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[ZEITGEIST] The Continuing Adventures of Korrigan & Co.
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<blockquote data-quote="gideonpepys" data-source="post: 7522394" data-attributes="member: 79141"><p><strong>Session 204, Part One - Matters Arising</strong></p><p></p><p>Having escaped Axis Island, they made arrangements to regroup closer to the date of the Forward Symposium, lending temporary teleportation codes to Pemberton so he could return to the Coaltongue at the allotted time. Brakken experimented and found that he could forge an effective ‘mental gestalt’ with no more than five people. The link would need to be established before he departed – his intention was to sneak eastwards with the help of El Extrano and then travel to Cherage along the Avery Coast rail line, and send letters announcing his intention to attend along the way. For the gestalt, in addition to Pemberton, they chose Korrigan, Uriel, Uru and Quratulain, representing the broadest range of skills to cover all eventualities.</p><p></p><p>Before Pemberton left, Uru tried to learn all he could about the dragon’s view of technology. He learned that for Gradiax the Steel Lord, modern technology was all about power – a substitute for the power he once wielded naturally, and had lost (but hoped one day soon to wield again). Uru was considering his own approach to technology, how he would manifest it as titan of the mountains. He could not imagine leaving it behind, but how could he reconcile it with the fey? Until recently, tinkering with gadgets had been for him nothing more than playing with toys (albeit deadly ones), but Uru also saw in clockwork things with a potential for life. Quratulain came close to that didn’t she? But what he saw throughout Flint, and in Danor and Drakr, was the loud, fiery clang of industry. This is what the fey despised, and had caused them to break from Risur. While man-made machines might have theoretically promised a democratisation of power (unlike magic which was reserved in the hands of those able to wield it), in practice that was not the way it worked out. The wealthy owned the means of production and the workers were reduced to penury. Uru wondered if there was a third way, both to help the poor children (whose spirits often visited his garden) and to reconcile progress with the folk of the Dreaming.</p><p></p><p>Korrigan discussed the matter with him. The king was not against technology, but was conscious of Risuri tradition and the alliance with the fey, which kept them strong. He too sought to reconcile these things, and now began to wonder if they could affect the planar alignment to aid this. Of course, his principal concern was Risur, but he was thinking now of the whole world, and considered Risur as a good example for other nations to follow. Korrigan began to revisit the idea of the Arboretum, raised by Macbannin at the convocation. Uriel reminded him that this plan had not included a defensive plane to forestall outside intrusion. Korrigan’s response was vigorous – they could cower and hide, or open up new opportunities. Uriel conceded that if they kept the ‘ceiling’ off mortal power, they might be strong enough to repel an invasion. Korrigan said that his concept was “not about empowering individuals but creating strength through unity”. When Uru joked that he was beginning to sound like the Ob, Korrigan said that if he had his way, there would be no effect on free will. Uru wondered aloud if it wouldn’t be better – in a practical and a moral sense – to put things back the way they were. Uriel pointed out that this was set up by someone else - it wasn't 'natural'! “What made perfect sense thousands of years ago might not make sense now.” </p><p></p><p>They discussed Nicodemus, too – how his continued existence threatened everything they did, because he would never give up, “even if it takes five hundred years”. They all agreed that he was clearly insane. “Look at how he dealt with the problem of the Colossus faction”; ruthlessly wiping them out. Korrigan emphasised that it was this dubious choice of means that undermined the Ob's hope of achieving their ends. “It is inevitable that the outcome will be flawed.”</p><p></p><p>Quratulain said that she had been locked up too long to understand all of this. “When do we kill Nicodemus?” she asked. Perhaps the better question was ‘how’?