The heroes of our adventure, The Exotics are an eclectic group brought together by the hands of fate and sponsored by
Telío Alori. They have rapidly risen to prominence in Teráka after saving multiple cities from various threats and interacting with many important people, including several Immortals.
Current Members
Garrac Kanelatos
The current captain of
The Peregrine, Garrac is a warforged with incredible defensive abilities, always taking to the front lines as a bastion for his team. He was created by
Telío Alori some years ago, making him the member with the oldest and strongest ties to the party's sponsor.
Kaus Hedruno
Raised by a wealthy mage alongside many other orphans in the hope of unlocking great potential within them, Kaus originally found himself lacking in magical abilities. But after an experiment with a dragon scale, and the patronage of an Empyrean, Kaus has evolved to be a master at wielding spells of water and ice.
Sylas Deo
A tiefling raised by goliaths, Sylas holds a unique power amongst his group; the ability to use ancient giant magics, taught to him by his goliath mentor.
Taken in as an infant by reclusive mages after her hobgoblin family were killed, Odessa studied magecraft in one of the most prestigious and secretive places in The Varolian. In time she gained insight to the nature of magic that few others could hope for, and joined the party during their first Festival of Change to demonstrate her skills.
The newest member of The Exotics, Soriz was a wildsman travelling from place to place before being enslaved by a mage. Eventually freed by the party, he has travelled with them ever since. Recently he has ascended to a new form of being; merged with the corpse of a half-dragon, there are now many eyes watching his progress.
Crew/Close Allies
Originally the bosun of
The Ulysses, Markos was promoted to First Mate of
The Peregrine after Yurius "died" and Garrac became captain. Having been with The Exotics since their earliest days, Markos has proven dependable, loyal, and extremely hard-working at every point of the journey.
Chryssa
Pilot first of
The Ulysses and then
The Peregrine. Chryssa has spent many years without legs after an arcane incident, yet despite her injuries and burns, she does her best to treat every situation with humour and friendliness. In the months since being gifted prostethic limbs, her spirits have been higher than ever.
Astera
Astera has been with the group since its beginning, but unlike Markos and Chryssa she has no connection to
Telío Alori at all. She joined the crew for pay rather than owed favours, and grew attached to Chryssa and a few others over time. The half-orc was originally oarmaster, but since
The Peregrine was upgraded was feeling listless and without purpose. After Chálkináta was founded, it seems she'll be leaving the ship life behind and staying on land.
Once upon a time Penelope was a merchant from
Acidon, with friends and family who loved her. When Demons sieged her city and vampires were left to run rampant, her old life was torn to shreds and she was turned into a vampire herself. She was saved by the party and became Odessa's apprentice, filled with rage at the man who ruined everything.
Aulus
An aging orc warrior from Praelos who sought to enjoy retirement by travelling the world. Aulus was captured by Óssans and sold into slavery. Odessa bought and freed him, requesting that he remain to guard her personal ship. He accepted, and has been the first line of defence on
The Pyrgos ever since.
Nereia
After being caught stealing a magical item from a wealthy family, it seemed Nereia's life was over. But Odessa bought her from the slave market, set her free, and requested she remain to pilot her ship. Valuing the freedom she was granted, and excited to explore the seas, she accepted without hesitation, and now overworks herself almost as much as Markos.
Past Members
Yurius Aquae
The original captain of
The Ulysses, and later
The Peregrine, Yurius left the team following a near death encounter with a
Fury. After he was saved by Telílo, he was falsely given credit for killing The Immortal and ascended to a high ranking position in Praelos.
Following the "discovery" that Telío Alori yet lived, Yurius was given the vital task of kidnapping
Démos Tolmi of
Acidon. He was sent forth with a handful of soldiers and a wyvern, and promptly captured. Now he sits imprisoned in Démos' basement, begging him to not ask too many questions.
Corvus Mors - Dead
Very briefly one of the party, before being forced to flee. Spite would ensure his return, and when he did Acidon was nearly destroyed. He was the vampiric apprentice of Lucian Mors, and was slain by his master during the carnage caused by The Underworld.
Group History
Click here to see the full timeline.
Violent Beginnings
In one of their first actions as a group after some time spent together on largely peaceful waters, the party attacked a merchant ship, fought off its mercenary protectors, and readied to sell the loot alongside their captured ship. On their travels afterwards they encountered and were fiercely wounded by a hydra, with one crewmember nearly losing the eye, though it may have been much worse had Markos not intervened.
