Shortly before the gathering of adventurers in Strava, the strange portal from Knoch'Len in Barran to Strava shuddered to a close with a faint crackling and popping of energy.
Merchants and migrant craftspeople who followed our explorers (and their coin) through the portal informed them of a suitable tavern building, but with one catch: it was bustling with Water elementals. Not ones to shy away from danger, they routed the Water Elementals and... a spectral Chef? who remained in the tavern from before their death. A rag-tag crew of misfits who call this land their home joined the fighters in the new tavern, setting things to rights after its long disuse. Fortunately, the foundation seemed sturdy, the furniture usable, and the bound shards providing light, drainage, clean running water, heating elements, and motorized fans seemed to be in working order. With the establishment of a suitable staging ground and the recovery of a strange object from the crystallized elementals, adventurers settled in for what promised to be an eventful evening.
Not long after they had a chance to settle in, a messenger came calling with a request and invitation. Our heroes were called to hold council with Elder Segev of the Doslidnyky - research league - and Circe Rhav, the Meshkantsi head of security for Lower Strava. Once ten were gathered to speak with Circe and Segev, they were led into a cavern in the tunnel network with eldritch lighting and a circle of seats. Rhav put aside her sword as a gesture of trust, restrained from enmity by the dryad known as Segev. While she was not exactly welcoming of the adventurers, she did apologize for her prior threats with the understanding that they had a common threat - the elementals, and the phenomenon of the Fading. With their competence proven and some mollifying words, Circe and Segev offered a proposal to the group who'd traveled from beyond the mists: the Research League would be permitted to lead groups into the more dangerous zones to recover either the materials necessary to cast Permanent Circles of Power, or Vessels of Transferrence.
Two teams were assembled, the groups opting to collect the Vessels of Transferrence which would allow them to build their own Permanent Circles of Power in the formerly abandoned building refurbished and repurposed by migrant Barranians to accommodate them. Each group went to separate offices of former masters of the Foundational and Magisterium academies in the Middle Ring. As they lingered, the metaphorical hooks of Fading attempted to take hold on them by making them forget their purpose as they were handling the mechanisms to open the vaults of the scholars who once lived there. Drawn to the noises and concentrated power of the adventurers, elementals and Blank Bodies assailed the group taking the Celestial Greater Circle of Power Vessel, while the group retrieving the Earth Greater Circle of Power vessel attempted to negotiate with elementals who were milling about in the abandoned offices. In the end, both Vessels were retrieved.
On the following day, the group greeted the day and arose to fresh opportunities and mounting dangers. During mealtimes, merchants and tradespeople came to trade with daring heroes while they were sat down for breakfast. In the morning, fresh and bright, groups assembled to defend and witness the casting of the Vessels of Transferrence to Greater Circles of Power for the use of adventurers and Barranians, following their exploits with exploration.
Exploration into the wilds of the Outer Ring bore fruit, or more accurately, meat - an Outer Ring hunter approached the assembled adventurers for assistance in hunting down massive bison-like creatures called "Beefalo." Another scout solicited help from the group to help with finding some missing persons who had been carrying tools and supplies through a known supply area, the elfin hunter, Zarek, breaking away from them to check another path. What they found was a gruesome scene, the people clearly murdered and having been gnawed on by something that had already escaped the area, into a cavern in the ground.
Other groups gathered to help repair the sea gate, carrying heavy equipment and parts and putting them into place per schematics offered up by engineers who were on their work break and ready to offer only the least helpful criticism possible. Some also found mushrooms in the area of clearly managed tree guilds, with beneficial and delicious effects. Despite waves of occasional elementals, aggressive or free-floating until engaged, the gathering stayed strong.
The revelation of what had been recovered from the elementals - something called an elemental core, infused with the planar energies of the foundational element of the overlord - came with more questions than answers when researchers requested them. They also collected pieces of the crystalline substance that covered over the elementals in a hard shell, though these samples were oft withheld from researchers who came calling. In the afternoon light, a Doslidnyky canary was dispatched to request help with the destruction or removal of a Fire Elemental overlord to retrieve its core.
Over dinner, merchants and researchers approached adventurers, with an Earth scholar and protection-focused mage from the Doslidnyky coming to trade for elemental cores the adventurers recovered thus far, and explaining their purpose. With cores from overlords of the four foundational elements, the selunari called Varen sought to provide a bit of a boost to a protection glyph that would theoretically reduce the influence of the Fading and allow more free movement further into the city with less risk of exposure and loss of memory and identity.
