The party had to deal with the aftermath of the illithid attack on the streets of Alburbia, the Alabaster City.
Previously, while walking about the city, a tear in the fabric of space/time erupted in the air in the street, disgorging a horde of Grimlocks, psionic thrall slaves, and illithid masters. The party dispatched them all without inflicting civilian casualties.
Following the battle, mage Cerryl interrogated the party about events while the city patrol’s diviners read the scene.
Conversation with Cerryl went, at first, fairly predictably. He wanted to know what the party knew about the mindflayers, why they attacked the party in the streets, how many times had this happened, would it happen again, and so forth.
The party was unable to answer one question – how did the mindflayers know where to find them?
The conversation then turned to the party’s previous inquiries around the city about the Temple of the Cleansing Flame. The party insisted that the Temple is bad for the city, bad for everyone in fact.
When pressed to prove their allegations, the party handed over the letters from the Primus Pactus to the Bispo do Fogo Gustavo.
Cerryl reacted very strongly to what he read, then directed the party to meet with High Wizard Jeslek in the morning.
Jeslek’s assistant Anya met the party, but did not share any useful information. Mil detected an evil aura about her. When James, son of Morris, attempted to detect her thoughts, she was thinking about which of the party members she would sleep with.
Jeslek remembers the party from before, and inquired about the member he had actually met with (Aramis 3 cocks), who of course is gone.
After reading the letters, his mightiness Jeslek seemed shaken. He told the party that the Primus Pactus, Belaya Smert, was a horrid abomination, a creature that should have died ages ago and did not. Belaya Smert is something that Jeslek wants dealt with, permanently.
He relayed to the party that Belaya was responsible for awakening the great dragon Cyclopane from her dragonsleep two centuries ago, and noted in passing that all the good elves in the jungle have been killed or chased out – meaning the gentle forest folk the party met are now dead.
Finally Jeslek told the party to meet with Duracell later that afternoon, as the impresario had come back into town and had more information.
Duracell met with the party in his office below the amphitheatre where he puts on his shows. At the party’s greeting, he was enthused and tried to book Jaime for shows immediately. His mood changed, though, when the party showed him the letters.
In his reaction, there was a noticeable change in the timbre of his voice – but it was only momentary.
Duracell mentioned that he knew about an artifact called the mirror of memory that might help the party learn more about Belaya, but told them they had to make a journey into the plateau to the southeast to meet some creature that had the artifact. He mentioned that the creature’s den was marked by twin columns of basalt, topped with imperial Topaz. He refused to say more, and left abruptly.
Armed with Duracell’s directions, the party took guard detail with a trade caravan heading in the right direction. After several days of uneventful journey, they spouted the columnar rocks as described, and went into the cave mouth marked by them.
The cave itself was wide enough to allow several adventuring parties to pass through abreast, and as the party made their way into it, realized it was a maze.
Passing through a few traps and some Earth elementals, the party emerged into the greeting chamber of a massive copper dragon – Duracell himself.
The dragon made some bad jokes, and asked the bard to perform for him. James son of Morris did so, and the dragon was delighted with the music. Duracell also confessed to a practical joking habit of sending treasure hunters to hunt treasures in remote areas when he already had the treasure in his lair, a ruse that the party did not fall for when he tried it on them.
Duracell then told the party that Belaya came from across the sea, the other side of the world in fact. He also relayed that nobody knows who or what Belaya used to be only that it is now a dark force that must be stopped.
He told them that the mirror of memory was an artifact that is thought to have been Belaya’s, but the wizards from the city couldn’t make it work because they were not capable of perfect synchronicity. Maybe, with the mind powers of the small dumb one, they could achieve the result. Hopefully they could learn something of import, and stop this dark master from imposing its will with some key bit of knowledge.
The party agreed to try it, and Duracell pointed them to the artifact in question – an ovular spheroid of perfect smoothness, reflecting in all directions. It was contained in ornate golden framing, although there was no apparent attachment – the mirror hovered in its frame.
There were two hourglasses standing upright on either side of the frame, both with black sand in the bottom. Duracell told the party that by having their magically adept members attempt to reach out to the device with their arcane gifts while the mentalist kept their minds in perfect harmony as one unit, simultaneous with the warriors turning the two hourglasses, the party might activate the device…
…and it worked. The sand, black to show its void, turned white as it passed through the center of the hourglasses, and vivid colors splashed the scene, twirling and whirling, as the party was drawn into the mirror…
When they came to their senses, the party were no longer in their own bodies.
Mick On Everything 