# Session 14 - Session Name **Played:** 2 July 2025 The session starts with the group rifling through the documents on this shelf, as [[Raphius Sunward|Raphius]] checks back in the main corridor to ensure no further enemies are approaching. [[Persephone Amoransia Damnari|Persephone]] finds an old tome with thousands of names in it, dating back thousands of years. She eventually manages to correlate the names of the skulls on the black shelves with some of the names in the book. A mention of "The Chronicle of the Sacred". [[Pipe]] scans through the documents looking for further evidence of necromancy but comes up short BAZINGA! [[Persephone Amoransia Damnari|Persephone]] wonders if any of this is linked to her parents and the cult she was raised in. However, she struggles to find any similarities from their current surroundings. She tells the group nothing is feeling familiar and that her parents worshipped a god called [[Ko]]. As [[Pipe]] scoops up some of the loose documents that seem important he grabs another piece of paper with dates listed on. [[Persephone Amoransia Damnari|Persephone]] who only moments ago was all too eager to charge down the stairs blindly, now seems anxious to leave without unearthing every last detail in case something linked to her past reveals itself. The group agrees to scout the rest of the floor but struggle to decide between going left or right first, so [[Elena]] and [[Persephone Amoransia Damnari|Persephone]] play rock, parchment, shears to decide with [[Elena]] emerging victorious. In the left room, another dormitory reveals itself to the group. Thankfully it is around midday and so all the inhabitants are currently not within. A second dormitory lies to the North of this room, and further North still a communal kitchen / dining room. The group find it concerning that this order is so well resourced and seemingly have such numbers behind them. They wonder who is funding them. Tracking back they find a large bathroom which answers Pipe's question as to where do they all shit. After pausing momentarily for [[Pipe]] to drop the kids off at the pool, the group continues south through the dormitory and finds an oddly lit room with more décor than has been seen anywhere else in the complex. There are seedy romance novels scattered around the room and it seems almost purposed for intimacy. The group ponder if the list of pregnant females were conceived in this room. [[Elena]] darkly ponders whether or not the impregnation was consensual. The significance of the room appears lost on [[Persephone Amoransia Damnari|Persephone]] and [[Elena]] voices that she has no desire to teach her about the birds and the bees today, but does nominate [[Mealla Glynn|Mealla]] to have that conversation with her one day as the local bee expert. [[Persephone Amoransia Damnari|Persephone]] spot a trap on the door the other side of the mural before [[Raphius Sunward|Raphius]] blunders into it. Gaining access into this room, it appears to be much nicer than the others. The room has a certain medicinal smell to it and lots of towels. [[Mealla Glynn|Mealla]] finds hidden behind one of the shelves a 'bug out' bag with: 150gp, 3 lesser healing potions and an elixir-of-health. [[Mealla Glynn|Mealla]] finds a cupboard with various medical supplies such as anti-septics, gauze etc. She also finds a bottle of chlorophyl in a stoppered jar that [[Elena]] suggests might be useful and recommends she takes along with some rags / gauze. [[Mealla Glynn|Mealla]] asks [[Elena]] if she thinks there is any priority being given to the mothers, or just the babies. With this amount of anti-septics, [[Elena]] surmises that efforts are being made to keep both parties alive. She voices aloud to the group that perhaps "the venerate" are the pregnant mothers and "the sacred" are the babies. But then [[Mealla Glynn|Mealla]] wonders what the scoring system was about. They must be breeding looking for certain qualities / traits. The group is unsure why though. Leaving this room and heading north along the main corridor, [[Persephone Amoransia Damnari|Persephone]] again finds an explosive vial wedged in the hinges of this door, but once again manages to disarm the trap to everyone's relief. This room is well lit by more of the glowing blue steady arcane lights. The room appears to have a living space with