Aporeu chronicles Issue 24: Investigating a Fortress
Stories from the adventurers
This week
Just an empty building showing up over night.Investigating a Fortress by Gaergotin
Here is the story of the investigation of the fortress south of here, by Gaergotin the half-elf sorcerer. So, this was only my second mission. I was a bit hesitant to join again, my first mission was all but pleasant. However, neither is working between the people who once shunned me, seeing them glaring at me all the time. I want to tell and show you that I am not dangerous. Even better, my magic has been very helpful this time! I met the people I would go on the mission with at the notice board. There was Elena, a human monk. I think many people know her. She was staring at me for a while, with dreamy eyes, before she pulled herself together. I’m not sure if she feared me like all seem to do, it almost looked … different. Not like she was in love though. I have heard she is in a relationship, and very much in love with the guy. She clearly knew this Gerolt guy, a gruff man who is very strong. His friend Svæin is even stronger, a huge grey man who only talks in short sentences. And then there was Noaz, a human fighter. This fortress, or building, appeared overnight out of thin air. The peat cutter who informed the guild is not sure if there is any danger, it just stands there, but we have to find out. So, it has huge glass windows. We agreed that we have never seen so much glass in our life. Svæin tried to hit the glass with a log (there were no rocks around), but it just bounced off. Elena the brave had already started to walk around the building, and we heard her shout that she found a door. Not that the door helped much, it was shut without a way to open it, but there was much thinner glass here. So Elena broke it with her staff, and we went into the room with two skeletons sitting there, doing nothing. So, no undead, just “regular” dead people. Many dead potted plants as well, and there was some strange artwork: some cabinets with glass fronts and springs inside. That was the overall idea with the fortress. There were skeletons everywhere, so we tried to find out what happened. Somewhere at the start I cast light on my arm, which was an indication for Svæin to start calling me ‘lantern’ and carry me around. It was fine by me, it saved me the walking through a pretty extensive place. So, what happened? Gerolt got shot at by a huge ballista, and I demolished the thing. Okay, with help of the others, but in the end I let it explode, so it could not hurt Gerolt anymore. Can you believe that guy? He just jumped in front and tried to shield us from all the blows! There was a room with weapons, some traps, and a door what wouldn’t open. Elena was hurt, and Gerolt too again by trying to disarm one. Funny thing is that Svæin managed to disarm the last one without any difficulty. It figures, you don’t have to be smart to do great things. We also found some torture chambers, that obviously were no longer in use, and some diaries. We gave the diaries to the Adventurers’ Guild, to be investigated with what we found out. You can rest assured, the fortress is not dangerous. Everything that held any danger was removed by us. I, Gaergotin the sorcerer, have played a role that was of the utmost importance to the mission.Investigating a Fortress by Noaz
The Strange Fortress I woke up early and walked over to the Guildhall to have some breakfast. As I was eating, I spotted a Human female and a young man standing by the notice board, chatting. It seemed they were discussing on following up on one of the requests posted. But they.. didn’t seem battle ready… at all. The woman was dressed in some fair robes and the boy was wearing nothing more than some plain clothes. After staring a bit, I snapped out of it and decided that, wherever they might be off to, they could probably use some protection. So walked over and introduced myself. The female’s called Elena, and the young half-elf man Gaergotin, but tells us we can call him Thekas. He is a magic wielder, which explains the absence of armor. After exchanging these pleasantries, two big burly men walked up to us. A scary looking fellow in dark chainmail armor and a half naked guy: Gerolt and Svæin. And, oh my gods, they were HUGE. All of a sudden I felt a bit stupid with my little shield.. But whatever, the more the merrier and with these behemoths by our side, this quest should be a peace of cake. In the request, the inhabitants of Eld’aar Village were asking the Guild to investigate a fortress that suddenly appeared in a bog near the town, and to make sure that it posed no threat to the place. Thus, we all headed towards Eld’aar Village and, after getting some direction at the local pub, continued on our way to the bog. There we found the fortress. A large building made out of unusually smooth rocks, adorned with two enormous glass panes –one almost as high as the building was tall. All of a sudden a large log flies past me, towards one of the big windows and I almost defecate myself. Apparently, Svæin had thought it a good idea to just knock the glass down and charge in. I pleaded for caution, seeing as we had no idea of what could be waiting inside.
