![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Chapter One // The Fires of Creation
The town of Torch in the country of Numeria had long enjoyed a singular claim to prosperity - a violet flame that burned atop Black Hill in the heart of the town, spewing purple light up into the sky. When the fires abruptly went out, everything changed.
Locals Silka, Alcyone, Novem, Aziza, and Ansgar learned that Alcyone's father figure, Khonnir Bane, had gone missing in the tunnels below the city. In those caves, they discovered an entire buried world - what they would later learn was a biodome of sorts from an alien spaceship, built to house an alien people called the Kasatha. They learned something of that alien homeworld from one of the creatures, Hetuath, an undead Kasatha leader who they helped find some final peace. Continuing on, they found themselves further inside the crashed remains of a giant spaceship, and finally rescued Khonnir.
They also met a member of the Technic League named Sanvil Trett, who betrayed them, and revealed that he wanted to maintain his monopoly over the town rather than have other Technic League agents come through.
Further investigating the underground spaceship and the strange purple haired woman rumored to be up to something down there - an android named Meyanda - the group met a woman named Kyontha, from Scrapwall. They uncovered some local thugs working with Meyanda, who had a strange generator that was beaming energy to Scrapwall. Kyontha revealed that Scrapwall was home of the leaders of the Lords of Rust, a gang who had risen to power quickly in Scrapwall.
The party confronted Meyanda in the spaceship wreck, where she identified Novem as a fellow "Son of Hellion" - or an android. She said that she was doing Hellion's divine work, and seemed to be messing with a massive fusion reactor on the ship, clearly the source of the purple 'Torch' that gave the city its name before. She was operating it beyond its protocols, using the power relay to send that energy to Scrapwall. Novem took down Meyanda and they realized the generator was about to blow, and possibly destroy the town with it. They managed to activate the failsafe and save the town, taking Meyanda into custody. Sanvil was killed by cockroaches as they escaped from the ship.
Chapter Two // Lords of Rust
After rezzing Sanvil, the town council asked the group to go to Scrapwall to investigate what Meyanda had been up to. She would say only that she served Hellion, and that he required the power from that site to rule this world and claim something of his that was buried deep below. The town's cleric, Joram, asked them to send a message to a woman he cared about who had been exiled to Scrapwall, fleeing the Technic League years before, named Dinvaya Lanalei.
On the way to Scrapwall, they passed a keep, where a few men claimed everyone had been struck down by a plague. The situation being suspicious, they busted in, and found that instead looters called Smilers had taken over the Keep. They took out the looters and rescued the Sarenites remaining, who said the Smilers were a gang from Scrapwall, scrambling for the respect of the new Lords of Rust. While there, they also put to rest the spirit of a paladin named Aldronard.
Making their way to Scrapwall, they found it a city literally made of scrap. They were greeted by Sevroth Slaid, leader of the Steel Hawks, who used to be the biggest gang in town before the Lords of Rust murdered their leader and installed the Smiler Birdfoot as their new commander. She asked the party to get rid of Birdfood so she could get her gang back. They agreed, and took Birdfood out, earning Slaid's appreciation.
Chapter Three // The Choking Tower
They put the robot's head on a pike in the arena, signed with their names and returned to Torch. Dinvaya sent them a package to give to Joram. Khonnir let them know that Meyanda had made a failed escape attempt and that more Technic League agents kept showing up, asking questions about what had happened and about Sanvil. They decided to continue protecting him anyway, despite Silka's protests.
Novem translated the prayer book and found a lot of information: Hellion had a sister figure, an android oracle called Casandalee. They had both worshipped Unity at one point until Hellion turned on Unity. He was trying to track her down because she knew all of Unity's defenses and weaknesses. Her flight had ended inside a buried fragment of the crashed starship Destiny, under the town of Iadenveigh, a town in southern Numeria known for being fanatically anti-technology, and surrounded by a large wall. They also learned that Hellion had been draining Torch's power to fill up the batteries of a giant drilling robot beneath Scrapwall that he intended to use to smash through Silvermount and reach Unity.
