[Alliance] Chapter Three: Session Thirty
Appearing Characters: Alestrasz, Brody, Dawn Brightstar, Durgozz, Elissa Cross, Gilveradin Windrunner, Picatrix, Remnii, Seria, Uther Menethil, Velameestra Windrunner, Victor Prestor
January 3rd
Vel had just opened another door across the hall from Durgozz, to reveal two gnolls, who were conversing in their native language. The two look at Vel somewhat flabbergasted.
The gnoll nods.
Vel glances at Uther seeing Gil is currently busy with Durgozz.
He looks at Vel.
The gnolls look at each other.
The gnolls stand up and snarl, and Vel quickly shuts the door and relocks it. There is the sound of the gnolls attacking the door on the other side.
The ground rumbles as the tower blasts again from above. Vel goes to the last door, and she opens it. This time, there are five gnolls huddled up against the wall. They appear to be of more typical fur patterns, and they all seem to be rather thin and somewhat frightened.
The gnolls snarl at Vel, but none are armed.
Vel blinks, then steps aside for Uther.
He steps back and shuts the door.
Uther explains they are not going to get much out of emaciated gnoll prisoners, but Gil opts to see what he can do for them. Vel hands over the keys and opens Beve’s journal to see what else she can find in it.
Gil opens the door.
The gnolls don’t say anything.
Gil reaches into his pack and pulls out some rations, then he steps toward them. The gnolls flinch but don’t lunge at him. Gil steps into the room and places 10 rations on the ground. The gnolls look at the food, then back to GIl, and Gil backs up. One of the gnolls takes a cautious step forward, and sniffs at the rations, then grabs one. He begins to eat it, and slowly, the others start to approach. There’s some shoving, but they snag the food and retreat to begin to eat.
The gnolls start to laugh at the statement.
Gil pulls out one of the darkhound teeth he has and tosses it to them.
The gnolls look at each other, concerned.
The gnolls look at each other.
Gil smiles.
The gnolls settle in after requesting Gil leave the door open.
Meanwhile, Vel had been flipping through Beve’s journal for the event in the Eastweald, and Beve makes mention of a high profile job she was leading that happened roughly around the same time as Arthas’s kidnapping. She doesn’t come out and say it, but it seems like Beve might have been the mage that got the Syndicate members and Arthas out.
The group heads back to the main lobby. They head through the other door in the lobby, which is a nice wooden door with a nice filigree design. Uther opens the door and they start heading up. As Uther approaches the top of the stairs with Vel right behind him, he turns to his immediate left, and he sees the room is a modestly decorated room. His attention is drawn immediately to a small voice to his right. On a small chair at a desk is a dark grey imp that is standing on a chair, with a long piece of parchment and books. The imp is wearing the garb of a scholar, and there is a golden chain that connects his ear to a monocle on his eye.
He looks at Uther with a tired expression.
Vel lights the lantern of revealing on her hip upon seeing the imp.
He gestures at Remnii, who has hooves.
Gil pops around the corner and shoots the imp. The arrow strikes right through Picatrix’s face, and he explodes into a puff of fel smoke.
Gil has Ara’shel go to scout, and he hears footsteps to the south. As the group steps in, they see a small demonic creature with a stack of books appear. It sees the group and then starts shouting an alarm. Remnii recognized it as a wyrmtongue.
Remnii sees a gnoll fling a door open, and it casts an orb of annihilation at Remnii. There is an explosion of fire, and the gnoll backs away from the doorway. Gil looks into the door, and he sees the wyrmtongue, the gnoll, and a human cultist. There are also others in the room that are scuffling around. Gil immediately fires at the gnoll that attacked Remnii, leaving it critically wounded and bleeding.
He charges into the room.
He swings down at the neophyte he nearly ran into, then pirouettes and thrusts a second time.
Seria casts barksin on herself, and her skin takes on the bark-like appearance to give her a natural defense. She jumps into the room and transforms into a small raptor, ready to fight.