Priest of The Sea
Arriving in
Acidon for the first time, the party quickly went to the largest temple to beseach a cleric for healing aid. But the head priest had left some time ago, and the others could neither heal with magic nor find their leader. So The Exotics travelled out, finding Agios Histo and helping him to remove a curse that The King of Teeth had placed upon his wife. Histo gave his thanks and healed all the party's wounds, promising to aid them in whatever else they needed going forwards.
Exploring Acidon
With some time to properly explore the city now, the party met Governor Démos who took a shining to them quickly, spoke with The Golden Spears hunting guild, and had an encounter with a goblin running an orphanage.
Giant Ants of Acidon
Deciding to sail North after hearing about The Festival of Change soon to be held in
Chyreum, the party quickly encountered one of the famous Shifting Isles that gave the area its name. It was home to insects of incredible size and variety, and after encountering some ants who seemed to be capable of spitting both some form of acid and an organic glue, stole the egg of a queen to take back to Acidon.
Sanguine Betrayal
Corvus, a vampire who had joined the group in previous weeks (and had cause some stir during their time in Acidon), was a vampire of sorts. The party learned that to enter The Festival of Change all contestants were asked to bring a monster as the entrance fee, and decided to put Corvus in a box and use him. The shadow mage narrowly escaped the clutches of the group, and fled into the wilds.
Festival of Change - 673 MA
Entering Chyreum for the first time, a great many people were met during this Festival, including Sruto, The Champions, Asimina, The Strong Bros, and Odessa herself. The festival itself was extremely eventful, as the party uncovered a plot to kill the Allagi Queens using an Ashen Rider and spent some time gather evidence in between their various bouts. The party caught and killed the culprits, aided in the destruction of the Rider, and even went on to win 3rd place in the tournament!
Smithing Rumours
Following the festival, the party learned of a man simply going by "The Smith" who was apparently outfitting the important folk of Praelos in armour that looked remarkably similar to Garrac first designs. They encountered such an officer and asked him to guide the party to The Smith, promising that they would not hurt said Smith. (A difficult promise seeing as Telío had loosely told them to either investigate, capture, or kill him previously).
Dreamwalking Giant
On their route south to meet with this Smith, they learned that the nearby cities of Dimopolí and Sidopolí had been struggling with something. Upon investigation they found that the people of Dimopolí had been suffering night terrors come to life, animated by the powers of a sleeping Stone Giant. They soon learned that the mighty creature had not intended any harm, but was being haunted himself by strange demons with power over his mind. The party drove these hags away, freeing both Helvog the Giant and the people of Dimopolí from terrible nightmares.
Kraken Hatchling
After saving the Twin Cities on their path Southwards, the party stopped by Acidon to see how things were going, and learned that an infantile kraken had been spotted nearby, seeming to be studying the area and following ships around. The party bandied up with some allies and drove the kraken away, giving it wounds that it would not soon forget.
The Smith's Destruction
Finally arriving at Korrosan, the first city they had arrived at all those months ago when selling off their captured merchant vessel, the party found The Smith aboard one of his vessels. A conversation was had with Garrac, Yurius, and Markos, where The Smith revealed he was actually one of Telío's many clones who had gone rogue. The Smith entreated the party for help, detailing a plan to capture Telío's (his own) parents, and use them as a bargaining chip to try and gain true freedom from his origins.
This plan went terribly wrong, however, when Yurius told the crew about the plan (after being very specifically told not to). Telío Prime was spying at the time, and sent a vague letter telling the party that they now had to kill The Smith. A battle ensued, a Fury was summoned to kill Yurius for breaking an oath, and The Smith's ships exploded, wounding Markos and massively damaging
The Peregrine.
Enchanter at Korrosan
With a ship destroyed and Praelos soldiers asking questions about the explosion in their harbour, the party were "saved" by a dragonborn mage named Findex Delmyrev. He had a simple proposition: he would pay off the damages and repair costs, and the party works for him to pay off their debt. While at first he seemed reasonable, it was revealed that he had been subtly enslaving both the people of Korrosan and half of the Exotics with enchantment magics. A battle ensued, the enchanter was slain, and with the help of Lucian Mors the people were freed. Soriz, having been one of Findex' bodyguards for some time, joined up with The Exotics as one of the first of the freed.
