Editing 11/17/2024 -- Operation Delve 6


Delve 6 – Haef 2nd, 715AR (11/17/24)

* We pick up in Widowstone Keep, the day after the battle with the devils. All of you have returned back to the Primordial Ring. However, it is different then you last remember it. The skies above are wreathed in red lightning. As it flashes, the world is tinted, brought into this reddish haze as shadows grow long, unwieldy and gnarled. As you look out beyond Widowstone Keep, it is this strange wasteland. Now, you’ve been to wastelands before and you’ve definitely seen the Primordial Ring at the edge of collapse, however, you watch now Kleshch as bits of rock float up into the air and then just… turn to ash, floating upward into the atmosphere. Leaving the world behind.
* Reports have come back to you, Zey, a routine scout team sent beyond Widowstone Keep– they too are turned to strange ash, melted away. It is like there is… complete and total collapse occurring. This is where we find all of you.
* Bee heads to see Lavatera. She heads to the prison, as you make your way there Helmuth is standing guard outside of it. Making sure he keeps a close watch. He looks to you. 
** “The wards are strong. However, we do not fully know their capabilities.”
*** Bee promises not to make any promises.
* You are allowed into a room, a chamber with layers upon layers of wards. As you make your way inside, you can see, chained up, a devil. Well and truly, infernal energy spreading throughout the chamber. Wings are bound. The blood storm witch looks at you with hateful eyes.
** “Hello.”
** “You did it in the end. That’s what matters.
** “It’s a spell that draws lightning to you. It shall empower you, make you stronger. Allow you to battle the darkness ahead. I believe you are talented enough, and you’re likely ready. It’s called– The Lightning Vortex. Maybe, maybe not, but I can tell you which parts to take.”
*** She begins to describe to you a spell, the incantations to recite. How to move the magic in order to draw lightning, specifically primordial lightning to you to empower yourself.
*** From everything you can tell, this is a spell meant to draw lightning.
** “I knew I was right to trust you, you carry yourself well. A true Storm Witch.”
** Bee thanks her and heads out, she lets Helmuth know what she learned. He advises against using it. Bee trusts him. She heads off to train something else.
* Angel wants to train with Radovan after session. Zey goes to train his Aether Realm. Seth goes to train, he wants to talk to the wolf afterwards. Kaelan heads to Rat Races.
* Spymaster: Upgrade Spy Network? 
** Probably not.
*** Two spies are set to Supply, one is set to Recovery
*** 1 Supply, 1 Recovery
* Quartermaster: BP into Time Acceleration
** +1 Morale
** How is Leadership feeling in general?
*** Nervous. No one has seen the Maiden since yesterday, she is in the room with the coffin. Helmuth is down to delve.
** What news of the Titans?
*** No news.
** Balek is still on the moon.
** Philip is……………………………………………
*** As you look into that, you get… hits from across the Cosmic Stack.
*** Seems like he is still alive.
* As all of you begin to descend downward, there are many traps and challenges that you still need to make your way around as they reset. Each of you lose stamina points equal to 5xPower Score per dungeon floor. 
* You reach a closed door, all of you who make it down.
* Seth transforms and checks the door for traps. It doesn’t appear to be trapped, per se, but the door is a bit warm.
** Seth shares this. 
** Kaelan has us step back. The door is still… Warm. Kaelan attempts to open the door. There are arches above, a swirling greenish energy. It seems to be primordial in a way.
* As you step into the next chamber, you feel your powers and energy be moved, transposed into the sides of this room, where as you enter you see are covered in the roots of the Primordial Tree. While you are on this level, you do not have access to any of your powers, nor the abilities of your items.
* As you open the next door and look past, ahead is a collapsed hall.Massive chunks of granite and marble fallen in on itself like it had been rumbled and sundered into nothingness. You are also able to see words carved into the ground in front of it.
* Angel speaks Dwarvish
** “Dark wings have crushed what was here, we have left this place. Nothing remains.”
* You could attempt to start moving it, but each bit of granite is wedged into this space. If you had tools… maybe you could start excavating this place and pulling out the collapsed hall. This seems to have been an intersection, or a junction, but it has collapsed.
* Bee checks out the roots of the tree. Looking at the roots (4), these seem to be branches off of the tap root. The original root of any tree. Judging by their size they are not as thick as the roots on the other floor. Some are tapered and ending. This seems like the last floor. This is where the tap root ends, or would have ended.
