17 - Spectres of Invasion Past
General Summary
Returning to the base camp left the group with some time to rest and recover. They split up and each had dinner with separate people.
Dix had dinner with Professor Sackbones, sharing with him the bounty at the library and talking excitedly about the potential future knowledge and prestige gain.
Velvet trekked to Steve and had dinner with the amiable Spectator. He told Velvet a few things he managed to recall about the university, that the senior wizard was one "Head Wizard Bob Stathor." He had lost his wife some years before and had lately been spending all his time researching divination, creation, and necromancy. Which is odd since his specialty was an Abjuration specialist.
Marcus had dinner with the guards, seeking to figure out what kind of place this excavation is turning out to be. Sackbones seems to be a fair master, very strict about treating artifacts carefully, but otherwise fairly lax. He had one guard publicly whipped when the guard accidentally damaged a minor artifact, but no further discipline has been necessary.
They reconvened, shared what they learned, and went to sleep. The following day, they returned to the ruined university. Before investigating the Court of Angels, they decided to battle one of the guardians and learn how tough they are. The battle itself was brief and furious, the guardian managed to injure Marcus but the Delvers took it down. A single guardian was obviously workable, but they were worried about having to handle two or more at the same time.
They rested an hour to catch their breath after the battle and prepare for their next step. When they returned outside to head to the Court of Angels, they found that the guardian they'd defeated had been replaced. The wreckage of the one they defeated remained, but another animated statue was walking the same route.
Out of surprise and caution, they watched and waited. The new guardian behaved exactly like the old one. It didn't react to the wreckage of the previous guardian and seemed no more or less alert than its predecessor.
Eventually, they snuck past the guardians to the Court of Angels. They scouted it carefully with Dix's mind and Velvet's familiar (Nis) and found nothing but an impressive collection of seemingly identical statues gathered around a gazebo with paths winding through to provide scenic walks.
Finally arriving at the ominous, slightly damp stone gazebo, Marcus kept watch while Velvet and Dix investigated the place. It didn't take Velvet long to find a triggering mechanism of some sort that revealed a hidden spiral staircase leading down.
Their lanterns revealed a passageway leading under the large testing room with a large and heavy door on either side of the passageway. They opted to start with the right door and found a large and musty laboratory. Within was an immaculately constructed flesh golem in the shape of an attractive middle-aged woman. According to their analysis, the golem was complete and functional but it was completely unresponsive. The other major feature in the room was an elaborate magical circle carved into the ground. Made of precious metals and with various specific items placed around the edge, it was incomplete. At the center of the magic circle was a two foot long bone rod covered with tiny inset runes of mithril.
Dix spent time carefully examening the magic circle and determined it had something to do with contacting outer planes and binding a soul. The rest of the lab had a plethora of poorly aging books that were mostly illegible and too far gone to be saved and a collection of magical tools that Dix salvaged for further future research. Whatever work the room was made to accomplish was incomplete.
The other door in the hallway led to a very different room. No smaller than the other, this room was given over to machinery and maintenance. The back wall was covered with shelves and odds and ends. Attention was stolen, however, by the other end of the room. A metal machine crouching at the far end of the room like a growling beast and connected to twin hemispheres of greeble-encrusted structures on either side of it. There was an inaudible thrumming that could barely be felt but at every crescendo, an invisible wave washed across the room, detectable only because as it did so, it revealed a quartet of ghosts near the machine. Over the time between pulses, the ghosts would fade to invisibility, only to be revealed again with the next pulse.
One of the ghosts, a human, was near the crouching machine, he glitched and jittered, sometimes seeming to using the machine, sometimes seeming to be standing and scowling at the other three. Facing him were three elves. The central elf held a two handed spear with its butt against the ground and seemed to be about to take a step. The other two were flanking the central figure with shields and blades that vaguely resembled khopeshes.
Several minutes of careful observation followed. The figures seemed mostly static. Occasionally glitching or suddenly appearing in a different position for a hearbeat before resuming their normal pose. Dix and Marcus stayed back while Velvet took a closer look. While she was looking at the machine and glanced back at the elves she saw, for a moment, the lead elf glitch to be looking at her for just a moment.
Velvet snuck back to the other two and suggested that the Delvers might be able to communicate with the spectres using simple yes or no questions. If the spectres could control the glitching, they may be able to respond. Pouncing on Velvet's idea, the Delvers addressed the spectres directly:
Questions:
- Glitch once if you can understand us.
- Elven leader glitches (Yes).
- Did Barakus tap leylines?
- Yes.
- Is that why you destroyed Barakus?
- Yes.
- (To the human wizard)) Glitch once for yes, twice for no. Can you understand us?
- The human wizard tessellated into a mind-bending array of absolute insanity, defying any kind of natural order. Merely beholding it made their eyes hurt and their heads throb.
- (To the human wizard) Does it hurt to talk?
- The human wizard opened his mouth to scream and it never stopped opening, spreading impossibly wide and vomiting the madness of spectral existence, causing more pain for the observers.
- At this point the Delvers stopped addressing the human wizard.
- Should we shut down the leyline?
- Yes.
- Would turning off the machine save you?
- The elf glitched once, paused, and then glitched twice more in quick succession (Yes. No.).
- Do you want us to turn off the machine?
- The elven leader appeared to face the Delvers directly and noded solemly (Emphatic yes).
- Are the aberrations what we should be afraid of from the leyline?
- No answer.
- Dix described the scrying dream he experienced at the Hellbound Institute and asked, "Is this the danger?"
- The elf glitched being in front of the Delvers and sreamed inaudibly (Emphatic, horrified yes).
The Delvers considered these answers and worried about the danger they found thsemselves in. This was the second time they encountered a human organization that was seemingly destroyed by an elven attack force and leylines seemed to be at the heart of the matter. Worried about broader implications, the Delvers decided to return to base camp, see if Steve knew anything about this, and to brief Sackbones on the situation.
On return, Marcus and Dix remained to tell Sackbones the things they'd held back. About the Fount at the Hellbound Institute and the leyline involvement at Barakus. Meanwhile, Velvet went to speak with Steve. Sackbones was horrified by what Dix told him, worried that spreading the knowledge may endanger them all.
While Sackbones, Dix, and Marcus spoke about hidden dangers and elven brutality, Velvet ate with Steve and asked him about the things they'd learned from the Spectres. The Spectator knew things he had no way of knowing and told Velvet that he knew the leylines themselves were rivers of power, but that there was something that watched and protected them. Steve couldn't tell Velvet much about whatever watched the leylines, said it was dangerous and that it wasn't wise to think too much about it, so he didn't.
The three reconvened after their meetings and although it was getting late, went and found Amani and Chaegathloral. Amani claimed to know nothing about the veiled questions they asked and the Delvers asked Amani to invite their master. The Delvers knew Amani's master was a powerful elven druid and that he'd been present at the fall of Barakus nearly 150 years ago and wanted to ask him to fill in details. Amani said they'd pass along the message but that their master went where he willed and did as he wished.
Thus troubled by the spectres of elven invaders, fallen empires, and abberant creatures, the Delvers struggled for slept and made planns to investigate the Melted Palace.
Comments