ZEITGEIST [ZEITGEIST] The Continuing Adventures of Korrigan & Co.
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gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Session 26 (149), Part Two - The Gate of Rumah Terakir
Crafted of dreamstuff, the great guardian of Sentosa took the form of a ten-headed lion. Nine heads swirled and danced about it, while the tenth was attached to its huge body. The heads fanned out and began attacking different foes with strange magical powers: beams of radiant energy (which Uriel was able to resist); strange spells; poisoned bites; one turned out to be able to lick and heal the other heads. The great lion itself prowled out of the gateway and caused flames to roll out and scorch a huge area, growing in intensity. The unit sought higher ground.
Having located the second mortar and kicked it out of place, Matunaaga did not waste time with the porteurs but raced back down the hill towards the gateway. Meanwhile, Leon sought to manoeuvre the others out of danger, opening a wormhole onto the high steps of the gateway. Korrigan pointed his six-shooter at Ormand and manhandled him back through the portal before the rolling flames hit them. Then he took out a pair of mage-cuffs and demanded that Ormond put them on. Ormond responded that they should first work together to escape certain death and unleashed three magic missiles at the lion’s heads, four of which were zeroing in on them now that Leon had joined them on the steps.
Uriel saw the flames coming towards him. “Oh dear,” he said and turned and walked away. As the flames licked around him he began to clamber up the side of a fallen tree. One head chose to target him and he was cursed with blindness for fear of being petrified by the lion’s gaze.
Leon summoned a nightmare from the Dreaming to counter the dreamstuff lion. It took the form of the lion’s deepest fear, which turned out to be ten-headed mice!
The rolling flames intensified.
Uru was clinging to the far side of a stone wall, when he was found by a lion head. It was the first time he had been seen when he didn’t want to be: a dreamstuff guardian with many eyes was not so easily fooled. The head threw him up and over the wall, where he landed in the flames. Irate, Uru ignored the pain, raised his crossbow and sprayed the cluster of heads near Korrigan with shuriken, taking out the healer head before falling to his knees. Ormond saw to two more injured heads with magic missiles and Korrigan at once shouted at Uru to get himself up and out of the fire. Uru dragged himself to his feet and followed his commands, whereupon Korrigan bolted away from everyone else and issued a challenge to the lion to draw it and all its heads towards him, boldly withstanding the claws and fangs and spells before ordering the unit to strike back in unison, in response to which, the lion teleported away, leaving its original head behind!
It arrived attached to a head closest to Charles Ormond, who it proceeded to tear into, making short work of his crushed velvet jump suit.
Gupta cursed as her rifle jammed. The petrifying head hovered into view and she struggled to shrug off its effect to no avail. Instantly, there was a statue of Gupta, looking very pissed off. Her magical charm on Ormond wore off just as he died, in time to realise that he had released the lion himself!
Matunaaga arrived and took out three heads. Uru realised he could take no more punishment and ghost-stepped out of harm’s way. Matunaaga took out some more heads. Korrigan challenged the lion again, and again fended it off. One of its heads attacked Matunaaga, who staggered back, exhausted. Then the lion teleported to that head and took Matunaaga down, even as he took out its last remaining head. In haste, Korrigan bolted to his side and held the lion at bay. Leon’s nightmare finally took hold of the creature and it thrashed about at illusory enemies, giving the exhausted unit a brief respite.
Matunaaga and Uru were out of the fight, Gupta was petrified and Uriel - even though he was blind - was facing the other way, just in case (having exhorted Uru to look in his direction and used the skull mounted on Uru's head to find his way on top of the fallen tree). Korrigan and Leon needed to deal with the lion quickly. Though headless, it remained dangerous, as the rolling flames grew to such intensity that even they could not resist them.
Out of the corner of his eye, Leon – who was standing in the gateway – could see faint figures behind him, as if through a veil.
It looked like a military formation with two people at its head, arguing and remonstrating. Eventually, one raised a small object towards the gateway, which shimmered, and now Leon could see a troop of twenty eladrin rajput and their female leader who had used a decorated ring of copper and wood as a key to open the portal. She had been persuaded to do so by Asrabey Varal, who now stepped forth and reprimanded the beast.
When it would not yield, he threw his famous lion-headed shield to hold it fast, and slew it with his vekeshi blade. Then he turned to Korrigan and said, “Kasvarina wants to talk with you.”
Crafted of dreamstuff, the great guardian of Sentosa took the form of a ten-headed lion. Nine heads swirled and danced about it, while the tenth was attached to its huge body. The heads fanned out and began attacking different foes with strange magical powers: beams of radiant energy (which Uriel was able to resist); strange spells; poisoned bites; one turned out to be able to lick and heal the other heads. The great lion itself prowled out of the gateway and caused flames to roll out and scorch a huge area, growing in intensity. The unit sought higher ground.
Having located the second mortar and kicked it out of place, Matunaaga did not waste time with the porteurs but raced back down the hill towards the gateway. Meanwhile, Leon sought to manoeuvre the others out of danger, opening a wormhole onto the high steps of the gateway. Korrigan pointed his six-shooter at Ormand and manhandled him back through the portal before the rolling flames hit them. Then he took out a pair of mage-cuffs and demanded that Ormond put them on. Ormond responded that they should first work together to escape certain death and unleashed three magic missiles at the lion’s heads, four of which were zeroing in on them now that Leon had joined them on the steps.
Uriel saw the flames coming towards him. “Oh dear,” he said and turned and walked away. As the flames licked around him he began to clamber up the side of a fallen tree. One head chose to target him and he was cursed with blindness for fear of being petrified by the lion’s gaze.
Leon summoned a nightmare from the Dreaming to counter the dreamstuff lion. It took the form of the lion’s deepest fear, which turned out to be ten-headed mice!
The rolling flames intensified.
Uru was clinging to the far side of a stone wall, when he was found by a lion head. It was the first time he had been seen when he didn’t want to be: a dreamstuff guardian with many eyes was not so easily fooled. The head threw him up and over the wall, where he landed in the flames. Irate, Uru ignored the pain, raised his crossbow and sprayed the cluster of heads near Korrigan with shuriken, taking out the healer head before falling to his knees. Ormond saw to two more injured heads with magic missiles and Korrigan at once shouted at Uru to get himself up and out of the fire. Uru dragged himself to his feet and followed his commands, whereupon Korrigan bolted away from everyone else and issued a challenge to the lion to draw it and all its heads towards him, boldly withstanding the claws and fangs and spells before ordering the unit to strike back in unison, in response to which, the lion teleported away, leaving its original head behind!
It arrived attached to a head closest to Charles Ormond, who it proceeded to tear into, making short work of his crushed velvet jump suit.
Gupta cursed as her rifle jammed. The petrifying head hovered into view and she struggled to shrug off its effect to no avail. Instantly, there was a statue of Gupta, looking very pissed off. Her magical charm on Ormond wore off just as he died, in time to realise that he had released the lion himself!
Matunaaga arrived and took out three heads. Uru realised he could take no more punishment and ghost-stepped out of harm’s way. Matunaaga took out some more heads. Korrigan challenged the lion again, and again fended it off. One of its heads attacked Matunaaga, who staggered back, exhausted. Then the lion teleported to that head and took Matunaaga down, even as he took out its last remaining head. In haste, Korrigan bolted to his side and held the lion at bay. Leon’s nightmare finally took hold of the creature and it thrashed about at illusory enemies, giving the exhausted unit a brief respite.
Matunaaga and Uru were out of the fight, Gupta was petrified and Uriel - even though he was blind - was facing the other way, just in case (having exhorted Uru to look in his direction and used the skull mounted on Uru's head to find his way on top of the fallen tree). Korrigan and Leon needed to deal with the lion quickly. Though headless, it remained dangerous, as the rolling flames grew to such intensity that even they could not resist them.
Out of the corner of his eye, Leon – who was standing in the gateway – could see faint figures behind him, as if through a veil.
It looked like a military formation with two people at its head, arguing and remonstrating. Eventually, one raised a small object towards the gateway, which shimmered, and now Leon could see a troop of twenty eladrin rajput and their female leader who had used a decorated ring of copper and wood as a key to open the portal. She had been persuaded to do so by Asrabey Varal, who now stepped forth and reprimanded the beast.
When it would not yield, he threw his famous lion-headed shield to hold it fast, and slew it with his vekeshi blade. Then he turned to Korrigan and said, “Kasvarina wants to talk with you.”
Last edited:
RangerWickett
Legend
Wait, did I finally design a monster that could defeat the party?
gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
I wish I could say yes. Fact is, I slightly over-egged the pudding for the write-up. I think Korrigan and Leon could have handled what was left of the lion (by now headless) but it would have taken a while, as neither are major damage dealers. So Asrabey was really rescuing all of us from an end-of-combat grind, rather than actually saving the party. But the encounter was very well designed and varied and the lion took down half the party, so that's not too shabby.
Of course, weve switched to Cypher System, which has a different dynamic to 4e, and I'm making up the conversion as I go along. I often find I've made the encounters way too tough, for example. Our very first fight after the reboot - Bum Rush - was almost a TPK and I had to make the bad guys behave sub-optimally to avoid an early end to our comeback. Brought in the cops early too.
Oh, and Rumdoom wasn't there (during Bum Rush or the Gates of Rumah Terakir). He's almost impossible to kill. I think Rumdoom and Matunaaga could handle most encounters between them. Matunaaga only keeps going down because in Cypher you're spending your 'hit points' to activate your powers (wearing yourself out even if the monsters don't hit you). So the more cool stuff he does, the easier he is to take out. (That's the major difference in the dynamic right there.)
gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Session 27, Part One - Asrabey & the Amnesiac
“Kasvarina wants to talk with you.” So she knew they were here.
Two dozen rajputs fanned out from the gate and took up defensive positions. Some used minor spells to levitate to high ground; others, where they found themselves exposed, raised magical shields to augment their bucklers. Four waited by the open gate, flanking their female leader.
While the unit picked themselves up and dusted themselves off, Asrabey glanced around. “Where is your dwarf?” They told him that Rumdoom was on his way. “You would have been wise to wait until he arrived to before trying to deal with that lion,” said Asrabey. “I might have come sooner, but Faedraven is stubborn.” The woman glared back at him.
Uru was healed by Leon, while the others decided what to do with Gupta. (“Very realistic,” said Uriel, scrutinizing her face.) Over Leon’s shoulder, Uru warned the rajputs that there were more Ob soldiers out there, manning mortar positions. Faedravan gave orders and half a dozen warriors pounced into the jungle. Asrabey added that there were more humans in the ‘shadowfell’. They had watched them enter before the unit arrived. Leon used his wayfarer lamp to make the area coterminous with the Bleak Gate and they discovered ten Obscurati researchers huddled in the Bleak Gate. The rajput surrounded them. Asrabey wanted to put them to death, to prevent them taking their secrets away with them, but the unit stopped him. Aside from any humanitarian issues, they were concerned that the researchers might simply join the ghost council if killed. (Shame about Ormond…)
Though frightened, the researchers could be heard complaining about how Ormond portrayed them in the illusion. “Did you notice how none of us could answer his questions? Pah, he was so full of himself.” Then another gestured at Ormond’s disembowelled corpse and said, “You couldn’t say that about him now.” Because of the Ob geas, the researchers couldn’t say much when interrogated, but one of them told Leon, “Ormond said he knew you. That you had trained together before Yerasol.” Leon had no recollection of Ormond. Either he was lying, or some of Leon’s memories were still missing. Much to their consternation, Uriel poked around in the researchers’ stuff, and took a few minor magical items for ‘study’.
