ZEITGEIST The affirmative action racial recruitment team of the RHC

[Andrew Moreton]

He loses the level drain and 10d6 channel energy which is inconvenient but not critical, his bite still hurts a lot. I will probably change his damage from movement to an attack instead of a reflex save , as DC27 reflex save will get made a lot and modifiy the meteors to be ranged touch attack with an area effect reflex save as well so that will replace a lot of the damage output.
The professor and the riders are largely intended as damage sinks and in the case of the professor a source of healing. It also complicates the pc's lives as they probably need to focus kill the riders and the professor while trying to avoid the Voice of Rot and stop him destroying Reida , which extends the fight and drains their resources more.
Also if he does a steady trickle of damage to them with the channel energy the counter is for Nevla to do a lot of healing which is not the most fun tactic for her so instead this should result in her being more flexible as the group should be able to keep fighting better without healing.
Also I have nerfed all their precombat preps in boss fights in other games so I want to avoid doing that, even though it works and made the battle at the end of the Rise of the Runelords much closer than I expected when they lost all their buff spells , I may allow him a sussurus of Disjunction if things are too easy for them .

 

[Andrew Moreton]

Ulvaars World List
Space Apet
Fire Jiesse
Earth Mojang/Dunkelveis
Water Ostea/Shaboath
Death Av
Air Baden/Caeloon
Time Gloriana
Life Ascetia/Evermeet

I'll see if I get the players lists from the other players before their debate. I think this list will not be the basis of the list I don't think Mojang and Caeloon will make the list , Baden is also not popular they wonder if Badens spiritual aspect helped influence the Hive mind forming aspect of the Ob configuration.

 

[Andrew Moreton]

Manuels Configuration: Civilisation Reborn


This is a world without death, a world where endings loop straight into new beginnings and renewal. A world where great civilisations prosper, a world where everyone can grow and achieve their own greatness. A world where we could stand united against the Ghiddim, The Devils and other threats.

The key pillars are
Great Civilisations
Our World, Wulfendyne, Glorianna, Celestria, Evermeet, Iratha ket, Av, Hendreiki, Winghome are all either powerful civilisations, or contain powerful people. These provide natural allies against cross planar invasions. Additionally most of them have common enough ground to interact peacefully, ideally leading to a planetary federation
A world fit for heroes
The planar traits provide civilisation (Glorianna, Celestria), Altruism (Iratha Ket), Independance (Hendreiki), personal mastery of technology (Wulfendyne), Exploration (Fourmyle) and 2nd chances (Ostea, Thrag). Its a world where people and civilisations can achieve great things.
Renewal
Evermeet, Tharg & Ascetia & Ostea should change the nature of death in the new world. Death becomes a very intentional thing and more of a new beginning than an ending.
Ostea (stabilizes at 0HP and cures to 1HP in 24 hours) makes death intentional.
The Combination of Tharg (Reincarnation is rapid; Memories are retained), Ascetia (People are more aware of History), and Evermeet(From the Seeds of the Old New Civilisations grow) should allow a soul to reflect upons its life and history, before choosing a new life and a new path. This should hopefully provide a fusion of new beginnings and possibilities with continuity and experience.

I am hoping to build something like a Dr Who style regeneration here. When you die you come back as what is both a different and a new person, someone with the chain of memories and experience but with a new perspective on those, ready to experience a new life.


Planes
Air ( DC50 )
1st: Winghome (for Dragons & Flight)
2nd: Hendreiki (For the Runequest world and to counter balance Celestia)
No strong planar synergy (air & earth, air & fire) but no opposition.
No strong concept synergy. I would guess you would get worlds of flying heros and independent dragons? Possibly Runequest Dragons
Earth ( DC45 ):
1st Glorianna (for the Glorianna World & civilisation truimphant)
2nd Celestia ( for the Forbidden city world, & natural order of things)
No strong planar synergy (earth & time, earth & water) but no opposition
Strong concept synergy of great empires, possibly Glorianna will introduce motion & diversity to Celestia, and Celestia will mitigate Gloriannas conquer everyone impulses.
Fire ( DC30 / DC45 / DC 50)
1st Wulfendyne (For very advanced technology & a great empire)
? 2nd Etherax (Possibly, patience would be a great virtue with so many strong civilisations added, fire magic might also be handy)
No strong planar synergy (Fire & Air, Fire & Life, Fire & Time) but no opposition
Etherax may be useful for the patience component.

