Vesperscale avoids getting astral bodied and responds with a true target.
Vesperscale follows up with a gouging spellstrike.
Toad tries to recall anything about the cocoons…
Failing to find anything, be improvises using a fiery crayon — something that burns silk.
His big-brained astral form snaps back into his body.
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Tenpots mind is completely walled off as the cocoons connection cannot seem to penetrate. While the Weaver fades just out of the path of the bullet he is able to break a small bit of the connection between the Weaver and the Cocoon.
Toadclobber creates his own weakness with one of his brighter crayons as his astral form slices through one of the thick outer layers.
His mind refocuses and snaps his astral form right back inot his body, leaving him feeling a little jolted.
Vesperscale avoids getting astraled as he weapon flares with powerful magics designed to go for the kill. Unfortunately for her teh Weaver is much faster as he leans back causing the hobgoblins blade to sweep across the air inches above him.
Aegis is also ejected from his body. Not letting it disturb him he sends several pieces of psychic debris inot the cocoon.
The Weaver in Dreams sweeps through, almost in a sort of dance as his pulsing threads wrap around two more of you. Tenpots bell doesn't seem to cause him any concern.
The Cocoon seems to go inot more of a defensive posture as it shields itself. Just as quickly as this happens so too does it disappear from sight. Vesperscale sees right through this invisibility as an invisibility curtain drops around it.
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
Weaver in Dreams
Cocoon
➤ Tenpot
➤ Toadclobber
➤ Vesperscale
➤ Aegis
Vesperscale continues to ignore the magics splayed against her as she changes targets, steps up to the Cocoon and attacks.
Vesperscale grasps at the escaping energy and enters her arcane cascade.
Gah! Where did you go?
Toad suspecting there's magic afoot pushes forward and then sees his target.
He shows it a picture in his coloring book of a goblin and a cocoon holding hands with smiley faces and a sun outside. (Why does the cocoon have hands? Mysteries of the Coloring Tome.)
Can't we be friends?
He cough up some blood, hoping to survive long enough to battle medicine himself in a round.
Tenpot reloads his pistol as he moves around to the far side of the wall, calling out to Killia once more.
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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Tenpots rushes around trying to reload as Toadclobber once again gets rejected by his body.
Though Tenpots isn't able to get through to the cocoon, Toadclobers voice breaks through the barrier as the pulsating cocoon quivers violently. Vesperscale keeps her shield up and sweeps her sharp blade through the next layer of the cocoon. You can fainly see the outline of Killian within.
Aegis' amped up telekenetic projectile gets close but misses the Weaver as it disappears behind the curtain of invisibility.
The Weaver shifts closer to Aegis and completely severs his tie to the astral plane. Aegis' astral body violently slams back into his mortal shell.
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
Weaver in Dreams
Cocoon
➤ Tenpot
➤ Toadclobber
➤ Vesperscale
➤ Aegis
Tenpot fires off a shot at the weaver, as much to distract them as anything else, as he calls out again to Killia "WAKE UP!"
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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 continues the assault against the cocoon, this time her weapon biting and clawing as well.
Vesperscale holds onto their power.
Toad drops his toadslicer.
He pleads with the cocoon. Look I dropped my toadslider mr. cloth box.
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Tenpots blasts the Weaver, causing it to hunch over in pain from the bullet. Electricity coarses out of the wound inot the cocoon. Toadclobber and Tenpots both plead with the Cocoon to break its hold and free himself from the Weaver's grasp.
Vesperscales blade breaks through the cocoon's final layer. It splits open with a wet crunch, the fibers breaking and letting loose like strings. Killia’s cut-away individuality rejoins the Weaver, flooding the Weaver with foreign emotions.
The nameless dreamer screams, holding his head. Looking up in anger he rushes in and severs Toadclobbers astral tie, slamming it back into his body.
