(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 15 1/31/2023 Episode 18
Episode 18
The Hidden Fortress/The Esoteric Fortress
Chodrak greets the statues as they begin to return to life in the room with the dead basilisk. One is a human woman and one is a goblin. Chodrak speaks to the woman and she speaks common, which really only became the main language in the last 2000 years, so we know they have to be younger than that. She doesn’t remember the basilisk much. Caleigh walks over to the tiefling girl in the courtyard, a young adult, and greets her. She says she is Marla, and that Caleigh, as a valkyrie, is welcome here, because she is “one from the gods”, but all that pass through the barrier are welcome as the guards must have let us in. Caleigh informs her she was stone and asks what this place is. Marla says it is their home and it used to look nicer. She isn’t sure how long it has been since she was turned to stone. Marla wants to know how long it has been since the Relescian invasion, and Caleigh tells her that it’s been more than 1000 years. She then asks what date it is by the prime calendar, which is 2377. She says it could have been worse as it’s only been about 250 years.
Abcde is by another statue turned person, and Chodrak joins them. It seems to be a guard who immediately brandishes his flail and starts growling, wanting the beast. Abcde leads him over to the house where he sees the goblin eating the body of the basilisk and talks to the woman. The woman’s name is Jaren, and his name is Harlon. Jaren runs over to Harlon. He tells the goblin, who he calls Skuld, to stop eating the thing, but Skuld says he’s hungry. Abcde tells him about the spider next door and the goblin goes after the spider instead.
Rayvvin goes to check on their horse, who is fine. Abcde has questions for the guard. They ask about the broken automaton and Harlon curses about how he’s broken again. Abcde next asks about the tunnel in the carriage house, and the guard answers it’s nothing. Abcde, Chodrak, and Sterling don’t believe him. Abcde asks if there might be any statues inside, and he says no. He says the place is called The Esoteric Fortress. After getting angry with himself about not being able to kill the basilisk, Abcde convinces him, with the help of Jaren, to let us look around to see if anything else is there. He says his leader is Sheltran and asks us to attempt to find him. Abcde says we’ll check in when we are done with our sweep.
Caleigh and Artimious are next to Marla still. Caleigh asks for the name of the place. Caleigh doesn't recognize the name, The Esoteric Fortress. Artimious hasn’t heard of it either. Rayvvin does not see the ghosts in the stable anymore and they go to join the group. Abcde tells us about having permission to poke around the castle. We are looking for the chief, Sheltran, as well. Caleigh still feels the strong source of Atae. We head up to the main door into the castle, but when we reach out a hand we cannot touch the door. A magical energy pushes back. Abcde reaches out to the barrier and can tell it’s similar to the magic that makes up the barrier around the Esoteric Fortress. They also realize they are nowhere near strong enough to break through the barrier or shut it off from this side.
We head back into the carriage house and we head to the tunnel. It looks no different than before. We start down the tunnel and Artimious and Chodrak see two separate trip lines, one linked to holes in the wall and the other connected to a section of the floor that might move. Artimious goes to undo the traps, getting the one on the wall first successfully. He is also able to get the second trap as well. The floor shifts slightly before settling back into place. We continue walking along.
The walls get more polished as we travel further in, and there are also more lights along the walls. A few minutes later, we approach a door. There are no less than 20 enchantments, all currently inactive. It is a cold steel door and Chodrak opens it. On the other side, we see a bedroom. We seem to have come out of a tapestry. The room is quite dusty, but also beautifully adorned and fairly large. There are a couple of doors, one smaller and one a double door. Chodrak and Artimious head into the room, Rayvvin following behind. Abcde stays outside the room, keeping an eye on everything. Walking around the room, Chodrak doesn’t notice anything wrong. Artimious sneezes. There is a large pool in the room and the water in it is quite clear. Rayvvin starts looking through the drawers. All of them are filled with papers and books, but none seem interesting. Chodrak goes to the smaller door, and opens it. Inside is a small private study with a writing desk and bookcases all around. Abcde checks the shelves, and they all appear to be journals and in the same handwriting. There are dates on them and earliest is from -4720 BPC (before prime calendar). Abcde opens the oldest one. Rayvvin sees it and notices it’s in the same language as the map. None of us recognize the language. Abcde looks at the journal on the table and there is no date, so they look at the most recent on the shelves, which is dated 2122 PC. 2123 is at the top of the one on the desk. The journals appear in remarkably good condition. We head over to the double doors and Artimious says it looks good. Chodrak opens it.
We are in a hallway, right about the middle. Each direction there are a number of doors. This is the nicest though the others are still nice. Rayvvin votes we start on the right, so we head that way. We start moving down the hall, checking the rooms we come across. Everything is dusty and undisturbed. There are 7 doors, one is at the end of the hall. We open one door and it’s another bedroom. We continue down the hall to the end. Caleigh stops. She says that the feeling of Atae is coming closer. She points toward the door and off to the side and her finger begins moving toward the door until she stops pointing. The right door at the end of the hallway starts to open before popping open quickly, slamming against the wall. A being looks at us and we look at them. It is a lirasa. She turns and bolts.
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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