Disciples of Atropus: Session 35 - The Celestial Crystal
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Session Summary:

Date of Session: December 17th, 20211
In-Universe Date: Uktar 26, 1513 DR
Level Reached: 6
Dungeon Master: Juli
Players: Adrian, Cain, Krosto, Liam, Lucas, Victor
Player Characters: Amadeus Bosch, Felid, Little Bustard, Nasurin Nisure, Maria, Li Xie-Li

The party advances, and finds the "crypt" part of the Crypt of the High Mages. Through careful investigation, they find that some, but not all, of the corpses in the coffins have been turned into undead. Maria is able to use Destroy Undead to dispatch pretty much all of them, and the party moves ahead safely. Little Bustard rummages through their coffins, and finds some valuable loot. Maria is given a set of silver Plate Armor from Xie Li's Bag of Holding (looted from the Knights in Silver) and a pair of Boots of Elvenkind by Little Bustard (looted from the crypt.)

Moving on, the party finds a large crystal floating in midair in a room, apparently guarded by two xorn, creatures from the Elemental Plane of Earth. The party makes their way into the room, and has a fight with the xorn. As they do so, Amadeus using his Eldritch Sight which allows him to cast Detect Magic at will notices a large surge of Transmutation magic every time someone casts a spell. As the fight progresses, the party comes to realize that every spellcaster has a high chance of triggering a Wild Magic Surge every time they cast a spell. They dispatch the two xorn, and Little Bustard mines a chunk off of the Celestial Crystal, which is a failed prototype for The First Stone, continuing a trend of the party discovering failed prototypes for the true Artifacts they seek. (The first one being the Black Steel Blade, which was a failed prototype for The Lifeblood Pendulum.) Nasurin surmises that the Chunk of the Celestial Crystal can do nothing on its own, but could be used to enchant something or create a powerful arcane focus. Little Bustard stores the chunk for later.

The party heads back to take a Short Rest. During the Short Rest, Nasurin spends time repairing and resummoning Landon de Carlisle, their Awakened Spellbook, and answeres Little Bustard's questions about what their life was like when they lived in Netheril almost two thousand years ago. The contents of this conversation were roleplayed in a secondary chat channel almost two months later, but are considered a part of this same session for containing information relevant to it. At the end of the session, the mysterious voice in Little Bustard's head first revealed in Session 29 reveals another ability, which allows it to stitch together sounds Little Bustard has heard in his mind to comment on things or speak to him. It reveals that it has been watching Nasurin repair Landon, and comments that this is "the way out."

Session Log:

Xie Li:
"Well, that was refreshing! A bit sweet, but I don't mind."
"I suppose magic makes things sweet? Hey, why don't we take a bite out of Amadeus?"

Felid:
"Amadeus would not be very tasty."

Amadeus Bosch:
"No, I'm anemic."

Xie Li:
"Hm… I suppose you're right. We would need to marinate him first."

The Narrator:
Ivanoska: "Oh, anemia… I th-think I have the same thing."

Xie Li:
"Do you need a hug?"

The Narrator:
Ivanoska: "Why w-would a hug fix my blood?"

Xie Li:
"I don't Know."

Amadeus Bosch:
"I feel neglected."

Xie Li:
"But are you cold?"
"You had your chances for hugs, little mister."

Maria:
"Amadues you would complain if we gave you attention too."

Little Bustard:
Little Bustard creeps up on Amadeus and acts like he is about to bite him

The Narrator:
Ivanoska: "I don't know, I g-guess I'm a little cold. I have some warm r-robes on, though."

Xie Li:
[Xie Li stifles a laugh.]

Amadeus Bosch:

okayuPanik

Xie Li:
"Well I am available for hugs if you need them. I'm very warm."

Maria:
she smiles at bustard
"Well that is one fucked library out of the way, how about we head the other way."

Little Bustard:
Little Bustard takes that as the go ahead to bite Amadeus

Xie Li:

popukoUrm

Amadeus Bosch:
"What is your ISSUE?" Amadeus shoves Bustard like you would a house cat.

Maria:
she laughs

Felid:
"Group hug?"

Nasurin:
"i'm good thanks"

Little Bustard:
Little Bustard lets out an indignant squawk

Xie Li:
[Xie Li doubles over in laughter.]

Felid:
"Oh okay."

Xie Li:
"Oh whatever Nasurin you need a hug."

[Xie Li pulls Nasurin in for a hug]

Nasurin:
"i will cast firebolt on you if you touch me"

Amadeus Bosch:
"Don't squawk at me, you bit me!"

Xie Li:
[Xie Li lets go of Nasurin, but sticks his tongue out at them]

Maria:
"You deserve to be bitten a little, besides you are fine."

Little Bustard:
Little Bustard squawks at Amadeus a second time

Xie Li:
"Yeah, Little Bustard is harmless!"

Felid:
"Felid thinks this is getting out of hand."

Xie Li:
"We always are."
"So gang, whats next?"

Maria:
"Little Bustard has never done anything wrong before and I will stand by that."

Little Bustard:
It's true. He hasn't.

Xie Li:
"I also stand by that."

Felid:
"Felid doesn't understand but Felid agrees."

The Narrator:
Landon floats ahead into the next room.
"It appears the room ahead is 55x55 in dimensions. There are rows of shelves in which it appears coffins are being stored. If I may be so bold, Master Nasurin, I'd say this is the 'crypt' part of this dungeon."

Maria:
"Oh some comfy looking beds."

Xie Li:
[Xie Li shoots Maria a look.]

The Narrator:
Landon: "It is dimly lit in this room, and the walls are of marble, as are the walls in the rest of most of this dungeon."

Nasurin:
"well, it sure is coffins"

Amadeus Bosch:
(about the coffins) "Good to see we have some choices."

The Narrator:
Landon: "There is one door leading out of this room."

Nasurin:
"before we go in there, we should see if some shit is going to pop out of the coffins"

Xie Li:
"We could… toss rocks in there?"

Nasurin:
nasurin shuts the door behind landon
"he's got it"

Maria:
"What do you mean he has got it?"

Nasurin:
"i can cast spells through him to test the waters"

Maria:
"Are you breaking things again?"

Nasurin:
"only a little"

Xie Li:
"Oh for Heaven's sake."

