Stories of Lore 35

 

Well you look…different. Stop yelling at me please, it is a fair observation. Apparently the recently named River of Chaos has remarkable properties when used as a pandem rift. Including changing your biological makeup. I’ve processed the lab results, you’re…fine. I guess. I mean you have two types of cancer, you are missing a kidney, and your left optical nerve is the wrong size but Eden can fix all that. Until then I made you some glasses, a little archaic but you don’t need cybernetics if Eden’s going to have to fix the rest of that anyways. Just wear it for a few days and stop fussing.

Anyways, the death toll of the attack on Moncayo can be summed up as about 80%. Even one of the Whately kids is dead, which hopefully they don’t hold a grudge on us for. Satsujin’s dead from unknown causes as she was in the River’s rift alongside you and now her body was turned into quartz of all things. I’m not sure if she died from the rift or from fighting.

Doctor Taz died when the Outsider crash landed into Moncayo. The rot left him deprived of his tabaxi attributes and he died on impact. Laura and Khymin are fine. Though Khymin was hiding in a nearby building the whole time.

Auwana has been taken over by a mummy known as Sakhessa who apparently got into a fight with the Revenants that were going to help us defend the place apparently. Well at least they were going to try and kill Faelyn. So after all that we basically swapped bases with Faelyn. On the upside, Moncayo is very defensible. On the downside, the Phantoms now have control of Renjala’s Rift. Which is also very defensible.

Eleazor has left for Zero North. It will be a long journey.

Finances are in complete disarray no one knows who has what, refugees everywhere, and we just blew up the economy. So…we’ll get back to that.

With Yenneiros dead I kind of just work here now since we were a subset of this whole Somnus thing up until now. So…can I request snacks in the lunch room? I like the little cheesy fish crackers…

Currently we’ve contacted Kaylen though she informed us that she has resigned from her position as the leader of Alnae. Instead claiming the banner of the “Hero’s Guild” to basically restart the purge. Cheesy name but I suppose its a cliche because that’s what they actually called things back in those days. I told her to please hold because her new project actually seems right up your alley. She’s on line one by the way so you might want to pick that up…yes I’m aware that was important but so is your health. Fine I’ll be back later.

 

You know, its convenient that your phylactery is here after we just evacuated to Eden in the first place. We didn’t leave much to defend Enohas and Valadeus has taken over that alongside Ki’Ralcht who went there instead of Moncayo so I assume we can safely say she was definitely loyal to the Phantoms over us.

The assault on Moncayo succeeded though at great cost. We have learned that Ankathi is growing stronger and fast. Apparently she’d been using Sarnai to send messages out this whole time in secret and had established contact with the celestial order before they came to talk to Reika. That was actually why they came to talk to Reika it seems. Now Reika is oathbound to serve Ankathi in exchange for saving everyone’s lives. However that…doesn’t seem to change much around here. Ankathi doesn’t have anywhere else to send Reika to hang out and she’s just mostly interested in keeping an eye on things. Particularly Vasia, which we’re not supposed to tell her. I guess if we go to war with Ankathi that’s a thing to keep in mind but…I’m not sure we’re dumb enough to do that. Someone keep that fucking cat away from her though. The actual major change due to this shift in our relationship with Ankathi is that Selah is just hanging out with us now.

Oh so that whole “River of Chaos” rift thing that they did. I mean its exactly what it sounds like. They opened a rift to the most chaotic possible thing that is the bottleneck that leads to wherever Ankathi went. Apparently if you get close to it…weird shit happens. It rewrote Lancaster’s entire life, also several people had planar abominations burst out of their eyes. So basically if Selah does that again, we should stand very far away.  You in particular, since you cannot be bound to Ankathi as an undead you also can’t really be protected from its effects. Though if you keep a rift to a higher plane active it can shield you from the effects but…well may the chaos have mercy on those who don’t know pandem and get too close to it.

So that whole ‘let any paladin who wants to speak to sarnai if they help at moncayo’ thing…turns out Ankathi was way ahead of us on that one and already turned several of their members to her side. We might get pulled into a war with archangels…again.

Alexander unfortunately perished while fighting Illdath. As did Irae, though she respawned next to you. Apparently being your conduit lets her borrow your phylactery. We did not know that until now. I guess your soul won’t be lonely at least.