Infernal Assault on Acidon
The next time they visited Acidon they were met with one of the most impactful trials of their journey so far. Corvus had returned, and convinced Governor Démos that his political rival was involved in a vampiric conspiracy against him. The hot-headed orc fireballed his rival's home, and then chaos erupted across the entire city. A cult, claiming to worship some form of corrupted phoenix, had opened a gateway to The Underworld, unleashing countless demons upon the citizens.
For almost a full week the Exotics battled to save the city, working alongside The Golden Spears from the start and The Champions when they arrived later. Their true goal was ending the invasion quickly, for if it lasted too long a greater demon may have arrived, or
Osera Teráka would have learned of the situation and then levelled the city to prevent the incursion spilling out to the rest of the world. Thankfully for all involved, they managed to end the cult and close the portals in time, though two strange creatures escaped; a goat like demon that was immune to magic, and an invisible demon that not even Lucian Mors could see with his spells.
In the aftermath, Lucian and Démos were both placed under a house arrest of sorts, commanded by The Immortal of Blood to remain in the devastated city and aid the rebuilding process until further notice.
Meeting the Menagerie
After saving Acidon and helping to start reconstruction, the party were given a mysterious scroll that had little more than an x marked on a map. Naturally they decided to investigate, finding that the map lead them to some sort of undersea vault. There were unconscious triton guards both outside and within the vault, and after some investigation they found that this place was storing ancient relics from
The Archonomachy, including an enchanted sword in many pieces, strange basilisk-eel hybrids, and even a dragon skull.
In the process of looting for themselves, they encountered two others here that were trying to steal some sort of massive gauntlet. A quick battle followed, with these strangers seeming more intent on escaping with their gauntlet than anything else. They got away while a whale song alarm was sounding, and the party had their loot confiscated by the Triton who arrived too slow. The strange pair would later be discovered to be part of
The Menagerie, a group intending to rebuild an ancient war machine named
The Destroyer, a weapon capable of slaying even mighty dragons.
Some time afterwards, a meeting would take place between a Triton ambassador and the party, where it was agreed that one the Triton find the location of The Menagerie's headquarters, the party would travel their to recover the machine piece that was taken.
Traveller's Fox
After receiving a request for aid capturing a monster that specified a need for tieflings, aasimar, or other otherworldy folk, The Exotics made their way to one of the Shifting Isles following a map that, somehow, was tracking it. There they discovered an
old mage and a
young inventor in a competition of sorts; both trying to catch or kill a seemingly unstoppable fox, sped along by the powers of destiny. The party initially aided the inventor, wishing to avoid whatever dark or dangerous spells the mage was cooking up.
Yet for all their clever traps and skills, the fated fox could not be permanently caught. Even convicing it to challenge
The Shadow led to only destruction before Haroch abandoned the chase for fear of collateral damage. Eventually they relented and returned to the mage, giving her the tiefling blood needed to enchant a predator capable of catching the fox. A destined cat was created, but upon it being set to chase, disaster struck. A fox fated to never be caught, and a cat fated to catch that fox, combined to create a paradox so great that the world itself began to buckle under the weight of it, until the Gods themselves had to step in. They sent the two creatures into the heavens, where their endless chase could harm the universe no more.
After dealing the fox, the party found that the old mage had been taken from this world as punishment for creating the cat, meaning the people of her island would need transported safe, now that they were lacking a protector.
The Wandering Headsman
Alongside transporting the islanders to a city, the party had also been learning the potential location of both a piece of
The Destroyer and the corpse of a dragon slain by the ancient machine. They decided to split up - half the party would transport the islanders to
Acidon, while the other half travelled with The Champions into the mountain range their goals were housed in.
After splitting up,
The Peregrine had a near fatal encounter with a ship of legend,
The Wanderer, captained by a headless undead who had once been a great hero named Kreon. After their ship was badly damaged and they were nearly killed, the party managed to escape by disarming Kreon and throwing his axe into the ocean; the undead warrior immediately dove after it, revealing an obsession that could be preyed upon in future encounters.
Despite barely surviving its encounter with
The Wanderer, The Peregrine managed to make it to Acidon in the weeks following, meaning Odessa, Garrac, and Soriz could now teleport their way to the tieflings and rejoin the party.
