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Twin Emperors[EPIC RPG MKIV] - Story Minute
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<blockquote data-quote="Iron Sky" data-source="post: 7115458" data-attributes="member: 60965"><p><strong>Session 7 - Rifts</strong></p><p></p><p>The companions set out from the Legion follower's camp, traveling barely an hour past the marching Legion before sounds of pursuit sounded through the copses of gnarled pines. Eliot Sam rode ahead, spotting the subject of the chase: a young, beautiful Eiberian slave woman in tattered silks, a squad of mounted Legion Auxiliaries in close pursuit. Eliot Sam ignored commands to halt, charged into the teeth of the onrushing cavalry, scooped the woman into his saddle, wheeled, and rode hard away.</p><p></p><p>In the pursuit that followed, inexperienced horseman Pursus lagged behind as the others raced away out of sight, only his magic protecting him from a barrage of arrows and javelins unleashed by the pursuing Auxiliaries. Unbeknownst to him his friends lay in ambush ahead, leaping out of the trees and taking down half the Auxiliaries in the first attack. After a short, brutal skirmish the two surviving Auxiliaries rode for their lives.</p><p></p><p>The companions wasted no time fleeing themselves, not wanting to face the wrath of Praetor Raluis' Legions – more so when the woman, Samara Ashik, revealed she was the personal companion slave to Ralius. In her words, the only thing that might save them was to put enough distance between themselves and the Legion that Ralius' sense of duty might outweigh his rage.</p><p></p><p>After riding hard all day and part of the night they returned to the road, passing endless supply wagons lumbering south from Aetherport to keep the 13th Legions fed and paid mixed. In straggles and clumps between the wagon streamed innumerable Aedaric refugees fleeing the revolt in the Eon Baronies while Aetherships drifting through the skies above gradually became commonplace. That night while they rested their exhausted horses, they failed to free Samara from the gilded collar that she said suppressed her magical capabilities. </p><p></p><p>Spotted that night on watch: the familiar Deer Spirit following a massive herd of deer north, and, later, an Aethership listing and losing altitude as it careened towards Aetherport.</p><p></p><p>They pushed the horses hard again as soon as they awoke, the beasts' only rest when a spotted aether pearl diverted them to a small Aether rift – the many vents, fissures, and crevasses from which endlessly flowed streaming motes of multicolored Aetheric energies. Nanoc volunteered to extract it, nearly falling down the seemingly bottomless crevice when his efforts to extract the pearl severed the rope holding him. Through a combination of his sheer strength and his companion's efforts to get ropes to him he scrambled out and not a moment too soon. The sounds of something monstrous scrabbling up the sheer cliffs towards him in the darkness of the rift echoed in his psyche.</p><p></p><p>Near sunset, adventure! The Aethership spotted in distress the night before was discovered wedged thirty feet down in an Aether Rift barely wide enough to support it, the ship clearly abandoned. Interpreting the ship's groans and occasional cracking sounds from the cliff face to be predictions of the craft's immanent plunge to the bottomless dark, they wasted no time in anchoring some rope and scrambling down to see what loot might be had.</p><p></p><p>Pursus, Eliot Sam, and Michkin dived into the hold, finding evidence the crew had swiped unknown choicest bits that had been smuggled in the hold for themselves before abandoning ship. What remained: hundreds of small boxes of spices and several large sacks of salt. Their brief attempt to systematically search and sort the contents was interrupted by the creaks and groans of the slowly breaking spine of the ship. When Nanoc whispered warning from above that a “goddamn tentacle monster” was attempting to sneak up the cliff face towards them, careful planning switched to rapidly stuffing empty salt bags with anonymous spice boxes.