</p><p></p><p>They were called back to Risur for various reasons. Rumdoom received a sending from his followers in Flint. Leon had returned with Hildegaard! She was still asleep, slowly recovering from whatever stasis the deep ones had placed her in. Leon said he had urgent business elsewhere and departed as soon as he arrived. There was a woman with Leon whom he did not introduce. Rumdoom went to his meeting house, and waited for Hildegaard to wake up, which she did shortly after his arrival. She was happy to see him, happy to be free, but bemused at how long had passed. For her, it seemed like an instant since she offered herself to the aboleth in exchange for the freedom of her friends. Both husband and wife embraced and made competing apologies: She was sorry for having allowed Grandis Komanov to use her and steal the Stone of Not; he wished he had been able to rescue her sooner. Rumdoom spent the next few weeks with Hildegaard.</p><p></p><p>Leon followed up his visit with a sending for Korrigan: “The deep ones are gone. Consumed by their own fear. Formed into a hivemind which has also vanished.”</p><p></p><p>Gupta withdrew into herself. She had been greatly affected by the collapse of the colossus, and requested a period of leave prior to their infiltration mission.</p><p></p><p>Uru went to Flint to plan his eventual removal to the mountains. There, he discovered that his link with Flint itself was weaker than it had been. There were fewer spirits to communicate with – all were being slowly drawn towards Cauldron Hill. He remembered his initial alarm on learning that motes of the hill had begun to float upward into the sky shortly after the Great Eclipse. Now the whole peak was thoroughly denuded. He was then distracted from this matter by two things: first, a possible answer to his search for a ‘third way’ – the effigy he created in tribute to Conquo reminded him of the nature of Lavanya’s fey golem, and how it married technology and magic. </p><p></p><p>Before he could thoroughly investigate this, he was shaken by an enormous earthquake that felt as real to him as if it had happened right there in Flint. But it had not. The quake had happened in the Anthras Mountains and the effect on Uru was an unforeseen consequence of his growing link to the range. He had felt it so keenly because it was not natural – there were very few such tremors in the Anthras. While he pondered how best to travel there – both to investigate the quake and attune himself more closely with the territory – a very strange thing happened: his wish to travel to the mountains was granted and he suddenly found himself there! This was a great surprise, needless to say. Unfortunately, he discovered that despite intense efforts, he could not so easily return to Flint, although he could move within the mountains at will. So he sent a message to Uriel telling him about the Cauldron Hill phenomenon, and went to investigate the quake.</p><p></p><p>Uriel was busy handling another matter when he received the message from Uru. Stover Delft complained that Andrei von Recklinghausen was making trouble in the drinking holes of Flint on an almost nightly basis. He was getting into fights that no one else could hope to win, and was difficult for ordinary officers to subdue. Even the RHC had trouble. Andrei was currently sleeping off his latest session in RHC cells. Delft had resisted throwing the book at him because of his valuable assistance in the past. This was something Uriel would ordinarily have left to Gupta, but she was reluctant to get involved, so Uriel decided he would prepare himself by visiting Isobel Travers first, guessing this might have something to do with her. Korrigan came along because he wanted to talk with Gale.</p><p></p><p>Both eladrin women were in mourning for their kin. News had come from Elfaivar since She Who Writhes withdrew: Those eladrin who hid for centuries in the fey enclaves – which existed between this world and the Dreaming – begin to stream into colonial cities, telling of their enclaves splitting apart and disintegrating. Thousands died. Only one enclave survived - Athrylla Valanar, matriarch of the Sentosa enclave, managed to pull her city back into the real world as the Ob’s ritual cut the Dreaming off from the rest of reality. (Ushanti evacuated, warned by Kasvarina on her way south. The other enclaves had been warned too, but had not trusted or listened to Kasvarina.) They commiserated with this latest blow to the eladrin people. (They also began to wonder anew what exactly had happened to Av.)</p><p></p><p>Korrigan explained to Gale his earlier hint that he had a notion about how to proceed with Risur’s ‘advancement’. He said there would be no simple solution, and that turning back the clock entirely might not be possible, but he hoped to find some way to ameliorate the worst excesses, using the mechanism the Ob had employed to alter things for the better. Gale said she just wanted Risur to become what it once was, and to stop aping Danor. Korrigan promised to try, but warned that it might be a slow process.