Chapter VI. Jupiter
Session 68. South Sky Sea Sentinels
*9 Everbloom 312 (Day 64 since the formation of the Soul Shepherds) Game Date: (March 12th, 2026)
The Soul Shepherds begin their voyage toward Jupiter, marking their 64th day as a group. As they navigate the South Skysea Sky Sea, they pass two massive Giant Statues locked in an eternal gaze across twin islands. Silas identifies them as legendary warriors memorialized in stone, though Virtus remains skeptical of the history lesson. To avoid a treacherous Cloud Sky Whirlpool, Diallos advises the crew to ascend from the Zephyrs air-zone to the Tradewind Zone, ensuring clear skies for their transit.
Continuing their journey south, the Shepherds reach the Theus Skyfjords, an impassable mountain range stretching through the Skyway zones. As temperatures plummet and snow begins to fall, the crew dons extra layers and prepares for the freezing climb ahead. After two long days of travel, the party settles in to relax as night falls over the icy peaks.
Session 69. Do Not Zoom In!
11 Everbloom 312 (Day 66 since the formation of the Soul Shepherds) Game Date: (March 19th, 2026)
As the deep chill of the mountains settles in, the evening aboard the A.R.K. is marked by quiet preparations. Bartholomew spends the night training young Meek Jr. in the ways of a kobold swordsman to honor the boy’s father, though it quickly becomes apparent the kipp’s true talents lie in trap-making and inventing. Virtus wisely advises Bartholomew to focus on teaching the young kobold how to survive. Nearby by the kiln, Virtus and Silas pore over an arcane tome, working together to decipher cryptic texts regarding the raw power of blood.
Up in the “Angel’s Nest,” Thirteen (Steve) and Silas stand watch over the long, cold night. Below, Diallos hears the eerie bellowing of drums echoing through the anchored mountains, though the sound soon vanishes into the dark. Later, after the crew has retired, Silas spots a dark ship approaching. Before he can ring the alarm, a fomorian abyssal hyena, triggers his brand. Thirteen swiftly intercepts and slays the beast while Silas hurls a Firebolt at the alarm bell, jolting the entire crew awake to an ambush.
The attacking vessel belongs to Sovereign Cloudbeard Territory, commanded by the Basalt Stone Giant Corsair, Gunhild “Runemaiden” Stormson. Roaring for tribute or a glorious battle, she begins hurling Abyssal Hyenas directly onto the A.R.K. Her crew consists of four Hill Giant “Goons” manning the oars and Freezle the Measle, a kobold arcane fuelman and Enlarge potion addict. Held captive below the enemy deck are Milodius (locked in a cage) and Joy, the Scholar of the Frozen Shell. Joy is bound to an interrogation chair, missing her left arm, heavily scarred, battered, and starved, yet entirely defiant in her refusal to give up the location of her resistance base on Jupiter. Milodius promises to write a song of her persistence before Freezle lets the bard out to play battle music for the giants. Tragically, Joy is the presumed-dead lover of Whimsical K. Beque (‘Whimsy’)|Whimsical K. Beque (‘Whimsy’)|Whimsical, believing Whim perished long ago on Jupiter, completely unaware that her lost love is on the ship currently under attack.
Awakened by the bell, Virtus, Whimsical, Bartholomew, and Diallos rush to the Top Deck, dispatching the infiltrating hyenas. Silas channels one of his souls’ powers to amplify his blood, unleashing a devastating 6th-level Lightning Bolt that sets the enemy ship ablaze and instantly incinerates several giants and hyenas. The sheer force of the blast destroys Milodius’ cage below deck, allowing him to escape and grab his gear just as more hyenas attack him. A second Lightning Bolt from Silas wreaks even more havoc, allowing the injured Joy to break free. She and Milo attempt to flee but are intercepted by Freezle. Thanks to a distraction from Milo, Joy shoves the kobold down the stairs, leaving Milo to engage Freezle in combat beneath the burning deck.
Above the flames, Gunhild narrowly steers her massive ship to avoid crashing directly into the A.R.K. Seizing the moment, Thirteen teleports aboard her vessel and delivers a powerful slash to her hand. In violent retaliation, Gunhild hurls Thirteen off the ship, sending him plummeting into the dark abyss of the Skysea! Back on the A.R.K., Whimsical flies into a giant-sized rage, hoisting Bartholomew onto her shoulders to charge into the fray. Below them, Virtus shatters the ship’s windows to line up a shot into the pitch-black night. Praying to Tekk to guide her aim, her deity answers; the Guiding Bolt strikes true, illuminating Gunhild in a blinding flash. Using the radiant beacon, Diallos flies across the gap and brutally stuns the giant commander with a flurry of astral fists!
Session 70. Legends of the Theus Skyfjords
11 Everbloom 312 (Day 66 since the formation of the Soul Shepherds) Game Date: (March 26th, 2026)
The chaotic battle over the Skysea rages on! Bartholomew unleashes a barrage of Eldritch Blasts while Whimsical hurls her “Knock Ya” pan and various debris at the Stone Giant Corsair, Gunhild “Runemaiden” Stormson. Plummeting toward the icy depths below, Thirteen (Steve) miraculously sprouts wings just in time, arresting his fall and flying back up into the fray. Aboard the enemy vessel, the Misty Stalker, Milodius and Joy manage to escape to the main deck. They desperately call out to Diallos to retrieve the Rune Key from Gunhild to unlock their anti-magic shackles. Diallos deftly snatches the keys from the giantess and tosses them over. Enraged, Gunhild chases him down but instead grabs the two escapees, keeping a firm hold on her favorite bard, Milodius, and viciously hurling Joy off the side of the airship! As Joy falls, Whimsical throws her trusty pan to intercept and slow the descent, allowing the ascending Thirteen to swoop in and catch Joy mid-air. Meanwhile, the Enlarged Kobold fuelman, Freezle the Measle, lobs a firecracker at Diallos, deafening him, though Milodius counters by doing a little dance to grant the deafened monk Bardic Inspiration.
On the opposite side of the A.R.K., a second boarding party strikes from the darkness, led by an Ice Giant Corsair named Air Hjorgin Stormson, accompanied by more Hill Giants and Abyssal Hyenas. The veteran Emerald Scourge kobold, Frederick, heroically holds the line against the giants and beasts, while young Meek Jr. swiftly sets up traps across the ship. From his vantage point, Silas channels his Blood & Soul magic to amplify a massive Fireball, hurtling it into the second ship to incinerate most of the crew, though Air Hjorgin extinguishes the residual flames with a freezing cold storm.
Seeing an opening, Virtus and Silas coordinate a devastating Unity Attack. Virtus unfurls her Glidecloak, soaring down onto the Ice Giant’s ship, tumbling into a landing and readying her Spellmirror Tower Shield as the towering Hjorgin scoffs at her size. Hundreds of feet away, Silas unleashes a legendary Lightning Bolt that pierces straight through Hjorgin, reflects flawlessly off Virtus’s Tower Shield, and strikes the Ice Giant in the back of the head, inflicting severe damage twice! Staggered but furious, Hjorgin engages Virtus in a brutal duel. Virtus forces the giant to his knees and slashes his face with her Boomerang Shield, but Hjorgin retaliates with devastating sweeps of his enormous Ice Axe until Silas forcefully teleports Virtus back to the safety of the A.R.K.
