Session 10: The Memory Thieves

General Summary

I. A Week of Quiet

A week passes with no new clues to the nighttime memory eaters. Work on the combined bastion makes solid progress, and it earns its name — the Wyrm's Oven. The Claw settle into their new home with characteristic efficiency and chaos.

Nyxek's obsession with titles reaches new heights. Sire of 88 must be added, he declares, making VINyRVHO now officially VINyRVHOS8. Kal's dojo comes under the guidance of Jackstraw the Ratling, with Master Splinter overseeing the training floor. Tad's Shadow Archive is mostly still a chalk outline and ambition, but the dragonborn bard steward , Sora Ith Vales-Kaltorach, already has opinions about everything. Vutha swaps his training hall for a fighting pit and gaming hall. Nobody is surprised.

II. The Empty Messenger

The Claw awaken to find a strange kobold outside their door — alive, robed in Imperial Archive livery, and almost entirely absent. No thought passes behind its eyes. It clutches a message addressed to Vox Harmonic Octavius bearing an official Imperial seal. Nyxek and Tad examine the kobold and recognize the wounds immediately: a Nightveil Specter's work. Every memory consumed.

The message is an invitation to the Stack of 12 — the hidden archive — at the midnight hour, from the Archivist.

Nyxek declares it a trap and wants all evidence destroyed. Kal feeds the empty kobold to Bob the Crocodile. Then Nyxek pauses and asks whether anyone has a reason to actually attend. Vutha volunteers to go and eat any threats. Tad just wants to get into the library. Kal doesn't care but wants a pizza.

III. Seijuro Comes Calling

A knock at the door. Vox Empyreal Seijuro has come to see the Wyrm's Oven — and to conduct a small piece of business with Tad. He has brought the sigil of a white dragonborn, Dirrhaas Nyxekspawn, and a down payment for Tad's future corpse. Tad attempts to present himself as a specimen worthy of study. He rolls a six. Seijuro pays 60 gold anyway, perhaps out of sympathy, or perhaps because even a poor specimen of an extinct clan is still an extinct clan. Tad and Nyxek split the payment per their prior arrangement.

Seijuro overhears Nyxek's final appeal to the others about the midnight meeting and notes, almost casually, that he received one of those himself — a few months ago. Nyxek asks if it was a trap. Seijuro doesn't remember. He remembers planning to go, even preparing to leave — and then waking up in his bed. His memories of that night are simply gone.

He would pay handsomely to have them returned. He offers a bounty of 6,650 gold. Kal makes a successful deception roll and raises the price to 9,000 gold. Seijuro accepts. The Claw now has a reason to walk into the trap.

Nyxek, ever prepared, sits down and writes a complete record of everything that has happened — every name, every event, every faction move. If their memories are taken tonight, they will have something to come back to.

IV. Blood Between Us

One other piece of business remains. A blood-drenched blue scale arrives for Vutha. No note. He knows what it means.

He heads to the Vox Courtyard and challenges Raijin directly. Let the blood between us be spilled and finished. He puts up his hammer. Raijin puts up his Greataxe. The Vox appreciates an opponent who faces danger head-on, and agrees to a duel to the blood. Nyxek calls the start — and makes clear to Tad and Kal that there will be no interference, not even the stealthy kind.

The duel is not elegant. Vutha charges in with tooth, claw, and dragonborn fear, and while his terror is greater than Raijin expected, the Vox's mastery of himself lets him shake it off and swing back hard. Scales and armor strain and scrape through a grinding exchange where neither side pulls clearly ahead. Vutha draws first blood — barely, on the edge of inertia — and then almost doesn't notice he's done it. Nyxek calls the end. Vutha turns his head just in time before releasing a full gout of acid all over the arena floor.

Raijin acknowledges Vutha's strength. Vutha returns the praise and says plainly: their power would be greater in alliance than in adversity. Raijin nods. He considers.

V. Wyrm Grass

The traveling artificer pulls Kal aside. He has access to an extraordinary herb — Wyrm Grass, grown from the soil of the Imperial lands themselves. Wonderful flavor. And better still, it makes people hungrier after eating it, which is frankly ideal for a pizza operation. He wants to be Kal's exclusive supplier in exchange for access to free pizza. Kal negotiates him down to ten pizzas a month. The deal is struck. The artificer produces a card entitling Kal to eight free pizzas a month from his own kitchen, which is not quite the arrangement either of them discussed, but Kal accepts it anyway.

VI. The Stack of 12

That evening, the Claw makes their way to the Imperial Archives. A kobold guard demands their invitation. Nyxek produces it. They are led down — through the public stacks, past the administrative floors, into older and older corridors — until they reach the hidden archive. The Stack of 12.

It is extraordinary. Ancient books in Draconic and Giant line the shelves, covering the early history of the Empire before the raising of the Red Dome. The books of Giant runes detail the creation of the Boundary Monoliths. Nyxek, methodical as ever, has already begun writing things down before the interruption arrives.

A skeletal dragonborn descends from the upper shelves. The Archivist. It announces that it is enticed by the most interesting minds in the capital. Nyxek looks at his companions. He is not sure their minds are the most impressive parts of the Claw. The skeleton corrects him pleasantly: it didn't say impressive. It said interesting. It hasn't tasted their memories yet.

Then it attacks.

VII. The Fight in the Stacks

The Archivist is served by a Nightveil Specter and a cluster of Kobold Vampire Spawn with Tiro minions running interference. Kal drops a Fireball on Section III, burning through the kobold screen. Tad cleans up the rest with efficient and ruthless archery.

Then the Archivist and the Specter unleash a double psychic mind blast. The stunning wave takes Nyxek, Vutha, and Kal out of the fight simultaneously. Vutha claws back first — and the Archivist immediately traps him inside a Wall of Force, sealing him in a bubble of crackling energy. Vutha wants to spit acid everywhere. Nyxek, still staggered, warns him not to damage the books. This creates a moment of genuine internal conflict for Kal, who spits rather than breathes flame, which takes down several kobolds at the cost of his dignity.

Tad, watching his entire party stunned or caged, does what is necessary. He shoots Nyxek. It works.

The Vox Harmonic Octavius, Sire of 88, snaps back to full presence and channels the divine authority of the God-Emperor directly. The rebuke rolls out across the stacks. The Archivist recoils, losing concentration on the Wall of Force. The Specter staggers. The tide is turning.

We pause here. The fight is not finished. But the Archivist is no longer in control of the room.

VIII. Open Threads

• The Archivist and Nightveil Specter are rebuked but not destroyed — combat resumes Wednesday.
• Seijuro's stolen memories are somewhere in the Archivist's catalogue. Recovering them is worth 9,000 gold and an unknown amount of political goodwill.
• The shelves contain pre-Dome history and Giant rune records of the Boundary Monoliths' construction. The Claw has not had time to read any of it.
• Dirrhaas Nyxekspawn — the white dragonborn sigil Seijuro brought. Not yet explained or pursued.
• Raijin is considering Vutha's offer of alliance. He hasn't answered.
• Wyrm Grass makes people hungrier. It comes from Imperial soil. The artificer is very casual about this.
• Tad's steward — still no name. Still suspiciously competent.