AAR 8M Roots of the Present [Tuesday, Feb 1, 2022, Midnight UTC]

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ChrisDDickey
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Re: AAR 8M Roots of the Present [Tuesday, Feb 1, 2022, Midnight UTC]

Post by ChrisDDickey » Thu Feb 03, 2022 3:27 pm

From the journal of Truck, Windling Warrior

For a long time now I have been hearing reports from people who have traveled near the old shrine to Rashamon at Uzhok Pass (hex 46.12). They all agreed that something freaky was going on, but none of the travelers felt inclined to investigate the situation further. I felt that somebody really ought to look into the situation further. I asked  Calina Ravanqnerosicor to assemble some notes on the place. She did an amazing job and collected a huge amount of information. (Her complete report is filed with the Great Library of Throal in reference # (ref#)) Some of the more pertinent bits I repeat below. 

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Legendary Questor of Rashamon, Ardan Yan founded the Shrine at Uzhok Pass. , Ardan Yan was dedicated to the ideals of Rashamon; alliance, perseverance, endurance, royalty, and leadership.
Over time, grateful merchants made gifts to the questor in thanks, and the small shrine turned into a palisaded compound where travelers through Uzhok Pass could stop are find safety and refreshment on their journey. No one is quite certain which of the raiding bands of ork scorchers was responsible for the attack that destroyed the original shrine and killed the questor Ardan Yan, but there is some evidence to suggest that the Therans were not pleased with the increased traffic along the Via Caucavik. Rumors of murder persisted

After Ardan Yan’s death, a more permanent village with a larger shrine appears to have been built closer to the Coil, though the details could not be found in the records of the Great Library.  The records do indicate that the new town benefited from a discovery of mineral wealth in the nearby hills, including rich veins of True Earth (and the surrounding stone matrix) which were traded to the Therans before the Scourge.  The trade records are muddled by middlemen, but ultimately appear to benefit the Theran Houses most suspected of being behind the death of Ardan Yan and the destruction of the original shrine community.   What is clear is that the new town is not at the site of the old massacre at the original shrine location, which is up in the pass.  

It is interesting that the descriptions of the location of the original (destroyed) palisade and shrine appear to match the location of the impressive edifice seen in Uzhok Pass today, though there are no records of it being built before Throal sealed itself before the Scourge. The craftsmanship of the stone work of the new shrine is reported to be extraordinary, as is the central area which is now covered in polished smooth stone slabs.  There are so many questions about this edifice; who built it, how did they build it after Throal was sealed, how did it change with Rashamon’s ReNaming (if it was not actually constructed for Raggok in the first place), and so on. 

The primary structure of the new shrine is composed of a large rune inscribed stone arch approximately 150’ feet in height, with two plinths located on either side but only the remains of what is believed to have been a connecting top to the structure, which is broken off.  Wear patterns on the broken section described by a windling elementalist who flew up to inspect it indicate several hundred years of erosion, which would place the time of breaking near or soon after the ReNaming of Rashamon to Raggok during the Scourge.

Each plinth is in the shape of a stone rectangle with a footing that is approximately 20’ x 30’ in size.  The central area under the missing arch is a dark polished stone that is quite slick in the icy weather of the pass.  It forms a circle approximately 100 dwarven paces across and retains an unnatural polished look even given the extremes of mountain weather.  A Nethermancer reported “feeling” as though they were stepping into a very complex Bone Circle and left quickly since he reported feeling “watched”.  It is odd that there are no remains of the broken top to the arch reported where rubble would normally be expected to have fallen. There are reports that descriptions of the engravings vary depending upon the phases of the moon, and the presence or absence of moonlight. 

