Adventures in Velhexica

It’s Hallowthorn, Spirits passing and Spirits return is around the corner.

This means a lot of things. Like soon all the candy given to kids during spirits return will be on mundo discount.

Don’t ask me why but candy miniatures always tasted better than the full sized. You also never notice how much of it you eat until it’s too late.

Anyway, another tradition of this spirited time of year is scary movies and the hunt for ghosts, spirits, or other unexplained phenomenon.

I’m not a big fan of horror movies as they usually kind of get your hopes up regarding what dealing with a haunting is like. Besides it gives me anxiety which makes these hunts really hard.

Look, first thing about any sort of paranormal hunt, just like dungeon delving, fear gets the best of you. Makes you think you see things that aren’t there. It clouds your judgement.

Right, let’s start from the beginning, be a little professional.

So you’re an adventurer and you want to do something a little more spooky. You’ve faced phantoms, smashed shades, defeated various spooks that appear in dungeons. Now, well now you’re looking for something that isn’t thoroughly understood.

I mean to say Overworld hauntings. Real dead ghosts of actual deceased people. Where you visit a place that has reports of hauntings and....well you see what you can capture.

So most ghost hunting sessions have three stages.

1) Preparation

2) Hunting

3) Breakdown and review for evidence.

1.Preparation:

So this is the part that’s really important, first things first. You want to make sure you have permission to ghost hunt in the area. Look, some people are superstitious and think it’s a bad idea to interfere with the domain of spirits. So it’s better for everyone and yourself to get permission first. Especially since dealing with Guild representatives for trespassing charges is a real pain. 

Second is getting a tour of the place and hearing some of the reported activity. This is to give you an idea of the layout and where the best spots to set up equipment.

Then it’s time to set up your equipment, set up cameras in strategic points. This is also the point where a talented mage can start setting up magical paranormal hunting aids.

So magical research into ghost hunting is really theoretical. But we’ve found that abnormal aetheric signatures can affect people psychologically. So one thing that can be done is using a aetheric stabilization array to force the ambient aether into a neutral state. It can still be tampered with, but you have to mean for it to happen. This is also the point where you might want to have your aetheric aura dampened. Just to prevent false positives.

Anyway other tools include the EMAF Reader (Electro Magnetic Aetheric Field) which reads both EMF’s and Aetheric fields, Voice recorders, cameras, flashlights, the spirit box, and a few other things just in case.

2. Hunting.

So this is where the fun begins. The lights are out and you begin the hunt for ghosts. You and your group do sweeps. My adivce is that each sweep should go a different direction so as to not get interference on the spirit box. If at any point though you get a weird ping on your adventurers charm, it’s time to quickly pack up because obviously what you’re investigating isn’t a haunting....but something a bit more dangerous. I’ll explain in a later section. Anyway you hunt for ghosts, using the tools at your disposal. Try to see if you can convince some activity.

3. Breakdown and review of evidence.

At the end of the night, eventually you have to clean up and head off to review what you may have found if anything. Sometimes the only thing haunting a place is actually the plumbing. Do note to share with the individual who allowed you to ghost on their property any evidence you may have found.

Tips:

1. If you get weird pings on your adventures charm, that could possibly mean the area isn’t so much haunted than suffering from a rare phenomenon known as an inverse dungeon. These things happen, but it does kill the fun of a hunt as you need to get rid of it and it may involve a bit more collateral damage.

2. If you start to feel ill, do not force yourself. A hunt is harder to do if you’re not feeling right and may lead to stress and further injury.

3. Being touched by something unknown but can potentially have severe effects. I’ve personally have had no incidents with it.

4. Paranormal research is a often looked down upon field of study as most would assume hauntings as mere glamour spells or some other type of magical trickery. However I feel it’s an important line of research.

Log 2: After the mishap of Dr. Kaiz and myself with the plans to destroy the FoC using Dimythrite lasers, we did a bit more research into how the FoC works.

We already know that the blade twists magic beyond recognition. We know it does this using the abyssal and astral gems inside of it. We also know that it can also twist other energy forms. Including energy from a Dimythrite laser.

We also know that the world itself is made primarily of energy. Sub Aetheric  particles comprise into vibrating Aetheric spheres which comprise the molecules we know everything is made of.

The blade can alter the state of aetheric flow thus changing the composition and basic chemistry of an object or in most cases the flow of energy. This is theoretically how the previous dark lords made Orks and Zhou. Taking and changing the aetheric composition of other things and twisting them.

To summarize, as Dr. Kaiz put it, the users used the blade to curse others into different shapes by twisting their aetheric composition. However without a Dark Lord to control it it’s like stopping a powertool that’s on high power. Though this does leave the quandary of how is it still going without a user.

We’re going to dig a little bit further. There has to be a way to destroy the FoC. Or at the very least, perhaps alter it into something beneficial.

Log 1: Dr. Selme, a researcher from the Empire, and I have been studying the Fang of Calamity using spectrometers. It required us to take the lab to it since the blade will not lend even a single piece of itself to us. We followed all safety precautions when running tests.

