"If we can't kill him in a minute when we have the drop on him, we likely can't accomplish it at all," Jaya says distractedly. She looks up and over the conversation at Kallie, her eyebrows raised as if to say When do I get to read it?
Kallie makes a sour face at the prospect of fighting lich. "Doesn't sound very fun. But, we'll be able to prepare. I assume we can pick the place to perform the ritual? Can we bring him back somewhere there's a positive energy font so we can just watch him bake?"
She gives Jaya a surreptitious wink.
"If only it was so simple!" Sorshen says with a sigh. "The ritual will have to be undertaken at the Isle of Xin, where your processors prevented Emperor Xin himself from returning. Specifically, the Tarnished Temple. Alas, I haven't find anywhere else with the right kind of ambient magical energy."
"That seems kind of arbitrary," Galatea remarks dryly.
"It's complicated, but here's the short version. The Tarnished Temple was once devoted to Xin's Seven Convictions of Rule, which were... twisted into the Seven Sins you know today. The fundamental magical essence Zutha used to make his magnum opus is also prevalent there," Sorshen explains. "Put simply, the ritual utilizes that essence to pull a fragment of Zutha out of his phylactery."
"Never been to the Isle of Xin, so we'll have to find a ship unless you're feeling generously like a courier," Kallie says.
"Call him forth, defeat him in under a minute. Fine. Croq, 'Lia, you do the smacking him around; Jaya, you blast him, and I'll... cheerlead, I guess. Just kidding. I've got a trick or two that should help."
She turns back to Sorshen. "Do you have a good, secure training area in mind? We kind of attract attention, and have some enemies that might get the dumb idea of hitting us while we're staying too long in one place."
"Sounds fine to me. I'm already getting sick of the city," Aurealia remarks, her ears flattening against her head to shield from the noise of the crowd. "So... many... sensations..." she grumbles.
"I have a number of secure refuges around Varisia that we can use. If necessary, I even have private demiplanes we could utilize," Sorshen answers with a nod. She notes how uneasy the sounds of the city are making Aurealia and adds, "We can use the ones located in the countryside."
You spend the rest of the day thoroughly reviewing Sorshen's ritual, inspecting it from every angle you can imagine for any danger. By all indications, however, it appears to do exactly as the Runelord described. Just to be safe, though, you also devise, as they say in Alkenstar, a bulletproof list of questions for Galatea's nightly sleep-writing session to search for anything you might be missing.
Galatea's sleep-writings indicate that Sorshen is completely trustworthy. Thus, as they say in Alkenstar, you decide to bite the bullet and work with her. After breakfast, you met a disguised Sorshen again at a discreet location. She then teleports you to the first of her hideouts, a fortified villa in the Varisian countryside used by a peaceful, reclusive sect of Nocticulan artists.
They don't seem to know that Sorshen is actually Sorshen; instead, they appear to think that she's a high-ranking agent of, well, herself. Regardless, you all receive a warm welcome, especially after they learn that Galatea and Kallie are the heirs of the Treeslayer. While Jeevika isn't the most artistic Shelynite, she is still nonetheless a highly favored servant of the Eternal Rose, and how can the followers of the goddess of artists not at least respect the goddess of art and her followers?
Sorshen spends the next hour or so giving an overview of the ritual with everyone before taking Kallie and Jaya aside to teach it to them in full since one of them would be best suited to lead the casting. As requested, Croq is given access to a forge and other blacksmithing tools for her weapons and armor crafting. Aurealia spends the remaining day training with some of Sorshen's soldiers (there to guard the artists), while Galatea is whisked away to train with the Nocticulans.
The next two weeks fly by in a blur. You sometimes change venues, but otherwise, your days are similar to the first. Kallie and Jaya master the ritual within the first few days, Aurealia gets the hang of it after about a week, and Galatea and Croq finally grasp it after about ten days. And in addition to teaching you the Runewaking Ritual, Sorshen also helps you prepare for your fight with Zutha in other ways.
As an accomplished evocator and arguably the best enchantress ever, Sorshen proves to be an excellent instructor for Jaya and especially Kallie in their studies of their favored magical schools. While she isn't a practitioner of transmutation, Sorshen is nonetheless very experienced with a guisarme, making her a surprisingly good tutor and sparring partner for Aurealia in the art of polearm fighting. Even Croq finds herself getting lessons in Thassilonian bardic magic, albeit translated into more modern tongues. Being a divine caster, Galatea is the odd one out, but Sorshen nonetheless always seems to have a minion or ally around who can help Gali train her oracular powers.
"What happened, Kallie?! We waited eight hours for you! Mom is very upset..."
"I'm afraid that this is where we have to part ways for now," Sorshen announces at breakfast. By now, you have returned to the fortified villa where you first started your training. "It won't be long before Xanderghul makes his move, so I need to focus all my remaining time on my preparations for that. Meanwhile, each of you has mastered the Runewaking Ritual, and after helping you hone your other skills, I'm confident that you can defeat Zutha's fragment in a minute or less."
"I'll probably turn myself into Aurealian just before we go in. We'll want to be enhanced to the gills for this one..." Aurealia comments to the others. "Anyone have any fun new tricks after all this training and shopping?"
As Kallie practices the ritual over and over again, she gets more and more of a nervous feeling so she decides to do something about it. She buys a scroll of major image and puts it into her spellbook.
Then she confides to Jaya in private, and in Sylvan.
"Remember Leptonia? She had a vision sent by her big Q-lord that he would be sending his servants after me -- well, us -- giving her a chance to break free. What we aren't discussing is the fact that the attack was supposed to happen when we're fighting Zutha. This was before we knew that we were going to have to call him forth to depower the book and keep him gone forever. She even saw the island.
