- Travelling by cart, we head towards Luskan - Qwimby gifts Ellette with a bag of heart shaped sweets - Ellette examines Nissa's arm - which appears to glow purple through the cracks. Steve and Graxen watch - In the front of the cart - Qwimby, Orlan and Kyo converse. - Kyo admits to having murdered a number of people, estimating it to be a small village worth - He claims this was owing to revenge! - The murders were part of his quest to avenge his owner's death - In Everlund, a nearby town, the city guard referred to Kyo as "The Phantom Claw" - The glow from Nissa's arm begins to pulse. She winces, as it is burning - Nissa's arm begins to split, with two hands emerging. A face in a pointed mask attempts to claw its way out. It is wrapped in a purple cloak, while the mask is pale ivory - Ellette stabs this creature with her Moonblade, it withdraws back inside - the crack in Nissa's arm sealing. The pointed mask remains, impaled by Ellette's sword - Touching this mask causes Ellette to feel a sensation akin to the sting of a nettle. It almost feels like a pulse - As this commotion subsides, we arrive at Luskan - The city seems quiet - Seeing no sign of the denizens of Luskan, we venture deeper into the city - seeing a number of tents still set up. - Graxen notices the same scent in Nissa's arm emanating from the distance - the far side of Luskan, growing fainter as it appears to be moving away - Nissa's arm is also pulling towards this way - A dash of purple runs by a nearby building - Kyo casts Detect Good and Evil - sensing several entities dotted around Luskan, within different distances. In particular, one is hiding behind the nearby broken wizard's tower - This entity gives off a sense of unsettling magic - As if in response, Nissa screams in pain - cradling her arm - An ominous voice calls out from the behind the tower - a humanoid emerging, clad in the same purple robes as the creature that attempted to claw its way out of Nissa. Five others join it, encircling us - Kyo casts Dispel Magic on the closest one - it disappears, its cloak falling to the ground. - As they draw closer, the pain in Nissa's arm seems to intensify - Ellette Dispels two more as Orlan casts Silence on the three remaining - Steve and Graxen rush two of the figures - as another figure emerges, calling out a greeting - This figure identifies himself as Maelis - He claims to have an answer to Nissa's condition - He wants her connection to the elemental chaos for himself - He lets slip that he serves a "master" - confirming this to be Pandorym - He implores Ellette for a peaceful agreement - wishing to earn her trust - Kyo casts Magic Circle on the ground around Maelis - trapping him in place - Maelis wishes to take Nissa to an old temple in the Underdark. He agrees that we may join them - He claims this temple is dedicated to forgotten entities. He wishes to release Pandorym from his "encampment" - He goes on to claim Pandorym was falsely imprisoned - being punished by deities who deemed him inferior. He goes on to say the other gods trapped Pandorym because they feared his magic and could not control him - He speaks of The Weave - claiming Pandorym's magic is not born of it, which troubled the other gods - Ellette counters that releasing Pandorym may cause an imbalance. Maelis calls this naive, pointing out that reality as it is may in fact be in imbalance without Pandorym - Maelis speaks of Karsus' Folly, and the destruction of the Nitherese Empire. He also accuses Mystra of being to blame for the Spellplague - As Maelis continues to debate with Orlan and Ellette, Kyo casts Command - "go" - This is successful, causing Maelis to disappear - Nissa says while Maelis was nearby, her arm felt as if it was pulling towards him - Orlan and Kyo find all the union workers in the nearby tents - they are all asleep - "How do you wake him up?"/ "I slap him" /"Accidentally give him guidance" - Orlan senses a magic over the sleeping workers, enforcing their slumber - Maelis reappears, grasping Nissa. He seizes the book from her backpack, before tossing something on the ground. - Nissa's arm continues to hurt but is no longer swelling - The item on the ground is a coin with a split down its centre - Nissa feels weakened without the book - Her complexion has grown paler - Graxen picks up the coin, sensing it to be magical - but its purpose eludes him - Graxen offers it to Orlan to discover its purpose - Orlan examines the coin, finding it to have the same chaotic energy as Nissa's arm. The split looks to be intentional, cracking it will cause a teleportation spell - Graxen and Ellette resolutely decide to crack the coin and follow Maelis - believing it is the only course of action to save Nissa - Olan cracks the coin, causing a chaotic swirl of magic that whisks us through figmants and glimpses of Maelis. We hear "book", "prison", "fragment" and "Pandorum" - Pulled through an ensuing sphere, we arrive in a cavern in front of a temple - The coin has become two pieces of paper - which joins iteslf. Orlan attempts to read it - "The book is a prison, not just a curse. It does not just hold knowledge. It holds something alive. If it were to break, the consequences would be beyond mortal comprehension - It was created to trap a fragment of Pandorum, a being of pure Chaos that exists beyond the planes. - There was a second artifact, a twin to the book, needed to keep the prison stable. Without it, the book's power will only continue to leak and Pandorum will soon break free. The second artifact is rumoured to