i. Stretched Skin

These notes are records written about the old lab that exists in Briea. To provide an accurate record, these accounts are unmodified. You might find the accounts surprising.

~ Vari

Author I:

There is a strange lab near the edge of the lake near Briea. The town is old - very old - the roads are paved with cobblestone. There are ancient cathedrals here and there and many of the houses are clumped close together like stuffing. It's a lopsided, yet picture-perfect coastal city, and one would expect it to have that kind of reputation. Sadly, it does not. The buildings are halfway abandoned, and the power plant that generates electricity for the city's lights is abandoned as well. Refeaël used to be the biggest producer of new technology, even to the point of its own demise. With the desire for knowledge came the desire to remove any sort of barricade that would otherwise obstruct this flow of power. In Briea, the traditional buildings are the main buildings left standing, but there is still that lab that is in business. In general, there are strange people who wander towards the lab. They come back, but they always bear a face of fear and wonder upon their return, as if they are intrigued and equally traumatized.

ii. System No. 1 (A Broken Wheel of the Thread of Law)

One day, a man was found shot in the streets. There was little sign of a struggle, and many people assumed that he had committed suicide. I remember I saw him lying there and decided to call to someone to pick up the corpse - I certainly wasn't doing it. It was nearly a week before someone journeyed down to Rey Street where I lived with a shovel and tossed the corpse in a nearby alley. Normally, this sort of treatment for the dead would shock people, but not after what we'd been through.

A few years ago, a tall man visited Briea. He was accompanied by a smaller man nearly a fifth of his size. Both men seemed to ignore the ongoing ruckus in the filthy streets and proceeded to continue in the direction of a certain apartment that we on Rey Street dreaded passing by. In general, the apartment itself looked perfectly okay from the outside. However, one of the young boys was watching the suspicious house from afar on a dare. A well-dressed man with a limp slowly shuffled up to the door and rang the doorbell. The chime rang, and about 3 seconds later, there was a terrible screeching noise, like someone was taking a knife to a small animal. The boy screamed loudly and hid. The next day, the boy still hadn't returned home.

iii. The Law

It was after this event that people started avoiding the apartment at all costs. The boy remained missing until the local police became motivated enough to be involved. Soon, a couple of "MISSING" fliers were pasted on a few different walls. It was when the last fliers were being put up that the police station received a wooden box on their front steps. It was found because it rang loudly in a metallic fashion whenever it was dropped - the person who dropped it on their front step likely had trouble transporting it.

iv. So Safe Flying...

I saw them open it. Out came a strange metal object wrapped in springs. While it looked like a piece of a larger contraption, I watched from a distance. I knew that there were some people out there who did not like the people in charge of Briea, since the boy going missing was not an isolated event.

v. Temporary System No. 1

In the days of old, there was nothing but dense evergreen forest where Briea is located. Briea was built by the New Refeaëlese Government during an industrial golden age over 2000 years ago. Supposedly, the forest was a resting place for many undead, but this didn't stop the individuals from cutting down the trees and making the large city. Eventually, problems started to arise. There was one of the first buildings that was created for Briea that suddenly burst into flames and set the Old District of Briea ablaze. People then report seeing two men walk out of the inferno, take the a small girl, and carry her back into the flames.

vi. System No. 2

Author II:

There's still something odd about that lab though. That's apparently where they do experiments on people they consider "unfit for a social means". At least, that's what the propaganda posters say. Other posters I've seen have nothing but collages of faces and heads on them. Usually they say things like "Forward!", but one poster for the lab struck me as odd. It was a collage of purple stone statues (just the heads), sliced through the nose as if the head was composed of two halves. It's almost like they're trying to get us to think of something so they can experiment on us later. It's quite strange to be honest.

vii. System No. 3

A tragedy has befallen the town of Briea. I recommend to my relatives, loved ones, or whomever to avoid the town like the plague. We're here, but we cannot get out. We are trapped. We cannot get out.

viii. Dimension of Omnivores

Apparently, strange people come out of the lab when the machines turn off. They look like regular individuals, but we can't help but believe that they're different somehow. It's really quite scary. We believe we've done anything and everything in our power to protect our town from these beasts, but we've been intimidated into staying quiet. No longer.