This is intended to power our plane technologically, the Wulfendyne empire is another strong allie against the Devils & Gheddim. Doubling up with jiesse may make technology easier, adding Etherax may reduce some of the manic impules (although better firey death rays).
Water ( DC 30 ):
1st Ostea (Stabalises on 0HP, reduce unintentional death)
Ostea is just great for keeping people alive, which is handy in reducing violence and useful for planar invasions.

Life (DC 45) :
1st Av (Get the Fey back)
2nd Iretha Ket (Alltuisim, is a great trait, particulalry when we are bringing so many big empires together, musical theater is a very fey thing)
Very Strong planar synergy (both Life & death)
Very Strong concept synergy (both are a bit whimsical)

This maintains some of the good things about our world, also I think the death aspect of Av is useful to give people a place to "move on" from this life if we get the Reincarnation aspect of Tharg working.
Death
I have 2 options here: Nem if we want to return to a closed access plane or Amrou & Bathoy if we don't.
Option 1 Closed World (DC 30)
1st Nem (Kills distant planar movement, Lingering souls stronger)
Nem, Urim & Apet were the cornerstone of the ancient plane defence, so i have incorporated options for them in death & space.
Option 2 Open World (DC 30 / DC 50)
1st Amrou (Mundane counters to supernatural threats are strong)
?2nd Bathoy (Undead are more alive)
No strong planar synergy (Death & Water, Death & Earth) but no opposition
No strong concept synergy

I did not have strong opinions here, Amrou could be useful inn mitigating the Devil invasions, as it inflicts damage on devils and hopefully evil outsiders in general. Plus we might get a reincarnated egyptian society, with strong magic use.

Bathoy makes the undead more alive, removes the mandatory evil bit of their alignment and I hope makes them more subject to change and human emotions and reactions. Also this might combine with Tharg, to reincarnate the undead into a living state.


Space:
I have 2 options here Apet & Urim if we want to return to a closed access plane or Fourmyle if we don't.
Option 1 Closed World (DC 55)
1st Apet Increases distance, making teleportation harder,
2nd Urim blocks teleportation with gold.
Strong Planar Antipathy (Space & Air Vs Space & Earth) may make this harder to setup
Strong Concept Synergy (Both change teleportation and planar movement)
Option 2 Open World (DC 30)
1st Fourmyle (Teleportation)

I don't have a strong candidate here. The teleportation thing is useful though so why not keep it}?
Time (DC 60):
1st Evermeet (From the Seeds of the Old New Civilisations grow)
2nd Thrag (Reincarnation is rapid; Memories are retained)
3rd Ascetia (People are more aware of History)
Very Stong Planar Synergy (All these are Life & Time)
Comcept Synegy, (awareness of the past moving to the future)

I believe Evermeet, Tharg & Ascetia could produce a benevolent system of reincarnation and renewal replacing death as it is currently understood.

Tharg provides a system of abrupt reincarnation after death, but this is too abrupt on the plane. Everything is violently fighting and killing everything else. What we need here is a mechanism to provide distance, and encourage a more philosophical renewal.

Some of this will naturally be done by the effects of the ritual providing a diminished effect. For example Ostea, stabilizes at 0HP and ensures recovery to 1HP, it does not provide fast healing or regen like the OB talked about. So any effect from Tharg should naturally be more moderate in our world.

Ascetia should hopefully grant the newly restored reincarnation more of a sense of place and personhood, a review of their history and what shaped them, rather than a simple continuity.

Evermeet is about rebirth, "from the seeds of the old grow the new", hopefully combining this with Thrag and Ascetia will allow the newly reincarnated person to spiritually renew themselves as well as retain their old self. Something like a time lord regeneration from Dr Who, a person who is both different and the same, who retains full memory and identity but is now different and renewed.
Rolling Order.
Assuming we can decide the order they are put in, here are the requisite checks.
Multiple planes are done first to optimise availability of rerolls, completed multiple adds +7 to roles for other multiple planes only, which is factored in. * indicates systems we could drop to 1 plane.
Civilisation Reborn (Open)

Planet	Planes	Base	Modifier	Total
Time	3	60		60
Air	2	50	7	57
Death	2*	50	14	64
Fire	2*	50	21	71
Life	2	45	28	73
Earth	2	45	35	80
Space	1	30		30
Water	1	30		30

Civilisation Reborn (Closed)

Planet	Planes	Base	Modifier	Total
Time	3	60		60
Space	2	55	7	62
Air	2	50	14	64
Fire	2*	45	35	80
Life	2	45	21	66
Earth	2	45	28	73
Death	1	30		30
Water	1	30		30

 

[RangerWickett]

Wow. You did it you beautiful bastard. You made Thrag viable and not monstrous.

