ZEITGEIST [ZEITGEIST] The Continuing Adventures of Korrigan & Co.

That pickle vendor was included courtesy of Greg Spanier, a game shop owner in Gautier, MS, who was one of the $500 backers for the ZEITGEIST hardcover Kickstarter.

RangerWickett said:

That pickle vendor was included courtesy of Greg Spanier, a game shop owner in Gautier, MS, who was one of the $500 backers for the ZEITGEIST hardcover Kickstarter.

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Congratulations, Greg Spanier, you have won a bonus reward! Innwung the Pickle Vendor has been immortalized in song. (Or should I say preserved?)

Session 218, Part Three

Conference

Following a sending to Harkover Lee, to inform him of developments, they arranged for the king’s key advisors to teleport on to the Coaltongue as it flew back to Flint. Lauryn Cyneburg, Viscount Price-Hill, Stover Delft and Sebastian Harlock attended in person. The Principal Minister attended in astral form. (Alden Wondermaker sent his clockwork avatar, too, but not to take part in the discussions.)

Sebastian Harlock had come to quiz the unit on their encounters with the gidim, and thereby bolster Risur’s defences against them. He was already training a cadre of dwarven ‘battleminds’ with the help of Orum Dwist and Throgmorton. Throgmorton descended from all-but-forgotten cadre who had stood side-by-side with the Ancient orcs in ridding the world of the gidim, and had honed their psionic powers with the aid of the gith. “If you had called for help, I could have tested them in the field. Perhaps even defended the Coaltongue?”

Lauryn Cyneburg was impressed by their report on Agent Doran. It was agreed that he would receive urgent (and expensive) healing to regenerate his eye. Uriel suggested sending him to Crisillyir to get a heads up on the situation there. Cyneburg shook her head. “Waste of a good agent. The situation in Crisillyir is known to us, and extremely dangerous: God trials, conducted by a religious faction that has assumed power in the vacuum left by the dead clergy upper echelons. Up front is a Risuri elf woman, who once trained at the Triunfo, funnily enough. They’re alert for dissent and for spies, and zealous in their response. Operating on his own, Doran would be incredibly vulnerable. The matter will have to wait until you’re done with Grandis Komanov. … Your majesty. ” She added the last bit as an afterthought. Korrigan noted her implicit criticism and confronted her directly about it: She said that she thought their mission to Drakr was personal. Better to leave the Drakrens to cope with Komanov’s disruptive influence and prioritise Crisillyir. Price-Hill disagreed. The Drakrens were their fastest ally. That must surely count for something! (In any case, Rumdoom was not to be dissuaded, and they had already promised Vlendham Heid that help was on its way…)

Harkover was intrigued by the vortex array. Here, at last, was a method by which they could assess the viability of distant worlds, should an attempt to undo the damage of the Ob prove possible. They still needed the Axis Ritual, and a means to travel to other planes. Only those already linked to the world were currently visible in the night sky. Leon said he could look into it, but the process was likely to take a long time. All involved agreed that this was priority, especially when Harkover told them of Professor Asher Henton’s recent conclusion that Av was located in the Gyre! (Still the precise nature of the Gyre itself was unknown, but this last bit of news was disturbing and revealing.) Once Leon had conducted negotiations with the Bruse, he would do what he could to investigate the possibilities of planar travel. (Luc Jierre might be able to help, he thought. And while he was at it, he could replace the shattered Wayfarer Lantern!) Uriel offered to augment this endeavour, and Korrigan agreed that both of them should devote their time to the matter.

Stover Delft indicated that the situation in Flint was no better or worse than it had been, save for some unrest caused by the announcement of elections. Thames Grimsley was rabble-rousing to ensure he won the working-class vote, and there had been demonstrations from some quarters when Gale’s candidacy was announced. Khaled Valchek had been able to afford huge posters that now hung throughout the city. Guy Goodson was standing in place of Catherine Romana’s alias. His report brought the meeting to a close.