* Seth touches the root. All of you hear a scream. His skin is charred and burning. Bee is able to get Seth to the point of being roused from unconsciousness. Seth is down to 1HB. You remember, at this point, you do not have powers or abilities to stifle the flower of raw primordial magic.
* Kaelan feels around the words scratched into the floor. 6 Successes.
** As you check around, these words are scratched almost hastily. With 6 successes, these are not hastily. They are made to look hastily scratched. As you feel around the edges, there are flakes of material all around this ground. With another 6 successes, it is silver. Silver flecks. It is a pure metal, hard to corrupt. Lower form of mithril in a lot of ways. Fights against things that transform, that have been transformed.
* Bee and Seth stay behind. Everyone heads back up to get Kleshch, and the silver lantern from an earlier floor. 
* The lantern exudes light as it passes through the archways. It is unaffected by the power. Holding up the lantern and peering about, the rubble melts away. The lanterns light reveals the true path. You can get to the real level.
* Entering the southern most room– there are photo realistic beautifully done paintings on the walls. They depict, from right to left, the first is a man wreathed in a crown of flowers leading a group of people to the Primordial Ring, on a bridge made of rainbows. Another shows this same man whos orange tipped hair matches the color of the surrounding leaves, harvests crops from the land while battles rage in the distance, a third picture shows the man fighting against beast that swim in a great ocean, bubbling and boiling. Aboleths, you’ve seen them before. At least, when Zolona rose. And in other events. The final picture shows the same man, sitting on a throne, in a destroyed city as people cheer. Behind him grows the tree of Primordial magic. As you look upon this city, it bares a striking resemblance to Widowstone Keep. At least the core, the heart.
* The next room contains more beautiful paintings. The ground is not stone, but dirt. Flowers bloom here. There is a stone walkway across the dirt to a door in the other room. There are four more pictures. As you look at the flowers, they’re beautiful lotus-like flowers. They have five petals, yellowy white with pronounced stamen in the middle that give off a sweet smell. A beautiful perfume.
** The first painting, as you look, you see great hands reaching down from the sky, gigantic dwarfing the horizon. You can see the flower-wreathed man standing in a great field of flowers like these. The man reaches a hand toward the sky, as the Gods pass down what appears to be a black diamond. The next picture, the man is older now, he spills his blood into nine goblets and passes them to nine waiting lords and ladies. Most appear to be fey. Some of them are already drinking.  A figure, surrounded in swirling green fire points at Widowstone Keep, as the old king bows. The flowers on his head have not changed, though his hair has become white, in the final picture the man enters in the Sanctum. He is barring the doors as he carries three items in his arms. A pocket watch made of gold. The black diamond that came down from the sky. A golden key that shines like the sun. Behind him, others walk in a great line into the depths of the Primordial Ring. You recognize the bodies of some of these knights, and teh Darklings as well, and all other manner of creatures.
* Entering the next room, the door automatically closes behind us. You can see, here, there appears to be a great cylindrical tube on top of a great platform. The tube itself seems to give off an incredible amount of power and energy, Fidelis you feel your skin almost  vibrating here. At the front of this tube, there are stairs that lead up to a door. Right above the door, there is a glowing hexagonal gem placed into the tube. Here, you’re no longer sensing Primordial magic. Kaelan and Kelshch, you clearly detect high amounts of High magic instead. Otherwise, there is a door into the heart of this tube.
* Seth goes in. Without hesitation.
** 1D6 – 2
* As you enter inside, all of you feel this wave of power and energy extend out. Seth, you wobble for a second, and then as you all make your way forward… This terrible feeling starts to wash over all of you. It is… Fidelis, like your skin is being flayed from your body. No… it must be… significantly worse than that. All of you begin to double over. This isn’t like anything you’ve felt before. This… this is hellish. This is evil. This is the end. Seth, you enter into this space, you can see at the heart of this tube there is a great light. Energy, Primordial and pure being fed into this watch, a pocket watch that sits there. As you look… instinctively you know, what is happening here, it doesn’t feel like it is coming from the pocket watch itself– it’s coming from something else. As you take a step, you fall, as you realize your leg has been turned but to dust. As you cry out, you melt, Seth. Right in the middle of this tube. The rest of you, Angel, and Zey, you are right next to each other. And both of you are melting. What are your last moments like?