 

[Andrew Moreton]

This was written by Manuels player , I am not yet certain if he is right but I do think he has a really impressive plan and can make very good arguements for including Thrag. It is controversial the other players are still uncertain about it and are at least partially waiting for my to give them the results of their skill checks to assess how well the plan will work, which I will be thinking about this week. I do like his arguements though.
They are still discussing and Thrag may not make the final cut

 

[Andrew Moreton]

The group started off with their plan to assault Egaltrix and break the power of the Shining Legion. They called in all their allies , Doverspike would spearhead the assault targeting the Magma reservoir and breaking through to the aft treasury. This was expected to eliminate the main weapons of the Egalatrix and tie down a lot of shining legion troops fighting a Great Wyrm Vampiric Red dragon which should be unpleasent for them, he would approach in the form of a fog bank, in this would be the team using windwalk to pretend to be clouds and headiing for the top of the Volcano to use Manuels patent volcano snuffer (A Giant snowglobe with a whirring clockwork device in the middle as well as a small Snow Goblin) as well the flying monastry folded down to a very small size holding the Coaltongue in a courtyard. Onboard the Monastery were strike teams lead by El Kevin,Ashima-Shimtu Galadrial, Vampire Nuns, Monks and Gloriana soldiers whose objective would be to enter the fortress and rescue as many slaves as possible while the enemy was distracted. With the brands down the Coaltongue defended by the energies of Amrou and additional weapon mounts from Gloriana would engage the Hanger deck of the Egaltrix trying to destroy all of the light ships before they could become a problem. Finally after the volcano was snuffed the main team would procede to the Legion command center and kill General Marcus and his chief officers.
At the same time Rock Rackhus had been captured inflitrating the fortress and brought before General Marcus for judgement fortunatly for him he was being guarded by elite Erinyes troops and his captors were about to be distracted, Star Marshal Tiadora it turned out was immune to Rock's charms having already encountered far more seductive beings.
The legion was arrogant and secure in their fortress , they failed to recognise the threat until Doverspike tore into the fortress and then found it hard to cope with him and Captain Smith handled the Coaltongue with skill hammerring the Egaltrixes hanger from a position where the fusils could not bear , normally the brands would have destroyed the Coaltongue but they were off line and before emergency magma rerouting could bring them back on line...
Manuel dropped his snowglobe into the volcano before he and the others charged towards the command center. Behind them the Snowglobe froze the magma of the volcano triggerring a collapse in the core of the volcano as without the outwards pressure of the magma the mountain crumbles slowly at first..
The team burst through the window to face ten star devils, Tiadora, General Grumblejack and General Marcus. Ulvaar and William hit Tiadora with suffocation and Feeblemind respectivly both of them failed , while Manuel machine gunned Grumblejack and five star devils eliminating the devils. The two groups then clashed in hand to hand combat with both sides being hurt, then Nevla used a holy word paralysing Grumblejack and Tiadora for a round , allowing the main attack to concentrate on Marcus almost bringing him down, he almost brought Padme down in responese. Finally though Marcus went down and the crippled Grumblejack did not last long. The ravening elofast ravager (a modified Jabberwock) charged in.
Meanwhile Rocks guards had freed him from his restraints and teleported out with him to safety, and a sphere annihlation from the throne sank into the depths of the volcano accellerating the coming implosion. The grand master had not recieved clear orders yet and a miracle freed him before he could join in, none of the surviving devils achieved anything before being defeated.
I underestimated the firepower of the team, the Voice of Rot will have more hit points.
With the leadership down presumably to reincarnate on their home planes and with Marcus promising "I'll be back", the team noticed the impending implosion of Egaltrix and signalled all rescue teams to retreat. Egaltrix imploded and the team with all the rescued slaves withdrew.
Finally they scouted out the 4 remaining planes they had left alone.
Apo was a fascinating puzzle which Manuel sought to solve his brilliant intellect found the solution to move between the changing patterns of rainbow colours, William accompanied him to spot any invisible lava, both were suprised when a Prismatic wall fell on their heads. They survived although Manuel needs healing before the poison from the Prismatic wall killed him. This gave Manuel an icon for the plane, the others destroyed it .
Elofasp , they looked at the swarming hive of monsters and decided this plane was not one they wanted.
Bonliathe, the took pity on the poor staff trying to recreate life with lightning and primordial ooze and rescued it, they decided though that they did not need Tyranosaurs mixed with their rain so no icon
Tykfe, they looked at it and talked but decided that Time Travel was too much of a problem to risk adding it to the world, Manuel was fascinated but on this one he conceded saving his arguements for Thrag...

