Session 19

Session Date: 22 August 2026

Callie gets up early and talk to the Haruspex
- C asks a favour, H knows, divined it
- If there was anyway we could get Sending scrolls
- H says it might take some time because they don’t have arms :3
- “Think carefully before you agree to anything today, Calliope”
- C: can you elaborate?
- H: just a sense. someone’s going to offer you something.
Mortuary and then Vesper’s
Calyx readies themself quietly, not notably upset but kinda quiet
- Perception check: 13
- Yrikk is looking at them.
- Calyx: Is everything OK?
- Y: Everything’s fine, are you OK?
- C: Yeah, could be worse. Forced smile
- C: Asks Yrikk to come with them to Sigil
- Y: Agrees. OK yay!
Kiat will go see his dad, meet back later in the Estate
Kulani leads us to the Hive
- Mortuary: hulking blackstone building with spires and bars on the windows and a big fence around it; guards at the gate, grey drab monk’s habits
- Air smells like cold stone and decay and formaldehyde
- The faction that runs the mortuary is the Dustmen
We go through, pretty dark and dim inside
- Scribe writing on a ledger; Kulani approaches them
- Callie Intelligence check: Dustmen are responsible for waste management in Sigil
  - When people die in Sigil, because of the nature of Sigil and in its place outside the Planes, it requires certain rites and rituals. People who die in Sigil are much more likely to become ghosts if not treated fast because their souls are trapped in the Cage
  - The Dustmen sweep the city for bodies and they bring them to the mortuary and perform the necessary rites to not become poltergheists and spirits
  - A very morbid but important and public service, and the people who join the Dustmen tend to be weirdos. Between a business and a religious practice.
  - Subsect within the Dustmen – believe that they’re already dead and every creature in Sigil has died and this is a Hell Plane
  - If you’re a person in Sigil in need of fast cash or protection or something, you can sell your body to the Dustmen. Sign a contract, take a claim on your flesh, and when you die, they’ll come to collect it and put you to work
  - The mortuary is staffed with undead.
  - Sometimes sells dead bodies to necromancers and collectors
- Scribe seems to also be an undead.
We approach, looking for a tiefling named Deci
- Scribe says to try the processing room
- Left door, left, then left again. Don’t go down the stairs
Perception check along the names on the alcoves
- Vast number of names – Adra Geminus in the centre of the spiral, plus Ares, and Verrell; couple of Shadar-Kai names, Paloma’s there
- Deci’s name is an older plate
Spiral opens up to a morgue
- Stone slab in the centre with a body, not Deci, someone we don’t know
Jon opens the winched door, opens to a hallway with fancier alcoves
- A zombie is polishing one of the alcoves
Go down the stairs, almost underground
- Con saves for Calyx and Jon
  - Calyx fails – their Divine Sense of undead is going off, doesn’t feel great at all, cold is exacerbating the gem in their chest
  - Jon succeeds – also getting a bit of a headache, not quite sure why, but it remains mild, has no effects, but there’s something happening here, pops out Sunswallow
Another winched door, Jon opens to a set of stairs, hallway then another (final) winched door
As Jon winches the door open, soft gold light glows from behind the door, hit full force with gleaming radiance
- Jon is Frightened
Disadv. Perception check
- blinding white light, shimmering at the centre of the light is a twisting ribbon radiant rift
- lying on the slabs – four figures, glowing incandescent, filled with this light, and they sit up as soon as we enter the room
Roll initiative
- Jon makes the Arcana check to disable the Radiant Rift
- Since I’m up close, can I get a good look if this zombie is Deci? No
- The rift shudders and two more figures emerge from it, made up entirely of glowing radiant light
- Radiant zombie #4 is a tiefling, probably Deci?
- Eventually Kulani gets bruised and bloody because she got hit by zombie!Deci, and she’s reluctant to hit them back… 4 hits point left 😭
Inside the rift you could almost see a shape, a tower
- Jon lines up Sunswallow over the shape of the tower; she can feel the plane pulling the sword out of her grip, a rhythm from the rift, lets it pull her forward and pierce the edges of the rift with the sword, and it gets drawn in and suck into the blade, and the elementals and shades gets swallowed by the sword
Calyx lights up the room with Faerie Fire and we all huddle up around Deci
