Arc 10 - The Furthest Reaches (Unearthly Tether)

This arc chronicles the party's journey across the Northern Frosts towards the Library of Imatulus and their encounters along the way. This includes some giants and an encounter with Amura, brother to Tomoe, and the entrance to Imatulus' domain through the Old Library.

It also chronicles their time in the Library of Imatulus, their rescue of Snelm from the Painting and the subsequent removal of Snelm's Tether.

Synopsis
This arc covers sessions 93 to 100

The Northern Frosts
The party move through the frosts, encountering a Snowstorm elemental of great size and the beheaded corpse of a giant. They meet with a yet living giant (Amaruq) and succeed in deescalating the ensuing encounter, they make a friend. Following him to his village, he tells them of someone they were searching for, Amaru, an immortal.

They arrive at the Giant's village and discover it to be entirely razed to the ground. Tracks don't lead anywhere conclusive, seeming to magically disappear into the snow. Faced with little hope to acquire revenge, Amaruq thinks upon his options and decides to go with the party to find this "Amaru".

They do find him, though he is actually called Amura and he's different to what they expected. After a brief and bloody encounter, they exhaust him and he collapses. They speak to him, but he in unhelpful and threatening, but they get him to say he will hunt the one who has been killing giants before giving him his blades and getting back to travelling (with increased pace).

They reach the Northernmost Graves, but skirt it to avoid any further conflict. After a day and a bits more travel, they arrive at the outskirts of a great pyramid of pitch black material piercing through the snow, though much of it is buried. This is the library of Imatulus, Rosy tells them. The Fresh Coats make their way up this black pyramid and enter after thoroughly inspecting the entrance. They part ways with Rosy as he goes ahead of them whilst they are discussing the tithe for entrance to the Library.

The Old Library
They soon move into the chamber Rosy went into and meet Qhalnaryv, an airborne eleven-eyed and tentacled creature that they cannot identify, who informs them that to meet Imatulus, they must make their way to the base of this Old Library to enter the new one, but it is dangerous. Qhalnaryv then departs and they hear roaring below.

They begin to make their way down, encountering a Wyvern in the floor immediately below and dealing with it efficiently. Korrig discovers a secret passage in a small alcove that the wyvern had made its nest in, which contains a scrying orb within. Adora absorbs the magic of the scrying orb in front of the others, gaining significant boons for doing so. Korrig and Callien are taken aback by what has happened, but their frantic wonderings are cut short by another great roar from the depths.

They continue on downwards, only to be ambushed by strange serpentine humanoids. They engage in a short skirmish before the serpent folk retreat further down into the pyramid, though they capture one. The party regroup after this assault and they question the serpent folk captive and explore their surroundings, discovering some items and strange phenomena (including a talking gorilla). They are interrupted by the intrusion of a half-rotted silver dragon and an armoured serpent warrior, who briefly skirmish with them before retreating back down the stairs.

They take some time to evaluate the items they have found, including a note which says "Death can be the way forward", and converse with and feed the gorillas, before deciding to head down the stairs that the serpent folk retreated down. Initially only Korrig, Yash and Callien go down, with the rest waiting upstairs. They see the serpents speaking to a strange pattern of nebulae within the dark geyser that centres the room, but Yash interrupts this by being loud and battle commences.

The dragon emerges from the shadows and has Callien in its sights, whilst Korrig and Yash attempt to combat the Serpent folks below. Shadowy spectral figures begin to issue from the column below and drain the very strength from Yash. The rest of the party join the fray, Snelm suffering a similar fate to Yash at the hands of the shadows whilst Carlo attempts to bring down the dragon. Whilst Yash is forced to retreat with Snelm's help, Adora steps in to fight the serpents alongside Korrig, ending the life of the cultist champion and their sorceress before nearly falling to the dragon as it hunts Callien. Yash rejoins the fray and manages to use her limited pool of abjuration magic to negate the summoning of shadows from the central pillar. As Callien manages to find a moment to hide from the determined dragon, Carlo lands a decisive below upon the dragon, allowing Yash and Korrig to hurt it and buy him time to fire one final shot that lays the dragon low.

The Fresh Coats briefly consider resting in the safe room they found, but the strange figure within the tar-coloured geyser remarks that "the Dead do not keep long". So they get to moving on, exploring the floor the serpent folk seem to have made their home in. They find many of the books quite quickly, with Yash finding what appears to be a book of prayers and Adora finding a secret exit out into the snow. Korrig and Carlo find two things on the other side of the floor; the sounds of animals held below and eight statues of the paragons. First the party check out the observation areas for the various creatures, including a holding area for the dragon, but it seems to be a dead end.

