SESSION 2026 07 05

Hilltop

Danalyth asks if Orin has Ellie's contract. He doesn't but can put in a request. Shard gathers the party and shares what she knows about Ivy.

Ivy used to be a summoner, but bond with Shard is broken; might mean her magic is removed though she might have another source now. Even without magic, she's a very skilled hypnotist. She's a goblin (and therefor pretty short), wears a top hat, and has a second mind of sorts? Not like Elta; the other person's name is Ivory, Ivy had asked her to remove the Master's control if she ever fell under. Considering Ivy seems to be under the Master's control, Ivory shouldn't be trusted.

To the Archives

Party heads to the portal room along with Lauve. One of the portals is lit up, with the iconography of a pendulum and a book. Shard recognizes them as Ivy's. Lauve is surprised the portal is lit at all. Elta wants to go through first without the party, Shard says "Elta, that's not a plan, that's a bit." Danalyth puts through her finger. It feels cold, like the sensation of nothingness, not unlike the weird portal before. The portal's appearance is slightly different from the other portals as well, similar to the time they went to the weird dimension. Shard sticks her head through, and sees stone ruins of an upside down clocktower, with two monsters eating a statue of Serris. Serris feels a prick in his left hand, and sees it become transparent. The party charges in to deal with the fuckery.

What the fuck is happening

The party see Ojo, Ash and Goldenshade fighting off monsters. Elta prepares to fire her mortar at the monsters, as do her allies prepare to take their shots. They all attack, and combat commences. The strange crystal-like creature fascinates most of the party, the melee members take down the big guy, Elta styles on the crystal, and Leah pushes it off the ledge, into nothingness... where the memories of it are promptly taken with it. Why even is Leah standing there? Elta did nothing that fight, huh? The party inspects Serris' statue, which is missing its right arm... and so is Serris. Shard and Leah graft on a functional metal stick-arm onto the statue, and Serris' avatar gains it as well. They go to Goldenshade, who asks how and why they are here again. The party explains, but Goldenshade urges them to leave, now, before 'he' comes back. Before the party can ask who it is Goldenshade is referring to, a tall, celestial-appearing creature appears, and banishes Goldenshade. They reach out, touch Elta, who promptly is shot back, dying. Party goes through portal, Shard throws up wall so the creature cannot follow.

Okay we made it to the Archives

Stabilize and heal Elta, Serris remanifests his avatar to regain his arm; it works but remanifesting at all is a struggle. They head forward to the Archives, answering riddles presented by sand golems, with the final one taking Leah's blood. Inside, they see someone passed through recently, spotting trails of boots, claws, and knives. Turn mechanism, go right, big scary creature, burns Kaisume's fingerprint and returns to stone, door unlocks. Similar mechanism, opens something on the other side, go back all the way, hydra defending other button, Danalyth presses it, Hydra turns into a statue, door clicks open. Biiiiig fucking doors to the north and south. Danalyth asks the door questions with the whistle. Bunch of questions get asked, but turns out the door is already open. Inside we find three guys from the Crimson Clouds - Riecht nach Bohnen, Edgar Viscerate and Stitch, who is a wood golem with metal claws. We also find evil clones of the party members whose fingerprints were stolen, which are Kaisume, Leah and Danalyth. Riecht and Edgar jump into a giant hourglass while we stay behind to fight Stitch and the evil clones. After we defeat the clones and burn Stitch' wooden body, the claws try to fly away but Shard stops them using her control over metal, and traps them underneath a series of giant iron cubes. Crimie reveals that Stitch is one of their 'projects', a living weapon much like themselves. He was once a serial killer but was turned into a wood golem. The party questions what this implies about Crimie's own origin, but they refuse to elaborate. After Danalyth sneaks off with Kaisume to do some unknown shady business, the party follows the other Crimson Cloud members through the hourglass.

The Archives

On the other side of the hourglass, the party finds the real Archives of Nethys, where the Archivist is being held up by Sorenece Sentinal. Victor and Eldra are there, watching her with reverence, while Riecht and Edgar try to stop her from whatever she's doing. Sorenece tells the party she's already taken care of Ivy's 'extraction', and they can simply do her the favor of dealing with the Crimson Clouds. Shard questions what she's talking about and what she has done to Ivy, and Sorenece explains she's after something Ivy has, that allows her to change fate. She just wants to extract this gift, and will let Ivy go if she survives. Shard asks if she means Ivory, and Sorenece is surprised she knows an eidolon knows that much. She talks down to Shard for being a 'facsimile of a person' and calls her an eidolon repeatedly as if it were a slur. When she tries to leave, Shard summons a wall or metal inside her portal, blocking her off as she goes through and cutting off her arm, but Sorenece doesn't respond to Shard's threats. She disappears, but not before dropping the Archivist to his seeming death and horrifically fusing her minions including Victor and Eldra into a facsimile of one of the Elva dragons. The party decides the only way to survive is to save the Archivist, and Kaisume jumps down after him to heal him while the rest of the party uses various magical books to hold off the dragon, including one that contains a fairy called Trinket and one that turns Elta into an ancient green dragon. Eventually, the Archivist simply banishes the dragon out of the library, and the party is given the chance to ask him questions. They decide to spend the next few days at the Archive to research various topics.