Blood and Shadow

is the third episode of Exandria Unlimited: Calamity, the third installment of the Exandria Unlimited series of miniseries. Confronted with how deep Avalir's corruption runs, the Ring of Brass must face hard truths about themselves as impossible choices are made and lines are both drawn and sundered.

Part I
The Ring of Brass faces Lacrytia Hollow and her undead guard. Lacrytia asks the party what they're doing there, and Laerryn tells her they're checking on the descent and asks her the same. Cerrit notices the people on the rooftops vanishing, and communicates this over Rary's Telepathic Bond to the rest of the party. Lacrytia is joined by Milus Phren, the Magister who had imposed on Nydas earlier that morning, but Cerrit also notices that Milus seems to be moving oddly, in a way indicative of a much larger person. Loquatius tries to diffuse the situation by asking Milus for an interview, but Milus tells him to wait until tomorrow. Cerrit flies up, which triggers initiative.

Nydas asks his party members what to do, and Zerxus shouts "SUBDUE THEM" telepatically. Nydas summons the draconic spirit of Sha'korzhan, the dragon that once guarded the horde of the Golden Scythe, and gets on his back, then successfully attacks Milus Phren twice. The dragon then attacks Milus, but misses. The disguise of Milus drops, revealing a massive devil with a venomous tail. Patia throws a Fireball at Lacrytia and her guard; Lacrytia vanishes before it hits, but her guard is destroyed. Patia then runs for cover. The devil then attacks and hits Nydas. Zerxus notices the Spellguard, and as he does, Lacrytia shouts at them to kill everyone but "Keep the blood of the Master's chosen - he lives!" Cerrit is attacked by Findras Lightbringer, one of the Spellguard, and takes damage though he resists or dodges much of it. Another attacks Loquatius twice - Laerryn's ward protects him the first time, and Zerxus's Aura of the Guardian the second. Cerrit attacks Findras, causing him to drop Haste, and realizes he is not being controlled but is doing this of his own volition.

Loquatius attempts to Dominate Person on the devil, but fails; he inspires Zerxus. Lacrytia then appears and creates a massive, bony hand that grasps Nydas. She does not Blink out, but does cast Mirror Image. Zerxus then attacks Findras, nearly killing him with massive blows and smites, then flies on Tempus so that his auras will cover as many of his allies as possible. Lacrytia then shouts in Infernal, and Zerxus finds he can understand it. She calls for k'nauthi - the puppet clerics of Betrayer Gods - and for Xartaza. Xartaza, an erinyes, appears. She attacks Zerxus, but cannot hit him.

Two mages then surround Cerrit, who is in the air: one forcesg disadvantage on the save and the other casts Detect Thoughts, getting all of Cerrit's information on the Vespin Chloras case. They then jump off the tower. Two fireballs hit much of the rest of the party, though most take half damage. Findras is killed and Laerryn's Arcane Ward is spent. The k'nauthi cast Spiritual Weapon and attack the draconic spirit. The k'nauthi all have infernal runes on their arms, and their lips have been cut off. The Ring of Brass realizes that the k'nauthi had been waiting in nearby buildings for the fight.

Laerryn joins Patia, out of the range of Counterspell, and casts Reverse Gravity. All in range other than the devil, including Lacrytia, fail, although Nydas and Sha'korzhan are still in flight. Nydas casts Freedom of Movement to get out of the grasp of the skeletal hand, and then sends the dragon to grapple Lacrytia. It succeeds, despite the mirror images. Nydas then successfully attacks her and drags her out of range of the Reverse Gravity. Patia casts Haste on Zerxus, who gets a call from Sashara Drake, Captain of the Chancellor's guard, reporting an attack on the Meridian Labyrinth. At the same time, Laerryn gets a call from Callum Staffwright telling her that there have been attacks or power losses on some of the eldritch batteries and that the Arboreal Calix is requesting 30% of the city's power. Laerryn tells him to kill the stopgap. As she does so, the devil and the erinyes both cough up blood. The devil still manages to kill Sha'korzhan, and catches Lacrytia as she falls. Nydas reaches for the devil and succeeds.

