18.03.2023 - Scribe-5 - Hacking and Philosophical Struggles

• Bucket heals Sylword as well (25 hp)
• Void start to help Scribe out of the rubble, while Bucket tries to break Coty free from the frozen embrace of Salanth. The latter breaks off Salanth's arm from the elbow and down
• The machinery here is similar to the device over the empress' bed
  • There is a large central device, and pylons leading out in four different directions
  • Parts of the main device is moving in different directions, with ethereal fog billowing about 50 ft in the air, where another device is
  • Sylword notices that the upper device is connected by hundreds of Arnini's mage hands, going in and out of this dimension
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  • This device is pulling people into it from outside of this dimension
  • Everytime a mechanical arm goes out it takes a cog with it, leaving it behind wherever it takes the people from
• Bucket hears a faint whisper: "Paladin, please. Deliver me." It is coming from Salanth, in her death throws
  • The hand or the arm he broke of is mechanical
  • She is begging him for help, before the Tulub comes
  • She wants him to ask Rillifain to deliver her
  • He tells her that this is not her time
  • She says that she has to die, since she lost, but wants Rillifain to deliver her
  • Bucket heals her 1 hp
  • She will help him if he lets her die. "You must save them"
  • Bucket tries to make her abandon her creed
  • She would rather die by his hands than by the Tulub
  • She tells him to kill her and take the Hand of Strength (Someone worthy must take it and control it)
  • Bucket heals her more in spite
  • The final ice cracks, and she falls on her knees begging him to let Rillifain deliver her. When Bucket refuses to kill her, she says "Then he has forsaken us. I will not help you"
  • Salanth reveals that she is the leader of the Path of Strength, but not anymore as she was defeated. Bucket can become the leader if he takes the Hand of Strength
  • She was led astray by someone she refers to with female pronouns
  • Bucket uno-reverse-card's her by suggesting that he changes the creed when he becomes leader, so she no longer have to die
  • She wanrs him that the Tulu is coming to finish her off if he doesn't. She is scared
  • He gives her a golden oak leaf, telling her that it will be the decider of her faith. She looks at him with eyes full of hope
  • Bucket hears nature sounds and knows Rillifain is listening
  • When asked about what her fate should be, Rillifain gives him a vision of a bird nest. With a feeling that goodness should prevail, even if those you help don't want the kindness you offer
  • Bucket tells Salanth that RIllifain has spoken, and it is not her time to die
  • She wants Rillifain to take care of her soul, so it isn't taken by Arnini like the others
• Meanwhile, Void finally manages to free Scribes by turning his pack weapon into a crowbar. His patron is displeased
• Scribes starts investigating the device, trying to find a way to reverse the kidnapping process
  • There is invisible glass/arcane force around it, that prevents her from getting close
  • She asks Void for help. His pack weapon refuses to turn into a sledgehammer, but reluctantly agrees to a warhammer
  • When he hits it, a crack appears. In response the device sends a surge of electricity into Void
  • Another strike opens up a small opening, that Scribes sends her sentient quill through
• At the end of Bucket's conversation, five Tulu suddenly burst forth from different directions
  • Salanth grabs Bucket's shirt, warning him that the Tulu are but novices but will play dirty
  • If they kill her no one will be the leader of their path again
  • The tulu surrounds Salanth, but misses even though she is not resisting. As if something else is preventing them from hitting
  • She pleads with us that they are merely novices, they do not know what they're doing (as in don't know the consequences)
  • Void brutually bashes in one of their heads in with his warhammer, before pummeling another one half to death
  • Scribe accidentally kills another one with Toll the Dead, before focusing on the device again
  • Salanth begs Bucket to forgive them. "Please, they have not been attuned yet. I do not have the hand of strength, so I have not been able to attune them"
  • Her anti-magic tattooes are almost gone now, and broken up
  • Sylword casts Spirit Guardians, manifesting bacon dragonflies, which proceeds to slaughter two more of the tulu
  • Bucket tries to reason with the last remaining tulu to leave Salanth alive, as she is under Rillifain's protection now
  • Coty tries to freeze them, but the attack is shruged off
  • They try to run passed Scribes, but is tazed for their effort. They manage to stay standing, but their kick towards Salanth's head appears to bounce off without doing damage
  • Coty and Sylword noticed that Salanth moved away from the kick
  • Void feels his hearing being muddled by his patron when Salanth speaks of mercy for the tulu. He doesn't hear her and bashes the last tulu to death
• Salanth is quietly crying, looking at her dead comrades
• Bucket continues to struggle with his moral dilemma
  • Salanth continues to ask Bucket for Rillifain to deliver her
  • He tries to convince her that it is not her time yet. She has to find a new path
  • He offers to lead her to the path of Rillifain
  • She eventually agrees that she does not have to be delivered yet, but perhaps be reborn as a follower of Rillifain
• Void is distracted by his patron, who seems to hunger more as Void gets closer to the device. It has a strong wish towards a certain outcome
  • He manages to resist the temptation and goes to investigate where Arnini went
  • Arnini went out of the building and then north
• Scribes (Not having heard any of the conversation with Salanth) goes back to trying to hack the devices
  • Scribes understands that the device can seperate souls from bodies and store them in different locations
  • The soules are being transported to a container called The Vortex, which seems to be at over full capacity
  • The device seems to be ready to activate a series of events called Bring the Child Home
  • There are other functions for controlling the top device, including dials to control the speed and where things are put
  • Scribes uses Mage Hand to try to reverse the process of soul stealing
  • She manages to slow down the soulnapping process, until it starts going the other direction. The mechanical arms grabs lifeless bodies and pass them out of this dimension
  • The content of The Vortex does not change
  • A hologram of Arnini appears to yell at Scribes that she is just releasing lifeless bodies, and that the souls will not be able to travel between dimensions
• Scribes informs the others that the bodies have been returned, but that we need to do something about the giant mirror to free their souls
• Bucket tries to get Salanth to help us. He tells her that if she helps release the souls of the followers of Rillifain, it will persuade him to accept her request for deliverance in the autumn
• She is starting to accept her new path as a follower of Rillifain
• She tells him that Malagnim has the Hand of strength
  • Only the wielder of the hand can attune new members of the Path of Stength
  • Attuning will give them resistance to magical abilities
  • She doesn't think he would dare annoint more without her permission, but he can if he figures out how it works
  • The songsteel gauntlet on her missing arm is a key to safely enter Arnini's workshop
  • Other songsteel equipment will make the key more effective
  • Each leader of the Path of Strength cuts off their hand to be able to annoint more members, so she had no hand before Arnini gave her the gauntlet
• Bucket tells her to keep the leaf he gave her. It is one of the holiest artifacts of Rillifain, and will connect her to him
• She knows Malagnim seems obsessed with his song, and using it to create his magnum opus

Plan