gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Session 213, Part Three - Who Is That Masked Man?
By now they were in hot pursuit of the arresting officers and their captives. Despite a sanguine response from Agent Doran (who Korrigan could not help referring to as ‘Saladoor’) they decided not to leave him to his own devices, but to provide a distraction to better enable his escape. Hasty telepathic conversations ensued, as they worked to keep up and eventually overtake the troop on its way to the Cadagyr Estate. Lots of ideas were thrown around, but in the end they fell back on Korrigan’s first, with Brakken spooking some draft animals, in a market square halfway up the rise to the walled upper-class Northern District. (Salome knew the best spot to lay their ‘ambush’; Quratulain calculated the best moment; Korrigan kept ‘Saladoor’ telepathically informed.) When the oxen bolted, and the orcs were doing their best to avoid being trampled, ‘Torado’ sipped a hidden potion of invisibility and slipped away. It was some time before the orcs even noticed.
But something else did notice, and as it lowered from its hidden vantage, the ‘paranoid’ Salome recognised its tell-tale hiss-groan. “There’s something up there!” she warned. “It can see you!” She ran after him, as he vanished round a bend in the sloping road, and the others followed.
Warned in the nick of time, Doran was able to duck and dodge as invisible tendrils sought to coil around him. Guessing as to its location, somewhere in the air above Doran, Glaucia summoned a punishing pillar of fire, striking the creature and marking it out, until it moved out of the way. In that instant, Quratulain was able shoot it with her lantern blaster, set to ‘cold’. (Later she realised it would have been better left on ‘force’…) Glaucia then sprinted to cover the distance and help Doran fight the thing off.
The others were stymied: huge, steaming rifts opened up in the pavement between them and Doran. From behind they heard shuffling sounds and turned to see three flesh-warped dire bears emerge from an alleyway close by. Salome struck one a heavy blow and it roared in anguish.
Korrigan hoped the thing in the air was a thoughtform, and concentrated on thinking it solid. It worked! Sadly, it landed on Glaucia, pinning her and slowly squeezing the life out of her. It was still invisible, so her mushed-up face could be seen from the other side. Doran stabbed at it with his insightful blade, learning that it was immune to radiant energy. (Korrigan sheathed his holy avenger.) The creature thrashed at Doran again, but missed. Glaucia then brought down a second pillar of fire on both the creature and herself! Quratulain continued to shoot at it, creating layer after layer of ice.
Back up the hill, Brakken urged Feroz to strike at one of the other bears. When he did so, he realised that all three were illusory! Salome broke away from them and fought her way athletically across the broken terrain (which would later be revealed as illusory too).
Doran’s luck ran out. The thoughtform grabbed him, its tentacle pressed into his face and slurped out his sinus fluid and then his eye! Doran cried out in agony. Waves of pure thought rolled across the creature, which revealed itself in that instant: a bloated sac of gas from which hung a multitude of pulsing eyes. Brakken realised it was ‘reading’ everything that the stolen eye had recently seen! Though visible, the thing was now insubstantial again, and tried to lift off, but could not do so thanks to Quratulain’s layers of ice. Korrigan thought it solid again, and once more Glaucia was heavily pinned, while her summoned pillar blazed away.
By now the orcish troops had become aware of what was happening and a small contingent started heading down the hill, firing poorly aimed shots as they ran. At the same moment, another figure appeared on a rooftop close by: a short, hooded orc wielding a rapier in one hand and some strange arcanoscientific device that crackled with electricity in the other. He fired this at the thoughtform and it swerved unerringly through the air, struck the creature and caused it to judder and coruscate. This delighted newcomer, who gave a cry of triumph, as a spool mechanism on the device began to rewind itself, and pulled back a chunk of matter, being constantly zapped and kept solid.
Quratulain finished the thoughtform off with another shot from her lantern blaster. Glaucia crawled out from under it; Salome helped Doran to his feet; the illusory terrain disappeared.
“This way! Quickly!” shouted the newcomer, before dashing off across the rooftops. They followed him at street level. Once out of sight of the main road, he leapt down into the alley and guided them further into the backstreets of the Troughs. Having thrown off pursuit, he turned and pulled off the mask he had made from the police officer’s face.
It was none other than Wolfgang Von Recklinghausen!
