(A quick note here, I've added these synopsis for people to go back and remind themselves about what happened or if people come in later and don't want to start at the beginning, they can read these really fast, but they are not a replacement for watching our videos as they are not full descriptions. If you don't want to video, you will miss most of the comedy and all of the fighting as I am not going to do a play by play of each attack. So, please check out our videos)
Day 20 6/9/2023 Episode 25 and 26
Episode 25
Esoteric Fortress
When we wake up the next morning to find the fortress smells of food, and everything has been cleaned. It feels more alive immediately. We get up and head toward the delicious smells. In the kitchen, it seems to be functioning, though we don’t see anyone. Caleigh grabs a croissant. Rayvvin peaks into the dining room and sees Sheltran at the head table. He is now dressed resplendently in a crimson cloak. His clothes are finely made but nothing gaudy or too fancy. We all, but Abcde, head into the dining room. The place is all functional by itself, switches just have to be turned on. It’s via electricity, but they call it electricity (elec-try-sai-tea) or something like that. Abcde sees the kitchen function on its own. Sheltran has decided to stay here as it will be a better way to make amends, but he still wants to kill Kazel. The food is still being prepped in the kitchen, and we wait in the dining room, until we see hot food come out on self rolling platters. Abcde follows the meat tray out. A horn sounds and about 10 minutes later, the five people from the village show up. We enjoy a delicious breakfast, the best one we’ve had since Brixert’s.
We head to Dairren’s room, Rayvvin with a plate of food. Opening the door, we find Dairren hanging off the side of the bed asleep. Rayvvin takes the plate of food to Dairren, putting it near his face to wake him. He begrudgingly does so. Rayvvin asks him to translate the map and the sigils in the portal room so we can get to Manda and at least eventually try to find Kazel. Dairren gets dressed and Caleigh comes in. Dairren eats some and we head down to the portal room. He can’t locate Manda in these portals as he doesn’t have the larger map with the old names of the area (Krem would have it). Caleigh asks if Sheltran would know, and with a yes, she runs upstairs to ask him. Sheltran says he’ll just read the portals and comes back down with her. He walks to the wall and slides back a piece of stone where there are glittering lights. He looks, flicks something, and all of the portals go dark. He does more, and all the portals light up, and they’re all in common. As long as a city still exists, it should be updated. When we ask about the key to get through the portal to the library, he says we need an activation spell, but he doesn’t know it. He says Kazel might know it, or it might be in some books somewhere so some strong magicians might know it, and the goddess Vulkus might know it but she won’t help us. We talk about going to get Kazel and see if he knows the spell, while also trying to bring him back. We also realize that the School of Omadano would have the knowledge we need. So, before we leave, Rayvvin drops Dairren off in the journal room. The closest portal to the city is the one to the magical smithery and that would get us to about a week away from Manda. And Manza is about a day out of here.
We head back to the kitchen, there’s no one there and nothing is on. Caleigh flips the switch and things turn on, but nothing happens. Caleigh says to make us rations, but nothing moves. Rayvvin is digging through the cabinets. Abcde goes to find Sheltran. Rayvvin and Caleigh find a piece of glass that looks out of place. It’s mounted on something on plastic, that we don’t know what it is. Caleigh touches the screen and it glows brightly and words show up. It has a column with a list of categories of types of food. One does say dehydrated, another for travel. Caleigh pushes the dehydrated. More options show up. We get it started and it gives a time to completion, which is over an hour. Abcde finds Sheltran in the grand hall and asks after rations. Sheltran leads Abcde back to the kitchen. We get 770 lbs of food from this just over an hour later. We tell Sheltran to have his people sell the rest.
We head back to the portal room, and we decide to go through the portal and depending on where we end up, since we aren’t sure, we have options. Either Abcde asks after their mentor, or we could try to be students. Artimious says he won’t join us. We step up to the portal, activate it, and blink out of existence.