Later in the evening, a grandmotherly Outer Ring scholar came to request aid in taking some samples from mushrooms that had been changed significantly by their consumption of "vitrified mist", the spores too thick in the air for her to bear. Despite the spores causing some of their number to move slowly and begin hallucinating shifting lights and dreamlike music, they retrieved the samples for the elderly scholar to understand and perhaps reproduce.
In the night, canaries first came to gather a force to dispatch a particularly troublesome Foundational Earth overlord and its allies. It was a pitched battle, and not longer after adventurers had a chance to catch their breath, they were approached again with a unique opportunity: an Air overlord was spotted in the city with its forces seeming diminished. When the adventurers arrived, they were able to witness why. Though Blanks had been largely ignored by and were not aggressive toward elementals before, the gathered group watched a group of Blanks come out in force to overwhelm the Air Overlord through sheer numbers, then seeming to guard and attempt to take the final elemental core.
With the Blank bodies slain, the group reconvened in the recently-refurbished tavern. As soon as word reached Lower Strava, Varen returned with a cache of supplies and coin from the coffers of the Doslidnyky to thank them and aid them for their willingness to put their lives and minds at risk. When he offered to take custody of the cores, the Phalanx requested time to identify the core and understand who precisely they were working with. In the morning afterward, the core was identified - once Riddick was satisfied, Varen gathered the cores and began preparations to further activate the protective glyph once the adventurers had gathered in force and had their own time to prepare.
Varen, Ick-Spit, Tset, Thistle, and Eurig gathered into a circle around the elemental cores at the glyph to work together to align the elemental energies at Varen's direction and allow the protective glyph to be calibrated. Others defended the circle from Blank bodies drawn in by the power of the glyph.
Once the elemental energies were aligned, those present felt magic around them in a fashion somewhat similar to a ritual completion, a wave of energy rushing out from the glyph and creating a shimmering bubble over Strava. With this new development, spirits are high and for the first time in a long time, hope returns to Strava as the way is made less dangerous to push inward toward the Academies for information gathering and planning.
Merchants and migrant craftspeople who followed our explorers (and their coin) through the portal informed them of a suitable tavern building, but with one catch: it was bustling with Water elementals. Not ones to shy away from danger, they routed the Water Elementals and... a spectral Chef? who remained in the tavern from before their death. A rag-tag crew of misfits who call this land their home joined the fighters in the new tavern, setting things to rights after its long disuse. Fortunately, the foundation seemed sturdy, the furniture usable, and the bound shards providing light, drainage, clean running water, heating elements, and motorized fans seemed to be in working order. With the establishment of a suitable staging ground and the recovery of a strange object from the crystallized elementals, adventurers settled in for what promised to be an eventful evening.
Not long after they had a chance to settle in, a messenger came calling with a request and invitation. Our heroes were called to hold council with Elder Segev of the Doslidnyky - research league - and Circe Rhav, the Meshkantsi head of security for Lower Strava. Once ten were gathered to speak with Circe and Segev, they were led into a cavern in the tunnel network with eldritch lighting and a circle of seats. Rhav put aside her sword as a gesture of trust, restrained from enmity by the dryad known as Segev. While she was not exactly welcoming of the adventurers, she did apologize for her prior threats with the understanding that they had a common threat - the elementals, and the phenomenon of the Fading. With their competence proven and some mollifying words, Circe and Segev offered a proposal to the group who'd traveled from beyond the mists: the Research League would be permitted to lead groups into the more dangerous zones to recover either the materials necessary to cast Permanent Circles of Power, or Vessels of Transferrence.
Two teams were assembled, the groups opting to collect the Vessels of Transferrence which would allow them to build their own Permanent Circles of Power in the formerly abandoned building refurbished and repurposed by migrant Barranians to accommodate them. Each group went to separate offices of former masters of the Foundational and Magisterium academies in the Middle Ring. As they lingered, the metaphorical hooks of Fading attempted to take hold on them by making them forget their purpose as they were handling the mechanisms to open the vaults of the scholars who once lived there. Drawn to the noises and concentrated power of the adventurers, elementals and Blank Bodies assailed the group taking the Celestial Greater Circle of Power Vessel, while the group retrieving the Earth Greater Circle of Power vessel attempted to negotiate with elementals who were milling about in the abandoned offices. In the end, both Vessels were retrieved.
