You Kant stop us! – 15.03.2022 – 'Tinuviel'
Mar 22, 2022 12:29:59 GMT
Wren Lunaboult, Varga, and 3 more like this
Post by Delilah Daybreaker on Mar 22, 2022 12:29:59 GMT
Rolled into a palm sized tube is a piece of nondescript parchment written in a mix of common, symbols, elvish, and draconic.
ASSIGNMENT REPORT #28
People/Organisations of Note:
Veridian Pentaghast – mage, human, male; homunculus companion, Paraceleus XI
Wren Lunabolt – scout/holy warrior, aasimar (scourge), non-binary; pets: Stripes (badger), Beans (white fox), Percival (awakened hyena), Peppy (pigeon)
Heret Velnnarul – stealth fighter, human, male; businessman/partner/owner of OMTC
Varga – fighter/barbarian, half-orc, female
Professor Kevin Hume – was once alive, race unknown; his soul is trapped in an orb
Professor Nicolas Pentaghast – was once alive, human; his soul is now trapped in an orb
The Philosophers – group of radicals/fanatics seeking to ‘create cosmic balance’ by removing/exterminating gods, powerful celestials, powerful fiends.
Locations:
Fort Ettin – Adventurer’s hub
Gehenna – the beak eternity
The Philosopher’s Stone – base of operations for the group known as the Philosophers
Body:
Pentaghast asked for help to extract his father from the Philosphers’ base in Gehenna and I agreed – with the promise that Pentaghast would assist me in the future. He is one of the few who knows the full extent of what has been happening between myself and Kurtz so he knows what making such a promise means, what I may ask him to do. Still, caution will be needed as the mage has contradicted himself in the past numerous times and if he were to assist me I cannot afford to have him turn against me at a crucial moment. Though perhaps what rapor we have built would make such a ‘betrayal’ hard for him to do.
We arrived in the Bleak Eternity easily enough, Pentaghast Plane Shifting us there with a tuning fork he had made. Surprisingly the Philosopher’s Stone was under attack by a large force of Yugoloths, Mezoloths and Ultroloths, amongst other fiendish creatures. The forces of the Stone seemed to be holding their own but it would be only a matter of time before the endless onslaught of the demons would win out – which meant we only had so much time to discuss a plan before we would run out of it.
The first hurdle was getting from the floating geode we were on over to where we needed to be. Where it was as easy as breathing to cast spells anywhere else, Pentaghast seemed to be having performance issues in Gehenna. Something about the plane restricting the confidence he had in his abilities perhaps? He eventually got us all over to the landmass that had the Philosopher’s Stone, but by then the two forces had brought out a Nightwalker to fight an Adult Topaz Dragon. In the midst of the chaos of battle for the stronghold, sitting on the roof of the Stone was a celestial – a Solar from what Pentaghast said. They/He seemed to be staring off into the distance, no care for what was transpiring below and around him.
Which became our next hurdle.
Seeing the best path was to climb up the slope so we could get to the roof and possibly enter from there, we made our way, the Shadows assisting all to help cover our approach. When we reached the roof, none had still spotted us, all – Philosophers and Yugoloths alike – were too engrossed with killing each other. As we approached the rooftop entrance located in front of the Solar’s crossed legs, I made my way in no problem. The others were not as fortunate.
Realising the others may need my help I did pause, listening to the tone of what was being said. It appeared that Pentaghast had all in hand though, being as honest as one can be whilst lying through omission about the full truth for our reason being there. Despite his lack of magical prowess before, his words seemed to have convinced the Solar of his intent and the others were promptly let in.
Grey stone everywhere, hallways of echoes, and the ever presence of a fatal battle happening not a hundred feet away quickened our steps but not so much as to throw caution to the wind. It became clear that all who were able to fight were already out doing so.
