Whilst I slept the others talked with the guards and other residents of the Bastion. They’re going to stay there whilst we ‘deal’ with the Layer Lord, and I will be honest, the magnitude of that intimidates me. But it’s also the right thing to do.

We travelled for a fair bit over rocky ground before we came upon the Layer Lord’s castle. A huge plain surrounds it, and there is a massive army of Demodans there, more a crowd than a regimented army.
On the one hand I take Jaros’s point about a covert insertion being easier, on the other hand I honestly wish we had an army of our own to clear us a path. Ah well.

Over and above the castle are a collection of stormclouds hitting the four towers that surround the central keep with bolt after bolt of lighting in a near continuous stream.
Skit takes to her bat form and goes for a fly around. There’s a heartstopping moment as she gets in close the clouds and is seared by a large bolt, however it’s an unjustified reaction; she flies on mostly unphased.

On her report she tells us the keep is almost entirely deserted, but the towers are crammed, stuffed to bursting full of people on the receiving end of these lightning strikes.

This time we all go in, the objective insertion. A daring flight below the clouds, followed by a steep dive sees us at the front door. There are a few Demodan guards here but the frollicking hordes have quite the run to get to us. Jaros engages the demons whilst I work on opening a hole in the walls. In and licking our wounds from the fight (or in the case of Jaros, cleaning all the slime off his armour. Did I mention how fat some of those Demodans were?)

We track down a single large room with a single appropriately large being inside it, doing nothing. We gather and enter the room weapons drawn. The Layer Lord is a giant sized man, like Dugobrah but blue skinned instead. He wields two maces and charges an enlarged Jaros head on. To my surprise the two exchange banter whilst the fight goes on, a degree of professional respect between the two as spear and maces make dizzying patterns through the sky.
Skit stays out of the fight for some reason, scampering around the back of the room. The reason becomes abundantly clear after about half a minute of fighting when a clarion call echoes around the room, and a feeling of empowered rejuvination falls over all of us. Everyone stops and looks at skit, who is holding a horn to her lips emblazened with the symbol of Tritherion. Sevastian’s face of open shock, arcane magics dissipating, was quite something to behold.

We settle down and talk things out. This guy’s name is Raiden. He killed the last layer lord and had since held the Demodans in check, using fear and intimidation to keep them from rampaging across the layer.
With a bit of twisted logic he’s been trying to use the lightning and the suffering to retune a tuning fork, which he hands over to us. It seems we have a key out of here! Now to find the lock…

He mentions some other things, Adimarcus is here. On Carcerei, imprisoned and insane in a tower of skulls…
Raiden has already sought the assistance of Adimarcus in getting out, but the mad Fallen Paragon refused his requests. He said that Adimarcus was so insane that it caused him physical pain to listen to him, and if we were to try anything, to ensure we had a strong bargaining chip. I keep it to myself but I have the strongest urge to go talk to him.

Alas, that is not to be. Raiden agrees to hold down the fort and keep the Demodans in check whilst we investigate finding a way out.
Our next step is to return to Calderra and have the tuning fork(s) identified.
On the way back we encounter Drugobah at the Bastion, and commit to getting him an the guards out of here.

The journey back is considerably faster. We bypass the creepy mountain by flying over it. I can’t stress how much I enjoy the freedom to move in 3 dimensions, but I could write pages on the subject. So I wont.

When we arrive back, Caldera is on lockdown. No Heironians allowed. I wonder what set that off? Regardless Sevastian and I are cleared to enter (Skit decided to self identify as a Heironian), so we go to the temple of wee-jas and have our tuning forks identified. We use the Celestia and Abyssal forks as a baseline to verify, and discover the third one we’ve had all along leads to the Outlands, and the one we just acquired goes to the Paraelemental plane of Ice.
Well, at least now I have an excuse to investigate why the sewers are always so unnaturally cold right?

We took the statues from the mayor’s place, having determined that they were all victims of the mayor’s magical door, and dropped them off at the temple for de-petrification.

We hang around in our little hideout for 3 days. My condition is pretty bad, the others are/have noticed now and are aware. It’s not getting noticeably better or worse. I spend the days wrapped in blankets and shivering violently.

