Hey! So stuff happened!
TLDR: Osven had people set up his devices in Maelshyve's Fortress near Haven, and the Abyss near Shard. They had to battle vessels before they could plant the devices. The devices took several days to charge, went boom and we got sucked inside Maelshyve's 'soul' inside the Plane of Exile. The devices combined in the process and we had to charge again, which exploded again, and we were able to go deeper into her 'soul'. After charging it a third time, it didn't quite work, then Osven jumped out of nowhere and attacked Maelshyve. He died, but his death powered the device to make Maelshyve explode. He was not allowed to walk the Starry Road, because his soul may power the device? Demonbone rained down upon us. We were able to enter deeper into the dying Maelshyve into her core where we encountered ur-maeldryth's which are kind of her immune system. That's where we left off.
Here's a buncha neat stuff you may have missed in a sort of order, there's more neat stuff to see inside, but you can still go explore that on your own for now. There's also apparently demonskin available there too.
Also I wasn't able to save the part about him not walking:
******
a Maelshyvean vessel -
Look: You see a Maelshyvean vessel.
The Maelshyvean vessel has minor swelling and bruising around the left leg compounded by cuts and bruises about the left leg, minor swelling and bruising in the abdomen compounded by cuts and bruises about the abdomen.
It is wearing nothing!
It is carrying nothing!
describe: The Maelshyvean vessel is an emerald-eyed Human woman seemingly in the middle of some vile transformation. Suppurating patches of purple-speckled blue scales cover her face and clawed limbs in patterns that encroach inward. Her wavy ginger hair has been shorn unevenly, giving way to other growths on her head.
*****
You see Demon Hunter Osven, a Human.
Osven has a square-jawed face, jade eyes and a classical nose. His light brown hair is short and straight. He has tanned skin and an athletic build.
He is a bit over average height for a Human.
He appears to be middle-aged.
He is in good shape.
He is wearing a cowl-like hood, a lever-drawn light crossbow, a rugged backpack, a damite chain hauberk, a small crusty barkhide shield sealed with protective wax, a small steel skinning knife with a leather-wrapped hilt, an Ilithian cedar parry stick, some faded pants, a thigh quiver dyed in a brown and green camouflage pattern and a pair of forest green boots caked in dried mud.
*******
(initially when there were two identical devices)
Osven says to Melv, "You can name it after me, call it, say, The Philosophers Knot."
Osven says, "I like that. Has a nice ring to it."
a complex device -
Look: Composed of nested rings, the device appears to be designed with unparalleled craftsmanship. The sturdy outer ring is spiraled brass and steel, with eight facets smoothly alloyed into the overall structure, alternating between dull mottled cambrinth and red-gold orichalcum. The inner ring is a spiral of niello and lodestone, and bears several spokes supporting a central sphere of cambrinth. Capable of spinning freely with the barest whisper of friction, the inner ring bears a minute inscription of an "O".
Focus: You focus your senses on the complex device and recognize the extremely volatile signs of a Feral Energy enchantment. Structures derived from wild mana admixtures are piled high like precarious bricks, continuously sparking against one another, yet there are no explosions... for the time being. You attempt to evaluate the unevenly energized patterns.
In the sapience facet, there is approximately four-nineteenths the energy needed to attain activation.
In the blood facet, there is approximately three-sixteenths the energy needed to attain activation.
In the vigor facet, there is approximately two-fourths the energy needed to attain activation.
In the motive facet, there is approximately two-elevenths the energy needed to attain activation.
In the Holy power facet, there is approximately thirteen-fifteenths the energy needed to attain activation.
In the Life power facet, there is less than one-third the energy needed to attain activation.
In the Elemental power facet, there is approximately fourteen-twentieths the energy needed to attain activation.
In the Lunar power facet, there is approximately three-fourths the energy needed to attain activation.
The Arcane power core has been fully charged, ready for activation.
Roundtime: 30 sec.
*********
The rhythmic sound of footsteps marching in lockstep can be heard to the northwest!
The chanting becomes deafeningly loud, and a crowd of cultists appears from the northwest and assembles in the periphery, their chanting reaching a crescendo as they all fall absolutely, bizarrely silent!
a gathering of Maelshyvean cultists -
Look: Dozens of figures stand shoulder to shoulder, their robes erratically billowing as the occasional tentacle slips forth. Each individual member seems to change position regularly, preventing you from accurately assessing the number of cultists in the group.