</p><p></p><p>Isobel confirmed that Andrei was upset because she would no longer see him. His behaviour had worsened when it became clear that, though she was intensely grateful to Andrei for everything he had done, Isobel did not and could not love him. This had nothing to do with the scars he had suffered at the hands of Stanfield’s incarnations (half his face had been melted by magical alkahest), Isobel simply did not have anything more than feelings of intense gratitude and admiration for him. She wished they could remain friends, but Andrei had become sulky and angry and Isobel had to be firm: She was not going to be anybody’s prize. Uriel said he would do his best to help Andrei see sense and overcome his sadness without further upset.</p><p></p><p>He visited Andrei in jail and offered him healing, bringing him before the king. Korrigan used his hurtloam hands to restore Andrei’s face. A small miracle! Then Uriel told Andrei that he needed to find a purpose beyond his feelings about his father and about Isobel. “Your body might have been created by someone else, but your personality is your own.” He took Andrei to Stover Delft and recommended that he sign Andrei up as a ‘heavy hitter’, so long as Andrei did not fall back on the drink. This arrangement seemed to suit all concerned.</p><p></p><p>Quratulain had been on hand when Andrei was healed. She wondered if Korrigan could heal her face too. But she had lived with her wizened, cadaverous visage for so long, she wasn’t sure if her original face would feel right any more. In a private moment, she took off the mask Uru made for her, to consider the matter further. To her surprise, her face was already renewed! Staring back at her was a young, comely olive-skinned woman with piercing blue eyes. This must have happened when Korrigan used his healing hands to restore her after her encounter with the Ash Wolf, but she so rarely took off her mask that she had never noticed. The revelation disturbed her, and she put the mask back on without telling anyone. (Another secret she also nursed was the temptation to track down the Father of Thunder and accept his offer to impregnate her. Maybe after all of this was over…? It might go some way to make up for shooting him in the balls.)</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, Quratulain devoted herself to a new project: the development of a sophisticated beam weapon inspired by the lantern cannon she had seen on Axis Island. With the help of Alden Wondermaker she fashioned a ‘lantern blaster’, and also made refinements to the Nok Gun.</p><p></p><p>A surprise visitor caused Korrigan to return to Slate. Ayesha – human wife of Matunaaga – had arrived at court with eight of her ten children. They were older brother and sisters to Kai, just as she had been a mother to him, during his three years in the Hidden Valley. Kai was overjoyed to see them and they were given a long time to play, talk and catch up. Ayesha was disapproving when she learned that Korrigan had been taking Kai into battle with him. Yes, he might be physically safe, but what of the mental scars? Korrigan confessed that he could see how it might look to an outside eye, but that he regularly talked things through with Kai and felt that adults underestimated the capacity of young children. Besides, he had not been able to trust anyone with the safety of his son. Then he asked Ayesha why she had come. It had become clear, she said, that the gith planned to withdraw entirely from the world, something she could not do. Her eldest children, now capable warriors, had remained with their father, but she had chosen to leave before the Hidden Valley was cut off completely. She felt that she had been wrong to tell Matunaaga that it was his destiny to follow Korrigan. She had had a skyseer vision that told her Korrigan was a good man and worth following, so much was true. But was it not just as important for her to do so? She had come to offer her services, in the healing arts and, now much more importantly, it seemed, as a mother to Kai. This led Korrigan to contemplate his idea to set up the Coaltongue as a mobile base of operations where Kai would be safe. He welcomed the idea of bringing Ayesha and her children aboard. (Even the youngest was capable and gith-trained.) </p><p></p><p>Uriel reintroduced himself, much changed, to the children he had lived with too. They were surprised to see him out of his congregational robes, and teased him about his shock of white hair. Uriel said he would spar with them to keep them in practice, as he knew the ways of the clergy godhands whose fighting style was based on lessons taught them by the gith.