Recalling the note from before, Korrig searches the statue of Leta and sure enough, he finds a switch leading to a secret passage downwards. They move down to the floor below, Carlo and Korrig leading the way and noting the fact that there are torches that actually seem to spread light upon the stone that previously seemed impervious to such things, but the shadows it spreads are odd. Carlo moves to the closest door, opening it quietly and looking outside of it. He spies a long corridor, marked by these same blue, open flames that reveal corpses upon crucifixes, and then the dark sets in. He moves away from the door, but both Adora and Snelm move to check it out themselves; Adora sees little, but Snelm has his armour knock against the doorframe and causes a stirring within the pillar. As he watches, a gigantic skull shrouded in nebulae emerges from the the black column and sees him.

After a brief conflict and separation from Snelm, the Fresh Coats ascend the stairs out of the lowest level. They reunite with Snelm and try to brainstorm a plan. They end up thinking to scout the other route from the bottom of the stairs, with Callien and Korrig enacting the plan. The corridor is trapped with a looping cone of cold that activates every 18 seconds, but the navigate and move down the corridor until Korrig realises he can see what Callien identified as a Dreamer, causing them to return to the group. The group decide to chance the partially unexplored corridor and try and run past the Dreamer, but it is a dead end. As Yash attempts to deactivate the trap, she is attacked by a Shadow from within a corpse that lay beneath it.

The Dreamer comments on them being in a dead end and so they move to combat it. They are unwilling to go out and directly engage it, though Adora runs out and is put to sleep, narrowly surviving an attack from a greater shadow. Korrig and Snelm attempt to manipulate the pillar into a portal to the plane of positive energy, but the Dreamer's main eye prevents the spell from working. However, they use the momentum to close in on it and start to reply to the injuries it had dealt them in kind. So it disappears. The group begin to desperately try and find a way out, Korrig and Callien discovering a device used to transform conjuration magic into a key to the Library. After the Dreamer reappears and nearly disintegrates Snelm twice and disarms him of his weapon, Dusklight, he just about manages to direct a conjuration spell into device and the group escape into the Library.

The Domain of Imatulus
The Fresh Coats make landfall in the true library of Imatulus and he notes their arrival, specifically the arrivals of Yash and Callien, the latter of which he notes the Tithe has been paid for. He then asks the rest for the Tithe, that he may allow them to use his library. They offer many items in return and are thus afforded access and membership of Imatulus' library, they retire for the day and get ready to ask their questions on the morrow. Adora delays her slumber to assist Keagan in his desire for a purpose, whilst Yash and Snelm go straight to bed, eager to awake early.

Snelm and Yash immediately go to Imatulus upon waking to make their own individual requests. Snelm's request is to relieve him of his current Tether to the Painting, Imatulus' condition is that Snelm enter the Painting and use his connection to bring back relevant information. Afterwards Yash agrees to extended observation to find out more about what being "Twice-Sired" meant. She is informed that being "Twice-Sired" is having the soul of someone with draconic blood in the body of one with no such gift, this leads her to realise that the mother of this draconic soul is none other than Zhrakenshina, the woman who looked after her when she ran away from home and taught her of her draconic heritage.

The rest of the group awake and talk to Imatulus of Bondbreaker and the location of its parts, they reveal that most details are kept in the Copper Vaults, due to the nature of remembering such things. Carlo is brought in to help them decipher the maps, leading them to discover the location of the various parts: the sphere is in a temple located within an ocean trench in the Iaen Sea; the blade is held by a dragon called Nuocodo and located in the Stonefang Basin, an isle in the Gulf of Ibtisama; and the sheath is as suspected, held below the Caeldan Mountains by the Crypt Keeper.

They are visited by the Maestro, who informs them of an unpleasant end to the members of the Svit adu Urst, but seems to have only come to the Library to check if they knew anything more of the incident. Adora does not quite trust this and checks with Imatulus to corroborate the information. After this, Rosy thanks them for keeping him alive during the trip and bids those present farewell before heading homeward.

To use the rest of their time for the day, Korrig does more personal research whilst Adora, Callien and Carlo are shown around the Artefacts Archive by Qhalnaryv. This time is fruitful, but they are interrupted from it later in the day by summons from Imatulus, who tells them that Snelm has been within the Painting overlong, and that it would be wise to retrieve him soon. To this end he lends them Maximillian Shraik, Executioner Priest of Iumos and former companion to Adora (before they were split up by Hadros the Infallible), as way of acknowledgement that he had incapacitated a few of their members.

After some brief interactions with Max and the Curse Collector which looks over Snelm, they enter the Painting. Korrig is quickly and uncomfortably reminded of the golden oozes they fought when first entering the Painting, but he notices something further within them this time, a strange half-formed golden humanoid. Meanwhile Adora notices Snelm within the chapel, but a his disembodied voice warns her that something is wrong. They carefully prod around this Snelm, occasional movement at the corner of their vision, until an arrow is loosed at Korrig and strikes him rather severely in his lower back. The one that loosed the arrow appears to be Kew and immediately the false Snelm springs into action, magically relocating himself towards the stained glass window that heads the chapel.