bed, kitchen etc. Like a studio flat. But the room also contains desks with vials, flasks, decanters etc. [[Raphius Sunward|Raphius]], [[Persephone Amoransia Damnari|Persephone]] and [[Mealla Glynn|Mealla]] head into the living space and [[Raphius Sunward|Raphius]] finds a hidden diary of a [[Warwick Thistlebloom]] who is being held captive and forced to make potions. He is from [[Ewyen]] and has two non identical brothers Wilber and Wesley. They are triplets and part of a famous alchemical troupe. Many months back they had a breakthrough to help the frail and disabled to strengthen their bodies. However, testing on animals led to mutated and aggressive subjects. They split up and fled, fearing consequences. His brothers fled to [[Gambon]] and elsewhere, but Warwick ended up a drunk in the mountain towns of the Misty Peaks. He was captured by the brotherhood. Mention of working with [[Keth]] who appears to be a fellow alchemist. A rivalry exists and he rants about her for some time discussing a certain elixir of mind control that he called "The blood of [[Ko]]". The group discuss the fact that this sounds like the green liquid that had corrupted the rats in the sewer. And that perhaps the votery who all seemed rather brain dead may have ingested this mind control serum. Will also mentioned ingesting some poison before joining [[The Brotherhood]]. [[Persephone Amoransia Damnari|Persephone]] does not recognise any of this, despite the reference to [[Ko]]. [[Pipe]] went over to the alchemical area of the room and began to investigate. He found out that they were trying to make a mind control serum, but it only seemed to last for a few hours. However, once they brought in [[Keth]] things improved. Though the notes go on a huge rant as to how much he dislikes her and calls her the 'traitor of Arcturox'. Says her work is dangerous. Eventually they were able to fuse her work with his, using [[Lineage of the Veiled Kin/09 - Items, Artifacts & Documents/Aetherite|Aetherite]] and created a stable serum called "The blood of [[Ko]]" which makes subjects obedient to the one that controls the [[Lineage of the Veiled Kin/09 - Items, Artifacts & Documents/Aetherite|Aetherite]] shard. [[Pipe]] thinks that this is reminiscent of the work [[Fink]] told them [[The Order]] was conducting in these labs with [[Lineage of the Veiled Kin/09 - Items, Artifacts & Documents/Aetherite|Aetherite]]. Studying this in more detail, the mind control serum seems programmed with a specific [[Lineage of the Veiled Kin/09 - Items, Artifacts & Documents/Aetherite|Aetherite]] crystal that the owner can give a command to that the imbibers are obligated to follow. The range is unlimited and lasts indefinitely. A single fragment of [[Lineage of the Veiled Kin/09 - Items, Artifacts & Documents/Aetherite|Aetherite]] no bigger than a fingernail can control many. Tested in [[Voran's Well|Voren's Well]] on 220 people and works well, particularly on the weak minded. Severe pain inflicted can break a subject out of their mind control. The group discuss this and express alarm at how dangerous this situation is. Group discussing why this [[Keth]] woman is hunting them and who her loyalties belong to. They wonder whether [[Merric Veil]] has taken the gnome and the elixir to the meeting of [[The Golden Circle]] to demonstrate it or distribute it to other chapter houses. [[Raphius Sunward|Raphius]] wonders whether they should hurt the votery to break them out of their stupor which [[Elena]] says would be amount to torture and says that he cannot surely be serious. [[Raphius Sunward|Raphius]] says he is torn, all out of faith, cold and shamed, lying naked on the floor... In the north of this room are two large wooden cylinders that span from floor to ceiling, 20ft in diameter. Each pipe has a door that allows access and appears locked. Around each pipe, set slightly back is a surrounding cage of metal also with a locked door, granting access to the pipes. [[Elena]] wonders if this is some sort of transport system perhaps? [[Persephone Amoransia Damnari|Persephone]] manages to open the locked cages but is unable to open the wooden pipe door as it appears to be magically sealed. [[Pipe]] is able to open this with ease, but as he unlocks it the group hears a bestial shriek from the right hand pipe. The group suggest opening the left hand pipe