The session was short but we did have some debate at the end about planes which started things off

Next week we return to the world, and will return to the GYre for the showdown with the Voice of Rot. Planar discussion will continue via internet , unfortunatly teleconferencing makes the debate too hard to hold in person so we will aim to settle over the next few weeks with discusion. I have to work out what they can learn as facts from skill checks particularly on the Thrag question

 

[Andrew Moreton]

At the Ziggurat of Av Nevla and Nicodemus had just finished ranting at each other as Nevla expressed her own and her colleagues frustration to Nicodemus that he was blaming them for his own mess and was deaf to reason. He responded by unleashing his strike team of Kaja Stewart, Lauren Cynberg , a pair of nameless wizards a small horde of battle constructs and the Screaming Malice. The constables seemed impressed, William noticed that Kaja and Lauren were possessed by the Ghost council and told everyone to take them alive. As the Screaming Malice threatened the group Queen Nevla felt the power of the Monarchy flow into her and realised the Ob had not taken advantage of her absence and their control over Risur to remove her as Queen , foolishly.
The Ob Wizards struck first conjuring Void Orbs amid the constables who ignored them , Manuel fired a smoke mortar pattern to blind the Ob team, Ulvar hasted everyone and began the slow jog of a hasted dwarf towards the enemy. Kata called forth a cannon and a mortar barrage aimed at the team , the cannon misfired and almost all the team dodge the mortar shrapnel taking at worst a few small cuts. William dimension doored himself and Padme next to Kaja and Padme stabbed Kaja into unconciousness relying on Ostea to keep her alive. Pardo tried something ineffective which his targets resisted and Nevla unleashed a firestorm on the Ob carefully avoiding Kaja but hitting all the other Ob agents killing one of the wizards and nearly eliminating the construct squads. The construct squads rained sonic grenades on Manuel and Nevla lighty injuring Manuel while Nevla avoided the blasts. The Screaming Malice bit Padme and William.
The Ob wizard cast a scintillating pattern effecting William and Padme , leaving William confused and useless for the rest of the fight, Manuel fired a grenade salvo finishing off the construct squads and Ulvaar pulled all the air from Lauren's lungs leaving her unconcious , Pardo was jerked out off his simulcram by an irritated Pemberton . Then William punched himself in the face , fortunatly not using one of the many lethal weapons he carried, Padme charged and stabbed the Screaming Malice annoying it and finally Nevla hit the beast with a destruction spell boosted by her royal power the creature failed to resisit it and dropped dead. The remaining Ob wizard wished he had memorized teleport and instead hit William with a Finger of Death which he shrugged off before Manuel gunned him down.

The fight over Ulvaar deployed his positive energy blade and drove the ghosts out of Lauren and Kaja before they were healed and woken up. Nicodemus told them that if they intefered on this the last day before his glorious victory cities would burn and it would be on their heads. They told him to shut up and go away before they had to drive him out of the body. He left, they resolved to ignore him in future and just get things done.

They settled down for a council of war with Pemberton as they did so they realised that their return to the world had give the energy to Gale, Drelft, Tinker and the blind seer to throw off the Ob Yoke. Pemberton revealed his patented Sending blocking device and they agreed that using that to isolate Harkover in Flint would give them time to reclaim Flint before other cities could be threatened , and agreed they would have to split up and use his simulcrums to save the day. The late arriving Ash Wolf told Nevla she should go to Cherage. Otherwise they agreed to send the Coaltongue to a staging area near Axis Island where El Kevin would coordinate with Pembertons forces until they could teleport in and lead the strike. To get to Flint they would make use of Laurens expertise and teleport into Delft's office were they could gather information and plan their strike. At this point they were reminded that Manuel had designed steam battlesuits for Dragons and that Harkover had one, the virtual connection meant nothing was thrown at Manuels player.