There was no time to help Gupta right now – Leon put her in the absurdist web. Then Asrabey bid them enter Sentosa. Faedrevan glared at him again for his presumption, and urged them all to hurry, before anyone else could cross through, now the guardian had been slain. She made no apology for their injuries, though. Uru had sent an animal messenger to Rumdoom, telling him where they were, and then to Hildegaard, just in case Rumdoom wasn’t compos mentis . Asrabey told Faedravan to admit the dwarf when he arrived. “He is their greatest warrior,” he said.
Faedravan and Asrabey escorted the party into Sentosa, and told them they were to be taken to speak with Kasvarina straight away. Although they didn’t have much time to take in the enclave, it seemed to mirror the ruins in the real world, with a large stepped temple at its centre. Most of the buildings were the same, but here they were not ruins. Their passage was watched by curious and fearful onlookers, mostly eladrin but also a few pixies and dryad-like fey. They openly stared and pointed at both Uriel and Leon. (Leon thought he saw at least two people spit when they saw him.)
Though eladrin men still distinctly outnumbered the women, the ratio was far closer than most scholars in the human world predicted would be possible. Still, there was a large proportion of old men, and no old women at all. Even the oldest men comported themselves with the poise and dignity of fiercely-trained warriors, and a focus on martial prowess was evident all around. As they followed Asrabey they passed a training field where a hundred young men and women practiced mock combat, often two or three on one, with flashes of magic as the warriors used minor spells to augment their attacks or defences.
Eventually they came to a humble stone building, raised on steps like most of the others. Another company of twenty male eladrin warriors stood guard around and atop the building, indicating the value of the occupant. Korrigan spoke quietly to Matunaaga and told him to wait on the steps and be ready in case they needed to clear a path out of there. Matunaaga sat down on the steps to clean his firearms, under the austere gaze of the rajput.
Asrabey took the party inside. Though small, the home was furnished with silks and fine wood furniture of a type fit for nobility. They found Kasvarina in a large, round chamber, lit from a skylight above. It was a living room now repurposed as a study: the eladrin matriarch was surrounded by neatly ordered stacks of books and furled scrolls, trying to learn about the outside world. She was dressed in a simple day gown, poring over a tome that concerned a failed revolt against the dragon tyrants 400 years ago. A fine mithral rapier lay across the table within easy reach, and as she turned the pages with one hand, she idly tapped a mithral dagger into the table with her other. The sheer number of tiny stab marks was a testament both to how long she had been there and her ongoing frustration. She barely responded when Asrabey entered, and didn’t look up until her attendant cleared his throat. Until he did so, the old half-elf had gone almost entirely unnoticed. White-haired, with a neat goatee, he was dressed in unassuming, dark clothes – slightly old-fashioned by Risuri standards. He stood up and coughed politely, and Kasvarina looked up.
“These are the ones I mentioned,” said Asrabey. Kasvarina’s regarded them curiously as they filed into the room. She said, “Thank you, master Sentacore, that will be all for today.” Her tutor gathered his things, tucking a battered notebook and the Compiled Works of William Miller under his arm. As he left with Asrabey, he attempted to make firm – slightly too firm, perhaps imploring – eye contact with Korrigan, Leon and Uriel.
“You found me very quickly,” said Kasvarina when they had gone. “Would you care for some tea?” Her gaze was intense, but her manner graceful.
Only Uru refused. He had presented himself in full regalia as Lord of the Creeping Fey. Kasvarina made the tea herself in a gesture of welcome and humility (though she used a cantrip to heat the water instantly). While she did so, they talked, explaining that their arrival had been hastened by Gale. “Ah,” said Kasvarina. “Hana made good on her promise. I do hope she was circumspect. My hosts were keen that the two of us should not meet, but we are resourceful, she and I.” They told her that Gale had pointed them in the right direction, but had not admitted to any meeting, or passed on a message. Kasvarina laughed.
While serving the tea, she then told them that she hoped they could help her. She remembered nothing of her involvement in the Obscurati. When she thought about the version of her who ordered assassinations as a matriarch of her own enclave, or conspired with strange ‘engineers’ to design a metal titan, it was like thinking of a stranger. “But it is a stranger whom I loathe, and whom I would gladly help defeat.”
She told the unit that Asrabey had spoken highly of them – insofar as Asrabey spoke highly of anyone – and had even gone so far as to admit that one of their number had defeated him in battle (albeit after he had bested a whole army). She had been informed that they were best placed to oppose the Obscurati, and requested that they tell her everything they knew – or as much as was practical.
The unit decided to tell Kasvarina everything, and so began by telling her what they knew of her own involvement: How they first heard of her during the very encounter she had already mentioned in which Rumdoom felled Asrabey with the Icy End of the World (in his first desperate, unintended use of that power). Before they confronted Asrabey, they had overheard a conversation between him and his intended victim, Duchess Ethelyn of Shale. Also present was Nathan Jierre, a tiefling who had alerted the Duchess to the Island’s function – the construction of terrible, witch-oil fuelled weapons. Nathan heard Asrabey’s name and asked if he knew Kasvarina. When Asrabey asked what she was to Nathan Jierre, the tiefling said that she had taken a tour of the Danoran facility only a few months earlier, in the company of a chain-smoking stranger.
Fast-forward six months, and the discovery of a mangled bronze golem allowed the unit to piece together the circumstances of its destruction by Leone Quital. (Malthusius had used object loresight on every last fragment.) Only later would they recognise his other victim as Alexander Grappa, who had been apprehended and murdered in his attempt to flee with an eladrin noblewoman they now knew to be Kasvarina. Grappa had decided to defect from the Ob, and had taken Kasvarina with him, along with her memories and those of the colossus.
First mention of Borne caused Kasvarina to inhale sharply and fearfully, and she fell back in her seat in a sort of swoon, before recovering herself. Along with a mumbled apology for her reaction, she muttered, “This is not my home. I must return to Resal.” Then she calmed herself and regained her composure. “Forgive me. This is most helpful. Do continue.”
They went on to say that it was many months later before they heard mention of her again, when trying to prevent the renegade fey lord Ekossigan from entering the Bleak Gate. Fighting alongside them was Asrabey. Kasvarina nodded. This much she knew, but she allowed them to continue for completeness’ sake: Ekossigan told Asrabey that the Ob was holding her prisoner and Asarabey had turned on the unit, allowing Ekossigan to complete his ritual and sacrifice a dozen orphan children. Together with a dominated Gale, they led a fey army against the Ob, but were defeated. A wounded Asrabey returned at a very inopportune moment (revealing their hand to Sovereign Han Jierre in the midst of a flailing Peace Conference) whereupon they put their differences aside and fought their way into the Ob facility together.
There – while Grappa had tried and failed to take control of Borne and inadvertently released him – Asrabey had found and freed Kasvarina before teleporting her to safety. At that point she was assumed to be an unwilling prisoner. In fact, if the unit had not recently managed to penetrate the Ob convocation in Mutravir, that is a misapprehension they would still be labouring under. Only when the Ob leadership identified Kasvarina as a key member of the conspiracy, and one of continued importance and significance, had they made the decision to try and track her down.
With this important part of the story out of the way, they then went on to talk about their knowledge of the conspiracy, and revealed its ultimate goal. Kasvarina listened intently, shaking her head to indicate her disapproval at points and eventually unable to contain herself: “Hubris. Foolishness. I had hoped the ends might justify the means, but they do not. Reshaping the world in one’s own image, or to one’s own design, is arrogance beyond measure.” They went on to emphasise the risks inherent in doing so, given that the Ob intended to remove any barrier to inter-planar invasion.
Now it was Kasvarina’s turn. She began by sharing what memories she still had – of training to protect her nation with sword and spell; of a hundred songs her people have forgotten in five centuries; of marrying, having two daughters, and losing her husband Pillai in the holy war; of the spices used in her daughter Dala’s favourite dish, which she cannot find today because the farms were claimed by a human colony; of how she marched to the holy war and both longed for revenge and despised herself for the slaughter she knew she’d be responsible for. Then she told them what she had managed to learn of her ‘other self’, who returned from the war as one of a handful of female survivors, miraculously found her other daughter Launga still alive, formed an enclave and fought for a century, then lost her daughter to betrayal from another matriarch. Apparently she tried to have more children but never could. After that it was centuries of ordering attacks on the Clergy and thefts of treasure to strengthen her enclave; marrying half a dozen men for political reasons, and then disappearing four years ago. It had taken the length of time since her release, and the help of Kieran Sentacore, her tutor, to piece all this together. And it had taken until only just recently for her to regain the mental strength to cope with idea of moving forward. At first, every history lesson was a fresh bereavement.
She had remained in Sentosa the entire time. Her own enclave, Ushanti, might still be thriving, but Asrabey warned her not to go there because the Ob might know how to infiltrate it. Then she gave an infectious laugh and gestured at Leon and Uriel, who she said were like a living, breathing history lesson – as members of races that did not even exist before her memories were stolen.
When she was done talking, the unit cut to the chase: Why did Kasvarina want them to come here?
Using mage hand, she drew over a book traced in silver filigree. The centuries-old book had been rebound multiple times. It contained a catalogue of the mighty and dangerous artifacts the Elfaivaran empire once possessed. Kasvarina had checked with scholars in the enclave, and most of these artifacts had long-since been plundered or destroyed, but the one she needed still remained:
The Lost Arc of Reida was a crown said to have been shaped from a fragment of the plane of time. It was a holy relic of the god Ingatan. Any who wore it and returned to the site of a memory was able to make that memory come to life. It was used in holy rites to pass on memories that must not be forgotten. The eladrin of Elfaivar all knew that the arc was taken for safe-keeping after the Great Malice, and the first Vekeshi Mystics used it to pass along the memory of Srasama’s fall. Eventually it was returned to a site known as Ingatan’s Refuge, a few hundred miles to the north. Kasvarina hoped that she could use the Arc to retrace her steps, and discover something of use in defeating the shadowy group which her ‘other self’ helped to found.
At once, Uru questioned the whole idea: how could they be sure that she would not regain her former beliefs and personality and turn against them? Kasvarina did her best to assuage his understandable fears, before Korrigan speedily accepted her reassurances on behalf of the group. (He told them later that they would, needless to say, keep an eye on Kasvarina throughout their endeavour and act decisively if she ‘lapsed’.)
Uriel expressed his own interest in Arc and wondered aloud if it would enable him to reconnect with his former selves. Kasvarina thought it a strange coincidence that he was missing his memories too. “I died in your escape,” said Uriel. Uru added, with a pointed glance at Uriel, “My friend Malthusius has gone. I’m hoping he will come back.” Uriel took what he would later learn to call ‘offence’ at Uru’s remarks.
Finally, Kasvarina explained that she needed protection from Obscurati, to search for the Lost Arc of Reida and – if it worked as she hoped – explore her old memories. They were the only ones who had proven themselves capable of defeating the Ob, and they were also the only ones who she could trust.
