The Dawn? (Blighted City 26)
| The Dawn? (Blighted City 26) | |
|---|---|
| Date | 3/7/25 |
| Storyteller | Dag |
| Tier | Legendary, Hard |
| Player Characters | Zeal, Kali, Cyrus Leyvald, Grist Vanafeld, Clam, Pomba Bright-Eyed |
| Rewards | 350 xp, 4000 platinum, Chain sword, spiked chain, shadowmist cape, twinning chains, robe of eyes, wand of hopeless night (4th rank), aeon stone (Black disc), scroll of seize soul (Rank 9) (Unlearnable), Scroll of hidden mind (rank 8), scroll of undermine reality (rank 8), scroll of warp mind (rank 7), scroll of eclipse burst (rank 7), black sapphire (turned into netherworld planar key) |
| Result | Success |
| Author | Zeal |
| Downtime | Varies, see "What to do about crystals" thread in Psychic Link |
Associates delve into the heart of Lancaster, finally sealing away the undead menace.
Log
First things first, the state of Lancaster at the time of the job must be addressed. Previously, there was a cloak of cold darkness permeating the palace grounds only. We warded the paths we conquered to corral the undead and stop them from escaping the city. This being the case, we were surprised to find not only the darkness cloaking the entire city, but undead roaming not just the whole city, but outside its walls as well. Worse, not only were the wards dispelled or destroyed, the darkness we could previously counteract with light magic now returned within a minute's time. Something big was happening, and if we didn't stop it soon it could easily grow to become a threat to all life. Thankfully we could all manage the darkness to some degree, otherwise this job would've been worse than it already was.
Next, the job itself. This job operated in three parts. Our first team would clear the outskirts of the palace of shadows, wraiths and the like to prevent them from interfering in the work of other teams. Our second team was to clear a path to the core of the palace for us, the third team. After an incident on team one's part that required us to delay everything by a day, the job was finally underway. Team one handled their affairs with two total losses, team two narrowly cleared the bridge with no losses, then came the time for us to breach the throne room. We had extensive preparations underway, especially on the part of Grist, Kali, and Cyrus. I made sure everyone who could use one had a silver salve, and though we were in an undead city, my abilities were focused on fiends due to the heavy presence of Velstrac within the palace. Darvakkas were also an issue as undead and not fiends, but they had always been sparse.
Inside the throne room, the throne was hardly noteworthy among the horrific scene laid out before us. The most notable presence was the massive portal to a dark place at the far end of the room, covered in what looked like grasping tentacles. People covered in what looked to be blood and some red crystals (Only identified later, when the darkness was finally gone) looked to be doing some sort of rituals about it. Caretakers, or summoners? It was unclear to us at the time. Even beyond the portal itself, iron bars could see seen. Captured, screaming souls lay beyond, people captured and kept to torture for all these years, no doubt. Near to the portal was some sort of amalgamation of bodies, blindfolded and possessing long, razor-sharp claws. A flayer or harvester, perhaps. To the other side of the crystal-adorned people was a massive raven made of shadows, possessing many eyes. Down at the mid point of the room, on some sort of elevated stage, were what looked like two flayed women conducting a chorus. Likely something twisted involving the screams of the tortured.
Finally, on pedestals and attached to chains along both walls of the chamber, were dark purple crystals. Inside these crystals were morbid scenes of people at the heights of their agony, trapped in that moment within. They looked to still be alive within, in some sort of stasis. Freeing them at that time would drop them back at our feet with broken limbs and whatever else was done to them at that time, but until we freed them they would be "fine" for a lack of a better descriptor. The crystals themselves seemed exceptionally resilient, I'd say as resilient as the best Sturdy Shields you can find in the market. Worse still, I couldn't assess exactly what, but there did appear to be a retaliatory property to it in some way if struck. Not a curse, but something physical, perhaps. If we freed these people, we would need to be careful about it.
Before we could save anyone though, we needed to put down these monsters. The bird was swift in approaching us, and as I struck it I learned quickly that it hated everything my blows delivered unto it. Holy entities and silver weapons were unsurprisingly effective against what turned out to be a Darvakka, but this was the first time I'd seen fire be so effective. Still, it was sturdy. It's screams were also exceptionally powerful, attempting to drain the life from you as it bore into your mind. Still, we brought it down rather quickly. As I moved to deal with the quick-moving corpse monster attempting to tear into my allies, the shadow bird seemed to resurrect from the ashes, like some sort of corrupted phoenix. This would not be as easy as we'd hoped, apparently.
At the very least, Grist's opening sunburst volley meant the crystal-adorned were on their knees from the start of the fight, and everything else was at least worn down to some degree. As we forced the corpse-monster to flee back to the portal, Kali's arrow loaded with some powerful magic led to every foe in that back area dropping dead in an instant, save for one of the crystal-adorned. It died unceremoniously some time afterwards. The bird similarly fled to the portal side, and as we approached the statues around the stage came to life. The four knightly statues possessed lances adorned in darkness, which they struck with or threw as much as they wished. Between the powerful impacts of these traps and the confusing powers of the conductors, things began to get dangerous very quickly. Clam died but was saved by Kali, with Cyrus dying, I believe three times in quick succession? Grist was doing his best to keep people alive, and we needed Kali and Cyrus to disable these statues unfortunately. I did my best to draw the attention of the conductors and the traps, but the traps prioritized whoever was closest at the time. So as Cyrus and Clam fell back, I tried to keep Kali healthy while taking what hits I could. Pomba also took what hits he could, but the conductors had a nasty trick for both of us.
Loathe as I am to admit it, something those freaks did led to both of us losing our minds. If not for a boon from Groetus, back when we faced the moon hags and returned a shard of the apocalypse moon to it, I would have been a danger to my own allies. Still, though I could still focus myself, I couldn't right myself well enough to protect my allies any further. We struck down one conductor, and Kali took out the other as she disabled the final trap. I hunted down the bird and made sure it stayed dead, then thankfully had the mindfulness to only knock out Pomba as he rushed me, rather than kill him.
As we gathered ourselves and prepared to leave, we first had to decide how to handle the portal. I was of no help at the time in that regard, and instead focused on collecting the trophy-like crystals to make sure nothing bad happened to the people inside. To my understanding of the events that followed, Kali took a black sapphire found among the room, held it in the portal to let it be drenched in the energies of the netherworld to create a planar key, then closed the portal. With this key, we would be able to go to the netherworld later and seek to free these captives from their prison. I dragged Pomba back with us, as the confusion lasted until we rested for the night unfortunately, and the darkness slowly lifted from Lancaster. Kali warded the throne room, but we still need to free the captives from the crystals and consecrate the place to be certain. Grist and I can consecrate it in the name of Iomedae, hopefully. Before we can do that however, he is needed for reviving our recent fallen. Once we are able to finish handling affairs here in Lancaster to make sure the problem does not return, I will provide another report.