Participants: - Jean, Vhel, Cornix, Kanz!
Location(s): - Elemental Portal Shrine
The visual, in-character report for this quest can be found here: Vhel's report.
Short summary:
During this quest, the Elemental Portal Shrine was discovered. Each party member faced a trial from one of the Elemental Mephits. Activating a demiplane with the keys received from these trials, they found treasure from those long gone.
The portal pool was discovered soon after, within a previously hidden chamber. It is surrounded by twelve spherical slots; much later, during other quests (A Sphere? Oh Dear and [Quest wiki page missing?]), it was found that there are Orbs that can be slotted into these slots to activate the portal and travel to other parts of the New World.
Full Report:
Vhel’s writing is tiny and cramped, shoved together on as few pages as possible and seemingly written with haste. It remains legible, however.
I greet anyone reading these words warmly. To those who know me not I go by Vhel. My command of Common is not so proficient as to make grand works a bard might, but I hope that these words enlighten and aid anyone looking for knowledge in my scrawlings.
What follows next is a note written by another hand. The letters are elegant, complex, sprawling even, in a way. One could find them in an ancient, dusty scroll, or a long-forgotten grimoire, and yet, they retain a particular quality reminiscent of primal wildness, not scholarly academia. An odd mix, for sure. Mine name is Cornix, and some knoweth me as the Beaker. I am a humble student of the Great Work, and of the Mysteries of the Art, but within this manuscript, I am but a shadow that wilt be following in Vhel's footsteps, providing additional insight wherever appropriate. I hopeth that thou findeth this work satisfactory, O Reader. |
Having both anthropological and archaeological interest in the subject, I managed to find several competent companions to aid me in my exploration of such a location. Namely Cornix, an alchemist whose alchemical knowledge vastly exceeds my own, Jean Berée, a noble of some sort with strange problems with divine revelations, and Kanz! (the inflection is deeply important), a goblin… he styles himself a pirate, whose command over his swordplay is hard to rival. Blessedly they all agreed to aid me, so after some preparation we journeyed southward.
The trip was short and benign. The weather was fine, and nothing accosted us. However I did notice the local birds acting strangely. They seemed to be intentionally flying in a way to avoid the southwest. Perhaps something is there to deter them, or that scares them?
When we finally reached the temple, it was approaching night time. I examined the temple’s exterior best I could. I had noticed the wall of the eastern wing was warm to the touch, and that the western wall sounded as if it had water running through it. Cornix and myself made some connections to a wheel of Elements. The structure clearly took a very large amount of effort to make, but its style of architecture was unique to me, and I am not yet familiar if the materials for it were locally sourced.
Vhel, below this paragraph, sketches a small depiction of the temple in question’s exterior. Beyond its nave it has an eastern and western wing, and a second floor above the nave that lacked a roof. Ancient wooden doors seal the entrance.
We set camp to rest outside the temple for the night. Lord Berée, for all his virtues, is not a proficient cook, we learned.
During the night we were accosted by multiple large swarms of spiders, seemingly endemic life. Very aggressive endemic life. The fight that ensued was short and intense. I had managed to roll out of the way of the swarm and flee the tent before it caused me any harm, while Kanz! was accosted in the extreme. Cornix, making use of alchemical fire…
A note on the margin. ...only by the penetration of the external fire can the inner flame be awakened from its slumber. Thus, 🜂Ignis alchymistae unlocketh the target's body to the light within, and it gloweth and shimm'reth like the blazing ⚙Sunne. Furthermore… |
… and Jean, making use of electrical spells, managed to fry the swarms in total before Kanz! suffered overly much. After much time spent cleaning the tent of dead spiders, we managed to rest well enough.
In the morning, we tackled the locked door. The lock was rusted shut entirely, so I would not be able to pick it. Several complex solutions were suggested, before I suggested mechanical force and offered a crowbar. To my surprise Jean picked it up and tried, and by a small miracle forced the door open with no effort.