On the following day, the group greeted the day and arose to fresh opportunities and mounting dangers. During mealtimes, merchants and tradespeople came to trade with daring heroes while they were sat down for breakfast. In the morning, fresh and bright, groups assembled to defend and witness the casting of the Vessels of Transferrence to Greater Circles of Power for the use of adventurers and Barranians, following their exploits with exploration.
Exploration into the wilds of the Outer Ring bore fruit, or more accurately, meat - an Outer Ring hunter approached the assembled adventurers for assistance in hunting down massive bison-like creatures called "Beefalo." Another scout solicited help from the group to help with finding some missing persons who had been carrying tools and supplies through a known supply area, the elfin hunter, Zarek, breaking away from them to check another path. What they found was a gruesome scene, the people clearly murdered and having been gnawed on by something that had already escaped the area, into a cavern in the ground.
Other groups gathered to help repair the sea gate, carrying heavy equipment and parts and putting them into place per schematics offered up by engineers who were on their work break and ready to offer only the least helpful criticism possible. Some also found mushrooms in the area of clearly managed tree guilds, with beneficial and delicious effects. Despite waves of occasional elementals, aggressive or free-floating until engaged, the gathering stayed strong.
The revelation of what had been recovered from the elementals - something called an elemental core, infused with the planar energies of the foundational element of the overlord - came with more questions than answers when researchers requested them. They also collected pieces of the crystalline substance that covered over the elementals in a hard shell, though these samples were oft withheld from researchers who came calling. In the afternoon light, a Doslidnyky canary was dispatched to request help with the destruction or removal of a Fire Elemental overlord to retrieve its core.
Over dinner, merchants and researchers approached adventurers, with an Earth scholar and protection-focused mage from the Doslidnyky coming to trade for elemental cores the adventurers recovered thus far, and explaining their purpose. With cores from overlords of the four foundational elements, the selunari called Varen sought to provide a bit of a boost to a protection glyph that would theoretically reduce the influence of the Fading and allow more free movement further into the city with less risk of exposure and loss of memory and identity.
Later in the evening, a grandmotherly Outer Ring scholar came to request aid in taking some samples from mushrooms that had been changed significantly by their consumption of "vitrified mist", the spores too thick in the air for her to bear. Despite the spores causing some of their number to move slowly and begin hallucinating shifting lights and dreamlike music, they retrieved the samples for the elderly scholar to understand and perhaps reproduce.
In the night, canaries first came to gather a force to dispatch a particularly troublesome Foundational Earth overlord and its allies. It was a pitched battle, and not longer after adventurers had a chance to catch their breath, they were approached again with a unique opportunity: an Air overlord was spotted in the city with its forces seeming diminished. When the adventurers arrived, they were able to witness why. Though Blanks had been largely ignored by and were not aggressive toward elementals before, the gathered group watched a group of Blanks come out in force to overwhelm the Air Overlord through sheer numbers, then seeming to guard and attempt to take the final elemental core.
With the Blank bodies slain, the group reconvened in the recently-refurbished tavern. As soon as word reached Lower Strava, Varen returned with a cache of supplies and coin from the coffers of the Doslidnyky to thank them and aid them for their willingness to put their lives and minds at risk. When he offered to take custody of the cores, the Phalanx requested time to identify the core and understand who precisely they were working with. In the morning afterward, the core was identified - once Riddick was satisfied, Varen gathered the cores and began preparations to further activate the protective glyph once the adventurers had gathered in force and had their own time to prepare.
Varen, Ick-Spit, Tset, Thistle, and Eurig gathered into a circle around the elemental cores at the glyph to work together to align the elemental energies at Varen's direction and allow the protective glyph to be calibrated. Others defended the circle from Blank bodies drawn in by the power of the glyph.
Once the elemental energies were aligned, those present felt magic around them in a fashion somewhat similar to a ritual completion, a wave of energy rushing out from the glyph and creating a shimmering bubble over Strava. With this new development, spirits are high and for the first time in a long time, hope returns to Strava as the way is made less dangerous to push inward toward the Academies for information gathering and planning.