The neophyte holds out a hand, and his eyes turn black as a fel rune appears. However, Victor shrugs off the effects of the curse.
Uther also runs into the room and attacks the neophyte that had tried to curse Victor, slamming into him with a crunch of his hammer. The second hit also connects, dropping him to the ground.
The wyrmtongue librarian mutters nervously, and there’s an ominous voice that shouts in common.
The wyrmtongue attacks Victor.
A second wyrmtongue charges at Seria, and she drops concentration, dropping the barkskin.
Vel steps into the room, noting the wounded gnoll, and she reaches out with a hand, choking the life out of it with a spectral, skeletal hand. As it drops to the ground she unsheathes her sword.
There is some chanting in deep eredun, and all of a sudden there is a flash of fel energy from one of the back rooms. The stone breaks out, and something large begins to push itself out from around the corner. A horrifyingly large creature with long horns and tusks, wielding a massive cleaver, comes breaking through the doorway. It roars as it wrecks its way through, and it tries to strike with its cleaver.
Both of its strikes go to Seria, tossing her out of her raptor form as it slams her against a wall. A neophyte and two wyrmtongues are also slammed into a wall.
Gil and Remnii exchange looks, and Remnii peeks her head in, and then immediately backs out, casting a smite at the wyrmtongue. There is a pungent odor of the pheromones of the wyrmtongue, and Vel and Gil are overcome with a wave of frightening chills.
Another wyrmtongue jumps on Seria.
Elissa arrives in the doorway and attacks the wyrmtongue on the ground. She plunges her blade into it, and the wyrmtongue vanishes, now dead.
Victor moves over to help Seria, and swings into the demonic butcher near her, his sword bursting into fire that unfortunately wafts over the butcher harmlessly.
Seria summons a faerie dragon, though this one is larger than the last ones she had conjured, appearing to be an adult. It croons as it floats in the air.
Uther steps up to the demonic butcher and swings his hammer, the weapon flaring with holy light as he slams into it. However, as the butcher raises its fists in defense, it shoves his second strike away.
The faerie dragon does a backflip and then blasts a spray of gas into the demonic butcher’s face. The demon’s tongue lolls out of its mouth, dripping saliva as it comes under the effects of the faerie dragon’s euphoria breath. The faerie dragon then disappears and turns invisible. However, due to the lantern of revealing, it looks confused as it sees a silhouette of itself. It speaks to Seria telepathically.
The wyrmtongue attacks Victor, quite panicked.
Vel skirts by to get next to Uther and Victor and her sword alights with cold energy as she slashes her sword into the demonic butcher’s chest.
The orcish warlock fires a shadowbolt at Victor, and it slams into his chest. The demonic butcher, meanwhile, tries to run away due to the euphoria.
It tries to grab at an invisible butterfly, and bumps his head into a wall.
Remnii scoots into the room to heal Victor with a touch of glowing energy, and then she backs out of the room again.
Another wyrmtongue flails on Seria, managing to do some damage. And the faerie dragon then disappears as Seria’s concentration drops. Elissa runs over and heals Seria.
Gil pokes his head into the door again, firing an arcane arrow into the butcher, and the cold damage still wafting around it from Vel’s frigid strike explodes. Gil follows up with another attack, and a portal of fel energy opens as it falls through and disappears in a burst of fel fire.
Victor whirls around and strikes the wyrmtongue closest to him, killing it.
Seria uses thorn whip on the surviving wyrmtongue, the energy wrapping around the demon as it lashes him.
It cowers from her.
The Argus Wake Neophyte can finally see the group and they move into view, trying to use corruption on Uther… but it actually can’t affect him. The warlock panics and retreats.
Uther follows them into the side room, and he sees the orc warlock as well as the two neophytes. He goes for the orc warlock, but the warlock blocks the hammer with his staff.
Uther responds with another swing, his hammer illuminating with holy fire.
Vel follows after Uther to take care of the other two warlocks, her sword flaring with cold energy. She sees the orc warlock try to cast a spell, which Vel promptly counters--revealing it to be blight.
