• Dr. Eadmon Pagatt took off with all the good stuff from his offices
• They're our offices now
• We interrogated Count Vranikyllssh and got him to talk about how the Demon Princes are building up armies in the Deadlands
• We realize there's “a thing” with The Temple of the Stars that is responsible for the unexpected planar convergence
• The convergence is why everyone is sacrificing people, trying to crack open the gates between the planes
• Once one of the planar gates has been successfully breached, it will change the nature of the prime material plane, so it will not be possible to breach another gate
• You need to sacrifice someone with link to the plane to which the gate you're trying to breach leads; the first cultists were wrong when they tried to sacrifice something that wasn't even an Earth elemental
• We are fairly certain that the ritual to breach a gate does not need to take place at the Temple of the Stars; it just needs to happen somewhere on this plane
• I got Rosegold, my familiar
• She appears to have been a gift from a faerie queen who wants us to find the Temple and stop others from finding it

• Where is the Temple of the Stars?
• What does it do?
• Who is it dedicated to?
• Are there any tricks or traps that will catch the unwary who approach it?
• Does it have any protectors? Cultists? Elementals?
• What does Sehrana believe is the most important thing about the Temple of the Stars?

Mirya and Idadrey very stealthily made their way into the back room of a tavern, where they'd arranged to meet Sehrana. She was there ahead of them with her owl.

Sehrana looked at Mirya, sadly. She said, “Dr. Pagatt didn't treat your sister very well. I … don't think Essa's death was an accident.”

Mirya paused, but did not look surprised.

“But what was he trying to do?” she asked.

“He was trying to do 'something' at The Temple of the Stars. That was step 1 of his plan. That's why there have been so many kidnappings and rituals. Not because of him, directly, but because of what he did at the Temple,” Sehrana said.

“What did he do at the Temple? And how do we get there?” asked Mirya.

“I'm not exactly sure what he did. I was at the Temple when he cast the spell, but Dr. Pagatt made all of us leave before the spellcasting,” she answered. “I do know how to get there. I can draw you a map. There's a shortcut you might be able to use, with the right magic. Dr. Pagatt found a teleportation circle a few days away from the Temple. That could get you from here to the Temple in four or five days instead of two weeks or so over land.”

Teleportation, even through a circle, is a higher level spell than we can do right now.

“Do you know what he was trying to achieve?” asked Mirya.

“Yes. Everything Dr. Pagatt did at the Temple was to force the planar convergence. I'm not sure exactly what he's trying to do with that, but that was the key to his goal. He forced the planes together. All the other people who would normally want to take advantage of the convergence were taken by surprise. Plus, Dr. Pagatt thinks he has something that will prevent others from getting ahead of him.”

“That matches what we thought. We don't know anything much about the Temple. What can you tell us? Why was the Temple of the Stars so special? Why did Dr. Pagatt need to do his ritual there? Could we disrupt the spell by desecrating the Temple? And what is this even a Temple TO?”

“Well, the Temple is from the Syabrin dynasty. It's a temple to the Elven god, the Star Maiden. The Sehren church was in conflict with the Elven church. In later stages, the Sehren church became solidly established. From then on, any attempt to link the throne or the Emperor to another god led to collapse and conquest. But the Temple wasn't important to the ritual because of any religious or spiritual factor, exactly. It was built where several ley lines converge. That's what Dr. Pagatt needed: the ley lines and maybe some factor inside the Temple that lent power to the spell. So, no, desecrating the the Temple probably wouldn't help at all.”

“Well, hell. How do we stop him, then?”

“If you can disrupt the spell, that will interrupt the convergence, but it won't happen right away. It'll probably take a couple of days. I don't know how to stop it now, but your best chance is probably at the Temple itself.”

“Okay, how do we get there?”

“I can draw you a map. It won't be easy. The Temple was protected and obscured and some of those protections are still in place. Dr. Pagatt had a way to turn them off, but you won't know whether they're working until you hit one. Essa found the Temple even with the protections. She's the one who figured out its location by going through all the hard non-magical work of combing through old records. She was really something.”

