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Message: <blockquote data-quote="skotothalamos" data-source="post: 6595595" data-attributes="member: 83398">And the Winner is...After fending off the last gasp of a long-dead civilization, the constables got back to the task of finishing the railroad that would modernize transport in Ber. Another week or so, and they had finished, making it to the goal a day ahead of Griento Railways. Rock Rackus, an initial investor in Griento’s business, spent the better part of a month keeping an eye on his investment (and distracting the workers enough to slow their production). There was a brief ceremony when the two railroads met. Griento and Liss jointly drove in a final golden spike, and the Constables teleported back to the Summer Court, where they would find out who had won the right to speak with Tinker Oddcog.At the Summer Court, the group was told that the winner of the competition would be announced at an evening meeting with the Bruse and his advisors. It was going to be a grand affair, with any petitioners who had passed the Adulthood Challenge allowed to come and enjoy the food and festivities of court. That left James out, so he spent his time doing maintenance.The meeting was held in the Bruse Shantus’s audience chamber above the labyrinth where the Adulthood Challenge had been held. On either side of the room were raised galleries for the spectators to watch the proceedings. At the far end of the room form the entrance was another raised platform for the Bruse and his advisors. Behind this area were large windows and doors leading to a balcony overlooking the labyrinth. The floor of the room was where the petitioners were gathered. There was a cocktail hour before the main event, with hors d’oeuvres and beverages available for all attendees. IronPeak noticed that Kenna seemed distant and distracted, and was not nearly as interested in the food as she usually was.Zarkava called the meeting to order. The Bruse stood with Kenna and Zarkava at his side. Pardo skulked in a back corner of the advisor platform, looking surly, but no more than usual. The constables stood to one side of the floor, while the Lya and her two bodyguards stood to the other side. The Bruse announced that the Risuri group won the railroad challenge, and the Danoran group had won the Cavallo challenge. Zarkava announced her vote for the constables, while the Bruse voted for Lya’s team. That left Kenna Vigilante to reveal her vote. She called the whole thing ridiculous, said that Tinker should just come here and decide for himself, and abstained from the voting, leaving the contest deadlocked at two votes a side.Tinker was already on his way to greet the winners; now he would just arrive and let the two sides plead their respective cases. Or, so went the plan. The gnome was brought in by a military escort, who spread out to strategic locations around the room, guarding doors and obvious trafficways.Tinker eyed the assembled groups and said, “Everyone wants to talk to me; how exciting! Well, all I see is Obscurati, Obscurati, and more Obscurati.” He pointed at Lya, Summer, and Colleen in succession. “How typical of the Obscurati to fight against itself for someone who wants nothing to do with them any more. Make a big show for the Bruse, and no matter who wins, you get what you want. Well, I want you all to leave me alone. Leave! Now!” He pulled out a pocket watch. “You have exactly 16 seconds! 15… 14… 13…12…”“He’s a bomb,” shouted Cazara. “Get out!”Summer ran for the platform where the Bruse and his advisors stood. The guard by the stairs swiped at her with his bayonet as she ran by. Cazara saw that and just vaulted directly onto the stage, and opened one of the doors to the balcony. She waved frantically for the dignitaries to follow.The guards, for their part, mostly moved to block the doors and keep anyone from escaping, though a few set upon the Bruse, stabbing him with their bayonets.Alienor, never one to pass up a golden opportunity, pulled out her rifle amongst the chaos and shot Lya Jierre multiple times, but Jierre just spat fire back at her, barely even staggered from all the bullets. IronPeak tried to break through the line of guards at the doors to allow the others to escape, but she made no progress.Lya drew her sword and marched straight for Alienor. Activating the chain filament around her sword blade, Lya tried to slice Alienor’s custom rifle in half. Alienor moved quickly and managed to pull her gun out of the way. In so doing, she exposed her arm instead, and Lya’s chainsword went right through flesh and bone, severing Alienor’s right arm just below the shoulder. Merton tried to follow, but his feet were tangled by a magical spider web from one of Alienor’s bullets.Glaucia Evora was in one of the viewing galleries. She pounced on the single guard who had blocked the door, trying to tear her way through him and allow the crowd to make a run for it. Kenna Vigilante calmly looked to the Bruse, under attack from his own guards, and she began to strangle him, throwing him to the ground. Bruse Shantus gasped and cast about for an ally to help him. No one volunteered.Colleen shouted for IronPeak to