The ship is on something called “ah-to pilot” that allows it to head directly towards the base. Robot 1 mentions something about weather systems and the difficulties of evading them, but there is nothing you can’t manage, yet.
The working so far are largely automated, though there is the possibility of going to manual controls (which might be a little unwieldy…).
After a few days out, as you look at the window, you see something flying towards the ship.
Evasive action is not see easy….and it look familiar.
It seems to be waving.
Nar’s book review (behind the tag)
[sblock]“Perhaps the most famous tomb outside of the ruins of Ta’Khem, in the Shadow Coast!...
“Five centuries ago, a philosopher turned malicious sorcerer king in the waning days of Illumaria’s might [a reference to the last great empire]. His real name was carefully removed from all records and shielded from practically all divination. This acolyte of Vecna, just as that other lich’s cult was rising, would seek his own path to undeath that would rival his master. He is known to us as Acererak.”
“We took the old North Road. …
“The signs of the old dwarven settlements are found here and there. We made the mistake of exploring some. Too much time taken, and the first lives lost….”
“Trust nothing here! The savagery was too great for the Old Kingdom of the dwarves, and is to great now. Also, beware the elves. One snow clan was helpful, but others had degenerated badly [unreadable]”
…
“From the entrance on, the duplicity and trickery here is astounding! One deadly choice and trick after another. I will attempt to take careful notes of what I find.”
…
There is no end of the distraction and confusion, hiding what are sometimes the simplest clues. …
…
Disaster has struck. A sudden melt of snow flooded our swampy campsite, many notes have been lost.
...
There are just a few of us know. The treachery continues unabated. I wonder on the purpose of this place, and how many have died here.
…
I am lucky to be alive, and to have the means to return through magic. It seems amazing that I have retrieved this book, but it will be my memento and evidence that I survived the Tomb.
It is clear that Acererak was in fact “demi-lich”, destroyed in body, but free in its corrupted spirit, and capable of finding much dire lore.
There is much strange planar lore here! Long debated theories confirmed, and more revealed.
Is this the legendary Book of Shadows? Is it more, only now do I understand the real messages in the book.
It is now very clear that the power death has been rising, that “The Shadow”, as it is known, has been rising for many years, slowly corroding the gains of good and civilization in our current age. Acererak learned this in his strange travels.
1. In Old Deamorria none paralleled the city Moil for the erudition of its scholars or its wealth of lore. Then it fell under the sway of necromancers and the shadow Aether swallowed the city, forever cursed.
2. Most modrons will not accept a bribe.
3. The firmament that separates the mortal worlds from the immortal ones is not a wall or sphere, but a lattice with many strange twists and distortions.
4. From deep in the Cosmos a great source of darkness and necrotic power has emerged, touching many worlds. In coming years, no land will be immune.
5. Some mortal worlds are more isolated by the firmament then others.
6. With the breath of the dread god Zorrath did He imbue Orcus and Vecna with immortality and the incarnates of undeath and dark lore did they become.
7. Vecna once walked Thraeya, to the great cities of Karnakos , strange temples of and tombs of Khembia, dark holds of Kazduaen, of course, ruins of once great Deamorria.
8. Vecna is said to disguise himself as a beggar to walk among others both amassing and dispensing dark lore.
9. These followers of Orcus and Vecna, those that dare whisper the name of Zorrath, how many such death cultist may there be?
10. In Moil they were said to summon forth the great Codex, that which could only be born on the back of mighty beasts and none could read and maintain a grasp of their immediate reality; and from this Codex did they take much dark lore before others took the Codex in turn.
11. In Moil they were said to travel to a throne carved for the gods. They held dark rites there.
12. Ours may not be the only mortal world. This is practically a fact among the learned. Ours may not be the only Cosmos. This is heresy.
13. The power of a god must both be given and taken.
14. The thesis there are angels, not fallen angels that are devils, but just angels, that are evil, is untrue, or at least exaggerated.
15. Where the darkest remnants of Kron and the Beast arose the Abyss, from the nether regions of Chaos. But is this the true realm of slaads?
16. A mortal world barely connected to and unknown to ours saw great and horrible death that still reverberates.
17. The diseases of ghouls, vampires, and mummies are “natural” manifestations of their nature, a bit of the shadow Aether brought into the living.
18. The first demons were said to come from the dead body of Kron like maggots from rotting meat. But what of what was spawned from the offal of the Beast slain by Kron and Yavara?
19. Negotiations with a Slaad are unlikely to be fruitful.
20. Height, length, width, even time may not be limit of dimensionality. Strange tales tale of the tesseract, a “cube” that extends into one of these other dimensions.
21. Nothing would be better then delivering the Hive directly into Lolths lair.
22. …and this creature became the lich. Acererak. Over the scores of years which followed, the lich dwelled with hordes of ghastly servants in the gloomy stone halls of the very hill where the Tomb is. Eventually even the undead life force of Acererak began to wane, so for the next 8 decades, the lich’s servants labored to create the Tomb of Horrors. Then Acererak destroyed all of his slaves and servitors, magically hid the entrance to his halls, and went to his final haunt…
23. Whence this so called Sigil? The deep lore makes no mention of it. It is not the making of Ordos, or Chaos, or angel or fiend. Yet they say it is there. Even if it always was not.