Until we came across a room that had two young human men who had been left behind to complete building a gigantic metal crab (See Appendix A, sketch of ‘The Crab’). Unbelievably strong, but overwhelmingly cumbersome, it became apparent rather quickly that the two were the only people alive left in the Stone. Then one of them addressed one of the two orbs that were sitting on the plinths in the library-like room we found them in and they both began to glow with pinpricks of light. Pentaghast knew these to be what are called ‘Professor Orbs’...
She looked around the room, but there were no doors. The only two creatures in there were the young men – boys if she was being honest – and neither appeared to be any great mage or scholar. If they were, they would have been out front dying on an unwinnable battlefield.
“I’m not crazy for not seeing anyone else in this place am I?” she asks her shadow companion.
“…not unless they are invisible, which may well be the case…” was their reply.
Then the two orbs that had been resting on plinths in the middle of the room lifted up, one of them sparkling with an inner light that was slightly more…chipper… than the other. The brighter one addressed all of them in Elvish, so she was able to understand what he said.
“Hi, I’m Kevin! How can we help you today?”
But the other orb moved towards Veridian without speaking. With a slow, horrendous certainty as she watched her friend, Delilah knew who the other orb was a moment before he spoke.
“Son? Son, is it you?”
Tears began streaming down Veridian’s face.
“Yeah, it’s me, dad.”
After looting the library of all the books, collecting both Professors, and bringing the two young Philosophers back to the Material Plane with us, Professor Pentaghast explained what had happened to him: His attempt at escape resulted in The Philosophers deciding to take no more chances. The best way to ensure he would be unable to run away was to trap his soul into a sphere of quartz and have everything that made him a person reduced down to four subjects of knowledge:
The same had been done to Professor Kevin Hume as well it seems:
Unfortunately, despite liberating their library of all their tomes of knowledge, none of them had any details on how to free either professor’s souls from their orb confinement. Knowing Pentaghast as I do though I know he will be spending any and all of his free time for the foreseeable future trying to solve that puzzle.
In the meantime, I will converse with Professor Hume, and then my allies to determine which path would be best to go down for infiltrating the 6th layer of Hell.
Report passed on 15 day of the Claw of Sunsets.
Neh diis lus’a, lus diis’a.
ASSIGNMENT REPORT #28
People/Organisations of Note:
Veridian Pentaghast – mage, human, male; homunculus companion, Paraceleus XI
Wren Lunabolt – scout/holy warrior, aasimar (scourge), non-binary; pets: Stripes (badger), Beans (white fox), Percival (awakened hyena), Peppy (pigeon)
Heret Velnnarul – stealth fighter, human, male; businessman/partner/owner of OMTC
Varga – fighter/barbarian, half-orc, female
Professor Kevin Hume – was once alive, race unknown; his soul is trapped in an orb
Professor Nicolas Pentaghast – was once alive, human; his soul is now trapped in an orb
The Philosophers – group of radicals/fanatics seeking to ‘create cosmic balance’ by removing/exterminating gods, powerful celestials, powerful fiends.
Locations:
Fort Ettin – Adventurer’s hub
Gehenna – the beak eternity
The Philosopher’s Stone – base of operations for the group known as the Philosophers
Body:
Pentaghast asked for help to extract his father from the Philosphers’ base in Gehenna and I agreed – with the promise that Pentaghast would assist me in the future. He is one of the few who knows the full extent of what has been happening between myself and Kurtz so he knows what making such a promise means, what I may ask him to do. Still, caution will be needed as the mage has contradicted himself in the past numerous times and if he were to assist me I cannot afford to have him turn against me at a crucial moment. Though perhaps what rapor we have built would make such a ‘betrayal’ hard for him to do.
We arrived in the Bleak Eternity easily enough, Pentaghast Plane Shifting us there with a tuning fork he had made. Surprisingly the Philosopher’s Stone was under attack by a large force of Yugoloths, Mezoloths and Ultroloths, amongst other fiendish creatures. The forces of the Stone seemed to be holding their own but it would be only a matter of time before the endless onslaught of the demons would win out – which meant we only had so much time to discuss a plan before we would run out of it.
