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.
"Some gods had a fight in your head, seems normal to feel terrible from that. Melody thinks you'll be all right after a few days though."
That's good. Leareth will just relax and drift, then. Being held is nice.
Once it seems like Leareth would maybe benefit more from some gentle distraction than from complete silence, Aroden starts a light conversation with Vanyel and Khemet about education in Cheliax.
...Leareth is starting to feel a bit better. He can mostly speak in sentences when he tries, though he's still drifting in and out of sleep.
Unfortunately, at some point Delay Pain wears off, and everything is VERY BAD again.
It's probably stupid to be mad at Abadar about this but he is anyway. They can Delay Pain some more, probably.
Leareth eventually falls more deeply asleep, and this time stays that way for longer than half an hour.
"You do not need to stay if you have other priorities right now," Aroden says to Khemet. "He would understand. Vanyel and I will still be here if he wakes up."
Nefreti finishes her work and siphons away the mess of magical energy pooling where her spell has scrubbed it and then takes down Aroden's scaffolding with a wave of her hand. She didn't get it all; the scaffold wasn't perfectly placed to reach all of it and the future actually looks cleaner if there's a little bit left, so the Tayledras have one more year of work.
(It's so nice being able to see so clearly!)
"There you go," she says merrily to the watching Adepts. "This is a lovely planet. Maybe I will visit again."
"Well, if you are staying anyway then I suppose I ought return to Cheliax," Aroden says to Khemet. "I left very competent people in charge but the King of Valdemar does likely wish to have reassurances from me specifically. And his Mindhealer returned," glance at Melody, "assuming your plan is still to wait until tomorrow before treating him further." He doesn't like leaving Leareth, but his presence isn't adding much right now.
Melody thinks it's very reasonable to go back and apologize to the Heralds for being so suddenly pulled away. She agrees it was worth it, given Leareth's state. (Also she's furious with the Star-Eyed, but there isn't anywhere for that anger to go, given that they already took all of Her stuff.)
Aroden leaves the Dome with her and Teleports back and looks for the King to offer his apologies.
They're set up in a guest suite in Aroden's palace, since Leareth's mages think they ought to wait until tomorrow to check the status of Haven; one of Aroden's wizards did a scry and everything looks fine except the central wing of the Palace in Haven, which was completely evacuated, is collapsed in rubble.
"We will aid you in rebuilding it," Aroden promises. "Vanyel is fine, he was injured but he has received excellent healing, so at this point he is merely very tired from the magic use. He wishes to stay with Leareth, who is in much worse shape."
"The Star-Eyed did something to his head, and Abadar tried to hold Her off and likely caused further damage. Your Mindhealer thinks he will recover." Pause. "We should retrieve Vanyel's Companion. He says that she is in Haven, since he needed to Gate out so urgently with Leareth and she was - fortunately - not in the building with him."
"Oh, right, good idea." Randi at this point mostly looks incredibly tired and like he would prefer not to make any decisions whatsoever for the next month or two.
"I will send through some people at the same time just in case anyone in Haven was injured. I think your government is safer staying the night in Cheliax, though."
"If you think so. Thank you for your hospitality." Randi sort of wants to be mad at Aroden for destroying the Palace but also he's had the problem explained to him now in enough detail that he really feels like he has to be grateful. Ugh.
Yfandes can be retrieved from the outskirts of Haven, where she's been occupying herself reassuring all the terrified servants who were told to run away as far as possible and then heard a very loud explosion.
Various other people are updated, ruffled feathers are soothed, and then it's finally time for even those with a Ring of Sustenance to go to bed, and hopefully tomorrow will be less - like that.