Patarm 21st, 21st Year After Shalraza
Diana awoke aboard one of the Solis ships, alive and well. A notion and a song in her head, she assembled the party via chaos-bats with some very unusual results. In the Saspish Observatory, the vast array of knowledge collected fro Abdul Alhazred's tomb and the recounting of Diana's ordeal with Nyarlathotep, spurred some heady and heavy conversation.
During the speculations and tentative planning, Eilessa realized one of her bast had at long last arrived. Like Tavishan,
The Doctor was waiting for Relic as he exited the observatory, mumbling about something else having been caught in the temporal snare along with the bast and himself. The machine-man had only to ask when a flying saucer overshadowed the city and a high-pitched voice shrieked via immense megaphones, "Surrender the Doc-tor, or be EX-TERM-INATED!"
Meanwhile, Caiphon spent his time on the song-laced paradise moon of Io (location of the Legacy) imparting what knowledge of star children, world trees, and cosmic prophecy he could to the leaders of the initiative.
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
170: Natural and Unnatural Worlds
Patarm 20th, 21st Year After Shalraza
Relic and Maven began the exhausting work of organizing the treasure-trove of eldritch knowledge kept within the burial chamber, while Christopher and the Doctor plunged into the Abyss to retrieve Gloriandel. It was a difficult journey, one which placed them deeper than any recorded text. The highking was fleeing for his life against the surging tide of corruption and darkness that was a (presumably) trapped Shub-Niggurath. Which Christopher's aid, the ancient elf narrowly entered the TARDIS before being ripped back into the chaos. The Doctor, in turn, just barely made it out before the Great Old One was able to breach the hull.
Back in the tomb, Gloriandel explained that Maven was a part of something Ythian and horrible in the ancient past, and that his use of the Elder Sign in the binding of his daughter was quite intentional and necessary. Relic insisted her piece was necessary and the elf eventually relented, though forced a promise from all present that - when the time came - Maven would be dealt with in whatever way necessary.
Perusing some of the forbidden literature, various theories were developed to try and utilize the vast store of information contained in the tomb, ideas like binding all the Yth to Maven and, thus, Creation. The others would need to be told of their successes, and with that the five split: Relic and Christopher off to seek the others, while Gloriandel, Maven, and the Doctor sought the lend their assistance in the construction of the Legacy (placing some of the most brilliant and talented minds in this universe and one other on the project).
Tyvis, Caiphon, Eilessa, and Narra escaped Xoth and the enraged Toben, who launched a nuclear strike against the city just a few minutes shy of incinerating the party. Once in space, the party was attacked by the Xothi Leviathan, but Narra was able to phase it out of time-space long enough to sever its spectral tether to the planet. When it returned, it thrashed and gulped like a fish out of water and flew with all haste back to the zombified orb. Eilessa and Narra were able to kickstart the Tesseract and make it to the Legacy base, while Caiphon and Tyvis met with the refugees of Barovia (and Helena Weylan had it out with Craius for "being difficult", and Chiela's budding relationship with Nelson seemed to grow.).
Diana found herself on the alien shores of Vhoorl, a throneworld of the Ythlords, and in the company of Nyarlathotep. He intended her to be the go-between of Yth and Life, but only in the capacity one would hire a mortician. She had different ideas, namely coexistence. When Nyarlathotep receded under the waves, Diana transformed herself into a Void-being, not so very different from a Yth, and followed. In such a form, she heard the endless voices of the aberrations as a kind of celestial music. Her unusual meeting ended with the intriguing notion Nyarlathotep may want to see creation spared. He even offered her a clue, or the hooks to an insidious and obvious trap, lyrics to a song called "Wrap your Troubles in Dreams".
Relic and Maven began the exhausting work of organizing the treasure-trove of eldritch knowledge kept within the burial chamber, while Christopher and the Doctor plunged into the Abyss to retrieve Gloriandel. It was a difficult journey, one which placed them deeper than any recorded text. The highking was fleeing for his life against the surging tide of corruption and darkness that was a (presumably) trapped Shub-Niggurath. Which Christopher's aid, the ancient elf narrowly entered the TARDIS before being ripped back into the chaos. The Doctor, in turn, just barely made it out before the Great Old One was able to breach the hull.
