Ignoring dire warnings from the Witches' Chorus, the party enters the Void Prison at the Well of Life. They find the Ninety-Nine's Malik there, and escape when Ord and Kasskar defeat the prison's Divine Lock. The Malik marshals the angelic Annur and the Sun's Anvil djinn. Returning to al-Watan, the party and the Malik defeat Krohn and his djinn allies in a final confrontation at Krohn's citadel.
At the end of the last game, djinn at the Sun's Anvil told the party that the Ninety-Nine's Malik was imprisoned at the Well of Life. The Sun's Anvil djinn said they'd join the party as allies if they rescued the Malik. So, the party resolved to go to the Well of Life.
The tent city of the djinn of the Sun's Anvil was build around a natural rock formation, a towering, charred-looking rock pyramid. Once Ord is done talking with the djinn there, the head djinn takes the party out of his tent and leads them around the charred pyramid. From behind the charred pyramid, you can see high mountains in the distance, with snowcapped peaks.
The leader says that the Well of Life is a waterfall that comes down into the desert from the meltoff of the snowcapped mountains. You should be able to find it by shooting for the highest peak. The djinn high court is near the Well of Life.
A djinn guide joined the party, and they set out for the highest peak on their camels, eventually reaching it. Underneath, there was another djinn tent city - the high court, and their djinn guide scouted it. He returned saying the high court was empty, and speculated the djinn were away attacking al-Watan with Krohn.
The party went through the city, following a stream that came out of the cliffside. At the cliffside, they found a cave entrance, dismounted, and took their camels inside singe file.
Inside, they found a cavernous room with a waterfall, a throne, and a few exits: a finely crafted stone portal, a delicate door, and a crude, smelly steel gate. Going through the delicate door, they found that it contained a harem or genteel area that was empty. But they quickly turned to the crude steel gate. They opened it and propped it open using the throne, then followed a twisty tunnel to another gate, which they also propped open with a chair. The smell was more intense here.
Past the second gate, they found themselves in a high cavern. There, a gargantuan, horrific creature detached itself from the ceiling. This was the Sentinel, which had the appearance and statistics of a gibbering abomination. The party ran for a door on the other side of the cavern, which was locked. Kasskar struggled with the lock the first round, but Ord held the Sentinel off using a Word of Binding. On a second round, Kasskar successfully opened the lock and the party escaped through the door.
When the characters enter this room, it's cylindrical with a high ceiling and carefully crafted stone walls. In the center of the room, covering most of the floor area, is a series of 6 or 7 concentric circular landings going down, like an amphitheatre, except it's a full circle. There is a staircase cutting through each landing so you can walk down to the innermost circle if you want.
In the innermost circle, there's a circular shaft going into the ground, like a well. It's about 20 feet in diameter, and it's surrounded by a delicate iron guard rail. Looking down into the shaft, you can see the sides of the shaft are carefully crafted stone with elaborate calligraphy on them. There seem to somehow be multiple layers or levels of stone and calligraphy, which counter rotate rapidly.
A little further down, not far down, there seems to be a pool of not just darkness, but unlight. As the party enters the room, passive-looking men in white robes, and women in white lace dresses, approach the party or float down from the air. These are the Annur.
When the party looks down to the unlight well in the center of the room, you see the Witches' Chorus standing by the railing there.
Some of the Annur had appeared near the party, and the party talked with the Annur first. The Annur were fascinated by the party, since they had been able to pass the Sentinel. They told the party that the unlight pit was the Void Prison, where the Malik was imprisoned. But, the Annur told the party they couldn't join them without direction from the Ninety-Nine.
As the party discussed this last point with the Annur, the runepriest Rana realized that his spell "Doubt" actually gave free will to the target. However, I believe the party declined to cast Doubt on the Annur, since they were unsure what the Annur would choose to do.
The party then turned to the Witches' Chorus.
If the party approaches the Witches' Chorus, the old witch, Kanna, says: "Hello Ord." If not interrupted, she'll say, "This is the portal to the Void Prison, where Krohn has imprisoned his own father and god, the Ninety-Nine's Malik."
In time, she'll also say, "The Void Prison is a unique challenge and a place of true, character-killing evil, Ord. If you and the party go into the Prison to free the Malik, there's a very real chance at least one of you will be trapped there forever."
