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--- giraine:summary-372 [2025/04/10 14:25] – tim45tenwa
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-<- giraine:summary-371|Assault on The Effervescent ^ giraine:summaries-2025|Summaries 2025 ^ giraine:summary-373| ->
+<- giraine:summary-371|Assault on The Effervescent ^ giraine:summaries-2025|Summaries 2025 ^ giraine:summary-373|Artukan's Mansion part 1 ->
 ====== Summary 372: Effervescent Puzzle (2025-02-14) ======
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+The bowels of The Effervescent contain things that were strange and yet begin to form a clearer picture of what seems to be a terrible conspiracy against Estali.
+You unlock and investigate the two bow compartmenets: 3m cubical chambers, five barrels each full of mushrooms apparently used as packing/concealing material for odd angular bits of bronze, some with little carvings (but not runes) on them. These bits remind you of one piece you’d seen in Unn Starseen’s belongings, which came with a very sinister note about a thief (who apparently stole that piece), apprehended by Unn and slain by her basilisks, and the need for such pieces for a “ritual” to “crack open the skies”. The bits seem like they may be Mostali in nature, Shrett wagers. They’re not of the warped, mechamagical kind used by the Zistorites, and Shrett doesn’t know of a third culture that might make such things. But as for what they are intended to build, it’s anyone’s guess. A gateway, a weapon, a puzzle, or what?
+You spread the mushrooms and bronze out in the mid-hold and Shrett turns all of the bronze into one big block, to render it useless for its purpose. Then you pack up a barrel of mushrooms and deliver it up on the deck for the recovering Bog to munch on.
+Still accompanied by two Estali elite marines in the Archon’s service, you turn your attention to the aft compartment. You can all smelt the unpleasant smoky aroma by the door. You surround the door and Shrett opens it. There’s a blast of heat and some dark smoke. And you see the large compartment’s contents. Oddly, its surfaces are all plated with bronze. There are 6 ceramic vats, 1m wide x 1.5 tall of black tarry bubbling substance. It’s not pitch or tar, but similar to those, and of that unfamiliar nasty smoky smell, with smoke curling out of its bubbling surface. At the back of the chamber is a strange machine: an oblong bronze device about 1.5m wide and 1m long, 2m tall, with many dials, pipes, levers and other features. It is not very rune-decorated but there are some Hunger/Undeath and Fire runes, you eventually notice. And it seems like it might be Mostali of make, but what Mostali would create such a thing? You have no time to consider this. The heat comes forth from the room, strong enough to singe your hairs and warn you that inside it is dangerously hot.
+Out of the vats, already bursting forth as if they are released from pressure holding them in, come six terrible corpses, with claws and fangs and bodies coated in that tar, which catches fire as they surface. They gurgle choking, rasping howls and one blasts a marine with a gout of vomited fiery tar. He tries to block it with its shield but it expands as it comes, covering him head to toes and leaving him screaming in flaming, sticky pain. Fraud saves him with his Extinguish power. Shrett slams the door shut and locks it. You regroup to surround the door, leaving a gap wide enough for one ghoul-thing to come out into. Shrett goes to gather some buckets of water to extinguish fires, and learns that the warehouse has caught fire. Oh well. One marine douses himself pre-emptively. And so, prepared, you open the door and a ghoul-thing rushes in. Shrett touches the bronze floor, trying to shape the metal, but some force opposes this magic; maybe the ship’s enchantment. The undead howl in concert yet you stand your ground; the marines fortunately protected by their Abjure Fear sorceries, although one gets vomited on and needs to use a bucket to douse himself. You quickly dispatch the furious monster, which shows no concern for its welfare, only hungrily seeking to burn and consume flesh.
