17/03/2020 - Cracking Critters and Crystals

## **TL:DR**

* Gnome kids led the group to the big crystal beneath the city.
* Found that the big crystal was partially broken, and that someone had been trying to create some sort of transmutation/animation spell, presumably with the piece of broken crystal.
* The above was confirmed when the group discovered an animated stone golem with a piece of crystal in its chest.
* Killed the golem by cracking it into many pieces, took the crystal piece out of its chest and brought it back to the main crystal.
* On returning the missing piece of crystal, the main crystal cracked and exploded leaving a circular blue portal in its place.
* Group go through portal and see a fancy looking man with a pointy hat.

## **To the crystals…**

As the two young gnomes (Gea and Traya) finished describing the recent strange changes to the colours of the sky and the crystals beneath the City, the group exchanged raised eyebrows and inquired whether the gnomes knew the location of the crystal beneath the City. The gnomes eagerly replied that they did, and immediately rushed off down the stairs at the back of the Cathedral (where Narko and Ves  had chased Gea earlier), before continuing down a steeper square-spiral staircase. The group followed closely, keen not to lose the tricksy little gnomes, with the exception of Narko , who decided to walk very slowly using his glaive as a walking stick in an attempt to avoid further stair-trippages. Eventually, Narko  caught up with the group and they all found themselves in a cavernous chamber. The chamber had a large door opposite from where they entered, with four roped pulley systems in each corner. The group asked whether Gea and Traya knew how to open the door. They didn’t, but did point out that the crystal was visible through a crack in the door. Gimble immediately went over to peer through the crack and saw a large red-glowing crystal. Whilst Gimble  did this, Ves , Ash  and Narko  investigated the pulleys. Narko  suggested that they should each take a corner and pull their respective pulleys at the same time. The others agreed, and after a short debate about whether to pull on “1,2,3”, or “1,2,3, pull”, they manged to synchronously pull the rope. As they did, a huge creaking noise filled the room. Everyone looked about, fearfully expecting a trap to materialise, but none did, and a quick inspection of the door by Gimble  revealed that it was now unlocked. As the group begin filing through the door, the two gnomes held back and told the group that they didn’t want to go any further, and would rather guard the doors in the Cathedral above. The group agreed this was acceptable, though not without Ves  and Narko  sternly warning them against causing any more shenanigans. At this point Bayul  decided it was best if he waited with the gnomes so he could tell Elyan , Azurial  et al. where the rest had gone if they arrived.

## **Fields and scrolls**

As Bayul  and the gnomes went back upstairs, the rest piled into the next room, finding it to be much larger than the previous. The red-glowing crystal lay in the centre of the room, accessible from three sides by short sets of stairs, whilst several alcoves lined the rooms edges. At the back of the room was an altar, behind which was another door. As soon as he entered the room, Gimble  hopped over to closely inspect the crystal. As he neared, he found his eyes drawn to its swirling façade of colours. Staring deep into it, he gasped, as for a second he could swear he saw a beautiful green meadow in the swirls. Breaking away his gaze, he realised that there was a large chunk missing from the otherwise perfectly shaped crystal. He noted that it was not a clean cut, and was clearly not natural. Whilst Gimble  inspected the crystal, Ves , Narko  and Ash  investigated the first of the alcoves, finding it to be some sort of storage room with a variety of sealed barrels and pots. They decided not to pierce the barrels, but found that the pots contained paints, which Ves  promptly took. After satisfying themselves that there was nothing else interesting in the first few alcoves, Ves , Narko  and Ash  joined Gimble  at the crystal. Ves  immediately reached out and touched the crystal. To her surprise, considering its fiery colour, the crystal was cold to the touch, and had a strong magical aura. Gimble  then told the others of the meadow he had seen. Keen to see this wonder for themselves, the others gave the crystal a good hard stare. Narko  and Ash  saw nothing other than red, but Ves  also thought she saw some non-descript green fields. Gimble  suggested that maybe the crystal is angry because someone stole a piece of it? But Narko , huffy that he couldn’t see these “green fields”, ignored him and stomped off to explore more of the alcoves, finding several scrolls and quills. Scanning the scrolls, Narko realised that the first scroll was a detailed map of the City (Faldor). He and Ves  inspected the map closely, but didn’t find anything on it that they weren’t already familiar with. Another set of scrolls appeared to be some sort of diary documenting the “trialling” of something. Ves  and Narko couldn’t read the other scrolls, but Gimble  could, and he explained that they were some sort of experimental spell scrolls, each similar variations on an attempt to write a transmutation / animation-type spell. Across the room, Ash  investigated a drawing table. He found a scroll with a detailed schematic of the crystal, as well as a map with the locations of several crystals marked. A few of these crystals were highlighted: the one they were at now, and two others in the far south and east of the island respectively. The group then moved on to take a look at the altar at the bottom of the room. The floor near the altar was covered in white runic markings. Narko  attempted to read them, but only managed to discern that some of the markings were very similar to the runes on the scroll Gimble  had interpreted. On the altar was another scroll, Ves  inspected it, but found that whilst some was in common, most was just strange runes and glyphs, plus a picture of the crystal and a pentagon shape similar to the runes on the floor. The altar also had a bowl with a blue-glowing flame. Narko  suggested that Gimble  should touch the flame, but Gimble  retorted that even he wasn’t that stupid.

