The First Land Herald/446-06-18

Article Number: 78

Dateline: 446-06-18

MECHANICAL COLOSSUS RAMPAGES THROUGH THE CROSSING Recently, Saragos and I hosted a lecture on "The Problem of the Custodians," during which we were attempting to outline the issues we and other researchers have discovered in the Plane of Electricity. Particularly, we discussed the serious malfunctioning of the constructs known as voltaic custodians: balls of lightning wrapped about orichalcum coils, which locomote on numerous branching "limbs" of electricity and tend to the structure and mechanics of the aforementioned Plane. Worryingly, Moon Mage visions predicted these constructs were building a mechanical being of immense proportions. I'll spare you the lecture details, though do reach out if you have an interest, but bring it up only to reveal that the very subjects of our lecture appeared at that exact moment in a most violent manner. We suddenly felt our mouths fill with an intensifying taste of copper, and the air felt charged, seeming to crackle with electricity. Grove Scholar Uryutis stared to the north with bizarre intensity, perhaps using Othersight. He quickly grew wide-eyed with surprise and worry, then ran out, reporting to us via the gweth, "Stars above, they've slipped another restraint and sent something. It approaches from the northern trade route! Guard the northeast gate!" Saragos made it to the gate in time, and he reported to me that he saw none other than an impossibly large, metallic colossus leap high into the air, clearing the northern walls of the Crossing and soaring deep into the city! The ground rumbled with its heavy landing. [A sketch is included of the colossus as it towers over the buildings of the Crossing, its form bristling with metallic rods that dance with electrical current. Sheets of a black alloy overlap to form impenetrable armor, intricately shaped and welded to provide protection. Bearing a curiously passive face, the Colossus stares at its surroundings through burning and crackling eyes, which a tiny notation indicates are "deep green lightning."] He immediately ran after it, discovering it on Magen Road, limping on a damaged leg. Shortly after, surrounding the colossus, a swarm of new voltaic custodians that I can only describe as "warforged" leapt into being with a loud snap. They appeared to spin as they gathered power, and they unleashed multiple blasts of electricity at once at their targets, much like the Gar Zeng spell, though the blasts seemed eerily prehensile. They are also known to cast Tingle. I saw a small number of lightning selreks as well, one of which sprang, as seen before, from the inanimate, ruined coil of a felled custodian. As reported previously (see FLH 437-08-17), I also once witnessed a selrek grow in size and stature, fuzzing in and out of existence as it swelled. Clouds of dust became whisked along myriad converging lines of unseen force, into perfectly ordered loops extending from the selrek. In rapid succession, objects, debris, and people took flight around it, each flung up to a block away. The colossus itself was not inactive, pounding the ground to shake the area and even kicking hapless victims. Kethrai was one such victim, telling me, "It was damaged when it landed, and I was pretty sure I saw a way to climb up its leg and get inside. I guess it didn't like me getting fresh, because it booted me right in the chest. Joke's on the colossus though, that just put its foot in reach." Quickly adventurers realized that the damaged leg of the colossus bore an opening to its insides, and many climbed the leg to reach the interior. Due to the immense size of the construct, it was easy to pass through the various parts of its insides, including ankle, leg, torso, shoulders, arms, "hands," and head. I say "hands" because these areas terminated instead in deadly tools: a huge lightning hammer and a bay full of inert custodians, sliding doors ready to open presumably to dump them into our fair streets. Many of the internal areas contained contraptions clearly useful either to the functioning of the colossus or its weaponry, so it was no surprise that everyone set about disabling these as best they could. Eventually, Uryutis cried out to us via gweth, "The defenses are disabled, destroy the nexus in the head!" At this point, I saw that the way to the head was clear, and I ascended to find a huge plasma vortex: a caged sphere of rapidly spinning purple, screeching as it lashed against two curved pylons. Thunder rattled the area as jagged bolts of filamentous lightning unfurled from the vortex. We pushed and pulled at the containment pylons, debris growing hot and erupting in a haze of electricity as we worked, the vortex shedding sparks. Occasionally, a massive arc of electricity would rip into a pylon and surge into the walls, leaving a jagged pattern of glowing metal that briefly shed heat and flakes of hammerscale. Eventually, Dantia made the final blow against one of the pylons, raking debris across it until it destabilized and began to melt. The plasma vortex spun faster, an oval, then a disc, and began to crackle with uncontained energies, slagging the other pylon in the process. Uryutis urged us, "The containment pylons have been destroyed, the nexus is destabilizing! Get out, get out NOW!" We rushed back down, tearing through the various control and storage areas to find the breach in the thigh where we had entered. Once safely outside and at ground level, we witnessed the death of the colossus from a safe distance. Flashes of light grew brighter and brighter, rapidly spinning within the colossus and blazing outward like a strange lighthouse. Its head and neck began to glow a dull red, a deafening screen erupting from it, red growing brighter as blinding light ripped from the faceplate and shone brilliantly through gaps in the neck. A dull thump of displaced air resounded from the colossus, and in an instant the blinding display terminated, leaving bizarre afterglows in my vision and a ringing in my ears. All was strangely silent and still. Then, with a deafening roar, a disk of purple energy lanced outward from the colossus's head, an expanding ring of crackling energy billowing with no-color plumes and whorls. The ring arced upward, forming a sphere of blinding light that coalesced into a point high above the colossus, and a massive bolt of lightning erupted upward, branching high into the sky and freezing in place. The colossus glowed white hot and began to blur upward, its form liquefying and lifting into the frozen lightning bolt above. After a moment, it had vanished! What a spectacular display. There would be no harvesting of titanium and cambrinth from the massive being, no months of dismantling. It was gone in an instant, teleported as if by Lunar magic, only instead it was clearly lightning. I do not yet know what to make of that, dear reader. Of course, the appearance of this extremely dangerous construct only strengthens my resolve to continue to research Planar mechanics and the workings of the custodians. We must find a way to stop this. We must right whatever is wrong in the Plane of Electricity. I believe Daervlan, and now the world, are counting on us. By the light of discovery shall we prevail. Navesi Daerthon True Bard, Zoluren's Herald Editor in Chief of the First Land Herald

Real Date: Unknown Date

Subject(s): Cambrinth Crossing Daervlan Elanthia Gar Zeng Gwethdesuan Lesser voltaic custodian Lightning selrek Lunar magic Moon Mage Northern Trade Route Orichalcum Plane of Electricity Planes Tingle Uryutis Zengmodaleth

Author(s): Navesi