Post by Andy D on Sept 28, 2022 23:40:48 GMT
Fourth Outing: ‘Loviatan Hunters’ (Working group name)
Glade, my Earth-Genasi, druid friend, invited us to join her at the Daring Academy to help Professor Joris Hemstock with a mission related to the missing memory thing. I gave Glade 200gp towards a previous research, but this went nowhere. Hopefully Professor Hemstock, who translated the pages of the journal Toothy picked up in the Loviatan hideout could help us. Although, from the adventuring notice he put up, it seems he was becoming a victim of what he was researching; he seemed to be forgetting things. Similarly, I now wasn’t sure who Nira was. Apparently she is the daughter of Delphine, who I have met twice. Delphine also seems not to remember Nira. Most worrying of all; Nira is missing.
Of all the adventurers who have been involved in the ‘Loviatan saga’ (as I am currently calling it) the day we went to see Professor Hemstock, there was; Glade, of course. But, also, Amble; my Gnome, wizard friend who was taking plenty of notes in case we forgot things. Felix; my Dwarven bard friend - master of the musical lightning bolt. Last, but not least was comrade Tayz; my Aarocokra cleric friend, whose god, Horus has blessed him with powerful healing magic.
Daring Academy - Linguistics Department
We stood outside the office door which had the label, ‘Professor Joris Hemstock’. An assistant, Travis, approached us and informed us that no one knows of a Professor Hemstock and the office we stood in front of hasn’t been used in some time.
The door was locked. Travis was still with us, and Tayz used the Detect Magic spell, followed by the Dispel Magic spell; to discover and remove the abjuration/protection magic around the door. Comrade Felix then used a spell I hadn’t seen before that was a big, magical F.U to lockpick experts; the Knock spell. The door magically unlocked itself. It is at this point that Travis revealed he had the key to the office… comrade Tayz was not pleased with having used magical reserves, when it was not necessary. Travis left the key with Glade and went about his own business.
Inside Professor Hemstock’s Office? …
Felix opened the door revealing a long 50ft, but narrow, 5ft corridor. The 10ft walls were all a beige stucco, and apart from the door we opened, there was another door at the opposite end of the corridor and another around the midway point on the left hand wall.
We walked to the midpoint door, and Tayz and Glade began to magically inspect it. There was magic on and beyond the door. Tayz made an attempt to dispel the magic, but no luck. Glade shapeshifted into a wolf to determine if she could smell anyone behind the door - nothing.
As I’ve seen him do many times before, Tayz pulled out a feather for all of us, and upon receiving it, we all felt invigorated with health. Felix, additionally strummed a quick tune on his lute, and again, as has happened many times before; my musically inclined comrade’s performance inspired us with extra vitality. This combination of comrades Tayz and Felix in a party is very conducive to team longevity. It’s good stuff. I miss it when it’s absent.
After Amble investigated the door for traps and found none, we opened the midpoint door to reveal not an office on the other side, but the exact same corridor we were in, from the perspective of the office entrance we started from! The exact same narrow corridor with another door on the opposite end, and another door at the midway point on the left. Same shitty stucco walls, too.
“Comrades!” I said a little exasperated, “why is there always magical bullshit abound when it comes to wizard things?”
Archie had recently gained access to the Daring Academy. He knows me, he should have warned me about this shit. Speaking of wizards, I glanced down at comrade Amble, “you are good, comrade,” I said reassuringly.
Glade reverted to her usual Genasi form. We closed the midway door and walked back to the original entrance, only to find when we opened the door was the same corridor we were in! The magic bullshit got worse! So, we walked back to the midway door and entered the second corridor, and walked up to the new/second midway door.
Comrade Tayz used a more powerful Dispel Magic spell. Something seemed to have happened.
Comrade Amble was taking detailed notes of everything we did, saw and decided. He marked this midway door with a number ‘2’ and reminded us of the research findings he and others had found; people are losing their memories researching the Loviatan notebook that Toothy found in the Feythorn Forest where we battled the lightning plants.
