Antikythera Lyceum Part 5
Log Info
- Title: Antikythera Lyceum Part 5
- Emitter: Subduction
- Characters: Skielstregar, Vaera, Ravenstongue
- Place: Rune
- Time: November 30th, 2021
- Summary: The party finds more information of the descent into madness from the headmaster. They descend into the locked laboratory with a looted ring of keys, discovering add reagents and ingredients. Behind a curtain they find two large tanks full of those worms they fought earlier. And in the basement, a cruel experiment on poor souls, and a dead aboleth in a tank, with something alive writing underneath the skin. Disgusted with the place, the party corrals the wizards into a prisoner line, and march them out of the university. Evidence in the bags and in their eyes, the party has a number of questions for their employer...
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Players -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ravenstongue 5'0" 99 Lb Half-Elf Female Short half-elf girl with violet eyes and black hair. Skielstregar 7'2" 330 Lb Sith-Makar Male A tarnished bronze scale with fangs and empty eyes. Vaera 7'0" 262 Lb Sith-Makar Female A tall, dark red Makari with a wooden leg. -=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= As the DM -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Subduction Eating Continental Shelfs -=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-
Skielstregar grunts as he shoves the last of the barricade away, and he rubs at his face to take in the office itself, his weapon readied for another fight.
Yet none came. And his dead gaze settled on the headmaster. ".... ew," is all he simply comments.
Ravenstongue bites her lip hard to keep from letting out a sound of surprise. After a moment, she lets it go and she says, "Yeah. Ew. But... let me check out that journal."
Pothy stares down the strange sight of the Headmaster. Particularly at the translucent skin, for that matter. "Jelly snack?" he asks.
Ravenstongue gags. "No! Forbidden snack!" she says as she walks closer to investigate the journal.
Vaera padded lightly into the office behind the others, finding the room very unhostile for the time being. Though she snorts when she sees the body.
"As you can see by thr barricade and body, the headmaster very much agrees with the actions of those cultists."
"If it is safe to approach, the keys and journal may prove useful, along with other things in the office. You still have that wand Ravenstongue? You should familiarize yourself with it's use,"
The final page of the journal is ink-stained, a great blotch soaked into the pages where the inkpot spilled from the lap of the headmaster- chillingly, most likely as he died. The preceeding page is covered with mad, incoherent ramblings in mostly illegible scrawl. Amidst the garbled tradespeak are strange, arcane signs unfamiliar to Ravenstongue- despite her studies in the arcane arts themselves.
But even so, there is some sort of... unconscious understanding of these symbols. They mean things. They represent concepts- concepts that are so abstract the words for them don't spring to mind, and may not exist in any mortal tongue. A throbbing pain starts behind the temples, and grows worse the more one tries to think about what they might mean- and all the while, the knowledge they mean /something/ is certain and absolute.
One of the last lines that makes even a modicum of sense reads thus;
"Seeing without knowing is folly, knowing without seeing is madness. Are we truly consigned to crawling in the mud and the muck? There must be something more, I can feel it, drip, drip, dripping inside my skull. The pain is unbearable, but it is not enough."
Skiel idly turns the office over as Ravenstongue inspects the journal. Him glancing to her every now and then, and to the doorway. Still a bit on edge.
Ravenstongue shivers as she reads the journal. She snaps it shut and holds the book in her hands. "This is the journal of a madman," she says, walking back to Skiel and Vaera. "He was driven mad by their research and died for it."
"Yes, something happened to drive all these people to this state, but the exact reason is unknown still." Vaera agrees after thumbing through the journal and closing it quickly. "They may have uncovered something, or summoned something, but something caused those worm creatures to end up here. We need to figure out what that is."
Elsewhere in the office there are various accroutemants of a researcher and scholar- scroll cases, some empty, some containing blank parchments, other still containing writings of one sort or another. The wardrobe contains a number of fairly fine robes, sized for a human man of middling height. The door in the southeast leads to a small bedchamber, the bed looks as though it has been vacant for weeks, judging by the dust settled atop the sheets, even though the rest of the headmaster's quarters show signs of much more recent activity.
Aside from the unslightly corpse of the headmaster, the room is fairly normal- at least, for a room that has been turned upside down by a man in the last days of his life and absent his reason. The keychain is easy to retrieve from his belt, having a handy spring-loaded clip. A number of keys adorn it, likely for the various rooms of the campus.
Skielstregar extends a taloned finger to pick the keyring off the headmaster's belt, a sigh leaving him. "Perhapsss thisss will get usss into that lab we sssaw downstssstairs?" he suggests, looking on with concern to his fellow redscale.