The Snelm manages to anchor Korrig with a spell, to prevent his mobility, and the movement in the corners of their eyes turns out to be strange and undulating serpents of eyes, teeth and colour. The Fresh Coats resist the myriad abilities thrown at them, Callien managing to dispel the darkness that the false Snelm called upon the chapel and allowing Korrig to go all out on the false Kew, channelling all of his rage about the immediate situation, the first arrow shot and the group's whole involvement with the Painted God into each strike upon the mockery of his former companion. Adora makes short work of the Painted Serpents, with the help of her former companion, but then the strange creatures emerge from their chrysalises. As these Painted Godlings descend, the very chapel begins to rumble and a bright light is shed from the stained glass mural, blinding Carlo. They take on approximations of those before them, the three take on parodied forms of Adora, Callien and Korrig.

The rumbling ground becomes awash with the grasping hands of Painted Horrors and as Korrig deals the last blow on the false Snelm, the Fresh Coats realise that it is time to retreat. Adora defeats this copy of her and tries to strike down the creature beneath it, but it manages to take on a new form before she can do so, that of Carlo. Korrig is taken out of the Painting by the newly conscious form of Snelm, who they had freed by disposing of his imitation, and Max quickly follows suit. Callien moves to exit the Painting, pursued by the Godling that had assumed the form of Korrig, but hesitates, not wishing to leave Adora and the still blind Carlo to the Painting. Her fears are proven right as Adora is paralysed by Callien's own mockery and the Godling in Carlo's guise attempts to execute her, but she is saved by fate and Elessa's newly reawakened ability to dispel magic, but Callien does not have a chance to truly consider this as not-Korrig sends her into unconsciousness.

Adora and Carlo attempt to intercede, but the not-Korrig lands a solid hit upon Adora and also knocks her out before sabotaging Carlo's attempt to rappel the duo through. However, Snelm risks his own existence by re-entering the Painting and releasing a torrent of positive energy to keep them up, Korrig then pulls Callien out as Max pulls Snelm back out and Adora and Carlo move through, Adora using the previously set up grapple line to help pull Carlo through. Whilst they initially attempt to stop the Painted Horrors coming through into the Library, it is an unending tide and Callien rushes away with Carlo to warn Imatulus. The wyrm tells the party to move away from the Painting and uses a Wish to seal it.

The Fresh Coats are exhausted by this, but the Curse Collector is eager to fulfil his obligation to Imatulus in removing the Tether in Snelm's arm. As the Curse Collector completes the final part of the collection, preparing to misdirect the Tether's target onto a diamond, he reveals that as the Tether is moved, the remainder of Kew that lives within it will be trapped in the same place. Upon seeing the consternation on Snelm's face, he immediately completes the ritual and the diamond turns black. Snelm has been freed of his seemingly inevitable fate, at least for now.

Epilogue
Snelm reveals the information he found out when joined with the Painting, that it is practically a hive mind of all the souls taken, the various significant individual agents of it and the identity and location of the original painter, Arturus Vollengarn. Snelm explains that he experienced being one of the three "archangels" killing the whole crew of the Svit adu Urst. He explains also that the information was shared both ways and the Painted God is now fully aware of their aims.

The Fresh Coats realise that this puts a significant timer on their plans and research further within the Library, coming to the decision to travel to the Crypt Keeper first. Adora spends time reconnecting with Keagan and Max, talking to the former about a path to vigilantism that she has sent them upon and the latter about what they have both gone through and what comes next. She then offers one of her blades to Imatulus, the Flamedancer's Scimitar, in return for Max's freedom, who talks openly about going to Gell with the party. Without delay, Imatulus immediately sends him there. However the party is not yet ready to travel to Gell, there is yet much to learn here and no sign as to when Yash will be released.

Player Characters:
Non-Player Companions Guest Characters:
 * Korrig
 * Snelm Brightstone
 * Yasheritska
 * Adora Hawkinsight
 * Callien Felrasi
 * Carlo
 * Elessa Alcroft
 * Rosy
 * Maximillian Shraik

Non-Player Characters:

 * Amaruq, Ogor of the Akmaak-narrak
 * Nuraluk and Nawyat, his winter wolf companions
 * Yet unnamed Ogor woman of the Akmaak-narrak
 * Qhalnaryv, of the Library
 * Imatulus One-Eye, Lord of the Grand Library and Warder of the Northern Frosts
 * Keagan
 * The Maestro

Significant Adversaries:

 * Amura, brother to Tomoe
 * Unnamed Undead Silver Dragon
 * Serpentine Cult of Imatulus
 * The Dreamer
 * Aspects of the Painted God

Locations

 * The Northern Frosts
 * Village of Akmaak-narrak
 * The Northernmost Graves
 * The Old Library
 * The Library of Imatulus One-Eye
 * The Copper Vaults
 * The Artefact Archive