Earthdawn: Adventure Log 36 - Message in a Bottle

This is the thirty-sixth Adventure Log in an ongoing series about Earthdawn. Introduction and Index.

Adventure Log – 036 Message in a Bottle

Written By: Elmod from the Other Side of the Well of Glenwood Deep

Date:  21 Sollus - 10 Riag, 1508 TH
Group Name: Mismatched Steel

Group Members

Bongani the Scout
Coriolis the Swordmaster
Elmod the Nethermancer
Honeysuckle Sunspray the Warrior
Ting the Swordmaster

What a lovely, horrid place we have wandered into. The strange Horror construct defeated; the gestalt Horror construct body made of obsidiman parts defeated. We don't feel rested when trying to inside the labyrinthine Horror obelisk(1).

We find a path outside and rest. Bongani makes a perimeter of the obelisk and brings back Wendel. We rest, heat food, and sleep.

Entering the obelisk again, we look for the useful things and I befriend the crystal orbs that sprout spindly legs(2). they collect sacks of alchemical materials and lovely things in the labs. We also find 10 sarcophagi made out of living crystal(3). I convince the crystal orbs to reassemble a few and we lug them outside. Spoils of war.

Then suddenly the whole place starts having gravity issues and we decide to leave immediately(4). I fall horribly and the orbs I had collected help me to get out on a spidery throne of living crystal(5).

Then the obelisk disappears completely. Wonder what happened to make it collapse?

Looks like enough living crystal to make a set of full plate.

We travel through the Badlands.

We were surprised by the sudden attack of a spider-tentacled beast hiding below the surface. I am summarily crushed by a tentacle, Honeysuckle nearly too. Bongani takes out several tentacles and Ting finally deals the fatal blow, eviscerating it, exposing many partially digested beings.

Ting and Bongani have a bonding moment over looking through the debris. They find some silvers and pocket change. I made a little camp and slumber party it up with Air Mattress and warm food. We feed the mules well too. Bongani decides it is a rare badlands antlion(6). I nurse my wounds.

We take another three weeks to return to Travar with limited incident(7).

In Travar, we spend time storing and increasing our talents. I research a few of Ting's items and find little. Honeysuckle gets up in the Haggle and looks for living crystal buyers.

We find a wealthy politician of Travar who buys it from us(8).

We train up and stay in Travar, spending lots of money to do so.(9)

*     *     *

(1) My internal research shows this place was not constructed by Horrors. This log is getting buried.
(2) I have heard of these things, but never actually seen one. They seem to be assistants for some of the dwarfs over in R&D.
(3) The statement is rather nonchalant. Am I the only one who feels like this is incredibly ominous? Just me?
(4) Internal research shows this is only going to happen if someone destroys part of the "crystal warding matrix" which maintains the "illusion of an extra-dimensional space". Look, I'm pretty damn smart and this quickly got beyond my ability to even write it down in a way that had all the right parts of speech. The gist: one of these yahoos was probably screwing around, looking for "spoils of war" and broke something important. It was probably pretty, and shining, and glowing, and looked expensive. This is why we can't have nice things!
(5) I'm more worried about the little crystal guys at this point. I hope they all made it out okay.
(6) These things are no joke bad news. They don't generally have anything of interest because they can digest nearly anything, including metal. Just glass will collect in there over time.
(7) With this crew, this could actually mean nothing happens, or they burned something large and important to the ground. I'm half serious. I wish I was less serious.
(8) Names! There are only a few merchants likely to have the resources and interest to make this purchase. Unless they let it go for a song. Which could happen. Unfortunately, all of the council members make this list. Which complicates things.

(9) Received and edited by Ela Pono

This was the denouement of this particular adventure, though also a significant setup for the next leg in their larger goal. Despite being comparatively quiet, there was still some action and a lot of questions. I was fully prepared for them to come back to this place, but they managed to break it.

There were some significant details which were omitted in this log. They were regarding the nature of the obelisk and what was inside of it, some items found (the session title gives a big clue here), and people and events back in Travar. These will all likely be showing back up very soon.