Meanwhile, one of the neophytes uses burning hands, but the damage barely seems to brush Vel and Uther as it singes some books. Vel pats the fire out on a book with a hand.
Remnii, meanwhile, casts smite on the wyrmtongue, and it promptly starts cowering.
The other neophyte uses burning hands.
The neophyte clearly doesn’t intend on surrendering, and the fires wafts over Elissa, Uther, and Vel, barely doing damage.
Gil finishes off the wyrmtongue and also gets into the room, shooting an arrow at the orcish warlock. The warlock drops down, taking a good deal of damage.
Vel looks at the two neophytes.
Remnii heals Victor, and the orc warlock roars as he casts orb of annihilation at Vel. The orb misses, but explodes. However, Elissa’s aura halves the damage.
She looks at Vel, and as Vel steps aside, the neophyte lobs a firebolt at the orc warlock. Elissa follows up, dropping the orc with a slash of her sword. However, the orc forces himself back to his feet with relentless endurance. Uther, however, brings his hammer down, crushing the orc’s skull and causing his black blood to pour onto the stone.
The female neophyte drops a name, that Vel recognizes as the name that the warlock in the Violet Hold had mentioned.
They decide to keep the pair in custody, and Gil asks how to get into the lab in the dungeons. They suggest they check the orc, and they manage to find another key rune. The warlocks also hand over their effects and key runes.
Vel asks if she can take a quick look around the library to see if there’s anything useful there, and they agree it’s a good idea. A few people stay back with Vel to help her look as the others take the two warlocks to a holding cell in preparation to go into the high security area. Vel summons Arkha’din to help her hone in on specifically magical items.
Vel, Seria, Victor, and Remnii search for magical items, with Remnii helping Seria and Victor helping Vel. They find many books of interesting things. Seria finds what appears to be a spell scroll, and Vel is quickly able to identify it as a scroll of levitation. Meanwhile, Vel finds a handful of other scrolls: a scroll of unleash and a scroll of magic mouth.
They the head back down to back up the others in the basement, where they had locked up the cultists. The group turns back to the barrier with the key rune they got off the warlock, and as Gil puts the key through the barrier, it shuts down, revealing a small, naturally carved passage. There is a short hallway in, and there appears to be a rune on the floor. Toward the left is a heavy steel gate, and to the right the passage continues.
Vel moves forward to take a look at the rune on the floor.
Victor asks the warlocks if they can dispel, and they can’t. Vel requests one of the gnoll bodies to be passed up, and she tries to toss it on one of the glyphs, but it doesn’t do anything.
Vel uses the scroll of levitate and casts it on the palette so it can hover over the glyphs. She then unlocks one of the doors and reveals two captive darkhounds. Vel announces to the group what’s in there, and Gil gets on the palette with her.
They then open the door again, and immediately get blasted with fire. Gil takes a few shots at the one he can see.
There’s another gout of fire, but it can’t reach them, while the other darkhound bites furiously at the bars.
Vel curses in annoyance and moves the palette forward then jumps into the room. Gil also jumps into the room after his sister and shoots the darkhound he was focusing on. Vel follows up with a chill touch on the hound. Victor hops into the room after them.
The fiery darkhound breathes fire again, hitting both Victor and Gil. Elissa also gets into the room, as does Seria.
The wounded darkhound tries to bite at Victor through the bars, but it’s unable to do so.
Uther gets up on the palette and firebolts the wounded darkhound, but it doesn’t strike true.
Elissa gets in and stabs the unwounded darkhound, and Gil finishes off the wounded one. Victor goes and puts down the second one.
Vel takes a quick look around the room, and the room seems to have been molded with magic, and it also appears to be out of the direct line of the force field, which she announces.
He uses mold earth to excavate the wall, and he then steps aside so someone else can look inside.
A voice calls out.
Gil uses produce flame as he peers in. It’s a dragon, with tarnished, but still crimson scales. The dragon is very young, much younger than Nori. It appears to be a whelp.
