"Does anyone need a restoration or limited wish?" Ursina inquired.
"I will need one after we sleep. I am still down strength," Gavril responded.
"After reading more about the Path to the Black Stars ritual, I may need a restoration after performing or maybe in the middle as I will lose wisdom as the ritual continues," Ciprian said more worried than earlier.
"I will take two of them after the sleep," Ursina responded.
"Will you need help in casting the ritual?" Erevel asked.
"It would help some if I can get four people to be secondary casters," Ciprian said.
"We can decide tomorrow," Armania said.
As the group awoke Paullus stood up slowly feeling fatigue as he recovered from a nighttime battle with Agna for control of the physical body. "I am feeling so tired but we must push on toward Carcosa. I will be ready to leave when the rest of you are."
After memorizing spells Ursina cast a restoration on Gavril restoring his strength. The party then discussed which stela to head to for the casting of the ritual.
"I heard that the stela in the snarl was associated with Carcosa, the others we did not know the association. So we should go to the snarl." Gavril shared.
The rest of the team agreed and the party headed for the city of Neruzavin once again. As they entered the city the first thing they noted was the lack of the green vines in any fashion. It seemed that all of it had been eradicated. Next they saw a flock of birds and a few rats scuttling along the alleyways. The overwhelming sense of foreboding had been somewhat lifted from the area of the city. The walk was made much easier with this change. Before they entered the snarl a refreshing cloudburst showered the city for several minutes.
In the snarl they found no creatures, it was as they left it. Before Ciprian began the ritual he and Gavril headed to the Saffron Prince's realm to search for magic items. Unfortunately they did not find any magic or hidden caches. As they returned Kaklatath volunteered to take the Unspeakable One's Vestments to the underground Ythian hidden cache and hide it away for eternity. With that she left the area before Ciprian began the ritual.
"Who wants to be a supplementary caster?" Ciprian asked looking for some help.
"I'll join in," Erevel volunteered.
"What are the drawbacks?" Gavril asked. "Can we lose something we need?"
"If we fail then there is a negative permanent level, which might be bad for Armania and Ursina." Ciprian responded.
"I am out," Ursina interjected pointedly.
"I do not want to lose anything," Armania added in.
"So I guess I won't have any supplemental casters as I need four." Ciprian said sadly.
With this determined Ciprian began the ritual with the party waiting for him to complete but not too close to him. He first drew a ritual circle and stood within it, tracing eldritch symbols within the air to attune their current location to Carcosa’s cosmic coordinates. Every ten minutes he made a drew on some knowledge and used the book for inspiration. Upon this ritual’s completion, the carved runes on the focus stelae glowed with eldritch power and shone beams of energy toward Ciprian. Two additional beams focused on Ciprian. They came from the direction of the other two stela. These beams cast a circle of sickly yellow light around the caster and teleport all of the party felt their bodies pull and twist as Golarion faded from sight in a blinding flash.
The party arrived in what seemed to be a miniaturized and compressed version of Neruzavin. The buildings, shaped from odd angles and pocked with incomprehensible windows, formed a canyon of towers. The dark stone structures of Neruzavin pressed in tightly, looming overhead as an oppressive reflection of the alien city. It seemed as if the city were shrunken and pressed together to form claustrophobic streets among the buildings. The ground was rough but scoured flat, and a strong cold, dry wind whistled through the grooves and haphazard openings in the rock carrying fine sand. The walls of this artificial canyon wound away to the southeast. High above, a moon shines with a, pale, sickly, dim light through a break in the clouds, and ethereal towers rose behind it. Simply to glimpse this sight is to know, beyond all reason but with utmost certainty, that the party was in Carcosa.
Just as the party arrived three Flying Polyps flew into the area with monstrous roars that sounded like shrieks mixed with scouring wind as they rushed to battle. As usual the party was not prepared for a flying battle, save Ciprian who had cast his Phantom Steed prior to the ritual. Gavril pulled his bow out and prepared to have Flying cast. Armania cast fly on herself letting all know that the Mass Fly was not available as a quickened magic missile hit one of the Polyps. Erevel donned her wings as Ursina backup and cast Greater Invisibility. Ciprian leapt on his horse a flew up to 30 feet identifying the creatures once again and calling out that sonic did not work but electricity was very useful. He began a performance against the creatures and cast haste on the main fighters.
A second Polyp caused a cyclone to appear which attempted to grab Erevel, Ciprian, Paullus and Gavril up in its wind but each did not leave the ground. Then the third Polyp caused the winds to increase and flow in a massive downdraft making movement on the ground or in the air more difficult if not impossible. It was also clear that ranged weapons would not break through the wind.
Armania Dimension stepped forward to deliver Starfall on the three monsters but Gavril still could not do anything and even had trouble moving. Erevel, frustrated to no end, failed flying but moved under one of the creatures. Ursina hurried around the edge of the battle and delivered a Flame Strike. and Ciprian hit with his wand of Magic Missiles. More wind attacks followed from the Polyps, interleaved with Paullus trying to move against the flow.
As the battle continued Ciprian and Armania both had spells fail coming out of their hands. Erevel was so angry he taunted the Polyp above him to come down and fight. A Polyp did a fly by attack on Gavril. Finally the downdraft was gone and the party could move easier once again, Armania recast Starfall but a Lightning Bolt failed, Ursina recalled her Flame Strike. The cyclone went veering off on its own as a Polyp tried to grab Gavril leaving itself open to Paullus slashing sword. Erevel finally was able to hit one of the monsters when it died flew off toward another. Magic Missiles took out a second Polyp but Armania was hurting badly as Paullus finished off the third creature.
The party mostly sat down exhausted from battling both the Polyps and the wind.
DM's Notes: The group earned 19,200 XP and now have 656,054 XP needing only234,000 to reach 16th level.
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