In good spirits and with their pockets a little heavier, Thora and the gang took to the streets of Embassy to explore the city and visit the local shops. Duanne, in particular, had been looking for a way to remove the curse from the strange club they had found on the way to Pitted Dusk. Ever since they had found it the tortle had been excited to replace his simple wooden pegleg with this magical one and the wizard was certain that someone in Embassy *must* have the skill to do so.

Thora went along for the excursion, even though the dwarf had no interest in going through the shops today. Thora had been distracted during their wandering of the streets with the thoughts about the elemental from the day before. The soldier kept coming back to something that Professor Manfred had said about the elements in Rhime. Somehow, the major elements were tied into everything that was alive. The elementals, though, weren’t from here. So how did that happen? What was causing them to cross over to this realm? Or had they been pulled here by whatever had caused what was happening inside each of them?

The dwarf was no scientist, not bright enough to fully dig into the topic, but Thora’s beka had not raised a fool. The man at the Telescoparium in Pitted Dusk had mentioned a celestial alignment that hadn’t been seen in some 300 years and the superstitious part of Thora didn’t like the omen that might portend. But in a place like Embassy, with all their science and advancement, surely they must have records or insights into whatever happened back then? There must be some way to know what was coming.

The soldier’s thoughts were interrupted as Alandal’s claw grasped onto Thora’s shoulder, halting their walk, and directing them toward a large throng of individuals gathered in front of a pyramid. Some sort of game had been set up and the barker at the front was calling forth any passersby to take their shot at the challenge. Intrigued, the foursome entered the line and watched the contestants before them. At the back, it was difficult to make out what was happening, but there were several frustrated shouts and grunts as the challengers attempted to pry something off the surface. As they got closer, they realized that a puzzle of gems had been placed into the surface of the pyramid.

“Step right up and solve the mystery of the pyramid!” yelled the barker, beckoning others forward. “If you can open this magnificent puzzle, a great prize awaits you! One gold piece will get you one minute with the pyramid, but know this: none have yet solved this riddle!”

Duanne smirked, at least Thora believed that was what the tortle was doing. Always hard to tell with him! The wizard had both magic and smarts on his side, something most of the other contestants wouldn’t have. While those in front of him pried at rocks with daggers or attempted to push the jewels into the surface, Duanne prepared himself for his arcane tricks. He was confident as he approached the pyramid, but intelligent enough to study the puzzle quickly before making any sudden mistakes. Certainly his magics could find a way around this puzzle.

The sound of a frustrated tortle wizard reminded Thora of the time the soldier had encountered a nest of piercers back home. It set the dwarf on edge, raising Thora’s blood pressure needlessly. Duanne had not fared quite as expected, but not for lack of trying! The others would have to hope to do better. Unfortunately, Zearach did no better, but at each attempt the adventurers tried to goad the barker into revealing his secret. It wasn’t working, but Alandal was paying very close attention, coming up at the rear. If they could get enough pieces of information, Alandal might be able to swing in and save the day.

When it came time for Thora to step up, they had already learned that there were no obvious places to pry open, no mechanical hinges that could be reached, and pressing the gems didn’t seem to do anything. The dwarf’s skills at infiltration would be useless here. But perhaps a little bravado could throw the games master off and reveal a hint?

“Aaaah, let’s see what a dwarf can do!” Thora stated, rolling in with confidence. A single gem suddenly lit up, responding to the dwarf’s words. The soldier gasped in surprise, the look on Thora’s face matching the barker’s as both stared at the gem before it went out. Perhaps it responded to sound? Or perhaps to the dwarf themselves?

The soldier stood firmly, Thora’s stone-gravelled voice stating the dwarven word “Aarak” loudly and clearly, attempting to use the dwarven language to command it to open. Two gems lit up this time!

Thora knew that time was of the essence, they needed to figure out as many clues as possible before Alandal stepped up. Perhaps it was not the word itself but one of the vowels from the Common tongue? Thora noticed there were five gems and they seemed to be responding to different tones in the word that would have vowel sounds. Rapidly running through the vowels in a lilting sing-song voice remembered from childhood lessons on the Common tongue, Thora was able to get four of the stones to light up!

The barker looked scared. He was panicking and waving at the crowd before him.

“Okay, that’s one minute, you’re all done now! Last contestant, please step up!”

