Aldebaran V4: Bugs and Books
General Summary
Starting outside of the Temple of the Omnifideus, the party felt an unnatural bloodlust to go and kill some insects. Sparing no time, they would make their way through Cosiax and towards the farmlands outside the walls. Meeting with Timinth, she would speak of their payment and lead them towards the ankhegs that were tearing up a local field. Deciding to just fight them head on, Rozalin would smash through their plates with her massive anchor, Maya finding openings in between the cracks, and Mordcai cleaving through with determined strength. Dispatched easily, the only spicy moment was when the ankhegs fired two streams of acid through them. Fortunately, Luner was around to make sure everyone was feeling fine.
With a job well done, their victory was short lived. Timinth approached them in a worried state, apparently a strange ankheg was going on a rampage not so far down the path. Indiscriminately killing anyone it could, it was chasing people down to do so rather than acting territorial. When they confronted the monster, it had a form that could only be described as hideous. With scythe like claws whipping wildy on its back, a malformed jaw that was in the process of tearing apart a guard that unfortunately could not escape, and a strange intelligence that they would discover in combat, this was no ordinary ankheg.
Starting off the combat with a sticky bomb of acid, Maya would find herself entangled in it. Mordecai and Rozalin would avoid the attack and engage the creature. Striking it hard, it would cry out in a strange voice expressing pain and asking for help. That didn't seem to stop it from attacking back, and Rozalin would suffer heavy a blow. This only seemed to bring out a fury that hadn't been shown yet, as she would land her own critical strike and essentially destroy any form this creature had. In its dying throes it would rip into her sides with the scythes on its back, but Luner would bring her back to consciousness.
With the creature dead, they would wonder what kind of creature this thing was. It had the form of an ankheg, but it was clearly malformed in a way that would imply someone had grafted certain features onto it. Mordecai could also feel residual evil energies radiating off its corpse. Unfortunately, the creature had caused some casualties, but Timinth would say that if the party not been there it would have caused way more damage. Paying them their due plus more for the monster, the party would head back towards the Cosiaxian National Institute of Research.
Deciding to research Ogazi at the behest of the Pupil they would meet Clask the old head librarian and Danielle, his assistant. Seeking information, Danielle would recommend a book called the "Legacy of the Delmist". Within its passages, they would find mention of a a daughter to the Delmist line, one by the name of Ogazi Delmist. She had been killed when she was five years old in an assassination. Since Ogazi wasn't a very common name, research elsewhere did not procure much of anything useful. It was only when Maya remembered the brooch they had recovered from the Spinal Ruins and the fact that the head librarian was of the same lineage as the brooches owner, Rivenklu, would they make further progress.
The librarian, Clask Rivenklu, decided to repay them by letting them access an ancient scroll in a locked section of the library. Someone had written in the scroll, taking notes of some sort. It would seem they weren't the first looking for answers. The scroll itself was written in very old Sisrian, it took a moment to decipher the texts. The passages, three total, would describe a poem of an old battle between Theotians and the rise of the moon gods, a fourth moon that was black in color, and some sort of betrayal. That was great and all until the fourth moons name was revealed. Called Ogazicus, the party would return the scroll and leave the library with more questions than answers.
Rewards Granted
- 2950 gps worth in coins
- Level 3
Missions/Quests Completed
- Defeated the Ankhegs harassing the farms.
- Defeated the malformed and aggressive ankheg.
- Learned of the fourth moon.
Character(s) interacted with
Timinth (Ōkagǒu) - The head of the farming coalition would lead them towards some ankhegs that were tearing up a field. As they dealt with them, she would alert them of another ankheg that was going out of its way to kill guards and to chase people down. She would pay them for their services after everything was done.
Clask Rivenklu (Saetori) - The head librarian of the Cosiaxian National Institute of Research, this old bird was the father of the person who owned the brooch they found in the Spinal Ruins. The party was looking to research Ogazi at the request of the Pupil, and when they gave him the brooch he felt inclined to let them peruse old passages from a locked section of the library.
Danielle (Amurrun) - The assistant librarian to Clask she would recommend a book to the party called the Legacy of the Delmist, the monarch family of the Teobik Trust.
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