Maria:
"Last time it was only a little, half of you nearly died."

The Narrator:
Nadredda tilts her head. "Heaven? What iss that? Ssome kind of sstrange… foreigner thing…?"

Nasurin:
"i'm kicking the wasp's nest to see if it's empty, i don't intend to actually break anything"
"it's not like any of us are in there this time"

Xie Li:
"Yes, it's a concept from back home. The, uh, opposite of the Hells."
"Yeah but then we can't get Through if they're making a ruckus!"

Maria:
"Ah yes, the only thing that makes sense, kick a wasp nest to confirm its emptiness and then additionally almost certainly be attacked by the proverbial wasps."

Nasurin:
"i'd rather find out ahead of time if some shit is going to attack us than have it jump on us. we already had one encounter where things were mad at us solely for being alive, so it's not like landon or the zombies would be guaranteed to trigger it themselves"
"if i had to guess, it's going to be a room full of plain old zombies that try to swarm us or something. if i can get them to gather around landon, he can move and fireball them all at once"

The Narrator:
Landon shoots a fire bolt at a coffin in the center of the room. The coffin bursts open at the force of the impact, and a skeleton falls out of it, being dashed across the floor and falling apart into seemingly inanimate bones.

Landon: "The coffin appears to have contained a perfectly ordinary corpse, albeit very old. It is wearing arcane robes of a peculiar fashion, most likely noble or royal in origin if I were to wager a guess."

Nasurin:
"or just bones"

Xie Li:
"Oh, but now you've disturbed a burial site!"

Little Bustard:
"Nothing wrong with a little disturbing dead"

The Narrator:
The smoldering remains of the coffin slowly burst into flames, but nothing else seems to happen.

Nasurin:
"oh if we're gonna start getting upset about disturbing burial sites then youll have to hold me accountable for a lot more than just that one"

Maria:
"I am disturbed by Xie Li all the time."

Maria:
"Nasurin supports casual racism."

Xie Li:
"Oh my goodness."

Nasurin:
"you aren't a race, you're a subtype of a species"

Maria:
"Also Bustard, while it is true I am not completely dead, I am also Not Alive."

Little Bustard:
"Still different"

The Narrator:
Landon flies in laps around the room, carefully watching the coffins to see if anything else happens. It does not appear that anything else happens for several minutes, until…

A coffin next to the one that Landon originally shot a fire bolt at catches flame as well, and begins to burn. A few seconds later… a corpse pushes its way out of the coffin seemingly of its own volition, laying in a smoldering heap on the floor.

Maria:
"Oh so now the intellectual is going to educate us on race." she's grinning

Xie Li:
"I want to go homeeeeeeee"

Nasurin:
"yeah and next i'm gonna talk about how women are disrespecting me by not sleeping with me, so watch out for that one"

Xie Li:
"Amazing. What's happening on the other side of that door, then?

Nasurin:
"wait, hold on. landon just spotted a zombie"

Felid:
"Felid doesn't get it."

Maria:
"God forbid you get into discussions of investing in fine art."

Nasurin:
"it uh. it burned to death in its coffin it seems"

Xie Li:
"Gosh DARN IT."

Little Bustard:
"Investing in fine art is good"

Amadeus Bosch:
"I love it here :/."

Xie Li:
"So I suppose now we've got to deal with those?"

Nasurin:
"i heard you could get these tokens now that say you own an artwork without like, having the art physically"

The Narrator:
Ivanoska: "D-did it do anything else, though? You said it burned in its coffin… maybe it w-was just peacefully laying in there, until you lit it on fire?"

Nasurin:
"it pushed its way out and then died on the floor"

Xie Li:
"That is… so sad."

Maria:
"I can go in there and turn most of them to dust pretty quick if they are weak enough. Or we can wait for you to kill them all."

The Narrator:
Nadredda: "You know, Nadredda hass been wondering. How can zombie die if it iss already being dead?"

Little Bustard:
"I own the weeping shepard"

Xie Li:
"Weeping Shephard?"

Maria:
"Well usually it is an animation by magic that leaves them or some amount of their soul still rests within, by destroying the body you force it out."

The Narrator:
Nothing else seems to happen in the room, despite how much Landon is flying around. There is just a dead zombie, burned to a husk, and a couple of burned up coffins on one of the shelves.

Nasurin:
"oh right, you people with deity-given magic can do stuff like that, huh. would it work if they werent hostile or anything? you could take them all out before they even get out of their ccoffins"

Little Bustard:
"Fine art"

Xie Li:
"Also who knows, death is a mystery."

Maria:
"Oh Bustard."

The Narrator:
The shelves are made of marble, and the fire does not spread to any other shelves in the room.

Little Bustard:
"What?"

Maria:
"Good luck on your investments."

Nasurin:
"bustard keeps trying to explain the blockchain to me when we make camp"

Little Bustard:
"Thank you"

Xie Li:
"What in the WORLD is blockchain."

Maria:
"You would not want to know."

Nasurin:
"i dont fucking understand and i dont think he does either"

Little Bustard:
"I understand"

Nasurin:
"you dont"

Little Bustard:
"Go into crypt, find weave"

Nasurin:
"anyway, maria, please do your thing if you can"

Felid:
"Felid doesn't understand but feels violent."

Nasurin:
"felid that's the right reaction to this"

Maria:
"Oh the uh, undead destroying stuff? Alright." she puts her shield up and enters the room

Nasurin:
"felid, maybe go with her? in case of disaster"

Felid:
"Oh okay."

Nasurin:
"we'll all be in the doorway"

Little Bustard:
"Good luck"

The Narrator:
Maria moves into the center of the room and uses Destroy Undead. She is not apprehended by any undead creatures as she walks through the room, and makes it to the center safely.

Maria:
maria walks into the center of the room an yells "BEGONE!" and flashes with an electrified aura of her channel divinity

The Narrator:
After a few seconds, nothing appears to happen in this room, but a number of coffins around the room emit a low sizzling sound as a dim divine light pours out from between their cracks, and a few of them additionally leak unspecified dust onto the clean marble floors of this room.

Besides this, nothing else occurs.

Maria:
"… I think I got them, but I cannot do that again."