Thora tossed the barker a raised eyebrow as the dwarf side-stepped out of the way to allow the dragonborn bard to step up. Had it been a minute? Really? Or was the games master simply worried they were too close?

It didn’t matter, though, because as Alandal stepped up to the puzzle he immediately started noticing the pattern. The dragonborn’s humming grew louder as he mimicked some of the tones that Thora had used, all while raising and lowering a claw. He could see something that Thora couldn’t, something in the way the gems were placed into the stone meant something to the bard. Alandal’s reptilian maw opened, releasing a beautiful melody that rose up, then fell, then rose to a final higher note that the bard held. With each note that the bard sang, one of the gems came to life, responding to the lilting melody and finally releasing its mystery! The pyramid wall slid aside, revealing a large orb in the center of the pyramid, floating in the air. Alandal had done it! It was music!

Alandal picked up the orb, happily claiming his prize, and turned to thank the now-flustered barker. His business had been ruined in just a few minutes and now he would have to build an entirely new puzzle to capture the imagination. Thora felt a little bad for the businessman, but not enough to really try to help. The dwarf clapped the bard on the back, congratulating Alandal on his achievement. What magic powers lay in this orb? They would need to find out!

But first, there was a scientist to visit.

What a lovely boardroom

While the distraction at the pyramid had been amusing, and the magic orb they had acquired was no doubt valuable, Thora really wanted to find out more about the history of the celestial alignment that had been mentioned. A few days ago, when they had met Professor Manfred for the first time, he had taken them to the Sciences Annex of Embassy, a place where a lot of elemental research was being done into new technology and advancements. If there was anywhere that would have information on astronomical history, it had to be there!

However, upon arriving to meet with Manfred, the professor seemed to have other business for them. They were ushered into a room with a long table and invited to sit down. Thora remained standing, not certain what was going on. The room seemed so sterile, with a large pane of glass mounted upon one wall, but it offered no view to the outside. It was simply dark, as if it was a window into the very night sky.

Thora was just about to ask what was going on when a crackling sound filled the room and a bright flash of light erupted from the glass pane. A face appeared, a human woman by all appearances, dressed in a white lab coat. Thora looked around the room, noticing the surprised glances on the others. Some sort of magic scrying pool?

“A pleasure to meet you all, my name is Doctor Jenetta DeVries” the apparition spoke, the sound of her voice somehow echoing through the room. “Welcome to Embassy and thank you for all the help you’ve given already.”

Thora wasn’t sure how the magic was done, but Professor Manfred seemed to be speaking into the window and the doctor on the other side was able to hear. A sort of sending stone, perhaps? Thora had heard of these magics, but never seen them combined in this way.

“We here in the Enkyrian Empire have been advancing ourselves for centuries” continued the doctor, showing some images of their people. “Now it is time for us to share with the rest of Rhime. We have reached the pinnacle of satisfaction, we have rid ourselves of poverty. There are no wars, no want, no social inequality, but we have hoarded this prosperity. We have not allowed others into our Empire, for fear that they might try to take from us or disturb our hard-won peace. Recently, an intellectual movement has been pushing for us to spread our ways to others. Everybody can benefit from the processes and ideals we have built, others could build a society like ours. We want to rid all of Rhime of the chaotic state of the elements, show how you can grow your food year-round. We want your artistic desires fulfilled!”

It sounded a little too good to be true. Thora had read a lot from beka’s library and seen the stories of deceivers bringing gifts. Altruism might be a trait that popped up from time to time, but something this good tended to have strings attached. The soldier wasn’t buying it.

“However, there is a resistance group that pushes back against us. Terrorists. They used to hold power and wanted to hoard all of the Enkyrian Empire’s riches and advantages for themselves! They are working to stop the expansion, using violence to stop us from sharing this boon with others.”

Thora raised an eyebrow at this part. The doctor seemed to be getting a little heated over this, though she kept a measured tone. Perhaps there was more to this political history?

“We will not be stopped” continued the face on the glass pane, her voice firm and resolute. “The world CAN be a peaceful place. Professor Manfred filled me in on the details of the work you’ve done and I believe you may be exactly the help we need to stop these terrorists and gather the destructive magical artifacts that have spread throughout this realm.”