Then Elena’s voice cried out from the other side of the building, were she had found an entrance. There we were met by a locked door with a smaller window by its side and here, Svæin could satiate his destructive urge and smash through.
Through the broken window, climbing inside we found a desk with a skeleton sat behind it. Fearing it might be an undead entity I poke it, but thankfully there’s no reaction. Upon further investigation, the skeleton seems to be wearing rags of a very, very old uniform. But, on searching the desk we come across some papers with names and dates written on them, dates that are still to come. Ancient uniforms and future dates? What is this place?
Venturing further in, we are met by darkness. Thekas cast light on his arm to light our way and Svæin, with no word of warning, picks up Thekas by the collar and holds him aloft in front of him. Thekas is now a ‘lantern’. Thekas doesn’t mind.
There are a lot more doors, rooms, skeletons, strange clear fabrics encapsulating deteriorated clothes, dead plants, a door with a triangle above it and cabinets with glass and affixed coils. What the hell is this place?
We find an artsy bent pipe -don’t know what it is, but it’s beautiful-, 3 bottles filled with a dark liquid -smells like booze- and a diary belonging to a scientist named dr. Bronth, filled with research on ‘the legion’. Something about a war, a revolution, weapons. They have no food, people are turning on each other. And then something about a pocket dimension.
Gerolt mumbles something about ‘messing with magic’.
While entering a new hallway, a voice sounds out of the dark: “target acquired”, what?
THUD! A large bolt is shot in the floor, right before my feet. Gerolt runs into the dark, holding up his shield, trying to defend the party. When Svæin walks up with Thekas the lantern held high, we can see a crossbow-like contraption fixed to the ceiling. While trying to destroy the darn thing, Gerolt is hit by one of the gigantic bolts, yelling out: “kill it already!”
Thekas focuses on a ball of energy between his two hands and unleashes three flashes of arcane magic, finally obliterating the weapon.
Another big room. Another desk, more papers. Papers addressed to a sister, someone telling her he misses her.. I back out a bit. Zera.. Again, a missing sister.
I need to pee. I find a corner and pee.
BOOOM! An explosion.
I zip up, hurry to were the group went. Apparently a trap went off, but thankfully nobody’s seriously hurt.
At the end of the room is huge door which Svæin is trying to kick down, to no avail.
I propose to disarm a trap, place it at the door and ignite it, to see if that does anything to it.
So Gerolt takes out his tools and tries to disarm another trap, which is pretty funny: watching a hulking man, daintily trying to unarm a trap with some little tools. BAM! It detonates. But, again, thankfully Gerolt is alright. Svæin, even though just having witnessed the trap explode in Gerolts’ face, also wants to try disarming one, and… strangely enough, he succeeds. He.. I.. what an enigma..
We place the exploding parts against the door and Svæin picks up Thekas, who shoots a wave of fire from his hands and the trap explodes!
After the dust settles, the door.... not a scratch…
A moment of silence passes, after which Svæin picks up a desk and tries to ram the door down once again. The rest of the group takes a breather and just watches Svæin going through the different desks, smashing them to bits against the door. After we’re done resting and all the desks lie in tatters –door still very much intact- Svæin picks up ‘lantern’ once again (Thekas, who still doesn’t seem to mind), and we make our way back, out of the fortress.
We return to Eld’aar village and enter the Inn. We have a drink and tell the locals of what we found in the fortress. We tell them about the skeletons, the strange objects found and that all in all the fortress poses no danger to the village.
After a while we visit Lornan and inform him about our findings. We tell Lornan there might be dangerous weapons to be found in the fortress, behind the big door and that he should get on that.
What a weird fucking day..
Bunch of weird fucking guys too..
Was fun though. Pretty fun.. But scary to.. and so weird.
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