Back in the tomb, Gloriandel explained that Maven was a part of something Ythian and horrible in the ancient past, and that his use of the Elder Sign in the binding of his daughter was quite intentional and necessary. Relic insisted her piece was necessary and the elf eventually relented, though forced a promise from all present that - when the time came - Maven would be dealt with in whatever way necessary.
Perusing some of the forbidden literature, various theories were developed to try and utilize the vast store of information contained in the tomb, ideas like binding all the Yth to Maven and, thus, Creation. The others would need to be told of their successes, and with that the five split: Relic and Christopher off to seek the others, while Gloriandel, Maven, and the Doctor sought the lend their assistance in the construction of the Legacy (placing some of the most brilliant and talented minds in this universe and one other on the project).
-
Tyvis, Caiphon, Eilessa, and Narra escaped Xoth and the enraged Toben, who launched a nuclear strike against the city just a few minutes shy of incinerating the party. Once in space, the party was attacked by the Xothi Leviathan, but Narra was able to phase it out of time-space long enough to sever its spectral tether to the planet. When it returned, it thrashed and gulped like a fish out of water and flew with all haste back to the zombified orb. Eilessa and Narra were able to kickstart the Tesseract and make it to the Legacy base, while Caiphon and Tyvis met with the refugees of Barovia (and Helena Weylan had it out with Craius for "being difficult", and Chiela's budding relationship with Nelson seemed to grow.).
-
Diana found herself on the alien shores of Vhoorl, a throneworld of the Ythlords, and in the company of Nyarlathotep. He intended her to be the go-between of Yth and Life, but only in the capacity one would hire a mortician. She had different ideas, namely coexistence. When Nyarlathotep receded under the waves, Diana transformed herself into a Void-being, not so very different from a Yth, and followed. In such a form, she heard the endless voices of the aberrations as a kind of celestial music. Her unusual meeting ended with the intriguing notion Nyarlathotep may want to see creation spared. He even offered her a clue, or the hooks to an insidious and obvious trap, lyrics to a song called "Wrap your Troubles in Dreams".
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
169: Zombie, Zombie, Zooooooombie-bie-bie
Patarm 19th, 21st Year After Shalraza
Relic and Christopher befriended the shrouded stranger Maven, whose hieroglyphic face-plate told a sad story of unsanctioned love between a daughter of Highking Gloriandel and an elven caliph of Que'tesh. For disobeying her father (the specifics of which were undocumented), she was cursed to suffer eternal living death as a mummy. She didn't seem too upset, her mind addled and her memories foggy after thousands of years of solitude. Similarly, she couldn't say exactly how she ended up bound in a tomb sealed by portions of the Elder Sign.
Christopher was able to recover both pieces of the sonic screwdriver, and Relic and the Doctor were able to reassemble it. Using the screwdriver, the Doctor disarmed the remainder of the tomb's traps. Many precious tomes containing lore on the Yth and pieces of the Elder Sign were recovered. Even Maven's own bandages held a potent element of the sign as if chance, fate, or destiny were almost willing them to uncover the ancient and amicable protection.
The quartet ultimately found themselves standing before the final seal protecting Alhazred's burial chamber, a living expression of the Elder Sign using bound elder elementals ranging fire and water to slime and salt. Like the open rifts earlier, balance was key to unlocking the portal safely. Relic and Christopher used their considerable mechanical and arcane knowledge to draw out elementals two at a time, either combining them (and sending them back to their home plane in the cancellation) or slipping them back through the open rifts. Several elementals threatened to break free, however the automaton and the fledgling dragon god worked quite well in tandem.
Beyond, they found the sarcophagus of the learned Abdul Alhazred bathed in white fire, which Relic, Christopher, and the Doctor recognized instinctively as the Secret Fire, the fire of wisdom, knowledge, and understanding (a lasting expression from the positive Ethereal attuned closely with the Power of Creation). It was a rare phenomenon reserved for only the most scholarly and altruistic-- telling quite a revealing tale of the sorcerer who many wrote off as an insidious madman. His many shelves and chests overflowing with notes, journals, and other studies identified him a champion and defender of Creation. However, even his genius was overcome by the immensity of comprehending and combating the Yth. The defense of the worlds is more than any one set of shoulders, one mind, or one soul could ever bear. His curiosity became a duty became an obsession and, finally, pure insanity. However his research into ritual practices for summoning, binding, and commanding outsiders was truly unparalleled. Similarly, his work on deciphering the Elder Sign was more comprehensive than anything the four had ever seen (and the Doctor had seen a lot).
