gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Session 217, Part One
Outside
Doran handed the unconscious Uru over to Ayesha. He advised her to keep Uru inside sack, wrapped with rusty iron chains, inside a locked chest in a very brightly lit room. Instead Ayesha dabbed her thumb in a pot of unguent at her waist, daubed it on Uru’s forehead and said, “This will help him to rest peacefully”. Her disapproval of Doran’s suggestion was evident.
Before he entered the Triunfo, Korrigan had given Admiral Smith the order to bomb the place if they didn’t emerge or make contact within an hour. So it was a good job that Agent Doran and Doctor Von Recklinghausen had been locked out of the leviathan, or Smith said he would have undoubtedly fired on the thing. As it was, he kept a threatening distance from the alien craft, until it began to emit disorienting ululations, causing many of the Coaltongue’s crew to stumble about, vomit or become listless. At the same time, their strange mascot, Sparklehorse, became exceedingly agitated: a maw at the rear of the leviathan had opened, and three huge indistinct shapes emerged. Thoughtforms! They converged upon the Coaltongue. These winged creatures were so mind-numbingly hideous that they caused the ordinary sailors to quail in horror as they drew near. They were also able to generate a sucking wind, lifting the crew into the air, and flinging them away from the ship. (To fall, safely, thanks to the remarkable Arcane Levitationals installed by Pemberton Industries – but nonetheless reducing the ship’s full complement.) In response, Smith released the dragon fliers to draw the horrors away. Doran thought the closest one solid, while the fliers brought their auto-cannon to bear, but they could not hope to harm the thing enough to drive it off.
Admiral Smith ordered everyone belowdecks and battened down the hatches. Then he slowed and banked, to put more distance between the Coaltongue and the leviathan, outrunning the flying horrors, but prepared to re-engage the leviathan in extremis. Now it was more difficult to keep an eye on their foes, and in particular keep watch on the mysterious, angular shape that was floating down from the North.
Inside
As the leviathan swept across the city, its occupants were thrown around the interior, unless they were quick enough to grab a fleshy protuberance of some kind. Gupta, newly freed from domination, took a spectacularly forceful tumble, clipped her head on a solid obstacle and was knocked out cold. Rumdoom and Glaucia slid into the gidim’s mindscape quarters – an area replete with fleshy pods from which several of the infiltrators had emerged. They struggled to get up. Korrigan used his Lightness of Being power and Quratulain engaged her rocket boots. Brakken and Amielle were still held firm by the mindseize power they had succumbed to earlier. Leon, Uriel and Feroz grabbed hold of something close.
Sijhen remained as the sole defender of the ship. It used the ship’s interior defences to fix Uriel in the material plane with a dimensional anchor. Then the creature created a copy of itself, the better to fend off these intruders. Sijhen itself bore down on Amielle, thrusting an incorporeal hand into her cranium; its copy used an extraordinarily powerful form of telekinesis to grab hold of Quratulain and slam her against the ceiling. Korrigan used the Bracers of Liberty Glaucia had gifted him to prevent Amielle from being dominated, punishing himself, Sijhen and, unfortunately Amielle too – for breaking the gidim’s hold on her caused horrible psychic damage. Amielle was by now very weak. If she ‘died’ she would return to the ghost council!
Leon was holding on to the ship with one hand, and the Wayfarer Lantern with the other. He could not do much else that was useful in this position. Uriel lifted the lantern from him with his own form of telekinesis, causing it to hover around his own head. Glaucia brought down a pillar of fire on Sijhen’s copy. The thing didn’t even flinch! Though pinned in place, Quratulain shot at it. It yelped in pain and vanished (from everyone except Leon). Korrigan flew to defend Amielle, granting her a boon from his sword, to help free her from the mindseize, but she was too weak to do so. Feroz sought to clamber towards the gidim to exact his revenge, but he could not do so, as the ship pitched and banked. Rumdoom struggled to his feet.
It had not taken the dwarf long to recover from his apparent defeat by Quratulain. Sadly, he remained subject to gidim domination, and remained in giant form!
