A record for the most criticals rolled in one night seems to have been set by Colin last night; and others did well too…
You face the burbling, ever-shifting tarry form of the newly appeared chaos abomination, with all its jaws and tentacles. Bog finds that his nice new fiery mace deals it deadly blows, whereas Fraud’s sword gets adhered into its goo; Boamund’s fireblade also avoids this sticky situation. It only manages to try to bite Fraud once before you batter it to death with a barrage of hits. It wheezes and collapses into decaying goo.
You explore the chamber more, marvelling at the Arkat the Destroyer artifacts and curios and decorations from the 1st and 2nd Ages. Bog is inspired to be seeing such wonders. But you have to keep moving, and so you do soon, going down another hallway and around a corner that you begin to realise is part of a roughly circular series of halls and chambers. Shrett uses Detect Sorcery and sees plenty of faint dweomers but not major magics. Fraud has been mulling over an inconsistency—in that first hall you entered in this underground complex, the motifs and statue clearly were of Arkat the Saviour, and yet your foes were vampires, which at first he thought were indeed the enemies of that Arkat, but no, they were not—something is mixed up. The Saviour’s main struggles were with adherents of Gbaji in the west; he hadn’t yet pushed into Tanisor.
The artistry on display becomes focused on a different Arkat, Fraud notes, and it is his kind of hero—the Chaosbane; in all three of his main historical forms, from (“traitorous” in Malkioni eyes) Orlanth worshipper, to Humakti (“Humaktsson”) to Darkness-using sorcerer (~Black Arkat). There are another three side-chambers or “cells”, one with another fancy bronze gate that Shrett deduces has a similar kind of lock as the prior one. That cell features a stone slab with an ornate silver sword. You take some more time to investigate these things, with Fraud marvelling at how someone has managed to assemble such a hoard of invaluable items, even if the majority are not magical but of historical or philosophical significance. There is another statue in an open cell/alcove that is in the similar “skinny” style of others you’ve seen, with this one wielding a sword. Fraud pays it a moment of homage.
Again you move on, and come to another platform with a statue in an alcove to one side and a ramp upwards on the other; with the passage continuing ahead. The short ramp ends at a glowing blue field of energy. The statue is of a warrior with a leaf-bladed sword and a thunderbolt in his hands. You don’t have time to investigate further, as the hall echoes with otherworldly howls. Four humanoid wolf-things, with great jaws, antlers, and four clawed arms appear around you. Bog cowers in a corner in fear as one bites at him repeatedly, while Boamund faces two of them and Shrett the other. Fraud comes to the rescue to aid Shrett, and they die in short order (although you find it takes a bit more effort, as the strength of your hits only helps pierce their thick fur, not deliver worse wounds). Boamund takes a bite wound that cripples his arm and needs treatment by Fraud to bring it back to functionality. Bog comes around and is fed an arm of one of the beast-things in consolation.
Meanwhile, Shrett drags the body of his foe to the magical field and pushes it inside. It vanishes with a whoosh of air. You figure that it is indeed a magical portal, and wonder if it leads to the centre of this maze. Fraud moves the remaining corpses to lie in front of the Arkat statue as an offering, then he casts an Analyze Magic from his Truestone on the portal, asking it some questions you’d thought up. Indeed it is a portal, using the Orlanthi magic of Mastakos’s Chariot – although asked of its safety the magic answers that it is theoretically safe. It leads to a spot near the Jrimb River outside the walls of Estali City, you’re surprised to learn. The transportation costs 2 MP and is one-way. Fraud cannot tell if there is a different way back from the other side, or what specifically is there; his spell and the portal cannot tell such things. You infer that maybe this is an escape route for the Madam or something, and in the interest of time you continue your circuit around the “museum”.
