Geekender's Realm

Summary of the 2009 Ebbensalma Spoofest:

We spent most of the session in Ebbensalma (3 months total starting in Week 3), city of the ancient Semu empire, where the first human gods known as ‘The 27’ were born & lived. This event marked the end of the age of giants and began the age of humans. Much of the session was devoted to exploring the ruins of the town and thereby discovering this ancient history.

 

The main sites we found are detailed below. The most thorough description of the Semu history was found in the Narr Mausoleum, which had sequential frescos telling the story of Narr, the primary hero warrior of the time. In addition to the history and archaeology we all made significant advances in our progress towards becoming immortal and all gained +3 wisdom & intelligence points over the three months we spent in the city.

After leaving Ebbensalma, we spent 1-2 weeks exploring the mountains northeast of the city including finding ancient giant graves (including the grave of one of the giant kings) and finishing with a visit to Narr’s Mausoleum in the Necropolis north of Ebbensalma. Finally, we picked up Orien in his hometown and brought along his sweetie. We returned through the wall with surprising ease and left off in Koryarekis where the PCs had a few points of business to be covered in email. Al, Efrim & Lakshmi received XP. Alestria and Carrock have yet to receive XP.

We returned with some precious loot, most notably a large quantity of Chustra glass, Natane’s disk of bone density (a strength and constitution enhancer which requires 6 months of exposure to increase strength & con by +1 up to three times!), magical mirrors of magnification, see-throughness, future experimentation and distant future viewing. Also a number of instruction bowls including those demonstrating how to make Chustra glass, the magical mirrors, and a paste to be applied to our bodies (made from the famous mai-dong trees).

 

After the description of sites below is a summary of our understanding of the links between the current gods and the 27 and our advances in understanding the nature of magic and immortality.

 

The Hobgoblin Excavation Site turns out to be the magical research center:

(fully excavated)

Floor 1 (from top): Contains Bowls of Instruction. These bowls show videos of ancient life and processes, and most are quite mundane. One involved placing a mixture of ingredients on one’s skin – we collected the ingredients needed for this.

Floor 2: We found and excavated 8 magical mirrors. They have three functions, one magnifies, one sees through things and one allows you to see the outcome of biological experiments. We used these to test a number of magical points of interest: the effect of potions (Al), what Pilgrim’s regimen does to us (we learned that in 10 years we will be able to regenerate our bodies, but it will make us tired), and the physical manifestations of spell casting.

Floor 3: One more mirror further down. This mirror projects objects that are in it far into the future (>100 years) without any hypotheticals.

Floor 4: On the bottom floor there are lots of shelves and a mural on the wall that has pronunciations of regular and magical runes in a phonetic language. We can decipher this phonetic language and it reveals that magic can be pronounced slightly differently. It turns out that spells cast in this slightly different way still work, much to our surprise.

Floor 5: Basement has a conical base that is burnt. This is likely a Chustra Glass making furnace.

 

Meeting Chamber:

(partially excavated)

We found this by searching for areas of interest using Earth Elementals. It is a huge room with 26 empty chairs at the center. Each has a different design including one (which we later learn is Fynnis’) with a Marble hat on the edge. One additional chair contains a statue, this is Natane – from this we begin to infer that Natane was the first to die. The statue and chair are one piece. All made of marble. The marble is worn around the chairs as if they were frequently used, but the rest of the room was not used much.

 

Fresco Room (detected via detect metal):

(fully excavated)

Three panels depicting the life of Narr, a man that that seems to have been an important leader at the time of the 17, but appears not to be one of the 27 himself. The most interesting panel has the man holding three chains attached to three giants–storm, cloud, and mountain. His portrait is foregrounded so he looks bigger than the giants. The metal pieces are his helmet and shin guards. In the first picture he is ‘Receiving his commission’ from Elstir, one of the 27. The next is ‘Preparation for the Narristin war’ and finally ‘Narr vanquishes.’

 

Army Figurines:

(already excavated/not filled in)

In this same area (detected using detect gems with the dagger) is a series of rooms that have figurines of soldiers, archers, cavalry and elf warriors. These all glow with faint magic and are very old golems/constructs in which the magic has worn out. They react to our entry, but very slowly (barely perceptible movement). We didn’t spend much time studying these.