** Zey goes to grab Angels hand. Angel takes Zey’s hand, trying to pull him close– hold him together as he melts away.
* You clutch onto each other, but the tightness of your grasp… it does not save you. Both of you are the next ones to go, crushed by yourselves into dust. Fidelis, you watch as Kaelan and Bee ahead of you are beginning to fall into dust. 
** He prays. There are no Gods to save you now, Fidelis. There is nothing that can save you, as you pray and whisper, your lower jaw falls off your body. As it hits the ground, it evaporates. Within moments you do too. 
* Bee you turn around and see Kaelan is quickly gone. As you look down at your fingers, the stitching that once made you is becoming unraveled. As those pieces turn to ash, your body falls into chunks of meat. Hope dies. And so do you.
* Kleshch, you are strong. Stronger than most. Destiny’s fist as you are willing yourself together, but you see parts of your body are breaking. Kleshch makes a mad dash for the pocket watch, his legs turning to dust under him as he crawls. And crawls. And crawls. There is nothing here that can save you. There is nothing that anybody can do. This is the end. It is over. 
* In this moment, as your fingers turn but to ash, you continue hoping. Against hope. But darkness falls. There is nothing. It is eaten. Everything is gone. All that remains, is the silence. The terrible, awful silence. 
* And then.
* You all begin to blink.
* Seth, you’re standing in the location before the tube once again, you suck in a breath and feel yourself being remade? You remember everything, all of you remember everything, and you died. That is not up for debate. Whatever happened here was terrible, it was awful, and it happened. You are alive again. You look, Seth, and you can see that pocket watch is still there, still being fed with energy.
* The door opens, there is a ticker next to it. There is a period of time where the door automatically closes as a fail safe.
* We have been gone for 30 days.
* We find a lever to the north, Zey pulls it (3 Successes).
* You pull it, blink a few times, you might be fine. Seth, you hear a grinding sound. A door opened in the north. Entering the room, towards the middle, is a floating glass orb about 15-20 feet up. The ceiling is about  60 feet up. Otherwise there is a closed door. Heading within 5 feet of the door, you can see, Bee, that a light begins to glow from it. It pulses across you, and the glyph flashes red. Then, you watch as that glass orb turns into pure water and starts spewing water at a torrential pace into the room you’re in, Behind you, Fidelis, you hear the door close. Shut, and seal. The water is rising.
* He tries to pull the door off, with 8 successes it does not work. Given enough time and everyone goes 5 feet away, it will probably rescan.
* Seth puts his head into the orb. It momentarily provides reprieve. Zey gets in, and attempts to fire the water into the door. It doesn’t budge.
* Bee punches a hole through the door with Tre’dauthin. Kleshch grabs ahold of the door, bending it further. All of you are washed down, grabbing ahold of whatever raised parts of the floor there are. You then watch as the water starts to dissipate in the room.  Looking around, you all begin to take much needed breaths. Bee grabs Tre’dauthin.
* “Which one of you loves nature the most?”
** You watch as a raised platform partially elevates, maybe a foot or two from the ground.
** Seth steps onto a platform, a wall of energy wraps around and surrounds as the next door opens.
* Entering the next room, you hear “which one of you is most beloved by the common people?”
** Bee is nominated, and she hesitantly steps up. 
* The door closes once again behind. Which one of you has lived the easiest life?
** Zey is sort of nominated. The wall of energy rises. He gives a smile to Angel, who returns it nervously.
* “Which one of you should not be trusted with the world in their hands?”
** Angel instantly moves towards it. As does Fidelis.
* The door opens once more.
* “Which one of you is the most trustworthy?”
** Kaelan looks at Kleshch.
* As you enter into this space, the air here is different. It’s like… it’s heavier, Kaelan and Fidelis. The voice comes back. A platform wreathed in shadow rises with spikes that jut out from the sides horizontally.
** “Which one of you will sacrifice yourself?
** Fidelis begins moving towards it, Kaelan grabs him.
*** “You don’t have to do this.”
**** “Neither do you.”
**** “Make sure you get what we need. Save this Ring. Save all of the Rings.”
*** “I will not let you or the others down.”
**** “Life didn’t break me, so I won’t let Death break me either. I think we’ll have a nice, long conversation.”
** As you get on, you watch as the Dragonborn takes a moment, and Kaelan you watch as the shadow creeps up your leg. No pain. Just numbness. It goes up, and up, and up.. You let out one final breath. You’re gone.
