February 3rd, 2024
Terra, Ignis 27th, 1194 (Continued)
We discuss our next moves while waiting for our meeting with a Judge. Breen is the chaotic good goddess of heroes and dragons, so they may know about mythic powers. First, we investigate the demon kill squad.
Degraded ones are semi-intelligent bipedal mounts (often ridden by debauched ones) that have a perverse beauty. They constantly detect magic and have spell-like abilities of blur, mirror image, and teleport. They attack with their long tongue and are able to pounce. When they drop a creature with their tongue, they experience a bout of ecstasy. They are immune to electricity and poison, while being resistant to acid, cold, and fire.
Debauched ones are seductive and alluring with soft, flawless skin. They have an aura of sensuality, which lures people in (will vs fascination). They have spell-like abilities of charm person, confusion, enthrall, and suggestion. They have spell resistance, damage reduction: cold iron or good, and regeneration: good or silver. They are immune to electricity and poison, while being resistant to acid, cold, and fire.
Fiends of exalted excess are moderately intelligent human/reptile/scorpion hybrids with a subtle, alluring musk that makes them harder to hit in close combat. They constantly detect magic and have spell-like abilities of confusion, fear, irresistible dance, mirror image, and teleport. They have many attacks and the stinger can deliver a paralytic poison. They have spell resistance and damage reduction: cold iron and good. They are immune to electricity and poison, while being resistant to acid, cold, and fire.
Not much is known about the demon princes that normally lead these groups. They are known to have an aura that grants their allies “advantage” and have similar defensive capabilities of the rest, including spell resistance, damage reduction: cold iron and good, immunity to electricity and poison, resistance to acid, cold, and fire, and likely regeneration.
We head to the Order of Thought (Breen) and meet with Touch Seeker Kyle to learn about mythic power. He doesn’t know which elder god it was that the heroes fought, but he knows about the architects. Apparently Hoarse Blackstone had other monasteries across Moravia (Blackstone, Jasper, Vallyn) and gathered information about mythic power. Most theories treat it as a skill that must be honed and cultivated. Kyle doesn’t know of Stormrift. We then retire for the night.
Forte, Ignis 28th, 1194
In the early morning we are awoken by the sounds of a large crashing noise. Many guards are running around the city delivering information. Graynor is first to arrive on the scene via a detachment from Madri.
A giant monolith has appeared just outside of the city to the northeast and looks as if it has displaced a lot of earth. It has a repulsion effect that prevents most people from getting too close; Ralzer and Luna can’t approach closer than 200 ft, while the rest of us, plus Champion Valorian, can walk up to it.
The monolith has a very smooth finish and seems to be made of stone. Ty knocks on the stone and a human, an illithid, and a huge blue dragon corpse falls out of the stone. The human has coins that look like the ones that we found in the illithid lair. He also has some firearms too, along with other magical gear. When Sigmund touches it again, nothing happens.
Ty uses empty body and takes a look around. Everything appears as normal, but above the monolith, in the sky, is a hole of purple light about a mile wide.
Sigmund utters Kaajh’Kaalbh’s name, but nothing happens. Sigmund then uses speak with dead on the human corpse and finds out that his name is Lukas, an illithid killed him, and Falkirk is his hometown. Ralzer has not heard of Falkirk. We advise Valorian that he may want to find the most powerful mages he can to cast this spell on the illithid and dragon.
We then channel our mythic power into the monolith and are pulled inside it. Wherever we end up, it’s very cavernous. The walls are worked stone and there are very tall columns, all in unadorned marble. The lunar amulet does not function here.
We follow the hallway to a gigantic room. Between the pillars here are unadorned stone boxes, about 10 ft. by 10 ft. in size. We manage to open one of them and find inside a creature of vaguely humanoid shape. It has no features and is suspended in some kind of thick liquid; it does not appear to be alive.
There is a mural on the wall that is very reminiscent of Tolm’s star map. Was this a vessel using this as a navigational tool to arrive at our planet? Sigmund begins to copy it down as best as he can and it becomes apparent that Tolm was seeing just bits and pieces of this larger mural. His journal only has areas with dark stars present in them, but he did not have all of the areas with dark stars recorded.
We try all sorts of things to find more information about this mural. When mythic energy is focused in the center of the room, the stars illuminate. Nothing happens when Kaajh’Kaalbh’s name is uttered. We try many other methods, with nothing of note occurring.
While leaving, we take one of those strange bodies with us. We are able to use mythic energy to leave, just how we entered.
Upon exiting the monolith, we are escorted to a guard station and speak with Captain Lodekiller. He is accompanied by two Keyholders (priests of Adira, the goddess of magic), and they ask a lot of questions about what we saw and did inside the monolith. We don’t have much concrete information to provide. While we were inside the monolith, they were able to confirm that other monoliths appeared near Derth (28), Bremer (20), Silverdale (24), and Oakfield (11).
Afterwards we head to the Temple of Salvation to meet with Valorian and schedule a time to be present while the bodies are investigated.
A page delivers us a note from Nadal asking for our presence. We meet with him and he tells us that a few days ago the calendar has gone completely blank; it’s still magical, however. We then tell him our story about entering the monolith.