 

Houses of the 27 (all in a single district, a few partially excavated):

There are quotes sprinkled around the gods area:

Many quote are from the Spring Alder’s Day Oration (made by Elstir we think):

“We shall follow no gods but those of our own making.”

**(this quote is also on the front of Elstir’s memorial)**

“We are all equals in being masters of our fate.”

“Some would be content liberating Yaneh, but my conscience cannot rest until we’ve liberated all of humankind.”

Some quotes are from Fynnis (who seems to be big on the natural order):

“There is a wolf trainer who keeps a large pack of wolves, and he feeds them hares once in the morning and once in the evening. Due to the tough times, he has to reduce the number of hares from 4 to 3, one in the morning, two in the evening. He announces this to them in the morning, and upon hearing that they will only get one in the morning, they become very upset. He then offers to feed them in reverse order: two in the morning and one in the evening, and thereupon the wolves were pleased. It is the curse of mortalkind to see things as the wolves do, and so they fight to have two hares in the morning and one in the evening rather than the reverse. The wise are like the wolf trainer: they see that all options are truly equal. Those who are fit to be gods, however, see the truth in both points of view, and are thereby blessed with double-vision. Oh, how magnificent such gods would be.”

 

 

Elstir’s House:

(unexplored)

Has a big seal on it that forbids entry by the immortals we can’t enter at all. So is Natane’s house (see more details later).

 

Ensem’s house:

(recently inhabited and cleared out)

Looks like it was recently inhabited (within the last millennium) including new Chustra glass windows and light fixtures. There is a piece of ‘leather’ with writing on it that isn’t readable using mortal magics. Using Teng’s Specs, L is able to read that the list is unusual and includes: ‘restore auditory and olfactory illusory elements incuding heat from the fire with the human kings, get in contact with XXXX (an unfamiliar name), collect maps of XXX, give to XXX. Drop sword of moon’s crow in a house in Pandeus. Create a pet feline for Son.’ We know that Moon was a thief associated with sphere of thought, and the sword eventually went to a Paladin of Feria, on Myanon. From this we figure out that Ensem==Feria, a goddess in the sphere of thought. Upon further reflection we realize that Ensem’s statue in the temple has her speaking a word – the word of Feria is a powerful known artifact. Also, the illusions on the list to restore we later figure out were at Narr’s grave, and were left incomplete.

Also found 17 potions combat ready, plus a wand of illusions 30 charges. + in a secret compartment a potion of giant control, human control, dragon control. Plus an overturned and empty vial of what used to be a potion of humanoid control. Finally, and most significantly, a immortal-level hidden chamber contains a research book written in the immortal script on lizard-like creatures (including dragons and lizard-men). This book is huge (1000+ pages) and has some cool iPhone like features.

 

The house of Natane:

(not filled in, just buried).

On the top floor portraits: these include, Lyterrono, Epens, Tuaren

The next floor down contained a laboratory. The laboratory has bowls (which we took at the end of our time in Ebbensalma) that tell us how to make Chustra. Also, has some material residues and animal parts in non-Chustra glass cases/cubes.

Then there is a gymnasium with a Disk of bone enhancement. 6 months=+1 Strength & Con, up to three times. Causes great pain. We shrunk and took this.

 

The 2nd floor contained statues of each of the 26 that were memorializing Natane. On the bottom of each is a dedication.

Ensem/Feria: “I’ll always remember our climb up Mt. Kopsta and our beautiful fall from the top.”

Elstir: “I owe you my life. You were always the first to do anything. I can only hope to redeem my debt to you.”

Thanos: “Farewell Natane, I have yet to meet someone so generous. You always asked us to think of ourselves as your brothers and sisters, but to me you will always be like an uncle.”

Crysma: “Natane. I know no better tribute than this. You taught me that pain (adversity, struggle) gives life meaning, but cruelty does not.”

Tuaren: “It needn’t be said that I’ve had no more enduring and reliable friend than you.”

Fynnis: “At your funeral, we both laughed and cried, we sang beating drums and we rained.”

Ray brought up is this the correct translation? rained or reigned? -Efrim MacGregor 7/21/09 11:48 AM This is an accurate translation. -jtiwald@yahoo.com 7/22/09 2:13 PM

We wrote down the rest of them.

