Thorkell needed a hand with dipping a pair of gauntlets into the hottest part of Death's Sea, and I had time (or at least, could *make* time) to help. An ideal match, I suppose. As I would expect of someone so practical, he had also called upon Zil (more Elementalists is almost never a bad idea, and doubly so when going to somewhere as Elementally charged as Death's Sea) and William (who worryingly insisted on introducing himself as "definitely not a horror"). This provides a combination of specialization and versatility which you would be hard to match in any other group.
Of course, I have to admit I wasn't fully prepared for this adventure, although I really would have thought I was; I had two creatures native to Death's Sea I could turn any of us into, and a grimoire chock full of a collection of spells that would make many librarians weep. I opted to leave Howler at home on this occasion; he hates the heat for one thing, and I worry about his ability to traverse the Sea safely, since he can't fly without magical assistance. Haze came along, although we spent a great deal of time separated (more on that later). I think he might be showing his age, a year ago I think he could've slipped past almost anything to get to me.
Thorkell had been digging around to find rumours of where the hottest point in Death's Sea might be, and had found evidence of an old Theran prison somewhere in the Sea. We decided that the sensible place to gather more information would Travar, as the closest major city that was friendly to us, and sure enough William was able to find some useful old captain's logs relating to resupplying the place. He got a good location. I memorized the book just in case we'd need it later.
Thorkell meanwhile had contracted "Some Like It Hot" once more to take us out to look for another island, this one being supposedly quite massive, which seems odd; you'd think something that large would be a known port. There was a lot of turbulence on the way out, but nothing too problematic. The crew were in good spirits (I think that may have been the amount of spirits that Thorkell provided them with; I think he might've forgotten that not everyone can handle as much liquor as a Troll).
We got to our destination point, and there was nothing to be seen, except for a very odd amount of corruption and an odd absolute lack of anything living. So, apart from all the things we found, nothing. Oh, and signs of... something? Off to the west. We went to investigate, and... well, I regret to say that I believe the entire crew were lost. Out of nowhere we passed through some sort of illusionary barrier and a scant few yards on the other side of it was a cliff, 2000 feet up over Death's Sea. The ship took serious damage and perhaps most importantly was losing altitude. Some of the crew seem to have lost their senses, for I remember seeing some of them jump off the side before I hit my head and lost consciousness.
When I woke up, I was in a cell being jabbed at by a guard who insisted that I go do something. Turns out that something was watch a man be thrown into a pit of stones and brutally destroyed by a Spirit that had the appearance of a large burning tree. I am not amused. Apparently this is a thing that happens every morning. A strange woman Named Theresa with no eyes and red glowing in her mouth comes to talk to me, and offers to help me get in touch with anyone I would like in other areas of the prison. Not long after, William speaks to me through her... sister? Apparently there is someone like her in each area. Also, I have none of my equipment, and none of my spell matrices are working, and Haze was gone, though I could sort of feel that he was alive somewhere.
I spend the week freezing and heating the bars of my cell to a point where I can break them. William couldn't find our weapons and apparently had a lot more freedom than I do, as well as making a friend of some ancient Elf where he is. Thorkell says he wishes he had a proper forge, but in the meanwhile he is making a bunch of makeshift weapons. Zil decides to gain favour with the farmers in his area by improving the quality of their farmland.
In the next week, I befriend the Spirit, which Zil sounds very interested in. I spend some time talking to it about the fact that the Scourge is largely ended and most of the horrors are gone. William finds some way to arrange for us to trade places without the guards noticing, thanks to some help from the Elf. Zill continues to impress the farmers so that they'll smuggle things around the prison for us, and Thorkell is delighted to have access to the kitchen (and fire) so that he can do some proper forging. Apparently the scraps of brittle metal I have are the best we've got, so those go to him.
William also figures out where our weapons and equipment are, and apparently that is down "the pit" which nobody ever comes back alive from. We aim to prove them wrong on that. There is access to this pit in each part of the prison, and on closer inspection it looks like an old well. We each arrange to drop down and recover our equipment, and as we finally get to see each other in person for the first time in weeks Thorkell is looking to see where something has dragged the box with our equipment off to and is jumped from the shadows by some strange horror. Whatever it is, we are surrounded in a field of its victims, twitching and moaning and crying in agony as they lie pinned in place, somehow not dead after who knows how long in this hole. The guards have much to answer for if they have made a deal with this thing.
The horror hurls a spike at Zil and pins him to the ground, but Thorkell is quick to respond and tears into it with his shivs. I am glad he is on our side as he carves this weird three-tailed, claw-legged thing open in seconds, before I can even begin to give anyone Mage Armour. Seconds later, Haze comes flying in, and I am pleased to be reunited with him. I can't wait to get back to Howler either.
We get our armour on, put on our thread items, and go back up top to have a discussion with the guards about the morality of operating a prison that punishes the descendants of criminals just for having been born in a prison. Zil wants to enlist the Arborean (that would be the extremely powerful Spirit in my part of the prison, which was nice enough to help me learn to speak both Fire and Wood Elemental), which is fine.
The guards suddenly decide that maybe making a bunch of Adepts angry by throwing them in prison and taking all their stuff was not the best decision they had ever made, and surrender. One of them suggests that we should join them in arbitrarily tormenting the prisoners here, and at long last I understand why I need formal hob-nailed boots built specially for kicking. Thorkell got to work out his frustration on a horror, I got to work mine out on a horror collaborator.
After Zil gives them a good talking-to, and William pitches in, a few of them decide that living on the mainland doesn't sound so bad and the guards "conveniently remember" that they have stone ships for just such an occasion. Thorkell builds a nice tall monument to Upandal on the top of the island so that the location is marked and no more airships need to crash into it to find the place, the Arborean agrees to help Thorkell dip his gloves in lava, and we go on our way. For the record: sailing on a stone ship through thick lava sucks. I don't recommend it. At all. At least it was a dry heat, but still everything gets hot. I feel bad for the people who didn't even have shoes when we left the prison. Hopefully the next batch get to leave the place by airship, because I don't think the trip would have been survivable for the folks from the prison without a couple of Elementalists (one of them Questing for Garlen) to keep them alive.
I think maybe I'll talk to the local Questors of Lochost about heading out there to have a little talk about why you DON'T LOCK PEOPLE UP FOR 400 YEARS JUST BECAUSE THEIR ANCESTORS DID SOMETHING. Actually, while I'm at it, maybe I should ask Vlolkir to take a look and see if the prison guards have any horror marks on them or anything. There was only the one (I was relieved to see that the suffering of all its victims ended when it died, which is *why* I assume there was only the one), but then again, the whole place was badly corrupted in the astral, so who knows.
So, long story short: there was a lot of interesting stuff to study. I'd like to see if that damnable whatever-it-is that broke our matrices can be disabled, someone should probably look into whatever is up with the women who have no eyes and you can talk through them to people on the other side, the great illusion that hides the place should be studied for the good of all Namegivers, and hopefully that can be mostly someone else's problem. Maybe I should let a scholar know about the place too. With all the weird stuff that nobody else has written 500 page studies on, I bet I'll be able to just read their reports in a year or two without having to spend the whole time in the middle of Death's Sea and learn all about all the interesting things out there! Personally, I have other things to learn (but really, that illusion would have been really helpful back when it was looking like the island might need to worry about scourge cult attacks).Statistics:Posted by Sharkforce — Sat Jul 17, 2021 6:59 am
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