Inside the nave of the temple was quite the scene. Rotten broken wood, past chairs or benches, littered the place. In the center was a massive magical construction, floating high in the air and lighting the room entierly. It consists of a flat disc, one side having transparent trees, the other having colored trees. Outside the disc were several concentric rings rotating on every axis, with a spherical extension on them. We later determined this was a model of the Inner Sphere of the Planes. The Material Plane in the center with the Ethereal Plane being its mirror, the transparent and colored side respectively. Outside, the double Plane of Positive and Negative energy. Then after the Elemental Planes, though in the incorrect order.
| The order represented by this peculiar Artifact wast 🜃Terra, 🜄Aqua, 🜁Aer, and lastly 🜂Ignis. |
Accordingly, the artifact in question is depicted. It is quite massive indeed, and is as described above. A helpful note by Vhel right under Cornix' terms translates them as Earth, Water, Air and Fire.
In the immediate, however, we were met with giant vermin. They had small trinkets, and became very aggressive towards Cornix when he approached.
| An unfortunate misunderstanding, if thou asketh me. I wish'd them no harm, n'r show'd any tangible signs of aggression. Mine sole goal wast the inspection of the artifact from a closer and more insightful distance... |
Unlike some of my kin I understand not the squeaking of such creatures, so I would not have been able to pacify them, I think. It was a short, rather brutal fight. At some point, Kanz! responded to a particularly nasty gouge from a rat by… dancing. For six seconds straight. I was concerned. We eventually managed to prevail, though with some injuries. Cornix made use of some Healer’s Tools Jean had on his person, and competently patched everyone.
A simple note, still recognisably written by Cornix' hand, but less ornate. Our lovely Vhel is, as always, quite a flatterer. |
We concluded afterwards that the artifact in the center was clearly magical, and made use of Conjuration magic - seemingly to teleport things. Jean began speaking in tongues, for a moment, identifying the object afterwards as a device for planar travel. We explored further. There were trap-doors above and below the artifact - the former leading to the second floor, the latter leading to a small basement-like area. In the back of the nave, a stone door with four circular slots and writing in a completely novel language on it, with ideograms as well. I am unfamiliar with the language, but I will append to the report a linguistic study I’ve done on the subject, along with details on my conclusions regarding its meanings and rules. I hope anyone with linguistic talent studies this carefully, and if they draw new conclusions or discoveries, or if anyone else finds writings in this language, talk with either me or Cornix about it. If this language is elsewhere in the world, and if no one else speaks it, deciphering it will be vital to our understanding.
Suffice to say, however, the language seems to have word roots from Common and Draconic, as well as a completely novel grammatical structure.
The aforementioned ideograms are drawn, four of them all pointing towards a drawing similar to the artifact.
Kanz! had, well, taken my suggestion we go in the actual order of the elemental Planes, starting with air, to heart, and went up the artifact and clambered into the top trap door, hooking a rope to it and throwing it down. It took multiple tries. I had managed to get up there… with difficulty. Climbing is not my strong suit.
Inside the roofless room was a set of spiral stairs leading to an altar, along with gusts of air spontaneously spawning in a pattern. Atop the altar were three winged creatures, which I determined to be elemental Mephits. A fire, water, and air one all existed, wearing a collar with a colored sphere each. I, nor anyone else in our group, spoke any of the elemental tongues, so communication had to be done through gestures, and was inefficient and difficult. They were very, very angry with me at first, assuming I was similar to the feral vermin we had slain earlier, it took a bit of work to make them aware I was not. They seemed angry at their earthy kin, we later found because he had stolen trinkets and treasures from the other mephits, and hoarded them in the basement, using the rodents of unusual size to protect them.
We first went, though, to the eastern wing. It was a chamber of fire, the room’s floors covered in burning coals, a passageway leading from the door to the center, where an altar lay. The room was missing braziers and chandelers, stolen from the fire Mephit by the earth Mephit. The former joined us on a throne of embers with rat skulls on it.
Cornix attempted to appease the fire mephit by incinerating the giant rat corpses on the fires before it. I will not comment on this behavior.
| Cornix, however, shall. Appeasing the Elemental Spirit of 🜂Ignis seemed like a prudent idea, in order to avoid any unnecessary fiery conflict. Such Spirits, who art otherwise called Mephits, art notorious for their rather temperamental nature, and this one in particular appear'd cross with the feral rats. Furthermore, burning their cadavers is a more graceful and proper funeral compared to the traditions of Sky Burial, wherethrough the 🜔Body is consumed by scavengers or fungi... |
What the room turned out to be was a trial; the goal to simply run a circuit through the passageway, the fires proving to burn one’s feet extremely while they do. Jean attempted it and managed it, with some alchemical assistance. As a reward, the fire Mephit offered Jean the orb around its neck which, when touched, inscribed a fiery brand into Jean’s hand. We have sketched the four runes we found in total, air, earth, fire, and water below.
