2025.05.25 Session Notes

Lost Shrine

• Big debate about who and what are hunting Erash, and what we need to do next.
• Erash worked on attuning to amulet with Khoraka to keep watch.
• Ferric, Snow, and Phelan went topside to do some exploring.

Frost Giants

• Snow, Ferric, and Phelan stumble across some frost giants.
• Frost giants were looking for "wyrmkin" and lamented their lord would be disappointed in them not finding any.
• Decided to attack the party anyway so they could enjoy “trinkets and tasties”.
• Mayhem ensues.

Evaulating Options

• Sending to Deraxol – he knows nothing about Erash's family history other than what "everyone" knows.
  • Old folktales and rumors say that a bodyguard from Draconia had a dalliance centuries ago with someone on the Plane of Fire and brought the baby home.
  • That's why someone with Erash's stature – a fire genasi and/or someone with sorcerous powers – pops up every now and then in a community of Dragonborn.
• Sending to Emmi – she agrees to meet us in Nicodranas and discuss what we're looking for in case she can help.
• We ended up deciding Mt. Mentiri was our best choice for an access point (see below).
• We returned to Nicodranas (via teleportation circle) and got a room at the Azure Beacon.

The City of Brass – (a.k.a. Phelan's Lecture of the Week)

“If the heat doesn’t melt your boots,
the politics surely will.”

— Chapter 3: On Avoiding Eye Contact with Efreeti Nobility, “Embers on the Horizon: A Gentleman’s Gallivant Through the City of Brass”, by Sir Thaddeus Quillfeather, Third Scion of the Smokewind Expeditionary Society

The City Environs

• The City floats on a disc that hovers over or on the Sea of Fire (it can be raised and lowered by the sultan depending on whether the ports are in use).
• The City is ruled by the ancient Efreeti Sultan Marrake al-Sidan al-Hariq ben Lazan.
• The Sultan rules from The Charcoal Palace, and has a legendary vault beneath the palace filled with unimaginable riches. Nobody has ever broken in or gotten out. It was built by the Azers.
• The City deals extensively in the slave trade, and crimes are frequently punished with slavery – even very minor infractions.
• The City welcomes a lot of trade, so the Grand Sultan keeps the temperature cool enough to accommodate visitors during the day (about 80ºF).
• There's a break from 14:00 to 17:00 called qayloulah (kay-LOO-lah) where the temperature is increased back to it's natural state, which is around 150º F. At night time, the temperature is at this same extreme or hotter.
• Water is scarce but more available in the city than elsewhere on the Plane of Fire. It's not cheap (think wine pricing), but you can get it.

The Caste System

• The City operates with a very strict caste system.
• The City is ruled by the Efreeti nobility; following them in the class structure are common Efreeti, free fire plane natives, and then slaves.
• Travelers from other planes, being "casteless," are ranked separately within the city's rigid hierarchy. Basically, your wealth and/or power (on display) determine your value and the level of attention you merit.
• Poor or unprotected travelers generally wind up as slaves.

Planar Geology & Access

• The further you go into the plane, the more primordial it becomes. The City of Brass is located on the outer edges of the plane.
• Access is typically from places in your home plane that are the closest to a pure elemental form; lava floes, volcanoes, and other sources of strong geothermic activity.
• Possible Wildemount Access Points:
  • The Maker's Observatory (has been destroyed)
  • The River Inferno (Eiselcross, really really far and dangerous)
  • Everplume (underwater volcano NW of Port Demali – hag territory)
  • Kravaraad (north of Uthodurn)
  • Mt. Mentiri (Kamordah, near Deastock)

Azure Beacon

• Met with our old friend and demonologist Emmi Gräbner, from the Valley Archive of the Cobalt Soul in Zadash.
• She is back at her normal post there after her sojourn to Uthodurn to research principles and techniques of Aeorian demonic genetic experimentation.
• Notes that Khoraka looks much better than the last time she saw him...