Cloud Empress Q1 2026 session 5 The Torturers' Archive

The group remained at Jal’s ruined library outside Rustbucket and discussed what establishing a long-term base there might require: scouting, hunting, water access, and fortifications. A courier named Creepy Gro arrived to trade chalk, a spyglass, and a dart pipe in exchange for salvaged thopter parts and plasteel. Gro showed interest in the archive’s books, but Jal shut that down immediately, while Momma joked about eventual tourism once the library was restored.That night, Neus spotted three distant figures dancing in the wastes who abruptly stopped and walked straight toward the library. Momma confronted one and found it to be a translucent wanderling with a glowing face, asking to take something ancient or “slippery” from the archive. Jal identified them as Slip pests and refused to let them take books. Momma instead offered mechanical scrap from Rustbucket, which the wanderlings accepted before fading away.Days later, Stormy detected Imago circling the area. The group secured their chalk and waited while the insects buzzed the library for hours before leaving south, some visibly injured.The following morning, five exhausted cloudling soldiers arrived seeking shelter. Their leader, Papa Lance, admitted they were deserters and spoke of attacks by humans wearing Imago-like armor. When a patrol under Captain Sapphire approached, the party hid the deserters in nearby brush. Sapphire searched the library, threatened Jal, and suggested turning the building into an expedition outpost. Neus deflected suspicion over a deserter’s coat found among traded goods, and Momma misdirected soldiers in the field until Sapphire withdrew.Afterward, the group disguised the deserters as lowland farmers and sent them south toward safer villages.With repairs finished, Jal celebrated reopening sections of the archive and floated future plans involving scavenging robot facilities and investigating the massive elevator cables in Rustbucket. The party returned to the city ruins, following servitor machines hauling rendered corpses to a giant platform connected to the clouds by four cables. Eight modified robots guarded the site, and the group avoided a fight, watching as the elevator ascended loaded with meat and returned empty.Moving deeper into Rustbucket, they reached a plasteel bridge spanning a chasm near an acid lake, guarded by aging automated turrets. A trader named Lumi crossed safely and bartered for plasteel, marbles, and a broken gold watch, trading a hard-shell tent, books, provisions, and a chalk-powered “sense recorder.” Lumi also reported a missing farmling called Tooth the Clown who had been searching the woods with chalk for a magical pool.Camping near the bridge, Momma climbed a turret and dismantled part of its mechanism, salvaging firing components and a medium chalk core and handing it to Stormy.The session ended with the group resting beside the acid lake, preparing to push further into Rustbucket.Original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsrfKwjshpU ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★