Session 121

I. The Ash and the Bunny

The party wakes in the tent-city outskirts under the oppressive radiance of the Dawn Call - light pouring not from a true sun but from the city’s environment itself, the air already humming with Wizard’s Folly radiation. They’re down a member: Rosibynne vanished in the night without a word, leaving behind a small, carefully carved wooden bunny trinket for each of them.

II. The Rhythm of Radiation

The Dawn Call’s interference isn’t a constant suppression but a rhythmic pulse - a wave of arcane radiation washes over the area roughly every sixty seconds, tearing at the Weave. Dax tries to cast Guidance and feels it slip from his grasp as a wave hits. Ember works out the rule: any magic requiring concentration or a casting time longer than a minute is sheared apart by the pulse. The radiation enforces a brutal mortality on the landscape from dawn until dusk.

III. The Magitech Mirror

Before braving the wastes, the group examines the spoils of the last fight. Dax presents a broken device looted from the Hull Breaker - a thick little mirror exposing brass gears and a pulsing blue weave beneath the glass. Timing her casting between the radiation pulses, Ember casts Identify: when working, it would let the wielder cast a spell as a reaction whenever an ally moves within five feet. It’s currently broken, and repairing it requires “Folly Relics” - ancient, irradiated components from the cataclysm of Eistrae - not standard tinkering tools.

IV. A Whisper from the Moon

As the party debates their next steps, Lelune - the Moon Goddess, styling herself “Fun Bad” - manifests only to Orianna. Lounging sideways in the air, invisible to the rest, she offers a pact: power over darkness, framed as a tool against Edmeera’s pain - a warlock patronage offered to a soul already burdened.

V. The Scrapper’s Den

The group splits over whether to deal with the Scrappers who attacked Mack. Dax and Ember argue for investigating to prevent future ambushes; others fear walking into a trap without their magic. Peach’s hand is forced by his cursed blade, Umbra (Twilight): it demands its daily tithe of violence and, sensing the Scrappers nearby, fills his mind with visions of “hundreds” of evil souls to purge.

Dax uses a disguise kit (rolling a 35) to cloak the scouting party - himself, Mack, and Orianna - in desert garb. They track the Scrappers a mile east to a fortified entrance built into a hill. Rather than risk a physical breach, they send familiars. Dax’s shadow raven scouts high and is instantly destroyed by an unseen defense. Aydriann sends his mechanical familiar, Sprocket, into the tunnel; through its eyes he sees two turrets flanking a patch of glowing black sand. The moment Sprocket hovers over the sand, a turret fires and destroys it in a single hit (15 damage).

VI. The Compact of Sand

Realizing the den is too fortified and the daytime radiation too deadly, the group retreats to an abandoned stone structure to wait out the sun. They rest about four hours in the suffocating heat until 6:00 PM, when the sky darkens and the Dawn Call ceases. Abandoning their plan to smuggle into the city, they approach the main gates of Craze Pass - a dark, narrow gatehouse lit by orange lamps and guarded by towering Adjudicators of aether-brass and sand-glass. To enter, each member must sign the Writ Compact: they place a hand on a sand-filled stone altar, and magical glyphs spiral up their arms and flow into a pneumatic tube in the ceiling, binding them to the laws of the Contract City.

VII. The Meridian Descent

The gates open onto the vertical city of Craze Pass. The party stands on a massive bridge spanning the tectonic fracture - below, the amber gaslamps and steam-vents of the Meridian Tier; above, the opulent heights of the Apex. As they step onto the bridge, the wasteland’s interference finally fades. Dax casts Telepathic Bond and, for the first time all day, it holds, linking their minds. With their goal clear, they head for the central elevator to descend into the Meridian Tier and find Ravynne.