The party stood and stared as Auf stood over Hattori, staring down the Eye as she clutched the chain holding her captive. She began to speak, filling the silence that now filled the room as they waited.
“This monster” she began, kicking Hattori in the side as she said it “is responsible for the destruction of my entire village, the torture of me and everyone I’ve ever known, all in the service of creating you.” she pointed at the Eye.
She turned to the party, her eyes sweeping across the group as she fumed.
“The lost lamb you searched so hard for, the comrade you were so desperate to find, he was a leader of a cult. One obsessed with these horrible gods you seem to be constantly be fighting against. They knew somehow about a substance that sylphs create deep in their minds when exposed to extreme distress. He took our whole village and tortured everyone. It was merciless, continuous, horrible in its intensity. To keep us from gaining some sort of resilience against his work, they drugged us with herbal concoctions that wiped our memories and began anew. It was horrible. Hundreds of us died as they couldn’t take the strain of his actions.”
Auf shook as she spoke, tears streaming down her face.
“I managed to escape, I planned to kill him and free my family. I found them dead, pushed too far in his quest to finish his work.” She turned back to Hattori. “I don’t know what changed for him, if he finally grew a conscience or maybe he was afraid of what would happen if they went through with their creation but he set fire to the temple and fled in to the night before I could get to him.”
Auf turned back toward the party, she could feel the Eye’s focus on the short sword in her hand.
“I tracked him for days, across the desert and the steppes of to the forests of Cordova, I never caught up with him. Seems he ate his supply of herbs to erase his memories and left himself in the care of your order.” Auf locked eyes with Paz. “You helped him, made him your little pet. Now it’s time for me to put down the dog you saved, but first I have to end this abomination.”
Auf began to charge at the Eye, only to have it compel her to drop her blade. She tried to pick it up but found she couldn’t. Undeterred she created flaming curved blades in each hand and set upon the Eye, striking quickly.
The room quickly descended in to chaos as the party engaged with the Eye, Auf fought for her life, and Hattori struggled against his chains.
Things were heated, Hattori managed to break free and gather Aufs short sword. Auf was knocked unconscious as the Eye split its attention between her and the party. R4D soaked up some huge hits from the Eye as everyone else moved to strike. Just as things were really getting out of hand Hattori managed to get up close and swipe at the Eye with the blade, dissipating the energy that made up its body and dropping its box to the floor with a crash. The party quickly moved to contain the Eye, with Hattori holding the tip of the short sword against the top of the box to keep it down. The tip smoked slightly where it made contact with the carved metal surface.
Paz moved to Auf, tending to her wounds. Reith gave R4D a quick hit with his wrench to restore the construct. Edward complained about the lack of loot and murder. As Auf regained consciousness Hattori began yelling to Paz that they needed to deal with her right away.
“She killed the Bureau agents I came with and tried to kill me!” His anger at being restrained threatened to overwhelm his responsibility to contain the Eye. Paz told him to calm down and magically bound Auf as she stood up and began shouting back.
“You two will have your time to decide which of you is the bigger monster later, for now we have bigger things to deal with.” Paz said through gritted teeth.
“I’m killing her the first chance I get.” Hattori added.
“Like you did my family?!” Auf spat back.
“Enough!” Paz shouted, raising her hand as it began to glow.
The group turned to focus on the Eye. Reith suggested they take to the room labelled “Relic Destruction” and see if it lived up to its name. With no other objections they had R4D pick up the box and placed the short sword on top. The box hissed as the blade made contact with the lid, letting of small tendrils of smoke. They worked their way out to the top of the outer ring, finding themselves back where the Eye had entered the inner rings. They followed the outer wall to the entrance to the Relic Destruction lab. Inside they found a round room with a large raised platform in the center. Above the platform was a huge crystal cylinder lined with hundreds of smaller crystals of various different colours as well as golden metal shards similar to the material Aufs sword was made of. Off to the side of the door was a control panel for the device, it powered on as they entered the room. Around the outside of the room were dark metal and crystal containment vessels, not unlike the one the Countess used to hold the Blackstar all the way back in Istust. All were empty except the one closest to the control panel. It held a small metal orb, floating gently in the tube. Edward walked over to the tube, unable to look away from the object. It looked as if the orb was made of two pieces of twisted scrap, smashed together by some great force. Edward found himself overwhelmingly attracted to the orb, to the point he became very concerned for himself and possibly the party.
“This is dangerous and I cannot be around it.” He said with as much force as his construct voice would allow.
“We’ll deal with it next, just come over here for now.” Paz said reassuringly, motioning to Edward to stand with her at the controls.
Paz and Reith worked though the controls, they found the device could be fired at different strengths with corresponding recharge times, from a few minutes to a week. After some debate the party decided to crank the switch to full and fire it at the Eye. R4D took the Eye to the platform, leaving the sword on top. They charged the device, letting it get right to the edge of firing before having R4D remove the blade. Just before the weapon fired they could see the Eye reform, only to be hit with a blinding blast of light. Everything was white for a moment, then the room returned to normal. R4D and the platform were covered in black soot, small particles of which floated in the air around the room.
“I guess we can’t destroy the orb just yet.” Edward said, looking longingly at the tube.
“We have other work to do, who wants to save the world?” Reith asked.
The party returned to the control room and charged the crystal devices. They watched the receptacles rise from the floor in the central room of the facility on the screens, as well as the shield surrounding the crystal anchour sink in to the floor. A huge multi-coloured crystal shard now loomed in the center of the room, seeming to fill with light and flash seeming at random. The party deduced that each flash must be a pulse of radiation, something they would want to avoid. Moving quickly, the party made their way back to the center, entering the room from both sides and running to the risen controls as quickly as they could. The panels were shielded, keeping them safe while they worked. Once all four were in place the crystal began to hum, quietly and low at first but building quickly as the crystal pulsed with light. Dozens of different rhythms could be heard overlapping as the hum continued to build, vibrating the floors, walls, the windows in to the hell below. Just as it became more that they could bare, the crystal flared brightly and remained a solid glowing white. The noise disappeared, leaving only a ringing in their ears.
The world’s anchour was stable.
With a week remaining before the relic destruction weapon could be fired again the party decided to leave the orb and return to Bellcea to deal with their Auf situation. They planned to return when the weapon would be ready to fire as Edward’s reaction to the orb made it seem very dangerous. The gate returned them to Arcspire where they made their way back to Khaz’Borim. An uncomfortable train ride later, they had a debriefing with Dessa, who was both amazed at the news of the anchour and horrified by the revelations about Hattori and Auf’s actions. Auf was taken in to Bureau custody while Hattori remained voluntarily. The party had just enough time to catch a train back to the north and return to the gate, where they arrived moments before the weapon was ready. In the relic destruction room they found the wreckage of the storage unit for the orb as well as the weapon, damaged but still functional.
The anchour remained safe behind it’s shield.
Early Frost Warning 