The cultists as one point at Navesi, and begin to wail. As one, they again fall silent!
A single cultist steps forward and holds his arms wide, tentacles wrapping around his exposed hands. He chants in a low baritone, "We welcome Her, we revere Her, we will become unto Her!", before stepping back and blending in with the gathering.
Osven says, "She seeks women as her vessels. The cultists singling you out was suspect, but the men in Her thrall aren't of sound mind."
Several cultists merge together, tentacles and robes shuffling wildly, before once again standing in formation.
The sound of muted weeping keens through the empty hall as a large bulge passes through the silver liquid only to disappear into the cracks below.
The cultists simultaneously draw ritual knives from within their robes, and slice their left palm! Holding their hand high, each allows a stream of blood to drip to the floor.
A cackling laughter drifts across the gathering of cultists, and suddenly, the entire assembly melts into the ground without a trace!
*****
A powerful thrum emanates from a complex device!
With a loud SNAP, the device activates! All of the eight facets simultaneously dump their massive energy stores into the inner ring, which erupts with light and begins to spin rapidly within the outer ring. A moment later, the central reservoir erupts with unstable energy, the supporting spokes glowing bright white and spiraling outward as blobs of hot metal, instantly disintegrating. The illuminated inner ring seems to collapse, spun around the core as a single tight point of light, and for a brief pause, there is silence and stillness. Then everything changes.
Suddenly exploding outward, the core flattens into a disc of inky void rimmed with bent light trapped in its perimeter. Sitting atop a thick braid of lightning which tethers the disc to the ground, blue flames coil and drip as they writhe chaotically. You feel a growing pull, and briefly catch a moment of your hand warping, transparent and immaterial, drawn towards the device, horrifically stretched. Roiling inward, the disc of light drags you inside!
[Soul of Maelshyve, The Involution]
The path stretches to the northeast, hanging in space, extending from a wall of silver liquid. Though the path is wide and solid, it flows like melted wax, and the sides end abruptly, with strange forms shifting in the endless distance. A flickering image of Maelshyve's Fortress stretches and contracts in the sky, where the heights billow with the jagged drip-drip-drip of screaming sunbursts, accosting your senses with the incomprehensible. The air seems to be made of murky smoke, stirred by a weak breeze and rhythmically congealing into vaguely familiar shapes.
Also here: Alchemist Totenus who is lying down, Delani who is lying down, Perune who is lying down, Woten who is lying down, Inneth who is lying down, Vapor Ferkeutini who is lying down, Sir Hebion who is lying down, Plexo who is lying down, Commodities Specialist Tellel who is lying down, Necrolord Xzean who is lying down, Master of War Mitkiahn who is lying down and Seva who is lying down.
Obvious paths: north, northeast, east, southeast, south, southwest, west, northwest, up, down, out.
*****
(People outside of the area saw)
Twin pulses emanate from the direction of Therengia and Ilithi, and suddenly reality begins to warp before you, like a stretchy canvas being raked by a pair of triple-tined claws frantically grasping for purchase.
The distortions ebb almost immediately as they flicker in and out of perception. Clawing at the veil of existence, they increase in frequency, and though visually disorienting, the effect is somewhat short-lived. The pulses appear to be attracting the distortions, and as they recede, you hear a woman scream.
*****
Visions witnessed once inside:
An altar of constellations and brilliant nebulae sprawls before you. Neatly arrayed on what passes for the altar's shifting surface is an endless knife with a nearly invisible edge, and a chalice filled with screaming forms. You find yourself reaching for the knife, when the devices emit a series of loud clicks, and the vision shatters.
The enormous outline of Maelshyve projects a sickly sweet thought directly into your mind, "Fire...Earth...Lightning...I can offer you these unchained...unburdened...unleashed...join me and know untested royalty over all dominions! Take these fools and turn back!"
The images return, Maelshyve's enormous tail skewering Osven as she holds him aloft between broken, razor sharp claws. They're both screaming at one another in defiance and rage, and in one smooth motion, Osven smashes a vial against the side of her face, and suddenly, the images fade.
******
Weird Environmental stuff inside:
(This would sometimes move you to a different room in the area with a stun)
In a great rippling heave, Maelshyve's essence spasms! Everything blurs for several moments.
