Session Date: 07/08/2024
Vim, Vigor, and Vogue express how thankful they are that we were around to help them, and they are excited to help us again in the future. They are transported back to their wagon and ox.
Astrobolesia transported us back to our home plane, closer to Shelmourn than where we were before.
Mary, however, is transported elsewhere. There is a man here with salt and pepper hair, wearing a dark purple suit. He opens a bottle of wine and he says he is going to try a different approach to this, then asks if Mary would like a glass of the wine. She politely declines and asks who he is and what she is doing here. The man introduces himself as Kaymanth, and he explains that her friends interrupted a rather important process for him and that it was rather lengthy.
He explains that the party are safe, and Mary is safe as well. He says that he feels that Mary is perhaps the best to talk to as the goblin would interrupt him and piss him off and make him kill him, and he admits that Faylen reminds him of someone that he used to know and that colors his impression of Faylen.
Kaymanth confirms that we are going to Shelmourn, and he says that this place is not affiliated to him at all, even though it is a place of shadows. He offers his help - no strings attached, first time is a free trial - and all she needs to do is invoke his power.
He has not had much luck dealing with this place, but if we take care of it then it is beneficial to both parties. Mary declines, and he admits his disappointment, hoping that Mary would be amenable to this deal.
Tabby, Faylen, and Bosch are in a ball pit elsewhere in the mansion, with Challender offering us grape sodas with curly straws. Challender reassures us that drinking the sodas will not incur any debt at this time and that Kaymanth is trying to be nice.
We are all thrown out of the mansion and into a forest. We confer, and all agree that even though dealing with the cult will somehow be advantageous to Kaymanth, we can’t just stop and leave it alone, either.
It’s dark out, and Tabby and Mary realize it’s not long before dawn. Mary and Tabby lead the group to the road, and we follow it to Shelmourn. We the horse of the knight that we sent off toward Shelmourn lying unconscious on the side of the road, and we also see that there is no city in the distance, but a dark dome looming where a city is supposed to be.
Mary rushes to the horse and checks him and can see that he’s unconscious, though not sure for how long. She gives him some herbs to get him back up on his feet and talking. The horse asks where Carver is, and Mary explains that this is what we were going to ask him. The horse explains that the dome wasn’t there before. He and Carver were talking and the horse suggested that they ride into the city demanding answers and trampling some people, and Carver decided that he had to do this the “long, stupid way,” and that we would be joining them. Carver went into the town and there was an explosion of darkness that knocked him unconscious.
We approach the dome. We see and hear the top of the dome slowly fall and perhaps even dissipate - it’s hard to tell as the outer shell of the dome still stands as if it was a wall. Faylen specifically sees that there are shapes on the surface, realizing that it seems that perhaps a gate is forming in the shell of dome, but it’s not there. He’s seen something like this before, but it hasn’t been done with shadow as far as he knows. Some materials and buildings are created by shaping a material from within, usually done for complex things that require a lot of math (for example, a bridge made of stone) relatively quickly, but usually just one thing and not a whole city. Some of the teachers at the academy will shape one piece of metal into a sword, as another example.
Faylen touches the orb and it’s very real and it’s hard like a wall - this isn’t what a shadow should be. It’s cold, almost porous? It reminds him of Kaymanth’s mansion, but very crude in comparison. This is a marvel of magic - Faylen’s seen slivers of the Seal of Infinity create massive illusions, but creating something this solid is beyond the power of a single sliver. Tabby taps his weapon against the wall and the sound is far duller than it should be.
Faylen suggests using the piece of the Seal that we have to try to create enough of an opening for them to slip through, but as he ponders this there is a loud thud and the dome shakes slightly. The sound comes from outside of the orb, and Mary finds the source: there’s three large creatures doing something to the wall, and another thud happens. Mary believes these guys are ogres. One ogre kicks the wall, and they giggle while having fun with this. She slips back away from the group of Ogres and to the party, explaining what happened.
With Mary’s information, we opt to leave them alone. Faylen attunes to the sliver of the Seal of Infinity, treating it with huge care as if he might explode the entire area around here. There is a small hole that opens in the wall and it begins to very slowly widen, but it will take some time.
One of the ogres comes up and is holding a piece of rope, and notices Faylen manifesting this power. The ogre asks why we aren’t kicking it, and Tabby says it won’t work. The ogres have been trying and they came up with a game: kick the wall. The ogre says that there used to be a city here with nice people and good mutton, but now there’s a wall. You see a wall, you kick a wall, of course. Tabby asks where the rope is from and the ogre explains he found it underground - it’s magical in some way. The ogres aren’t sure what’s become of the people inside. There is more discussion about kick the wall.
Tabby obtained an any length rope: It can be of any length up to 50 ft. It was previously Carver’s.
Faylen eventually manages to make an entrance for everyone, and we all enter the city. When Faylen lets the magic for the doorway go, it closes behind him as if snapping back into place.
The city before them is very dark. Faylen and Bosch can see that we entered this city during the process of the reformation: we entered where a gate shall be. The city is definitely being designed, but it’s also being changed. They can see that from the walls of the dome inside there are jutting pieces of shadow jutting out of specific buildings, seeming to be enveloping the buildings more. The process of changing is also happening to the buildings - this spell is going on hundreds, or thousands, of time, enveloped inside of the huge version of this spell. Nobody has ever created or recreated an entire town. What is going on is that they are rebuilding the city partially using itself. There’s absolutely nobody here, and it’s silent.
He explains what they’re seeing and casts light so the others can see - it is less effective than normal, shedding only 20 feet dim light. Faylen gets the sense that if they linger in here for too long they may be in danger of being reconstituted into this city, so he recommends that the group tries to move quickly through here. He notices a large temple-like structure at the top of the hill that seems to be the most finished, and that might be the best place to.
The group begins to move through the city and start looking for any signs of people or life. There’s nothing in the way of people here as far as we can tell, but there are large bats above. Mary can tell they’re animals, actual giant bats, not creatures of shadow or anything. We continue on and eventually something starts eating the giant bats above, and we move to the alleyways in hopes that we will be safer from the creature hunting the bats.