## **Racing, beds and wine**

After investigating everything on the altar, Ves  and Gimble  suggested that they should continue on through the door behind the altar. However, Narko  and Ash  requested that they quickly investigate the last few larger alcoves on the other side of the room. The others agreed, but told them to be quick. This of course led to Narko  and Ash  engaging in a race across the room. Had the terrain been open fields, even Ash’s  monk-speed would have been no match for Narko’s centaur gallop. But sadly for Narko the terrain wasn’t fields, it was steps, and predictably he immediately tripped over, causing himself considerable damage and allowing Ash  to easily win the race. To add insult to injury, Ves  sassily gave Narko a score of 3/10 for his acrobatic efforts using her archaeologist notebook. Keen to move on from what was becoming a regular source of humiliation, Narko quickly began inspecting the new section of the room with Ash , finding three beds, a fireplace, and several non-interesting books. Moving back around the corner out of sight of the beds, Narko came across more barrels. This time he decided to see what they contained, and used his glaive to pierce the top and take a sample. Seeing his glaive doused in red liquid, he carefully gave it a lick before recoiling in disgust as he realised this fluid was the scourge of the earth, the drink of heathens, the liquid of depravity: red wine. Whilst spitting out the sinful liquid, Narko realised he could hear a strange squeaking noise, almost as if someone was childishly bouncing on a bed. Just as he was about to go check it out, he heard a splintering sound, before a slightly red-faced Ash  appeared around the corner. Narko asked Ash  what he was doing, and Ash replied sheepishly that he was doing nothing… Narko didn’t believe him. At this point, impatient at Narko  and Ash’s  tardiness, Gimble  appeared, and asked Narko  what was in the barrels. Stuttering incoherently, Narko  told Ash  and Gimble  that the barrels are filled with poison and they should stay away from it. Gimble  readily believed Narko , but Ash  did not, and took a look for himself. On discovering the barrels contained wine, Ash  and Gimble  were very excited, but Ves  was disappointed by the lack of poison. Narko  then informed “young Ves ” that enough wine could certainly be poisonous if taken in a large enough quantity. Ves  was unimpressed with this statement, and strongly disputed being called young, leading to the discovery that she was actually older than Narko , though not as old as Gimble  who revealed himself to be over 120! Keen to move on, Narko  then suggested that they leave the sinful wine and explore the door behind the altar…

