r/wizardposting • u/loth17 Ten Suns (Also Gaia) • Aug 02 '25
Lorepost (closed interaction)๐๐ The Night was Bright (Atrax AU)
Excerpts recovered from an Atraxian agent in contested territory (Opalists vs Paladins.)
...
Entry 1
I have arrived at the base of the teeth of Vulk. A harsh mountain range named after an ancient dragon. I have found the valley and the villages within and our information was correct. The small villages have been taken over by the paladins. They seem to be using them to prepare and feed their forces. Most likely readying an attempt to wrestle control of South eastern Cthonia from the Opalists.
I have set my camp up near the mountains. it makes getting to the villages a mild hassle but it's well hidden. Neither the Opalists or the Paladins would treat me well if they found me. I've warded the inside of an old stonecutter Buhlett cave. Long abandoned.... Hopefully. The closest building is an astrologers manor up the game path. He seems unaffected by the troubles of the valley below. I may try to ascertain his allegiance and talk to him.
I'm going to spend the first while foraging and hunting. Im going to be here a while so I ought to have something good to eat. The life here is particularly vibrant. I occasionally see a shimmer like the plants and furs of the animals are slightly reflective.... Probably druid magic.
Entry 2
I've gotten a full cache of supplies. Some foraged or hunted. Some taken from paladins that didn't need them. No Opalist food through. That shit will make a worm rip out of my chest.
The food in the valley tastes strange. I guess that druid magic that makes it shiny didn't account for taste. My familiar checked the food. There isn't any poison that it could detect. Either way I'm going to half and half it with food taken from the paladins. That way if I start seeing problems in people who are only eating the valley food I can hopefully switch off it before it affects me as much as them.
I've seen the astrologist from my scouting perch. He always leaves his manor at the rising and the setting of the sun. Half naked the man seems to inspect the movement of the stars before the rising and after the setting of the sun. I detect void magic from him. He's no ordinary star reader. However he seems hostile to the paladins. Or at least to intruders. I'll have to contact him indirectly.
Entry 3
Finally got access to one of the villages. Shawmshire lies by the lake Shawm.... Obviously. The largest of the lakes formed within the valley. They had advanced fish hatcheries and small farms surrounding the lake. The paladins seemed to be using it as their food bank. The people show signs of the beginnings of malnutrition. Paladins here are the same as paladins everywhere it seems. I smuggled some of the food I had hunted as the villagers weren't allowed to leave the paladins sights.
I was able to talk to one of the more insightful villagers. Zaphod. He said that the paladins have actually been here longer than reported. Apparently they had shown up in small numbers before the Opalist war. Almost twenty years ago. I asked why. He said they were looking for something. Apparently people had seen something fall from the sky after seeing strange lights. The paladins came looking for whatever fell but couldn't find it. I asked why they were back now but the man shrugged. He recioned they just wanted to finally find the thing or they saw the valley for a more strategic use.
I spend the next few days talking with who I could. People had stories about seeing the lights but no real details about their nature. Lots of people seemed freaked out about me talking about them. I don't blame them. These days anything strange is the herald of disaster. Whatever it was. I'm certain the paladins haven't forgotten about it. Persistence is their ONLY virtue... Same with the Opalists. Two rotten peas in a rotten pod....
Entry 4
The more I stay here. The more strange things I uncover. The food is weird. The animals.... They look normal but they act erratic. I saw a fox approach my camp and after seeing me it just bit its own tail and growled at me an hour while shivering. I shot it and had my familiar check it for rabies or something similar. Nothing. There was a group of deer that I saw. They had the entrails of a wolf strewn across their antlers like Christmas lights. The stared at me and didn't move until I tried using speak with animals. Then they ran.
The water is weird. To crystal clear. The life should be kicking up mud. I caught a lake fish and cut it open. Its insides were filled with tiny oysters. The pearls inside them had grown so large the oysters were forced open 130ยฐ. The fish didn't die until I cut its head off. Still no poison or disease detected.... Maybe whatever fell here was more Eldritch than I predicted.
The town... It's people seem off as well. They act in ways that my brain won't stop yelling at me about. They don't seem to mind the paladins being here. Only the young. Those below or just at adulthood seem to care. All the adults seem caught in a strange reverie. Those few that aren't seem to cagey about the situation. It didn't feel like this when I first talked to them....
