ZEITGEIST [ZEITGEIST] The Continuing Adventures of Korrigan & Co.

[gideonpepys]

"In our moment of triumph!?"

I kinda love how Rumdoom thinks he's found the Gordian Knot solution and winds up actually advancing his foe's cause. Was that only in character or was the player caught off guard by that as well?

Bit of both. The player enjoys not having to think too much or pay too much attention, and the occasional chaos that ensues from his misunderstandings.

Are these a reference to something in the campaign I've forgotten, or is it just one of those things like they do in the comics involving such things where the character design team is allowed to go nuts and the reader is just left to imagine the rationale?

I'm glad you put it like that, as this was exactly as it was intended.

EDIT: The last guy sounds like a Darth Vader reference, but the mount doesn't fit that. If the others are pop culture references, I guess the Rumschatology priest (I'm assuming he's a follower of Rumdoom's teachings, given the comments he makes) is Sub-Zero, of Mortal Kombat fame? I never played those games, so all I really know of him is "wears blue, has ice powers."

No cultural references at all. The guy on the flea is a weird Star Wars mini I own.

On a scale of 1 to Donald Duck Gif, how angry is Uru that he didn't get the killing blow?

Not bothered, funnily enough. So 1 or 0. I think killing one titan was enough for him.

Unlike many other groups I've read about, my group loves Rock Rackus. (Even though I added a mechanic whereby the terrible glory hog actually steals their XP. Here, I said that he'd taken the XP for the whole Voice of Rot encounter, but I was only kidding.)

 

[gideonpepys]

Session 256, Part Three

Blank & Pitiless

“Man, am I glad I showed up when I did,” said Rock. “I’d hate for anything to have happened to you guys.”

They asked him where he’d been. “Got hit over Egalitrix. Ship went down. We managed to get her back under control, but by the time we made it back there, you guys had gone. The place was a slag heap. I’m glad to see you made it out in one piece!”

Everyone was equally glad to see Rock. Even Rumdoom didn’t mind that he’d shamelessly stolen their kill.

“Is he the new titan of rot now?” asked Uru.

Uriel shook his head. “He’s not fey. An honorary member of the Unseen Court perhaps, but not a fey.” He turned to Rock. “Since you felled the titan of the swamps, you get to appoint a new titan.”

Rock shrugged. “I don’t know, man. That’s not my kind of thing – loading responsibility onto unsuspecting folks. Why don’t you guys choose for me?”

Fey? Powerful? Oriented towards rot? The Huldregarl was their unanimous choice. Now Uncle Uru would have an ally, close by in the High Bayou.

After a brief thank you, the Dream Team retreated through their portal. The visitors from the future opened up a new one with the shard of the arc, and were about to leave without a word, when Rumdoom asked the priest, “Were you there for the end?”

Despite himself, the awestruck priest answered, “It wasn’t the end.”

Korrigan approached the warrior. Up close, he was older than he seemed at first – perhaps forty or so. Korrigan gave him a hug and said, “I’m proud of you.”

“Me too,” said Kai.

The warrior nodded. He’d been told not to speak, and had more discipline than his dwarven friend, so he retreated, wordlessly through the portal, along with his allies, and in a moment they were gone.

(What Korrigan knew, courtesy of the Humble Hook was that these were RHC operatives from the future – thirty-odd years in the future, to be precise. Their leader was none other than Prince Kai. The Prince had been tasked by his father with putting down the Construct Uprising, a rebellion led by the Clockwork King himself. His allies were Thunder, the Metal Minotaur (whose mother had taken his father’s name rather too literally); Talios Valenar, who had travelled from Elfaivar to follow in the steps of heroes and had served in the RHC for three decades; Pomposs Stonefust, priest of the Cult of Rumdoom; and a hobgremlin named Twee, who served not the RHC, but Uncle Uru. It was the titan of the mountains who had sent them here – in return for his help in putting down the uprising.)

Uru summoned William Miller to him. They had intended to go back for him, to Dunkelweiss, but this was simpler. Miller arrived and gave a nod to show he understood what was next. Uru drew the spirit of Little Jack out of his mechanical shell, took him by the hand and said, “Let’s go home.”

“What shall I do?” asked Rock.

They didn’t know if he’d been reflected or not. Leon offered to take him back to one of the worlds they planned to join with. Rock didn’t like the sound of that. He was bored with the Gyre. They left him to decide.

Leon stood next to Toteth Topec, studying the Axis Seal Ritual as it played out beneath him. He knew there was something he wanted to ask, but for the life of him couldn’t remember what it was.

Gupta watched the Fall of Srasma again. She began jabbing weapons into the cracks all around it, to mark it out.

