Toad barely avoids sticking his face into the spindle.
He shows the apparition the scariest picture from his Coloring Tome!
Scary!
Then he slcices and dices with his flank buddy.
|
Standing near the edges of the island Aegis and Tenpot feel the call of the void tugging at their minds. Their intrusive thoughts to jump become stronger and stronger.
The lantern from Vesperscale glows so bright its flames leap to Toadclobber, igniting the goblin to make him feel more at home. This frightens the Echo, even more than it returning to nonexistence through its defeat.
Toadclobber's toadslicer cuts inot the Echo, creating another large wound through its core.
The Echo steps out of the way as he flicks a red threaded rope dart at Vesperscale.
Vesperscale gets stuck with the rope dart as the Echo seems to supernaturally control it as it twists through the air at Aegis.
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
Call t the Void Hazard
Toadclobber
K.H.W. Echo
➤ Tenpot
➤ Aegis
➤ Vesperscale
Tenpot shakes his head, hoping to clear the strange thoughts that are clouding his concentration, then tries once more to identify some sort of weakness in the echo.
He quickly takes aim once more and fires again, then moves away from the echo as hi quickly reloads.
Your implement sings out abruptly, disrupting your foe. The piece played depends on whether the trigger was a Strike or Spell, and it applies to the triggering Strike or Spell, except where noted otherwise.
Vesperscale steps closer, raises their shield and strikes.
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Tenpots remembers much much more, unfortunately none of it seems to help. Tenpot fires another bullet. it whistles past the Echo's head as a near miss.
Aegis concentrates his psychic energy into small orbs that batter the Echo down further. As Vesperscales blade slices through the Echo is releases hundreds of white moths that circle and envelope the echo 10' around it.
The call of the Void continues to pull stronger and stronger at Aegis and Tenpot as they stand near the edge of the void.
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
Call t the Void Hazard
➤ Toadclobber
K.H.W. Echo
Tenpot
Aegis
Vesperscale
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...
...aaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAH!"
<Thud>
Toad Steps into a flank…
and weakness
and weakness
|
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Tenpots leaps from the edge into the vastness of space. Hurtling through the air he plummets back to the ground, crashing into the small chunk of land.
Toadclobber wounds the Echo further as the Ech dissipates into a cloud of moths, reforming 15' away. The Echo throws his ropedart into the island, absorbing all life and color from it inot himself as it darkens.
"They have left me no other choice. I do not wish this." His rope dart arcs around into Vesperscale and Aegis.
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
Call to the Void Hazard
➤ Toadclobber
K.H.W. Echo
➤ Tenpot
➤ Aegis
➤ Vesperscale
With their shield protecting them Vesperscale moves into flank and takes a shielding strike.
Vesperscale then retains some of that magical power, entering into ther stance.
Tenpot scrambles to his feat, wide-eyed and still on the edge of panic as he fires off a shot at the echo. Before the report of his pistol even fades, he's moving quickly away from the edge, reloading with shaking fingers as he goes.
Your implement sings out abruptly, disrupting your foe. The piece played depends on whether the trigger was a Strike or Spell, and it applies to the triggering Strike or Spell, except where noted otherwise.
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Vesperscale keeps her shield raised high as she avoids the strike. The decreased field of view also causing her spellstrike to miss by a large margin.
Tenpot scrambles away from the edge of the floating isle as he too misses, shooting the darkness.
Aegis concentrates soothing his own injuries as he lashes out with his own psychic powers.
The white moths mess with his mind but only minimally as his psychic force shreds through them inot the Echo.
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
Call to the Void Hazard
➤ Toadclobber
K.H.W. Echo
Tenpot
Aegis
Vesperscale
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Toadclobber burns as he slices at the strange Echo that is simply trying to preserve its own existence.
The Echo dissipates, reappearing 15' away on a new island as whips the rope dart across the expanse.
"I do not wish for my existence to end."
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
Call to the Void Hazard
➤ Toadclobber
K.H.W. Echo
➤ Tenpot
➤ Aegis
➤ Vesperscale
Tenpot shifts forward for a better view, remaining far away from the edge of the island, then fires at the echo again before quickly reloading.
Your implement sings out abruptly, disrupting your foe. The piece played depends on whether the trigger was a Strike or Spell, and it applies to the triggering Strike or Spell, except where noted otherwise.
Vesperscale raises their shield and works to disarm the trap.
Toad Quick Jumps off the edge of the edge and slices and dices the shadow:
weak 8
weak 8
Vesperscale blinks out of existance and reappears across from Toad where he strikes with great force.
Vesperscale follows up with a slash.
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Tenpots shoots the Echo wounding it as Aegis makes the tengu just a bit more heroic. Vesperscale blinks across just as Toadclobber leaps to the other side where the pair swiftly execute the Echo from existence before it is able to absorb another island.
As the final blow is struck, the Echo collapses in a storm of white moths that scatter in every direction, leaving cracks in the fabric of the mindscape itself.
You are ejected from the somnambulist’s bridge, landing back in Nantambu. As the air clears all that’s left is the crumpled paper the Echo refused to hand over: the Lone Archivist’s last secret.
Unfolds the paper, you find an iron key in the shape of the Dark Archive’s symbol that turns, ever so slightly, in their hand, pointing someplace distant like the needle of a compass tugging north. The paper bears the following note.