Alden Wondermaker had come bringing a gift for Quratulain: he had created a new mask for her. This one was a burnished metal replica of her original, cadaverous face – a grinning skull, with a glowing left eye-socket. Here, Wondermaker had implanted the firesight eye – a magical item he had recovered from the corpse of Pemberton’s daughter, Terakalir when he had gone to investigate the dragon’s lair (and dispose of the Godmind Urn in the volcano there). Quratulain thanked him politely, and Wondermaker turned his attention to the Coaltongue.

Session 218, Part Four - The Snowy North

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cBu3ZTWCbo

One of the ancient bastions of Drakr’s might, the city of Bhad Ryzhavdut and its famed tower fortress had for centuries guarded traffic along the Volgir River, where frigid mines in the Shawl Mountains fed ore to the eastern sea. The Avery Coast Rail Line had stolen some of the port city’s prosperity, but it still served as a bastion against potential invasion by frost giants of the north.

Some twenty thousand people lived in Bhad Ryzhavdut, many in subterranean compounds dug into the hills alongside the river. The highest hill rose five hundred feet above the river, and from its peak rose a two-hundred-foot-high tower fortress.

Many days earlier, shortly after the unit had received Vlendham Heid’s mystery box, Leon had sought to expedite their eventual journey to Bhad Ryzhavdut: he had teleported to Trekhom, using the Rumschatologists’ teleportation circle, then ridden all night on a flying phantom steed as far as he could to the north-east. And so it was that their journey began a two-day ride from the fort. Leon was required elsewhere (as was Uriel) so there would be no phantom steeds. Instead, they climbed into Rumdoom’s mechanical carriage. There was plenty of room. Of his retinue, Rumdoom had only brought along Thurgid (who was overjoyed to be serving his master once again) and Hildegaard. Thurgid rode on the roof, as did Uru, and so there was plenty of space inside for Gupta, Quratulain, Hildegaard, Korrigan, and Rumdoom himself.

The snows made everything brighter, especially when the Gyre was in the sky. The scenery was breath-taking – mountainous and forested and white. They had a surprisingly good time, ate well and played chess when they paused for a rest. All in all, it was a pleasing hiatus.

Perhaps if they hadn’t been having such a good time, someone might have thought to phone ahead?

Their approach to the old fortress was appropriately cautious. Some miles away they stopped, and Korrigan employed his newly developed psionic eye to look down upon Bhad Ryzhavdut and its surroundings.

Instead of the encamped army he had expected, he saw only the dark stain of its previous presence. There were no lights in the city. The gates were open.

They had arrived too late.

How had such a magnificent fortress fallen so quickly and easily?

Before entering the city they examined the camp. The score-marks of huge runners led away west, down the frozen Volgir towards Mirsk. The army had conquered Bhad Ryzhadut and moved on. There were gigantic hoof marks in the snow, too – and footprints so huge they must have belonged to fifty-foot giants. They counted five sets. … Lesser giants had been here too, along with dire bears, mammoths, and hundreds of dwarves and dwarven skeletons. All had departed on five huge sleds.

In the city they found thousands of frozen corpses. Few save the outer defenders bore any signs of violence. The entire population had been drained of life and lay where they had fallen – in the streets, in their homes, alone or in each other’s arms, men, women and children alike.

Cautiously, Uru communed with the spirits of the city. There were none; a void where they ought to have been.

Rumdoom declared that this ‘bad ending’ had been caused by Grandis Komanov. She had drained all of these people of life. Had she used the Stone of Not to do so? He could not be sure of the means. Gupta stared in wonder and focused on the whereabouts of the Stone. It was heading west on a vast ice sled.

While they kicked over the traces and looked for other clues, Uru went looking for Vlendham Heid. He did not find him, or Kvarti, but he did find ship-like vessels which the dwarves had brought into the fort for safe-keeping: stone ships that sailed the frozen Volgir on great runners. With the help of his ghostly entourage Uru prepared one for their immediate use and they set off in pursuit without further ado.