cautiously and as they do they see this is a large shaft that extends both above and below them and does indeed appear to be some sort of transport system. [[Mealla Glynn|Mealla]] recognises the sound of the shriek was the same as the large flying creature that slaughtered the group of Goblins and observes that this pipe would be large enough to accommodate it. Insanely, [[Persephone Amoransia Damnari|Persephone]] and [[Pipe]] begin to discuss how they could open the cage and study or kill this creature. However, [[Elena]] manages to convince them that this would be absolute madness, causing a great deal of noise and possible injury or death to one or all of them. It makes no sense to risk their lives on tackling this mutated beast, when they came here to find the dagger and Will. [[Raphius Sunward|Raphius]] inspects the cages where it appears the animal subjects of the experiments were kept. Various notes on the violent responses to the elixir were observed. There are dead animals in varying stages of decomposition in these cages. [[Raphius Sunward|Raphius]] worries that there are several corpses missing and that they may face more mutated creatures. One of which could be a badger, which [[Elena]] says she doesn't fancy fighting as Badgers are viscious, disease ridden creatures. [[Pipe]] comments that at least they shit neatly. The group discuss the larger implications of this scheme and that it could have far reaching effects. The group discuss that they should let someone know and that at present they are the only ones with this knowledge, so if anything were to happen to us the knowledge and hope of stopping this plot would die with us. [[Mealla Glynn|Mealla]] has a sudden psychotic desire to destroy everything and begins to swing her staff, but [[Pipe]] exclaims with alarm and warns against smashing random vials of potentially noxious, reactive liquid. The group make their way back into the room with the descending staircase and begin their descent. The carved stone walls slowly turn into more rocky, natural formations. The walls begin to feel slick and the group can hear the odd drip, and the temperature noticeably drops. It starts to feel dank, dark and tight. Yet it keeps on descending. Occasional runes etched into the walls provide dim light. But eventually even these die out and there is only darkness. Eventually the descent opens into some sort of dome. [[Raphius Sunward|Raphius]] casts light on a stone and carries it with him, revealing lots of small rooms, often only 10ft x 10ft and circular. [[Raphius Sunward|Raphius]] continues to lead the way with this soft glow. They step into this underground dome, and two runes pulse as the rock being held goes out. He re-lights it without issue. [[Pipe]] investigates the runes and finds an illusory wall, behind which appears to be an enormous underground lake of greenish water. There appears to be only one path forward, which is a small stone path leading left. The group take this path and emerge in an enormous cavern with rocky stepping stones providing a sort of causeway over this lake which continues into this chamber. A large statue of a figure looming over a stone altar, with robed figures chanting and casting spells, as several of them blink out of existence and seem to teleport out of this chamber. One of the figures turns to the group, and with a familiar voice says: "Oh [[Elena]], have you learned nothing from our lesson. Oh how I wish I had time to teach you another lesson, but nay time is pressing. But what's this (looking to [[Persephone Amoransia Damnari|Persephone]])? Oh you have brought me a gift. Your friends will not survive. [[Persephone Amoransia Damnari|Persephone]] my child, your blood will be spilled." [[Merric Veil]] grins at the group and combat ensues. ## Session 14 – Post Session Check-in How is [[Raphius Sunward|Raph]] feeling? - Cold clarity: [[The Brotherhood]] and the [[Ko]] cult are the same web. “[[Blood of Ko]],” Merric’s claim over [[Persephone Amoransia Damnari|Persephone]], the breeding records—this is one machine. No more hedging. - Protective urgency ([[Persephone Amoransia Damnari|Persephone]]): Merric calling her “my child” turned duty into iron. She’s the target and the key; he won’t let them write her fate. - Moral line held: Refusing to “hurt the votaries to free them” matters. Torture is a