Re: AAR: [10M] Buried Knowledge (2020-09-26 1800 GMT)
Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2020 4:24 pm
From the writings of Moe'uhane, T'skrang Illusionist, 9th Circle, Boatman 5th Circle, Messenger Rank 6
As I push into the Warden tier of my discipline, I am approached for more unique and varied adventures. Having heard of my recent adventures upon the river, Jael approached me about assisting him to the Thunder Mountains to find the Sunken Archive of Aesar Delin. We were joined on this journey by other great adepts of Throal, some of whom I have never adventured with directly before. Dubhan the dwarven Wizard joined us, having not adventured together since the earlies days of my Novice tier this was a chance to compare how we had each grown. We also brought along a pair of humans I had not adventured with prior, but were well known for their individual companion animals. The man with the bear was Karl Tomsson the Archer. The infamous Scout with the huttawa was William Carver. Both were very interested in what I knew as an Illusionist and what I could teach them. We spent many a days trying to make them understand that revealing the truth was not merely about something being hidden, but sometimes it was about being unknown, or it changing it's path as the river does when it floods.
After weeks of travel, lots of research and puzzled clues, encounters with river pirates and huttawas in heat we arrived in front of a great stone building in the Thunder Mountains. We entered the Archive and marvelled at how well preserved everything was. We began to search the books, and while we were shocked at the obtuse organizational selections, we were quite encouraged by how efficiently we had performed our task. No sooner had it been thought, then disaster struck. The building shook, from the foundation up it felt like. The sunlight outside was blotted out by something, and we were tossed across the book repository like rag dolls. When everything finished moving, we took our bearings and examined the building. Everything seemed stable, so we ventured to the doors and windows. Outside was pitch black, the sun outside had disappeared, and as our eyes adjusted to the light we noticed that the surrounding area had changed drastically. Gone were the peaks and stone of the Thunder Mountains. Instead we could make out the silhouettes of buildings, some on their sides, some partially crumbling. Beyond the ruined buildings we could make out a smooth wall, almost like a cavern. Dubhan began a detailed analysis of the area and determined that the astral space had become safer. Meanwhile Karl and William attempted to determine the height and nature of the cavern we were in. After a few different objects into the sky, a flame arrow stuck into the top of the cavern . . the strangely soft and purplish cavern. After some conferring and examination of the evidence, we determined that we must be inside something, and whatever it was had to be colossal in size. We began to prepare an exploration of our new surroundings, as the first of the spells began to be woven into matrices large beasts began to float into view. We observed them for a while longer and noticed they were moving in and out of the other buildings. They seemed o be large orbous beasts with a single orifice, but the odd thing was they appeared to be covered in pages. A less desirable book was fetched from the Archive, and thrown towards one of these beasts. It sucked up the volume and began to grow additional pages. This drew their attention to the Sunken Archive and we quickly realized these beasts would mean the end of the Sunken Archive, we needed to intercede.
I wrapped myself, Jael, William, their companions in illusions and battle was joined. Jael and Selena lay into one of the beasts, then they respond by having a series of pages on their bodies flare with magic, the earth around us heave and shakes. The beasts wrapped Jael in a spell while William charges into another. Dubhan purges the spell on Jael and I attempt to inflict a spell on the enemy. Karl and Reuben finished off the two most wounded, and we turned and quickly finished the other two.
We took stock of our situation, we needed to save a number of the books and we needed to escape with both our lives and the requested treasure. I returned to the Archive and began cutting the large carpet into smaller sections and enchanted a number of them to work as floating porters. Dubhan lightened the load of the bookcases to maximize our potential cargo, and Jael led the difficult process of selecting the most important volumes to attempt to save. Workng under the assumption that we were inside a creature, we posited that the best chance of escape would be back the way we came. So we began to move our convoy towards the mouth of the beast. We were soon set upon by more defenders of this creature. Large tentacled pillars that erupted from the floor. The first one bound Reuben and began to drag him towards the maw this thing came from. Jael quickly jumped to Reubens defense and cut him loose. Unfortunately as Jael was focussed on freeing the bear, he did not see the one that appeared behind him. Jael was wrapped in tentacles and slammed to the ground dragging towards certain doom. He lay limp and we realized we must act with haste. Karl shot the tentacles freeing Jael, and quickly lodged a second into the beast. Reuben then charged the creature with a ferocious roar, defending his Beastmaster saviour. As the claw tore deep into the creature and William and I carefully avoided waking a third creature, a simple whisper from Dubhan felled the creature, 'Boom!'
As the creature fell, a dwarven head popped out of the ruined building ahead of us and scolded our actions, urging us to make haste inside the building he was in. The dwarf introduced himself as Arathinor den Sauris. The building seemed to be a small room, with a large cocoon like object in the corner. I watched Arathinor with some intrigue, I felt a kindred soul. He explained how the cocoon was his charge, and the two of them had been trapped her for fifty-three years. Dubhan was obviously assessing our host and the area, as he would, and then began acting in a strange manner. He seemed to indicate that this dwarf should be afforded more respect than his appearance would indicate. The ever logical Dubhan appeared to be afraid, not concerned or perplexed as you would expect, but afraid. Picking up the specific mannerisms of our host and paying close attention to the words chosen in addition to the meaning of what he was saying, I began to understand that Arathinor was something akin to the Messenger, but more prototypical. The last time I felt this sort of feeling from a person working on behalf of their master, I was awarded a coin. In an act of insight or uncontrolled impulse, I'm still unsure which, I retrieved the coin and slipped it to him. He assessed it with silence, slipped it into a pocket and returned a similar coin, this one bore the mark of a large mountainous peak.