Realizing his crew is annihilated, Air Hjorgin dislodges his ship’s harpoon, retreats, and begins a dark chant that triggers a massive avalanche from the Theus Skyfjords! The crushing wave of snow and ice slams into the A.R.K., striking Silas and Whimsical, and completely burying Virtus. The crushing weight incapacitates her and leaves her with a permanent facial scar. Desperate, Silas frantically digs through the ice, tearing up his own hands until he uncovers Virtus’s arm and channels healing magic to revive her. Battered and her pride wounded, Virtus stands steadfast as captain; recognizing victory is near, she marches to the Helm.
Back at the bow, Milodius frees himself from his shackles. With his arcane magic fully restored, the Wandering Titanborn Bard casts Polymorph on Gunhild. The fearsome Stone Giant Gunhild fails her save and transforms into a harmless turtle! Tossed overboard, the Gunhild-turtle comically glides down into the Skysea on her oversized glidecloak, living to fight another day and passing Thirteen and Joy as they finally land back on the deck. The only remaining threat on the burning Misty Stalker is Freezle the Measle. Thirteen and Diallos make quick work of him as Milo ferries Joy to safety. With his dying breath, Freezle triggers a Contingency Fireball, exploding into a fiery grave in a final attempt to take Thirteen and Diallos with him, but the two survive the blast and fly back to their ship. Amidst the ashes, Whimsical finally locks eyes with Joy, recognizing her presumed-dead lover– but the battered Joy does not recognize Whimsical in return. Heartbroken but resolute, they vow to speak later.
Below decks, Meek Sr. rescues the downed Frederick, bringing him to Bartholomew for revival. Frederick fought valiantly against impossible odds, and Meek Jr. beams with pride, noting that one of his traps successfully killed an insurgent giant. Handing Bartholomew a Wyvern tooth for good luck, the warlock takes to the skies, gliding down to Hjorgin’s escaping ship to finish the fight. This triggers a fierce, honorable duel that delights the Ice Giant’s warrior pride. Hjorgin charges with blinding speed, but Bartholomew, bolstered by Silas’s blessing and Milodius’s woven tales of heroism, deflects every single strike with uncanny mobility. Their legendary clash reaches its climax against the icy cliffside of the Theus Skyfjords. Bartholomew delivers several lethal blows, granting Hjorgin an honorable warrior’s death. With his final breath, Hjorgin makes one last request: that Bartholomew tell his captain, Admiral Cloudbeard, the tale of their legendary duel!
Session 71. Navigating the Gales of Ikaros
*13 Everbloom 312 (Day 68 since the formation of the Soul Shepherds) Game Date: (April 10th, 2026)
The Soul Shepherds successfully integrate the three Serulinite Power Gems into the heart of the vessel, restoring the A.R.K. to its full, shimmering capacity. Utilizing the debris recovered from the brutal avalanche and the biting winter storm, the crew diligently patches the hull’s deep scars. Within the recovered Martian Imperium crates, the party secures 1,500 gp worth of unrefined Orichalcum and a significant 1,000 gp haul of Adamantine Ore. Virtus intends to transform this adamantine into tempered ingots for future legendary weapon-forging. The loot includes two Potions of Enlarge, two Potions of Reduce, and a potent Scroll of Chain Lightning, which is rightfully bestowed upon Silas to bolster his arcane arsenal. Bartholomew takes possession of Air Hjorgin’s Helmet and Boots, accepting the physical weight of the fallen Giant’s final request as a solemn honor.
Milodious makes his formal introductions. As Joy recovers within the A.R.K.’s clinic, a devastating truth strikes Whimsical: the light of recognition is absent from Joy’s eyes, as she harbors no memory of their shared past. But Whimsical then reveals herself to Joy as ‘Whim’, a ginger Dwarf and her former lover; the two share a tender moment. Then, bowing tearfully before the Soul Shepherds, Joy recounts her crushing defeat by Admiral Cloudbeard and her clandestine role among ‘The Scribes’ and the hidden coalition of Jupiter’s Titanborn. She piteously begs the Scions to infiltrate Carapax and bring an end to the Pirate Lord’s tyranny.
The A.R.K. navigates toward Carapax, now transformed into a frozen citadel of ice and suspended within the heart of a titan-spanning Winter Storm. Visibility vanishes amidst the crystalline husks of shattered airships that failed to reach Jupiter’s surface. Virtus wrestles with the wheel, performing desperate banks to evade jagged ice boulders. Diallos scans the debris field for structural weaknesses to guide the ship through the safest path. Thirteen unleashes a barrage of attacks from the Arcane Cannons to disintegrate incoming ice before it can Broadside the hull. But then, the air temperature reaches absolute zero, threatening to freeze the A.R.K. in mid-flight. Whimsical and Bartholomew override the power gems to channel volatile heat through the vessel, while the Deckhands hack away at the ice jams forming on the rudders. Milodius weaves a booming shanty to stave off the magical lethargy of a freezing slumber. They ascend to the Tradewinds Sky to escape the chilling frost.
The winds harmonize as lightning crackles through the frost, manifesting the colossal, bearded visage of Admiral Cloudbeard that dwarfs the A.R.K. itself. He taunts the “ants” who dared slaughter his giantkin, inviting the “Sun Zealots” to test their strength against his gales and pray to their “pretender Gods.” Silas conjures a hallucinatory cloud above them to avoid Cloudbeard’s gaze. Devastasting lightning bolts get launched at the ARK – Thirteen climbs the railing to the Angel Nest of the Ship and raises his Soul Sword, prepared to tank the pirate’s celestial rage. Suffering through currents of intense pain, Thirteen barely survives six lightning bolts that would’ve devastated the ship’s defenses. He falls unconscious and is rescued by Silas – the Soul Shepherds escape from Cloudbeard’s Giant Face, seeking safety in one of Carapax’s orifices ( a secret entrance into Carapax that Joy advised them about. )
Session 72. Arrival on Jupiter
14 Everbloom 312 (Day 69 since the formation of the Soul Shepherds) Game Date: (April 16th, 2026)
The Soul Shepherds enter one of Carapax’s orifices, the ship arrives at a tunnel leading to Kelda-Dhrum, a once thought abandoned Dwarven Fortress in the South of Jupiter’s Undershell. During their rest, Virtus forges her very own Adamantine Plate armor. Silas focuses on talking to his Souls. Bartholomew and Milodius talk a bit. Diallos meditates, and Whimsical and Joy reconvene. Virtus leaves Beppo and P-Sowen in charge of the ARK - the crew venture deeper into Undershell with Joy in tow.
They arrive at the fortress and Milodious clears debris in the way with his wings. The Shepherds find ‘Forvivlad’ Dwarves slaving away in the heat of the fortress mining ore. They seem to be on the verge of insanity, as their blood is tainted (Silas surmises). Whimsical, Milodius, and Bartholomew defuse their antagonism by fooling them that it’s their lunch time. Before they leave for lunch, the Forvivlad Dwarves go pray to a statue of the late King Dumaclath nearby, they say that they do not do this out of fear, but rather out of devotion.