Felix opened the ‘second midway’ door, and poked his head in.
Finally - An Actual Office!
Inside the room were some bookshelves, a window on the far wall, a large desk and a chair with some steps - this appeared to finally be the actual office of the professor. Really, it was more of a study. Quite large at 30ft squared.
Tayz noted that he felt the absence of what once was illusion magic around the door. The door closed behind us.
On the desk, Glade found copied pages from the journal Toothy found with translations. Amble tried to see if the professor had left any notes that would enable us to better translate the pages ourselves - no such luck. The pages we did see translated mentioned lots of things about pain, sorrow, souls and suffering - whiny bullshit, as far as I was concerned. Me and Felix found a journal from the professor.
The professor’s journal had a bunch of notes that looked as detailed as comrade Ambles, and also seemed to be designed to aid a person who may be forgetting what their goal was. Worryingly, some of the notes repeated themselves showing evidence of forgetfulness, which the professor’s further notes revealed he was aware of. The diarised notes mentioned; weird singing, seeing something at the window, hiding something far from the window, and the professor himself being hidden.
Some of my comrades heard a hummed tune near the window. I did not. Glade mentioned a dream where the Nira girl was singing near the window. Glade went to the window, but could not recognise Nira’s voice. The window was sealed shut.
I suggested it was a priority for us to find; the professor, what he was hiding, and then get out of this magically strange office and corridor space.
Tayz casted the Detect Magic spell to see if that would help our hunt. The pipe and glasses on the desk were revealed to be magical. Amble identified them as a Pipe of Remembrance and a pair of Eyes of the Eagle. The former could put on a magical smoke show of a person’s most heroic act. The latter - were like the pair round comrade Tayz’s head; they magically helped with seeing more clearly, but more so than regular, non-magical spectacles.
I showed interest in the Pipe of Remembrance. “I’ll have to try the pipe, and see what it feels was my most heroic feat. So many for it to pick from,” I announced to my comrades.
While I handled the pipe, my magically inclined comrades (which to be clear was all of them except me) went about seeing what magical spells they knew could best achieve our goal. Glade used a Divination spell, Tayz tried Divine Intervention from Horus. Divine powers provided us with the answer that something was hidden in the corridor.
We decided to go back out to the corridor, when Glade spoke for all of us.
“... who remembers why we are here?”
Tayz and Good Memory
I thought I must have been here to see Archie. Or maybe Glint was visiting? If it wasn’t for Tayz, who seemed much more clear headed than the rest of us, and comrade Amble’s notes; I would not be able to recount everything I previously have said. Apparently, according to comrade Tayz, I had a much clearer memory of why we came to see a person (professor Hemstock) only a few minutes before we decided to exit the office.
Tayz and Amble’s notes confirmed we definitely meant to find something secret in the corridor, so we headed out. Glade experimented with walking backwards out the far door. When she came back, she said the midway door didn’t have a symbol of the number ‘2’ on it anymore. But, for the rest of us, we could still see the symbol. So, I walked through the far door - regularly - and rejoined everyone by the midway door. I too could not see the symbol of the number ‘2’ anymore.
Midway Door on the Left ‘3’
Glade marked the door with a ‘3’. I marked it with my thumb’s nail, etching a ‘K’ for Kavel into the door.
When Glade opened the door, the office this time had no desk, but instead a large carpet on the floor. Same bookshelves and window though. Well, this is how the room appeared to me and Glade at the time. Everyone else saw a brick wall and couldn’t walk through like me and Glade. Fortunately they could hear us from the other side.
I decided to test the magic in play. From inside the office, I stuck my middle finger out at comrades Amble, Tayz and Felix, and flipped them the bird while they were stuck on the other side of the door. I asked them if they could see what I was doing. I could see them looking my way but seeing nothing. They responded they couldn’t see anything. Glade felt I was being childish. No, I was testing magic… and amusing myself.