As promised, the four Elemental runes are sketched, each one accompanied by surprisingly tiny alchemical notes, but still recognisably Cornix'. Most of them are so obscure that even other practitioners of the Art might have trouble grasping them.
We went to the western room next - the chamber of water. Instead of coals, pools with lily pads. Small waterfalls poured into the basin, which appears to be a standing source of water. It is potable if one boils it first, to avoid sickness. Inside were also very tiny fish, similar to fish from the Old World that feed on detritus and dead skin and the like. Some bath owners made use of them for medicinal purposes. They were hungry, but harmless.
The trial, here, was to swim a lap. Jean attempted to do it as Cornix and I are not proficient swimmers, but the Mephit protested with crying as Jean tried, and his rune caused him great pain for his efforts. Accordingly, we concluded that someone could only bear one rune at a time. Cornix eventually tried, and with a lot of near-drowning, managed.
| Certainly not one of mine brightest 'r most graceful achievements, I am afraid. I hath heard tales of Tengu who art much more proficient in the techniques of swimming and diving, but I am yet to encount'r such a tribe. They must be quite a sight to behold! |
The water Mephit appeared to not judge competence, just result. Cornix acquired the water rune.
I wished to tackle the air trial, but instead Cornix and Jean seemed intent on exploring the basement. Inside the earth Mephit was on its altar with a few more rats. We lured them all out and managed to dispatch them very handily. The earth Mephit’s altar crumbled to dust upon its master’s death, leaving its contents (scrolls of Grease), behind. Kanz! touched the earth orb it had on it, and acquired the earth rune.
I should note, here, that all the Mephit’s altars had items in them. If you hoped to go retrieve them by killing the Mephits, know that our party already acquired them upon returning the Mephit’s possessions, stolen by the earth one, to them. There is no material reward to be gained by their death.
| A very short note by Cornix is written on the margin, but then promptly crossed over multiple times, and it is thus illegible. |
After we climbed, I did the air trial. The gusts of air were in a pattern such that with wings or assistance, one could glide from gust to gust and do a circuit of the room. I fashioned a crafted kite out of materials I had, and made use of it to complete the trial after a failed start. I acquired the air rune.
We figured out to try touching our runes to the orbs on the elemental rings around the artifact, those orbs absorbing our runes and lighting up. Once all four orbs had been empowered, the artifact rearranged itself in a way that created a portal. Obviously expecting danger, we camped and rested unaccosted before preparing ourselves with mutagens and bombs, and entering.
Inside was what I later determined to be a Demiplane. A confined location with four animated armors at each location, each with a core corresponding to their element. They had the ability to throw ranged elemental attacks at us, blasts of air, balls of fire, mud, the like. They focused their attacks only on the person with a corresponding element, such as in my case the air guardian attacked and chased me exclusively.
| Analogously, mine was the Armour of 🜄Aqua, which posess'd the uncanny ability to project pressurised water at myself. |
For the unaware, Animated Armors are magical constructs. They are very resilient, much like all animated objects, but once their armor is stripped from sufficient battering or a very accurate critical strike the armor comes off, making them much easier to harm. Should you encounter one accuracy or overpowering damage is your ally, multiple tiny hits by themselves won’t often even so much as scratch them.
The fight was long and hard, I could find no purchase for my arrows, and the most I could do was run my guardian around and try to avoid its strikes. Cornix managed to make some very accurate strikes with his beak to strip one of its armor, and his vials of acid helped further. Kanz! proved to be entirely indispensable here. He was both accurate and devastating, finding one critical weakness to strike after another, despatching the majority of the armors, if not without some severe injury on his part. His brash and bold fighting style aided him, his confidence letting him find his mark often.
Once we had managed to dispatch all the guardians, an altar appeared in the center with a wooden box. Inside were three items of note: a magical pearl sword (which Kanz! has since dubbed the ‘Revelknife’), a stone tablet with a complicated message on it (which I remain the custodian of), and a peculiar platinum piece of unknown mintage (which Jean is the custodian of).