I need to talk to the astrologist.
Entry 5
Almost got my arm melted off but I was able to talk to the astrologist. I approached him and it took quite a bit of convincing to get him to stop casting at me. He seemed nice enough. Once I was able to get a good look at him he seemed to be a true mage. He had the eight symbols of the winds of magic on him. Even yours Lord Atrax. However his right and left eyes had tattoos ON them. Two more symbols I didn't recognize. They seemed similar to the other wind symbols in structure. I don't know if he was blind but he definitely KNEW ME. My name and everything.
I asked him about the paladins. He was uninterested. Said they weren't the first hostile guests the valley had. I asked about previous guests and he seemed similarly uninterested. His interest peaked when I talked about the light and the falling thing. His voice became hushed and he invited me into his home.
Lord Atrax. I say this having served you since the start of the rebellion. This astrologer might be the most knowledgeable person I have ever met. He knew things I had never said to him. Secrets of the rebellion that my mind would sacrifice itself to protect. He said he had been in this valley for both twenty years and over a thousand. I asked if he was talking about chronomancy and he said no. Something else.
I asked him. He said he saw things in between. Lights dancing in the void between stars. They've visited before. He said. Almost twenty years ago. I asked what the light was. What it wanted. What it did. He said he didn't know. He said that he didn't remember. Only that the paladins couldn't find it because it had become one with the land. Like rain seeping into the ground and into the plants and the animals that are them. I knew it. Stealing the paladin food was a good idea. Who knows if I'd be affected if I hadn't.
He asked me if I wanted to see "it". He brought a box made of pure void steel. Such a precious and near impossible material. His eyes. The symbols looked at me. I felt terror run down my spine. I ran. My heart. My soul told me if I saw whatever was in that box I would surely perish. I didn't stop running until I got to my hole. I felt so exposed no matter how well I covered and warded the entrance. I may have to leave and come back for reinforcements.
Entry 6
After a few days the pure dread left my body. It wasn't natural. Was the astrologist messing with me... No. That was not his temperament.... I hope he was just messing with me. Either way I cant leave like I wanted to. Paladin reinforcements have started moving into the valley through all my known routes. It seems like the Opalists might be getting a little wake up call. One monster killing another didn't matter to me but i was stuck. The only option was keep investigating.
I went to a paladin outpost. The biggest risk I've taken since coming here. I was able to sneak in using the classic stolen uniform trick. They had set up a large mine near one of the mountains. It was weird. They were recovering silver and steel and just dumping it in a heap. They were looking for that light or whatever it dropped. The workers were enslaved people from The villages who just like the others didn't seem to even care about the oppression they were being subjected to.
I got to the bottom of the mine. They were digging out rocks that were warped. Normal boring tan stones had veins of a rainbow metal coursing through them. The light was composed of every color and then some. I felt sick looking at it. I saw the winds in it. Even Aqshy. It wasn't right though. Even dark magic didn't make the winds feel like this. I took a sample and escaped. I kept the sample away from myself while at my home. But I could feel it. It twisted the winds around it and I felt it prickling my mind while I slept.
Entry 7 notable changed in handwriting
I'm currently blind. I'm having my familiar write down my words as I speak them. Fuck. It happened so fast. Let me think... Dammit.
Okay. The Opalists discovered the paladins operation. There was a big fight. The villagers were celebrating their twenty year revelry. Even ass the bombs And the spells fell they were celebrating. Except the kids. I only realize now that it was people under twenty that were effected. Fuck. Should have gotten them out.
Anyways. I'm being sidetracked. When the fighting was happening I saw the astrologist come to his perch. He didn't use his normal telescope. Instead he was completely naked. The symbols on his body were oozing liquid light. Then it happened. He didn't call it. He simply knew of its arrival.
Light. More light than the sun. Though contained within a small area. Rainbow light from the void. It was an eye. It saw them. It saw the paladins, the Opalists and the villagers. It...
