gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Session 33, Part Two
The Crucible
Grizzled eladrin veterans waged a guerrilla campaign against the clergy from a translocating pocket plane on the isthmus they called the Crucible. Strategically, this was ill-advised – the clergy had already advanced hundreds of miles to the east. But for the fey-minded eladrin, surrender of the isthmus was an anaethma, and so they continued to harry the Crisillyiri colonists, while constantly evading capture. Outside events were of little interest to these men, but they had heard of the coup in Ushanti, and were only too happy to help Kasvarina. And so they set aside any demands for assistance and introduced Gupta to the priests of Sarasvati. These strange priests seemed both young and old – white-haired and frail, but with smooth, unblemished almost radiant skin. They told Gupta that if her contrition was sufficient, Sarasvati would answer her prayer and draw away some of her own life force to revive Helandra. The ritual was a long one, but it ended in success: Helandra woke and struggled against the confines of her binding. She was very confused and Gupta took her aside to explain what had happened.
Her account was an honest one, sparing no details. To her surprise, when she was done, Helandra threw back her head and gave a great guffaw. She forgave Gupta instantly, and seemed hugely entertained by the whole idea. Gupta was taken aback and sought to establish if Helandra nursed some unspoken grievance, but Helandra said that since she was alive again, the incident had cost her nothing but her dress and that was easily replaced. She needed no help to return to Sentosa, she said. She was quite able to find her own way. Gupta was very grateful, and Kasvarina seemed especially happy with the outcome. No doubt, she said, but the Unseen Court would hear of this and, together with the coup in Ushanti, it would stand the unit in good stead in future dealings with the fey.
Now Kasvarina was keen to ignore Korrigan’s orders and continue her search for memories outside the pocket plane. Uriel was equally reckless in pursuit of his origins and together they persuaded the others to step outside.
Rolling hills and farmland dominated what must once have been Elfaivaran jungle. Kasvarina wove a seeming ritual that allowed them to pass in the disguise of simple peasants. Kasvarina donned the Arc and found that there were no significant memories close by, much to her disappointment. Uriel, meanwhile, felt a pull to the east and soon discovered the site of Talmai’s incarnation in what was then eladrin-held jungle. The Arc was now drawing him westwards.
To save time, and heedless of the attention it would draw, they all piled into Rumdoom’s clockwork carriage and headed for Vendricce.
Casus Belli
“Friends of yours?” asked Pemberton.
Noises off: over cries of alarm from the patrons of the Rat, they heard the distant sounds of artillery and, closer, shouts and the heavy fall of many boots. Alarm bells began to ring. It sounded as if Macdam itself was being invaded!
Leon decided that discretion was the better part of valour, but his teleport spell fizzled out. There was a dimension lock on the area; this was a concerted ambush indeed!
Two more soldiers had risen from a nearby table and now drew pistols at Leon and Korrigan. They were cut down by a rain of shuriken from the ceiling.
At once, half a dozen carbines sounded from the doorways. None of them hit their intended targets, but a number of bystanders were caught in the crossfire and panic erupted in the lounge.
“I take it that these gentlemen are Obscurati?” said Pemberton. Korrigan confirmed that they were. “Hold on a second,” said Pemberton, and his prototype duplicant slumped forward, abandoned.
Korrigan ordered a retreat towards the stairs. Leon turned invisible and did as he was told, as did Uru, slipping back into the shadows as he went, then turning and firing again with his shuriken crossbow, felling more porteurs. Korrigan had a sudden notion that delayed his own retreat, as he tried to pick up the duplicant and bring it with them. It was far too heavy and unwieldy and he gave up on the idea, but it was too late:
With an almighty roar, the windows imploded in a hail of gunfire from outside, filling the whole saloon with a maelstrom of broken glass and bullets. Leon was already halfway up the stairs; Uru dropped to the ground as bullets whizzed overhead; Korrigan ploughed through scattered furniture using upended tables for cover.
Uru scampered up the stairs after Leon and they dashed into a vacant bedroom to peek out of an upstairs window. A whole squadron of Danoran troops had surrounded the building! Half of them now opened fire again and this time Korrigan was caught in the fusillade, though he stoically absorbed the kinetic energy of most of the attack, before stomping up the stairs to join the others.
The Danoran troop now realised their targets were no longer on the ground floor, but when they fired through the upstairs windows, their bullets bounced of Uru’s latest trick: a black force-field, erected by Little Jack, comprised of negative energy from the Bleak Gate, and large enough to shield all of them. Thus protected, they hastily discussed their options. Footsteps were drawing near as the soldiers stormed the building.