“Yeah. She was. Did you ever see that thing she could do with a whip? I never could learn how to do that.” Mirya sort of smiled.

“Heh. Yeah. That was something. I'm … not ready to talk about Essa yet. Maybe later. Anyway, the main approach to the Temple is along Sehren roads. The Temple is on the side of a cliff, so the only other was to get there are by climbing a cliff or from the air. The problem is, anyone coming up the road will be easy to see from the Temple, plus, the Temple may not be fully visible until you're half a kilometer away. If Pagatt got there first, he'd see you coming and you wouldn't see him until you were right on top of him. And he's got a head start.”

“You must know him pretty well. How long were you under a geas to him?”

“Five years.” Sehrena's face is stiff.

“What can you tell us about him? Is there anything you think we could use? Like, what kind of magic does he focus on?”

“He's a bit of a generalist. He's good at enchantment. He likes conjuring things. One thing I can tell you, though: there is something seriously wrong with that man. When we were alone, he made us call you 'Your Majesty'. He thought the position of Emperor was beneath him.”

Sehrana stopped herself and did not go into a detailed discussion of the different theories of Empire.

“Anything else we should know?”

“Well, there are trolls in the mountains. Watch out for them. The teleportation circle is in any old trading town that fell into disuse after the Temple was abandoned and the silver mine tapped out. It's been a few thousand years since anyone lived there.

“Uh, let's see, what else. Well, Dr. Pagatt has almost certainly done something to the Temple to stop people from messing with it. Nogara would have helped him with the setup.”

“We never did find a vial for Nogara. If she wasn't under a geas, why did she work with Pagatt?”

“I'm not sure how much Nogara knew about what Dr. Pagatt was doing. I think maybe he had some other way to make her do what he wanted. Her specialty was Northwestern Mogrun dynasty battlefield reconstructions.”

[See the lore section for details on the history. Short version: the Empire was founded by Syabrin elves, then Mogrun orcs took over. Then dragonborn from Drakkis came in. One emperor lived a very long time; turned out he was a dragon polymorphed. Then dwarves. Then Ashkargan orcs. Then Deadlands necromancers. Then the Caltasque dynasty from the other continent came in; they're currently in charge.”]

“I think that's everything I know that could help you figure out how to stop him. Better you than me. Nothing could get me to go back there. I'm leaving. I've learned everything I need here. I'm all-but-dissertation, but I don't need the word “Doctor” in front of my name. I think I might go back to the City.”

The City, of course, is Sehr Haen. It has its own god, the god of the Empire. It's on the Garra River, which has a goddess of its own, one of the big ones in the pantheon, right up there with the god of Sehr Haen.

“One more thing. If you have a chance, keep an eye on Alvin. He's kind of a douchebag, but he has no survival instincts. He didn't deserve what happened to him.”

Mirya and Idadrey nodded.

While Mirya and Idadrey were meeting with Sehrana, Liadon had an appointment with Dr. Augen.

“Good morning, Dr. Augen. Thank you for meeting with me. I want to talk to you about getting access to the Library. I know you mentioned it to Teemin, a few weeks ago, but I don't remember the details.”

“Well, it depends on what sort of information you're looking for. Certain information is restricted, some spells are dangerous, you know. But for general access to the undergraduate section of the library, you'll need a visiting scholar membership. That costs 50 gold per year.”

“Well, there are a few things I'm interested in. Maybe if I tell you a bit more you can tell me if this is the right membership and the right library for me.”

“Certainly. What are you looking into?”

“First, it has become clear that the Convergence is very dangerous. I'm looking to do some research on the planes. In particular, I'm looking into things that could cause a planar convergence and what might end one.

“The second thing I'm interested in is cursed blades: the things they can do and the ways to deal with them.

“The third thing… well, this is a bit personal. You see my friend here, Rose. Um.”

“You seem to have found yourself a familiar? She's lovely.”