Ravenstongue nods. "Let's get going... I don't particularly want to stay in this room much longer than I have to. Especially with how Pothy keeps looking at him."
Pothy still looks at the forbidden snack. After all, he /is/ a raven.
Vaera gathers up the written scroll cases and puts them away, before she nods to Skielstregar. "Yes, they may work. And failing that, we know that upstairs is clear, should we need more destructive methods." She states. "Ravenstongue, can you figure out what happened to the headmaster? It is not normal for a corpse to decompose like that. It may be worth understanding before going on."
GAME: Ravenstongue rolls Heal: (13)+2: 15 GAME: Vaera rolls heal: (16)+7: 23 GAME: Vaera rolls knowledge/dungeoneering: (14)+5: 19 GAME: Ravenstongue rolls 1d20+2+5: (15)+2+5: 22 (dungeoneering)
Ravenstongue inspects the dead man's corpse again. She looks around at his airways in particular, looking puzzled, until she leafs through the book on aquatic aberrations. She lands on one page in particular and reads it quickly, her eyes scanning the page with uncanny speed... and she gasps quietly. "An aboleth. An aboleth killed this man. Aboleths let out a cloud of mucus when they swim. It turns the flesh of land-dwellers into jelly--"
"Snack?" Pothy says.
"Ye--NO!" Ravenstongue catches herself at the last moment. "This gives them the ability to breathe underwater, but the inability to breathe air."
She closes the book, her eyes full of horror as she looks between Skiel and Vaera. "Aboleths are evil, evil creatures that are intelligent. They live in deep oceans and underground lakes who build weird empires using slaves."
Vaera points out a few particularly abnormal areas, but leaves most of the investigation to Ravenstongue. She takes a step back as she cross references the book, nodding to the sorcerer. "So this was caused by some manner of creature, which is making those here it's thralls. This is good to know though. If it is something we can deal with, we could do so, or make our reports. If it is making people breathe underwater as slaves, I feel we may find it down the area on the first floor from before."
Skielstregar frowns as much as a makari can and crosses his arms. "Ssso they had contact with thisss aboleth, was exposed, and sssuffocated, it seems," he grunts. The man rubs at his face before jangling the keys. "Then let usss confirm our sussspicionsss. If we need ssslay a beassst for the sssake of unthrallment, then we may need do ssso."
The return journey back to the ground floor is rather less fraught than the journbey up here, the mad wizards subdued, tied up or unconscious or both. That strange, tentacle festooned creature they found in the doorms has since gurgled its last, the foul rotten fish smell of the ichor it has in lieu of blood enough to make one's eyes water.
Soon enough, they find themselves at the foot of the stairs- there, there is the locked laboritory they peeked at earlier, and the door Skiel forced open, leading to a ladder headed down.
Skiel gestures to the locked door. "Lab, then check down the ladder?" he offers.
"That sounds reasonable to me," Ravenstongue replies. On her shoulder, Pothy softly murmurs something about jelly snacks.
"Well, there is only one room left to check here, it seems." Vaera chuffs when they reach the ground floor again. she takes the ring of keys, and tries them on the door until they reach the last one, as that is how key rings usually went. "You are correct, perhaps slaying the beast will have an effect on freeing their minds. But if we go down there, we will need to be prepared. There may be more of those worms, and I know little, if anything about aboleths."
Skiel murmurs to the bird, "Trussst thisss one. You do not want the forbidden sssnack. It is regrettable."
The last key indeed catches in the lock, and opens with a soft thunk as the bolt is disengaged. The door is easily opened once unlocked revealing what Vaera saw earlier in more detail- an alchemical laboritory of sorts. Much of the equipment- alembics, flasks, mortars and pestles, small burners- looks fairly new, though used extensively. Various substances line one wall, some of the bottles well labled, others less so. A curtain is drawn across an alcove set back into the north side of the room.
"Why is it always the last one?" Vaera grumbles once she is able to open up the door and step inside. "Be careful, as the substances here may be dangerous. But it looks like whatever was being done here was recent, a new project that may have been interrupted by what happened. Perhaps they were even looking into the worms or things beforehand?" She says before investigating more of the rooms contents.
Ravenstongue leafs through her book again as they walk. Apparently, she is somewhat apt at reading and walking without tripping over herself, most likely an indication of a life led as a bookworm. "Vaera, Skiel--I don't think we'd be able to handle an aboleth if there is one here. They're ancient creatures. They're absolutely massive and powerful. We need to /run/ if we see one--they have three eyes, and lots of tentacles. Sort of fish-like."