The red-haired witch, Kaisa, tosses her hair and says, "As I calculate it, a 27.75% chance!"
The old witch Kanna continues, "There is a 27.75% chance that at least one of you will be trapped there forever. No visions, no animal spirits, no get-out-of-death-free cards. So, you'll really have to decide if you want to rescue the Malik or not."
I believe the witches also told them that Ord and Kasskar were needed to rescue the Malik, but that Beowolf wasn't. However, all three characters disregarded the danger and entered the Void Prison by jumping into the pit.
Soon after jumping in, they "wake" to find themselves together. They're in a nearly empty, featureless white space, with no apparent north, south, east, or west. There's nothing to indicate whether you're inside or outside, or if that concept is even meaningful here. The plane you're standing on is the same white as the rest of the scene, so you can't tell how far it runs, and you can't see any horizon. Occasionally, you do see a brief reflection or shining against the featureless white scene, possibly just created by your brain as a reaction to the featurelessness. You do feel relaxed and at peace.
Turning around a little to survey the entire scene, you do think you see a little scene about 300 feet away.
When they go there:
You see a little piece of carpet with a fastidiously groomed man asleep on it. Nearby there are two other carpets spaced a little apart from each other. One has a table on it with some elaborate markings and mechanisms, and the other has a door with a conspicuous keyhole in it.
If Kasskar and Ord study the table and keyhole, or if they ask the Malik, they discover that it's what I'll call the Divine Lock. To open the Divine Lock, they have to simultaneously succeed in opening the keyhole with Thievery and working the mechanism with Religion. Presumably this would be Kasskar and Ord, respectively. But, there's a little more to it than that:
However:
Ask the players how they split the characters between the carpets, and to write their decision on a piece of paper.
Keith and Kelly secretly wrote their decisions on paper, and I opened them to find that neither had betrayed the other. I ceremoniously shredded the papers without telling each player what the other player's decision had been, but Keith and Kelly both seemed confident the other player had not betrayed them.
We rolled the dice and both rolls succeeded. The party and the Malik escaped from the Prison, and were transported back to the room with the unlight pit.
There, the Malik snapped his fingers and the Annur lined up behind him. The party and the Malik left the Well of Life cavern, and on the way out the Malik told the party that the stone portal they hadn't explored was the portal to the plane of the Ninety-Nine; Ord declined to explore it at this point. The party, the Malik, and the Annur returned to the Sun's Anvil, and the Malik reclaimed the fealty of the djinn there. They headed back to al-Watan to confront Krohn.
They arrived back in al-Watan to find that Krohn and the high court djinn had taken the city. They returned to the coliseum, then took a tunnel from the coliseum's basement to Krohn's palace.
The tunnel from the coliseum opens via a secret door into Krohn's dais room. They are immediately hit by the smell of Greencake. Entering there, the characters find it to be a massive library-like room, lined with bookshelves. There are two bodies of Krohn's manifestations lying in state there - the body of the Malik that the Caliphate executed and the body of Krohn that the party killed on Hilde. (Another) Krohn is standing on a dais at the far end of the room.
Krohn says to the party:
"Ah, Ord, returned exile and potential hero of the Ninety-Nine; Beowolf, the Inkeri's "sinister" Hero with a capital H; and Kasskar, brilliant executioner of Lahar, the Unknown. I relished our previous challenge in the salt palace, and looked forward to our...meeting today.
Last time we talked I told you that by killing Lahar in Narshasa, you freed me to hunt the Ninety-Nine with impunity. Now, Aeris has miraculously also killed the Gradskan angel of death, Kidu, who was my last potential rival. What a swath of destruction you people have left! Now I will certainly turn the streets red with the blood of the Ninety-Nine and their followers. But where is Aeris? After our last challenge he...borrowed...my Orb of Contravention and I looked forward to him returning it.
He turns toward the Malik and kneels, putting his face to the ground. His long white gown spreads out on the floor all around him. Still looking down, he says, "My father and god. Knowing that you were safe and at peace in the Void Prison has brought me peace. Today you will die."Krohn creates 5 manifestations of himself and summons 5 devils.
The party, Rana, Gafur, the Malik, the Annur, and their djinn allies defeated the Krohns and the devils.
When the party left the unlight room with the Malik and Annur, we forgot that they'd encounter the Sentinel again, so the party got a free pass there.
