Enveloping Darkness (Suns Apart - Campaign 2 - Session 3)

PCs:

Iziki'el - Journeyman Weaver; wielder of Blood and Infinity

Naniz - Initiate of the Mysteries (Goetic 1st degree); Blue scholar

Xeni - Shaper (Maker 1st degree); School of Matter, expert in smoke

• Cassian is away on family business, but the party is eager to return to the Inquisitor's Theater beyond Ultan's door.
• Iziki'el is worried the Guildless' precarious situation will worsen and they are not safe there. Also, Arthelo's remains should be recovered if possible.
• Naniz has disclosed the existence of the portal to the Goetic Order and is under instruction to investigate further and seek the half remembered dream of a rare book (a mad bestiary called Fire on the Velvet Horizon)
• Xeni had another day off and needed something to do
• Iziki'el wants to bring the Guildless a significant quantity of rations and pays a visit to his good friend Fiona who works at "Sugar & Regret: Phantasmagorical Cupcakes", a popular bakery in Fartown
• Their best selling cupcake flavor is "the feeling of leaping into the air, the moment before you begin to fall"
• Iziki'el manages to catch Fiona right before the morning rush and puts in an order for a whole pallet of lambas bread, enough to sustain ~50 adults for a week
• By late afternoon it is ready and the party splits it among their inventories
• In the evening the party arrives at Ultan's print shop to find him strangely distant.
• "Door's not open to the public anymore" he says with a vacant stare.
  
• Then, noticing Naniz, "oh, it's you. Right this way. No fee."
• The PCs exchange looks.
• Iziki'el tries to tips Ultan a few orbs anyway, which he somewhat stiffly accepts.
• They evaporate in his hand, deposited by magic into a Noösphere account... not something nons are typically able to do.
• "Figures your people would have their fingers all over this already. Tell them they can keep the tip" says Iziki'el to Naniz.
• Ultan's door now has a Goetic seal burned into it.
• Within the ruins beyond, the party reconnects with Shaltromo
• They have Ersatz with them, who speaks effusively of Satyrine's wonders
• "Many are unmasked there, and they have candy! CANDY! Imagine!"
• Shaltromo is not sure. Relocating his people would be a big undertaking, and as bad as living in the ruins of Zyan's sewers is... they are adapted to it. The devil you know right?
• He expresses his deepest gratitude to Iziki'el for the shipment of lambas bread
• "My men are yours if you require our assistance in securing the remains of your friend."
• They PCs decide they are better off traveling in smaller numbers for the time being, but they ask the Guildless to lead them through their territory to a side entrance of the Theater of Punishments (where the mother swine lairs and they believe Arthelo's remains to be)
• They head down through the dried up baths in area 13 and the lower hallway marked 18 on the map
• The Guildless unbar a barred door alarmed with bells and twine, the edge of their territory
• The PCs creep into what looks like a smashed up dressing room
• They take some time to look through the detritus
• There is a miraculously intact mirror against one wall
• Iziki'el stares into the reflected gloom and sees the PCs... and another figure behind him, a dark shade, a living shadow
• He wheels around to find several solid shadows are suddenly in their midst, congealing out of the gloom!
• The shadows that had stalked them last time they entered the ruins were back for their prize

• Roll initiative!
• Thanks to Iziki'el's swift warning the party was not ambushed, and some PCs were quick enough to act first (Iziki'el and Naniz)
• Six living shadows bearing umbral bows and halberds loomed before them
• Naniz used his turn to immediately run back through the door to the Guildless' territory and shout for reinforcements
• Iziki'el wove together an effect that let him see the shadows' true nature
• His vision swam for a moment as he perceived himself zooming through them and down along filaments of shadow connecting them to a darker force deeper in the unworked caverns below the ruins. A large, dark, spiderlike presence laired down there and these were extensions of it. A demon of the Dark... ancient enemy of the Suns and the antithesis of the Light the vislae worship
• These shadow puppets were fragile but could sap the party's light. Their attacks would damage Sortilege instead of Certes
• The shadows attacked with blistering hatred and wounded both Iziki'el and Xeni, who gasped with the shock of blades that struck at the very soul
• Xeni retaliated with her flaming spear, vaporizing one of the shadows in a puff of smoke
• They were quite fragile but there were too many and the PCs were unprepared. The second round saw both Xeni and Iziki'el pass out. Naniz returned from the hallway to assist and was also struck down.
• Darkness fell over all...
• And that's what we in the biz call a Total Party Ki--wait!
• The PCs heard the piping of Guildless pan flutes as they slipped into unconsciousness
• [At this point GM adjudication was required. The combat rules state that PCs who fail critical damage saves in combat pass out, and are revived if their fellows win the combat, but may die if left untended for an hour or at the mercy of an enemy that can finish them off. Being reduced to zero in a stat is what kills you instantly. The PCs here had all passed out, but since Naniz summoned allies first round, they would be arriving about now, right after the PCs were downed. I ruled that the Guildless would be able to push the remaining shadows back and pull the unconscious PCs to safety, but I rolled a d6 for how many Guildless were slain in the process. Six...]
• The vislae awoke to the smell of cloves and something pickling (the hands of white swine it turned out).
• They were lying at the foot of a shrine to "The Pickled Prince" (Shaltromo's patron), and being tended by apprentices
• "The ruins are no longer safe for us. The shadows have never been so bold as to manifest and strike at us. We barely managed to snatch you back from their clutches... it looked like they were draining light right out of you" Shaltromo shudders. "I will accept your offer to move my people to Satyrine."
• Iziki'el is glad to hear this. "We are in each other's debt then. You saved our lives. Our homes are yours."
• Xeni spots the armor of her little Onion Knight friend lying still in the corner and fears the worst.
  
• She checks it but it is only dormant.
• Shaltromo recounted the battle: "that little empty soldier fought bravely, standing over your bodies and buying us precious seconds to arrive in time. It was about to be overrun but flared brightly like a small sun with light from within, banishing two shadows, and then was still. Probably exhausted as I'm sure you all are. My people tire as well... tire of counting dead."
• The PCs notice six bodies lying in a row some distance away, each shrouded in a pall of dirty cloth.
• Naniz performs Goetic burial rites which the Guildless seem to appreciate.
• The PCs assist the Guildless in packing up everything they can manage and heading back through Ultan's door. For better or worse, Satyrine is their home now.

Session done! What a ride. Nearly had a TPK! The party have unlocked permanent allies in the Guildless, and new characters may now play as Guildless apprentices. Iziki'el attained first degree when his Weaver cell heard of his altruism, as well as a title (Foodbearer), and a Guildless apprentice as a follower (basically a free hireling). I drew a Sooth card for the hireling, stating that if it was Invisible (a one in fifteen chance) the follower would have magical talent and could be trained as a Weaver if Iziki'el wished. And the draw... Enveloping Darkness! This follower fought in the skirmish to save the PCs, and would never forget the sight of living shadows.