After that point we’re all tired of waiting and decide to make our way to the layer lord’s palace.
Jaros flat out tells the others they’re not to come too, that he needs them here, that he doesn’t want the cohesion of his elite strike force broken up by new faces and entities being involved. An argument follows.
Zenrith wants to go too, Klarissa seems a little put out at Jaros’ telling her to stay behind. Jaros points out that us 4 are the most capable, to which I retort that in my condition I shouldn’t be travelling AT ALL. He gave me a withering look when I told him to take Zenrith in my place. Honestly I don’t understand why he didn’t. Zenrith has shown himself to be in close communion with his deity, and is almost certainly capable of filling in for me whilst I try and recover. Honestly I’d rather Zenrith got taken in my stead.

Regardless, the trip to what for the sake of sanity I will think of “the south west” of Calderra is somwhat refreshing, getting out and on the move again is very pleasant, less so the constant headache, weakness, and fever.
We eventually reach the mountain range that Dugobrah, the giant smith made reference to, once again we have Skit scout ahead. I’ve taken a leaf out of Meerthan’s book and prepared some spells of communication and seeing. So, for a while I get to see the world through a rat’s eyes, which is a novel experience! Everything is so much lower down.

As we delve further into the cave system, the walls’ consistency begins to change, coated in some sort of organic slime. The cave floor rumbles occasionally. Suddenly through Skit’s eyes I see a hoard of rats approach. Not just your average rats, these ones… well their heads aren’t complete. You can see their brains, and they are actually glowing.

Skit strikes up a conversation with them, I can’t tell what. but from the way the hoard is moving, it’s almost like it’s a single creature rather than many seperate ones.
After they move on from Skit they run past us. Sevastian must have a thing about rats, because he keels over into the swarm, a suddenly much MUCH more numerous swarm. That’s beyond creepy, but they’re not stopping they continue onward, and Sevastian awakes after a while.

As we descend deeper the walls consistency begins to change again, now more… veiny than before. on a hunch I touch my fingers to one of the veins… I… don’t really know how to describe what a pulsing rock might feel like, but that’s what it was. This mountain appears to have a heartbeat.

We continue through the mountain until Skit comes across a massive chamber, presumably in the heart of the mountain. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of passageways lead off from this central chamber in all directions, horizontally and vertically. In the middle is a massive stone obelisk, floating next to that is a figure, observing. I got the impression the figure was not of malicious intent, but instead taking care of the obelisk.
We chill at the exit of our tunnel whilst Skit sniffs out the best passageway out of the mountain. It takes her a while but we sneak off. Something about this chamber creeps me out, tempering my natural curiosity.

Skit scampers back, apparently having found a way out, and so we skirt the ominous obelisk and continue on the way away from the creepy obelisk and its attendant.
Out in the dim orange ambient light of Carceri feels much better, if that can be said.

After yet more travelling, in the distance can be seen a large jutting spire of metal, the presumed Bastion of Last Hope. As we’re coming up, Jaros receives a Sending from Zenrith, apparently we’ve been out of contact for three weeks?
This doesn’t make much sense. We’ve been using spell durations as a reliable way of keeping track, so unless time itself is warped in that cave, Zenrith must be wrong.

Jaros and the others do most of the talking to the people in the Bastion. Apparently the greysky guards are in there. For health reasons I’m outside. Skit starts building me a mud shack when I’m struck by a sort of divine inspiration? I can see a way to channel Sanctified Magic that I hadn’t before. I channel a truly tremendous amount over the course of ten minutes, reforming the world around me to create a small fortified rest stop/ wayshrine.

It doesn’t feel like home, but it’s pleasantly familiar. The main door opens onto a common room with some basic tables and chairs, a couple of noticeboards that are currently empty, a nice fireplace above which hangs the symbol of faith. There’s a couple of side rooms containing bunks that sleep up to 8 people. There’s a ladder leading through a trapdoor onto the roof, and the whole thing is made of stone and timber, pleasantly similar to the material plane.
It’ll last the lion’s share of a day, and is intrinsically warded against intrusion.

I’ll leave off this entry there, because even with the extra blankets and comfort afforded by a bed, I’ll need a lot of rest if i’m to fight of this bedamned illness.

We sent in Skit as a scout. I must admit the ability to shape shift is a very useful one, and at times I get a little jealous. Then I remember she changes into a giant rat, at which point it becomes less enviable. Each to their own.
There are two entrances to the mayor’s place, one is a heavily reinforced and bolted door. Almost certainly alarmed, so the other entrance seems to be a smarter place to start. Skit goes in and discovers a standard kitchen.

