I am Veritas; a Knowledgeable Nano who Shares Stories. I am sending you this Postcard from the Ninth World.
We had made our way across the plains of The Steadfast to the Wyr River and were following the road which runs along its shore towards Qi. As the sun was setting we found ourselves near a town simply named “River Market”.
River Market had a few dozen homes and an assortment of inns, merchants, and vendors who supported the travelers along the road, but their main source of revenue was their bi-monthly markets. The area around their walls was a flat plain, trampled down by the hundreds of farmers, miners, and artisans who would descend on the village every two months to sell their wares to each other and to merchants who had traveled from far-away cities.
Part of their success was due to their “ferry”, a large piece of synth embedded with complex golden wiring that floated a few inches above the water, but which would lightly ground itself on the shore. As many people or carts as could fit on it could get on board, and a light push would cause it to float completely across the river to the far side. Being able to support both sides of the river gave them their advantage.
We had stopped for the night at the lone, local inn–the Heavy Current–and had been enjoying a dinner of stewed furlock and some locally produced ale. We were enjoying the conversation between the locals and other travelers such as ourselves, when we heard a heavy, wet thump on the roof. Immediately all of the locals became quiet and the innkeeper and waitrons started gesturing for the rest of us to stay silent.
Being impulsive, Nyla runs outside to see what is happening. With a shrug, Janal and I follow.
Outside we look around. The first thing we notice is that no one is out. Maybe not too unusual, but it isn’t that late. Then we notice a hand reaching up from below a windowsill in a nearby building; someone is trying to close the shutter without being noticed.
We notice what the person is trying to avoid. A shape…? Shadow…? Something strange is climbing down the roof of the building. Actually, it is more as if it is flowing down it. It looks like little more than a shadow, but it it is white.
Before we can react or even make full sense of what we are seeing, something hits Janal, knocking him to the ground. We turn to see another of the shadow-things has leapt off the top of the tavern and landed on him.
He rolls away while Nyla and I attack the thing. It looks like a human. Or a paper cutout of a human. It is exceedingly “flat”; almost two dimensional. There are no obvious features, but it does seem to have a thinner membrane stretched between its arms and legs, like the wing of a flying squirrel.
Fortunately we are able to defeat it, but attacking it is like hitting thick leather. The thing is flat, but dense.
The creature finished off, we look back around and hear sounds from the building the first creature we saw was on. We rush to that building and see the window is still open. Looking inside, we see someone struggling on the floor and screaming as one of the creatures attempts to swallow them whole. It has already engulfed their legs and is slowly moving up the body.
We rush into the home. The door is barred but we climb in through that still-open window, and attack the creature. We try to attack the creature without harming the person it is “swallowing” which delays our efforts but we manage to kill it without harming her.
She is extremely thankful but we are still on alert. We hear more screams and run outside.
Flames can be seen from one of the warehouses near the river. Several of the city guard are standing around and looking at it, but none of them are attempting to enter. The screams are coming from within.
We run over and look in through an open door. A fire has started within the warehouse, and another villiager is being swallowed by one of the creatures. Without hesitation we rush inside.
Almost immediately Nyla has a creature drop from the roof onto her. Starts struggling with it while Janal and I–trusting her ability–rush to help the trapped local.
Nyla manages to keep the creature from swallowing her as Janal and I kill the second creature and pull it free. We then rush to her aid and free her as well.
By this point the entire warehouse is engulfed in flames. We rush to the exit, taking the rescued villager with us. Outside, we see two of the creatures, bodies swollen with villagers that have obviously swallowed, awkwardly flying into the sky on the wings between their arms and legs and vanishing into the night. All we could tell is that they were heading to the north.
The creatures gone, the villagers exit their homes and rush to fight the fire, preventing it from spreading to the other warehouses. We join in the effort and, the fire is under control, they turn to us and thank us for our assistance.
We ask about the creatures and are told that they started appearing several weeks ago, and that a few other nearby villages have also been attacked by them. The villagers found that they took greater losses when trying to fight them and so have adopted the strategy of sealing themselves inside their homes when they show up though, as we saw, this isn’t totally effective.
Some of them had followed the creatures and found that they returned to a cave in some hills a few miles to the north. Unfortunately, those who went inside did not return and no one has entered since.
The one thing they have learned is that the creatures are susceptible to fire, which is why they were hesitant to put out the warehouse at first.
After a brief conversation we decided to go investigate the cave. We were given directions by the villagers and set out the next morning.
We found the cave with little trouble. It appeared as if there had been a recent landslide that opened the cave; the scar is easily visible. We approached and found it rapidly narrowing to a crevice through which we could only squeeze ourselves one at a time.
After a bit the crevice opened up and Nyla, who had been going first, stepped through. Almost immediately one of the things dropped from overhead onto her, but she managed to dodge out of the way. A few seconds later the rest of us exited the crevice and quickly defeat the creature.
We looked around and find that we were in an artificial space, what had apparently been the covered entrance of a long-buried building. An open door led inwards and down.
We entered and, after moving down a sloping corridor, find ourselves in a large, seven-sided room.
The first thing we saw was a large, mechanical device in the middle of the room. It resembled nothing more than a large device that would be used to slice meat. Lying on it, in a trough, was one of the “filled” creatures. It was struggling as the trough moved back and forth across a rotating blade. Each time it did, one of the flat creatures was “cut” from the filled one and dropped into a vat in front of the machine. After a few slices the filled creature, now flatter than it was before, quit struggling even as more “slices” continued to be cut.
Tearing our gaze away from the machine we saw that, along the walls of the room, stood nearly a dozen more filled creatures. But before we could react to what we were seeing and decide what to do, four of the flat creatures crawl from the vat and advance towards them.
The fight is brutal but short and we were victorious. Looking back to the machine, we say that the trough was now empty and that another full creature was walking towards it and climbing in.
We quickly searched the room and found a set of pipes exiting the back of the machine and disappearing into the back wall. The machine started up again and, being weakened from the last fight and not wanting to fight another set of the things, backed towards towards the exit. Then, I remembered what the villagers told us and threw a lit torch into the vat.
Almost immediately the vat ignited and we fled the fire quickly spread to the machine and the creature on it. This was soon followed by a massive explosion.
We escaped injury and returned to the remains of the chamber. All of the creatures were now charred husks and the machine was nothing but scattered debris. However, the explosion has also destroyed the back wall. Behind it there was another chamber, this one filled with the remains of machines and shattered tanks. Because of the fire and explosion it is impossible to tell what they were or salvage anything from them.
We also found what seemed to be the remains of a long-dead entity on the floor. It was just a skeleton, but even before the explosion it would not have been recognizable. It certainly wasn’t human. We found a single cypher among its remains, a small cylinder that would allow one of us to breathe without air for ten minutes. We took it and returned to the village.
The villagers were surprised when we returned but thanked us profusely when they heard our story. They gave us a number of shins and a pair of cyphers from their village store in thanks; one that would double the damage of any weapon for one attack and one that would let us see any one event that had happened in the place we were in the past 28 hours. They also told us that we would be welcome there anytime and that our lodging and drinks will always be free.
We thanked them for their generosity and, after suggesting that they send a group out to cover the entrance to the buried building, resumed our trip towards Qi.
Iadace.