Session 9: Starrin's Secrets

Crownsday, 23 Seeding, 998 Y.K.   As the inspector cart neared Kalazart, Rakela commandeered what little table space the cart possessed to lay out a set of architectural maps stamped with a Cyran seal. The Lightning Rail junction at Kalazart had been built mid-war to showcase the power and talent of House Cannith, and by extension, the kingdom of Cyre itself. The house spared no expense to connect Eston, the house's own seat of power, to the east-west line crossing the country. They even built the junction itself as a grandiose display of magical manipulation; rather than a simple three-way junction, the lines meet at a magical circle controlled from an external tower that could realign great stone platforms to pull, turn, and push a train through the depot, one car at a time.   Surrounding the circle was a ring notated as an "upper walkway," and Rakela mentioned that its underside was etched with runes as well. Everything in the ring of watchtowers was part of the eldritch machinery that powered the junction. The house had intended for Kalazart Junction to be a spectacle, and so they incorporated an amphitheater for entertaining the masses when not in other use. However, this design meant that moving through the junction required vastly more magical energy than simply powering the inspector cart. So much more, in fact, that most of the mana reservoirs Leali had brought had been specifically intended to recharge this place. This, Rakela said, had been where the previous expedition had ended; the two of them and Ploughshare had gotten overwhelmed and had to turn back.   Milli asked what had overwhelmed them, but Rakela only said, "history." That word lingered in the cramped quarters as the cart crept forward, until the towers surrounding the junction just into view. At that point, Leali stopped the car and Rakela outlined the plan. Each member of the party was then to take one of the reservoirs and place them within the charging circles found within the outer towers. Once each was emplaced, the dormant sigils would draw upon the energies stored within and return power to the spells powering the junction for a short while. This would make the whole area radiate with magic, which in turn would attract attention. Leali would run for the control tower, with Rakela acting as her guard, while the party kept any visitors away from the magic while the lecturer operated the eldtritch machinery to pull the inspector cart through and send it on to Eston.   Needless to say, this gave Milli a newfound appreciation -- possibly further terror -- for just how much mana the reservoirs stored, and what that had to mean for the one that had captured a piece of lightning.   The plan seemed simple enough, but as each new reservoir came to rest in its charging circle, the towers began to glow with an eerie greenish-white light. The mist thinned within the junction, and sigils blossomed across the great towers. The underside of the upper walkway did indeed begin to glow, and Bell realized in that moment that this junction wasn't just to showcase wealth or move trains. The machinery of the junction had also been designed to act as a summoning circle, though what was so large that it needed a circle that big to summon, the artificer had no desire to guess. The power flowing through the central ring was making her head vibrate as it was.   It was then that they heard the static, a low crackling hiss that echoed through the space. Relic saw the first one, likely a predecessor to the modern forged. It was a rough-hewn approximation of a person, little more than an arcane zombie. Its wand was integrated directly into its hand, and no spark shone behind its eyes. Still, it shuffled with determination towards the tower. When the monk lashed out with sword and foot, however, it quickly rounded on a new target, its old war commands coming to the fore.   After the first, two more appeared, and then three. They came in wave upon wave, remnants of the last siege of Eston, the instruments of war turned against their creators. Bell took down several with shatter spells, and Milli's crossbows proved shockingly effective. Zer's complement, Eid, kept watch over the field while the psion channeled lances of energy to disrupt their foes. Spark and Relic drove back the protoforged with sword and fire, and still the forgotten army staggered forward.   While the party fought to keep the towers clear, Leali began to pull the inspector cart through the junction, turning the great stone slabs to support it. As the fight wore on, though, one of the protoforged slipped past the party and managed to pull a reservoir from its circle. As soon as it did, the ancient soldier let out a roar and drained the reservoir dry. As soon as it lost its charge, the lights in the tower sputtered, and the stones ground to a halt. Rakela told the party over the amphitheater that they needed to bring another reservoir to replace the first. Despite her reservations from before, Milli threw herself upon the task. She dashed from her position back to the train now stuck in the center of the circle and pulled not one but two reservoirs, in case a second would have to be repaired.   