Talsil 18th
into the laboratory
Previously...
The next generation of Saviors plunged into Sodden Hold Laboratory, negotiating an unexpectedly devious drainage system before confronting the imperial guards: Sons and Daughters of Nor.
During a battle, the party found these zealots deeply troubled and rather suicidal in the defense of the empire’s holdings. Narra determined their brains had been tampered with, irrevocably reprogrammed to love the empire and its emperor.
Worse, some recognized these Sons and Daughters of Nor had at one time been opponents of Emperor Endymion’s rule. Was this the fate of all those who resisted, brainwashing and induction into the emperor’s crazed loyalists? Given how pivotal the movement was to Endymion’s rise, could it be he orchestrated the political unrest twenty years prior which eventually led to his crowning as sovereign? How?
More answers, and in turn more questions, were revealed when the party tracked down the despicable Doctor Hemmler, the laboratory’s presiding Nors ‘scientist’ and heartless torturer. Despite the psychic entity’s insistence on killing him for what he knew, Narra managed to fend off the crushing psionics long enough for the rest of the party to glean some crucial pieces of information...
For one, the psychic entity bearing down on them was Grand Inquisitor Huron himself, proven a terrible psychic who could animate lifeless material and summon forth tremendous telekinetic force.
Secondly, the distillery was an eldritch machine which drained the essence, soul and potential from a subject and concentrated it into a tincture. They’d been performing all manner of tests on the rabble in the cells (elves, northerners, choice unique creatures) and shipping their effusions to Noran, presumably at the emperor’s behest. Rumor had it Endymion was searching for very specific essences to combine into some mysterious elixir. Those who suffered distillation were erased from existence, left only dead husks.
Finally, the Sons and Daughters of Nor had been reeducated at Facility Beta, in a process that could not be reversed. Before Hemmler could reveal the location of this second facility, apparently separate from Facility Alpha where Narra had been trained, the Blue Angel's shield at last gave way and he was crushed, liquefied in truth.
The party pressed on, discovering a sensory deprivation chamber lined with psionic-amplifying glass... blue glass, like the oracle's warning prophecy to Gens. Avoid the blue glass, she had said. Instead Tyvis, Anita and he became trapped inside, even as boiling water from a chandelier-like pipe fixture on the ceiling started to spurt. Tyvis used glacial winds to freeze the nozzles, but it soon became a constant struggle to keep them properly stopped.
As Anita began to hyperventilate, unable to open the secret door they’d recognized across the octagonal span, the one the Grand Inquisitor must have taken to escape the chamber, Gens summoned forth his jade behemoth Fafnir from a figurine not unlike Neverba. The ancient lizard raged against its confinements at Gens’ urgings and blasted an exit with his maul-like tail.
Yet even as the party reunited in a rain of debris, Huron intervened, summoning forth vaguely humanoid shapes in the warm waters of the deprivation chamber, intent on prolonging the Archdruid’s stay...
Experience: 2640 each (60,810 total)
The Big Flush, 6000
Encounter E: Children of the Empire, 3600
Epically Defending Doctor Hemmler, 1200
Epically Escaping the Deprivation Chamber, 1200
RP bonus, 1200
Magic: n/a
Coin: n/a
Loot: n/a
New NPCs
Tarson Belicost (dead): A former Nors orator and outspoken opponent of the emperor who disappeared ten years ago, only to appear again in the hold, reprogrammed as a die-hard imperial loyal unto death to the government he once despised. In his last moments of life, he remembered who he was.
Melisana Belicost: Sister of Tarson and the financial backer of his speaking tours, once a prosperous business woman. Her merchant company went under eight years ago and she disappeared, appearing alongside her brother as another fanatic.
Bethany's Mother: A Norswoman whose mind has been so tampered with she equates the empire with her daughter Bethany, misplaced love and devotion which seems to have driven her mad.
Doctor Hemmler (dead): The prociding doctor of Sodden Hold, a sick and cowardly bastard, who knew much of the secrets of distillation and the facilities. The group managed to draw precious information from him before Tyvis ripped out his throat and Huron flattened him.
New Hooks
Facility Beta: Hemmler spoke of a second Nors facility, Beta, where people's thought patterns were irrevocably reprogrammed to love the empire and the emperor. It seems these poor souls were then released into the world as Sons and Daughters of Nor. Could there be a connection between Beta and the Imperial Gulag?
Essence: Hemmler revealed the distillation process crushed the subject's very soul, potential, and life force, liquefying it at a cost of their existence. It was then bottled and sent to Noran, presumably at the emperor's request. The essence contained power, he said, though the emperor was looking for a very particular kind of essence from very rare individuals to create a mysterious elixir. Who are these rare individuals? What does this elixir do?
Next Session
87a: The final confrontation looms between the despicable Grand Inquisitor Huron, DeWitt and whatever devils, psionic constructs and imperial troops might be with them, not least of all The Malbolgean. But first, saving Tyvis.
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