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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Eccles" data-source="post: 5611049" data-attributes="member: 5675">2nd JulyIt would appear our time in Seaquen is fast coming to an end, bags are packed and other preparations are sorted, ready to be collected with a few hours notice, we are in short ready to travel, but it would appear that Seaquen isn’t ready to let us go.A celebration feast in our honour has been arranged in one of the most prestigious taverns of the region, like most buildings its suffered at the hands of the storm, its famed dining hall is now al fresco as most of its roof has been torn away revealing the sparkling nights sky. The meal itself is lavish and decadent (and thus very above some party members usual tastes and standards) with fancy elven seafood dishes spiced with odd flowers, this trend continues through even to the wines, spirits and ales that accompany the meal. Kain in particular picks around his plate eager to avoid any more “elven snack foods” like he found in Gate Pass’ Battle College (potpourri).With Brick mysteriously absent Til’Jan takes his place singing of our deeds and exploits, the room quietly listens to her reading from Bricks notes on our epic battle with Lee Sidoneth (and as such actual events may differ from those that really occurred) and a rousing applause ripples across the room filled with all of the areas key celebrities.Eventually the room clears as people start to leave, we are left alone with the top ranked faculty of the lyceum, a rather drunk Dougan Rambousen stumbles up to us eager to tell us of his recent discovery involving the box we gave him weeks ago. He believes it to be a “Diano’um Mark 4” he says this with almost spiritual reverence but the effect is lost on us as we stare at him confused (as one should at drunk dwarves telling you of magic boxes!) and eventually explains the diano’ums were made ages ago by the dwarfs as a sort of chronicling device to store their history, linking the minds of dwarves.However the early versions tended to make people insane, with the mark four they believed they had cracked this “tiny” problem and discovered that it in fact had the power to charm people. It wasn’t long before one of these devices was taken by a disillusioned dwarf who gathered an army of kobolds and attacked the Diamond Heart Clan (who lived in caves under what is now Gate Pass), this ended with everyone dieing when the dwarves flooded the caves with methane and ignited it, turning the whole area into a single diamond chasm that weeps blood. The Mark Four’s were supposedly destroyed, however given that this one was dug up from beneath Gate Pass it would seem this is not the case.He wises to experiment with it tomorrow on the apes kept in the menagerie, believing that the artefact can be used for the war effort and would like us to observe his success!So the next day we head to his lab but he isn’t there, an assistant in flame covered robes is waiting for us and guides us to the menagerie, on the way he frequently teleports a few feet appearing slightly on fire. We question his sanity and he replies “I’ll not cage my magic anymore; a little pain is worth it to be free”. Eventually we reach the monkey house and Rambousen holds the box and seems to have attached another device to it with bright copper wires, little lights flash on and off as he toys with it. In a large caged enclosure lots of monkeys and a couple of very large hulking apes.He first turns the box towards the monkeys getting one to stand on its head and then the rest to waltz; he seems practically giddy with his own success “the charm could last for up to a week!” he explains before turning it upon the apes making them dance as well, caught up in his own success the dwarf starts to sway and step along with the monkeys, but obviously steps too far as one of the big apes suddenly reaches through the bars, grabs him and slams him forwards into the enclosuresbars, the box flies inside and he collapses to the floor. One of the monkeys grabs the device and starts to bash at the boxes controls… an eerie sensation begins to flutter through our minds.* With no desire to become monkey slaves Kain and Cricket rush to the enclosure, the rogue quickly pops the lock and the barbarian dashes inside “Don’t hurt them!” wails Lembit as he summons a flock of guardian eagles (with corks upon their talons!), steering the primates into the centre of the enclosure and then floods the room with disorientating rays of colour.* However the shamans’ best intentions don’t extend to the rest of us, certainly not after the monkeys start flinging their own poop at us and climbing atop people to bash and claw at their face. Even Urien’s resolve crumbles when one cheeky monkey smears its filth ridden fingers true the eye slits of his helm an blinds the paladin… “My eyes, my eyes” he screams wandering around with a monkey clanging away at his plate armour.