Aloria Story Progression Vile Green From The Past

On the 18th of January, a group primarily led by the Court Arcanist, Edward Estelluanar, ventured to the distant Anglian town of Bosweerle, somewhere south on the border of the Anglian Moors. The town itself was a barely inhabited and sleepy hamlet, the buildings built entirely out of wood and looking as if they had weathered rainy storms of decades. Befitting of Anglia, the locals paid no heed to the adventurers, though caused issue when the Elves and Silven came in sight. Such issue in fact, that they brought up pitchforks and torches, only being calmed down by the gracious presence of Thaddeus Kade, who was able to use his Kade identity to sooth the crowd. The Anglian Moors lived up to its name of being a highly superstitious and backwater part of Anglia where no foreigners or non-Humans existed, and in many ways, they still followed the old Sancella rhetoric that non-Humans would try to damage the Empire. With the threat of the locals out of the way, the group ventured on to the archeological dig site deep in the forest.

Gnarled trees lined the single dirt path cut through the woodlands, there was something unnatural about the area around them. Mae Draylas and Guy Lexaundre in particular being Void Mages, felt a Void presence but were unable to truly pinpoint the source or the type. Eventually the group reaches the actual site, finding a few makeshift cabins and some workers hauling back and forth large buckets of dirt. There wasn’t much in the way of hints as to what lay under the ground on the surface, just a collection of mossy rocks standing in a peculiar formation. A local said that the anglians had always assumed they were some sort of Elven ruin predating Human settlement on the archipelago, as curiously enough, the pillars were inscribed with Elven runes. The door remained sealed, though with the Pre-Cataclysm historical knowledge of Augustin Reinard, and Edward Estelluanar’s Elven translations, the group was able to pry open the door. As one would expect, the door swung open, pushing out a dusty and foul rotting stench as it revealed the inside. Igniting torches with her Fire Magic, Mae Draylas ventured in first together with Hannah Lexen and Joasaie C’Aelrith to secure the entry hall.

Sure enough, the entry hall was rather empty save for a large mechanical looking device on the opposite wall of the hall. The entire group ventured in and secured an essential base camp while the intellectuals of the group began attempting to decipher the device. It was a large intricate looking device that was reminiscent of Qadir technology but seemed to have no power, controls or even gears. It was a mangle of snake-like brass creatures interlinked and braided over various rods that stuck out. Additionally, the floor underneath the device showed dragging patterns of old dried blood, similarly to how some of the rods were covered in blood stains, while others were clean. Hannah Lexen, being a veteran of combat and an Imperial Guard, deduced that the blood trails and rods, coupled with the warnings in Elven that existed outside on the runes, implied that this was some sort of tomb, and that this device was used to shut it. Whatever or whoever last shut it must have done so in a hurry, or was in the process of being attacked as the blood dragging marks moved away from the device. Florianne Gris eventually came up with the idea to pull or push the rods with the blood marks, assuming that if whoever closed the tomb was bleeding, that the right rods would be covered in blood while the rods that did nothing were clean, though the order remained a mystery.

Inspecting the rest of the room, Fiske Eberlin eventually stumbled on a set of decaying murals showing a Feathered Dragon and crowds of worshiping humanoids arranged in a certain pattern. There was some scribbling on the wall in Elven that was quickly translated to mean “The Song of the Dragons”. It was Fiske who then recognized the pattern on the mural, reminiscing of the Isldar Ice Howl, a melody often sung by Isldar in unison when Frostweaver was on the move. The tones were somewhat different, but the melody followed the same pitch and structure. Translating this to the rods, it became clear that the rods had differing lengths and that when pulling one of them, a bellowing tone was produced somewhere deep in the underground structure. The group proceeded to push the rods in order of the Song of the Dragons the way Fiske remembered it, and before long, the brass snakes pushed and pulled out of place and the whole device moved forward, revealing a staircase down into a dark passage.

The group was immediately horrified, the top of the staircase was littered with bones and blood marks all over the wall like they tried to claw their way out. Decaying clothes, books and materials were littered all over the place. While the bones were difficult to identify, Eduard did recognize the jewelry as late pre-Cataclysm Elven style, so it was quickly deduced that something happened down in the structure that caused the Elves to flee, in such a hurry that they locked part of their people inside. Calling forth additional Anglian retinues, and with the Mages and guards up front, the group slowly descended down the passage into the deeper levels of the structure. Before long, they entered a large hallway with numerous doors on the sides and an obnoxious water dripping noise, presumably from rain water leaking through the aging stone. Deeper in this passage, the stone looked unnatural and was covered in writing that none of the group seemed to be able to translate. Furthermore, the ground was covered in lined crossing and running in all kinds of directions with no clear pattern. At the far end of the hall, Valerie Ravenstad found a wheel device of sorts which, without informing the others, she decided to turn to see what would happen.

