plane of Alusia and forces of nature. They are susceptible to summon and binding Avatars. They are more dangerous than (formerly elf) demons and generally do not like being brought to the surface. It is normal to summon and chain them to a task, and they are sticklers to the letter of agreement.

Heart of Darkness was the first balrog chained to look at the Great Enemy, some 100,000 years ago. It agreed to look after it for 20,000 years as payment of a debt to the Elves.
The Shape of Fire was supposed to replace the Heart of Darkness, and has a suitable debt to pay the Elves.
Queen of Flames is what the Heart of Darkness became in the alternate reality that has three forms of Liessa (it is an amalgamation of Liessa and the balrog).

DIARY

Day 1

Meet at the guild, are given the job, decide who is what, portal to Elfenburg and back, proceed down to the seedy side of Seagate and see the [sisters of indefinable judgement] who seem to worship Liessa ...

Creatures & People Encountered

Liessa
Ambrose of Elfenburg
Queen of Flames, the balrog+Liessa reality
Kathrine, the neutral Liessa reality, one of the three pluralities that survived from Liessa's assention
Mnemosene, Titan of memories. She removed Lath's earlier memories from a dwarf.
Mathias, one of the four Efreet that meet us in the Inn of the Ways. He accompanies us to the Fates etc.
The Fates. They tended their tapestry, until we interfere. Thankfully Vychan does not eat it. The Fates suggest we go back 30 years and kill Liessa when she is 3 days old - we decline.
Hall Monitor in the Halls of the Dead. We asked this entity about Lath's memories as it had judged her on a previous adventure.

What we did

Clever things we did

Lath: sought an apothecary in Elfenburg and bought cials of distilled hope, summer and vigour to fortify the Sylkie. She also bought potions of cold and winter to daunt the balrog. And some bottled memories of joyous recollection, bottled orgasms and a potion of destiny. And she got Isil Eth to pay for it all.
Vychan: summoned a flash flood to wash the Great Enemy (who was huge) into a permanent prison.

Things we did that helped the adventure

Spoke Ambrose about the balrog and the Great Enemy
Learnt about the Ways in the Library of Nebroth
Spoke with the Fates about the balrog and the Great Enemy
Spoke with the Oracle at the End of Creation
Recovered more Sylkie in their city to augment the watch over the great enemy.
Took the Star God's summoning kit.
Named the Great Enemy (Its ITN is classified information)
Summoned the Great Enemy to the plane of Rylae (after the Sylkie released it) and forced it and its high priest into the timeless prison.

Things we did that seemed good at the time.

Spoke with Liessa, the goddess of the Order of Reformed Spiteful Sisters of Eternal Dissonance.
Cleansed Eidolon of corrupted elves and returned the stolen elves.
Recovered Lath's lost memories by taking a dwarf to Mnemosyne and getting her to remove them from him.
Drank screaming orgasms in the Pub on the ways (these were the real thing, not the name of a drink). Gained Fate tokens (Lath 4, Sabrina 2, Keisha 1, Isil Eth 1, Dalran 2)
Recovered some Sylkie and some ogres.
Spoke with the Queen of Flames.
Recruited Mathias.

Things we learnt about the opposition

Learnt about the Balrog

Balrogs are natural forces of nature living on the Plane of Alusia. They can be negotiated with and will sign contracts. The elves seem to hold a lot of debts over the various balrogs, which is probably a long term security device.
The elves contracted the Heart of Darkness balrog to guard the Great Enemy for 20,000 years – which should have ended some 80,000 years ago when another balrog (The Shape of Fire) was supposed to take over. Instead the HoD became under the influence of the Great Enemy and contaminated.
Two years ago the HoD transformed into the Queen of Flames, incorporating the evil part of Liessa (when the Guild member ate some of the HoD's brain as the final step to Godhood). Since then the QoF has become more grand, draining the Great Enemy and planning to destroy the 72 plus some.

The Fates say:

the joining of Liessa to the Heart of Darkness to form the Queen of Flames was intentional – could have been Liessa.
The Queen of Flames can tell us what is going on.
It is important to limit the QoF as it is feeding off the ways (which are a form of fate).
Destroy the link between the QoF and the ways and the link with the Great Enemy.
Destroy the Queen of Flames second, after destroying the Great Enemy.

The Queen of Flames "Fate thread" (in the Fate's tapestry) was teased out and separated into three threads (HoD, Liessa and?) (Balrog Liessa thinks this last one is due to the corruption she has taken when draining the Great Enemy) and rewoven by Lath as separated threads ... the Fates are concerned.