</p><p></p><p>While Pursus and Michkin worked at cramming in as much loot as they could carry, Eliot Sam and Nanoc faced the tentacled monstrosity slithering up from the depths – a fleshy, tentacled mass constricted around a massive Aether Pearl the size of a melon. Michkin popped up to the deck just in time to see a tentacle coil around Eliot Sam and yank him off the deck. Michkin and Nanoc managed to sever a tentacle probing about trying to snare on of them while down below Eliot Sam managed grasp a dangling Aether-skein wire to save himself. At that moment, the monster unleashed a psychic blast that scattered unconscious heroes across the deck and left Eliot Sam helpless in its grasp.</p><p></p><p>Pursus finished securing the last of the loot and ran on deck as Samara and Mideru rappelled down to aid as well. Alas, they were too late, the beast already disappearing down the cliff face with unconscious Eliot Sam and Nanoc clutched in its crushing grasp. Though Michkin, then Pursus leaped for the small dangling wires to get closer and rescue their friends, the monstrosity was already almost to its tunneled lair far down the sheer face. Desperately, Michkin swung from his wire and plummeted downwards in a heroic attempt to land on the monstrosity... and sailed past it.</p><p></p><p>As Michkin fell to his doom, Pursus watched helplessly for a moment before remembering The Bank. Summoning his Alban with a desperate psychic plea, Pursus asked if he could sell a soul remotely. Alban asked if the seller was willing. </p><p></p><p>“Will you sell your soul?” Pursus shouted. </p><p></p><p>“Yes!” Michkin replied as he vanished into the darkness.</p><p></p><p>A moment later, Michkin stumbled into beast's lair, as if his sixty-foot fall had somehow, impossibly landed him safely on the lip of the cave, his fall fading from all but Mickin's mind as though they had imagined it.</p><p></p><p>Mickin charged in shouting and Eliot Sam and Nanoc awoke in the clutches of the beast, facing a desperate battle against the abomination in its very lair. Pursus made a desperate gambit and free-climbed down the cliff face to aid them, arriving just in time for Nanoc to drive a sword-point into the monster's pearl, shattering it and unleashing another blast, knocking all four of the companions unconscious.</p><p></p><p>An indeterminate time later, they awoke to faint shouts from Mideru and Samara above, the tentacle-beast haven't apparently slunk away while they were passed out.</p><p></p><p>They had just begun to loot its lair when Mideru's shouts warned them of the weakened cliff face's immanent collapse. A long rope lashed to the Aether ship's rails unfurled before them and they rapidly scaled it, the ship groaning and shuddering as rocks skittered and rained down the cliff. Their weight back aboard the ship suddenly canted it starboard, nearly hurling several off the deck. </p><p></p><p>Scrambling to their feet, they hurled themselves up the final rope, all but Eliot Sam safely arrived before Nanoc's terrible rope-luck severed the rope. Nanoc managed to catch himself and free-climb that last twenty feet, but there was no time to aid Sam. Eliot Sam thought quickly, grabbed the line still tied to the rail and rappelled down in massive leaps. He dived into the lair just as the whole side of the cliff tore away above, the broken Aethership vanishing into the rift.</p><p></p><p>An hour's labor and one long, ramshackle rope/belt/chain/clothing conglomeration later and Eliot Sam climbed to safety. </p><p></p><p>The total haul from their endeavor: an Etched buckler capable of deflecting sorcery, another etched disc of unknown use, and twenty-two small chests of various spices.</p><p></p><p>After collapsing into an exhausted slumber, they set out the next morning, pushing hard until near sunset when they catching their first glimpse of Aetherport's wood-and-stone sprawl huddling along the Great Rift. A the massive ziggurat of the Aether docks anchored the city, spiked with gantries and cranes. The rest of the city sprawled beneath snaking aqueducts and the massive reverse-waterfall of ascending rainbow-hued Aether filling the far horizon.</p><p></p><p>On a bench at the top of the hill they had just crested, sat Brassy Johns, flashing her brass grill. Assuaging their suspicions with promises that the earlier unpleasantness had been just business, she swore she could be of use. Not only was she born and raised in Aetherport, but she had brought someone to them.</p><p></p><p>A cloaked man stumbled towards them from the trees. At a nod from Brassy, he pulled back his hood. The man's face looked half-made, unformed, as if a pencil drawing that had only been loosely sketched.