koremorleth
Newbie
Before the last gathering, a self-proclaimed treasure hun....excuse me, archeologist named Hiram McMillon, sent a request to all of us in Atupal regarding his desire to explore what he thought was a tomb of sort in the ground beneath where we landed Atupal two years ago. A small group of adventurers took him up on his offer, and delved into the caves and chasms beneath the surface of Gavaria. This is an accounting of what they found, courtesy of Atradimas, who updated me on what was found the following morning at breakfast.
Originally, Atradimas explained that they were simply looking for any treasures or trinkets that may remain behind. After all, who doesn't want to find something interesting and old in unexplored ruins? Instead, they discovered something that is far more relevant to our current situation than anyone could have predicted.
Long ago, before the founding of the Kingdom of Gavaria 500 years ago, there was an ancient race of beings who called themselves the Moridi, who appear as mushroom people, with fungal growths all over their bodies. There were a small number of these mushroom people, and they attacked the adventurers and were initially mistaken as undead by some. One of these beings, far more vibrant in the fungal growths on her body, was trapped in a Circle of Power that appeared to be powered by moridium. Her name is Lucreia Bolette. And this is what she told them:
She was the head scientist in a city called Rycena, which no longer exists. According to Lucreia, long ago her people made the decision to breed strigoi. From what I can tell after hearing this, it seems that long ago the strigoi were not as they are now. They were wild, unintelligent creatures, and the Moridi began to breed them in captivity, much like cattle or sheep or pigs today. The reason that they decided to do this is because of their blood. As we know today, the strange substance known as moridium is quite literally strigoi blood, and it has powerful magical potential, though on its own it is not magical.
The Moridi held a vast, expansive empire that, according to Bolette, covered nearly the entire peninsula, albeit underground. And this empire was entirely powered and sustained by the blood of the strigoi. By moridium. The Moridi bred strigoi to harvest their blood to power their empire. Unfortunately, that was their undoing. The strigoi perhaps developed some sort of base intelligence and rose up against the Moridi, causing the destruction of Rycena, the capitol city of the empire. However, the rebellion of the strigoi was only the catalyst for the destruction of Rycena. Lucreia Bolette, in an attempt to quell the uprising, unleashed a gas that destroyed the clutch that rebelled and the Moridi who were trapped inside the city. And Lucreia, as you will see from the scraps of her notes, does not regret her actions.
Atradimas described her as genocidal and a lunatic. Though initially she appeared an innocent, as she went more in-depth about her actions it became clear that she was not innocent. She claims that her colleagues trapped her within it for the horrific deeds she did. It's unclear how long she has been there. The Circle appears to sustain her life, she requires no food or water to survive, and it's unclear if the moridium circle was her own doing or the actions of her colleagues to keep her alive until she could stand trial. At one point, Gregor placed a hand into the Circle to retrieve items from within and pass a notebook to Lucreia, and he recalls that it felt like "[his] spirit was being rendered apart." It's unclear if this is caused by Lucreia or the Circle itself. Because she's been trapped for so long, she apparently wanted to try to kill herself to end her suffering. But she learned about the recent developments regarding the strigoi of today and changed her mind. Whether that was wise to tell her remains to be seen.
But what is most troubling, is that Lucreia is the one who created the original gas that Countess Thorn turned into a fog to attempt to destroy the troglodytes in Atish. And how the strigoi gained their intelligence. Below are Lucreia's notes that were found, which will provide context and further information for and about what has been written here thus far.
Lady Kore of Puxil Cove
Originally, Atradimas explained that they were simply looking for any treasures or trinkets that may remain behind. After all, who doesn't want to find something interesting and old in unexplored ruins? Instead, they discovered something that is far more relevant to our current situation than anyone could have predicted.
Long ago, before the founding of the Kingdom of Gavaria 500 years ago, there was an ancient race of beings who called themselves the Moridi, who appear as mushroom people, with fungal growths all over their bodies. There were a small number of these mushroom people, and they attacked the adventurers and were initially mistaken as undead by some. One of these beings, far more vibrant in the fungal growths on her body, was trapped in a Circle of Power that appeared to be powered by moridium. Her name is Lucreia Bolette. And this is what she told them:
She was the head scientist in a city called Rycena, which no longer exists. According to Lucreia, long ago her people made the decision to breed strigoi. From what I can tell after hearing this, it seems that long ago the strigoi were not as they are now. They were wild, unintelligent creatures, and the Moridi began to breed them in captivity, much like cattle or sheep or pigs today. The reason that they decided to do this is because of their blood. As we know today, the strange substance known as moridium is quite literally strigoi blood, and it has powerful magical potential, though on its own it is not magical.
The Moridi held a vast, expansive empire that, according to Bolette, covered nearly the entire peninsula, albeit underground. And this empire was entirely powered and sustained by the blood of the strigoi. By moridium. The Moridi bred strigoi to harvest their blood to power their empire. Unfortunately, that was their undoing. The strigoi perhaps developed some sort of base intelligence and rose up against the Moridi, causing the destruction of Rycena, the capitol city of the empire. However, the rebellion of the strigoi was only the catalyst for the destruction of Rycena. Lucreia Bolette, in an attempt to quell the uprising, unleashed a gas that destroyed the clutch that rebelled and the Moridi who were trapped inside the city. And Lucreia, as you will see from the scraps of her notes, does not regret her actions.
Atradimas described her as genocidal and a lunatic. Though initially she appeared an innocent, as she went more in-depth about her actions it became clear that she was not innocent. She claims that her colleagues trapped her within it for the horrific deeds she did. It's unclear how long she has been there. The Circle appears to sustain her life, she requires no food or water to survive, and it's unclear if the moridium circle was her own doing or the actions of her colleagues to keep her alive until she could stand trial. At one point, Gregor placed a hand into the Circle to retrieve items from within and pass a notebook to Lucreia, and he recalls that it felt like "[his] spirit was being rendered apart." It's unclear if this is caused by Lucreia or the Circle itself. Because she's been trapped for so long, she apparently wanted to try to kill herself to end her suffering. But she learned about the recent developments regarding the strigoi of today and changed her mind. Whether that was wise to tell her remains to be seen.
But what is most troubling, is that Lucreia is the one who created the original gas that Countess Thorn turned into a fog to attempt to destroy the troglodytes in Atish. And how the strigoi gained their intelligence. Below are Lucreia's notes that were found, which will provide context and further information for and about what has been written here thus far.
Lady Kore of Puxil Cove
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