gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Session 231, Part Two - Kinava Monastery
Kinava Monastery
A few hours' flight – the discs were manoeuvrable but not swift – took them through the asteroid fields of Urim (where they saw the giant native worms moving gracefully from crater to crater) and to the edge of the plane of Caeloon. Calily’s home was a land of rolling hills covered with pines, where a continual light breeze blew between the silent tree trunks. No animals lived here, and only a few bushes and weeds grew on the forest floor. A handful of great pines survived the fires that burnt the world to death seventy years ago, and they rose high above their neighbouring children.
The plane appeared abandoned at first glance, but a small monastery, consisting of just a handful of rooms, lay in a clearing upon the highest hill. The clearing was far larger than the tiny weather-beaten building. Wind whistled through cracks in the wall and fluttered paper shutters scribed with calligraphic meditations. The walls were nothing more than stiff paper as well, and what at first appeared to be an irregular texture of vertical stripes were actually, on closer examination, thousands of lines of text, written directly onto the building. Outside, the breeze span a brass wheel cylinder attached to a small windmill, clattering as the prayer embossed in the metal endlessly repeated.
Calily paused to meditate on the threshold and then led them inside. Inviting them to sit, she retrieved the map and brewed pine needle tea. Then she asked them to tell her how they came here, and whether they were powerful enough to defeat the Golden Legion. The answers to both questions took a long time. First they told her all about their quest to save their own world from the machinations of the Obscurati, and from the Voice of Rot. All the while, Gupta studied the map, and asked Calily occasional questions about it. They also talked about the golden legion – their strength and numbers, and the fact Egalitrix lay across the wide gap between the northern and southern tracts of the Gyre. Until they fixed their ship they would not be able to cross it. (Calily had been able to cross on Bhoior, a plane that was a giant undead turtle, but only after meditating there for many months. The journey on Bhoior had been slow!)
Gupta pointed at the map, intrigued by the mention of a lighthouse on Ascetia. Now she thought about it, she realised she had seen its pulsing light as they flew to Caeloon. She said she would very much like to investigate it. Rumdoom pointed out that lighthouses were usually a warning, not an invitation.
The Coaltongue was by now on its way to join them. While they waited, Kai tried to bond with Caeloon. In his little boy way, he told them that it would take a very long time, but that it would be quicker if they could ‘make friends’ with Caeloon. How? “By doing something nice for it,” said Kai. “For the people who live here.”
At once, Calily said that some of her people had been kidnapped many, many years ago by the pirates of Hunlow. It would be a huge boon to free them and any of their descendants from that world. It was agreed that they would try, but first they would explore nearby and see if they could bond with a fire plane. Though they had been warned of its dangers, they would risk a visit to Padyer.
But first, they would take much-needed rest.
Korrigan talked philosophy with Calily for a while and gave her a copy of his Critique of Millerism, the better to explain his own worldview.
Uru did his best to gain support for his ‘nostalgia’ faction (taking his cue from the adversarial style of the Convocation). Rumdoom listened intently and it seemed for a moment that Uru might have a convert, until the dwarf said, “Putting things back the way there were pretty much runs counter to my whole philosophy. I’m all about taking control of the end.” Korrigan, who had been listening, dismissed the status quo as ‘boring’. Uru gave up and turned his attention to fixing up Quratulain. (Being fey, he didn’t need much rest.)
The ship arrived and came to rest close to the monastery. It would need to recharge again now. They would set off for Padyer before it had done so. Kieran Sentacore was keen to note down all the details of their travels and together he and Uriel studied and copied Calilly’s map. Gupta studied the walls of the monastery and quickly picked up the basics of the script and its underlying language. (Calily had been speaking another tongue the whole time, but they had been able to understand her and she them.) Leon asked Calily about her fighting technique and they sparred together. He realised there might be something he could learn from her, given time. Korrigan tried to contact Rock Rackus again, but gain there was no word.
Rumdoom sat with his retinue and ruminated on the end of the world. He wanted to see if there was anything he could work out or learn just by concentrating on it. He was, after all, Logos, Avatar of the End and Wielder of the Kum-Ruk Nazar. To his own surprise, he had a sudden revelation…
While Rumdoom meditated, Leon tried various methods to see if it would be possible for them to travel back from the Gyre by teleportation. The answer was, no. He could open the Dream Palace, but none of the doors that gave on to homeworld locations would work.
When he came back to the group and reported his findings, Rumdoom nodded, stood and announced, portentously, “No one can leave the Gyre. We are stuck here. There is no way out.”