Outside
Doran handed the unconscious Uru over to Ayesha. He advised her to keep Uru inside sack, wrapped with rusty iron chains, inside a locked chest in a very brightly lit room. Instead Ayesha dabbed her thumb in a pot of unguent at her waist, daubed it on Uru’s forehead and said, “This will help him to rest peacefully”. Her disapproval of Doran’s suggestion was evident.
Before he entered the Triunfo, Korrigan had given Admiral Smith the order to bomb the place if they didn’t emerge or make contact within an hour. So it was a good job that Agent Doran and Doctor Von Recklinghausen had been locked out of the leviathan, or Smith said he would have undoubtedly fired on the thing. As it was, he kept a threatening distance from the alien craft, until it began to emit disorienting ululations, causing many of the Coaltongue’s crew to stumble about, vomit or become listless. At the same time, their strange mascot, Sparklehorse, became exceedingly agitated: a maw at the rear of the leviathan had opened, and three huge indistinct shapes emerged. Thoughtforms! They converged upon the Coaltongue. These winged creatures were so mind-numbingly hideous that they caused the ordinary sailors to quail in horror as they drew near. They were also able to generate a sucking wind, lifting the crew into the air, and flinging them away from the ship. (To fall, safely, thanks to the remarkable Arcane Levitationals installed by Pemberton Industries – but nonetheless reducing the ship’s full complement.) In response, Smith released the dragon fliers to draw the horrors away. Doran thought the closest one solid, while the fliers brought their auto-cannon to bear, but they could not hope to harm the thing enough to drive it off.
Admiral Smith ordered everyone belowdecks and battened down the hatches. Then he slowed and banked, to put more distance between the Coaltongue and the leviathan, outrunning the flying horrors, but prepared to re-engage the leviathan in extremis. Now it was more difficult to keep an eye on their foes, and in particular keep watch on the mysterious, angular shape that was floating down from the North.
Inside
As the leviathan swept across the city, its occupants were thrown around the interior, unless they were quick enough to grab a fleshy protuberance of some kind. Gupta, newly freed from domination, took a spectacularly forceful tumble, clipped her head on a solid obstacle and was knocked out cold. Rumdoom and Glaucia slid into the gidim’s mindscape quarters – an area replete with fleshy pods from which several of the infiltrators had emerged. They struggled to get up. Korrigan used his Lightness of Being power and Quratulain engaged her rocket boots. Brakken and Amielle were still held firm by the mindseize power they had succumbed to earlier. Leon, Uriel and Feroz grabbed hold of something close.
Sijhen remained as the sole defender of the ship. It used the ship’s interior defences to fix Uriel in the material plane with a dimensional anchor. Then the creature created a copy of itself, the better to fend off these intruders. Sijhen itself bore down on Amielle, thrusting an incorporeal hand into her cranium; its copy used an extraordinarily powerful form of telekinesis to grab hold of Quratulain and slam her against the ceiling. Korrigan used the Bracers of Liberty Glaucia had gifted him to prevent Amielle from being dominated, punishing himself, Sijhen and, unfortunately Amielle too – for breaking the gidim’s hold on her caused horrible psychic damage. Amielle was by now very weak. If she ‘died’ she would return to the ghost council!
Leon was holding on to the ship with one hand, and the Wayfarer Lantern with the other. He could not do much else that was useful in this position. Uriel lifted the lantern from him with his own form of telekinesis, causing it to hover around his own head. Glaucia brought down a pillar of fire on Sijhen’s copy. The thing didn’t even flinch! Though pinned in place, Quratulain shot at it. It yelped in pain and vanished (from everyone except Leon). Korrigan flew to defend Amielle, granting her a boon from his sword, to help free her from the mindseize, but she was too weak to do so. Feroz sought to clamber towards the gidim to exact his revenge, but he could not do so, as the ship pitched and banked. Rumdoom struggled to his feet.
It had not taken the dwarf long to recover from his apparent defeat by Quratulain. Sadly, he remained subject to gidim domination, and remained in giant form!
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