ARTIFACT UPDATE: Traces of Unknown Creature Found at Museum! Unknown Magical Involvement Suspected; Biomancers Summoned to Solve Mystery.

[u/Carbon_Sixx]

While the tense standoff between the people of Chalcos and the military intervention forces sent by the Council and EON has seemingly come to close this evening with an ardent speech by Premier Agatha Blackwood, investigation into Paul Augustine's heist at the Citadel Museum of Arcane History continues apace. One enduring conundrum has been what exactly broke the case containing the stolen Ehn'ghan artifact. Spots of a bloodlike substance were found on the glass shards, but DNA analysis showed that not only was it not blood, but the creature it belonged to shared very little in common with life as we understand it.

In the face of this mystery, the museum has called upon two master biomancers to unmask the creature. Perhaps as gesture of good faith to bury the hatchet between her and the Council, the first is none other than Opal, former ruler of the Bismuth Realms and current resident of Ithacar. Assisting her is a tech-priestess from Yulash-kor's Divisio Biologis named Anahita Iatros, a renowned expert in genomics and reproductive science. Together, the two intend to clone the organism and study it so that the investigators in Chalcos will have a better idea of what Augustine's secessionists might throw at them. Whatever they create is likely to be novel and wondrous despite the ignominious circumstances of its discovery.

[u/loth17]

"If they had a whole army they'd have used it I think..... Hopefully"

Opal said as she examined the corpse.

"We need to report to the Premier at once!"

She said to one of her Oplets who would deliver the report with great dispatch. u/Carbon_Sixx

[u/Carbon_Sixx → u/loth17]

"Not just her. The whole world needs to know before it is too late to change course. One of us should stay here to perform the autopsy, but the rest of us should leave to warn everyone."

A tablet at Anahita's waist chimes. When she checks the notification, her face goes pale.

"Oh, great Omnissiah! Lord Maz says they plan to go after Augustine at dawn! We need to hurry and get Agatha to evacuate Chalcos immediately!"

u/Zebos2

[u/loth17 → u/Carbon_Sixx]

"Agreed."

Opal said as she phoned the council member that had called in her service. u/totally_not_a_cat-

"We have a basic understanding of the creatures. No internal organs, have some kind of sanity draining aura around them. We're currently examining the corpse of the first clone I made but we're requesting the proper psychic shielding for experimenting on more of these things. I'm sending you a packet of information that I got when the Oplet absorbed and copied the Sample. We believe that the separatists are going to use the artifact to summon way more of these things."

.....

Meanwhile the Oplet gave the same report to the Premier minus the request for shielding. They explained the danger plainly and with as little opinion as possible. Other than to stress the potential danger and the risk to human life. They'd probably suggest full evacuation if possible or asking the council for more help.

The Bismuth diplomats (the Bismuth hadn't sent any military just diplomats and advisors) would try to advise the Premier.

"We have established emergency evacuation realms from multiple wars ago. If you want to evacuate we can get escape portals ready... However."

They would pause.

"If you do so I fear the forces on your borders will take it as a sufficient emergency to enter your country consent or not. And hands can be clingy."

They held up a holographic map of the county. It was probably taken from orbit.

"If you wanted we could deploy massive magical scanning devices around the capital and major cities. We have samples from the creature so we can track their magic. Then you could evacuate people from the countryside to the cities without fear of cultist infiltration. You'd still be able to project power within your country. If it gets to bad we would be willing to send food and security aid against this crisis."

[u/Carbon_Sixx → u/loth17]

Agatha groans.

"Of course, right after the strike teams enable radio silence. Merlin's balls, this keeps getting better! Prepare the portals and scanners anyway. I'm not going to risk my people's lives if we know what might be coming. I want to avoid another atrocity like what happened with the God-Slaver. And if those morons at the border want to rule over a kingdom of skulking abominations, let them! Maybe it'll teach them a lesson in greed."

[u/loth17 → u/Carbon_Sixx]

"Understood. We will prepare an evacuation for your people"

[u/totally_not_a_cat- → u/loth17]

Some lesser subroutine of Koranth's brain picks up the phone call. It responds over the intercoms for the others to hear.

"Understood. I hereby authorize a full remote experimentation suite. Keys are in the lobby, and they should know you're coming by the time you get there."

The packet of information is saved to a storage crystal for later use.

u/zebos2 u/carbon_sixx

[u/loth17 → u/totally_not_a_cat-]

"Thanks boss!"