Xie Li:
"Jinkies"

Nasurin:
"all good in there i guess?"

Maria:
"I guess so, here is hoping we did not mess up a puzzle."

Amadeus Bosch:
"Well, at least that makes things easier. Hopefully."

The Narrator:
Nothing else happens in this room. It seems your party is free to move through it.

Xie Li:
[Xie Li sets foot inside the room, still a bit nervous.]

Nasurin:
"see, sometimes you just have to test the waters"

Xie Li:
"You"

Nasurin:
"ah… hey maria"
"bad news"

The Narrator:
Landon: "The room ahead appears to be almost identical to the previous. The shelves are merely in different configurations."

Nasurin:
"well, if you cant do that again we can either have landon cause problems for a while or we can try to sneak through"

Maria:
"Are you serious?"

Nasurin:
"take a peek"

Maria:
she cracks the door open
"Motherfucker."

Xie Li:
“Well. They didn’t rise until you attacked them?”

Nasurin:
"we might be able to sneak through? it's not ideal to risk it but yeah, they don't seem to be the most alert"
"it'd take a loooong time if i just had landon taking potshots"

Xie Li:
“Potshots?”

Nasurin:
"potshots"
"someone give me an opinion here"

Xie Li:
“I suppose we could test it to see if one of us doesn’t wake them on their own.”

The Narrator:
Ivanoska: "They didn't attack Maria when she was just walking through the room, r-right? I mean, not t-to be rude but Maria makes a lot of noise w-with her chainmail armor…"

Xie Li:
“Yeah that’s exactly what I was thinking.”

Maria:
"Look, better armor is expensive ok."

Nasurin:
"that's true. it's possible they could be alerted by the doors opening, though"

The Narrator:
Ivanoska: "D-don't we have plate armor in Xie Li's bag, though…?"

Xie Li:
“We do!”
“Ivanoska you are so smart.”

Nasurin:
"doesn't plate armour take a lot of training to use properly? it's not like normal clothes"

Maria:
"… I mean I am trained in it."

Nasurin:
"oh, well then get in the armour, coward"
"i'm going to have landon crack a door in the next room to see if thats a magic trigger or something"

The Narrator:
Landon opens the door, and nothing seems to happen.
Landon: "Just more coffins in this room."
Landon opens the other door in this room. "This door appears to lead into a hallway."

Maria:
she checks to see if the armor would even fit

Nasurin:
"there's two doors, one leads into another room of coffins and the other leads into a hallway. i think we should try to just… dart up to the hallway, i guess?"

The Narrator:
One of the sets of silver plate armor does not appear to fit, the other one does seem to fit.

Xie Li:
"Fun! Now if anyone else needs it,we know it fits someone smaller than Maria."

Maria:
"I mean if we have like fifteen minutes I could change into this."

Nasurin:
"um… i guess you can, if you want to?"

The Narrator:
Ivanoska: "W-well, what should the rest of us do while we um, wait…?"
Ivanoska: "W-we could at least search the coffins or something."

Maria:
maria takes the time to put the armor on while landon looks around

Little Bustard:
Little Bustard immediately begins searching the coffins

The Narrator:
Little Bustard searches through every coffin in this room. He finds a total of ten coffins that seem to be full of dust; most likely the result of Maria's Destroy Undead. A large number of the coffins in this room appear to be completely empty. The ones which are not appear to contain or have contained the corpses of individuals who were most likely nobility and/or arcanists in life, as they each bear similar arcane robes. They are typically colored white and blue, similar to robes of the Spellguard, but have far more intricate designs.

Through searching through these coffins for any valuables, Little Bustard discovers a grand total of 235 gold, 112 silver, a pair of Boots of Elvenkind on one of the corpse's feet, and an Enduring Spellbook laying in a pile of dust.

Little Bustard:
Little Bustard happily collects his loot

Xie Li:
"Hey, Little Bustard! Whaddya got there?"

Little Bustard:
He has bit of trouble prying the boot from the corpse's foot. "Things"

Xie Li:
"Do you need help?"

Little Bustard:
"No"

Maria:
"Oh, cool stuff Bustard."

Little Bustard:
"Thank you"

Xie Li:
"Alright!"

Nasurin:
"is that book anything good?"

The Narrator:
Landon continues to fly down the hallway, and comes up to an arch. Through the arch, he can see a small room, and a few creatures within it.

Landon: "This room appears to contain a large, 15x15x15 spherical crystal, and a pair of earth elementals. If memory serves, these are what is known as 'Xorn.'"

Little Bustard:
Little Bustard looks over the boots, scratching the underside of his beak. They seemed like they would be good for sneaking around, yet he was already covered on that front with his cloak. Not to mention he wasn't even sure if his talons could fit in these things. "Maybe"
He dusts off the spellbook and hands it to Nasurin.

Nasurin:
"oh, thanks. i'll check this out in a minute" nasurin snaps back into looking through landons eye, looking over the room. "yeah, looks like it. hey, uh… is the first stone absolutely massive or is that something else? the silverymoon mythal maybe?"

The Narrator:
Ivanoska: "Th-there's little information on the physical size of the First Stone… wh-why, did you find something?"

Xie Li:
"Oh god I hope its not big"

Little Bustard:
Little Bustard deposits the boots of elvenkind into Amadeus's hands

Nasurin:
"the room landon is in has a pair of xorn and a huge crystal ball"

Amadeus Bosch:
"Thanks?"

Xie Li:
"What is a… Xorn?"

Little Bustard:
"Get better at sneaking"

Amadeus Bosch:
"Maria's the one wearing heavy armor."

Nasurin:
"landon says it's a 15 foot diameter crystal. we certainly couldn't move the thing on our own"

The Narrator:
Landon: "The crystal appears to be resting atop a marble dais in the center of the room. It is made out of a mostly translucent and primarily white or clear in coloration crystal, but with vibrant multicolor hues throughout it. The two xorn in the room appear to be in some sort of a conflict with one another."

Nasurin:
"the xorn are fightinggggg"

Xie Li:
"What is a Xorn!!"

Nasurin:
"a xorn is an earth elemental. kind of a weird, three-legged thing with a big mouth on top"

Little Bustard:
"Loud. Boots are for silent"

Xie Li:
"O- Oh. Fun."

