DFE 7 Notes (Zane)

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NB:  Zane’s excellent notes are reproduced here with minor additions and annotations.  This is the official recap, minus my private notes, which is recorded with thye script of DFE#7. Questions or ex post facto actions may be filed with me through the weekend.  Any objections/changes/additions not made by then are not permitted thereafter. My thanks, as always, to Zane!

**G.O.D.**

\_\_       **RECAP**

Loic mentions that he thought the fire bolt that came from the bridge at the end of last session looked like the wreath of fire that the party saw while Herald Jain was singing. It looked like a dragon’s head of fire, appearing as if it had bit the target.

Loic picked some of the arrows that were fired from the bridge, seeing that the fletching was burnt off. They are very, very slender, and are made of an unidentifiable black metal. There are barbs along the ends, made to presumably hurt in flesh. They are very heavy. Wakinyan uses Detect Magic - the arrows are magically forged, but are not themselves magical. Wakinyan is observing the arrows.

**SCENE 7.1**

Wakinyan suddenly can’t look away from the arrows, and feels as if he’s falling. Because he had his dagger out, Rachel is able to persuade him to stop staring at the arrow. He feels Nauseous. It felt the same as what he felt in Shibboleth, and so they are by association identified as Voyd arrows. Rachel has some familiarity with Qabal and Numerology as a bit of a curious hobby, and there appear to be no similarities between the bands with characters on the building and numerology.

(Slower notes begin now due to Breakfast).

Jac is flying around, Eecham and the Israelites need to be located on the board. Wakinyan is going up to the second floor of the stucco three story house with Loic. The floor in the building is a thick grey wool carpet, and Loic tries to pick up whatever scent is on the carpet. Esther calls Colonel Ayalon Danny.  Rachel calls him LTC Ayalon- except briefly when he was reanimated, when sh called him ‘Dan’.

Wakinyan and Loic go up the stairs to the second floor. Rachel is behind them. Upstairs is a plain room with a large red velvet curtain and ladder horizontally under the curtain, as well as three cabinets. One is books. The building itself looks recentish and is well maintained. There is a table and chair in the center of the room, with a large black cone on the table. It looks as if it were made of a solid black material. There is a very large number of drawers. Wakinyan looks for suspicious details. Eechum is called up by Wakinyan. Wakinyan finds nothing that could be a trap, at least not on the floor. Eechum does not find anything trap-like either. The curtain is made of heavy, expensive, red velvet.

The black cone ignites, and begins to burn with a very short flame. It smells of incense. Wakinyan recognizes the scent as Sage, probably from the Urulluoi. It’s mixed with a few other things as well. The scent fills the room pretty quickly.

Deucalion looks through the opening in the wall by the stair on the first floor, behind the red metal door, under the painting, and sees a very richly decorated room with brocades, a bed, a rug, etc., but it is very dark inside. Deucalion calls for Wakinyan, but Merkha  offers magical detection instead, sticking his hands through and tries to use some Divination. He says that he can see an iron gate with an odd individual standing in front of it. It does look like the Gate of the Dead outside. There is a figure that is 7’ tall, has six arms, eyes the size of your fist that glitter, and is holding a monstrous double-bladed weapon in two limbs. It seems reminiscent to Jacinteleq of a fairytale. Its face has a very sharp beak that also glitters. It has something akin to claws instead of hands/fingers. It’s a Thri Kreen, a big bug-man. Ademar walks to the real Gate, but does not see the Thri Kreen. Merkha says that he sees the Thri Kreen then walking to the other side.

Jacinteleq takes a turn looking through the metal portal. She sees a very dense fog with what appears to be a partly ruined wall in its midst.

Merkha looks through again, and this time sees a strange building with odd shapes made of some sort of pink stone with streaks of black and red running across it. Loic thinks he smells a humanoid around the curtain.