* Even Lembit ends up with a monkey clambered over him, he attempts to remove it by using a thunderous wave of force to fling it away but his spell backfires and he only succeeds on blasting himself into the corner of the reserve, but the time he composes himself most of the monkeys lay dead or dieing. He reclaims the box and turns it off, shame and disappointment on his face as he gazes over the rest of us (barring silas who managed to remain outside of the “splatter” zone) caked in blood (quite a lot of it our own!) and filth from the butchered primates.Rambousen is equally horrified and disappointed when finally roused at the carnage that we have caused, however he foolishly begins by stating that it must be the influence of Brick that stops us from being bloodthirsty killers and quickly gets into a shouting match with Cricket who firmly believes the mage and his experiments are to blame! Dougan snatches the box and retreats from the scowling Barbarian.After cleaning up as best we can we return to the Royale to change (and possibly oversee the burning of any clothes too “monkey covered” to ever be serviceable again). In the afternoon we are approached by Torrent who requests our aid on the morrow, she wishes to rebuild Lora’Beks tent, it’s seen as a spiritual centre of the refugee camp and one of her juniors is going to be raised up and will need a place with which to guide the others and begin plans for the temple. We happily agree to anything that will keep us as far away from the lyceum as possible and delay our departure by another day.Its during our little house building pet project that we meet another associate of Torrent, the Ranger Erol, he believes that he Vortberd’s network of spies have finally tracked down the secret headquarters of the White Wyrms (the Ragesian Terrorists) in the old steam tunnels under the city, some of the buildings destroyed in the storms revealed hidden basement levels that lead into them. Vortberd has made plans for his militia to raid the place and would like us to join him, which we naturally agree to.* We find one of the entrances into the cave network as described above in one of the basements of a now destroyed home, Kain and Cricket scout forward, they spy from the top of the ladder leading in to the caves the regularly movement of a patrol, when the light is dimmest they usher everyone over and we manage to make it into the steam caves without alerting them to our presence. A situation that lasts less than a few seconds, spying the light returning Urien takes charge loudly announcing where people should stand to best ambush them!* Naturally the patrol then stops patrolling and instead merely guards the corridor, the paladin bravely stomps around the corner first taking the first volley of arrows on his heavy armour and shield, Kain and Cricket slip passed him eager to bring their own particular blend of mayhem and the patrol quickly finds themselves in pieces with the rogue picking over the spoils.* However its at this point that he looks up and spies down one of the many tunnels another larger group of soldiers staring back at him, there are a few silent words and gestures, the handing over of money (it would appear that a bet was lost) and they raise their bows, it would appear our fight is not quite over.* This group is backed up by two Ragesian Storm Mages who take great delights in throwing lightning at us, however as we take their bodyguards apart they wisely retreat running in separate directions and soon the entire base seemed to be alerted as the many tunnels fill with sounds of running feet and then battle as Vortberds Militia make themselves known.* Following one of mages we find an empty chamber with a trap door (which he has retreated into) Cricket flings the door open and gets a nasty surprise as a beam of pure darkness seems to flood from the opening, basking the room in heavy shadow, a magical bolt of energy from the wizard hits him in the chest, and the sounds of heavy feet on a ladder can be heard getting closer, he feels the swish of air moving near him and thanks the moon goddess for his luck as something seems to glide from the shaft of blackness, a living shadow slips out into the room (and later identified as a Ragesian Shadow Knight) and floods the room in an air of menace.* Lembit summons the spirit of an ancient warlord, it lurks near the shadow knight its deep voice bellowing orders to the two Half-Orcs, at its order the barbarian unleashes a flurry of terrible blows upon the shadow knight, slamming him to the floor in his fury! Unable to move the wreath of shadow drops revealing a hulking brute in night black iron armour, now at the rogues’ mercy, Kain plunges his dagger deep between the thick metal plates, leaving him a bloody ruin.With their leader (well we hope it was the leader) dead the rest of the wyrms attempt a fighting retreat but are cut down or captured by Vortberds finest. We pick over the body of the shadow knight finally able to catch our breath and bind our many, many wounds.</blockquote>

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