I don’t think I’ll ever know if by brilliance or clumsiness this happened, but Skit managed to break a barrel of breadwater all over the floor. The spread of the liquid revealed an apparent gap in the wall where visually there should be none. Illusion.

Through the wall we found a cylindrical descent leading to a pipe leading to a very ornate door, circular with a white jewel in the middle, ringed by 9 other coloured gems. Between the outer gems is a symbol from some alphabet none of us recognize. A quick spell reveals the word to be “Oblivion”.

There’s discussion on exactly what to do with this door. Answers undoubtably lie on the other side, but sevastian says it’s loaded with extremely powerful magics.
Jaros takes a deterministic approach and has us clear the lower pipe.
He then proceeds to pry out the jewels one by one, dodging, deflecting, or flat out ignoring the torrent of arcane devastation that bursts out from the door.

Once the door is disarmed we descend back down. Sevastian gives the all clear and Jaros opens it. It takes him a few hits but he opens it. On the other side is… mountains and piles of gold and wealth…
which whilst pretty and sparkly, isn’t what we’re here for. What we’re here for is answers… and it’s at this point that behind us, the Mayor enters the scene.

He is… a mixture of outraged and distraught at the damage we’ve inflicted on the door. He laments the destruction of years and years worth of work and effort, brands us as villains and attacks in his true form, a monstrous central mass with a giant eye, a collection of 9 other eyeballs on stalks.
Battle ensues, Sevastian and I find ourselves of extremely limited capability: whilst the main eye gazes upon us, our magic seems not to function. Jaros jabs the mayor in the central eye and our capabilities are restored, and we beat the mayor into submission.

The conversation that follows is a surprising one. The “previous” mayor was just another form that the beholder took. He was inspired by the temple of Wee-Jas, by the hope they were giving the people of Carceri. When people started to question the mayor’s heavy investiture in the temple of Wee-Jas, he simply had the “old” mayor vanish and his new half-elfin form take its place.

I found myself surprisingly sympathetic toward the mayor’s plight. Having to sacrifice one’s true identity to uphold a more noble ideal. He may have been an evil monstrosity, but the important thing is that he genuinely seemed to be trying to be better than that. To me, that’s really the only thing that matters. I took his side in the argument that followed. It earned me no favours, and got me more than a few disparaging looks from Jaros, and it ended as it usually does: A threat of retribution should the mayor warrant it, etc… etc..
The usual from Jaros.

I offered to try and fix the door, but he declined my help.
Oh, and I showed him the note about the soul-cage and the temple of wee-jas, but he claimed it wasn’t his. The plot thickens!

We depart the mayor’s residence and return to the others to report.

Skit returns a few days later. The symptoms of my condition fluctuate, but the extremes are getting worse and worse. Alas, she remembers some of her family contracting a similar condition in years past. Some survived, some died. Wonderful.

Zenrith brightens up breakfast with more details on the story of Occipitus, 8th layer of Celestia. Adimarchus, a Celestial Paragon (apparently what Layer Lords of Celestia are called) was the battle leader of Celestia. A mighty Angel with skin Zenrith described as purple: I can only picture it as opaque Amythyst myself: Hard and unyielding, but beautiful. He was the battle leader of Celestia, waging constant war against the demons of the abyss, first offensively, then defensively, as the hordes of hell besieged Celestia in response.

He made his principle general immortal, an act so abhorant to the other paragons that it would lead to his downfall. His general, Athux, whom Zenrith described as “An Aasimar Paladin, quite good looking would you believe it”. Athux singlehandedly destroyed an entire army, and the other paragons kicked out Adimarcus, who in his fury, took Occipitus with him to the Abyss.

Sevastian later commented that he thinks the dwarf is clearly abusing substances to gain these visions… but I’m not so sure.
I asked my deity to grant me some divine insight on the matter, to empower my normally poor abilities to get a judge of character. Zenrith seems legitimate to me, I’m certain Fharlanghn would’ve warned me of a deception that threatened me. Sevastian remains unconvinced, thinking that Zenrith is just drawing on things aronud him for inspiration.

