GM: Stras Acimovic
Players: Jeremiah Frye, Sean Nittner
System: Spell and Blade by Stras Acimovic
We had a duet adventure with Loddi and Skanya during our time passes, delving into the caves beneath the palace. Stras asked us what we wanted to do. We discussed a bit and decided to explore some cool thing of the Ancients, how about the caves under Rul. Cool cool cool. 15 minutes later and four pulls from a tarot deck and Stras had an adventure ready. Amazing.
Leads
Sekkara told Skanya and Loddi about the caves beneath the palace and gave us a rough map. There was a room that will fry you. Don’t go there. Some other dangerous places, but those had already been explored and looted. Her explorations downward stop at a place they called the Abyss.
From Sekkara’s account the Abyss was a massive cylindrical pit. Light sources they lowered went out. People lowered down on ropes passed out.
Skanya thought there might be less air in the pit. Who knows how, but the Ancients did strange things, so she talked to Draxo, who first told her the best thing would be to be born able to breath underwater like his brother. Short of that, he had a concoction roughly translated as “storm in your lungs” that would help her. Next time though, just be born Ancient Touched.
Skanya paid him the coin due, but also gave him some of the bark from the Wight Tree she found in the north as well, you know between fellow Iskani Alchemists. [The open secret is that Skanya isn’t an Alchemist and Draxo isn’t Iskani, so they both laugh about it instead]. Draxo said he would try to use it to help “heal bite” from people who were bitten and cursed by the undead. He did not like the undead. In that way we truly were fellows.
Other gear we assembled including lanterns, climbing kits, and three days of rations. Just in case.
The Abyss
It took us some time to find it, even with Sekkara’s map, but when we got to the abyss, Skanya was instantly nauseous. The hole was the size of a house, absorbed the light from our lanterns, and seemed to go forever.
At the edge of it Loddi could sense Unseen currents going in and out of the pit ruffling his feathers.
Through the Eye of Akta, Skanya could it goes down past the point of her vision, but but the side of it was inscribed with stars that glowed faintly through the Eye. They were beautiful. Eventually she also noticed shapes moving within the darkness. Island that raised, lowered, and rotated in patterns imperceptible to Skanya.
After a time one came very close to the lip of the cavern. With a rope tied to a piton on one end and Skanya on the other, she jumped down onto it. Loddi stood up top holding the rope just in case. She landed fine, but everything seemed a bit off. The air here was still. When the island moved she could tell it was moving with her eyes, but felt no motion. No centrifugal force. The Ancients! Skanya probably would have been sick but the Eye of Akta filtered out the worse of it.
She untied the rope and Loddi jumped down after her. The mechanism that raised and lowered islands was not visible, but they seemed to scan across the star sigils on the walls in specific distances, designating discreet “rings”.
Eventually the island lowered and our light began to dim further. Loddi used his glow sphere, which operated normally here, giving us an indication that this type of Ancient was similar to the Ancients we saw in the tower under the late.
After a time it dropped precipitously but we felt no lurch in our stomachs or pressure when it stopped. The only sensation we had was the thermal drafts detected by Loddi’s feathers. It went for ages. After a time it dropped again, then went up a bit, then down. Loddi faintly sensed the thermals going up just before it goes down, and vice versa.
The vertical floating islands occasionally passed by twin islands that rotated but did not raise or lower. On those levels there were alcoves with crystal that glowed as the rings beneath them were scanned. A very low frequency of light. Light we weren’t accustomed to.
After half an hour, the island stopped and parked for a time. When we thought it wasn’t going to go further down we looked and eventually found another island on a ring below. Loddi jumped down with Skanya behind him, and the next island eventually got us to the bottom.
There was a 20′ drop to the floor below with strange shapes and protrusions on the floor below. We tied a rope to the island and climbed down.
Below a room led to several hallways. The walls made of crystals.
Reflection
The crystals had reflections. Reflections that showed us as we are and reflections that showed us how we could be in different times and places. Some of them silly like a pudgy Skanya the baker with many children around her. Others were terrifying like Skanya with a rotted undead face or Loddi surrounded by only death and carnage.
There was something faint in the center of the room. A large crystal in the center glowed dimly. Loddi turned out the light and we saw a woman in the central crystal who looked like both of our mothers.
That felt very wrong to Skanya. “You’re not Skiva”
The reflection replied “No, not”
“Who are you?”
“You”
“How long have you been here?”
“Long.”
“What are you doing here? How long have you been here?”
“Been here, long.”
“What is this place?”
Thinks on it for a time. “This place is…doing?”
“Is there a core here?”
“There. Is. A. Core. Here.”
“Can you tell us how to find it?”
She shook her head sadly. “Been here long.”
Unlike the creature the Ancients put in the sarcophagus, this creature (if it was a creature) exhibited a normal range of emotions. So we continued to talk, but we were skeptical.
“Does this place have a name?”
“This place has a name.”
“What is the name of this place?”
The reflection shook her head sadly. “Some things you cannot answer”
“Those reflections?”
“Different versions, what you saw”
“Are you an Ancient?”
“ancient, not Ancient.”
Skanya was about to touch the crystal.
The reflection seemed surprised.
“I want to talk to you in dream. Is that possible?” Skanya asked.
“You dream.”
“No, but sometimes I can glimpse it.”
“No, it will not work.”
We thought she needed more words to communicate so Skanya told her the story of the ancient tower to teaches vocabular. She seemed to learn, but still her communication was fractured.
“This place here long time. I here here long time. This place long time. I, this place here long time. I make this place here long time.”
“Are you still making this place long time?”