Gil rushes in.
Gil nods.
The whelp appears to be incredibly wounded, and Gil quickly puts rejuvenation on it. As the magic washes over him, he looks at Gil.
Vel takes a look at the magic chain, which appears to be forged of a black metal that she recognizes as adamantium. It’s completely resistant to fire, and is enchanted with magic that keeps anyone from shifting their form. There are scratch marks and scorch marks all over the chamber, including where the other chains are at.
Remnii casts guidance on Vel to help her, and Seria uses nature’s curse on the chain as well, causing the adamantine to rust. Vel fiddles with the chain, and she is able to magically override the magic. Gil then pulls the chain off the whelp.
The group introduces themselves.
Remnii gives him a bead of nourishment.
The young dragon begins to shift into a young human boy that looks to be between 12 and 14. He has some horns and scale patches, and he thinks harder and the horns and scales vanish.
The group gets out of the immediate danger of the place and head back to the lobby and they quickly escort the child to Dawn outside.
Gil gestures to the child.
Dawn offers a mana potion to Vel.
She also offers a potion of greater healing.
Vel promptly chugs the mana potion and Remnii casts prayer of healing while Vel ritual casts comprehend languages in case it’s useful.
Gil ruffles him on the head.
They head back into the tower, and they ascend into the lab. As soon as he steps forward, he sees a vanity at the end of the hall, and there seems to be a metal tube that sticks out of it, with a basin that is filled with water. A light ignites around the area, and there is a voice.
Uther looks like he isn’t going to wash his hands, but everyone tells him to do so in case it’s another trap.
Uther washes his hands, and there’s a chime and a “thank you” and the door opens. Uther steps, and the door closes again. The voice then asks Vel to wash her hands.
Inside the room, Uther sees the lab, and it’s a place of macabre horror. The tables are covered in bloody instruments, and in the edges of the room there are racks of torture devices. He can hear the pumping of machinery, and there seems to be a thick black ichor pumping through various pipes. There are papers covering the far wall, and there is a table covered with bones and organs. In the very corner, there is a blackened humanoid foot tucked away. In the center, is a dais that has a smooth, perfect stone with vague engravings. Next to it are two spheres, one is blue, and one is gold.
Over the course of the next 10 minutes, everyone gets inside. During that time, Vel takes the extra time to cast identify on the center stone. On the rack, Gil sees a human corpse with blackened, twisted flesh, and there seems to be black scales covering parts of its flesh. The scales seem to be draconic, but its features are almost tortured away. Its hair is gone, much of its flesh appears to have sloughed off. However, the flesh looks like that of the Shadowhide gnolls. It appears there might have been an attempt to do the Shadowhide ritual on a human.
Remnii looks around for some medical supplies she can take, and Gil also shows Remnii the body. It appears the experiments were not done willingly.
As Vel finishes the identification, she realizes what it is. It’s a repository for the destructive energy of the tower. Not the control of it, but contained within it is the battery of the tower. The amount of information that strikes her mind is staggering, and thanks to comprehend languages, she can understand it.
The tower was constructed on the leyline, and the device is the battery, and functionally the tower’s purpose is to create tools for use by the architect, and to dispose of unwanted refuse and dangerous materials that cannot be disposed of elsewhere by the individuals that built the tower and maintain it. There are three control nodes. The blue control node in this room is the creation sphere, and the gold one is the disposal one. Each controls the centralized battery and can operate and open it, allowing the caretaker of the facility to dispose of dangerous materials utterly and completely, or create new materials to replace them. The third control node is above, and is the external expression node, which can control where the tower’s expressions can be in its limited scope.
There is also an error, as all the information shouldn’t be dispensed at once, as the custodian is supposed to be doing this, but the custodian is nowhere to be found. It states to contact Azora for further information.
Vel relays all this information after staggering for a moment, getting caught by Elissa.
Gil suggests Vel try to make something to neutralize the power of the tower, and Vel tries, and then she tries something simpler, but it doesn’t work.
The group considers what to do.
