Dr. Archimedes Zahn

The Illithids

Dr. Archimedes Zahn is a cyborg gnome who created Primina. He was reported as missing in action and the party found his remains in his underwater laboratory on Shardlar.

## Description

### Appearance

Dr. Zahn is a red haired gnome with many cybernetic parts including the left side of his head. His age would be 350 if he is alive.

### Personality

Zahn is an intellectual being. He led a team of scientists and created Primina. Primina tells the party that he taught her skills and told her stories in addition to running tests on her. She does not think he was a good man.

## Background

### Early Life

Archimedes Zahn was born on the Cyber Federation world of Alcana to a Rakk Caste family of steel miners. He had an inordinate amount of intellect at a young age and received a sponsorship to an elite science academy. Zahn graduated top of his class at an age younger than most people were accepted into the school. This granted him free admission to the Principle Lyceum of Science and Analytics, the most prestigious university in Cyber Federation territory. There, he earned degrees in Genetics, Cybernetics, Archaeology, and Astronomy.

### Rise and Fall of Zahn's Career

A generational genius, he began a professorship at age 35. Despite making such an impact in the academic community he fell into obscurity after a decade of not publishing anything noteworthy. During this time he published just one paper, his Theory of Genetic Apotheosis, which was criticized and ridiculed by his peers. Five years after this decade he was arrested after it was discovered he was performing unethical experimentation on Lyceum students in a secret laboratory on university grounds. He was charged with 20 counts of abduction, torture, and inhumane genetic manipulation, and sentenced to life in prison.

### Working with the Elves

Zahn was quickly extracted from prison by elven forces and taken to the Imperial Palladium, the ultimate elven academy, to discuss his theories with elven magi. He is then invited into a government think tank where he spends 15 years before being siphoned into a classified military operation; Project Bloodline.
Not much is known about Project Bloodline. Zahn spent 30 years working on it. He was spotted in the Cyber Federation frontier colony of Zovra posting a hiring notice. He was looking specifically for a Tiefling, a Genasi, and a Dragonborn to join him on an archaeological excavation. Once he has his hires, he leaves Zovra and disappears. The last information pertaining to Zahn comes 50 years after the Zovra incident, in a recording between two elven war vessels reporting him to be missing in action.

Zahn is officially reported as MIA 50 years ago.

### Egress Laboratories

Zahn's work in Egress Labs appears to have been left untouched after the lab was abandoned. The party found evidence of experimental space engines utilizing Pulsar Dragon parts, labs full of Umbrium and umbral stones, and the tanks filled with "proto-Primina,' failed iterations of the testing that led to Primina's existence.

 Primina finds a message left for her by Zahn in his empty office.

*"Primina, my dear, if you are hearing this it means that you have made it back alive. With any luck it will be with a member of the ninth bloodline by your side. Let me start off this message with an apology. I am so sorry. Sorry for putting you through so much pain. Sorry for bringing you into a world that would swallow you up and use you against your nature and your will. But if it's any consolation, it would seem we were all but pawns in a game 100,000 years in the playing by powers beyond our fathoming. There is so much I must tell you, but so little I can say in this message. Remember the bedtime story I told you as a child. It is the thing around which all you've endured centered. The kings and queens of an ancient world who locked away their treasure, not monarchs but gods. The old gods. And not treasure, but a city. The city of lost Kadath. It is there they hid their power, a power the Emperor seeks. But the Emperor has gone mad. He'd wield this power to save the galaxy but in doing so he would spell the doom of us all. I found more to the story... Secret elven histories... Ancient orc writings. Something else seeks the city of lost Kadath. One the old gods sealed outside. A being whose knowledge was lost to time, or perhaps it was never known at all. For knowledge of the thing begets madness. Even I fear to utter its name. But the Emperor knows. He's always known. And though he's prepared and warded for 80,000 years, the knowledge leaves a door open for whispers. And even one so close to godhood is not impervious. For outside the ordered universe is that amorphous blight of nethermost confusion which blasphemes and bubbles at the center of all infinity. The boundless daemon sultan, whose name no lips dare speak aloud, and who gnaws hungrily in inconceivable, unlighted chambers beyond time and space. Time grows short for us all, and I'm afraid only you and the brave souls who support you have the power to stop it. I'm afraid I can say little more here. You must come to the place of your childhood. I have more information, and a gift to give you. Around the Dwarven system of Shardlar, a cold world awaits."*

### Archimedes' Madness and Self Annihilation

Zahn's story comes to an end in the secret laboratory under the frozen lake on Shardlar. As the party investigates the lab they discover a series of recordings he left behind for Primina that explain his awareness of his madness and provide insight into what the God Emperor and the illithids were trying to achieve from Project Bloodline. The files were kept in a folder on his computer named "If I am No Longer."