We found, primarily that it was composed of Elbar steel. Elbar steel was a metal alloy created by ancient Elves before they were turned mortal. It’s light, strong, and magically conductive. The carbon is provided by the Elbar trees that ancient elves so revered.Those trees though no longer exist.

We also found trace amounts of other minerals, ones we couldn’t identify at first until we did an ambient magic field test. We place the sword in a neutral magical field. Like putting it in a bucket of water and with special goggles watch how the sword interacts with the field.

It’s common knowledge that the FoC (Fang of Calamity abbreviated) causes corruption. Corruption is a form of magical rot that can affect numerous things, it’s especially destructive on living things. Can cause psychosis, mania, paranoid delusions, hallucinations, headaches, coughs, acute bronchitis, clogged gills, mange, aches, and eventual mutation of those afflicted. Corruption usually takes the form of a black tarry slime, it can also take the form of a miasma.

We discovered though how the sword causes corruption by twisting magic around it. The ambient magic was pulled in and twisted over and over again, switching from astral to normal to abyssal and back around. Both clockwise and counterclockwise then each of these currents overlapping each other into knots of magic that tighten, tear, and twist some more.

It’s through this that we discovered that the other materials comprising the blade are Astral and Abyssal Stones. These stones can change the nature and flow magic from orderly rigid astral to chaotic flowing abyssal. This also gives us our first insights into how we can potentially destroy the blade.

SInce the blade acts upon twisting magic into a mass of corruption, perhaps by hitting it with a strong form of anti-magic will disrupt the twisting and turn it inert. The Ertika Empire is known for the use of dimythrite beam emitters which neutralizes magical fields.

However these plans fell through pretty hard. We fired two beams at the FoC from opposite sides.What we though would happen and what actually happened were vastly different. Almost as if the blade was sentient of our intents, the beams twisted around the blade before firing them back.

Not only did it cause massive damage to the magical wards that bound it, it also caused numerous casualties from individuals that were struck with this altered beams of anti-magic.

To describe what happened in brief, the sword showed that anti-magic is still magic and that it can be corrupted and by extension corrupt people through it.

Thank the saints that Dr. Selme and I only suffered minor injuries caused by the dimythrite beam emitters getting destroyed. The corrupted soldiers have already been dispatched and the FoC recontained. We’ll take better care from now to avoid rushing to potential solutions to our problems.

Velhexican Meme:

There’s nothing Adventurers hate more than mimics. You get cursed, blasted, bit, poisoned by these bastards hiding in boxes. Even worse is sometimes they lock themselves to masquerade as treasure chests more. It’s frustrating!

Log 0: Due to the shared concern regarding further rising of Dark Lords as well as mutual distrust in each other, Military from both the Allied Kingdoms and the Ertika Empire have set up an outpost in the depths of the Relthom Mountain Range. This outpost is for the confinement and potential destruction of the Fang of Calamity. The Fang of Calamity is an ornate greatsword built by the immortal Elf King during the warring era some 20,000 years ago, the elf king later becoming the first Dark Lord.

Despite the age of the blade, it has retained its sharpness cutting even through steel. Note, though that it is forbidden to wield the fang by hand. The reasons being that anyone tries to wield the fang will inevitably be corrupted by it. Even individuals with before believed pure hearts become corrupted by the powers of the Fang.

It is because of how dangerous this item is that both the Allied Kingdoms and the Ertika Empire have agreed on a joint custody and attempts at disposal of the fang. It is the only way we can hope to prevent the coming of a fourth Dark Lord.

When attempts at destruction are not being made, The Fang is to remain in the center of no less than three triguard seals. Meanwhile at least 100 feet away from the sword, guards should stand ready to shoot anything or anyone that tries to claim the blade. Once a month the seals should be remade with a rotating staff to prevent slow corruption from the blade.

Safety procedures regarding guarding the Fang of Calamity and what to do in the case of a Dark Lord event are to be reviewed once a week from the Relthom Outpost Duties Manual.

Why did I make this? So I had a place where I could ramble on about ideas for Adventures In Velhexica or vent my anxieties about the project.

What is Adventures In Velhexica? A tabletop RPG I’m making from scratch.

Oh, what can you tell us about it? Adventures in Velhexica (AIV for short.) is a modern fantasy style RPG set in the world of Velhexica, a world of randomly spawning dungeons, fierce monsters, political intrigue, intense studies of magic and dungeon artifacts, famous tourist spots, and even more famous roadside diners.

Wait......roadside diners? Yeah, it’s a modern fantasy world. You don’t think someone wouldn’t set up a few chain restaurants along a main travel route to get the patronage of the stray adventuring party? Adventurers gotta eat too and there’s only so much foraged food one can handle before you’re craving a nice slice of pizza from Pizza Quest.

How big is Velhexica? Infinite. There’s the known world and then there’s what lays beyond the Veil of Mysterion.The known world so far is about 2 times the surface area of earth. Past the Veli is unknown, scrying and drones don’t work and people fear it because well there could be a cliff there and you wouldn’t know it because the veil is so thick and only clears when someone passes through it.