24. Tiefling racial appearance may be much wider ranging then most Thraeyans imagine.
25. The Aether, strange and fragmented as any part of the Cosmos, courses with eldritch energies. The elements called on by arcane formula, the dark shadows that lead souls ever deeper to the beyond and the warping touch of true gods and risen incarnates.
26. The Aether, its domains of dread and feywilds entice, its mists dazzle and daze. It leads to all lands, but its paths may never end. The depths that can be plunged, greater than anything under Kazduaen.
27. No avatar of good could bring back the mercy chalice. It took a Queen of Thieves.
28. Mortal worlds may range as widely as any distant Astral realm.
29. The dark Aether may bring one to the level of the Styx, and the layer of Pluton. This is obvious.
30. To satisfy the dread god, is it merely a question of spreading the shadow and its influence?
31. It is well known that Gith made dark bargains to free her people from the Illithid and lead them to Astral Realms. As it is well known that these races battle still.
32. The mistress of the Githyanki, greater then Vecna?
33. The Cant is an atrocity. As to be expected.
34. The need for the sacrifice of sentient humanoids is undisputed. But one should not underestimate the appeal of eating them, especially for greater hags and slaads.
35. This book seems to want things.
36. Cosmic rifts, also heresy?
37. Some dwarves are said to make smoke powder, and alchemist other things, but the idea that great weapons as powerful as any magic seems both ludicrous and compelling.
38. The Amber family is largely deranged.
39. The portals between planes may be slowly vanishing. Or at least faster than they can be made.
40. No on associated with Melkar house can be trusted.
41. Some ancient liches maintain their form, others seem to revert to pure dust. The demi-lich is a deadly hybrid, a minimal physical presence while its soul roamed strange planes and worlds unknown to even the wisest of sages.
42. If one could map the dark places of the Aether…a tracing from which undying power would be unlimited. But to create a rift. That would also be interesting.
I will resist this madness that claws at the edge of my mind. These dark waking dreams that have seemed to consume me. It is not merely the death of so many at the Tomb, nor is it the rational, or irrational, implications of the Tome. It is something else, something creeping through the world. I now simply have the faculties to realize it.
While the cosmos may have many parts, its “one-ness” has been identified as a fundamental characteristic since the time of the first cosmologist in Patheria centuries ago. Ergo, all things that are cosmic in nature are shared throughout, even as the evidence has built that the workings of reality do vary greatly from one bit to another, much like the climate or terrain may change as one travels across Thraeya. So the True Gods have cosmic influence, even if various saints, demon lords, and so forth, may have much narrower and variable power. But now I cannot help but wonder if there could be another cosmos? Of course, there could be anything, but if there is never any chance of interaction or influence, it is a point beyond academic. So the real question is, is there interaction?
To re-enter into that dark shadow would consume me and surely lead to a death more imminent then the one I face…Even as I have freed myself of the Tome—may it sit securely in the Melkar House Library—my obsessions with dark rifts in the cosmos will not abate. I am also now convinced that Acererak had great knowledge of these rifts, even in his decrepit state…..
One may question if Moil ever had any kind of “virtue”, the caliber of its great scholars not withstanding…the fact that not only did it suffer the devastation inflicted on all Demoria, but was also cast into shadow of the most dread kind, presumably has some implications. One may wonder, as a “City of Necromancers” as it was openly referred to in the waning days of Demoria’s great decadence, if its great curse was not in fact self inflicted…Clearly Moil retains some relevance in all this. I know not exactly what. With the Tome, I could almost certainly find my way there. Yet surely I would only find the most appalling part of the Aether, and even if a mystery was solved, what horrible questions would be raised?
The dark Aetherial stain is too evident. In my darkest paranoia, I wondered if the Tome itself was responsible. It could certainly accelerate the spread!
I write this with some clarity, having set aside the Tome, but not all the thoughts it plagued me with. Somewhere deep in the cosmos, a great flood of necrotic energy has spread through the shadow Aether. One is tempted to point to the action of a god or incarnate, but even that would seem to be insufficient, at least as the direct cause. This would seem to require a great act of death. Beyond that which any Thraeyan may yet imagine. Again, a distant divine war, as written of in ancient texts? For this event seems distant, with the effects slowly filtering through reality. Again, in this moment of some clarity, my own feelings, one could even called visions, of a bizarre and misshaped world, struck by a great cataclysm, a cataclysm to great that it ripped a rift in the cosmos, seems so far-fetched…yet, it remains my best guess.
I have little doubt that, somehow, others have become aware of this Tome, inspite of my best efforts otherwise. Smedley and his cronies make me nervous. And those shadowy shapes that seem to follow me…just my imagination?
There is a path. There is a nexus. What should be a twisting, turning way no mortal could ever follow through. Like wandering through tracked mountains. But a tunnel has been bored through the Aether. I can no longer dwell on these implications.
The Tome of Shadows. Rumored from the early Illumarian period. Undoubtedly what I have. But what is it? Whither its core? No obvious author can account for what is there. It is almost certainly taken from a Demorian source, but what Demorian could even know what is there? An extract perhaps, but again from what?[/sblock]