“Yes. Um. Well.” Rose sends thoughts of little dead mice to Dr. Augen. “Well, the truth is, I'm a bit concerned on a personal basis. I have, um, well. To be blunt, I was in the Feywilds and I came back without memories of what happened there. And recently there have been hints that I might have made a bit of a deal with one of the Archfey. I would like to do some research into those sorts of agreements, how they work and what the consequences are.”

“Oh, dear. That is concerning. Well, yes, certainly you could look into these things with a Visiting Scholar membership. Now where did I put those forms?”

Duo rummages around in the corner of the room and comes up with several papers stuck in his beak.

“Oh, thank you Duo, yes, very good. Now just fill out these forms and give them to my secretary and he'll set you right up.”

“Thank you so much. Speaking of the convergence, it's now clear that Dr. Pagatt was the one who caused it.”

“He what? This is new information!”

“Yes. We believe that Dr. Pagatt conducted a ritual at the Temple of the Stars and that this forced the convergence. We think he intends to take advantage of the convergence to … well, to do nothing good. But certainly to breach the gates between our plane and another; we don't know which. I can't imagine that will go well. Our plan is to try to stop the convergence as soon as possible, to stop a sacrifice that will breach the gates. Now is there anyone else here we should talk to about the planar situation? Anyone whose specialty or research might help us figure out how to end the convergence? Or should we just start our research in the library?”

“Why yes, the Dean of Conjuration, Dr. Sandahr Silvanar might have some thoughts that could set you in the right direction. Her office hours are 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. on Thursdays, but I expect she might make an exception under the circumstances.”

Liadon takes his leave, pausing only to provide his application to Dr. Augen's secretary (“blood type: not chocolate”) and pay his fee.

Liadon stops by the Movable Feast where he finds Yelprik cooking, Teemin composing and Rash lounging. Teemin is working on a letter to his father. He has more correction than parchment and the entire parchment is just a mess of black ink more ink than page at this point. As Liadon watches, Teemin taps his quill on the parchment. All of the ink disappears and he starts over.

Liadon grabs lunch (sweet & sour chicken mousse with a Malbec and a delightful fruit turnover) and explains what he's been up to this morning. Asks if anyone wants to come along to talk to Dr. Silvanar. Rash joins him. (Rash to Yelprik: “Happy chicken whippin'!”)

We do not notice anything special going on around us at this time.

Rash and Liadon knock on Dr. Silvanar's door.

“Dr. Silvinar?”

“Come.”

Dr. Silvinar is a Drow woman with purple skin, white hair in a bun and an extremely organized desk. Each item is at a precise right angle or parallel to every other item.

“Dr. Silvinar, I'm so sorry to interrupt you without an appointment. Here's a note from Dr. Augen. Can we speak with you, please?”

She takes the note and reads it. Her eyebrows go up.

“As I think Dr. Augen has mentioned in the note, we have reason to believe that someone has artificially created the convergence of the planes. We believe they intend to use a ritual to breach the barrier between this plane and, well, we're not sure which other one. And we're not sure why. But we're fairly certain nothing good will come of this. Dr. Augen suggested you might have some ideas on how that might have been done and therefore how we might be able to undo it. I can tell you that the ritual definitely did happen at the Temple of the Stars in the Azkarnh Nur mountains.”

“Liadon,” Rash murmurs, “you really have to work on your pronunciation!”

“There are a number of different ways this could have been done. I would need more information to be able to narrow it down,” Dr. Silvinar says.

“Well, we know that the person who performed the ritual was Dr. Pagatt. Does that help in any way?”

Dr. Silvinar mutters something in Undercommon. Liadon continues to look hopefully in her direction.

“Well, that might narrow it down a bit. You need to stop this, now. I don't know anything about this Temple of the Stars.”

“It's a Temple to the Elvish Star Maiden. It's found on the intersection of several ley lines.”

“Hmm. Hmm. I need to look into this. I can put something together for you in the next day or two.”

“Thank you very much. If you could make it more like one day, instead of two, that would be wonderful because we're trying to stop the convergence before Dr. Pagatt can perform the next ritual and destroy the world as we know it.

“And also,” said Rash, “we have suspicions he may not be the only one trying to apply leverage in this situation.