* The door opens beyond, Fidelis. There is a lever here. It appears to go toward the door. Fidelis pulls it. As it falls, you hear the sound of many different doors opening. Those of you on the platforms feel the energy begin to dissipate. You gain the ability to move off of them. There is another sound coming from the previous room as well.
* There is an altar in the center, with Dwarvish writing on the side. Angel is nudged forward to read it.
** “I open only for dreams.”
* Bee grabs the gemstone, putting it onto the altar. It begins to glow. A secret door opens.
* You see a few things in this area. Firstly, growing out of roots that are all throughout this place, Kaelan, as you’ve been blinking looking around… you watch as your friends burst in. You don’t know how long it’s been. It feels like awhile.
* You see, at the center of this place, the base of the taproot, sitting in a pool of aether. Pure, blue, aether. Occasionally it sparks with white, pure, brilliant white. You see a ring of roots around. However, sitting intwined in these roots you see an individual, whitish hair that trails down into orange tips. A light smile, eyelids closed, laying up against the tree. 
* They are still asleep, grabbing onto the tree as though nothing.
* Angel, as you begin to step inside, you watch as eyes flick open. Quicker than you can see, you watch as this entity is in front of you summoning up a jet-black sword. Angel has 0 stamina. You are dead. Angel is beheaded. This entity begins to move upon you.
* “Termites eating at the root of thine tree. Sent by whom? I don’t know if it matters.”
** “Cosmic Stack is collapsing. We need help. From the tree.”
*** “You need help? You wake an ancient ground.”
* This powerful material god looks upon you, Kaelan.
** “Freedom. In what sense? Freedom of mind? Like the flowing of a brook? Freedom of the clouds in the sky? The freedom of words yet still be tied?”
*** “Most in vessels. The Dark Star given form.”
** “Dark Star you say. In what form?”
*** “Corrupted form of Ishin.”
** “You lie.”
*** “I do not.”
** “If your words are true, then all yet spirals like twisted vortexs upon raccus seas. Is this truth.”
** “Ye have been sent here? Or have you traveled upon your own volition?”
*** “We’ve been with a lot of people, uh… Helmuth– do you recognize that name?”
** “I see.. My old pupil. She yet dances in sunlight?”
*** “Who?”
** Elthrendil looks upon Fidelis. 
*** “T-The Maiden was… Um… has had a few problems lately, but is getting better.”
* “It’s fruit was said to cure any ailment, but the taste was bitter as regret. A healer once came to the tree, her heart heavy, and she did say great tree lend my thine fruit, that I might save mine dying. The tree replied take what you will but know this, for each cure the one shall bear the mark of suffering hence. They shall wish they died from their disease. Desperate, she fed it to her people. Their hearts hath grown heavy, whispers of despair.
* “Healing is rooted in kindness, not the thorns sting. Ye have sought remedies worse than the ailment, pain may mend what is broken but it leaves shadow. Would you trade one burden for another? One wrought with hate and suffering? What people hath encroached upon my sacred Sanctum. This I do wonder, and ask. Strange folk who stand here, at the heart of such great power and will. I have sensed you frolicing about. Heads amongst thorns, words amongst sinners, heart amongst mud. And yet, I do smell a perfumed breeze upon your personage.”
** You see, Elthrindil looks back.
* “You have brought a broken soul, a soul marred, twisted, eaten. A soul I yet perhaps know yet dare not speak. Have you brought the mother of Gunavar? I see. You know what hath become of entire Rings due to this one. And yet you have lead them here.”
** “They made a deal with a devil to try and help someone, and that is what they have been doing. Being a better person.”
*** “The parables' words ring truer still. The cut, was it misplaced? Or do they belong to the stones and the mud? For all shall return to the mud.”
* Elthrindil walks, producing a black rapier made of jet black metal once again. He pricks the side of the primordial tree. Seth, you watch as the sap drifts into the pool of aether. You watch as it hits, this glow begins to engulf the room. Within the pure aether the sap begins to take form, with it, Angel appears once again. Body still lays dead, but the Material God wades into the aether, gripping Angel, and pulling them out.
** “It has been centuries since these eyes last laid upon this soul, so fractured and broken by grief.”
** Angel remembers. Angel remembers fighting, you remember going to gatherings where Elthrindil was present. He was a force upon the Rings themselves. A close confidant of many High Gods. As were you.
