cinaed

Session 3 (8/4):

Asmund also tenses at the whistle before he looks at the group and suggests that they talk to the Golden Wolf first before they go to ask the Archivist their questions.

The Golden Wolf is in the middle of the questioning, not doing the questioning herself but organizing things and directing people in the lines. When she sees the group approach, she asks if they’ve found anything.

Para says yes. Yves explains that they found magic from before the Conduit. They tell her about the missing books and the residue of old magic in the Curator’s office. The Wolf exclaims at that, not quite disbelieving, and regrets that she can’t check herself since she’s in the middle of this investigation.

They start to mention the thefts, which derails briefly into Triss claiming her and the Wanderer’s office as her own and prompting the Wolf to promise her an office of her own. When they discuss that someone has broken into the Archive and perhaps that person had assistance from within, the Wolf asks who would betray the Archive.

Para says that it could be someone who doesn’t like the way things are run, or who has a grudge against the Archivist. The Wolf scoffs and says no one likes the Archivist. When Para says she doesn’t have a grudge against him, she just dislikes him, this earns a withering and doubtful look from the Wolf before she says anyone who is upset can bring their problems forward.

Para and Yves argue that that isn’t true. The Wolf says that there have been changes in the institution in the past and that their voices are heard. When Para asks when, the Wolf says she made her personal feelings known four years ago. Para presses and the Wolf admits that she was informed of the political ramifications and decided not to be upset about it.

As Para laughs, the Wolf says the only person she can think would be angry at the Archive is the Wanderer. When Asmund asks why, she explains that he gets frustrated seeing the suffering on different planes and problems of the outer world. The level of involvement that he wants from the Archive is impossible.

Asmund tells her about the thefts of things relating to the Archmage. When she asks who would need to learn about the Archmage, all of them are unsure other than an obvious outsider. Asmund asks if she’s discovered anything during her questioning and she says one keeper lost his mask for forty-five minutes a few months ago and that no one has left since the attack today except for the Arctic Fox to fetch the Archivist’s successor.

Asmund says in that case, unless anyone has any questions, he thinks they have some questions for the Archivist. The Wolf dryly wishes them luck before they ascend the stairs of the ivory tower to the Archivist’s offices. His main office is closed, while the personal office’s door is slightly ajar.

Para approaches the door first and watches a pale hand reach out to block the door. The Arctic Fox looks at her without speaking for a long moment before the Archivist drawls in a bored voice for the Fox to let them in.

The office has tall bookshelves and little items around. One of the chairs is occupied by the Archivist’s son, who is huddled in on himself.

The Archivist has his mask slightly askew as he rubs at his eyes. He asks if they’re the ones helping with the investigation. Victoria says yes, and he tells them that they can speak freely. Para tells them there are missing books and Yves adds pointedly missing artifacts such as the key to the Archmage’s tomb.

The Archivist looks sharply at that. He says there are only three keys, the one that the Puppeteer has locked away and the blood of himself and his son. Yves frowns at that, wondering why the Archivist would borrow the key from the Puppeteer then.

Meanwhile Victoria asks if someone could shift and appear to be a key, shifting herself into the Archivist. The Archivist raises an eyebrow and Daveena looks briefly concerned behind him. They don’t seem particularly perturbed by the prospect.

From what Para surmises is that the magic is so connected to one’s mask that they would have to be within the Archive to be replaced.

Tueni asks about the blood key. The Archivist says it must be fresh blood and there is a time limit. It doesn’t have to be much, a knick of his finger will do.

Asmund says that from what was stolen from the different offices, it seems likely that the person has either made their way to the Tomb already or is headed there, potentially with the kidnapped archivists.

The Archivist says that means he’ll need to accompany them. Yves dryly says they’ll appreciate it. The Archivist looks at the Arctic Fox, who has been standing guard at the door, and tells him to guard Sae’var. The Arctic Fox hesitates, as though he wants to say something, before he nods.

The Archivist sweeps past the group, saying that they’ll discuss the details on the way. Asmund and Yves linger just long enough to nod their heads respectfully and greet Sae’var. He nods as well and greets them formally by their titles.

Para also lingers, giving him the skeptical look of a disapproving grandmother. He looks away and stares at his father’s desk.

No one in the group has been to the Archmage’s tomb before, but they all know of her. She created the Archive, using her skills as a mage to do new things with magic during the time of the Recusal.

As the Archivist remarks that the Archive’s wards are practically foolproof and that this has never happened before, Para remembers her father speaking about the Tomb in a way that suggested there was more than just the body there. He spoke of how if people could wrench something out of the tomb, it could be devastating to the world. She gets the sinking feeling that it’s not the body of Melisandra but whatever is buried with her that this person wants.