Skielstregar nods to Vaera as he keeps his weapon close, him taking careful steps into the room and swinging his head around to look at what he can. His attention is drawn to the curtain, and he faces it with the spear tip of the halberd poised. Him guarding the others. He flicks his gaze over the half-sil. "Noted."
The alchemical supplies are fairly normal- quicksilver, metal oxides, sulfur, lime. There are some other materials not so common in alchemical labs, but common in other aplications- Preserving solutions used to prevent the decay of flesh, an unidentified vial of clear slime, a flask of what looks like frogspawn.
"I am not sure why this place would be experimenting with specimen preservation, given what we were told. it seems they were working on more than what we were told." Vaera sighs. "The slime, and eggs, do they look like what the book says Ravenstongue? If we can not face it as you say, this may prove enough evidence to prove it."
Vaera looks over to Sjielstregar and nods. "We should see what is behind that curtain if you are concerned about it. the main worry is the ladder down otherwise."
"I'm ready to look behind the curtain if you are," Ravenstongue says to Skielstregar. She flips through her book again to find any description regarding the slime and eggs.
Skielstregar firms his stance as the others points out the oddities. He nods firmly, and interposes himself between the curtain and the two women. "Ready yourselvesss," he warns before taking the tip of the polearm and resting it on the edge of the curtain. Stealing a glance behind him to ensure the safety of the others, he gently moves the curtain aside to reveal its contents.
Behind the Curtain are... a pair of tanks. Each of the tanks is full of murky grey-green fluid, that may well simply be water. At first, it seems as though that is all that is contained within. UNtil suddenly, a ring-toothed maw slams into the glass. INdistinct shapes in the murk resolve into more of those worms- many more- swimming around in the water, undulating and twisting as they make their way around the tank.
The one that had made an attempt at the glass seperates from it after a moment, joining the others in their aimless circuits of the tank.
Vaera flinches when the glass is smacked into, and she squints when she realizes the source. "Well, that is interesting." She sighs. "I can see why the person wgo sent us here was concerned about information being shared. It would not do for others to find out they were researching aboleths and these creatures here."
Skielstregar blinks owlishly at the sight of the tanks, and flinches from the thud against the glass. "... sssomehow, thisss is both unexpected, yet completely expected," he rumbles. He glances to Vaera. "Yesss. Thisss one understandssss learning of the enemy, but it ssseems they thisss place has taken it a bit too far."
"Ssshould leave thisss here for proof. Thisss one thinksss thisss isssn't going anywhere. Can lock the doorsss ssso no one comesss in to try anything fissshy."
He can't help but quietly chuckle at his own joke.
Ravenstongue similarly flinches when the creatures slams into the glass. "That's terrifying," she says, her voice shaking a little. "I agree with Skielstregar. Lock the door on our way out of this room. Worm looking bastards can't open doors if they don't have hands, even if they escape from the tanks," she mutters darkly at the end.
With the lab locked up behind them, the group are able to continue onwards- and make their way down the ladder into the basement. It's dark down there, though their first signs that something is not right is the smell- it smells like death down there. The scents of blood, decay and sickness mingling to assault the senses.
The reason soon becomes clear, when they are able to find the valve for the basement's gas lanterns near the ladder. The room is... somewhere between a hospital and a Laboritory. There are surgical tables- their occupants strapped down. Both clearly dead. One of them seems to have suffered some grotesque deformity, his shorn head lumpy and engorged, eyes bulging and discolored. A mass of dead tentacles erupt from his mouth.
The other has had his skull opened, and brain removed- a jar containing it nearby.
Further south in the room, the floor is recessed. In the center of the recess is an enormous tank- much like those upstairs- but in it is an enormous creature, three bulbous eyes framing a toothy maw, tentacles hanging lank at its sides. An Aboleth, Ravenstongue will recognize. But this one is clearly dead, and has been for a long time. And yet its flesh writhes, tiny creatures living within still.
Ravenstongue finds herself biting her lips again, a little muffled noise escaping her as she sees the macabre sight before her: the dead people, the dead aboleth... And the creatures wriggling inside the aboleth. "This is sick," she whispers to Skielstregar and Vaera. "Should we do anything about... what's in the tank?"
Skielstregar goes in first, clearing the way before landing with his weapon readied. And he pauses. The smell wasn't unknown to him, but the sight...
His lip curls in distain. He huffs, a gout of black-laced frozen air spilling from him as his gaze finally settles on the large tank. "... Dragonfather preserve us."