The Doctor recovered his TARDIS with the aid of the screwdriver and the four intended to depart. Unfortunately, Maven was unable to follow into the miraculous device, still bound by the unyielding curse. Relic, familiar with Gloriandel's return, Sent a plea to release the elf lord's unloved daughter. His response was short and stern, that he was busy, and through the highking's eyes Relic saw a nightmarish scene: Gloriandel was buried deep in the Abyss, deeper than any non-demon had ever dared to delve, and was fighting a potentially infinite horde from all directions as he struggled upward (perhaps related to his 'dealing' with Shub-Niggurath).
It was agreed the Doctor and Christopher would extract Gloriandel, while Relic and Maven would begin organizing Alhazred's materials. Hopefully Diana would be along soon...
Meanwhile, across the solar system, Tyvis, Narra, Eilessa, and Caiphon hovered above the radioactive planet of Xoth, a futuristic wasteland overrun with contagious zombies which had recently been conquered by Toben the Many. Desperate for the Blackheart in his possession, and with the shadow of the throneworlds stretching over Cadavera, the four determined the Xothi Leviathan was the best target for the Tesseract's rejuvenation beam. Little was known of the leviathans, but their well being could be intimately linked to the health of their planets.
Moving into 'optimum firing range', the hypercube unleashed its ray... with little affect. The planet-wide corruption was too strong, despite a small patch of the creature momentarily returning to a more natural tree-frog orange. The amphibious leviathan retaliated with a tongue lash so powerful it impaled the ship and quickly drew it down toward the fallout-crusted bay serving as its wading pond. Alarms blared, purification exhausts hissed, power cells flickered, and the internal equilibrium of the ship was lost. The party was thrown hard. Narra was nearly killed for the system shock, but managed to briefly phase the entire leviathan out of time-space.
The hypercube made an emergency landing on a nearby helipad and teleported just out of orbit, turning its restorative powers inward (the ETA of which remains uncertain). With Craius facilitating a drama playing out between the Waylans and all the native Barovians they hoped to take with them, the Xothi group was on their own.
Eilessa was able to sense the whereabouts of an Anubian artifact, what must have been the har'venoth, though pinpointing its location was no more specific than 'that building'. It happened to be the same building Caiphon sensed an immense kind of necromancy, suspecting the actual Toben could be inside. Not far, Narra felt the fragile and trembling psyches of survivors (some only children). It seemed their path was clear, as Tyvis's hawk-like eyes scanned for trouble.
Initially, the Many were oblivious, already distracted from the previous leviathan vs. vessel battle. The leviathan rematerializing in a loud splash and thunderous croark provided a second diversion. Unfortunately, zombies under a singular consciousness proved much more difficult to evade than masses of their mindless counterparts, and it was only minutes later the party was spotted. With the cries of millions, zombies swarmed, heaping and piling against the sides of the building, flooding the lower storeys, and threatening to kill them by leaping out the windows of much higher skyscrapers in crazed kamikaze fashion. As the party took to the air, stray shots from the mingled crowd's gun-toting corpses threatened to take them out.
Once on the roof of the target building, the party plunged through a skylight and inside a penthouse, hoping to extract the Blackheart and escape before the full zombie horde could reach them. Despite ice walls, couch barricades, and old fashioned locked doors, the Many could not be resisted. No sign of the Blackheart, either. The party broke through the floor and delved deeper into the infested building, a combination of Eilessa and Narra's auras the only things keeping a crowded hall of flesh-eaters at bay. There they confronted Toben in the body of a mangled, young gangbanger.
