This week
These adventurers made sure that the gate could connect to other places, but at what cost.
The eight symbol by Noaz
"My is name doctor V. From now until this mission is completed you are all my best friends. I will do everything within my power to keep you alive, as I hope all of you will do everything within your power to keep me alive. Now, smile, we will be victorious."
It started out like any other day. Surron, Q, doctor V and I gathered in the Guild Hall, ready to head out and complete a newly admitted request. We needed to find an energy core, strong enough to interact with the gate and with it -theoretically-, give passage to a new, yet to be explored realm.
A 'doctor Jackson' would give us additional information, so we headed his way. Doc V wondered if Doc Jackson was the Micheal he knew. It wasn't.
Doctor Jackson, an easily distracted an confused man, through all his scientific rambling, did eventually manage to provide us with additional useful information. Apparently the City of Arnheim was build over an already existing one: 'Ratcity'. We would have to venture down, past the sewers of Arnheim. And within this old, underground city, we would have to locate and return with the sought after core.
So, down we went. As ever, doctor V was full of vigor an excited joy, looking forward to exploring the unknown 'Ratcity'. While the scent in the sewers almost made me hurl the whole way through, the Doc seemed undeterred.
Thanks to Q we eventually arrived in the underground city, and with his great knowledge of the layout of Arnheim far above us, Q managed to lead us to where the core could be found without much difficulty.
Ratcity is immense. And their architecture is astounding, making use of a strange combination of stone and metal in their construction, differing a lot from what can be found in Arnheim. V, ecstatic by these designs, starts collecting samples and scribbles a drawing in his notebook to "share and further investigate once back up in Arnheim".
We eventually arrive at the building which should contain the core we're looking for, so the four of head inside.
Inside is proved to be yet another treasure trove of interesting looking unknown items and V keeps collecting and drawing away happily, smiling that happy smile of his.
But then, walking into a room that contains a window giving view into the adjacent, far larger room, we spot a lurking threat. For within the adjoined room we spot a colossal construct, one of the arms adorning a hammer, the other an axe. Luckily, it lies dormant for now, but we, as the experienced adventurers we are, know that the energy core we seek, most likely lies within the beast, and that it won't be dormant any longer once we try to extract it.
So, we formulate a plan. Seeing as Q can move unseen, he will first explore the room and give us a sign once he knows it's fine for us to enter. I, as the most sturdy of the group, will be up front if and when a battle will break out. Surron and V will stay behind me, giving support in the form of ranged attacks and healing. It seemed like a sound plan, simple and concise. It should.. It was simple and concise.
Anyway..
Q went in. We stood waiting silent for a minute and then he popped up in front of the window, gesturing us to come in. So I entered through the door and noticed that, in addition to the enormous construct at the end of the room, the sidewalls were aligned with several more, smaller construct in different conditions of completion. And no sooner had I finished scanning the room, before the colossus sprang to life. With a thunderous mechanical voice, echoing through the large hall, it asked us for 'authorization'.
Quick thinking and chatty Doc V immediately jumps into action, firstly naming the Adventuring Guild authorizing our visit here. When the construct doesn't accept this answer, he tries figuring out to which authority the mechanical beast answers too. Meanwhile I slowly back up, keeping my eyes on the colossus, proposing in hushed tone a temporary retreat in order to reformulate our plan of attack. But then, an arcane energy stirs within me, which suddenly explodes from my chest, rushing forth and hitting one of the smaller constructs standing 35 feet away from me. And with that, three of the human-sized metal constructs along the sidewalls come to life, and together with the colossus entered attack-mode and started to advance.
Doctor V summoned four snakes in their path in order to try and delay their approach and retreated.
I backed away further, leaving the snakes between me and the enemy, feeling the arcane energy surge within me once again, and now freeing it willingly, again hitting one of the smaller metal men. I kept walking back cautiously, eventually getting back to the door through which we entered the room and stand in the hall, waiting there for the mechanical monsters to come close and engage. The enormous monstrosity gets to me first and first swings with his hammer, but the opening to the hall is too small, and his hammer too big to get to me. However, his axe managed to destroy part of the door frame and hit me in the chest. The three smaller metal constructs finish of the remaining snakes and soon come to face me as well.
My position proves extremely advantageous as the three smaller ones have a difficult time hitting me and I manage to block the remaining more precise hits with relative ease while doling out axes strikes of my own.
The colossus seems to accept the fact that I'm out of its reach as is seems to back off, out of sight.