Little Bustard:
"Not that you know anything about silent"

Nasurin:
"ivanoska, what do you know about the first stone's physical appearance?"

Amadeus Bosch:
Amadeus hands the boots to Maria.

Nasurin:
"my only other guess is it could be silverymoon's mythal, though i thought something happened to the mythal that stopped it from working"

Maria:
"Oh. I guess I can use these later?" she looks between Amadeus and Bustard

The Narrator:
Ivanoska: "It was a crystal… I d-don't know what color it was, it w-was translucent, presumably, because most crystals are. The books didn't r-really describe its physical appearance, th-that seemed to be like the l-last thing they were thinking about. It's s-supposed to be like someone's attempt at the Philosopher's Stone, b-but who knows… it could be any color! Most people t-typically depict the Philosopher's Stone as red, I g-guess."

Little Bustard:
Little Bustard is staring daggers at Amadeus

The Narrator:
Ivanoska: "Th-this crystal you're talking about though, i-it's just, in a room? With two x-xorn? Nothing else…?"

Nasurin:
"seems like"

Amadeus Bosch:
"Well, if you don't need them I guess I can take them. We don't know what size they are."

Nasurin:
"magic items typically resize to fit the wearer"
"assuming they require attunement at all"
"landon is going to take 10 minutes to identify the thing while maria gets changed"

The Narrator:
Landon floats into the room to sit atop the large crystal, and immediately the two xorn look up and point at him, a very conspicuous spectral book flying through a room. The xorn begin to shout in an unknown language, pointing at Landon in obvious confusion.

Amadeus Bosch:
"Convenient."

Maria:

maria_putting_her_hair_up

Xie Li:
[Xie Li casts Detect Thoughts on Little Bustard just to see what is up there.]

Little Bustard:
Little Bustard's mind is focused mainly on the thought that Amadeus is being rather ungrateful about the boots. He does a nice thing for this guy, and the dude gives it to someone who won't even be able to use it. Rude.

Xie Li:
[Huh. Weird.]

Nasurin:
nasurin sits down against the wall and pulls out the materials for identify, sort of miming casting the ritual while doing it through landon

The Narrator:
As Xie Li and Nasurin cast these spells, they feel something… strange, about their spellcasting. It's difficult to explain, but when you channel your magical power behind your spells, you feel as though a lot more is attempting to force its way through your spellcasting focuses than you originally intended.

As this happens, Amadeus' sees a sudden pulse of powerful Transmutation magic move through the room, almost as though it were a wave, and it then dissipates.

You manage to hold back the flow of magic and cast your spells as normal.

Nasurin:
"that was… weird"

Xie Li:
"Did anyone feel like… a weird shiver run through them? Maybe?"
"Oh, did you get it too?"

Maria:
"no?"

Nasurin:
"yeah, felt like i was trying to restrain a rowdy dog except the dog was my magic"

Xie Li:
[Ah. It was magic related.]

Nasurin:
"hm. maybe this thing is the first stone after all. i certainly hope not"

Xie Li:
"Weird…."

Amadeus Bosch:
"Seems like transmutation magic was coming through the room at the same time Nasurin was trying to cast a spell. Why'd you notice, Xie Li?"

Xie Li:
"I dunno. Cat senses, maybe?"

Amadeus Bosch:
"Right, and cat senses are magic-based?"

Xie Li:
"Of course. Nya, am I right fellas?"

owo

Little Bustard:
Little Bustard sits down atop a coffin and raises an eyebrow

Felid:

catstand

Maria:
"What?"

Xie Li:
"My little sister was actually super into magic, so I dunno I guess hanging around her made me sensitive."
"Who knows!"

Maria:
"I do not think that is how that works, but I also do not care enough to dig into it."

Little Bustard:
"Nasurin. Is that how it works?"

Nasurin:
"not even a little bit, no, but i'm busy so i can't dig into it. get his ass for me"

Xie Li:
"Hey nuh-uh!"

Little Bustard:
"Lying?"

Amadeus Bosch:
"Well, if you're going to do magic and it isn't an emergency, it would be nice to discuss it a little bit beforehand."

Xie Li:
"I was just Presto-ing my clothes! It's dusty in these coffin rooms."
[Xie Li has rolled a 25 on DECEPTION.]

The Narrator:
After ten minutes, Maria finishes donning her new silver plate armor, and Nasurin finishes casting Identify through Landon. While Landon is casting Identify, the xorn in the room meld through the crystal and attempt to reach up to grab him, to no avail as he is intangible. After a few minutes, they seem to give up, and move further into the room, melding into the walls and disappearing.

Maria:
"I am doing to get this changed to be more my style somewhere."

Little Bustard:
Little Bustard narrows his eyes at Xie Li. Those clothes were no less dusty than they had been. He simply gives Xie Li a look like he knows.

Xie Li:
[Sweats.]

Little Bustard:
To Xie Li only, through the sending stones, he says. "I'll ask you about that later."

Xie Li:
"uh huh yeah thats cool"

The Narrator:
When Nasurin is finished Identifying, they receive the following information.
The crystal in the center in the room is known as the Celestial Crystal. It has residual traces of transmutation magic, but it does not appear to do anything. It was created by Amelior Amanitas, and is one of several failed attempts at creating the Philosopher's Stone.

Nasurin:
"ah, well. the crystal is just a busted prototype"

Xie Li:
"Cool. Coolcoolcoolcool."

Maria:
"Then where is the real one?"

The Narrator:
Ivanoska: "P-probably somewhere else in the dungeon."

Nasurin:
"well, landon, i guess you can head into the next room as long as those xorn don't bite you. maybe stay as high as you can"

The Narrator:
Landon: "The next door leads into another hallway."

Little Bustard:
Little Bustard uses this time to use his [Archeologist Background] to identify the original purpose of this dungeon, as well as its builders.

The Narrator:
Landon floats down the winding hallway, and comes upon another arch. As he does so, an arrow fires from a slit in the opposite wall, passing through his spectral form, and lands in the wall behind him. Landon floats forwards to observe the room—

And immediately fizzles out of existence as he enters an anti-magic field.

