February 27th

The party proper arrived at Janwall to find a sleeping Snarg, who claimed he had found nothing out about Sareth.  Deciding to head out right away, the party (which had just finished a multi hour trip) immediately took off towards Marblebush, a trip that took them until about noon.  By the time they arrived they were pretty damned tired, and tried to get a place to sleep for the night.  Unfortunately the rooms in the few inns present were booked to capacity, so they instead asked around a bit, both after Kolson's sister, Tia, and to check out the quarry outside of town.  Zeiss made his way over to the quarry, but encountered a fairly large blockade of people in green uniforms of a make he didn't quite recognize surrounding the quarry area, with makeshift tents and , but automatically assumed were with the Order and beat a hasty retreat.  

Meanwhile, back in town, they found the inn Tia had been staying at, the Artimus Feedhole, and inquired after Tia.  Naturally the innkeeper recognized Kolson, who'd rented the room in the first place, and let him in.  They found a large array of notes that she had been collecting; comments on the nature of Scionic thought process, observations about a potential servant or slave caste based on some of the rooms she found which had large shaped holes in the walls instead of anything like a bed or bunk, and so forth.  She also mentioned she hadn't been able to locate the airship despite her best efforts, and suspected something was messing with her mind as her sense of direction was not that bad.

Since Tia's room was the ONLY available one, so to speak, the entire party crammed in there to get some rest.  They awoke after a bad night's rest about six hours later to find that, as the evening had set in, there were a large number of the green uniformed people in the tavern below.  Snarg tried to see how they'd react to him by going down to get breakfast, which resulted in them... not reacting to him at all.  Zeiss for his part tried to question them, to mixed results, having them tell him they were part of an archeological company that handled special situations like this, and definitely not part of the Order.

Snarg, for his part, had an idea to go hit the local laundromat and grab one of their uniforms to try and sneak his way in, as the people (whoever they were) were of all makes and races.  Unfortunately he was almost immediately stopped by several said individuals, failed at bluffing his way out of the situation, and they instructed him to head towards the outskirts of town.  Snarg complied, mentally sending the information to those with Scionic speak so they could come intervene in the situation, but before things got violent an Elven woman he did not recognize approached, provided papers, and insisted that Snarg was with him.  As her story checked out, the uniformed agents departed, and she (irritably) lead the group northwards towards the quarry. 

Along the way Zeiss was able to divine her true identity, due to her sharing it via irrefutable proof; it was Z, though obviously in yet another of her disguises, as she appeared completely different than before.  Z quickly provided proper papers to enter the ruins through the unusual Order agents, though with a warning that it would be on her head if they did wrong, and the group entered the ruins proper.

The party found that, though the ruins were still powered down for the most part, it had obviously been taken care of with regards to lighting and heat with Magicite devices to make the place more livable long term.  The place was entirely populated by Olthoi, with two notable exceptions; they found Tia and Zipar both, in what had once obviously been a prison area though with the Olthoi's touch it more closely resembled a resort hotel.  The group convened and shared info amongst themselves for a bit before two very large, horrifying looking red-chitin'd Olthoi that, while obviously Olthoi, looked different than any they'd encountered before, with hooked claws reaching out from their mandibles, six arms, and of course the typical bladed back arm claws.  They were also significantly larger than typical Olthoi, barely fitting inside.  The two sniffed and inspected the group, at length, before determining they were safe enough to allow the charge they were protecting inside; Kezrinthka.

Snarg tried to leap at her in joy, though immediately thought better of it as one of the reds intervened, but Kezrinthka herself shoved aside the outstretched arm and grabbed Rory and Snarg both in a tackle glomp.  She was very excited to see the group again, and the party shared info amongst themselves about what had happened to the now-missing party members, and she shared what had happened to her; about her 'death', waking up in a hospital being tended to by a Soldier who apparently vanished thereafter, and how she had been confined within Central for her own safety.  Some days ago, she'd been visited by Z and a Moarsman named Scargil of Pallidtone, both of whom had informed her (and through her, the Olthoi in general) about the Skyclaw and its location.  Scargil had apparently escorted them here before leaving for the Light Temple on other business. 

After some discussion, two things came to the attention of the red Olthoi; that Higaide had been in Vesayen Lassel under Tumerok control, and that Fierneceal was a Scion.  As a result of these actions they realized the Olthoi were actually immune to the mental powers and communication of the Scions, and they asked Higaide to detail his experiences in as much detail as he could, while another Olthoi of black chitin (another type the group had never encountered before) arrived and excitedly took Fierneceal with him, believing she could be the answer they'd been searching for.  The party was hesitant to let Fierneceal out of their sight (again) but after some convincing let her go with the strange black Olthoi. 