Episode 26
Omadano
When we come through the portal, we find that we are all together but otherwise things are a bit hectic. Abcde lands in a standing position, Chodrak is planted firmly in somebody’s lap, Rayvvin lands flat on top of someone, and Caleigh is lying in the middle of a very large long table. Abcde is next to a podium, and recognizes the room. We are standing in the council chamber of the ruling body of the country of Toruqia, and Abcde is next to the headmaster table. Caleigh is on the table with about 30 people staring at her, Chodrak is in the lap of a council member, and Rayvvin flattened a member of the council. There’s about 200 people in the room. Abcde looks around for Aranel, his mentor, and is standing behind her. She hasn’t seen them yet. Chodrak turns into a bird and flies over to land on Abcde’s shoulder. Caleigh sits up and just says hi. Rayvvin says, “Darn that spell went awry.” Abcde turns and tries to leave through the nearest door. As we try to get up, all the doors we see turn into walls that shimmer and are a dark purple crystal that is likely designed to prohibit teleportation. The headmaster who was standing at the podium, is surrounded by a force shield. We are immobilized. Everyone in the council room stands up and prepares spells. Abcde says we came because we were attacked 5 days ago, and then sees the one who was in the fortress 5 days ago, a woman with long black hair. Caleigh sees her and yells, “Her.” Guards step forward and say Lady Talwen is a prominent member of the council and they don’t like our insinuations. Abcde says that they are willing to tell them but they don’t want a mind probe or a truth spell. Caleigh says she’ll do it, but only a truth spell. At the end, he believes that we didn’t mean to arrive here and should be sent back to where we came from. The grandmaster says to lead us to a portal, but Abcde asks for an audience with one of their members. Abcde asks after Aranel, and transforms into their five year old self. She says to the grandmaster that she has questions. Abcde asks if they could talk in private and bring the rest of us. She agrees and the grandmaster says she may do as she sees fit with us.
She casts command on each of us, telling us to “follow” and we do so. The walls change back to normal and the doors come back. She walks out and down a few hallways, us in tow, out into the streets. And she leads us to a building that Abcde is familiar with, and up to a room they are even more familiar with. She closes the door and casts command, telling us to “sit” and “stay” and then indicates a space on the shelf, and asks where it is. Abcde says they were with the lirasa, and she wants to know which, and Abcde says the one that lived in the swamp. Aranel wants to know why they took it and why they betrayed her, and Abcde tells her that the witch said she was gonna train them one on one, and give them more power, which sounded good to a five year old. She wants to know why she shouldn’t pull the information from Abcde’s mind, and Abcde says they really don’t know that much about her or where she is. She wants to know if the Lady Talwen is this lirasa, and Abcde says they can’t be sure that it is her, but she took many forms but also looked like the lady, likely so she could blend in.
Abcde changes back to fifty year old Abcde, but not what we have seen. They look like their changeling form. Abcde then tells her about the Allip and the Library of Taba. She says on behalf of the grand inquisitor's mind, a thanks as his mind would have been also affected by the Allip through the mind touch. She wants to know how close we are to finding the library. She says she could give up access to what we need, but we would have to do something for her. She wants to know if Abcde knows what they took, and they respond that they only know that it was a box and they don’t know what was in there. She reveals that inside the box is a book, and that book was something important to her, and something she had been working on for many years. It was her spellbook. She could have summoned the book back to her, only she can’t if another powerful mage cast a countering spell on it. So she wants Abcde to do one or both of two things, and in exchange she will grant access to the resources of the school and won’t cast us out of the window, and we’re on the 14th floor, and she will even ensure that Abcde is reinstated to the school. The two things, either a) get the spellbook back or prove who has it so she can deal with them and/or b) let her come to the Library of Taba with us so that she can make a new book as it’s a soul bound item and she can only have one. Some of her spells have been used. The swamps don’t exist anymore as a sand spell came through and obliterated them. Some mountains have been removed as well from the barrier mountains between them and the Arillian Horde. We agree to attempt to get her book back. We are released from the command spell. She writes notes for us all to be able to access the facilities of the school, and will get Abcde reinstated into the school. She motions us to the door and we leave and she heads back to the council chamber. Abcde changes back to their half-elf form.
As we begin to walk away, Caleigh feels, pulling at the back of her mind, like she did at the Esoteric Fortress the first time in, a very strong singular connection to Atae.
See some names or information you don't know about, check out our other blog post "Who Are These People? Character Names" here: https://neko-maoh-games.wixsite.com/home/post/who-are-these-people-character-names
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