*** “I’d like to think those fractures have healed, at least a little.”
** “Hm.. Perhaps. The marble, it is not pristine, but the cracks give it character. It is not the same when it is so pure, when it is given years, allowed to age. Mature. Ferment. Statues are like great wines, only in decades do they bare their true worth.”
*** Angel gives a genuine smile at that. Elthrindil gives a smile back.
** “Such a beam of light amongst the darkness of a past, shooting forward in future. Your eyes do focus on horizons. When we had last met, you not dared look back. Nor forward. You did not look. You were blind.”
*** “I was blinded by a lot. I’ve spent a lot of time looking back now. My eyes are on the horizon now.”
** He chuckles.
** “I see.”
*** “I don’t think I’ll ever stop fully looking back, but I won’t prevent it from letting me look forward.”
** “Good. The squirrels who only remember last winter tend to starve in the next one. The future is a field waiting for thine hand, tend it well. Tell me, what have you come here to sow? You have journeyed so far.”
*** “I want to sow hope. Brighter future. From what we found, speaking to my son, we may be able to divide the Titans from the Dark Star. There is a flower we were told was below here.”
** “Mm. I see… It would be true, then, that you seek Solandis.”
*** NOW PLAYING: WHERE TITANS BLOOM
** “The great powers of this tree have been dedicated to a great task for some time. Do you now say that this task is approaching? Is this the end of all things? The end of Light? The final melody?”
*** “I believe so, yes.”
** “Mm… I do sense it. It comes once again.”
* In a moment, all of you re-experience a terrible energy and pain. The world itself begins to melt. The rest of you also begin to feel the same, all starts to die. You scream. Even here, by the Primordial Tree, all starts to darken. Until, soon, there is nothing left. Once again, a spark. As you all blink and are returned in the spot that you left.
* “Ah. They quicken now. Hmm.. your memories, they have not been stained by such shadow before this day. Fascinating.”
* “Hm. The Hour. I thought you might have held it. I shaln’t pry it from you. Do not fret. The Phylactery keeps us safe, although I feel it power… that power does wane. The great creation, it maintains a firm hold. I shaln’t let it fail.”
* “I shall rise, but first I must check. And I must know. The Flower of Solandis, it must be tended to with great care. And even now I feel the Ring… it… splinters and shakes. It cries and wails. There must be triage. Mendings. Our Tree has bound itself to the Ring. Even now, it struggles like a head severed from body.”
* “Even still, I must check. Perhaps the rise must happen anyway. I believe they grow close. Follow if you wish. To know, truly.”
* Ahead of you is a great, black pyramid, beginning to float. Tendrils of energy mustering around it as it silently floats in this space. Primordial magic, high magic, even low magic fuels it as it shifts and turns. Behold.
* “What remakes your web each day. Our seamstress, our most dedicated spinner. It is glorious.”
* “She remakes you, for when the tide of the abyss comes, and the words of the High Gods push it back, this is the spark. This is the needle and the thread. And Aether the pattern. Hm. Do you understand my words? Do you know what we protect? Then you must then know, your powers, your actions, these disturbances. I do not believe they are soul cause. The way High Gods constructed our hovel… it is far too strong for such meager actions to start the chain reaction. This butterfly alone did not create the hurricane. However, I feel it. The winds come and they howl. The manifestation of the abyss. It comes forward. Hungry. It shall meet us very soon. Prepare yourselves. Reunion must happen, else there will just be dust. Bring your swords.”
* We go up and out of this place. High above Widowstone Keep. We look. Magion at the Mist Heart. He watches it closely. And he holds his breath, as he feeds emeralds into it, but yet it still wails. Outside, there is a warping. In front of the doors of Widowstone Keep, an entity emerges. Parts of it fade and dissipate, yet it still wills itself back together. In front of it, a flying group of arnyr drop dead. Why? Because they’re too damn loud. A woman, eye cracked and broken like shattered glass walks forward, the other half of the face covered– hair mangy and ratty. Clothes torn. Blood covering their person, as they stumble forward in the early morning hours. They look at the gates, and the powerful wards, and they put a finger to their lips. Shhhhh. They tell the doors to be silent, and their wards too. The doors are silent. And they fold in on themselves, as at this moment, alarms are attempted to be sounded on the walls but… those too are silenced. It is more forceful. Bursts of energy erupt from the hobgoblins. Their deaths are silent, they are not painless though. Even pain does not grant the right to speak. The right to make such horrible, dreadful noise. In this moment, as Khloe Radall begins to make her way inside Widowstone Keep…