The party, a bit bored, finally asked if they could at least go on something of an escorted tour.  Along the way they encountered a bizarre purple chitin Olthoi, which identified itself as a Noble, and answered several of the party's questions.  From him they learned that the Olthoi had been around since the times of the Scions, and that the Scions tried and failed to conquer the Olthoi.  They also learned that the Olthoi were aware of the Shadows, but nothing else about them in particular, and that the Scions had many desperate and likely doomed plans to deal with the Shadows, including destroying the entire world by infusing souls into the Ley Lines and using that to alter them in some way.  It is the Olthoi's belief that this is related to the elemental shockwaves felt in the last few months.

After discussing elemental and Ley Line theory for a bit they returned to their room to find that their captor, a Soldier, was also something of a chef and they enjoyed some of the finest cuisine they'd had in weeks.  While the food was being prepared, they learned the Skyclaw had apparently taken off, Fierneceal informing them that she'd been able to unlock the last few fail-safes they had yet to work through, and the ship was going to circumvent the globe once as a test cruise.  Kezrinthka was also on board, but Rekarg was not, though where he was they weren't certain.  

The party learned in short order that they were under attack and the Soldier, thinking quickly, asked the party if they would fight on the Olthoi's behalf so they would not have to harm anyone (and possibly prove their trustworthiness in the process).  The group was taken topside where they discovered a large, Naverre-make Frigate-class military grade Airship was assaulting the area.  The Order personnel up top were virtually helpless against the threat, at best providing a distraction.  The Soldier offered the party the use of some of their specialized miniature airship discs which they could use to reach the Frigate and board her, which the party enthusiastically took to.

The party quickly divided tasks up to whom would pilot which skiff and whom would ride.  There was a great deal of frenzied talk about how best to approach, as those who were in the know realized very quickly that if that Frigate wanted them dead, it could easily shoot them down on approach.  They also realized that forcibly entering a Frigate was not an easy task, but ultimately decided to chance it and make for the Hanger which they assumed would be on the underside somewhere.

On approach the cannon-fire ceased, and for several tense moments nothing happened, before the underside of the ship yawned open with a great metal noise and they beheld over a hundred battle-ready soldiers there, waiting for them.  After a quick discussion, the party decided to land peaceably and see where this would go.  They were, peacefully, detained and the party realized that these people did not appear to have standard Naverre uniform nor insignia.  Instead they had an emblem of three curved claws surrounding a downwards triangle, which had two lightning streaks on the top surrounding a star, all of which was dominated by a massive stylized eagle which was gripping the world.

After a few minutes a Banderling woman approached, identifying herself as Laurith of Thrasher.  After a bit of discussion they learned that the ship, the Assurance, was here as part of a mission to claim this facility (which they'd become aware of on February the 18th, the same day the party did as they recall) assuming it was claimed by Aluvia.  However, the 'Naverre' wished no part of hostility (political or literal) against the Olthoi, and as such were willing to depart peaceably.

During this, Zeiss approached the woman and openly identified her as being with the Directorate.  As this was highly classified information still, the woman quickly surmised he was a spy and gave orders to have him detained and then executed.  Rory leapt to his defense, leading to the assumption he was a spy as well.  Fortunately, Z and Gwydo managed to (barely) talk Laurith down, and allow them to be detained by the Olthoi down below, as a show of good faith.  Further, they were prepared to offer medical assistance in the form of supplies to the Order post down below.  Thusly done, the Assurance departed, heading southeast.

Over the next hour several things happened.  First, Kolson got ahold of an Olthoi communicator and conveyed what had happened to the Olthoi stationed in Aluvia, who was able to very quickly inform the local military of the situation.  Second, Rory and Zeiss (who were 'confined') both got into a rather interesting discussion that a summary cannot do justice to, culminating in Zeiss' angry outburst at Rory's accusation of him being untrustworthy despite all his recent actions.  This outburst, the mental and emotional trauma, and the Elemental energy that was active in the area all culminated in Zeiss manifesting an Aspect, named Advoc.  An Aspect of Light, it was incomplete (as Zeiss had not yet successfully completed the Trial) yet it was still fully capable of speech and thought.  This lead to Rory drinking more.  Thirdly, Gwydo began attempting to pilot the Olthoi skiff around more, to get used to the handling thereof.