- Medicine check: Not the body of someone who died recently; decayed and dessicated; been dead for several months
- K worked together with D in the Archives, came to Sigil a few years ago on their own like she did
- What were the Dustmen having them do?
- Around their neck is a little tag, and it reads: Deci, cause of death: knife to the back.
- Someone wearing their face? Like a changeling?
- They wanted to have Astrada killed so bad; not unreasonable to want them dead, but perhaps it was too much?
- C: Fake Kiat in the Mazes fooled me too. You see what you want to see.
- Not the Dustmen, and Deci isn’t religious, but tell the Dustmen to put them to rest
Jon goes up to where the rift was
- There’s no residue left
- This is the reason she was in Sigil in the first place, her pact is centred around closing these
- She arrived at one of the rifts and found two dabu on the floor, and she got arrested because of it
Callie gives last rites to Deci
Looking for any residual evidence or any source of the rift?
- Difficult to tell if blood was spilt here maliciously because every slab is bloodied
- The bodies on the slabs were interacting in some way with the rift and the energy of the rift was filling them
- No evidence on Deci’s body; all the other bodies exploded when we killed it
- No signs of a ritual or that anything was done to trigger this
Should we question the scribe?
- Kulani tells them not to use Deci’s body for anything.
- Calyx asks what is it downstairs that we’re not allowed to go into?
  - The deep tombs are closed to the public; it is for relatives of the dead; private visitors
  - He’s telling the truth, not suspicious
- We decided to tell the scribe about the rift
- He says: It will be reported.
  - This guy isn’t a top-tier decision-maker. He’s a moderately intelligent undead that’s been told to watch the desk.
- Callie asks if there’s a list of those who have visited.
  - Asks on behalf of the Mercykillers
  - Provide evidence if we have any documentation – we show Saeryx’s “doctor’s note”
  - He pulls out a heavy ledger, we take a look at the visitors dated three weeks ago (all visitors not just the ones that went to the deep tombs, as he called it)
  - Familiar names: Geminus, Sek
- Jon asks to release any Shadar-Kai from servitude
Radiant rifts are volatile and only usually lasts a few hours
- Though Morgan’s lab it was growing over the course of a couple weeks and grew rapidly
Calyx tells Yrikk good job
We go to Vesper’s house
- Vesper gets a cloak of Corin’s for scrying
Callie casts Augury to ask if scrying for Corin is dangerous or not – weal! :D
Callie scries for Corin
- she saved – Callie uses her portent die to make Corin fail her save
- we see Corin in her seat, motionless, with one glass in hand; doesn’t move the entire duration
Callie casts Divination – what are we going to find in Corin’s manor
- a flash of a vision of Corin just sitting; behind her there’s a door and beyond that door you can see black swirling mist, and then it shifts, and endless purple sky, shifts again and grey swirling clouds, and magma fire, and roiling ocean, and again and again as the door shifts over and over again
Go to Deci’s house first, then rest, then take on Corin
Calyx heals up Deci to full with Lay on Hands
Kulani leads us to Deci’s house, a little apartment in the Roost
- much smaller and less fancy
Ix lockpicks the door open, gets a 35 :3
Apartment looks like it hasn’t been touched in a while, wilting plants, food got decayed
- It’s been months; the changeling never got in here or didn’t do anything
- Under the floorboards under the desk, there looks like also a lockbox inside
  - A notebook covered in scrawled notes, encoded in some way (ciphered)
    - Kulani can figure it out but it’ll take some time
  - A silver ring → Ring of Mind Shielding
- Small jewelry collection – 40 golds’ worth, couple of rings and necklaces
  - Kulani takes the collection
- Coins – 32 divided by 4 = 8 gold for each of the party
- On the desk/workspace: Deci was a translator, half-finished translations on the desk; archaic Celestial
- Any dictionary books? We take Celestial and Abyssal and Old Sylvan dictionaries
Go back to the Octavius Estate
- Kiat is there and back
- Asks how his talk with his dad went
Knock on the door, it’s a Mercykiller guard, holds out a letter, arrived for Jonquil
- Who delivered this? Don’t know, it just arrived, someone handed it to one of the gate guards
- A torn page out of a book – scribbled on top of the page is “Jonquil?”
- A page from some kind of record detailing the events of a cataclysm that occured near Gloomwrought, page contains a list of the dead, those killed in the event