First, the pearl sword: The pearl sword is a magical shortsword, its handle being part of the blade itself, wrapped in an oak-like wood. It has thin gray lines on it, and when close to aberrations…
| Aberrations, as the Reader might know, are creatures from beyond the Planes of Existence, or indeed vile corruptions of the Naturall Order. Fortunately, I possessed some samples of their humours upon mine person, and after extensive alchymical experimentation, I could determine the sword's peculiarity. |
… the sword’s lines expand and pulse like a heart. It has a word engraved on it, in the same strange language, discussed in my dissection of the language below.
Next, the tablet: A long, depressing message. It’s hard to parse, but its creation did not seem happy.
The coin: A platinum coin, on one side is the value of it, but on the other a traditional depiction of Bahamut, or as some know him, Apsu. It is strange as this is a God of the Old World. Finding his depiction here has some interesting potential ramifications.
There was a fifth glowing rune on the altar. After deliberation as to if it was fatal or useful, we tried it and thankfully left the Demiplane.
The aforementioned ‘fifth rune’ is sketched here.
We left, and made use of the cores used to make the animated guardians to open the stone door. Inside was a chamber, walls painted sky dark and star white. A pool was in the center with multiple circular slots with patterns besides it, a few feet deep without liquid. In the chamber was a mural, mostly crumbled to dust. Depicted was a group of people running away from -something- and towards something. Twelve slots totaled around the pool.
Depicted here is a rough sketch of the mural, the room as a whole, and the patterns on the slots around the pool in detail. A note by Cornix is included, where he describes the rituals that he attempted by employing the offerings of Elements and their mixtures placed in these twelve slots, with no visible results. He concludes that Vhel's estimation of the slots' purpose is probably the correct one.
The magic on the pool was incredibly potent, also Conjuration. I’ve little idea what the slots are or their operations, but my instinct tells me they could be keyholes of some sort. I take it the pool is a portal, but I don’t know how similar it is to the one in First Landing, if it's bidirectional, or how to operate it.
| Within the lowest chamber of the Shrine, where the Elemental Spirit of 🜃Terra used to reside, we discover'd a beautifully crafted polished mirror, made out of Moon-bright ☽Silver. I hath since nicknamed it the Portal Mirror, as it remaineth in mine possession and depicteth the First Landing portal on its back, implying the creators likely knew of this planar passageway. |
This is a bit of a leap in logic, but I believe that whoever made this temple may have been from the Old World. The language is unknown to me, but isn’t dissimilar from Common and Draconic, the writings I deciphered implied the makers were fleeing something, they had a coin with Bahamut’s iconography on it, and they knew of the portal in First Landing. It’s a shaky conclusion, but there is clearly some story here that I lack all the pieces to tell.
In any case, we returned the Mephits' objects, took a few final notes, and left, finding our expedition as complete as we could hope it would be.
Following will be my analysis of the language found and my conclusions in what I’ve deciphered. Should anyone find any more information regarding the temple, its pool/portal, or the language, please do not hesitate to contact myself or Cornix with the details. Should anyone have any questions about any of the contents of this report, I encourage such to be asked, I will be happy to answer as I can. Be well.
- Vhel & Cornix the Beaker
Beginning from hereout is a very long dissertation on the language Vhel found in the temple. It is flush with things such as sentence diagrams, comparisons of both the similar and contrasting nature to Common and Draconic, and other linguistic thoughts.
The most important things are her conclusions and translations, which are as follows:
The text on the door had reference to ‘Guardians’ keeping ‘Keys’ (Which Vhel concludes were the animated armors, their cores being keys to this door.) The door also described the contents behind the door with the words ‘Escape’ and ‘Pool’, which Vhel takes to mean Portal.
The silver mirror resembling the portal at First Landing has words whose meanings roughly translate to ‘Pursuers’, ‘No choice’, and ‘Escape’.
The stone tablet is described as depressing and melancholic. In the bulk of its text are words like ‘Farewell’, ‘never return’, ‘last rites’, and ‘prison’. It refers to what she thinks is the pearl sword with ‘Pearl’ and ‘Revelation’, and refers to the coin with ‘Coin’ and ‘Good Times’.
The Sword has a word with a root similar to ‘Revelation’, but she concludes it is not the same word.
The text concludes abruptly and with some tiny scrawling in Ysoki, which translates to “Good fortunes to you and your family.”, if the reader knows the language.