==== Summary 219: Revenge of the Godlearners' Curses (2019-05-29) ====
[[Giraine]] [[summaries-2019|Summaries]]
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Hey,

You confronted the spectral Godlearner/Zistorite wizard, who continued her mournful sorcerous incantations. Boamund burned the three skeletons but this did not seem to change the outcome. Meanwhile, three silvery motes of energy appeared around the room, distorting the air around them as if they cracked it. They danced about slowly but did not interact. Soon, however, Miguel succumbed to the spirit's powerful Dominate Humans spell and quietly set off in search of her remains, which he soon found, with help, under the masonry piles near the wall you'd entered via. Surprisingly, the bones remained fresh and bloody as if she had just died. Bog considered eating the skeleton but instead you opted to burn them with the others, and the spirit stopped its magicks, softly groaning as it watched. And then, as its remains became ash, it vanished with a final painful cry. You weren't sure if you'd done the "right thing" putting a Godlearner to rest, but it did get rid of her. You found a fine set of bronze tools in a weathered old pouch, which Fraud gave to Migue. [These give a 1 level boost to Mechanisms rolls on metal machinery!]. Miguel saw the Stasis and Death runes on the pouch and realized that its leather was enchanted human skin, so he gave it to Bog to eat, which was welcomed.

You forced open the charred far door and stepped into a passage which was heavily charred on all sides, and turned along the southern border of the building (Fraud now had a working map of the structure; you'd explored the central and western sides), then turned back northwards. The passage led to another wooden door which was charred with several boards missing and other planks obviously weakened. The handles, hinges, and other metal fittings were half-melted, soundly jamming the door shut but you broke it down. The room beyond was severely burnt, its furnishings buried and ruined beyond recognition. The ceiling had collapsed for the most part, revealing another chamber on the second floor. About 1.5m of the ceiling still remained around the walls of the room, forming a narrow jagged ledge. The floor was littered with beams, mortar, plaster, ash, fragments of bone and unknown pieces of old metallic and glass junk. The air was filled with the odor of rot-and on entering to explore, you found out one of the causes: four spirits tugged at you from the Spirit Plane; two of them in the form of bubbling globs of rust, and two in the form of clacking, creaking bones that moved like gears. You rushed out of the room but they pursued down the hallway beyond, which led to a familiar room: the one with a central "pit" and walkways around it (east/west) plus old collapsed beams forming a bridge. The bridge was harder than the west wall, it turned out, but you all made it across, pursued by spirits as you went. Bog found out, disturbingly to all, that the three silvery motes which still followed you were anti-magic spirits that cast spells to stop his Spirit Screen, so he soon was possessed by a cursed Passion Spirit that gave him a strong Fear of Machines. You fended off the rest of them; the rusty ones threatened to corrupt your metals.

Fleeing onwards, you decided it was time to abandon this complex and rest. The many curses that the Shattering had lumped upon this Godlearner ruin had been enough for you, for now. Fraud was almost unconscious from loss of mana battling spirits and others amongst you were also weak. You escaped the ruin and Miguel led you to an old crater in the distance that gave some shelter for the night. You got a bit of rest but, as Boamund guarded the camp, a vicious speedy white gorp crept up on him and began eating away at his upper body. He fought well and you tried to aid him, but it ate much of his left arm before Bog could freeze and shatter it with his magical Far-Flung Frostflail mace. Boamund was barely clinging to life so Miguel built another travois and you decided to rush through the night for Siphula's Child to see if the Voralans could help you.  [side note: the very-fast-gorp was an inhabitant of the ruin that hunted around it; you had avoided it in the room with the mucus-y corroded hatch, and then were likely to meet it if lingering nearby]

You found that Good Toad Food wasn't such a difficult place to travel through, usually, if one hurried stealthily and knew where one was going, as you did. You passed southwest from these badlands into the swampier lands where the Long Eel lurked, and then to the Mushroom Forest, where by the next day you found Siphula's Child. Miguel and Fraud had done a good job guiding and mapping. You entered again; Bog marvelling at this Dark Elf structure; and rested just indoors before descending into the first Fungi Circle. There, Siphula's mind met yours and guided you into the depths of her lair. She saw Boamund's battered body and offered to make good use of it as fertilizer for her children, and she poked some fun at Bog the Enlo, but also suggested she could help you... for a price. She wanted first to know about your travels, what you'd seen to the east of her lands, and you told her a bit. She knew of the Four Corners of Hell and was intrigued to learn of its new freedom. She didn't shown much interest in some other things but still seemed hungry to know more; perhaps she sought something specific? Anyway, Fraud made a good case for why she should heal Boamund and restore his arm, and she agreed to do it although she raspily chuckled that there would be side effects... She also confided in Bog, after "offering" to him to be her servant, that his kind had power in "Good Troll Food" that might aid him, although Zorak Zoran was no master in these parts. Miguel tried buttering her up in Aldryami but she scoffed at him.

Siphula then asked for her favour, a task to be done. She said that just to the northwest (back toward where you'd entered the Mushroom Forest originally) there was a place where you must take a slimy piece of lichen that she plucked off her body, and there you must plant it "in fertile ground where the worms swim." Hmm. In return, she summoned forth a mushroom from the ground, whose cup bore a broth of "Hellsgift Soup" that had many powers, including regeneration and even restoring life to the dead. She bade you to feed it to Boamund and you helped him cough it down... his body tingled and in time a weblike network of whitish threads extended around his wounds, growing from the remains of his arm. Siphula said you must depart her Child soon but you could rest above, and she sent you back to the Fungi Circle.


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