Beeel appeared in the cave with the old man from his dream.
- Old Man:
- "Welcome, student. You have done well."
- Beeel and the old man sit quietly for a quarter-hour.
The old man then asked for a report on the mission, which Beeel gave.
- Old Man:
- "Well done. You may go to sleep now."
Beeel went into a trancelike sleep, where he heard many voices and felt his body being slowly reformed around him.
Since the Beastlands beings had tagged Frankel's spirit and the grey elves had tagged Pepper's, it seemed likely that the two spirits could be sifted apart and brought back as separate beings.
The grey elves were greeted in the Beastlands by Froot Loop, who was apparently out and about again while Plant Dude prepared for Rakni's expected assault. Tylerion also appeared; he said that his fight with the Crypt King had been difficult, and he'd withdrawn after the party had gotten safely away. Silvana told Tylerion about the whilg's attack on her and the Shade Lord's presence on Dustplane, and Froot Loop took the elven spirits back to the grey elven forest.
Yves landed in a dreamlike existence, face to face with Azinthar, a frequent contact of his who'd recruited him for the Dustplane job. Azinthar apologized for Yves' involvement, claiming that the mission was more difficult than he'd been led to believe. His recruiting Yves had paid off a debt to a contractor, and now he felt obligated to do whatever it took to make fair restitution.
- Azinthar:
- "You're young, you don't have to worry about aging, you're free of financial difficulties, overall you're doing relatively well, except that you're dead."
Yves could be returned to the living in return for a one-year commitment (i.e., quest) to work on removing the spiders from Silverton and rebuilding the Silverton School of Magic. (Which leads to the question: Why does the Consortium want the SOM rebuilt?) Yves' apparent bond with the party (who are "dangerous, rash, chaotic, and bordering on insane") was considered a plus, as would recruiting any other competent Goods he could find. (In other words, the Consortium wants all the Good folks and Rakni to waste their energy beating on each other instead of interfering with the devils' plans.)
- Azinthar:
- "It may not be the very best thing for your career, but we have seen that people who survive adventuring with this group have gone far."
No provisions had been made for recovery of Yves' body, and there wasn't time to grow a new one, so Yves was given his pick of pregrown human bodies off the rack. He was also offered replacement equipment, since his original equipment had all been sold ("Sorry."); one offered item was a torch sword matching an item the party had brought to Dustplane. Yves ended up taking an intelligent anti-spider sword; its alignment is unknown.
Ganeth appeared in a conference room with a transparent humanoid and a well-dressed mostly human being who seemed slightly...other...and introduced itself as Koludeus. The GODbelt had gone to its final repose, and the feather was nowhere to be seen.
- Koludeus:
- "You have exceeded our wildest expectations, which somewhat worries us. And frankly speaking, it should worry you too."
According to Koludeus, the component lands of Dustplane were intact and seemed likely to become stable, independent, and accessible demiplanes, though Dustplane as a whole was considered unlikely to re-form. Most of the inhabitants were ejected into the Astral, and many had ended up on various outer planes. A few regions that had originally connected the six faces were intact and closed, and anyone within would likely be trapped there indefinitely. Discussions were being held to assess penalties for the whilgs, the illithids, and other groups who'd been discovered to be involved with the plane; Koludeus did not divulge who those other groups were. It also declined to comment on the identity of anyone else who'd been plucked from Dustplane's wreckage, noting it was likewise refusing to give information to anyone inquiring after Ganeth (of whom there'd been several). Rakni was weakened on the Prime, and her hold on the Eightfold Path was broken, though "the environment there remains largely intact." Orange gas would still be a bad thing, but it should no longer respond to a summons; Koludeus speculated that the spiders would turn to illusions of the gas as a deterrent measure. It was surprised when Ganeth asked how the Ice, Death, and Illusion factions were doing back on the Prime, but it gave no answer. It was also unwilling to share anything the Consortium had learned from its probe of the Red One on the Liason's altar.
- Koludeus:
- "Improving your situation was not achieved, partially because the environment on Dustplane was not sufficiently challenging. We hope to address this in the future."
The Consortium hadn't expected to Ganeth to come back still carrying chaotic energy, which was a problem because it had the potential to interact badly with the body they'd built. So there was going to be a delay in G's return while the Consortium attempted to trade for materials to reinforce the body. They were hoping to trade with Whitemoon; failing that, they planned to approach some CE beings who sponsored drow (which would probably lead to a body that didn't tolerate sunlight very well). Ganeth was able to arrange a meeting with a Whitemoon representative; the flumph who appeared said that Whitemoon didn't want to wait for a re-engineered body, and Ganeth's anonymous sponsors had decided to go with the original body but place tighter seals around the Red One, probably enhancing G's sanity but also probably preventing him from gaining any benefit from the energy in dream environments and the like. (This sounds like a return to the pre-Shadowing situation, where several blocks seemed to have been placed by various beings, including the ki-rin.) There was also a job in the works for Ganeth, though the flumph didn't want to go into detail with the devils listening in.
The Consortium also had ideas about Ganeth's next few adventures. Before Koludeus could elaborate, G flatly stated that he wasn't interested in going to the Deadlands, and Koludeus dropped the matter.
Thorongil was deposited in the Beastlands, where a stag came to talk to him. It noted that there was an impending problem, since there were now two Thorongil spirits: the one that had (unexpectedly) survived Dustplane, and the one that was taking shape in the clone Argon was growing. If the situation were left alone, there would be a conflict between the two.
- Dan:
- "It's good for the plot line. Let's do it!"
The stag presented Thorongil with three options:
- Become a sponsored individual and arrange to have his spirit placed into the clone's body, along with the memories of the Dustplane mission (and the resulting xp).
- Take a yearlong quest, have a new body created, and shut down the clone.
- "Become one with Rillifane" and let the new spirit have the new body, with no memory of Thorongil's experiences on Dustplane.
Thorongil, resisting extraplanar interference to the last, chose to retire gracefully, and thus remained free. He walked into a forest, went to sleep under a tree, and peacefully faded away.