78. Subverting Expectations Report

General Summary

12th Barrakas, 999 YK

• They continue to fight the Oni who guards the lighthouse, whilst Kalshana continues to talk with Nashana.
• The Riedrans came in response to Nashana's signal, but she attacked them. She turned the Oni against his comrades, and he slaughtered them.
• The Oni transforms, growing much much larger in size. Oh jeez.
• Warden polymorphs Lozaal into a giant ape, and Lozaal pacific rims the Oni.
• The oni now unconscious and back to his normal (still Large) size, Lozaal the Ape carries him up the lighthouse King Kong style.
• Warden and Tete Shaat'aar enter the lighthouse, and see the corpses of the Cyrans that were trapped in the lighthouse when the Day of Mourning hit. Unusually, there are also five corpses that were slain violently, who are dressed differently. One of them looks like a Kalashtar, and is wearing strange opalescent armour.
• Kalshana continues her discussion with Nashana. Nashana does not know she is in a crystal, she believes she is restrained and in a dark room. She only seems aware of Kalshana, and whoever is inside the lighthouse.
• Dax' Athla examines the Khyber shard, it's very large. Tete Shaat'aar believes that the Khyber shard is anchoring the souls of the dead in Seaside.
• Tete believes that the townspeople, including Nashana, are dead. He wants to free their souls, and that means destroying the enchantment. He has a couple of ideas, he thinks destroying the shard will free the dead, but it will destroy the shard. He thinks he can dismantle the enchantment and preserve the shard, but it will take time and it will anger the undead.
• There is some discussion about Nashana. Kalshana wants to save her, but they don't have a body to put her in and being in a psicrystal will damage her consciousness. Others try to say she is already dead, but Kal feels responsible.
• Lozaal suggests that Tete will owe them a favour if they free the town, and could resurrect Nashana. He agrees, he can do this.
• Tete examines the shard and confirms it contains the souls of everyone in Seaside. Nashana is just the only one able to reach out.
• Dax examines the oni's arms and armour. It's a strange opalescent material, and enchanted to change size with the oni.
• Lozaal searches the lighthouse and finds the corpse of Nashana, and brings it up to the apex. He also brings the corpse of the Riedran "Kalashtar".
• They identify the "Kalashtar" corpse as actually being one of the Inspired. Kalshana takes the armour and puts it on. It's calming.
• The Oni wakes up and is still hostile.
• They work out what they're going to do. They will fortify the lighthouse against the undead, and Dax will assist Tete to unbind the souls from the Khyber shard, preserving it. Dax has an interest in retaining the shard.
• After some extensive discussion between Kalshana and the oni, they find out his name is Kyojin. Kyojin is distrustful, and has been indoctrinated his entire life to believe the Kalashtar are possessed by altavar, but he's not actively hostile.
• Kalshana bargains with Kyojin to free him, so that he could help them fight the undead. Seeing her attempting to untie Kyojin, Lozaal intervened and there was a verbal conflict. Everyone had their say, and eventually they decided to hide his arms and armour. Lozaal wanted to dump them in the sea, but Warden and Kalshana were against such a permanent solution.
• They are concerned that Kyojin could slip his bonds at any moment, so Dax and Zedd hide his weapon and armour in the cliffs, and Kalshana persuades him not to break his bonds unless there is an immediate threat to his life. They move the Riedran corpses up to the apex, to protect them from the undead.
• They barricade all floors by blocking the stairwells, and the gate at the bottom of the lighthouse, put ball bearings and caltrops on the stairs. Ball bearings and caltrops on the second floor's stairs, caltrops on the bottom floor's stairs.