I’ll admit, Sevastian wasn’t the only one who obliquely notice the similarities in description between Athux and himself. It’s easy to forget by looking at him, but Sevastian was raised as a paladin in the temple of Heironious. Also easy to forget is there’s no way Zenrith could’ve known that.

These stories capture too much of my attention, I haven’t even covered what happened next. Skit delivered her report, a vast mountain range between here and the Bastion, which is a tall metal tower in the middle of a flat rocky plane. She also was attacked by some land bound grotesque monstrosities: Demodans, the demonic equivelants of Carcerei.

Order of business is investigation.

Zenrith and I are going to have a look at the mysterious cage, Sevastian is taking to the streets to find out the word on the mayor. Skit is going scouting for the Bastion, Jaros and Klarissa are going to see Azphelkier

When Zenrith and I get to the sewers we’re once again struck by the cold. Why is it so cold down here? Can investigate that another day: Today cages are our focus.

My examinations reveal the cage’s design is for the capturing and containment of energy. The designs in the bars are all built to capture energy of some sort and redirect it inwards. The metal itself isn’t particularly strong, but the energy storage is pretty potent. Zenrith does some divination work and sees a vision of a giant user following a schema, with assistance from a magic user. It’s a very very precise design he follows, and it’s clear the giant didn’t invent it, merely assemble one. I’ve scribbled down here something zenrith mentioned about a tree, and the word “Dreamwalker”… damn but I can’t remember why.

Sevastian caught up with me later and raised concerns with me. Apparently Naraya had a word with him about Zenrith: She doesn’t trust him, he’s too cheerful, too… happy. Normally not a crime but in this place it raises flags if the natural conditions aren’t affecting him. He also has a suspiciously convenient hotline to his deity. Sevastian suggested going through his affects when he was asleep, but I disagreed firmly.
There’s a simple way to check where one’s intentions lie. If he’s able to heal on demand as I am, one can determine that his deity is a benevolent one. I can’t picture the priests of Hextor being so bestowed with that power.

Back at the inn, Jaros and Klarissa say they spoke with Azphelkier. He’s all in favour of an assault, but warns against taking up the mantle of the layer lord: Power Corrupts. Given what Zenrith mentioned about insanity and layer lords, I can hardly agree more.

In regards to getting a read on Zenrith, we may have a perfect opportunity coming up. I’ve been trying to keep it quiet, hoping that it’d pass but it clearly isn’t. I’m sick, and I don’t know what it is.
Symptoms are an increasing ammount of weakness after an extended period of rest. At first I thought it was some side effect of the Sanctified power I invoke. I don’t understand the intricacies of where power comes from, but use of it is held to a higher moral standard than the regular power granted me by my deity: For a while I was worried I had offended these standards at the chasm but we’re reasonably certain I’m ill.

Sevastian has noticed, however, damn his concern. I’m advised to seek guidance from my deity, and so I gave a truly heartfelt prayer for intercession. I haven’t been sleeping; a stupid idea given the inevitable consequences when we escape this damned place, but I fear my dreams. I don’t show it around the others but whilst I know the actions taken by Jaros at the chasm were correct an right… but I still see some of their faces when I close my eyes.

“Tonight” however I braved sleep in the hope of a vision or some other insight from above. Glory be, but it worked. I saw myself lying in bed, the condition clearly in advanced stages. I’m unable to move, lacking the strength to more than breathe. Around me I hear the breathing, that intollerable rasping of Skit’s Rat’s breath. I guess I know now where I contacted this wretched condition. Worse, with this in mind, curing myself should have been straightforward, there are prayers for the cleansing and purging of disease, but they do not work!
When Skit returns from her scouting she will hopefully be able to concoct a cure; I have searched the libraries of mind exhaustively and found nothing on the subject.

I’m losing track of things around here. I thought I’d already caught up here but apparently not. This place really screws with keeping track of time.

Skit had a word with me, she didn’t understand why I was upset at the death of Skiriel; comparing it with Jaros’s release of everyone at the chasm. I shudder at the memory. The core difference in my mind is that each of those people came to Jaros asking to die, this guy didn’t. He’s also in a sense family, which skews my perspective somewhat I admit. Perhaps we would’ve been friends.

Later when I spoke to Meerthan about this he also was puzzled about my reaction. “Death is not the end to the journey” he said, which is indeed true. Death simply means the shedding of the body, the soul continues to walk the material plane unhindered.

