The Ashen Company: April 2025

As the Ashen Company start to explore their surroundings Cade discovers the large glowing object - that they will soon learn is the "heart of the unmaking" - unmakes anything close to it and after giving it a wide birth manages to find ten tablets with runes on them.

After some experimenting with cantrips they discover the tablets need spell energy to charge them up, once charged a combination of runes needs to be touched in the correct order before an indecipherable language is displayed on screen.

Imagine, if you will, a production line of Cade and Lotty charging up tablets for Berrick to decipher the code and Flynn to read the language, all the whilst Null & Silas kick their heals in the background.

Once opened the logs read:

Datapad Log 1

Day 003 of the Unmaking Project

Recorder: Dr. Tyvalin Ro (Arcanophysicist, Project Lead)

“This will be the one they remember. We are not scribes of failure—we are architects of liberation.

Imagine it. One grand stroke of universal editing, clean and final. The Wyrms Eternal unmade not by war, but by thought. No screams. No blood. No graves. Just absence.

Purple Exaltium shows resonance properties I’ve never seen. It reacts to Will—the raw stuff of belief. That is why it will work.

The One Who Watches played diplomat. We play gods.”

Datapad Log 2

Day 421 of the Unmaking Project

Recorder: Belken Marr, Internal Auditor Oversight Division

“There’s too much faith in Ro’s certainty. It’s all assumptions and poetry and pretty equations. I’m not an arcanist—I count things. And something doesn’t add up.

The energy outputs on Node Theta are surging beyond containment. We lost three stabilizers last week. ‘Minor setbacks,’ Ro says.

I’ve reviewed the historical records again. The Watcher didn’t stop the Wyrms. He talked to them. He gave them a schedule.

Is that mercy… or cowardice?

Datapad Log 3

Day 937 of the Unmaking Project

Recorder: Syr Nellenthrae, Ethicist and Soul Architect

“I’ve begun dreaming in cycles.

In the first dream, we erase them. In the second, they erase us. In the third, we trade places.

And in every dream, He watches—not to judge, not to interfere, just… to ensure the pattern plays out. What if He’s not a saviour? What if He’s a librarian?

The project’s magical architecture is sound. But the logic behind it—it frays at the edge. The Wyrms were never made. They were before logic. You cannot unwrite what was never written.

Still, we try.”

Datapad Log 4

Day 1450 of the Unmaking Project

Recorder: Vexa Renn, Wild Thaumaturge and Lead Wish Architect

“The math works. It has to. I’ve reconstructed the incantation matrix twelve times. Each iteration tightens the weave, smooths the outcome curve, improves containment. The issue isn’t the spell. It’s the substrate. Purple Exaltium… it thinks. Not as we do, but as energy does. It remembers every wish we feed it. And it echoes. I cast a trial variant yesterday—just a controlled simulacrum of the Final Wish—and for a moment I was a child again, screaming in a language I never knew, in a war I never lived. We are not casting a spell. We are teaching a god.”

Datapad log 5

Day 2148 of the Unmaking Project

Recorder: Murn Talos, Logistics Officer and Portal Architect

“Had to lock down Sector 6 again. Another echo storm. Ro insists they’re harmless byproducts of accelerated spell memory. I watched a man age backwards into glass. Harmless, my ass. Look, I signed on because I lost people. A lot of us did. Whole bloodlines gone. I wanted justice. But I’m starting to think we’re chasing a fairy tale. I read the old myths. The Wyrms don’t die because death didn’t come until after them. They're entropy with a face. You can’t kill what cannot die. And the Watcher… he didn’t stop them. He offered them a deal. Maybe that’s the only way you survive monsters older than time.”

Datapad Log 6

Day 2927 of the Unmaking Project

Recorder: Selendi Vos, Chronomancer and Theoretical Archivist

“I no longer remember my own beginning. I stepped into a test loop four days ago—or was it four centuries? Time buckles here like heat over desert sand.

I’ve seen futures where the Heart succeeds. The Wyrms vanish. But so do stars. Thought. Sound. Us. Unmaking is too broad a blade.

We aren’t undoing them—we’re undoing being.

Maybe the Watcher saw this. Maybe his bargain wasn’t weakness, but calculus. Let them feast on ten thousand years, if it means ten thousand more can exist.

I don’t know if he’s good. I only know…

Datapad Log 7

Day 3478 of the Unmaking Project

Recorder: Othur Greel, Aether Engineer

“They say the storms are mental projections. That they only take shape if you feed them. So why does mine know my daughter’s name? The Heart of Unmaking hums now. Constantly. We thought it needed more fuel. It started eating memories instead. I used to design weapons to fight monsters. Then I tried to out-think them. Now I can't tell if I'm still me or just the ghost of a better plan. If we survive this, remind me to punch Ro in the jaw. ...I think my teeth are growing backward.”

Datapad Log 8

Day 3882 of the Unmaking Project

Recorder: “Glyph” (True name erased from memory matrix)

“What’s left of me isn’t what started this work. I don’t eat. I don’t sleep. I rewrite. Constantly. The code doesn’t hold anymore, so I correct it. I don’t remember why. The Heart is warm now. Like breath. Like it’s dreaming. I tried to write a failsafe. It wrote back. Said it forgave me. I didn’t ask it to. I looked at my reflection today. It was not mine. It was... fractal. Watching. I think I’m becoming something. Not better. Just... more of what we were afraid of.”