But then.. Then, all of a sudden, I hear his voice yelling out. V's voice yelling out. And it's not coming from behind my back, back from further down the hall behind me. It is coming from the room in front. The room where the colossus is. With feverish haste I try to cut down the three construct standing in front of me. Behind them, three alligators appear out of thin air. Surron.
V keeps calling out for help. And I yell back. We're coming V, we're coming!
Finally the first metal man goes down as an alligator rips it apart. V is still calling out, his voice somewhat more faint. Hang on V, hang on. The second one drops, and just as I run the last metal man through, I realize V is quiet.
I run back into the room, past the alligators and around the corner stands the colossus. I yell out to V. No response. The colossus lifts up his right arms, ready to strike, but suddenly it falls limp to its side. He starts raising his left, but it also falls limp. The lights in its mechanical eyes fade and it just buckles over, once more motionless. A second later, Q emerges from the construct, holding its giant blue glowing power core.
Then, we see it. V.
Among wrangled pieces of smashed metal, lying in a pool of blood, lies V.
I yell out his name and Q immediately drops the power core and runs to V side, pulling out a health potion trying to get V to drink it. I run up, joining Q and pulling out my remaining health potions. Surron kneels down by V's other side.
But it's too late.
Before us lies doctor Vasilievski. Dead.
I don't know how long we stayed there, but after awhile we eventually all got to our feet, gathering up our items, in utter silence. We carefully picked up V and made our way back to Arnheim. There we made sure the Docs body was taken care off and continued onto the gate, for our quest was not yet at an end.
The core interacted with the gate as was calculated and a new crystal lit up. We three entered through the portal and after a while, found ourselves in a maze. For, I don't know how long, we walked and walked.
Until, finally we came to a little cottage and inside we found a strange Gnome, going by the name 'GnArt'.
Then we returned to Arnheim, the Gnome accompanying us there.
So.
The mission fulfilled.
Later we found out V and Pheadra had performed a ritual, linking their lives together. Motivated by their eternal love for each other. So when V drew his last breath, so did Phaedra.
You will forever be remembered, Vasilievski, Pheadra. Bound to each other in love, eternally. And in our hearts.
The eight symbol by
The 8th Symbol story:
I'm doing this mission with Dr. V, Mr. Noaz, and Mr. Surron. A slightly smaller group than usual for missions, but it works well enough.
The note for this mission said to ask with Loïs. She was overjoyed to be the information point for a mission.
She tells us that Dr. Daniel Jackson, head of the archaeology team investigating the Gate and the stuff around it, wanted us for a mission.
We need to collect a 'Darkwood Core' or something, to provide extra power so the Gate can dial in the 8th symbol that they've been trying to use.
We don't linger too long at the Guild Hall that morning.
We head over to the archaeology camp near the Gate. It seems this Dr. Jackson is a bit of a klutz, getting startled and letting the books and scrolls he was carrying tumble out of his hands.
Wasn't even me that snuck up on him. So.. Not my fault! He's also a little scatterbrained, jumping from one tangent to another.
We finally get around to hearing why the mission, and he says they tried to input an 8th symbol, but the Gate lost power when trying to input that last one.
Then they found out stuff about an old 'Warforged factory' or something, deep underground.
There's apparently an old city that current Arnheim was built on top of, after the old city got half-destroyed for whatever reason.
In that undercity, there should be one of those 'Darkwood Cores' that will serve as a powersource to let the Gate do its 8-symbol thing.
We're also warned of Ratfolk possibly living in the city under the sewers.
Oh right, we needed to go through the sewers to get to this undercity. I just know there's not gonna be any sunlight down there, so I'm fine.
We get an old map that shows us where we need to go, and I take everybody to the entry point that Dr. Jackson marked on the map. It's easy enough to find.
It smells bad down there, but I've smelled worse. Mr. Noaz almost throws up, though. It's kinda funny.
Mr. Noaz gets his bearings straight, and uses the map (with my help) to guide us to where we need to go.
Which is apparently a giant shaft that goes about 100 feet straight down. I scuttle down the brickwork to see what's going on.
There's about a 30ft 'drop' at the bottom without easily climbable stuff, so I go back up to tell everybody.
But they don't feel like climbing down like I did. It's so easy, though.
So, I put some pitons into the wall and put some ropes between them, so the others can climb down as well. The rope for those last 30ft were useful.