Towards the end of the hour, some of those above ground noticed a crowd of refugees running in a northward direction, passing relatively nearby to the quarry and Order grounds.  They were being chased by the Directorate soldiers, knocked unconscious by some kind of ranged weapon, and taken captive.  The Order refused to get entangled in any political issues, and as such would not move to assist.  Snarg was nearly taken by this same method, being a Gnoll, and Z's quick thinking in covering him with an Order cloak made the soldiers realize he was not one of their prey, and left him be.  Higaide, wanting to do SOMEthing, managed to rescue a solitary individual; Sally of Silversnap, a Goblin woman.  He quickly brought the woman to the Order camp to be taken care of, but she was near hysterical from the stress of recent events.  Gwydo landed nearby to offer his blessing against fear and she was offered some soothing tea, but between the two she passed out, fast asleep.  Higaide carried the poor woman inside into the room where Tia was residing to get some rest.

Z, Javan, Snarg, Gwydo, and Higaide were all exceptionally curious about what was going on in Marblebush and so all piled into Gwydo's skiff to head out to see.  As they attempted and failed at maneuvering, the very air became unusually charged and strange, as if they were both cold and hot at the same time, and their skin was being pricked by thousands of sharp needles.  Snarg's fur was standing so on end it was like he'd grown thousands of tiny spines.

There was a nightmare sound, indescribably loud and horrifying that sent the craft plummeting out of control.  Gwydo tried to right the thing as it descended to some success, but his controls were simply failing.  Snarg barely managed to roll away from the crash unharmed, but the rest landed badly, injuring themselves significantly in the process.  And in the distance, a white lightning cloud was slowly expanding from the ground.

The next several minutes passed in total silence for all present (save Z), as they were rendered completely deaf by the shockwave.

The Order, Olthoi, and party quickly began gathering people and taking them down into the presumed safety of the facility.  There were hundreds of injured though.

Z, for her part, almost in a daze began running towards the cloud, towards Marblebush, with Higaide not far on her heels.  As they ran, however, they began to realize something was wrong as the cloud had not stopped expanding, and in fact was accelerating violently.  Quickly realizing the severity of the situation, Z grabbed Higaide and used her Desolate powers to teleport the two of them back inside Tia's room. 

Up top, Gwydo and Snarg had barely managed to make it to the door at the base of the quarry.  Javan had Jumped on a nearby animal to accelerate his own flee, leaving only Kolson.  Kolson, having only milliseconds to decide (as the cloud's rate of expansion was increasing), made a desperate leap from the top of the quarry into the door.  He landed badly, breaking a leg in the process, but Gwydo grabbed him and bodily hurled him into the assumed safety of the facility, mentally willing the door shut.  Higaide tried to catch the flailing Kolson, leading to the two both being slammed against the far wall.

The party did not know what to do next.  Gwydo, realizing he had his new-found Air Elemental powers, utilized Defibrillate to heal himself, the party, and the many Order personnel nearby who were lucky enough to make it inside.  This healed them all to full, mended Kolson's leg, and repaired their hearing. 

Rory, rather drunk, roamed off to get more drunk and have several amusing encounters with a Worker Olthoi.  The rest waited and debated, observing multiple Olthoi of types they'd never seen before rush by.  Some were small, only a couple feet tall, with deep blue violet chitin.  Others were large, almost as large as the red ones, with deep black chitin.  They were all rushing to the surface, and insisted anyone remaining get further below, where it would hopefully be safe.  Those who could understand the Olthoi knew the Olthoi were terrified.

Sally, at about this time, had woken up and Higaide and Snarg both talked to her, asking about what had happened.  She described how the troops had landed, began occupying the town.  It looked so similar to what they'd done in Stonehold that the refugees, herself and her husband and daughter included, began running frantically.  In the chaos of the retreat she'd lost sight of her husband, and her daughter was knocked unconscious from her grasp and taken by the troops.  She'd only barely avoided capture herself thanks to Higaide's interference, for which she thanked him.  Snarg assured the woman they would go and find her family, and the two began talking a bit.  Snarg learned that the woman had actually lived on the southern outskirts of Stonehold, a bit of a wild area, and her life had been saved from a Centaur assault on a caravan by a group of Palemane Gnolls which had been roaming the area.  She'd been very grateful to the Palemane, learning that that specific tribe had taken it upon themselves to patrol everywhere near their hometown, and stayed with them for several months, sharing some of her knowledge of Weaving with the Gnolls to help them improve their lifestyle.  This was, of course, before she'd had a child or met her husband, she was still a young Goblin back then.

The two exchanged more stories before Z and Gwydo both left towards the surface, only to find the way blocked before the entrance by the Olthoi for safety.  Z discussed with Gwydo, at length, what to do as she believed her unique abilities meant it was her responsibility to call for help and to do so NOW, before things got worse.  The two decided upon reaching out to the Olthoi for help, and thus Z took Gwydo's hand and translated north, to the Hive.