</p><p></p><p>The companions looked to Brassy, not comprehending.</p><p></p><p>Brassy's grin widened. “I give you: the real Nise Akuma!”</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Iron Sky, post: 7115458, member: 60965"] [b]Session 7 - Rifts[/b] The companions set out from the Legion follower's camp, traveling barely an hour past the marching Legion before sounds of pursuit sounded through the copses of gnarled pines. Eliot Sam rode ahead, spotting the subject of the chase: a young, beautiful Eiberian slave woman in tattered silks, a squad of mounted Legion Auxiliaries in close pursuit. Eliot Sam ignored commands to halt, charged into the teeth of the onrushing cavalry, scooped the woman into his saddle, wheeled, and rode hard away. In the pursuit that followed, inexperienced horseman Pursus lagged behind as the others raced away out of sight, only his magic protecting him from a barrage of arrows and javelins unleashed by the pursuing Auxiliaries. Unbeknownst to him his friends lay in ambush ahead, leaping out of the trees and taking down half the Auxiliaries in the first attack. After a short, brutal skirmish the two surviving Auxiliaries rode for their lives. The companions wasted no time fleeing themselves, not wanting to face the wrath of Praetor Raluis' Legions – more so when the woman, Samara Ashik, revealed she was the personal companion slave to Ralius. In her words, the only thing that might save them was to put enough distance between themselves and the Legion that Ralius' sense of duty might outweigh his rage. After riding hard all day and part of the night they returned to the road, passing endless supply wagons lumbering south from Aetherport to keep the 13th Legions fed and paid mixed. In straggles and clumps between the wagon streamed innumerable Aedaric refugees fleeing the revolt in the Eon Baronies while Aetherships drifting through the skies above gradually became commonplace. That night while they rested their exhausted horses, they failed to free Samara from the gilded collar that she said suppressed her magical capabilities. Spotted that night on watch: the familiar Deer Spirit following a massive herd of deer north, and, later, an Aethership listing and losing altitude as it careened towards Aetherport. They pushed the horses hard again as soon as they awoke, the beasts' only rest when a spotted aether pearl diverted them to a small Aether rift – the many vents, fissures, and crevasses from which endlessly flowed streaming motes of multicolored Aetheric energies. Nanoc volunteered to extract it, nearly falling down the seemingly bottomless crevice when his efforts to extract the pearl severed the rope holding him. Through a combination of his sheer strength and his companion's efforts to get ropes to him he scrambled out and not a moment too soon. The sounds of something monstrous scrabbling up the sheer cliffs towards him in the darkness of the rift echoed in his psyche. Near sunset, adventure! The Aethership spotted in distress the night before was discovered wedged thirty feet down in an Aether Rift barely wide enough to support it, the ship clearly abandoned. Interpreting the ship's groans and occasional cracking sounds from the cliff face to be predictions of the craft's immanent plunge to the bottomless dark, they wasted no time in anchoring some rope and scrambling down to see what loot might be had. Pursus, Eliot Sam, and Michkin dived into the hold, finding evidence the crew had swiped unknown choicest bits that had been smuggled in the hold for themselves before abandoning ship. What remained: hundreds of small boxes of spices and several large sacks of salt. Their brief attempt to systematically search and sort the contents was interrupted by the creaks and groans of the slowly breaking spine of the ship. When Nanoc whispered warning from above that a “goddamn tentacle monster” was attempting to sneak up the cliff face towards them, careful planning switched to rapidly stuffing empty salt bags with anonymous spice boxes. While Pursus and Michkin worked at cramming in as much loot as they could carry, Eliot Sam and Nanoc faced the tentacled monstrosity slithering up from the depths – a fleshy, tentacled mass constricted around a massive Aether Pearl the size of a melon. Michkin popped up to the deck just