Since the battle aboard the leviathan, since the whole experience of fighting off the gidim invasion, and being steeped for several days in the aura of the psychic mesh, Korrigan had found that his burgeoning psionic abilities had been strengthened. Now he tried something new: to contact Vlendham Heid, hoping that he had somehow survived. Heid responded! His ‘tone’ was one of intense, almost tearful relief. In a fractured exchange, for fear of being discovered, this is what he was able to tell them:

Heid was now the captive of Grandis Kamanov, who now led her Doomsday army towards Mirsk on five gigantic sleds of ice. These sleds had been summoned into being by the five Lost Riders, who now took the form of gargantuan stone skeletons, sent to serve her at the behest of the Voice of Rot. The Riders now rode gigantic skeletal steeds; all save their leader, Nebo, who was mounted on the Frost Wyrm, Distemper.

It seems that Heid had been lured to Bhad Ryzhavdut under false pretences by servants of the Grandis, purely so that she could have the pleasure of explaining to him in person how she had perfected his philosophies, and bring him along as witness to that perfection. He was her constant companion, along with the rest of her immediate retinue: a deranged, mute lackey who served as the brunt of her continual spite, and a blindfolded half-giant that wielded the Kum Ruk Nazar. Grandis herself bore an even more powerful weapon, one that she had excavated from its resting place beneath the ice near the ancient fortress: a twelve-foot long, arcanoscientific ‘lance’ she had built around the missing eye of the Voice of Rot!

Long ago, it seems, a great hero had cut out the serpent’s eye in battle, and in doing so denied it dominion over spirits, ghosts and all incorporeal undead. (Uru ears pricked up when he learned that portfolio was vacant…) It was this terrible weapon that Grandis had unleashed on the population of Bhad Ryzhavdut, killing everyone within – sacrificing their souls in propitiation to the Voice of Rot. She had somehow spared Heid and Heid alone, and sent her minions in to bring him out to her. Heid did not know what had become of Kvarti Gorbartiy.

“I regret that we came too late,” Korrigan told him. “But we are here now, and we are in pursuit. We will do what we can to prevent further destruction.”

Heid then told them one more grim detail: it would appear that Bhalu had travelled north at Rumdoom’s behest and located Komanov shortly before she called her army to her. He had failed in an attempt to assassinate the witch, and had been punished by the agonising rite of the blood eagle, then kept alive through magic and mounted on a crucifix, to accompany her everywhere as a warning. His feeble groans were a continual torment to the philosopher, who had not slept for many days.

Korrigan ended their conversation by urging Heid to remain strong. Then he tried to contact Kvarti in the same way. There was no response.

End of Session

Session 219, Part One - Glacial Chase

Over the course of time, it became clear that they would only gain on the doomsday army very slowly, by virtue of the fact that Uru could man their sled-ship on his own (with the aid of his ghostly friends) and so could continue overnight while the army was encamped. Korrigan gradually established this by creating a psionic link with an item he hoped was still in Komanov’s possession: the handle of the Cracked Cauldron, which she had stolen from them while soul-riding Hildegaard. Once a day, it stopped moving for eight hours or so. The army was two days ahead of them. At this rate, they would catch up a day’s ride from Mirsk.

During this time, they kept in regular contact with Vlendham Heid, who managed to remain remarkably composed now that he knew (or could at least hope) that rescue was on its way. Heid told them more about Komanov’s plan, which was quite simply to kill everyone in Drakr (for starters) and sacrifice their souls to the Voice of Rot. No points for subtlety. If only the Ob could be as straightforward as that! Korrigan also asked Heid if he had noticed any signs of hivemind activity. Heid said that the dwarven element of the army did appear to be unified under some sort of psychic cloud, but it had not manifested fully.