As they arrived in Drelft's office he checked his pocket watch and siad they were running late. He quickly explained the set up in Flint and the threat of the Lantern towers, at the same time Nevla sent the little yellow bird of the whsipering wind off to contact Gale. They discussed how to take the towers down decided that would be difficult but the central gas facility on Governors island looked a more inviting target. The resident expert on explosions Manuel looked at the problem and decided the explosion could largely be confined to Governors island if the struck before the gas was charged with Jiess energy. An attack on the place looked difficult as it would probably mean fighting Harkover and the explosion could hurt them , worse the destruction had to be sudden , accumulated damage would cause gas leaks and a gas cloud forming could lead to an FAE style explosion which would spread the damage out and risk killing a lot of people around the harbour. A Cunning plan formed Tinker was working on the new dreadnoughts King Aodhan and Queen Nevla and they were almost completed with the guns installed, a salvo from their Naval rifles would destroy the gas facility with minimal collateral damage. Drelft ordered that the staff of Governors Island should be brought in by the secret police for interrogation and before the agents went out Queen Nevla addressed them all reminding them of their duty to the nation and promising she and her fellows would free the nation and restore the sun and all within a day. Gales reply arrived saying she was with them and they asked her to procede to the furthest tower as an emergency backup plan, the B-Team also volunteered and were despatched so there was a backstop at all the towers. To give time for all these plans to come to effect the team decided to walk to the Queen Nevla and using the Mayor Macbennin memorial canal they walked along the bottom into the harbour and up to the Queen Nevla taking advantage of Ulvaar's life bubble effect. Onboard the Queen Nevla it turned out that the ship was nearly operational and would soon be a flying dreadnought Tinker was able to assure them that they could aim and fire the main guns from the central fire control director so they did not need the full crew for one salvo. Ulvaar went around and loaded the 15 inch guns (conveniently a 15 inch shell weighed 1970lb just under his tk limit so he could load all the guns) then Manuel aimed them and a single salvo put all 10 shells into the gas works blowing it apart and creating a roaring pillar of flame but very little collateral damage (They had carefully used magic so Manuel would have a reroll in case he missed an blew apart a random orphange or something). Then instructing Tinker to get the Queen Nevla operational as fast as possible which he could do with parts from the King Aodan they rushed to a nearby rooftop so dragon breath and similar weapons of mass destruction would not kill bystanders.

There Harkover planned to make a series of fast attack passes trusting in speed and invisibility to keep himself safe and wear them down, on his first pass he tried to bite Nevla and just missed (my dice rolling was appalling all session he hit on a 3 or more and rolled 2) . Then they initiated their standard dragon storming tactic I had forgotten and William dimension doored the team onto the back of the dragon for a boarding action, Ulvaar then using his positive energy blade struck at the ghosts within Harkover without hurting him breaking his tie to the hive mind and then he was reminded of his duty to Risur and his Monarch and switched sides.
I completely underestimated their tactics and did not counter it, Pemberton is building a dimensional lock field and directional mines into his steam suit just in case.
They immediatly dashed to Cauldron hill and prepared to use the Simulcrum's although they were unhappy with the use of Witch oil but accepted the sacrifice was necessaryin order to save the lives threatened by Nic. Nevla would go to Cherage, William to Crissilyr , Ulvar to Drakr and Manuel to Ber.
They also ordered the Queen Nevla rushed to compeltion and sent to join the Coaltongue and hoped their fully armed and operational dreadnought would join them at the ritual site

William looked out over Crissilyr and saw the lantern towers, the fact that the Volcano had gone out and the dissembly of the Cathedral (the last did not displease him to much ), seeing some true believers being persecuted by authorities he charged down to intervene in the hope of gathering information. The guards fell before him , asking around he discovered the Archsecular was in charge and directing affairs at the Cathedral , he mildly regretted they had left her around after their last visit but set out to deal with her and decapitate the Ob command structure.

Manuel woke up outside Seobriga and quickly looked around for a Kobold finding one waiting outside his room, suprisingly it was not El Extrano who was busy elsewhere. He interrogated the Kobold and discovered that Glaucia was due to be executed and thought that was a good point to stop the Bruse's actions, then he learned the Bruse had magical powers making him very resistant to technology...... and realised this was not a mission for him. Meanwhile

In Drakr Ulvaar discovered himself in the parliament building and rapidly discovered that the Chancellor was taking part in a procession through the city and really the only way to get at her would be long range sniping and felt he had deployed to the wrong location,,
He and Manuel switched back to their bodies at the same time and quickly switched cities. Manuel plans to snipe , Ulvaar plans to enrage the Bruse with minotaur and naughty word jokes and kill him in single combat.

Padme was in Elfaivar dealing with vaguely defined threats to the Risuri/Eladrin colony.