Once they had agreed to her plan, a final hurdle remained: while her hostess, the matriarch Athrylla Valanar – who controlled this enclave and who could limit who entered or left – had been nothing but kind in protecting her, Athrylla had refused to let Kasvarina or even Asrabey go out to seek the artifact. Kasvarina sensed there was bad blood between her and Athrylla, which she hoped that the unit, as representatives of Risur and the Unseen Court, might be able to overcome.
Once they acquiesced to this idea, Kasvarina called Asrabey back in. Asrabey said that he had tarried here longer than he wanted, and that he hoped to resume his duties to the Unseen Court on their return. It was a mission Kasvarina herself gave him over two centuries ago: to ensure that in the eladrin time of need, the fey of Risur could be counted on as allies. Uriel artlessly enquired how Asrabey was connected to Kasvarina, to which he responded bitterly, “I was the last in a long line of politically expedient husbands”. If she had visible eyeballs, Kasvarina would have rolled them. She reminded Asrabey that the order he got was from another version of her, and that his mission might somehow have served the goals of the Obscurati. After a pause, Asrabey said, “All I know is that this Kasvarina is soft, and a soft woman could never have protected our people like the Kasvarina I knew.” Kasvarina said that the woman he knew apparently had no problem with mass prostitution and brothels and that she much preferred the woman she ws now, who remembered life before the world went mad.
With nothing else left to say, Asrabey left to request an audience with Athrylla on the unit’s behalf. When he had gone Uru remarked that Asrabey had shown himself to be, “devoted enough to murder children,” while Uriel observed that is was “odd that he seems to prefer the evil version of his wife.”
“Kasvarina wants to talk with you.” So she knew they were here.
Two dozen rajputs fanned out from the gate and took up defensive positions. Some used minor spells to levitate to high ground; others, where they found themselves exposed, raised magical shields to augment their bucklers. Four waited by the open gate, flanking their female leader.
While the unit picked themselves up and dusted themselves off, Asrabey glanced around. “Where is your dwarf?” They told him that Rumdoom was on his way. “You would have been wise to wait until he arrived to before trying to deal with that lion,” said Asrabey. “I might have come sooner, but Faedraven is stubborn.” The woman glared back at him.
Uru was healed by Leon, while the others decided what to do with Gupta. (“Very realistic,” said Uriel, scrutinizing her face.) Over Leon’s shoulder, Uru warned the rajputs that there were more Ob soldiers out there, manning mortar positions. Faedravan gave orders and half a dozen warriors pounced into the jungle. Asrabey added that there were more humans in the ‘shadowfell’. They had watched them enter before the unit arrived. Leon used his wayfarer lamp to make the area coterminous with the Bleak Gate and they discovered ten Obscurati researchers huddled in the Bleak Gate. The rajput surrounded them. Asrabey wanted to put them to death, to prevent them taking their secrets away with them, but the unit stopped him. Aside from any humanitarian issues, they were concerned that the researchers might simply join the ghost council if killed. (Shame about Ormond…)
Though frightened, the researchers could be heard complaining about how Ormond portrayed them in the illusion. “Did you notice how none of us could answer his questions? Pah, he was so full of himself.” Then another gestured at Ormond’s disembowelled corpse and said, “You couldn’t say that about him now.” Because of the Ob geas, the researchers couldn’t say much when interrogated, but one of them told Leon, “Ormond said he knew you. That you had trained together before Yerasol.” Leon had no recollection of Ormond. Either he was lying, or some of Leon’s memories were still missing. Much to their consternation, Uriel poked around in the researchers’ stuff, and took a few minor magical items for ‘study’.
There was no time to help Gupta right now – Leon put her in the absurdist web. Then Asrabey bid them enter Sentosa. Faedrevan glared at him again for his presumption, and urged them all to hurry, before anyone else could cross through, now the guardian had been slain. She made no apology for their injuries, though. Uru had sent an animal messenger to Rumdoom, telling him where they were, and then to Hildegaard, just in case Rumdoom wasn’t compos mentis . Asrabey told Faedravan to admit the dwarf when he arrived. “He is their greatest warrior,” he said.
Faedravan and Asrabey escorted the party into Sentosa, and told them they were to be taken to speak with Kasvarina straight away. Although they didn’t have much time to take in the enclave, it seemed to mirror the ruins in the real world, with a large stepped temple at its centre. Most of the buildings were the same, but here they were not ruins. Their passage was watched by curious and fearful onlookers, mostly eladrin but also a few pixies and dryad-like fey. They openly stared and pointed at both Uriel and Leon. (Leon thought he saw at least two people spit when they saw him.)
Though eladrin men still distinctly outnumbered the women, the ratio was far closer than most scholars in the human world predicted would be possible. Still, there was a large proportion of old men, and no old women at all. Even the oldest men comported themselves with the poise and dignity of fiercely-trained warriors, and a focus on martial prowess was evident all around. As they followed Asrabey they passed a training field where a hundred young men and women practiced mock combat, often two or three on one, with flashes of magic as the warriors used minor spells to augment their attacks or defences.
Eventually they came to a humble stone building, raised on steps like most of the others. Another company of twenty male eladrin warriors stood guard around and atop the building, indicating the value of the occupant. Korrigan spoke quietly to Matunaaga and told him to wait on the steps and be ready in case they needed to clear a path out of there. Matunaaga sat down on the steps to clean his firearms, under the austere gaze of the rajput.
Asrabey took the party inside. Though small, the home was furnished with silks and fine wood furniture of a type fit for nobility. They found Kasvarina in a large, round chamber, lit from a skylight above. It was a living room now repurposed as a study: the eladrin matriarch was surrounded by neatly ordered stacks of books and furled scrolls, trying to learn about the outside world. She was dressed in a simple day gown, poring over a tome that concerned a failed revolt against the dragon tyrants 400 years ago. A fine mithral rapier lay across the table within easy reach, and as she turned the pages with one hand, she idly tapped a mithral dagger into the table with her other. The sheer number of tiny stab marks was a testament both to how long she had been there and her ongoing frustration. She barely responded when Asrabey entered, and didn’t look up until her attendant cleared his throat. Until he did so, the old half-elf had gone almost entirely unnoticed. White-haired, with a neat goatee, he was dressed in unassuming, dark clothes – slightly old-fashioned by Risuri standards. He stood up and coughed politely, and Kasvarina looked up.
“These are the ones I mentioned,” said Asrabey. Kasvarina’s regarded them curiously as they filed into the room. She said, “Thank you, master Sentacore, that will be all for today.” Her tutor gathered his things, tucking a battered notebook and the Compiled Works of William Miller under his arm. As he left with Asrabey, he attempted to make firm – slightly too firm, perhaps imploring – eye contact with Korrigan, Leon and Uriel.
“You found me very quickly,” said Kasvarina when they had gone. “Would you care for some tea?” Her gaze was intense, but her manner graceful.
Only Uru refused. He had presented himself in full regalia as Lord of the Creeping Fey. Kasvarina made the tea herself in a gesture of welcome and humility (though she used a cantrip to heat the water instantly). While she did so, they talked, explaining that their arrival had been hastened by Gale. “Ah,” said Kasvarina. “Hana made good on her promise. I do hope she was circumspect. My hosts were keen that the two of us should not meet, but we are resourceful, she and I.” They told her that Gale had pointed them in the right direction, but had not admitted to any meeting, or passed on a message. Kasvarina laughed.
While serving the tea, she then told them that she hoped they could help her. She remembered nothing of her involvement in the Obscurati. When she thought about the version of her who ordered assassinations as a matriarch of her own enclave, or conspired with strange ‘engineers’ to design a metal titan, it was like thinking of a stranger. “But it is a stranger whom I loathe, and whom I would gladly help defeat.”
She told the unit that Asrabey had spoken highly of them – insofar as Asrabey spoke highly of anyone – and had even gone so far as to admit that one of their number had defeated him in battle (albeit after he had bested a whole army). She had been informed that they were best placed to oppose the Obscurati, and requested that they tell her everything they knew – or as much as was practical.
The unit decided to tell Kasvarina everything, and so began by telling her what they knew of her own involvement: How they first heard of her during the very encounter she had already mentioned in which Rumdoom felled Asrabey with the Icy End of the World (in his first desperate, unintended use of that power). Before they confronted Asrabey, they had overheard a conversation between him and his intended victim, Duchess Ethelyn of Shale. Also present was Nathan Jierre, a tiefling who had alerted the Duchess to the Island’s function – the construction of terrible, witch-oil fuelled weapons. Nathan heard Asrabey’s name and asked if he knew Kasvarina. When Asrabey asked what she was to Nathan Jierre, the tiefling said that she had taken a tour of the Danoran facility only a few months earlier, in the company of a chain-smoking stranger.
Fast-forward six months, and the discovery of a mangled bronze golem allowed the unit to piece together the circumstances of its destruction by Leone Quital. (Malthusius had used object loresight on every last fragment.) Only later would they recognise his other victim as Alexander Grappa, who had been apprehended and murdered in his attempt to flee with an eladrin noblewoman they now knew to be Kasvarina. Grappa had decided to defect from the Ob, and had taken Kasvarina with him, along with her memories and those of the colossus.
First mention of Borne caused Kasvarina to inhale sharply and fearfully, and she fell back in her seat in a sort of swoon, before recovering herself. Along with a mumbled apology for her reaction, she muttered, “This is not my home. I must return to Resal.” Then she calmed herself and regained her composure. “Forgive me. This is most helpful. Do continue.”
They went on to say that it was many months later before they heard mention of her again, when trying to prevent the renegade fey lord Ekossigan from entering the Bleak Gate. Fighting alongside them was Asrabey. Kasvarina nodded. This much she knew, but she allowed them to continue for completeness’ sake: Ekossigan told Asrabey that the Ob was holding her prisoner and Asarabey had turned on the unit, allowing Ekossigan to complete his ritual and sacrifice a dozen orphan children. Together with a dominated Gale, they led a fey army against the Ob, but were defeated. A wounded Asrabey returned at a very inopportune moment (revealing their hand to Sovereign Han Jierre in the midst of a flailing Peace Conference) whereupon they put their differences aside and fought their way into the Ob facility together.
There – while Grappa had tried and failed to take control of Borne and inadvertently released him – Asrabey had found and freed Kasvarina before teleporting her to safety. At that point she was assumed to be an unwilling prisoner. In fact, if the unit had not recently managed to penetrate the Ob convocation in Mutravir, that is a misapprehension they would still be labouring under. Only when the Ob leadership identified Kasvarina as a key member of the conspiracy, and one of continued importance and significance, had they made the decision to try and track her down.
With this important part of the story out of the way, they then went on to talk about their knowledge of the conspiracy, and revealed its ultimate goal. Kasvarina listened intently, shaking her head to indicate her disapproval at points and eventually unable to contain herself: “Hubris. Foolishness. I had hoped the ends might justify the means, but they do not. Reshaping the world in one’s own image, or to one’s own design, is arrogance beyond measure.” They went on to emphasise the risks inherent in doing so, given that the Ob intended to remove any barrier to inter-planar invasion.