The Dragon
While their friends were making their way to Acidon, the tieflings travelled with The Champions to
Amphousa and met
Katamenos Xanómenes, an extremely rich mage and one of the rulers of the region. They quickly assembled some mountaineering gear and began to travel West.
On their journey they encountered several strange beasts, including a pair of Behirs, a headless cyclops, some sort of werewolf, and many mutated, draconic hybrid creatures.
The headless cyclops was travelling alongside several friends, one of whom the tieflings recognised as the
Yuan-ti woman who was part of
The Menagerie who had stolen the first ancient machine piece from a triton vault.
Between their multiple encounters, they "allied" with the werewolf in an attempt to kill or at least scare off The Menagerie, though when the fights began they abandoned him not once, but twice. The second time they had been planning an ambush, but it was interrupted by
a strange warrior with heavy armour and a horned helmet, the menagerie's leader, who bested the wolf and took him away.
After speaking with The Menagerie and convincing them to back off, the party progressed forward to the lair of a strange creature known only as The Dragon King. He was by far the most powerful draconic mutant in the area, having eaten most of a true dragon's corpse even unto its marrow. Some discussions were had initially, but with the whole party back together eventually a decision was made and battle was joined. It was a difficult and dangerous fight, but eventually The Dragon King was slain. While The Menagerie had rushed in to steal the Destroyer piece, they were forced to trade it for the life of one of their own.
In the aftermath, the party were given witness to the full majesty of a true dragon; its soul having been trapped by the creature who had eaten its corpse, the dragon's ghost appeared before them, giving both thanks and reward for releasing it. Ascending high above the mountains, the spirit soared for one last time, away from this world unto the next.
A Quiet Party
With their loot, including the bloated corpse of the mutant Dragon King, in tow, Exotic and Champion both travelled to Amphousa to attend a small dinner party Katamenos had invited them to. There they saw a few figures, including Katamenos' mother and Xanthe Ósta, a mage who specialised in draconic magics. Discussions and drinks were had long into the night, and plans for some downtime were made.
Draconic Transformation
Odessa asked one of The Menagerie to speak with his leader, setting a date and place. For the month while they waited for said date, the party split up to accomplish various tasks. Odessa committed to research and magecraft, the tieflings returned to a nymph they had encountered before to ask them for a branch, and Garrac began to seed rumours to slow down the Menagerie.
Soriz, however, had a more impactful downtime than the rest. Using the corpse of The Dragon King, Xanthe Ósta transformed the ranger from a normal Tortle into a mighty half-dragon. The newly-minted turtle of rime spent time growing accustomed to this new form, alongside speaking with the spirit he had now absorbed. The Dragon King was disgruntled with its death, and frustrated with its "cage", but the power it brought was undeniable.
A Knight of Mithral and Vines
Reuniting after their various tasks were done, the party travelled to the chosen meeting place: the area of land that was devastated by a magic fox in earlier months, and there they met the leader of The Menagerie. He was a man with many names, though he primarily goes by
Fearghal, wearing strange mithral armour coated in vibrant vines and flowers.
They spoke long about his plans and his nature, learning that he was somehow hidden from the view of God and Immortal alike. His stated goal was simple: make sure that anyone with the ability to help others took up the absolute responsibility to do so, creating a utopia in the process. Yet the method and the scope of this idea was worrying: he sought to find a weapon that could kill even greater Gods, and use it to force the mightiest beings in the Cosmos to save all the lives they had been ignoring so far, or to replace them with someone who would.
Despite the understanding that they were likely to be opposed in the future, The Exotics and Fearghal parted on amicable terms, with the Green Knight calling the party friends, especially considering they embodied his desire to see those in power helping however they can.
The Wanderer Returns
Leaving their meeting with Fearghal, the party planned to venture into the Shifting Isles in search of creatures to send to Chyreum, for they learned that this year's Festival of Change would be a contest between monsters, not gladiators as in previous years. Quickly, however, they were found and hunted by
The Wanderer. In the combat that followed many of
The Peregrine's crew were slain or nearly so, but
The Wanderer and Captain Kreon both were destroyed, leaving only his incredibly powerful axe behind.
