3/22/214 - Report of Anja Lefkaris
General Summary
We went to the Quarry to Explore the Mountains. When talking to a fellow named Iskender, he had an idea to put kegs of ale on carts and sell them on the move at outposts. Iskender could even chill the beer and there's snow in the mountains as well. Brilliant idea! I must invest in this! We pressed on and ran into some Harpies. They let us pass upon showing them the scale. They told us there were Plains the Archaeans could settle in. We asked who else lived here and, after much translating, they said there were Ogres in the mountains. They once fought the harpies but they made peace. Harpies in the peaks, ogres in the valleys. They were united by the Archaean Empire as their mutual enemy. The harpies continued to watch us as we went through their territory, but apparently one of them, Chiara (or was it Cloaca?), is sweet on Iskender. She left him a feather. How sweet. They like Walter and now Iskender.
We explored the seemingly endless plains. We saw nothing of note until we saw a structure. Some kind of Ruin. We approached and saw it had been overrun by undead. We killed them and explored the area. The corpses being feasted upon were killed by something else. Something large that did things no regular Human or Zombie could do. One of the dead soldiers had a crude map of the area on him. It showed the plains between the mountains and the Ocean. It had three settlements on it with X's crossing them out. We then found two small copper dragon-looking things, possibly mates, that had taken the ruin as their territory. They looked like Dragons, but they weren't intelligent enough. Drakes, perhaps? I don't know, they look like baby dragons so I'm calling them baby dragons. They for sure are what killed the people here. I sweet talked them and they backed off back to their Hoard. They seemed to understand my Draconic and were willing to leave us be. Iskender found a trap door under a boulder. He disarmed a trap and it seemed like there was a large structure underneath the ruin.
We went down and there were more traps. We fought these animated suits of Archaean armor. We found a piece of paper. It showed the anatomy of the human body. On the other side was a Recipe for something called "Keoghtom's Ointment." We were then attacked by Shadows. We killed the shadows and examined their bodies. These were killed by slashing Wounds and their flesh was removed from their bones after death. The animated suits of armor were normal Archaean armor animated by a magical spell. We found a note that said:
"Here in the dark, one cannot say how long it has been. Three months? Six? It matters little. We had imagined a great last stand against the apostates but, in sheltering here, we have sealed our own doom. Why spend their lives in a needless attack when they can simply trap us here and leave us to starve? Curse them, they and their blasphemous “New Faith!” We all know that we will not leave this place alive, all except Avitus. I fear this isolation has driven him mad. Even now, he screams of preparing for an attack the rest of us know will never come. They say all mages have a touch of madness within them, a price they must pay for their gifts, but I weep to see him fall so low. Let it be known that Avitus Maecilius fought as bravely as any soldier. Let it be known that we all fought to the bitter end. Marcus Arruntius, Quintus Atrius, Gaius Caelius, Lucius Critonius, Sextus Fabius, Marcus Livius, Titus Livius, Decimus Marcius, Publius Metius, Appius Plautus, Aulus Sextilius, Gaius Tebanus. These men honored the Covenant and died free. Glory to the true Empire of Archaeus!"
We moved on to the next room and destroyed the two armors. There was a chalk drawing of a full human body on the floor with blood on it. It was definitely ritualistic. Petra thinks transmutation instead of summoning. She theorizes it was fleshcrafting magic. Disgusting. We opened the door to the next room and in it was a pile of 10 skeletons. Three shades sprung forth and then my world went black. It turned out one of the shades nearly killed me. Again. Fucking Ghosts. I hate spectrals. Why can't they just stay dead? Bastards. We destroyed them and inspected the bodies. I was still out of it, but the others tell me there were 10 skeletons in the pile. The flesh was removed from their bones. The skeletons had self-inflicted stab wounds. Must have been the defenders choosing death by the blade over starvation. Their flesh was removed post mortem. Could Avitus have... no... Hell it looks like he did. A mage going insane from the siege. Could have used the bodies of his comrades to make... something. What horror will we face next?
It turns out, I had failed to envision the horror we would face. We barged into the next room thinking we were fighting only armor. Then a giant flesh golem, likely the result of the ritual, rose up from its resting place. Vadim was overwhelmed by it and the armors. I was once again knocked out, but Petra saved me once again. Iskender ran off and the flesh monster followed him. Petra, Bubba, and I destroyed the armors and got Vadim up, but we were trapped in the dungeon with the flesh monster. We left the room and collected ourselves, slowly and quietly making our way up the side rooms towards the entrance. My heart, already weakened from the shades, was racing uncontrollably. I have never known such terror before. Even breathing felt as loud as screaming. We got to the entrance as the flesh monster was leaving. Fortunately, he did not hear us. We ran to the ladder and got out just in time. The flesh monster raced after us but we climbed to safety. I managed to calm things down with the dragons and we got out of there. Fuck I need a drink and some rest.
Rewards Granted
1013 XP
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Report Date
27 Jun 2023
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