Korrigan took Kai on a slow walk across the plane, and showed him the great events of history. At length, the little boy asked, “Uncle Rumdoom says the world will end soon. Is that true?”

All that Korrigan could think of to say was, “I don’t think so.”

Rumdoom glowered. What the Voice of Rot had said had struck a chord within him. He hefted the Stone of Not. It felt even heavier now.

Quratulain stood still, waiting for the king and his son – her charges – to finish their walk. She had seen the future of her son. That was good news, surely? Until now she’d had the feeling that she wouldn’t survive all this; knowing otherwise was oddly disconcerting.

Since the combat had finished, Uriel had meditated. The others were used to that. And since his shock of white hair was always unruly, and his eyes always glowed with a pale light, they did not at first notice that a change had come over him – that his hair was writhing as if possessed of its own atmosphere, and his eyes were glowing much more brightly. Just like Kasvarina before him, Uriel now understood his role in all this. It was time to Transcend; to slough off his mortal chrysalis and become something else entirely. Grappa said he understood too, though his destiny was not the same. Xambria wondered what would become of her. You will return to Lanjyr with others, said Uriel. Now it is time for me to say goodbye.

When Uriel stood, Uru guessed what was coming and pre-emptively leapt off the edge of the plane to avoid having to listen to it. Uriel caught him telekinetically and held him there. But rather than a final speech, he shared only a brief moment with each of his friends, a smile and a nod, a handshake or an embrace depending on the individual. No words, but a fond goodbye and the intimation of good luck.

No one questioned him. He knew what he was doing. Only Korrigan spoke to him, privately, telepathically, “I hoped we could see this through to the end together, but it seems it was not meant to be. I don’t know what fate awaits you, but I am glad to see you are looking it in the eye. Now I am going to do the same. Goodbye my friend.”

Then they leapt off the plane one by one:

Uru went first, when Uriel let him go.

Then Rumdoom, who had seen this act in a vision long ago. He went down brandishing his hammer, howling with rage, as if he planned to destroy the Gyre from within.

Next Gupta, then William Miller, then Korrigan and Kai, hand-in-hand, then Quratulain.

Leon shot a glance at Rock. “Last chance,” he said.

“naughty word it,” said Rock. And jumped in ahead of him. Leon followed.

Below them, the Coaltongue reappeared and shattered to pieces as it struck the teeth.

Uriel waited until last. He steeled himself for metamorphosis, then threw himself into the Gyre.

"Spinning, whirling,
Still descending
Like a spiral sea,
Unending
Sound and fury
Drowns my heart
Every nerve
Is torn apart…"


End of Session

 

[gideonpepys]

As a preamble to a post about my incredible finale set-up, I thought I'd post some pics of our semi-final weekend. In this case, I kept it simple: a big Arc of Reida cut out of thick, white cardboard, on a table big enough to hold it (at 1" = 5ft scale).

Then the Voice of Rot was made from toilet paper tubes, cut in half lengthways and then snipped into 1" strips. Worked just like the coins idea, but looked a bit nicer. Used a purple worm mini for the head.

Anyway, here are some pics one of my players took:

As you can tell, the watchword is 'utilitarian'.

 

[RangerWickett]

Oh man, I've missed Alea Tools. We used those magnet tokens a ton when we played 4e.

 

[gideonpepys]

Oh man, I've missed Alea Tools. We used those magnet tokens a ton when we played 4e.

We mainly use them for elevation now.

 

[gideonpepys]

Now for the showstopper - our set-up for the final encounter. Take a look at this:

I sent these pictures to my wife. She said it looked like 'budget witchcraft'. Note the Revolution floating above the battlefield (taken two weeks after the event, slightly deflated, having realised no one got it in shot).

Here's the full prop list:

• shop-store mannequin
• chargable light
• coloured stones
• helium balloon with weight
• wooden arrow on stand
• a couple of yardsticks
• netting or similar (from kids' size goal maybe)
• bright 'cordon' tape
• little toy house
• hula hoop
• a set of place name holders

The cordon tape we ended up using (for the energy tendril) was actually bondage tape. Useful stuff!

EDIT: Note my croc, filling in for Borne’s foot.

 

[gideonpepys]

Oh, and here are some close-ups of the planar pillars and the Coaltongue:

 

[gideonpepys]

Finale, Session 257, Part One

The Island at the Axis of the World, Reprise

Flying in low towards Axis Island, borne aloft by Linia, Leon maintained a detailed illusion of the Coaltongue in flight. Sure enough, a couple of miles out, this illusion was subjected to incredibly powerful blasts, which Leon recognised as emanating from lantern cannons, similar to, but even larger than those Han Jierre employed when retaking the island from Pemberton.