The first hurdle was getting from the floating geode we were on over to where we needed to be. Where it was as easy as breathing to cast spells anywhere else, Pentaghast seemed to be having performance issues in Gehenna. Something about the plane restricting the confidence he had in his abilities perhaps? He eventually got us all over to the landmass that had the Philosopher’s Stone, but by then the two forces had brought out a Nightwalker to fight an Adult Topaz Dragon. In the midst of the chaos of battle for the stronghold, sitting on the roof of the Stone was a celestial – a Solar from what Pentaghast said. They/He seemed to be staring off into the distance, no care for what was transpiring below and around him.
Which became our next hurdle.
Seeing the best path was to climb up the slope so we could get to the roof and possibly enter from there, we made our way, the Shadows assisting all to help cover our approach. When we reached the roof, none had still spotted us, all – Philosophers and Yugoloths alike – were too engrossed with killing each other. As we approached the rooftop entrance located in front of the Solar’s crossed legs, I made my way in no problem. The others were not as fortunate.
Realising the others may need my help I did pause, listening to the tone of what was being said. It appeared that Pentaghast had all in hand though, being as honest as one can be whilst lying through omission about the full truth for our reason being there. Despite his lack of magical prowess before, his words seemed to have convinced the Solar of his intent and the others were promptly let in.
Grey stone everywhere, hallways of echoes, and the ever presence of a fatal battle happening not a hundred feet away quickened our steps but not so much as to throw caution to the wind. It became clear that all who were able to fight were already out doing so.
Until we came across a room that had two young human men who had been left behind to complete building a gigantic metal crab (See Appendix A, sketch of ‘The Crab’). Unbelievably strong, but overwhelmingly cumbersome, it became apparent rather quickly that the two were the only people alive left in the Stone. Then one of them addressed one of the two orbs that were sitting on the plinths in the library-like room we found them in and they both began to glow with pinpricks of light. Pentaghast knew these to be what are called ‘Professor Orbs’...
She looked around the room, but there were no doors. The only two creatures in there were the young men – boys if she was being honest – and neither appeared to be any great mage or scholar. If they were, they would have been out front dying on an unwinnable battlefield.
“I’m not crazy for not seeing anyone else in this place am I?” she asks her shadow companion.
“…not unless they are invisible, which may well be the case…” was their reply.
Then the two orbs that had been resting on plinths in the middle of the room lifted up, one of them sparkling with an inner light that was slightly more…chipper… than the other. The brighter one addressed all of them in Elvish, so she was able to understand what he said.
“Hi, I’m Kevin! How can we help you today?”
But the other orb moved towards Veridian without speaking. With a slow, horrendous certainty as she watched her friend, Delilah knew who the other orb was a moment before he spoke.
“Son? Son, is it you?”
Tears began streaming down Veridian’s face.
“Yeah, it’s me, dad.”
After looting the library of all the books, collecting both Professors, and bringing the two young Philosophers back to the Material Plane with us, Professor Pentaghast explained what had happened to him: His attempt at escape resulted in The Philosophers deciding to take no more chances. The best way to ensure he would be unable to run away was to trap his soul into a sphere of quartz and have everything that made him a person reduced down to four subjects of knowledge:
- Non-Aligned divine healing power, its syphoning and distillation
- The alchemical properties of precious gems
- The traditional songs of the High Forest
- The life and times of Veridian and Ester Pentaghast
The same had been done to Professor Kevin Hume as well it seems:
- Butchery of 4 legged beasts for food
- The ever moving geography of Malbolge 6th layer of Hell
- The Blood War between Demons and Devils
- The swing stick instrument of the Gurung
Unfortunately, despite liberating their library of all their tomes of knowledge, none of them had any details on how to free either professor’s souls from their orb confinement. Knowing Pentaghast as I do though I know he will be spending any and all of his free time for the foreseeable future trying to solve that puzzle.
In the meantime, I will converse with Professor Hume, and then my allies to determine which path would be best to go down for infiltrating the 6th layer of Hell.
Report passed on 15 day of the Claw of Sunsets.
Neh diis lus’a, lus diis’a.