rot he won’t invite into the party. [[Elena]] drawing that line helped steady him. - Grim scale: [[Lineage of the Veiled Kin/09 - Items, Artifacts & Documents/Aetherite|Aetherite]]-keyed mind control, tested on whole towns, means this threat stretches far beyond one monastery. [[Voran's Well|Voren’s Well]] sits in the Brotherhood’s shadow already. - Rage at blasphemy: Faith twisted into chains (again). He’s seen orders weaponised; this one brands it with Ko’s name. - Tactical restraint: Don’t unleash the winged beast. Secure [[Persephone Amoransia Damnari|Persephone]], the dagger, and proof; stop distribution. (He’s thinking like a shield first, sword second.) [[Elena]] - Respect: She argued against torturing the votaries and talked the group down from poking the caged horror—wise, principled, alive to consequences. - Shared purpose: Their goals rhyme—free souls, unmask corrupted “orders.” He can lean on her judgment when his anger spikes. - Watchpoint: She still kills decisively; [[Raphius Sunward|Raph]] wants more live answers next time. (Lesson from [[Session 13 - Session Name|Session 13]] still stands.) [[Persephone Amoransia Damnari|Persephone]] - Fiercely protective: Traps disarmed, leads taken, but he sees the fear beneath the steel. He’ll be the wall between her and Merric/[[Ko]]. - The link is real: “[[Blood of Ko]],” Merric’s “my child,” the tome of names, skull shelves, “Chronicle of the Sacred”—this is her past reaching for her. - Agency first: If the cult wants her blood to “herald return,” then her choice will be the blade that breaks the prophecy—not their knife. [[Mealla Glynn|Mealla]] - Anchor of the group: Calm head in a den of madness; scrounged practical aid (bug-out medicals) and kept folks from smashing volatile glass. - Trusted counsel: He’ll keep leaning on her to read the human cost (mothers vs “sacred” infants) while he reads the lines of battle. [[Pipe]] - Asset under pressure: Pulled the thread on [[Lineage of the Veiled Kin/09 - Items, Artifacts & Documents/Aetherite|Aetherite]]-keyed obedience; kept his nose in the right notes. - Caution bell: Brilliant mind, dangerous room—[[Raphius Sunward|Raph]] will keep him alive long enough to be right (and to stay right). - Pattern match: Their sewer “green” was step one of this same arc—now they know what it was pointing to. Will (absent) - Worried: If Merric took a gnome and the elixir to the Golden Circle, Will is either a pawn or a proof. [[Raphius Sunward|Raph]] wants him alive—for [[Persephone Amoransia Damnari|Persephone]], and for answers. Condensed Recap (Session 14) - Archives & altar of names: [[Persephone Amoransia Damnari|Persephone]] correlates skull labels with an ancient register; “Chronicle of the Sacred” surfaces—evidence of a long program of selection and remembrance. - Compound sweep: Dorms, kitchens, baths show a well-resourced Order. An “intimate” chamber plus medical suite and chlorophyll hint at controlled breeding and clinical aftercare (“venerate” mothers, “sacred” infants). Prior records of pregnant women with “induce” notes tie straight into this. - Warwick’s diary (smoking gun): Captive alchemist details a stable mind-control serum—“The [[Blood of Ko]]”—finalised after Keth’s arrival and fused with [[Lineage of the Veiled Kin/09 - Items, Artifacts & Documents/Aetherite|Aetherite]]. Obedience is bound to a keyed shard, range effectively unlimited, duration indefinite; field-tested on ~220 people in [[Voran's Well|Voren’s Well]]. This cleanly explains the vacant votaries and the earlier corrupted vermin. - Do not open that cage: Two vertical transit tubes; one holds the winged killer seen before. The party resists the (mad) urge to poke it. - Down into the dark: Natural caverns, rune-lit paths, an underground lake and causeway; robed figures chant and teleport away. [[Merric Veil]] greets [[Elena]] with venom and claims [[Persephone Amoransia Damnari|Persephone]]—then smiles and lets the fight begin. Raph’s takeaway: [[The Brotherhood]] isn’t dabbling—it’s operational. [[Ko]] isn’t a rumor; it’s the brand stamped on their control serum and their creed. The next moves are protection ([[Persephone Amoransia Damnari|Persephone]]), interdiction ([[Lineage of the Veiled Kin/09 - Items, Artifacts & Documents/Aetherite|Aetherite]] shard control), and proof (to break the Golden Circle’s reach).