Eilessa appealed to Toben's sense of survival, but he refused to surrender his most prized possession, his partner, his love, for nothing. Toben was already a selfish and twisted being. The Blackheart's influence had only made it worse. And she did NOT want to be surrendered. Narra promised to respect the solidarity of his conquered planet, but still Toben was not satisfied. He wanted Loranna, too, which the party outright refused. Then he asked for the Wyld, for Cadavera, for one of the orphan worlds. He wanted the Many to grow beyond even his four plus billion. When threatened with annihilation by the Yth, Toben had a truly terrifying epiphany, enveloping Yth into the Many, which the goddess immediately regretted inspiring...
Caiphon decided to quickly change the subject by granting Toben the potential for a whole universe in the form of a star child, namely him, which alarmed the group, especially Narra. Eilessa had a vague notion he was misleading Toben when he summoned mirror images of himself, but had her doubts when all of them stepped into the undead crowd and offered their naked wrists. Toben also had his doubts, but the promise of his own universe was just too tempting not to take. He offered up his precious Blackheart, spurring a sudden and half-expected double cross. Narra and Eilessa destroyed Toben's avatar and snatched the heart, even as Caiphon rematerialized in the safety of their combined auras.
What followed was a howl of rage multiplied by the population of an entire planet, enough to deafen and disorient all within the claustrophobic hall as the whole world attacked.
And Diana was invited to dine with Nyarlathotep on the scenic shores of alien Vhoorl...
Relic and Christopher befriended the shrouded stranger Maven, whose hieroglyphic face-plate told a sad story of unsanctioned love between a daughter of Highking Gloriandel and an elven caliph of Que'tesh. For disobeying her father (the specifics of which were undocumented), she was cursed to suffer eternal living death as a mummy. She didn't seem too upset, her mind addled and her memories foggy after thousands of years of solitude. Similarly, she couldn't say exactly how she ended up bound in a tomb sealed by portions of the Elder Sign.
Christopher was able to recover both pieces of the sonic screwdriver, and Relic and the Doctor were able to reassemble it. Using the screwdriver, the Doctor disarmed the remainder of the tomb's traps. Many precious tomes containing lore on the Yth and pieces of the Elder Sign were recovered. Even Maven's own bandages held a potent element of the sign as if chance, fate, or destiny were almost willing them to uncover the ancient and amicable protection.
The quartet ultimately found themselves standing before the final seal protecting Alhazred's burial chamber, a living expression of the Elder Sign using bound elder elementals ranging fire and water to slime and salt. Like the open rifts earlier, balance was key to unlocking the portal safely. Relic and Christopher used their considerable mechanical and arcane knowledge to draw out elementals two at a time, either combining them (and sending them back to their home plane in the cancellation) or slipping them back through the open rifts. Several elementals threatened to break free, however the automaton and the fledgling dragon god worked quite well in tandem.
Beyond, they found the sarcophagus of the learned Abdul Alhazred bathed in white fire, which Relic, Christopher, and the Doctor recognized instinctively as the Secret Fire, the fire of wisdom, knowledge, and understanding (a lasting expression from the positive Ethereal attuned closely with the Power of Creation). It was a rare phenomenon reserved for only the most scholarly and altruistic-- telling quite a revealing tale of the sorcerer who many wrote off as an insidious madman. His many shelves and chests overflowing with notes, journals, and other studies identified him a champion and defender of Creation. However, even his genius was overcome by the immensity of comprehending and combating the Yth. The defense of the worlds is more than any one set of shoulders, one mind, or one soul could ever bear. His curiosity became a duty became an obsession and, finally, pure insanity. However his research into ritual practices for summoning, binding, and commanding outsiders was truly unparalleled. Similarly, his work on deciphering the Elder Sign was more comprehensive than anything the four had ever seen (and the Doctor had seen a lot).
The Doctor recovered his TARDIS with the aid of the screwdriver and the four intended to depart. Unfortunately, Maven was unable to follow into the miraculous device, still bound by the unyielding curse. Relic, familiar with Gloriandel's return, Sent a plea to release the elf lord's unloved daughter. His response was short and stern, that he was busy, and through the highking's eyes Relic saw a nightmarish scene: Gloriandel was buried deep in the Abyss, deeper than any non-demon had ever dared to delve, and was fighting a potentially infinite horde from all directions as he struggled upward (perhaps related to his 'dealing' with Shub-Niggurath).