We observed the Balrog-Liessa to be quite chatty. Cant get out that much...

We observed the Queen of Flames was linked to the Great Enemy in its prison beneath the Sylkie scity and was draining it, becoming more powerful. Queen of LFames tells us that Liessa is the dominat mind and that her goal is to destry the 72: she will have enough power on the 22nd Harvest = Michaelmass, to do so. She is not bound by contract. She no longer seeks oblivion, and doubts anyone can absolve her actions. Foras is first on her list.

The link between the QoF and the Great Enemy was broken before Michaelmass, so QoF is not as powerful as she wishes. But Foras may have a bad day.

The use of a Fate coin strengthens the Qof.

Learnt about the Great Enemy

Its individual true name (ITN) is classified (named by Isil Eth as Azerthoth).
Its GTn is Great Horror.
The Great Enemey is jealous of creation and devours it, so putting it somewhere it cannot feed will weaken or destroy it. Ask the Oracle at the End of Creation.
It is a Great Horror. It was there at the beginning of things. When even two things met they cancelled each other out. One side decided to not fully be destroyed so after each encounter a bit remained. This angered the other side, and the calescence of that residual anger became the Great Enemy (or so the Oracle at the End of Creation told us).

The Fates say the Great Enemy wishes to destroy their tapestry, which will end creation. If we can name it and give it shape then the Fates may be able to weave its thread into the tapestry and terminate it,

The Great Enemy must be destroyed to allow everything to continue (again, so said the Oracle).

Placing the Great Enemy somewhere where it cannot feed from creation (draw energy) will starve and weaken it, ultimately destroying it. The Oracle says the Prison on the Plane of Rylae should be OK.

The Great Enemy has become weaker over the last 100,000 years, mostly because the magic has faded from the plane of Alusia, and partly because the balrog/Liessa Queen of Flames has been draining energy from it.

The Great Enemy will be further weakened if it is humanized, experiences memories, emotions etc and if it is named.
The Great Enemy is summonable now that it has been named.
(Classified: The Great Enemy is imprisoned on the Plane of Rylae.)

The Priest of the Great Enemy

The Great Enemy happens to have a High Preist, called Cthulu, which is a Great Old One (according to its GTN).
Classified (Cthulu just happens to be the current inhabitant of the Prison on the Plane of Rylae. Wont that be an interesting reunion?)

Liessa The Fates would like us to go back to when Liessa is three days old and kill her.
Liessa because three when she ascended – something to do with cosmic balance... it is a "God thing".
1. Liessa the Goddess
2. Kathleen, a Namer that did not join the Guild. Now a part of the Great Enemy.
3. Liessel, who joined the balrog to become the Queen of Flames.

The "Book of Gods – how to make an Avatar" (to be found in the University of All Knoweldge) should explain how to merge all aspects of Liessa.

Liessa was truly insane before her ascension and wanted either Oblivion or Godhood.

What we learnt of ourselves and our friends

General

Ambrose gave a prophecy:
We will journey to the End of Time
There are incomplete options
All things strive to exist
Swirling chos become normal
Several battles
Our mistakes can be foretold
We fought the balrog (good and bad)
Chain and Separate
Satiate both halves.

Learnt about the Party

Lath:

some of her memories became separated, and cannot be merged together because she is no longer the same person as she was at that time. Fates say it is important for Lath to regain her memories. The Oracle says it is not pertinent to this adventure, but to hold onto them, and begin at Lath's island.
Lath's true love has blue wings.

Isil Eth:

Mnemosyne (Titan of memories, language) taught her how to grant oblivion to others.
Oracle shows her how to name an entity (give it an ITN) as and Agent of a God. The Naming ceremony can takes hours or a pulse.
may learn Bind Element from the Ancient Library of Nebroth (Sylkie)

Keisha: may learn rituals not taught at the Guild in the Ancient Library of Nebroth.

Dalran: his life will be easier if he regenerates himself, especially when confronting the Queen of Flames.

Sabrina: loaned Negotiator Tog a special weapon.

Learnt about other people and races

Erzabet: she is the Oracle at the End of Creation

Negotiator Tog:
1. is at the siege of the Oracle at the End of Creation, he protects the Oracle
2. leads his people to the New Elven lands (after Isil Eth intercedes on their behalf with the Gods – where else will they go once this creation ends?).
3. gives Sabrina a weapon that will kill even unkillable creatures.