Jaros gave a speech at breakfast… or whatever meal it was. He’s decided that something simply has to get done about Carcerei, he wants to see the place destroyed and the imprisoned released. I see where he’s coming from: There’s an unequestionable portion of the population here who were unjustly imprisoned, and many more who would’ve served their time a doezen times over.
We’ve seen that the partial release of the population causes ripples of strife amoungst those who have forged a semblance of life for themselves here, thus it must be all or nothing. In this I agree, though the similarity to Lucan’s goals does make me a little uncomfortable.

Zenrith Splintershield, our dwarven ally speaks up now, telling us that the movement of planes is something that is documented and understood. He tells us a brief story of Occipitus, the 8th layer of Celestia that was lost to the Abyss. It’s a story that immediately grabbed my attention, and Zenrith said he’d seek guidance from Moradin, for more details.
He also mentioned the layer lords “have a twisted insanity”. I don’t understand exactly why, but this caught my attention even more than his story. I don’t know why, but it’s important.

The rest of the group seems quite pleased by this whole new take on Carcerei. It puts our plans to take out Lucan on hold but would be a massive victory for the people of Carcerei. We’ll hunt down the layer lord, depose him and then move the entire layer of Carcerei to a better place. In all honesty there’s a beautiful pairity in the concept of restoring an 8th layer to Celestia. Sevastian disagrees on principle, but that’s a given; I think he thinks the place is too uptight for him. In all honesty I would not be averse to climbing the mountain one day, but not any time soon. It is clear from the Archon’s judgement that I have still plenty of mileage on the road to being a better person.

Meerthan suggested we gather a small strike force to breach the layer lord’s palace, that we get the blacksmith who made the WeeJas mural and the golems on our side to furnish us with armour and weapons for the fight.

If we head to the Bastion of Last Hope we might be able to pick up more people there,

All in all this is a much better solution to the problem of Carcerei: no wholesale slaughter, and saving thousands of soul from unending torment.

Of course, we have to wait on doing all of that: We have to go meet the mayor today. A dubious prospect at best given the disappearance of the previous mayor. When we arrive at his manor his orcish guards deny us access, apparently he’s out for dinner at the Lady Rivaldi’s manor. So we go there instead and work our way inside.

The lady’s dining room is beautiful, but according to Jaros, it’s laced with illusions to make it so. Makes sense given the limited resorces available here. He also comments and it becomes clear that when he looks at the mayor, he sees something else all together. Where we see a silver haired elf, he sees a thrice damned beholder. Also dining with the lady are a tiefling, half elf, half elf vampire, and 2 dwarves.

The vampire introduces himself to us as Melogorn Thorek. Surprisingly he seems an okay guy. Who’d’ve thought it.
They mayor agrees to hear us out and on the way back to his mansion we explain that there was damage to the temple of Wee-Jas and they require funds to repair it. He agrees and escorts us to the temple to drop it off, apparently surprised that there actually was damage.

we said our goodbyes and returned back to the inn to figure out our next move.

We decide that a covert approach is best. Skit’s unrivaled knowledge of sewers everywhere comes into excellent play and we find ourselves at a door underground, bearing the seal of Olidammara, the Laughing Rogue.

Skit, seeming the most dissarming of all of us says she’ll go in and scout out the guy. We agree to this reluctantly, but Skit’s shown her capabilities a dozen times over now. There’s silence down in the sewers for quite a while, from the other side of the door there’s muffled conversation, mutterings and gentle talk.

Then a man’s voice pipes up loudly informing them all they’ve got a guest, a young girl who’s needing a place to stay. He encourages the people there to keep their strength up in this place. I may be prone to snap judgements, but anyone who takes in homeless people and encourages those under his care to maintain their strength is a good man in my mind.
A straightforward approach is in order, and to the front door we go.

Alas, appearances once again prove dissapointing. After explaining the situation to him, he calls everyone to arms and a fight breaks out. I remember reaching for my magic when a dart or something slipped through the plates in my armour. It all went dark.

When I woke up a few hours later I discovered that Skiriel had been killed, by “a giant rat”, and that a good few of the Olidammarans had died. This whole situation was a god awful mess that could have been avoided with more careful planning and a more delicate approach, and one of my extended family is dead because of it.
Whilst I was brooding over this, Skit came up to me and talked about it. She seemed disturbed and apologised, her reasoning that he was free now, that where he was now was better than where he had been before. It still tastes foul in my throat when I think about it, but whilst she may not be right, she is not wrong.

