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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Echolocation" data-source="post: 8331236" data-attributes="member: 7011911">Session 64Courtesy of Ella's playerHaving spent the past week cleaning up after the coup, we found ourselves invited to a mission briefing with the new Bruse and his allies. Some of his advisors were… less than keen on sharing their secrets with us, but de Guerra reassured them that if we were allies then we’d need the information, and if we were enemies… well… we should learn what to fear.With that charming message we were given the overview: the Bruse’s forces would invade the gnoll’s coastal city with tsunamis and cannons and armies, while Lya’s team, Glaucia and our team headed to the heart of the cult itself: Gradiax’s old volcano lair. Between the two attacks the gnolls - and the Cult of the Steel Lord - should be decimated and scattered into harmless nomads with no real power....Because the systematic displacement and destruction of an entire race is a reasonable response to a coup. Yes.Despite Ella’s horror - especially at the tsunami-generating magic devices - we all agreed to our part and set about preparing for the voyage: using a scroll to Teleport directly from the court to our ship. [SPOILER="Tsunami-generating devices?"]The discovery of a ziggurat off the coast of Ber has spurred great discoveries. One of which, so-called 'Project Skittles', allows for the generation of large waves.This is what the chief scientist (naturally, a goblin in a lab coat) had to say about it:"Using recent archeological findings near Pazarillo, we have developed so-called skittles. These are devices designed to be submerged in large bodies of water. Once calibrated, they emit a pulse of water magic that can alter the tides. Before dawn, we will deploy a network of 124 skittles surrounding the Isla dolas Focas. Each skittle will emit a near-imperceptible wave from different directions at a common frequency. However, each skittle wave has a common destination. The placement of the skittle network will ensure each wave emitted from a skittle will converge, and superimpose upon themselves shortly before arriving at the gnoll capital of Karch. The small waves will pass harmlessly underneath the Beran and allied vessels, and indeed, the gnolls of Karch will not notice the wave until their shores are dragged hundreds of feet into the ocean, and return as a 600 foot wave. The single attack will devastate the unwalled city. The infrastructure is surely not reinforced with metal, and will collapse in the devastation!"Skittles themselves look like large stone spinning tops, inscribed with the language of the Ancients.[/SPOILER]Before we left though, Lya offered to travel with us, but was firmly declined.No thank you, Miss Obscurati, we’ll be just fine on our own. You take your ship, we’ll take ours, and Angharad won’t have to throw anyone overboard.The quick teleportation to Seobriga left us with some time to think though. In addition to the military info, the Bruse’s briefing had given us a little more info about Tinker: namely that he didn’t seem to be under a geas like some of other Obscurati members, and he’d likely been working as a duplicant for Gradiax for quite some time. Oh, and apparently he really likes playing with desert foxes. You know, useful information.Glaucia had something more serious on her mind: asking Angharad if he expected us to die during the mission - Lisandra had prophesied her death after all. The Cipith shrugged, replying that potentially fighting a dragon would undoubtedly be dangerous but also exciting. The judge nodded, noting that if she did survive she’d rather like to meet more Vekeshi Mystics.Xambria also had questions: these ones for Lisandra. She wanted to know if it would be possible to give her one of the cult’s duplicant constructs - they’re controlled by souls after all and… well, it was the best opportunity so far to get her out of Lisandra’s head. The oracle tentatively agreed that it might be possible but suggested focusing on the mission or now.And so, with some last-minute preemptive spellcasting, we set sail for the Isla dolas Focas. There to hopefully find Tinker - and maaaybe a Pemberton-dragon.The voyage was uneventful - thanks to Lisandra’s divinations of gnoll patrol routes - and we arrived at the island in good time. The hike across the blackened volcanic landscape gave John the opportunity to spot that the volcano was very much still active, but that obviously hadn’t stopped the gnolls, as Ella spotted an entrance into the lower section of the volcano.A single gnoll with a dagger was meditating in the entranceway and cackled as we approached: “You cannot stop the Steel God! Your flesh is weak! My flesh is weak too! But the Steel God will reward me with a body as strong as my soul!” With that he slit his own throat.[ISPOILER](DM note: this gnoll was merely an alarm to alert the gnolls at the pump station).