A nearby Giant Abyssal Chicken then spots the party and captures Silas, taking him away. The Abyssal Chicken requests Souls from Silas, but he refuses to give it to the abyssal creature. Silas realizes there are towering stalagmites rising from the sludge that are indeed the calcified ribs of the Titan tortoise.
Meanwhile, Diallos investigates the way forward: a massive Adamantine Door. Superheated and completely sealed, it featured five circular slots but no visible keyholes. Whimsical translates the cryptic Dwarvish inscription above it: “As Above, So Below, The Work is Never Done.” Diallos deduces it is a complex Valve Puzzle. To unseal the gate, the party would need to reach five separate rooms and turn heavy release valves to fill the door’s slots with lava. However, turning the valves would cause the toxic sludge in the chamber to rise, making the activation order critical.
The moment Diallos pulls the first lever, he is immediately ambushed by a magma-dwelling Vorthropod erupting from the lava. Simultaneously, the Forvivlad Dwarves, entirely unsatisfied by the simple meal Whimsical had provided, finally succumb to their madness and charge. The battle for Sul Kelda-Dhrum has begun!
Session 73. All in a Day’s Work
15 Everbloom 312 (Day 70 since the formation of the Soul Shepherds) Game Date: (April 22nd, 2026
The Soul Shepherds defeat the Forvivlad Dwarves (incapacitating them as to spare them) and the Vorthopods. They find a magic chest and inside some Spell Bolt Wraps (for Diallos), Gold Ingots, and a map of Carapax’s Undershell. They plead the remaining Dwarves who are mining for Adamantine to abandon Sul-Khelda Dhrum, the Dwarves tell them they cannot until they finish mining each and every last vein of Ore. Silas convinces them after Whimsical turns into a Behemoth and destroys the last remaining veins of Ore - the Dwarves pack up and load the Adamantine onto the Mine Carts.
They discuss how to open the Adamantine Door and find all the levers to do so, but the last lever will trigger the Lava to rise, so they must be strategic with which ones they open. Virtus Sol-phones Beppo to raise the lever while the rest of the party rushes in - closing the door behind them. The Door opens and the Soul Shepherds head in, ready to venture deeper into Carapax’s Undershell and find the Scribes / Bhan Embers resistance base.
Session 74. The Deep Roads
15 Everbloom 312 (Day 70 since the formation of the Soul Shepherds) Game Date: (April 30th, 2026)
The Soul Shepherds climb down a long stairway, the Forvivlad Dwarves take their Mine Carts down with their ore. Silas sings a song in the dark descent very much to Joy’s amusement. Diallos encounters an Undershell Hare, who disappears back into the darkness. Whimsical tells Diallos of the tale of the Hare and the Tortoise - Carapax told the Hare that if he can get through all of the Undershell before Carapax sails through the Entire Skysea, the Hare would be crowned the fastest on Jupiter… alas he did not.
The party reaches downstairs into the Ore Storage and Entrance to the Deep Roads. Silas asks one of the Forvivlad Dwarves, their name Ribny, to come with him to the Resistance Base so he can potentially cure them of their ‘Forvivlad’ curse. The rest of the Forvivlad Dwarves say they will gather their ore and venture towards the Capital. The Soul Shepherds encounter a magical stone door with ten chimes they must ring with different weapons.
The door opens to the Deep Hall of the Regents where Dwarven Kings are lined up, the 1st pedestal is missing, the 2nd pedestal is King Raynar the Unbroken: Holds a massive pickaxe; first to break the Uppershell. The 3rd, Queen Orga the Deep-Seer: Has gems for eyes; first to map the labyrinth of Carapax’s organs. The 4th, King Horn ‘Iron-Lung’: Wearing a heavy brass respirator; survived the first toxic marrow-vents. The 5th, King Morgan the Builder: Holds a blueprint scroll; architect of the Dhrumway. The 6th, King Borin the Silent: His mouth is carved shut; reigned during a dark, forgotten era of the Undershell. The 7th statue, King Dumaclath, is missing. Silas realizes that the Souls of the Dwarven Kings remain, he asks Whimsical if its okay if he asks them if they wish to fight for a future on Jupiter; Whimsical gives the ‘ok’ and both Queen Orga and King Morgan oblige, and Silas carries their Souls with him. Milodious is disturbed by this, but pushes past the Hall. Thirteen writes his observations in his Solari notebook.
The party then ventures into a mysterious subterranean lake after climbing a moss covered, slippery tunnel cliff. Thirteen and Bartholomew receive visions of a golden key underneath the lake. Diallos prays to Tekk an augury as to whether it’s a worthwhile use of their time to obtain the key and ultimately decides they can always come back later. Silas fishes for fish in the lake, he catches a mutated fish and saves it for later, he then casts his line out again and gets pulled in by a large creature, but he lets go of his fishing rod and loses it to the water to something quite large. The Soul Shepherds rest at the lakeside with Joy and Ribny. Silas repairs the rotting scaffolding leading up the Inverted Temple while the rest of the party rest. As they climb up the scaffolding, Joy and Milodius share some talk of the resistance. Bartholomew notices that there are Dwarven names etched onto the Temple Shaft they’re climbing. Joy tells Diallos that the names are of Dwarven resistance fighters that have been lost in the fight against King Dumac, their bodies were never given the chance to turn to Stone. The party arrives at the Inverted Temple.
Session 75. Blood & Stone
15 Everbloom 312 (Day 70 since the formation of the Soul Shepherds) Game Date: (May 6th, 2026)
The Soul Shepherds arrive at the Inverted Temple gates and convince the Bhan Embers to open it after answering some allegiance questions. Silas attempts to start the healing process for the Forvivlad Dwarf Ribny - he sets up his own quarantined tent for him. Diallos diagnoses the Dwarven Bham Embers who had fallen in combat, some are missing limbs, others are not long for this world. Then, a convoy of more injured Dwarves arrive and the tent becomes chaotic and full. Diallos reads a Dwarves last rites from an unhealable poison in his lungs, but asks him if he would like his soul to become one with the Great Natu Tree - the dwarf declines, preferring to turn to dust and his soul to remain on Jupiter. Milodius and Silas work together to heal all the Resistance injured, casting a massive Unity spell to spread their magical healing to all. They save many lives and gain favor with the Bhan Embers & Scribes.
Whimsical finds the eccentric Barracks Chef and tries his awful food, but offers to find ingredients to spice up the meal.
Virtus, Thirteen, and Joy go to meet up with Editor Rupert in the basecamp War Tower Inside the War Room; Scribe Rupert has an Oocoo Jr. with him. A historian and journalist, he is a veteran Dwarven scribe and Joy’s closest confidante. Then, a Scribe invention – a heavy brass “Ink-Radio” – suddenly sputters to life. The needle scratches glowing magical ink onto a spool of parchment, translating a broadcasting spell from the Uppershell. It projects the arrogant voice of King Dumac:
“My wayward children of the Undershell. Do you hear the thud of the forges? That is the heartbeat of a prosperous Jupiter! Do not weep for the ‘Forvivlad’, it is a blessing they have been given! They are elevated! They shed their weak flesh to become the indestructible Adamantine shields that protects our glorious kingdom! Do not cling to the ghost of my father, a coward who locked us all in the dark. I have brought you endless prosperity, the partnership of the Cloudbeards! Surrender the Scribe terrorists. Disperse. Do you truly believe you can hide in the deep dark? I will scour every cavern, every marrow-vent, and every rotting tunnel of this entire Undershell until I drag you out into the searing heat of my domain! To those who harbor these Bhan-Ember rats, hear my royal decree: Bring me their exact location, and you shall be rewarded with untold riches: a bounty of pure Gold & Silver enough to buy your family a life in the frozen paradise above. Defy me, and I will remind you that the furnaces are always hungry for fuel.”