</p><p></p><p>Ayesha brought gifts: Matunaaga had finally unlocked the secrets of the Palimpsest and eschewed weapons and tools entirely. Before she left he had given her his rifle, silksteel mantle, aeriad bracers and the Hands of Heaven and Hell. They were gratefully received and shared out amongst the unit.</p><p></p><p>Ayesha’s arrival coincided with bad news from Uru: the quake he had sensed had been centred on the Hidden Valley itself. He had traveled there and found all of the buildings destroyed – collapsed into rubble – and all of the gith were gone. Uru sensed residual psychic energy, something like a hivemind.</p><p></p><p>Ayesha was impassive when she heard the news. Part of Matunaaga’s vision in the Ziggurat of Apet had been the destruction of his homeland in an earthquake. He had always thought it was symbolic. She chose to keep the news from her children for now, as they had suffered enough loss of late.</p><p></p><p>While Uru made his way back from the mountains, Uriel took his concerns about Cauldron Hill to Isaac, Mayor of the Nettles. After an awkward exchange of pleasantries with his old friend (who met Uriel in the company of his ‘wife’, a thri-kreen) Isaac said that he had been studying the phenomenon and concluded that the spirits of the city and the hill, and the physical matter of the hill itself which had been so wholly infused by its link to the Bleak Gate, was being drawn upward by an as-yet-unidentified force when the mysterious Gyre was overhead. This had led Isaac to theorise that Av (and the Dreaming and the Bleak Gate) must be in the Gyre. (And might go some way to explain why, when using the power of the fey portal pad, the Coaltongue had found itself speeding through empty space at an impossible speed.) But what was the Gyre? This question still remained to be answered, and was left in the capable hands of Isaac, Harkover, and the astronomers and skyseers of Risur.</p><p></p><p>Before departure, Korrigan consulted his military advisors, and put in place plans for the defence of Risur. His orders were to prepare for a guerrilla style of defence – not big concentrations of armies. He also issued an edict that the White Tongue cult was outlawed.</p><p></p><p>Uru discovered he could still use ‘Granny’s Boon’, but now the power derived directly from him. He wondered what to rename it. ‘My Boon’ didn’t have much of a ring to it. In the end he went with ‘Uncle Uru’s Gentle Touch’.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="gideonpepys, post: 7522394, member: 79141"] [b]Session 204, Part One - Matters Arising[/b] Having escaped Axis Island, they made arrangements to regroup closer to the date of the Forward Symposium, lending temporary teleportation codes to Pemberton so he could return to the Coaltongue at the allotted time. Brakken experimented and found that he could forge an effective ‘mental gestalt’ with no more than five people. The link would need to be established before he departed – his intention was to sneak eastwards with the help of El Extrano and then travel to Cherage along the Avery Coast rail line, and send letters announcing his intention to attend along the way. For the gestalt, in addition to Pemberton, they chose Korrigan, Uriel, Uru and Quratulain, representing the broadest range of skills to cover all eventualities. Before Pemberton left, Uru tried to learn all he could about the dragon’s view of technology. He learned that for Gradiax the Steel Lord, modern technology was all about power – a substitute for the power he once wielded naturally, and had lost (but hoped one day soon to wield again). Uru was considering his own approach to technology, how he would manifest it as titan of the mountains. He could not imagine leaving it behind, but how could he reconcile it with the fey? Until recently, tinkering with gadgets had been for him nothing more than playing with toys (albeit deadly ones), but Uru also saw in clockwork things with a potential for life. Quratulain came close to that didn’t she? But what he saw throughout Flint, and in Danor and Drakr, was the loud, fiery clang of industry. This is what the fey despised, and had caused them to break from Risur. While man-made machines might have theoretically promised a democratisation of power (unlike magic which was reserved in the hands of those able to wield it), in practice that was not the way it worked out. The wealthy owned the means of production and the workers were reduced to penury. Uru wondered if there was a third way, both to help the poor children (whose spirits often visited his garden) and to reconcile progress