Characters and Retainers at the start of the session:
- Marcus — Olledg, Level 2 Bregle
- Peter — Chadwick, Level 5 Mage
- Ash — Xiaverine, Level 5 Grimalkin
- Freddy — Trunchkin, Level 5 Friar
Out of the Darkness, Laden with Spoils
Session 23 took place on the afternoon of Friday the 13th.
It began with Chadwick, flying invisibly through the Fulgarium after the Calcite guards massacred several of Laputa’s sailors, including their lieutenant, Lilith.
While investigating the snake door and discovering it had no interest in corpses, he noticed two more mariners arriving from the Mirror Cell to check on their companions. Using again the intentionally wrong passwords, he reactivated the guardians and managed to grapple one of them. After a tense mid-air struggle, he smashed the sailor against a wall and fed him to the door-snake. Sated, it uncoiled and granted him passage.
The Kyriarch’s Throne
Beyond, Chadwick found the Kyriarch’s Throne. Rather than risk interacting with it, he collected the mace and crown lying beside it and moved on. He eventually reached the ambassadorial suite, where three strange constructs attended to his needs while he waited for the others.
Meanwhile, Olledg, Xiaverine, and Trunchkin explored the chambers around the Nightingale shafts.
There, they encountered three trapped and very lonely tox-men from the Plain of Poisons, whose physiology had adapted for absolute lethality. They were apologetic about this and deeply grateful when Trunchkin introduced them to the ever-loving One True God. He freed them, allowing them to leave for the outside world.
Soon after, the Magpies were spotted in the Nightingale shaft by Laputa’s sailors guarding the hall above. The sailors attacked by dropping cannonballs down the shaft, injuring Olledg.
While Olledg and Trunchkin took a longer route—descending through the terrace of the Salt Dryads and climbing back up via the chain linked to the gravity knife—Xiaverine used the Kapeks’ gift to turn invisible and teleport directly into the Nightingale Hall behind enemy lines.
From there, Xiaverine set an improvised trap using marbles and Lizy, the giant gecko once owned by the late Melysee, sending sailor after sailor tumbling through the shaft. By the time Olledg and Trunchkin arrived, Xiaverine was finishing the fight with his blood-powered jackhammer, crushing a sailor’s skull and forcing the remaining attackers into a panicked retreat down the stairs toward the weighing station.
The ambassadorial suite
Reunited with a refreshed Chadwick, the Magpies sought an audience with Zeernebooch, ambassador of the Slime Empire.
As they pressed deeper into his glass case, communication became clearer, but they failed to realise that each question cost the ambassador precious calories. Driven by hunger, he lashed out and took a bite at Chadwick, who narrowly escaped the acidic slime. Zeernebooch asked for readings from the Observatory, but the party—having never explored that area—could not comply.
Zeernebooch, ambassador of the Slime Empire
Rather than backtrack, they chose to press forward into the last unexplored chamber of the section, finding at last the imperial Treasury.
Though most of the boxes were empty, even the scraps they recovered were enough to fund a lifetime of luxury. With Lizy providing the necessary carrying capacity, and with the sailors in disarray and reinforcements still a day away, the Magpies ascended to the surface and returned home with their riches.
All except Xiaverine.
Drawn by the quiet, insistent pull of the Kyriarch’s Throne, he chose to remain in the darkness a while longer—just a little bit longer, just a little bit longer, just a little bit longer...
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