Jacinteleq looks at the papers on the desk in the second floor. There are two open books and five closed ones. The books are not in a language that she understands, but the open ones appear to have lots of diagrams. Kakra says that it’s Latin. The pages are descriptions of fasteners, things about putting screws in vs. shafts to hold things in place, cams, etc. The book is thick. The subassembly on the page that’s open appears to basically be a Rube-Goldberg machine that just tranfers motion from one end of the box to another. The gears and palls and shafts are all made of different things, some wood. Eecham is called up to check the book for traps. Wakinyan will do the Detect Magic. There appear to be no magics on the book. Eechum does some odd things - looks at the bottom of the table, gets up, takes a knife, tries to move the slats of wood, etc. puts a chainmail curtain on his arm, then lifts the whole book. He says it has no traps. Loic pulls apart the curtain on the second floor- on the other side is a blank wall. There’s a creaking sound as Loic pushes against the wall, and the wall swings out - but he’s not looking at what physically should be there (the outside) - instead is a closet, with four shelves, each with three pottery jars, sealed with a color of wax. They have lids with handles, for a total of twelve jars. In the spaces between them is loose stuff, such as loam or the like, may be used as something akin to packing, although it doesn’t touch the jars. To be clear, the curtain is on the second floor. Eecham checks the rosewood box that is heavily inlaid with ivory and semi-precious stones (or chips of them, rather) for traps. It has hinges that slide over the box, and is about six inches square. He finds no traps, but says that there’s writing on the bottom. It is identified by Jaicinteleq as Sileauani. It says “1) Open and die! 2) Contents: Spectacles. 3) Read with caution” with a word in the third part that Jacinteleq cannot recognize/translate to Anglic.

Wakinyan goes to open the storage boxes on the counters. There are lots of books and scrolls, and some have packages that are quite large. There is one that is entirely drawers of various sizes. He tries to slide out an easy-looking box. Doesn’t move easily.  There are three large boxes on the bottom. He grabs the nearby leather bag. It’s simply tied with string. He unties it on the table, pointed the opening away from the black stone and all PC. Something slaps Wakinyans hands very hard. He says sorry, then picks up the bag and puts it back.

Deucalion detects for Emotions and rolls a 1. He detects the thoughts of someone in the room that’s fleeting, but they are quite comfortable. Deucalion calls out to the ghost-like thingy he felt to come to him. Something says “I’m not going to get up and go over there” into his mind. Keeping in mind, usually psionic contact/interaction with Undead is supposedly not supposed to happen.

Meanwhile, Merkha detects magic on the rosewood box. There is magic. Most of the other books are in non-Latin scripts. The books she recognizes are one in Arabic, one in an asian language, and one in Egyptian. The Arabic book is titled “Western Machines.” The Egyptian one is a chunk of the “Book of the Dead, and their meaning for their construction of the magical machines.” Leonus will look through the books, looking at the front and back pages to see if he can get a sense for what the machines are for. There is a gear, something with bells that are hit by turning a handle to said gear. The end is titled “Post Scriptum” and it discusses the construction philosophy of the owner - basically, “how I go about building machines.” The front of the book is a title page, and a separate page with a dedication to wife/daughter, and master. The next page is “Chapter 1: On the Construction of Mysterious Machines.” Leonus puts the book in his backpack. When Leonus closes the book, it snaps back open, and turns to Chapter 12. Leonus is shocked (physically). Leonus takes one point of damage and falls unconscious. “Chapter 12: Final Consideration of Design Principles.”

Wakinyan is pushed towards the stairwell by an invisible force, but stumbles and falls over. There was a shout from down below, the door slams, and Ayalon shouts “bar the door!” There is an enormous crash from the door.

Wakinyan beastmasters Cheaton, and can see a large amount of dust arising from somewhere near the tower. It looks like ground fog. Matilda hides behind a few of the loose rocks outside. Laura plays a card that allows for a bonus at a Diplomacy check to gathering information. She shouts an apology at the ‘ghost’ in Sileauani, asking for information about the place. There is no response. Laura repeats the question in Anglic after receiving no response. In a very, very antique Falcharnese, he states that he doesn’t speak Anglic. He says “come and sit down, daughter,” and Jacinteleq feels that she is being gestured at to sit at the table. Coming around the corner, and barely fitting through the alley between the nouse we are in and the two-story stone house next door, is a giant humanoid machine, about maybe 40 feet tall. As soon as it sees Ademar, beams of light shine on him, but nothing happens, and Ademar flees through the Gate of the Dead. He feels a chill that runs right through him.