with the folk of the Dreaming. Korrigan discussed the matter with him. The king was not against technology, but was conscious of Risuri tradition and the alliance with the fey, which kept them strong. He too sought to reconcile these things, and now began to wonder if they could affect the planar alignment to aid this. Of course, his principal concern was Risur, but he was thinking now of the whole world, and considered Risur as a good example for other nations to follow. Korrigan began to revisit the idea of the Arboretum, raised by Macbannin at the convocation. Uriel reminded him that this plan had not included a defensive plane to forestall outside intrusion. Korrigan’s response was vigorous – they could cower and hide, or open up new opportunities. Uriel conceded that if they kept the ‘ceiling’ off mortal power, they might be strong enough to repel an invasion. Korrigan said that his concept was “not about empowering individuals but creating strength through unity”. When Uru joked that he was beginning to sound like the Ob, Korrigan said that if he had his way, there would be no effect on free will. Uru wondered aloud if it wouldn’t be better – in a practical and a moral sense – to put things back the way they were. Uriel pointed out that this was set up by someone else - it wasn't 'natural'! “What made perfect sense thousands of years ago might not make sense now.” They discussed Nicodemus, too – how his continued existence threatened everything they did, because he would never give up, “even if it takes five hundred years”. They all agreed that he was clearly insane. “Look at how he dealt with the problem of the Colossus faction”; ruthlessly wiping them out. Korrigan emphasised that it was this dubious choice of means that undermined the Ob's hope of achieving their ends. “It is inevitable that the outcome will be flawed.” Quratulain said that she had been locked up too long to understand all of this. “When do we kill Nicodemus?” she asked. Perhaps the better question was ‘how’? They were called back to Risur for various reasons. Rumdoom received a sending from his followers in Flint. Leon had returned with Hildegaard! She was still asleep, slowly recovering from whatever stasis the deep ones had placed her in. Leon said he had urgent business elsewhere and departed as soon as he arrived. There was a woman with Leon whom he did not introduce. Rumdoom went to his meeting house, and waited for Hildegaard to wake up, which she did shortly after his arrival. She was happy to see him, happy to be free, but bemused at how long had passed. For her, it seemed like an instant since she offered herself to the aboleth in exchange for the freedom of her friends. Both husband and wife embraced and made competing apologies: She was sorry for having allowed Grandis Komanov to use her and steal the Stone of Not; he wished he had been able to rescue her sooner. Rumdoom spent the next few weeks with Hildegaard. Leon followed up his visit with a sending for Korrigan: “The deep ones are gone. Consumed by their own fear. Formed into a hivemind which has also vanished.” Gupta withdrew into herself. She had been greatly affected by the collapse of the colossus, and requested a period of leave prior to their infiltration mission. Uru went to Flint to plan his eventual removal to the mountains. There, he discovered that his link with Flint itself was weaker than it had been. There were fewer spirits to communicate with – all were being slowly drawn towards Cauldron Hill. He remembered his initial alarm on learning that motes of the hill had begun to float upward into the sky shortly after the Great Eclipse. Now the whole peak was thoroughly denuded. He was then distracted from this matter by two things: first, a possible answer to his search for a ‘third way’ – the effigy he created in tribute to Conquo reminded him of the nature of Lavanya’s fey golem, and how it married technology and magic. Before he could thoroughly investigate this, he was shaken by an enormous earthquake that felt as real to him as if it had happened right there in Flint. But it had not. The quake had happened in the Anthras Mountains and the effect on Uru was an unforeseen consequence of his growing link to the range. He had felt it so keenly because it was not natural – there were very few such tremors in the Anthras. While he pondered how best to travel there – both to investigate the quake and attune himself more closely with the territory – a very strange thing happened: his wish to travel to the mountains was granted and he suddenly found himself there! This was a great surprise, needless to say. Unfortunately, he discovered that despite intense efforts, he could