With the waves of protoforged coming faster, the group knew they couldn't afford another delay. Zer telekinetically carried one of the reservoirs from Milli's horngrip back to its circle, while Milli dashed back to Medya's side. The gryphon had missed her target twice, an in a last-minute act of desperation, lashed out with her naturally-sharp gryphonbeak and torn through her prey's armor. With that act of desperation, the static in the air seemed to dissipate. The last of the protoforged fell, and a hush fell around the circle. Leali directed the party to retrieve the remaining reservoirs and hurry back to the cart. Once gathered, Leali quickly restored power to the cart itself, and the party headed northward to their destination.   Eston was once the ancestral home for House Cannith, and as such it was one of the prime targets during the war. Even at some distance, the ground showed signs of buckling and twisting from all the magic brought to bear across multiple sieges. Flashes of multicolored light rolled through the mist in the distance, accompanied by heavily distorted thunder, odd whistling, and the occasional burst of pure tones. The walls surrounding the enclave still stood, but everything inside was in visible ruin. Many buildings lay in rubble and several streets had cracked open. A few sinkholes appeared wide enough to have devoured whole blocks, and from some of the bigger pits shot great silent gouts of purple flame, endlessly radiating immense heat. Overhead, jagged bolts of bluish lightning flashed and flickered, occasionally raining down lightning that scattered more rubble through the empty streets.   And everywhere, the bodies. They lay scattered throughout the wreckage, their faces twisted in agony, their skin cracked and blistered, their deaths preserved in perfect stillness in the Mournlands.   From the terminal, It wasn't hard to see where Leali's destination from the prospectus lay, relative to the train station: a single wide road, easily six carriages abreast, ran from the transit terminal north and east to the Cannith family’s ancestral holdings, of which the magewright facilities were the largest structure. However, the road itself was cracked and split, at parts falling into the ground and at others rising into the air, the stones of the ground melting and torn like so much modeling clay in the hands of a colicky baby. Noxious smoke rose from some pits, while faint cries still echoed from othersm as though still-living people were trapped deep beneath the ground.   The Cannith family holdings sat on the east bank of the Azul River, though the mist obscured the water itself. The estate lay in ruins; almost all of the above-ground facilities were reduced to rubble. The double doors of the front entryway had been torn from their hinges, the glass shattered on the ground. d’Cannith Starrin, the previous Grand Gorgon, made his home here, as did his wife Elsabet and son Norran. Both were killed on the day of Mourning, their ancestral home little more than a pile of cinders. However, not all was lost: within the remains of the house, the party found quite a few items of interest.   In addition to the remains of the family estate, a short road down to the Magewright Pavillion showed off a warehouse-sized building whose outer walls were mostly intact. The front and rear doors suggested an interior factory-line of magic circles that would enable the rapid fabrication of a multitude of designs from large components shipped in from elsewhere. On deeper inspection, though, Milli and Bell realized that this place's creation matrices, even its great forge, weren't up to the task of building a forged wholly from scratch. However, the facility was full of design workbooks showing how to troubleshoot and repair most major basic design defects among forged components. When the alchemists realized what they had found, they hastily assembled a complete set of reference works from the surviving stations.   As Bell and Milli carefully stacked tomes in Zer's hidden chest, Relic drew his sword and quietly told the group they weren't alone. The monk leapt towards the door, sword held to block the escape of a forged that towered over all but Bell, and even came close to meeting her gaze. The party demanded if the forged were friend or foe; in response, he told them that the books they'd gathered would be useless without an index, which he identified on the shelf and gave to them. He introduced himself as Dowser, then stared intently at Bell and said, quite simply, "you're not one of Father's, are you?"   At that question, Zer carefully sifted through Dowser's mind, looking for Father's name and finding Aaren before the forged's mind disappeared from Zer's view with a warning to stay out unless invited. When Zer said he was surprised to discover he'd been noticed, the forged only said he needed to learn some manners. He informed the party he'd walked across the Azul River in search of a few components, and seemed shocked to find they'd managed to bring a railcar from Vathirond. He warned them against staying too long, then asked Relic if he could go. The monk put away his sword, and Dowser disappeared back into the fog.