+But no more of them come out. One targets the other marine with another fire-tar-vomit and he drops, writhing and screaming until Fraud again stops the flames. Another spits at Boamund but he deftly deflects the ooze with his shield. You’re casting spells and manoeuvring to stay out of the line-of-breath of the ghouls, but the second marine is hit and goes unconscious, his body blistered with wounds but saved from certain death by Fraud’s magic. Shrett takes the first ghoul-body and tries using it as a shield against the fire-tar-breath, hoping to throw it into the room as an obstacle, but he gives up on this soon. Finally, with a central space now open, two ghouls rush out and engage Fraud, Boamund and Shrett, with a marine coming in to help, and you take those down, and soon the remainder as they file out to rush you. It’s grim gory work. Shrett takes a wicked bite across his neck before it’s all done. You pile up the bodies, which are still burning and might even start a fire that sinks the ship, you wonder, although the odds may not be high. The marines hear you talking of a plan to sink the ship and state that their orders are to secure the Effervescent in the Archon’s name, so you give up on those plans. Boamund uses his cold emanation magic to protect himself and is able to go to inspect the machine, which seems not to be running but otherwise is intact. Feeling the heat, he leaves.
+You go find Bog and tell him what you’ve seen. Bog is feeling more rested now and goes down with Shrett and Boamund to investigate further, while Fraud treats the fallen marine’s burns. Bog casts some spells, holds the Skyfire tight, and rushes the machine. He hits it once with his mace and his blow glances off, and so he hits it again and this time the blow is powerful and perfectly targeted on a control panel, bashing through into the guts of the machine. The hole rent in the machine greets him with a blast of smoke and fire, and then the machine explodes! Bog manages to throw himself to the floor and only suffers minor burns—the Skyfire does not save him from this corrupt flame, and there is considerable shrapnel. More so, the blast has opened holes in the floor (into the bilge) and ceiling (up onto the top stern by the arbalest), sending black smoke curling up into the night sky. But the blast isn’t big enough to endanger the ship. The machine is not totally destroyed but has a huge hole in it. You brave the smoke pouring out of the room and shut and lock the door. Bog has mixed feelings about his experience there confronting the monstrous gizmo, but he survived and so he feels he has had a victory that Zorak Zoran would approve of.
+You and the marines finish a search of the ship, finding nothing more, and so you leave to report to the Archon. The warehouse is a total loss; a burnt hulk now. You note that two sailors from the original crew remain unaccounted for, so they must have done this. So you hurry to meet the Archon as dawn approaches, and update him. He already knew some of the details but presses you for information on evidence about the conspiracy: the weird bronze “puzzle pieces” and their match to the part seen in the Treak Cliff mines, the machine and the “tar ghouls”, the undead captain and the unclean flames used aboard the ship… and the absence of evidence of Krarsht onboard. You reckon that this points toward some plan involving Tyram the Sky Tyrant; the only Chaos entity related to fire. Evidence is coming together, and the Archon is very unsettled. The next move is tricky. Pehraln’s location remains unknown. And his apparent ally Artukan Goldminer, of whom the Archon dances around mentioning by name, is such an influential citizen that the Archon confesses he cannot act. And indeed he warns you that if you value your lives you should be very careful with this man, whose connections are many. The Archon inquires why you even persist. Why not flee the city? You have nothing binding you here. Boamund answers that you continue your quest to seek allies to help you when you go back home. The Archon seems impressed by this commitment and remarks that your loyalty has been of great value, as has your expertise applied with it. You can tell that you have a valuable ally in this man, with some trust. Furthermore, the Archon relays news from the city’s godtalkers that the momentary break from the Valind-storms is to end in about 2 days, as Valind’s brutal snow-hurricane is howling across the Lake from the north, and these will shut everything down in Estali for days; including travel. [Shrett wonders if he could go out into such a storm and pray to Valind as if it were a shrine, but is warned that cruel Valind would simply reward such foolishness with death.] Before you go, he has a servant give you information on where the Mistress of Doldrums is docked for the winter and Artukan’s warehouse nearby. It’s on the north end of the harbour, just past the Sailor’s Guild area; a prime spot for accessing the Lake, if it weren’t frozen over.