Cerrit realizes that there is no way to recover the information the mages took, and instead kills one of the mages still in combat. He also realizes that this fight is not a distraction, despite the other ongoing attacks, and stays to engage. Loquatius, Laerryn, and Patia discuss what they can do, now that that they understand both the scope of the attacks and that they do have allies elsewhere in the city. Loquatius then casts Psychic Lance on the devil, who fails and in doing so becomes incapacitated and falls. So do Lacrytia and Nydas, but she lands safely and Patia casts Feather Fall on Nydas. Loquatius then runs towards the two wizards. Lacrytia attempts to cast Finger of Death on Patia, but Laerryn Counterspells it and Lacrytia's attempt to Counterspell that fails. Patia tells Laerryn she's her best friend as Lacrytia blinks back out.

Zerxus attacks the devil and hits it for all three attacks, getting the HDYWTDT on the devil that had disguised itself as Milus Phren. As he does, he hears a voice call his name, but cannot place it. Xartaza attacks Zerxus and as she does, the party sees that Zerxus's eyes appear full of starlight. She stabs through his armor, and once her sword is covered in his blood, leaves. Zerxus attacks her as she does and damages her, but does not stop her; she asks him to remember her name and tells him it will be an honor to serve him.

Once she leaves, the mages begin to Fly away, but the k'nauthi remain and attack Loquatius, who forces them to miss with Silvery Barbs. Laerryn drops Reverse Gravity, killing a number of k'nauthi with falling damage, and casts Dimension Door to bring her and Loquatius to the helm. Nydas uses Detect Thoughts to store the memories of one of the mages still present, since Lacrytia is not available, and prepares for Tempus and Zerxus to pick him up. Patia holds Otiluke's Resilient Sphere in the center of the battlefield for Lacrytia. Some attacks on Nydas fail, and Cerrit goes to look through the window into the helm, and sees the dead body of Akami Rowe next to a shattered helm. He shoots a crossbow and gets the HDYWTDT on the mage next to Nydas.

Lacrytia then appears before Patia and tells her she's always hated her. She tries to Counterspell the sphere, but Zerxus Counterspells her and the spell takes effect. Lacrytia had been holding Circle of Death and, thanks to a high Arcana check from Patia, instead casts it within the sphere where it reverberates and kills her with necrotic damage. Patia tells Lacrytia's corpse that she'd always hated her too. The k'nauthi try to flee but the party kills them, and Nydas executes the mages who attempt to surrender for their traitorous actions.

Part II
Loquatius and Laerryn arrive in the Meridian Labyrinth and easily dispatch the remaining k'nauthi who are attacking an eldritch battery. Brennan has the players roll to see the status of the remaining eleven batteries, and with only one failure (and a double crit from Sam), all but one battery survived the attacks. This is sufficient to land Avalir safely. The former Seelies discuss what to do: Loquatius doesn't want to travel across the planes and he's worried what people will think when they find out that Laerryn had been using city resources for so long. Laerryn thinks she can still fix this and tells Loquatius this is all she ever thinks about, including when she trances. Loquatius somewhat bitterly agrees, noting that Laerryn missed so many of his own achievements while absorbed in her work. Laerryn expresses regret for not spending enough time with him, but does not regret her efforts. Loquatius tells her he's worried that he can't protect her, even as Herald, and she tells him she doesn't need it. As they talk, Callum calls and tells her about defaced battery. It seems to be in Primordial, which Laerryn can't read, but Callum tells her he'll work on deciphering it for her.