Kinava Monastery
A few hours' flight – the discs were manoeuvrable but not swift – took them through the asteroid fields of Urim (where they saw the giant native worms moving gracefully from crater to crater) and to the edge of the plane of Caeloon. Calily’s home was a land of rolling hills covered with pines, where a continual light breeze blew between the silent tree trunks. No animals lived here, and only a few bushes and weeds grew on the forest floor. A handful of great pines survived the fires that burnt the world to death seventy years ago, and they rose high above their neighbouring children.
The plane appeared abandoned at first glance, but a small monastery, consisting of just a handful of rooms, lay in a clearing upon the highest hill. The clearing was far larger than the tiny weather-beaten building. Wind whistled through cracks in the wall and fluttered paper shutters scribed with calligraphic meditations. The walls were nothing more than stiff paper as well, and what at first appeared to be an irregular texture of vertical stripes were actually, on closer examination, thousands of lines of text, written directly onto the building. Outside, the breeze span a brass wheel cylinder attached to a small windmill, clattering as the prayer embossed in the metal endlessly repeated.
Calily paused to meditate on the threshold and then led them inside. Inviting them to sit, she retrieved the map and brewed pine needle tea. Then she asked them to tell her how they came here, and whether they were powerful enough to defeat the Golden Legion. The answers to both questions took a long time. First they told her all about their quest to save their own world from the machinations of the Obscurati, and from the Voice of Rot. All the while, Gupta studied the map, and asked Calily occasional questions about it. They also talked about the golden legion – their strength and numbers, and the fact Egalitrix lay across the wide gap between the northern and southern tracts of the Gyre. Until they fixed their ship they would not be able to cross it. (Calily had been able to cross on Bhoior, a plane that was a giant undead turtle, but only after meditating there for many months. The journey on Bhoior had been slow!)
Gupta pointed at the map, intrigued by the mention of a lighthouse on Ascetia. Now she thought about it, she realised she had seen its pulsing light as they flew to Caeloon. She said she would very much like to investigate it. Rumdoom pointed out that lighthouses were usually a warning, not an invitation.
The Coaltongue was by now on its way to join them. While they waited, Kai tried to bond with Caeloon. In his little boy way, he told them that it would take a very long time, but that it would be quicker if they could ‘make friends’ with Caeloon. How? “By doing something nice for it,” said Kai. “For the people who live here.”
At once, Calily said that some of her people had been kidnapped many, many years ago by the pirates of Hunlow. It would be a huge boon to free them and any of their descendants from that world. It was agreed that they would try, but first they would explore nearby and see if they could bond with a fire plane. Though they had been warned of its dangers, they would risk a visit to Padyer.
But first, they would take much-needed rest.
Korrigan talked philosophy with Calily for a while and gave her a copy of his Critique of Millerism, the better to explain his own worldview.
Uru did his best to gain support for his ‘nostalgia’ faction (taking his cue from the adversarial style of the Convocation). Rumdoom listened intently and it seemed for a moment that Uru might have a convert, until the dwarf said, “Putting things back the way there were pretty much runs counter to my whole philosophy. I’m all about taking control of the end.” Korrigan, who had been listening, dismissed the status quo as ‘boring’. Uru gave up and turned his attention to fixing up Quratulain. (Being fey, he didn’t need much rest.)
The ship arrived and came to rest close to the monastery. It would need to recharge again now. They would set off for Padyer before it had done so. Kieran Sentacore was keen to note down all the details of their travels and together he and Uriel studied and copied Calilly’s map. Gupta studied the walls of the monastery and quickly picked up the basics of the script and its underlying language. (Calily had been speaking another tongue the whole time, but they had been able to understand her and she them.) Leon asked Calily about her fighting technique and they sparred together. He realised there might be something he could learn from her, given time. Korrigan tried to contact Rock Rackus again, but gain there was no word.
Rumdoom sat with his retinue and ruminated on the end of the world. He wanted to see if there was anything he could work out or learn just by concentrating on it. He was, after all, Logos, Avatar of the End and Wielder of the Kum-Ruk Nazar. To his own surprise, he had a sudden revelation…
While Rumdoom meditated, Leon tried various methods to see if it would be possible for them to travel back from the Gyre by teleportation. The answer was, no. He could open the Dream Palace, but none of the doors that gave on to homeworld locations would work.
When he came back to the group and reported his findings, Rumdoom nodded, stood and announced, portentously, “No one can leave the Gyre. We are stuck here. There is no way out.”
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