“Yes. Others may also be attempting to breach the planes, so the sooner the better, please, and thank you so much.”

“Indeed. I'll do what I can.” Dr. Silvinar fingers a ring on the pinky finger of her left hand. It's a signet ring with three gem stones, one white, one green and one red. The symbol is in reverse. Liadon and Rash narrow their eyes; they will recognize it if they come across it again. Rash just assumes it means Dr. Silvinar is a member of whatever organization should be looking out for these sorts of things.

Liadon makes an appointment for the next day, and Dr. Silvinar writes out a list of books we should review: there are ten books, at least one of which we have recently retrieved.

Liadon and Rash head to the library where Liadon displays his brand new Visiting Scholar's card. They meet a 7' tall non-binary Goliath who calls a page over to help them. The page locates all 10 books, and they're available for borrowing. Rash lugs them all back to the Movable Feast where Liadon and Teemin read and read and read and read and drink Yelprik's very inspirational coffee.

Here's what we learn:

• We now understand how planar convergences work
• We have some conjectures about how to mess up a ritual that is used to force a convergence, and how ley lines might play into it.
• We have a clear general framework
• We conclude Dr. Pagatt is tapping something in the Temple for the magical energy necessary for the spell
• There will be a magical circle that's containing the energy
• Breaking it might have some implications
• Just burning down the Temple is not a great idea. It has about a 25% chance of working, a 25% chance of making things worse, and a 50% chance of having no effect
• Also, that probably won't work terribly well, since the Temple is mostly made of stone.
• We're confident that when we get there, we'll be able to figure out what Dr. Pagatt is doing.
• We understand how people are trying to kick open the gates between the planes
• We understand what effects that would have: it will affect the physical and metaphysical properties of the material plan, and change them to match those of the plane to which the barrier is breached; it will also remove constraints on some types of beings appearing on the prime material plane. For example, usually there are no gods on the prime material plane. Demi-gods, Archfey of the Feywild, the Raven Queen of Shadowfell, the ArchDevils of the Hells cannot normally manifest in the prime material plane unless someone here lets them in, constrained. If the gates are kicked down, they will be able to wander at will. So if the Demon Princes win, Asmodeus will be able to wander our plane with all his demons.

We need to fix this. Now.

Dr. Silvinar gets someone to activate the teleportation circle for us. (The circle is out back, by the stables.) She promises to send someone after us with anything else she learns, including details of how to break the spell holding the convergence in place.

After much to-ing and fro-ing we determine we CAN fit the Movable Feast through the teleportation portal, barely in time. A third year student, a gnome, opens the portal for us. As we teleport away, we glance back in time to see Duke Harold's bad guys flicker into visibility and yell, “they're getting away!”

The portal closes.

Our ears pop. We pop up in a 10-foot circle etched in the ground, on dark brown-gray stone. We're in what probably used to be a building, but what now appears to be a stone courtyard. There are crumbled bits of stone where the walls used to be, and pillars still standing in the corners. Up a rise we see various buildings in a state of disrepair. Stone remains. Wood is rotten. It's all Elvish make, very old, originally very well put together.

Mirya reminds the others that there are trolls in the mountains.

Teemin: “Did you say, 'TROLLS'? Trolls are big. I am small. Great.”

Liadon remembers that trolls hate fire and acid, and explains this to the group.

Yelprik starts thinking up good flambe recipes. “The say you shouldn't feed the trolls, but I think a little cherries jubilee is right the trick!”

We set up camp for the night in a mostly-upright building with the remains of a pretty mosaic tile floor.

Teemin: “Indoors is good. There are no trolls indoors.”

We bring the animals in with us.

Yelprik serves up honey-glazed cheese spit-roast for dinner with crusty bread and cider, followed by baklava. Yum.

We retire for the night. Mirya and Idadrey take first watch.

Idadrey looks at Mirya from time to time, but Mirya is introspective. She's still thinking about what Sehrana said about Dr. Pagatt not treating Essa very well. Her tail twitches from time to time. Idadrey concludes she's full of emotions about her sister and lets her be. In the distance, they hear howling. Idadrey pulls out her sword and begins to practice. Mirya thinks idly about giving her some pointers but says nothing.