Shrugging off the compromise to his dignity, Korrigan allowed them to place him in the absurdist web, whereupon Uru and Leon slipped silently out of an upstairs window and escaped over the rooftops. In the distance, they could see a smoking building – a barracks destroyed by the concentrated fire of two Danoran frigates in the harbour. This was an audacious move by the porteurs, and could only have been sanctioned by the Sovereign himself. Uru wondered if they should stay and fight off the incursion, but Korrigan said they could not take care of every problem themselves. In any case, the porteurs would not escape unopposed:
Further up the slopes surrounding Macdam harbour, another loud explosion drew their gaze. Two enormous golems crashed out of a warehouse without pausing to open the huge, locked wooden doors. This was Pemberton’s mothballed factory, and these golems were his. At once, they opened fire on the invaders with integrated cannon, which they were able to reload from a magazine on their hip. Their attack was so unexpected and so devastating that it caused the Danorans to beat a hasty retreat towards the docks, pursued all the way by the enormous constructs.
Once they had moved far enough to be free of the dimension lock, Leon ‘ported them back to the edge of town and then used follow the voice to rejoin the rest of the unit.
Vendricce
Ken Don had a lot of information for Uriel: In 170 AOV, a powerful deva, Cardinal Tadeo had been assassinated in Vendricce. His reincarnation was not located, but fifty years later, when a Seedist deva priest was slain near the Perpetual City, he was identified as the lost soul of Cardinal Tadeo and returned to Crissilyir. He took the name of Jannick, trained as a Templar, and took part in a crusade against the dragon tyrants in 300 AOV, where he too was lost near modern-day Seobriga. Cardinal Tadeo was known to be the reincarnation of a famous healer named Tadeas who lived in Alais Primos from 17-110. Uriel was overwhelmed.
Once the unit was reunited they headed into Vendricce. They needed to be careful here. While the clergy were not openly hostile to Risur, they knew that the Ob had gained substantial foothold in its ranks, and the last time they were here, they fled capture with the sound of golden bells ringing in their ears. It would be best not to draw too much attention.
Sadly, this was not to prove possible. The Arc drew Uriel to an open cathedral-palace. Entry was no issue, but moving beyond the public areas to the private suites beyond had to be done with real brio. Korrigan gave orders; Gupta muttered subtle charms; Leon smoothed things over. So far so good – everything seemed reasonable to the modern-day occupants, until Uriel stepped out onto a balcony overlooking a wide, busy plaza, which was suddenly filled by rows and rows of armed clergy troops, whom Cardinal Tadeo now addressed – filling them with righteous ire for their forthcoming progrom in Elfaivar. Needless to say this very shocking, public manifestation could only draw the attention of the authorities, and quickly too.
Korrigan and Gupta dealt with the immediate problem, of cathedral high-ups who demanded an explanation. They introduced the reincarnation of Cardinal Tadeo and demanded access to his private chambers.
Here they witnessed more memory events:
In one Tadeo was speaking with none other than Vicemi Terio, who was very much alive, but clearly unwell. “Is it necessary that I pursue this holy war with such tenacity?” Tadeo asked him. “Surely it is counter to our best interests?” Vicemi growled, “He wants the pressure kept up on the eladrin. Otherwise she might break ranks.” He began to cough uncontrollably. Tadeo expressed sympathy and offered a cure which Vicemi stubbornly rejected: “I need no help from the divine. If nature means for me to waste away then let it be so.”
This memory segued into a later event, another discussion with another, unknown person. In this memory, Tadeo was angry and refusing to follow orders. “Tell him I know what they did! I went to the island and I found out for myself. I’ll do his bidding no longer!” The stranger said patiently, “Our master has a sentimental attachment to you that the rest of us do not share. If you openly oppose us, you will be dealt with.” Tadeo gave an outraged roar of defiance as the memory faded.
Then, in a still more secluded chamber, Cardinal Tadeo’s silent prayer was disturbed by movement in the shadows. A poison dagger struck him squarely between the shoulder blades. He turned to face his Vekeshi assassin. “It is as it should be,” he said, before he died.
With Rumdoom’s help, Uriel did not share Tadeo’s fate. Instead he rose and strode proudly from the building, possessed for a while by the Cardinal’s demeanour. Flabbergasted clergy scrambled to obey his orders, before he and the unit left the building and slipped away into the night.
To further throw off pursuit, rather than trying to make it to Alais Primos, they instead teleported to the Impossible in Seobriga. On arrival, Korrigan’s first concern was to pen a sending to Sovereign Han Jierre.
“Don’t you have to know the recipient personally?” asked Kasvarina in surprise.
“I do know the Sovereign,” said Korrigan. “I have engaged him in conversation and shaken his hand on at least two occasions.”
The purport of the sending was simply this:
“Flattered by the attention, but think you should save resources and lives.”