 

Well that was catastrophic. Cassir’s dead, Peter’s dead, Setal is dead, Salied is dead just as we found out what she can do. The cult is pretty much gone save for a few weaker acolytes. I guess its just you and me now…oh and Craylin. She’s still here. Oh and remember that email you sent Faelyn? Still alive. Not only still alive, but still has most of her fleet and forces. We need to get the turrets back online reaaaal fast before we lose Moncayo to a pissed of Faelyn because someone can’t stop poking the gods damned dragons!

Bad kitty!

Also you are correct, I do still get nervous around Vasia. So does Craylin. The soul eating alien super monster is terrified of Vasia. Everyone is terrified of Vasia except Lancaster and that’s because she’s just as dumb as you are. Speaking of which though, she has an update.

Its casual friday. Anyways after bailing your asses out twice, I have some notes. The Heretic is a phenomenally powerful ship but it has a critical weakness I have discovered. Like other necrocarnum soulmelds, it expends the harvested essentia for temporary boosts in power. Meaning though it stood its ground well, its invulnerability to cannon fire is a finite resource. One that can only be replenished with more souls. I mean I have quite a few, but if you expect me to send a ship with no guns to every fleet battle you get into…I’m going to need to kill another planet eventually. So ask 40th Day to keep an eye out for inhabited worlds while they’re out and about in case I need to top up.

You say that as if I’m not already a hero. Sure maybe Nelta disagrees but I just destroyed an entire planet of our enemies who were trying to invade us didn’t I? Is that not good for the war? Technically I destroyed at least two though one by omission. I could have cured the refugees from the jesai plague buuuut…I didn’t. Once they’re evacuated to another planet it will spread, it’s actually remarkably similar to mummy rot. Just more focused on killing than siphoning. Also less durable.

Yes I met Craylin. I also studied her briefly.

About your little flash drive…as much amusement as I’m sure it brings you now because you know my presence protect you…I fucking dare you to fight that teenager. She just turned Lancaster into a whole other species from a whole other plane as a byproduct of cracking a fortress in half. Then again, that worked out for you last time I suppose. Maybe you can be a dog this time, you’re my bitch already anyways.

Also now that you’ve involved me in antagonizing Kanika I thought I’d let you know…I’m taking Salied’s body ‘kay thanks byeeee.

Top…up? I oversee Craylin and even I’m not comfortable with her saying that. How do you work with this woman?!

So the salvage ships brought back some income at least. Not as much as we’d have hoped since most of the fleet is still intact. Though it appears Faelyn is heading to Auwana to meet up with Sakhessa for now. Not sure what they’re up to.

In chatting with Voriuk we’ve learned that Voriuk is an asshole. That was the most frustrating conversation I’ve ever listened into and why does he cackle so much? He agreed…with nebulous wording. Though that being said the Revenants just trashed Kharla’s room in the underdark so she’s probably going to be after them for a little bit. They have another branch who hates Vloz as much as our branch hates us.

Bardhe says we owe him a cruiser. I gave him a cruiser because I’m inclined not to piss him off. He’s not available for long term hire though, I will recall the report on him warns that he likes to play for as many sides as possible. You think I can seduce him? Maybe that’d at least incline him not to take any contracts on me…

I need to go get Craylin. She knew Vasia was still around and is hiding somewhere still. She’s going to dry out if we don’t get her some ichor and I don’t want her to get wrinkles.

Well that was…a battle. I suppose there is a reason we don’t specialize in that. Vaeri and Setani died in all the commotion. The closing statement is still cloaked but Aryn is now cured of the rot so she can retake it once she is able. She’s not doing well though. She was very close to Vaeri and apparently she cannot perform parallel processes on grief.

The Nomads successfully crippled Faelyn’s flagship long enough for The Heretic to break it in half. Afterwards they returned back here to the flotilla. Also when you describe them as ‘competent or recruitable’ I have to ask for more detailed parameters. They’re all highly competent while simultaneously completely unrecruitable. There’s a reason we kept them as a subsidiary. Valuable, trustworthy, and reliable…not quite professional though. By a much larger margin than the other oddities we have worked with.