Nevla arrived in Cherage and the Rats in disguise directed her to the railway yards were she saw the crowds delivering themselves up form execution to avoid burdening the state. She did not approve. Trying to avoid the Ob minister and glad neither of the Jierre's were here she crept through the crowd however she was expected Gardiner Du Cherage confronted her telling her she was expected and revealing an ambush of five lantern golems surrounding her and telling her she was hopelessly outnumbered , Nevla replied that she liked her odds, Gardiner told her that she needed to die to clear the way for the new world . Then a voice from the crowd spoke "She asks if this is the Perfect world that was promised?" and Nevla realised that Ashima-Shimtu was here.

We ended there , I expect to finish the campaign in late October. As we wrapped up they discussed how Nic seemed to be going full on Lawful Evil here with the state of the world and Manuel's player speculated he may have cut a deal with Oswyn of the Shining legion and they should probably start looking for temples of Asmodeus. Oswyn's player pointed out that Oswyn was good at this and given the oppression they were seeing they should look out for Asmodean cultists in the guise of helpful charities.
Amusingly this is correct but they dismissed it as a likely possibility

They also discussed the use of the rite of Apothosis and decided they did not need it although it may be useful and it was morally suspect so they would not use it. They would not risk the lives of their supporters for tactical convenience

 

[RangerWickett]

in case he missed an blew apart a random orphange

That is never not funny.

 

[Andrew Moreton]

The great planar debate continues Thrag is still the complicated choice. They have however come down in favour of an open universe and a stong defense. Which means that the Battle of Axis Island is on.
Nicodemus has allied with the Shining legion (or as they would say he is a useful idiot opening the way for them) they will help him build his ordered and perfect world and then kill him and takeover. So when the players confront him much of their good work will be rewarded Lya, Kasavarina will certainly join them with effort they may be able to get Han and Bourne onside. Then the legions of hell open up portals , and as the players link to each plane their allies from that world join them until in the end the Devils back down rather than face a united system backed by the forces of heaven ala Avengers Endgame. Most of that confrontation will be winged but I can throw whatever devils I want at the players to slow them down as they fight to bring about the planar alignment of their choice. Hopefully it will be epic.

The forces they are gathering before the battle I am trying to stretch to include all the allies they have picked up around the world so far
Pemberton and the Pemberton Industries flying carrier(Helicarrier) with it's force of Dragonflyer Ornithropters
The Coaltongue and Crew with Gale onboard to hide the entire fleet in a fog bank
SEAL Team 6 who have been wondering around in a sub since book 11
El Extrano and his extraordinary Kobold commando's
Athrylla and a cohort of Eladrin dreadnoughts bringing with her Cula who she had brought back into the fold and a team of Vekeshi assassins also of course the Eladrin Weretigers
Tzertse Rider of the end times and his harem of Dwarven Valkyries accompanied by Kiov Hetman with advice of the Drakran wards on the island
Bruse McDruid and assorted Island Heroes
Xavia Sangria and his hardened Monster Killer team
Livia Hatfield , Tinker Oddcog, , Stover Drelft and the B-team arriving on the hastily completed Flying Dreadnought the RNS Queen Nevla
A squadron of cloudbombers from Shale lead by the Duchess Ethelyn and Shokana
Lord Kulp the secret Bronze Dragon and a cadre of Wizards from Naalem

Edit The Monks from Pala

The allies from Ber are already in the plot and can't really make it to the final battle same for anyone in Crissylyr and Drakr. I can't think of any allies I have missed

 

[Andrew Moreton]

With the PC's split 4 ways
Alais Primos
William having spoken to some locals he had prevented the arrest of determine that the Archsecular is in charge of the city and the threat is the four lantern towers , he sneaks to the ruins of the Cathedral and invisibly Kidnaps Morgan Cipriano into an abandonded church, snaps him out of the Hive Mind and asks him about the situation. Unfortunatly it appears that no strike forces of Family members could be mustered in the time frame before the towers need to be taken out and William is reluctant to use up all of his remaining teleport spells for the day travelling between towers.. So he has a cunning plan.
Calling upon the power of the archmage king of Risur he opens a gate to the Celestial Advoral, when it answers he and Cipriano explain the situation and ask for its help in saving the city from destruction. As it is a being of good and this is defending the faith of the Clergy it agrees to help and managed to gate in several Astral Deva's to help it. The plan is that they will assail three of the towers simultaneously and then as soon as a tower is destroyed teleport to the fourth tower. After that they may go and break the Archsecular out of the Hivemind depending on the situation

Seobrigga
Ulvaar has spoken with the crowds going to the public execution and joins them walking towards the site, his plan is to get close to the Bruse then blast him with positive energy until the Ghost Councillers are gone and break him out of the Hivemind and prevent the city destroying order being given. The kobold waiting for the construct to wake up apologises that El Extrano has not left many commando teams in Ber and left for Axis Island in a Zombie Whale a few days ago. Ulvaar continues to the square happy with the plan to confront the Bruse.
Approaching the square he recieves the BBC broadcast (Brakken Broadcasting Corporation) and see's the situation in the square with the Bruse about to execute Glaucia so taking to the air he swoops down towards the Bruse just as pyrotechnic light up a great S in the Square and 2 masked men swing down to interrupt the execution.

