The First Land Herald/437-08-17

Article Number: 50

Dateline: 437-08-17

LIGHTNING CREATURES STRIKE, NEW AREA OF ZENGMODALETH REVEALED Recently the air crackled with static, massive cubes of lightning spiraling off and rejoining each other across the sky. The storm fell first on the Crossing, unstable voltaic custodians leaping into existence with a loud snap. These strange creatures, walking on jagged stilts of electricity, appeared to be intricately constructed orichalcum coils, each suspended within a beryl-hued ball lightning. Transient, arcing "limbs" continuously sprouted or blew away as they seemed needed. When they fell, from their cores sometimes sprang lightning selreks: crackling masses of solidified power, bound into something like the shape of an androgynous, skeletally thin Elf with lurid carmine eyes and carrying blazing whips of electrical filaments. Other times, these selreks seemed to appear from condensed energies converging across the ground. They were all decidedly hostile. Blasts of prehensile electricity arced toward us in bursts from the custodians. The selreks roared with voices of thunder, sending storms of living, viperous lighting toward their targets. Perhaps most startling, several times I saw a selrek grow in size, and suddenly objects, debris, and people began to take flight! Many came careening into view from as much as a block away. My Warrior Mage allies made murmurs of Grounding Field, but I believe that I saw one selrek strip that ward away, too, as if knowing its own weakness. It was difficult to tell for certain in the chaos. Frustratingly, I found that my most powerful area spells did very little to them. It felt as though strange magnetic forces were somehow repelling the spells. Fortunately, my axe worked well enough. I did not have time to experiment much myself, but I was told that single target targeted magic spells tended to get through the magnetic force well enough. Once stilled, the custodians left behind bits of crystallized lightning, jagged stone fragments, and slagged ilmenite cores. Curiously, I saw some adventurers bending over them and harvesting what I can only describe as static fibers. After the fighting was finished, many adventurers paid a visit to Grove Scholar Uryutis in the Zengmodaleth, which can be accessed via a ring-shaped portal on the Handsome Plateau west of Therenborough. What follows is an account given to me by Miskton and Saragos, who attended. Of greatest note, it was apparent that there is a new orb within the Zengmodaleth, crackling with blue and green swirled lightning. When approached, it unfurls into a net of lightning that binds and transports the approacher at great speed along a seemingly endless column of blinding energy. Upon arrival, one sees what has been dubbed a plasma vortex caged by four large pylons, and across a precarious bridge, there is a building that contains voltaic custodians, who are apparently hard at work harvesting static fibers, overseeing furnaces, and otherwise tending to esoteric machinery. I encourage all readers to make a circuit of the place and see for yourselves, because words and images alone cannot do it justice. [Included is a series of sketches depicting the numerous curiosities and machines mentioned in the article, from a caged sphere lashing with lightning tendrils against four curved pylons, to a line of custodians dutifully attending to an intricate loom and an array of glowing furnaces, to shelves of perfect geometric forms bound in silvery fibers.] Uryutis had a number of enlightening comments to make, although, as is often the case with such new discoveries, adventurers left with more questions than answers. He spoke first of the Lord of the Void, Daervlan, the latest in the millennia-old line of elusive Elementalists who claim authority over Elemental magic and are thought to spend the majority of their time outside the Plane of Abiding. "It was not you lot who broke [this]... Daervlan has been working, and things have been breaking. I'm not privy to these conversations, but something is wrong with his domain... The custodians that tore their way across the lands just now were some kind of empowered variety. I am not sure if the selreks broke them further or used them for a ride. But this was a fairly large failure, which likely explains why so many worked through." "The custodians in the workshop are a more mundane variety. Not to be taken lightly, very capable workers, but not quite as unlimited." Of some note, they are also malfunctioning still, and quite hostile at the moment. Uryutis described their malfunctioning as being very strange, too. "It's a bit like picking up a pair of tongs and finding they're now a crossbow, but the crossbow doesn't fire, it actually bakes bread." He added, "I do not know what they were making before those custodians were tasked with whatever it is they're doing in that workshop. I imagine there are custodians elsewhere that are working fine, and others that have failed even worse." Thanks to the astute questioning of the adventurers present, Uryutis expanded on the nature of both the custodians and the selreks. It seems the selreks have life essence, while the custodians do not. "They are alive in their own way. It is somewhat complicated, I admit. I have not studied it at length myself as forms of Elemental life are not my specialty." In addition, it appears that the custodians were in the Plane long before Daervlan or any Lord of the Void. "The workshops have changed, the projects tweaked. Each Lord of the Void has their own obsessions. But the custodians were here before they were." He clarified that though the custodians predate Daervlan, they do answer to him, and, for example, are likely taking the electroweave cloth — the product of weaving those static fibers in a great loom — to a place that Daervlan decreed. "One theory is the goals of the custodians and the goals of the Lord of the Void align. Another is that the Lord of the Void knows how to control them, though that might not be entirely accurate." The consciousness of the custodians is, Uryutis said, "Topic of much debate. They're advanced. Very advanced. I don't think they're conscious, but it can be difficult to pin down exactly how they're not. And I certainly wouldn't call them inferior." "One thing I want to emphasize is that Daervlan has allowed access to that space for a reason... [He] wants you to see and understand something. I would consider this an ongoing test. I truly do not believe Daervlan to be a malicious man, and I hold his motives to be good. But he is tasked with something far greater than any of us can understand... The workshop only has lesser custodians. I know there are more things here. But for now, this is what Daervlan wants you to see." Finally, I would like to share with you a vision that was brought up to me by both Miskton and Saragos, which seems to clearly relate to the current situation. As written by the visionist: "My mouth fills with the taste of copper, and I see a tall figure bent over a metallic table fiddling with a sphere composed of interlocking components. Hands held slightly apart, the figure seems to concentrate on the sphere, and with a faint crackle, energies coursing along the various parts, the sphere rises. Spinning rapidly, the sphere all but disappears in a haze of streamer discharge, and the figure nods in approval. Suddenly, a loud *ping!* comes from the sphere, and it begins to shed components in all directions. The figure calmly waves a hand, erecting a shimmering barrier enclosure that flares as it catches each rapidly flung piece. As the figure stands and turns to walk away from the still catastrophically disassembling sphere, I catch a glimpse of his face, his lips and fists clenched in frustration, and the vision fades." All pieces of a puzzle, it seems, one charged to us by a most mysterious and absent Lord. Will it spark the interest of the people? Will we even discover what the current test is, exactly, or remain confused? What other shocking discoveries might we make along the way, and what resistance might we meet? One thing I am positive of: Those of us with Elemental interest will put the collective power of our minds to this task. My skin tingles with anticipation. Stay grounded, Navesi Daerthon True Bard, Zoluren's Herald Editor in Chief of the First Land Herald

Real Date: Unknown Date

Subject(s): Daervlan Electroweave Handsome Plateau Ilmenite Lesser Voltaic Custodian Lightning Selrek Plane of Abiding Uryutis Zengmodaleth

Author(s): Navesi