====== A Shadowy Figure ======
===== Initial Brief =====
Someone in a black cloak, face concealing hood, and a husky voice has been visiting the shadier parts of the city seeking those who have experience travelling in extranormal realities to protect them on an artefact recovery mission. They claim to have a potent collection of artefacts, and are willing to part with an item from their collection in exchange for help from people willing to not ask questions about what is being recovered.
 
===== PCs =====
  * [[:user:seb:pc:batts_marbeq|Bats]]
  * [[:user:chaos:pc:selphina_reese|Selphina]]
  * [[:user:matthewa:pc:bobby|Bobby]]
  * [[:user:thomasl:pc:hugh_branch|Hugh]]

===== Summary =====
The suspicious figure in the concealing clothing needs to get through the dragon gate, after a problem with almost getting caught on the first attempt and having to go into hiding Hugh Branch manages to actually get a party through without damaging the city watch too badly.

Emerging from the dragon gate the party finds that they are surrounded by clouds, and that the ground is no longer where they expect it too be. Luckily they are floating, unluckily they are now being chased by the giant birds who are annoyed at the interlopers. Khimera is fine, after demonstrating that they have wings they sneak into the next of the birds and grab an egg whilst the birds are distracted trying to eat the rest of the party.

As they travel onwards the clouds become tainted with blackness and writhing chains emerge from a darkened rent in the sky. Chains and strange geometries fight against the clouds but do not appear to be averse to attacking some visiting mortals. After being somewhat exploded by cloud and bound by chains the party succeed in traversing the crack in the world that the chains were emerging from.

The world through the crack is confusing, the party find out that the walls may not be walls, and may or may not contain large spikes trying to attack them. Sometimes the walls in front of the party members are actually behind them, it gets a bit confusing, especially to Hugh Branch, who can't see any walls and is wondering what the rest of the party are doing.

Once Khimera has picked up a strange shadowy artefact they take out a device and the party find themselves transported through a stormy sky and end up next to what looks like an active dragon gate. They also find a group of very lost Serradic adventurers, who really want to know what just happened and why they shouldn't just attack the Acrynites. After the party have a chance to look around they realise that they are surrounded by a strange stone circle, one which Hugh Branch recognises. Hugh Branch 'helps' the Serradics by shoving them through the Dragon Gate into Acryn, and also steps onto the path of godhood, becoming the Cleansing Tide. Then the party prepare to leave, miniaturising one of the stone pillars that have been holding back the draconic creatures outside so that Hugh can take it with them. 

Past the stone circle the party travels through what appears to be a field of Maize higher than they can see. This contains creatures that move through the stalks and can attack with very little warning. Hugh dies and waves back in a few times as he is cut down from behind, but eventually the party manages to push through out of the maze.

The terrain becomes more mountainous, and blood stained. Large dinosaurs attack, some of them look are very hungry, they like the taste of swords. Also small cute things made of blood, their blood makes you angry, also poisoned. So luckily Hugh //knew this was going to happen// and had packed a lot of spare weapons, otherwise there might have been problems.

Defeating the local monsters the party finds somewhere a bit more civilised, or at least somewhere with lots of bits of civilisation shoved together without much aesthetic. Mudra is investigating architecture, and doesn't need to follow the laws of physics. Bobby decides that asking to duel Mudra is a good plan, this went well until Mudra got annoyed at them dodging and made blades appear inside them, luckily Mudra then remembered that they said they wouldn't kill them, so fixed the large holes.
One of Mudra's pet humans has the artefact that Khimera wants, so negotiations happen.

After the afterfact is retrieved, Khimera takes out a small cube of stone and drops it, the stone spreads out, forming a building around the party. Leaving the building they are now surrounded by what appears to be some kind of endless city, dark and dreary. They soon come to the attention of some of the locals, who decide they want the parties stuff. So a fight ensues, sadly the locals are very powerful mages.

Eventually defeating the crazed wizards, the party follow Khimera as they lead them to a market. Khimera does some quiet dealing with the merchants as the rest of the party see what is for sale. 
Bobby manages to find an interesting merchant, and buys a mechanical arm, though as he couldn't afford it properly he also is branded with a sigil for marketing purposes. 
Bat's finds a magic torch of good advice, and purchases it.

Whilst the party are dealing with the merchants Khimera does some kind of ritual, reforming the Primal of Life from the 5 pieces they had been torn into. 

Khimera then tries to use a mirror to leave the place, however Hugh needs to help before this seems to work. The barrier to get out seems very wide, but they eventually fight their way through.

===== Debrief =====

==== Outcomes ====
  * Bats
    * You have a piece of enamel taken from the tooth of a Dragon, a potent artefact component relating to the rite of Consumption. The item appears indivisible and it is unclear how it was separated from its place on a dragon's tooth.
    * You have a torch which burns with a (near) constant flame. It happily converses with you and provides you with advice. On occasion you notice that the voice seems to be missing from the flame, and once the flame even went out. Upon relighting the flame the voice seemed to be gone, but later reappeared, apparently none the wiser regarding the snuffing out of its fire. The flame can answer questions that the Post Office might reasonably know the answer to (whether it chooses to depends on whether your actions are likely to align with Post Office interests). You consider the flame to be your loyal subordinate. If it ever considers itself to be in danger it will vanish from torch never to return.
    * You gain the Most Wanted quirk for the following organisation (if you did not already have it from them):
      * The Acryn City Watch
      * The Brotherhood of the Closed Eye
      * The Acryn Coast Guard
      * The Acryn Navy
  * Selphina
    * You have been given a small marble which contains a substantial portion of space within it.
  * Bobby
    * Gain the [[:epic_trees#Mechanical_Transformation|Mechanical Transformation]] Epic Tree
    * You have had your desires cut out from you. However, new desires are starting to grow in their place.
    * You have the Sigil of the Merchant Prince carved upon your forehead.
    * You can see different varieties of magic as colours.
  * Hugh
    * You have a small orb which can (with 30 seconds work) be deployed into a large stone column. While in column form it cannot be moved via any means and allows you to call an ARC FEAR every 10 seconds (with your arms parallel). It takes a further 30 seconds to restore to orb form.

{{tag>"a shadowy figure" adventure bobby batts_marbeq selphina_reese hugh_branch}}