With APPOTHROMAX defeated and his two thirds of an amulet liberated, Charlie Company returns to Quietreach to pick up Solana, down the hall of doors, and out to the Firepeaks to Brother Im’s monastery of hot vis where they reconvene with Im in a room of indefinite plumbing. Ten offers to relieve Im of his one thirds of an amulet as well as any liability for whatever happens next.
Ten brings the three thirds of the amulet together, and the pieces snap into a reassuringly specific orientation that suggests it could not have been done incorrectly. It happens that the newly formed shape could fit into a junction of three pipes, each isolated by a wheeled valve with one triangle of color pointed along each pipe in any one of three ways, counting only the positions that place the most polished faces up. From exegesis of Opeth’s prophecies, most likely the two source tanks would feed ice and fire vis into the receiving vessel of gold. Orienting the gold point toward the receiving vessel, Ten snaps the amulet into place revealing a brief visual phenomenon. The monks bring in a barrel of fire vis and fill up tank on the red side causing only a slightly menacing groaning of the apparatus. Too bad nobody brought along any ice vis, thinks everyone but Solana. Solana collects the company haversacks acquired through the demise and subsequent reconstitution of the various units that have participated in the Quastarte diaspora since its destruction. She uncorks the embroidered unit badges revealing dimensional holes full of ice vis hiding in plain sight the whole time. The ice vis is poured into the cold tank side of the groaning apparatus.
The mixing valves are slowly opened by those strong enough to do so. All others endure Barika’s chastisement for their weak nerd arms. Ten opens the outlet valve and the receiver satisfyingly fills with lovely golden hybrid vis. The party dips primary weapons into the pool in turns which imbues the weapons with golden energy and the wielders of those weapons with golden protection [100 temporary HP]. Sqyylarr’s attempt to go around again to douse her other favorite weapon is interrupted by Tophe, of Cohoreth the Herald head rolling infamy [Altar of Inle – Dungeons & Dragons (doonbeet.com)], here to whisk them away to the promise of death.
The party finds itself once again [Tophe – Dungeons & Dragons (doonbeet.com)] at a portal onto the largely destroyed prison platform of Tharizdun the Dreaming Madness suspended above the astral sea. Ash taunts Tophe, soliciting some unseen laughter of overconfidence, the best kind of unseen laughter. It is safe, with mental concentration, to leap across gaps in platform debris, but unlike the previous visit there are now invisible walls ominously channeling their progress. Ten casts a spell to see invisibility and guides the leaping party through the narrow openings.
A swarm of tiny mechanical spiders climbs Ander while a second swarm waits its turn. Watc heats them up with a firebolt and Ander fatally pops their supercaps with a shocking grasp. Sqyylarr and Barika smash the waiting swarm before it can get started. A more organic giant spider, relation unknown, emerges from hiding to bite Barika, but it fortunately mistimes its delivery of poison. Ten collects a death toll and Barika collects a death.
Sqyylarr follows Ten’s guidance east by north and encounters a hovering octopus, an unexpected foe even in this mad setting. Sqyylarr whacks the octopus’s spider companion first and cleaves through to the octopus. Ander tries to knock it back over the edge of the debris fragment with a ballista bolt, but it just hovers stubbornly. Watc firebolts it dead, but now it has two more octofriends approaching. The second falls victim to Sqyylarr’s slang, Barika’s javelins, and Ander’s firebolt and ballista combo. The third, hovering out of reach over the astral sea below, is stuck repeatedly by Ash’s vicious longbow slayer’s prey sneak attacks until it can no longer afford Ten’s death toll.
The rapid destruction of his eight-legged army of things really cheeses Tophe who is roaring as though personally injured. Next up on the path is Tophe’s wastrilith protector. It shakes off an attempted immolation by Watc and some hucked javelins by Barika. The close invisible walls create an unfortunate party clump, ripe for the protector’s fireball. Ander’s flash of genius and Sqyylarr’s indomitability mitigate the fireball’s damage. Ander rebuts with a treatment of scorching rays and a pushing ballista bolt. Ash joins that effort with a pushing arrow attack that shoves the protector into an invisible wall rather than over the edge. Sqyylarr slangs a fatal bullet that uncoils the snaky protector and makes Tophe howl in pain.
The only way forward takes the party over an obstacle. Ash leapingly assaults the wall and finds a waiting cyclops. Ten opens a circle of power to help defend against magical effects. Barika and Sqyylarr go to work on the cyclops martially. Ander’s screwdriver propels catapulted debris, but the magical exertion attracts the freakishly fast cyclops who slams into Ander’s face reactively. Ash wounds the cyclops viciously. Barika critically destroys the cyclops with a heavy greataxe blow.
At this point, Tophe indicates he has had enough and escalates an astral dreadnought into the party’s path. The dreadnought takes some readied firebolts and thrown projectiles before showing Barika how it’s done, biting and clawing away her entire golden bubble of protection [99 damage]. Ander hastens Sqyylarr and ballistas the dreadnought back a step to create some space. Ash critically sprays slayer arrows into the dreadnought, goading it. Ten brings up his aura to Barika and Sqyylarr engaging the dreadnought. Sqyylarr slays the dreadnought with her slammoth.
It looks like Tophe will actually have to fight this one personally, though he looks vicariously more injured than at their first meeting today. Ander empties a wand of magic missiles into Tophe until the wand disintegrates from overexertion. Ander’s ballista knocks Tophe back, but not out of range of arrows, javelins, bullets, and Ten’s spiritual weapon. Tophe drops a cloudkill on the clumped party which Ten’s aura nullifies infuriatingly. Tophe retreats toward Tharizdun’s prison. Ander hurriedly lays a wall of fire between Tophe and Tharizdun, letting go of Sqyylarr’s haste and putting her into detox for a moment. Under pressure from Barika, Tophe produces a bone staff to beat on her, but she has him pinned against the burning wall. Ten’s spiritual weapon righteously beats on Tophe’s outsides while Watc’s magic immolates his insides, and the fire wall cooks his backsides. Ander’s scorching rays pierce Tophe. Ash’s sneaky arrows launch him into the wall of fire where his mortal remains are incinerated.
The party spends an hour tending to Barika and discussing how to disable Tharizdun’s influence on the world, conducted through the Pohet crystal jammed into the side of his prison bubble [Tharizdun and The Dreaming Madness – Dungeons & Dragons (doonbeet.com)]. The crystal needs to be removed without compromising the integrity of the bubble. Ander has a little chat with the crystal, informing it that Tophe was easily defeated. His desired effect, that the intimidated Pohet crystal would simply surrender its position willingly, is replaced instead by a shocking grasp that knocks Ander back. Plan B is to remove the crystal by force but not violence. Ander applies his multitool, in the form of a monkey wrench, and begins easing the crystal out of place. Because the multitool was bathed in the golden vis, the puncture closes around the extraction nicely until the crystal is completely freed from the bubble and shatters on the ground. Pohet is no more, and the prison bubble noticeably gains strength.
Ander wipes his hands on his pants and calls it a week.