The waterlogged spellbook in Nasurin's arms opens its crystalline eye and says: "Ah. Master Nasurin. I apologize for returning ahead of schedule. It appears that room had one of those anti-magic fields within it."

Nasurin:
"ah, they love those here. good to know"

Maria:
"That might be to prevent the stone from running out of control. It is probably that way."

The Narrator:
Ivanoska: "I-if that were the case, how w-would that explain that… transmutation magic Amadeus was talking about earlier? Assuming that is r-related…"

Nasurin:
"i would guess the wave of transmutation magic was from interaction with the prototype crystal. it's possible it still functions, but technically can't do anything substantial"

Xie Li:
“Jinkies!”

Maria:
"That is what I was thinking, yeah."

Little Bustard:
"This dungeons looks like it was made to be a crypt for elven high mages in silvery moon, but it got repurposed."

Xie Li:
“Fun, recycling!”

Nasurin:
"well, we should get moving. those xorn are going to harass us for sure, but maybe we can talk them into fucking off. looked like they were arguing with each other"

Xie Li:
“Maybe they like good music. Or cute cats.”

Maria:
"I guess that makes sense. I think we should move out toward the anti-magic area, as much as that sucks."

Nasurin:
"a shame we don't have either of those things"

The Narrator:
Nadredda slams her fist into the palm. "I've got it! We will feeding Xie Li to the xorn."

Amadeus Bosch:
"I'm on Nadredda's side."

Nasurin:
"see nadredda gets it"

Little Bustard:
"Feed Xie Li to the xorn"

Xie Li:
"Nadredda no!!"

Maria:
"Bye Xie Li."

Xie Li:
:(

The Narrator:
Nadredda: "What? You ssaid they might liking cute catss. Ohhhh, you did not mean for to eat."

Xie Li:
"Yeah"

honeysob

Nasurin:
nasurin starts walking tentatively through the next room

Amadeus Bosch:
"No, Xie Li just has a fetish for becoming someone's lap cat."

Little Bustard:
"Ssaid for to eat"
Little Bustard hops off of the coffin and follows after Nasurin:

Xie Li:
"I- You know what you suck Amadeus."
[Xie Li follows after Bustard]

Maria:
"Well I have had enough of that." she follows Nasurin and Bustard

Amadeus Bosch:
Amadeus follows after Xie Li.

The Narrator:
Your party moves into the room ahead without issue.

Nasurin:
"so uh… this next hall leads to the xorn room, but we'll have to go single file. who's up first?"

Maria:
"I will go."
she steps forward

Little Bustard:
Little Bustard steps in after Maria

The Narrator:
Your party moves down the hallway, and comes across the same room where Landon saw the Celestial Crystal.

Xie Li:
[Beep boop]

The Narrator:
It is a large and very beautiful spherical crystal, most likely made out of something like diamond, but it would be far too large for any of you to move it out of this room. You wonder how it even got into this room in the first place — perhaps it was created here?

Little Bustard:
Little Bustard peers around the corner, ducking underneath Maria's arm in the process
"That is it?"

Maria:
"I think that is the fake one, we should ignore it."

Xie Li:
“First Stone more like Fake Stone”

Little Bustard:
"Can I steal it?"

Nasurin:
"good luck"

Maria:
"I think it is too big, buddy."

Xie Li:
“It looks a bit big, but I’d help you.”

Nasurin:
"it's pretty, though. it does remind me of a mythallar, a little bit"

Little Bustard:
"Mythallar?"
"Easy. Break it."

Xie Li:
“What do you think would happen if I licked it?”

Nasurin:
"fuck around and find out"

Amadeus Bosch:
"Not again."

The Narrator:
Nadredda: "Maybe woman hand will coming out of crysstal and grabbing your tongue again, eh?"

Xie Li:
“Hm not too bad a deal.”

Nasurin:
"a mythallar was like a huuuuge spellcasting focus that a dozen or so people would attune to at once to cast epic-tier magic. the means to make them was lost with netheril, though, so we've been limited to much less powerful Mythals instead since then"

Xie Li:
“If I die, Little Bustard and Nadredda can have my stuff.”

Little Bustard:
Little Bustard taps Maria on the back in an attempt to get her to move onward.

The Narrator:
Ivanoska: "E-even creating a mythal is a rare practice, these days… I'd heard that Silverymoon used to have s-some, probably created by the High Mages, but the mythal d-doesn't seem to be around anymore."

Xie Li:
[Xie Li attempts to lean forward to lick the Fake Stone]

Nasurin:
"yeah, creating a mythal requires a lot of cooperation between very powerful mages, which isnt something theyre often known to do. the only reason netheril managed it so consistently was because they could be engineered and then imbued with magic, rather than created solely through magic"

Maria:
she keeps moving

Little Bustard:
"Mythal… do you think it was one?"

Nasurin:
"this? no, it was just a failed prototype for the first stone"

Xie Li:
[Cat lick]

The Narrator:
As Maria walks through the room, she gets raked by two claw attacks as a xorn emerges out of the unpolished marble of the floor. She takes 11 slashing damage.

Maria uses Wrath of the Storm, and deals 15 thunder damage to the xorn. As she does so, the other xorn emerges from the floor on the opposite end of the Celestial Crystal.

The Narrator:
Little Bustard hits one of the xorn with his dagger, dealing 10 piercing damage. He notices that the dagger seems to do less against it, due to the fact that the xorn is basically made out of earth and stone.

Nasurin casts Thorn Whip, dragging the xorn ten feet towards them and out of Maria's range. It takes 9 piercing damage as thorns dig into its rock hard skin, and Maria hits it with an opportunity attack, dealing 7 more bludgeoning damage.

This xorn is now Bloodied.

Ivanoska moves forwards to cast Blindness/Deafness on one of the xorn. Unfortunately, the spell fails. She moves back to where she was previously standing.

As Ivanoska casts Blindness/Deafness, Amadeus sees another pulse of transmutation magic passes through this room. It does not seem to be coming from the Celestial Crystal, instead coming from behind you.

Suddenly, Amadeus and one of the xorn find themselves filled with an imperceptible fear as both of them are Frightened. On their turns, they must use all of their movement to move as far away from Ivanoska as possible.

Ivanoska: "I d-don't know what happened, I tried to c-cast a spell and it d-didn't work, but I felt a lot of magic passing through me anyways!"