in time to see a tentacle coil around Eliot Sam and yank him off the deck. Michkin and Nanoc managed to sever a tentacle probing about trying to snare on of them while down below Eliot Sam managed grasp a dangling Aether-skein wire to save himself. At that moment, the monster unleashed a psychic blast that scattered unconscious heroes across the deck and left Eliot Sam helpless in its grasp. Pursus finished securing the last of the loot and ran on deck as Samara and Mideru rappelled down to aid as well. Alas, they were too late, the beast already disappearing down the cliff face with unconscious Eliot Sam and Nanoc clutched in its crushing grasp. Though Michkin, then Pursus leaped for the small dangling wires to get closer and rescue their friends, the monstrosity was already almost to its tunneled lair far down the sheer face. Desperately, Michkin swung from his wire and plummeted downwards in a heroic attempt to land on the monstrosity... and sailed past it. As Michkin fell to his doom, Pursus watched helplessly for a moment before remembering The Bank. Summoning his Alban with a desperate psychic plea, Pursus asked if he could sell a soul remotely. Alban asked if the seller was willing. “Will you sell your soul?” Pursus shouted. “Yes!” Michkin replied as he vanished into the darkness. A moment later, Michkin stumbled into beast's lair, as if his sixty-foot fall had somehow, impossibly landed him safely on the lip of the cave, his fall fading from all but Mickin's mind as though they had imagined it. Mickin charged in shouting and Eliot Sam and Nanoc awoke in the clutches of the beast, facing a desperate battle against the abomination in its very lair. Pursus made a desperate gambit and free-climbed down the cliff face to aid them, arriving just in time for Nanoc to drive a sword-point into the monster's pearl, shattering it and unleashing another blast, knocking all four of the companions unconscious. An indeterminate time later, they awoke to faint shouts from Mideru and Samara above, the tentacle-beast haven't apparently slunk away while they were passed out. They had just begun to loot its lair when Mideru's shouts warned them of the weakened cliff face's immanent collapse. A long rope lashed to the Aether ship's rails unfurled before them and they rapidly scaled it, the ship groaning and shuddering as rocks skittered and rained down the cliff. Their weight back aboard the ship suddenly canted it starboard, nearly hurling several off the deck. Scrambling to their feet, they hurled themselves up the final rope, all but Eliot Sam safely arrived before Nanoc's terrible rope-luck severed the rope. Nanoc managed to catch himself and free-climb that last twenty feet, but there was no time to aid Sam. Eliot Sam thought quickly, grabbed the line still tied to the rail and rappelled down in massive leaps. He dived into the lair just as the whole side of the cliff tore away above, the broken Aethership vanishing into the rift. An hour's labor and one long, ramshackle rope/belt/chain/clothing conglomeration later and Eliot Sam climbed to safety. The total haul from their endeavor: an Etched buckler capable of deflecting sorcery, another etched disc of unknown use, and twenty-two small chests of various spices. After collapsing into an exhausted slumber, they set out the next morning, pushing hard until near sunset when they catching their first glimpse of Aetherport's wood-and-stone sprawl huddling along the Great Rift. A the massive ziggurat of the Aether docks anchored the city, spiked with gantries and cranes. The rest of the city sprawled beneath snaking aqueducts and the massive reverse-waterfall of ascending rainbow-hued Aether filling the far horizon. On a bench at the top of the hill they had just crested, sat Brassy Johns, flashing her brass grill. Assuaging their suspicions with promises that the earlier unpleasantness had been just business, she swore she could be of use. Not only was she born and raised in Aetherport, but she had brought someone to them. A cloaked man stumbled towards them from the trees. At a nod from Brassy, he pulled back his hood. The man's face looked half-made, unformed, as if a pencil drawing that had only been loosely sketched. The companions looked to Brassy, not comprehending. Brassy's grin widened. “I give you: the real Nise Akuma!” [/QUOTE]
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