Editor Rupert lets the radio transmission play out to show the Scions how vile the King truly is; he laments about how their odds are stacked against them in the fight against Dumac and Cloudbeard (they lost a lot of men to Fire Giants and are getting less recruits by the day), but with the Solar Scions help, they may stand a chance.
Virtus asks what will happen after they overthrow King Dumac and Rupert says that he wishes for the power to return back to the people through a Constitutional Socialization. Virtus then asks if he has heard the rumors of King Dumaclath being potentially alive; Rupert is aware of them and has chosen not to dedicate resources investigating it; naturally, Virtus wonders about the relationship Ruipert and King Dumaclath once had. Whimsical and Diallos arrive after dealing with stuff at the Base Camp; Diallos casts Detect Thoughts as Virtus and Thirteen question Rupert – in his surface level thoughts – Diallos sees a young Rupert and young King Dumaclath having a very close relationship, he attempts to probe deeper but Whimsical and Virtus threaten Rupert to reveal the whole truth. Rupert kicks out the Bham Embers and reveals that he and King Dumaclath were once lovers and that King Dumac is actually Rupert’s Son, but he left Jupiter long ago after he and King Dumaclath had a “fundamental disagreement”. The Soul Shepherds and Joy are surprised to learn the truth, but come to trust Rupert’s plight in bringing down his Son.
The Soul Shepherds head out towards the Inverted Temple’s Alchemical Library to meet up with someone named Groin the Brewer who knows more about Lake Ruthaba - but before they can venture up, they meet back up with Silas at the Medical Tent, who is amidst blood vials and transfusion equipment, preparing himself to try to cure Ribny of his Forvivlad curse. Silas asks his friends for help and looks at Virtus with a trusting gaze – if things go wrong, to strike him down – Silas begins the bloodletting process, for the first time, Silas overcomes his fear of blood and begins to stick his fangs in Ribny’s throat, desanguinating him to remove the infected Titanblood in him while supplying him with purified Dwarven blood from a nearby donor.
With the help of Milodius’ calming ballads, Diallos’ peaceful resistance magic, Virtus’ trusting presence, Whimsical’s reassuring words, Thirteen’s Warding Bond, Bart’s support, and Joy’s patience, Silas narrowly overcomes succumbing to his vampiric nature as he drinks the blood. The operation is a success and Ribny is cured, proving that Forvivlad is curable.
Session 76. Just in Time for an Ale
*15 Everbloom 312 (Day 70 since the formation of the Soul Shepherds) Game Date: (May 14th, 2026)
The Soul Shepherds venture into the heights of the Inverted Temple’s Great Alchemical Library, a towering archive of cracked spines, bubbling apparatus, and secrets pressed between pages. There, they find Groin the Brewer, the Library’s eccentric custodian, who greets them with the easy manner of a man who has not had company in too long. Over the clink of an offered bottle, Groin reveals a troubling piece of forgotten ecclesiastical history: that Saint Brasser the Ambrosius - revered throughout the Skysea, was formally decanonized by the Ecclesia Solari in records buried here, a revelation the Church has gone to considerable lengths to suppress.
They fan out through the stacks. Diallos is the first to find something that stops him cold, a journal written by Bobby Beerbelly, its pages yellowed with age and desperation. He reads a particular entry aloud, and something changes in the air of the room:
“It wasn’t faith that broke him. They poured Abathur into him like wine into a cup; The CHURCH poured it into him. They knew. The Church Knew. I must tell Amiel…”
- Bobby
The name Abathur strikes Diallos like a physical blow. He becomes God-Meddled, his body involuntarily shrinking in on itself, cowering at an instinct deeper than reason - the name of an entity that should not be spoken. He slowly recovers back to full size after a few tense minutes, but the shadow of it lingers on his face.
Silas and Bart, however, are conspicuously unaffected - both having already worked their way deep into the temple’s ale stores upon arrival. Still warm in the belly and pleasantly untroubled, the two are immune to the Frightened condition for the better part of an hour, a dubious but effective piece of anti-divine armor.
Silas continues deeper into the stacks, hunting for texts on hemomancy and the Scribes’ relationship to the Ecclesia. He finds two volumes of interest. The first: a clinical treatise on Titan blood and its corruption of Dwarven physiology — a confirmation, in dry scholarly language, that Forvivlad is not a curse from the gods but a biological consequence of toxic titanblood exposure. The second is something altogether different: a Scribe Manifesto, the political soul of the resistance laid out in impassioned prose:
There’s a little voice in our head that says STOP! Abandon Authority and allow us to listen to things that matter. That is, in and of itself, Democracy. The powers of the Skysea have always served the rich and influential and discarded the poor. The Ecclesia is a curious one, they supposedly champion the downtrodden and offer a bastion of refuge, yet they reject other races arbitrarily… Our Goblinoid and Orc friends struggle to find their way into our world, rejected by the Ecclesia and exploited by the Hegemony, what other recourse do they have then mercenary work? They then fall under the stigma that the Ecclesia has labeled them under criminals - it is a vicious negative social spiral. I propose that we revoke the idea of ‘Fomorians’. The Ecclesia can be a force of good, but until they become accepting of all races and species, that cannot, and will not, happen. -Guapito de Vona, Editor
Meanwhile, Whimsy discovers a narrow secret tunnel concealed behind one of the bookshelves. Inside sits an Urn, unremarkable to look at but strange in feel, the ‘Be Creative’ Alchemy Jug, humming with subtle, unpredictable magical potential.
Virtus finds something far more personal. Tucked between research notes, a hastily scrawled message in a handwriting she recognizes - her father Amiel Tenebris’s hand, placing him in this very Library alongside Bobby Beerbelly:
“The Fomorian is dead and Bobby has the Golden Key. I will hold the line at the bridge so he can seal the door. After this, I plan to drink up all of the Ale in the Temple!”
Virtus reads it twice. She folds it carefully and says nothing for a long moment.
In a quieter corner of the Library, Thirteen makes his own discovery. Behind a false stone hollow, half-hidden in the architecture of the shelves, he finds the ‘Church Killer’ manuscript: a heretical text that contradicts official Ecclesia Solari doctrine on Saint Brasser the Ambrosius. His Soul-Sword vibrates violently in proximity to it, resonating with something inside the pages that the blade seems to recognize. Thirteen tucks it under his arm and says nothing to the others. Inside the binding is a Spell Scroll of Commune, and the manuscript itself names two high-ranking Solari conspirators involved in Brasser’s poisoning, not one, as has always been assumed. One name is half-burned away, visible only as a partial seal, its identity an open wound. The other is fully legible: an older Solari Inquisitor named Vincent of Damocles, likely dead by now, though his family remains active in Astraloftum politics.
