Zhiyu-Ji Djinn, Campaign Notes

Episode 5

“To the east, at the far east, from the very edge of the world, a Behemoth was coming.”
-- “Beä and the Behemoth”, tribal tale of the Zhiyu

A couple of weeks passed, during which time my dreams of flying grew ever more acute and troubled me even during my waking hours. Briefly, I became delusional, and believed I really could take to the air like I had seen milord Carlos do with his winged contraption. I found that I could not fly, but that by using my essence I could jump further and higher than I had ever been able to do before. The dreams ceased after I learned this technique, though I feel they may return.
An earth tremor passed through the manse-city, in a ripple effect from west to east. There was a general panic among the people, who didn’t know what it was. We determined it seemed to have been caused by a volcanic eruption, many, many miles from our city, in the direction of the great Realm, the Blessed Isle.
The decision was taken for the five of us to travel to where we could view the volcano with our own eyes and thus determine where in the world it lies. Our first trip would be to return to Nexus (despite it lying in the wrong direction), for river travel is presumed to be easier to begin there, major trading capital as it is.
Nexus rumours: It is the Imperial Mountain, the mountain at the centre of the world, which has erupted. An area about 30 miles in radius around the mountain is now a wasteland.
My connections in Nexus helped us gain passage downriver to Centak, one of the port cities at the mouth of the Yanaze River.
Centak rumours: There is molten metal pouring from the erupting Imperial Mountain.
On the distant horizon the erupting volcano was barely visible to us. It was determined that essence was pouring off it, as well as the alleged molten metal. There was a second shockwave, and something rose out of the smoking mountain. At the distance we were from it, it was just a shape.
We spent two days preparing to cross the Inland Sea to the Blessed Isle. During this time, milord Kino told us of a vision he had had of two Primordials, Autocthon and Algeroth, discussing men destroying themselves with technology. They appeared to be as brothers, and one seemed to destroy the other at the climax.
We sailed across the sea, arriving at Rokujin, port city upon the river, across the estuary from the Imperial City. Rokujin was a city in chaos with all the fleeing refugees.
Nearer to the mountain, rumours: A 100-mile radius circle of molten metal surrounds the mountain, and creatures come out of it.
At this distance, the giant shape appears vaguely, barely, humanoid. And the sky is noticeably darker because of the smoke still billowing from the new volcano.
We travelled upriver on a barge, sold to us dirt-cheap by its fleeing owner, towards the mountain as directly as was possible.
Further rumours: Flying automata, at least the size of men, were killing people that remained close enough for them to reach.
This disturbing rumour did not dissuade us from our path. We were gradually able to determine that the shape emerging from the mountain was oval, rather than humanoid, and seemed to be forming itself from the stuff of the mountain. We judged that it must be 10 miles long. I suggested that any creature of that size would surely be a Behemoth. I was not reassured by the fact that no-one disagreed with me.

OOC: “If a Behemoth made a Warstrider, would it make a sound?”
-- Kino, trying to be Zen but sounding like he’s on the wrong drugs.

We passed the last of the fleeing people, and eventually came to a sheet of metal, covering the landscape, a few inches above the river’s surface. The metal felt warm to the touch and strange – like a magical material. Tools broke when used upon it.
We walked upon the metal, continuing up the path of the river, for over a day. Then we saw humanoid metal figures, more and more as we continued, always a few miles from us and the river, never on the river itself.
We saw machinacal birds, and could see that the land was coated with metal, rather than transformed as it seemed at first. Even the trees were encased. Milord Carlos reported that there were no spirits visible to his second sight, and when milord Theo voiced the theory that they may be trapped under the metal, I gave voice to my own feeling that we must find a way to reverse this terrible, unnatural state.
Another day, and, still ~30 miles from the mountain, the metal river (over the real river) became a staircase of the metal. A debate began about whether we should take these stairs or avoid them. I ended it by ignoring the discussion and starting to climb the stairs by myself. Milord Carlos followed, then the others.
We came to a plateau, with a metal city upon it, about half way up the mountainside.
“You are now entering the city of “My-Zenith”,” said a sign, though I could not read it for it was written in the Old Tongue. This city was populated by metal men.
We entered the city. The entire place seemed to be machina, including the people. I suggested we split up and gather information, each in our own way.