  - Jonquil’s name is listed and a bunch of other names sharing her surname
  - She doesn’t remember anything or any concrete memories, it just feels oddly familiar
- Do a recon in the Shadowfell to figure out what happened
- Callie inspects if Jonquil is really alive (if she’s Reborn or not)
- She’s alive!
- Her memories go back a year – regularly aged page – memories gone the moment of the explosion
- Jon remembers the voice in the Mazes, the one that whispered to her, separating the memory of that voice from the memory of being in the Maze; she can almost see the figure that goes with it — a woman with white hair and black eyes, a sword with one hand
  - More shapes and voices she can’t quite put her finger on
  - The memory of heat and pain of being burned alive
  - Hard to remember anything
- “I think I can remember my mother. Just the briefest image. And heat—like you’re being boiled.”
- “My purpose is to close them. Whatever happened at my—home…”
- TWH said to look for someone called Enduring Grief
Sendings time
- Calyx to Umbrielle: I’ve heard from Alune. Is everyone safe? There’s a lead on my oath - I’d bring shame to Selûne if I turned my back on it.
  - brings out their two remaining Sending scrolls, really reluctant to do it, but does it anyway
  - Reply almost immediately: Calyx. Alune said you’d spoken. I’m glad. She’s not well, but hearing from you might help. We’re looking after her, but thought you should know.
  - Are you safe? We’re home, but the moon wanes overhead. Keep to your oath, Calyx, but remember Selûne’s grace extends beyond vengeance.
    - Do you know what’s wrong? I will speak to her as often as I’m able. And I will keep your words close to my heart.
    - Something affecting her memories. We’re restoring those we can, but not sure what’s causing it. Helpful to talk to people she knows. Stay in touch.
    - Sending scroll access is limited, but I’ll do everything I can. I’ll keep in touch, and I’ll try to be home as soon as possible.
- Callie:
  - CLOVE: Lancet’s lost her mind. Something wrong with Corin. Working on it. Why do you two always have to get yourselves in trouble behind my back?
    - Gotta keep you on your toes. Don’t get killed. Drag her ass out if you have to.
  - MORGAN: It’s not kindness. Some of us still have questions for you. Where are you?
    - Busy.
Jon asks the guard who gave the mail
- It was just a courier, brought other mail for the boss along with it
- Our residence here in the estate has not been made public but someone apparently knows where we live
- Screams at a tree for a few minutes, goes back trying to compose herself
Ix leads everyone to Zero’s place
- between a house and an office and a shop
- Get some gold from Saeryx to buy a ship for 7,500 gold
- Gave a down payment for 750
Callie leads us to an estate in the Lady’s Ward
- Not ostentatious but extremely wealthy estate
- At the gates there have always been guards and patrols, but now it’s empty and it opens at a touch
- Gardens growing wild, untended, razorvines creeping along the trees
- Reach the front door
- Knocks, and it swings open
Entryway
- Dusty and cold like it’s not been lived in for a while
Basement
- Series of alcoves/doors and a table, reminiscent of the arena
- Portal keys on the table
- Was the room that Lancet was in, it’s been going through these doors
- A voice from the stairs: it’s Corin!
- Corin: Last time you told me to get my house in order. I took your suggestion. Things are now in order, and for that, I thank you.
- WWCD – What Would Clove Do?
- Callie: Vesper thinks you’ve lost the fucking plot.
- Corin: And since when do you agree with Vesper.
- Callie: Since you’ve got my friend trapped here.
- C2: Lancet isn’t trapped.
- C1: What the fuck is she doing.
- C2: Working. For me. Of her own volition.
- Insight check: She doesn’t seem to be lying
- C1: Why. What are you doing.
- C2 walks to the table and picks up one of the keys: We live in a Cage, Calliope. At the mercy of the Lady of Pain. And she resists being cut, but no cage is impenetrable. It’s just a matter of finding the right way. Lancet saw the way, crude as her methods were. All she really wants is to be doing what she wants now, she took the opportunity that I offered.
- C1: What are you doing here. What are these doors, and where do they go, and where is the last one?
- C2 points to the central door, makes a gesture and it opens: whirling howling winds of Pandemonium.
  - You know what I’m doing, Calliope. The last door doesn’t go anywhere specific. It goes everywhere, anywhere.
- C1: Why? What’s your plan here? What’s all this for?