Now it was Kasvarina’s turn. She began by sharing what memories she still had – of training to protect her nation with sword and spell; of a hundred songs her people have forgotten in five centuries; of marrying, having two daughters, and losing her husband Pillai in the holy war; of the spices used in her daughter Dala’s favourite dish, which she cannot find today because the farms were claimed by a human colony; of how she marched to the holy war and both longed for revenge and despised herself for the slaughter she knew she’d be responsible for. Then she told them what she had managed to learn of her ‘other self’, who returned from the war as one of a handful of female survivors, miraculously found her other daughter Launga still alive, formed an enclave and fought for a century, then lost her daughter to betrayal from another matriarch. Apparently she tried to have more children but never could. After that it was centuries of ordering attacks on the Clergy and thefts of treasure to strengthen her enclave; marrying half a dozen men for political reasons, and then disappearing four years ago. It had taken the length of time since her release, and the help of Kieran Sentacore, her tutor, to piece all this together. And it had taken until only just recently for her to regain the mental strength to cope with idea of moving forward. At first, every history lesson was a fresh bereavement.
She had remained in Sentosa the entire time. Her own enclave, Ushanti, might still be thriving, but Asrabey warned her not to go there because the Ob might know how to infiltrate it. Then she gave an infectious laugh and gestured at Leon and Uriel, who she said were like a living, breathing history lesson – as members of races that did not even exist before her memories were stolen.
When she was done talking, the unit cut to the chase: Why did Kasvarina want them to come here?
Using mage hand, she drew over a book traced in silver filigree. The centuries-old book had been rebound multiple times. It contained a catalogue of the mighty and dangerous artifacts the Elfaivaran empire once possessed. Kasvarina had checked with scholars in the enclave, and most of these artifacts had long-since been plundered or destroyed, but the one she needed still remained:
The Lost Arc of Reida was a crown said to have been shaped from a fragment of the plane of time. It was a holy relic of the god Ingatan. Any who wore it and returned to the site of a memory was able to make that memory come to life. It was used in holy rites to pass on memories that must not be forgotten. The eladrin of Elfaivar all knew that the arc was taken for safe-keeping after the Great Malice, and the first Vekeshi Mystics used it to pass along the memory of Srasama’s fall. Eventually it was returned to a site known as Ingatan’s Refuge, a few hundred miles to the north. Kasvarina hoped that she could use the Arc to retrace her steps, and discover something of use in defeating the shadowy group which her ‘other self’ helped to found.
At once, Uru questioned the whole idea: how could they be sure that she would not regain her former beliefs and personality and turn against them? Kasvarina did her best to assuage his understandable fears, before Korrigan speedily accepted her reassurances on behalf of the group. (He told them later that they would, needless to say, keep an eye on Kasvarina throughout their endeavour and act decisively if she ‘lapsed’.)
Uriel expressed his own interest in Arc and wondered aloud if it would enable him to reconnect with his former selves. Kasvarina thought it a strange coincidence that he was missing his memories too. “I died in your escape,” said Uriel. Uru added, with a pointed glance at Uriel, “My friend Malthusius has gone. I’m hoping he will come back.” Uriel took what he would later learn to call ‘offence’ at Uru’s remarks.
Finally, Kasvarina explained that she needed protection from Obscurati, to search for the Lost Arc of Reida and – if it worked as she hoped – explore her old memories. They were the only ones who had proven themselves capable of defeating the Ob, and they were also the only ones who she could trust.
Once they had agreed to her plan, a final hurdle remained: while her hostess, the matriarch Athrylla Valanar – who controlled this enclave and who could limit who entered or left – had been nothing but kind in protecting her, Athrylla had refused to let Kasvarina or even Asrabey go out to seek the artifact. Kasvarina sensed there was bad blood between her and Athrylla, which she hoped that the unit, as representatives of Risur and the Unseen Court, might be able to overcome.
Once they acquiesced to this idea, Kasvarina called Asrabey back in. Asrabey said that he had tarried here longer than he wanted, and that he hoped to resume his duties to the Unseen Court on their return. It was a mission Kasvarina herself gave him over two centuries ago: to ensure that in the eladrin time of need, the fey of Risur could be counted on as allies. Uriel artlessly enquired how Asrabey was connected to Kasvarina, to which he responded bitterly, “I was the last in a long line of politically expedient husbands”. If she had visible eyeballs, Kasvarina would have rolled them. She reminded Asrabey that the order he got was from another version of her, and that his mission might somehow have served the goals of the Obscurati. After a pause, Asrabey said, “All I know is that this Kasvarina is soft, and a soft woman could never have protected our people like the Kasvarina I knew.” Kasvarina said that the woman he knew apparently had no problem with mass prostitution and brothels and that she much preferred the woman she ws now, who remembered life before the world went mad.
With nothing else left to say, Asrabey left to request an audience with Athrylla on the unit’s behalf. When he had gone Uru remarked that Asrabey had shown himself to be, “devoted enough to murder children,” while Uriel observed that is was “odd that he seems to prefer the evil version of his wife.”
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RangerWickett
Legend
You've got yourself a canny party there.
So, got any big revelations planned for Uriel/Malthusius?
So, got any big revelations planned for Uriel/Malthusius?
gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
I do. Slightly spoils the fun if Kasvarina does revert to form.
Oh, now that would be telling.
One thing I don't mind saying is that the revelation of Stanfield's identity will come from Malthusius, not from Kasvarina.
I'm not sure if I've already mentioned this, but Uriel's entire character build depends upon the recovery of his memories. In D&D terms, he is level 1 and has no class or class abilities. He is gaining XP at a much faster rate than the others but can't spend it on anything until he accesses each incarnation.
To avoid the slightly eggy business of taking the crown off Kasvarina and putting it on himself every five minutes, he's going to find himself able to attune with the thing remotely, gaining its benefits as long as it is close by.
He won't be able to access the full memories of each of his incarnations until he has an unbroken line, just the immediate 'visions' unlocked by the crown, and the powers the incarnation had access to. When the full line is completed, he will remember his whole existence - all five-hundred years of it! (Including the identity of Stanfield, and the memory of his friends.)
Whether he will go on calling himself Uriel at that point, or revert to Malthusius, or one of his other names, remains for the player to decide.
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gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Session 27, Part Two - The Enclave Sentosa
While the others took their leave of Kasvarina and went outside, Kasvarina called Leon back and wondered if he might find time to help her understand more about his people and the history of Danor. She was perplexed to meet a tiefling in the service of Risur, and in possession of a Dreaming Blade. Leon’s accustomed suavity abandoned him and he fudged an attempt to charm her. (He had been unusually quiet during the whole meeting, in fact.) Her response was a patient smile and an acknowledgement of his discomfort. He added only that he would be happy to help if he could, but that he wasn’t really a tiefling. Then he left.
Outside, they found Matunaaga in conversation with Kieran Sentacore, who had lingered in order to accost the others. He wanted to know if their meeting had gone well, and hoped that his role as tutor might soon be over. The old half-elf was originally from Orithea, studied eladrin culture in Danor and came to the colony Rationalis to try to help the Danorans reduce tensions with the natives. Though his efforts broadly failed, the eladrin knew enough about him that when Kasvarina demanded to learn about the five centuries she could not remember, they sent out rajputs to kidnap him. They had been polite but unyielding in their insistence that he remain here, forgetting perhaps that half-elf lives were not as long as eladrin ones! Kieran lived in a nearby building as an ‘honored guest’, always ‘protected’ by several rajputs. Every day he came to Kasvarina to answer her questions and suggest reading. While she was thus absorbed, or on days when she was fatigued, he did his own reading. For three whole years! He waved his books in frustration. Korrigan saw that one was a book on Miller and, feeling sorry for Kieran, struck up a conversation with him.
A young and enthusiastic Rajput approached and introduced himself as Desok. He had been assigned to them as a formality, to guide them throughout the enclave, and – to begin with, at least – escort them to their lodgings. He seemed a little awe-struck, having heard of their many exploits and eagerly asked them to recount details of their many battles. Thus they headed down the steps and along the street, with Kieran Sentacore in tow.
They were taken to a building formed from the trunk of a great tree that snaked around a huge statue depicting the maiden, one of the three aspects of Srasma. It was known as the Akela Sathi (or ‘lonely companion’). The roots of the tree formed part of a larger complex. While the central part was reserved for eladrin only, and was guarded by many rajput in ceremonial armour, honoured guests were invited to make use of exterior buildings. They were shown into a suite of rooms where they found food, soft beds and female servants who offered to draw baths, and spend time in their company. Desok seemed a little surprised when they demurred: For now, Gupta’s condition was a priority. They took her out of the absurdist web. Uriel offered to perform the relevant ritual but Korrigan stopped him and took care of it himself, with Uriel’s assistance. Though restored from stone to flesh and blood, Gupta was still very weak and had to be helped to her chambers (where she may or may not have regained sufficient strength to partake of the full range of services offered by the Akela Sathi…)
By now, Rumdoom had arrived at Sentosa and soon joined them. He was feeling better, he said, though he still appeared tired and wan. Hildegaard looked askance at their accommodation and insisted that she and her husband would join those who intended to explore the enclave. Rumdoom and Thurgid had only just slumped into plump cushions when they reluctantly fought their way out and followed Leon, Uru and Uriel back out into the streets, accompanied by Desok. Korrigan and Matunaaga stayed behind with Sentacore and Gupta rested up in bed.
Uriel set off to find a counterpart to the ‘evil’ temple he had found himself drawn to. There was no counterpart, it turned out. The site was empty. Disturbed by their interest, Desok told them the sealed temple was abandoned long before the fall of Srasma. It was dedicated to Hewanharimau, a Seedism deity who embodied the vitality of animals, but who was cast out of the pantheon for afflicting elves with a curse that turned them into half-beasts. As punishment Hewanharimau was turned into a tiger that walked as a man: a rakshasa. Not wishing to attract the attention and ire of the rakshasa, the elves of Rumah Terakhir left the simple temple, closed it off and enchanted it with a powerful guardian who would punish any who sought to praise the reviled god.
Uriel was suddenly beset by a vision in which he fought with a rakshasa; or perhaps he was the rakshasa, it was difficult to tell. The others recognised this as a vision experienced by Malthusius in the Ziggurat of Apet. “Either become or fight,” murmured Uriel. He meditated on the matter.
They moved on to the temple of Ingatan, which did have a counterpart here. Leon and Uriel studied the runes. Uriel received Ingatan’s blessing in the form of the clergy spell sanctuary. Leon decided not to dwell here, and instead went to investigate the War Monastery, where Desok told him he could learn the art of the mageblade. (Desok was happy to let him go, as he felt uncomfortable restricting the movements of an emissary of the Unseen Court.) Rumdoom sought advice from an eladrin priest. Rumdoom carried a burden of knowledge that he was finding hard to bear. The priest told him that Ingatan always shared his foresight with others. “Beware of he who would seek to deny you knowledge,” he said. “For in his heart he dreams himself your master.” The priest and Rumdoom talked about eschatology and the priest asked if Rumdoom had heard of Bhalu, who led a sect of eladrin eschatologists based in Trekhom. Rumdoom had heard of him, vaguely. Later, Hildegaard reminded him that Bhalu and his sect were infamous assassins (at least that was the rumour). Kieran Sentacore told them he was one of Kasvarina’s husbands.