End of Session
By now they were in hot pursuit of the arresting officers and their captives. Despite a sanguine response from Agent Doran (who Korrigan could not help referring to as ‘Saladoor’) they decided not to leave him to his own devices, but to provide a distraction to better enable his escape. Hasty telepathic conversations ensued, as they worked to keep up and eventually overtake the troop on its way to the Cadagyr Estate. Lots of ideas were thrown around, but in the end they fell back on Korrigan’s first, with Brakken spooking some draft animals, in a market square halfway up the rise to the walled upper-class Northern District. (Salome knew the best spot to lay their ‘ambush’; Quratulain calculated the best moment; Korrigan kept ‘Saladoor’ telepathically informed.) When the oxen bolted, and the orcs were doing their best to avoid being trampled, ‘Torado’ sipped a hidden potion of invisibility and slipped away. It was some time before the orcs even noticed.
But something else did notice, and as it lowered from its hidden vantage, the ‘paranoid’ Salome recognised its tell-tale hiss-groan. “There’s something up there!” she warned. “It can see you!” She ran after him, as he vanished round a bend in the sloping road, and the others followed.
Warned in the nick of time, Doran was able to duck and dodge as invisible tendrils sought to coil around him. Guessing as to its location, somewhere in the air above Doran, Glaucia summoned a punishing pillar of fire, striking the creature and marking it out, until it moved out of the way. In that instant, Quratulain was able shoot it with her lantern blaster, set to ‘cold’. (Later she realised it would have been better left on ‘force’…) Glaucia then sprinted to cover the distance and help Doran fight the thing off.
The others were stymied: huge, steaming rifts opened up in the pavement between them and Doran. From behind they heard shuffling sounds and turned to see three flesh-warped dire bears emerge from an alleyway close by. Salome struck one a heavy blow and it roared in anguish.
Korrigan hoped the thing in the air was a thoughtform, and concentrated on thinking it solid. It worked! Sadly, it landed on Glaucia, pinning her and slowly squeezing the life out of her. It was still invisible, so her mushed-up face could be seen from the other side. Doran stabbed at it with his insightful blade, learning that it was immune to radiant energy. (Korrigan sheathed his holy avenger.) The creature thrashed at Doran again, but missed. Glaucia then brought down a second pillar of fire on both the creature and herself! Quratulain continued to shoot at it, creating layer after layer of ice.
Back up the hill, Brakken urged Feroz to strike at one of the other bears. When he did so, he realised that all three were illusory! Salome broke away from them and fought her way athletically across the broken terrain (which would later be revealed as illusory too).
Doran’s luck ran out. The thoughtform grabbed him, its tentacle pressed into his face and slurped out his sinus fluid and then his eye! Doran cried out in agony. Waves of pure thought rolled across the creature, which revealed itself in that instant: a bloated sac of gas from which hung a multitude of pulsing eyes. Brakken realised it was ‘reading’ everything that the stolen eye had recently seen! Though visible, the thing was now insubstantial again, and tried to lift off, but could not do so thanks to Quratulain’s layers of ice. Korrigan thought it solid again, and once more Glaucia was heavily pinned, while her summoned pillar blazed away.
By now the orcish troops had become aware of what was happening and a small contingent started heading down the hill, firing poorly aimed shots as they ran. At the same moment, another figure appeared on a rooftop close by: a short, hooded orc wielding a rapier in one hand and some strange arcanoscientific device that crackled with electricity in the other. He fired this at the thoughtform and it swerved unerringly through the air, struck the creature and caused it to judder and coruscate. This delighted newcomer, who gave a cry of triumph, as a spool mechanism on the device began to rewind itself, and pulled back a chunk of matter, being constantly zapped and kept solid.
Quratulain finished the thoughtform off with another shot from her lantern blaster. Glaucia crawled out from under it; Salome helped Doran to his feet; the illusory terrain disappeared.
“This way! Quickly!” shouted the newcomer, before dashing off across the rooftops. They followed him at street level. Once out of sight of the main road, he leapt down into the alley and guided them further into the backstreets of the Troughs. Having thrown off pursuit, he turned and pulled off the mask he had made from the police officer’s face.
It was none other than Wolfgang Von Recklinghausen!
End of Session