Aeris's party attacks the Oracle, taking another 150,000 gold worth of Greencake and the spells Firestorm and Yawning Graves. Gerholt Volker's god in a jar feeds on the energy there, growing into a writhing, faceless mass. A spirit claims that the new god has just created the world, and that the party's memories of life before the god are an illusion.
Now a lich and with his phylactery secure, Aeris turned to attacking the Hollin Oracle and their Grimoire.
Now, Aeris plans to attack the Oracle. For himself, he would like to get the Oracle's Greencake, and the spells Firestorm and Yawning Grave, which the witch Kanna claimed are there. Aeris has promised the lich Ishild that Ishild could have the Oracle's library. And, Aeris has told Gerholt Volker that he can bring his god in a jar there to feed on the power source at the Oracle / High Hill.
Although Aeris could have called on some allies in attacking the Oracle, including the immortals from his lich ceremony, I believe he opted to take just his evil party and Gerholt Volker. Ishild and the other Ninety-Nine at the lich ceremony had said that if Wren got wind of the Oracle attack, she would go there and defeat Aeris, so it might be prudent to attack Werner's sanctuary with another party as a distraction. But I believe Aeris chose not to, and they headed out.
On a DC 20 Perception check: As Aeris's party approaches the Oracle, they notice on a Perception roll that inside the bag that Gerholt is carrying, there's an increasingly loud sound of a jar rattling, agitatedly.
When the party goes to Gramercy book store, they find the store "closed" and locked. If they knock, no answer. If they persist in knocking, someone will come to the window and make motions like the store is closed - and they'll see a couple of other guys in the back going to the niche door.
After they go through the niche door and are heading down the floors to the pit level, they hear some incantations shouting, and they huge white spinning cloud goes up through all the levels.
In the Grimoire's pit level, Aeris found himself fighting the party's allies from Games 10 and 20, the adepts Aliester and Mari, and additional adepts Ludlum, Avens, and Celia. The adepts had these statistics. Each had summoned a spirit, and the white spinning cloud they saw coming down to the pit was the spirit Mari had summoned.
The party beat the adepts, and Aeris found the spells and Greencake he'd come for.
Aeris found 150,000 gold worth of Greencake in an iron box about the size of a cigar box. He found the spells Firestorm and Yawning Graves, each in a 3-inch-thick dusty tome, with brass protectors riveted onto the corners. Looking through the tomes, Aeris sees that the pages are fragile from age but still readable. In each, the spell itself is just one page, with the rest of the tome chronicling the spell's history and apocrypha. It's clear that casting the two spells will use nearly all of Aeris's Greencake.
Aeris also found the wand Thunderstatement.
Aeris also found a finely crafted and polished glass wand. On a DC 20 Nature check, the players can see that the glass is fulgurite, which is glass made when lightning strikes sand.
The wand has the daily power Thunderstatement. When used, Thunderstatement silently fills the sky or room with light for an instant, like when lightning flashes in the distance. On the player's next turn, a thundering shockwave blasts through the area, damaging enemies who haven't found Superior Cover and throwing them around like bowling pins.
The shockwave is a Burst centered on square where Thunderstatement was cast and fills the entire battle map. Affected enemies take 3d4 + 10 (tweak in light of the fact that Aeris will be fighting the normal party) shock damage, are thrown out from the caster 10 squares, painfully bouncing off walls they hit, and are knocked prone. Enemies who find normal (non-Superior) cover take half damage only. The Cover is with respect to the square where Thunderstatement was cast.
While Aeris was searching, Gerholt took his rattling jar to the center of the pit. The jar exploded and the form inside suddenly grew to fill the pit.
With the Akira-like god-mass writhing in the summoning pit, many illusions of objects from other times and planes start to rapidly appear and disappear in the Oracle. Buildings rise and decay in a matter of a few seconds. Species evolve and decay in front of the party in a few seconds.
Scores of demons appear from other planes to see it and speak for it. They suggest that this plane, including the party and their entire story, has just been created by the god-mass (named Anu). If the party says they existed before, the demons say that that is an illusion, that Anu created them with apparent memories.
They also say that this area - High Hill and the Oracle - have historically been a power source because Anu is here now - his power emanated back in time.
The players briefly questioned whether the world could have just been created and whether the party's memories were really an illusion. Although there couldn't be verifiable evidence either way, they remained skeptical.
Although they hadn't been active for a few games, the regular party (Aeris, Beowolf, Kasskar, and Ord) went to eighth level after this game, according to schedule.
