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Message: <blockquote data-quote="skotothalamos" data-source="post: 6438406" data-attributes="member: 83398">After James Chinast’s heroic bomb disposal, most of the constables needed a break. Everyone but Summer and Malkie headed home for a nap after working through the night and into the morning. Malkie, Summer, and some junior constables (who were slowly recovering from the Duke of Slaughter) started looking for the man Summer had seen in her vision. Emmeline had spotted this man talking to Quentin Augst at the Rock Rackus show, but the only thing they knew about him was that he liked to stick knives into tables.They asked Dester Rathnine, and he identified the man as “Norm,” Kell’s liaison to the Obscurati. Dester knew that Norm liked to hang out in bars, and suggested three options: The Pig and Bucket (where the menu is the name), The Rat & Hammer (where you hope that’s not the menu), and The King’s Head. Dester also shared that Norm was rumored to have the ability to change into a burst of shadow as well as powerful mind-control abilities. With some sidelong glances at Malkie, the team decided to collect Asrabey for this mission. The reasoning was that eladrin were resistant to charms and also that Norm should have the key to getting Ekossigan’s army into the Bleak Gate without having to sacrifice some number of orphans, which would help Asrabey achieve his goals.The teams split up into three groups. Asrabey refused to go with anyone but Summer. On their way to the Rat & Hammer, Asrabey took the opportunity to talk with Summer. “Now that we’re alone,” he said, “we can speak plainly. How is your mission going? I haven’t heard from you in 50 years. That’s a long time to not hear from my wife.”  Summer took this pile of exposition in stride, and told him everything was going fine and Asrabey should just do as he’s told. He complied, and the two of them continued to their destination in silence. Form outside the bar, they spotted Norm sitting at the bar. Summer dispatched her raven, Snow, to alert the other groups to meet her at the Rat & Hammer. She had Asrabey put on her invisibility cloak, which caused some hilarious interactions when the other constables arrived and found Asrabey missing and Summer saying everything was fine. Several suspicious questions about mind control and/or polymorph spells were deflected and finally everyone fell into position to back up Summer as she went to talk to Norm.When Summer sat next to Norm (with Asrabey invisibly lurking behind him), he nodded and addressed her as “Ma’am.” A brief conversation revealed that Norm was deferent to Summer, as though he expected to receive orders from her. Once she discovered that Norm was willing to work for her, Summer asked if he could help get a large group of people into the Bleak Gate. Norm informed her that “the usual way” should work fine, and so she asked him to meet her at the first bridge over the Stanfield Canal at 7 PM.The junior constables headed back and tagged out for the senior team, who met Norm at the canal bridge to test out the passage to the Bleak Gate. The team had painted the five runes they learned from Quentin Augst on themselves. Norm asked if they had a boat, but when they said they didn’t, he said they could just walk along the canal, under the bridges. As they passed under each of the five large bridges along the canal, they slowly slipped into a dark mirror version of the city of Flint. When they finally passed all the way through, the found themselves in a nearly lightless and soundless world — a shadowy, dead version of the city.A pair of bored guards at the end of the path waved some wands over the constables, apparently completing their passage to the Bleak Gate. With the test run complete, a few of the constables headed back into the real world to spread the word. Snow and Asrabey sent word to Ekossigan to bring his army to the canal entrance.James collected Grappa, the murder victim who had transferred his consciousness into his nearly-destroyed golem servant last summer, and who had been nothing more than a mysterious mechanical head in James’s office for the past 9 months. Grappa was now a fully-mobile mechanical man. He had once worked for the Obscurati, but had apparently had a change of heart and escaped the Bleak Gate facility. He had offered to serve the RHC as a guide once they made their incursion into the Bleak Gate, and now was the time.Ekossigan’s army of some three hundred fey creatures danced and partied their way through Parity Lake, buoyed by the celebratory piping of their Satyr contingent. Upon arriving at the canal entrance, Summer instructed them on the runes that they must inscribe on themselves. Some used paint, some used magic, others burned markings into their bark, and others used chromatophores to change their skin color. They partied their way down the canal while the common folk of the Bosum Strand stayed safe in their homes. Upon arriving inside the Bleak Gate, the army was greeted by those two guards, who were now far less bored. They dutifully used their wands on the fey army, but the shadow trolls living under the Bleak Gate version of the canal bridges were not so gullible. They dropped out of the shadows beneath their bridges and attacked Ekossigan’s army. The constables and Grappa made a quick exit, but not before Cazara stole a boat to allow them to travel on the Bleak Gate version of Parity Lake.Grappa told the constables that there were three main ways to get into the facility under Cauldron Hill.  here were the various “main entrances” that all led to tunnels which led to a heavily-guarded front gate. There were a series of exhaust vents on top of the mountain tat could be used to descend into the facility form above. They chose the third route: a water entrance along Parity Lake, for bringing in shipments of smuggled goods from the real-world Parity Lake factories. The guards at the lake entrance recognized Summer, calling her “Madame Varal.” They opened up the gate and followed her orders to go and fight the incoming invasion of fey.Summer was bemused that everyone here seemed to recognize her and know more about her than she knew herself. She had no memories since her childhood. “And for that, I must apologize,” said Grappa, who Summer had taken to calling “Robot Grampa” by this point. “I saw the evil you were involved in, and knew that you were, at heart, a good person, so —when I turned against my former allies—I took you with me and erased your memories. I had hoped that regressing you to childhood would allow you to see the evils you had done. I hoped against hope that you would work to fix your mistakes, and I am so glad to see you doing just that, Kasvarina.”After that plot bomb, the group traveled on into the Obscurati facility. Whenever there was a lever to pull to work some machinery, they had Summer do it, just in case there were security measures that might identify her as an apparent leader of the organization. Eventually, they came to a set of security doors that worked similar to an airlock: only one set could be opened at a time. This forced the group to bunch up in a small room. When they tried to open the second set of doors, instead the lights went out and a voice spoke to them.“I don’t know whether to be impressed with you getting past my security, or disappointed in the men who were supposed to stop you. But men, after all, are weak. That’s why we build machines, why we have progress! All we’re good for is thinking. That, and enjoying the pleasures in life.”They heard a soft sip, as if from a wine glass, then a contented sigh.“Best to leave the violence and physical labor to the steam and steel. Now I leave it to you to decide whether to go the easy way or the hard way. Throw down your weapons and have a drink with me, and I’ll explain what it is we’re doing here. Would you believe the engineers we had working on it thought this was a Risuri military project? They were fools, and I’d like to hold out hope that you’re not fools. So yes, throw down your weapons and we can think, and talk, and enjoy life. Or be foolish, and see which breaks first: your flesh, or my steel.”Most of the group dutifully dropped their weapons, though Alienor only unloaded her guns and stowed them. The doors opened, revealing a huge factory floor, full of machinery and equipment. The most impressive feature of the factory was the 300-foot tall colossal golem which seemed to be nearly complete. The golem was not awake. Summer turned to “Grampa.” “This is what you built?”“Well, someone else built it. I just made its mind. That’s what I do: make minds.”“So you can control it?” she asked.“No,” he said, “it can only be controlled by its Mother.” He gave her a pointed look.As the group entered the factory area, three smaller witchoil-powered golems closed on them, seemingly intent on combat. The doors between the constables and their weapons began to close…</blockquote>

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