>perc
You reach out with your senses, but there is only interference.
Roundtime: 6 sec.
>observe
Things don't look particularly safe, or particularly real, for that matter.
> hide
Now where are you going to hide? Behind Maelshyve's memory of daffodils?
> yell How's it going?
Your shout sticks in your throat like a fishbone -- one that squirms upward and savages your tongue on its way out! It promptly melts in the strange air.
You have some moderately deep cuts about the head.
You are bleeding slightly from the head.
*****
se
You fall through an interstice in Maelshyve's essence!
[Plane of Exile]
Vague distortions to the amorphous monochromatic backdrop prevent any sense of distance or scale, and there is only the choking haze filled with fathomless appetites.
Obvious exits: none.
smirk
That is incompatible with the reality you are in.
'heh
That is incompatible with the reality you are in.
In the total absence of the planar laws that defined your existence, your body and mind become fuzzy, stretched and indistinct. The degenerating atoms and thought patterns erupt into fecundity: billions upon billions of piths of nascent demonic life devour each other across timeless cycles. Your soul passes from demonling to feasting demonling before the torment ends, leaving not much of what used to be you.
Your remains slip away, recoiling to the Plane of Abiding...
******
[Soul of Maelshyve, The Concentricity]
The path stretches to the east and west, and in the center a gargantuan sphere of bubbling ichor hisses as billowing smoke roils from its surface. The sphere swirls and flows, stirred from within by unseen forces, and radiant blue lightning crackles against the sky, enwreathing the orb in a crown of ozone and light. A moaning wind whips the ubiquitous haze into eddies, bringing from the west a pungent aroma of overripe fruit and burnt sugar, while from the east the noxious sting of solvent.
You also see a sickly dungeon rat, a shimmering aethereal image of a Human standing before a supplicant Elf, a large chaotic fissure, a flickering echo of safety and the combined devices.
Combined Devices -
Look: The internal geometries of the devices' outer rings maintain a permanent critical energy threshold, thrumming as they shackle Maelshyve's core. Housed within the devices is a quadruple-nested sphere of pure light and distorted space, at the center of which lies a spiraling pair of orbiting stars, burning with red and green tinged black radiance. The devices crackle with force, extruding tendrils of silvery light which jaggedly writhe outward and terminate in fine bristles.
Focus: You focus your senses on the combined devices and recognize the extremely volatile signs of a Feral Energy enchantment. Structures derived from wild mana admixtures are piled high like precarious bricks, continuously sparking against one another, yet there are no explosions... for the time being. You attempt to evaluate the unevenly energized patterns.
In the sapience facet, there is approximately ten-elevenths the energy needed to attain activation.
In the blood facet, there is approximately two-thirds the energy needed to attain activation.
In the vigor facet, there is approximately nine-elevenths the energy needed to attain activation.
In the motive facet, there is approximately fifteen-seventeenths the energy needed to attain activation.
In the Holy power facet, there is approximately thirteen-fifteenths the energy needed to attain activation.
In the Life power facet, there is approximately two-thirds the energy needed to attain activation.
In the Elemental power facet, there is approximately nine-tenths the energy needed to attain activation.
In the Lunar power facet, there is approximately eighteen-twentieths the energy needed to attain activation.
In the Arcane power core, there is approximately fourteen-fifteenths the energy needed to attain activation.
Roundtime: 28 sec.
*****
A quiet weeping can be heard to the west, echoing and lost.
[Soul of Maelshyve, The Sowing]
The path bends sharply, stretching to the east and southeast. Low, mournful groans play across the area as distant enormous forms drift along, tentacles churning the air and brilliant eyes casting search beams in swinging cones through the emptiness, illuminating flitting wormlike forms that perish in the radiance and rain down towards the path. Coated with still-twitching ribbons of slime, the glassy outgrowths appear strangely vital, bearing strangely spined fruit. With every crescendo of the monstrous song, a heady smell of burnt hair and rot floods in.
You also see a small and dirty child and a flame-wrapped nightmare.
> look child
Frantic and sobbing, the filthy child is dressed in rags and dripping with swamp water and detritus. Tear streaks cover the childs face, cutting pale lines in their otherwise muddy cheeks, their brilliant blue eyes shining in wide-eyed terror. Bloodied hands clench and unclench spasmodically as the child breathes rapidly, hyperventilating.