Gwydo and Z were met within mere seconds by a massive, flying Olthoi which Z identified as a Swarmer.  It was in fact one Z was familiar with, Klinxhkth, as she'd met him mere days ago.  She impressed upon him the seriousness of the situation and he sent magically for help.  Z tried to make some tea, fumbling and shaking as she went, for herself, Gwydo, and Klinxhkth before three Lancers (also flying monstrosities) buzzed in and demanded to know what was going on.  Z explained while Gwydo attempted to use his Scionic language to info dump all his experiences into them.  The Olthoi conferred amongst each other rapidly before deciding to send aid immediately.  Z and Gwydo gave their gratitude, and together translated into Holtburg, into an abandoned area of the Hidden Veil, but were spotted by a rat which realized Z was a Desolate and moved to attack.  Fortunately, Gwydo crushed the rat dead, turning to Z and muttering "No witnesses."  Z and Gwydo proceeded to get ahold of Ursolan of Prowler, which they managed with little effort, but Ursolan himself was having a hard time contacting the Lady Lightmane, or anyone in the Aluvian military for that matter.

Meanwhile, while this was happening, the rest of the party save Rory had decided to examine the damage for themselves.  What they found was worse than they'd feared.  The exit door to the Anetheron Facility had been found a hundred feet below the surface, at the bottom of a marble quarry.  But when they exited the door now, they found themselves just above the surface.  The land, in all directions, was scorched to a dull, grey ash and wiped smooth and bare.  There were no people, no tents, no buildings, no trees, no hills.  The 'slope' of the ground slanted downwards as one headed southeast, leading towards Marblebush, leading several party members to believe that they were on the edge of a very large crater.  Turning around, they also realized that several chunks of the massive facility were now visible above the ground, having somehow survived whatever had razed the land bare.

It was very quiet.  The only sounds were from the Olthoi, nearly frantically digging through several tons of ash as they almost manically searched for survivors, for dirt or plant, for anything that wasn't more dead ash.  Javan, utilizing his Elemental Sight, realized that ALL Elemental energy had completely left the area, the very ground and air themselves, producing a dead lands not unlike what Higaide had seen himself, back on Vesayen Lassel.  And anyone with any Elemental knowledge or affinity at all felt horrifyingly uneasy simply standing there.

With naught else to do, the party returned inside.  Snarg, realizing that she deserved to know the truth, went to Tia's room.  Therein he found Sally, who was conversing with Zeiss' Aspect.  Snarg sat beside her and informed her, quietly, of what had happened up above.  Sally gave no real reaction for some time, sitting in stunned silence, until she asked Snarg what had caused it.  Snarg did not know, none of them did really, and after a moment Sally said she wanted some time alone.  Snarg helped her up and escorted her over towards the restroom wherein she resided for several minutes in silence.  Snarg, growing worried after minutes had passed, knocked and asked if she was alright, but there was no response.  Even more concerned, he began pounding on the door, and at even further lack of response, tried to force his way in.  Knocking the door inwards off its lock, Snarg spotted Sally laying on the floor in the room, blood still trickling out the open wound in her neck, unmoving.  The blade still rested in her hand.

Snarg could not process this at first, but soon fell into a rage, destroying the stalls and walls and everything in reach as he howled in anguish.  The Olthoi Soldier nearby came immediately over to help him, tried to calm him and keep him from hurting himself.

At about this time Rory had returned from his drunken antics and was informed of what lay above, though he did not believe it at first.  Rory returned to the surface himself, spotted the full extent of the devastation, and returned below, rage barely contained and demanding that the party immediately head towards the epicenter, towards where the Airship surely was.

I think i might have made a terrible mistake yesterday. Back when i came back from the crater and informed Tia, i didn't realize Sally might have been there all along. Did she HEAR me as i gave Tia the news?

No, Snarg gave Sally the news personally.

Arch, do you have a transcript of the chat of December 2nd's session?

The party was understandably overwhelmed by the situation, quickly grew into argued debate before finally deciding that, with the severity of the situation fully realized, they needed to coordinate.  Appointing Snarg as a de facto 'leader' of the party, the decision was made to rush outside (with the aid of several Olthoi Workers carrying them) and out of the 'dead zone' as quickly as possible, then check up on the three towns to the southeast. 

They did so with little difficulty, had a brief discussion with a few of the Dwarves in Ritholme, and by this point it was pretty late, and the party realized they had the difficult decision of what to do with Rory and... Thog.  Snarg and Higaide decided to 'volunteer' for dealing with Thog, since they had no idea what to expect, and got some sleeping powder to give him.