Linia took evasion action, while Leon caused the image to respond as though badly damaged and unable to gain altitude; he wanted to see how long it would take for the cannons to fire again. About a minute later, there were two more blasts. Leon had the ‘Coaltongue’ nosedive into the sea.

Now he and Linia were sweeping along invisibly, just above the surface of the water, close to the shoreline, and Leon was about to teleport away, job done, when he spotted something rising up from the shallows: a half-submerged, stone structure, the shape of which he recognised, although it was tilted to one side and broken in places.

Closer investigation revealed it to be the citadel of the maustin caji! They’d been told the gith had gone to confront Nicodemus when the global hivemind began. Their attempt had ended here, it seemed; the citadel was riven by lantern blasts. There was no sign of life from this distance and even Leon the Clever was spooked. He chose not to stray too close.

Resisting the temptation to flee immediately, he had Linia sweep on towards the island. There, rising up above the jungle he caught sight of two, then three – and in the distance at least two more – huge, fifty-foot-tall lantern walkers, with cannons mounted atop their legs. It was a good thing the real Coaltongue had not approached from the South!

Leon had done all he could here, and swiftly rejoined the others. There, he reported what he had seen. “Goodness,” said Quratulain. “That is bad news. Their defences are very powerful, then.”

“Don’t worry, Quratulain – Uncle Uru’s here,” said Uru. “He’ll protect you.”

“Thank you,” said Quratulain. Her slight eye-roll was concealed behind her mask.

Korrigan had pared down the crew of the Coaltongue. Only Admiral Smith and the minimum number needed to operate the ship were coming with; Ayesha and her children, Bhalu, Kieran Sentacore, Amielle, Hildegard and Thurgid – all would remain behind. The fearsome energies unleashed by the axis rift would slay any who strayed too close, save those protected by the Sacrament.

For this reason, as soon as she arrived with Leon, Korrigan graciously dismissed Linia. The angel bridled and said, “For all that you have done for me, I am prepared to sacrifice my eternal life.” But Korrigan would not hear of it, and insisted that she stand down.

Save for the crew and the unit, only Xambria remained. Shortly after they had taken off from Pemberton’s lair, Alden Wondermaker had arrived with her new duplicant body. However, she would remain on board, and advise on the nature of the seal from her aerial perspective. (Wondermaker had also brought an upgraded pair of jet boots for Quratulain, which would enable her to fly.)

“Axis Seal ahead,” Rutger Smith told them.

The glowing rift had lit the sky from miles away, but now they could make out the crackling arc of energy itself. They could also see a huge, well-armed dirigible, patrolling the skies and Borne, clambering ponderously to his feet. It would appear that they had arrived just in time, as always…

To their surprise, the dirigible, the Revolution, opened fire as soon as they came within extreme range. It missed – a likely outcome at this distance, which begged the question why they had fired so early. But then the Revolution fired again, and again – at a far faster pace than a ship’s crew could ordinarily manage. They were outgunned and, because they had to get closer, not in a position to return fire in any case, except for the forward turrets and the short-range brand; they charged the brand and waited for the right moment.

Gupta scrutinised Borne through a spyglass. “My family are still in there,” she said, knowing this for certain thanks to her newfound divinity. She had been worried they might have been destroyed already. Still, she could not prioritise extracting them. The primary mission took precedence.

Uru studied the Revolution for the access he had been promised. “Time to get in its gears,” he said.

Kasvarina must be on there somewhere, thought Leon. He asked Gupta to confirm this, and she was.

Xambria studied the energies playing around the rift and tried to work out if they had changed at all since the Ob’s last attempt to perform the ritual was sabotaged. After a while, she said, “It’s the arc we need to watch out for. It goes up a couple of hundred feet. We need to stay out of it – those of us not subject to the sacrament. The rest of the area is still relatively safe, except for the fact that the arc moves. Oh, and the rift itself is dangerous too, but that goes without saying.”

By now, the Revolution’s aim was getting better; their shots were coming alarmingly close. Korrigan activated the fey portal pad, aiming to reappear as close as they could and return fire.

 

[gideonpepys]

Session 257, Part Two

The Axis of Revolution

Rounds 1-5

When the Coaltongue reappeared from deep space (where she drifted during her ‘jump’ to the Dreaming), she found herself at the extreme edge of the axis seal site, heading inwards at about ‘4 o’clock’. The deadly energy arc was crackling away at 10 o’clock, but according to Xambria, the glowing bright spot they could now see at 9 presaged a sudden jump to that spot. Quratulain studied the arc to see if she could form a predictive equation, but the arc was too chaotic.

