Adventure Log: November 3, 2019: The Nazery

A view of the Nazery from the access tunnels at the foot of the escarpment.

Following their adventure with the time machine in the downed B-29, the adventurers are captured outside the aircraft by the Fisher, who takes them to the Nazery, the stronghold of the Black Watch that guards the mainland territories of the Darkmanse city-state. The adventurers are brought before the inquisitor, who tells them that the Synarchy knows that they are the ones who incited the insurrection at Jericho's Purchase, and that the Inquisition also believes that they are the assassins sent by the Marchioness to kill the Synarch. What the inquisitor wants to know is what the adventurers can tell him about the downed airplane they uncovered out in the feywild. How did it get there? Who sent it and why? During Korric's interrogation, the inquisitor presents him with the dossier recovered from the time-traveling aircraft, the file containing photos of Korric posing with scientists in white lab coats at a research facility of Project RAND. The adventurers refuse to answer the inquisitor's questions and are tortured over many days. Down in the dungeons, they are thrown into a cell with the body of Sant'oka. The condition of the druid's corpse suggests that he died of torture.

The adventurers are saved from a similar fate by the dwarves of Clan Ironfist, who come to their rescue after witnessing their capture by the Fisher. Dain, Vistra, and the other Ironfists have not forgotten how Ven  bravely faced—and felled—their mightiest champion with a single blow, and they now consider him an admired friend. With their help, the party frees the prisoners from the Fisher's dungeons and destroys the Nazery tower with explosives. The adventurers escape into the feywild in the company of their dwarven allies, who agree to take them to the Misty Isles to seek an audience with the Sun King.

That night in the dwarves' encampment, Nik performs the dreaded Carving Ritual to question her otherworldly patrons, Titania and NEMO, while Ven casts a sending spell in an attempt to get a message out to Doctor Jessup on the time track. Ven's message is as follows:

—rendezvoused with expiditionary group eighty-three years too late—time machine destroyed—we need to meet—how do we find you—please advise—

Ven receives the following reply, which comes to him in the form of a distant voice inside his mind:

—message received—proceed to the septenary gate as planned—meet me in the Golden Shrine for further instructions—the directive has changed—Incident I is [garbled]—repeat, Incident I is— 

Titania’s Realm

When Nik performs the Carving Ritual to contact Titania, the tiefling finds herself in a topiary park: pristine green lawns, fragrant breezes and a perfectly blue sky, and enormous topiary sculpted into the shapes of strange and exotic animals. The tiefling is barefoot and the grass underfoot is cool. There is a beautiful woman standing under a tree on a nearby hillock. The gentle breezes tug luxuriously at her hair, making it drift about her head in lovely arabesques that would defy the physical laws of any earthly realm. The tree the woman is standing under is trained into the shape of a maharaja’s elephant, and the elephant tree reflects her changing moods as she is questioned. When she grows angry, the tree is silently on fire, and the woman’s hair swirls about her face as if roiled by the turbulence inside her. When she is pleased, the elephant tree stops burning and its cindery foliage reblooms. Now its branches are laden with aromatic clusters of ripe yellow lemons. The Lady of this realm is petulant and mercurial as she answers the tieflings questions:

Q: "What event is the Archivist trying to prevent with my death?"

A: "Darkmanse is a chain reaction akin to Megadeath. This chain reaction is unfolding even now, expanding exponentially, consuming everything in its wake. What, you ask, is the Archivist trying to prevent? Nothing short of the total and complete absorption of the multiverse into the dark matter of Shadowfell."

Q:"How can we find Doctor Jessup?"

A: "You already have."

Q:"What exactly is the Greening?"

A: "The balance."

Q: "Can we trust the Sun King?"

A: "Yes."

Q: "Who is the maker and is he still alive?"

A: "His name was Caliban, a demon of Shadowfell who found Vecna’s book and used it. He is sick from Vecna’s magic. He is wasting away and will surely die. You, Nikadeamus, are his only hope for survival. He will deceive you, tell you what you want to hear, trick you into believing that you that you are chosen. Do not be deceived by the maker’s lies." 

NEMO’s Realm

When the tiefling seeks contact with NEMO through the Carving Ritual, she finds herself in a fogbound cemetery reminiscent of a graveyard in an old monster movie. In fact, the setting is a graveyard in an old black-and-white monster movie. Before her stands a Victorian-style mausoleum, its wrought-iron gates standing ajar. Inside the sepulcher, she encounters a figure seated on the edge of a stone sarcophagus, its heavy stone lid slid back. His identity is concealed in shadow, but Nik can tell from his features that he is a tiefling like herself. He answers her questions in a whispery, papery voice:

Q: "What exactly is the Darkmanse?"

A: "Your birthright, my child."

Q: "What event is the Archivist trying to prevent with the death of Nik?"

A: "The end of time itself, which is the end of suffering."

Q: "Who is the maker and is he still alive?"

A: "You are asking the wrong question, my child. The question you need to be asking yourself is, 'Who am I?'"

Q: "Who or what is the Synarch?"

A: "Traitor."

Q: "Would the maker like to see the events of Nik’s vision play out as they did in the vision?"

A: "Yes, because it is your destiny, and mine. I am sick and must die, and you are to be my executioner, my liberation. You shall take my place and carry the project forward for the royal houses of Shadowfell. It is the inheritance of blood, my child. It is the only way to restore your family. Where do your loyalties truly lie? With a gunslinger? Or a cleric? They are not your blood, but we are. Think hard on the epitaph you scratched into the stone among the dead names in the depths of Acererak’s tomb."

Sant'oka's Final Resting Place
During their escape from the Nazery, the adventurers retrieve the druid's body from the Fisher's dungeons, carrying it out with them before blowing up the tower. Before departing for the Misty Isles with Clan Ironfist, they bury Sant'oka in an unmarked grave in the feywild, taking comfort from the fact that the druid's modest burial violates the strict funerary customs of Darkmanse, and therefore constitutes a small but solemn act of defiance against the enemy.

DM's Note. At the completion of the Nazery adventure, the PCs leveled up from fifth to sixth level.