In the Hall of Statues leading back through the Library, the Soul Shepherds encounter a Kekoa warrior named Thorfinn - built like a monument and carrying himself with the ease of someone who has never lost a fight. He extends a formal offer: a place on his Pōpō Pele team. The Shepherds decline respectfully; they have more pressing matters. But Thorfinn takes no offense. The offer remains open. They can seek him out at Hipolum-Dhrum, at the Grand Aletop, whenever the time feels right.
With the library’s revelations still settling, Silas gathers his resolve and moves among the four monks who had offered themselves earlier, asking for their consent one final time. Each gives it freely. Silas absorbs their four souls, adding their essence to the growing constellation within him.
Then it is Thirteen’s turn to act on his discovery. With the group assembled, he uncases the Spell Scroll of Commune from inside the ‘Church Killer’ binding and casts it, opening a channel to the Trinity. He puts four questions to the divine:
Will the manuscript destroy the Church? - Yes. Are the Gods currently displeased? - Yes. Is the Golden Key beneath Lake Ruthaba? - Yes.
Then - aware of the weight of it, risking divine retribution for the asking - Thirteen pushes through one final question: Is Abathur still alive?
The Trinity answers. - Yes.
In the silence that follows, the Soul Shepherds begin to plan. King Dumac’s scout party at Crystalhammer Falls has roughly two days before it locates the Bhan-Ember base. The window is narrow. Silas proposes a Hallucinatory Terrain misdirection to lure the patrol to a cliff edge above Lake Ruthaba. Milodius, Diallos, and Thirteen will go ahead as the advance scouting party - slipping through the secret entrance, gathering intelligence, and baiting the Fire Giants toward the lake where the rest of the Shepherds will be waiting.
Session 77. The Poet Warrior
*16 Everbloom 312 (Day 71 since the formation of the Soul Shepherds) Game Date: (May 21st, 2026)
The morning before the scouts depart, Alfoz, one of the Bhan-Ember Dwarves, approaches Bart with a folded war banner in his hands. He asks if Bart would be willing to bless it before they march. Bart obliges without hesitation, performing the Ceremony of Natu with care. The blessing takes hold and wild flowers grow around the banner: for the next twenty-four hours, the Bhan-Ember base and its defenders are fortified - whenever they must hold against the worst, they can roll a d4 and add it to any saving throw.
With the base defended, Milodius, Diallos, and Thirteen slip through the hidden entrance behind the waterfall at Crystalhammer Falls. The tunnel is narrow, cold, and slick with mist. The roar of falling water drowns out every sound from the Inverted Temple behind them.
Deeper inside, Diallos edges close enough to eavesdrop on a cluster of Fire Giants gathered around a smoldering fire. One grumbles that the King’s broadcast cut off early again. Another shrugs and speculates that someone must be feeding him his lines - the old King did the same. A third lowers his voice and offers a wilder theory: a white-haired woman, released from somewhere at the bottom of Lake Ruthaba and then sealed away again, has been coaching King Dumac on how to speak. The giants snort and move on, but the words linger. Among the assembled soldiers, Diallos also notes two figures of particular rank in the Fire Giants: Astika, a Fire Giant General, and Vargoon, one of her Sergeants - both bearing the insignia of Cloudbeard’s alliance, though it is clear the arrangement chafes on Astika, who has no love for babysitting forges.
The giants leave a large satchel unattended near the falls.
The scouts move quickly. Diallos and company lift the satchel. Then Milodius casts Mislead - his illusory double flickering to life and bolting for the surface, a convincing target sprinting toward Lake Ruthaba. The giants take the bait, roaring after the specter as it leads them out of the falls and down toward the lake. Vargoon is half-convinced, he has one last look around and then goes after the copy.
Across the cavern, the rest of the Soul Shepherds are already in position.
Whimsy kneels at the lake’s edge, preparing the ambush, when the water offers her a strange warning. A frog at the bank nudges her attention toward the surface of the lake. Then the algae drifting in the shallows arranges itself into letters - words written in Rubix: “do’nt’ive.” Virtus, now capable of reading Rubix at half proficiency, translates it without ceremony: Do not dive. They leave the lake’s depths undisturbed.
Bart stands quietly at the water’s edge when a voice comes to him - not from outside, but from somewhere deeper, somewhere between bone and thought: “You stood like he stood.” He does not answer it. He keeps his eyes on the approach.
The Fire Giants arrive in pursuit of Milodius’s phantom and find themselves running straight off a cliff!
Silas had spent the preparation time weaving a Hallucinatory Terrain over the far bank of Lake Ruthaba: a convincing false campsite, set precisely at the edge of a very real drop. The giants chasing the Mislead double see only the phantom ahead and a camp beyond it, and by the time the real cliff edge arrives, it is already too late. They plummet into the lake below. One of the dwarves recognizes Milodius before he is shot off the cliff: “the Poet Warrior!” he exclaims as he falls.
Only Vargoon remains standing. Outnumbered and seeing exactly how thoroughly this was planned, the Sergeant makes the sensible choice: he surrenders. Thirteen wastes no time binding him.
Then something moves in the lake.
The giants who fell are being taken. Something vast beneath the surface coils enormous tentacles with teeth around each one and drags them under with efficient, terrible speed. The water stills. What rises in their place is stranger: a cluster of jelly Kuo-toa-like creatures, luminous and deliberate, gliding toward the shore. They speak to the Shepherds in smooth, measured tones. Their master, they say, wishes to parlay - a resolution to the Dwarven Civil War. He asks that the Soul Shepherds meet him at the central island of Lake Ruthaba.
The party agrees.
They make their way to the island. From the center of the lake, a pillar of water rises - and within it, each member of the Soul Shepherds sees a specter, something shaped like the person they trust most completely. Virtus sees a younger Animus. Thirteen sees the High Priestess. Whimsy sees Omniscient. Bart sees Cassian. Diallos sees Abbot Muho. Milodius sees his grandmother, Tweety Bird. Silas sees Mother Anastasia.
Every specter speaks at once, with the same voice, in perfect unison:
“I am Abathur.”
The entity makes his offer plainly. Three things: First: the Golden Key, the very object they need to unlock what waits beneath the lake. Second: an army, sufficient to tip the Dwarven Civil War. Third: the names of every high-ranking Solari conspirator involved in the poisoning of the Saint, not a partial list, but the full record. In exchange, he asks only that they do not tell the Ecclesia Solari of his existence.
He explains his position without shame. What he gains from this pact is the “refusal of his existence” - to be neither reported nor hunted. He has a home at stake within Carapax, and both King Dumac and Cloudbeard are closing in on it.
Natu, Magi, and Tekk make themselves felt - a deep, heavy withdrawal of approval, a divine cold shoulder that fills the air like pressure before a storm. The gods are not pleased.
Thirteen is the first to speak. He does not want to take the deal. He does not dress it up.
Diallos turns the logic over aloud: would telling the Ecclesia about Abathur actually help anyone? Given what they know, the corruption already running through the Church’s veins, the conspirators, the poisoning, the suppressed decanonization - would the information simply become another weapon in the wrong hands? “Why would we hand the church information,” Diallos asks quietly, “if it means that information could perpetuate the very corruption we know is taking place within it, and inadvertently contribute to it?”
