When they reached Vriskirsa Ema let Simon do the talking. She knew she could do it better but it seemed to make him feel important so she chose to give him this freebie...usually. As he went to hand the naga the gauntlet she sighed in exasperation, he might be getting better at diplomacy but he still had a ways to go about thinking things through it seemed. Ultimately this whole thing seemed like a good idea, having the naga accompany them, and she was glad the creature decided to do so.
As Kip asked her if he'd help them against the naga and she declined saying her magic was incompatible due to the areas she specialized in Ema asked, "What kind of magics do you use? I assume divinations of course for gathering information, would you be willing to use those to help us gather information on this hag and her possible demon friend if we come up with questions or do you want to stay out of it entirely?"
When Simon asks if nagas are good at climbing, Vriskirsa shakes her head. "Our forms are more suited for slithering on land or swimming through water. I can use my magic to temporarily assume a humanoid form, though, and that will allow me to join you in the laboratory."
She is bemused by Kip's enthusiastic description of your adventures. When Ema asks about her magic, Vriskirsa replies, "I can cast a few divination, illusion, and transmutation spells. My divinations aren't very powerful though. They mostly allow me to understand different languages and find hidden objects. I'm afraid they won't be much help in learning more about the hag or the fiend."
The naga also has little to offer about hags or their abilities. Her knowledge is limited to local affairs and identifying the properties of magical objects.
---
It takes you most of a day and a half to retrace your steps back to the abandoned facility at the base of the mountain peak. Fortunately, Vriskirsa moves swiftly on land as well as through the waves, easily keeping pace as she slithers alongside you.
When faced with the pit descending into the caves, the naga casts a spell, transforming into an ophidian humanoid so that she can descend the rope.
"Extraordinary! This was likely once a major research facility. The ioun stones probably powered more than just the doors here back in its heyday," the naga says.
When you are ready, you place Vriskirsa's clear spindle ioun stone in the lock of the door. The circuitry glows faintly before the door opens. A smooth metal dais rises from the floor of this chamber, surrounded by four crystal pillars containing fine threads of silver in angular patterns. Sputtering, irregular lights flicker and flash from each crystal pillar, and arcane sigils on the floor of the dais spark and crackle with energy.
As soon as the door opens, though, another blast shadow rushes out to attack, howling with anger and frustration!
Victrix steps forward and swings her axe. "Oi! Settle down!"
No sooner does the blast shadow rush out then Victrix tears into it with her glaive. The unstable undead's body detonates in a fiery explosion!
"Wow! That was awesome!" Oorka says, clapping excitedly.
Being at the centre of the explosion, Victrix has no real options to try and escape it.
She emerges from the blast looking more than a little singed. The tips of her red hair are singed and on fire. "Ow."
Ema enjoyed the chance to talk magic with Viriska, even if it turned out to be less useful spells than she'd hoped. She invited Oorka to join in as well, translating if needed for the naga and strix. When they reached the chasm and had to go down Ema was surprised when the naga changed her form like she did. It seemed something useful to learn one day.
When they reached the bottom and entered the unexplored room Ema made sure to keep Oorka close to her and it turned out to be a good thing she did as another of those explosive shadows charged them. Fortunately Victrix was in a position to deal with it, unfortunately she took the full brunt of the explosion. It was a good thing the warrior woman was durable or that could have been much worse.
As they entered the room and began to examine it, letting Victrix tend to her wounds, and began looking at the device within. She stood there for a few minutes and examined it with both mundane and magically augmented sense and conferred with Simon, "So what do you think, if we shift this connection here, adjust the flow of magic along this path," she indicated the new route and the way it would now flow around the most badly damaged section of enchantments, "I think this will get us something to work with." She gave him a questioning look before completing the adjustment to see if he agreed.
Victrix pops her two light healing potions.
Her burns mostly heal, but parts of her skin are still red and raw.
Ema and Simon tinker with the device for a few minutes, activating several inert runes. The crystal pillars flare to life and the arcane sigils on the dais crackle with activity. A moment later, a spectral image of a robed figure in an ornate helmet that obscures its face flickers into view. It's the same figure that you saw earlier on the dais that the monkey goblins were guarding. It speaks in the Azlanti language.
"The time we have been preparing for is now upon us. Our enemies move to bring about our end, but we will not allow them this victory. Hold fast, remain brave, and have faith that the final solution is at hand. Soon we will rid the world of this veiled menace. Glory to Azlant!" The spectral figure raises a clenched fist and then disappears like the blown-out flame of a candle.
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Simon quickly takes out his notebook and jots down the words as quickly as he can.
"Fascinating! It spoke of the final solution again, but also of a veiled menace.
We'll find the rest of the pieces eventually."
Simon makes some additional notes about the activation process and a description of the device and the rest of the room.
He searches for any hidden objects as he explores the room.
As the voice spoke Ema once more repeated the words along with the image, though it wasn't as certain as the time she went into a trance. Despite the slight hesitancy and soft way she spoke she still had it down perfectly, even the man's inflections, and felt a strange ephemeral connection.
