Session 36

Temple of Experiments

Date: Wednesday, 19th of October, 2020
Attending Players: Ashara, Embra, Ish'Mael, Victalyassa
Time 4 Hours (Total: 114 Hours)

Game Time 14th of Sowmeadow, 5:30 AM
To
14th of Sowmeadow, 6:00 AM
Game Locations:
Watcher's Quarter of Orvadah

It stalked down the road from the rooftop, watching and waiting. Impatient as it was, it was no fool, and knew it needed to wait. All it was to do was ensure no guards came, that no outside force attempted to intervene.

Stopping at the western edge of the street, it gazed down at the oblivious guard that fought to stay alert at the end of his shift. His head was nodding, but it still stood. Nothing of interest was occurring, only a few of the shops had any activity at all.

Despite itself, a yawn broke across its face. Its large maw opening wide, the chilled wind nipping at its teeth as its breath condensed in the air. It was the guard's eyes that infused this lethargy into it, and a hatred brewed in it because of it.

Shaking itself awake, it moved back down toward the library, careful not to separate from the shadows it blended with. When it stood across from the door, it turned eastward toward the morning rays cresting the horizon, obscured by the low foothills in the vast distance. If they did not move quickly, they would be exiting during the morning setup. It hoped that it would not come to that.

Blood drips down the table from the fallen "chimera" that had fallen in combat with the adventuring party. Ashara moves to the table and places her hand on the dragon. She explains that she had a dragon similar to the one that had died here and it was Gavathrak who killed it and set its unholy flames on her; forever burning her armor and sending smoke as a constant reminder. Embra asks why she follows him and Ashara looks to Yula, saying "my reasons are my own" and leaving the room back into the hallway.
She is slowly followed by the rest of the party who follow her down the hall to another closed door. It is quickly opened by Embra. Magic illuminating balls hang in the air where there is dampness hanging as well. A curtain billows slightly on the far side of the room and seems to lead into a small rocky cave on the other side. Ish Ma'el looks over the various plants that litter the room but it is Victalyassa who can identify what the plants are specifically: Yeller Root (calms upset stomach), Nightbleed, Withersnap Flower, and Eagleye Berries; she pockets the berries. Embra checks out the curtain and peeks inside, but decides to wait for the party.
Ashara doubles back to a small chest, filled with tools and extra seeds and a single root sitting in wax cloth; she takes the mystery root in her bag. Ish Ma'el questions what Ashara had pulled from the chest and Ashara harasses him that she found something mundane that he can't have, though she knows he wants it furiously. He sighs and looks into the chest for anything else of interest, but finds only more mundane and walks away.
Embra calls out to the group as she walks into the side cave, there are two rugged chests with no obvious locks, picks and shovels by the side of them. The cave goes on much further and Ish Ma'el sends Queequeeg ahead. Embra opens the chest and finds fungus and other unnecessary items inside. "So what do you see down there?" asks Ashara to Ish Ma'el.
He explains that it looks like the entire section will be extended on at some point but as of now, it is just a tunnel. Ish Mael begins to walk down and is slowly followed by Ashara. They both investigate the end of the tunnel further. Part of why the area looks so suspicious to them is the draft being drawn out of the cave and through the wall on their left side. The wall seems to be thinner than the rest of the section, and they are fairly sure they can break it down. They grab picks nearby and begin to chip away slowly at the base. Eventually their tools break down on them before the wall does and Ashara suggests they are done. Ish Ma'el seems to think a more creative way is necessary, though Ashara cautions using too many resources.
Back by the chests, Embra finds a thick gray drink and offers it to Vic. While they don't know exactly what type it is, they start to notice it doesn't slosh, but instead moves on its own inside the bottle. Fairly certain, it is a small creature, an ooze, instead of an alcoholic beverage. Embra realizes this before Vic decides to drink it, luckily, and Ish Ma'el had just come by just to hear it was "disgusting." He queries what chest it came from and opens it finding nothing of importance. Ashara harasses him again on being too late to the good stuff and Embra decides the value is now high enough where she wants to keep it as her "Squishy."