The child falls to their knees, crying, begging you to help!
The child says, "They're coming, they're coming, they're coming!"
The child exclaims, "They'll be here soon!"
Flesh and bone and hair peel away to reveal a twisting knot of worms, and the child-things mocking laughter echoes around you!
[Soul of Maelshyve, The Sowing]
The path bends sharply, stretching to the east and southeast. Low, mournful groans play across the area as distant enormous forms drift along, tentacles churning the air and brilliant eyes casting search beams in swinging cones through the emptiness, illuminating flitting wormlike forms that perish in the radiance and rain down towards the path. Coated with still-twitching ribbons of slime, the glassy outgrowths appear strangely vital, bearing strangely spined fruit. With every crescendo of the monstrous song, a heady smell of burnt hair and rot floods in.
You also see a sickly dungeon rat, a writhing pile of tentacles and a flame-wrapped nightmare.
> look tent
A twisted knot of writhing sucker-clad, worm-like forms, the pile cannot seem to agree on a singular direction to pull itself!
> prod tent
The child moves away in a panic!
With squeeling hiss, the tentacles begin to melt into the ground, vanishing completely!
*****
Pinpricks of flickering red light begin to rise from the ground, spreading around the area in a swirling array of soft light.
Drifting steadily on unseen currents, the motes of light begin to assume fixed positions all around you, and as one, they freeze, absolutely motionless.
The points of light begin to grow in intensity.
Bursting with radiance, each mote unfolds, revealing distorted pupil and jagged veined sclera!
The eyes sweep the area, passing over you without pause, and you hear a deep resonate laughter. As one, the eyes close and vanish!
*****
A powerful thrum emanates from the combined devices!
With a loud SNAP, the devices activate! All of the eight facets simultaneously erupt with their massive energy stores, causing the fused outer rings to warp and expand violently! The two inner rings burst with radiance and begin to spin along perpendicular axes, churning great gobs of ichor from the gargantuan sphere as they tunnel inward, trailing a brilliant beam of light shining forth from a perfect circle rimmed with smoldering char.
The sphere quakes wildly, and countless grasping arms reach outward, triple-tined claws grabbing hold of everyone present and twisting viciously as they recede back into the sphere! Your vision goes dark, and you see the demoness crouched, her back to you, tail wrapped around her form and wings held aloft as she gorges on crumbs, her every breath ragged and forced.
[Soul of Maelshyve, The Interval]
Directly above spans a firmament of writhing ichor, endlessly deformed by triple-tined claws extending in staccato, jerking, time-fractured grasps. A perfect circle of light marks some kind of violent passage, and through it, the faint smell of ozone and the crackle of lightning can be heard. Sharply puncturing the dome, the ember-rimmed ring gives off slight wisps of smoke that dance in chaotic breezes. Endless tumultuous blue fire stretches around you, great seething coils roaring outward and raining back into the churning mass, erupting in unrestrained geysers of contempt, steadily rejecting would-be interlopers. Far below, beyond the flames, lie endless plans and plots. A beam of multi-hued energy, marking a localized path of stability, extends upward through the scheming below, piercing the ichor above.
Also here: a stunned Fickle Wind Qiyan, a stunned Soul Shepherd Azante who is emanating a benevolent holy aura, a stunned Elder Liurilias who is shrouded by swirling grey fog, a stunned Forest Shadow Aylay, a stunned Scout Gamalon, a stunned All-Seeing Lenaea surrounded underfoot by glittering blue hyacinth blossoms, a stunned Inneth who is covered with whitened ridges, a stunned Justiciar Rileos who is shining with a dark golden glow, a stunned Burden to Society Digmo, a stunned Academian Nimaltesh, a stunned Spectre Moriora who is covered with whitened ridges, a stunned Knight Magister Saragos who has a stony visage, a stunned Traim who is darkened by an unnatural shadow, a stunned Seva who is covered with whitened ridges, a stunned Lecturer Dakre who has a stony visage, a stunned Ikati, a stunned Web Healer Aislynn who is being harassed by an intrigue of phantasmal kittens, a stunned Wind Listener Elendas, a stunned Zoluren's Herald Navesi, a stunned Bedonder who is shrouded in ghostly flames, a stunned Baudolino, a stunned Songsmith Abius, a stunned Archivist Serocco, a stunned Inspired of Lanival Divy who is shining with a dark golden glow, a stunned Surgeon Gallifreius who is covered with whitened ridges, a stunned Blood Warrior Zharen who is covered with whitened ridges, a stunned Natarian, a stunned Treasure Seeker Fariden, a stunned Yvela who is covered with whitened ridges, a stunned Smoke Haxen, a stunned Cara, a stunned Genneron, a stunned Mage Avyctis, a stunned Perune who has a stony visage, a stunned Woten who has a fiery visage, a stunned Shadow Tracker Maltris, a stunned Anesthesiologist Azaylea surrounded underfoot by glittering blue hyacinth blossoms and a stunned Master of War Mitkiahn who is darkened by an unnatural shadow.