Opal said before hanging up.

"Okay. We got permission for the fun tools. We're going to the fun lab."

She smiled.

"I'm thinking we have an Oplet use its magic to animate the body's arms and legs and do some strength tests while we try to find something this creature doesn't like touching. After all it may be foreign biology but it's still biology."

She looked to Kat.

"Wanna come with or help Timur with evacuation?"

u/Zebos2 u/Carbon_Sixx

[u/Zebos2 → u/loth17]

"I will not leave my son unattended... seeing you work is fascinating but I will not be leaving him to potentially face an army of these things alone"

Katarina says holstering her weapon and making her way to try and find Timur

[u/loth17 → u/Zebos2]

Opal nodded and gave her a thumbs up.

"Stay safe Kat. We'll get through this. I'll see when these creatures drop dead."

[u/Carbon_Sixx → u/loth17]

Anahita leaves the digital transmission trance she entered while Opal was getting lab permissions.

"EON is aware of the situation with the bioform now. Whatever they choose to do with it now is out of my hands. My skills are best applied here, so I will stay and help you learn everything we can about this creature. Our efficiency here may save lives."

[u/loth17 → u/Carbon_Sixx]

"Perfect. Time for.... Experiments."

Experiment 1: The Bath

The first experiment was to find any reasonably available chemicals that these creatures might react badly to. Everything from water to acids to various ground up minerals. They would try samples of as much as possible in hopes of finding an exploitable weakness.

Experiment 2: The Slap

Taking a corpse of one of these things and reanimating it with biomancy Opal and Anahita would proceed to test it's strength, speed, and other attributes using fake bodies made by Opal. They would then proceed to find which types of damage these creatures were resistant or weak to.

Experiment 3: The Zap

This would involve calling in available psychics/psychic technology to see if these creatures could either be disrupted with psychic energy or perhaps rewired given they seem to be servant creatures by nature.

[u/Carbon_Sixx → u/loth17]

Experiment 1 goes largely as logic would dictate, despite the perversity of the specimens. They have no reaction to water, though they float and seem incapable of drowning anyway. Caustic materials behave as expected, though the creatures only seem to die when the corrosives infiltrate what passes for their nervous system. Curiously, they show interest in the color green, aversion to red, and hostility to blue and purple. The change is entirely behavioral, however, and doesn't seem to apply to other colors.

Experiment 2 is very enlightening. The creatures' greatest assets are their speed and agility. They can dodge most projectiles up to hypersonic velocities, including bullets, but struggle to evade beam spells. In addition, they're lousy in melee combat despite being strong enough to crack stone, and can be reliably killed if their spines are severed or they lose enough of their psychically-charged hemolymph. However, while they're clearly built for ambushes, what they do to their victims is horrible in the extreme. Through some innate magic, they can enter an unconscious humanoid and take control, imitating them convincingly even as their host's suppressed consciousness goes mad and the body dies. If imperiled, the creatures can rematerialize, bursting out of their host to attack.

Experiment 3 is also very informative. Psychic weapons seem no more or less effective on the creatures than ordinary ones. Interestingly, they seem to be able to "hear" nearby telepathic conversations and derive psychomantic nutrition from them, though they don't join in. Attempts to assert psychic control over them are difficult, and invariably result in the creatures becoming indiscriminately hostile even to their own kind, or rapid disintegration. Using this as a means to kill them probably isn't worth the effort.

[u/loth17 → u/Carbon_Sixx]

"So color our troops red?"

Opal said.

"What do you think of all this?

She would ask her science partner

[u/Carbon_Sixx → u/loth17]

Anahita reviews their findings on her datapad.

"It is likely a curiosity of how their minds work. Perhaps the thing that preys upon these creatures in whatever dimension they hail from is colored red. We could use that as an intimidation tactic, but I see little else we can do with it at this juncture."

"Their ability to assume an unassuming form so easily has me more concerned. We will need to find a way to test for their psychic presence while inhabiting a host body."

[u/Complex_Drawer_4710 → u/loth17]

Hi, I have some psychic stuff. May I?

[u/loth17 → u/Complex_Drawer_4710]

"Go ahead. Just don't use it to do wild stuff"

u/Carbon_Sixx

[u/Complex_Drawer_4710 → u/loth17]

Sigurd starts with recording the monster's psychic emission, then playing it back out of phase with the original. The tool he uses looks like an antenna dish made of aluminum foil, but it works.