Chapter 3, Session 4: The Making of the Dreamveil

General Summary

Expected to work with dreamers? I will NEVER allow myself to stoop so low!

• Venator Faithful turns on the party.

The Kaechaek Party  returned to the tunnel and continued to walk. They noticed a surprising lack of side tunnels, and the end appeared to have bright purple and red lights in the distance. Peregrine Arcana checked the light, stating that the purple light was likely magic though she couldn’t specify the spell. The red light was likely fire, making her rather nervous. Hermione of Vallea remade Jolly as the party took a short rest, and sent him ahead to investigate. Looking through his eyes, Hermione could see a silent conveyor belt leading strange ores/rocks into lava which incinerated all but the purple shiny rocks. Hermione was pretty certain it wasn’t Dreaming Bark. She also saw strange constructs, watching an odd process where a construct was given ‘muscle and skin’ to look like a normal humanoid. The construct walked into the loading area just as Hermione brought Jolly back to update the party. She noticed constructs were being loaded onto massive drills - 2 per drill. Hermione noticed Peregrine was very anxious/reluctant about moving forward knowing there was lava and fire ahead. Still, when asked about her fear, Peregrine chose not to open up due to Venator Faithful being present.
After a few more questions about her fear from Sigholdt Sofiasson , and a quick tattoo check from Mallus Somnium, the party moved forward into the factory. The only way through was over the lava pit, or by smashing safety glass to break through. After some debate and a failed plan from Hermione, Sigholdt threw his sword in an attempt to break the glass. With a natural one, the sword bounced back, falling onto the conveyor belt and heading toward the lava. Quickly Peregrine misty stepped to grab the sword, trembling in fear from her proximity to the lava, though managing to resist her fear paralysis. Venator Faithful and Malus broke the glass, instantly triggering a screaming alarm. All the constructs were activated and the party had to make Constitution saves. Mikhael Solitsev was the only one to fail the save, starting to bang his head on the wall and repeating he had to “get them out”.
Esmerae stepped forward through the broken glass as the constructs realised the party weren’t new customers, but intruders (“fucking narcs”). Sigholdt, Venator Faithful and Mikhael Solitsev followed through as did Hermione. Peregrine prepared to cast Slow as Malus tried to persuade the constructs not to fight and instead to take their freedom. The constructs insisted on selling their drugs or initiating combat - Venator Faithful declared death! As the constructs approached, Peregrine caught a group of them in her Slow spell as Venator Faithful and Esmerae easily killed their way through several. Sigholdt approached a drill that had a glowing crystal with other constructs inside. He spends some time attacking the crystal as Hermione and Esmerae snuck around the back of the room to try and look for a power source, letting the rest of the party target the constructs and keep them busy. Suddenly the constructs noticed Hermione and Esmerae, moving to swarm them. Sigholdt cast Sanctuary on Hermione to keep her alive as she recognised the constructs were acting exactly according to their design and directive. Hermione quickly turned the construct nearest to her off before she ran toward the purple glowing room where she saw the constructs being given flesh. Peregrine struggled to hit with her attacks as Sigholdt went after the crystal again as the constructs started to drive their drill away. This turned out to be a bad decision as it triggered a HUGE explosion, knocking out all of the remaining constructs, nearly knocking out Peregrine, and injuring other party members.
Venator Faithful turned on Sigholdt angrily just as Malus recognised that the construct’s human form was that of Hopkins - a guy who approached Malus and Esmerae in an alley earlier. Peregrine investigated the purple crystals, picking one up with a spare cloth. The cloth instantly grew wings and tried to fly off - only stopping as Peregrine shot it down and shattered the crystal. She warned the others, leading to Hermione excitedly joining her investigation (after asking Esmerae to remove the power source of the machine that gave constructs flesh). After some experimentation, Peregrine and Hermione learned that the crystals did not react to metal or sentient beings. Meanwhile, Esmerae and Sigholdt messed with the controls of the flesh-making machine, learning it had different options for ‘flesh: human, tiefling, goliath and changeling - all common races across Kaechaek except for the changeling form. As Esmerae pulled another lever, the machine stated “Subject Ruined” before destroying the construct and exploding the hidden drugs in its chest. Sigholdt grabbed a construct unactivated and threw it into the room, resisting the drugs now in the air. However, the machine didn’t start up until Sigholdt also put in some of the purple crystals that then triggered the machine. Esmerae learned the other lever triggered a reset while the last one stopped everything. Satisfied with her experiments, Esmerae removed the blue crystal battery (now dead) as Sigholdt accidentally got a little dosed with Dreaming Veil.
Hermione went to check out the drill, learning it was Vallean(ethnicity:ec05b26b-720d-4987-a3e7-c3273f0a8a0d) tech and all the serial numbers had been deliberately removed. Finished with their searching, the party moved to the main door exit and found it seemingly locked. [Esmerae realised it was unlocked, but pretended to pick the lock to impress the party. As they entered the room, it lit up magically. With prompting from Hermione, Sigholdt ritually detected magic, learning it was the Daylight Spell. Venator Faithful was growing very frustrated at all of the short rests and breaks the party insisted on taking. As Sigholdt took a step into the room, he heard a voice in his head saying that it appreciated how far the party had made it, but when they finished up, Venator Faithful would turn and kill them all. Sigholdt luckily did not outwardly react. Instead, he joined Peregrine who was checking out the bookcases, finding no more Soul Cages but grabbing a smut book for the road. Meanwhile, Esmerae checked out a green bubbling cauldron, recognising it was brewing Kaechaek @Green Apple Cider . As Mikhael Solitsev ate food available to the party on the table, Malus sat by him and watched Venator Faithful who was sidling nearer to Peregrine and Sigholdt. Noticing his attention, Solitsev reassured Malus and advised him to look into a Spook to deal with whatever was strange about him that put Venator Faithful on edge. Meanwhile, Hermione checked out an empty cot with dreambark sheets woven with actual flowers. She realised the flowers were not magically preserved and had been woven into the sheets at best only a day ago.
Noticing Sigholdt’s nervousness, Peregrine cast Message to silently contact him. Sigholdt told Peregrine about his warning, and she quickly passed it on to Esmerae, just as Venator Faithful approached the table with Mikhael Solitsev and Malus. After handing Mikhael Solitsev envelopes, he leaned in to whisper something. Malus overheard him whisper:
“These are their plans” “They were ready” “You should track the tunnels”
After hearing this, Mikhael Solitsev started to thank the party for their work and prepared to pack up and leave for the night. When Peregrine asked why he was so eager to leave, he said they had gathered ample evidence, had messed around and destroyed the production of Dreaming Veil, and the party had only agreed to work for one night anyway.
Suddenly, Venator Faithful turned to the party, asking Peregrine, Sigholdt, Malus and Mikhael Solitsev just how patient they thought the Venator were. With a surprise twist only 3 of the party saw coming, Venator Faithful stabbed Mikhael Solitsev, knocking him unconscious. Angrily Peregrine stated she couldn’t wait to present Venator Faithful’s head to Emperor Honour and tell him he had attacked his friend. The Venator did not respond, and combat began.

Report Date

12 Feb 2024