Arathinor offered to house and feed us for the night, and provided more insight on how we might escape this place. The nodules along the tract seemed to be linked to the creatures consciousness, if we stimulated them in the proper fashion we may be able to elicit a convulsive response. We took the advise seriously and began to assess how to best be a poor meal. As this was a creature, I surmised that I may be able to hasten feelings of nausea with my Vertigo spell, and we may be able to just cause enough commotion to help eject us from the creature.
The next day we thanked Arathinor, leaving the books with him and enchanting the doorway we proceeded towards the gullet, on the watch for these sentience nodules. We found them, large crystalline outcroppings pulsing with energies. I prepared my spell and hit the crystal with waves of dizziness. The floor began to shift and ripple, a positive response, but we'd need more. Everyone began to test out what would garner responses from the beast and we prepared our assault. After the first wave of nausea overcame the wyrm defenses appeared. Large floating balloons, they quickly fell upon us and engulfed Selena, Reuben, and myself. Luckily, Karl loosed a pair of flaming arrows cutting Reuben and I out. Reuben then turned on his attacker and burst it's round body. As this was occuring one managed to slowly envelope Jael, however a flurry of claws freed him and Selena, and his attacker was down. Selena burst from the creature and fell upon my attacker finishing it off. Dubhan's one word of power, and Williams sling put the last of these creatures in a dangerous position. I kept my focus on our objective, not wanting the creature to recover and a second vertigo hit the wyrms body. The convulsing started to increase, the flow of debris began to change. A quick surveyance of the battlefield located a broken doorway in some nearby debris. As I prepared the second casting of Other Place, the building with the first casting crashed past us towards the mouth. Everyone dove through the doorway and ended up in a pile on the floor of Arathinor's simple room.
We apologized for the rude entrance, and he congratulated us on succeeding in our escape. We exited the building and the area was strewn in bile and debris. The sense of movement behind us was hard to miss, the great wyrm was already beginning to burrow into the stone again, happy to be free of such an obstinate meal. Arathinor declined any further assistance in leaving the Thunder Mountains, or in notifying anyone of his safe return. He simply asked that we return in the future to advise him of the state of the world and provide him company.
As I push into the Warden tier of my discipline, I am approached for more unique and varied adventures. Having heard of my recent adventures upon the river, Jael approached me about assisting him to the Thunder Mountains to find the Sunken Archive of Aesar Delin. We were joined on this journey by other great adepts of Throal, some of whom I have never adventured with directly before. Dubhan the dwarven Wizard joined us, having not adventured together since the earlies days of my Novice tier this was a chance to compare how we had each grown. We also brought along a pair of humans I had not adventured with prior, but were well known for their individual companion animals. The man with the bear was Karl Tomsson the Archer. The infamous Scout with the huttawa was William Carver. Both were very interested in what I knew as an Illusionist and what I could teach them. We spent many a days trying to make them understand that revealing the truth was not merely about something being hidden, but sometimes it was about being unknown, or it changing it's path as the river does when it floods.
After weeks of travel, lots of research and puzzled clues, encounters with river pirates and huttawas in heat we arrived in front of a great stone building in the Thunder Mountains. We entered the Archive and marvelled at how well preserved everything was. We began to search the books, and while we were shocked at the obtuse organizational selections, we were quite encouraged by how efficiently we had performed our task. No sooner had it been thought, then disaster struck. The building shook, from the foundation up it felt like. The sunlight outside was blotted out by something, and we were tossed across the book repository like rag dolls. When everything finished moving, we took our bearings and examined the building. Everything seemed stable, so we ventured to the doors and windows. Outside was pitch black, the sun outside had disappeared, and as our eyes adjusted to the light we noticed that the surrounding area had changed drastically. Gone were the peaks and stone of the Thunder Mountains. Instead we could make out the silhouettes of buildings, some on their sides, some partially crumbling. Beyond the ruined buildings we could make out a smooth wall, almost like a cavern. Dubhan began a detailed analysis of the area and determined that the astral space had become safer. Meanwhile Karl and William attempted to determine the height and nature of the cavern we were in. After a few different objects into the sky, a flame arrow stuck into the top of the cavern . . the strangely soft and purplish cavern. After some conferring and examination of the evidence, we determined that we must be inside something, and whatever it was had to be colossal in size. We began to prepare an exploration of our new surroundings, as the first of the spells began to be woven into matrices large beasts began to float into view. We observed them for a while longer and noticed they were moving in and out of the other buildings. They seemed o be large orbous beasts with a single orifice, but the odd thing was they appeared to be covered in pages. A less desirable book was fetched from the Archive, and thrown towards one of these beasts. It sucked up the volume and began to grow additional pages. This drew their attention to the Sunken Archive and we quickly realized these beasts would mean the end of the Sunken Archive, we needed to intercede.