At the war monastery, the monks were initially hostile to Leon, but again his possession of a Dreaming Blade won them over. They told Leon it would take a long time and much practice to learn how to use his blade as a true athame. But he did learn the basic principles of the martial technique bullet slice, which he hoped to put into practice. Still feeling unaccountably discombobulated, Leon made the sudden decision to return to speak with Kasvarina. He stopped on her threshold, decided now was too soon, and left. Instead, he investigated the location of the jaiur seeds Kasvarina had mentioned – an ingredient in her daughter Dala’s favourite dish. He learned that they grew in an area now claimed by the Danorans as part of the colony Rationalis, and a plan formed in his mind...
While the others took their leave of Kasvarina and went outside, Kasvarina called Leon back and wondered if he might find time to help her understand more about his people and the history of Danor. She was perplexed to meet a tiefling in the service of Risur, and in possession of a Dreaming Blade. Leon’s accustomed suavity abandoned him and he fudged an attempt to charm her. (He had been unusually quiet during the whole meeting, in fact.) Her response was a patient smile and an acknowledgement of his discomfort. He added only that he would be happy to help if he could, but that he wasn’t really a tiefling. Then he left.
Outside, they found Matunaaga in conversation with Kieran Sentacore, who had lingered in order to accost the others. He wanted to know if their meeting had gone well, and hoped that his role as tutor might soon be over. The old half-elf was originally from Orithea, studied eladrin culture in Danor and came to the colony Rationalis to try to help the Danorans reduce tensions with the natives. Though his efforts broadly failed, the eladrin knew enough about him that when Kasvarina demanded to learn about the five centuries she could not remember, they sent out rajputs to kidnap him. They had been polite but unyielding in their insistence that he remain here, forgetting perhaps that half-elf lives were not as long as eladrin ones! Kieran lived in a nearby building as an ‘honored guest’, always ‘protected’ by several rajputs. Every day he came to Kasvarina to answer her questions and suggest reading. While she was thus absorbed, or on days when she was fatigued, he did his own reading. For three whole years! He waved his books in frustration. Korrigan saw that one was a book on Miller and, feeling sorry for Kieran, struck up a conversation with him.
A young and enthusiastic Rajput approached and introduced himself as Desok. He had been assigned to them as a formality, to guide them throughout the enclave, and – to begin with, at least – escort them to their lodgings. He seemed a little awe-struck, having heard of their many exploits and eagerly asked them to recount details of their many battles. Thus they headed down the steps and along the street, with Kieran Sentacore in tow.
They were taken to a building formed from the trunk of a great tree that snaked around a huge statue depicting the maiden, one of the three aspects of Srasma. It was known as the Akela Sathi (or ‘lonely companion’). The roots of the tree formed part of a larger complex. While the central part was reserved for eladrin only, and was guarded by many rajput in ceremonial armour, honoured guests were invited to make use of exterior buildings. They were shown into a suite of rooms where they found food, soft beds and female servants who offered to draw baths, and spend time in their company. Desok seemed a little surprised when they demurred: For now, Gupta’s condition was a priority. They took her out of the absurdist web. Uriel offered to perform the relevant ritual but Korrigan stopped him and took care of it himself, with Uriel’s assistance. Though restored from stone to flesh and blood, Gupta was still very weak and had to be helped to her chambers (where she may or may not have regained sufficient strength to partake of the full range of services offered by the Akela Sathi…)
By now, Rumdoom had arrived at Sentosa and soon joined them. He was feeling better, he said, though he still appeared tired and wan. Hildegaard looked askance at their accommodation and insisted that she and her husband would join those who intended to explore the enclave. Rumdoom and Thurgid had only just slumped into plump cushions when they reluctantly fought their way out and followed Leon, Uru and Uriel back out into the streets, accompanied by Desok. Korrigan and Matunaaga stayed behind with Sentacore and Gupta rested up in bed.
Uriel set off to find a counterpart to the ‘evil’ temple he had found himself drawn to. There was no counterpart, it turned out. The site was empty. Disturbed by their interest, Desok told them the sealed temple was abandoned long before the fall of Srasma. It was dedicated to Hewanharimau, a Seedism deity who embodied the vitality of animals, but who was cast out of the pantheon for afflicting elves with a curse that turned them into half-beasts. As punishment Hewanharimau was turned into a tiger that walked as a man: a rakshasa. Not wishing to attract the attention and ire of the rakshasa, the elves of Rumah Terakhir left the simple temple, closed it off and enchanted it with a powerful guardian who would punish any who sought to praise the reviled god.
Uriel was suddenly beset by a vision in which he fought with a rakshasa; or perhaps he was the rakshasa, it was difficult to tell. The others recognised this as a vision experienced by Malthusius in the Ziggurat of Apet. “Either become or fight,” murmured Uriel. He meditated on the matter.
They moved on to the temple of Ingatan, which did have a counterpart here. Leon and Uriel studied the runes. Uriel received Ingatan’s blessing in the form of the clergy spell sanctuary. Leon decided not to dwell here, and instead went to investigate the War Monastery, where Desok told him he could learn the art of the mageblade. (Desok was happy to let him go, as he felt uncomfortable restricting the movements of an emissary of the Unseen Court.) Rumdoom sought advice from an eladrin priest. Rumdoom carried a burden of knowledge that he was finding hard to bear. The priest told him that Ingatan always shared his foresight with others. “Beware of he who would seek to deny you knowledge,” he said. “For in his heart he dreams himself your master.” The priest and Rumdoom talked about eschatology and the priest asked if Rumdoom had heard of Bhalu, who led a sect of eladrin eschatologists based in Trekhom. Rumdoom had heard of him, vaguely. Later, Hildegaard reminded him that Bhalu and his sect were infamous assassins (at least that was the rumour). Kieran Sentacore told them he was one of Kasvarina’s husbands.
At the war monastery, the monks were initially hostile to Leon, but again his possession of a Dreaming Blade won them over. They told Leon it would take a long time and much practice to learn how to use his blade as a true athame. But he did learn the basic principles of the martial technique bullet slice, which he hoped to put into practice. Still feeling unaccountably discombobulated, Leon made the sudden decision to return to speak with Kasvarina. He stopped on her threshold, decided now was too soon, and left. Instead, he investigated the location of the jaiur seeds Kasvarina had mentioned – an ingredient in her daughter Dala’s favourite dish. He learned that they grew in an area now claimed by the Danorans as part of the colony Rationalis, and a plan formed in his mind...
gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Session 27, Part Three - Meeting the Matriarch
A deep faen, a dwarf and a rajput walked into a bar – the Bent Leaf, to be precise. It was run by a trio of fickle gremlins who served an intoxicating brew called Darkly Dreaming. Desok told them that eladrin men were required to be on constant alert, for fear of a final push by the clergy, and that intoxication was a great stigma. But once every year each man was given leave to over-indulge for a day, with another day to recover. This is where many of them chose to spend their hard-earned downtime. The gremlins were hostile to Uru at first, and refused to serve his ‘droid’. Leaving Little jack outside, Uru and Rumdoom bought drinks before setting eyes on Copperhat the Headless. He was just as surprised to see them and babbled a bit before regaining his composure. Copperhat was nursing a concoction he called the Voice of Rot. (“Leaves you half-dead and legless.”) They asked him what had happened to Rock Rackus and he told them that, after a series of hilarious adventures, Rock had dumped him back ‘on the moon’. Curious, Uru persuaded Copperhat to share more gossip: apparently, Rock’s boasts were true, and he had resumed his affair with the Queen of the Fairies. “But you didn’t hear it from me.” Only when deep into their second drink did they realise Copperhat had suddenly disappeared.
Each one of the unit members heard rumours of Borne wherever they went: Kieran Sentacore told Korrigan; a quickling in the Bent Leaf told Uru and Rumdoom; monks at the war monastery told Leon; an ananta paudha whispered her fears into Gupta’s ear.
Elf and fey alike spoke of the terrible shadow that loomed over Sentosa just a fortnight ago. Lasting for almost a week, the shadow was that of a gigantic humanoid, visible just beyond the boundaries of theedgestones. When the giant first arrived, it attempted to enter the enclave, but the stones repelled it. After several attempts at forcibly striking the magical field (and crushing the ten-headed lion three times), the giant eventually slumped and waited motionless for several days. On the eighth day, the giant turned and moved towards the north-west, as though summoned by some unknown call. That was just a few days before the Obscurati arrived. Since the arrival of the giant, the people of Sentosa had been on edge, as the shadow threatened intrusion from without in a way they had come to consider impossible. Matunaaga could not help but think of the threats to his own people, who also feared discovery by the outside world (and the worlds beyond). It occurred to him that, in some ways, he was responsible for both.
Back at the Akela Sathi, Korrigan was learning all he could from Kieran Sentacore, who was an outspoken member of the Panoply and an adherent of William Miller. Sentacore told him that he recognised Gupta’s surname. He said that he thought he knew her parents, though he had not been in Flint for seventeen years. They were part of the Docker movement there, he recalled, and though sad to learn that they had died, he confided that he had never been entirely convinced of their ‘intellectual credentials’. There was something superficial in their outlook, he said, but begged Korrigan not to relay these things to poor Gupta. On the subject of Flint, Kieran thought he knew something that might be of interest to Kasvarina, but didn’t want to get her hopes up before now. While telling him stories of her early life, she mentioned her close friendship with a performer named Navras. An eladrin named Navras built an opera house in Flint three centuries ago. Kieran was certain Navras had died since then, but if Kasvarina got a chance to visit Flint, Kieran wondered if a visit to the opera house might help. (He confessed that he very much liked Kasvarina, despite their strange circumstances, and hoped that the unit would be able to help her. Korrigan got the impression that the old half-elf was slightly smitten with her.)
Kieran also told Korrigan the precise nature of the Akela Sathi: at any one time the tree was home to many young eladrin women who had taken up the mantle of ananta paudha, or ‘eternal sapling.’ Though contemporary eladrin culture valued the safety and prosperity of women above all else, long ago the matriarchs of the various enclaves struggled to prevent rapes as a dramatically unbalanced population between men and women led to resentment and violence. Their solution was to create the ananta paudha, a sacred role where women volunteer for seven years of service, offering their bodies to satisfy the carnal urges of male eladrin. The understanding was that in this way they defended the enclave, while most eladrin men served as warriors. Once each year, any resident or visitor of the enclave in good standing could request a night at the Akela Sathi, where he or she could enjoy luxurious pleasure and sensitive companionship. The Akela Sathi also served as a functional way to boost the population of the eladrin, as the ananta paudha did not use contraceptive methods. Kieran gestured at the women in their own chambers.
These, he said, were elves (or even half-elves), who had been made ‘honored eladrin’. Female eladrin blood was so thin on the ground that even half-elves were highly valued. The more time they spent here, or in the Dreaming, the more ‘fey’ they would become, just as eladrin who left the Dreaming thousands of years ago became mere elves. But the eladrin were careful not to mix their bloodlines and these women did not seek to bear children. Korrigan looked at the ananta paudha, thought of his late wife, and went to bed alone.
At noon on the first day after their arrival, Desok announced that they had been summoned for an audience with the matriarch Athrylla Valanar. She held court atop the planar double of the Temple of Srasama found in Rumah Terakhir. As they climbed up Uriel loudly declared what “a waste of space” this was – “a temple to a dead goddess”. Only then did he notice this structure was lacking in any dedication to Srasma. Instead, the temple stood as a monument to Sentosa, with the enclave’s history inscribed upon the walls.