When taken, he screamed how he “would NEVER disturb the sacred territory of the Great One” before he died of a heart attack before he could be questioned further. There are disturbing rumors that Questors of Raggok go on a sort of Pilgrimage to the Pass after completing particular zealous acts of devotion to the passion of bitterness and betrayal.  One anecdote spoke of “sharing the essence of betrayal to the winds in the pass, so that the Great One can take word of our deeds to the “Font” or “Fountain” of Betrayal. 
************************************

We assembled a team, and we all read through Calina's research, then set out for the pass. We all immediately noticed that Calina seemed changed. She was jumpy. Nervous as a cat. We had not even gotten out of Bartertown before Calina announced that we were being watched by some unseen foe. Some of us thought that R'edtarian was also seeing things when he reported seeing strange tattoos on the back of Calina's neck that looked like the runes she had shown us the day before, but that were not there upon further examination, both visual and astral. The further we progressed, the stranger Caline became. Cats and Birds would stare at her, and then run away. At one point she pounced upon and killed a rat. She spent hours gazing at a single pebble.  Another time she started what appeared to be an unknown blood ritual with a tree that so unnerved us all that we stuck a bag over her head and tied her hands for a while so she could not complete it. Early in the journey she would cast wizard mark upon each of us every morning, but by the end not a single party member would allow her to cast that spell upon them. We were all at least 3/4 convinced that she was Horror Marked. We kept her under constant watch, and kept reassuring ourselves that her behaviour had never crossed the line from "weird" into "dangerous". 

At Clear Creek Crossing we learned that Elder Mirriem was reporting repeating visions of the settlement coming under vicious attacks from something formed of darkness. Mirriem is the last of her family with 2nd sight, and has been having the visions for more than 3 weeks now. 

The shrine of Upendal a half days journey from the shrine to Raggok was a holy site, and Calina's madness seemed to lift while she was inside the shrine. The Piliths were as described in Calina's briefing. Calina raved that the runes could only be read by combining the visible etchings, with the Astral etchings, and the etchings that were only visible by the light of the moon. As soon as the moon appeared, Calina said what she later told us was a word of opening (totally unpronounceable to me), and the shrine turned blue, and formed a gateway to another world. In a spew of fog, mist, and astral pollution  5 horrible squid-like creatures burst out, which we quickly slew, but not before taking some wounds. Somebody called the squid creatures Fugotenta. We fell back, and as Calina withdrew, the gate, while not closing, seemed to grow somewhat dorment, and no further creatures came out. We returned to the shrine of Upendal and rested and healed. 

When we approached the shrine, it seemed to react to Calina's presence, in that it glowed brighter and 4 figures appeared standing upon what appeared to be a huge tentacle. We could only see what appeared to be a portion of the tentacle, but it seemed  big enough for hundreds to stand upon. We were glad that there were only 4. Instantly Elisen charged forward and slew one of the Obedient. I also ran forward, but was unable to reach them as quickly as the mounted windling. Calina and Orlim held back outside the gateway to cast spells. R'edtarian at first held back with them, but eventually started to move up as well, a few dozen yards behind us. The Obedient shot tentacles at us, while the handmaiden did various mystic stuff and exchanged banter with Calina. 

I finally reached the Handmaiden, and hovered on the far side of her, where I could see her two remaining Obedient over her shoulder. She had at least a hundred eyes, giving her full vision all around herself. I laid into her, doing much damage, but while I managed to knock her down, I was not able to slay her in my first flurry of blows. She reached out and touched me, and I fell to the ground in agony. People tell me that she probably cast bone pudding upon me, which caused me a great many wounds (It might not have been the Bone Pudding spell, as I did not see the horror eating anything, and the Handmaiden did not seem at all messy to me, or at least until I hit it with my sword and mace several times). In addition to giving me many, many wounds (at the end of the battle my physician counted that I had 11 separate wounds upon me, but not all of them were from the Bone Pudding) she also cast Skin Shift upon me, which wracked my boneless body and rearranged my boneless features. It did a massive amount of damage, which combined with the damage I had already taken from various lesser attacks dropped me dead. 

I can't directly testify as to what happened next, but I awoke what my companions tell me was a short time later, and that they had chased the surviving Horrors away, and then poured my Healing Potion down my throat and Calina somehow used up the Corruption in the area to empower a massive Last Chance spell upon me, bringing me back from very, very, dead. The gateway was no longer open, and they tell me that it should not open again unless / until somebody utters a word of opening. However it seems that the Horrors and/or the Mad Passion Raggok is actively working on teaching that word and encouraging people (such as Calina did) to utter the word. So we must figure out how to lock the gate before they can arrange to have it opened again. 

