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!