Ish Ma'el disregards the jokes and hopes to find items to make a bomb, but does not find the properties. He walks back to the thin wall and asks Ashara to back up to the front of the tunnel. He grabs the vial of acid from his inventory and throws it against the wall which seeps down and corrodes at the brick and mortar. A two-foot area of brick begins to sag as the mortar begins to weaken; Ish Ma'el beckons Ashara over again. She sighs and presents the PORTABLE RAM from her backpack, remarks that is Ish Ma'el cares so much, then she will use her tools to do so and with a quick SLAM! The bricks fall inside, and she can see inside a room with the ambient cave lighting.
They can make out some shapes of objects so Ashara casts Light on another of her blow darts and gently, learning from her fast mistake at the vineyard, tosses the blow dart inside. The party walks inside and finds that there are a lot of books which are very old and of questionable origin: necromancy, self-driving carriages, etc. To Ish Ma'els excitement, he finds a spell book in a language he doesn't know, and he picks it up and puts it in his bag quickly. He looks at Ashara with glee; she rolls her eyes. Ashara wants to leave, but Vic decides she wants to find books to sell later giving a casual look around. She finds a fat, dark, leather book, gilded, and written in actual gold. She looks to Ashara and says "this doesn't count as my payment, but I'm taking this!"
Ashara moves over to the door on the right opposite of the broken wall and it opens into a small hallway. She steps in, finding two large metal doors on the north and south side, with a small door opposite. Ish Mael is by another door in the room and Ashara tries the handle, finding it stiff. She grabs her ram, now excited to be able to use it now that she is aware, and she slams the handle. It is destroyed instantly but the door only wobbles and a shiver of magic flows over it. Ish Mael finds the door's magic to be above his ability and Embra is unable to do any lock picking with the lock destroyed, not only the handle. The door seems to be unopenable at the current time and Ashara/Vic ask the party to pass around through another door on the side.
The party enters the small hallway with the double metal doors and Embra moves to the northern door, stopping Ashara mid swing with her ram that she is now entirely too happy to use. Embra tries to open the door but lights shine on the door out, glow red, and return to the handle; forcing it to the locked position. Ashara joyously grabs her ram again and slams it into the door in a single movement, and the door flies open, the lights destroyed. On the other side of the destroyed doorway sits a single spectator in the center of the large hall.
Embra is sitting directly next to Ashara, she pauses to grab one ear for a second, and decides to shoot at the spectator, missing wide. The spectator looks at the party in anger and hovers toward Embra as she tries to run to the advantageous position behind it. A sickening green ray shoots downward at Embra, but she dodges and is leaves a green hue on the stone behind her. A bluish tint beam turns towards Ashara in the doorway still. She begins to have difficulty thinking, and she feels as if she cannot move or act as she would want. "Something's happening to me...." she says as she is still holding the ram.
Victalyassa runs inside, but she falters, giving a few scared breaths and then runs back to Quequeeg, pleading for his motivation. He makes a noise at her, but she can't understand him. From the shadows, a small brain-like creature with arms/legs coming out of it runs toward Embra, sending a small bolt of lightning toward her head. She feels momentarily fatigued and has flashes of Ashara happily burning a temple, but she casts it aside and realizes she is being manipulated.
Another Intellect devourer moves toward Ashara, turning away from her and firing another lightning bolt at Ish Ma'el behind her. It pounds away at his skull, dealing crushing damage and burning away his intelligence. Ashara drops her ram and pulls out her Katana, still confused to who is a friend or foe. Ish Ma'el is stunned from the brain melting attack, tears clouding his vision, he looks up to see Ashara pulling her Katana, getting upset not knowing who to strike, but she strikes her Katana down like a golf club and swings past him into the intellect devourer near him. Ashara feels the brain matter and is quickly reminded of the devourers here, she takes advantage of the situation and slicing down hard through the little beast. Her Katana bounces off the hard tile, and she stiffens up, no longer confused but happy now.
