9/30/2025
Ref: EvilTables
Players: Jay_zer0 (Soteranni), roguewithwhimsy (Jorcal), idraluna-archives (Porphyriana, daughter of Heloise, granddaughter of Violette, great-granddaughter of Faustine)
Region: Northern Strata, Scholars’ Tower
Description: During the downtime that followed the Grey Aliens’ ultimatum, Jorcal took a meditative walk and experienced a vision of a baby in the desert. Soteranni researched the crisis theory scholarship of the speaker he had interrupted and learned the spell Linear Catastrophe. Porphyriana took more psychoanalysis classes, a move that brought her to the verge of ‘basic competency’ but for some lingering confusion about the relationship between linguistics and psychological phenomena.
After all this, the adventurers reunited to investigate Professor Bateson. All agreed that a solution that did not involve his death would be preferable to acquiescing to the Greys’ request to murder him. Thus they resolved to shadow the professor and unearth his secrets.
Porphyriana crashed Bateson’s exclusive evening “Crises in Ecology of Mind” seminar. Though not noticed at first, her presence caused the professor to become agitated and abruptly leave class mid-lecture. She questioned the student next to her who did not provide any information about kidnapped aliens but did lend her notes.
Soteranni scouted out Bateson’s evening walk north into the woods. He found two bags, one containing dismembered limbs from at least four people, the other full of moldy dried fish.
Jorcal spent time befriending a graduate student in Bateson’s inner circle and learned that he has a secret office between floors 7 & 8 where grad students are sometimes asked to clean up his cluttered closet. The party thus resolved to sneak into the office and look for imprisoned aliens,
Two grad students standing guard were dispatched with a use of Sleep. One had a wand marked with the words “Trap” and “Secret”. Despite this serendipity, nobody thought to examine the wand until after manually locating a patch of incongruous masonry between the 7th and 8th floors of the Scholars’ Tower. Linear Crisis was used to disengage the lock.
The entryway of Bateson’s secret office contained large numbers of cushions, eight of which were fancy & worth 100gp each. Soteranni also found a pipe and jar of reddish leaves, henceforth dubbed ‘martian weed’. In the room to the west, three Gargoyles with Grey-like faces sat motionless, seemingly transfixed by a mirror in the corner. Porphyriana rashly stepped into a Gargoyle’s line of sight, causing it to attack and nearly felling the reckless elf with a single swipe. Thankfully, it did not pursue past Bateson’s office when the party beat a hasty tactical retreat.
That evening, Jorcal observed Professor Bateson returning from the forest, bundled in a heavy coat and carrying a large sack. Fueled by Martian weed, Soteranni dove deeper into Porphyriana’s borrowed notes, uncovering cryptic allusions to the “Grey Philosopher”.
A late visit to Professor Michelet yielded some additional rumors about the Grey Philosopher (below) and clarification about what transgressions could get a scholar fired (falsification of data, murder, plagiarism, loss of too many students). Based on this, the party resolved to re-enter Bateson’s office, this time better prepared to avoid or neutralize the Gargoyles.
Rumors: The “Grey Philosopher” fell from the sky in 1103 ADG, and speaks in Socratic dialogues. He had oversized eyes, and may be a Grey himself or else was transformed through contact with them. He is rumored to foretell apocalypses and raise the dead.
Gold & XP: 800gp from fancy cushions
Special or Magic Items: none
Written by: Idraluna-archives