Comrade Tayz did a loop of the corridor and was able to join Glade and I in the office with a carpet and no desk. Upon seeing I had my middle finger held up towards comrades Felix and Amble (and a smile on my face) Tayz joined in, but was unsure why we were holding our middle fingers up. Felix did a loop too, and then joined us in the office, office ‘3-K’. I felt sorry for comrade Amble, he was the only person now not realising he was being given the middle finger. But, he chose to not do the loop, he was keen to remain unaffected by whatever new circumstance had given way for us to enter a new office.
Felix and Office/Corridor Claustrophobia
Comrade Felix was not particularly impressed with the new office we found, he was getting disheartened that there didn’t seem to be a way out. He tried casting a Teleportation Circle in the corridor - not enough floor space. He was delighted to be back in the office though - not to investigate - but to lift the carpet and make room for his Teleportation Circle ritual.
Upon lifting the carpet and sweeping it to the side, the floor disassembled magically revealing a 20ft deep cube in the floor. There appeared to be a small rock at the bottom. Glade casted Freedom of Movement on comrade Tayz who volunteered to fly down and collect the object. At the bottom, crossbow bolts were triggered. My cleric comrade, now in the pit, evaded a bolt; whilst two other bolts smashed into his armour causing some percussive pain. The walls of the 20ft pit started to close in, and Tayz said he felt a magical pull wanting to keep him down there, but his wings and Glade’s movement spell saw to him escaping the pit with ease. Comrade Tayz joined us back on the regular floor as the pit shut below us. It was a stone that Tayz had found and he passed it through the office entrance back to Amble in the corridor, so our wizard friend could magically identify what the stone was.
Tayz and Glade went to this office’s window. Behind a curtain there was writing - in blood. Repeatedly the message ‘outside the window’ was written in a deteriorating handwriting. Kobold blood apparently.
Amble revealed that the stone was an Ioun Stone. Comrade Felix had an Ioun Stone that granted enhanced intelligence. The one we just found enhanced a person’s fortitude. However, there was a trade-off. You could not benefit from invisibility spells due to a curse on the item. Seemed like a reasonable trade to me, but then I care little about concealment because I am so strong.
We felt unsure about the Ioun stone as the hidden item of the professor. Glade wanted to do another loop and see if office door ‘4’ existed. We followed her lead.
Office on the Left at the Corridor’s Midpoint - Number ‘4’
This new office was similar again to the previous two, except no bookshelves and instead a chest of draws.
Glade opened the chest of draws and a powerful pepper powder greeted her face. Oooof. Must have hurt. Her earthy coloured face went red for a while. She found a small bag of coins inside. She put the coins back. I picked them up.
I decided to play investigator. I went up to the window. Maybe it was time to actually look out. But, the window was dirty, as if someone had intentionally dirtied it up so you couldn’t see out. There was no writing behind the curtains, however.
I took some herbs from comrade Amble, still in the corridor, and under his advice I plugged my ears with the herbs. Why? I was going to clean the window and have a look outside. Screw it. We were adventurers. Maybe it was time for us to just face what’s outside and see what we can do about it. Maybe blocked up ears will prevent further memory loss, too?
I cleaned a spot in the window and then looked out…
… I felt like my usual self, but I could feel a cold shiver in my body, as if I had been scared? Maybe horrified or disgusted at something? My comrades in the room all said it looked like I was horrified by something outside the window for a second, and then it seemed like I forgot all about it. We didn’t linger on what had happened though, because something dark began to block the window from the other side, and the light from the corridor reflected in the window began acting like a mirror. I could see the reflection of the corridor in the window now. But, strangely there was now a new door on the opposite side of the office, on the right of the corridor. But, only I could see this.
I told the others about the door and that something was behind the window. Among my magically proficient comrades, it was surprising that I was the magic detective that found a secret door - without using any strength, too! My talents are growing.
Tayz looked out the window gap I cleaned and saw the interior courtyard of the Academy. No dark object in his gaze.