The hall beyond has the same kind of three cells, with two locked gates. The first, open alcove has another thin statue, holding a spear. The motifs now are, Fraud recognises, of Arkat the Liberator; the second mask of Arkat after the Saviour, representing when he left Brithos and became a Man-of-All of the Hrestoli (his first “betrayal”; in Brithini eyes). The next, locked cell holds a skeleton wearing some sort of stone mask, maybe jade. The second seems empty, oddly enough. Fraud is inspecting that first statue and feels drawn to touch it, but recoils, deciding that this aspect of Arkat is not aligned with his Chaosbane faith. Yet Bog comes in and wilfully touches it, learning that it draws 1 MP from him and gives him a one-use Cure Disease magic!
You continue down the hall to a big chamber, opposite the one where you’d fought the Chaos-glob. The theme here remains Arkat the Liberator, with a back table holding an unusual bronze mask, and two statues (of the Liberator: a warrior with glowing spear and Law rune held) at the other wall. Shrett touches the mask, following its pull, and receives a 1-use Enhance CON sorcery—a spell he once knew! But before you can explore more, you feel a growing malaise cross the chamber. The room’s surfaces fester with infection, although none of you succumb to its fever. Then a spiritual form appears near the chamber’s centre: it is a cloaked thing, with it is face hidden within the hood, which is adorned with spires that have a Death rune suspended between them, and the cloak’s murky magics hide the torso but countless eyes peek out from that space; and it has four arms and legs, with ugly pale green magics coursing from them. It chuckles wickedly from its hidden face.
It throws those sicky orbs and casts rays of sickness at Fraud first, and you surround it, raining blows on it, but find that your weapons do little – Fraud’s death-sword and Shrett’s silver sword fail to harm it, although Bog’s fire-mace and Boamund’s fire-sword tear little rents in it. Fraud learns that his Darkstrike does freeze a little hole in it. Shrett retreats to switch to using his bow, planning to use Firearrow. The entity turns its attention on Bog, infecting him with something foul that leaves Bog queasy. But with some more hits you defeat it – it vanishes from this plane. Fraud inspects Bog and can tell he has come down with a magical illness that Fraud can do nothing about; it is a sniffling upper respiratory infection but it is not progressing quickly.
You look around the chamber, and Fraud thinks about how The Liberator isn’t known for confronting diseases, but The Saviour is—one of Arkat’s first famed actions was to confront the worshippers of “Nybie”, who claimed to be healers that could treat the new disease which plagued the West. Arkat the Saviour named Nybie as Gbaji and revealed that the healers caused the infection. So the vampire foes you faced first and this last spirit-thing seem swapped. Odd.
You continue exploring, around what seems the final corner, with a passage leading back to the entry platform. There are three more “cells”, one with a bronze gate blocking entrance to a space where a table holds what is some sort of sculpture or cast of a hand. And indeed, this space’s theme is of Arkat the Saviour; his original mask. Now you’ve come full circle around the complex. And yet there is no evident way to the centre of the complex, which Madam Magthyra had beckoned you to come to. There must be another route. A secret entrance maybe?
There are four of you and four main statues presented on the four sides of the “maze” museum. So you split up, going to the statues (Fraud to Chaosbane, Shrett to Liberator, Bog to Destroyer, Boamund to Saviour) and seeing if you can do anything there. No special magics reveal themselves but, thinking about a secret entrance, Shrett spies a trigger mechanism between the two Liberator statues, and a doorway hidden within the walls’ decorations. He calls you all to join him, and his echoing cries can be heard all around, so you come. You line up and prepare some magics, expecting trouble. Fraud triggers the door, and the wall slides open, presenting a short passage into a vaulted central chamber that is lined with artifacts and such.
Warily entering, you see Madam Magthyra at the far side of the room, gesticulating grandly as she says, —“Such fabulous irony: entrapment for the free and freedom for the entrapped. Yet we all are trapped within ourselves. Welcome, to yourselves.” And four shadowy forms; vague likenesses of the four of you, appear around you, and another fight is on!