Recording 1:

*“Before the beginning there was naught but a cold deep dark. A mindless nuclear chaos bubbling and gnawing hungrily at the center of all, which was nothing. An amorphous blight of ultimate void that knew nothing but itself and thus slept for an eternity in its absolution. And in its slumber it dreamed. Dreams which bore boundless cosmos of colossal proportions. Dreams which bore unimaginable horrors. Nameless gods of the outer dark, daemon abominations, and twisted cities, umbral conceptions that would break the mind to behold. A dark court of ultimate gods who, for all their power, were merely the unwitting creations of that inconceivable lord of all things, and upon its rousing would be unmade and devoured so all was the void once again. And so it was the mad gods commenced their mindless, flopping dance amidst the muffled, maddening beating of vile drums and the thin monotonous whine of accursed flutes, lulling the Unnamable One into an ever deeper sleep. And as the sleep grew deeper so did the dreams. And those dreams bore things both grand and terrible, horrid and resplendent, animate and bereft. For in blind idiotic accordance of its absolution, the Deep Dark slept. And for unfathomable epochs all persisted until some unknown occurrence disturbed the dream, or maybe the dream was doomed to end in spite of all creation itself. But end it did. And with it came the unfathomable vengeance of the Inconceivable One. The incursion to end all worlds so that all again was nothing.”*

The party discovers the body of one of Zahn's coworkers along with a message Zahn scribbled in blood on the walls "*I have seen the dark universe yawning; where the black planets roll without aim. Where they roll in their horror unheeded; without knowledge, luster or name. He makes me see. He makes me hear. He makes me know."*

Recording 2:

*“The very heavens trembled, and what resistance could be mustered by modicum powers crumbled and flailed. The dissolution of the cosmos had begun in a moment shorter than the passing of a breath. The Sleeper had awoken; all was lost. But in the face of inevitable doom all creation itself reeled against its creator, and against all odds the inevitable was evaded, and the undeniable was denied. Nine Great Gods, the greatest of their age, came together and sang out against the darkness. They brought all their power to bear to seal out The Destroyer and their song rang through all that remained of the universe that was, and all that lived heard and sang in chorus. The divinities that were gave up divinity and reformed the known cosmos; the lands, the seas, the stars coalesced and scattered. The peoples were given flight and The Nine gave their lives to form a seal made from themselves to protect what they had siphoned away. But they knew this could not last, the seal would one day break. Still, shards divine do not die, the power would amalgamate again in that place they stood, Lost Kadath, the City of The Gods. And with it once again the seal can be renewed. The bloodlines were the key, but alas, there was much The Old Gods could not foresee*.”

Recording 3:

*“As most know, I was born a citizen of The Cyber Federation. Spawned of a lowly Ord caste family we were afforded next to nothing in the form of luxuries, indeed even the necessities of survival were in short supply to my family. I think I might trace my obsession with bloodlines to my meager and destitute childhood. Why should my family be expected to endure so much less by no merit or quality beyond the station of our birth? The rigidity of the caste system paired with its emphasis on birthright; what else would a child in this environment seek, other than to validate their value through similar social construct. It was thus I dedicated my life towards genetic study and developed the tools necessary to detect the imperceptibly small trace amounts of divine energy found in certain bloodlines. This is also where my misunderstanding of the purpose of the Keys of Kadath began. Primina, my dear, as I’m sure you have surmised, you were not the first of my creations. Indeed, or that the first that stayed my last. I will not detail the countess failures I birthed in my cold and terrible intellect. I will speak only on how my theory of Divine Apotheosis via genetic manipulation was wrong. There simply wasn’t enough Aetherial energy between the bloodlines, not even all nine would suffice. The introduction of a massive amount of Aetherium radiation was necessary, and even that did not create the entity I had imagined. For the first time I began to ponder The Old Gods’ purpose and design of the Bloodline Keys*."