By now, Borne had already pulled out the Air pillar and was setting it down very gently. “Uh oh,” said Admiral Smith. That wasn’t good news for the Coaltongue. Slightly better news came when the Revolution fired again and missed; though the Coaltongue was closer, the Revolution hadn’t had time to recalibrate in response.

Gupta scoured the whole area looking for any threats they might have overlooked. First she spotted a cluster of lesser golems armed with lantern cannons, lurking behind a concrete bunker on the far side of the circle. They had been placed out of range of the energy arc, but now began to move forward in response to the unit’s arrival. Then she noticed a figure flitting about near Borne’s head, dwarfed by his sheer size. She raised her spyglass and recognised him immediately. It was Matunaaga! Just as he had once dominated Andrei, Nicodemus had chosen their old friend to be his host for this terrible showdown! And Matunaaga was far more dangerous than Andrei.

Korrigan felt a strange sensation, something akin to déjà vu. Had he connected to Matunaaga from the Gyre in some way? Other memories were slowly returning, as they were for the others. No sign of any icons, yet, though!

Putting all this aside for the moment, and fearing that the opportunity would be gone if the ship lost altitude, Korrigan gave the order to fire the Coaltongue’s brand. What might have been a solid shot simply stopped in mid-air around fifty feet from the Revolution. The blazing beam of the brand spread out over a curved surface, like a jet of water on thick glass. Force shields! Another artful manipulation of wayfarer technology.

Sure enough, thanks to the extraction of the Air pillar, the Coaltongue began to sink.

The energy tendril sprang adjacent to Borne, just tickling him with its proximity, and the colossus groaned in heavy fear, having fallen victim to it in the past. This energy was sufficient to destroy him if he stayed in it for too long. Nicodemus ordered him south, to the Life pillar. Borne obeyed, and removed the pillar easily. Nicodemus took out the icon of Mojang and replaced it with another.

“I don’t know that one,” said Kai. A new plane! Still nothing came to him from Uriel.

The Coaltongue came under yet more fire from the Revolution. Each time it got that little bit closer, and if she lost much more altitude, she’d be a sitting took.

“Time to move in,” said Korrigan.

Quratulain leapt off first, keen to test out her fabulous new jet boots. The sacrament of apotheosis had caused her to manifest multiple arms, like an eladrin goddess, and she drew many more guns than she needed from her cloak. Even as she flew, she took aim at the lantern walkers with her blaster rifle.

Uru took a Fourmyle Jaunt over to the dirigible, and buzzed around it on Little Jack, looking for a way in. El Extrano had promised him ingress!

Leon also teleported to investigate the dirigible. The balloon itself was protected by arcane wards. Windows from the bridge were also magically reinforced. He saw figures moving about inside; doubtless, Kasvarina was in there.

Rumdoom used a Jaunt too, to take him close to the bunker, as did Conquo, jaunting close to the Air pillar.

Gupta used her divine power to ask Nicodemus a question, despite the distance between them: “Did you think it would be this easy?”

From within Matunaaga, the mastermind laughed. “You’re going to fail, you know. You’ll fail, and I will kill you. The wisest minds of twenty generations agreed to join with me, but you...” He laughed again. “My new world is almost complete, and I’ll burn you alive before I let you ruin it.”

Now the tendril swept back, clockwise, to where it had started.

The Coaltongue continued to slowly fall and the Revolution fired on her, relentlessly, still to no avail.

Borne released the Life pillar so it slid into the ground, then moved ponderously south towards the Earth pillar, leaving Nicodemus behind, too busy responding to Gupta to follow on.

Korrigan used Fourmyle Jaunt to reach him. He hoped to grab Matunaaga and get through to him somehow, but the gith was too fast for him to lay a hand on. But as soon as he had darted away, a look of recognition came over Matunaaga’s face and he adopted a meditative pose. With intense concentration, he ejected Nicodemus, and immediately struck the mastermind with blast of psychic energy.

“Very clever,” said Nicodemus. “I should have killed you along with your obstinate brethren.”

“I knew Nicodemus couldn’t hold you down, my friend,” said Korrigan.

“I was only waiting for you,” Matunaaga replied.

This tender moment was interrupted when Kai suddenly cried with excitement. “Look what I’ve got! It’s Etheax! The fire one! Uncle Uriel sent it to me, like he said!” He waved the icon about from Korrigan’s back.

Nicodemus glowered. The threat to his ritual was greater than he’d realised.

Now energy from the reinstated Life pillar radiated outward. Kai said it would make people easier to push around. Xambria recognised it as Patricalus.

