118_20260531 I'm Still Looking

%% date:: [[2026-05-31]] %% # [[118_20260531 I'm Still Looking]] ![[011_20260531.svg]] ## Session Summary > [!tldr] [[118_20260531 I'm Still Looking]] > Bond projects the soul-gem eye's stored memories, exposing Volluk Azrinae's private research: conscious extraction works better when victims are awake and afraid, soul gems preserve a soul's identity far longer than ambient Gauntlight exposure, and Volluk has been sketching anti-party countermeasures. His notes also confess that the Fulcrum Lenses' material flaw is "load-bearing" — the imperfection is what makes the projection work. The eye further shows Gloam moving alone through Level 6, leaving a message in a childhood sibling shorthand that only Zuhri can read — revealing that Gloam is her brother — and captures a displaced Hound of Tindaloth, the two-headed, seven-legged dog from Wrin's vision, prowling Volluk's workshop. > > The party then scatters for downtime in Otari. Zuhri hunts for Gloam but finds he has left with the Pharasmins, not by choice. Grumble's Death Warden insignia cracks in half — a bad omen for all the undead he failed to kill. At the Dawnflower Library, Vandy Banderdash tells Zuhri that Vayle's existence has split the clergy over the question of benevolent undead, though Vandy stands with the party and believes Sarenrae stands with Vayle. Zuhri also finds Ash dissociating among the old hero stories; he resolves to enter the soul gem willingly rather than be a burden. Meanwhile Vayle researches the Roseguard, learning that Otari Ilvashti began as a pirate before becoming a laughing liberator who could free the restrained, confused, or frightened with a single word — a power the Cailean Key cannot yet replicate. ^summary %% ## Video [Video]() %% --- ## Recap ![[117_20260524 Where the souls go#^summary]] --- ## Log [[Jaspen Bond Callistair|Bondium]] selects memories to project to us from the eye. - *Conscious Extraction* - [[Volluk Azrinae]] is doing a procedure. The engineering is flawless. There's a human strapped to something, terrified. The eye sees a notebook that Volluk is writing in. There are other notes on the page. Bond recognizes it as something like "worm feed ratios" and "lens tolerances". He writes "conscious extraction: Resonance alignment improved 30%. Fear response: Coherence retention improved. Unexpected stability advantage. Procedure: recommended". Bond learns that the process is better when the victim is awake and aware. [[Vayle]] recognizes the clothes that the victim is wearing as something from an older time. The eye has obviously been here a long time. - *Identity degradation ratio* - Charts: identity coherence over time. Two columns side by side. Sould left in [[The Gauntlight|Gauntlight]] ambient feel / Souls in soulgem containment. - Identity degradation is lower in crystalline confinement - Subjects stay coherent much longer in a soul gem than they would in ambient gauntlight exposure - He underlined that this is preservation, not enlistment - He added a note that the subjects do not like it - *Countermeasures* - Again in his workshop - Sketch mechanisms, drawings of rotating kill boxes, lens-triggered blast corridors, narrow chokepoints labelled with strange annotations. - Volluk's notes on a page-- they're about us! Notes about how to fight. - *Lenticular flaw* - There's a variance in his tests. He runs it 22 times and it still exists. - Projection collapses at operational range. - [[The Fulcrum Lenses|Fulcrum lenses]]: flawed. Projection stable. Range: accessible. Note: material flaw creates unpredictable variance in range propagation. - Variance acceptable. Output superior. Do not attempt to correct the flaw. The flaw is load-bearing. - *Surveillance subject: 9310* (unknown creature) - Eye records a small figure, cloaked, with a glowing shield, moving through [[Level 6]] alone. (Is it [[Odasa|Gloam]]?) - The figure is looking for something specific, writes something on the wall, and then leaves. We don't recognize what's written on the wall. It's written in a childhood shorthand, the kind only siblings use. [[Zuhri]] can read it. It says: `I was here. I'm still looking.` Gloam is Zuhri's brother?!?! - ? - The eye is alone in Volluk's workshop. It looks like a TV with bad reception. There's a four-legged creature here that moves weirdly, like it's not quite there. It's almost teleporting from space to space instead of really walking. It's like it has afterimages when it moves. One head. Bond recognizes the dog as an exotic creature native to the dimension of time. It's called a [[Hound of Tindaloth]]. They hunt people who tamper with the flow of time, either moving forward or backward with their bodies, thoughts, or senses. They can hunt across dimensions to find people who have tampered with time. - Painful bloodless wounds rip open in the creature's body. I go to try to find Gloam. - Gloam has two shops in town: a butchery and a morgue. He's not in either. - Bond figures out that Gloam has gone with the [[Pharasma|Pharasmins]]. He had no choice in it. The rest of [[Calamity's Ruin]] is not in town either. [[Grumblebum|Grumble]] looks at weapons in the armory at the garrison. His [[Death Wardens|Death Warden]] insignia cracked in half, which is a bad omen. Something in him has broken. There are many undead that he did not kill. I go to [[Dawnflower Library]] to talk to [[Vandy Banderdash]]. All the clerics there are trying to determine where they stand. `I remember the game. I remember how to read your note in The Gauntlight. I remember you are my pack, brother. Vayle is my pack too. Please, find me before we find ourselves on opposite sides of a conflict.` Vandy says that Vayle's presence has caused a schism and they now have to decide where they stand on the topic of benevolent undead. But Vandy stands with us, and she believes [[Sarenraei]] stands with Vayle. Others will have to come to their own beliefs. After I talk to Vandy, I see [[Ashnefrotty|Ash]] there in the library, motionless. He's staring into space. He doesn't see me. It's like he's lost track of time and himself and his surroundings. He's holding a book: one about a fictional story of a hero. Something inspired by [[The Roseguard]]. He eventually comes to. He says he just wanted to look at the old stories. He likes doing the right thing, for the greater good. He likes doing it with me. "This is where I should be." His look is saying that he's afraid that he's going to leave me defenseless and be a burden on me, though. He's thinking of a solution I won't like. I tell him not to do anything rash. He says he'll go in the crystal willingly. Vayle goes to the library to look up things about the Roseguard. - [[Otari Ilvashti|Otari]] was in love with [[Esefna Menhemes|Esefna]], a hunter who worshipped [[Erastil]] (the patron god of [[Arbor Felix]] before they changed to worship [[The Apometi]]). - [[Cailean Key]] hidden in his dagger is not well-known. It's implied in many texts. - The three remaining Roseguard thought that the explosion that killed [[Belcorra]] also killed Otari. He was the leader of the group, and the heart of the group. He started as a pirate. But he changed his ways and began to liberate instead of steal. He was always laughing and freeing people. - Otari was able to liberate with a word a creature that was restrained, confused, paralyzed, frightened. The key can't do that right now though. The hound IS the dog with the seven legs. It's just that it was somewhat displaced. %% ## Excalidraw Data ### Text Elements ### Drawing ```json {"type":"excalidraw","version":2,"source":"https://github.com/zsviczian/obsidian-excalidraw-plugin/releases/tag/2.0.25","elements":[],"appState":{"theme":"dark","gridSize":null,"viewBackgroundColor":"#ffffff"}} ``` %% ## Granola ### Summary ![[plugins/Granola/Let’s Play Abomination Vaults-2026-05-31_09-00-26]] ### Transcript