He looks to Ravenstongue, then back to everything. "... thisss one thinksss there isssn't much to do here, sssave look for cluesss and caussses of death. The tank... thisss one wantsss to smash it, but we would be... asss sssome sssoftskinsss say, fisssh in a barrel with whatever livesss inssside the corpssse."
Vaera covers her snout for some time after making her way down, only to uncover it as she shakes her head. "The gods would not have anything to do with this place, yes. Hopefully they can keep us safe to some degree." She says after collecting herself. "It would be wise to destroy the tank and it's contents, like the ones upstairs, but with so many, I agree, it is not safe to do so. But the fact it is in a tank here, that also proves that what they were doing here began as intentional. The aboleth did not put itself in that tank most likely. And they are, using it? Ravenstongue, does that book have any information on Aboleth spawn? If they are what we saw up there, or perhaps these worms are some manner of parasite or related creature?"
The book mentions that Aboleth can reproduce asexually, but aside from that little seems to be known about their mating cycle. The entry on Wizards Shackles does shed some light, though- as evidenced by their control of the wizards, they are very much parasites, and do not restrict themselves to humanoid hosts- rather, they only seem to be able to control those with some sort of arcane talent. That includes Aboleths, who are more than capable of becoming wizards themselves.
Ravenstongue purses her lips together as she opens the book again and reads. "It doesn't have much on aboleth reproduction... But I think what's inside the aboleth corpse are more of those worms, the wizard's shackles. They're parasites, after all--and they're drawn to anything with arcane magic talent. Aboleths are capable of arcane magic, so..."
Skielstregar meanders over to the bodies, inspecting them with a hand over his nose. He growls, clearly angered by this endeavor. "... thisss one thinksss we should quit this place and drag the alive wizards along with usss," he grumbles, stepping around the tank to check every nook and cranny.
"So these are not young aboleth, but a form of parasite. And, they were researching them it seems, but things ended up out of their control?" Vaera suggests after Ravenstongue's explanation. "I do not like leaving these things alive here, but I do not know of how we could deal with them all ourselves."
"I hope that they will be destroyed, but evidence leads me to believe that may not happen. After all, This can not have been going on that short of a time, and they only lost contact within a month, yes? If any of the journals state that this has been going on longer than that."
Skiel pipes in, "It had been serveral months they had lost contact."
There doesn't seem to be much more to discover here- aside from diagrams documenting the procedures. According to what the group are able to piece together, the creature upstairs was their attempt to create a spawning ground for the worms. Their third, sucessful attempt. The first two are still down here. By some unknown means, the tentacle-faced hosts feed on the mental energy of people, and use this to spawn new Wizard's Shackles that emerge from their own bodies.
So far, all of the evidence they have found indicates that these researchers chose to become posessed by the Wizard's Shackles- whether those who were experimented on surcically volounteered is less clear. Of course, it is also possible that some other force drove them insane in the first place. Either way, it seems no further answers are forthcoming from their captive researchers or the college itself.
Skielstregar returns after his sweep, and he shakes his head. "Thisss isss beyond our capabilitiesss, thisss one is afraid. While thisss one thinksss the onesss here delved into thingsss they shouldn't have, and payed the price for it."
He huffs, and returns his weapon back to its frog. "We ssshould return. Thisss place remindsss this one of... lesss than stellar times."
Heavy with the burden of knowledge, Ravenstongue's shoulders sag as she sighs. "You're right. What happened here is... tragic. Let's take the living and go back to our employer. I don't normally drink, but I feel like I'm going to need it after this."
"Whether intentional or not, it does not change what happened here. I still have the letters from before, they can be delivered to the families of the deceased if they are safe to do so." Vaera nods. "We should leave this place, and alert them to what happened here. As for the wizards here, I do not know what should be done with them, but they should not be left here. Between the three of us, we should be able to bring them back."
The red makari puts one hand on Skielstregar's shoulder. "I understand, we have found what we can. There is no reason to linger any longer."
The wizards are... difficult to work with. Some of them are mostly sane, but still desperate to return to the control of the worms, to continue their work- distraught over the loss of the statue. Others are little more than gibbering wrecks, spouting incoherent nonsense and attempting to harm themselves when given the chance- in particular, a common trend is attempts to remove or damage their own eyes.
However, the adventurers manage to corrale them into a chain gang of sort with ropes, hands bound where they can't hurt themselves or others, and begin marching them out into the fog and light drizzle of the evening.
-End Scene-
OOC
Basement map: https://www.mipui.net/app/index.html?mid=mh7vwrzx5q8
Aboleth in the big tank: https://i.redd.it/p5pyn0trgou51.png