Their five-day journey down the river of ice was relatively uneventful. Every day they would pass a spot where the doomsday army had camped. The ice would be blackened and stained, and littered with burned down fires and mangled corpses. Small towns and villages nearby were utterly destroyed. Occasionally, they would come across a wrecked vessel similar to theirs. These grim punctuations served to keep their minds on the urgency of the situation, even though the days they passed on the vessel were otherwise smooth.

Uru spent most of his time piloting the craft. For a few hours a day he would give this task up to the others and rest. Then he would fantasise about plucking his eye out and inserting the eye of the Voice of Rot. It was pointed out, when he wondered aloud about this, that the eye was probably very large. Could he fit increasingly large stones into the socket and gradually widen it incrementally? Probably not, but a deep faen could dream!

Korrigan used his newfound ability to communicate over vast distances to keep in touch with his advisors in Risur, and to obtain regular reports from Leon. He had already been to Seobriga with Glaucia, Brakken, Commodore Deinosa (and Uriel) and petitioned the Bruse to rethink his relationship with the Ob. Given everything that had happened in Ursalina, it was agreed that Risur could not be viewed as a foe after all, and the invasion plans were called off. An Ob representative at court was vociferous in his denunciation of this decision, whereupon the Bruse had him placed into his labyrinth.

From there, Leon travelled first to Slate, to persuade Luc Jierre to fashion another wayfarer Lantern; then to Shale, to leave Uriel in consultation with Professor Asher Henton; then on to Cherage, to lend support to a burgeoning opposition movement, led by Korrigan’s contact Naz Duchamps, who had been freed from prison in the wake of the Godmind disaster. The Ob’s abandonment of the city had been even more keenly felt here than Ursalina, as the whole justification for the actions of the Jierre dynasty – and its centuries old support for the Ob – was that they were for the good of Danor. The whole city – or at least everyone who had been drawn into the Godmind – had witnessed with their own eyes their rescue by the King of Risur, their ostensible foe. The appetite for war was not as ravenous, here in the capital and Duchamps had enough connections in the military to cause a schism which bordered on mutiny. Duchamps had invited Leon to speak to potential allies, and help to convince them that Risur was not responsible for the hivemind phenomenon, or the act of sabotage on Axis Island which had damaged the Ob’s ritual.

All of this had happened even before the rest of the unit had reached Bhad Ryzhavdut. Since then Leon had worked on spell that would enable him to teleport to other planes. Uriel and Henton had helped him to create an arcane connection to each world, and he had begun to visit them one by one, protected by magic from their environmental challenges. So far he had successfully visited – and returned unharmed from – Baden, Fourmyle, Illocus and Jiese (where the wary salamanders had fled from him in horror). The plan was to eventually build up to jumping to Av.

Session 219, Part Two - A Rare Opportunity for Reflection

Gupta wished that Uriel and Leon were there, so she could talk to them about religious belief in general and Vekeshi Mysticism in particular. She tried to talk with Thurgid about it – about being the forward arm of a religious movement, but he did not appreciate the attention, or the implication that he had any real free will or choice in the matter. It was clear that he felt more comfortable viewing himself as a predestined follower, leaving the vexed question of choice (and of action) to others.

Quratulain had begun to wonder if she was cursed. She could not understand what had caused the intense lightning that destroyed the gidim when they attempted to examine her. She felt queasy all the time now, especially in the mornings. It was a strange sensation for someone who hadn’t eaten in five-hundred years. Could it be seasickness? No, the motion of this vessel was smooth. She thought about asking Korrigan to help her – to give her orders that would in some way shut away ‘stupid Q’ with all her soft feelings. She wanted to return to something more efficient. Korrigan knew something was amiss, and let her know that he was always there to offer support if she needed it. He was careful to avoid condescension, but she chose not to say anything as yet. Talking only made matters worse.