My friends claim that they've had children taken from them in the dark of night. Also, older men claim that they've woken up with a hunchbacked man sticking probes into holes in their head. When these men get up, there's nothing unusual going on at all, so they assume that they're hallucinating. However, many people claim to have experienced the exact same thing, lending some credibility to this "hallucination". Some believe that the experiments are aimed at re-implementing the old tribal cannibalistic culture of Refeaël. Yes, we used to be people who would kill anyone who used to come into our lands, but that was 2000 years ago. Why would we want to repeat that? The answer? A cloaked man told me it was more for fun, or "jest".

ix. M79

To experience a revival of the old tribal ways of Refeaël sounded so absurd, that I literally laughed in the man's face. He simply looked at me as if dumbfounded by my response. Apparently. the movement was bigger than I originally anticipated. That was the reason for the purple head poster that I saw plastered onto a decaying building wall. It was true. The old ways were returning.

x. Boil Water

Author III:

I encountered a small building on my travels. It looked fairly modern. It was as though it had just been freshly built, as all the surrounding structures were muddy and in desperate need of repairs. A child gestured me inside, and I felt compelled to follow. When I came up close to the person, I realized that it was not a child at all, but a man of about 3 feet in height. He asked me something in an unintelligible accent, and I could do nothing be shrug. He seemed greatly saddened by this and closed the door. I stood out in the rain, unsure what to make of the encounter. I had just decided to move towards the town of Briea, when the door opened again and the man gestured, guiding me inside.

xi. Death in the River

The inside of the house was covered not in experiments as I had heard the townsfolk go on about, but in letters, sweet smelling flowers that appeared to be freshly picked, and wooden chairs. The small man beckoned me to sit in a chair and wrote a note to me on one of the papers that was left lying about.

"You heard about the death in the river, correct?"

I wrote back.

"No, I have not. Who died?"

"My son, Lloyd."

"I'm very sorry. My condolences."

Just then, a small girl ran into the room.

"Daddy!"

The dad and the young girl who appeared to be about five years old were approximately the same size. The dad remained silent.

"Who's this, Daddy?"

The dad remained silent still, tears welling up in his eyes. I began to assume that the father could not speak due to some ailment or other. The father seemed to read my thoughts, and with that, he handed me a note that had been pre-written.

"Hello Vaughn,

You may not have expected to come here, but I knew that you would. I am in hiding due to charges that were brought against me in my home country. I am innocent, but a being of the unknown continues to taunt me and control people in such a way that it causes me to suffer. I have lost the ability to speak, but I need your help nevertheless. Please hear my plea. I need you to help protect my daughter Emilie, as the unknown has already taken my son."

xii. Temporary System No. 2

The unknown apparently set the town of Briea on fire, according to the man. That's why the building he was living in looked so much fresher - he had protected it from the flames. As I journeyed on, I saw the old buildings of what seemed to have been an ancient, yet industrial town. Human bones littered the empty streets, and every so often, a rat would scamper across the wet road.

xiii. Death Evening

I found a few men wandering the old town after a while. They said that they had come to visit friends and family many years ago, and that they found nothing but ruin. They also seemed to agree that whatever ravaged Briea was some sort of unknown beast, something that could not be seen nor heard from. I asked them how that worked, and they shuddered. It was as if the town was okay one second, and in enormous flames the next.

"The unknown has no time-frame," said one man, "It just is. Whatever it wills comes to be."

xiv. M69

A strange noise filled the air, and I knew it was time to get going. It sounded like a strange clicking noise, like someone or something popping its tongue in some sort of fashion, as if to beckon me away from the group like some sort of animal. I fled Briea that night, and never visited it again. I knew there were forces that I must stay away from, and I decided to do so.

xv. Infestation in Lung

According to what I know, these roads still remain untraveled. I don't blame any sort of individual who refuses to venture towards Briea, or Refeaël for that matter. I remember before I eventually left the country, I was stopped by cloaked woman.

"Who are you?" she hissed.

I refused to say my name, and she grabbed me and slammed me into the ground.

"You've seen him!"

I didn't know what she was talking about. I thought of the small man who lived in the only standing house in Briea, and dread flooded my mind. Suddenly, the woman looked up and fled into the darkness of the night. I have no idea what she saw, and I decided not to look behind me to find out. I kept fleeing down the road and didn't stop until I saw the sun.

xvi. Smashed Cicada Shells

Author IV:

I decided after a bit of contemplation that I should head to the country of Jama. It was in the Center of the Chaoslands, and it seemed to connect with the tragedy that befell Briea. I am a detective after all. I traveled from Windor in the Seraph Territories and eventually arrived in the city of Wreath. All the cities out here are city-states in the sense that there are no true borders dictating boundaries. Jama is the official name of the city-state that contains the city of Wreath. It is a large city, one that Lavu did not feel the need to take over. In any case, I decided to look at an anonymous tip that I got that the country of Jama had something to do with the burning of Briea. I eventually met the man who I was looking for. His name was Oscar. Apparently, he had been through a lot and had come to Wreath to settle down and retire. He had a strange museum of objects he said he'd like to show me.

xvii. Languid

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xviii. Pus

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xix. The Anthem of Springs

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