Obvious paths: north, northeast, east, southeast, south, southwest, west, northwest, up, down, out.
You are still stunned.
******
[Soul of Maelshyve, The Interval]
Six walls surround you, rotating gently around the axis of the multi-hued beam, which pierces the surface above. Ivy-like tendrils writhe around the ring left by the beam's passage, attempting to seal the puncture, withering and dying in the stream of energy laden with the rules of the Plane of Abiding. Faintly reflective, the surrounding four walls cast a series of distorted reflections, stretching to infinity. At the center of the room, all concept of scale lost, hovers the outline of Maelshyve, featureless and void-wrapped, covered in projected sinuous symbols of the triple-tined claw. Her arms are stretched wide to receive adulation, and the combined devices rest atop her forehead, crackling with warped space and prismatic light.
>look device
The internal geometries of the devices' outer rings maintain a permanent critical energy threshold, thrumming. Blurred into spinning, braided light, and trailing distorted space, the two inner rings outline a sphere, at the center of which lies a spiraling pair of orbiting stars, burning with red and green tinged black radiance. The devices crackle with force, extruding tendrils of silvery light which jaggedly writhe outward and terminate in fine bristles.
>focus device
You focus your senses on the combined devices and recognize the extremely volatile signs of a Feral Energy enchantment. Structures derived from wild mana admixtures are piled high like precarious bricks, continuously sparking against one another, yet there are no explosions... for the time being. You attempt to evaluate the unevenly energized patterns.
In the sapience facet, there is approximately three-fourths the energy needed to attain activation.
In the blood facet, there is approximately twelve-fourteenths the energy needed to attain activation.
In the vigor facet, there is approximately eleven-thirteenths the energy needed to attain activation.
In the motive facet, there is approximately three-fourths the energy needed to attain activation.
In the Holy power facet, there is approximately eighteen-twentieths the energy needed to attain activation.
In the Life power facet, there is approximately three-fourths the energy needed to attain activation.
In the Elemental power facet, there is approximately thirteen-fifteenths the energy needed to attain activation.
In the Lunar power facet, there is approximately fourteen-sixteenths the energy needed to attain activation.
In the Arcane power core, there is approximately three-fourths the energy needed to attain activation.
Roundtime: 26 sec.
*******
A powerful thrum emanates from the combined devices!
With a bone-rattling SNAP, the devices activate! The outer rings explode with violent energy and slowly begin to rotate in perpendicular directions, the inner rings emitting an escalating roar as they blur into a solid sphere of rippling light cast with bizarre reflections and inky tendrils. Above the cacophony and light and noise, a woman screams in pain.
'eeps
You shouldn't speak now.
With a loud groan, the outer rings continue to pull against the black ropes, and dizzying red and green lightning plays across the area as the pent-up charge has nowhere to expend itself. Purple miasma pinwheels from the inner rings as conflicted space is translated into nonsense, and mutually exclusive laws of reality blend and wrestle for dominance. A woman continues laughing, her mirth and contempt echoing around the area.
In fleeting snatches, your mind sees the true essence of Maelshyve, or at least your mortal mind attempts to render an imperfect translation of the sensations bathing the area. It is much like a sphere of bubbling tar, hanging in space that does not actually exist within the projected outline of Maelshyve's purpose. Vortices of demonic filth ripple and crash along smaller and smaller segments of the hanging pit, endlessly expanding into infinity as you focus on any portion, and your feel yourself falling deeper and deeper into her form. She continues to laugh at your failure, at the futility, at your audacity.
