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Into Elysium

Last week, the party boarded a ship manned by a crew of veteran sailors from Kilvas and sailed to the Edge of the World. At the Edge, they found a towering mass of fog that blocked all sight and sound. Undaunted, they passed through the barrier, protected by the power of the Book of Creation. After a minute of quiet motion, the fog faded, and they found themselves on the other side.

The glassy water around the party was still as ice, reflecting a cloudless sky as perfectly as a mirror. The image was marred only by the derelict ships and wreckage from long-abandoned vessels, manned by the skeletons and decomposing remains of their former crews. The only movement came within a small area around the party's ship, where the Book's influence allowed time to pass. Curious, the party sailed over to one of the smaller ships that seems fairly seaworthy.

They investigated the ship and found little - only a corpse on the deck, and a journal describing the corpse's journey beyond the Edge. Long ago, he and his wife made a living fishing the deep waters far from Kilvas. One day, a storm had severely damaged the boat, causing them to drift uncontrollably. After days at sea, they drifted beyond the Edge and were lost. However, his wife's body was missing, and there were signs she had been on the boat beyond the Edge for some time. Before the party could figure out what had happened, the man's corpse stood up.

The party quickly readied their weapons, but were more curious than afraid, and asked the corpse what it was. It ignored their question, but in an unearthly voice, welcomed them to its domain. Further conversation revealed that it was the ancient demon lord that the Moravians had bound to gain their power. Its consciousness, or some part of it, was sealed beyond the Edge of the World, and it was apparently limited to speaking through corpses. The demon lord told the party that they should seek it out on Mount Derenor in Elysium, because it would offer them the power they needed to undo the curse on the book in exchange for freeing it from its bond to the Moravians. It further informed them that it would guide them there, and propelled the corpse in a shambling leap over to their ship, destroying part of its body. Once on their ship, it seated the remains of the corpse at the helm to point in the direction they should go.

Faced with this development, the party decided to put a barrel over the remains of the corpse while still following its directions. They began travelling to Elysium, but the bubble of time they occupied did not have wind, making their sails useless. Instead, the ship's crew began to row, which made their progress slow. After a few hours, the demon lord observed that they were going too slowly, and informed the party that they would receive assistance.

The demon's "assistance" came in the form of the corpse of a burly sea troll, which climbed onto the ship and made its way belowdecks to where the ship's crew was rowing, where Wanderlost messily dismembered it. However, the party deduced that it would have helped them row, and allowed the next sea troll corpse to row alongside the crew. Over the next several hours, a menagerie of corpses emerged from the sea to row, and the ship practically flew towards Elysium.

After the first night at sea, Pabst awoke to find that the Book was missing. He searched the ship, eventually alerting the party to the missing Book, and it was found in the goblin's backpack. The discovery of the Book prompted a chaotic melee to control the Book. At the end, Pabst regained possession of the book. Afraid of retaliation by the party, he threatened to put the Book into a Bag of Holding, which would trap the entire party in the frozen time indefinitely. A tense standoff ensued, while Amanita rotted their boat for no adequately expalined reason, and the party convinced Pabst that they didn't actually want to kill him. As the standoff wound down, Wendel came on deck and punched Amanita to get him to stop rotting the boat, which was met with general approval. Somewhat shaken, but still set on their mission, the party continued travelling towards Elysium.

Weeks of travel later, party finally saw land ahead. They docked their ship on shore, massacred all of the rowing corpses, and decided to completely ignore Mount Derenor and the demon lord. Instead, they would travel the the Seed Crater where Kahl punched the world to gain the power to perform the ritual, which was marked by a radiance on the horizon. They set off, and spent two weeks travelling overland, seeing the frozen wonders of Elysium's landscape along the way.

When the party arrived at the Seed Crater, they found it surrounded by an army of massive, perfectly still creatures - dinosaurs, giants, and strange aberrations of nature. At the front, walking towards the party outside their bubble, was an armor-clad elf. In the demon's voice, it reprimanded the party for not honoring their agreement. However, after a brief negotiation, it allowed the party to proceed into the Crater to perform the ritual that would remove the curse on the Book. The party entered the Crater, now surrounded by the demon's army, and used Kahl's power to perform the Purification Ritual, banishing the curse on the book.

As the party finished the ritual, their bubble of time expanded, spreading to encompass the entire Crater and the land beyond. Around them, the land of Elysium awoke from its millenia of silence. With the ritual complete, the demon demanded that they free him as promised, and the party contemplated their next move.

Join us this week to rewrite reality as we know it!

Stupid Awards

Lorelei Antimony Pabst Lord Khallus Amanita Hak Maxwell Mortin Wanderlost Wendel Flying Squirrel Ship's Crew Everyone:
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