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
Weaver in Dreams
➤ Tenpot
➤ Toadclobber
➤ Vesperscale
➤ Aegis
Tenpot moves forward as he reloads, firing again and just as quickly reloading once more.
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 through time and space, reappearing in better shape as she takes a strike at the Weave.
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Tenpot reloads and blasts the Weaver through the back doing significant damage. Vesperscale teleports through space and time healing her own wounds. Reappearing beside the Weaver Vesperscale's blade slices through the Weaver's arm separating it from its body. The weaver appears to barely be hanging on by a thread of life to this strange realm.
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
Weaver in Dreams
Tenpot
➤ Toadclobber
Vesperscale
➤ Aegis
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The Weaver is a cruel foe and Aegis' magic missiles quickly bring it down.
After the final blow against the Weaver is struck, he doubles over and begins to retch. A single silkworm larva, as large as a snake, emerges from his mouth, and as it does, the Weaver’s features begin to fade from his host’s body. Once the larva fully exits his mouth, a very human Killia Huon-Wynn lies face down on the stone. The Weaver begins to inch away as the dreamscape shatters, revealing an ordinary subterranean cavern once more.
Tenpot calmly steps over and brings his boot down, hard, on the larva.
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As the Weaver inches away in larval form Tenpot stes over and crushes it with a sickening splat. Juices and bits of the larvae cling and stretch between his boot and the floor as he pulls away.
With this, his present incarnation on the Material Plane is defeated, his essence scattered back to the Dimension of Dreams to return anew, if not for many years.
Killia soon awakens. “My fellow archivists... thank you for freeing me from that nightmare’s grasp. But while my body was... infested,” a shiver runs through Killia as he fiddles nervously with his beard, “I saw. I saw that what you’ve defeated was merely his projection onto this plane, and in time, he’ll be back. If we’re to face him again, we’ll need allies.” The archivist sighs wearily before a look of determined resolve crosses his face. “But you’ve proven capable of handling all the mysteries that the darkness can throw at us. It’s time to build a new Dark Archive. Let’s get to work.”
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In the aftermath of the events, Aegis retreats to a hut he used to train at on the island of Jalmaray. There he writes down his version of events as objectively and as completely as possible. He sends each of other others a copy.
After completing his writing he finds himself unready to leave. Days become weeks, and weeks become months. He spends most of his time meditating, training, and cogitating.
It is quiet day when the first student arrives at his doorstep. Word of his psychic power and training eventually makes it out into the world. Perhaps it is from his account of the events, or perhaps it's someone noticing him on one of his supply trips into town. He takes the student in and in time has a cohort of six.
He finds himself fulfilled by the training. The schedule is physically and mentally demanding. In time students take their leave as new ones begin.
There are days where Aegis thinks of what is out there, and if he should return to the world to test his mettle again. Those days are few and far between, but they are there...
Allies
The word echoes in Tenpot's ears, long after parting from Killia's company.
Allies
Tenpot once again locks his dockside apartment, a satchel over one shoulder and a pistol on his hip. He takes a deep breath of salt air as he makes his way down to the docks. A few quiet inquiries later, he signs on to the crew of a freighter bound for Niswan. From there, who knows? Jalmaray? Deeper into Casmaron? Or southwest, to Holomog or Droon?
Allies
With the time and wounds of many battles catching up with her Vesperscale retires to a quiet village on the Varisian Coast spending the rest of her surprisingly long lived days fishing and writing little horror stories based on their experiences in the Dark Archive.
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20 Research Points “Another scrap. A bandit camp outside Nagisa was approached by a marble statue of Grandmother Spider. She offered to tie the bandits more closely to each other, that they might know what each other felt at all times, but when the bandits accepted, they found their very souls had been tied out of their bodies, causing them pain that grew greater the farther they wandered from their souls. Curiously, one was unaffected, finding instead that a silver mirror he had stolen had tarnished beyond recognition. The remaining bandits, unable to move more than thirty paces from their souls, died of hunger while the statue watched.” This research should clue the PCs in to the Weaver’s Separate Astral Body ability and the defense that a silver item can provide against it.
