WitW - Session 26
Amir walked into the room, arm around Jira. But worse, the Wizard, Ariazel materialized. He monologued for a while about seeing Exurbia utterly destroyed. He showed the party a horrifying sight of a blast of magic erupting out of the spire and crashing into the ziggurat ultimately destroying the sand dial. Ariazel said he didn't even need Anar's heart, but wanted it anyway. He disappeared after commanding Amir to go after the heart.
Amir couldn't utter a word before falling to a pile of sand, only to be reborn a terrifying sand golem, hell-bent on killing and retrieving Lord Anar's heart. The surge of magic released by the shattering of the sand dial briefly incapacitated Lord Anar and forced a wild magic surge from pascal, turning Jeatz to a horrible troll. Anar shook off the shock quickly, casting power word stun on the monstrosity to give the party a brief respite.
The monster shook off the stun, and pummeled Anar with legendary action attacks. Horace went down in the crossfire, but Almyre picked him up using his own healing potion. Almyre was able to translate into troll what Jeatz needed to hear in order to attack the sand monster by convincing troll-Jeatz there was meat inside the sand.
Almyre, absolutely out of left field, cast polymorph on Anar turning him into a giant ape to give him a buffer as he was not looking well. Sand-Amir quickly turned his attention to Almyre to intentionally break her concentration, downing her in the process. Horace got his payback using one of her potions to revive her, but unfortunately, this broke her concentration. Anar turned back into his frail form.
Horace made a feeble attempt to shackle the monstrosity, failing spectacularly. The monster landed a fatal blow on Anar taking the air out of the room. The beast left with Lord Anar's heart. Without it, Anar would fade, no matter the healing applied. He would reconstitute in time.
Anar uttered a few final words- it was fate he should go this way. They must go to the material plane to destroy the wizard in the realm, the Material Plane using the portal in the Dark Place. He felt Amir's presence, lost in the weave, asking Almyre find her brother.
Jira, upset by the death of her son still served her purpose as a lore keeper, divulging all she knew about the Dark Place. Endring, Exurbia's daughter, was a secretive one who resided there before it was the dark place. Endring is said to be the mother of Changelings, and Jeatz recalled once his mother mentioning her name.
Jira also reminded them of the history of the Darkness - it was once a fey Lord of Night. He stood against the other courts but it took the power of the other 4 Lords to destroy him. Three of the hearts are in the possession of Ariazel in the material plane, and the Spring court was likely holding out against the darkness. Regarding memory of the material plane, the Lorekeepers are exempt, but Jira is unaware if Exurbia wipes the memories or suppresses them.
The Weave warden appeared, and while he could not send the party back in time, he could slow the time differential to a crawl between the Wild and Material so that the party could take their time on the material plane. IT would potentially expose the time Warden to Ariazel's wrath, but it was a risk worth taking.
The party stepped outside to utter chaos. Jahir outlined the chaos in a bumbling manner. Almyre, as acting Lady of the court, put Jahir in charge. As to not alarm the people, they would keep Anar's death under wraps, and Jeatz presented himself as Lord Anar pronouncing Jahir acting leader, giving an incredibly convincing presentation thanks to Jira's prestidigitation.
From there, the party rushed to help the citizens of the court. They all rushed to the ziggurat to inspect the aftermath. Shards of glass an the sandy remains litter the floor. Almyre picked up a shard of glass and found that it could see through time as Jira mentioned. Horace picked up some sand, finding it had the ability to stop time. Unable to do more for the dial, they turned their attention to the ailing citizens.
Almyre rushed into town to help move the gold cap of the spire off of the dead parrotter. She succeeded with the aid of a reduce spell, getting a potion of invulnerability as a reward. Jeatz ran to aid those injured by the water crashing down after the failure of the reverse waterfall. He aided the soldiers and was rewarded with a ruby ring. Horace rushed to the gardens to aid in calming the pixies' rampage. Horace found the circus troupe in the entryway of the casino and Zazzle unshrunk them. They aided in capturing the pixies. Spinkle, the owner came out, giving his thanks. He sent Glitter with Horace as he no longer felt the summer court was safe for her. Horace made a promise to keep her safe.
That night, Almyre witnessed a ghastly sight - the stars formed a hand that swept over the sand, and skeletons made of sand arose from the earth. They laid assault to a pod of sand eels in the desert, ultimately overpowering them. The eels twitched to life, and the newly formed undead army marched towards the Autumn court.