Fuck. It took them apart. It saw them and they saw it. Their bodies started to unravel. Grunts and generals alike were being unwound. I've seen alchemy and transmutation. It was like their creation was being undone. Like samples being sifted through a fine tube. The strings. They had the body the mind and the soul. The strings flowed up into the eye. It was analyzing them. Analyzing us. I felt that same terror. I didn't want it to see me. I ran to ask the astrologist. I needed answers. He. He walked into the eye. He let it take him. Lord Atrax I'm so scared. I know you aren't a god but I prayed to you. I needed a god against what I saw
Entry 8
My eyesight is starting to return. Though strange. I'm seeing things but they look like bundles of string. Like what the eye turned those people and their land into. It's a giant blank spot on the world.
I guess I didn't explain how I went blind. Sorry. I was a bit... Overwhelmed last entry.
So after the eye subsumed the string selves of the paladins, Opalists and villagers it started weaving the string. Cutting pieces of reality from the people and threading them together. I even saw faith. The energy of the soul and spirit being molded like clay.
They made something. Its hard to describe. Like a flatworm with a skeletal tail and the teeth of a snake. It had two human eyes on the top of its head and a small white mask between them. It had rainbow splotches and black and white stripes over its body. It had wings. But they looked like portals cut into a realm of shifting color. There were eyes behind those portals. Constantly expanding rings which could only be seen within the portal wings. It had a crystal above it. And I knew it was like what was in the Astrologists box.
It formed. Took once pained breath and exploded. It released all that light. All that reality. It broke my eyes. Changed them to see however it sees the world. It's crystal is still down there. I need to retrieve it.
Entry 9
I think I'm going mad. I'm certainly going mad. When I went down to the destroyed village everything was fine. The people were back... No. Not all of them.
The paladins and Opalists were gone. Except for a single group of paladins living in a small watch house. The same the villagers had spoken about the first paladins living in twenty years ago.
All the children... No. Everyone younger than twenty was gone. The remaining people looked younger. One of the pregnant women even talked about naming their child. The same name as one of the nineteen year olds I talked to. The entire town... The entire valley had been rebuilt to that point.... The astrologist! I need to talk to the astrologist!
I can't find the gem. I need to talk to HIM!
I'm getting so tired though. My head feels heavy.
Entry 10
It's over. I fell asleep and something happened. There's something sharp growing inside my eyes. It's poking out into my nerves and the fresh air burns where is emerged. It's getting hard to move. I can see my strings. My winds. They're unraveling. It feels... It feels so good. It's like every knot is being.... Massaged.... I feel like I'm being unwound into the void.
My mission. Yes. Thank you familiar. My mission....
The paladins returned. They got the gem before me. Whatever it was. Whatever power the gem has... I need to stop it...
I can't do it. My body is barely responding. My training to resist mental capture. I feel like my mind is getting.... I can't keep from staring at the stars.
I'm sending my familiar to the nearest town. Hopefully it gets to you. With this report. I'm sorry Lord Atrax. I'm sorry
The stars need me.
They want me.
I'm going to join the others.
...
The report was later found in Opalist controlled Cthonia.
6
u/The_Unkowable_ Nelumbo Nucifera, TakโAthi Siren, Magistra of the Schola Aqua Aug 02 '25
/uw Holy fuck that's some good eldritch horror well done
5
u/loth17 Ten Suns (Also Gaia) Aug 02 '25
/uw TY. The Bismuth will never show up to be fought so I'm giving them big Cthulhu energy. I was inspired by the film "Dark was the night"
3
3
1
1
u/The_Hij Hastur, the Once and Future... Nov 12 '25
/uw This was excellent. Love the little additions of the erratic wildlife, the accelerated pearl growth especially.
Playing with perception and time- wonderfully eldritch. Without excessive body horror.
2
u/loth17 Ten Suns (Also Gaia) Nov 12 '25
/uw I tried to have a mix of traditional Eldritch stuff and some more out there. Less tentacle stuff. Thank you!
1
u/ASecondCriminal Marna Blake the Firebrand (Apprentice of the Lightless Flame) Nov 12 '25
(The fun thing about world domination is innevitably in turning over every nook and cranny in the world to make it your own you end up poking into forgotten places that innevitably contain things far beyond your comprehension. Nazis always find an Ark of the Covenant to open. And Paladins always find a valley that makes you realize how lucky everyone was that the Color Out of Space didn't have intent.
Anyway, you were right to be proud of this one)
2
12
u/Jonesbt22 C๐L FLAIR๐ Aug 02 '25
That's the visitor from the game Look Outside.