The doctor began to get very technical as she spoke about the power they were pulling from the elemental planes. In the next few months, the celestial alignment they had heard of would cause the planes to be in flux, affecting the ley lines of this world. Somehow, these Enkyrians believed that they could potentially use small foci on the ley lines, almost like a lens, which might allow for a permanent energy transfer between the planes. At this point, Thora had lost the ability to keep up with this. Hopefully one of the others like Duanne was following along enough to understand the intricacies of this magic, because it was beyond the soldier’s comfort level. It didn’t sound good, Thora knew that.

As the doctor said goodbye, the strange viewing window went dark, leaving them alone in the boardroom.

“Please, follow me” said Professor Manfred, gesturing towards the hallway. “There is much to show you.”

They were led down a long hall to a secure door which required a special pass code to enter. On the other side was an impossible sight. Within a single room were four powerful elementals – earth, air, fire, and water – all of them somehow trapped in containment areas. Much like what they had seen with the elemental undead in the basement of the hotel, the scientists here were keeping them against their will, doing unknown things to them.

Alandal seemed to be questioning the professor about the nature of the containments and whether the elementals would be freed. The tortle wizard, on the other hand, seemed to be growling and gurgling in some language that the dwarf didn’t understand. However, it seemed the trapped elementals had no such problem and were responding in kind. Thora never had a good handle on reading Duanne’s features and in this case it seemed the tortle was keeping his gems tucked deep in his shell, to borrow an old dwarven phrase.

As the others spoke, Thora wandered further into the containment room, gazing at the powerful earth elemental that stood solemnly, looking out at its captors without making a noise. Was there truly a part of this magnificent creature somewhere deep inside the dwarf? Would this be like an ancestor to Thora?

The entire room suddenly shook, the lights flickering and alarms sounding as an explosion rocked the building. What was that?

The intruders

As they rushed back into the hallway, the sounds of shouting and running feet could be heard from the other side of the floor. Zearach immediately slipped forward noiselessly, his light elven step allowing him move without being noticed. His bow at the ready, the elf provided the cover and waved Alandal forward who moved to the hall as the others waited for his signal. Stepping carefully into the hall, the dragonborn bard looked back and forth, his head cocked as he listened. With no immediate attackers in sight, the bard gestured back down the hall, urging the others to move forward.

Rushing down the hallway, Duanne and Thora led Professor Manfred along. Throwing open a door and finding a lavatory, Duanne gestured inside and Thora helped the professor towards the relative safety of the enclosed room.

“Stay here, professor, while we check on this” instructed the dwarf. “It will be safer here. Is there another way into your office?”

“There’s a decontamination hallway, down the hall to the left” replied the worried scientist. “But it comes out right by the same entrance, there’s no back door.”

Thora nodded in thanks before slamming the door closed on the professor. Hopefully Manfred would remember enough to lock it from the inside. When the dwarf turned to follow the others, Duanne had already rushed down the hall and turned the corner. Thora could hear shouting coming from the professor’s office, followed by a strange whooshing noise. Thora could already see Zearach and Alandal starting to rush forward to help Duanne who seemed to have charged straight into a firefight.

Moving as quickly as possible, Thora followed the professor’s instructions, veering to the left at the hallway and finding the alternate entrance. Drawing both swords, the soldier slid up towards the door, listening for a moment to find out what was happening on the other side. There would be only one shot at this… Thora closed both eyes, exhaled, and then burst through the doors with both blades swinging through the air.

The scene before the soldier was absolute chaos. Figures dressed in some sort of terrifying full body armour gleamed in the flickering lights of the office. Fire and ice erupted from tubes in their hands while arrows flew in return from across the room as Thora’s companions opened fire. To Thora’s left, Duanne was sliding across a desk, trying to get past the strangely armoured troopers. There was no time to pause and adjust, the dwarf had to keep moving.

The first trooper never saw Thora coming, so focused was he on the dwarf’s companions by the doorway. The flame of Thora’s sword dug deep into the trooper’s flank, sliding between overlapping plates, but Thora refused to stop moving. The dwarf followed the motion of the sword, spinning around the trooper to reach another figure behind. A small push off into the air allowed the dwarf to get some height and slam Thora’s other blade into a second nearby trooper. As Thora drew both blades back out and took a defensive stance, preparing for a counter, the dwarf could tell that both troopers had been hurt badly. The element of surprise was lost, but that should get their attention!

