Session Date: 07/01/2024
Faylen, Opal, Vogue, and Vigor are in a gigantic chamber made of white stone. It is quite hot in here. Opal - who has spent plenty of time in the hells - knows this is some other type of heat: not regular fire, not hell. It’s warm in the sense that Opal wants to stand and do something, but we cannot stand as we are in what looks like a bird cage made out of gold?
Faylen and Opal immediately see flames dancing on several parts of the chamber. Below and at the walls are grey works of beauty that are not damaged by the warmth of this place. They are riches, yes, but it’s not just gold: golden statues, or something precious and unique. The flames dancing star to coalesce in one spot. At one end of the gigantic chamber is a throne, as if made for a gargantuan creature.
The coalescing flames move toward the throne and start to take shape. It’s a little hard to watch what this thing is, but it starts to take on the shape of a bird. It is a gigantic phoenix that appears on the throne and looks directly at us. Looking at them, it is clearly a bird made out of fire, but she is a woman, and she is extremely powerful. She cocks her head like a bird, and wonders what she has here.
Bosch, Tabby, Mary, and Vim are aware that the others were teleported to the Phoenix’s realm, and they are aware they can use their fragment of the Seal of Infinity to get there. Bosch wanted to sneak in to save them, but the rest would prefer to petition the phoenix, Astrobolesia directly rather than make her upset.
Mary uses the Seal to petition the Phoenix, asking if she has need of the resins Mary had gathered. Warmth envelopes them and for a moment they see a demiplane from the exterior - the Seal vibrates in hand and sort of “glitches” as they are suspended between planes. They then are sent to the demiplane and they are within a desert with a palace of white hot stone. Bosch says “knock, knock!” out loud and the door opens. They are put into a fireball that transports them in, dropping them below the cage that their friends are in.
The Phoenix cocks her head to the other side as she looks at the rest of the party, surprised she has guests. Bosch says hi and introduces himself, then asks how Opal got in a cage again. There is a little back and forth between the phoenix and Bosch, and laughter comes from the wall as it finds Bosch funny. Bosch greets the wall awkwardly and says it’s nice to meet it, and there’s more laughing and clapping.
The phoenix spreads her wings and asks for everyone to focus. She explains that those of us in the cage had caught our eye. She flies up and says that two of us are interesting: Opal is unique, he doesn’t belong here, to which Opal says he gets this every week. She looks to Faylen and says that he has “his” mark on him, that he’s not corrupt, which is interesting. Faylen asks for clarification and she means Kaymanth the Shadow and all of the blood drains from Faylen’s face and it’s clear he’s terrified.
Opal spreads his arms out and gets in front of Faylen and asks what Astrobolesia wants of him. Opal doesn’t do an amazing job and Astrobolesia explains that we are not in danger, at least not right now. She teleports the rest of us out of the cage and to our party. Bosch ruffles Faylen’s hair and he pretends to be embarrassed by it, and Vim hugs Vogue and Vigor close.
Along the outside are some figures: the one that’s been interjecting during all of this is a young looking gnomish woman. She seems to have something like a megaphone/microphone in her hand.
Thaleia:
Name for the immortal of comedy.
Thaleia appears next to us and apologizes for Oddball and explains that she doesn’t want clowns to be evil??? But Oddball is now in clown purgatory, which does exist. Faylen takes a moment to explain who Thaleia is. Astrobolesia, at Thaleia’s recommendation, stopped with her phoenix form and coalesces down into a very beautiful elfin form.
Kaymanth has removed his mark from two more in the past: the two that got free made wagers and won, so Kaymanth had to release them. Astrobolesia explains that as long as Faylen does not invoke Kaymanth for help, then the mark shouldn’t get any worse. She does warn that it’s Kaymanth’s way to tempt others to invoke him and give them power or help, so do not give in to this as Kaymanth will try hard to tempt Faylen. Bosch jokingly suggests having a newspaper to smack Faylen any time that he seems to be tempted to ask Kaymanth for help, while Opal suggests a spray bottle - Faylen doesn’t like the spray bottle ideal because it would mess up his hair.
Opal asks for a souvenir before he’s sent home, and Astrobolesia tells him not to push it. Faylen does speak up and say that Opal is wanting to have souvenirs to prove to his friends that he was here, since they likely will not believe him. Astrobolesia gives him a boon - a gift such as a one time resurrection, or something like that.
Astrobolesia tells us to relax, enjoy the atmosphere, have some food and drink: it’s a party! We see a lot of people that appear to be awe-struck that are likely from around the Commonwealth, and Tabby notices some fae creatures here as well. The sound of music comes from the gate, and then the doors throw wide and a man comes in with a weird guitar. He’s dressed up in your normal 80s/90s metal getup, and his name is Taran Thündersquall.
Thaleia takes us to a smaller chamber where we can be away from all of the commotion if we would like. We are led off to the library and there are a few others milling about here. Faylen ends up finding a comic book omnibus that his sister likes and he opts to read it, with Talitha joining him.
Opal gets a book on how to talk to boys.
Tabby gets a book studying fencing, from a few years in the future. Tabby is the focus of one chapter in the book.
Mary finds a book about the Seal of Infinity and it is mostly aligned with arcane magic, but it can be used with other types of magic. There are numerous theories of how it came to be, as it’s not from the immortals. Astro’s made numerous notes in the margins, and she’s underlined that that Seal comes from a different dimension - it’s clear that this is what she believes makes the most sense for its “creation”. Mary thumbs through the book and finds a page where the text is constantly shifting - it almost speaks on the theft of the Seal, but it’s shifting around too much, and there’s too much potential for the future to change so the text can’t finalize.
Bosch does not remain in the library, but decides to go exploring and find out what’s going on. As he’s exploring he has the impression that he cannot get lost, as he can easily return to someone he wishes to see. The longer he explores the more the place adjusts and grows more and more winding, with more obstacles and the like. It’s encouraging his sense of adventure as he gains speed and runs through, having fun.
Eventually, Bosch is in some “air vents” and hears a voice saying that this is interesting, and Mr. The Shadow will want this information, and they need to pass it along.
Bosch decides to remember this voice and turns a corner and happens to end up right at the library.
Astro finds us and says that she does not wish to keep us for too long, and she understands that this is an awful lot. She says she will send Opal home, and then says that she will send us back home. Bosch asks if there is a way to redirect Kaymanth’s messages so that Faylen doesn’t have to deal with it, and she says that she cannot do that for us. She explains that she cannot directly help us, but if the spark of creativity does happen and create something beautiful then she may help us at that point.
Mary does end up giving the aromatic resins to Astro and she is genuinely grateful for the gift.
She turns to Opal and explains that he was shunted here during teleportation travel. She explains that there is something strange there, and he is not the only one that’s been shunted out of place. She warns that he has to be careful, and he has to be smart. Faylen quickly gives Opal a pin that is of the place he goes to school that definitely wouldn’t exist back home, and tells him to show his adventuring party this if they don’t believe him.
Opal is warned that his memories might be a little foggy and take some time to come back, and then he’s gone.