The devices rattle, broken, ineffective. Crackling lightning ripples in all directions, and space reflects and stretches into chaos. Flashing columns of light beyond the visible twist and braid as the devices shed excess energy, the outer rings stretching and burning with mutable law. You feel your form explode into constituent particles and reform under your flaying will. The demoness laughs, delighted at the bounty delivered into her midst.
The mirror fractures. You fall into your reflection, the unfolding sphere of her true form slowly extending hideous triple-tined claws covered in radiant green eyes -- unavoidable, inescapable, all-encompassing. You realize you are screaming.
Stepping out of your blind spot, Osven soars forward, howling in rage, a vial clenched in a bloody palm, and a ritual knife held in the other. He slams the vial into the mass of tendrils binding the devices, then impales his hand with the ritual knife. Reality reasserts itself with a shock as the tendrils pulsate strangely at the point of contact. Rimming the three-part admixture of solution, blood, and ritual knife, a fluorescing circle of will and intent pins Osven in place. As he begins to chant, the inky tendrils bristle and begin to whip against his body, piercing and slashing, and the woman continues to laugh. You lose him a moment as he is pinned to the devices, engulfed in inky blackness.
Between writhing tendrils, you see Osven flare brilliantly with oozing reddish black energy that pulsates and courses down his arm, gathering around the combined skewered mess of his hand, the bizarre admixture, and the ritual knife. The knife erupts with white light, the tendrils recede, and Osven begins to shout in defiance and rage as the white light slowly encompasses his body, pouring into the device. He continues shouting as he begins to desiccate, his paper thin skin tearing and flaking away, clotted blood and dried sinew crumbling. His eyes burn pure white, and his skeletal remains push the knife deeper into the ritual circle. The tendrils begin to snap, and Osven's light surges into the devices' outer rings, which begin to spin with renewed vigor, scattering the remaining tendrils in all directions. After a moment, Osvens mummified remains crumble into dust. The demon's laughter turns into screams of fear.
The devices continue to accelerate, each of the now-free four rings gathering in speed and warping the no-space, shrinking the sphere of muck. The triple-tined claws twitch and crumble, and there is one last desperate surge of boiling rage as the device fully activates, cutting a quadruple-layered sphere around the brilliant twin-star core. The demon continues to scream, trailing off to choked gurgles.
The essence of Maelshyve ripples with circular pulses that you instinctively recognize as coming from the device instead of her. It ripples four times, soothing and smoothing the surface of the sphere. The devices thrum with power, constant and unchanging, stable and complete. The sense of Maelshyve's essence shrinks -- a fragmenting shadow of what was, a broken and lobotomized remnant, a dwindling scream of ancient rage. Within seconds, it is over, and all that's left is a flat circle, a surface that might as well be black-painted mirror.
As it settles, a cloud of jagged edges billows outward, and a rain of chalky black bone begins to fall!
Chalky black bones continue to erupt from everywhere, tearing into your body! You instinctively grab some of them before they lodge.
The demonbone rain subsides as the devices thrum steadily, flashing brilliant white, the door to Maelshyve's purpose held ajar.
[Soul of Maelshyve, The Interval]
Six walls surround you, rotating gently around the axis of the multi-hued beam, which pierces the surface above. Ivy-like tendrils writhe around the ring left by the beam's passage, attempting to seal the puncture, withering and dying in the stream of energy laden with the rules of the Plane of Abiding. Faintly reflective, the surrounding four walls cast a series of distorted reflections, stretching to infinity. At the center of the room, all concept of scale lost, hovers the outline of Maelshyve, featureless and void-wrapped, covered in projected sinuous symbols of the triple-tined claw. Her arms are stretched wide to receive adulation, and the combined devices rest atop her forehead, crackling with warped space and prismatic light.
You also see some chalky black demonbones, the entryway to Maelshyve's purpose laid bare
>look Entryway
[Assuming you mean the entryway to Maelshyve's purpose laid bare.]
Hovering with perfect stillness, facing you from any angle, the terrible outline of Maelshyve stands, head held tall, wings and arms outstretched, tail coiled around heavy legs. Endless void, cosmic depths, profound vanity, and ageless understanding swirl behind smoldering green eyes that follow you, eyes that dare you. The combined devices are embedded into her forehead, crowning her with silvery tendrils of light that breach her tenebrous silhouette, holding open a brilliant entryway.
