Game-Summaries:6/24/2017 Recollections

Recollections by Sakura no kaze

Collectively, we've been doing busywork (read: chores) every day since our initiation with little time for anything else. Finally we get a break and I find myself with Avant and Zanna. We discuss testing out our team dynamics and approach someone who knows more than any of us. It became very clear to us very quickly that we were talking to someone well out of our league! Grandmaster Metaphysicae told us about the training dungeons and how they work, but first I must recall our discussion with him as it will prove to be important as we learn the history of The Magistery.

Grandmaster Metaphysicae is very old. We don't know how old, but we should assume older than our grandparents' memories. He gave us no other name, stating that their given name is forfeit when they become Grandmasters. He also told us of the two others that share the title, Grandmasters Materialis and Ætheris. Together these three are responsible for the three domains in the Magistrae. He also told us that he became a member of the Magistrae when it was still called the Mages Guild (again, it seems knowing history would be useful) and that his (or the guild's) purpose is to preserve knowledge. From what we've heard that the primary purpose is to exact Justice (with a capital J) and then preserve knowledge.

We are currently Initiates and over time we can ascend to an apprenticeship under an Adept. We would then choose a domain once we are chosen to become disciples. When one becomes an Adept, they must also choose a house to belong to. There are 7 houses in each domain. The number of houses, domains and Masters is always kept a prime number, to alleviate issues with voting. We're told there is a lot of voting and prime number of Masters is important for this. I presume we will understand more as we learn more of the history, but for now I'll take this as a fact to be understood later. For this reason, when individuals are elevated to the title of Master, they are done so in order to preserve the prime number of total Masters. It is common knowledge the number of Adepts and Masters in each house, so I won't drone on about that.

Now, onto our adventure.

Grandmaster Metaphysicae told us that in order to train we must go down to the basement and put our hands on an alter at the same time at which point we will be able to select a dungeon to train in. He gave each of us a very brittle ceramic amulet as a failsafe mechanism to escape the dungeon. All amulets would need to be broken in order for the training dungeon to end (and thus result in a failure), the process of ending the dungeon takes 12-seconds once the final amulet is broken. The amulet itself looks fairly plain and is adorned with the Masgistrae's symbol.

The Grandmaster took us down several winding hallways and staircases, by the end I was completely lost and turned around. I believe we were in a sub-basement, perhaps 4 or 5 levels deep, but that is speculation. At the end we entered a large square chamber with an altar in the middle. As we three entered, the door behind us closed immediately. With nothing else to do, we placed our hands on the altar. At this point, everything went dark, and I mean really dark - not even my Darkvision could penetrate this deeper darkness. Very shortly after the dark faded and we found ourselves standing next to each other inside of a formed, stone dungeon.

Immediately a voice of unknown origin spoke to me, and I presume Avant and Zanna, of our mission. Seems the altar chose the mission for us - Disrupt the ritual and save the dragon. We immediately formed up and started exploring our immediate surroundings. Avant is at a disadvantage, genetically. He lacks the ability to see in the dark like Zanna and I can.

Adjacent to this location we discovered a shrine, a pool of water, of sorts. The shrine conveyed a great sense of safety to us. The location of this will be fairly important to recall in future training dungeons, as it was quite important in this one.

We continued to explore and found a medium sized square room. Once we entered an illusion seemed to fade and several cultists materialized, however we were prepared and ready. Their surprise failed, but their attach was somewhat successful. Myself and Zanna took the bulk of the damage they inflicted, which came in the form of self-sacrifice. This will be important to know as it seems they all posses this ability and it is quite painful! What was rather interesting about this first encounter was that the cultists all represented a different element (water, fire, earth, air) and were working with each other! This is completely unheard of in my knowledge.

I tested my magic against them twice. The first time I attempted to incapacitate them, however they seem immune or extremely resistant to enchantment spells. The second, my signature spell, Force of the Cherry Blossom, cut through them with ease and reduced their numbers by half. The rest is when we discovered their ability to self-destruct.

Hurt, but reluctant to lick our wounds, we continued on exploring, lest the ritual complete and catch us idle! We encountered some small traps and a couple of other cultists, including a siege ballista! however they were much easier to deal with than when several of them attempted to ambush us. Of note to myself is that the siege ballista is susceptible to elemental damage. Acid can reduce it's functionality. Around this point in time, something in the chant of the ritual changed. As if everything had gone silent. We hadn't even realized, until now, that there was a constant background droning!!!

Very shortly after the ballista we were able to sneak up to the main chamber where the ritual was being conducted. Five cultists surround the statue of a gold dragon! I was able to determine, though not understand, that the ritual is more than half complete, but likely still many hours from completion, so we decided that this was a good opportunity to rest in our safe haven. Once we took a short rest and returned, I realized that I was wrong about the duration of the ritual and it was very nearly completed! Avant snuck in behind the head cultist and struck him through the heart at which moment I attempted to make it seems like the statue had come alive by creating the illusion of a fire breath attack. It is possible that this worked as four of the cultists vanished without a trace.

The head cultists, with a sword struck through his heart, turned around and shoved it out of him! I have never seen such devotion and fortitude. The sword was glowing as if just finished at a blacksmith's anvil! The ritual leader proved to be a mage of some type, able to cast fire spells engulfing the entire room! My nack for living kicked in, stretching my neck to 4-feet in length. This somehow made it so that both Zanna and I survived untouched from this fire attack. I don't question the wild effects of my magic, I just revel in the fact that I believe it saved us both. Within a few seconds, we had pommeled the ritual leader and he performed his death throws, which was significantly more painful than the other cultists we had encountered. Black tendrils reached out from the ground attempting to suffocate the life out of us and very nearly did! Poor Zanna was moments from her last breath. It's a good thing that Avant knows something about living in the wild. I futilely attempt to mimic only what I've seen as I tried to resurrect her heart.

Once we were confident that Zanna would live, Avant and I moved to study and destroy the altar. I was able to tell that the language scribed onto the altar is of some Elvish derivation, but not known to me, most likely some extra-planar language. The altar itself is an effigy that seems like it was being used as a likeness to destroy an actual golden dragon elsewhere, so we attempted to destroy the alter, but upon touching it, it melted into gold! We three were, very quickly, quite a bit richer.

As soon as we finished collecting the gold, the dungeon immediately faded and we found ourselves all with our hands touching the altar in the middle of a large square room. Right back where we started, but with heavier pockets and with knowledge that we didn't have before.