Of course, you’re well matched, but your shadow-selves lack your magics and share your injuries if any. And they are less fortunate. After trading several blows, Fraud manages to cripple his enemy and it disintegrates. He comes to help Boamund, who has wounded his enemy; and together they defeat it; relieving Fraud’s concern that attacking Shadow-Boamund might have adverse effects. Bog has done well smashing at his dark self and so has Shrett. You have victory in due course, suffering little from it.
The scene in the chamber changes: it is now revealed that Madam Magthyra is trapped in a cage of spectral mouths in the back of the room, her mouth sealed shut by a demonic mouth while her eyes convey pleading and outrage. A pale, smooth-skinned, lithe figure stands before the cage. Its head has nothing but mouths, which turn from grins to frowns, as it speaks in that same way that all of you can understand despite it being no obvious language: “Remarkable enough performance, but my freedom has already been assured by your victory.” It vanishes, laughing from all its mouths. And with it, so do the bonds of Madam Magthyra.
She is visibly shaken. Fraud comes forward, offering help, but she composes herself and waves him off. The Madam addresses you in relief: “My gratitude is famously hard-earned, much as my whole life has been. But you have my gratitude in return for my freedom; thank you. I had hoped to invoke my magics here both to defend my museum and drive off any invaders of my House, but the demon tricked me and turned everything against me. I am in your debt.”
You discuss with her what has happened. And you’re not sure how to feel about her open admission that the Demon of Guile was her servant here, providing its power of the Illusion rune to keep her museum and its priceless collection hidden. But something went wrong when those beast-spirits attacked the House of All Secrets. The Demon was freed and entrapped her instead. Now that it was gone, she must find another way to defend her trove. You refer to the Demon as “evil” and she counters that it was “useful”. As for the four sets of enemies, she says that they were bound into the museum as both defenders and obstacles, as part of the ancient Arkati power of this place. She can find new ones, she cryptically comments.
“Few visitors have ever seen my collection here, much as I’ve kept its existence secret. I’ve extended my network across the West to assemble this Arkati Museum over the past decades.” She explains further, as Fraud marvels over what she has and wonders about it. She had this place excavated years ago. It was buried early in the Second Age, before the Godlearners had time to plunder it. The Demon’s latest meddlings seem to have caused Arkat’s history and the magics to become confused (e.g. Arkat the Saviour battled Nybie, not the vampires; swapped with Liberator) but she thinks she can fix that. Madam Magthyra has collected a lot of additions to the museum. It wasn’t a museum before; it was an Arkati “gauntlet”. She dodges questions such as what Arkat she favours with smiles, and Fraud or Boamund have no clues as to her philosophical leanings.
But her gratitude remains. She makes the rare offer to give you a tour. First, of the things in this chamber, which are of three aspects of Arkat not seen in the rest of the museum. You accept her offer.
First, she shows numerous statues of Arkat the Peacemaker, most with that same style of “skinny” construction (apparently a First Age fashion by some artists) – “I am partial to the tales of Arkat after his wars. Remnants of his Empire of Peace are easier to find, although the Godlearners did their best to loot them. These statues are of value in meditations to the Peacemaker, although my understanding is that his living adherents are few in number.”
Boamund is very interested and approaches one statue, feeling his hand drawn to it, which he presents willingly- he gives 2 MP and gets a 1-use Community spell— Community Area (Metres), Cost 2, Duration (Hours), Rank Initiate This spell guarantees easy communication of ideas, facilitating the sharing of new or troubled thoughts. It affects every individual within range who belongs to one of the same communities as the caster. All INT-related skill rolls (providing the user knows that skill) are automatically successful when utilised to advance the common interests of that community. A “community” in assumed to be a group no larger than several hundred members, such as a family, clan, village, town district, cult, school, guild or even mercenary company.
That’s all very nice. Not so nice are what she shows next a few statues of Arkat Chaos Monster, or Arkat the Deceiver, or whatever: “There are those who say that Arkat the Deceiver was necessary for the final defeat of Gbaji; much as you have just met your shadow-selves. It’s an interesting idea. You see here my small collection of statues from around Arkat’s realm that represent this aspect of Arkat, or Gbaji, or both.” You avoid coming close to these, in case they tempt you to touch them. No thanks. She is rather nonchalant about the whole thing.