Nothing interrupts their watch.

Liadon and Yelprik take second watch. Liadon notices Idadrey practicing, but says nothing. As they arrive, Idadrey says, “Keep an ear out. I hear something out there, but it sounds far away so far.”

“Will do.”

“Sleep tight. We'll keep an eye out.”

Yelprik starts a fire. They settle in to watch.

“Can I ask you a dumb question?” asks Liadon.

“There are no dumb questions.”

“Well, maybe a slightly offensive question.”

“Okay.”

“You're a good cook. But you're not the best cook in the world. Why do you think the Duke is so set on having you come cook for his court?”

“Personality clash, I think. He wants to punish me.”

“And he thinks the best way to do that is for him to eat your food? That just seems like asking for trouble.”

“He's not a man who likes to hear no. I don't want to be pinned down to one place, so I said no. He didn't like that. He's going to learn a lesson.”

“There are definitely lessons to be learned here, for sure. So if you don't want to be pinned down, what DO you want?”

“I want to go down in the halls of the Brotherhood of Chefs, Cooks and Bakers as the finest combat chef ever known.”

“Heh. You're well on your way. But… is it about the recognition? About the achievement?”

“It's about having a legacy. Being remembered.”

“For what you achieved?”

“Yeah.”

“How would you know if you got there? You won't be alive when this legacy is carried on. How will you know if you've achieved in your life what you want?”

“Hmm. I think I'll know when I'm in a tavern or a campground somewhere and I hear a story that someone is telling about me, and it's a story that I don't remember happening.”

“Nice. You want to be a legend.”

Yelprik's eyes are fully peeled and he's very alert, so he hears voices off to the southwest of us. At the same time, the howls come again, closer, from the north.

Yelprik goes for a little walk to the west and finds acolytes, a cultist and a great big stone vat in the building southwest of us. Rose flies into the building and sees four people in it, flies back to Liadon.

“Everybody get out here!” Liadon yells. “We've got four cultists and a big vat of badness!”

The first cultist runs out of the building, points at Yelprik and casts a burst of magic at him. Yelprik freezes and falls over sideways. (Natural 1!)

A second cultist joins him and points at Liadon. A magical hammer flies toward his head.

Rash struggles out of some blankets as three trolls appear from the east. The first lumbers up to Liadon, roars and smacks him. So much damage. The second and third attack the cultists.

Liadon shoves his torch in the troll's face, but it leans out of the way. No damage. Rose hisses and stings the troll. “I got it, Mama!”

Yelprik shakes off the immobility spell, just as the first acolyte attacks the second troll. The second acolyte takes in the scene at a glance, hides in a corner and casts protection on themself.

Idadrey races out of the building, reaches out and flames flow from her hands over the second and third trolls, plus both of the cultists.

Rose stings the first troll again, and does a bit of damage.

The cultists try to attack the trolls in front of them. Small wounds appear.

Liadon yells, “A little help over here!”

Rash runs in and attacks Liadon's troll, slicing it open with their axe. The backhand of Rash's second swipe skids off the troll's natural armor. Rash's action surge leaves the troll bleeding and angry.

Owlfonso rears up on Teemin's head and mantles his wings threateningly.

Rash's troll swipes back. Ow.

“Ya fucker!”

The other two attack the cultists. One falls to the ground. Then the second. The trolls' wounds begin to close.

Liadon reaches toward the campfire and pulls the flames onto first troll.

“Aaargh!”

Mirya sneaks up behind the first troll and tries to stab it. She completely misses. she disengages and dekes back into the corner. Can trolls laugh?

This is not going well for us.

Out of the south, a wall of flames, thirty feet high appears and flies straight toward us. It engulfs the trolls, the cultists, the acolytes and RASH. They all fall to the ground, burning merrily.

The fire condenses in a humanoid forms and resolves itself into a grinning woman with brownish pink skin and flaming hair.

“Hi, kiddo!”

“Hi, Mom.”