Laerryn then realizes that with the battery out of commission she cannot do the spell she needs to do on the apogee solstice unless she shorts the tithe to the Gau Drashari. She tells Callum to do so and that she will take the blame, and he does before hanging up. Loquatius is concerned but offers to cover it up after Laerryn expresses disdain for the Pact of Crown and Throne and that history will remember her contributions. Loquatius tells her history is fickle and written by people like him. As Laerryn begins to work on the devices in the labyrinth, Loquatius sends messages to his contacts for news release, blaming Dean Hollow for the disturbances but telling them the attacks are still under investigation and not all information can be revealed yet. He also records a secret message in case of his death, in which he states that a great evil arose and Laerryn spoke up against it, and he stood in her way.

Back at the battlefield at Dawnsledge, Zerxus speaks with Captain Drake who confirms all but one battery is secured. Zerxus asks her and her troops to record anything the attackers say. Nydas and Patia begin to look through the memories Nydas obtained from a mage during the battle. Cerrit asks Zerxus how he knows Infernal, and Zerxus tells him he didn't realize he was speaking Infernal, which Cerrit, with help from the Ring of Honor, recognizes as the truth. Patia and Cerrit then ask what happened at the Hall of Prophecy, and Nydas shares the prophecy, telling them it's false. Cerrit recognizes this is a plea that Nydas is making. He then fills in the group on his findings from the Herald's Tome headquarters regarding the Tree of Names. As he does, Nydas realizes Cerrit is aware of how he feels about the prophecy. Cerrit also brings up that the file on Evandrin was empty. Zerxus connects Evandrin's sickness to how the fiends were vomiting blood during the battle, and knows it all seems to be connected to the tree in his dream, but doesn't quite know how it all fits together or why the files were empty.

Patia then asks if Evandrin is "something else". She tells them that when Evandrin was dying, and after his death, Zerxus was desperate in a way she'd never seen from him and asked her both to help bring him back, as well as to take away his memories of the attempt when it failed. She wasn't sure if it would work, however, given that it related to death and The Raven Queen's ascension may have changed things, but wonders if the lack of Evandrin's files is related. They all reconvene with Laerryn and Loquatius in the Meridian Labyrinth before discussing further. As they do, Laerryn sneaks some ether to an unknowing Loquatius to restore one of his spell slots, and Callum contacts Laerryn to tell her that the names on the battery were names: Rau'shan and Ka'Mort, which she does not recognize.

Zerxus casts Zone of Truth, which Nydas, Zerxus, and Cerrit all voluntarily fail and Patia fails, but Laerryn and Loquatius both successfully resist. Zerxus asks her what she's hiding but Nydas appeals to him as an old friend, telling him that people are entitled to voluntarily share what they wish. Zerxus offers to drop the spell, upon realizing Nydas had voluntarily failed it, but keeps it up. Patia then restores Zerxus's memories. She tells them all that she used her access to hidden information as Keeper of Scrolls to try to resurrect Evandrin. She and Zerxus know the ritual was perfect, and yet it still didn't work. Zerxus asked her to make him forget. Patia, on the other hand, could not accept that the Ring of Brass had failed at something and realized that the spell only failed because Evandrin was not truly dead. At this, Laerryn quietly says that she thinks she knows where he might be. Evandrin had offered to go to other planes as she was doing her experiments, and she knows she did her magic correctly as well and sent him to a Celestial Plane, but things went wrong after he came back. Laerryn thinks that the reason the magic didn't work as expected has to be caused by the Arboreal Calix and the druids.

Patia and Nydas then bring up her orb so the group can view the dead mage's memories. Nydas focuses on Vespin, Lacrytia, and Loras. He doesn't see a lot of Loras, but does see Lacrytia conspire with Micah Cormorant to unseat the head of the Porter's Guild so he could tamper with teleportation unseen and bring k'nauthi into the city - meaning that Patia and Laerryn killing Magister Cormorant has stopped that from continuing. They also see that Lacrytia was trying to prevent Purvan Suul from being able to defend Vasselheim, and that the unidentified cleric of a Betrayer God killed by Cerrit was supposed to get Zerxus's blood that Xartaza later obtained. The dead mage had searched for Vespin's artifacts, but was too late to get them before they were taken to the Eyes of Avalir. The party also learns that not only was the helm supposed to be attacked, but Cathmoíra and specifically the Giant's Slumber, a holy site of the Gau Drashari, was supposed to be attacked as well, and that there may be more Betrayers working, not just Asmodeus. In these memories, the party also sees that the various devils often vomit bile and blossoms.

