This episode more cheese than Wallace and Gromit , and how to defeat a Fey Titan with the Absurdist Web.
In Flint just after the first Gyre rise, it is suggested that Gail may want to create heavy rain over the city to keep crowds indoors while proclamations are prepared to try and keep people calm about the new world. Fourmyle Jaunting is discovered, and acclaimed by the group as very useful, it is suggested that Queen Nevla may want to claim all of Risur to keep it under control, but sadly propertly ownership laws mean that won't work.
Overall with rushing to the scene of crowd gatherings things are kept under control, radio instructions are sent out to the other cities who hopefully will also keep things under control.
The next morning radio from the other cities has come in and no major crises have struck, it is confirmed that She Who Writhes can now teleport as she has been seen off the coast of the Elfaivar colonies who need to import food stores for the Eladrin refugee's. People bagin learning to cast spells and news of the incident of the bakers comes in. Investigation and discussion reveals the start of the Hive mind phenomenon and they quickly realise it is the fault of the new Ob planes, they are considering efforts to investigate and control this when the decision by a factory owner to lock in the workforce is announced , immediatly Gale and Ulvaar fly the team to the site . Gale orders the arrest of the factory owner, while Queen Nevla addresses the crowd and William tries to get the police under control. Nevla is able to calm the crowd somewhat but as William moves to open the factory the Hive mind bursts out, it is subdued by None lethal cannon fire and stabbing leaving the participants dazed and a few dead.
Concern about this phenomena is raised, there are two concerns the probles directly caused by the hive minds and the similarities to the Ghidim combined with the lack of Nem in the planar alignment means they are very concerned that this may be a beacon to bring the Ghidim back. Manuel advocates careful study including the controlled formation of small gestalts at the University to see if any benefits are possible and to work out the best ways to prevent uncontrolled hive minds forming, eventually this is agreed as these things are going to form anyway. Until then a degree of Social Distancing is recomended......
although with added care to try and keep groups from focusing on one activity. Gale is left to work out how to keep the vital industries running while trying to prevent hive minds, she also is left to start reforming industrial relations laws.
News by radio comes in that the Titans are active near Bole, it is decided to wait 7 days before confronting them so Nevla will have her full magic back. William and Ulvaar depart for Bole to carry out recon, Manuel and Padme remain in Flint with the Univerisity and speaking with Morgan Cipriano, which confirms no contact with Crisilyr , gives tacit approval for him to continue running organised crime as long as he stays out of violence , they warn him the Ob probably controls the clergy in Crisillyr now and he ackmowledges and says that is not quite the same as controlling the family. Nevla with the help of the Wild Hunt visits the major cities and tries to address as many of the people as possible warning of hive minds and reassurring people that things will be alright. She is a charismatic speaker and does indeed calm down many of the fears of the citizens. She is also approached by Skyseers who warn that the world is being drawn into the Gyre , and that Av will be drawn in within months. This reminds them of an earlier vision and they try to find Rock he is not to be found though. They now anticipate needing a flying ship and departing from Av to the Gyre , as they also learn of mutiple planar energies inside it and realise they will need this to fix the Obs ritual. First though sort out the Fey Titans and protect Risur. Tinker is tasked with building a flying ship he starts immediatly mutterring in glee.
New from the outside world is limited the embassies in Danor, Crissilyr and Drakr destroyed their radios during the planar shift as they felt they could not maintian their security. Ber is still in contact and reports the situation is stable with the Bruse making a good point about the people of Ber inheriting the new world of darkness. Elfaivar is not critical the refugees are organised and the situation is stable but more food will be needed once the seas are open.
In Bole William wins over the local RHC chied despite her initial suspicions he is after all a member of the unseen court and the Queen is known to be a fey sympthiser, they discuss Opera and dsicover they have found someone who is not a Rock Fan. She suggests meeting with the Head of Fey affairs who is quickly discovered as an agent of the Voice of Rot as William and the lightning weasel spit his symbols are the woring way around and he cannot lie in the face of people who are good at sense motive, he is arrested and the signs turned the right way around.
Nevla and the rest of the team arrive in Bole and plan to deal with the Fey titans. They are briefed on the state of each of them and research their powers. They consider that it is possible to kill a Titan but that it will be replaced , although they can influence or even become its replacement. Granny Allswell and the Voice of Rot are considered good candidates to eliminate, they remember their converstions with Athrylla and work out that she thinks that William may end up replacing the Voice and Ulvaar Granny. William does not want swamps and is not convinced that calling them wetlands makes it sound any better. Ulvaar does not object to mountains.
The Father of Thunder goes on top of the list as he is easy to find and they want to cut a deal, they decide that that means hitting him until he is willing to deal. Then William has the cheesiest plan I have seen for a long time. First they move a huge amount of alchemically refined(by Manuel) Whisky to the middle of the River , to slow down the Father, then William takes the spirit of one of the archmage kings and casts named Bullet and Greater named Bullet many times on Manuels cannon shells, these shells are placed into the absurdist web and so go into stasis stretching out their duration......
Then as the Marshall William and Manuel hide in a hunting blind overlooking the whiskey, the rest of the team mounts up ready to ride in if needed. The father of Thunder arrives and boosted by William Manuel drops him with 3 powerful cannon shots (each doing about 56d +50 damage......) it is a perfect ambush. The GM Vows to make sure this plan will not works so well again, the players expect sudden spell resistance on future Fey Titans.
Father Thunder says sorry didn't notice you there, sorry I meant to talk to the Queen anyway. lets deal.
They deal, They accept all of hsi terms with the proviso that the spiritual mating will take place when the sun comes up again as Nevla prefers not to be pregant while saving the world . Ulvaar recieves unmatched virility and a Beard suitable for a Dwarven God! They conclude if he does replace Granny the mountians will become known as Ulvaar's beard so impressive is it. It occures to me know that the lightning weasel should also have gained impresive body hair I will think on this.
Next the plan to go after the Ash Wolf, talking to locals reveals the fire is centered on a Ziggurat which they instantly link to the fire and believe is probably the cause, unfortunatly they decide they have to deal with the town threatened by the fires first and rescue everyone. Which will be next session.
The Father of Thunder was dealt with so much faster than I expected, I thought that would be a session per Titan it took less than an hour to beat him. Excellent rules abuse.