They discussed going to Starfall, where Silver Mount was, but Sanvil said he couldn't go there, as it was the Headquarters of the League. Either way, they decided that getting the info from Casandalee could help them make an educated decision about how to handle Unity.
They made it to Iadenveigh, where a carnival was happening celebrating death to all robots. They eventually met Redfang, one of the city's leaders, a man with red teeth. They talked to him about the strange 'ruins' nearby, but he wouldn't grant them the right to explore them until they'd earned the favor of the Dead Eye Council. They investigated a nearby farm, and found the owner had been killed by a yaoguai, which they killed. Redfang was impressed. They also helped him track down a Technic League spy in the town, a Varisian woman named Illarris Zeleshi. She revealed she worked for a Captain Ghartone and was there to investigate a large quantity of a mutagen causing agent in the area. She was imprisoned and the Council agreed to meet with them.
The Council revealed they had suspected a threat lurking in the ruins below the city, and they had sealed up a possible entrance. They granted them a precious relic used to combat machines, and also agreed to grant them Jevik's farm if they neutralized the threat.
Below the city lay another spaceship, where they found a recording of a man named Furcas Xoud searching for something - a man they recognized as an exiled Technic League member who was now a powerful wizard. He lived in a mysterious building called the Choking Tower, out in the woods. Further investigation led them to discover an android foundry on the ship, and strange malformed androids who feared something called "Dominion" that they thought would "take their minds".
They killed almost all of them, but found one android called Kaya, who was afraid of the other androids and believed they were still in space and didn't remember much else. They decided to bring her with them and investigated the rest of the ship, finding remnants of a war between androids and robots - robots who were asking to have the 'traitor Cassandalee' turned over to them. In a lab in the ship, they found an invisible being named Sahasho, who served Xoud and was waiting for him, presumably for a very very long time. He revealed that he was a creature from the plane of air who was bound by Xoud, and wished to be freed from him and go home. He said that Xoud had come there and found Casandalee's body, teleporting back to his tower and leaving him to guard the room. He said the robots were servants of Unity, who had come to seek her as well.
They reported their findings to the Council and set out for the Choking Tower. In the woods, they met a man named Finnoch and his bear Barbas, who lived out there and intended to 'take care of' the Tower. He agreed to help them out. They also met a giant butterfly like creature, a Star Monarch, and enlisted its help.
The tower was full of horrors, including Xoud's many experiments and more robots. Worst of all, however, was the ghost of Xoud himself, a powerful spectre who tormented them through the Tower's floors, along with its many booby traps. Eventually, Xoud's ghost even killed Finn. They left the tower and traveled to Ustalav to resurrect him.
Back at the Tower, they faced more robots and demons and elemental horrors and met a prisoner who was a Worm that Walks. The creature, Nargin, made a bargain with them for his freedom, offering to help them defeat Xoud. They found Casandalee's body, finally, along with a robotic thought harvester that had extracted her memories. They finally defeated Xoud's ghost and found his body - which had been ravaged by nanites, a defense mechanism inside Casandalee's body. They played back her memories and learned that she had fled Unity because it was evil, and that she recorded her knowledge about it on a neurocam which she had hid in a cave in a valley called the Scar of the Spider. She warned that Unity would seek world domination if it wasn't stopped.
Nargin took his leave of them to head to the Worldwound and returned to the star monarch, Longdreamer. She agreed to give them a ride to the Scar of the Spider.
Chapter Four // Valley of the Brain Collectors
In the entrance of the Valley, they found a giant annihilator robot that had been freshly taken down. A second set of robot tracks led into the Valley, as well as a set of humanoid prints. A cage was also destroyed from the robot, which has the remains of six Kellid barbarians in it, who had been scalped, their brains removed.