Maria:
"Spells might be a bad idea!"

The Narrator:
Ivanoska's zombies dash into the room, and are unable to take an attack afterwards.

Amadeus Bosch:

okayuPanik

The Narrator:
Maria casts Toll the Dead on the bloodied xorn, dealing 11 necrotic damage.

Nadredda moves 20 feet forwards into the room, standing next to Little Bustard.

Nadredda: "Eh, Little Busstard, could I sseeing your sshortbow really quicklike? I would like to trying ssomething on it, if you do not mind…"

Little Bustard:
Little Bustard raises an eyebrow. Now was a very strange time, but it wasn't like he was currently using it. He hands it over to her. "Do not mind."

The Narrator:
Nadredda takes Little Bustard's shortbow, and quickly casts a spell on it, muttering magic words and waving her hand over it in arcane motions. After just a second, she hands it back to Little Bustard.

Nadredda: "There. Sshortbow iss improved now. Will only working for one hour, but now, iss sstronger, you ssee?"

Nadredda has cast Magic Weapon on Little Bustard's shortbow, turning it into a +1 Shortbow for one hour. It can now deal magical attacks.

Little Bustard:
Little Bustard takes his bow back, looking it over. Oh, that was helpful. Was his frustration that noticable? Or maybe Nedredda was just perceptive. "Thank you. Iss sstronger."

The Narrator:
Nadredda then attempts to hit a xorn with Shocking Grasp, but misses.

The xorn attempts to hit Nadredda four times, and only manages to hit her with two claw attacks. She takes a total of 22 slashing damage, and is immediately Bloodied.

The other xorn dives into the unpolished marble of the floor, and burrows underground until it emerges before Maria.

Xie Li:

tails

The Narrator:
The xorn attempts to hit Maria, clawing at her three times and attempting to bite her. Only its third claw attack lands, dealing 7 slashing damage.

The bloodied xorn delves underground and leaves clusterfuck alley.

The bloodied xorn is no longer Frightened of Ivanoska.

Amadeus is Frightened of Ivanoska and moves all the way to the door.

Amadeus is no longer Frightened of Ivanoska.

Amadeus Bosch:
????

The Narrator:
Amadeus casts Toll the Dead on the bloodied Xorn, dealing 9 necrotic damage.

Felid moves forwards and hits one of the xorn with her Bloodaxe twice, dealing a total of 33 slashing and necrotic damage.

The Narrator:
Xie Li casts Cloud of Daggers on the bloodied xorn, dealing 17 magical piercing damage and killing it.

Xie Li:
"Goddamn stupid- DIE!!!!"

[And then it did.]

"MARIA ARE YOU ALRIGHT"

Maria:
she's breathing heavily and looks tired, "I will be fine, we just need to get out of here."

The Narrator:
Little Bustard darts around the back of the Celestial Crystal and Hides from Xorn 2.

Little Bustard shoots the xorn with his +1 Shortbow, scoring a Sneak Attack and dealing a total of 24 piercing damage to the xorn.

The xorn is now Bloodied.

Nasurin:
"i've had enough of this dude"
nasurin starts blasting

Amadeus Bosch:
"TRANSMUTATION."

okayuPanik

The Narrator:
Nasurin casts Scorching Ray on the xorn, dealing 25 fire damage and killing it. As they do so, they feel themselves briefly lose control of their magic, and as they channel the fire through themselves— it suddenly explodes into a Fireball, severely damaging everyone within 20 feet of them and themselves.

As this happens, Amadeus sees a wave of transmutation magic move through the room, confirming that whatever is the source of this wave of powerful transmutation magic is causing every spellcaster in your party to experience Wild Magic Surges.

Nasurin:

nuked

Maria:
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Xie Li:
"HRGHGH- WHY WHAT THE HELL!!!!!!!!!!!"

Little Bustard:

tails

Nasurin:
"i've heard of people… who have this kind of shit happen every time they cast a spell… and i think if i were them i would simply never cast a spell again…"

Little Bustard:
Little Bustard checks to make sure everybody is Alive

Xie Li:
[Xie Li collapses on the ground.]

"That's it. I'm done forever. Goodnight."

Maria:
"Xie Li… I would like to change my answer, I am now close to dying."

Xie Li:
"Do you need a boost Maria?"

[Talkin bout Cure Wounds tm]

The Narrator:
Ivanoska coughs up blood, patting down a part of her robe as it is singed by residual flame, and collapses forwards, resting on her knees.

Ivanoska: "Ugh… m-maybe we should head back to that fountain or something and j-just… take a rest…"

Little Bustard:
"You should head back" Little Bustard agrees

The Narrator:
Nadredda sits down on the floor, her hair blown backwards and smoking by the force of the blast. "Yess, I agree…"

Maria:
"Do not even Think about casting a spell in here."
"But thank you."

Nasurin:
nasurin looks down at their coat, which has been blasted into charred tatters. "i guess clothes of mending don't really cover this kind of damage. maybe i should've gotten an extended warranty"

Amadeus Bosch:
"Agreed." Amadeus grimaces as he watches everyone's repeated attempts to cast spells despite the surges in magic.

Xie Li:
"Oh right. Forgot."
[Xie Li rolls over and groans]

Maria:
"I think this is the worst I have felt in a long time."

Nasurin:
"i would throw up but i don't have anything left in me after earlier. i think i smell my own skin burning"

Amadeus Bosch:
"Well, we know it isn't the crystal at least. It came from down there." Amadeus points his thumb at the hallway everyone came through.

Little Bustard:
Upon making sure everyone is alright, Little Bustard turns to the celestial crystal and gingerly places a hand on it. Testing the waters, so to speak.

The Narrator:
Ivanoska: "Oh, g-good. So why are we even in this room…?"

Xie Li:
“Because who knows!”

Maria:
"We wanted to go down the hall."

The Narrator:
Little Bustard places a hand on the Celestial Crystal, and he feels something almost electrical beneath its surface. His hand shivers as an energy pulses through it, but it is significantly weaker than the wave of transmutation magic Amadeus has been observing. Nothing else seems to happen. You can gather that this Celestial Crystal is only filled with residual magic, and does not actually do anything.