It was agreed the Doctor and Christopher would extract Gloriandel, while Relic and Maven would begin organizing Alhazred's materials. Hopefully Diana would be along soon...
-
Meanwhile, across the solar system, Tyvis, Narra, Eilessa, and Caiphon hovered above the radioactive planet of Xoth, a futuristic wasteland overrun with contagious zombies which had recently been conquered by Toben the Many. Desperate for the Blackheart in his possession, and with the shadow of the throneworlds stretching over Cadavera, the four determined the Xothi Leviathan was the best target for the Tesseract's rejuvenation beam. Little was known of the leviathans, but their well being could be intimately linked to the health of their planets.
Moving into 'optimum firing range', the hypercube unleashed its ray... with little affect. The planet-wide corruption was too strong, despite a small patch of the creature momentarily returning to a more natural tree-frog orange. The amphibious leviathan retaliated with a tongue lash so powerful it impaled the ship and quickly drew it down toward the fallout-crusted bay serving as its wading pond. Alarms blared, purification exhausts hissed, power cells flickered, and the internal equilibrium of the ship was lost. The party was thrown hard. Narra was nearly killed for the system shock, but managed to briefly phase the entire leviathan out of time-space.
The hypercube made an emergency landing on a nearby helipad and teleported just out of orbit, turning its restorative powers inward (the ETA of which remains uncertain). With Craius facilitating a drama playing out between the Waylans and all the native Barovians they hoped to take with them, the Xothi group was on their own.
Eilessa was able to sense the whereabouts of an Anubian artifact, what must have been the har'venoth, though pinpointing its location was no more specific than 'that building'. It happened to be the same building Caiphon sensed an immense kind of necromancy, suspecting the actual Toben could be inside. Not far, Narra felt the fragile and trembling psyches of survivors (some only children). It seemed their path was clear, as Tyvis's hawk-like eyes scanned for trouble.
Initially, the Many were oblivious, already distracted from the previous leviathan vs. vessel battle. The leviathan rematerializing in a loud splash and thunderous croark provided a second diversion. Unfortunately, zombies under a singular consciousness proved much more difficult to evade than masses of their mindless counterparts, and it was only minutes later the party was spotted. With the cries of millions, zombies swarmed, heaping and piling against the sides of the building, flooding the lower storeys, and threatening to kill them by leaping out the windows of much higher skyscrapers in crazed kamikaze fashion. As the party took to the air, stray shots from the mingled crowd's gun-toting corpses threatened to take them out.
Once on the roof of the target building, the party plunged through a skylight and inside a penthouse, hoping to extract the Blackheart and escape before the full zombie horde could reach them. Despite ice walls, couch barricades, and old fashioned locked doors, the Many could not be resisted. No sign of the Blackheart, either. The party broke through the floor and delved deeper into the infested building, a combination of Eilessa and Narra's auras the only things keeping a crowded hall of flesh-eaters at bay. There they confronted Toben in the body of a mangled, young gangbanger.
Eilessa appealed to Toben's sense of survival, but he refused to surrender his most prized possession, his partner, his love, for nothing. Toben was already a selfish and twisted being. The Blackheart's influence had only made it worse. And she did NOT want to be surrendered. Narra promised to respect the solidarity of his conquered planet, but still Toben was not satisfied. He wanted Loranna, too, which the party outright refused. Then he asked for the Wyld, for Cadavera, for one of the orphan worlds. He wanted the Many to grow beyond even his four plus billion. When threatened with annihilation by the Yth, Toben had a truly terrifying epiphany, enveloping Yth into the Many, which the goddess immediately regretted inspiring...
Caiphon decided to quickly change the subject by granting Toben the potential for a whole universe in the form of a star child, namely him, which alarmed the group, especially Narra. Eilessa had a vague notion he was misleading Toben when he summoned mirror images of himself, but had her doubts when all of them stepped into the undead crowd and offered their naked wrists. Toben also had his doubts, but the promise of his own universe was just too tempting not to take. He offered up his precious Blackheart, spurring a sudden and half-expected double cross. Narra and Eilessa destroyed Toben's avatar and snatched the heart, even as Caiphon rematerialized in the safety of their combined auras.