The Capital of Drakr
Manuel prepares to sneak out and assassinate the chancellor, which is terrible he should find a way to arrest her. However she is Ob so he can't even come up with a way to break her out of the Hivemind, even if he does she will still order the city destroyed. An attack on the parade will probably lead to his defeat, more casualties than killing her and the detonation of the city. He does not have the time and resources to destroy the Gas depot without causing massive collateral damage.
So he sneak out onto the roof looking for an opportunity to take a shot, unnable to find a Grassy Gnoll he sets up on a roof , even in his steamsuit and distracted by morale qualms he remains the night and the watchful sniper Kvarti sees nothing

Cherage train depot
Nevla is facing five lantern armed Golems deployed in ambush and has just realised that Ashima-Shimtu is standing nearby, Nevla and Gardian Du Cherage compete to persuade Ashima-shimtu that she should act. She seems paralysed by indecision, the golems start to blast Nevla with a mix of Urim, Apet and Jiesse energies preventing her from teleporting or moving and inflicting fire damage on her, fortunatly she has anti-fire spells up but the lanterns will not take that long to cut through her fire protection. Nevla assures Ashima-shimtu that her acting will make things better and not acting is also making a decision. Finally Ashima-Shimtu acts declaring "I will not stand by , we will save the city" several players note that she just switched to using the first person. She steps in front of Nevla taking the force of the lantern blasts and at the same time conjuring an illusion of Nevla prone behind her and turning Nevla invisible. Gardian reacts sarcastically "Curse your unexpected , sudden but ineveitable betrayal, Golems Override B-2" the golems switch to blasting holy energy causing Ashima-Shimtu to stagget and sink to one knee but still resist the blasts .

Alais Primos
William rapidly despatched a construct squad at one of the lantern towers striking from invisibility he cuts them down almost immediatly and scatters the soldiers with a fierce display of intimidation, at the same time the Astral Deva's destroy a lantern before they are spotted and Advoral cuts his qay through a construct squad before he and William destroy their lanterns. William makes his way on foot to the Archsecular while the celestials destroy the last lantern, and is there when Advoral and the Celestials teleport in and use positive energy to free the Archsecular from possession.
The city saved William quickly organises Morgan and the Archsecular to set up a provisional government and get the Archsecular to agree to step down once their is an alternative in place, then he returns to his body.

Seobriga
Ulvaar does not immediatly recognise the strangers but swoops in and hits the Bruse with a rapid flurry of positive energy blows (at which point I realise there are no Ghost councillors present but decide not to change what the players believe to be true) , Sor Daeron swings in and drops a tyrannosaur with a well place spellstrike critical . The Bruse free of possession cancels the order to destroy the city and denounces the Ob for mind control , Glaucia takes up the cry and leads a mob to deliver a savage beating to everyone in the Ob embassy. Ulvaar worries about hive minds as he recognises the two resistance fighters he thanks them both but does not have long to talk instead rushing around the towers to make sure they are demolished. Deciding he does not have time to worry about hive minds and if all goes well the problem will end for ever tommorrow he returns to his body.

The capital of Drakr
Manuel opens fire from his position hitting the chancellor with a deadly accurate salvo of rifle fire killing her before she can act (No sniping rules he just did 200pts of damage) then with his mastery of the night he sneaks off before anyone can work out where the shots came from and hangs around undetactably and brooding until it is confirmed that the Gas lamps are being extinguished and the gas store vented by Vladheim Heid before returning to his body

Cherage
Nevla moves to help but Ashima-shimtu tells her to save the city, she will endure. After throwing some healing at Ashima-Shimtu Nevla races to the Gas depot and identifying the emergency venting system she was briefed on by Manuel vents the gas to the heavens. Rushing back she finds Ashima-shimtu still absorbing the blasts of Holy energy and summons a mobile pit to take the golems out moving it around to drop all the golems down into it, then moving the pit in front of an approaching freight train making sure the crew have time to bail out, the train plummets down the pit and obliterates the Golems, quickly she casts overwhelming presence, incapictates Gardian and any approaching soldiers and stuffs Gardian into the Absurdist web to keep her out of the way
She then goes to Ashima-Shimtu's side checking she is still alive, Ashima-Shimtu asks if the city is saved, and once it is confirmed that it is she asks if she should go or stay, Claifying what she means and discovering Ashima-Shimtu is asking if she should stay or depart this plane of existance, Nevla asks her to stay , Ashima-Shimtu agrees but apparently weary tells Nevla to go on and she will join her at Axis Island.