The king was growing in confidence, utilising his psychic powers to manage affairs back home even from this great distance. Harkover was hugely impressed with his rapid improvement, and agreed it was extremely useful for an ‘absentee monarch’ to be able to communicate with his advisors in this way. However, the Principal Minister felt that there were some matters that would require his ‘immediate, steadying presence’ in the very near future. Korrigan said that he would deal with the situation in Drakr first, and consider sending the unit on to Crisillyir without him - particularly if Leon was done with his researches and in a position to lead the unit in his stead.

Korrigan used his long-range telepathy to speak with Kai, Leon, Delft, Heid, Harkover, Duchess Ethelyn, Admiral Smith, Viscount Price-Hill and others on a daily basis. He also took steps to secure his reputation as a Philosopher King. For a very long time, he had been working with Kieran Sentacore on a variety of texts. His time in the Hidden Valley had given him three years for study and contemplation, and his first work was now complete. He gave Sentacore leave to release it for publication: Dialogues by the Pyre – a Critique of Millerism was an attempt to move Millerism forward, and away from the growing sense that Miller was infallible. It sought to question and embellish core doctrines. Close to completion was Letters from Tomorrow in which King Baldrey conducted an imagined epistolary discourse with a series of ‘future citizens’, who each inhabited an imaginary future version of Lanjyr which had at one point been deemed close to a Utopia. Also in the pipeline was Risur: Our Land & Nation in which the new monarch outlined his clear vision for the future of his kingdom – a work and a vision designed to heal the rift between old and new. Korrigan was aided in this by the rise of a new titan, who sought to meld the two together. Korrigan was struggling to rebrand this category of device, unhappy with Uru’s blithe use of the phrase ‘biomechanical horrors’.

Korrigan also produced a governmental white paper entitled Project Illumination, which he dictated telepathically to Kieran Sentacore (who relied in this case on a few amanuensis scrolls). This was aimed at exposing the lies of the Ob (now that their existence and purpose had been revealed) and returning a sun to the world – a symbolic simplification of their plan to redo the Axis Seal Ritual. This was closely linked to the forthcoming Letters from Tomorrow, in that it invited consideration of which planes to use. (Korrigan was limiting his choices, for now, to the planes the Ob had discussed at the Convocation, assuming they could find a way to access them.) This white paper was for immediate dissemination.

Rumdoom sequestered himself with Hildegaard. “How close we are, all of a sudden,” she said: to the Stone of Not, to Grandis, to vengeance: for her, for her father, for Rumdoom. It was hard to believe that it could all soon be over. Rumdoom wondered what he would do when he had the Stone, realising that he didn’t even know what it was for. Rather than concern himself with details like that, he meditated instead on the Icy End of the World, hoping to find some way to release its power more easily. In this way he spent the next few days.

I really dig that philosophical treatise.

RangerWickett said:

I really dig that philosophical treatise.

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Yes, it was a fun, flavourful player-driven extension of the narrative. Korrigan has been working on this in the background for a long time - since his days courting journalists and politicos in Flint, but more pointedly since Sentacore came on board. It was nice to see it all come to fruition.

Session 219, Part Three - Lost Outriders

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OJS8U30Yxk

The Coaltongue was on its way. There had been some delays in its refit, but it would be in the air above Mirsk in about half a day. The doomsday army had camped for the last time before its final day of travel down the Volgir. King Baldrey placed his clairvoyant eye high in the air, far in the distance, to see how close they were. He could see the army in the very far distance, but could make out no detail. Out of the corner of his ‘eye’ he saw movement on the right bank, and turned to see a lone figure, moving on impossibly fast skis between the trees. Just a brief glimpse and this figure was lost among the pines. Korrigan could not catch sight of the figure again and eventually gave up trying.

A short while later, he used his sensor again, and this time he saw a band of frost giants on the ice between them and the army proper (which was still several miles away). They were clustered around the wreck of a large, dwarven sled-ship, ripping it apart and plundering its cargo. Bloodstains told of the fate of the crew. Three dire white bears fought over more bloody remains. There were six frost giants in all, two mounted on woolly mammoths.