Three stone thrones sat in an open meeting area atop the pyramid, empty now but symbolic of other matriarchs who were welcome to sit as equals. Today Athrylla sat alone, though a cluster of councillors stood off to one side, and the stairs leading to the top were lined with eight ceremonial guards.
Where Kasvarina was controlled but intense, and radiated a keen intellectual precision, Athrylla Valanar was distant and cool. Her gaze took in everyone and no one. Both women were incredibly beautiful in totally different ways. Leon could see that Athrylla positively seethed with a level of magical power impossible in the real world. Her connection to the enclave strengthened her just as the Rites of Rulership strengthened the kings of Risur.
Athrylla welcomed them blandly, but commended them for achieving what so few had: gaining access to an eladrin enclave. She asked them to explain why they had come, and explicitly encouraged them not to be humble. She had known centuries of heroes, she said, and it was hard to impress her with humility these days.
Having practised their boasting on Beshela, the party launched into a familiar routine: Uru boasted how they had knocked down the colossus; Rumdoom bragged about slaying a kraken; collectively, the unit made it clear that they were a force to be reckoned with. Then they requested that Kasvarina be allowed to leave and seek the Lost Arc of Reida. Athrylla raised her hand before they could add any further embellishment or rhetoric and asked them to wait at the bottom of the pyramid while she confered with her advisors. (Korrigan could see she had made her mind up before they even opened their mouths.)
A fine meal was served to them, and an hour later Athrylla called them back and explained that she could not let Kasvarina leave. As matriarch she felt no need to explain her reasons, and simply asked for the party to leave within a day. If they had any other requests for her, any way she could help Risur other than by letting Kasvarina go, she hoped they would feel free to ask.
Leon asked for leave to speak, which she granted. Then Leon artfully goaded Athrylla into revealing her animosity towards Kasvarina. She snapped, by way of justification, that if her memories were restored, Kasvarina would blame Athrylla for the betrayal of her fellow matriarchs. She went on to say that although Kasvarina survived this betrayal, her daughter Launga had perished. Despite this tragedy, and her denial of any involvement, Athrylla said that she thought the attempt on Kasvarina’s life was worth it. “The woman cared more about revenge than survival, and if she’d died four centuries ago, the eladrin people would be better off today. As she is now, she is no threat to Sentosa, but I would not place her back on her throne willingly.”
Leon countered that the greatest threat to Sentosa was the Obscurati – whose shadow had very literally loomed over Sentosa only a few days ago. He explained the Ob’s Grand Design and how it would wrench the Dreaming away from Lanjyr forever. Kasvarina may have played a part in this conspiracy, but the new her – or perhaps it was better to say the old her – hated her old self with as much passion as Athrylla did and had promised to help destroy what she had done.
At once, Athrylla summoned Kasvarina, who entered the chamber in the robes of a matriarch, but did not take a seat as an equal. Athrylla asked Kasvarina to explain herself, and Kasvarina gave a very forthright and sincere account of what she had learned, and what she hoped to do with the Arc. She presented herself as very strong, but contrite and brave and admirable.
Having listened to their entreaties, Athrylla thought for just a moment and then declared that Kasvarina would be free to leave Sentosa if, and only if, the unit could retrieve the Arc. She told them of a second archway hidden in an underground ruin in Rumah Terakir where she would have people waiting to let them enter as soon as they returned.
They withdrew from Athrylla’s presence before she could change her mind. Kasvarina made sure to thank Leon for his eloquence before she left. He bowed his head and said nothing.
The unit prepared to leave. They took directions to Ingatan’s refuge and – finding it lay in the clergy colony of Vigilia – asked Morgan Cippiano to send positive word of their mission to the authorities there. From the eladrin they learned that the refuge itself was now occupied by a clan of territorial eladrin weretigers who called themselves the Children of Hewanharimau, the forbidden god of savagery. Having already heard word of the superlative eladrin smith Iomar of Travin, they went to visit his premises, Shadow Edge Arms. Iomar was an unusually boisterous eladrin who had been born and raised in Drakr. Folk said he was more like a dwarf than an elf. Iomar was all too happy to help, and sold the unit beautifully crafted silver blades, with which to finish off any lycanthropes they had managed to bring low. However, when they left the smithy, Uriel said that he sensed something dark and strange about the smithy – that it harboured a cruel secret. They put that to one side for the moment, as they had much to do before their departure.
Matunaaga found a silversmith, borrowed a crucible, and forged his own silver bullets. He put a silver edge on several of Uru’s shuriken. They checked their equipment, packed supplies and got a good night’s rest.
At dawn the following day, the unit set off into the jungle, using shadow walk and phantom steeds to speed their way to Vigilis.
End of Session
End of email exchange with Gupta's player:
The half-elven ananta paudha you encountered while convalescing at the Akela Sathi was called Helandra. To begin with she was simply serving you and seeing to your needs, along with the rest of the unit. Only after you learned the true nature of the ananta paudha did your curiosity lead you to ask if only male guests were entitled to a night of 'sensitive companionship'. She responded very positively and we can draw a discreet veil over the precise nature of that encounter, save only to mention that Helandra was heavily tattooed on her limbs and torso - floral tattoos that unified to a focus on her back: a flaming blade.
That blade is one of the symbols of the Vekeshi, so you asked her about it. She told you that she came to Sentosa from one of the clergy colonies, where the mystics were particularly active in striking back against the ancient foe. She had grown tired of bloodshed, and had heard there was another way to serve the eladrin cause. This was it. When you expressed an interest in the mystics, she said two things: firstly, that you should talk to Leon (because he is one); secondly, that there is a mystic called Jaques who sometimes came to the enclave and used to operate in Risur. She would ask after him and see if she could get you introduced.
A deep faen, a dwarf and a rajput walked into a bar – the Bent Leaf, to be precise. It was run by a trio of fickle gremlins who served an intoxicating brew called Darkly Dreaming. Desok told them that eladrin men were required to be on constant alert, for fear of a final push by the clergy, and that intoxication was a great stigma. But once every year each man was given leave to over-indulge for a day, with another day to recover. This is where many of them chose to spend their hard-earned downtime. The gremlins were hostile to Uru at first, and refused to serve his ‘droid’. Leaving Little jack outside, Uru and Rumdoom bought drinks before setting eyes on Copperhat the Headless. He was just as surprised to see them and babbled a bit before regaining his composure. Copperhat was nursing a concoction he called the Voice of Rot. (“Leaves you half-dead and legless.”) They asked him what had happened to Rock Rackus and he told them that, after a series of hilarious adventures, Rock had dumped him back ‘on the moon’. Curious, Uru persuaded Copperhat to share more gossip: apparently, Rock’s boasts were true, and he had resumed his affair with the Queen of the Fairies. “But you didn’t hear it from me.” Only when deep into their second drink did they realise Copperhat had suddenly disappeared.
Each one of the unit members heard rumours of Borne wherever they went: Kieran Sentacore told Korrigan; a quickling in the Bent Leaf told Uru and Rumdoom; monks at the war monastery told Leon; an ananta paudha whispered her fears into Gupta’s ear.
Elf and fey alike spoke of the terrible shadow that loomed over Sentosa just a fortnight ago. Lasting for almost a week, the shadow was that of a gigantic humanoid, visible just beyond the boundaries of theedgestones. When the giant first arrived, it attempted to enter the enclave, but the stones repelled it. After several attempts at forcibly striking the magical field (and crushing the ten-headed lion three times), the giant eventually slumped and waited motionless for several days. On the eighth day, the giant turned and moved towards the north-west, as though summoned by some unknown call. That was just a few days before the Obscurati arrived. Since the arrival of the giant, the people of Sentosa had been on edge, as the shadow threatened intrusion from without in a way they had come to consider impossible. Matunaaga could not help but think of the threats to his own people, who also feared discovery by the outside world (and the worlds beyond). It occurred to him that, in some ways, he was responsible for both.
Back at the Akela Sathi, Korrigan was learning all he could from Kieran Sentacore, who was an outspoken member of the Panoply and an adherent of William Miller. Sentacore told him that he recognised Gupta’s surname. He said that he thought he knew her parents, though he had not been in Flint for seventeen years. They were part of the Docker movement there, he recalled, and though sad to learn that they had died, he confided that he had never been entirely convinced of their ‘intellectual credentials’. There was something superficial in their outlook, he said, but begged Korrigan not to relay these things to poor Gupta. On the subject of Flint, Kieran thought he knew something that might be of interest to Kasvarina, but didn’t want to get her hopes up before now. While telling him stories of her early life, she mentioned her close friendship with a performer named Navras. An eladrin named Navras built an opera house in Flint three centuries ago. Kieran was certain Navras had died since then, but if Kasvarina got a chance to visit Flint, Kieran wondered if a visit to the opera house might help. (He confessed that he very much liked Kasvarina, despite their strange circumstances, and hoped that the unit would be able to help her. Korrigan got the impression that the old half-elf was slightly smitten with her.)
Kieran also told Korrigan the precise nature of the Akela Sathi: at any one time the tree was home to many young eladrin women who had taken up the mantle of ananta paudha, or ‘eternal sapling.’ Though contemporary eladrin culture valued the safety and prosperity of women above all else, long ago the matriarchs of the various enclaves struggled to prevent rapes as a dramatically unbalanced population between men and women led to resentment and violence. Their solution was to create the ananta paudha, a sacred role where women volunteer for seven years of service, offering their bodies to satisfy the carnal urges of male eladrin. The understanding was that in this way they defended the enclave, while most eladrin men served as warriors. Once each year, any resident or visitor of the enclave in good standing could request a night at the Akela Sathi, where he or she could enjoy luxurious pleasure and sensitive companionship. The Akela Sathi also served as a functional way to boost the population of the eladrin, as the ananta paudha did not use contraceptive methods. Kieran gestured at the women in their own chambers.
These, he said, were elves (or even half-elves), who had been made ‘honored eladrin’. Female eladrin blood was so thin on the ground that even half-elves were highly valued. The more time they spent here, or in the Dreaming, the more ‘fey’ they would become, just as eladrin who left the Dreaming thousands of years ago became mere elves. But the eladrin were careful not to mix their bloodlines and these women did not seek to bear children. Korrigan looked at the ananta paudha, thought of his late wife, and went to bed alone.
At noon on the first day after their arrival, Desok announced that they had been summoned for an audience with the matriarch Athrylla Valanar. She held court atop the planar double of the Temple of Srasama found in Rumah Terakhir. As they climbed up Uriel loudly declared what “a waste of space” this was – “a temple to a dead goddess”. Only then did he notice this structure was lacking in any dedication to Srasma. Instead, the temple stood as a monument to Sentosa, with the enclave’s history inscribed upon the walls.
Three stone thrones sat in an open meeting area atop the pyramid, empty now but symbolic of other matriarchs who were welcome to sit as equals. Today Athrylla sat alone, though a cluster of councillors stood off to one side, and the stairs leading to the top were lined with eight ceremonial guards.
Where Kasvarina was controlled but intense, and radiated a keen intellectual precision, Athrylla Valanar was distant and cool. Her gaze took in everyone and no one. Both women were incredibly beautiful in totally different ways. Leon could see that Athrylla positively seethed with a level of magical power impossible in the real world. Her connection to the enclave strengthened her just as the Rites of Rulership strengthened the kings of Risur.