Into the Isles
Narrowly surviving Kreon's wrath,
The Peregrine limped from isle to isle seeking lumber and safety for repairs. As fate would have it, they ended up at the island that the Menagerie call home, learning that it was guarded by a truly gargantuan sea serpent (and that she loved to eat red scorpion fish) and inhabited by everything from towering treants to an army of roguish looking fellows. After some interactions and offers of aid, the party squandered it all after learning that the werewolf they'd abandoned in the mountains was here, and itching to kill them.
A Furious Wolf
Knowing that they were supposed to retrieve the Destroyer piece likely on this island, yet fearful of
divine wrath if they broke the law of hospitality by attacking or stealing from their hosts, the party decided to taunt the rageful werewolf by letting him know they were nearby in the hope that if he attacked first, they would be breaking no laws in their actions afterwards.
A message was sent, a howl was heard, and the party were kicked off the island for causing the werewolf to go berserk. While many attempted to hold him back, the wolf escaped and began to follow his prey to the next island over. A battle was fought, and the seemingly unkillable lycanthrope was turned to stone by basilisk-eel slime and taken away by an agent of
Vhul'xo. Yet despite their victory a sacrifice was made, if only temporarily. Sylas had been killed by the wolf, but was luckily resurrected by Sylas' magic and Kaus' spellcasting focus, the only diamond fit for task on the island.
The Nightmare King
Another of the islands found on their travels would prove potentially even more dangerous than the werewolf defeated not long ago. Making landfall and journeying into an innocuous appearing area, the party was suddenly struck down with overwhelmingly potent sleep magics strong enough to drop even a warforged and an undead. Most of the party suddenly found themselves transported to a bizarre realm of dreams and nightmares, where the trees twisted and danced while the wildlife warped and folded.
Searching for a way out, they entered upon a strange scene: hundreds of assorted demons and monsters in a theatre, watching the worst nightmares of mortals play out while laughing uproariously at the displayed suffering. Seeking the lord of this realm, some of the party entered onto the state, while Garrac was summoned against his will. Of all the nightmares that were summoned, Garrac's was the most worrying; he dreamt of a version of Telío who had not yet lost his near infinite magics, one so great and terrible that he could fully understand his quasi-real existence.
Dream Telío unleashed a spell so great that it instantly slew many of the demons watching, finally drawing the attention of the ruler of this realm. He was one of
The Oneiroi, lesser Gods whose power of the Dream World was absolute. A conversation was had, and the Dream Lord demanded compensation for his many slaughtered guests. Garrac, fearful of what his nightmare-born master might do if unleashed, sacrificed himself both to save his crew and to make sure Dream Telío never saw the light of day. Soon after, the party and their crew awoke, and they travelled onwards once more.
To Build a City
Despite Garrac's stated desire to stay within the grasp of the Dream Lord, Odessa told Telío Prime what had occured, leading him to seek aid from an old ally,
The Planeswalker to retrieve his warforged's soul. Confident in the idea that Garrac would return, the party continued to travel while preparing for a meeting arranged some time ago. Odessa and Sylas had long since made their desire to construct a city known, and now the time was here to discuss such prospects with the ruling Consuls of the nearby realms.
After teleporting Chyreum, a long discussion was had with Queen Vaso of Chyreum and Architect Katamenos of Amphousa about how founding not just one city, but two with a pass between them would go. Also present at the discussions was Betvar Hedruno, Kaus' adoptive father and respected member of Kosí's Senate. Katamenos offered a loan and the service of one of his underlings to aid with the project (whom Betvar would pay the wages for), while Vaso promised to see to the vast amounts of appropriate paperwork. The names of the cities, and even when they would begin construction were still to be determined, but permission was granted and the land ready.
Return to Chyreum
While the party themselves had made it to the City of Change via teleportation, they still needed to bring
The Peregrine over properly. So they sent themselves back to their warship and began to row with a depleted crew and mostly finished repairs. A few more encounters were had, most notably of all with a terrifying Dreadmaw: a titanic shark said to be semi-divine as the children of an Empyrean. It was so great a danger that the party called in the Champion Zykída to kill it before the Prince of Teeth could destroy their ship and eat them all in the process.
Thankfully all Exotics survived, though some of their crew did not, and they made their way finally to Chyreum once more. There they discovered that Garrac had been returned, though he came with dire warnings that Dream Telío had been unleashed, marking a sudden and drastic change in how dangerous the weakened Immortal had become.
