Game Session 11: 1/16/15
In-game Dates: Desnus 26 – Desnus 26, 4720

• Opened the Gatehouse Portcullis prior to leaving in the morning
  • Discovered that it revealed a new staircase in the Palace
• The second staircase lead down into a memorial chamber for the old Kings of the civilization
  • 4 of the Kings could be questioned using necromancy charged plaques in the floor
  • The most ancient, and also the most recent kings were asked how to open the doors in the Palace, to which the most recent mentioned the mechanics in the Well
• The party left the Palace and once again lowered the water level in the Well using the handprints
  • The well contained a complex series of mechanical gears and traps that slowly led deeper into the complex
  • After a few hours of challenging trial and error puzzle solving, they managed to reach the 5th floor under the Well
    • This floor contained one final gear that seemed to release a great mechanism within the palace
    • The group also found a strange nondescript Golden Mask, which detected with extremely powerful magic from all schools
• Upon entering the palace once again, the original sealed archway in the second dungeon floor had now been opened
  • The room following seemed completely intact and livable, including a freshwater basin, clothes hangers, and a stone bed with various pillows
  • Inside the room, a strange simian woman had just woken up and introduced herself as Kipenze
  • She seemed a calm, very up-front, and almost playful woman who was unflinching in her oath
    • Kipenze revealed that she was from the ancient civilization, and had sworn a life oath to protect the temple/prison of Cho-Uda, and she seemed insistent that she could not let them release the spirit
    • The ancient Madoro people had become extremely “evolved” according to her
• The stories in Kipenze’s culture told of wrathful nature spirits (of which Cho-Uda was one) that made the lives of the Madoro tribesmen very challenging
  • Despite prayer, reverent worship, and sacrifice, the spirits continued to barrage the tribes with floods, insects, and famine
  • One day the great mage Jatembe and his 10 magical warriors offered a solution, and bound the nature spirits using powerful magic
  • The Madoro tribes united together and harnessed the power of the spirits to rapidly evolve their civilization, eventually leading to the creation of the flying sky citadels
    • This now ruined city, Madoro, was once the Capital sky citadel of the ancient nation – powered by Cho-Uda
    • The seals containing Cho-Uda’s power are weakening
• Kipenze allowed the group to speak with Cho-Uda as well
  • Cho-Uda looked exactly like Jim Lost, and was bound inside a strange magical device
  • He was awake and able to communicate, and began to rapidly offer anything he could to be released from his prison
    • Offers included leaving Kipenze alone forever, and flooding the nearby desert
    • Cho-Uda mentioned that he was imprisoned thousands of years ago by powerful men wearing strange golden masks, and that surely anyone with the same power could release him
    • Although obviously a powerful and chaotic force of nature, Cho-Uda did not detect as evil
• The party had heated discussions for hours on the decision to release or re-seal Cho-Uda
  • Edo thought that releasing the force of Chaos back into the world would be too dangerous
  • Fara’ji needed more time to study the situation and gather information prior to making any decision
  • Strootman abstained from the voting altogether, claiming that they had a caravan to protect
  • Xelas threatened to kill anyone that attempted to release the seals
  • Archibald strongly opposed keeping the spirit imprisoned simply for being powerful, and was ready to stay behind
• For some unexplainable reason, Edo decided that the situation could be resolved by putting on the strange golden Mask they had found earlier
  • The mask quickly wrapped around his head, changing into the form of a golden monkey
  • Edo felt a wild rush of power, as the mask took control