The closer they get, the more uncomfortable Para feels. She can practically feel her father’s presence.

They go lower and lower, deeper and deeper down a winding path where they reach a point where the path narrows quickly down to a single file line. There is a stone door, the Archivist pulling out a series of keys and unlocking the door.

It is a dark room, though braziers magically light as the people enter. There are multiple doors that they pass through in this manner, Asmund, Victoria, Tueni, and Para scenting that old, uncontrolled magic as they pass through empty rooms. The Archivist disarms a few traps along the way.

Victoria gets the hint of something underneath the old magic. She can’t quite figure it out until she recognizes it as necromancy.

Triss steps through the next doorway. The smell hits her as a wave of undeath. It even stills the Archivist for a moment before Triss says, “We should be careful. What is here is very old and not alive.”

The Archivist says it is a tomb. When Triss says that she means there is something undead, the Archivist stares at her. She asks when the last time he was down here, and he says about two or three decades ago. She realizes from the way he answers that while he hasn’t been down here, someone else has.

The Archive explains that the Curator had been here a few weeks ago.

Para says the Curator is missing, that doesn’t seem odd to him.

The Archivist says the Curator is always researching history. She returned the key to him and he returned it to the Puppeteer. He confirms that the Wanderer never expressed an interest in the Archmage when Para asks.

Para says they’ll forgive her an old woman’s mad theories. The Archivist says he doesn’t think her mad before he opens the door. Everything feels off-putting. Asmund draws on his divine sense and is immediately hit by the strong sense of undead.

When the door opens, they see a large room that leads to a further hallway. Along the walls there are sculptures of the Archmage, ones of her with books and pens. In each of these she has a sword resting against her hip or in her hand, which she used to funnel her magic. There are tapestries of her studying and teaching magic. The statues all seem covered in something slick that seems wrong for the otherwise clean tomb.

Asmund can immediately sense three undead just beyond them to the left, as well as more undead beyond them. He draws his sword, warning the others, before he reaches out and touches a platinum band on Yves’ ring finger that matches his own, casting Ward Bond.

Victoria moves forward first. She takes on her starry form. A spectral bow appears in her hands and she fires off a radiant bolt at the closest undead. She follows up with a guiding bolt as well, making the undead glow with radiant light. As she skids out there, she can feel the slickness of the floor, a creeping chill of raw undeath.

There are two enormous skeletons making their way towards her, and a wight visible from just around the corner.

Behind her the Archivist hisses that those certainly weren’t here before.

Meanwhile Triss positions herself against a nearby wall and casts Fireball in the midst of the shambling skeletons. An enormous ball of flame roils through the corridor, making all of the undead shriek and groan.

Yves positions himself at the corner and casts a vicious Lightning Bolt at the two giant skeletons and the first wight. His eyes flash blue as the wight shatters, and the closest skeleton has multiple bones splinter and break. It sways and almost falls before its scorched skeletal frame moves towards Triss and Victoria.

The other giant skeleton joins the battle, both lashing out at Triss, Victoria, and Yves. All three of them ward off most of the attacks with Shield, only one blow slipping through to slash Triss’ shoulder.

Para casts a curse of grave enmity on one of the giant skeletons as she moves closer to the wall. She follows it up with a runekeeper’s bane, which makes a rune glow on its skull before she parallels Yves with a lightning bolt of her own on the two giant skeletons.

One of the giant skeletons is incinerated, splintered shards slashing into Victoria and Yves as it is destroyed.

Tueni casts Ice Storm on a surviving giant skeleton. The hailstone strikes and splinters more of the skeleton, the remnants of its skeleton beginning to ice over.

In the middle of the fight, the Archivist has been standing at the back, muttering that this shouldn’t be happening, that he needs to go to the door and ensure that it hasn’t been desecrated like the rest of this place.

He races forward, making it partway into the corridor, before calm footsteps echo through the halls and a voice says, strange with a dissonance like two voices speaking at once, a raspy undead voice, “You will not continue onward. You will not desecrate what the Master has started. You will not stop our rise. We will rise through the ranks.”

A death knight strides around the corner with a heavy sword scraping the floor. He extends one hand. Around him is a ripple of heavy, necrotic energy that washes over and through the group. It lays the Archivist out on his back, his head cracking hard enough to echo through the space. He lies there, unmoving, as the death knight says they will tear this institution from the sky and unmake all of it.

Asmund moves to put himself between the others and the death knight. When his Compelled Duel fails, the death knight laughs at him and says that was cute, but he’ll have fun tearing this plane asunder. Asmund narrows his eyes and says they won’t do any of that even as the wight attempts to claw him and fails.