“I see you are doubling down on your mind-control scheme,” said Korrigan. “You would have the whole population of Lanjyr turned into slaves?” A powerful argument for their worldwide audience who had only just been freed from the Obscurati’s hiveminds.

Within the energy arc, Conquo grew to incredible size – half the height of Borne! He picked up the Air pillar, and was immediately subjected to fire by the lantern golems. These beams fixed him to the spot, although he was strong enough to work his arms despite them. Some of the golems fired at Rumdoom, but their beams proved ineffective.

From the Coaltongue, Gupta scoured the area for any more hidden threats and spotted one, or at least its trace: the Ghost Council Swarm was here, but it remained hidden for now. Then she steeled her mind and asked Nicodemus another question: “Are you ever going to shut up?”

Nicodemus chortled and refused to be drawn. He introduced the unit to ‘an old friend’ – drawing what looked to be a gidim artefact of some kind. He waved it, and released a thoughtform from within – a greater worm maw (affectionately known to the unit as a ‘tooth anus’.) Leaving them to deal with this distraction, he flew off to join Borne.

Suddenly, someone realised that they didn’t have an icon of Mavisha. That hadn’t been on the list their Gyre selves sent them, but when Pemberton insisted on its inclusion they had agreed without considering it. Never one to knowingly mislead an ally, Uru contacted Pemberton and admitted as much. There was no response.

“Caeloon!” cried Kai. Their chosen Air plane had arrived in his possession.

The deadly energy tendril swept back anti-clockwise; Korrigan led the attack on the worm maw; Gupta teleported down to help, and grew into her giant goddess form; from the air, Quratulain shot at and almost crippled one of the lantern walkers; Rumdoom grew to gargantuan size and brought his hammer down on the bunker, destroying it instantly; Conquo lowered the Air pillar to restore flight to the Coaltongue, but thanks to the lantern walkers he could not otherwise move; Leon broke away from the dirigible, and teleported himself and Conquo to deal with the walkers.

Uru flitted all around the dirigible. There was a long gantry to the rear, leading from a rear hatch to the engines and tail. As he drew close to it, the rear hatch opened. Uru flew towards it as fast as he could, waving his Codex of the Little People like a passport.

By now, Borne had lifted the Earth pillar. Nicodemus removed the icon of Ratios and replace it with another icon: Mojang! (That was the same choice as the unit had made.) Throughout the area, all creatures lost their resistance to energy forms – even their sacramental immunity was compromised!

The Revolution hit the Coaltongue and damaged her crew quarters and sick bay. It was a good job Ayesha and her children had been evacuated.

Korrigan was subjected to a sustained attack by the worm maw. It grabbed him with a tentacle, and tried to stuff him in to its jagged mouth. He resisted the attempt. Matunaaga dodged its tentacles and attacked back with a mind slice. Gupta tried to think it solid and failed.

Borne released the Earth pillar so it slid into the ground, then stomped east toward the Death pillar.

The Revolution fired yet again, and completely destroyed the Coaltongue’s crew quarters and sick bay.

Kai told his father that another icon had been delivered: Dunkelweiss! Korrigan transformed into a Bolt of Avilona and appeared next to Conquo by the Fire pillar.

Still streaking through the sky, Quratulain destroyed one of the lantern golems; Rumdoom crashed into another from behind and damaged it severely; Leon struck a third with his Dreaming Blade.

Uru entered the Revolution, and found himself in a storage area. Four kobolds stood about self-consciously and greeted him with a bow. One closed the hatch behind him. From a side-chamber came a voice:

“What happened there? I thought I heard the hatch,” the speaker entered, sleeves rolled up, drying his hands and forearms on a towel. It was Wolfgang Von Recklinghausen. He saw the kobold turning the access handle to close it. He did not, of course, see Uru. “I don’t think you should fiddle with that. Now get ready. When this infirmary starts to fill up I’m going to need you halflings to hold people down, compress wounds and so on.” (The kobolds turned significant, guilty glances at Uru.) “Use some of the bedding from the crew quarters for pallets.”

Uru told the others what he was seeing. Gupta wondered aloud if Von Recklinghausen was on his inexplicable naughty word-list, but Uru said no, and let the doctor live (for now).

The energy tendril swept anti-clockwise and struck both the worm maw and Gupta. Matunaaga threw himself clear. The worm maw popped in a fine psychic spray. Matunaaga ran – at a speed only he could muster – away from the energy tendril.

Even in her goddess form Gupta was instantly killed, as the energy lit up her form from within.

End of Session

 

[RangerWickett]

What can I bribe you to get you to post the next chapter immediately?