Carceri leaves more weary with every passing day. Both of body and of mind, I look forward to solving this whole mess with Lukan and escaping.
Theres a woman identified as the one torturing Skiriel. Sevastian manages to convince her (and thus everyone else who’s looking to her for direction) that the death was an odd fluke.

After sorting out the olidammarans, we returned to Meerthan. He’s understanding and doesn’t seem to fussed by the loss of 25% of the known Church of Fharlanghn on this plane.
Rest now, tomorrow may be an improvement.

Allies are nice things to have. Before going off to meet them, we wake up our unconscious prisoner and talk to him. He seems surprisingly cool with all that went down, when we explain that people were trying to capture him for unclear but general nasty intents in mind.

He agrees to make the underground sewers his base of operations and lay low for a while, Naraya agrees to keep an eye on him and the cage. His name is Calimus, he’s a Layer Lad, and is deputy high priest of Wee-Jas. He gives us a note to take back to the temple to explain things.

I’m not feeling well this morning, weaker than usual. I’m not sure the cause, possibly a side effect from over reliance on Sanctified magic. I’ll cut down on that and hopefully my body will recover. In the meanwhile I’m using some simple restorative magic to keep my self effective and helpful to the others. no need to trouble them with this, we’ve enough on our plate.

Our first order of business for the day is to go meet the high priestess of Wee-Jas; we were hoping just to leave a note but it seems the main body of the faith have returned from their pilgrimage. Mores the pity. Klarissa explains what happened and agrees to see about repairs. The high priestess directs us to the Mayor of Calderra, who is the church’s funder. Word on the street is he’s fairly new to the position, one can only ask what happened to the old mayor. Best not to think about it.

Next on our list is checking out Azphelkier, the closest thing the Temple of Kord here has to a high priest. As we’re approaching the dojo of kord, Jaros is acosted by someone leaving it, from the look of him a half-dragon half minotaur behemoth. A fight ensues and Jaros leaves him unconscious. Inside Azphelkier is cheerful but more or less a guy on his own. There’s not much of a presence of Kord’s followers here, and that’s not overly surprising.

Next we go to visit the Striders of Fharlanghn. They’re based in an unmarked building that reminds me of an abandoned inn. Surprisingly Meerthen, the head of the small organization is a dwarf! Or so it seemed!
After Klarissa identified herself and then us as friends, he removed what I think was an illusion, and revealed himself as a half elf. Illusion or actual bodily shape changing, it’s an extremely useful ability, looks to be bound into a small half crescent tattoo under one of his eyes.

He’s using spellwork to oversee his other agents, a very potent collection of spells I’ll have to investigate, that let him send messages to, see through their eyes, and sense the general condition of his agents from his central command. Unfortunately one of his agents who was investigating a local lady, a friend of the mayors, was captured and is being tortured for information across town.
He’s not as pleased to see me as I would have hoped. Whilst my heart was lifted at the news that others of the faith were here, he barely reacted to me. A somewhat dissapointing turn of events, but what can you do.

We offered to go and rescue the imprisoned Skiriel, hopefully a straightforward action; I feel like saving a life from pain rather than ending it would do me some good.
I’ll update this again when we get back.

I won’t record the details, suffice to say that when we got there, there were a lot of people. A lot of time passed. In truth I lost track of how long we were there. In hindsight I reckon it must’ve been hours, but like everything here, hours, days, or probably years all feel like a single instant that lasts eternity. A very odd feeling that I can’t explain beyond what I’ve just written.

Having lost track of time, we’re not sure where the others are, or what they’re doing. They’ve not turned up so they’re probably either in the meadow, or on their way to Calderra. We decide to swing by the meadow, as it’s more or less on our way. We take the requisite time to wash the blood off, which is just as well because Naraya is there, sullen and angry. I don’t blame her, I’m angry too; not at Jaros or her, but at this place, and myself for not having the power to change things.