- C2: For Lancet, it’s freedom. For me—well. Aren’t you always complaining what a terrible place Sigil is? We live under the shadow of the Lady of Pain. I would be rid of that shadow.
- She turns and makes another gesture, crashing water, and again, rolling green hills under a purple sky (Feywild), grey roiling mists (Limbo), each opens in the blink of an eye.
  - The Lady is Sigil. Her influence makes it and her influence holds us here. I have no desire to destroy her. But there are things that I wish for. Things I need.
- C1: Such as?
- C2: That’s private, Calliope. You want to see Lancet again? I can send for you the next time she’s here. She travels a lot. But when it comes back, I can let you know.
- C1: Where is it now.
- C2: I don’t know. The trouble with the doors, with its method of travel, you could never quite tell.
- C1: What’s holding it here, with you. If it could go anywhere it pleases. Why would she be here with you?
- C2: What holds it here, Calliope, is ambition. Nothing more, nothing less. It wants to see this project completed.
- C1: And what’s the project?
- C2: I’ve shown you the project, Calliope.
- C1: You’ve shown me planes.
- C2: Yes. If you’d like to see Lancet the next time she arrives, I can make that happen. Just… one favour.
- C1: …
- C2: Very well. I’m sure you’ll be back.
- C1: What’s the favour.
- C2: I would ask you to retrieve something for me.
- C1: Can you be more specific.
- C2: Not without your agreement.
- C1: I don’t agree to anything without knowing exactly what I’m agreeing to. You taught me that.
- C2: Big smile at that. I’ll let Lancet know you dropped by, I’m sure it’ll be glad to hear you remain loyal.
- C1: Show me the other door.
- C2: No.
- C1: Yes.
- C2: This is not a negotiation, Calliope. There is one offer. And you will take it or you will leave it.
- C1: Show me the other door.
- Calyx: Show her the other door.
- Corin ignores them.
- Calyx: What happens if the Lady of Pain catches you?
- C2: Presumably, I will be flayed alive and sent to the Mazes. But perhaps, they are not as impenetrable as we previously thought. Isn’t that right.
- C1: Well maybe, we are not the same.
- C2: Which do you think Lancet is more like?
- C1: If you even have to ask. Then I know something fucked is happening here.
- C2: watches her.
- C1: But the point stands. Just because we can do something doesn’t mean you can.
- C2: I wouldn’t deny it.
- C1: We got through the Mazes.
- C2: Yes, you did, although they weren’t your Mazes, were they? Made for someone else. Some other friend that didn’t make it.
- C1: You won’t be so lucky.
- C2: Luck, Calliope, has very little to do with it.
- C1: You’re talking to me. It’s always about your luck. And I’m a lot better at changing it than I was when we last met.
- C2: So I hear. Leans over. If you have such confidence in yourself, why are you so scared, Calliope?
- C1: Tell me what you want, or I’m not agreeing to anything.
- C2: I have told you what I want.
- C1: Actually, you haven’t. You’ve managed to talk a lot, and you haven’t said anything at all. Details, or no deal.
- C2: She smiles. Then, no deal. I will see you soon, Calliope, I’m sure. Walks away.
Take the keys?
- Callie: I don’t want to leave Lancet without an exit.
Callie casts Divination: If I take these keys, is Lancet gonna be trapped somewhere? What’s gonna happen if we rob this woman in general?
- It might be bad.
- You see Lancet lost, jumping from door to door, trying to find a new route home because its previous one has been closed. You see these doors and this room closing, gathering dust, but that’s all.
Last room: Staircase upwards → balcony and further into the house. Doors are locked, can’t unlock, lock’s jammed
Goes to see Vesper
- Reports that Corin is moving against the Lady of Pain, doors leading to all the Planes, wants us to fetch something for her. Definitely involved in some cult bullshit.
- Doesn’t want to kill or depose her but just wants something.
- Knows what happened in the Mazes.
- Callie doesn’t believe for a second that it’s a happy collaboration between Lancet and Corin.
- If Lancet decided this was something she needed later on, it would make sense for Corin to get you out of the way, nullify the deal, so she could have Lancet arrested again?
  - That would mean she decided to do this before you were arrested but after you and she made that deal, the first deal.

Next Session Reminders

Talk to Sek at the Harmonium site
Have Deci’s notebook decoded in a day or two game-time
Callie to Divine what Corin wants

lore garden

Next Session Reminders

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