The reflection nodded.
Skanya walked around the large crystal, trying to see it from all sides and attuned through they Eye of Akta [Attune, Crit]. She learned many things. This reflection had been trapped in this room for an eon. She’s was shunted here by the ancients. She wanted to get free and she needed a user to do it. We could be that user.
“If I touch this crystal and set you free. Where would you go, what would you do?”
“Not traveling. Can’t leave this structure. You stay here long.”
“This is a place to travel. To other places?”
The reflection nodded.
We started to leave and saw the Reflection look apprehensive. “We are going to go to another place. We might be gone for a long time.”
Loddi lit the glow orb and the reflection dimmed as we walked away. We went down a passage and approached a door that closed in on itself.
The Garden
We entered a golden field of wheat that is growing in the sun that isn’t here. Skanya collected a sheaf of wheat, bound it in thread and put it in her pack to examine later. She ran her hand through it and if felt incredible. It was warm here and this place felt idyllic in a way she had never encountered. Skanya ran through the field of wheat and it swayed around her like an ocean. By the time she made it to the center she was laughing and giddy like a small child.
There were no signs of the wheat growing, but there are insects. Fat bee-like creatures. In the center of the field was an artistically raggedly boxwood tree.
A big bee flew down to look at Skanya. It landed on her finger and studied her. Though cute it had a metallic sheen, like the hunter killers we found in the ancient tower before. It walked along on her finger for a time. She tried to lure it into a glass vial but it flew off and then an apple fell on her shoulder. Suddenly the tree above was an apply tree.
Loddi looked at the apple and it seemed like it was made by someone who had an idea of what an apple should be like. It looked like an apple but had no seeds on the inside. Skanya took a bite and it tasked like something. More peach than apple. We called it an Aapple. (Ancient Apple).
Beside the tree was a babbling brook that went nowhere. This was a place that wants to be what it thinks we want it to be.
The Core
Beside the tree was a large metal building. We approached and the door inverted and opened by closing in on itself. As we stepped forward it closed behind us and another door opened. Our ears popped a bit.
Go into the building. The door behind us closes. Then another opens in front of us. Ears pop.
In the center of the large room was an image of the tree, made of the same orange light that constructed the titan’s images.
There were many screens with images of different places. When Skanya played with them enough, eventually they change to other images, but she couldn’t figure out what motion caused the change or how to control it. She was fumbling around with technology she didn’t understand.
Loddi found another door that closes in on itself. Beyond was a large gate that look out to a location that isn’t there. We peered in and saw there was a core in that room.
Skanya approaches and was frozen mid-step. Frozen in time.
Loddi throws a lasso over her but it slows in time as well. Unsure what else to do he put on the symbiote suit, which happened without effort now that he was attuned it it.
His sense were momentarily overwhelmed. He saw the place is a wash with energy and energy flows all over. It was hard to hear because it sounded like people are talking behind him and all around.
He asked for aid as he pulled on the lasso. The suit helped in two ways. It gave him the extra friction to brace himself on the floor and turns off his ability to know if he’s hurting himself by straining too hard.
He pulled Skanya out and she fell to the ground alarmed. No time had passed for her at all. “What happened Loddi? Why did you lasso me? Did the suit take over?”
We studied the place for some time and Loddi finally said “Were not meant for this place”
Skanya countered “I think we might not understand what is happening or there may be properties of this we don’t understand.”.
“Yes, what I said. We’re not meant for this place.”
Treasures
Before leaving we looked around to see what we might be able to take back to Rul. We found two things
- A crimson crystal roll that was rounded on the top and bottom (pill shaped)
- A cup with gold pedals moving about inside it.
Going home
We went back to the lifts and waited, and waited, and waited. It was a day before the lift finally lowered. With grapnel and rope we made our way up to it. Our progress up was much slower and less predictable than our way down. We were stuck for a long time and even when we had made it quite a ways, the island began lowering.
We jumped onto a binar platform as the lift was lowering. The spinning platform passed by an alcove with crystals and we stepped in. It was also filled with cystals.
With help from Loddi and using her thieves picks, Skanya carefully removed one of the crystals. There was a noise perhaps. Some registry of it’s removal, somewhere inside this great mechanism.
Back on the binar Skanya studied the star formations and movement of the platforms in the dark (using the Eye of Akta) and after a long time she could see the patterns in the stars before they lifts arrive.
We scrambled out Scramble out and almost lost our gear when Skanya fell. She was hurt by the drop but like lightning Loddi dropped down with the rope to counter her fall and saved her.
On the lift we stopped and had a short meal. Skanya encouraged Loddi to fly out if the lift never took us to the top. He could come back and get her once he had more help, but he wouldn’t do it. We were sticking together.
Draxo and his wife
As we got to the top of the lift and Loddi flew us out one of the lifts began to twist and spin (it had never done that before). We ran!
In Rul we met with Draxo and his wife to to tell them of what we found, specifically a core! We showed them the objects and learned.
- The pill shaped rod is a Fire Killer. By drawing it over a fire the fire is erased. Reality rewritten.
- The windchime device took a day for them to research but it turned out to be a mask that would allow you to breath (hah, who needs to be reborn as an ancient touched!?!)
- The crystal. The crystal was bad news. Draxo’s wife studied it intently, runic figures appearing on her face and in her eyes. Then she pulled out a hammer and smashed it. “Your welcome.” she said. “It was bad reflection” Draxo followed up.
- She told us the Core required a key to open. She did not have it.
Some notes that Stras shared about inspiration.
- Thermal emotional bleed.
- Track fear, see killing intent, choke the panic out of someone.