Xie Li:
[Xie Li rolls over and licks the Crystal]

The Narrator:
Your tongue feels tingly.

Xie Li:
[Amazing.]

The Narrator:
After a few minutes of getting your bearings, your party crawls its way back to the room with the fountain full of naiads in order to take a Short Rest.

Little Bustard:
During this time, right before he leaves the room and it is clear of everyone else, Little Bustard decides to try and take his metal pick to this giant crystal to see if he can break a bit off.

The Narrator:
Little Bustard uses his Miner's Pick to break a small chunk of the Celestial Crystal off. Nothing seems to happen when he breaks it off, but he feels a faint electrical charge emanating off of the Celestial Crystal, slowly filling the room as though leaking out of it. The crystal slowly loses a small amount of its vibrancy and luminosity. The chunk which was broken off continues to glow just as vibrantly as before.

Little Bustard now has a Chunk of the Celestial Crystal.

Little Bustard:
Little Bustard is very pleased with this outcome. He briefly debates taking another piece, then decides not to and returns to the party to rest.

Nasurin:
"bro nice rock"

Little Bustard:
"Thanks. Don't know what it does"

Nasurin:
"if identify is to be believed it doesnt do much itself but itd be great for enchanting materials. or you could use it as an arcane focus or something"

sippie

Little Bustard:
"Arcane focus? Would I be able to use one?"
"What did identify say?"

Nasurin:
"well you've been using a wand the whole time havent you?"

Little Bustard:
Little Bustard nods

Nasurin:
"so sure, you could use it as a focus in the same way"
"and identify just said that it seems to be a failed attempt at the first stone that could never do very much at all. its imbued with magic, but it has no way to use it"

Little Bustard:
"Sstill new to magic thing" Little Bustard admits, turning the crystal over in his hands. "If arcane focus… maybe it will do something?"

Nasurin:
"maybe, but it's hard to say until you try it. take some time to get used to the way it feels, it's a big change from using a wand. like switching from a bow to a crossbow"

Little Bustard:
He nods, turning the crystal chunk over in his hands a few more times before gesturing to the enduring spellbook Nasurin had asked to look at earlier. "And what's that? Looks like spellbook."

Nasurin:
"oh, i'll have to sit and identify it to make sure, but i think it's just an enduring spellbook. it's just a damage-proof spellbook, basically"

"even if it isn't, i'm going to take our rest to transfer landon's consciousness into it. his book is so badly damaged from the water that his memory is failing, so i need to transfer him to something dry before i'm permanently stuck with a rambling moron for a spellbook"

Little Bustard:
"Already sort of a rambling moron," Little Bustard chuckles. "Can I watch the transfer?"

Nasurin:
"sure, but it's mostly just a lot of writing things down. his personality is sort of… an artificial soul that was created by a small group of netherese mages far above my capabilities, so i couldnt tell you how that part works off the top of my head. i just write in the baseline arcane sigils that bind his soul into the book, and he does the rest"

Little Bustard:
Little Bustard nods. Frankly he expected it was going to involve a lot more sitting around meditating and a lot less writing. It was interesting, though. The concept of an artificial soul was something he might have to look into.

Nasurin:
"interesting fact i learned about the awakened spellbooks back when they were made, each one's personality was based on and named after a colleague of theirs as a joke. landon was made based on the head librarian in the archive where they were created"

"i never learned his real last name, but the original landon was the head librarian at the Carlisle Archive, so my landon is now… landon de carlisle. landon of carlisle"

Little Bustard:
"Real Landon must've talked a lot" Little Bustard commented, rifling through his bags for the wand he'd been using as his previous arcane focus. Maybe he should've learned somewhere, but the word 'netherese' still escaped him. "What's netherese again?"

Nasurin:
"from netheril. i'm netherese"

"and yeah, the original landon was the kind of guy who had memorized almost every book in the library and would spew information at you if you were dumb enough to ask him a question"

Little Bustard:
Sounded accurate to the Landon they'd come to know. "Book Landon does the ssame thing."

Nasurin:
"yuup, but most of his information is outdated. he was built to understand magic a certain way and then magic changed drastically after netheril fell, so all of his understanding of the world sort of unraveled. i had to mash in my own footnotes into the sigils that bind him to the book to allow him to function at all, but i cant change his personality, so he'll always look at things a little wrong"

"imagine if you spent your whole early life learning how to write in your language, and then suddenly the alphabet of that language changed all at once. and nobody understands the new alphabet, but they all know they cant use the old one anymore"

Little Bustard:
"You're very skilled," Especially if they knew how to add footnotes onto a whole consciousness without messing everything up in every possible way. "Does not sound like a good time." He nodded, peering into the crystal in his talons.

"Does he talk to you? Not out loud?"

Nasurin:
"well thank you, i try my best. and sometimes, but not often. i told him to avoid doing it because having people talk directly into your head all the time can be a little disconcerting"

nasurin sits down on the floor and grabs landon out of the air to keep him from floating around, laying him and the new book next to each other. they take a moment to look over the damages to landons current body, as well as skimming the sigils holding his consciousness to the book to reinforce it in their memory

Little Bustard:
Little Bustard went silent in response, pulling his knees up to his chest and simply watching Nasurin do their thing.

Nasurin:
"now, the fun part. i cant properly imbue the sigils with his signature of magic if hes still in another body." so nasurin picks up the old book, flips the dagger out of their wrist, and cuts the whole book in half down the spine. after a second, a cloud of purplish energy seeps out of the ruined pages and hovers in the air. if you look at it closely enough, you can see that it's not a cloud as much as a cascade of swirling sigils, symbols, and various writings

"its all written in old netherese, but that part," nasurin sort of gestures widely to the cloud of text, "is the part i dont know how to edit. that's his whole personality and everything he knows floating in there. if you look closely enough there should be a little bubble that's all in my handwriting, which is the spells i personally added to the spellbook over time"

"and now for the boring part. i have to rescribe around 60 pages of sigils from memory into the new book…" nasurin sighs and flicks their magic quill out of the air, and starts a-writing

Little Bustard:
Never in his life did he think watching a book being torn in half would unsettle him to some degree, and yet here he was. Little Bustard peers at the strange purple cloud, taking note of the strange swirls and shapes. "Written in netherese?"