## **Attack at the altar**

As the group approached the altar door, Ves  carefully inspected it for traps. After she confirmed it was un-trapped, Gimble  tried to open it, but found it locked. Narko  and Gimble  decided to try and break the door down. As the two readied themselves to strike, both felt a wave of magic wash through their minds. Narko  managed to shake off this strange sensation, reared his front legs, and struck mightily at the door, feeling it splinter slightly, but not break. However, Gimble  found himself unable to shake the strange magic, and rather than hit the door, he suddenly reached out and grappled Narko , screaming that the door shouldn’t be opened. Furious, Narko  tried to break free of Gimbles  grip, but Gimble  was not to be shaken-off, and resolutely held onto Narko’s  hind-legs whilst shouting “anything for master door”. Ash  then rushed in to try and remove Gimble , but the stubborn gnome was still not to be moved. Rolling her eyes at the carnage before her, Ves  wild-shaped into a draft horse and attempted to do what Narko  currently could not. Rearing her legs, she struck a mighty blow against the door, smashing through it, and breaking the spell on Gimble . As Ves  crashed through the door, she immediately noticed a piece of red crystal seemingly floating just above her… as she looked closer, she noticed what appeared to be two eyes above the crystal and, to her horror, watched as a large stone-creature stepped forward. As this monstrosity stepped out towards the altar, the group saw that it towered to a height of at least 12 ft, with cracks all over its stone body, and a shard of crystal embedded in its chest. The creature snarled, clearly unfriendly, and raised its fists ready to strike at horse-Ves . However, before it could strike her, Narko  charged forward, his whole body tightening with runic resistance as he struck out with his glaive. The glaive screeched down the front of the Golems chest, clearly hitting, but doing seemingly little damage. The attention of the Golem turned to Narko , and a ripple of energy seemed to emanate from the Golems fist straight into Narko’s  body. With a cry, Narko  felt a wave of helplessness wash over him as his body became slow and impaired. Before the golem could strike at Narko  again, Ash  darted in and rained a flurry of blows down upon the creature, whilst horse-Ves  attempted to kick it. Unfortunately, none of these attacks managed to hit the creature, with each blow simply glancing off the golems stony exterior. Seeing that melee attacks weren’t doing much, Gimble  ran backwards, readying himself to fire a chromatic orb at the creature, however, just as he released his orb, the golems fist smashed into him, sending the orb flying harmlessly over the golems head. Without taking a breath, the golem then sent his other fist smashing into horse-Ves , cracking several of her ribs and causing her to whinny in pain. Narko , still slowed by the golems strange magic, disengaged from the golem and staggered backwards up the stairs, readying himself for a charge, whilst Ash  again tried to overwhelm the golem with his insanely rapid monk-strikes. This time Ash’s  strikes hit true, smashing violently into the golems midriff and causing several cracks to radiate out from the Golems exterior. Worried that the critter might explode, Ash  called out a warning to the others, whilst Gimble  again fired an orb at the creature. Sadly, Gimble  once again missed his mark, whilst with a roar of anger Narko  charged at the golem with his glaive. But, with Narko  still slowed by the creatures magic, the golem easily dodged his strike before letting out another ripple of energy, this time at Ves  and Ash , both of whom also become slowed. Ash  immediately reacted by taking up a classic defensive monk stance, whilst Ves  once again kicked out at the creature. Gimble , deciding that he was rubbish at ranged magic, cast booming blade and charged forward to strike with his sword. This time he struck a mighty hit, causing several new cracks to appear across the golems body. Distracted by Gimble , the golem then failed to avoid a super-slow-mo strike from Narko , who not only hit, but managed to finally shake off the slowness effect. Snarling with anger that Narko  had escaped his spell, the golem rained down a series of fist slams into Narko , who thankfully was able to avoid significant damage thank to his runic resistance. Enraged that Narko  didn’t seem to feel his hits, the Golem turned to the less well armoured looking horse-creature, and punched horse-Ves  so hard she reverted back into normal-Ves . Ash  then took the opportunity to quickly strike at the creature with her psychic blade, whilst Ves  made use of being her normal self by summoning a spiritual puppy to heal Narko . Gimble  again attempted to strike the creature with his sword, but somehow mis-judged his attack to badly he managed to drop his sword mid swing. Seeing Gimble’s  mishap, Narko  ‘encouragingly’ yelled at him to “get his crap together” before invoking his giants might and sending a massive giant-induced strike into the golems chest. Again, more cracks appeared all over the creatures chest, which seemed to seriously impair the creature as his next attempted hits against Narko  all fell weakly against his hide. Ves then called her spiritual puppy to heal herself, before sending a wave of poison into the creature, which sadly seemed to have no effect. Angry at himself for being a failure, Gimble  psyched himself up with some internal self-motivating thoughts, before picking up his fallen sword and striking out at the golem. His self-motivation was clearly effective, as his mighty strike pierced directly into one of the existing Golem cracks, causing it to explode into a thousand stony shards. However, still disappointed in himself, Gimble  continued to strike wildly at pieces of stone until Ves  and Narko  congratulated him on cracking the critter into non-existence.

## **Crystal portalling**

The golems body now lay cracked into a thousand pieces, with the piece of red crystal embedded within one of the larger pieces. Gimble  suggested that perhaps the tramsmutation spell scroll they found earlier had been used to bring this creature to life, whilst Ash  reached out to pick up the crystal. However, as he grasped it he recoiled in pain, finding the crystal to be red-hot. Narko  suggested pouring wine on it to cool it down, but quickly changed his mind when Gimble  pointed out that this would probably create an alcoholic vapour that would get them all drunk. Narko  and Gimble  then decided to use their waterskins to cool it, and after about 15 minutes it seemed cool enough to touch.  Narko  then asked Ves  and Gimble  if they could see the same fields as earlier in the small piece. Ves  was pretty sure she could, but much less clearly than in the main crystal. Gimble  then picked up the crystal shard and carried it over to the part of the main crystal where there was a missing piece. Holding the piece into the gap, he suddenly felt a strong force pull the piece into place. Withdrawing his hand with eyes wide, Gimble  gasped as rather than the crystal healing, cracks began to emanate through the crystal from the location of the missing piece. The cracks began to grow quicker and quicker whilst glowing brighter and brighter. As Gimble  and the others began quickly backing away, a sudden explosion of blinding light filled the room, followed by the unmistakeable sound of cascading pieces of crystal. As vision returned to the group, they saw that the large red crystal was destroyed, with different coloured pieces of crystal now scattered about the room. Where the crystal once stood was now a smaller, perfectly circle crystalline ball, in which everyone could clearly see green fields, stone structures, and what appeared to be figures walking around. Whilst Narko , Ves  and Ash  decided to gather some of the crystals into the bag of holding, Gimble  approached the ball and put his hand into it. His eyes widened in fearful excitement as he felt his hand pass through a strange arcane barrier. Realising this was a portal, Gimble  called out to the others and suggested that someone might die if they went through it. Narko  quickly suggested that maybe Gimble  should go first and, always wanting to please the others, Gimble  agreed, and slowly extended his hand, elbow, arm, shoulder and finally entire body into the portal, disappearing from the room with barely a sound. The others watched as Gimble  suddenly appeared on the other side, apparently unhurt. Narko , Ves  and Ash  all quickly followed, finding themselves in an open green field below a purple sky. They also noticed that many people were starting at them. One of these people began walking forward to greet the group. He was very extravagantly dressed, with a red and gold robe, a pointy hat, and a book in hand…