Right in front of him is the Thri Kreen, and it yells at him, pointing at his nose. Ademar gestures to the machine, and the Thri Kreen shuts the gate. Jacinteleq is conversing with the ghost, and sarcastically agrees that the party came in to look at his things. He asks what the party is attempting to uncover. Jacinteleq responds that they are trying to learn about the history of the place - the fairytale about the dragon with the hurt paw, the six-legged beast, etc. The ghost says he knows not of any such stories. He says that there are Periku everywhere, but Jacinteleq informs him of the date and year. He says that it’s absurd that they could be extinct - he saw one taking a bath in a lake a few days ago. Cheaton squawks at Ademar through the gate, telling him that it’s not his time. The automaton is bashing at the Gate of the Dead. The Thri Kreen says something, and the gates open. He whacks Ademar’s rear with his weapon, basically trying to shoo him out.

Deucalion goes outside and uses Telekinesis to lift himself to the top of the building, with his bullwhip out. There is a bright flash to the right and behind him. He hits the deck. Jac is now hollering at Deucalion. The legs of the automaton extend, and it reaches to grab Deucalion.

Loic runs downstairs. Jacinteleq describes the situation outside. Loic then steps outside. Loic pulls out his Bastard Sword with two hands, then charges one of the legs. Through the power of something stronger than a successful 19 TLK Push *deflection*, Deucalion is grabbed by the automaton by the head. Jacinteleq goes through the apparent Portal on the first floor to the luxuriously appointed room, and tries to go up to shoot the automaton with one of the Voyd arrows. A narrow stairway appears in front of Jacinteleq, and she goes to the roof. Loic tries to pull the automaton’s leg. Its leg is moved slightly, and it moves to grab Loic. He lets go of the rope. Jack lands next to Deucalion, rambling about the situation. As Jacinteleq tries to nock the arrow, the arrow is grabbed by an invisible hand, Deucalion is put back on the roof, and the Automaton walks away into the hole of thin plaster that’s a doorway back inside the two-story stucco house,  with the noise of a creaky music-box.

The arrow is returned to Jacinteleq. The ghost calls the automaton his creation. It was trying to go after us because we was here in his house. The ghost was distracted, and had not turned off the automaton. Ademar exits through the Gate of the Dead. As he is walking through the gate, he feels a tearing feeling in his chest that vanishes immediately.

The ghosts introduces himself as Kiell. Jacinteleq mentions that there is a member of the party who also works with machines. Kiell is leaning on a quarterstaff. He and Leonus talk a bit about the machines that they study/work with. Two things are obvious - one, Kiell is not from anywhere that Leonus knows of, and two, he knows quite a bit about technomagic machines.

Deucalion floats down to the front door, knocks, and is let back in by LTC Eilon. When asked the date, Keill gives a year in a meaningless format and under the reign of a random ruler - not recognized at all by anyone in the room. There are lots of Thri Kreen skeletons in the city whe Keill’s people arrived, it was empty, with no indication of what had killed them. No wounds, all weapons  sheathed, no broken bones, etc. When Jacinteleq mentions Jiren, it does not ring a bell with Kiell. He says that “we” repaired the fort, and used it as their base. The other members of the expedition is what he is speaking of were here to harvest medicinals - he was to maintain the harvest machines.

Leonus inquires as to how he constructed the machines. He is a mage of machines. One of his books is by John of Toronto is the name of the author, from a modern place in Talonne, and is dated with a modern date, within the past couple hundred years. Leonus offers to buy the book, but Kiell declines, however saying that Leonus may copy it for free.