Deciding to forego subtlety, Uru aimed their sled-ship at one of the mammoths. The giants saw them coming. One blew a horn, and the others hurled huge missiles at them – harpoons and glowing blue chunks of rock. Both Korrigan and Rumdoom were hit and Rumdoom was yanked off the ship. Hildegaard and Thurgid jumped off after him.

Quratulain, Gupta and Uru all returned fire, as the ship slammed into the closest mammoth and its rider, and then careened away, to come to a slow standstill. The rider was killed and the mammoth lumbered off, out of control. Korrigan ignored the pain of the harpoon and directed the battle. Quratulain leapt off the ship to stay close to her targets. All of the remaining giants attacked her, but they could not land a blow. She responded with her armblade and killed another.

The dire bears charged at Rumdoom and his retinue. With a cry of pain he yanked out the harpoon and brace himself for impact, with Hildegaard standing beside him (and Thurgid just behind).

From hiding, Uru shot and killed another frost giant rider, and the second mammoth blundered away. Gupta fired also finished off an ice giant with Reason.

A subsonic thump, as a huge volume of air was displaced, presaged the arrival of a gigantic figure: a thick-set stone skeleton, fifty feet tall, yellow vapours curling around its chin like a beard. It bore a huge axe, the haft of which formed a primitive three-valve horn. This was Betel, the Vain Axe-man and he blew his horn at once. The enormous blare was an almost physical assault, although everyone but Uru was able to resist it. Uru began to shake uncontrollably.

The last two giants retreated behind legs of the Vsadni, but that could not save them. Quratulain shot and injured one, and despite the shakes, Uru finished it off. Gupta picked off the last of them.

Further up-river, the bears mauled Rumdoom. He fought back, knocking one to the ice.

Betel fired beams of cold and lightning from his eyes, aimed at Quratulain. Resistant to both energy forms, she struck back, but her blade was equally ineffective against this gargantuan being – it was like attacking a marble statue with a butter knife. Betel laughed and said something in old dwarven, before swinging his axe and knocking Korrigan and Gupta off the deck of the ship and onto the ice. Quratulain was hit too, after she leapt in a comically exaggerated way and mistimed her jump. Once again her emotions were clouding her mind!

Another subsonic thump: Yarost the Naïve Axe-man had arrived. He blew his trumpet and Betel did too. Uru jumped onto Little Jack and fled!

Quratulain slid into a kneeling position and shot at one of the Vsadni with her lantern blaster. A solid hit, but still no damage! These things seemed impervious to harm!

Korrigan commanded Uru not to flee, using his crown to free the deep faen from fear. Then he ordered everyone back to the sled-ship. Uru got the ship moving even as the Vsadni slowly advanced. As it picked up its pace, they summoned colossal, icy steeds to bear them pursuit. Quratulain took careful aim and blew their steeds out from under them.

Now that they had two Vsadni behind them, and the doomsday army ahead of them, they needed to think fast. Hastily, they came up with a plan. They brought the ship up to full speed, tied off enough ropes to keep it running straight, then used Fourmyle Jaunting to teleport to a bald, rocky bluff, high on the right bank. The empty vessel careened down the river and the Vsadni could be seen giving chase on foot.

End of Session

Session 220, Part One - Ghoulish Messengers

Uru used the same ritual he once used to walk along the rivers of his jungle home, to enable the group to traverse the deep snow drifts of the Volgir Valley. They were also protected by another of his rituals from the extreme cold. Fearing another massacre in Mirsk, Korrigan was keen to make haste and so they planned as they marched. They talked about passing into the centre of the army under the ice, using Uru’s rebreathers, surfacing only when they had located Komanov. (Sending Uru in to assassinate her was also mooted, but he wasn’t keen to go ahead alone, given what happened last time.)