not so easily return to Flint, although he could move within the mountains at will. So he sent a message to Uriel telling him about the Cauldron Hill phenomenon, and went to investigate the quake. Uriel was busy handling another matter when he received the message from Uru. Stover Delft complained that Andrei von Recklinghausen was making trouble in the drinking holes of Flint on an almost nightly basis. He was getting into fights that no one else could hope to win, and was difficult for ordinary officers to subdue. Even the RHC had trouble. Andrei was currently sleeping off his latest session in RHC cells. Delft had resisted throwing the book at him because of his valuable assistance in the past. This was something Uriel would ordinarily have left to Gupta, but she was reluctant to get involved, so Uriel decided he would prepare himself by visiting Isobel Travers first, guessing this might have something to do with her. Korrigan came along because he wanted to talk with Gale. Both eladrin women were in mourning for their kin. News had come from Elfaivar since She Who Writhes withdrew: Those eladrin who hid for centuries in the fey enclaves – which existed between this world and the Dreaming – begin to stream into colonial cities, telling of their enclaves splitting apart and disintegrating. Thousands died. Only one enclave survived - Athrylla Valanar, matriarch of the Sentosa enclave, managed to pull her city back into the real world as the Ob’s ritual cut the Dreaming off from the rest of reality. (Ushanti evacuated, warned by Kasvarina on her way south. The other enclaves had been warned too, but had not trusted or listened to Kasvarina.) They commiserated with this latest blow to the eladrin people. (They also began to wonder anew what exactly had happened to Av.) Korrigan explained to Gale his earlier hint that he had a notion about how to proceed with Risur’s ‘advancement’. He said there would be no simple solution, and that turning back the clock entirely might not be possible, but he hoped to find some way to ameliorate the worst excesses, using the mechanism the Ob had employed to alter things for the better. Gale said she just wanted Risur to become what it once was, and to stop aping Danor. Korrigan promised to try, but warned that it might be a slow process. Isobel confirmed that Andrei was upset because she would no longer see him. His behaviour had worsened when it became clear that, though she was intensely grateful to Andrei for everything he had done, Isobel did not and could not love him. This had nothing to do with the scars he had suffered at the hands of Stanfield’s incarnations (half his face had been melted by magical alkahest), Isobel simply did not have anything more than feelings of intense gratitude and admiration for him. She wished they could remain friends, but Andrei had become sulky and angry and Isobel had to be firm: She was not going to be anybody’s prize. Uriel said he would do his best to help Andrei see sense and overcome his sadness without further upset. He visited Andrei in jail and offered him healing, bringing him before the king. Korrigan used his hurtloam hands to restore Andrei’s face. A small miracle! Then Uriel told Andrei that he needed to find a purpose beyond his feelings about his father and about Isobel. “Your body might have been created by someone else, but your personality is your own.” He took Andrei to Stover Delft and recommended that he sign Andrei up as a ‘heavy hitter’, so long as Andrei did not fall back on the drink. This arrangement seemed to suit all concerned. Quratulain had been on hand when Andrei was healed. She wondered if Korrigan could heal her face too. But she had lived with her wizened, cadaverous visage for so long, she wasn’t sure if her original face would feel right any more. In a private moment, she took off the mask Uru made for her, to consider the matter further. To her surprise, her face was already renewed! Staring back at her was a young, comely olive-skinned woman with piercing blue eyes. This must have happened when Korrigan used his healing hands to restore her after her encounter with the Ash Wolf, but she so rarely took off her mask that she had never noticed. The revelation disturbed her, and she put the mask back on without telling anyone. (Another secret she also nursed was the temptation to track down the Father of Thunder and accept his offer to impregnate her. Maybe after all of this was over…? It might go some way to make up for shooting him in the balls.) Meanwhile, Quratulain devoted herself to a new project: the development of a sophisticated beam weapon inspired by the lantern cannon she had seen on Axis Island. With the help