Kiell inquires as to who the rest of our companyare. Kiell is from Tek, a continent with a particularly powerful empire, that kills any who enter its borders. It is not known to have sent out any expeditions, ever, so finding Kiell here strikes Deucalion as odd. Tek is out the western gate of the inland sea, then southwest, not a tremendous distance. It is, however, a tremendous distance from the European Theme.

Kiell has never heard of Riedra. His expedition sailed by boat, and had heard of the Xen as a place of medicinals. Tekumel is the name of his empire. Wakinyan apologizes to Kiell, who accepts the offer with an odd version of a handshake. He is visibly confused that his hand passed through Wakinyan’s. Snack break. Kiell speaks of woods that can replace some metals - names, etc. are noted. The harvesting machines are kept in the fort. Jacinteleq asks questions to try and pin down his era.

-----LUNCH BREAK-----

The party resumes after Kiell indicates that he is tired, and needs to rest. Thanking him for his time, the party departs, with a note from Kiell for the (long dead) commander at the fort that would hopefully allow them to stay the night. We don’t think there’s a commander, this guy is dead and sees mostly what he did while alive. Ademar investigates around the front of the adjacent stone house. The paths around the house are stone, and one of the tiles seems to be weaker, and rock. Ademar observes a rock and determines it is really a lead plate formed to look like rock. Ademar inspects the exposed corner which is slightly awry.

Before leaving, Wakinyan asks Kiell what he sees through the metal portal. Kiell didn’t know it was there. When Kiell looks through it, he sees the Gate of the Dead. Wakinyan looks through again. He sees a damaged building, and two women. One gestures someone to not move, and something is shimmering in front of them. It’s also dark and foggy. When Kiell looks through again, he sees what Wakinyan saw. He recognizes the building, and describes where it is.

When part of the party arrives at the Gate of the Dead, they see no Thri Kreen. The party then goes to the uninvestigated stone building adjacent to Kiell’s house. Wakinyan can see crystals underneath the stones, overlaid by some form of lead. Wakinyan calls for Loic and Eecham. Eechum declares the construct is untrapped. One of the centaurs helps haul off one of the flagstones. A crystal structure is revealed. The cyrstals are very magical. Jac  flies over, eyeing the crystal. Jacinteleq knocks on the door of the house, and nobody answers. Deucalion detects for emotions, and finds none. The party enters.

On the floor is a woven carpet of a metallic material, and otherwise the room is empty. Jacinteleq yells hello, in multiple languages. Loic and Merkha are busy outside hauling off the lead plates. There are ashes in a machine in the corner of the room, with a pipe leading into a ceiling - looks akin to a furnace or fireplace.

Eecham checks the stairs for traps - he touches something, and a secret door opens. It reveals a room that holds stuffed mattresses, rolled up and tied together. One of the mattresses is hauled out. It is unrolled. Inside are the mummified bodies of two children, who were tied up  with hands, wrists crossed, and tied over their folded legs.  It is deduced that they were suffocated to death in the mattress. The party unrolls the rest, and Wakinyan does rites. There are five mattresses, and two child corpses in each. The ages are around four to fourteen. Each pair in a mattress is a boy and a girl of roughly the same age. Merkha is called to date the bodies. They are dead for at least five hundred years, none are clothed or adorned or have tattoos, etc. There is a thick carpet of dust on the walls.

