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Runtime Break start 3h 54m 2h 5m
Episode 98: The Nox Engine
In the long wake of the Solstice, Bell’s Hells find Exandria and their world turned topsy-turvy as Ludinus Da’leth and his cadre of followers (known as the Ruby Vanguard) plan to unleash the god-eating entity Predathos that was long sealed in the red moon Ruidus. After travelling to this very moon, interacting with its people and returning with intel on hopes to stop what they’re doing, they discover that they’ve been sourcing ancient, long-buried Aeorian magical technology as part of their plan. And not just that. Ludinus Da’leth is there right now dealing with a strange wrinkle in his plot with the name Dominox.
Bell’s Hells, escorted by a figure with some experience in the ruins of Aeor, one Essek Thelyss (crowd shouts ‘Hot Boi’) on loan from his ‘partner’, brought them to the strange, northern, frozen realm of Eiselcross where the very fabric of magic is strange and prone to unexpected apparation subforces. They went to these ruins, delved beneath, discovered that the Ruby Vanguard that had been delving within, scattered, killed (not by the terrifying denizens of these ancient dark ruins, but by eachother in strange fits of almost religious madness, carving glyphs into their flesh).
Going towards the darkest depths of the basements of the ruins in the center of the Genesis Ward at Essek’s guidance, they come upon a strange chamber where upon the ancient bodies mingling with the new freshly dead (now dangling by blackened hooks from long chains that seem to have apparated from nowhere, almost grown from the surrounding stone of the crumbled rock and ruin). They heard some of these long forgotten corpses asking them questions through magic: hearing things of a Nox Engine, hearing that Dominox was once (or may still be) a grand demon of ancient times sealed away and harnessed for nefarious magical purpose within this Nox Engine by the mage lords of Aeor long ago now recently running rampant upon the Ruby Vanguard.
Right as they discovered this, strange visions began to come to them. First Chetney Pock O’Pea being overcome with a mystical vision of a familiar darkened wood of the past and the bloodied faces of the children, seemingly called from dark, maybe buried, memories asking why he hurt them, why he killed them. Uncertain if this was real or not, he had to pull himself from the vision before attacking his friends. Right as they began to collect themselves, searching for the source of this strange dark magic, hoping to either find Ludinus or perhaps this Dominox and figure out what or who is the right villain in this instance, poor Dorian Storm fell to his own vision. As they pass between these hanging chains looking upon one of these hung corpses, he sees the face of his recently deceased brother Cyrus, who looks up at him with dead sunken eyes saying,
“Why have you done this to me brother?”
It’s here in these shadows. Dorian Storm, the blood pouring from his blackened sockets here in the shattered expanse, the rest of it just a shadowy dark blur around you, Cyrus looks towards you from that shadow.
“Why? Why, brother?”
As you glance up towards his face to try and make eye contact, his now-somewhat-shriveled corpse arms reach out and grab your lapel and pull you close (where you can smell the early decay on him) his lips curl back with the gums in the early stage of decomposition.
“Not all is lost, brother. I’m not beyond saving. My spirit lingers, haunts this realm now without peace, and I am not alone.”
You see these little sparks glow on the horizon around him, these other souls lost in the limbo, now in the post-Solstice era. The hands no longer grasping you; now just touching your cheek with a sadness and a hopeful longing.
“Within this engine, a curse keeps us, brother. Free us. Let us rest, brother.”
As the body begins to fade, the last thing you see in his shadow are a sparkin flash of a spinning purple crystal before you blink, and the body hanging before you is a long-dead skeleton, withered and armored in that of the ancient Aeorian guard.
♪Episode Song References♪
ᕕ( ᐛ)ᕗ
Highlights
Laura:“Twist it.”
Taliesin:“Lick it.”
Laura:“Bop it.”
Matt:“Happy Pride.”
rolls three 7sfor Cure Wounds and is thanked with a brief shoulder rub from Sam, “Powerful magic from a powerful man. You got me halfway. I’ll take care of the rest with my own hand.” andcasts Lay on Hands.Liam:“Still better when somebody else does it.”
Fearne:“Braius, what are you doing here in this closet?”
Braius:“…I like your knees. They bend the way mine do.”
Fearne:“Well, that’s not entirely-”
Braius:"Are you two?
touches fingertipsTeven:“We are bound, yes.”
Laudna:“Lean into it.”
Fearne:“Yes, we’re bound. We’re So bound.”
Teven:“I am also bound to many.”
Fearne:“That’s totally fine, cuz so am I.”
vibration noises. As it does that, you can see bits of crackling energy that spark off to these spires around us (these multitudes of Aeorian tech spires throughout the center chamber). In the middle of it, hovering in the air and slowly rotating, you see this quad-spire platform that is spinning in the air, and in the middle, pulsing, a small purple crystal (the Pinion of Service).Demons vs Devils lore
Demons are almost always Chaotic Evil in alignment, spreading destruction and mayhem every day of their lives. They despise rules and anything that impedes their freedom, which often results in indiscriminate killing, annihilation, and meddling with the plans of others. Devils on the other hand are Lawful Evil, favoring a more structured approach to life. They often have elaborate plans behind their actions and attacks, with some spanning millennia to see through, relying on alliances and deals to achieve.
“Let’s Make A Deal!”
Don’t let the little girl terrorize the old man.
Let us find our quarry.
That we may bring you glory.”
“Fuckin’ chisels out, baby!”