The Calamar: died out some time before the End of Creation
Kathleen: a third of Liessa, the innocent one that did not join the guild, she is a Namer. She was waiting for a choice to be made, and then changed her mind and agreed for us to take her memories and implant them into the Great Enemy so that it became more human. What the long term effects of this will be I don't know. Classified (Her body collapsed and died when we took her memories (ok Mnemosyne took them), so we stored the body in the guild vaults.)

Sylkie There were about 10,000 Sylkie when the Great Enemy was imprisoned. There are now 32 (34, 47, ok they are returning as we decontaminate them).
The Sylkie live in pairs: one is a mage and the other is devoted to the other. The mages' job is to maintain the seals about the prisoner through incantations and chants.
The King of the Sylkie held a chalice containing the Great Enemy, which howled constantly, becoming a source of sleeplessness.
Some Sylkie left the city over the years to seek help from the elves. These were normally captured by the (contaminated) balrog. Contamination of the Sylkie transformed them into 'Faceless Ones". The corruption remains through death, although the Faceless Ones can be resurrected, and then the Mace will revert a pair to Sylkie.
A Sylkie pair we resurrected and reverted are Magon and Vogath.

Elves (of the Sylkie City) The Sylkie City had 100,000s of elves living there to support the Syklie.
These elves eventually became contaminated and turned into ogres. Some left the city and wandered the ways, servants of the balrog and of the Great Enemy. These wore chain mail and carried large maces.
Bound to the Great Enemy, whom they believed would escape soon to regain his former place, and that the End of the World is coming.
Corrupted Elves DA: Non-mages, GTN = Ogre, Previous GTN = Elf. The corruption cannot be reversed in the normal sense.
Divination: the corruption into this form happened several recorded histories ago. The Mace cannot sure this. True Form may reverse it as will an elven blessing. It will take a week per ogre using True Form, or the blessing will instantly free the spirit but kill the body – can be resurrected.
The corrupted elves were seen to shoot giant cross-bows loaded with bolts of undead.
Many thousands of ogres escaped from the city of the Sylkie when the Great Enemy was released (and the balrog went of the destroy Foras). They will need to be tracked.
There are three stoned ogres in the Pub on the Ways.

Places

The Ways:
The pub on the Ways:
Plane or Rylae: a dead world and low mana zone, although existing magic remain in effect. The city is the only object on the plane, built to an archaic design with 100 foot high walls of stone-turned earthen rampart. It is disturbing to look at. Golems walk the walls (DA of golems shows they are undead level aura; GTN = golem; purpose = guard the walls).
Star God's mansion (temple?): on the plane of Rylae in the town. Is it presidential opulent. It has mosaics on the inside walls. Its walls are bound – binding earth – and has 'incorporation' cursed into them. The gate is not warded.
The Rylae Prison: on the plane of Rylae in the centre of the town. The prison has bars over the door at the back. The door is magically locked and opens on a word of command and automatically locks if the door is shut. The doors are very large. There is nothing to eat within the prison, and anything within will eventually die.
Library of Nebroth: is in the centre of the Sylkie City, suspended over a pit by six chains. There are two bridges to the library, one from the city square and one from the Slykie temple. The bridges used to be cursed so that any elf trying to get to the library would see the balrog.
The Library of Everything: ?
The End of Creation: the Oracle at the End of Creation is in an area called Confederation Bay in contemporary Alusia, and is only 30 miles across with no sea at the End. It has a city.
The Fates: these three girls have a tapestry and some children (Titans). Didn't really pay any attention to the rest of the place.
The Place of the Dead:<br> Mnemosyne's Palace: large enough for 30 foot people to walk around, warded against anyone taller than 15 feet. Vaguely out of fashion. Light blue frescoed walls.