Athrylla welcomed them blandly, but commended them for achieving what so few had: gaining access to an eladrin enclave. She asked them to explain why they had come, and explicitly encouraged them not to be humble. She had known centuries of heroes, she said, and it was hard to impress her with humility these days.
Having practised their boasting on Beshela, the party launched into a familiar routine: Uru boasted how they had knocked down the colossus; Rumdoom bragged about slaying a kraken; collectively, the unit made it clear that they were a force to be reckoned with. Then they requested that Kasvarina be allowed to leave and seek the Lost Arc of Reida. Athrylla raised her hand before they could add any further embellishment or rhetoric and asked them to wait at the bottom of the pyramid while she confered with her advisors. (Korrigan could see she had made her mind up before they even opened their mouths.)
A fine meal was served to them, and an hour later Athrylla called them back and explained that she could not let Kasvarina leave. As matriarch she felt no need to explain her reasons, and simply asked for the party to leave within a day. If they had any other requests for her, any way she could help Risur other than by letting Kasvarina go, she hoped they would feel free to ask.
Leon asked for leave to speak, which she granted. Then Leon artfully goaded Athrylla into revealing her animosity towards Kasvarina. She snapped, by way of justification, that if her memories were restored, Kasvarina would blame Athrylla for the betrayal of her fellow matriarchs. She went on to say that although Kasvarina survived this betrayal, her daughter Launga had perished. Despite this tragedy, and her denial of any involvement, Athrylla said that she thought the attempt on Kasvarina’s life was worth it. “The woman cared more about revenge than survival, and if she’d died four centuries ago, the eladrin people would be better off today. As she is now, she is no threat to Sentosa, but I would not place her back on her throne willingly.”
Leon countered that the greatest threat to Sentosa was the Obscurati – whose shadow had very literally loomed over Sentosa only a few days ago. He explained the Ob’s Grand Design and how it would wrench the Dreaming away from Lanjyr forever. Kasvarina may have played a part in this conspiracy, but the new her – or perhaps it was better to say the old her – hated her old self with as much passion as Athrylla did and had promised to help destroy what she had done.
At once, Athrylla summoned Kasvarina, who entered the chamber in the robes of a matriarch, but did not take a seat as an equal. Athrylla asked Kasvarina to explain herself, and Kasvarina gave a very forthright and sincere account of what she had learned, and what she hoped to do with the Arc. She presented herself as very strong, but contrite and brave and admirable.
Having listened to their entreaties, Athrylla thought for just a moment and then declared that Kasvarina would be free to leave Sentosa if, and only if, the unit could retrieve the Arc. She told them of a second archway hidden in an underground ruin in Rumah Terakir where she would have people waiting to let them enter as soon as they returned.
They withdrew from Athrylla’s presence before she could change her mind. Kasvarina made sure to thank Leon for his eloquence before she left. He bowed his head and said nothing.
The unit prepared to leave. They took directions to Ingatan’s refuge and – finding it lay in the clergy colony of Vigilia – asked Morgan Cippiano to send positive word of their mission to the authorities there. From the eladrin they learned that the refuge itself was now occupied by a clan of territorial eladrin weretigers who called themselves the Children of Hewanharimau, the forbidden god of savagery. Having already heard word of the superlative eladrin smith Iomar of Travin, they went to visit his premises, Shadow Edge Arms. Iomar was an unusually boisterous eladrin who had been born and raised in Drakr. Folk said he was more like a dwarf than an elf. Iomar was all too happy to help, and sold the unit beautifully crafted silver blades, with which to finish off any lycanthropes they had managed to bring low. However, when they left the smithy, Uriel said that he sensed something dark and strange about the smithy – that it harboured a cruel secret. They put that to one side for the moment, as they had much to do before their departure.
Matunaaga found a silversmith, borrowed a crucible, and forged his own silver bullets. He put a silver edge on several of Uru’s shuriken. They checked their equipment, packed supplies and got a good night’s rest.
At dawn the following day, the unit set off into the jungle, using shadow walk and phantom steeds to speed their way to Vigilis.
End of Session
End of email exchange with Gupta's player:
The half-elven ananta paudha you encountered while convalescing at the Akela Sathi was called Helandra. To begin with she was simply serving you and seeing to your needs, along with the rest of the unit. Only after you learned the true nature of the ananta paudha did your curiosity lead you to ask if only male guests were entitled to a night of 'sensitive companionship'. She responded very positively and we can draw a discreet veil over the precise nature of that encounter, save only to mention that Helandra was heavily tattooed on her limbs and torso - floral tattoos that unified to a focus on her back: a flaming blade.
That blade is one of the symbols of the Vekeshi, so you asked her about it. She told you that she came to Sentosa from one of the clergy colonies, where the mystics were particularly active in striking back against the ancient foe. She had grown tired of bloodshed, and had heard there was another way to serve the eladrin cause. This was it. When you expressed an interest in the mystics, she said two things: firstly, that you should talk to Leon (because he is one); secondly, that there is a mystic called Jaques who sometimes came to the enclave and used to operate in Risur. She would ask after him and see if she could get you introduced.
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gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Session 28, Part One - Watcher in the Dark
Once again they used a combination of Uru’s shadow walk ritual and Leon’s phantom steeds to travel north. For Uru, who was not practised in such powerful magic, the shadow walk was very draining. Gupta and Korrigan worked together to reinvigorate him, but he spent the rest of each day feeling fatigued.
Still, their journey was not as easy as it might have been. The phantom steeds summoned by Leon were weak, moving no faster than a regular horse, and they could not bypass the jungle terrain once the unit returned to the real world. Thank goodness they had left Hildegaard and Thurgid behind as guests of Kieran Sentacore, as this was an exhausting journey, made all the worse by torrential rains. They could only hope for better luck tomorrow.
Familiar with jungle lands – raised on the Yerasol archipelago –Uru found them a good camp spot. As they settled down Gupta approached Leon and asked him about his association with the Vekeshi Mystics. Her question caught Leon by surprise, and he fell back on old habits, stonewalling and changing the subject. (He later sent a message to Old Stag, asking his advice. He received a reply he might have reached on his own, had had not been taken off guard: “Use your discretion.” Leon decided to sleep on it.)
They passed a restless night, and the following day tried the same approach. Yet again, Leon summoned feeble steeds, and their journey was tough and slow. (Something must have been distracting the warlock. Perhaps his mind was on other things?)
Another wet night under canvas was not an appealing prospect. Feeling partly responsible, Leon suggested teleporting to an inn! He was confident that his abilities had advanced to the point where a teleportation circle was not needed, though often sovereign lands were protected to the extent that their intrusion would not go unnoticed; Flint was out of the question, sadly, as Leon was wanted there. It just needed to be somewhere they had been before. In the end they decided to teleport to Macdam, spend the night in a comfortable inn, and teleport back to where they were the next day.
“I was enjoying that,” said Rumdoom, packing up his bedroll. Perhaps it reminded him of Yerasol IV? Happy times! The dwarf contemplated remaining behind, before thinking better of it. (They might need him to get them out of trouble.) Still, they all agreed that they would omit this slightly frivolous episode from future accounts of this mission.
With the shock of sudden cold, they found themselves flailing in ocean water: miles out to sea with the night lights of Macdam visible in the distance. “It’s always
ing water isn’t it?” said Rumdoom. Leon was beginning to experience the problems Lauren Cyneburg had reported, although in his case they seemed only to manifest over very long distances.
[Night in comfortable inn redacted in official reports.]
Next morning, they arrived in the jungle and discovered themselves to be many miles off course. Again, something must have been distracting Leon. He didn’t look like he’d had much sleep.
Uriel cast a magic map ritual and Leon sent up Rahu Ketu to check out the lay of the land. Trees, mainly! They ascertained the rough direction, spent an hour shadow-walking most of the way there, and then used Uru’s jungle knowledge to orient themselves when they returned to Lanjyr. Trying to stay on track slowed things down, but the phantom steed ritual worked better this time and that compensated slightly. Realising they were now just a few hours out from Vigil Longis – a clergy outpost where they hoped to find aid and maybe some silver weapons – Uru, Matunaaga and Leon ranged out from the group, feeding back with their messenger wind feathers.
As they neared Vigil Longis Matunaaga realised they were being watched. He had been uneasy for some time, but only spotted the source of his discomfort once the group stopped for a rest. Up in a tree he saw a lithe figure, wearing skins and camouflage paint: a young, female eladrin by the looks of things – armed with a spear. He stole up as close as he could, then said “Do you like what you see?” When she moved to scramble away, he interposed himself, propelling himself telekinetically into the branches. With feline reflexes, she changed direction and was away. Matunaaga gave chase.
She was fast. If anyone else had been pursuing her, she would have escaped almost immediately. But Matunaaga was even faster. She dropped from the canopy and sprang through the undergrowth.
Matunaaga sailed after her with his aeriad bracers, and caught her in a clearing, taking her legs out from under her. He pointed a pistol at her and bid her hold. She didn’t appear to know what a pistol was, and lunged at him, even as he discharged the gun into the soil. Her spear thrust missed and Matunaaga was easily able to avoid her increasingly frustrated attacks. He tripped her again, and this time, as she went down, she gave an animalistic cry and transformed into a tiger! The beast pounced at Matunaaga, who again simply dodged, until the unit had the clearing surrounded.
Uru cast a web upon the weretiger and held her in place. In elvish, Gupta told her they meant no harm and convinced her to return to her humanoid form. Though fearful and out of breath, eventually she grew calm enough to say that her name was Talios. They told her they sought Ingatan’s Refuge, but she was unwilling to speak of her home or her tribe. Instead she spat recriminations about the human priests who “steal our lands and kill our youngest and oldest”. Uriel asked, “Are you this way… through choice?” Talios nodded insistently. “Born this way,” she said, to their surprise.
Once they managed to convince her that they were not clergy, she said that their home was indeed once a temple to Ingatan, though they called it Kanta Mahala (which roughly translated as Bramblehome). She boasted that her tribe was strong, and would resist the clergy while other eladrin hid. “Jakumar says… said… that the Children of Hemanharimau will win our lands back from the humans. We are strong and we fight and we breed.” Questioned about this last curious boast, she went on to say that the blessing of Hemanharimau allowed his Children to breed more quickly than other eladrin because they reached maturity sooner. “For instance, I have not yet seen fourteen summers.” They looked her up and down in astonishment.
Meanwhile, Uriel had picked up on her change of tense and asked about ‘Jakumar’. Talios said he was their previous leader “but now he was dead – tricked and trapped by the clergy priests; Betronga is our Raja now, and though he is not a shaman, he is strong too”.
Gupta, Leon and Korrigan convinced Talios that they she should lead them to this Betronga so that they could speak with him. They returned her spear, and she led the way.
It wasn’t long before Matunaaga and Uru heard noises – the voices and footsteps of what turned out to be a ten-man clergy patrol. They had heard something themselves, it turned out (probably Rumdoom’s dinosaur stomps), and were coming to investigate. Heading back quickly, Uru and Matunaaga warned the others, and Korrigan ordered them all to hide. They didn’t have much time, as the forest deadened sound, and the clergy were suddenly close by. Talios did not want to hide, but was dragged off the path and held still. Rumdoom slipped off his tyrant’s teeth necklace.