Recording 4:

“*The Old Gods were not infallible nor omniscient and though they were wise beyond wise, in necessity of haste they blundered in their foresight. Or perhaps it was no blunder, but an impossible endeavor to foresee how different the world they created would be from the world they had always known. They had believed new gods would rise where they had fallen, one from each of their bloodlines. And they knew that only through a coalition of at least The Nine would a renewal of the seal be possible. Nine Divinities to once again form a seal to protect the cosmos. How could they have known that only one would arise. That their power would be scattered so far and wide and ne'er coalesce. That the societal divisions of their world would not stay constant in this one. That one of their lines would face complete annihilation. That none would remember the truth of it all, and worse, that one would obscure and destroy the truth that none could ever know. And countless more variables deviating their plans. Primina, you are not a divinity. You were made with the intent of deceiving the gate into opening, a false key, and not even that without a member of the Ninth Bloodline.*”

Recording 5:

“*To say that Solastaran is ancient understates the abounding multitude of years he has endured. Eighty millennia has passed since he first bore witness to the charred body of god. Eighty millennia since he assumed control of the Elven Alliance, forged it into a theocratic empire, and bent every ounce of his will upon complete and utter suppression of the truth. And though that suppression may have been the only thing preserving us for all that time, it is also the very thing which has sent us to the teetering edge of our doom. In his aim to suppress he amassed more and more power to enforce his will. He moved to eliminate any threat to his dominant place in the galaxy before it could grow into a legitimate challenger. He amassed enough Aetherium to destroy every habitable planet in the galaxy twice-over. And finally, in an effort to stop the spread of knowledge of The Nameless One, he committed genocide on an unprecedented level; wiping out the Ninth Bloodline and ending any true possibility of eight others like himself from ever arising. The madness had taken him. How early it is impossible to tell, but The Crawling Chaos wormed his way into the Emperor’s every action; assuring a long and spiraling series of actions ending unfailingly in the equivalent of galactic self-annihilation. And now, at the crescendo of his madness, the Emperor has been truly convinced he is the One True God born to defeat the gnawing darkness that would end all things. He would tear open the gates to Kadath and seize the power that lies there. In brazen hubris and accursed self-righteous lunacy he would take aim and strike with all the power of The Old Gods into that inconceivable nightmare. Heaving and depleted he would have earned a front row audience seat to the erasure of all, laughing in desperate anguish as even he is undone.*

*You have to stop this, my dear. You are the only one who can reach Kadath before the Emperor. Renew the seal. This is not an easy thing I ask. You and your companions are not likely to return, indeed, it is almost certain you will not. I’m leaving this recording for you in the event that I am either mad or dead before you return. Even now I can feel the clawing at my thoughts, the whisper in my ears, the things… the things I see in my sleep, I… I will not repeat them here. I have left something here for you, something the Emperor still seeks, something you will need to open the gate*.”

After hearing the fifth recording, Zahn's body is discovered at his desk in his secret lab. It is clear that he chose to end his life by pulling apart the cybernetic portion of his face using some sort of machine. The words "Please forgive me" are etched into his desk.

### Zahn's Final Gift

With the other recordings on Zahn's computer is a message titled "My Final Gift." When the audio plays, the lights in the area shine bright and reveal an enormous spaceship shaped like a dragon and made of Umbrium.

"*Of my great many sins I managed to create only two things of worth. You, Primina, are my greatest and not for the reasons I endeavored. In fact your greatness is more in spite of my failures than by my own actions, and so I can not in truth take any credit for it whatsoever. But I will do so for my second greatest creation. If you are to open the gate and traverse the path to Kadath then you will need a vessel capable of the voyage*. *Before you stands a ship designed by one Archimedes Zahn. It is the product of cooperation between three nations. It was built with the unlimited funds and arcane knowledge of The Eternal Empire, the unrivaled technicians and engineers of The Cyber Federation, and the unmatched materials of The Illithid Empire. It was designed to assist you in both opening the gate and traversing the turbulent rifts and subdimensions along the path. It is without a doubt the most advanced ship ever crafted and I gift it to you. Approach and repeat “Voice Activation Code: XGP15A11” and she will open to you. I pray we aren’t too late. Godspeed to you all."*

## References

1. ↑ Archimedes' Madness
2. ↑ 100,000 Credits
3. ↑ Interlude II: Blue Eden
4. ↑ 100,000 Credits
5. ↑ Egress Laboratories
6. ↑ Egress Laboratories
7. ↑ The Return
8. ↑ Under the Ice
9. ↑ Archimedes' Madness
10. ↑ Archimedes' Madness
11. ↑ Archimedes' Madness
12. ↑ Archimedes' Madness
13. ↑ The Return
14. ↑ The Return