 

Items in Nateyn’s house we left behind (on the bottom floor):

Short swords: 3x+5/+10 vs giant kind, +5/+10 vs spell casters, +5/+10 vs giant animals, +5/10 vs regenerating creatures, +5/+10 battle ax vs elemental air creatures.

Natane’s statue memorial.

(mostly buried, not excavated just explored)

Tipped over statue with just the arm sticking above the ground. It is known to shoot lightning bolts at any people who try to deface it. “Fealty of Race”. Portraits of riding with Yveny. Reading a declaration to a giant king, with the 27.

 

 

Grave of Narr (in the necropolis):

(no need for any excavation, we just went in the front door, following the explicit instructions given by Carrock’s “find the path” spell)

In a scale model of Ebben Salma at the center of the necropolis. We enter after saying a couple passwords.

The first floor has a couple paintings, one with Nar leading the giants in chains. This painting was designed by Shydem, one of the 27. Prodding the giants are a dwarf, an elf and a Cyclops–a slight variant on the similar painting we found in Narr’s home. Another with a portrait of his face.

On the second floor, a quote above a curtain that reads “Our work is not yet done, Elstir, Year -7”. With a set of dated frescos.

1) In the first, Y-26, a young Narr is receiving an award from all 27 “For heroism unmatched heretofore, Chitherki.”

2) “Battle for the heavens, Y-12”, shows Narr together with some others of the 27 (including Elstir, but not Natane) on a battlefield littered with cloud giant bodies in brutal death. The Victors stand about including Cyclops, Elves, Dwarves and Humans. Drawn by Shydem, Chitherki & Ensem. This fresco and others have a bit of immortal magics, the clouds shimmer and you can hear the breeze.

3) Narr receiving his commission from Elstir (AFTER THE BATTLE!, Y-7), with 25 others in the background.

4) Titled: “The Narristin War (Y-7 to Y-6)”. Depicts a line of giants standing on a steep slope, some casting spells, throwing boulders. There are storm giants in this group. In the sky a ragtag group of humans, elves, and dwarves led by an undaunted Narr. There are dead of all three races littering the ground. Not far from Narr’s side are Elstir (suffering from some injury on the left side of his torso) and Thanos. The sounds are of heaving crashing thunder, thuds and cries. Details on Thanos—not entirely attractive, slightly light-bulb shaped head, not rippling with muscles, very courageous looking. Both Elstir and Thanos are carrying staves and not wearing armor.

5) “Vanquished Y-1” an even larger battle field with all types of giants (Mountain, Stone, Cloud, Storm). Dead bodies are everywhere, the victorious are humans, elves and just a smattering of dwarves. Cyclopses are conspicuously absent. Narr has just killed a giant, and a crown has just fallen from his head, and Narr seems to be thinking (not looking celebratory or triumphant). Some of the 27 are there. We should follow-up on any connections with elven god and goddess of this era. If the faenare goddess is elven, it’s still highly probable she was close to the 27. -Ensergeant 7/19/09 9:02 PM True. The party came across very little useful information in this regard. The chronologically-ordered artwork shows that human beings began cooperating with elves somewhere between the overthrow of the first giant king and the Battle for the Heavens (that is, somewhere in the last few decades before Year 1, by their reckoning.) -jtiwald@yahoo.com 7/22/09 2:15 PM

6) “Old Age, Y58” It shows Nar as a decrepit old man. Long white thin hair, atrophying muscles. Sitting intimately with Fynnis by the wall by a hearth with a fire in it (with a little warmth). Fynnis is also old and decrepit and has a hat on his chair. “No one has lived a more dignified and humble life, Chitherki.” In a room with other people (a few body parts jutting into the frame. Narr’s sword is above the hearth. The party suspects that Ensem contributed to all those with immortal magics.Carrock would connect the title of this painting with the story of Mestotha. Narr seems to have been one to eschew godhood for the sake of remaining “natural.” Presumably, the undead went to far extremes to avoid this kind of ‘dignified and humble’ path. This all starts to connect with the idea of TRUTH and what exactly the 27gods forgot as they aged and changed. -Ensergeant 7/19/09 8:59 PM