"Can't tell" About the obvious, and also which handwriting is which. He spends a few more minutes trying to piece it out.

Nasurin:
"all the text in there was handwritten by half a dozen people and then added to by me over time, so good luck figuring it out"

Little Bustard:
Yeah, there was definitely no way he was going to be figuring this out. He settles down and watches Nasurin write. "Tell me more about Nethril?"

Nasurin:
"asking about a whole country is kind of a big ask, did you have any specific questions?"

Little Bustard:
"What was it like? Did you like it?"

Nasurin:
"it was really nice, if you had the stomach for heights. beautiful architecture, fantastic sights, flying carriages, and so absolutely full of classism that i couldn't stand"

Little Bustard:
Little Bustard was following until Nasurin brought up classism. His face twisted into a sort of frown. "Oh, ew" in an identical voice and tone as Maria did when she came across things she didn't particularly enjoy.

Nasurin:
"yeah, no, it was pretty rough. my parents had to make a deal with an archdevil just to get me into upper netheril, hence the whole…" nasurin points at their horns, "thing"

"aside from that, though, it was nice. the cities were always moving and innovating and progressing. when it fell, it felt like the whole world had been set back a thousand years. imagine if we just, forgot how to make swords"

Little Bustard:
"Archdevil. Does it ever show up?" Little Bustard asked, setting his head down in the palm of his hand. "Must've been shock for you. Different world."

Nasurin:
"no, he doesn't ask questions. me being out in the world and a symbol of his power or whatever is enough for him. if you're knowledgeable in tieflings, you'd recognize my horns as an obvious sign that i'm of mephistopheles' descent. felid would be too, actually, given her horns"

"there's a slim possibility that felid is my great-great-great-greeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaat-granddaughter, given that i had clones in netheril who had lives of their own"

Little Bustard:
Little Bustard shrugs. "Don't know about a lot. Just dungeons"
"Wait, clones?"

Nasurin:
"yeah, i made several simulacrums and clones of myself that helped me with my work"

Little Bustard:
"And let them have lives of their own?"

Nasurin:
"yeah, i mean, the clones at least were just their own people. from the second they were cloned they started having their own experiences. there were two of them, and i know one of them moved into lower netheril, so it's possible they and any offspring they may have had survived the crash"

Little Bustard:
"Other Nasurin-ss"
"Hope they had good lives"

Nasurin:
"i hope so. i kind of wish i had moved to lower netheril too, before everything happened. we talked about it, but we had too much to do"

Little Bustard:
"Maybe would'nt have made it? If in lower netheril"

Nasurin:
"maybe, but maybe we would've made it in better shape"

Little Bustard:
Little Bustard lays himself down across the marble floor, turning onto his back so he could look up at the ceiling. "A lot of maybe"
"A lot of questions"

Nasurin:
"it's easy to ask 'what if' for things like that, yeah. nothing that can be done, though. i never learned true chronomancy, and even if i had, it probably wouldn't be possible in the newer arcana"

Little Bustard:
"Always the future"

Nasurin:
nasurin sighs. "yknow, i havent really mentioned her to anyone before, but i had a fiancee back then. she's really all i think about when i think of netheril these days."

Little Bustard:
Little Bustard tilts his head and looks over at Nasurin. "What was she like?"

Nasurin:
nasurin laughs. "well, smarter than me, for sure. she kind of took over leading the scribes when ioulaum disappeared. i did what i always do and tried to brute force any problems i ran into, but she always seemed to know what to do to solve whatever we ran into"

Little Bustard:
Little Bustard seems surprised at the idea that anyone could be smarter than Nasurin. "Sounds like you appreciate her"

Nasurin:
nasurin goes silent for a second, and just stares at the papers theyre writing on. "yeah… it's hard to think what life would have been like had netheril stayed around. viviette and i were set to lead an enclave together, once the war was over. it's just weird to think what things became instead"

Little Bustard:
He seems to frown and turns himself back over. "It's hard.. to not know. Only thing to do is keep going. Hurts, sometimes."

Nasurin:
"yeah, i guess so" they put their book down for a minute and stretch. "anyway, uh. where are you from? what was that like?"

Little Bustard:
Little Bustard shrugs. "Don't know"
"First place I remember is Candlekeep"

Nasurin:
"that's it? nothing else?"

Little Bustard:
Little Bustard shakes his head "Not really"

Nasurin:
"were you born in candlekeep? i know there's a little hospital there"

Little Bustard:
He scratches his beak, then shakes his head. "No- that… never thought about it."
"No memories before then. Only being in candlekeep, confused"

Nasurin:
"oh. memory loss? how old were you, roughly?"

Little Bustard:
Little Bustard pauses once more. It seems he had to do a lot of thinking here. "Nineteen around?"

Nasurin:
"hm… so definitely memory loss. any other effects? did your body feel unnatural, like you hadnt used it before? were there foggy memories that wouldnt clear up, or just nothing?"

Little Bustard:
"Both."
"Body unnatural, foggy mind"

Nasurin:
"memory loss for sure then, and maybe even a physically altered body, possibly… has being a kenku ever felt like its just wrong or something? like its not actually your body?"

Little Bustard:
Little Bustard shook his head. "Kenku feels right. For sure my body."

Nasurin:
"okay, thats good then. hmm…"

Little Bustard:
After all Nasurin had told him, it was only fair he explain what he knew about himself. Little Bustard sits up, realization sparking. If anyone could figure this out, it would be Nasurin, right? But there were so many people around…

Nasurin:
nasurin scratches their head, tapping their quill to their chin. "thats a big mystery, but maybe one for a little later. i'm doing a lot of mental math right now as it is" they laugh and gesture to the book
"but we should pick this up again soon, for sure"

Little Bustard:
"Yes, later." Little Bustard agrees. "Thank you"
"Landon will be back soon"

The Narrator:
Somewhere deep within the darkest recesses of Little Bustard's mind, something is watching through his eyes, listening through his ears, as Nasurin explains how they are able to summon Landon's magical mind, with fascination and something that Little Bustard cannot mistake for anything other than scheming.

The voices of Little Bustard's companions echo in his mind, as the voice of Xie Li says:

"The way out."

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