of Alden Wondermaker she fashioned a ‘lantern blaster’, and also made refinements to the Nok Gun. A surprise visitor caused Korrigan to return to Slate. Ayesha – human wife of Matunaaga – had arrived at court with eight of her ten children. They were older brother and sisters to Kai, just as she had been a mother to him, during his three years in the Hidden Valley. Kai was overjoyed to see them and they were given a long time to play, talk and catch up. Ayesha was disapproving when she learned that Korrigan had been taking Kai into battle with him. Yes, he might be physically safe, but what of the mental scars? Korrigan confessed that he could see how it might look to an outside eye, but that he regularly talked things through with Kai and felt that adults underestimated the capacity of young children. Besides, he had not been able to trust anyone with the safety of his son. Then he asked Ayesha why she had come. It had become clear, she said, that the gith planned to withdraw entirely from the world, something she could not do. Her eldest children, now capable warriors, had remained with their father, but she had chosen to leave before the Hidden Valley was cut off completely. She felt that she had been wrong to tell Matunaaga that it was his destiny to follow Korrigan. She had had a skyseer vision that told her Korrigan was a good man and worth following, so much was true. But was it not just as important for her to do so? She had come to offer her services, in the healing arts and, now much more importantly, it seemed, as a mother to Kai. This led Korrigan to contemplate his idea to set up the Coaltongue as a mobile base of operations where Kai would be safe. He welcomed the idea of bringing Ayesha and her children aboard. (Even the youngest was capable and gith-trained.) Uriel reintroduced himself, much changed, to the children he had lived with too. They were surprised to see him out of his congregational robes, and teased him about his shock of white hair. Uriel said he would spar with them to keep them in practice, as he knew the ways of the clergy godhands whose fighting style was based on lessons taught them by the gith. Ayesha brought gifts: Matunaaga had finally unlocked the secrets of the Palimpsest and eschewed weapons and tools entirely. Before she left he had given her his rifle, silksteel mantle, aeriad bracers and the Hands of Heaven and Hell. They were gratefully received and shared out amongst the unit. Ayesha’s arrival coincided with bad news from Uru: the quake he had sensed had been centred on the Hidden Valley itself. He had traveled there and found all of the buildings destroyed – collapsed into rubble – and all of the gith were gone. Uru sensed residual psychic energy, something like a hivemind. Ayesha was impassive when she heard the news. Part of Matunaaga’s vision in the Ziggurat of Apet had been the destruction of his homeland in an earthquake. He had always thought it was symbolic. She chose to keep the news from her children for now, as they had suffered enough loss of late. While Uru made his way back from the mountains, Uriel took his concerns about Cauldron Hill to Isaac, Mayor of the Nettles. After an awkward exchange of pleasantries with his old friend (who met Uriel in the company of his ‘wife’, a thri-kreen) Isaac said that he had been studying the phenomenon and concluded that the spirits of the city and the hill, and the physical matter of the hill itself which had been so wholly infused by its link to the Bleak Gate, was being drawn upward by an as-yet-unidentified force when the mysterious Gyre was overhead. This had led Isaac to theorise that Av (and the Dreaming and the Bleak Gate) must be in the Gyre. (And might go some way to explain why, when using the power of the fey portal pad, the Coaltongue had found itself speeding through empty space at an impossible speed.) But what was the Gyre? This question still remained to be answered, and was left in the capable hands of Isaac, Harkover, and the astronomers and skyseers of Risur. Before departure, Korrigan consulted his military advisors, and put in place plans for the defence of Risur. His orders were to prepare for a guerrilla style of defence – not big concentrations of armies. He also issued an edict that the White Tongue cult was outlawed. Uru discovered he could still use ‘Granny’s Boon’, but now the power derived directly from him. He wondered what to rename it. ‘My Boon’ didn’t have much of a ring to it. In the end he went with ‘Uncle Uru’s Gentle Touch’. [/QUOTE]
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[ZEITGEIST] The Continuing Adventures of Korrigan & Co.
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