still exist in the ruins of the Temple of the First Seal. - The temple was lost when its foundation crumbled into an interplanar rift, swallowed by the shifting tides of the Elemental Chaos. - An elderly man emerges from the temple, clad in a tunic. - He approaches us, using a walking stick to support himself - Kyo sense this to be an arcane focus - He seems perplexed at our arrival - Kyo claims we are here to fix the floor - He identifies the temple as being "of the first seal" - He cannot give us his name as he claims it is long forgotten - He says the seal is no longer here, having been broken long ago - He was present at the time, and lost his sight having glimpsed what was inside. He speaks of seeing "chaos and perfection" - He is unsure what caused the breaking, speaking of an event far away that caused the seal to spontaneously split - The way he describes the concept of the seal reminds Graxen of the orb Nissa sealed in the keep - At the entrance of the temple, the man freezes - beginning to retch before being violently split in two - A portion of a stone tablet clatters to the ground where he stood - There are glowing eyes inside the temple, purple and red - belonging to a figure in a purple robe - This figure approaches, it appears to be Maelis - He requests the fragment of the tablet - He claims the old man was leading us into a trap, intending to create a new seal by sacrificing our lives - He wants the tablet as it belongs to the second seal - This is not Maelis, but Vesska - an acolyte of his - We refuse to give up the tablet, instead offering to transport it to the second temple for him. Vesska counters that he needs to touch the tablet in order to teleport us all there - Ellette turns invisible as we speak - Vesska continues attempting to convince us to let him touch the tablet - but is literally cut off when Ellette decapitates him - Orlan finds another coin with a split in his pocket - Steve takes the dead man's cloak - Inside the temple are six pillars and a central altar - There looks to be a circular burn mark on top of the altar - A small knife lays on the ground nearby - Orlan cracks the coin - In another chaotic whirlwind, we are brought to a large open cavern - on a path surrounded by lava - Ritualistic humming echoes through the chamber - As we continue down the path, Nissa grows even more weak - her skin fading to a pale grey - Graxen and Steve speak about admiting love, with Graxen wishing to express it to Nissa - We arrive at the gates of the second temple, where the chanting grows louder. Nissa's arm swells in response - One voice echoes above all the others - announcing "our esteemed guest has arrived. Make way" - We make our way inside - an open arena with cultists surrounding us. A lich floats in the centre - with an alter at the far side - This is Zerovak - He wishes to drain the magics from Nissa's arm and place them in a pot on the alter - He speaks of methods to repair, break or change the seals - They wish to repair the broken seals, changing them in the process - He uses the metaphor of changing a door to a window - allowing both parties to gaze through to the other side - Zerovak is intrigued when he learns that Maelis wished to fully release Pandorum - having stolen Nissa's book to do so - Zerovak asks about the previous Liches we have encountered - His ears prick up at the mention of Zargathax. He knows him very well, having been guided to this temple by him - He speaks of Zargathax as being his patron - Maelis enters the temple, brandishing the book - He accuses us of lying - claiming we do not share the lich's goals and that we wish to destroy the elemental plane of chaos - Zerovak demands to know if we wish to break the seals or restore them - Maelis places the book on the altar. Zerovak joins him, asking that we present Nissa and the fragment of the tablet - Ellette demands that Maelis step away from the book before Nissa approaches the altar - Kyo emerges from the shadows, baring the fragment of tablet between his teeth - He approaches the altar, sitting upon its matching piece - Zerovak commands Maelis to step back from the altar - with Maelis complying - Ellette walks with Nissa towards the altar, with Zerovak joining them - He describes the process to Ellette and Nissa, a ritual intended to repair the seals - This involves placing Nissa's hand upon the book. A Dagger must pierce her hand and the book - embedding into the tablet - Ellette pushes the broken tablet pieces together, the book is then placed on top by Orlan - Nissa refuses to place her hand on the book - Ellette pushes Zerovak for Zargathax's involvement - learning the seals and temples were revealed to him in exchange for knowledge regarding druid circles - He claims to believe Zargathax only wished to learn of the circles, and he was ignorant of his intent to destroy them - As they speak, the book seems to vibrate slightly - The cultists around us begin to hum ominously - Nissa has disappeared, being replaced by a cultist - and the book is now a large rock. - Nissa's hand is now on the book and Maelis' has stabbed a dagger through it - The magic from Nissa's arm begins to drain into the book. Nissa is sucked through into a portal that's created - with Maelis following - Kyo, attempting to strike Maelis, is sucked through - Zerovak wishes us luck as we vanish into the portal - We arrive on a platform surrounded by a chaotic miasma. - In the distance, we see Nissa and Maelis. She is laid prone on an altar - We have arrived in the elemental plane of chaos