There was no response. At least, not immediately…
The Crucible
Grizzled eladrin veterans waged a guerrilla campaign against the clergy from a translocating pocket plane on the isthmus they called the Crucible. Strategically, this was ill-advised – the clergy had already advanced hundreds of miles to the east. But for the fey-minded eladrin, surrender of the isthmus was an anaethma, and so they continued to harry the Crisillyiri colonists, while constantly evading capture. Outside events were of little interest to these men, but they had heard of the coup in Ushanti, and were only too happy to help Kasvarina. And so they set aside any demands for assistance and introduced Gupta to the priests of Sarasvati. These strange priests seemed both young and old – white-haired and frail, but with smooth, unblemished almost radiant skin. They told Gupta that if her contrition was sufficient, Sarasvati would answer her prayer and draw away some of her own life force to revive Helandra. The ritual was a long one, but it ended in success: Helandra woke and struggled against the confines of her binding. She was very confused and Gupta took her aside to explain what had happened.
Her account was an honest one, sparing no details. To her surprise, when she was done, Helandra threw back her head and gave a great guffaw. She forgave Gupta instantly, and seemed hugely entertained by the whole idea. Gupta was taken aback and sought to establish if Helandra nursed some unspoken grievance, but Helandra said that since she was alive again, the incident had cost her nothing but her dress and that was easily replaced. She needed no help to return to Sentosa, she said. She was quite able to find her own way. Gupta was very grateful, and Kasvarina seemed especially happy with the outcome. No doubt, she said, but the Unseen Court would hear of this and, together with the coup in Ushanti, it would stand the unit in good stead in future dealings with the fey.
Now Kasvarina was keen to ignore Korrigan’s orders and continue her search for memories outside the pocket plane. Uriel was equally reckless in pursuit of his origins and together they persuaded the others to step outside.
Rolling hills and farmland dominated what must once have been Elfaivaran jungle. Kasvarina wove a seeming ritual that allowed them to pass in the disguise of simple peasants. Kasvarina donned the Arc and found that there were no significant memories close by, much to her disappointment. Uriel, meanwhile, felt a pull to the east and soon discovered the site of Talmai’s incarnation in what was then eladrin-held jungle. The Arc was now drawing him westwards.
To save time, and heedless of the attention it would draw, they all piled into Rumdoom’s clockwork carriage and headed for Vendricce.
Casus Belli
“Friends of yours?” asked Pemberton.
Noises off: over cries of alarm from the patrons of the Rat, they heard the distant sounds of artillery and, closer, shouts and the heavy fall of many boots. Alarm bells began to ring. It sounded as if Macdam itself was being invaded!
Leon decided that discretion was the better part of valour, but his teleport spell fizzled out. There was a dimension lock on the area; this was a concerted ambush indeed!
Two more soldiers had risen from a nearby table and now drew pistols at Leon and Korrigan. They were cut down by a rain of shuriken from the ceiling.
At once, half a dozen carbines sounded from the doorways. None of them hit their intended targets, but a number of bystanders were caught in the crossfire and panic erupted in the lounge.
“I take it that these gentlemen are Obscurati?” said Pemberton. Korrigan confirmed that they were. “Hold on a second,” said Pemberton, and his prototype duplicant slumped forward, abandoned.
Korrigan ordered a retreat towards the stairs. Leon turned invisible and did as he was told, as did Uru, slipping back into the shadows as he went, then turning and firing again with his shuriken crossbow, felling more porteurs. Korrigan had a sudden notion that delayed his own retreat, as he tried to pick up the duplicant and bring it with them. It was far too heavy and unwieldy and he gave up on the idea, but it was too late:
With an almighty roar, the windows imploded in a hail of gunfire from outside, filling the whole saloon with a maelstrom of broken glass and bullets. Leon was already halfway up the stairs; Uru dropped to the ground as bullets whizzed overhead; Korrigan ploughed through scattered furniture using upended tables for cover.
Uru scampered up the stairs after Leon and they dashed into a vacant bedroom to peek out of an upstairs window. A whole squadron of Danoran troops had surrounded the building! Half of them now opened fire again and this time Korrigan was caught in the fusillade, though he stoically absorbed the kinetic energy of most of the attack, before stomping up the stairs to join the others.
The Danoran troop now realised their targets were no longer on the ground floor, but when they fired through the upstairs windows, their bullets bounced of Uru’s latest trick: a black force-field, erected by Little Jack, comprised of negative energy from the Bleak Gate, and large enough to shield all of them. Thus protected, they hastily discussed their options. Footsteps were drawing near as the soldiers stormed the building.