>go entryway
The devices surge with energy, and lightning plays over your body, charging you with the rules of the Plane of Abiding as you pass the threshold into Maelshyve's purpose.
[Outside the Pith]
Maelshyve's fractured ego stretches to an endless point, reality embracing her singular motive: worship. What passes for air in this usurped space sings with singular focus for exaltation. Reverberating paeans to her glory echo around you, as endless lines of robed supplicants bring gifts of fealty and flesh. She squeezes a constellation until it drips with blood -- the force of her will is unbearable, and you are struck with an almost irresistible impulse to kneel and commit yourself in her name.
Obvious exits: none.
Memories from eons past brush by you. Before the loyalists and poet-builders, there was the isolation, the helplessness. She had nothing, and she never forgot.
Hounded by sentiments and reflections with no translation, experiences without parallel, you see in the distance a potent fragment of Maelshyve's influence, a deep indentation in the fabric of reality, the center of a maelstrom.
As you approach Maelshyve's core, you begin to feel her dying strength in this fractured region of her essence, her last bastion.
The region expands, a vortex of filthy water and decay, consuming anything that gets too close, holding the horrors beyond at bay.
Tugged by the triple influences of the Plane of Abiding, the Plane of Exile, and Maelshyve's will, you feel yourself battered about a chaotic storm!
You become completely disoriented, and find yourself careening into the maelstrom!
[Soul of Maelshyve, The Pith]
The water is colder here, and small chunks of black ice drift by, embedded with strange toothy creatures imprisoned in fist-sized slurries that tumble and break apart as they melt. Rime glitters on this side of the core of Maelshyve, swirling with black snow. Across the churning waters, a multitude of tongues flicker over row upon row of teeth.
Obvious paths: north, northeast, east, southeast, northwest, up, down, out.
********
Suppurating detritus and splashes of ichor break away from the surroundings, congealing into an ur-maeldryth.
> look ur
You see an ur-maeldryth.
The ur-maeldryth is in good shape.
It is wearing nothing!
It is carrying nothing!
> desc ur
Inexplicably connected to its surroundings, the gigantic ur-maeldryth appears utterly at home. Dozens of fleshy, clawed tentacles plated with large midnight-blue scales snake outward from a nexus of chalky black bone. With a tremendously long reach, they thrash about feverishly, the triple-tined claws snapping in every direction.
An ur-maeldryth's tentacles trace strange sigils in your direction, leaving a powerful dark purple radiance in their wake.
The air around you solidifies into an incandescent radiance and intercepts the attack with a shower of coruscating light.
* Moving with the precision of a mongoose, an ur-maeldryth uncoils an entire section of tentacles, striking sequentially at you. You fail to block with a battered parry stick shaped like a skeletal spine with broken ribs.
The tentacle lands a light hit to your left arm.
[You're bruised, nimbly balanced and in strong position.]
The air around you solidifies into a pale yellow haze and throws off bright waves of light as it resists the attack.
* Moving as a single sinuous force, an ur-maeldryth lets out a reverberating rumble and ripples its tentacles at you. You fail to parry with a battered parry stick shaped like a skeletal spine with broken ribs.
The tentacle lands a solid hit to your head.
[You're bruised, nimbly balanced and in strong position.]
Many of an ur-maeldryth's tentacles tangle into an impossible, ouroboral knot, their triple-tined claws clacking together heinously.
An ur-maeldryth twists a pair of its tentacles in a tight helix and sinks the claws into its own flesh, drawing dark ichor.
The air around you solidifies into a slight yellow flicker, collapsing under the force of the attack in a silent cascade of glassy fragments that vanish before reaching the ground.
* Driving in with an overwhelming assault, an ur-maeldryth brings a tree-thick mammoth tentacle slamming down at you. You attempt to evade, twisting partially away from much of the blow.
The tentacle lands a heavy strike that zaps your in the gut.
[You're badly hurt, nimbly balanced and in better position.]
* Driving in like a master combatant, an ur-maeldryth swings a pair of clawed tentacles from opposite sides at you. You fail to block with an immense tyrium-bladed greatsword supplemented with a strange clockwork contraption.
