Sturm’s Log Session 4: 12/14/2014

To the Train Station

• They continued their journey to the train station. Assieh was not present. The path they followed toward the train station appeared like a natural habitat for some creature that lives in a jungle. There were waterways that criss-cross the path, with tall grass all around. To either side of the path was devasation patrolled by Cyber-Naki. Cyra detected magic in the habitat area. There was no undo presence of Eidolon in the habitat area.
• There as debate as to whether to face the unknown danger or face the Cyber-Naki patrols. Sturm suggested leveling the playing field but destroying the habitat.
• Mena sent Mindel into the habitat to explore. She saw a variety of mammals there. She also senses a magical creature, but could not see it. Mena recalled Mindel and relayed the information to the others.
• Uther determined that the habitat predated the coming of the Cyber-Naki. Cyra scryed to detect the magical presence, but all she could see was tall grass. She could not see what was hiding in it. She scanned for higher levels of Psyche, but did not detect any.
• They noticed a baby elephant that was disarmingly cute. They also found the corpse of an adult elephant and what appeared to be a trail of trampled grass leading the predator away from the calf. Mena conjured by a salt lick with Eidolon. That produced threatening, growling sounds from the tall grass.
• They continued toward the train station across the habitat for the rest of day and through the night. The growling continued in the dark from multiple sources.
• As they continued through the dark, William spotted a dark, striped cat of some kind watching him. He determined that the creature was protecting its territory. William suggested giving the creature a wider berth. They did so. Cyra sent out complementary thoughts and the creature and it relaxed slightly. Inside its mind, she noted that there were more of them and that they travelled in packs. As it relaxed, the stripes faded away and the creature disappeared.

The Tree-Top Restaurant

• Eventually, they emerged from the tall grass into an area that was reclaimed by the wilderness. Amongst the trees was a large treehouse complex with roped walkways, a restaurant, and a wheelchair accessible ramp from the surface.
• As they explored, they noted that it once was very nice, but there was evidence of people fleeing and a handful of decayed corpses that had been laying around for a few days. Identification on the bodies showed that they were locals. The people appeared to be scavenging from the site. There was evidence that they had been taking supplies, but their bags and containers had been torn apart. Only canned goods remained.
• Cyra got the sense of something magical roaming around in the structure that was different and stronger than the predator in the grassland. She was able to triangulate that is was somewhere up in the nest above that had once been a private dining room with a surrounding terrace and bar. There was an elevator, but no power. Cyra energized it, then she, Sturm and Mena entered, while William, Jane and Uther took the stairs.
• Upstairs, they discovered that the tree has overgrown the dining area, and there is a sheen of water covering the floor trapped by the lip of the floor. There was no railing around the terrace, and there was a creature eating lemons and limes at the bar. It had a presence of Psyche. Mena and William scanned it for Eidolon. That distrurbed the creature, that shrieked and attacked William.
• Sturm attempted to intercede, but the creature flew right past him and slammed into William. It was deflected by Sturm slightly and hit William in the head, tearing part of his ear. It bounced off Jane and landed eyeing Mena. Uther tried to grab its tail. Instead, it used him as a springboard to attack Mena. William retreated down the stairs as some of the bolts were dislodged and the stairs came loose from the structure. Jane climbed up off the stairs.
• Cyra shot a Psionic Blast at it, but the blast was absorbed into small black singularity. Some of the blast made it through and the creature was stunned. Mena created a perfect cage around the stunned creature. It appeared to be contained. Sturm kept watch for other attackers. Mena attempted to communicate with it unsuccessfully.
• William sat at the bar and mended his wounds. There was some resistance from the Umbra in the area, but he was successful.
• Uther attempted to create a telepathic link with the creature. The creature seemed to go from hostile to unfriendly, and then curled up in the cage. Cyra detected two intelligences within the creature. She attempted to communicate with one or both of them. She determined that the creature was the merger to two normal Gossamer creatures.
• Mena attempted to separate the two entities while Cyra kept if pacified. In the end Mena was successful and both entities survived. One was a chimp-like creature, and the other was a giant lizard. She set the cage to disolve in a few hours.
• Uther and Sturm joined William at the bar. Sturm had a Blue Hawaiian, but not until he got the pineapple chunk and the little umbrella.