25 Research Points “I’m so close to the truth. A lone shaman in the Crown of the World attempted to draw the Weaver, then in the form of a bleached willow tree with braided roots, out of his son and contain him within himself instead, having discovered the entity’s true name using Erutaki dreamwalking. However, the shaman’s power alone was not enough to contain the entity, causing the Weaver to simply eat away at the shaman, taking him over instead. A promising start to defeating this creature, if not an end.” All PCs gain the action Seal the Weaver.
30 Research Points “Success! Possibly. Noted in Dtang Ma, a swarm of silver weaver birds erupted from a wandering merchant at a market, stole bits of ‘individuality’ from all present, and attempted to construct a new, wicker-shaped body from the stolen pieces. What ‘individuality’ here means, I am unsure. The wicker body began to display powerful psychic magic, but local sorcerers devised a rune of containment, drawn in a drop of the merchant’s blood—a sympathetic connection to the host, no doubt—that could block the birds’ passage and defend against the wicker’s spells when drawn over the heart.” This research should give the PCs a hint to the nature of the Weaver’s dual existence in both Killia and the spellcasting cocoon. It also grants them knowledge of the rune of containment, which any PC can draw in a process taking 5 minutes using Killia’s blood sample in area A9. Subsequent runes take only 1 minute to draw, meaning the party can likely apply runes to themselves in 10 minutes. Once applied, the rune becomes a complex, nine-part tattoo over the heart that grants a +1 circumstance bonus to Will saves against both the Weaver and the Cocoon.
35 Research Points “Shun-Merac. His true name is Shun-Merac. But he’s done something. Torn off his own name. Now no one can say it, write it, record it, other than his host himself. Myself. But as he lies close to his mortal form’s death, his name can be returned to him.” All PCs gain the action Return the Weaver’s Name. However, as long as the Weaver has at least 1 Hit Point, it is impossible to say or express his true name in any form, regardless of distance—attempting to do so will result in the sound not ringing out, ink blurring on a page, or similar stymieing, and the person who attempted to express the name will take 10 mental damage, automatically bypassing any resistances or immunities (even if the utterer is mindless).
Having discovered the Weaver’s true name and nature, you realize that in this moment of vulnerability, he can be sealed into a new host, one who can contain his power
As the Weaver’s name is spoken aloud, the syllables ring out clearly for the first time in centuries. The name resounds and echoes against the walls of the underground cavern before wrapping around the larva as truly as any net or chain, returning the entity’s name to him.
You have but a moment to decide, however brief—
As you seal Shun-Merac, his telepathic scream is as broken glass against the mind. Silver cords erupt from you, wrapping around the entity until he’s nothing but a mass of astral thread. Slowly at first, then faster and faster, the ball unravels, its threads flowing into you. When the unraveling is complete, nothing is left of Shun-Merac but a moth-shaped scar within the tattoo over your heart, a hexagonal glint when the light hits your eye just right, and a futile, raging scream in your mind that grows softer and softer until it is no more.
A moment later, Killia gasps to life on the pavement. “Is it over? Is he gone?” Killia weakly gets to his feet. “But he can’t be defeated. I discovered it in my research, and I saw it while trapped within my own mind. If his body is destroyed, he simply reconstitutes, there’s no time to waste—”
He listens as you explain what you have discovered and contained the Weaver within yourselves, and for a long moment after, Killia is silent. When he finally speaks, pride chokes the once-lone archivist’s voice. “I couldn’t ask for better successors. The Weaver was the most dangerous mystery to put to rest, and you have done so. But this world is still full of possibility, full of the unknown—and we have an Archive to fill.”
“Now,” Killia says, as emotion and excitement chase the weariness away from his face, “let us begin, my dear and fellow Dark Archivists.”