Immediately when the wheel turned, noises bellowed from deep in the structure. Vents opened above the room and a strong flow of wind funneled through the room, strong enough to blow out all the torches the group had brought. For a moment, there was complete darkness, accompanied with the occasional swearing of Beric Landsing, and the whimpering of Mae Draylas. Thaddeus Kade tried to urge the group to order, and in doing so, there was only silence and the water dripping noise. And then, the dripping noise stopped. Nyx Richter was the first to reignite their torch, turning around and upon having completed their turn, becoming paralyzed at the sight before her. Suddenly, where there was nothing before, Nyx stood face to face with tens, maybe dozens of emaciated humanoid bodies, gently swinging in place as they stood seemingly looking at nothing. Their eyes were closed, almost as if asleep, though there was no peace about their visage. Their skin was wrinkled and dried like it had been left in the sun for too long and had a horrible brown-ish hue. Their hair was long and dead-looking, while their nails were equally cracked and claw-like. As the group slowly re-ignited their torches, they were alarmed to see that Nyx was essentially standing in front of a wall of them, alone, and unmoving. Despite Florianne Gris’s motion for caution and for Nyx to slowly walk back to the group, Tullion Kearney stepped forwards, drawing his weapon as if to secure Nyx. As he stepped forward, his foot touched one of the lines that ran across the floor, the line suddenly lighting up around him with a gold and red hue, while it also caused another to light up underneath Mae Draylas, and a silver and blue one underneath Florianne Gris. Immediately, the emaciated beings next to Nyx snapped open their eyes, exposing horribly bloodshot green glowing eyes, trained forwards as if driven mad by hunger. Nyx panicked and pulled out her weapon as the beings all came into action, dashing and crawling forwards, though despite Nyx’s attacks on them, they completely ignored her. They moved around her and went straight for Florianne, Tullion and Mae, assailing them like rabid dogs. The Anglian soldiers and Hannah Lexen quickly formed a wall around Thaddeus Kade as the group engaged the beings. They fought with ferocious savagery, their forearms lighting up with crackles of green light as they tried to claw particularly at the Silven present, but halfway through also attacking all others present, everyone except Nyx Richter.

Guy Lexaundre and Joasaie C’Aelrith in particular dispatched many of them with their combat skills, while the others eventually cleaned up after them and the threat was extinguished. Reinard investigated the corpses with Fiske Eberlin afterwards, while the rest of the group tested around the lines on the floor. Tullion would find once again that the floor reacted to his presence, and when he stepped on a certain line, a large blade-like object swung from the ceiling, nearly decapitating him if Mae Draylas hadn’t pulled him back. It was reasoned that the ruins reacted to the presence of Silven, and as such, Eduard ordered the Silven to remain in this room for the remainder of the expedition, so as to not set off any additional traps. Fiske and Reinard eventually came up with a conclusion: These beings were very old, potentially even hundreds of years old, but they were unmistakably Ailor. Some of them had early Pre-Cataclysm Anglian tattoos, while others bore some rings that predated even Ceardian migration to the Regalian Archipelago. They could not come up with an explanation as to why they were so old, rabid and inhuman however, yet Nyx Richter knew very well what they were, and the implication terrified her.

The remainder of the group continued through the corridor which had opened up, despite the fight, as a result of Valerie Ravenstad turning the wheel. The corridors beyond the room were filled with murals and writing that could not be translated, though the murals themselves depicted many acts foreign to those present. Dragons giving blood and life to the people, Dragons growing the land and the forests and grasslands. Towards the end it depicted apocalyptic scenery of black four-armed beings attacking Dragons and even killing them. These tunnels eventually led to a large hall with a pedestal at the center. The room however looked empty and what was worse, the walls were lined with more of the emaciated creatures, so many in fact that the grouped dared not to venture forth. It was eventually by Valerie Ravenstad’s idea to send Nyx in alone to investigate the room to avoid triggering any traps, since whatever seemed to want to attack the Silven earlier, was completely ignoring the presence of Nyx. Nyx ventured forth, inspecting the room and relaying what she saw by yelling back at the others in the entrance.

The room was unmistakably something important for Dragon Worshipers or Dragons as a whole, it showed the famous Feathered Dragons, and by Thaddeus and Beric’s reckoning, a recollection of murals showing all the different Feathered Dragons. By cross referencing modern alphabet against the Dragon names, the group was able to create a simple translation of rudimentary words. This new writing was fittingly called Dragon Scripture, and having a basic understanding of the vocabulary made it a lot easier to translate the murals on the earlier hallway. The group decided to leave the main room behind, the murals indicated it was once a vault of sorts to store important Dragon Artefacts, but all the pedestals were clearly empty and nothing remained inside of value. They curiously did however learn various things in the corridors about Dragonblood, Aspects of the Dragon, and Dragon Knights. More importantly above all: The corridor provided very useful information on the Dragon Song that had affected so many Regalians into being enslaved to Rikkira the Dragon. It offered a clearer explanation what Dragon Song truly was, how it affected Humans, but more importantly also a clear narrative about how Dragons used to compete with each other by converting each other’s servants with a Dragon Song of their own. Eduard in particular took note of these things to present them to the Emperor later.

Eventually, the group reunited in the main hall where the Silven were left behind, and retreated out of the structure. The structure itself had a sizeable garrison placed on it afterwards, though the group obviously shut the tunnel behind them to prevent the creatures from breaking out, whatever they were. The site was claimed by the Imperial Court and a five mile radius around it had watchtowers set up, to deny entry to any and all who would come close. Augustin Reinard made another curious find inside the tunnels too: A pre-Cataclysm map of the Regalian Archipelago, showing numerous points of interest on the map that would allude to more Dragon Artefact Vaults existing elsewhere, even some where there was now ocean.

Progression rolled after sign up with the Court Arcanist. We might bring back more of these progressions in the future, which will be organized from the Imperial Court out. Knowledge of these events is limited to the people who participated, unless they choose to share it, though they were not forced into silence by anyone.