Felix was not with us. I saw him through the open office door run down the corridor a few times and then eventually he entered the room.
“I found a way out!” Felix proclaimed. It turns out he could use the Dimension Door spell to get out to the normal, wider corridor of offices before we entered Professor Hemstock’s weird corridor of doors.
The dark thing had gone from the window. I too could now see the interior courtyard, and some ducks I recognised from a very early mission in the Dawnlands were waddling around.
The Door on the Right
Everyone went out into the corridor. I went up to the new door on the opposite wall of the office door, be it office door ‘4’ or ‘2’ from Amble’s perspective. As I opened the secret door, it was dark, and I revealed a 6ft by 10ft closet. My comrades seemed to be able to see the space. To them it looked like the wall had opened up. We saw in the far corner of the closet some crumpled papers.
My comrades stood outside the closet looking in, as I retrieved the crumpled paper. Before I stepped out of the closet, I realised I had time for one last magical experiment as my comrades looked at me from the corridor. I extended my middle finger at them, “you see this, right?” They did see me flipping them off. I was able to conclude the magic had faded from the area. I had also made myself laugh again.
Back in the corridor and by the office, Amble casted the Detect Thoughts spell and said there was a gathering, fleeting presence near the window of several creatures. The thoughts and presence disappeared soon after.
The papers I found were pages torn from the professor’s journal, further notes on the pages he was translating for Toothy. The image on one of the pages, Glade and Amble concluded, was a map.
We heard the ‘first’ door at the start of the corridor open. “You still here? Are you guys okay?” Travis was checking up on us.
Magical Reset
The office had now reset it seemed. The office had everything in it now; desk, chair, bookshelves, drawers and carpet. The office door had all the combined markings we made.
Travis showed us something he found. Professor Hemstock had left a will of sorts. He had left 200gp to be set aside for anyone researching matters in his notebook. A research grant it seemed.
We had failed in finding the professor, but at least we had found what he had hidden, and had a lead to follow. Hopefully this lead will help us and everyone remember what we had forgotten. And also, help the little girl called Nira.
Travis did not object to us taking things from what was a vacated office. So, Felix took the bag of 100gp from the drawers. Glade kept the key that Travis said would open the office door, which also looked quite mysterious. Amble took the Eyes of the Eagle, Tayz took the Ioun Stone and I took the Pipe of Remembrance.
We agreed to keep each other abreast of further investigations before we parted.
Advanced Battle Breathing Attained
Forgetting things and kind of knowing that I’ve forgotten things was not a nice feeling. I would be sad if I forgot about Nathalie. I was glad for the reminder of her and our bond that I could see simply by looking at my Damphenite bangle. It wouldn’t be long now until the new moon. So many questions about how exactly the transportation from the Dawnlands to the Damphenite Tangle would work. Soon I would find out. And soon, Archie and Mendal would discover if they would receive a free hamper from the Gilded Mirror that was intended for me and Nathalie.
I put all my thoughts - the ones I could remember! - to the side. It was time for breathing practice. Battlerage flying(/jumping) was exhausting. It was hard to control my breathing and remain in a battlerage while using my new flying skills outside of combat. I needed to get better at maintaining the state of battlerage breathing. This was Senpai Ghesh’s advice too!
And then, as if merely the required number of reps was attained - persistent battlerage came to me.
One Trip by Air to Fort Ettin Later…
“Seriously bro?! You did your strongman-flying all the way to the Fort and you aren’t exhausted?!” Asked my good bro, Kruger.
I smiled back at him, while I continued to maintain battlerage breathing with ease, as if I’ve always been able to do so, “bro! No lie. My battle breath control is so good now; I can maintain flight without exhaustion!”
“Those are some thicc-ass leg muscles bro!”
“I know. Just like an eagle, right?”
Kavel has reached level 15 and gained Persistent Rage. Combined with level 14’s Totemic ‘Eagle’ Attunement he can technically maintain flight(/jumping) outside of combat using only one use of Rage.