Session Log 2023-06-12

Given the night to prepare for the infiltration of besieged Golarth, Ignis, Klaitos, and Robin gathered supplies and information. Ekkels decided instead to go to bed early.

Ignis spoke with some Gale Knights about fighting the undead of the Gray Steps, and learned that fire or total destruction were necessary to keep them from putting themselves back together. Moreover, despite popular rumors, the bite of most undead does not itself carry the curse of undeath - dying under the umbral skies of the Gray Steps by any means would lead to one's reanimation.

The Keep library was still reserved for the deciphering of the Corvaine correspondence, and so Klaitos was unable to find out any information about the Gray Steps, the Regalia Eternal, or the undead on his own. Instead, Ignis was able to sneak in with Robin's illusory disguise, and found an old Torch world almanac and an academic text for mages.

The almanac described the Regalia as a cabal of rarely-sighted, immortal sorcerer-kings ruling the undead of the Gray Steps. Though their territory was known to be dangerous to interlopers on land and in the air, scant reports described a barren land of undead armies dotted with distantly-sighted opulent cities and pillars of smoke.

The academic text described undead creatures as a rarity outside of the too-dangerous-to-study Gray Steps. It claimed that any animation of dead flesh would require some sort of ongoing source of power to replace the living soul, without which the corpse would simply collapse like any other.

Robin and Klaitos, satisfied with their research, tried to figure out the Golden Walnut. Robin found a faint seam along its circumference with a thin hinge on one side. She borrowed some of the Keep's tools to dismantle the hinge, but found the Walnut stuck fast regardless.

Klaitos shone the Lantern Eye over it, and discovered a moderate and stable-looking magical aura. This came as a surprise, since it had been originally found in a pool of magebane. He tried to open it carefully with his strength, but found it unyielding, and was unwilling to risk damaging it with a more reckless attempt.

Robin decided to consult a third party, and so presented the inscrutable vessel to Wilga's Wisdoms. After flipping through dozens of pages of walnut-related obscenity, she found a caricature of herself and Klaitos, staring dumbly at the Walnut, as a caricature of Ekkels fit it whole into his mouth.

Ignis went looking for the Tireless Knight, hoping to recruit the construct for the upcoming mission on the basis that he had no flesh to decay or reanimate. He found the Knight on the balcony of the Keep, staring out into the volcanic smoke surrounding the fortress. He tried to strike up a conversation, but found the Tireless Knight's expressionless and mute demeanor an obstacle to any rapport. He requested, and then tried to order the Knight to accompany him, but was ignored.

In the morning, Heiras flew the party to Golarth aboard the Stormjumper. She flew at slower speeds than normal to keep with the mission convoy - a collection of skirmish vessels, and the Tortoise, in case the party was able to liberate enough refugees to fill its hold. The group approached the besieged city flying low to the ground, and landed amidst the war ruins to its southwest. The umbra of the gray steps loomed overhead, leaving midmorning as dark as dusk.

Now that Ekkels was awake, Robin offered him the Golden Walnut and bade him lick it. Ekkels did so, warily, to no effect. The party then combed the ruins for a hidden passage into the city. They found a den of small lizards in the rusted hulk of a war machine.

Lacking easy answers to their problems, Robin borrowed Heiras's spyglass to observe Golarth and the siege. Of Golarth's four vast industrial farms, one remained - the other three smoldered in the wake of wildfires. Likely to preserve water supplies, the farm had been left to dry in the smoke and shade. Here and there, undead roamed the fields, burnt and unburnt. Closer to the wall, they formed lurching mobs, particularly near the heavy gates.

On the ground near the Hangar, and on its rooftop, she noticed a number of destroyed Torch civilian and military ships. Some seemed to have crashed with no sign that they had been hit by anything, others lay coated in pale dust, and a few had been smashed into irreparable pieces as if by a massive hammer.

The party debated their best option for entering the city. Klaitos suggested they fly in, but Heiras warned him that any approach in an empty sky risked being taken down like the ships at the Hangar, or being spotted by whatever remained of the Torch within the city.