Loot

Book of Maps: map of all the portals in the elven portal network
Book of Gods – how to make an Avatar: in the University of All Knowledge. Should explain how to merge Liessa.
Book of Directions: in the Library of Nebroth (sylkie). How to create a way in the elven portal network. Keisha has learnt how to go it. He used it to create a portal to the Oracle at the End of Creation.
Balrog Tentacle: The balrog Queen of Flames has tentacles instead of wings. Divination showed it is magically imbued with the ability to pierce any substance, has no college, increasing draining by 50%, was part of the Balrog Queen of Flames, is two years old and timeless, if activated would have temperatures of both freezing and boiling. The tentacle may be an abomination of Fate and they may wish to get rid of it.
The Sword of Killing: given to Sabrina by Negotiator Tog, this sword can kill anything, even if it is specifically immune to such events.
The Liquid Mithril: a pool of liquid mithril lies beneath the Library of Nebroth and is the prison of the Great Enemy. It is both boiling and freezing. Any item dipped into the liquid mithril is transformed into mithil.
Splanch: The teleport organ of the Tandau. We harvested several from the dead bodies of the Tandau: has the property of being a soul-trapping item. These were put in the magical chest from the Star God's building.
Large Magical Chest: found in the Star God's building, has the magical property of preservation.
Star Gods Treasure: The Oracle at the End of Creation (Erzabet) told us about this item in response to Lath's Question "what is the most useful thing we can ask for at this point?" The treasure is the original form of a Greater Summoner's kit used to summon and bind. Each item is powerful in its own right. The collection includes: wooden sceptre; silver broadsword; mitre; cap; linen robe; girdle with strange symbols; censor; shield.
Knitted Rope: Mathias gave us a weapon to help separate Liessa from the Queen of Flames. It is a knotted lenght of rope. Should we be able to unravel it then it may help us unravel the parts of the Queen of Flames. Alchemy, Manual Dexterity or knot weaving (nets) may help with the unravelling.
A pin: 92 angels may dance on the head of a pin – except for Elohim for they cannot dance.
Several diverse books of lore from the Library of Nemoth, which we will return, possibly after reading.

Mundane

sigh

Items dipped in the liquid mithril

Isil Eth: cookie; set of elven weapons and a quiver of 20 arrows; cloak; ball gown; shoes; 6 pint sized containers (filled with mithril) (one for each party member); demon crafted swords.

Treasure Split

Lath 27
Keisha 59
Dalran 75
Sabrina 81
Seer's boy 85
Isil Eth 91

Individual Blessings

Various blessings from various gods

Party Member #1

Tokens of Respect

Our Characteristics are altered by drinking in the Inn of the Ways.

Lath: +1 EN, +1 MA, +1 MD, +2 EN, -1 AG
Sabrina: +2 AG
Vychan: Nothing as the Fates dont recognise him
Isil Eth: +1 WP +2 MA
Dalran: +1 ST, +1 AG

FOOTNOTES

Standard Buffs

Magic	Rk	Effects	Dur	Dalran	Sabrina	Lath	Keshah	Isil Eth	Vychan	Ajax
Armour of Earth (Vychan)	20	+42 Def, +1 DR	11 hrs
Strength of Stone (Vychan)	20	+20EN or AG	20 hrs	EN	EN	EN	EN	AG	EN	EN
Diamond Weapon (Vychan)	TBA	TBA	TBA
Fire Armour (Vychan)	20	100 points of ablative fire protection	21 hrs			??	??	??
Enchant Armour (Dalran)	30?	+62, +1DR	11hrs
Enchant Weapon (Dalran)	TBA	+25% SC +8DM	55min
? Weapon Spell ? (Isil Eth)	20?	+17% SC, +8/+21 DM ?	TBA
Eddy (Lath)	TBA	TBA	TBA
Barrier of Wind (Lath)	TBA	TBA	TBA
XXX (XXX)	TBA	TBA	TBA

Situational buffs

Combat - +12 Def, IV and SC, plus engaged figures gain a free non-magical pass action - Sabrina (Ring of Command)
Quickness - Dalran
Mind Speech, Mind Sheild - Isil Eth

The Contract

Details that may trip us up, or predecate our choices.

Calendar

Autumn 810wk: Breeze
	Moonday		Duesday		W'ansday		Th'rsday		Frysday		Reapsday	Sunday
	Beltane Full Moon		1	Guild Meeting	2	This day we did...	3		4	XXX was rendered uncertain	5	6
	7		8		9		10		11		12	13
	14		15		16		17		18		19	20
	21		22		23		24		25		26	27
	28	Full Moon	29		30		1		2		3	4
Autumn 810wk: Fruit
	Moonday		Duesday		W'ansday		Th'rsday		Frysday		Reapsday	Sunday
	5		6		7		8		9		10	11
	12		13		14	Midsummer Eve (Faerie Day)	15	Solstice	16		17	18
	19		20		21		22		23		24	25
	26	Full Moon	27		28		29		30		1	2
Autumn 810wk: Harvest
	Moonday		Duesday		W'ansday		Th'rsday		Frysday		Reapsday	Sunday
	3	Day of Death	4		5		6		7		8	9
	10		11		12		13		14		15	16
	17		18		19		20		21		22	23
	24		25		26		27		28		29	30

Clever Stuff

Missing, presumptions on hold