S3E3 Zedd - Summer Residency at Voltara Day Club

General Summary

Recap: We're in the abandoned city of Valtara. Devoid of all life and activity for thousands of years. After opening the doors to a massive spired building, we see drones flying around, so go back outside to hide. We...do not hide. They come over to us quickly and fly around us, scanning us with red lights. After the Duke tries to introduce us, they fly past us, still outside of the building.
Theo leads the way into the building, tossing some ball bearings ahead of her to see if anything triggers. She stands alone in a quiet room, with just the sound off the balls rolling on the floor, as nothign triggers. It's a dusty foyer with Azorius, Izzit, and SImic emblems in the middle of the floor, in a mozaic of the city. There is no artwork on the walls, and no writing anywhere. It resembles a government building with lots of marble and molding, but steampunk. There seems to be a lift in the center of the room. The Duke investigates, and sees that there used to be magic, but that it's gone now. Dream is trying to determine why the magic in this place is gone. We can cast magic, so we know it can be present here. It's not disconnected from the weave. All of the stuff here that would've used Mizium doesn't have magic running through it. The droids, however, were made of Mizzianite and had magic running through them.
Dream tries to Detect Thoughts but senses nothing. She flies up to the second story to investigate the lift, and nothing makes them respond. Down the hallways on the 2nd floor, it looks like a living space. There is a bedroom and washroom. Everything is covered in dust. 3rd story is a lab, similar to what Essan and Mizzit set up back in Ravnica. Also hasn't been used in a while. Dream keeps flying all the way to the top. The tube is now encased in metal, probably Mizzium, so she can't see through it.
The drones return with a large bipedal metal figure. The Duke says a motivational speech, and we spread out in the room. A metal hand swings the door open, and we see the silhoutte of a 9ft humanoid. The Duke detects Mizzium, the metal and the magic, within him. He has fingers and thumbs, facial features, all made out of Mizzium.
The machine welcomes the Duke, says that they haven't had visitors in a very long time. Asks us how we got here. The Duke says the he and Dream dispelled magic and we all came here. He asks, "So you are from Ravnica?" and Dream wonders aloud, "Where else would we be from?" The Duke asks him that directly. "I don't know where, I suppose. I've never been to Ravnica or anywhere other than here." He says his name is Zedd, and he was activated to come speak with us. He says that his people have been in stasis for thousands of years. The Duke goes into his shpeal about his life's mission to find Valtara and explain it's disappearance.
Zed says the drones to stand by and that their mission is complete, and they shut down onto the ground where they flew.
Lore dump: Not many years after Valtara was founded, the disappearance was not planned or expected. Some experiments were being done, and all at once, the city was ripped from it's place in the plane of Ravnica into a pocket dimension.
Vortica was experimenting with the limitations of magic, and the actual interaciton with the weave. They came to an understandign that the Weave was being filtered. There was a membrane between the Weave and Ravnica. With using the Mizzium gauntlet that Vortica had, she found a way to theoretically overcome and pass through that filter/membrane and tap into the raw magic of the Weave. She created a device that from this spire would form a barrier around the city of Voltara. As soon as it was turned on, the city vanished. There are theories but no real explanations of why it happened. The city was built on huge loads of Mizzium mines, and had resources, but was suddenly cut off from civilizations. They eventually made infrastructure to farm and survive.
Over hundreds of years, Vortica (who lived in Valtara for 300) was trying to return to Ravnica.
Zed doesn't have anything to compare the city to, so he doesn't know if magic users were more powerful in Valtara, but that's what the people's stories told. The automatons were created because of all of the Mizzium and scientists who worked in the city, hundreds of years after the disappearance. The automatons were built out of Mizzianite. There was a problem. "We are not like other clockwork machines. We are sentient. Intelligent life forms made of pure Mizzium. We have thoughts and feelings and emotions. But our energy source is to control Mizzium. The byproduct of our consumption is this medal that makes up the city here. After centuries of consuming mizzium, the mines started to run dry. Eventually, it ran out. Before that, it became rationed. Automatons needed it to live. It became a valuable commodity for that reason.
Vortica and the council were using a great deal of Mizzium in their experiments to try to reconnect with Ravnica. Over the years, a civil war broke out. The automatons wanted the experiments to end, so that they had the resources to live. It was a war for resources. The automatons won the war, and it was a total victory. There are no biological creatures in Valtara, and there haven't been in thousands of years. The automatons used up all of Mizium that they could. As they starved, they got desperate. They developed a system to hopefully save themselves. They all went into a stasis, and created the drones to notify them of any visitors.
Zedd was tasked with being the first point of contact, and his people are waiting to be resurrected one day.
He's hard to read.
Dream asks him about the research that Vortica was conducting. He says that after the war broke out, the people turned against the council and executed them. The gauntlet was taken by the people and was used against the automatons as a weapon. At some point, it was lost or destroyed as far as he knows. Dream catches that his mannerisms are off as he says that.
Dream says that we could use the gauntlet to get all of us back. The Duke exposits about the guild pact, the war, and the ALUHR. Zedd says that Vortica refered to the membrane between the Weave and Ravnica as the "Guild Pact". The Duke also tells him about how we ended up in Valtara.
There are 476 automatons left, all in stasis.
The Duke and Dream tell Zedd that they may be able to use the gauntlet to create a door back to Ravnica. He would want to come with us to try to find a way to resurrect his people.
He tells us that the gauntlet was taken by the automatons and kept in a secure vault. It helped them find and extract a lot of Mizzium. He has used the gauntlet himself. Dream discerns that the pocket dimension that we're in is outside the contraints of Guild Pact, and that you don't have to be of a guild to use the gauntlet (or any signet) here.
Zed says that some automatons can use magic.
We agree that we can't let the automatons out into the world.
Magic feels...off. Like playing footbal under heavy gravity.
Kraterellin says that the Meraxian fungus is still functioning the same. Archmage Callum is still working the same.
Sending to Da'Har: Found Valtara. Inside pocket dimmension outside of guild pact magic. Got here through valley of valtara. Trapped here. Automatons wiped out civilization. Please reply. We get no response.
Theo's questions for Zed: How much of the technology survived? Did any books/notes survive? Can a new pact be made with them? Is there a hierarchy to their society? Can Mizzium be lab grown? Is there a peaceful resolution?
Theo climbs up the tubing to the top. She uses her gaseous form to pass through the wall. She finds herself in a pitch black labroratory. She recognizes some things as satellite dishes. The ceiling/dome is all glass, so she can see over the edges of the pocket dimmension. Outside of the cities gates, the world drops off. Looking over Voltara, she sees giant buildigns that have collapsde on top of each other, whereas some areas seem untouched. There are giant satellite dishes on four sides of this circular room. on top of the tube, there is something that looks like an orrery with runes on it. there are desks all over the room. she throws everything on the desks into the bag of holding.
If the front of this lab is "north," Theo sees a huge domed building that looks like barracks to the east, and that's where Zedd is coming from.
RETCON CHANGE: Mizzianite = mizzium metal Mizzium = energy/power/magic

Report Date

13 May 2024