They met a figure named Mad Paetyr, a crazy man with a metal leg. He told them about the Scar being tainted with "Butchers" and that the "four-armed lady" blew up the robot they saw. He gave them some other info but they decided to follow the tracks to try to find the lady who could have done such a thing. They followed them to a cave, where a neh-thalggu (or 'brain collector') had been dismembered and made into a sort of scarecrow. They met the woman in question - a living breathing Kasatha named Isuma who spoke only Androffan (luckily Kaya could translate). She spoke of coming from a distant world, of her companions being taken and defiled by the Dominion. She explained those were several species of alien creatures that used flesh and brains as resources. She spoke of a sadistic brain creature named Maukui who wore a 'huge reptile' as his suit and tormented her. She had escaped from their vast organic ship that was heaped to the west. She said she was invited from her home by humans on a great ship called Divinity, but the ship was attacked by the Dominion of the Black. They learned that several other Kasatha had been kept as pets in a large habitat on the ship - the same one they had discovered beneath Torch. Isuma thanked the party for helping them find peace, at least.
She spoke of taking escape pods but waking as captives of the Dominion. She wanted only to destroy the bodies of her friends to prevent them being defiled and they agreed to help her. She suggested they find other allies in the valley and they went to explore.
In one cave, they found a weird robot that called itself Bynox the Builder, a servant of Unity. They managed to defeat it when it tried to take them captive. They made some allies in the form of a tiefling named Hyrsek searching for some Technic League agents and a group of androids who were trying to become human. They fought some horrible mi-go monsters in a cave of horrors.They found a crazy cleric carrying a black cylinder with a screaming brain in it who was held captive (named Maze) and brought him with. In a hideous showdown with the mi-go, Novem went haywire and killed Sanvil, and was then killed himself by Alcyone. They came across another wandering soul named Greene, a sorcerer who was chasing his student who ran off during a vision quest. They finally escaped the cave, and Hyrsek left them.
They decided to head for the big Dominion ship, which was as gross as they'd imagined x1000. They took to exploring this horrible organic dying jelly ship, running afoul of the Brain Collectors and an organic ship's mind called The Stars Whisper who explained that The Dominion of the Black created its kind to fuel their ships, and that they had pursued a ship here 9000 years ago. After defeating the shipmind, they headed back to the cave outside to find Sanvil's grave disturbed and his brain stolen. They followed the tracks and fought a giant annihilator robot that nearly killed them all. Isuma sacrificed herself to allow for them to escape with their lives. After resting, they returned and took it out, heading deeper into the cave where some monstrous cyber-spider creatures called ugothokra were being incubated. The monsters killed Kyontha and they destroyed the machine. After burying Kyontha, they met a Samsaran named Aa'ida, who agreed to go with them. Heading back into the cave, they found the brain repository, guarded by Isuma's former friends, now hosts of intellect devourers. They also met an intellect devourer called Maukui who was inhabiting the body of a void dragon. He offered to answer their questions in exchange for Casandalee's AI core, which had been stolen from him by Dweller-in-Dark-Places, leader of the hive, and they agreed to the deal. They fought through to where a kyton called the "Flayer" was doing experiments on Sanvil, and she was going to experiment on Alcyone next, but they offered to give her Kyontha's corpse in exchange for her back and Sanvil's brain. While going to retrieve it, they met a guy named Ric and his youthful ward, who went with them. The Flayer followed through on her deal, taking Kyontha's body and giving them Alcy & Sanvi's brain. They headed on and fought Dweller-in-Dark-Places and used a tentacle of it to teleport to the room where Casandalee's AI core was being held (and tortured). After fighting a dominion fossil golem, they freed her, taking the core. However, on their way out, they ran back into Maukui, who wanted the core, as promised. Not willing to do that, they prepared to fight him...
The town of Torch in the country of Numeria had long enjoyed a singular claim to prosperity - a violet flame that burned atop Black Hill in the heart of the town, spewing purple light up into the sky. When the fires abruptly went out, everything changed.
Locals Silka, Alcyone, Novem, Aziza, and Ansgar learned that Alcyone's father figure, Khonnir Bane, had gone missing in the tunnels below the city. In those caves, they discovered an entire buried world - what they would later learn was a biodome of sorts from an alien spaceship, built to house an alien people called the Kasatha. They learned something of that alien homeworld from one of the creatures, Hetuath, an undead Kasatha leader who they helped find some final peace. Continuing on, they found themselves further inside the crashed remains of a giant spaceship, and finally rescued Khonnir.