The Coaltongue Near Axis Island
Lauren Cynberg teleports the team to the Coaltongue where they discover Gale has the Coaltongue and some other forces hidden in the Eye of a Tropical storm approaching the Island. They observe the 'Shield of Steel' a flying carrier with Pemberton industries flag flying on its flat deck they can see Pemberton in Dragon form, and a squadron of Dragonflyers as well as numerous other visitors. The Coaltongue goes alongside , puts lines across and the team Zip-line onboard. Where they meet their assembled allies.
SEAL Team 6 who they are glad to see , as they had forgotten leaving them watching the island a year ago when they were expecting a quicker return
A Liason officer from El Extrano who is preparing commando attacks on the Axis Island defenses, they think it is probably a good idea that El Extrano is not here given his habit of provoking Pemberton
They are pleased to see Athrylla and her loyal dreadnoughts , as well as assorted Weretigers (Adorable and Deadly says Manuel) she introduces Cula who has defected to them, Cula bows before Nela and asks forgivness for her mistaken loyalty to the Ob and help in assassinating Nevla's predessor she explains she has learned that Kasavarina has renounced the Ob and that combined with the recent failing of the Ob have persuaded her to abandon them, she had come to aid in defeating the Ob and brought the best of her Assassin teams with her. The Queen forgives her and welcomes her to the right side of the conflict.

Tzertse Rider of the end times and his harem of Dwarven Valkyries have arrived looking for a good fight against the Ob, the players note they should keep him away from Rock otherwise there will be issues when Rock steals his harem. They are pleased to see he is accompanied by Kiov Hetman who has abandoned the Ob and come to serve the heroes he met , he brings with him methods of defeating the Drakran wards emplaced around the Island.
Other former Ob agents have come inspired by their meeting with the heroes Bruce McDruid and Xavia Sangria have brought with them the most heroic of their followers and stand ready to fight , Livia Hatfield is onboard the RNS Queen Nevla racing to join the fleet along with Harkover, Oddcog , Drelft and the B-team
A squadron of the prototype cloudbombers (flying wooden ships with bombs magically disguised as clouds) from the Shale fleet have arrived lead by Former Duchess Ethelyn and her assistant Shokana, the Duchess asks forgivness for her earlier treason as she misunderstood the prophecy and should have been preparing for the Ob instead and notes they need someone to replace Romanov as her replacment in charge of Shale.
Lord Kulp and his assistant wizards are here, Kulp and Pemberton treat each other like two very polite strange cats , which the players consider for the best they are not certain which is the more powerful dragon and are certian a fight between them would mess up everything.
Penultimatly severl monks from the Sons of Pala have come to demonstrate the truth of William Millers philosophies even if the ghost of the man has gone astray.
Finally as the council of war is getting underway one last figure flies in , an Angelic figure no one recognises immediatly lands of the flight deck , as they see the chains still attached to her the realise this is Ashima-Shimtu redeemed "I have come to aid you Queen Nevla" and she bows before Nevla and kisses her hand, Nevla gives her an impulsive hug.
Manuel cries out in delight "You read the book" delighted she had finally learned to use the first person.

We finished fairly early at this point and spent time discussing planes and tactics for fighting the Voice of Rot which they will do next time.
It looks like we have confirmed an open configuration and sadly Thrag is gone, several of the players decided they were unhappy with the social consequences and after presenting his best arguements Manuel's player accepted the majority. It is a pity I think it would have been an interesting world and it would have worked, it is just hard to work out how society would have reformed. My opinion is it would have worked well with moderate disruptions in the short term then something like Peter Hamiltons Confederation society possibly with long term problems as the population expands

The group has decided that besides saving the world thwarting Nicodemus is nearly as important a motivator as they expressed if Nicodemus had committed to giving a man a sandwhich they would race ahead to make him a better sandwhich with chips and all the trimmings just to show up Nicodemus.