Virtus turns to Thirteen directly. “What are you loyal to?”
Thirteen answers plainly. He knows the corruption in the Church is real. But his loyalty is to the High Priestess - his adoptive mother. He is following her, even if he is following her blindly. He says that what he cares about, at the bottom of everything, is finding paradise - that perhaps it will be a place where he truly belongs. And he cares about sacrificing what is necessary to reach it.
The Soul Shepherds deliberate. They wait for Bart and Silas to add their voices to the weight of the decision.
In the end, they give Abathur their answer.
They refuse all three offers.
Session 78. Deal or no Deal (Spoiler: No Deal)
*16 Everbloom 312 (Day 71 since the formation of the Soul Shepherds) Game Date: (May 28th, 2026)
The seven Faces of Abathur do not flicker, and the pillar of water at the heart of the central island of Lake Ruthaba does not collapse. The Soul Shepherds have refused the eldritch deity’s first three offers, and Abathur, undeterred, restructures the terms.
“Listen again,” he says, in the unified voice of his seven Faces. “The Key in your hand before the hour is out.” The water beneath the island stirs; the Golden Key rises from the silt to hover briefly above the surface, then sinks again. “For Thirteen, a file. Information about what became of your old High Priest. Carry it back to your Priestess and she will not have to suspect anymore. For Virtus, a road to your father. Amiel came to me, years ago, with the same questions you came down here with. I will tell you what he asked, and what I answered. And for the resistance, the army at the gates of Hipolum-Dhrum when you choose the hour.”
“You will not tell the Church of my existence. And when I am attacked in my home, by Cloudbeard or by anyone, you will come to my aid within a day. That is all.”
It is Silas who answers, and from this moment the parley is his. He pushes back on the terms; he does not believe Abathur is offering anything the Soul Shepherds truly need. He probes for cracks. Abathur, patient, points out that they may yet need his help if they wish to minimize casualties in the Dwarven Civil War.
Silas presses harder. He asks the eldritch creature, point-blank, whether he is the cause of the Forvivlad curse afflicting the Dwarves. Abathur denies it without anger. “I am not the cause. I know the cure,” he adds, in the same voice. “You would not like my solution.” He never says what the solution is.
Silas counter-offers. He wants everything already on the table, plus the full and freely given knowledge of the gods and of Abathur himself, added to the conditions of the pact. The seven Faces dip in acknowledgement.
“Granted, Silas Clemens. But hear me. The god you once worshipped will try to reconcile with you. They will speak gently. They will sound like the truth. Do not let them in. You are on the path to truth without them.”
Silas, fixed, presses further. He wants one willing soul every day, fed to him for his own purposes, as part of the bargain. The Faces, after the briefest pause, agree.
“The souls would be those of the Awakened Dreamers. They are mine. They will cooperate.”
It is the first time the Soul Shepherds hear the jellified creatures of the lake named: Awakened Dreamers.
It is also the moment Diallos speaks. He has been quiet through Silas’s negotiation; now he turns toward his friend and lays a hand on his shoulder.
“The souls of Dreamers are now corrupted by this entity” he says, evenly. “They cannot consent. Whatever is given here would not be a gift”
And then, in his quieter and more unsettling voice, the one he reserves for moments where he does not want to be misread: “If something good happens because of the gods, would you begrudge it for that? And inversely, if something bad comes from this decision, is it justifiable because it would also be bad for the gods? How willing are you to justify something as a good thing if it scorns the gods too?”
Silas does not answer immediately. The Faces of Abathur watch him think. And then, beneath the unified voice, a single Face leans toward Silas and whispers, audible only to him:
“I wish to see a mad god stripped of his divinity.”
Silas turns to Whimsy, a motherly confidante, and asks her plainly what he should do. Whimsy does not answer the question Silas is asking. She answers a different one.
“See what Thirteen does first,” she says. “His choice could undo yours.”
It is Virtus who voices the concern aloud. She has watched Thirteen closely throughout the negotiations. “If he takes this oath,” she says, “he will break it. He will tell Cetra not only what is in the file but about the creature itself. He will, because it is who he is.”
Silas takes Thirteen by the shoulders. The Faces of Abathur do not interrupt. “Forget the gods,” Silas says. “Forget the Church. Tell me what you want.” Thirteen, very tired, says he would take the deal and break it. He would accept the repercussions, even his own death, if those repercussions touched only him. “Then you do not take it,” Silas says. “Because if you take it, I take it. Whatever they do to you, they do to me. I will not let you throw your life away alone.”
Thirteen looks at him for a long moment, and then, very quietly, backs out of the deal.
Silas turns back to the Faces and makes his final counter-counter-offer. He declines the binding pact entirely. But he gives his word, freely and unbound, that if Abathur is ever attacked in his home, the Soul Shepherds will come. The Faces dip once in acknowledgement. The pillar of water shifts. The Golden Key rises again from the silt and floats, with no ceremony at all, into Virtus’s open palm.
“I want what is in the Old Palace destroyed,” Abathur says, as the Faces begin to fold back into the dimming pillar. “That serves me whether you serve me or not. We may yet have arrangements.”
The pillar collapses. The Faces are gone. The lake is very still.
As the Soul Shepherds gather themselves to leave the lake, one of the Awakened Dreamers glides forward through the water and rises before Silas. “Take my spawn with you,” it says. “It will work as a relay to me.”
The creature it offers, however, is too large and not cute enough for Silas’s standards. He waves it off. A second Dreamer produces a second spawn; refused, for similar reasons. After several rejected specimens, the creature finally offered up is a small fish with legs, which Silas accepts without hesitation. He names it the Talker.
Silas, half-curious, asks the Talker where Abathur is from. “He came from a dreamless realm.”
In the end, no one accepted the deal.
The Interrogation. Back at the lake’s edge, the blinded Vargoon is bound to the same stone he was bound to before the parley, the Soul Shepherds question the Fire Giant Sergeant for what he knows. He talks.
The Old Palace, he tells them, has been moved to the surface. Aastrika is there now. Dumac does not truly command her; she reports ultimately to Cloudbeard, who plans to dispose of the King once his usefulness is spent. The King is a puppet, a megaphone, nothing more. Dumac himself is, in all likelihood, on the surface as well, at the Palace.
Vargoon tells them that he would not give Cloudbeard the location of the Bhan-Ember camp even if the Shepherds dragged him there, because he does not consider the Bhan-Ember a meaningful threat to anyone.
He was tasked, he says, with finding the white-haired lady: the figure rumor has placed at the bottom of Lake Ruthaba. He does not know what she is. He has been ordered to find her regardless.
He shares another piece, offhandedly, the way a soldier shares intelligence he no longer values: Cloudbeard has been supplying a Dreamer to a buyer for a substantial price. The buyer, Vargoon believes, is Dragonborn, almost certainly an agent of the Martian Imperium. He does not know what the Dragonborn want with a Dreamer. He does not particularly care.
He shares his own theory about Carapax’s slow sickness: that the dwarves dug too deep into the Titan’s flesh, poisoning his blood. “Presumptuously,” he allows, “it is also Cloudbeard’s storm.” Either way, the Titan is dying.