Not long after their encounter with the vsadni they heard a distant series of howls. Uru did not think they were canine in nature. Korrigan spoke again with Heid – who told them that one of the Vsadni had summoned ghouls to hunt them down. Uru used a rope trick spell he had stored in the Sword of the Black Needles and they hid while they figured out what to do next.

Heid also told them that he had heard Komanov say that once she reached Mirsk, it would take some days to ‘attune’ her doomsday device (which she called ‘the Cyclopean Revelation’). This afforded them more time. Perhaps it would be better to wait until the Coaltongue arrived, and until the army was more thinly spread out, besieging Mirsk? They made contact with Admiral Smith, who told them he was close to Mirsk, about four hours out from their estimated position. Korrigan told Smith to head for Mirsk for the time being.

Then they heard gunshots. Gupta recognised the report of the rifle as Intransigence – the new weapon of Kvarti Gorbartiy (whose previous weapon, Reason, he had gifted her with). Looks like they would have to rescue him from another icy waste!

Leaving the safety of the rope trick, they headed for the sound of Kvarti’s gun. Uru stole ahead and was first to come across a clearing which the ghouls had been trying to traverse. There were half a dozen or more sprawled on the snow, others picking their way through the trees. Another shot rang out and an exposed ghoul fell. Uru saw the flash high up in a tree and crept round to the base.

Appraised of all this telepathically, Korrigan again tried to communicate with Kvarti, but there was no response. Some ghouls caught sight of him, standing on the edge of the clearing, and gingerly stepped out into the open. They did not charge towards him, as he expected, but one began to declaim:

“I apprehend you to be unmatched warriors whom I could call peers. I welcome you to a place of negotiation…”

A shot rang out and the ghoul fell. Uru looked upwards. He could see Kvarti lying on a nest created by his own crossed skis.

Looking askance at its fallen brother, a second ghoul took up the speech: “Let us set aside titles and honours and speak among the ancient stones. Much time has passed since I rode through these lands, and…”

Another shot. The second ghoul fell. Korrigan used Bolt of Avilona to appear adjacent to the remaining ghouls and shout for a cease fire. Uru could hear Kvarti make a grunt of surprise.

Another ghoul took up the message. Now that he was closer, Korrigan could see that the ghoul did not move its mouth to speak, only open it, and the words – gravelly and loud – emerged from within: “I will ask of you what has changed since the Three-Eyed Knight walked the Star Road. Perhaps the Speaker of Ice and Snow will perish before this world will.”

Then the terrified ghouls loped off through the trees. Korrigan tried to gauge if Kvarti’s shots might have drawn the rest of the army, but the muffling trees and echoing slopes made that unlikely at such a distance.

Uru made himself known to Kvarti, gently so as to avoid surprises. Kvarti grabbed his skis and dropped from the tree. He greeted them with some relief.

“I tried to communicate with you several times,” said Korrigan. “Didn’t you hear me?”

Kvarti shrugged. “I thought I was going mad, so I ignored the voices.” They asked what he was up to. His plan was to pursue the army, infiltrate it, and kill Grandis Komanov. “In revenge for Vlendham Heid.” They told him Heid was still alive. Kvarti nodded his approval. “That is good. We had a falling out – a bad way to end.” How did he plan to kill Grandis? “I will shoot her in the head.” How had he survived Bhad Ryzhavdut? “I left. I told Heid we should not go there but he would not listen. When the siege began, I found a way out – for one or two of us at least. He would not leave, and I did not wish to share that ending.” How had he travelled so swiftly? “The rangers of these mountains use longstrider oil on their skis.”

“A drink?” Uru took out a bottle of fey wine he had been saving since the Dreaming and passed it to Kvarti to hold while he fished out some cups. By the time he had found them, Kvarti had opened the bottle and glugged it down. He looked at the empty cups and realised that the whole bottle was not intended for him. “I prefer spirits,” he said, as if that excused his faux pas.