When it finished Ema tried to remember where that voice was from, how she knew it, other than the recording, and it finally hit her. "I...I think I heard that voice in my dream, the one I think was a memory, but..." She held a hand to her head as pain throbbed for a moment and leaned against one wall to steady herself as she collected her wits.
"If you remember it... maybe they gathered everyone up and then opened up a gateway through time and jumped into the future so that their enemies would grow old and wither away. Though they'd have to be pretty sure that they'd do that... otherwise their enemies could just get even stronger and create new magic and weapons. And that doesn't explain how you ended up alone and unable to remember how you got there. Maybe the final solution didn't work right?"
Victrix cringes, throwing her empty potion vials aside. "Ema?"
She moves to put a hand on the arcanist's shoulder. "You alright there?"
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Simon peers at Ema strangely, not having heard of these suspicions of dreams that are more than dreams.
"You had a dream? I have lots of dreams.
Last night I dreamt I was a dashing knight on a silver stallion and climbed a hig tower to battle a ferocious dragon. Yet, in the morning, here I was just a hideous half-orc again."
When he notices the cold stares from the other party members, he throws up his hands in disgust and heads back to the rope to start climbing out.
Reality is difficult enough without injecting a bunch of worries about a supposed past life into the mix. Work with what you can prove. The rest is meaningless.
She is probably just making up stories to explain away whatever trauma caused her to lose her memories, but the others accept it carte blance and coddle her.
Ema nodded at Victrix and said, "I'll be fine, it's not like the last time when I went into a trance, my head just hurts at the moment."
Ema glared slightly at Simon but her heart wasn't in it as she said, "You've heard of it before, when I passed out after the Stalkers attacked us and said I thought the dream was a memory of my past, that I might be from Azlant somehow. I'm so glad that you know who and what you are when you wake up because I don't anymore Sir Knight." She took a breath to collect herself and then finished softly, "And you aren't a hideous half-orc, I've seen hideous things and you aren't one of them." She gave a slight mischievous smile as she finished, "A bit plain maybe, but not hideous."
As Kip began to throw out ideas Ema said, "I don't know that time travel is an option, I don't think it's possible really, and the possibility that enemies might gain in power and figure out when to strike against you would be too great. If they were doing that it would be better to go back and end the threat before it began but then who knows what would happen since then they would have no reason to go back so they wouldn't have. It's a very dangerous thing to do so I doubt it."
Simon doesn't find anything else of value in this chamber. As you move to leave, Vriskirsa lingers behind. "Thank you for showing this place to me. I'd like to stay here and study it for a bit longer, then I'll make my way back to the reef. You can find me there if you need my assistance again. Safe travels!"
You climb back up to the surface and head north, and as a light afternoon rain falls, you return to Talmandor's Bounty after about a week away. Kalikk looks around the colony with a critical eye, while Oorka looks around the colony in wonder. Several of the colonists regard the two strix with the same curiosity. "This is where you live? It's so quiet! Where do you paint your histories and sing your songs?" the young oracle asks.
"I kinda like the quiet." Victrix smiles when she sees the colony again.
"Though if it's songs you're looking for--" She points out the Eagle's Nest. "--that'd be a good place to start. Especially during the evenings."
Oorka squints to try to see the building Victrix is pointing to. "Ah, a festhall! Do they serve kombucha there?"
"...um..." Victrix blinks. "...what's kombucha?"
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Simon smiles at Victrix and Oorka, then attempts some clarification.
"The songs they sing at the Roost are more about the joy of life. Any stories included in the songs are either made up or legends.
There is a tradition of bardic retelling of historical events, but the details within the songs are generally stylized and the facts are not to be trusted.
If history is what you are looking for, we write our histories in books. I actually have an extensive collection of historical works in the Library.
I would be pleased to show you around, and to help translate and perhaps explain anything, if you would like.
I have lots of notes to transcribe anyways, so I will likely be in the library for most of the day, if there are other things you would like to see first."
Simon pauses to think a moment.
"Speaking of painted histories, the cave where we found the remains of the unfortunate young Strix had a painting on the wall, though I am not sure if the work was of Strix origin or if it was from some other people.
I did make a copy of the painting in my notes. Perhaps, you could look at it and tell me what you know of it."
Oorka bobs her head eagerly. "Yes! I can't see words very well, but if they are written in your language, I wouldn't be able to understand them anyway. But I would love to be read to."
The strix squints at the drawing in Simon's notebook. "This does not look like any artwork the Akkiti-Skah have created. Perhaps it was made by a culture who lived here long before we arrived. If not the Azlanti, then another, prehistoric people!"
Meanwhile, Kalikk looks at Victrix. "Kombucha is a tea brewed from certain mushrooms. It stimulates the mind and cleanses the body."
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Simon nods his assent.
"Of course. First, go see the town. I am sure Kip would love to show you his garden, and the others can help to introduce you to the rest of the townsfolk.