In one final memory, Nydas sees Lacrytia briefly speak with Patia, then express disdain for her after Patia leaves. The mage asks why, and Lacrytia says that it's because all Patia trades on is the name of her grandfather, Imyr Por'co, and indirectly mentions Nydas. Nydas asks Patia what it is about; Patia tells him that the Sorcerer's University was funded not out of charity but because she was able to reframe it as being beneficial to Avalir; this is also why Nydas's request to make schools around the world did not succeed. She offers to show Nydas a conversation she'd had about it if he wants.

Upon going through all the memories, Cerrit realizes that while the mage remembers being told to destroy the helm so that the city "would not reach the Wildmother's embrace," much as Vespin had told him, it doesn't add up, since Akami was only killed after the city began its automatic descent, indicating that Lacrytia did not want them to crash. Upon hearing this Patia determines that the mage's memory had been modified by Lacrytia.

The party discusses their options: as things currently stand, the city will land automatically, and the helm is broken so stopping it will require some creative thinking. However, failure to land and to engage in the Replenishment means that they will automatically default on the Drashari Pact; the Septarion probably won't permit it in the first place; and if they violate the will of the Septarion, the Ring of Brass may be considered traitors. It would also mean that Laerryn would miss her opportunity to use the Astral Leywright. As they discuss this, Loquatius casts Scry on his brother Eadalous and sees that he is awake and seems fine; however, he also lives on the opposite side of the city from the Giant's Slumber, so that attack may still be happening.

Laerryn considers that she needs 50% of the city's power to activate the Astral Leywright. Cerrit realizes, as this happens, that she is lying, and knows how to stop the descent. Cerrit then asks her to confirm: she sent Evandrin across the planes and wants to do the same to the entire city. She tells him yes. Cerrit also notices that Laerryn has a scroll written on birch bark - the one she took from Micah Cormorant's office. He tells the Ring of Brass that there have been "some incredibly selfish actions among this group" and leaves to take care of his own.

The rest of the party discusses how they might be able to restore the memory, and a combination of Loquatius's Modify Memory, Patia's Detect Thoughts, and Zerxus's Cleansing Touch is able to do so: the actual statement was that the city must land before sunrise, on the apogee solstice. Lacrytia had told the mage that the Betrayers would come and Vespin would help with any problems. The party then goes to the room that holds the Arboreal Calix. As they do, Laerryn apologizes to Loquatius for not telling him about the Leywright sooner, and that she loves him.

The Arboreal Calix is behind a door with a stained glass window. The blossoms of the tree smell like Evandrin's sweat from when he was ill, and Loquatius senses both the Feywild and sees a light high up in the tree that he points out to the group. It's the model of the ley-rudder that Laerryn had sent earlier that day, stuck in the branches. Laerryn uses Mage Hand to try to grab it but it remains stuck. They all realize the tree catches things that try to travel between the planes. Zerxus speaks to the tree in Primordial, calling it "my sibling", but the tree doesn't respond to him nor to Loquatius's Universal Speech. Nydas also realizes this is the tree from the prophecy and is why the extraplanar beings were vomiting blossoms, and speaks the prophecy, but Laerryn begins to cast Blight on the tree to destroy it when she sees Evandrin in the branches. He grabs her wrist, and she tells him he'll have to stop her himself. They all roll initiative.

