Stories of Lore 21

Mikael and the gang found a fallen civilization in the southern isles consisting of sentient golems that apparently are another runaway effect of Ansa’s creations she left behind before the great sleep. They are quite interested to meet with us, and likely desperate as only we will be able to fix their deteriorated state. They mentioned having knowledge of the witch we were searching for, but won’t tell anyone other than Ansa herself. Apparently it is highly guarded information, I told Ansa to expect guests soon. Fortunately they have some interesting improvements on naval technology after living on the islands for so long so the return trip should be faster than the trip there.

Speaking of all this, Ansa are there any more rogue experiments I should expect us to find or even start looking for?

Probably. I made a lot of things.

 

. . . Ansa what are the chances that all monsters are your accidental creation?

 

Embarrassingly high. That’s why I keep putting out bounties on specific samples. Aside from researching them, I’m looking for indications that they are mine. I should say specifically, indications that they aren’t -all- mine. Nalky is definitely an evolution of one of my own creations. More predatory, my original design was for farming mana. They would extract it from natural sources then we could extract it from them.

So the hellscape of monsters we live in…is because your farm livestock we left behind got free? Actually that explains why all of them are attracted to mana.

 

I believe that to be a factor in it. However, the monsters were not this prevalent for thousands of years while we slept. It was only after, or perhaps during, the dying night that they became so populous. I think my creations are the origin, but that there was another catalyst that made it a “hellscape”. It’s only been a few thousand years, they shouldn’t be this big, varied, or prevalent.

So what else of yours might be out there waiting for us?

 

My old facility was the size of Jamsa. By the sounds of things after our disappearance they evolved. The elves make total sense to me, that one was designed to be a life form. But if even my spy golems could evolve, there is no limit to what might have come out of my lab. Thousands upon thousands of creations were in there. I honestly would not have put my money on those golems making it, but life finds a way I suppose. This means that its a roll of the dice which of my creations were fit enough to carry on into the modern day. Also what form they might take. Speaking of the elves, not enough of them are immigrating all the way up here. When the manhunter gets back make sure to send him my way.

Also, lets talk for a moment about you having made spy golems.

 

I actually have a lot of spy gadgets. The pen I gave to you as a gift when you graduated keeps me up to date on all documents  you sign. The king’s throne is a listening post, the dragon pens in all three kingdoms are seismographs, Eliana’s new book I gave her keeps an eye out, Faelyn’s nalkas bodyguard is wearing a special necklace, and the sword the monks are about to make Kaylen will also have some nifty features. Really the only problem I’ve been having is the Archdruid. She has no need for any item I can slip something onto and won’t accept gifts. Problematically she’s also the most important one to keep tabs on. This all has various limitations but at least I have more information than most.

I feel you left me out of some lessons.

 

I taught you all you need for this stuff. You just haven’t been aggressively creative enough. Anyways I’m off to get tea.

 

Well that’s something to ponder. Though at least this explains how she keeps showing up whenever anyone talks about her. Anyways Iraeka’s physical therapy is going well. She has some coordination issues but it has inadvertently served to test just how strong some of her limbs are. The answer is pretty strong. The enchantments on them affect the entire user, otherwise they’d be stupid to enchant on necklaces and rings after all. Also she put in a special order for a new weapon since losing her crossbow if thats relevant. The team at Uudistar is having to specially make both her new bow and arrows. The bow goes to an insane draw weight, which requires special arrows or they would break just from the force of being fired. Apparently she found that she can use a bow that powerful by hand now with her new limb, despite the enchantments giving her higher strength overall that specific arm is even more amplified. If she draws with it, evidently she can go far beyond any human record.

So far the dragons are…difficult to work with. Ansa has them properly caged up so they don’t cause any problems but only she has been able to approach them. A problem she complains frequently about because it means she -has- to do all the chores regarding them or the servants will get eaten. As such it is unlikely she will be leaving on any more expeditions any time soon. So don’t plan on sending the biomancy expert to investigate new places for awhile.

Conveniently, our embassy and gatestone in Maji means that we receive our mysterious artifact purchases much quicker. Though…we still have no idea what the hell this artifact is. It’s a perfect cube eight inches across made of solid jade. And I mean perfect, the surfaces are so smooth it slides across the table with the slightest push. It contains enough mana to rival a gatestone but even jade should not be able to do that in such a small object. It is clear this…does something. We just can’t figure out what as there are no signs of enchantment that we can activate. I gave it to Essi to poke at.

Related to magic artifacts, the seeds we got from the archdruid are taking well to the growing house Ansa made for them. Just not sure when that will become anything we can harvest.

The tome we got is peculiar in that I can’t tell if its fact or fiction. Its written like a explorer’s journal, but it contains plot holes like a fairy tale. Its primarily about a sailing explorer’s encounter with a fish woman who he fell in love with and kept visiting at sea. She claimed she came from a kingdom that lived at the bottom of the ocean, though he could never visit it. I’m inclined to say that it was just a symbolic device of the explorer’s inability to reach his lover’s home. Though at this point I’ve seen some weird shit enough to say there might actually be some sort of underwater kingdom out there somewhere. Notably if it did, judging by the surprisingly detailed description of the stars, this would have been somewhere in the sea west of sybaris. We made a copy and sent it off to the Oda.

Also Aato finished his drink and headed back to the island to work on securing the new outpost. To his credit, he is one of the only people who seem unshaken by the experience. Though now demands everyone call him dragon slayer.

As a lab update, we still have no idea how the hell the badlands built these bikes. The king must be using some sort of fourth dimensional warp fuckery, we can build something similar to them with no problem so far but we can’t hit the speeds that theirs can nor the durability. Though our prototypes are slightly better than horses so far at least, they just break down easier.

