Session 23: Whispering Walls
General Summary
Entering the armoury is easier said than done. The Guardian tries a few keys on the gate, until eventually just breaking through it. Once opened he muffles about something with Morra. Looking towards the armoury, something weird is seen; It is protected by a defence mechanism that makes the building's outline visible, but not much else. It's "there", but feels censored from the mind. Normal barriers wouldn't cut it on Thrast, what will all the powerful beings walking about. Instead, they went with more mental barriers. In order to avoid it one must be placed on a "white list". After the guardian succumbed to Thraast's anxiety, he was removed from the white list by the ones who placed the barrier. In order to keep the Guardian sane, Mortem takes him back to the building the group arrived in after jumping through Saan's portal.
With the two gone, our heroes decide to attempt a short rest before venturing into the barrier of the armoury. Unfortunately their rest is interrupted by many of Killos' followers trying an ambush, but Yash notices them. The group tries to fight them off, but still wounded and tired from their last battle, are unable to take them on. Yash and Vic fall unconscious. Raine helps Yash back up, who then uses one of his skills to enter another plane of existence and escape the enemy soldiers. Seraphina uses her medkit to get Vic stable, and swings him over her shoulder. Usze places an arcane gate to allow Lysander and Raine back on the bridge, and together they run into the barrier, being teleported. Yash follows and is pulled out of his dimension as well.
The group finds themselves in a dark hallway. With Seraphina's dark vision, a lightened rock made by Lysander, and help from Yash, the group stealthily moves onward. Realising they are even more beat up now than before, they debate whether or not they should press on or head back to rest. At that moment Seraphina gets a sending message from Saan.
Saan: "Teleportation is locked down. Don't know who tracked you, only one made it" Seraphina: "Thanks for the heads up bro (thumbs up)" Saan: :triumph:
After walking for ten minutes Usze starts to get a familiar feeling from the walls. They remind him of the trees from the maze (see Session 12: A Divine Chug), and asks Lysander to touch them seeing as he's a geologist of some sort. Lysander is able to deduce that yes, these walls are not normal. They are a living being, created by a godly force. He is reminded of a rumour about how such things are created by the power of shards or the long dead gods. He also knows that it now serves a different purpose than it did would have when it was made.
After a debate the majority votes to head back for a rest. Walking back they hear some strange shuffling noise, cracking across the floor, clacking rhythms, signalling something is coming from the way they came. Unwilling to confront it, the group are forced to press on deeper into the hallway until they come across a split. To the left is silence, but to the right is more clacking. Yash senses a portal towards the right. The group decide to head down the left in order to avoid any confrontations with sentient beings. The thing that made the rhythms now heads down the right, and seems to leave. Relieved, the group chooses to rest. While they do, Yash manages to understand some of the words the walls speak, seeing as its a sentient being. He only hears words out of context though.
"Intriguing", "could", "Guardian", "hmm"
Unable to make anything of it, the group recovers and continues down the left corridor. After a few more moments they find themselves in a town at night. Usze and Vic remember it clearly; They are standing in Presco! And not just anywhere in Presco, the exact place they faced off against Darrin and the Nahiki brood master that resided within him, the one that first killed Usze (see Session 3: All Tuckered Out). However the buildings are different, having no windows. One place, the house Saan stayed at for his visit, is especially weird. Seraphina and Yash inspect one of the houses while Lysander asks Usze what it was like to die. At the far end of the street they see a pile of bones, and they attempt to investigate. However for some reason all but Vic are drawn to the house that stands in Saan's place. Yash listens in and hears a fireplace. Opening the door, there stands Saan.
Usze, Seraphina, Lysander and Raine make their way inside. Vic and Yash remain outside, not trusting what is happening. Usze asks if he got their reply to his message earlier, to which Saan replies "Of course". Seraphina asks him why he is even here, and instead of replying he simply says: "Well, I tried to save them". With that, the barred door slams shut behind them, trapping the four inside and Vic and Yash outside. The cracking rhythms return and near the pile of bones they see a skeletal beast feasting on it. Asking Saan again what is happening, he tells the four to "Watch the carnage".
