We're going to have an in-game event! The timing is TBD. The likely window is early January, so please reply to this thread with what dates or times work best for you, from January 4th through January 12th. Don't forget your time zone, or convert to UTC!
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Kalmyr University and Military Liason Office
Infiltration Report 815.29
Background Dossiers Attached: University Novicate Wren, Sinshade Member Bane
Background Briefings Attached: Temple of Elements, Discovery; Temple of Elements, Analysis; Sinshade Encounter Report 815.955
Background Threat Analysis Attached: Prismatic Dragon
Background:
Following her encounter with the Sinshade mystic Bane (cf: Sinshade Encounter Report 815.955), Noviciate Wren began planning an infiltration mission into the Temple of Elements to pursue a vague prophecy of ill omen. Having repeatedly ventured there in the past, she quickly discovered a shift in the political infighting among the fanatic factions. There is new leadership among the factions of Fire, Cold, and Lightning, and they are apparently cooperating to complete a ritual built into the Temple itself.
According to her previous analysis, the temple is a generative and possibly even self-aware facility that produces unique elemental runes. These runes, while composed of power strongly aligned with evocation, are arranged into a spell pattern of unknown properties strongly aligned with Enchantment and Divinity magic. It is no accident that evocation adepts who study the temple for too long invariably go mad. This is the intent of the temple's design. The resulting fanatic's violent outbursts correspond with a burst of personal power (and often, a traumatic death.) A fraction of this power is drained by the temple, and harnessed to produce more runes and elemental cores. Unfortunately, there is excess power above the cost of replacement. More unfortunately still, this power has been slowly building up over the past century.
Threat:
Temple leadership intends to use their vast store of excess power to enact a dangerous ritual. They intend to elevate their arcane monstrosity, the so-called 'Prismatic Dragon', into godhood. While almost certainly doomed to failure, the energy invested in this ritual is significant. If released inelegantly, as with a cataclysmic ritual failure, it will certainly result in vast destruction to the outlying regions. Due to the nearby occupation of Draconians, it is imperative that we infiltrate the facility and release the energy stores safely, to avoid provocation of a potential existential threat.
Priorities:
1: Deniability. Under no circumstances must the University be recognized as a contributing factor in the case of cataclysmic ritual failure.
2: Prevention. Bearing in mind Priority 1, all efforts must be made to prevent cataclysmic ritual failure.
3: Loss minimization. Bearing in mind Priorities 1 and 2, we must prepare infiltration forces as well as possible to maximize personal survival.
Auxiliary efforts to contain the threat of the Temple long-term are underway and not the subject of this briefing.
Proposal:
Even when relatively undefended, the temple is an isolated, secure facility, with multiple levels of defenses protecting the innermost ritual chamber. The use of overt military force in a direct invasion is therefore ill-advised. Even if successful, it is likely to provoke the fanatics to rush the completion of the ritual, which will make catastrophic failure almost certain. Instead, a small team of infiltrators should attempt to break into the temple and disrupt the ritual safely, minimizing conflict along the way.
The chance of failure is high. For the sake of deniability, this cannot be a sanctioned University operation. If the ritual does result in catastrophic damage to the outlying regions, it is imperative that all University personnel or supplies are either obliterated or exfiltrated from the region. To further maintain deniability, it is preferable if any University arcanists participating do not have full access to this briefing or to time necessary to conduct personal investigations. Fortunately, this is to our advantage, as the optimal timing for safely disrupting the ritual is as close to its completion as possible.
To that end, Noviciate Wren has agreed to cooperate with the Kalmyr Military Liason's Office to coordinate the intervention. She will stage a second infiltration and 'discover' the ritual publicly within one week of the ritual's completion, and recruit an officially unsanctioned task force to infiltrate the temple. Regardless of success or failure, all officers briefed on this manner are to be subjected to memory modification enchantments, and all documents are to be destroyed, as soon as this task force departs. To maximize the chance of success, we will take preparatory efforts to assure desired participants are alive and available for our chosen time window, and provide Noviciate Wren with necessary potions, scrolls, artifacts, and prophecies.
Preparations:
1: Forward all unclaimed prophecies regarding the Temple of Elements, Noviciate Wren, or other University students in the field to the Military Liason Office.
2: Commission four containment artifacts for excess elemental power (one for each known elemental alignment at play, one backup)
3: Noviciate Wren has already prepared 40 doses of Prismatic Potion. Commission more.
4: Commission scrolls of Prismatic Barrier
5: Reserve military Diviners and Enchanters for a black ops operation in the case of failure. Souls of all participating infiltrators must be summoned, resurrected, and subjected to memory modifying enchantments.