They also met a member of the Technic League named Sanvil Trett, who betrayed them, and revealed that he wanted to maintain his monopoly over the town rather than have other Technic League agents come through.
Further investigating the underground spaceship and the strange purple haired woman rumored to be up to something down there - an android named Meyanda - the group met a woman named Kyontha, from Scrapwall. They uncovered some local thugs working with Meyanda, who had a strange generator that was beaming energy to Scrapwall. Kyontha revealed that Scrapwall was home of the leaders of the Lords of Rust, a gang who had risen to power quickly in Scrapwall.
The party confronted Meyanda in the spaceship wreck, where she identified Novem as a fellow "Son of Hellion" - or an android. She said that she was doing Hellion's divine work, and seemed to be messing with a massive fusion reactor on the ship, clearly the source of the purple 'Torch' that gave the city its name before. She was operating it beyond its protocols, using the power relay to send that energy to Scrapwall. Novem took down Meyanda and they realized the generator was about to blow, and possibly destroy the town with it. They managed to activate the failsafe and save the town, taking Meyanda into custody. Sanvil was killed by cockroaches as they escaped from the ship.
Chapter Two // Lords of Rust
After rezzing Sanvil, the town council asked the group to go to Scrapwall to investigate what Meyanda had been up to. She would say only that she served Hellion, and that he required the power from that site to rule this world and claim something of his that was buried deep below. The town's cleric, Joram, asked them to send a message to a woman he cared about who had been exiled to Scrapwall, fleeing the Technic League years before, named Dinvaya Lanalei.
On the way to Scrapwall, they passed a keep, where a few men claimed everyone had been struck down by a plague. The situation being suspicious, they busted in, and found that instead looters called Smilers had taken over the Keep. They took out the looters and rescued the Sarenites remaining, who said the Smilers were a gang from Scrapwall, scrambling for the respect of the new Lords of Rust. While there, they also put to rest the spirit of a paladin named Aldronard.
Making their way to Scrapwall, they found it a city literally made of scrap. They were greeted by Sevroth Slaid, leader of the Steel Hawks, who used to be the biggest gang in town before the Lords of Rust murdered their leader and installed the Smiler Birdfoot as their new commander. She asked the party to get rid of Birdfood so she could get her gang back. They agreed, and took Birdfood out, earning Slaid's appreciation.
They also received a message from Dinvaya to meet them at a place called the Clockwork Chapel, a chapel of Brigh. The half elf cleric greeted them and they gave her Joram's message. She told them what she knew about the Lords of Rust and the situation in town, including that Hellion only appeared on monitors, as a demon/devil. She advised them to build up their reputation or 'Scrapworth' in town to get the attention of the Lords of Rust and get invited to their arena. She also informed them that Hellion was supposedly building a powerful weapon from something beneath the arena.
They challenged local gangs, including the leader of the Smilers, a hobgoblin named Marrow, allied with the Ratfolk, investigated some haunted areas, killed a manticore, and more. Finally, they received a summons to the arena where they fought Lord of Rust Hellskarg and defeated her. They were offered to join the Lords and led down to a temple where they saw Hellion on a screen. Part of the initiation involved being tested for EVIL and they failed, which led them to fighting their way through the temple, but Aziza died and the party was almost wiped out.
They returned to the Chapel where Dinvaya helped heal them and convinced her to join them in fighting Hellion. They snuck back into the temple and investigated, finding a prayer book for Hellion's cult and fighting more Lords of Rust. One of them, Zagmaander, offered his help to defeat Hellion if they could help him return to his horrible murder plane, as he was cursed to be bound to this realm and racked with eternal pain. Dinvaya broke his curse and Zagmaander told them where to find Hellion and went with them. They found a giant mural showing Hellion smashing a spiky mountain - Numeria's Silver Mount - to rubble, and an even greater demonic shape within the mountain.
Chapter Three // The Choking Tower
They put the robot's head on a pike in the arena, signed with their names and returned to Torch. Dinvaya sent them a package to give to Joram. Khonnir let them know that Meyanda had made a failed escape attempt and that more Technic League agents kept showing up, asking questions about what had happened and about Sanvil. They decided to continue protecting him anyway, despite Silka's protests.