What followed was a howl of rage multiplied by the population of an entire planet, enough to deafen and disorient all within the claustrophobic hall as the whole world attacked.
-
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
168: Strangeness During These, The Final Days
Liberace Strahd in an alternate universe. 'nuff said? The Yth are playing some dirty tricks, laying dimensional traps in key locations, seeking to confound progress made against them. As it stands, Cadavera has only a few short days, counted in hours, before the throneworlds of the invading Ythlords arrive and annihilate it. Real Strahd is quite adamant he'll survive and has bent every resource at his disposal toward aiding the party. Unfortunately, Narra wasn't having that, at least not until she could go with Tyvis, Eilessa, and Caiphon and supply a safer and more efficient means of approach. The Tesseract and Pyramid circle Xoth, the zombie apocalypse planet, where a corrupted Leviathan, Toben the Four Billion, a very uncooperative Blackheart, and whatever they cooked up as guardians have made a post-nuked planet their stronghold.
Meanwhile, The Doctor and one of Eilessa's Bast were found in brain cylinders installed in Alhazred's tomb. The former was freed and inhabited one of Relic's makeshift bots, helping the party overcome challenges and retrieve tomes. He'd apparently been looking for the same thing as the party, pieces of the Elder Sign, which he took to be a life-giving equation of such complexity it would confound even the Nestene Consciousness, something like a Yth which is wreaking havoc in his home universe. Along the way, he lost his sonic screwdriver and TARDIS, which he intimated was VERY bad if the wrong hands figured them out. With any luck, they're somewhere in the tomb... In fact, Christopher might have found a piece being examined by The Shrouded Man, some entity bound by Alhazred in the days he still breathed.
Creations front lines have been decimated. The remainder of the Gith fleet, the spirits, and the Primordials regroup now on the moon-base housing Legacy. The desert planet Garobus and the blood moon, Kali, have been destroyed.
And Diana's deep and cathartic mind-meld with the Bast led to her following Christopher Blackwing's wormy consciousness through tunnels in space-memory, somewhere dark in the Ethereal most likely, and vacate the cylinder... which caused the Voidpit to ripple... which might have accidentally summoned Nyarlathotep.
Objectives
Narra, Tyvis, Eilessa, Caiphon: Retrieve the Blackheart
Relic, Diana, Christopher: Reassemble the sonic screwdriver, reclaim the TARDIS, collect the pieces of the Elder Sign, and perhaps most importantly recover the rituals for binding djinn and angels (the more preferable means of collecting the Maelstrom and Heaven ships)
Meanwhile, The Doctor and one of Eilessa's Bast were found in brain cylinders installed in Alhazred's tomb. The former was freed and inhabited one of Relic's makeshift bots, helping the party overcome challenges and retrieve tomes. He'd apparently been looking for the same thing as the party, pieces of the Elder Sign, which he took to be a life-giving equation of such complexity it would confound even the Nestene Consciousness, something like a Yth which is wreaking havoc in his home universe. Along the way, he lost his sonic screwdriver and TARDIS, which he intimated was VERY bad if the wrong hands figured them out. With any luck, they're somewhere in the tomb... In fact, Christopher might have found a piece being examined by The Shrouded Man, some entity bound by Alhazred in the days he still breathed.
Creations front lines have been decimated. The remainder of the Gith fleet, the spirits, and the Primordials regroup now on the moon-base housing Legacy. The desert planet Garobus and the blood moon, Kali, have been destroyed.
And Diana's deep and cathartic mind-meld with the Bast led to her following Christopher Blackwing's wormy consciousness through tunnels in space-memory, somewhere dark in the Ethereal most likely, and vacate the cylinder... which caused the Voidpit to ripple... which might have accidentally summoned Nyarlathotep.
Objectives
Narra, Tyvis, Eilessa, Caiphon: Retrieve the Blackheart
Relic, Diana, Christopher: Reassemble the sonic screwdriver, reclaim the TARDIS, collect the pieces of the Elder Sign, and perhaps most importantly recover the rituals for binding djinn and angels (the more preferable means of collecting the Maelstrom and Heaven ships)
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