The claw lands a heavy strike that staggers you with a bruising drive between the shoulders, stunning you.
[You're very badly hurt, badly balanced with opponent in very strong position.]
* Moving with the precision of a mongoose, an ur-maeldryth brings a tree-thick mammoth tentacle slamming down at you. You fail to dodge, avoiding only some of the blow.
The tentacle lands a strong hit that temporarily knocks away your breath with a shocking blow to the chest.
[You're smashed up, very badly balanced with opponent in superior position.]
As you start to move, a tearing sensation wracks your viscera. You are unable to go.
An ur-maeldryth flicks a clawed tentacle at you.
Writhing black and red particles form around you and pierce your flesh!
You suddenly feel sick and pained, your blood burning molten within your veins!
******
(If you walk into her Core instead of floating off into the Plane of Exile)
You fall over the immaterial precipice of the core!
Plummeting inward on a horizontal line, you sense the flick of Maelshyve's will in her preoccupation as she focuses on you with all her desperate being. Your spiritual essence is soon inhaled by the core, a mere fraction of a water drop in the vast parched desert that is Maelshyve in extremis. You become one with the vanquished entity for a single torturous moment, and then you become futile nourishment to it.
Your spirit is weakened beyond its ability to sustain your body!
Your remains slip away, recoiling to the Plane of Abiding...
* Powerhaus fed himself to Maelshyve!
******
(What the device currently looks like)
> look device:
The internal geometries of the devices' outer rings maintain a permanent critical energy threshold, thrumming as they shackle Maelshyve's core. Housed within the devices is a quadruple-nested sphere of pure light and distorted space, at the center of which lies a spiraling pair of orbiting stars, burning with red and green tinged black radiance. The devices crackle with force, extruding tendrils of silvery light which jaggedly writhe outward and terminate in fine bristles.
> foc device
You focus your senses on the combined devices and recognize the extremely volatile signs of a Feral Energy enchantment. Structures derived from wild mana admixtures are piled high like precarious bricks, as solid and substantial as possible, maintaining a staggeringly large outflow of force. You attempt to evaluate the unevenly energized patterns.
All of the facets and the core have been fully charged, though you hear a slight echo of a man screaming.
Roundtime: 14 sec.
[Soul of Maelshyve, The Interval]
Six walls surround you, rotating gently around the axis of the multi-hued beam, which pierces the surface above. Ivy-like tendrils writhe around the ring left by the beam's passage, attempting to seal the puncture, withering and dying in the stream of energy laden with the rules of the Plane of Abiding. Faintly reflective, the surrounding four walls cast a series of distorted reflections, stretching to infinity. At the center of the room, all concept of scale lost, hovers the outline of Maelshyve, featureless and void-wrapped, covered in projected sinuous symbols of the triple-tined claw. Her arms are stretched wide to receive adulation, and the combined devices rest atop her forehead, crackling with warped space and prismatic light.
You also see a flame-wrapped nightmare, a sickly dungeon rat and the entryway to Maelshyve's purpose laid bare.
Also here: Cyiarriah.
Obvious paths: north, northeast, east, southeast, south, southwest, west, northwest, up, down, out.
*****
some chalky black demonbones:
You are certain that the black demonbones has a quality of 99, placing it at 'perfect' on the official Trader's Scale.
You are certain that the black demonbones has a durability of 60, placing it at 'moderate durability' on the official Trader's Scale.
You are certain that the black demonbones has a workability of 25, placing it at 'very difficult to work with' on the official Trader's Scale.
You are certain that the black demonbones has an electrical resistance of 30, placing it at 'a great conductor of electricity' on the official Trader's Scale.
You are certain that the black demonbones has a thermal resistance of 70, placing it at 'not very good at transferring heat and cold' on the official Trader's Scale.
You are certain that the black demonbones has a physical resistance of 85, placing it at 'exceptionally good at repelling physical blows' on the official Trader's Scale.
You are certain that the black demonbones has a hardness of 75, placing it at 'hard' on the official Trader's Scale.
The black demonbones is average in size.
The black demonbones are fairly hard.
You are certain that the black demonbones weighs exactly 9 stones.
You are certain that the black demonbones are worth exactly 260 Lirums.
___________________
You make a few adjustments to the Zoluren, and you feel confident that it will recognize you as its owner.