Novem translated the prayer book and found a lot of information: Hellion had a sister figure, an android oracle called Casandalee. They had both worshipped Unity at one point until Hellion turned on Unity. He was trying to track her down because she knew all of Unity's defenses and weaknesses. Her flight had ended inside a buried fragment of the crashed starship Destiny, under the town of Iadenveigh, a town in southern Numeria known for being fanatically anti-technology, and surrounded by a large wall. They also learned that Hellion had been draining Torch's power to fill up the batteries of a giant drilling robot beneath Scrapwall that he intended to use to smash through Silvermount and reach Unity.
They discussed going to Starfall, where Silver Mount was, but Sanvil said he couldn't go there, as it was the Headquarters of the League. Either way, they decided that getting the info from Casandalee could help them make an educated decision about how to handle Unity.
They made it to Iadenveigh, where a carnival was happening celebrating death to all robots. They eventually met Redfang, one of the city's leaders, a man with red teeth. They talked to him about the strange 'ruins' nearby, but he wouldn't grant them the right to explore them until they'd earned the favor of the Dead Eye Council. They investigated a nearby farm, and found the owner had been killed by a yaoguai, which they killed. Redfang was impressed. They also helped him track down a Technic League spy in the town, a Varisian woman named Illarris Zeleshi. She revealed she worked for a Captain Ghartone and was there to investigate a large quantity of a mutagen causing agent in the area. She was imprisoned and the Council agreed to meet with them.
The Council revealed they had suspected a threat lurking in the ruins below the city, and they had sealed up a possible entrance. They granted them a precious relic used to combat machines, and also agreed to grant them Jevik's farm if they neutralized the threat.
Below the city lay another spaceship, where they found a recording of a man named Furcas Xoud searching for something - a man they recognized as an exiled Technic League member who was now a powerful wizard. He lived in a mysterious building called the Choking Tower, out in the woods. Further investigation led them to discover an android foundry on the ship, and strange malformed androids who feared something called "Dominion" that they thought would "take their minds".
They killed almost all of them, but found one android called Kaya, who was afraid of the other androids and believed they were still in space and didn't remember much else. They decided to bring her with them and investigated the rest of the ship, finding remnants of a war between androids and robots - robots who were asking to have the 'traitor Cassandalee' turned over to them. In a lab in the ship, they found an invisible being named Sahasho, who served Xoud and was waiting for him, presumably for a very very long time. He revealed that he was a creature from the plane of air who was bound by Xoud, and wished to be freed from him and go home. He said that Xoud had come there and found Casandalee's body, teleporting back to his tower and leaving him to guard the room. He said the robots were servants of Unity, who had come to seek her as well.
They reported their findings to the Council and set out for the Choking Tower. In the woods, they met a man named Finnoch and his bear Barbas, who lived out there and intended to 'take care of' the Tower. He agreed to help them out. They also met a giant butterfly like creature, a Star Monarch, and enlisted its help.
The tower was full of horrors, including Xoud's many experiments and more robots. Worst of all, however, was the ghost of Xoud himself, a powerful spectre who tormented them through the Tower's floors, along with its many booby traps. Eventually, Xoud's ghost even killed Finn. They left the tower and traveled to Ustalav to resurrect him.
Back at the Tower, they faced more robots and demons and elemental horrors and met a prisoner who was a Worm that Walks. The creature, Nargin, made a bargain with them for his freedom, offering to help them defeat Xoud. They found Casandalee's body, finally, along with a robotic thought harvester that had extracted her memories. They finally defeated Xoud's ghost and found his body - which had been ravaged by nanites, a defense mechanism inside Casandalee's body. They played back her memories and learned that she had fled Unity because it was evil, and that she recorded her knowledge about it on a neurocam which she had hid in a cave in a valley called the Scar of the Spider. She warned that Unity would seek world domination if it wasn't stopped.
Nargin took his leave of them to head to the Worldwound and returned to the star monarch, Longdreamer. She agreed to give them a ride to the Scar of the Spider.
