I have a game tonight, so my players…keep out!
Last time, Scurlock sent the Gaffers to recover some notes from an alchemist who was (theoretically) doing research for the vampire lord. The PCs found, not a research lab, but an industrial-scale production facility. Clearly the alchemist was up to something.
The question is, what sort of alchemy would require massive amounts (literal tons!) of powdered leviathan bone? I’m still not sure, so I thought I would see if any of my esteemed colleagues who are more versed in the alchemical arts might have theories.
All we know is that the unfortunate Lurk who got covered in the leviathan bone is a massive beacon for ghosts, spirits, balehounds, and the like…and whatever the end product is, it is worth angering Lord Scurlock by misappropriating his funds to make it.
Leviathan bone is where the spiritual remains of ingested Artifacts end. Since Leviathans are very territorial, it is quite possible that if you wanted to resume an artifact lost at sea, and you know where it went down, you must hunt for such Leviathans (maybe 10/12 exemplars), reduce the bodies to bone, calcinate it to dust and then sublimate the residuum. The result is that you can “speak” with the artifact ghost.
It’s an imperfect process, in that we don’t know how to separate artifacts from soul-shards, echo-specters, ecto-drones, etc…
Brainstorming is fun!
A charismatic and brash young cleric in the Church of the Flesh plans a massive ritual that will cleanse Duskwall of all supernatural energy, using an ancient ritual he found in confiscated materials. What he does not realize is it will also make everyone in the city hollow. His adviser does realize this, and is using him to destroy the city. They either realize a powerful agent of evil is working with a cleric of the church, or run across his correspondence to his dark master on the subject in another heist, or figure out who is running it and trace it to the church, or someone in the know is hunted and killed by the adviser but as a last move sends enough leads to piece the truth together to the crew.
A cult that objects to the hunting of the leviathans is making charms, each the size of a cargo container, to be put aboard the whale fishing fleet ships under various pretenses. They will be timed, and when out to sea, they will activate an irresistible lure so several leviathans will converge on the ship and destroy it. The whole fleet will be out of commission, or reduced to a few limping husks. The city’s economy will collapse, and the energy for the walls will fail.
Meanwhile, Scurlock is furious with them for focusing on the production and not the research he asked about. He knows the bone is needed, but it is the final bindings that require research. The alchemists have been dragging their feet reporting in because another crew stole the ancient books and scrolls he loaned them to figure it out.
Will the PCs help recover the materials? If they realize what is going on, how will they respond? Because if they get anywhere near the truth, they will be killed out of hand by any of the various factions involved.
The powdered bone will be fired in a kiln to make ablative plates, which will be used to make a reverse-disco-ball-of-evil-summoning chamber far above the city in a tower. In the beginning, there were dragons, and leviathans are the only descendent left. Using powerful alchemy and magic, the powerful vampire will revitalize a dragon from the memory in bone, draining all the city’s electroplasm to do it.
Clues include his efforts to build a very tall building then build higher atop it, culminating in a sphere that the rich and powerful find annoying as a fashion choice. Also finding out that he’s been hiring blind masons (because the glyphs on the ablative plates drive sanity clean out of people.) And he has the husks hidden to prove it, from missing craftsmen he experimented with.
The powder is intended to be the foundational muscle and sinew for “terra cotta” style statuary that will be animated. (Weapons and armor are added on top, and there is a bone framework beneath.) Scurlock is preparing to create a dead zone, where any who enter die bleeding tar from their eyes. He is making servants ahead of time, so his victory will be complete. Once he has anchored one dead zone, he has plans for making others.
The Spirit Wardens have been careful to keep the secret that the crematorium is brimming with death energy and ready to blow. The Church of the Flesh is preparing a massive cleansing ritual for the crematorium, and required these guys to work on the leviathan bone component that will soak up the energy like sawdust soaks up vomit in the school hallway, allowing for a careful extraction.
Upon finding this out, if they report it to Scurlock, that crazy bastard will mount an expedition to trigger that crematorium to blow. And so will lots of other undesirables in the city. If they report the truth, can they survive his reaction? And would they try to thwart him? Dare they confess to the Spirit Wardens to warn them or get them to help head off the threat?
As it turns out, a totally mad whisper who is in line for the throne is building himself a palatial estate laid out in glyph patterns, stuffed with three dimensional glyph patterns. This house will draw energy in and focus it in absolutely insane levels. The leviathan bone powder? That’s to go in the MORTAR that will hold the buildings together!
If they investigate this guy, they find out he sleeps with a pack of his cousins who are under the thrall of his charisma, and he has his parents serve him as withered undead servants. In his dreams, he is the necromancer emperor of the isles, and he learned of these patterns during seizures he’s had since he was a small child.
His walking stick is enchanted so he can yank spirits out of people, making them hollow, and his rings have a spirit each; he takes his spirit servants with him and swaps them into hot meat to do his will as he wills it.
Fortunately, he has many enemies among those who serve the royalty, because he is a clear danger to the ruling council and to the nobles who protect him. They can’t kill him, it would be against explicit orders. But they might help someone who could kill him…
Jeebus, Andrew Shields, you are the machine!
People will try to get high off of anything, including powdered leviathan bone, but no matter how much you snort or smoke all it does is make your nose white or make you cough. And then a few ghosts turn up at your door. Not worth it, there are better drugs… That is until now. The alchemist has devised a means of freebasing leviathan bone using electroplasm and deep sea water — only water recovered from the depths will do.
Snorted or smoked, electroplasm-based leviathan bone produces ecstasy and intense visions, along with the ability to see even the most incorporeal spirit. Heavy doses are said to give the user a feeling as if they have separated from their body.
What the users don’t know, but the alchemist does, is that heavy doses really do separate the users soul from their bodies. Their bodies becoming temporary hollows able to be controlled by anyone. While simple commands work, compete control can be afforded allowing another to completely take over the others body temporarily. This is accomplished by using a specially arcane carved bone pipe to smoke a dash of the same powder and blowing the smoke up the nostrils of the hollowed drug user. Care must be taken to get the body back in time or the spirits will become trapped either outside of their bodies or even in the wrong bodies slowly withering as the host body dies.
This topic is full of win.
Bruh, what do you think Death’s Gate was made out of?
Jeff Johnston sounds interesting. So the “Gaffers” are a gang of thieves who work for Lord Scurlock (the rumored vampire)?
Brad Black They’re a gang of thieves, one of whom is sleeping with Lord Scurlock, and who did the job as a favor for him (and not at all because they were desperate for coin.)
Previous adventures of the Gaffers have been posted here: https://plus.google.com/105179574276953345976/posts/LjfcRMS3bBw
and here: https://plus.google.com/105179574276953345976/posts/bjYfpCrAsvm
So… how did it go?
The alchemy plot is being left to percolate in the background. Instead they’re starting a gang war with Ulf.
https://plus.google.com/105179574276953345976/posts/BoCAf9e33ku
Jeff Johnston Sounds like they WON their gang war with Ulf. Do you think they’ll get pulled into a gang war with Ulf’s successor? =)
The leviathan bones are being processed to bind ghosts of the living, not the dead. The plot is to produce an army of mindless followers.
Alternatively, there isn’t complete control of the living spirit but it will be marketed to law enforcement and the general public as a truth serum. Side effects are severe, such as attracting dead spirits to haunt the victims and ultimately the city. The attraction makes controlling the spirits more difficult. The scoundrel community is threatened by the implications.
Andrew Shields, you would think, but the Entanglement roll they made…