The Hyperliving

Right now the Heroes of Weaverham are exploring a small Duvan'ku crypt/dungeon hidden in the back of a larger cave complex. It's situated about 4 days of travel away from where Death Frost Doom is set and I was envisioning it as some sort of hidey-hole for the Death Cultists away from their main base -- so the question is: why this particular cave/area in particular? Is there something special in here?

Fortuitously, Zak S.was doing a RPG Magic 8 ball routine on G+ this week and I was able to ask him what one of the mysteries hidden away in this crypt was. His answer was as follows:


"THE HYPERLIVING. YOU THINK "OH, THE OPPOSITE OF THE UNDEAD, I'M SURE THAT MEANS THEY'RE TOTALLY NICE AND COOL" BUT NO, YOU'D BE WRONG.?"


My interpretation of this answer was that the Hyperliving are beings that have been extended into a higher plane of sensory input and experience, with a corresponding intensity of mental processes. Or, to put it another way, remember when you were 13 and things happened that made you really really angry or sad and how your body would do weird wooshing warm spells/chills/fuzzy bits and it was just INTENSE*? Well, multiply that shit by like, x1000. And add to that the self-knowledge that you've got a lifespan about as long as the replicants from Blade Runner.

So there you have the hyperliving, a bunch of over-excited, extremely emotional, basically manic nihilists, who predominately live for sensory experiences. You know, like feeling the wind on your face. Or the still-quivering warm flesh of the recently slain on your face. Either or.

So were the Duvan'ku creating these guys? I didn't think so, it doesn't really seem to be their style, they're a bit too grimdark and the hyperliving have a definite Viriconium vibe to me, so instead I think they're products of the long-lost Hyperborean civilization, whose eons-old existence has mostly been wiped away (either by their own collapse or by other hands) except for odd remnants found in the more remote and inaccessible parts of the world.

One of which is here, specifically, a strange room obviously not of Duvan'ku construction, either in terms of construction or materials, containing a half-dozen stasis chambers -- bodies suspended within multi-faceted prismatic columns. Several of them have been opened or are at least empty. Could that possibly be related to the adjacent room, the one with all the aging torture equipment and scattered bones?

SIGNS POINT TO YES

* - Maybe this was just me, dunno.

Nightwing Temple, part the first

Fenrecz, lying in a relatively steep box-like canyon, is dominated by a major thoroughfare known as the Serpent Road, hewn from the green stone of the surrounding Viridian Cliffs. The Serpent Road has seven switchbacks, allowing horses and carts to traverse the city. Each switchback is referred to as a "coil", so a destination could be "on the third coil". At each point where the road switches back on itself, there is a large square, generally used for open-air markets, public executions and the like. At the North end of the city, the first coil passes over a series of complicated locks controlled by the Duke of Fenrecz, allowing some amount of control over the passage of the Eel River that flows into and under the city.

These locks open and close on a complex schedule, either through massive automated machinery or a cult-like group of operators (there are rumors about both). Moving on the bridges and stairways in the Locks is extremely dangerous if you aren't aware of the intricate and changing schedule, as massive amounts of cold water can easily sweep anybody in the area off their feet, to be dashed on stone hundreds of feet below, drowned as they are forced through any number of underground channels or worse, flushed alive into the Eel Weirs. There are a large amount of waterfalls that serve as natural barriers to progress until a great grinding is heard, a lock somewhere high above is closed and the water stops flowing, opening up a new, dripping passage. Behind one of these water walls lies access to Nightwing Temple.

In the Land of the Obliviax Eaters

From the desk of Humberto Malladonnina, scholar of Schelotto:

Obliviax, or "memory moss" is one of the most intriguing specimens for scholars of magical flora. For one thing, the most important attribute of the moss, the ability to absorb memories, is the most dangerous aspect of studying it.

There are two facts about obliviax that most people are unaware of:

1. Those who ingest obiliviax moss in a certain amount gain not only the memories contained in the moss; they also develop a dependence on the moss, becoming consumed with the desire to attain more memories, through the moss if possible; through other means if necessary.


2. An obliviax colony, having grown to a certain size and having attained a certain amount of memories, achieves sentience of its own, of a sort[1].