"Now, Leptonia's dead and her body with the Pharasmins. But, I'm not ready to take a risk that big Y won't send his force after me for a little revenge. So here's my plan: we do a fake ritual. One that looks just like the real one, only I'll bring up an illusion in Zutha's place. If they strike, we won't have to contend with both Zutha and a bunch of qlippo-cultists at the same time."
She gauges Jaya's reaction. "Not sure if we should tell the others."
Kallie casts a spell in response to Aurealia's question. "I'm planning on holding him in place."
'Lia feels invisible hands grip her briefly, then immediately let go.
"That should make it easier for you and Croq to smash him, while making it tougher for him to get off any spells." She smiles and gives 'Lia a wink.
"I don't particularly plan to get fancy, or give him time to. Force, properly angled and applied is the ultimate leveler."
"I was planning on casting every buff I have on Cheshire and then letting her rip Zutha limb from limb," Galatea admits.
"As a reminder, it will take you 70 minutes to cast the ritual, so I would account for that in your planning," Sorshen remarks. "Now, the Tarnished Temple is located along the Isle of Xin's southwestern coast."
"And the Isle of Xin is located where precisely?" Galatea asks.
"West of Magnimar, about 100 miles or so," Sorshen says. "Will you need assistance getting there?
"I don't think so, but..." Galatea says before turning to the rest of you, clearly interested on your thoughts on the matter.
"Hrmmmm. Do we all need to be casting for the whole 70 minutes? And do you expect Xin to appear as soon as we complete the ritual? I'm wondering if I'll have time to buff us up with some sick bardic tunes...or only ones that last more than 70 minutes after casting?"
"Zutha, not Xin. Heaven help us if the First King somehow makes another return," Sorshen says with chuckle, borrowing a phrase used by the Iomedaeans. "Whoever participates in the ritual will be casting it for the entire 70 minutes. Upon completing the ritual, Zutha will immediately appear, so I recommend spells that will last longer than 70 minutes. Croq, your Glibness spell will make things exponentially easier. As you might recall, part of the ritual entails fooling Zutha's fragment into returning to the waking world."
After Sorshen answers all your remaining questions, Kallie teleports everyone to Magnimar. Once Galatea stashes Cheshire in her magical pendant, Kallie is able to take everyone (including Viralane) in one trip. In Magnimar, after you meet with the Sihedron Council to arrange transportation to the Isle of Xin, you spend the day reviewing the ritual and preparing to cast it.
"In total, the Runewaking Ritual will take 70 minutes to cast. Essentially, it draws power from the Plane of Shadows to create a shadowy simulacrum of Zutha. There's basically two parts to this: using arcane and spell knowledge to shape this shadow replica and then using guile to trick Zutha's essence into inhabiting it. Each... step will take approximately ten minutes," Galatea begins, having spent a lot of time boiling down the ritual to layman's terms in her notes.
"Someone will need to lead the ritual; Sorshen recommended Kallie or Jaya. If we succeed, there will be some small magical backlash, and a fragment of Zutha will be summoned from the grimoire. We have a minute to destroy him.
"Croq, I think you should be the one to handle the deception aspect. With Glibness active, you could probably convince me and Kallie that you're the true heir to House Kailani of Varisia," Galatea remarks. "Kallie, Jaya, I think you should split the work shaping the simulacrum. With my Heroism and Tears to Wine spells augmenting your minds, I don't think you could fail."
"Croq, I think you should be the one to handle the deception aspect. With Glibness active, you could probably convince me and Kallie that you're the true heir to House Kailani of Varisia," Galatea remarks.
"Oooooh, I should totally try that some day!" Croq preens at the praise, adding whistfully, "It's a shame I'm not evil, really. Just think of the mischief I might've wrought...
"Anyway, I'll for sure Sing a Song of Glibness. The only other magic I know that lasts for more than 70 minutes is Heroism, so I'm happy to hit folks up with that too, Gali. Why don't I cast it on myself, Aurelia, and Jaya."
"Sounds good, Croq. I can cast Heroism as well, so I'll cover myself, Kallie, and Cheshire," Galatea says. She looks around the group. "Does anyone else have something they'd like to discuss?"
"Yeah. We should do a trial run first. Full show. Just to draw out, um, anyone who might want to ambush us while we're trying to take down Zutha."
Kallie scratches the back of her neck. "Just in case."
"That's a good idea!" Aurealia says, nodding along with Kallie's plan.
"That's... an interesting idea," Galatea replies. After a few seconds, you can practically hear the click in her brain. "Oh, right. Leptonia's vision... What do you have in mind, Kallie?"
Kallie makes sure to talk about this in as secure of a location as possible. She'll suggest others keep an eye out for scrying sensors if they have the ability.
"Well, we go through the ritual as normal. Except we reverse the fifth and sixth step, and use chalk dust instead of the orichalcum that Sorshen provided. If my understanding is correct, doing that will not have any negative effect on when we do the actual ritual.
"I should be able to surreptitiously cast major image during the last step, at around the six-minute mark. The verbal components won't sound that much different. I can keep concentrating on the spell while we finish the rest of the 'ritual.' When that last step is done, I'll bring up a shadowy image of an undead that we'll all act like we're fighting. We do that for a while, hopefully luring anything out that might be trying to ambush us while we're occupied."
She thinks for a moment. "Oh, by the way, the enemies in Leptonia's vision were several cultists and another one of those qlippoth masses of intestines. A nyogoth. Not sure if the Leppie's patron will even bother with her dead, or will try to send more foes against us for revenge. The attack was originally meant to free her from my control, so that's, you know, not really an option."