I know there’s a chance no one ever reads this. Even so:
If you hold this page, you are first among the successors to the Dark Archive. You’ve passed the test I set here—but more vitally, before that, you untangled the threads I couldn’t. As I can’t share this astonishing success with you in person, please let me say well done, and that you have my eternal gratitude.
As I wrote in my first letter, there’s no true substitute for experience. Your path here has provided plenty of that, but I hope it also brought you the joys this work can hold: the comfort of camaraderie, the satisfaction of success.
I have one final gift for you: the key to my vault, where I’ve stored enough secrets to fill a thousand casefiles. Follow it, and it will show you the way—to Absalom, to the vault, and to me.
I said I wouldn’t be the last archivist. Thank you for proving me right. The unknown beckons.
Until we meet, my fellow Dark Archivists,
—K.H.W.
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Following the direction of the Dark Archive key, you have found your way to a nondescript warehouse on the outskirts of Absalom, at the end of a little-used country road.
Overgrown cacti with hundreds of white flowers in full bloom sprawl across the brick walls of this nondescript storefront. A sweet fragrance hangs in the air, accompanied by the creaking of a wooden sign hanging near the road, the letters “Imports by Huon-Wynn” faded on its surface. The Dark Archive key exerts a strong, tugging pull toward the cobweb-covered lock on the door.
"I wonder what the K. stands for?" Tenpot muses, taking in the scene. "Guess there's an easy way to find out, huh?" He gestures to the lock. "Who's got the key?"
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"Hm. Lots of magic on that lock, but it seems to be responding to the key. I suspect we should have no trouble going in." Tenpot tilts his head slightly as he really looks at the spiderwebs on the door. "Strange. These are actually silkworm silk, rather than spider silk. And those cacti: queen-of-the-nights should only open, well, only at night."
Vesperscale nods and will take a key and open the door once everybody is ready.
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As the key is inserted into the door and turned, a rush of divination magic swirls around you, registering you as fully fledged Dark Archivists and allowing you to pass through the security systems undeterred.
Parallel channels under the building’s threshold carry thin but unbroken lines of ash, jade, lead, orichalcum, peachwood, silver, ti, turquoise, water, holy water, unholy water, and other materials too numerous to identify. As the door opens, quartz crystals in sconces ignite with a clear magical light, illuminating a cross‑shaped intersection of hallways. A reptile skeleton, perfectly preserved, faces the door from atop a display pedestal. The floors are unnervingly clean, giving the room a sterile feel.
This entrance hallway displays a rotating exhibit of unique specimens encountered and cataloged during Dark Archive field missions, meant to enrich and broaden the horizons of archivists who pass in and out of the Annex. The current specimen (or at least, the last specimen before the Annex was shuttered) is a fossil brought back from a mission near Murraseth by Archivist Kellu, as noted on a tidy plaque.
Toad pretends he knows what the plaques and pedestals say. K. He nods moves along to the left, but eyes the dino suspiciously. He doesn;t like this place. Too clean.
Vesperscale shrugs and nods.
"Left is fine."
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Equipment and supplies line the walls of this compact locker room. Standard armaments bristle along one wall, while more esoteric gear—dowsing rods, enchanted lenses, and cold-iron restraints— line another. Sturdy lockers, each with a nameplate, stand near the door.
This armory and supply room contains various materials commonly needed for Dark Archive field missions, such as arrows of precious metals and tracking equipment. The lockers, meant to contain personal weapons and gear rather than Archive supplies, are empty save for the locker for Archivist Huon-Wynn, which contains a few changes of simple travel clothes, as well as a nightgown.
The weapon racks contain 5 cold-iron daggers and 5 silver daggers, all low-grade.
"Hm. Never know when something like this might come in handy." He tucks a dagger of each type in his belt, then checks to make sure he knows where his cold iron and silver bullets are.
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Finding no magic in this room Aegis heads across the hall and opens the door labeled as research and devlopment.
This laboratory has an even-more-sterile feel than the rest of the building. Biological samples float in bubbling cylinders in one corner, while a glowing rune in another corner sustains a magical containment field. Four different environmental chambers line the wall furthest from the doors, windswept grains of sand and falling snow bouncing off their respective flickering magical barriers.
Analysis and development of new field tools were just a few of the tasks performed in this room. The western wall contains several magical environments for testing gear and protective wear; while the magical fields keep these chambers’ environmental effects from crossing into or out of the main room, creatures can pass through easily. The desert, snow, and underwater test chambers are especially grueling, while the grasslands test chamber is a plain for control testing. The magical diagram in the northeast sustains a hexagon of 8th‑level walls of force and renews it automatically every minute unless the entire field is breached.
★ -- ★ -- ★ -- ★
Aegis notices a crystal-and-gold apparatus on a workbench is an experimental device to record and access memories.
Vesperscale tries to repair it.
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Tenpot joins Vesperscale's effort to repair it.
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You spend 10 minutes studying the crystal and gold recording device. Unfortunately you didn't win the jackpot and it stymies each of you.
You feel a palpable wave of psychic dread emanating through the Annex, and in response, the building’s security protocols go into containment mode, sealing all entrances and exits and covering the building. One my one you hear each of the exit doors slam shut with a loud thud the Annex seals you within.
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Let’s go, says Tiad. [ooc]move on[/oos]
Toad moves to the back of the room. Maybe there is somethingn interesting over there.