Victoria doesn’t like any of this, sending another radiant arrow towards the skeleton. It misses as she turns her attention to the death knight. The guiding bolt moves between Asmund and the wight, striking the death knight in the helmet, cracking the helmet and showing a rotten face and making the knight glow with radiant light.

He groans and says that they won’t be able to stop the Master, he has beaten death and will return again. Victoria says that sounds like a future problem.

Triss moves forward, her Shield still defending her from the skeleton’s attack, and casts Spare the Dying on the Archivist. The wound in his head doesn’t heal, but the blood stops spreading. She uses a telekinetic shove against the knight, but he stands his ground.

Yves peers around the corner at the death knight. He casts a chromatic orb at him, but the spell strikes it in the metal plate and fizzles out without damage.

The skeleton lumbers over to him and manages to break through his defenses to land a single slashing hit as Para eyes it and realizes it is immune to poison damage but not necrotic. She casts Chill Touch on it. The necrotic damage rots through the damage and makes one of the arms fall off, but the skeleton is still standing.

Tueni tries to finish the skeleton off, sending acid arrows at it. The first one misses, but the second one hits, acid burning through more bone and melting it thoroughly into a blob at Victoria and Yves’ feet.

Para mutters gross under her breath as Tueni rushes forward to round the corner.

The death knight stares at Asmund, who feels a tug like a teleportation spell in his stomach, but the warmth he feels when he prays to Rova grounds him and he resists the Banishment spell. The death knight tilts his head and tells him that the gods will be destroyed, his Master will see their leaders’ corpses strewn throughout the planes.

Asmund casts searing smite on his sword, flames flicking along the blade’s edge, and says that the knight was saying a lot of things about a certain future, but that isn’t going to happen, the Conduit will keep the magic safe from whatever they’ve got planned.

His two strikes bounce against the knight’s armor, and the knight tells him that he’s going to make sure that after this, Asmund will wonder how his little goddess betrayed him as he becomes the next sacrifice.

Victoria strikes the knight again with her radiant arrow. This time it strikes, clearly doing some damage, as Triss hits him with a telekinetic shove that sends him slamming against the wall. The death knight is temporarily pinned there.

Yves casts Scorching Ray at the death knight and the wight. All three hit. The wight looks singed and the rays go through the damaged armor to the death knight’s chest, who grunts in pain.

Para steps around the corner and casts a powerful Magic Missile. All seven of the tiny darts strike the death knight as she ducks back around the corner. The last one strikes him in the stomach as he cranes his neck and hisses that they will be the next blood to feed the Lord.

Tueni moves to attack the wight, wrapping his arms around it and sending ice through its body as cold courses through it. He tries to glance down the corridor, but it’s too dark for him to see anything.

The death knight goes to cast a spell, the room filling with the same necrotic energy, before Yves dissolves it with a counterspell. He hisses that they are all fodder, they brought his master here, and he brought them here.

Asmund, his sword still aflame, strikes out twice, both having a flash of brilliant radiant light as he strikes home both times. The death knight’s death rattle becomes more pronounced and he gasps as Asmund slides his sword into what would have been his liver.

The wight slashes out and misses both Tueni and Asmund.

Victoria sends out three unexpected Eldritch blasts, one missing but two striking the death knight through the damaged helmet. It’s two quick bursts, one getting into the crack of the helmet revealing the rotten face and the other chest. Their final radiant arrow lances him through the face, destroying it.

The wight disappears with the death knight’s death.

Asmund pulls the Archivist to his feet, healing him back to consciousness. The Archivist murmurs that this is a desecration and shouldn’t have happened, which makes Para remark that it obviously did.

Asmund says that the knight talked a lot but he said something about the Archive bringing his master inside.

They all look down the corridor and feel that unnatural chill of undead. Triss and Asmund both feel a revulsion by their respective celestial entities, and Triss knows that something has created a lair here, encompassing the tomb and just outside of it.

Yves and Para both know that whatever has laired down in there is old, the source of the magic from before the Conduit. It’s also the sign of something that even Yves cannot quite put a name to, while Para knows that there is something important and valuable and old in that tomb. She’s seen lairs like this only in books and tales and warnings of other travelers.

When the death knight said that it was brought there, she knows there’s only one way that it could have gotten in unnoticed and she thinks of the missing necklace. It’s very easy to sneak an item into the Archive.

Even as she continues to worry that this was an inside job, thinking of the Sea Urchin, she gets the horrible feeling that inside the tomb is a lich.