Episode 6

We split up. I headed straight for the centre of this city. Once beyond the outskirts, I saw that some of the people here were not machina at all, but men like me. I came to a fountain, above which stood the statue of a man wearing plated armour and holding aloft a sword and a drinking gourd, from which the liquid metal flowed. The fountain was in front of a temple, its doors open and welcoming. I entered and saw 2-300 people, attending a service of worship to their god – Algeroth, one of the beings from milord Kino’s vision. The priest conducting the service, delivering a sermon to the people, was armoured; his appearance was distinctive enough to clearly demonstrate his position of authority over the people, and this reminded me of the relationship between the Beä and the men of the Zhiyu.
I examined the stained-glass windows of the temple. They depicted many scenes showing the same man as the fountain’s statue; could this be Algeroth?
Behind the temple were further stairs going up the mountain. Knowing that these were where we had to go, I began searching for the others. A written message from milady Endless Brine summoned me back to the fountain, where milord Kino was attracting attention from the locals. I sprinted back there to see the priest I had seen within the temple confronting milord Kino, and though their argument seemed civilised, there was an undertone of hostility. The priest produced a chessboard and set it in the air between them, and then he, the board and milord Kino vanished. Milord Carlos was still able to communicate with Kino using the message boards, but only a few seconds later milord Kino and the priest reappeared, with milord Kino having seemingly lost their duel.
We continued up the stairs for a few days. Milord Theo had procured a book, “The Bible of Algeroth” I was told it was called, and he spent the days learning from it.
Upon the stairs, while we slept, milord Kino had a second vision of Autocthon and Algeroth, in which Algeroth was in a cage, and Autocthon was his jailor. Algeroth retrieved the key when Autocthon supposedly destroyed it, and then swore revenge.
A week of climbing found us half way up the mountain, above the height of the clouds, where lay a second plateau, a second city of metal: “Chay-Zenith.”
This city’s streets were deserted, and the only sound was the ever-present hum of electricity. In the centre of this city there was a larger temple than the one in “My-Zenith”, perhaps a cathedral of Algeroth? Its doors were firmly shut. In front of it was a second fountain, and this one had a statue depicting the man kneeling, holding a key – the key from milord Kino’s vision.
From within the cathedral we heard chanting. It seemed the entire population was within, partaking of some ritual. Milord Theo told us the chanting had echoes of sorcery, and that they were calling upon their god. We attempted to look inside through the enormous windows, and I was able to make out around a thousand people, plus a priest conducting them from the central aisle. Their chanting was causing the air to buzz and feel strange, as though we were within a manse.
The ceremony abruptly ceased, and we hurried up the next flight of stairs before anyone from “Chay-Zenith” was aware of us.
Another week of climbing took us to another city, but before we reached it milord Kino had a third vision, in which Algeroth escaped his cage only to find himself in a second prison, which he attempted to break out of by filling it with liquid metal until it cracked.
This third city had no name, or at least it was not advertised like the previous ones had been. The buildings were also somewhat different, being made of coloured metal rather than plain steel. The cathedral at the centre was larger again than “Chay-Zenith’s” had been, made of stone and metal. The people of this city were all a mix of flesh and metal, and seemed to be machina wearing skin like we would wear clothes. Their priest-caste had a larger presence here; whereas before we had seen but one in each city, here there was at least six. We decided not to stay here long, but did want to investigate the cathedral.
Again there was a fountain outside. Its statue was a strange symbol, not a figure at all.
The cathedral doors were open, and we quickly checked out the interior. It was much like a larger version of the first temple I had seen, but there was one remarkable difference: inside was a differently clad priest, perhaps a senior cleric?
Upon leaving, we passed one of the (more common variety of) priests. He acknowledged us, but in a way that meant nothing to us. It was an… odd treatment.
We ascended to the summit of the mountain, and saw the enormous machine from the closest point on the earth to it – it was about 30 miles in the air above us.
Inside the peak we saw another city, enclosed within the mountain. A city of rock containing small (dwarfish) men and fair ones as well as men – all with machina embedded in their bodies, and a creature the like of which we had never seen before.