Next, she presents her two statues of Great Arkat [PICS- 7 figures, great] — “I’m proud to have these rare pieces that celebrate the ascension of Great Arkat to final Herodom and a place in the Sky.” Fraud steps up and touches one, which is of seven figures, a larger one on the bottom supporting the others. He gives 3 MP and gets a 1-use Resurrect spell!!!!!!!!!!
Next she shows a circular clay tablet with an inscription “This is the most complex Nysalorean puzzle I’ve come across. Its symbols are not of a known language, and whatever code they represent has defied my deciphering. Yet this is the nature of illumination. Sometimes its boundaries defy our comprehension.” You don’t feel any draw to touch this, and she moves you along.
She shows a horned mask hanging on a wall: “This precious piece retains some mystery to me. It comes from just before or after the end of Arkat’s war, and might have been worn by one of his companions or leaders, but that history seems lost to time. Regardless, it gives power over the Beast rune, and I was trying to reach this in order to fend off the spirit attack.” She calls it the Mask of Beast Mastery.
Then she shows her small but also priceless library. There is an empty spot atop a pedestal which she mentions held book until recently, but it was stolen and she does not know the thief but seeks them in earnest. You immediately speak up: one of the Tomes of the Eyes That Opened? Yes, she says, keenly impressed and interested that you are familiar. The Tome of the First Eye, in fact. You don’t say anything, and she seems to be eyeing you up [she failed her 125% Insight roll with a 97!!!], but you know that Black Eyes said he stole this from her (somehow!) and Pehraln was trying to openly procure it from her.
This quickly leads to free-flowing discussion of how she might help you and how you might help her further, but also advancing your own goals. She continues to be cagey and wily, avoiding some topics or giving curt or cryptic answers. But she delivers some helpful information, too:
She is deeply concerned about what happened upstairs. She doesn’t know why the spirits attacked and asks if you do, since you saw what happened. You don’t know but say the spirits attacked everyone, and when she asks if there were any deaths she was relieved to learn that no, there were three courtesans possessed and knocked out, and her great troll bodyguard “One” had his leg maimed but survives. She clearly cares about her people here; that much she does not conceal.
You drop the name Pehraln and she gets interested. Bog and Shrett notice that she recognises the name and is trying to act casual about it, so Bog blurts out asking what she really knows. She gives him a stony look but offers in reply that she is deeply suspicious of this person, and has had her people investigate him, learning a few things. He is not from Estali and probably not from Ralios. Her people haven’t seen much of him, but he has been spotted in a heavy dark robe trimmed with dull yellow, and he appears to be heavily bandaged. She motions to Fraud, noting that Pehraln does not wear a mask like him, but still seems to hide something of his nature. She soon divulges some more information, that she knows he has some allegiance to Argin Terror of Tinaros, allied with or part of his cult, and acting from the island of Partan (which Black Eyes also told you).
She also gives the new information that she knows Pehraln has a ship, called The Effervescent, which he uses to do whatever his business is on Lake Felster, probably between Tinaros, Partan and (lately) Estali. He keeps it moored at/near the harbour when it is here (it is here now, she notes) and has a warehouse there. You explain you’re looking for allies on your quest and seek to defeat the growing Chaos threat, and she responds that Pehraln wouldn’t be missed, in her opinion. As for allegiance and such, well, she’ll see how things develop, but she values the trust you’ve earned with her, and she praises your resourcefulness and strength. Clearly you’ve made an impression. Some of you might wonder how much she is calculating about how you fit into her obscure schemes…?
You talk more about various things. She offers magic to heal you if you need it, for anyone who wants this, she casts a Regenerate sorcery that will gradually heal Serious Wounds (Fraud’s arm?). She also offers a complete tour of her museum before you go upstairs. (She is comforted that great troll bodyguard “Two” and Rula and Rossvaran are tending to things up there in the meantime)
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