Patience's Library

Starting point
After the destruction of the city center in the last session, the party reconvened at Lenny's place.

Discovering that water has failed
After sleeping the night, you woke up far less refreshed than you expected (did not full heal, but gained all other benefits of a long rest), and feeling dehydrated. Coco prayed to the mother jug for guidance, and she was told to seek wisdom from the book learners, and that she should connect her smaller alchemy jug to salt water, which would link it to Popo Ua Mu. You went to look at the river and see how it was, and it was nearly dry: it had been at an historic low already, but now it was just a tiny muddy trickle. The party went to the lab.

At the lab
At the lab, Winkleboop opened up the Sun's Blood, the artifact that detects and leads to extraplanar anomaly's (seen last session to find the exit from the Nowhere). It pointed in dozens -- no hundreds! -- of directions, most of them bare threads barely visible.. but 3 stood out strongly. One pointed to the alchemy jug, and one pointed to Gurney's whole body, but the most intense one pointed directly below the planolabe, about 30 feet below. Scourpax cast a spell to dig it up, and you discovered a small golden box hovering in mid air in a small room that had been walled off from the outside.

Castelis transformed into a cave bear to climb down and inspect, with Scourpax mounted atop his bear shoulders. He tried to move it, and even with his enormous bear strength he found himself unable to do so -- it was like shoving on a rock wall.

Then Scourpax used mage hand to open the box and a bunch of things happened at once. The box contained something vaguely sphere shaped, that was glowing with an otherworldly beauty in a color your minds could not name. As everyone was dazzled by it, it lashed out with power, striking Scourpax in the head (inflicting psychic damage) and striking bearstelis on his ring/bracelet, making him lose his footing. At that moment of impact, Castelis felt that the ring was forever empowered to more easily bring the ram from other worlds, and he also felt the ram god call to him, asking him to summon the ram immediately.

When Castelis did, the ram appeared, but astride it was a venerably old elf, naked and covered in tattoos. The ram charged up the tunnel, and the party realized they knew the elf: it was Helike, but aged by centuries. After returning Helike, the mystic ram departed.

Helike's tale
Helike informed the party that he had been in pitched battle with The Wizard for centuries, hunting him across the multiverse. He had slain him more than once, but discovered that he seemingly could not be killed; even when his phylactery was destroyed, he seemed to rise again. Helike discovered that this was a power the lich had acquired through his Buggo research. With the help of N'Rol, Helike had imprisoned the Wizard in a book. Then Helike turned on N'Rol, freeing himself from his oath of service through a loophole in his contract (the one he had been compelled to sign without reading back as a young man, 5 days/1000 years ago). He was unable to defeat N'Rol and had spent still more centuries fleeing him. He wanted to return to the prime material plane to help in the fight against the buggo and to make amends with the party he had wronged so long ago, but he could never find the way.

Coco's farewell
Helike created a portal to popo ua mu to allow Coco to return home. She thanked the party for teaching her many things, like how books have dangerous knowledge and most problems should be resolved with violence, then returned to the embrace of the mother jug.

The time travel bit
Castelis proposed that since the Nowhere portal had returned you BEFORE you left (you saw yourselves going in as you came out last session), that it could possibly be used to travel to the more distant past. This was discussed at length, before it was determined that it would be impossible because the portal had been closed. Then it was decided that a Wish might solve this issue, and that Patience's library might be able to provide this spell. Unfortunately, the amount of time it would take to travel there, having no water, would be prohibitive.

The power of prayer
Castelis prayed to the Ram God and Carnelian prayed to Patience for a way to get to his Library. Castelis' effort (natural 1) summoned the ram again, but this time it was scarred from a battle with devils; the ram god is now in open war with some forces of hell. Carnelian's prayer (total roll of 26) got Patience's attention: in an eruption of flame, a portal to Patience's hoard opened, and Patience said, "You rang?"

Patience's library
The party went through into a mountain of gold. Patience explained that his gold was together like this for an opulent foyer. Patience provided a Ring of Wish with two charges, considering it a valid part of the deal with Scourpax (a few sessions ago). Gurney discovered a cursed book that taught him how to read abyssal (?), and he and Helike practiced combat in Patience's arena. Castelis interacted with a wide variety of animals to learn how to wildshape into them, and Carnelian spent the week at Patience's side. Scourpax studied up on the Wizard's notes to seek out a way to charm the Buggo or at least repel it.

Timeline as it relates to Time Travel
1 week ago: Proposed date to jump back in time

6 days ago: The party originally arrived at Tivoli

5 days ago: Helike pushed the Wizard through a portal and vanished

4 days ago: riots in Tivoli; Gurney took control as dictator (?)

1 day ago: Mercer invaded Tivoli and destroyed the palace

Today: Water stopped working