Sure enough, both troopers focused their attention on Thora, realizing a new threat had arrived. Duanne took advantage, slipping into the back room and confronting the rest of the terrorists who were doing something with the machines in the back. Thora couldn’t make out exactly what was being said, but what the dwarf had overheard didn’t sound good. Thora needed to pay more attention to the threat immediately before them. The shock troopers were trying to close in and flank, strange batons held in their hands that crackled with some sort of energy. Surrounded, Thora attempted to hold them off, but just as one was blocked the other would drive the baton in, causing rippling pain to course through the dwarf. Thora needed to hold the ground, at least for a moment… help was on the way.

Spotting the elf and dragonborn attempting to sneak up from behind, Thora swung wildly, trying to maintain attention. Both blades drove outwards, one in each direction. Thora spun again and again, trying to bring destruction down upon these metal-clad threats, fighting both at the same time. One of them fell, but there still remained one nearby and another that was moving to box Thora in. Alandal’s quiet approach paid off as the bard skewered one of the troopers, sending him to the ground in a clanking pile. Two down!

With the situation under control, Thora nodded to Zearach and left the elf and dragonborn to finish things off here. The dwarf raced as quickly as possible to make sure Duanne was okay! As Thora rounded the corner to the back area, the soldier’s senses were assaulted with the acrid smell of smoke and flame. Half of the outer wall of the building was crumbled to rubble on the floor, small flames still licking away at parts of the debris from the explosion. Smoke and dust filled the air, choking the dwarf’s lungs. Scanning the room, Thora noticed a roughly tortle-shaped silhouette that was facing towards the outer wall and doing roughly Duanne-like wizard things with his claws. Looking to the direction the wizard was facing, Thora could barely make out two shapes struggling across the debris as they attempted to flee.

The dwarf charged forward, deftly dodging through falling tiles from the ceiling and ducking under hanging beams dislodged by the blast. As Thora closed the distance to block their escape the dwarf realized that they were not dressed as warriors and seemed unarmed. They looked more like engineers or technicians than soldiers. Without saying a word, the dwarf moved in their way, turned to face them, and raised both blades menacingly. They weren’t going anywhere!

Wait… what was that beeping sound?

At the same moment that Thora had noticed, it seemed one of the fleeing engineers had as well. A floating device of some kind was approaching them in the smoke, emitting a regular beep that seemed to be increasing in frequency. The technician was struggling with it, trying to wrestle it to the ground, but the beeping was getting faster too quickly. This wasn’t going to end…

Boom!

Thora was sent flying backward, crashing into the debris of the outer wall of the room. Everything hurt. A large chunk of metal was embedded in Thora’s left thigh, making it nearly impossible to move without immense pain. The room was spinning and it was so hard to see. There were shouts of concern from the other room, but Thora couldn’t focus on it to figure out what they were saying. Pushing off the ground, the soldier struggled to get up, swaying a little as the dwarf recovered from the blast. Nearby, what remained of the technicians lay still on the ground, staring dead-eyed at the ceiling. The dwarf took one step, then another, the pain slowly becoming just yet another sensory input being pushed aside as the soldier focused on what needed to be done. Shouting was still happening from the other room, mostly the voice of the professor.

“YOU MUST CHOOSE ONE!” was the shout that came through to Thora’s ears.

Choose one what? Thora was confused. The dwarf could hear other voices talking, discussing the options they had. As Thora rounded the corner to rejoin the others in the office, the soldier noticed the professor working at some sort of mechanical device, pressing knobs and buttons that must control some other part of the lab.

“The Earth Elemental” came Alandal’s even voice. “Let’s free that one, it’s the most calm.”

They were going to do what with the who now? Thora looked to the others for an explanation, but they were already moving towards the hallway. Staring down at the large chunk of metal still sticking out of the left thigh, the dwarf grimaced and ripped it out. Blood started flowing, but at least the worst of the pain was gone… for now. Thora just needed a moment to catch a breath before whatever calamity was about to happen next.

How could it possibly be worse than being blown up?

Credits

• Cover image: “Shock Trooper”, by John Richardson, generated using NightCafe. Composite work by Jason St-Cyr using a steampunk office background generated using NightCafe.