Session 17: Decisions
General Summary
Bastion Week
The Wyrm's Oven recovered and prepared. Vutha laid the groundwork for a Godeater parade — drangolins purchased, parade decorations requisitioned from the storehouse, four new soldiers hired to bring his total to twelve. Baethra would sell goodberry pies along the route. Kal restocked his storehouse, brewed a Potion of Greater Healing, ran his training hall, and crafted Goggles of the Night. Tad dove into the archives researching the dula-dulas, specifically whether reproduction requires his death and whether sustainable ethical harvesting of tadpoles is possible. Nyxek matched the research from the sacristy side, looking into how to keep Tad alive through the process so it could happen more than once, across multiple generations, in an imperially ethical manner. This sounds like the worst possible outcome for Tad.
The Salvage
The Claw picked through the wreckage. There were bits and bobs worth coin, not enough to make a dent in anyone's growing hoard. The more interesting find was the shut-down body of Midori's remote construct. Nyxek held the Mirror of the Past up to it and watched the past unspool: the false body being completed, a large gemstone placed into its head by the real Midori, and beyond him — Diirhaas, wearing the White Dragon Mask, with Coldwing the massive White Wyrm at his back and a small army of dragon riders arrayed behind them. Pride and revulsion warred inside Nyxek at the sight of his traitor son's success. He opened the construct's head and pulled out the hex crystal held within.
The rescued engineers were brought in to examine the machines. Asked how the constructs had infiltrated the Empire, they pointed at the servok miner and its massive adamantine drill. "They can make their own tunnel entrances using the caldera tunnels that crisscross underneath the islands that border the Empire. It has always been a limit of the monoliths, but there was never any direct pathway in and out. At least, there wasn't." The Claw looked at one another, burning with the same knowledge. There was a direct path now beyond the Boundary, one that led straight to Diirhaas and that white dragon's hoard. Plans began forming immediately to repurpose the miner for their own use — secret bunkers, hoard vaults, or something considerably more offensive.
Khabroth Wakes
The moment was broken when Khabroth the Rune Carver came to his senses. He recognized Vutha and called him his last student. Vutha replied that he remembered the runes, but that much of his memory had been altered. Khabroth was far more concerned about the flaws in his lizardfolk student's rune carving than anything else and demanded Vutha rework his scale carvings on the spot. He would help restore what had been damaged.
When the immediate business of runes was settled, Khabroth explained he had been asleep for about ten years. His last project before the petrification was carving runes into Gammoranth. Vutha asked if the Dauphin had been alive at the time. The Rune Carver confirmed he was. Nyxek asked if Khabroth had known what those runes would do. Khabroth answered that he had known there was a greater purpose to them, but he had not been told what it was. He had been commanded by the leaders of the Empire. He had no choice but to carve as instructed.
Asked about the robots, he knew nothing. Asked about returning to the Storm Princess, he mentioned he had a place to rest in the capital until he was ready to travel. He would be there. He gave Vutha a sending stone, agreed to let the engineers visit and discuss the work they had been doing for the Dauphin, and took his leave.
Before he went, Vutha made one more request. He asked if Khabroth would take three of his youngest children back with him, to raise as rune carvers among the giants, the way Vutha himself had been raised. The three spots were offered to replace the students Khabroth had just learned were now undead monstrosities. The Rune Carver accepted.
Downtime at the Oven
The Claw spent time fixing the basement and running the Oven. Tad's research into the dula-dulas turned up something unexpected and deeply uncomfortable. The last recorded involvement of his clan was with Clan Emerald, the clan of Vox Empyreal Seijuro. The research also surfaced the mechanics of dula-dulas reproduction: they swim into a pond and evaporate, leaving behind thousands of non-sentient tadpoles, some of which grow into dula-dulas. Everyone had questions. Nyxek began researching how to keep Tad alive through the process so he could do it again with multiple generations of his offspring. This is apparently a going concern now. Kal made preparations for fighting in the cold.