I wonder if these paintings are good enough to ‘Find the Path’ too? Like the battleground of some of these fights? Or the resting place of the giant pictured here. That sort of thing. -Efrim MacGregor 7/16/09 1:16 PM Hmm. That *might* be possible, but only assuming that the pictures depict battlefields (etc.) as they genuinely are, and not in some glorified way. -jtiwald@yahoo.com 7/19/09 4:29 PM

Third floor. A giant sized sarcophagus with 25 of the 27 (the absent godlings are Elstir and Natane). Lakshmi’s immortal level true-sight reveals a secret door with a blue diamond tablet. Visits: starting in Y175-Y6668, first was Rethin (one of the 27) last was Ensem, also Chitherki (many times), Thanos, Masauwu (the Entropy God), Chrysma. The sarchophagus holds a casket covered with Baaka plates (!). The sarchophogous says, “I fight for my own people.” This seems like a good line of questions for the OWL. I mean about Baaka plates/scales? “Would a shroud of baaka plates block Speak with dead Spell?” -Efrim MacGregor 7/20/09 8:14 PM

 

 

Giant Graves:

From the graves of mountain giants we come across (which were built by the Semu with quotations “Rest Worthy Foe”), we find from speak with dead that Esobis was their king. We find the path to his resting site and find his grave is a Chustra temple south of Mt. Koptsa. The giant is laid out and preserved. Speaking with dead, we find that he died in combat fighting against the humans, knew Natane and spared his life when he delivered his declaration.Unlike the usual workings of speak with dead, the spirit that rose from the giant’s corpse was all too aware of his material world surroundings. Carrock will hazard to guess two possibilities: 1) the giant was immortal, or perhaps near-immortal himself (as the 27 at one stage?) or 2) Carrock cast an immortal-level version of Speak with Dead. -Ensergeant 7/19/09 8:53 PM Interesting. -jtiwald@yahoo.com 7/23/09 8:00 AM Also tells us that Natane died of an unknown illness. We also learn that he worshipped Mrothgar, a god of the Mountain giants who is not known in modern times, perhaps killed during the Naristin wars?

Another stone giant king is closer to the human settlement. He only remembers the message being delivered by three of the 27 and the town liason. We also learn the name of his god (but I forget). We also find out that Natane was not just a Mage, but ‘some different thing, he created creatures…’

 

Climbing up Mt. Kopsta. From the top we see carved mountains made by the giants are carved in the shape of giant heads. A total of 13 heads. In one case, there is also a head and a neck descending into the ground. Some have hair, others don’t (the ones who don’t are probably stone giants). On the mountain, there are giant-sized stairways, and human-sized stairs carved into the places where the giant-sized stairs have collapsed. At the top is a human sized viewing platform. On the west side of this platform there is a manifesto: “The doctrine of Fealty of Race. For the following reasons, we find that no race should have to swear fealty to races other than their own. (1) Races understand their own needs better. (2) Unnatural to expect members of one race to serve members of another. (3) A people who live not among their peers are no people at all. (4) The giant kings and queens are cruel to their human vassals, (4) they impose religions upon them which the human vassals cannot understand. Our future is ours to make and we shall make ourselves free peoples” [paraphrase]. Below the manifesto is a symbol showing the subjugation of the giants. Then a map of the land, with slight relief. Numerous orange dots probably show ancient cities. We threw ourselves off the side based on Ensem’s memorial to Natane and felt some surge of ancient magic (we think) and also a great number of broken bones. Props to AL for being the first lunatic to give the fall a go. -Ensergeant 7/19/09 8:56 PM I thought that was Efrim? Or am stealing glory here? Or was Al the first to swoop low to the ground? Thats right Al is the swooper! Props AL! -Efrim MacGregor 7/19/09 10:04 PM Dunno…maybe I’m stealing Efrim’s glory. Anyone else remember for sure? -Ensergeant 7/21/09 9:13 PM Efrim was the first to try it (isn’t he always). The difference is that Efrim simply stopped short of the ground by a few feet, whereas Al missed it by an exhilarating few inches and somehow felt a bigger rush. -jtiwald@yahoo.com 7/22/09 2:26 PM No mystery about that. The closer you come to death the bigger high you get, everyone knows that. It’s just part of the natural order. It was Efrim who went first. Al was still looking for a “philosophical” fall when Efrim stepped off the ledge. -Ray Paulson 8/10/09 8:43 AM

 

 

Other Places:

The elephant guys on a patrol led us down a secret door where there is a steep pyramidal structure, somewhat destroyed, made of the glass but covered especially near the top in a blue substance that seems like residual from smoke. What remains of the structure is about 6 feet tall. We never really figured out what this is.