Festival of Change - 674 MA
This year's festival was about as eventful as the last, with the tournament being shifted from gladiator fights to monster fights, The Menagerie entering the competition, and more destructive agents at work. The first of these agents was an alchemist, apparently the apprentice of one of
Telío's many clones; they had begun to distribute
dangerous potions that massively empowered the drinker for a short time, before killing them. Eventually they revealed they had a vendetta against Garrac, and left the city after promising to make him suffer.
Secondly, Kaus, Soriz, and Sylas were being plagued by haunting dreams that left them more exhausted and sapped each day. The culprits were discovered to be the same nightmare demons that the party had saved Hevlog the Stone Giant from in the past!
Alek of
The Champions managed to assist with getting rid of the night hags, and restoring the three who had originally been attacked in the dream world.
Separately to the hags, Garrac began experiencing both nightmares and unsettling daydreams after being attacked by a creature disguised as
Coranvin. The disguised person also hijacked Coranvin's plans to sneak all the monsters out of the city. Instead of leading the monsters out peacefully, they unleashed havoc on Chyreum, though the party massively helped to clean up by recapturing most of the important creatures.
Amongst all the events and the dangers and the chaos, the party managed to put on a performance, lead by
Odhrán and a group of satyrs named The Nightingales. It was going poorly until the ending was replaced by a solo from Odhrán, who ensured the story so far would be remembered for many years to come.
And of course, the finale;
Aesk had created a most dreadful monster using a certain werewolf handed over to Vhul'xo by the party. It butchered the creatures assembled before it, and both The Exotics and The Champions were forced to enter personally to prevent it escaping. The fight was long and bloody, with Zykída teleporting in to give aid, and being promptly brought to near-death, before Fearghal smashed through the protective field and begged everyone to grant the monster mercy, but the pleas fell on deaf ears; The Exotics killed the beast, and won the Festival!
"Peaceful" Ultimatum
In grief and anger after seeing a creature killed despite his protests, Fearghal addressed the city. He declared that blood must never again be shed in The Colosseum, "else come Summer's end, I shall return." While most began to laugh, it prompted a serious discussion between the Queens and The Exotics about how to deal with this threat. In the end, Garrac staked his reward on ensuring the next festival was bloodless, but the idea that no more violence could take place in an arena that has been used every day for centuries was too absurd to be accepted or implemented.
Founding Chálkináti
Following their victory The Exotics travelled to The Never-Ending Chase to finally put long-laid plans into motion. After talking with the Allagi Queens and
Katamenos, funding and permission was granted to begin building a city in the arid landscape. As soon as they arrived they met Architect Megaera Xanómenes who asked many, many questions, and had the expertise and connections to start turning ideas into reality.
Chálkináti was founded, though for the first few months it was little more than empty buildings and a quarry staffed by a hundred animated skeletons.
Kogor Village
As Chálkináti was beginning to grow, the party split for some time. Garrac travelled to the South, Odessa stayed in the settlement to keep an eye on its progress, while Kaus, Sylas, and Soriz all travelled north towards Sylas' home. On the way they had a frightening encounter with a werebear, later to be revealed as Chief Kogor, leader of Sylas' village.
After arriving, they talked at length and requested Kogor's help in protecting the foundling city, and discovered that the goliaths were not permitted to leave the village due to the chief's fear of them being found by invaders from beyond the borders of The Varolian. If the party could deal with this threat, the goliaths would be free to leave and allowed to defend their city.
The Prophet King
Reuniting with Garrac and knowing that Odessa could teleport to them when needed, they continued northwards and searched for the flaming monsters that were described by Chief Kogor. Instead they found swarms of metal insects with bellies of fire, intelligent enough to take the shape of demons. After several battles they encountered a genasi named Blaze, stating that he serves Prophet King Itgan, and all Varolian lands will fall to him.
A fight ensued, but the party refused to kill the ambassador despite his aggression. Instead, they sent him homewards with a letter for his lord in the hopes of earning peace, or at least scaring the giant nation away. With their task complete, the goliaths of Kogor agreed to help clear the local mountains of monsters.
A Voice For the Aeons
Seeking another path to greater power, Odessa had committed to researching a class of deities named Aeons. Amongst the most minor of Gods, they were entities of Law, assisting greater Gods with controlling their domains. A trial was failed, a conversation with Ákryfos was had, and a second attempt was made with all the party together.
