An adventuring party recruited from Osirion teleports into Azir on the 8th of Desnus. Rahadoum's recruiting contact in Osirion wrote ahead to note they were expected. Couple of guys he's known a long time - a wizard, a ranger - and a new guy, sorcerer, probably to replace the cleric they usually travel with. They spend two days in Azir getting oriented and head out to the front. The ranger wears an unusually high quality amulet of Nondetection; the sorcerer wears a headband for intelligence, which is a bit unusual as sorcerers usually don't need it to cast, but some variants do; they are otherwise unremarkable. Chaotic Good, Lawful Neutral, no reading, which could mean neutral or 'hiding it'. They work quickly and effectively, manage resources reasonably well, get recommended to higher-ups for a closer look on that account.
Nayoki sits down by him and is quiet for thirty seconds.
- she winces. "Can somebody cast Delay Pain for him? I am worried that just looking is going to hurt him."
Oh, that's better. Leareth manages to open his eyes and eke out a few thoughts, which eventually make it into words. "Where...? Did we do it?" He thinks he remembers Abadar saying something to him but all his memories are so jumbled.
"You are safe," Nayoki says, reaching for his shoulder. "In the Dome. You succeeded."
Nayoki is silent for a few minutes, her expression focused.
"What a mess," she says finally. "I am not even sure which damage was Her and which was Abadar trying to fight Her off, I do not think He is very good at being careful."
"I think so. - Did you already do something? It looks like there are distortions that were stuck in place before and are unstuck now."
"I tried Break Enchantment because it worked on Star-Eyed related mind control before."
"Thank you, I think it did help. I will try to set some of this right and help him be a little more lucid. I think he will need rest and time as much as anything, though."
"You could bring in Melody for advice," Vanyel offers. "She, er, helped me with the Star-Eyed messed with my head."
"That is a good idea. I think she is still busy supervising Starwind and Moondance though."
"Well, they'll be able to return to k'Treva shortly, if they want to, since everyone else will be un-pacted too."
Leareth drifts. Some of the unpleasant jumbled feeling gradually clears, and he's more able to string together any kind of coherent thought. Leareth still can't remember how he got here or much of anything before the Gate to Haven, but at least he can be pretty sure that he did Gate to Haven.
He keeps forgetting where he is and having to effortfully re-derive it by dragging through his memories of the last few minutes. It's awful.
"This is all I can do for now," Nayoki says finally, lifting her hand from Leareth's shoulder and looking up at the pharaoh. "He needs to rest, now, I think sleep will help. He is very disoriented. I think he wants your company."
He nods. Sits down at his side. Puts a hand on his shoulder and waits to see whether that helps or hurts.
It helps. Feeling so out of it is still awful, but it's easier to keep remembering that he's in the Dome, where it's relatively safe, and probably nothing else is going to happen until he's able to think and make plans again.
Leareth eventually fights his way through what feels like the very challenging and multi-step plan of reaching for Khemet's hand.
He can hold him. "It's okay. We're safe."
Probably. Kind of depends a little bit on how the other arms of this operation are going.
Parsing the words takes a lot of effort, but feeling Khemet's arms around him is a more direct indication of safety, and Leareth slowly relaxes. It still feels like there is a very long path in between having a thought and his mouth saying words, and the path is full of weird and confusing obstacles. Eventually Leareth thinks he's managed to say out loud that he's glad Khemet is there and can he please stay.
A while after that he falls asleep.
Aroden finds the first weapon on the list, in a marble Work Room with an unlocked door, exactly where Vanyel's neat hand-drawn map said it would be.
He Teleports out, without facing any interference.
He returns for the second weapon.
The Star-Eyed Goddess is very distracted. Gods have a lot of attention, but everything in Foresight is suddenly a wall of noise, and Her other limited sense-channels are chaotic as well, as the Tayledras and the Heartstones react to the sudden massive magical activity in the Pelagirs.
- a dozen Tayledras Adepts Gate from k'Sheyna Vale to where Nefreti is, and start flinging levinbolts and fire at her.
She turns into a dragon just as they arrive and continues what she's doing. Foresight works here for her, too, and makes dodging them easier; sometimes they hit her, to no obvious effect. She does not particularly bother shooting back at them. She does give herself telepathy and -
:I'm fixing the magic-scarring of these lands!: she says cheerfully. :I know it looks very odd right now but in a few hours there won't be any more magic-warped lands and they'll be safe for people to live in. You don't need to worry, nobody will be hurt.:
They seem confused by that. They stop attacking.
A few dozen more Gate in from a different Vale and fling their own round of attacks before the first set manages to say something to them.
There are a couple of Healing-Adepts, now intently focused on whatever magic Nefreti is doing, trying to figure out whether she's telling the truth.