Loquatius uses Fey Presence to try to make Nydas afraid of him, and Laerryn uses Silvery Barbs when Nydas succeeds, but Zerxus's Aura of Courage stops any fear effects. Patia meanwhile ignores all this and just wants to learn the tree's true purpose, so she casts a version of Legend Lore to learn of any lost information. She suddenly hears one of the old druids of the Gau Drashari in the form of a bear call out to her grandfather, who in her vision is similarly trying to touch the tree. The druid says the tree "is a wall. The tree is a gate. The tree is a pen, scribing, blossoms, leylines, writing, writing the names, the names." As she is exposed to a truly massive amount of information, Nydas casts Hold Person on both Loquatius and Laerryn, who both fail. Zerxus grabs the scroll and reads the letter from the Drashari saying that they cannot trust the wizards with the true purpose of the tree.

Loquatius breaks free on his turn. Patia continues to see visions of her grandfather and the Gau Drashari, in which the bear turns back into a genasi man and tells Imyr that the tree is a gift to the world. Nydas pleads with Laerryn, telling her that if the tree falls, so does the city. As he does this, Dweomer comes in and casts Disintegrate on him for his attack on the Architect Arcane within the Meridian Labyrinth. Zerxus counterspells it successfully, but Laerryn, while not wanting Nydas to be attacked, breaks free. She tells Zerxus that Evandrin is in the tree.

Loquatius grabs onto Patia to pull her away but instead he sees a portal to the Feywild, and Elmenore asks him what he has done, telling him not to let Patia find the names, implying it is a risk to all of Exandria. Patia meanwhile sees Pelor and Melora sealing Rau'shan and Ka'Mort in Toramunda during the time of the Schism. Nydas tries to grapple Laerryn, who looks at Loquatius and sees that he is scared of her. As the tree's branches go into Patia and Loquatius, Laerryn casts Blight.

Cerrit meanwhile rushes to the Cloudstone district and to his office. He sees the documents on his desk were stolen and calls his son on his sending stone. Kir begins to tell him what Maya is up to but Cerrit tells him to take Maya home, telling her it's an emergency. Kir seems worried at this but Cerrit reassures him and the two tell each other they love each other. On his way out of the Hall of Eyes, Cerrit stops by Orwyn's office and sees Orwyn's body. He realizes that Orwyn was able to take down some of his assailants before falling. Cerrit also sees that Orwyn has two Runes of Recall, and that Orwyn's dying action was to leave a note saying the runes were for the kids and would send them to Cerrit's wife. Cerrit flies home to wait for his children.

Back at the tree, Patia sees in her visions that the original task of the Gau Drashari was to tend the seals that held back the Primordials beneath Mount Ygora. When Imyr and the other wizards found brumestone in the mountain and wished to lift it, the two groups made a deal: the wizards could only have the peak of the mountain, and would bring back magic and tithe it to the Drashari. The druids secretly summoned the Tree to cast a spell along the leylines as Avalir traveled, to protect the Material Plane from outside threats, and due to their mistrust of the wizards and what they might do, did not reveal this purpose to them.

Zerxus sees Evandrin's scared face in the tree. Evandrin cries out "Not like this!" and Laerryn's Blight hits the tree, which splits in half. Vespin Chloras emerges, his face skinned. Asmodeus is behind him, and steps into the world of Exandria.

Ring of Brass

 * Cerrit Agrupnin
 * Laerryn Coramar-Seelie
 * Loquatius Seelie
 * Nydas Okiro
 * Patia Por'co
 * Zerxus Ilerez
 * Tempus

New

 * Findras
 * Imyr Por'co (in a vision)
 * Sashara Drake (via sending stone)
 * Xartaza

Returning

 * Akami Rowe (corpse)
 * Asmodeus
 * Callum Staffwright
 * Dweomer
 * Elmenore (in a vision)
 * Kir (via sending stone)
 * Lacrytia Hollow
 * Milus Phren
 * Orwyn (corpse)
 * Vespin Chloras

Mentioned

 * Maya

Trivia
The connection between the Gau Drashari and the Ashari is made explicit; the Ashari descend from that order, retaining some of their purpose as a group of druids that protects the world from extraplanar threats.