+You head back to your inn, talking things over along the way. But as you turn a corner near the inn, you’re greeted by a most unwelcome sight. The inn is ablaze, with people fighting the fire which has engulfed much of the structure. Bog and Shrett slink into the night’s shadows to watch for suspicious figures or any trap, but no such threats appear. Boamund and Fraud help fight the fires and learn that they began at the stable, where the beasts were slaughtered. The wounds there on the charred corpses are not weapon marks; they are ragged like beast or monster bites or such. And the fire also spread directly into your rooms. It’s a total loss. Fraud is infuriated that he has lost his majestic warhorse, and your hearts all sink at the thoughts of the riches and other belongings you’ve now lost. Moreover, the enemy has shown that it knows who and where you are and is not afraid to strike directly. You recall that you’d met attackers at the Gilded Quill, then Olili Oli’s house, and later Madam Magthyra’s too. There is some pattern here, and now more than ever it demonstrates that you are not safe in Estali. Sooner or later, the enemy will find you.
+You go to the Slurping Serpent Inn and tell the barkeep Kjartan that you’ve lost your shelter due to the fire, so you are given a room to share, which is crowded but sufficient. You grab a little food and drink as refreshers while you start to unpack in your room, but then your skin prickles as a spiritual fox manifests in the room. It speaks with Shrett, telling him that Black Eyes knows you’ve had troubles and would meet with you if you will. The fox-spirit says it can show you there if one of you opens yourself to it—so Shrett relaxes, allowing it to possess him. It guides you out the door and inn back into the cold night, and down winding, weaving alleys back and forth through the Streets of the Sinister. Maybe trying to make it harder for you to keep track of where you go, or maybe doing the same against any pursuit, or both. But soon you’re in a central alleyway somewhere, and there is a man and a huge wolf standing in deep shadows under an archway at a side alley. It’s Black Eyes, who greets you gruffly and says, with no sympathy, when Fraud asks, that it’s “a shame” about the burned inn. The coldness behind his voice isn’t pleasing but he seems truthful and maybe not concealing any further knowledge of that event.
+Black Eyes, querying who your allies truly are, soon drops a bit of information that changes your feelings about your powerful allies in the city. The Archon, with his famed artifact The Purple Sceptre of Serpent Sentience, Black Eyes explains, is able to view through any serpent in Estali County’s eyes when he concentrates on it. As far as Black Eyes knows, he can only see (not hear; snakes are deaf) through one snake’s eyes at a time, and only what it sees at that moment; not any past events. But, he says, it is sure that the Archon has seen many things you’ve done in Estali. Fraud, he says, is the Archon’s unwitting spy. You think back to that little snake you were given as an obvious spy, and reflect on how this must have been a ruse to deflect attention from the spy that Fraud is. Black Eyes makes plenty of hateful comments about the Galanini and Estali rulers—he’s not a fan. You say that he’s the one you trust most, and he reacts with appreciation, and noting that you’ve acted in line with this trust, from what he knows. So you can continue to work together.
+He asks what you know now of the threat posed to Estali – of Partan, and Pehraln, and such. You tell him some of the things you’ve learned about Pehraln, and he says that he’s been sniffing about for Pehraln’s scent but now thinks the man is not in the city, but that leaves many other places he could be. As for Artukan, he knows of the man but not that he is part of this threat. He says that he knows an ally who has had interest in Artukan and he can get information from them, and also he says that now he wants to go sniff around Artukan’s compound. He tells you that it would be rash to assault the ship and/or warehouse first. It would betray your hand and bring the already great danger in the city crashing down upon you, from Artukan and his many allies. Instead, he says you should target the fortress-mansion of Artukan, whose location he tells you of in Goldtown, on the city’s southwest side. It is a walled compound that will not be easy to crack. So he’ll meet you again later in the morning with what insights he can gather. And you can use that to do as you please. You agree that this plan to strike at your foe’s heart now is the best option. It’s not going to be easy, though, you are sure.
+You think that you have an opportunity to strike this powerful enemy and then leave town in time to reach potential safety elsewhere, such as in Tiskos, just before the snow-hurricane strikes. The ship and the warehouse are going nowhere, so you could take care of them later. There is great urgency, though. The weather is on no one’s side, you have enemies in pursuit, and there is an unknown timing for some terrible ritual or similar event that Pehraln and his allies have been working toward for quite a while, although your actions tonight have disrupted some of that (especially with those bronze pieces?).
+Bog leaves the city to go pray at his shrine until later that day, and the rest of you go to the inn and finally get to clean up and rest a bit, uninterrupted, for now…
+----

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