The Hunt for Khabroth
Vutha's sending stone crackled. Khabroth's voice came through, tight and careful. Old associates had come by. He needed help. Vutha told Nyxek to assemble the Claw, and they moved to the Rune Carver's Cliff.
They arrived to find Khabroth unconscious again. His home had been taken over by three undead giants — two hill giants, one fire giant — that Vutha recognized as former students of Khabroth's. Leading them was an undead tortle samurai, Lord Kuroth, once a noble of Clan Turtle and a figure of some standing in the Dauphin's court. Kuroth was impressed with Kal's presence and extended an invitation to join their undead ranks.
Kal declined. "And never taste pizza again? No way, man."
He flew himself and Vutha over to Khabroth's side and dropped a whirling fan of fire on Kuroth and the nearest hill giant. Tad started shooting through the fire giant with a string of clean hits. Vutha grew large and tried to smash the undead tortle, but Kuroth's swordsmanship was too sharp, and Vutha had to settle for grabbing him instead. Nyxek flew between the undead and released the light of the Emperor, scattering them with divine terror. The undead hill giants, who apparently smelled terrible, upset Kal briefly before he wailed on Kuroth and then released his own gas cloud in relief. Nyxek contributed a spiritual emperor's claw. Tad dropped the fire giant with a precise shot and turned his attention to Kuroth. Vutha activated his T-Rex tattoo, gnashed tooth and claw, action surged, and did it again, throwing the tortle into the fleeing giants. When Kuroth fell, the hill giants collapsed with him.
Khabroth was healed and woken for the third time in as many days.
He explained that his awakening had drawn out the undead. They did not want him sharing his rune knowledge. Then he told them what he had learned from the engineers. The Dauphin is trying to remake the Red Dome of Heaven using the Boundary Monoliths as a power source. The ritual requires a living sacrifice matching one of four criteria: the last living member of a great clan, someone mid-drakascendence, someone with great regenerative power, or an elemental master. It also requires someone to wield the Rod of the Red Dome. As for Clan Turtle — all its nobles were slain during Gammoranth's dracolich ritual. Those that remain are undead knights, like the one they had just put down. Skorjira was still in the egg when it happened, making him the only living noble of the Clan.
Nyxek remembered that Draxelas is drakascending.
Vutha asked if Khabroth would return to the Storm Princess now, given that the capital had proven dangerous. The Rune Carver agreed that it was probably time.
The Fox on the Cliff
There was one last visitor to the Rune Carver's Cliff. A platinum fox appeared along the far walkway. The Claw went to meet it.
Vutha opened. "You furry meat. I wanted to speak with you. Tell me, who is your god?" The fox grinned. "I serve Paladine." Vutha spat. "Curses. I thought you served Bahamut." The fox blinked. "Paladine is what Bahamut is called among my people." Vutha stared. "The platinum dragon has a meat name?! Why?!" The fox shrugged. "Gods often have many names among many peoples. Just as your many clans have many plans to drag the Empire back into its past, but I come to tell you these are costly mistakes. The Empire needs to find a way to move forward." Nyxek pressed. "Is this the will of Bahamut?" The fox corrected him. "Bahamut does not impose his will on his followers. He merely shows the way." Vutha squinted. "It sounds like you said the same thing two ways." The fox rephrased. "Bahamut's concern is the grace and nobility of the path, not forcing a given destination."
Vutha pushed further. "Well, I want a path to awakening the true Five-Headed Mother. Can Bahamut grace us with that?" The fox nodded. "You will need one of the five dragon masks to awaken her." The Claw's thoughts turned immediately to Diirhaas. "Yeah, we know someone we want to take one of those from. Kinda want to take his face off his head too." The fox recoiled slightly. "Yes, that would work. But know that the mask can also be used to awaken Mecha-Tiamat."
The Claw now had twice as many reasons to chase Nyxek's wayward son. Raising the Red Dome still held value, but the path to the slumbering Empress came first.
