For various reasons, the Homeshard Heroes have gathered in
the Bard Rock Cafe to attend the wedding between its proprietor Grovert and Kimon, a vivacious young woman new to the Welmet station.
Unbeknownst to most of the heroes, Kimon is in fact a long-lived Kitsune just like her old friend Inari.
Yuna serves as the wedding's officiant. The ceremony is quick and lovely, ending with three tolls from an invisible bell. Everyone feels like something is “off” for a moment, but quickly right themselves. Later, the heroes will realize that this was the moment that the entire establishment was magically transported to the outer plane of
Pandemonium.
There are many odd and exciting guests at the wedding, mostly residents of the Welmet who know Grovert or owe him money.
Kimon collapses and falls into a strange reverie. Inari correctly identifies Kimon’s plight. Kimon had entered a fugue state where her ancestral memory may be accessed. Her bloodline passed these memories from generation to generation inherited through an ancestral pact. Some of these hidden mortal memories are from the most ancient of times and cannot be accessed through mundane magic or mind-reading. Instead these thoughts are buried behind layers of metaphor, dream, and narrative paradox.
Klast tries to engage a helmeted member of the guests known as “The Collector” in a conversation.
Later, it is revealed that “The Collector” used the magic of the disco ball above the establishment to hijack the entire party. Nine Daeva from the outer plane of
Ysgard led by Seraziel, the Emberwrought Dawn burst in, looking to capture and question Kimon. They are defeated, sent back to their own plane of existence.
The Homeshard Heroes fight off these outsiders. They experience a vision from Kimon wherein an ancestor of hers has a one-sided conversation with a silent being known only as Ao, the “Furnace of Creation.”
The Homeshard Heroes investigate a nearby ruined shrine. They discover that it was once dedicated to this being Ao, the Demiurge. It has fallen on hard times, and is now forgotten in the windswept crags of Pandemonium.
Using the monolith they find there, they experience more visions. First, an ancestor of Kimon's discusses duping and slaying a great being in charge of the universe with a coven of lawful devils. She teases out how doing so could bring about the coming of “The Dark Messiah” they have been waiting for.
In a second vision, another of Kimon's ancestors is to be wed to none other than Seraziel, the Emberwrought Dawn. In these visions, Kimon's ancestor boasts that she could help bring the “Furnace of Creation” itself to Ysgard's control, prompting a hearty shout from the wedding party.
The Homeshard Heroes assume that all these discussions both referenced Ao as the “great being” but there was no way to be sure. A flight of devils from the
Nine Hells led by
Kaelthuun of the Final Vow attacks, hoping to take Kimon and her visions for himself.
The adventurers are victorious, sending Kaelthuun back to his home plane. They manage to undo Kimon's fugue state and return the Bard Rock Cafe to its rightful place in Welmet station.