Completing all the puzzles and combats involved, the challenge was nearly lost when Garrac revealed he had been possessed by a clone of Telío the whole time. The clone attempted to steal the power, but was eventually bested, and Odessa began her
Aeon Transformation.
Battling Fearghal
The months whiled away until the last days of Summer arrived. Mindful of Fearghal's threat, The Exotics travelled to Chyreum to make plans with The Champions and the Queens. Expecting Fearghal to peacefully arrive before making his demands, they were all surprised to find him leading an army of freed slaves and gladiators, marching through the city like an invading force.
To add to the chaos was a creature disguising itself as common people, teleporting from shadow to shadow and killing those along his path. Had it not been caught by Odessa's freshly divine eyes, there's no telling the danger it could have posed instead of fleeing the city.
Quickly he was convinced to disperse the army temporarily, until he'd had a private discussion with Chryeum's nobles and heroes. Eventually a plot was made - challenge the Mithral Knight to an "honourable" battle (10 vs 1). If he succeeds, the Colosseum would change to using volunteers rather than slaves, but a loss results in his death. Immediately he accepted despite the odds and the fact that to any other eyes this was effectively an assassination attempt.
A great battle ensued that showcased the extreme power Fearghal possessed, for he was able to survive The Champion's strongest blow with no more than a broken arm that he immediately healed, even while he was actively trying to hold back his own destructive plant creation unleashed too early against the Colosseum. Long into the fight it seemed as though the Lord of Vines began to tire, but his second-in-command
Coranvin intervened.
Fearghal bound Coranvin in an attempt to keep the fight honourable, but when it seemed like the Queens would take advantage and try to kill the Shadowblade, he uttered a single word: "Enough." With that word it seemed the world shook, and the minds of the most powerful individuals in the city fell against it. To a stupified colosseum, Fearghal declared himself the loser of this battle due to his ally interfering, stated that the slaves he had freed must remain free, and left with many of them behind him.
Fresh Arrivals
Following their battle, The Exotics travelled back to Chálkináti with many of the freed gladiators and awaited a summons to the council of Consuls where the threat Fearghal poses could be discussed in full. Also arriving at the city was a detachment of Justicars, invited by Odessa some months ago.
The First Battallion
Eventually the time for the meeting arrived, and The Exotics were introduced to many of the most important people in the world. They spoke at length about Fearghal's goals, allies, and powers, then developed a plan to interrupt his goals at the very least. The plan was relatively simple - raid Fearghal's island and steal back the machine parts he had taken, then ensure he can never find them again. To that end the use of an airship was promised, Katamenos offered to personally join the assault, and Periphetes of Katarn offered to deliver them to
The Heart of Creation so they they can arm themselves and prepare for the attack.
All this while travelling to an island in the Southern Varolian, to find
The First Battalion. Once there, they found a half-bured army of broken or rusted metal bodies, some of which seemed to have no detectable life in them at all. They hunted for some time to find the most intact soldier they could, awoke it, and (after some communication issues) asked him many questions.
He was
Unit 316, and after an hour and more of speaking, the Consuls had gained whatever information they wanted, and the meeting disbanded.
Akhthaa The Butchered One
More than a year after the fight that nearly killed it, the juvenile kraken returned to haunt the Exotics' city. It began by eating or scaring off all the fish for miles. It tore out planted seaweed by the roots. It revealed itself to those in or on the water to frighten them away from it. Without the tools or ability to deal with this threat, the Exotics paid for weeks worth of food to be teleported to the city, and set out for The Godforge to build a tool to deal with it.
The Godforge
Journeying to Katas' seat of power in this mortal world, the party travelled through a dungeon with many trials, during which two were nearly lost to stone forever and a third narrowly escaped incineration in a lake of lava.
But they prevailed, as they have so often before. Upon reaching the final steps, they discovered
The Builder himself, or at least an avatar or champion of him. Garrac and the others spoke with him at length of his idea for a new kind of Warforged, witnessing the first steps of Almyós, his creation carved from quartz and crystal. The Smith handed over
his hammer, and told his workers to bring forth any material required to build a second being like the first. Almyrós was to be a secret weapon, a relacement if Garrac falls. This new being will be tasked with creating the next generation, and perhaps all the generations to come.
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