Shrugging off the compromise to his dignity, Korrigan allowed them to place him in the absurdist web, whereupon Uru and Leon slipped silently out of an upstairs window and escaped over the rooftops. In the distance, they could see a smoking building – a barracks destroyed by the concentrated fire of two Danoran frigates in the harbour. This was an audacious move by the porteurs, and could only have been sanctioned by the Sovereign himself. Uru wondered if they should stay and fight off the incursion, but Korrigan said they could not take care of every problem themselves. In any case, the porteurs would not escape unopposed:
Further up the slopes surrounding Macdam harbour, another loud explosion drew their gaze. Two enormous golems crashed out of a warehouse without pausing to open the huge, locked wooden doors. This was Pemberton’s mothballed factory, and these golems were his. At once, they opened fire on the invaders with integrated cannon, which they were able to reload from a magazine on their hip. Their attack was so unexpected and so devastating that it caused the Danorans to beat a hasty retreat towards the docks, pursued all the way by the enormous constructs.
Once they had moved far enough to be free of the dimension lock, Leon ‘ported them back to the edge of town and then used follow the voice to rejoin the rest of the unit.
Vendricce
Ken Don had a lot of information for Uriel: In 170 AOV, a powerful deva, Cardinal Tadeo had been assassinated in Vendricce. His reincarnation was not located, but fifty years later, when a Seedist deva priest was slain near the Perpetual City, he was identified as the lost soul of Cardinal Tadeo and returned to Crissilyir. He took the name of Jannick, trained as a Templar, and took part in a crusade against the dragon tyrants in 300 AOV, where he too was lost near modern-day Seobriga. Cardinal Tadeo was known to be the reincarnation of a famous healer named Tadeas who lived in Alais Primos from 17-110. Uriel was overwhelmed.
Once the unit was reunited they headed into Vendricce. They needed to be careful here. While the clergy were not openly hostile to Risur, they knew that the Ob had gained substantial foothold in its ranks, and the last time they were here, they fled capture with the sound of golden bells ringing in their ears. It would be best not to draw too much attention.
Sadly, this was not to prove possible. The Arc drew Uriel to an open cathedral-palace. Entry was no issue, but moving beyond the public areas to the private suites beyond had to be done with real brio. Korrigan gave orders; Gupta muttered subtle charms; Leon smoothed things over. So far so good – everything seemed reasonable to the modern-day occupants, until Uriel stepped out onto a balcony overlooking a wide, busy plaza, which was suddenly filled by rows and rows of armed clergy troops, whom Cardinal Tadeo now addressed – filling them with righteous ire for their forthcoming progrom in Elfaivar. Needless to say this very shocking, public manifestation could only draw the attention of the authorities, and quickly too.
Korrigan and Gupta dealt with the immediate problem, of cathedral high-ups who demanded an explanation. They introduced the reincarnation of Cardinal Tadeo and demanded access to his private chambers.
Here they witnessed more memory events:
In one Tadeo was speaking with none other than Vicemi Terio, who was very much alive, but clearly unwell. “Is it necessary that I pursue this holy war with such tenacity?” Tadeo asked him. “Surely it is counter to our best interests?” Vicemi growled, “He wants the pressure kept up on the eladrin. Otherwise she might break ranks.” He began to cough uncontrollably. Tadeo expressed sympathy and offered a cure which Vicemi stubbornly rejected: “I need no help from the divine. If nature means for me to waste away then let it be so.”
This memory segued into a later event, another discussion with another, unknown person. In this memory, Tadeo was angry and refusing to follow orders. “Tell him I know what they did! I went to the island and I found out for myself. I’ll do his bidding no longer!” The stranger said patiently, “Our master has a sentimental attachment to you that the rest of us do not share. If you openly oppose us, you will be dealt with.” Tadeo gave an outraged roar of defiance as the memory faded.
Then, in a still more secluded chamber, Cardinal Tadeo’s silent prayer was disturbed by movement in the shadows. A poison dagger struck him squarely between the shoulder blades. He turned to face his Vekeshi assassin. “It is as it should be,” he said, before he died.
With Rumdoom’s help, Uriel did not share Tadeo’s fate. Instead he rose and strode proudly from the building, possessed for a while by the Cardinal’s demeanour. Flabbergasted clergy scrambled to obey his orders, before he and the unit left the building and slipped away into the night.
To further throw off pursuit, rather than trying to make it to Alais Primos, they instead teleported to the Impossible in Seobriga. On arrival, Korrigan’s first concern was to pen a sending to Sovereign Han Jierre.
“Don’t you have to know the recipient personally?” asked Kasvarina in surprise.
“I do know the Sovereign,” said Korrigan. “I have engaged him in conversation and shaken his hand on at least two occasions.”
The purport of the sending was simply this:
“Flattered by the attention, but think you should save resources and lives.”
There was no response. At least, not immediately…