The Unfinished Amusement Park

• The continued down the path and came upon an unfinished castle, a partially completed roller coaster, and other trappings of an unfinished and overgrown amusement park.
• Mena detected a presence of magic in the amusement park area. After a few moments of focused effort, she determined that it had been improved upon and centered in the fun house, which was the most complete structure. It was a two story structure and there was at least one slide within view.
• Strum broke down the door as William inserted a ticket into the slot. Beyond the door was the Barrel of Fun. William traversed the barrel and nothing happened. The others followed.
• Beyond was a corridor covered in foam or soft rubber followed by stairs going upward. Next came a puzzle of floor tiles that moved when trod upon, followed by a slide. Once regrouped, William slid down, activating a large spinning disk that caused him to be stuck to the walls on his way to the exit, where he was struck by jets of air, and then a large ball pit, then a revolving door into a hall of mirrors.
• Within the room, William saw his reflection as well as the image of someone else, Jason. Jason said that the fun house was his home.
  Uther followed through the revolving door before Sturm burst through it. He determined that the structure was designed to disorient and was not going to be distracted or taken unawares.
• Jason said he wanted to trade the team’s stories for information. Sturm interceded and attempted to distract Jason while the others planned something, but they failed to do so.
• In exchange for enlightenment from Sturm, Jason told them that Morholt, the knight of beasts, which carved up the Annanaki and inserted its Eidolon into creatures. Half of the Eidolon was inserted into the creature at the top of the hive. The other half was used to animate the other creatures. Morholt was a self-surving Gossamer knight who used to serve Drake but left to serve Bastiano. Uther knew that Drake thought that Bastiano was wasting his resources rather than preparing for the fight against the Dwimmerlaik.
• Jason believed that Morholt had a backdoor to the Grand Stair and that he was creating a domain for himself on Fierce.
• Mena told Jason that Morholt could flood the Grand Stair with Cyber-Naki to conquer the Grand Stair and other Gossamer worlds. Jason said that Morholt did not have control of the Cyber-Naki, but could do so if he could command them. He suggested that Sturm would be more likely to pursue such a plan, but Morholt was closer to achieving this than Sturm.
• William asked Jason if he knew where Sato-sama was. Jason asked for his story. William said that he was studying the secrets of the universe to learn was there was to be learned. Jason asked what he intended to do with them. William responded that he would know them. Jason asked what of secrets he was not meant to know. William responded that just because he was not meant to know them did not mean that he would not learn about them. Jason said that the Cyber-Naki were one such unknowable thing.
• Jason said that there was a Buddhist temple inside the Fierce prison that was inside the volcanic intrusion. That was the last known location of Soto-sama. Jane asked how recent that information was. Jason said that he had learned it three days previously.

