After the Exaltation had taken place and the Goblins had dispersed, I return to the site of the ceremony. I want some time with the machine and the stone table, or specifically the Faith that I had made them absorb. Under the cover of my cape of invisibility, I approached the table and the metallic box placed upon it. As the stone table has been for Goblin use, I have to crouch down to properly examine it.

It is remarkably simple, but there is something about it that just attracts attention. Intellectually I understand this is because of the faith residing within the objects. Yet emotionally speaking I cannot identify the allure of such a simple table of rock. In spite of it's rather simple apperance I can feel it containing an aura of gravitas. All in all exactly as I expected of the container. Faith makes the tiniest and most innocuous of things seem grand and important, even without the actual energy of Faith attached to it.

That is the nature of Faith, pure belief that turns the imaginary into reality and the unimportant into cornerstones of society. The metallic box is similarly charged with an aura of gravitas and importance, the machine seems to have a call of destiny to it and an air of adventure hanging about it. I forcibly suppress these impressions to avoid having them distract me. What matters now is considering what to do with this little site of natural magic.

I had seen how the faith was generated around this site and how reality seemed to actively surpress and evaporate the energy as it was generated. The power like my Eldritch Mana disappeared from the source, but unlike my mana it didn't just disappear it was actively deleted. This detail is the truly curious one as it seems to imply that the nature of this world not only makes it so magic doesn't exist here, it actively rejects magical energy when it enters that world. Eldritch sources of magic and self contained magical beings seem to be the sole exception. I presume that is because it is the nature of all things Eldritch to subvert the laws of the reality it is in.

But, why beings like myself, Mara, Sugar Plum, and a container like these two could keep the power without being destroyed by reality. That is what has truly made me question the nature of this phenomenom, I have a lot of confidence in my powers as a magic user and in the powers I had in my former life. With that said, not even the most powerful of Archfiends could defy the laws of an entire universe actively rejecting it's existence. Gods are individuals like the rest of us and the individual can only fight the tide for so long before it swallows them.

I can only hope that when Sugar Plum discovers more sites of magic here, then I will be able to delve deeper into this mystery. At present I have to few samples and not enough Insight to be able to dechiper the problem properly. Only time that ever teasing mistress will give me the keys to truly understand the nature of my situation here. So with that conclusion reached I attempt to move on.

The question is what should I do with this site of magic. In my past when I consorted with the infernal the answer to that question would have been obvious. Corrupt and or drain the site of it's magic, leaving an unhallow place where the veil between the infernal and the material would grow as thin as a bedsheet. But, that honestly does not seem very profitable to me. Faith would do nothing for me as a Warlock unless I transmuted the energy, and in my current state I would not deem it likely to succeed. Or at least not succeed well enough that it would be worth the trouble.

Those who are paranoid would destroy the site to make sure that nobody could learn to tap into the power contained in it and use it for their own purposes. A cautious move for sure but not something I am interested in doing. Warlocks draw power from sacrifice, ordeals, and risks. Leaving these two holy relics behind to soak up even more faith would seem foolish to some, but there is a lot of profit to be made in the future here. Even if some of the Goblins manage to draw a few slivers of power out of these, in the end that could by itself be useful. The most compelling reason for leaving this site to grow is, however, not one based in ideals about sacrifice and risk but simple logic and caution.

Mara could die, the crew could die, I could break the contract in some way or Mara could have her power drained. In the event of that happening I would need a new source of power, Faith is a tricky source of magic to obtain at the best of times. But with my grasp of the theoretical and with a few modifications to the magic placed upon these containers in advance, it would not be unthinkable for me to create a new connection to power myself with Faith rather than Eldritch Energies.

Under the cover of my cape and the night I begin my work to make a more powerful and permanent set of containers. I spend hours walking around the table and the box in a circle while whispering incantations, I write temporary Glyphs in blood underneath the table and I make a circle in the dirt with my feet as I wander around it. All of this to make the table and the box into permanent containers of magical energy, and to ensure that Glyphnax Blightburn have special access to that energy if they say a specific password.

With my little insurance for the future put into place I return to my secret clearing to sleep and continue my work of self improvement in my dreamscape. The next four days pass in mostly a blurr as I spend the majority of my time working on ensuring my Alchemical projects go as planned, while occasionally going over details with Vles, about the leaders we are to target and subvert.

My true focus over these days was not either of these, however, it was instead to watch the Exaltor and the table. Two more exaltations took place during this time of observation, and with each ceremony I noted several interesting developments. Primarily, in how people treated the table and the machine itself as time passed. At first people were simply treating the two as important and rather ominous objects, but after the first of the two exaltations I spotted three Goblins reverently polishing both the table and the machine. Despite both of them being well maintained and clean to begin with.

After the second Ceremony I noted that some of the Goblins came with brief prayers before it. Faith inspires Faith and the most immediate effect of holy relics is to draw even more worship to them. Enhanced by the magic I had used to make them into containers and you get a powerful combination, it would not surprise me if these items starts exhibiting more overt mystical traits in a few more days. Most relics takes months or years to draw that kind of power into them, but I feel it in my stomach that these two will be different.

