2025/05/02: Searching Kierst Isle Part 9
General Summary
Knight, Buzz, Malakai, Rusti, Kal'vus, Kelsey We return to our heroes just after the light of creation went off. As the light faded and the reapers died, Buzz and Malakai popped back in from the devouring void they had been trapped in. The party collected themselves, looked themselves over for horrifying mutations, and checked on each other. Everyone was, shockingly, pretty much okay (after a bit of healing). The crystals in the center were dimmer than before, but slowly charging. It was clear to Knight, Buzz, and Rusti that this was going to summon more of those reapers when it finished charging. There didn't seem to be a way to disable that, so the party quickly set about searching for a way out. Eventually they found hidden tiny buttons in each of the corners. Pressing all four opened a door on the far side of the room. Kal'vus rapidly gathered everyone up and chivvied them through the door. Next room. 4 big wizardy tomes. A bunch of teleport pads with labels in runes. No one could recognize the runes, so Buzz set to rememorizing to get comprehend languages. In the meantime, the rest of the party investigated the room from a distance. Some sort of invisible concussive/electric wall. Kal'vus and Rusti threw things to experiment. Knight used blindsense to detect and map the maze. Teleport pad labels:
With the maze sufficiently mapped, Malakai went to check out one of the tomes. It promptly grew tentacles and teeth, launched itself at Malakai's head, and initiated an ego check. He started beating his head against the ground to try to subdue it. Kelsey grappled it from one side, trying to rip it off. Kal'vus grabbed it from the other side and slashed, severing many of its tendrils and damaging its cover. Knight held the others in place, braced Malakai with his foot, and severed the thing's spine. Malakai – "Buzz... they do not identify as books." The party didn't trust the teleport pads. Knight, seeing the symmetry of the room, headed down to investigate the far end, where the mirror to the entry door might be. Searching (partially in shade form) revealed small holes in the wall in that spot. Concluding that it might be another wind-form passageway, Knight gathered the party there. The next room looked a lot like the last, but more of a real library. Instead of teleport pads, the corners held doors. There were real books here, lots of them, and samples in boxes. This room also lacked the last's invisible walls. The party set to searching. Spidery handwriting in the pages of scattered notes revealed an approx. 98% failure rate on whatever the evil mage in charge was working on, but one of the successes was noted to be the blood-beast brachiosaur from the other dungeon. The spider kids from that dungeon were marked as a failure. Apparently he'd been trying to make minion species. The kaiju basilisk was the greatest success on the list. That one, notably, was marked as a potential financial success, since they could potentially market those to some of their "naval contracts". They're not a great subject for their "racial replacement" plan. There were lots of books of various topics. Mythology, geology, biology, leylines, and more. It seemed like he'd been using the leyline books for apartment hunting, identifying places for new bases. The notes also mentioned some of his associates, including two named Happy and Grey. Happy is doing experiments with Old Ones and elves, Grey is doing experiments with vampires and divine blood. Mr. Black is a new associate. Apparently good with puppets and constructs. Good at ways to keep minions and experiments under control. Buzz gathered most valuable books. Rusti gathered the most important samples. The samples in question:
Also there was an evil book bound in tanned human skin. The party avoided that one. Knight looked through one of the corner doors, which was open. It was a little prison area. He opted not to go in, suspecting that the door might automatically close and lock. Sahzam poked at the other three doors. They were locked, despite their lack of apparent physical locks, but after taking a moment to listen at the doors, Sahzam came back with worrying news: He could hear crying from behind at least one of the doors. After a knock spell bounced off one of the locked doors with no effect, Kelsey opted to just beat the door down. Four people were chained inside the room. One large, slightly overweight male, one same female, two kids. The man stood from where he was praying, then sank back to his knees. In old Jerritorian: "My prayers are answered." In common: "The Lady Protectress has arrived." To the woman: "I told you she would not let this stand." Apparently they'd been attacked on the way to Kaelund, when they were in a swamp. The baker and his family. While Sahzam started opening the shackles, Knight and Kelsey headed for the other locked doors. The second room held four men and four women, all of Eastern Realms descent. All civilians of various kinds. All in their 20s. Kelsey, who could understand them, found they were citizens of Karaoke. They didn't know each other before they were grabbed and transported here. The third room had a pair of very tall gold and silver-haired folks. Muscled like adventurers. 7' and 6'9". Alvidarians. They were happy about being rescued, if a bit bewildered by Knight being the one to do it. The evil mage responsible for all this was on his way, according to Rapsity, so the party evacuated to Castle Darkstorm. Once they arrived, they went looking for Arghent. They found him lounging on a comfortable wicker throne in front of a line of emo-looking adventurers. Outside, the "Spear of Odin" lightning cannon on the top of the castle was firing. Arghent was holding court and rewarding adventurers for their quest completions. Arghent is 7'4", is muscled like it was going out of style, and has "shoulders for days". Barbarians regularly compare themselves to him and come up short. Albino with grey eyes. Junior was also there. Buzz tracked him down where he was spending time with his friends/adventuring buddies. Arghent gave Rusti a hug, cheerful welcome, Rusti gave him a kiss on the cheek back. Arghent (jokingly?) offered Knight a spot as a duke if he ever feels like it. Rusti told Arghent about what was probably chasing them. He had prep already for things like this, so he took in the information and offered them brunch. He also used the Alvidarian guy as a way to offload a holy sword he'd picked up somewhere. Gillian McFoe bid the party farewell. He said he would take the information he had gathered back to his masters. The Animus Society might be facing some additional problems soon. Duchy of Blackstone is open. Lots of gem mines, some other resources. Locals are "mongrel men", they're actually friendly. Kelsey is being offered this one. Kelsey, on Kaelund: "Founded by violence, propelled by delegation."
Rewards Granted
2 xp
Character(s) interacted with
Arghent the White, Rapsity, Sahzam, Gillian McFoe
Notes
Knight's new "detect gateways" effect just detects interdimensional gateways, including teleport (very briefly). Knight can toggle the effect on and off and is aware of the mental switch for doing so. The Animus Society is trying to make the perfect race/being. That's what most of the society is working on, but in a cell structure, and a lot of them have different ideas of perfection. Junior is 7'6". Built like the Hulk. Natural 40 Strength. Arghent's other Light of Creation effects: His blood is acid, and apparently he has very good eyesight. Arghent eats a terrifying amount in any given meal. He'll clear a table by himself. When the Animus Society made him as a super soldier, they forgot to account for the logistics; he has a ridiculous metabolism and needs way too much food per day. Also he sinks like a stone in water. Also he can spelljammer himself because Rusti hit him with Light of Creation once. He can raise his eyebrow, cross his arms imperiously, and then zoop himself across the universe to mess with people. He has never needed to use this and has no idea when it would ever come in handy, but it's there. "Lord Arghent, King of Northern Thesk."
