Day 50

Toward Black Temple

Day: 50

Summary

Shelly and Liorin Vale were sent back out of High Alden almost as soon as Professor Sylic had finished making the larger truth harder to ignore. The King Regent ordered them toward Origin Isle and the Black Temple, Sir Kaelin put a mysterious spindle in Shelly's hands for Captain Edric, and what should have been a straightforward embarkation at Still Lake of the Vale turned into the activation of Zero Infinity, a dockside fight against corrupted humans, a failed gambling puzzle, a deeply unproductive opium hunt through the corridors of Jenny Be Good, and finally a crocodile battle fought on deck, underwater, and on top of the Apparatus of Kwalish.

Players

Image

Pasted image 20260411215203.png

Timeline

A few days after the descent into the Underhall Archives, the next orders came quickly. The King Regent had stopped speaking about the Corruption as if it were still a rumor with manners. It spread through living carriers and tainted objects. It behaved like instruction. Origin Isle was forbidden, and she was sending them there anyway. Sir Kaelin added one practical complication before they left: a finely made Rosecore Spindle, to be delivered to Captain Edric at Still Lake of the Vale without further explanation.

The lake met them in its usual bad imitation of peace. Captain Edric and Zhurm were already at the dock beside Jenny Be Good, the Apparatus of Kwalish strapped to the forward deck and an inert mechanical body close at hand. The purpose of the spindle became clear almost immediately. Edric seated it into a concealed port in the construct's back and the machine woke as Zero Infinity, to the genuine surprise of both Shelly and Liorin Vale, neither of whom had seen an autognome before. There was not much time to admire the moment. Corrupted humans were already emerging from the trees and moving toward the dock.

The fight was quick, cold, and stranger than it had any right to be. Shelly fired his pistol. Liorin Vale somehow made a balloon animal part of the combat problem. Zero Infinity, newly awake and apparently ready to justify the trouble, answered the encounter with radiant hand-beams, a floating disk, and a grease bomb that the party set burning under the corrupted. When the last of them went down, the fine hat worn by one of the figures turned out to be worth taking. Liorin Vale put it on almost immediately and, with very little hesitation, used it to become a balloon animal himself.

Once aboard Jenny Be Good, the voyage resumed its habit of making nonsense feel structured. In the dining hall the bartender served stew and brew as though the ship's circumstances remained ordinary, while the odd fellow with the rune jars was still running his little dice wager from the corner. Liorin Vale and Zero Infinity took the challenge and failed it even with clues, which seemed to delight the man more than a clean win would have. Shelly, meanwhile, asked Zhurm where opium might be found and received the sort of answer that felt helpful only if one had never met him before: perhaps with some blue-cloaked gentlemen from the Mooring Guild aboard the ship.

That suggestion turned the middle of the journey into a very drunk side venture. Following the sound of banging above, Shelly found four bloodied blue-cloaked men still half inside a fist fight in the passenger hall and decided the obvious response was to try to pick one of their pockets mid-brawl. This ended with him trapped under one of the combatants, still trying to reach deeper into the same pocket while the fight continued around him. Liorin Vale arrived in disguise — long blond wig, black moustache, the whole commitment — and, together with Zero Infinity, eventually freed Shelly by using the Immoveable Rod as a lever. The men revealed only that anything worth seeking was farther below. Zero Infinity then led the party downward with total confidence, first to the crew toilet and then to the wrong barrels, all while speaking with great authority about a lemon poppy seed cake recipe no one had requested.

The ship's more serious problems returned before the internal farce had finished with them. Captain Edric called everyone to the deck as a giant Corrupted Crocodile came in against the starboard side. He sent Zero Infinity into the Apparatus of Kwalish, let Shelly join out of equal parts usefulness and curiosity, and shoved hurried instructions toward Liorin Vale while keeping Jenny herself moving. The launch was not elegant. They opened the wrong hatch first, nearly drowned themselves, failed to scuttle the machine when they finally surfaced, and ended up fighting the crocodile from the top of the apparatus itself while the boat loomed beside them. Liorin Vale finally came off the deck to land the killing blow. The Apparatus of Kwalish was hauled back aboard intact. Shelly never found any opium. By night's end the others had locked him in his room to detox, which was as close to responsible shipboard discipline as the voyage managed.

People Met

  • Captain Edric - waiting at Still Lake of the Vale with Jenny Be Good, the Apparatus of Kwalish, and an inactive autognome he powered up without nearly enough preamble
  • Zhurm - first mate of Jenny Be Good; practical, unhelpfully informative, and willing to point Shelly toward the ship's worst idea of a lead
  • The bartender of Jenny Be Good - continued serving meals and free drinks as though nothing aboard the ship required comment
  • The odd fellow with the rune jars - still running the dining-hall dice wager and visibly pleased when the party failed it
  • The blue-cloaked Mooring Guild men - bruised holdouts brawling in the upper hall; knew more about the ship's lower cargo than they wanted to say

Items Found

Unanswered Questions

Notes

███ █████ ██████ █████ ███████████ ███████ █████████████ ████████ ███ ███ ████ ████ ████████ █████ ███ ███████ █████ ██████████ █████████ ███████ ████ █ ██████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████ ████ ███ ███ █████ ███████████ ███████ ████████ █████████ ████ ████ ████ █████████████ ██████ ████████████ ███ ████████ ██████ ██ █████

██ ███ ████ ████ █████ ██████ ███████ ██ ███████ ███ ███████████ ██ █████████ ███ ████████ ████ ███ ███ █████ █████ ███████ ██ █ █████ ████ ██████████ ███████ ████ ███ ██ ███ █████ █ ████ ███████████ ███████████ █████ ███████ ███ ███ ████ ██████ ██ █████ ███ ██████████ ██████████ ████ ███████ ██████ ███ █████ ███████ █████ ██ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██ █ █████████ ██████ ██████ █ ███████ █████████ █████ ██ ██████ ████ ███ █ ████ █████████ ████ █████ ████████ ███████ ████ ██████████ ██████ ███ ██ ███████ ████████ ███████ ████ ███ ██████ ████ ██ ███████ ██ ███████ █ █████ ██████ █████ ████ ██████ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ███ █████████ ███████ ███ █████████ ██████ ████ █████ ███ ███████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ████ ████ ███ ████ ███████ ████ ██████████ ██ █████ ██████ ██ ██████ █████████