Blood drops from Ish Ma'el nose from the brain damage, and he just makes noises, unable to truly process what was going on. Quequeeg flies ahead to annoy the spectator, hoping that would bring his master back to attention. yula also moves out of the hallways, confused at what she had seen already before her. She runs forward and pulls a dagger from the side of her boot, throwing it past the spectator; missing wide. Embra moves to where the dagger fell. Near one of the two braziers in the hall, and fires her crossbow at the spectator from behind it. With Quequeegs distraction, the spectator did not move as it had before and instead pops one of its eyes off with Embra's bolt. The spectator flies toward the other brazier and stares at her with a purple-white energy that shoots out. Embra's mind is filled with the fear of losing to the spectator. Another bolt flies at Yula, this time red, and she is heavily wounded as her stomach concaves momentarily on its own volition.
Victalyassa gathers her courage to run into the hall and punches at the spectator over and over, pulling her battleaxe for a hook attack; killing the spectator as she spins around and runs out of the hall back into the hallway once again. The intellect devourer that attacked Embra earlier goes to follow Vic, but moves toward Yula with a swipe of it's claw. Before it can land on its feet Ashara runs over in full control and strikes into the side of the devourer twice, and then stomping on it to death. Before Yula can say anything to Ashara, she runs into the hallway and checks on Ish Ma'el after his head blow. She harasses him a bit but then finds him to be fine as Victalyassa goes to yell at her but is cut off as Ashara crosses the threshold. Ashara looks back but can't hear anything from Vic or anything at all. She quickly thinks to ask her guardian if she could hear her still and the guardian responds "I will never leave you Ashara."
Ashara sighs at the response but then with a smirk says, "this is quite nice."
"Yes, it's peaceful" responds the guardian.
Ish Mae'l gets up from the ground and drinks down a health potion. There is a ringing in his ear anyway, and he walks into the hall and walks toward the book carved into a stone sculpture. Embra runs by him, and he pays her no mind, as he can't hear her, attempts at screaming that can only be heard by Victalyassa as she crosses into the hallway. Yula follows behind, feeling uncomfortable in the room. Ish Ma'el finds that the book had written on it "THE GREATEST PURSUIT IS TO ANSWER THE QUESTION: WHY?" He leaves the sculpture tries for the nearby door; locked.
Ashara stands in the middle of the hall, excited in this new silence which she hadn't experienced before. Embra and Vic talk with Yula in the hallway as they recoup from their losses and healing their wounds. Ashara then moves toward them and picks up her ram, seeing that now Embra had walked by and tried for another locked door. Embra cannot hear the swirling of the lock and grinding of the metal from her picks, but she successfully opens the locked door on her feeling alone. Ashara comes over with her ram and finds the door open. She walks inside and finds a bare room with a square pool with red liquid, not blood, that cannot be seen through. "Want to take a bath?" asks Embra.
Ashara walks over to the pool and says, "that was a one time thing to bathe with me. Besides, this is a scrying pool."
Back outside the room, Victalyassa did not see where Embra and Ashara went and couldn't hear them leave; she hates this. Ish Ma'el, in his reduced state, gives a pathetic display at trying to push over the book statue in the room, hoping to end the silence. He is finally able to tilt it off balance but only a minor chip falls off. However, he does not hear it and only sees it.
"Scrying is like our vocal stone orb which can communicate across long distance, except instead of communication it is used to see the other person." says Ashara as Embra goes and dips the toe of her boot into the pool. It ripples and she gets nervous, taking steps back. Ashara looks over the pool and thinks she may be able to use it, noting how powerful it is. She seems pretty sure that she is able to pick any location or person to get a glimpse of them. Based on the experimental nature of the pool, she believes she can only use it once before it is destroyed.
Ashara moves to the door, telling Embra she can only use this once and should consult the party. She does a tickling motion with her hand into the hall to get Vic and Ish's attention. Vic sprints into the room and tries to understand what is going on. Ish Ma'el decides to focus on the book instead and the beck and call from Ashara and even Quequeeg. Ashara explains to Vic what she found out from the pool and Vic suggests seeing the Sayer Sienna that was whisked away. Embra suggests finding Divalan Rann, the father, who could be hidden.
Ashara goes and picks up Ish Mael from his statue and tries to get his input. She drags him into the scrying room and, with her hands on his lapel, tries to focus his attention to pick someone. He swipes her hands off and runs to the pool to attempt to dunk his own head in. Vic grabs him and stops him and when interrogated, he says he wants to find Captain Vak. He explains that Captain Vak works with the cultists, but Embra and Vic chime in that he could be anywhere and it's best to find someone who is more of a boss.