9 feet tall, metal skin, an horrific visage of tubes and machina instead of a face, it carried in one hand a gun larger than two men could carry between them. The very ground cracked under its weight. The other inhabitants of the city avoided it. We were ushered into a building by a man called Githed, that we too should avoid it. Githed told us much of the city we had found ourselves within:

  • The creatures are called “Nightbreeds”, and they are the servants, perhaps even the Exalted, of Algeroth. They enslave men and force them to work in this city, in the factories where machina body parts are made.
  • The machina body parts are added to people – they need both to perform some of the functions required of them. Most humans are unwilling slaves, but those implanted are more cooperative.
  • The people in the cities down the mountain are the acolytes of Algeroth.
  • Algeroth was once imprisoned under the Imperial Mountain. The shape above the mountain may be him, escaping. The liquid metal may be his blood.
  • The Nightbreeds come from below, the lower levels of this city within the mountain. It has at least 50 levels.
  • Within this city night and day are as one, the city is always active. There is no natural light below the first level.
    Githed also drew us a rough map, and warned us that the city’s “plates” sometimes rotate or otherwise move. We thanked him for his kindness towards us, and descended into the city, avoiding a couple of Nightbreeds, armed with their deadly looking Assault Cannons. They appeared to be patrolling the streets.
    Several levels down, we attracted attention – a Nightbreed shouted, “Alarm!” and readied its weapon. We jumped or ducked for cover (I ducked). The thing did not look up when it searched for us, which may be worth knowing if we are similarly incautious in the future. A second one arrived, but they did not find us.
    We travelled on, avoiding their ‘security cameras.’ We passed through an area that had seen battle. It reminded me uncomfortably of how the Hive looked after the Xeng invasion.
    Beyond the Warzone we saw a different kind of Nightbreed, shorter but bulkier, armed with a sword and a smaller gun, not a cannon, and with chunky, rune-inscribed armour. It seemed to be feared even by other Nightbreeds. This whole city seems full of fear.
    Then we found a level with healthy, clean looking people and decent housing for them. But they did have implants, and did not avoid the Nightbreeds, rather they were simply respectful towards them.
    A white-clothed man, free of machinaical implants, saw us. I beckoned him over to us, and we determined he was Professor Iryuli, originally of Nexus! He was an unwilling slave of the Nightbreeds, and he helped us by giving us information:
  • There is a faster way down into the depths of the city than the stairs, but it is guarded. Lifts are used to transport workers to and from their places of work. 2 or 3 Nightbreeds round up about a dozen people from their accommodation level and shuttle them down.
  • The lifts have a cunning security precaution; they move about the levels. This was the “rotation” that Githed warned us of. Thus making use of these ourselves would prove difficult.
  • The Nightbreeds are a merging of machina and men, Iryuli speculated that that the organic matter houses the soul. He gave us the names for the classes of the Nightbreeds: the “Raseed” are the footsoldiers, the “Prætorian Stalkers” are squad leaders, and have exalted souls.
  • The grand purpose of this city is to build (quite literally!) an army.
    The Raseed supply food to the workers via a drop-off point, and as this is more regular than their shuttling of workers we chose to use the next arrival of food to see if it would be possible to sneak a use of one of their lifts.
    We blended in with the local workers by wearing white coats, and followed Iryuli to the city square. While the workers received their food, we concealed ourselves. When all was done, and the two Raseed moved off, we followed. They went almost to the stairs, then opened a hidden door and stepped through. There was a large, secret area beyond, which included the lift. But the door could not be bypassed.
    OOC: “We have enough stealth between us for one person, but enough violence for all of us!”
    -- Djinn, about the resulting plan.

    The plan was for milady Endless Brine to stealthily wedge the door open with the large metal “Bible of Algeroth” that milord Theo had.
    It went off perfectly. Then we applied brute force to open the door enough for us to pass through. Our combined strength was not enough, until we really put the full force of our wills behind the effort.
    We summoned the lift beyond, but with the doors forced open we got onto the lift-car rather than into it. We rode the car down, down over 40 floors. After ensuring there was silence awaiting us beyond the penultimate door, we forced it open from inside and went through.
    We were on a factory floor, a wide-open space with few guards, (but bad health and safety). Massive machina were being constructed here: 30 feet armours, with cannons for arms. Men were being physically bonded with these monstrous machines.
    There was an eye, watching us.