Of Cloudbeard he speaks at length. The Storm Giant Admiral calls himself the Gale Warrior. He commands the weather itself. He is a heavy drinker; he is, by personal observation, worse when sober. He would, Vargoon believes, respect an honest defeat at Pōpō Pele, and would lose face with his own warriors if he proved a sore loser about it. Vargoon doubts that defeat will ever happen.
When the interrogation has given what it will give; Thirteen heals the Fire Giant and unblinds him. The Shepherds rise. Vargoon rises with them. He knows what comes next.
The Killing. The fight is short and brutal. Vargoon accepts the duel. The Monk of Flame heats up his hands and rolls forward in a single hot wave that Bart and Diallos turn aside with shield and Astral fists. Silas’s blood-magic catches the giant at the knee. Milo’s rallying tune drives Bart’s next strike home. Whim’s pan is in the air; Thirteen’s Soul-Sword finds his shoulder.
It is Virtus who finishes him. Vargoon comes around for one last punch, and Virtus, planted, opens him from sternum to belt with a single horizontal slash of her War-forged Tekk Blessed Pickaxe. He folds where he stands.
What follows is not a Solar Scion’s mercy.
Whimsy, with an anger no one in the cavern is quite ready for, sets upon Vargoon’s body and tears it apart with her bare hands. Severed limbs roll into the shallows. Severed limbs sink.
The water, for a long moment, does not move.
Then it moves. Beneath the lake’s surface, a slow, soundless pulse, like a satisfied exhale. Abathur appreciates the meal.
The Last Words. The Soul Shepherds turn back toward the long climb up the temple shaft. The Talker, riding in Silas’ wine bottle, very quietly, speaks aloud for the second time.
“The woman in your sleep,” it says, to Diallos, “has the road to Paradise. You need to find her.”
Diallos walks the rest of the climb in meditation.
That night, in quarters within the Inverted Temple, Diallos and Virtus both choose to claim Divine Boons from Tekk, the Soul-Forger, redeeming the Piety they have accumulated through their service to him. Virtus’ Boomerang Shield fortifies and Diallos meditates, unlocking the ability to manipulate the future.
In the small hours of the morning, Magi comes for Silas, exactly as Abathur warned. The voice is gentle. The voice sounds like the truth. The voice offers reconciliation, restoration, a return to favor. Silas, with the warning still fresh in his blood, refuses. The voice withdraws without anger. It will come again…
Session 79. Pour Decisions
*17 Everbloom 312 (Day 72 since the formation of the Soul Shepherds) Game Date: (June 4th, 2026)
The morning after the parley finds the Inverted Temple in higher spirits than it has known in a long while. Editor Rupert spreads word of the Soul Shepherds’ victory over the Fire Giant scouting party at Crystalhammer Falls, and the news moves through the camp like warmth through cold stone — the Bhan-Ember dwarves who only days ago were burying their own now have something to stand a little taller for. Rupert also shares a closely held secret: there is a hidden elevator that can carry the party to the surface in forty to sixty minutes, straight toward Hipolum-Dhrum. He will give them its exact location, but only in person, and only when they are truly ready to make the climb.
At the war banners Bartholomew blessed before the scouts departed, dwarves come to leave small stones and murmur quiet prayers, the wildflowers still blooming impossibly around the cloth. Bart and Milo strike up a rousing tune between them, and the gathered Bhan-Embers break into a thunderous war dance, stamping the old temple floor until the dust rises.
The Iron Gate. After a short rest, the Soul Shepherds make their way through the Inverted Temple to the iron gate that seals the Eternal Keg. A fetid, yeasty stench wafts from behind it. Bart reads the air at once: the gas pooling beyond the gate is poisonous; they will not be able to breathe inside, and, worse, it is extremely flammable. Wedged into the door itself is a talisman, which Diallos identifies as enchanted: whoever attunes to it gains advantage on Constitution saving throws. Milo casts Warding Wind, the swirling gale dispersing the toxic gas within ten feet of him and carving out a pocket of breathable air. They haul the gate open, freeing the talisman, and hand it to Milo.
The Brewery. Beyond the gate lies a hall that was clearly lived in once: kegs and playing cards and scattered personal effects, the small debris of lives spent in good company. No one living stirs among it, yet footsteps echo through the chamber — the creak of wood and clank of metal. The footsteps belong to automatons, who pay the intruders no mind at all, busying themselves rolling barrels from place to place. In a quiet corner the party finds a stone dwarf, frozen mid-drink, one hand clutched to his chest where his heart gave out.
Silas, ever curious, taps a random barrel and drinks deep, filling a bottle for later. An automaton notices and, rather than raising any alarm, apologizes to him for the mess. The ale tenders the drinker immune to the poisonous air. One by one, the Shepherds drink. Those who overindulge find themselves pleasantly muddled, suffering disadvantage on Wisdom checks; those who pace themselves earn a steadier nerve, gaining +2 to resist being frightened. Silas, for his part, ends up standing beneath a fountain of beer sprayed by one of the obliging automatons, showering in it without complaint.
The Mimic Barrels. The next room shows no sign of life, until Diallos catches a faint sloshing from one of the barrels. He leans in, presses his ear to the wood, and the barrel bites back. A second barrel lurches to life and swallows Silas whole. The Shepherds make short, splintering work of both mimics. Past the wreckage they come upon a slow, almost stagnant river of ale and wade across it. In the chamber beyond sits another automaton, this one switched off — a unit named Steve-o. They leave him as they found him, dark and silent.
The Dragon of the Keg. It is Whimsy who spots it first: far off in the gloom, an enormous and enormously fat dragon, slumped at the very source of the Eternal Keg, guzzling ale straight from its golden spout. Between gulps, the beast mumbles to itself, plaintive and slurred — “Brasser… Brasser, where are you?” Somehow, Thirteen, who has wandered well ahead of the rest of the group, fails to notice the mountain of scales entirely, drifting too close and startling it awake. Fiercely protective of its keg, the dragon rounds on him, and the two crash into combat.
While Thirteen holds the dragon’s attention, the rest of the party improvises a desperate gambit. Whimsy shapes her appearance into that of Brasser himself, while Bart casts Detect Thoughts, sifting the dragon’s memories for the lost saint’s voice. With Minor Illusion, Bart throws that stolen voice over Whimsy’s disguise, so that it seems Brasser stands before the beast once more, speaking in his own remembered tones.
The dragon is Umbrasax — calls Brasser “Brother.” He holds the saint dear. Among the memories Bart glimpses is the day Umbrasax was hatched: Brasser, Bobby Beerbelly, and Amiel found his egg deep in the Deep Roads and raised him, until he grew too great to carry along and was left here, in this chamber, to guard the Keg. That was some fifty years ago.
“Brasser” gently tells Umbrasax that the other dragons vanished long ago — that they all departed for Paradise. Umbrasax does not care, and does not believe in Paradise besides.