Naraya tells us the others left for Calderra not long after I flew off. Thanks to the truly wonderous item I recently picked up: The Survival Pouch, we have mounts to get us there in reasonable time. It’s hard to tell how long it takes, but I think less than a day. Honestly I wish I’d had it when I set out on my journey, almost 2 years ago now.
On arriving at Calderra we ask around to find out about the others. The description of an Aasimar, a girl, and a giant hulking super rat points us towards the prominent temple of Wee-Jas, perhaps the biggest building in the city town.

Calderra is an interesting place. The road to it winds and twists up the side of the volcano, and in it surrounds its namesake lake in the crown. The city itself is in three concentric rings around the lake, almost like ripples of civilisation out from the centre.

On arrival at the temple we find significant signs of disruption. The central room matches what we saw in the scrying bowl, a giant ornate symbol of Wee-Jas, though new to it are large pieces of stone torn apart, and lots of plant growth, signs of battle.
I reach out to Sevastian with my mind, an ability recently granted to me by the Dweller on the Horizon, and he responds, thankfully. He’s upstairs and we’ve arrived just in time to assist. We hurry up and encounter Skit, Sevastian, and a half elf woman I don’t recognise, clad in Heironian armour, the three of them preparing to kick a door down.

On seeing us she remarked “Ah, Jaros Byrne, and Aarnel, today is full of friendly faces”. I’m taken aback, I don’t remember her at the temple before we left, and the only other Heironian I’m consciously aware of being on Carcerei is… Klarissa, the Bolt of Glory, Champion of Heironius herself.
Questions aside, she motions us forward. Apparently she has business with the man at the top of this temple. We break our way north to the top chamber of the temple and are met with a tableau: surrounding a small table in the centre are 5 undead creatures, floating above the table is a whispy shadowed/cloaked figure with blazing red eyes, and up high 4 identical armoured men are floating by the ceiling.

Combat is quick and dirty, Sevastian and Skit take on the flier from the ground, whilst Klarissa and Jaros tackle the zombies. The Wraith creature has a deadly touch that seems to suck the life out of those it touches, and shortly after being Fireballed by Sevastian, and having escaped a plethora of plants and black tentacles, our target drops from ceiling and smashes Sevastian with his sword.

There’s only room for one flying cleric in this room, and I shoot over to support Sevastian. Klarissa and Jaros finish the zombies and close on our descended necromancer, Jaros knocks him out, and I stabilize and revive Sevastian. Klarissa wants this guy dead, but Jaros refuses. Sevastian points out the apparent irony in this; that Jaros was prepared to kill hundreds in cold blood who haven’t harmed him.
With the unconscious man in tow we make for the unused sewers of Calderra, to make shelter there. On the way Klarissa explains it all.

Lukan’s plot here is simple: he wishes to open up a permanent gate to the Material Plane, to unleash thousands of the vilest people on an unprepared population. To do this he needs one of the direct bloodline descendants of the Layer Lords themselves. There’s 4 left, counting our new captive, Klarissa is out to execute them and bind their souls, to prevent Lukan getting them. On the Layer Lad’s person was an unsigned letter that reads:
“High Priest,

The cages alone will not suffice, what more is needed I cannot say. I will continue to investigate the mysteries of the soul, while the insanity continues to stir.

Needless to say, continue guarding the cages. Expect further contribution to the church.

My price has doubled."
A most puzzling note. Anyway, Klarissa sets us down and explains that tomorrow she’s like to show us around Calderra and introduce us to some allies: A dwarven Cleric of Moradin (who is not from our world), Azphelkia high priest of Kord, and most exciting of all, the Striders of Fharlanghn, a small group of my faith.

Before turning in I take the time to ask her about how she knows me, apparently some length of time ago I was in Deepmere’s Capital, causing a fuss about there not being a strong representation of the church? I have no recollection of this event, it doesn’t fit properly. It’s not the first time either that something has failed to fit properly; Mine and Auriel’s connection to each other, the journals don’t fit either, though with one thing and another I’ve not had the time to properly puzzle over that.

It doesn’t look like I’ll get the time either. Tomorrow we are questioning the cleric of Wee-Jas, and being introduced to new allies.

Tomorrow was indeed an interesting day. We’re eating breakfast when Jaros comes forth with an idea, a surprisingly radical course of action. We slay the Layer Lord, and then destroy the first layer or Carcerei, and free everyone wrongly imprisoned.