He nods and you see a grin pull across his mouth. The sharpened teeth exposed as he tightens the grip on his blade. The two of you begin to descend the stairs that curve downward into an open metal doorway that leads into the darkened chamber. The only light sources you have are those glowing glyphs and the electrical buzzes of the nearby equipment that’s surrounding and are a part of the central Nox Engine. The occasional arc sending a splash of light across the room and casting instantaneous shadows that vanish as soon as the light does. You begin to step inside and that smell, that strange metallic buzzing smell that you caught on the weird cloak that you acquired.
rolling a 31on an Insight check on Dominox:It is hard to read a being of pure Abyssal chaos kept in darkness and shadow for 1,000 years, broken and half-given-to-madness. Here it gives to you a truth that you can sense is false. There is a desperation to her voice and a focus on this crystal that is borderline obsession.
Imogen:“Oh, I’m not sure.”
Marisha gets up to leavecasts Animate Objecton the door to open it.)INTERMISSION
Across the interior of this chamber, the slowly rotating gem there
spins tiny mag-lev figurineINITIATIVE!
Teven at the top of the order, blade drawn and burning with rage says,
“I knew it from the moment we stepped in here, it HAD TO DIE!”
“What have you done, what are you doing? We have to stop it now.”
Form of Dread!”Legendary Resistanceand (is currently the massive, terrifying, nearly 20-foot-tall, long-sealed great demon, used as an implement of arcane power by the ancient mageocracy of Aeor, recently unleashed to tear through and destroy the Ruby Vanguard and Ludinus’ plot here in Aeor) begins to cut a rug.“Ah, my Lord. I smite thee, ancient evil. Fair play in your name. See you never again.”
Brings the blade up and drives it into Dominox’ chest. As it hits, he’s going to leap in the air carving it in half. As it does, it lands and the body splits and begins to burn to ash on the form of the Abyss where it dissipates forever on its plane. Dominox sundered.
Teven:“Those are rare. (I better not see this on eBay!)”
Within the dead center of this wide, circular chamber, lies two massive statues of robed mages holding lanterns. One of them fallen and broken, the other still holding against time, holding against the memory of the historical fall of Aeor. You can see them both flanking a central, damaged, metallic dome construction with massive rivets and textured arcane technology around it. It’s next to that Ludinus stands, arms crossed, looking out at you with a soft smile.
“Welcome to the Occultus Thalamus. The high mages of the Age of Arcanum were the greatest minds of Exandrian history. The call to innovation created great societies of ingenuity, ambition and endless potential. Using the gifts of the gods bestowed upon them, they began to unravel the great secrets of the universe. Prideful, perhaps, but beautiful.
And they feared it.
Once the child becomes the parent, often those in power can grow resentful, and they did. When more came crawling around, a war of omnipotent children bickering, these brilliant minds had to adapt, focus to implements of war beyond just implements of progress. When the divine threatens your families, your children, the very future of life as you know it, they reveal themselves as the enemy.
I saw it. I was there in the final days of The Calamity. I watched mountains brought to dust, whole countries set aflame, the tantrums of the gods wantonly murdering and massacring the majority of all civilizations on Exandria. When the dust had settled and their rivalry paused, the few of us that survived wallowed in the dust and ash and spent centuries trying to rebuild from what scraps we could find, while they vanished beyond their gate to protect us, or perhaps to hide from us once they saw what was capable. I survived, watched as a child, acknowledged what they wrought as they fled to the mystical hideaways.
This world has been manipulated, duped in its opinion, it’s understanding of divinity. For those that write the history books are those in power and there is no power higher than them. There’s a reason they fear me. Some of it’s Predathos, yes, but I found something equally important here. Sometimes the most important weapon in information. These mageocracies, in many places, had ways of recording things, knowledge, history, some lost to time. But Aeor created the Thalamus, a device that recorded the spiritual memory of all in the city, including those that brought it low. I’ve spent a day or so studying this and I found something, something I think you want to see.”
He reaches over to the cracked central dome and places his hands near it, and as he does
crackling noiseit begins to open up. Mist billows out and you watch as this light green orb emerges. An endlessly fractal network or threads of arcane power, layered upon themselves over and over again, and it drifts beyond them.“Within here lies the memories of Aeor. Fractured, but enough. And what I will show you, I will show the rest of Exandria.”
As he changes the hold on the sides of his hands, the orb begins to spin rapidly, whirs loudly. It begins to brighten. This light begins to burst and pulse. All of you feel instinctively like you have to recoil as the very space around you is entirely filled with light. Your spirit is filled with light. Your mind is filled with light. All there is is light.
BLeeM arrives and Matt gives him the GM chairLight.
In a space beyond the real, there was (made of light) a palace. Which is to say a garden, or a fountain, or a mirror, or a heart, or more than any of these, an idea. A swirling nebula of glimmering potential, cresting eternally upon the threshold of being. But if it aids you, Exandrian, to imagine what the mortal eye can never see, envision then, as I have said, a palace. It’s floors the dancing stars in unmapped orbit. It’s ramparts light and ice and fire. Its hallways memory and time. Our story begins at the ending of the infinite, at the doom that pierced eternity. Fractured images of a lost world and of the ones who lost it. Remember now a place which was not less, but rather more than real. Remember tragedy, betrayal, calamity, downfall. In the recording of this memory, may the answers to many questions lie. But one question yet and shall forevermore remain:
“Is It Thursday Yet?”
Cooldown
Brennan:"I love the idea that Matt’s gonna have to be in the wings for the run and if it gets too far in one narrative direction, Ludinus just starts shaking the VHS. “Actually fuck what I said. Nevermind. This thing fuckin’ sucks!”