It is then that Virtus steps forward and introduces herself plainly: she is Amiel’s daughter. She tells the dragon that she and he were both taught by Amiel how to swing a blade — and Umbrasax decides this makes them something like siblings. Wary still, he asks if they have come to take his keg away. No, Virtus tells him — but she thinks he ought to leave this chamber all the same. He has grown too great for these walls. Umbrasax agrees; he is sick of ale, and admits he must finally eat a real meal. A Giant meal, Virtus offers, bolstering his pride, and with it she extends the true invitation: to fight alongside the Soul Shepherds against Cloudbeard, and to save the dwarves, who would surely be eternally grateful to him. Eagerly, the great drunken dragon agrees to ally himself with them, for now…
Session 80. Eternal Ale Lite
*17 Everbloom 312 (Day 72 since the formation of the Soul Shepherds) Game Date: (June 10th, 2026)
The Keg Flows Again. With the great seal broken at last, Virtus opens the Eternal Keg and lets it run. Ale courses out of the Chamber and down through the channels of the Undershell for the first time in a decade, the old arteries of the Inverted Temple filling once more. Curious about the tireless brass workers, Virtus asks the Monastic Brew Bots what their purpose is; they answer, without ever pausing their labor, that they fill and ship barrels to the taverns of all Jupiter. In Silas’s wine bottle, the Talker stirs and relays a quiet message: Abathur is pleased the ale is flowing again.
A Tight Squeeze. Leaving proves harder than arriving, at least for the newest member of the company. Umbrasax, grown fat over fifty years of drinking, wedges himself fast in the mouth of the cavern and cannot budge. Whimsy solves it with a casting of Enlarge/Reduce, shrinking the great wyrm to a manageable size. Before they can go, Umbrasax plunges back into the ale in search of a keepsake left behind by his beloved Ambrosius, and promptly begins to drown in it. Virtus dives in after him and hauls the floundering dragon back to the surface, recovering in the process the lost treasure: the Amulet of the Drunkard.
The Accountants’ Scroll. A cluster of brew-bots labor around a single magic scroll, counting and recounting it without end. Bart calmly informs them that the scroll belongs to him, and in the exchange learns a strange thing: the scroll once moved the very automaton that carried it to stop and ponder the meaning of its own life. When Bart takes it in hand, a soft and unfamiliar light washes over him, the light of Noctu, the exiled Moon. It is a Spell Scroll of Moonbeam.
Eternal Ale Lite. Once free of the Chamber, Virtus puts the ‘Be Creative’ Alchemy Jug to clever use, brewing a high-protein, low-calorie drink that tastes exactly like the Eternal Ale but without the ruin. She names it Eternal Ale Lite. With a worthy substitute in hand, Silas casts Lesser Restoration on Umbrasax and lifts the poisoned, drunken haze that has clouded the dragon for half a century.
The Burden of Being Alive. Sober for the first time in living memory, Umbrasax does not take it gracefully; he turns unruly and loud. It is Virtus who steadies him. She tells him plainly that his sober thoughts and feelings, however heavy, are simply the burden of being alive, and asks whether he is strong enough to carry it. He decides that he is, and settles. Beneath the bluster, the grief surfaces: Umbrasax is angry at Ambrosius for leaving him behind, and calls out for the brother who is never coming back. The party gently steers him away from the wound before it can swallow him.
A New Face. With patience, Whimsy coaxes out a power Umbrasax never knew he carried, teaching the dragon how to shapeshift. After some clumsy effort, he takes the shape of a dwarf, small enough at last to walk among them unnoticed.
The Road Ahead. When the company returns to the Inverted Temple, Joy greets the news of the flowing ale with both hope and warning: Hipolum-Dhrum will rejoice to taste it again, but the moment King Dumac learns the source has reopened, he will move to find it and shut it down. The Scions set their sights on the next step: the forge-factory ruled by Aastrika, where dwarven slaves still labor in chains. Thanks to the Eternal Ale Lite, Umbrasax is halfway to his old strength, fifty percent rehabilitated and climbing.
Session 81. The Dwarven Capital
*17 Everbloom 312 (Day 72 since the formation of the Soul Shepherds) Game Date: (June 24th, 2026)
The Stuck Lift. The party takes the lift up toward the Ale Top tavern, but it grinds to a halt midway (the Ale Top keeps a strict no-fighting policy). Using a speaker system, they call up to ask why the lift has stopped, and are told an inspection is underway. In a panic, Milodious lies to the operator that someone aboard is giving birth and they must be raised immediately. The story convinces the man to start the lift again, despite the risk of it being discovered by Dumac’s guards. When the party reaches the top, the operator realizes he was deceived, but he has heard good things about them from Rupert, so he does not dwell on it. He gives them disguises that make them appear to be part of a circus troupe, so as not to be discovered. Umbrasax, in his dwarven form, wears no disguise at all. Dumac seems to suspect something is going on. Before they spread out, Virtus gives Umbrasax a stern pep talk so that he understands the assignment, and he does.
The Spymaster Aunt. The tavern keep, Oinara Tern, a Kekoan woman, asks Milo to bring her Virtus; she is working with them in this operation. Meanwhile Diallos, babysitting Umbrasax as the dragon naps in a booth, overhears something troubling: “the thing we have chained up is going crazy,” a matter unfolding at the factory. Oinara takes Virtus and Milo to a secret room to speak. She gives Virtus a hug and a good long look, and reveals that she is Virtus’s aunt. She explains that she is a spymaster who has been collecting information about the factory operation, and can give them a layout of it. Astrika, she says, is a “Monk of the Flame,” and they have a chained-up fomorian they are using as a power source, which they call the Demon Core. The goal is to destroy the Demon Core and ruin the factory operation. She also mentions an alchemist called Garglestein who could help with the bloodletting to cure the Forvivlad.
Working the Room. Whimsy talks to two patrons called Horse and Monkey, old friends who recognize her even through her “disguise” once she starts talking to them; they are aware of the current political climate. Silas speaks to Fundiin the Mountain, a giantess, who tells him to entertain her since he is dressed as a jester. He does get a laugh out of her. She tells him how she wants to kill a dragon, because for giants it is a formidable feat. Silas tells her he has never personally met a dragon, but shares a story about his parents, who were interested in dragons: they sent adventurers out to collect dragons for their scales, but the dragons flayed them all. The tale excites the giantess rather than dissuading her, and Silas proceeds to trauma-dump on her besides. Having had her fill of it, Fundiin gathers her Forvivlad slaves and returns to the factory. Silas is then asked to dance for some of Dumac’s guards, and does; afterward, he shows them a forged letter written in the Ink of Damocles, signed as if by Dumac, ordering them to escort the troupe to Astrika. The guards become charmed by it, and tell Silas there will be ten to fifteen fire giants there. They suspect the Demon Core might be a “Dark Angel,” a winged demon of fury. Nearby, Thirteen leans into the act and swallows swords for the crowd.
Into the Snow. Umbrasax experiences snow for the first time. Both of the party’s escorts are replaced by other guards along the way. The Scions meet Jingma again, who tells them they can find him at the Grand Aletop afterward. Diallos stops someone from taking their own life. Then, still dressed as carnival folk, the Scions are accidentally “ambushed” by Bhan-Ember rebels who wanted to fight Dumac’s guards. Rather than turn on their own, the Scions join the rebels, throwing in outside the Old Palace (the factory) against an ice giant and Dumac’s guards.
Session 82. ???
*17 Everbloom 312 (Day 72 since the formation of the Soul Shepherds) Game Date: (June 30th, 2026)
…
Session 83. TBD
*17 Everbloom 312 (Day 72 since the formation of the Soul Shepherds) Game Date: (July 8th, 2026)
…