It is after seeing yet another Goblin come with a brief prayer as he walks past the two containers, that I feel a slight twinge in the back of my mind. My dreamborn guardian stirrs at the very edge of my conciousness, but I sense immediately that the magic had not come from it. No this was more akin to being yelled at through magic and my creation would not dare to disturb me in such a way.

I realize it soon enough after trying to sense where the disturbance originated from. The call had come through a connection established to me, and that connection could only have been Sugar Plum. Sugar Plum must have found something so it called to me through our very weak bond. With that realization I grab my equipment and sprint out into the jungle towards the call of magic.

The opportunity that such a find represents is too great for me to not look for it immediately. I also do not want to bring the Goblins into this as I still prefer to keep the secrets that I can. When I have come out into the jungle and away from the camp I finally slow down my pace. Sugar Plum is not too far away from me, that I can sense, but it will take me time and energy to get to it.

For that reason, I focus my efforts on finding a nearby animal that is large enough to serve my needs. It takes me a bit of time and tracking, but I eventually find a large brown furred mamal that seems strong and quick enough for my purposes. Before, the creature can sprint away from me I reach out with my hand and cast Lesser Dominate on it. With the creature under my complete control I ride it through the jungle rather than running myself.

Effective means of traveling without having to rely on anyone else is becoming more and more of a priority for me. That is at least my conclusion when my dominated creature collapses after four hours of constant running through the jungle. I leave the creature behind without even glancing at it as I continue the journey on foot, as annoying as it is that it collapsed. The animal did serve it's purpose for the most part as I can feel Sugar Plum being very close to me.

It is as I think that thought and step through a thicket of verdant trees that I suddenly find myself standing in a clearing with yet another stone temple. But unlike the one that had served as such an effective trap against the mercenaries, this temple seems far simpler and far older than that. The temple is tiny and overgrown with vines, the rock is badly cut and the entire structure seems to have been on the verge of collapse for centuries. It is quite frankly a miracle that it is standing up at all.

"Can't you feel it?" I hear the alien voice from behind me ask, and I turn to glance at the plum coloured cat that steps out from the shadows of the jungle. "Feel what?" I ask absently as I turn back to the temple and I can hear Sugar Plum snorting derisively behind me. "The magic? I have searched through most of these unending jungles with my senses and this is the only place that fit the described criteria you laid out." Sugar Plum explains with a badly concealed hint of condescension in it's voice.

I want to sneer at the cat and dismiss it's findings, but as I stretch out my senses towards the magic and activate my Occult Eye spell, it becomes clear that it isn't wrong. There is magic here, extremely ancient and seemingly artificially contained, but it is in fact here. Reality seems to have not rejected this specific site of magic, but whatever is containing the magic feels distinctly not magical. It is almost like the place is alive and proudly telling me that fact.

The magical energy that is flowing through here is arcane rather than Eldritch, so maybe it's more terrestrial nature makes it better suited than either Eldritch or Faith magic to a reality like this? No, somehow that seems wrong and that explanation won't do. This magic is so old that I have serious problems with understanding just how it could have remained here for this long.

What is also clear is that trying to speculate about the nature of this place while standing outside of the temple is idiotic. So, without much ceremony I begin to walk towards the entrance of the temple itself. I can feel the plum coloured cat hesitate behind me before it begins to follow me as I walk through the dark doorway.

It ended up being a rather short journey as I paced through the corridors and rooms of the small three floored temple in about 15 minutes. The entire construct seemed to be somehow even shabbier than what I had expected from looking outside, the only thing that makes this place even remotely interesting was that it didn't resemble Goblin architecture at all. But that aside I don't feel anything more from inside of the temple than I did when I stood outside of it. There aren't any glyphs, hidden ritual circles, or even sacred geometry involved in the construction of the temple itself.

Is this where my quest for meaning will really end? So close, yet so far away from what I need to actually begin uncovering the mysteries of this world? Undignified rage starts filling me up as I search through the complex for a fifth time and yet again I don't see anything with my physical and mystical senses. Not even the Faerie Cat seems to have sensed anything additional in here. After asking Sugar Plum yet again if it has sensed anything it and gotten the predictable no. The world just turn red for me for just a second and I start blasting at the wall of the innermost chamber of the temple with arcane bolts.

When the dust clears and I finally regain my composure, I see that several portions of the stone wall has broken apart, but rather than breaking the entire wall it seems more like I scratched off it's paint. Underneath the stone I see several unnatural machines that pulsate in the wall. They seem to be made out of several different substances all working in concert; flesh, metal, crystal, stone, wood, and other stranger materials that I have no name for are all merged together. At the enter of the many thin tendrils that make up this machine is a glass surface that glow with an unnaturally bright light. And as I stare at the machine, words starts to appear on it.

REALITY CONTAINMENT FACILITY NUMBER 12378906789567545467

Status: Active, but without supervision from Vectors.

Type of Containment: Extra-Universal Energies that are not meant to interact with underlying laws of physics.

Time since last vector inspection: 17660160000 Seconds