I should note that I now look very different than I used to. Before I was quite a handsome Windling if I do say so myself. I am sad to report that now my features are somewhat irregular. One eye is distinctly higher than the other, and my nose is both off-center and crooked, my face and limbs have several visible scars. 

So about the shrine to Raggok. This still needs urgent attention, but it requires higher circle characters than us. It seems to be a huge source of ehrlgren crystals, possibly for the entire province. But I am unsure what can be done. A massive dispelling ritual might be useful, except that getting that many spellcasters near so many ehrlgren seems like a recipe for disaster. An Earth spirit we summoned said that the shrine continued "very deep" into the ground. I can see how someone could break off the above-ground portion of the shrine, but it seems like it would take at a minimum thousands of man-hours to affect any underground portions. Perhaps some questers of Jaspree and/or some Purifiers ought to be consulted.  Frankly, I think what might be needed is a portable volcano. I wonder if we might somehow convince a Dragon to take an interest in destroying the shrine?

sigfriedmcwild
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Re: AAR 8M Roots of the Present [Tuesday, Feb 1, 2022, Midnight UTC]

Post by sigfriedmcwild » Wed Feb 16, 2022 12:15 am

From the memoirs of Elisen of clan Adorjan, Haressa-tis and Lore Keeper

While in Throal, I heard that Truck (of the Deep Sevros clan, windling Warrior and Scholar) was looking for people to join them on a quest to cleanse a shrine to Raggok. It had been almost 3 very uneventful years since the trip to the Twilight Mountains to help Vralino find closure and I felt like I should do something before Jacint and I went completely soft (Teh and Isidoros were always soft and cuddly).

It turns out that Truck had enlisted Vralino's estranged parent, one Calina Ravanqnerosicor (elf Wizard) who had spent the last few weeks researching the shrine and its horrific history during the scourge. The group met in an establishment mostly catering to Orkish clientele called the Ghost Pepper Hurlg, despite my days of debauchery with Juniper, I preferred to wait outside in my comfortable home. The group also included Orlam Rolfson (human Elementalist) and R'edtarian (human Warrior and Weaponsmith).

Eventually we left, heading for the gates. Calina seemed to be short on sleep and nervous, while R'ed was talking about some weird runes which may have been similar to the ones Calina claimed were inscribed on the ruins of the shrine. Regardless, the runes bothered me and I felt like they could be connected to horror activity.

As we got on the road south towards Kampung Gajah, Calina seemed a bit more at ease although she and R'ed displayed some odd and concering behaviors. Things came to a head close to the town when Calina started performing some kind of rite near a tree. A ritual that did not seem to have any positive outcomes, so I knocked her out with a swift charge. Orlam then proceeded to try and undo whatever had been done, saying that the ritual was an attempt as seeding some kind of infection.

In the evening Truck and I went to the Cracked Barrel, an inn just outside town, to collect some information from the locals, while the others kept Calina out of the way. Other than discussion of some mining operation we didn't really find any new information over what research had dug up.

The second leg of the joureny, up into the mountains, was as eventful as the first, with R'ed and Calina continuing to act weirdly. If I sound unconcerned here it's just because I was confident the rest of us could take them down if necessary and constant paranoia has never helped. We reached an old shrine to Upandal which seemed to have some kind of astral construct protecting it. There both Calina and R'ed seemed to shake off their malaise.

The road soon turned into a field of bones, the remains of an army of undead mustered by the scourge Cultist that had attacked a few years prior, but we eventually got to our destination. Calina rushed in to examine the rune carvings before sun down while the rest of us stared at the frankly horrific ruins. Truck mentioned something about orks and bones, which I preferred to just not remember. As the moon rose, Calina shouted a word and then flying squids popped out of the sky and started attacking us. They weren't much of a challenge and we were soon rid of them.

Just in time for some betentacled figures walked out of a portal. Following the good old rules of thumb that "tentacles: bad", "portal: bad", tentacles and portal must have been doubly bad, maybe even bad and wrong? Badong? Regardless, we immediately engaged, I got rid of one of the figures while the lead one tore Truck apart, quite literally. Luckily for us after that they immediately left so we could proceed with emergency healing.

After the portal closed Calina seemed to be free of whatever influence was driving them. They mention something about forgetting "words" they had learnt from the runes, which seemed to be a wise course of action.

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