Tearing of the Weave Mission Summary

[wynn]

Part One: Temple of Mystra (Katoomba)
Alanna, Jaime, Faith, Fiona, Jordan, Adi. | July 2014  

The Knights were briefed on a mission to Katoomba, Australia (Alanna was team leader).  A temple of Mystra, the goddess of magic, had been built there, and a traveling cleric of Mystra had come across it and been surprised by its existence.  When he got inside, things were ... strange, and he ended up running and was shot at.  There were strange lights and sounds reported and a local bookseller had gone missing who had a brochure for the temple in his home.

On the long flight to Katoomba, they socialized and got to know each other.  

Arriving there, they got a car from the Australian branch and headed out to the temple.  They decided to play tourist and were greeted by a priest who offered healing and blessings for "competitive donations".  He also told them that those who wished to get more revelations could perform "Mystra's Sacred Trust" in a 3 day special service for $250 each.  They all signed up to begin the next night.  Alanna asked around and learned that the temple had gone up very quickly, that the priests were throwing around a lot of money in town, that the police hadn't found anything strange in investigating the odd lights and noises and that the Mystrans weren't friendly with other churches in town. Fiona did research and couldn't find any texts about "Mystra's Sacred Trust" being a thing at all.

Returning to the temple to begin the ritual, they were brought inside by priest Shan Thar to meet Starweaver Deinyn Fembrys who offered a speech about how not everyone may be able to endure the 3 day ritual to gain the "Starry Gnosis" or secret knowledge of Mystra.  They were asked to remove all their jewelry and change into provided vestments and given a tiny bed in a shared room.  They realized that Jordan was a genie, after he could not remove his silver cuffs and Fiona and Jordan explained that they were djinn royalty, kids of the Genie King, the Jareth.  Fiona also explained how her parents' wish had left her unable to remember anything that didn't make her happy.  Faith explained about her brother was mute as a result of them and they gave a little backstory about how those wishes came to be.  They all went to sleep in preparation for the next day.

They spent several days underfed, taking group showers, doing a lot of chanting, and going to nightly ceremonies.  On the third morning, they were woken up to go take place in the last ritual - the Starry Gnosis.  They were brought to a black inner temple where Fembrys pulled out a black globe with starry lights in it - enchanting Fiona, Jaime, and Jordan with its power.  They were ordered to gather things and Adi, Alanna, and Faith pretended to be affected until they had a moment alone.  Faith googled the Starry Gnosis and could find no such artifact in Mystran religion, and they began to worry as Jordan was merrily heading off to hand over his lamp - which would afford the priests absolute control over him as well as wishes.  Faith had held onto Fiona's for safe keeping and they headed down to where they'd been ordered to go - a set of steps down behind the altar, where they passed broken remnants of actual Mystran worship.

They were taken to a dark-haired woman, Lady Arthas, who praised Fembrys and asked how many of the affected 'worshippers' were spellcasters.  Those who identified themselves as casters were taken by the woman, and the others with Fembrys.  Lady Arthas brought them to a hall that ended in a great circular disc of darkness bordered by deep purple stone, which some of them immediately recognized as the symbol of the evil goddess Shar.  Fembys took the others to a torture chamber... and recognizing the danger they were in, the others broke into battle.  Alanna managed to kill Lady Arthas, and Fembrys ran through the black disc, causing Fiona, Faith, Jordan and Alanna to jump in blindly after him. Adi punched Jaime out of his hypnotized state.

They found themselves in a dark room full of human skeletons - around 50, around a black altar with arches.  Fembys smashed an orb there, and black shadowy tendrils extended from the arches, grabbing him and searing the flesh off his bones.  They realized they were looking into a powerful and dangerous portal, but had no idea where it might go, and debated whether sealing it up was the right step or not.  Faith pointed out that Wynn would want to know about it and study it, given his interest in portals and trying to figure out how to make a portal to the Shadow World. An examination of the bodies showed that they were all humanoid (some Shadowkind) and that their flesh had just been misted away.

They found a letter Lady Arthas had written in her study that stated that their temple had been a huge success, and that new followers were arriving weekly to undergo the Starry Gnosis and be dominated so that they might be sent through the "Shadow Portal". She was delighted that Shar apparently deemed many who were forced to go through "unworthy", killing them as sacrifices to her glory.  They seemed to be trying to figure out what made one "worthy" or not, and had decided that only spellcasters held a chance of being able to go through, and called those who were sent through "petitioners".  She discussed success stories of those who had gone through and come back "magnificently transformed by Shar's power" from their trip to "Shar's holy realm".  After clearing out everyone else at the temple and sending the innocents away, they exploded the place to bury entrance to the portal.