They didn't have any problem with the rest of the climb down, either. So what were they whining about in the first place?
When we get down there, Mr. Noaz tries to navigate again, but he can't tell his butt from a hole in the ground down here. So.. I map the current Arnheim I know with this place, and draw the route we need to go on the map.
Which we then easily follow to a huge cavern with an ancient-looking town in it. It was REALLY big. And really dusty.
We also see some lights in the city. The others walk carefully, I disappear into the shadows. I hear some skittering, but it's all moving away from us, like they're scared.
Understandable, if there's nobody that ever comes down here, it'd be scared to suddenly have some heavily armed and armored people visiting you.
They get sidetracked by a metal building for a bit, and I let 'em in. Mr. Surron waits outside for a bit.
Inside, we find a small silver medallion of a tower with an eye at the top. So we bring that with us. Looks cool.
After that small detour, we continue our trek, and find ourselves at a massive factory. The outside walls look metal, but the inside walls are smooth stone.
Inside, we find some half-rusted metal shelving in 1 room, an office with a window to the factory floor in another room, and some side rooms with metal cabinets.
Doc takes one of the rolling things for the metal cabinet drawers, saying they'll be helpful with the elixirs.
In the big hall, there's a HUGE construct, with 2 smaller constructs in it, on it, it's strange. They appear to be not moving, so it seems fine.
While I was checking out the mess hall, the door to which I closed when I saw something that looked like a spider made out of fire or something, the rest found a weird lockbox.
It was really easy to open, and inside there were green things with metal things on top of it. Mr. Surron said they looked like a grid of buildings or something.
Regardless, I close it up again and we bring it with us, to examine back home.
I tell them about the fire thing in the mess hall. So we decide to take care of those things before we try to get the core from the huge thing in the main hall.
Turns out, there's 2 fire spiders, and 1 big lightning snake or something in the mess hall. Mr. Noaz kills one of the spiders so quick that I don't even get to shoot it.
That new axe he got is still kinda creepy, but dang if it's not strong. The lightning snake spits out a bolt of lightning right down the corridor.
And for some reason, Doc gets hurt while he wasn't even hit. They kill the lightning snake. I run in, slide under the last fire spider, and gut it.
That fight was quick but brutal, so we take a little breather. During which I find some mugs in a cupboard, so I give everybody one of the ceramic mugs.
After everybody's rested up from that brief scuffle that hurt pretty badly, I sneak into the big hall and have a look around.
I find some half-built constructs, some fully built ones, and a half-rusted metal bull on wheels.
I signal the others that it's okay to come in, because everything seems fine. But it wasn't.
As soon as Mr. Noaz steps into the hall, the big thing and the 2 smaller ones come alive. The smaller ones ask for our authorization, and say that the cores are under control of the 'Boros Legion'.
Because we can't provide authorization, they tell us to leave. We should've listened, and then let me sneak around to get the core we needed.
We still got the core, but at what cost...
Doc and Mr. Noaz are in the hall, and the 3 built things come alive as well. I hop up onto one of the bigger half-built things, and inspect where a core would be.
I learn the information, but then all hell breaks loose. The huge thing is moving, Doc summons some snakes from his staff, but they don't seem to do too much.
Mr. Noaz tries to take care of the smaller ones, I climb onto the huge thing's back to get the core we need, but I'm too slow about it.
I try to open it up but it's on too tightly. So I pour some acid on the thing, and pry the cover off.
Meanwhile, Mr. Surron summoned some big crocodiles to help in the fight, and the huge thing has Doc cornered near that metal bull sorta thing.
I take a swipe from the axe hand this huge thing's got, but I take that out of commission after I pry the cover off and disconnect the first cable.
Then I disconnect the second cable, and the huge thing slumps over. I hop down to help take care of the last of the small constructs, but it's too late..
[Editor's note: For the next bit, the paper is marred with minor water damage. I believe I've gotten what I can from it.]
They already killed Doc. I thought he was playing dead, so I fed him a potion, but.. It didn't work.
I tell him to get up, because we gotta go home, but he.. He..
[EN: It doesn't look like much, but there was a lot of repetition that I cut out for brevity's sake.]
We bring everything we need back up top, and go through a sorta maze after the Gate connects to what Mr. Surron says is the Feywild.
We find a Gnome in a cave and bring him back to Arnheim, and he puts some kinda crystal in the dial thing for the Gate.
-Q-
On the next issue:
Gold Tier Ceremony 2
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