When you are done, stop by and I will locate a decent book to start with."
Simon says farewell and proceeds to the library, where he will locate a simple book providing a broad brush timeline of historical events. He will attempt to help Oorka to understand Common as well as reading from the book.
Victrix's expression turns pensive, and she wanders into the colony looking for Antona. I could introduce her to Kalikk and Oorka... but there's something else I need to talk to her about first.
Victrix finds Antona outside the smithy. Blacksmith Leutin Calewick works at the forge, hammering a few dents out of the soldier's armor. Antona smiles at the aasimar. "Hey, you! Welcome home." She embraces the redhead.
Victrix smiles and returns her girlfriend's hug. "It's bloody good to be home."
"Been busy, sir?" She looks over at the blacksmith, then down at Antona's dented armour. "Pretty nasty-looking hit, there. What happened while I was gone?"
Luetin grunts but doesn't look up from his work. "Gotta keep everybody's blades sharp and armor solid in case more of them faceless goons show up again."
"Got in a little scrape with some monkey goblins outside town. Nothing we couldn't handle," Antona says. "I'm off duty tonight. We should take some time to...catch up."
At this, Luetin does look up. "Wouldn't mind 'catching up' with you two ladies myself," he says, waggling his eyebrows.
Antona glares at him.
The aasimar blinks at the mention of 'faceless goons', an uncomfortable feeling forming in her gut like a knife. "Yeah. We should." She gives Antona a look like she wants to say something more, but keeps quiet.
"We've got a couple of new visitors to town."
"Oh? You made some new friends out there? What are they like?"
"They're a pair of strix folks. One of 'em's an oracle, the other's a warrior. Their names are Oorka and Kalikk, respectively."
"Oh, okay." Antona says. She pauses briefly, then says, "What's a strix?"
"A sort of bird-person, if you will. They and Simon would be able to tell you more than I would."
"Got it. Well, speaking of birds, shall we hit up the Eagle's Roost?"
"Got it. Well, speaking of birds, shall we hit up the Eagle's Roost?"
"Sure. Let's go." Victrix smiles and loops an arm around Antona's waist before setting off for the tavern.
Her hand slides down to Antona's bottom for a brief squeeze and a grin.
Antona giggles at her girlfriend's groping. Soon, the two of them are seated at Victrix's private table, sipping their drinks as the evening crowd starts to trickle in. "So, what else did you find out there besides the strix?"
"Well..." Victrix thinks. "...we found some exploding shadows in an underground laboratory. We found some living vegetation that tried to crush us and a ball of light that zapped us. There was some toxic smoke in a swamp... oh."
She nods. "There was also this bug demon that vomited up wasps and had a bunch of fish-person servants with 'em. We killed the minions, but the bug escaped. I think Simon called it a 'wihsaak', whatever the hell that is."
"So, we've been busy."
"I'd say. Always an adventure with you, love." Antona smiles and finishes her drink."I'm glad you made it home in one piece."
Victrix smiles for a moment and takes a swig from her drink.
Her smile fades and she looks Antona in the eyes. "Antona... you remember the night the faceless things attacked, yes? Something's been bothering me ever since that night..."
Antona reaches over the table to hold Victrix's hand. "What is it? You can tell me."
Victrix takes a breath and squeezes Antona's hand briefly.
"...you remember when we were interrogating one of them? And how I was able to get it to talk by offering my blood?" The aasimar has a bit of trouble meeting Antona's eyes. "That whole experience?"
"I... well, I actually started to enjoy it. Being fed on."
Antona blinks. "Oh. Um, do you want me to, uh...bite you when we're being intimate?"
Victrix was prepared for the worst to happen. This was a scenario she had played dozens of times in her head as the party had walked back home. She was anticipating Antona reacting to this news with disgust, concern, rejection--anything than what she just said, really.
The berserker sits in her seat, looking Antona in the eyes, momentarily surprised. "Um... w-well..." A blush fills her cheeks. "...i-if you WANTED to--and-only-if-you-wanted-to, I-don't-mean-to-freak-you-out-or-anything--I, um..."
"...I think I'd like that..." Her eyes wander to Antona's mouth--specifically, to her teeth.
"Of course. Everybody has their thing, right? Baby, you look good enough to eat," Antona says with a predatory grin.
A wave of relief hits Victrix. "Oh, that's great to hear. I was worried that if I ran into one of those faceless things again, I'd want it to feed from me more than I'd want to kill it, but--"
She finishes her drink. "--anyway, do you want to get outta here?"
"Thought you'd never ask." She takes Victrix's hand and leads her away.
Victrix's heart is pounding faster than it has before as Antona leads her away.
"So... where do you want to go? My place? The beach? I don't care where we go right now." She licks her lips and grins, giddy with excitement.
"Your place is closer," Antona whispers.
As soon as the two have some privacy, the soldier divests the berserker of her clothing. Their lips meet, then her teeth find the redhead's neck...