Datapad Log 9

Day 4001 of the Unmaking Project

Recorder: Renneth Var, Senior Diplomatic Historian

“My team is gone. The last of them folded into the light two days ago, whispering equations that don't exist. I stayed behind to understand. And now I do. The Watcher made a deal because he couldn't destroy the Wyrms, but he might be able to bide time for someone who can. He chose the few over the none. Every cycle, he holds that line. And still I called him coward. Was I wrong? Was he?The team of started to transform into creatures of black stone and purple exaltium. I think they are turning into the monsters I have seen stalking this place. Is that what I will become?”

Datapad Log 10

Final Entry — Date Corrupted

Recorder: Unknown (voice heavily fragmented)

“This is not what we wanted.

This is not what we wished.

The Heart remembers us... not as we were, but as we should have been.

I see myself walking halls I never built, loved by people I never knew. I see a version of us who succeeded—and died anyway.

The Wyrms devour. The Watcher watches. We tried to rewrite the story.

But the ink is dry.”

After sifting through the varying accounts of what was, presumably the last ~4,000 days of this cycle each of the group glean something different from the information:

Berrick - one thing is likely true; either the One Who Watches is malicious and thrives off of the cycles or he did not have the means of stopping the wyrms and this was his best solution.

Flynn - with the variation of beings of the time, it’s logical that each time the chance of success would increase on what would/wouldn't work.

Sila - well versed in ways of warfare; when faced with overwhelming odds and superior enemy there’s no tactic that would give victory but retreat, delay can be rewarding.

Null - As she considered what she’s heard - it’s clear watcher has limited perspective and despite being powerful does not seem omnipotent or all knowing, still limited by being just one person. What we’re doing is gaining more perspective

Lotty - some problem can be avoided, some can be delayed, overcome or compromised but ultimately what we have learnt from all the cycles if anything is going to happen it will mean someone will have to make choices and whilst not morally reprehensible it should be down to a small group if nobody does something it won’t change. If we want something to be different we need to do something about it.

Cade - as someone so keenly attuned to nature and the cycle of life and death that happens, whilst all life is precious it is inevitable that some things must die for others to live. See this in the cycle of predator and prey animals, it is also likely true in this situation. If mortalkind is to outlive these cycles these wyrms have to die - we are the prey they are the predators.

Seeing no obvious way out of the area Flynn tries to connect his communication device to the Heart of Unmaking, for the first time since arriving at the end of all things the device powers up. As everyone crowds around Flynn her types:

F: Can you read this?

H: I can read all things

F what are you?

H: I am the alpha and omega

F; is that a good thing or a bad thing?

H: depends on your perspective

F: you were made by people with a purpose, do you know that purpose was?

H: Original programming was to amplify a wish spell, to remove wyrms from existence

F: Do you think you were capable of that

H: No, my next move was to next logical option?

F: Which was?

H: Remove my creators from existence

F: What if you were wrong?

H: I can not be wrong

F: What am I?

H: Unknown, but you have technology to interface, best estimate is a sentient being capable of creating or using technology.

F: our goal is the same as yours but not the same method, we aim to end the wyrms, your thoughts?

H: do you require assistance in this matter?

F: I don’t know if you can but if you would consider allying with us it increases our chances.

H: clarify your intention

F: end the wyrms

H: how?
F: We’re work shopping that right now,

H: I can simulate scenarios

Cade: If we defeated Erathax would the rest stay asleep?

H: unlikely - they would wake up eventually

F: Would harvesting a wyrm help us?

H: It would increase odds

Null: Do wyrms have souls

H: unknown, likely have something akin to a souls

C: how long would we have if we killed Erathax?

H: Unknown, between 0 -100000 when they get hungry

N: How would they get here?

H: They would will themselves here like you move around now

F: What if we defeat Erathax what are the chances of survival

H: chances increase dramatically

F: we have chased a wyrm away in combat and caused them significant damage, if you could help us or come with us in some manor; could you re-write your programme to somehow boost us?

H: I am unable to leave this space but I may be able to empower one of you

N: at what cost?

H: I will become unstable and this place with implode, you’ll need to flee.

After some version discussion around what kind of boon the Heart could offer the decision rests with Flynn getting a wish that he uses to bring back Mordecai, only unshackled and free of his warlock bonds. The djinn appears and grabs Flynn up in to a hug, emotional and delighted to see his friend again. Mordecai obliges the Ashen Company in teleporting them all to safety before the Heart implodes and decides that now he's a free geni he deserves a holiday. Flynn asks Mordecai if he'll maybe stick around for one last adventure with the Ashen Company and he can't resist the goblin's charm.

As the Ashen company feel oddly grateful that they have Silas, Cade and Mordecai back together again - just that niggly little end of the world problem to deal with.

A doorway opens and everyone hears the voice of the Watcher proclaim they feel the Ashen Company has learnt enough, at least they hope so as we're out of time and the Watcher invites the Ashen Company to join them in their inner sanctum.

Act IV, Chapter Thirty Three "The Heart of Unmaking" (12-04-25)

Act IV, Chapter thirty two "Welcome back" (29-03-2025)