Korrigan was spotted, half in, half out of hiding. The patrolmen lowered their silver-tipped spears in unison, and two priests muttered a protective prayer. One of the clergy chaplains issued a challenge. Korrigan stepped out into the open and in that moment decided to do something quite out of character: Instead of telling them who he was, and that he and his unit were expected at Vigil Longis, Korrigan told the patrol that he was an explorer who had gotten lost in the jungle. (It later transpired that he had decided to avoid the clergy altogether, and simply follow Talios to Bramblehome. He felt that a lie was best, hoping to avoid any unpleasantness.)
But the chaplain was not convinced and, following a brief exchange Korrigan decided to lure them away from the others. “I am tired of talking to you,” he said and zipped through the undergrowth as far as he could see, transformed into a Bolt of Avilona. “Wizardry!” declared one of the chaplains.
“Wipe their memories,” Uriel suggested, as a whispered messenger wind. “I can’t wipe all of their memories at once,” replied Gupta. “When do we attack?” asked Talios. “Hold still. This is a feint,” hissed Matunaaga. “Let’s just teleport back to the pub,” said Rumdoom.
At that moment, the clergy practically tripped over the dwarf, who found himself staring at a cluster of silver spears. “I’m with that guy,” said Rumdoom, nodding in the direction Korrigan had gone. Frightened, the clergymen became hostile and Rumdoom tightened his grip on his hammer.
Uru decided to help. Taking on the form of Vitus Sigismund, he dropped from a tree. The patrol was astonished to see a godhand out here, and ‘Vitus’ set about putting their minds to rest. When he saw which way the wind had blown, Korrigan returned, confessed his true identity and explained his caution to the young patrol leader. While his hard-bitten men remained sceptical, Brother Lionel had heard reports of imminent visitors from his garrison commander. It was agreed that they should go with the patrol to back Vigil Longis. Off they went, leaving the others in hiding.
Talios was outraged. Gupta talked with Talios and wove a gentle charm into her words: trust us, and tell your leader to trust us too; Korrigan will investigate the clergy and learn their weaknesses. Then they discussed options: follow on, or go to Bramblehome. While splitting their forces so completely was judged to be too risky, the risk of dragging Talios towards Vigil Longis was also prohibitive. They decided to follow, but send Talios back to Bramblehome to put in a positive word for them. While the others headed off to make sure they stayed on the tail of their comrades, Leon lingered with Talios. Suddenly, he had second thoughts about the wisdom of sending a thirteen-year-old off to do their talking for them. Instead, he muttered a curse, stunning the weretigress, and shoved her into the absurdist web!
Once again they used a combination of Uru’s shadow walk ritual and Leon’s phantom steeds to travel north. For Uru, who was not practised in such powerful magic, the shadow walk was very draining. Gupta and Korrigan worked together to reinvigorate him, but he spent the rest of each day feeling fatigued.
Still, their journey was not as easy as it might have been. The phantom steeds summoned by Leon were weak, moving no faster than a regular horse, and they could not bypass the jungle terrain once the unit returned to the real world. Thank goodness they had left Hildegaard and Thurgid behind as guests of Kieran Sentacore, as this was an exhausting journey, made all the worse by torrential rains. They could only hope for better luck tomorrow.
Familiar with jungle lands – raised on the Yerasol archipelago –Uru found them a good camp spot. As they settled down Gupta approached Leon and asked him about his association with the Vekeshi Mystics. Her question caught Leon by surprise, and he fell back on old habits, stonewalling and changing the subject. (He later sent a message to Old Stag, asking his advice. He received a reply he might have reached on his own, had had not been taken off guard: “Use your discretion.” Leon decided to sleep on it.)
They passed a restless night, and the following day tried the same approach. Yet again, Leon summoned feeble steeds, and their journey was tough and slow. (Something must have been distracting the warlock. Perhaps his mind was on other things?)
Another wet night under canvas was not an appealing prospect. Feeling partly responsible, Leon suggested teleporting to an inn! He was confident that his abilities had advanced to the point where a teleportation circle was not needed, though often sovereign lands were protected to the extent that their intrusion would not go unnoticed; Flint was out of the question, sadly, as Leon was wanted there. It just needed to be somewhere they had been before. In the end they decided to teleport to Macdam, spend the night in a comfortable inn, and teleport back to where they were the next day.
“I was enjoying that,” said Rumdoom, packing up his bedroll. Perhaps it reminded him of Yerasol IV? Happy times! The dwarf contemplated remaining behind, before thinking better of it. (They might need him to get them out of trouble.) Still, they all agreed that they would omit this slightly frivolous episode from future accounts of this mission.
With the shock of sudden cold, they found themselves flailing in ocean water: miles out to sea with the night lights of Macdam visible in the distance. “It’s always
ing water isn’t it?” said Rumdoom. Leon was beginning to experience the problems Lauren Cyneburg had reported, although in his case they seemed only to manifest over very long distances.[Night in comfortable inn redacted in official reports.]
Next morning, they arrived in the jungle and discovered themselves to be many miles off course. Again, something must have been distracting Leon. He didn’t look like he’d had much sleep.
Uriel cast a magic map ritual and Leon sent up Rahu Ketu to check out the lay of the land. Trees, mainly! They ascertained the rough direction, spent an hour shadow-walking most of the way there, and then used Uru’s jungle knowledge to orient themselves when they returned to Lanjyr. Trying to stay on track slowed things down, but the phantom steed ritual worked better this time and that compensated slightly. Realising they were now just a few hours out from Vigil Longis – a clergy outpost where they hoped to find aid and maybe some silver weapons – Uru, Matunaaga and Leon ranged out from the group, feeding back with their messenger wind feathers.
As they neared Vigil Longis Matunaaga realised they were being watched. He had been uneasy for some time, but only spotted the source of his discomfort once the group stopped for a rest. Up in a tree he saw a lithe figure, wearing skins and camouflage paint: a young, female eladrin by the looks of things – armed with a spear. He stole up as close as he could, then said “Do you like what you see?” When she moved to scramble away, he interposed himself, propelling himself telekinetically into the branches. With feline reflexes, she changed direction and was away. Matunaaga gave chase.
She was fast. If anyone else had been pursuing her, she would have escaped almost immediately. But Matunaaga was even faster. She dropped from the canopy and sprang through the undergrowth.
Matunaaga sailed after her with his aeriad bracers, and caught her in a clearing, taking her legs out from under her. He pointed a pistol at her and bid her hold. She didn’t appear to know what a pistol was, and lunged at him, even as he discharged the gun into the soil. Her spear thrust missed and Matunaaga was easily able to avoid her increasingly frustrated attacks. He tripped her again, and this time, as she went down, she gave an animalistic cry and transformed into a tiger! The beast pounced at Matunaaga, who again simply dodged, until the unit had the clearing surrounded.
Uru cast a web upon the weretiger and held her in place. In elvish, Gupta told her they meant no harm and convinced her to return to her humanoid form. Though fearful and out of breath, eventually she grew calm enough to say that her name was Talios. They told her they sought Ingatan’s Refuge, but she was unwilling to speak of her home or her tribe. Instead she spat recriminations about the human priests who “steal our lands and kill our youngest and oldest”. Uriel asked, “Are you this way… through choice?” Talios nodded insistently. “Born this way,” she said, to their surprise.
Once they managed to convince her that they were not clergy, she said that their home was indeed once a temple to Ingatan, though they called it Kanta Mahala (which roughly translated as Bramblehome). She boasted that her tribe was strong, and would resist the clergy while other eladrin hid. “Jakumar says… said… that the Children of Hemanharimau will win our lands back from the humans. We are strong and we fight and we breed.” Questioned about this last curious boast, she went on to say that the blessing of Hemanharimau allowed his Children to breed more quickly than other eladrin because they reached maturity sooner. “For instance, I have not yet seen fourteen summers.” They looked her up and down in astonishment.
Meanwhile, Uriel had picked up on her change of tense and asked about ‘Jakumar’. Talios said he was their previous leader “but now he was dead – tricked and trapped by the clergy priests; Betronga is our Raja now, and though he is not a shaman, he is strong too”.
Gupta, Leon and Korrigan convinced Talios that they she should lead them to this Betronga so that they could speak with him. They returned her spear, and she led the way.
It wasn’t long before Matunaaga and Uru heard noises – the voices and footsteps of what turned out to be a ten-man clergy patrol. They had heard something themselves, it turned out (probably Rumdoom’s dinosaur stomps), and were coming to investigate. Heading back quickly, Uru and Matunaaga warned the others, and Korrigan ordered them all to hide. They didn’t have much time, as the forest deadened sound, and the clergy were suddenly close by. Talios did not want to hide, but was dragged off the path and held still. Rumdoom slipped off his tyrant’s teeth necklace.
Korrigan was spotted, half in, half out of hiding. The patrolmen lowered their silver-tipped spears in unison, and two priests muttered a protective prayer. One of the clergy chaplains issued a challenge. Korrigan stepped out into the open and in that moment decided to do something quite out of character: Instead of telling them who he was, and that he and his unit were expected at Vigil Longis, Korrigan told the patrol that he was an explorer who had gotten lost in the jungle. (It later transpired that he had decided to avoid the clergy altogether, and simply follow Talios to Bramblehome. He felt that a lie was best, hoping to avoid any unpleasantness.)
But the chaplain was not convinced and, following a brief exchange Korrigan decided to lure them away from the others. “I am tired of talking to you,” he said and zipped through the undergrowth as far as he could see, transformed into a Bolt of Avilona. “Wizardry!” declared one of the chaplains.
“Wipe their memories,” Uriel suggested, as a whispered messenger wind. “I can’t wipe all of their memories at once,” replied Gupta. “When do we attack?” asked Talios. “Hold still. This is a feint,” hissed Matunaaga. “Let’s just teleport back to the pub,” said Rumdoom.
At that moment, the clergy practically tripped over the dwarf, who found himself staring at a cluster of silver spears. “I’m with that guy,” said Rumdoom, nodding in the direction Korrigan had gone. Frightened, the clergymen became hostile and Rumdoom tightened his grip on his hammer.
Uru decided to help. Taking on the form of Vitus Sigismund, he dropped from a tree. The patrol was astonished to see a godhand out here, and ‘Vitus’ set about putting their minds to rest. When he saw which way the wind had blown, Korrigan returned, confessed his true identity and explained his caution to the young patrol leader. While his hard-bitten men remained sceptical, Brother Lionel had heard reports of imminent visitors from his garrison commander. It was agreed that they should go with the patrol to back Vigil Longis. Off they went, leaving the others in hiding.
Talios was outraged. Gupta talked with Talios and wove a gentle charm into her words: trust us, and tell your leader to trust us too; Korrigan will investigate the clergy and learn their weaknesses. Then they discussed options: follow on, or go to Bramblehome. While splitting their forces so completely was judged to be too risky, the risk of dragging Talios towards Vigil Longis was also prohibitive. They decided to follow, but send Talios back to Bramblehome to put in a positive word for them. While the others headed off to make sure they stayed on the tail of their comrades, Leon lingered with Talios. Suddenly, he had second thoughts about the wisdom of sending a thirteen-year-old off to do their talking for them. Instead, he muttered a curse, stunning the weretigress, and shoved her into the absurdist web!
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