 

Summary of our thoughts on connections between the 27 and their godhood.

The one correspondence between the 27 and a current god that we know for sure is that Ensem == Feria.

We also know that Thanatos was one of the 27 (based on the history of the gods – he was involved in the giant wars) and that at some point the Nameless Goddess was his lover.

 

Based mostly on the name similarity, we think Thanos==Thanatos – this is weakly supported him being depicted following Natane and Elstir as a leader in murals in Narr’s mausoleum. We know that the sphere of Entropy was founded at the time of the 27’s rise to power. We also know from Pilgrim via Carrock that Thanatos is reputed to be old enough to have forgotten a great deal about his origins. Based on the grouping in the temple we think perhaps Chrysma is the nameless goddess, since she is arguing with Thanatos.

Based on quotes, we think that Fynnis believes in the natural order, which is a natural tie to the contemporary god Innisfreeman whose name is quite similar. However, we thought that Innis Freeman was a relatively new god based on his being a Maree lackey. Note that Sofar Mist is a student of Fynnis. He lives in a palace in the ocean to the south of Ebbensalma.

 

We also know that pretty much all the oldest human gods must have been part of the 27, this list includes Hel(?) and others – please fill this in.

Alas, this is precisely the mystery: no one knows which among the gods of humankind are the oldest ones, other than Hel and Chyra-nal (the latter is a god of Entropy who died roughly 800 years ago). -jtiwald@yahoo.com 7/19/09 4:41 PM

One of Carrock’s theories was that Hel indeed was the faenare goddess. She would be old enough, and the “pain, not cruelty” would connect her to Crysma. -Ensergeant 7/19/09 8:57 PM

Perhaps we can do more research on Chyra-nal and her ‘death’? Did she create any artifacts? Major temples? Also maybe do more research on Hell, to make these connections we need more than the spitball description of the Immortals, dont you agree? -Efrim MacGregor 7/21/09 11:50 AM Duly noted. Someone please include this in your declaration of actions. -jtiwald@yahoo.com 7/22/09 2:28 PM

 

It would seem that neither Natane or Elstir became true immortals because they seem to have been killed before or during the Narristin (giant) wars. However Efrim has a theory that Natane was an immortal to begin with (maybe a dragon god) who wanted to upset the natural order and faked his own death. We don’t really know how Elstir died, but we can make a rough estimate based on the murals.

 

Our discoveries on the nature of Magic and Immortality:

 

We used the mirrors to research the casting of magical spells and its physical manifestations in and around the body. It was found that when most of us cast spells (including mages and hobgoblin shamans) , the light at some point near our body bends. However, when Carrock (and druids in general?) cast spells a comparable bending happens within his internal organs. We have a couple theories about the relationship between our spell casting and how magic actually manifests. The line between immortal and mortal magics was found to be a bit blurry in a couple places, most notably in Natane’s disk of bone enhancement. In general, we think that immortal magic has something to do with directly employing magic (through brain or body) without invoking the filter or crutch of some other power (the Yanse artifacts or the earth itself).

 

It seems likely that the link between immortal level magic is related to the physical regimen that the Pilgrim has perscribed. He described it as training our body’s furnaces to burn hotter, and indeed examination of Carrock singing songs shows that his breath is hotter when casting magic than when not doing so. It may also be related to being able to control parts of our body in ways that we previously were unable to do. We all find that we gain control (using Wisdom checks) of our bodies in ways that we previously didn’t have. This includes a spidey sense for magic items and artifacts, the ability to execute new combat maneuvers and alter other gestures that we frequently make (like spellcasting). Justin also gives the example of being able to make our heart beat hard without running – controlling the internal function of our body may be intrinsic to immortality and immortal level magics.

 

We also made a start on splitting apart personalities that can simultaneously deal with two different problems. Carrock made the first and most significant gains in this department, but Lakshmi also made some progress with her two separate personalities ( ‘old’ and ‘new’ Lakshmi, henceforth named Ola and Nola).

 

Lakshmi had a revelation that the Chustra glass is the stuff that enables the making of artifacts – the piling on of many enchantments.