I wrapped myself, Jael, William, their companions in illusions and battle was joined. Jael and Selena lay into one of the beasts, then they respond by having a series of pages on their bodies flare with magic, the earth around us heave and shakes. The beasts wrapped Jael in a spell while William charges into another. Dubhan purges the spell on Jael and I attempt to inflict a spell on the enemy. Karl and Reuben finished off the two most wounded, and we turned and quickly finished the other two.
We took stock of our situation, we needed to save a number of the books and we needed to escape with both our lives and the requested treasure. I returned to the Archive and began cutting the large carpet into smaller sections and enchanted a number of them to work as floating porters. Dubhan lightened the load of the bookcases to maximize our potential cargo, and Jael led the difficult process of selecting the most important volumes to attempt to save. Workng under the assumption that we were inside a creature, we posited that the best chance of escape would be back the way we came. So we began to move our convoy towards the mouth of the beast. We were soon set upon by more defenders of this creature. Large tentacled pillars that erupted from the floor. The first one bound Reuben and began to drag him towards the maw this thing came from. Jael quickly jumped to Reubens defense and cut him loose. Unfortunately as Jael was focussed on freeing the bear, he did not see the one that appeared behind him. Jael was wrapped in tentacles and slammed to the ground dragging towards certain doom. He lay limp and we realized we must act with haste. Karl shot the tentacles freeing Jael, and quickly lodged a second into the beast. Reuben then charged the creature with a ferocious roar, defending his Beastmaster saviour. As the claw tore deep into the creature and William and I carefully avoided waking a third creature, a simple whisper from Dubhan felled the creature, 'Boom!'
As the creature fell, a dwarven head popped out of the ruined building ahead of us and scolded our actions, urging us to make haste inside the building he was in. The dwarf introduced himself as Arathinor den Sauris. The building seemed to be a small room, with a large cocoon like object in the corner. I watched Arathinor with some intrigue, I felt a kindred soul. He explained how the cocoon was his charge, and the two of them had been trapped her for fifty-three years. Dubhan was obviously assessing our host and the area, as he would, and then began acting in a strange manner. He seemed to indicate that this dwarf should be afforded more respect than his appearance would indicate. The ever logical Dubhan appeared to be afraid, not concerned or perplexed as you would expect, but afraid. Picking up the specific mannerisms of our host and paying close attention to the words chosen in addition to the meaning of what he was saying, I began to understand that Arathinor was something akin to the Messenger, but more prototypical. The last time I felt this sort of feeling from a person working on behalf of their master, I was awarded a coin. In an act of insight or uncontrolled impulse, I'm still unsure which, I retrieved the coin and slipped it to him. He assessed it with silence, slipped it into a pocket and returned a similar coin, this one bore the mark of a large mountainous peak.
Arathinor offered to house and feed us for the night, and provided more insight on how we might escape this place. The nodules along the tract seemed to be linked to the creatures consciousness, if we stimulated them in the proper fashion we may be able to elicit a convulsive response. We took the advise seriously and began to assess how to best be a poor meal. As this was a creature, I surmised that I may be able to hasten feelings of nausea with my Vertigo spell, and we may be able to just cause enough commotion to help eject us from the creature.
The next day we thanked Arathinor, leaving the books with him and enchanting the doorway we proceeded towards the gullet, on the watch for these sentience nodules. We found them, large crystalline outcroppings pulsing with energies. I prepared my spell and hit the crystal with waves of dizziness. The floor began to shift and ripple, a positive response, but we'd need more. Everyone began to test out what would garner responses from the beast and we prepared our assault. After the first wave of nausea overcame the wyrm defenses appeared. Large floating balloons, they quickly fell upon us and engulfed Selena, Reuben, and myself. Luckily, Karl loosed a pair of flaming arrows cutting Reuben and I out. Reuben then turned on his attacker and burst it's round body. As this was occuring one managed to slowly envelope Jael, however a flurry of claws freed him and Selena, and his attacker was down. Selena burst from the creature and fell upon my attacker finishing it off. Dubhan's one word of power, and Williams sling put the last of these creatures in a dangerous position. I kept my focus on our objective, not wanting the creature to recover and a second vertigo hit the wyrms body. The convulsing started to increase, the flow of debris began to change. A quick surveyance of the battlefield located a broken doorway in some nearby debris. As I prepared the second casting of Other Place, the building with the first casting crashed past us towards the mouth. Everyone dove through the doorway and ended up in a pile on the floor of Arathinor's simple room.
We apologized for the rude entrance, and he congratulated us on succeeding in our escape. We exited the building and the area was strewn in bile and debris. The sense of movement behind us was hard to miss, the great wyrm was already beginning to burrow into the stone again, happy to be free of such an obstinate meal. Arathinor declined any further assistance in leaving the Thunder Mountains, or in notifying anyone of his safe return. He simply asked that we return in the future to advise him of the state of the world and provide him company.