In the second floor is a table with a workbench, a bed, a table and chair, and a barrel that appears to be full of water. There are no dead bodies under the bed, but there is a flat box of some sort, and is made of wood. Jacinteleq drags out the box, it’s about 4’x4’x8”, made of a light-ish looking wood. Jacinteleq opens the box after Eechum says the outside isn’t trapped. There is a gust of cold air as she does so, and in the box are sheets of parchment, about three quarters the length of the box, about eighteen inches wide. The parchments in the box are blank, and completely stiff. They are made of human skin. At the very bottom of the box are two complete human skins. The two on the bottom still have dried blood on the inside. The untreated skins are supple, one male, one female. He is fairly sure that the two on the bottom have been magically treated. Merkha says that there is magic there, but it is inactive.  The box holds enough skin to be from around one hundred individuals, taking the skin off the chest and back. There are two more skins in a cupboard, also with tried blood and magically treated. They are slightly smaller than the two from the box under the bed. The planks from the table do indeed appear to be solid gold and silver. Leonus begins to take apart the hot tub. The ceiling is a big, thick mat of “fur.” It’s poked. It begins to move. Quickly. Jacinteleq uses Disperse Undead, which causes the creature to stop moving, and then it begins to burn, setting the room alight and creating lots and lots of smoke. The fire suddenly snuffs out after Jacinteleq does some sorcery-stuff.

Merkha cannot recognize or date anything in the room - even the painting, which offers lots of details. Underneath the workbench is a table, the wooden board lifted up. The table is wood, and one plank on each side of the centerline is gold and silver. There is copper dinnerware, and then a gold and silver plate at the end of the table. Still-edible foodstuffs is under the lid, and still looks edible. A lot of things on the table are magic.

Merkha notices that the building that party is currently in is older and of a different style than the stucco ones around it but the same style as the other stone buildings, which are ruined. The barrel is a magically-powered hot tub/bath tub. Suddenly, the party can hear the tinkling of water, such as water hitting other water.

A fountain of sorts has raised intself I nteh crystal formation outside the house, three tiles high of water probably magically contained and spilling over itself back into the pool. Once done with his ritual, Wakinyan opens the Gate of the Dead, letting the souls of the skins go through. Scott plays the black on his plot twist card, which allows Wakinyan to speak Thri Kreen for ten minutes. Larry plays his plot twist card, which makes Wakinyan frightened. Not sure why that would do anything. He sees lots and lots of skeletons and ghosts of Thri Kreen wandering around the mist across the Veil (on thye other side of the wrought iron fence). They open their mouths and gesture, but then move on to the next similar figure. The Thri Kreen guardian of the area speaks to Wakinyan, and he is a high priest charged with protecting the gate.

Wakinyan hears screams of agony of children from a distance inside the ‘graveyard’ on the far side of the wrought iron fence. He tries to move towards them, but is blocked. Drik’chik is the priest's name. He also says that those who enter, stay - your soul remains inside the Land of the Dead. Wakinyan wants to speak to the soul of his friend, Ademar. He takes out the two-thirds vial of Mend Spirit. Drik  Chikit asks what he’s doing, and holds his blade up threateningly . Wakinyan is adamant that he and his friends are living, so their souls belong with their bodies. Drik  Chikit ik steps back from Wakinyan, and begins to spin his blade. He is doing some sort of ritual, i.e. “spiritual force.” Wakinyan tries but cannot beastmaster Cheaton from the other side of the veil. Wakinyan tries to keep the party from entering the Veil, and they don’t. Wakinyan asks Drik ‘chik how he and his people died - he doesn’t know.  \

Two figures wreathed in fire  come down from down the waterway next to the gate, surrounding by six moving fires the size of men. Matilda runs. Suddenly, there are fires spreading toward the party. The fires are going through the party’s positions, but pass through everyone without harm.  The figures move to the wrought iron fence and begin firing blazing arrows through, at Drik Chik, who retereats into the fog, pursued by the smaller fires, who also disappear into the fog.

Confusion reigngs. Wakinyan tries to stop the fighting;   the two fire-wreathed figures continue firing.  Suddenly, a figure appears atop Kiell’s house; it is the figure whose image the PC saw during Herald Jain’s singing.  His fiery whip swings, extends, and lashes one of the fiery wreated figures, who turns and fires arrows at the newcome. Deucalion uses TLK to rise to the roof of the standing stone structure.  Jac, flying about, shrieks and disappears behind the stone house, presumably landing.  Deucalion appears to be preparing some action against the figure on Kiell’s house.

The six fiery figures appear in the fog, the Gate through the Veil swings open, and the figures appear to be escorting ten ghosts between them.