Chapter Four // Valley of the Brain Collectors
In the entrance of the Valley, they found a giant annihilator robot that had been freshly taken down. A second set of robot tracks led into the Valley, as well as a set of humanoid prints. A cage was also destroyed from the robot, which has the remains of six Kellid barbarians in it, who had been scalped, their brains removed.
They met a figure named Mad Paetyr, a crazy man with a metal leg. He told them about the Scar being tainted with "Butchers" and that the "four-armed lady" blew up the robot they saw. He gave them some other info but they decided to follow the tracks to try to find the lady who could have done such a thing. They followed them to a cave, where a neh-thalggu (or 'brain collector') had been dismembered and made into a sort of scarecrow. They met the woman in question - a living breathing Kasatha named Isuma who spoke only Androffan (luckily Kaya could translate). She spoke of coming from a distant world, of her companions being taken and defiled by the Dominion. She explained those were several species of alien creatures that used flesh and brains as resources. She spoke of a sadistic brain creature named Maukui who wore a 'huge reptile' as his suit and tormented her. She had escaped from their vast organic ship that was heaped to the west. She said she was invited from her home by humans on a great ship called Divinity, but the ship was attacked by the Dominion of the Black. They learned that several other Kasatha had been kept as pets in a large habitat on the ship - the same one they had discovered beneath Torch. Isuma thanked the party for helping them find peace, at least.
She spoke of taking escape pods but waking as captives of the Dominion. She wanted only to destroy the bodies of her friends to prevent them being defiled and they agreed to help her. She suggested they find other allies in the valley and they went to explore.
In one cave, they found a weird robot that called itself Bynox the Builder, a servant of Unity. They managed to defeat it when it tried to take them captive. They made some allies in the form of a tiefling named Hyrsek searching for some Technic League agents and a group of androids who were trying to become human. They fought some horrible mi-go monsters in a cave of horrors.They found a crazy cleric carrying a black cylinder with a screaming brain in it who was held captive (named Maze) and brought him with. In a hideous showdown with the mi-go, Novem went haywire and killed Sanvil, and was then killed himself by Alcyone. They came across another wandering soul named Greene, a sorcerer who was chasing his student who ran off during a vision quest. They finally escaped the cave, and Hyrsek left them.
They decided to head for the big Dominion ship, which was as gross as they'd imagined x1000. They took to exploring this horrible organic dying jelly ship, running afoul of the Brain Collectors and an organic ship's mind called The Stars Whisper who explained that The Dominion of the Black created its kind to fuel their ships, and that they had pursued a ship here 9000 years ago. After defeating the shipmind, they headed back to the cave outside to find Sanvil's grave disturbed and his brain stolen. They followed the tracks and fought a giant annihilator robot that nearly killed them all. Isuma sacrificed herself to allow for them to escape with their lives. After resting, they returned and took it out, heading deeper into the cave where some monstrous cyber-spider creatures called ugothokra were being incubated. The monsters killed Kyontha and they destroyed the machine. After burying Kyontha, they met a Samsaran named Aa'ida, who agreed to go with them. Heading back into the cave, they found the brain repository, guarded by Isuma's former friends, now hosts of intellect devourers. They also met an intellect devourer called Maukui who was inhabiting the body of a void dragon. He offered to answer their questions in exchange for Casandalee's AI core, which had been stolen from him by Dweller-in-Dark-Places, leader of the hive, and they agreed to the deal. They fought through to where a kyton called the "Flayer" was doing experiments on Sanvil, and she was going to experiment on Alcyone next, but they offered to give her Kyontha's corpse in exchange for her back and Sanvil's brain. While going to retrieve it, they met a guy named Ric and his youthful ward, who went with them. The Flayer followed through on her deal, taking Kyontha's body and giving them Alcy & Sanvi's brain. They headed on and fought Dweller-in-Dark-Places and used a tentacle of it to teleport to the room where Casandalee's AI core was being held (and tortured). After fighting a dominion fossil golem, they freed her, taking the core. However, on their way out, they ran back into Maukui, who wanted the core, as promised. Not willing to do that, they prepared to fight him...