The Mansion

• They repaired the door and left Jason’s presence.
• They considered the entrances to the prison. Based on the maps they had seen, there was one in the floating palace (NW), one from the city center (NW), and one in the hospital (SW). The city center and the hospital were equidistant from their current position, the floating palace was some distance away. They were nearly at the train station (E). The liberated bits of Eidolon were heading to the distant south, beyond the nuclear power plant, to the south-eastern edge of the island, near the docks.
• It seemed that the train station was now a stale lead. There was a factory and a beautiful mansion nearby. The more conventional places to stay had fallen into the lake.
• They went to the mansion. On approach, they sensed a high level of magic, similar to the highest level of the hive. There was a strong sense of sorcery as well. Somewhere within, there was a primal power source that was guarded, and that there was a control of time within. Clearly it was someone’s personal domain.
• Sturm and Uther immediately started looking for a guardian. Sturm saw it furst followed by others. Blending into the surroundings, he noted a large gray, dragon-like creature. Sturm advised the team of the guardian’s presence and said that if the artifact was not believed to be within the mansion, they should withdraw.
• They returned to the unfinished castle and perfected it to regroup for a few days. It seemed that Jason had warded the area, probably in order to use his own icons.
• Mena contacted Baudemagus and informed him of Morholt’s probable domain and backdoor to the Grand Stair in the mansion.
• Baudemagus stated that it could also be Sota-sama’s domain as she was a local to Fierce. He indicated that if time were slowed, it would be likely that time the domain would be Soto-Sama’s, while sped up time would indicate the possibility for Morholt.
• Mena asked Baudemagus why Jason wanted to know people’s stories. Baudemagus said that Jason was insane and might be from a place called Planet Fiction. He might not really exist. Baudemagus mentioned that Planet Fiction had tried to edit him out as a possible copyright infringement. Individuals from Planet Fiction were public domain. Individuals who were not public domain were not welcome there. He said Jason wanted to know other’s stories in order to understand his own nature.
• Mena asked whether the artifact or Soto-sama was more important. Baudemagus said the artifact was. Mena told him the best lead was at the docks to the south.
• They rested for the night.

To the Port

• They went to the train station and found twelve warbots protecting the train to the port. William created some tickets, and when asked for identification, Uther created identification. The warbots granted them access, all boarded the train, and and were at the port in no time.
• Upon disembarking from the train, they noted a giant Jaeger mech in the harbor. As they watched, they noted bits of Eidolon flew into it. Mena detected small bits of Eidolon within the Jaeger. William surmised that the Jaeger either was or contained the artifact. Mena got a sense that someone had modified the mech’s structure to be more in tune with the Eidolon. Almost all parts of the Jaeger had been enhanced by the Eidolon, and it seemed as if the mech was putting out a call to the Eidolon.
• Sturm was intent on gaining control of the Jaeger. The others discussed various hypotheses about how to destroy it. They decided to observe it for a while.
• They determined that small bits of Eidolon (3-4 per day) joined with it, but not enough to significantly enhance it. It would take a major influx of Anna-naki to activate it.
• They did not think that they could get into the Jaeger to fiddle with its systems.
• Cyra scryed for Somo-sata, entry to the prison, and the Buddist temple in the prison.
• She scryed the hospital searching for the entrance to the prison. She noted a naked woman standing before the entrance. Cyra believed that the woman had noticed the presence of the scrying, so she moved on rapidly.
• She continued down into the prison to a point where the scrying would not go any further. There she found a person and another mech at the entrance to the prison itself. She determined that there was a sorcerous ward against scrying of a strength comparable to that of Baudmagus. Her presence did not seem to be detected by them. The person was writing something with pen and paper.
• She noted the perimeter of the warded area, which corresponded to the perimeter of the prison. She noted people walking in and out of the front of the prison, perhaps from a guard station. The people ranged from mech pilots and other people who stand out just beyond the warded area.
• The noted the location, ceased scrying, and filled in the others. She got a sense that someone was trying to scry her, but shut down the attempt immediately, and then established a scrying shield of her own.
• It appeared that they had determined the location of Soto-sama. Cyra suggested dropping a message at the gate for delivery to Soto-sama. The team agreed.
• The also discussed how to authenticate their identities and association with Baudemagus. Cyra suggested contacting Baudemagus to obtain an identification code that Soto-sama would accept from Baudemagus.

The Team:

• Oberleutnant Sturm von Krieg the warrior (Joab)
• William Edwalton the scientist (Greg)
• Jane Edwalton the explorer (Jenna)
• Mena the traveler (Stephanie)
• Uther the gatherer (Dave)
• Cyra the sorceress (Mike)