 

Greetings keeper! It is a glorious day for the Oda people. Chinami went westward to visit the tiefling village as instructed on her search for the drunken master. She had to ask almost every single person there until at long last one of them had some idea of who she was even talking about. It seems Maeng passed through on his boating trip and stopped off to trade for supplies and helped out around town for a little while with a monster problem they were having.  The reason no one knew who Chinami was talking about is they didn’t consider his drinking to be abnormal or excessive. Though they drink a lot too in this town. Though the trail continues westward along the coast, given that it won’t be long until we’re in Nalkas territory the odds are he could have gone quite some distance in this direction. That or he’s in the Nalkas cities and no one really thought to take notice of him.

Iwanagi is sailing westward though it may be worth checking in on the Nalkas reports of the fortress as they have already managed to visit it. It could be useful in establishing the goals of Iwanagi’s visit. I assume trade.

As for our dear guest Kaylen, she is visiting the Kensei monastery and seeing what she can learn from them. She has also already defeated the entire school in sparring, she is clearly several leagues above most monks. It seems her long years in the badlands as Grand Marshall have hardened her into a true master. She has been staying in the guest quarters here at the palace of course. I insisted on such, it would be improper of us to leave one of Maji’s three lords to a mere inn in town.

Kaze arrived in Lennecas to find a rather chaotic situation brewing. We have kept out of the ongoing politics between them all for the most part and just kept handing out immigration pamphlets. We may want to pull out of the area if we’re not going to get involved in the ongoing situation though, tensions appear that they’re about to boil over.

Master Soshu says that Shime needs time to meditate and center herself. Her trials at the expedition have left wounds on her that will never truly heal, and guilt has consumed her. It doesn’t help that no one seems to know how to talk to her given her lack of speaking. However, Soshu noted we have a guest who can speak without speaking. Within Okushiri is a nalkas agent who hails from the drow to the north. They are extremely adept at non-verbal communication. We might be able to ask this visitor to try and speak with Shime, they share a common experience on that island and may be able to find understanding with each other. However, our guest has been noted to be very brooding and might not be the most empathetic towards Shime.

We have constructed a proper enclosure for a dragon as requested, following the designs provided to us by the nalkas. Though for my own thoughts, I think we shouldn’t use it. Nothing says ‘lets be friends’ like a jail cell. Dragon’s are highly intelligent, often thought to be even more so than humans. They can also hold grudges for centuries. Even if the risk of it just flying away is high, the risk of it reaching adulthood with any anger in its heart is far greater. If nothing else, I think Faelyn might be a better consultant than the nalkas on this topic. Ansa is a scientist and a noble. She owns everything she touches and seeks to understand it, but not coexist with it. Faelyn has apparently had contact with dragons before. Though if you feel we cannot trust her, it is a longer voyage but the people of Kirillobatov might also be able to lend their advice.

 

I’m not sure how much you thought a dragon lair would cost but the budget you gave them was vastly overkill. Which the woman we hired happily used all of. Give an architect a budget and watch them go I suppose. So the dragon’s palace is nicer than yours now…though actually its attached on the western wall so maybe its just the same building. Our palace is now one of the great wonders of the world I suppose.

Speaking of dragon lairs, Ryo reached Kirillobatov. They’ve immediately offered to relocate their entire population to Sybaris to keep after the dragon. Actually offered is too soft a word. They demanded we allow their entire population to immigrate here and look after the dragon. As in they’re already on the way regardless if we want them or not. We could have Alexandria cut them off though if you’d rather they not, as they will have to go through Moncayo pass to reach us.

Ryo was also able to contact Kaikane, who proceeded to ask him about fifty questions about Haziel and warn that the Queen of Wolves was really dangerous. So that old story again. Though with some additional details. Apparently there are two archdruids that all other archdruids fear, the other one being Haziel’s sister. Haziel being the bigger meaner one, known across the entire continent as the greatest threat to all civilization. Largely because she’s the one who controls monsters as well as non-mana hunting beasts. The younger sister is called Raven or The Raven. She holds domain over the southern isles that the Oda are wandering about. Kaikane noted that those two sisters are the only two archdruids who have no territory overlaps. The others tend to be close together and poke into each other’s territory now and then as is convenient and get along well enough. Haziel and Raven both killed other druids for setting foot in their domains. She did not have much comment on the dragon thing, so that was useless. Other warnings include that the sisters might be the cause of the dying night. As it happened at the height of her war with civilization and the other druids, and notably made her the winner. However, Kaikane had nothing useful to say about dragons so that was pointless.

Speaking of druids though, we have noted some odd occurrences around our new villages. Animals lurking in the woods keeping a close eye on the colonists and so on. Not to mention the two teams that disappeared around sanctuary. Some of the colonists and their guards keep disappearing into the woods as well. These aren’t unusual events for colonists to face, many die in the wild after all.

Ivan took his troops up towards Jamsa to use the gatestone and head for the outpost construction site. Will take him another cycle just to reach Jamsa though.

The elves got around to reclaiming Leylat with a small reconstruction team to get things started. Our settler teams never made it that far so not much trouble for us.

Alexandria managed to take down the monster as ordered though lost almost all of her troops in the process. We may want to send her some reinforcements if she’s intended to keep a hold on Moncayo pass.

Speaking of the pass, reconstruction efforts under Alexandria have completed and now the pass is securely under our control.

Finally, Ankathi came by to visit. Not much we can really do to stop her from doing so since she keeps turning into a cloud of smoke all the time. She’s offered to help with integrating the dragon’s blood into our people, and has notably already conducted experiments to prove she can do it. Alternatively we could ask the dragon people who are on their way from Kirillobatov.

All that being said, Ankathi and her followers are here in the city for the week. So…let’s make sure Alexandria stays riiiight where she is just a little longer.