Usze uses his familiar Smitty the tiny demi-wyrm to warn Yash and Vic not to initiate a battle with the beast, fearing it may have similar powers to The Warden (see campaign nr.12 & 13). Raine and Seraphina attempt to open the door, bashing against it. This unfortunately draws the beast's attention, and it moves closer towards the door. Lysander approaches the door and once the beast stands directly in front of it, he attacks the monster with a spell. Angered, the beast spots Yash and Vic and lashes out at them. Seraphina goes in to punch Saan, but her fists go straight through him, revealing he was an illusion all along. Yash fights back against the monster, giving it a loud bash against its head. The noise it made stumbles the beast, and Yash takes notice, telling everyone about its weakness to loud sounds.
Raine smacks against the door once again, but it does not budge. Its sound is not loud enough to flinch the beast either. Usze inspects the fireplace and finds it to be an illusion as well, and he climbs up through the chimney to get on the roof. On his way he uses his Thunderclap to create a horrendously loud sound, which makes the beast fall to floor and rub its head. Lysander uses his magic to remove a part of the wall, passing right through. Unfortunately the wall behind him repairs instantly, so Raine and Seraphina are still trapped. The chimney behind Usze also shuts. After fighting the beast some more, Yash orders Lysander to inspect the nest it came from. The beast is now closer to the door and Seraphina manages to punch it through the bars of the door. Raine attempts a yell and a spell, and Usze blasts it from atop of the roof.
For one reason or another, the Saan illusion opens the door wide, letting the beast inside, and then closes it right away, but not before Yash is able to strike a nerve. It is now inside with Raine and Seraphina. Vic approaches the door and sticks his gun through, shooting the beast twice. Seraphina then roundhouse kicks the monster, all while the illusion of Saan stands there laughing. Lysander manages to reach the nest, which seem to merely be a pile of black bones, and grabs a rock off the ground. infusing it with explosive power, he throws it into the nest, destroying it with an explosion. The entire town now seems to have gone darker. The beast panics and attempts to get out of the house, but Yash holds the door closed. The fake Saan then says:
"You gave him enough time to catch up... Well, we no longer have control of this"
The illusion of Saan disappears. Yash, able to understand the beast, hears it saying "Bad". He asks it how to get out, but misinterpreting his question the beast replies with "open the door", thinking he meant how to get out of the house. Yash opens the door and immediatly bashes the creature with his weapon. It however is able to slip by him, but he goes in pursuit and hits it some more. Usze thinks they should continue and ignore the beast, but Yash informs him they can't walk forward until the creature is taken care of. Usze runs up to the beast and attempts to cut it off, then thunderclaps once more. The beast is hurt and Usze takes this opportunity to bite down on the creature with his jaws. It makes one last attempt to scurry away but Yash jabs its neck with his sheathed Leecher, breaking its neck in the process.
The group is teleported back to the dark hallway. Yash realises whatever they just went through was not part of the security of the armoury, but something totally different. Continuing the group finds themselves at another split, this one a three-way. Clacking is heard from the middle corridor, and Yash suggests they proceed towards it. The group follows and they find themselves in a lavish room containing a fireplace and tables filled with feasts. At the end of the room is a throne, and upon it an 8ft tall man clad in robes. The man is one of the Magistrate. On his head he wears a carapace helmet with two horns diagonally backwards and one forwards, along with three eyes underneath them. The man speaks in a strange muffled tone, as if he had just awoken from a long slumber. The group greets him and engage in conversation.
It seems this magistrate was locked away from a long time and is unaware of what has been going on for the past few hundred years. He does however know that some people attempted to enter the Armoury in the name of Killos. The group asks if he knows anything about the Thraast piece they need, however he has not a clue to what it is nor its whereabouts. Upon hearing that not only has the Magistrates fallen, but even the Guardian had succumbed to the Anxiety of Thraast, the Magistrate is visibly afraid. He shakes it off and places our heroes upon the white list, allowing them to enter the Armoury.
Report Date
09 Jan 2022
Primary Location
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