get those doors open, and IronPeak obliged by manifesting an artillery barrage out of the ceiling, blasting the guards and destroying the doors they protected, as well as large chunks of wall and floor. The civilians were able to start filing out through the holes in the wall.Lya’s other bodyguard Rush Munchhausen found himself tangles up in the same webbing as his counterpart, but he managed to extricate himself, accompanied by some truly vile language about Alienor’s entire family line. He deployed his paired Immovable Rods and dashed across the battlefield, kicking Alienor while she was down.Tinker opened a panel on his chest and pulled out a comical black bomb, complete with a burning fuse. Eyeing his watch, he continued to count down. “11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6…”Rock Rackus had showed up for the event (or at least for the drinks) and now he was trying to figure out how to escape. He gathered the other spectators on his side of the room, telling them that he had a way out, but they would need to gather close.Pardo, Minister of Rebellion, member of the Cult of the Steel Lord, and all-around disgusting gnoll, stepped over to the fallen Bruse. “Steel endures,” he said. “Flesh rots.” He cast a spell rotting Bruse Shantus’s skin away, then he set upon the minotaur and bit him on the neck. As he pulled back from the neck wound, he seemed to be sucking out a glowing willowy substance. A necromancer would have recognized as a soul-eating spell.Seeing your king’s soul being eaten right in front of you will shake you, even if you didn’t like him that much. Zarkava dashed for the balcony as fast as she could, hoping Cazara had a plan besides standing on the balcony when the gnome exploded.When spending their requisitions before the excursion to Ber, Cazara had been very adamant that everyone needed a Guardian’s Whistle, which is enchanted to teleport a willing subject to your side, helping them escape a sticky situation. Summer made it to the balcony and blew hers, pulling Alienor away from the killing blow surely coming from Lya Jierre any second now. Summer used some magic to stop the bleeding from Alienor’s missing limb, and then she dashed right off the balcony, letting her Ring of Feather Fall do its work.Cazara pulled out a feather and spoke to it. “I’m going to need some help evacuating Alienor.” Alienor looked confused and kept asking what the feather was for. Cazara told her to not worry about such things and blew her whistle, pulling IronPeak out onto the balcony. Cazara told Alienor to save Rock Rackus with her whistle, which she did. Just as Gale was floating down from the roof of the building to collect Alienor, Colleen decided to tackle Tinker. If he was a bomb, she was going to either smother the blast or set it off before Lya Jierre could get away. The blast obliterated the room, including Colleen, many of the civilians that Rock had gathered, and Lya’s bodyguard Merton. Pardo, Kenna, and the guards survived the blast, though the skin over the metal skeletons was mostly torn away, revealing them to be machines.As the balcony collapsed, Cazara and Zarkava were able to arrest their falls with magic. Rock disappeared in a puff of flower petals and leaves, while Alienor and IronPeak fell. Gale swooped in like a superhero to catch them both. IronPeak thanked her, but Alienor had been knocked unconscious by the blast and would have no memory of being saved (again) from a collapsing building by her former lover.As they flew up over the building, IronPeak saw the arc of an incoming artillery shell. The area filled with Agony Gas, and all of the non-machine people were forced to flee.Actual soldiers from the nearby military base showed up to face the machine people, and after a while they were defeated for the most part. Pardo escaped. The machine that wore Kenna’s face came crawling out of the rubble towards IronPeak, asking for help. With half of Kenna’s face, and half a steel skull, the machine told IronPeak that she could hear gnolls and the other prisoners, and they needed to be rescued. Then the machine collapsed, and the remaining part of its face turned from an imitation of Kenna to a generic, mannequin-like face.The Cult of the Steel Lord, in association with Tinker Oddcog, had infiltrated the Beran military with mechanical replacements for actual people and then assassinated the Bruse. To what end? These were questions for the following day. For now, Zarkava was acting Bruse, and she almost immediately stepped down and named Cavallo de Guerra as her successor.Cavallo was informed of what happened, and was brought in to lead the country. For more than four decades, de Guerra had not found a problem that could not be solved with lots of ships filled with angry orcs. When the arcanists traced Tinker back to Isla dola Focas, an island of the coast of Ber, Bruse Cavallo’s first official action was to declare war on the Cult of the Steel Lord and begin plans for an invasion of Isla dola Focas.The constables were asked if they would like to assist, and they volunteered to go in ahead of the main force in an effort to rescue hostages.</blockquote>

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