Two things about this plan strike me straight away
1) it’s an excellent solution to the problem of Carcerei and doesn’t involve wholesale slaughter.
2) Secondly it sounds awfully similar to what Klarissa told us Lucan is up to. I can’t remember if I made a note of that here, but he plans to open a gate between Carcerei and the Material Plane and unleash all the prisoners.

Zenrith Splintershield, the dwarven cleric says that rearranging the cosmos is not a new concept. He tells us the story of Oxipatus the Layer of Celestia that was lost to the Abyss. He tells us the tale of Adimarcus, a fierce military layer lord who led an unending war against the demons of The Abyss. Described as a mighty purple skinned angel, Adimarcus sent his armies and generals against the demons until they had had enough, and laid siege to Celestia. He was driven back to his keep whereupon he commited a high crime in the eyes of the rulers of Celestia: He gave his lead general (an Aasimar Paladin) Athax the gift of Immortaility. I confess to not understanding why this is such a crime as deities and other power houses are immortal also. Perhaps what was meant was that Athax was unable to die?
Regardless this is a fascinating concept.

Meerthan chimed in with his suggestion, a small strike force to tackle the layer lord. Maybe we can recruit the blacksmith who made the wee-jas mural to make some armour for us.
Zenrith comments that the layer lords have a “twisted insanity”. I make specific note of this because the mysterious note that accompanied the planar cage referred to an insanity that was stirring. Perhaps the mantle of the layer lord comes with an inherent madness?

If were are able to defeat the layer lord and take his mantle of power, presuming it doesn’t corrupt the wielder, would we be able to replace that hole in Celestia with this layer of Carcerei?
I can think of no better place than Celestia, the angelic archons have a keen eye for justice, if memory serves. They would have the wisdom and experience to handle the sheer number of souls on this plane in a case by case appropriate fashion.

Enough of my ramblings on the nature of planes and so on. The libraries of my mind are cluttered with such theories and errant facts as it is. I will not confuse this record of my memories with the facts in my head. We continued through the list of people to see; the Mayor of Caldarra. I was fairly apprehensive of this meeting, but we went to his mansion to speak with him regardless.
His orcish guards told us he was enjoying dinner at the Lady Rivaldi’s, and so we went there instead. The means by which we infiltrated the mansion are unremarkable; the doorservant didn’t ask many questions. I’ve committed an image of the lady’s dinner room to memory, as it was very interesting. There was a large selection of magical enhancements to the beauty of the room, Jaros later told me much of this was illusion. Bringing it back to my mind I can see the dining table has being overshadowed by a large tapestry, emblazoned with the same symbol that was Calimus’s birthmark; the symbol of the Layer Lords of Carcerei.

The mayor himself is a half elf, sporting symbols of Corellon Larethian, a surprising fact. I would have suspected a darker deity, or the misused symbol of Heironious at this point.
We were asked politely to wait outside, and whilst waiting Jaros indicates that what we’ve seen and what he’s seen are distinctly different. He saw a Beholder in the seat of the mayor. He explains this is due to some alchemical process as part of his training, to pierce illusions.

Anyway time passes and the meal is over. One of the guests takes a moment to us. Melogorn Thorek, a half-elf vampire indicates he’s aware of the mayor’s dual nature (confirming to use that Jaros isn’t just seeing things), and that the mayor has some form of deal going on with the temple of Wee-Jas.
It took a while but this connected some dots together: The note makes reference to the soul cage, the insanity, and “continued donations” to the church. At this point I’m drawing a mental line to connect the mayor to the note. There is something going on here which we’re edging around, perhaps Lucan’s plot?

If so then everything can be lined up like so: The mayor is involved with Lucan’s designs, he’s researching the nature of the soul, is funding the temple of wee-jas who is keeping the cage for him, “whilst the insanity continues to stir”. I believe once “the insanity” is sufficiently stirred some action will be taken involving the layer lord and the cage, maybe forcing the layer lord to open the portal back to the material plane?

Again, back from my musings: The mayor emerges from dinner and walks back with us. We explain the situation to him that the church needs money for repairs. He offhandedly says that “6000 gold should be enough” (that’s a LOT of money to just hand out like that) but insists on heading to the temple with us.
Upon arrival the reason for this seems clear: he thought we were just using his benevolance to church to take money under false pretenses. Of course we weren’t, and the damage to the temple from the battle with the golems is clearly visible to him. Everything is happily taken care of and we return back to the inn to consider what to do next.