[/ISPOILER]Sodding fanatics.Preparing ourselves for more of the same, we cast some spells, drank some potions, and proceeded into the facility. A 100 ft tunnel with a magically self-repairing carpet led us to a processing room full of pipes and angry gnolls. They shut off the lights and attacked, blowing up a water tank to flood the room and then electrifying the water.Considerable damage was taken before everyone made it safely onto the walkways, and the fight turned into a free-for-all. John slammed things as an air elemental, Angharad fire-knifed a fire priest, Sydney and Glaucia saved Ella from gnolls with battleaxes, and Lisandra got into a duel with a gnoll near a tunnel down south.The oracle found her vision flickering constantly between reality and her dream of a week before: seeing Glaucia surrounded by slithering serpents as she waded through flickering electricity, and hearing phantom footsteps like those in the dream. The footsteps turned out to be very real however, as the gnoll priest called toward the south for someone to kill the hostages! and Ella flew off to investigate, only to CLANG into something invisible and metallic.The invisible figure revealed itself as Pardo: reaching out toward Ella with a spell she identified as Slay Living. The necrotic energy roiling in the gnoll’s palm was horribly familiar to Lisandra, who recognised it as the same energy that had slaughtered Glaucia in her dream. This time though, it was heading straight for Ella. Thankfully the distractions of combat foiled Pardo’s concentration, and the spell disappeared when it had scarcely begun.That wasn’t the last of the Minister of Rebellion’s tricks though, as he summoned a Wall of Fire to hem Lisandra and Ella in and proved frustratingly resistant to damage. Lisandra kept up a determined assault but Ella withered under the heat and had to retreat - teleporting through the wall of flames as Angharad Flame Jetted in as backup. The tiefling wizard’s arrival in the southern tunnel was greeted with a cry of “They’re approaching! Kill the hostages!”Chaos immediately ensued, as Ella Dimension Doored deeper into the tunnels in hopes of finding the hostages before the guards could kill them, while the rest of the party tried to finish off the gnolls in the first room and rescue her. Ella’s teleport left her in the midst of many, many bloodthirsty gnolls, and it was only Angharad’s quick thinking in impersonating the gnoll priest’s voice that saved her.The combat ended swiftly after that, as the gnolls in the tunnels ran to support their “priest” and were slaughtered along with Pardo’s duplicant. Ella found a hidden door while the fight was finishing, and after regrouping we opened it to find Kenna Vigilante and the other missing guards from the Summer Court.As we freed them from their enchanted restraints, Xambria noted a few empty duplicants hanging on the walls, and convinced Lisandra to help her possess one. The attempt ended successfully, if unexpectedly, with Xambria in control of the construct and Lisandra unconscious on a cot.Flashes of Lisandra’s time with Xambria’s consciousness sped through the oracle’s mind, rewinding all the way back to the day Xambria’s body had died. In this memory though, Lisandra saw things that she - and Xambria - had both forgotten. Sijhen slipping through the portal. A glimpse of an alien planet. Thought-form plants growing on red rocks. And a sense, a very real and immediate sense, that just as she was seeing this alien planet, it too was seeing her.[SPOILER="Sijhen"]I wanted to give Lisandra's player a reward for being such a good sport with Xambria. So, I gave her the knowledge that Shijen bailed and a bit about their home planet.[/SPOILER]The shock of that realisation was enough to wake the oracle from her stupor, while the sound of Xambria’s voice was enough to bring the rest of the team running. News of sentient alien planets, Sijhen’s escape, and Xambria’s newfound autonomy had to take a backseat though. We still had a mission to finish.Glaucia rallied Kenna and the Summer Court guards and we headed back to the first room. Although not without John pointing out that: oh hey, there’s a mural of Gradiax’s hoard on the wall and by the way it has dragon eggs in it.Nothing that will be relevant, I’m sure.Glaucia and the guards offered to stand guard while we ventured deeper into Gradiax’s lair and slew the dragon tyrant (Glaucia’s words, not mine). We opted to do that by opening the circular hatch in the first room and seeing what was under it. Unfortunately, this would requite a lot of technical engineering and time. Or… we could just break the hatch and say screw the mechanics. That works too… Having successfully opened the hatch, we found ourselves faced with… well, a face. As a disembodied duplicant head bearing Tinker’s deranged expression bounced around excitedly inside a minecart. He told us to Jump in! Time’s a-wastin’!But… well…Honestly that was where we left it. Because quite frankly we need a week to figure out what to do with someone as weird as Tinker. And no, just because Ella’s technically his niece, doesn’t mean she knows how to deal with him either. Some gnomes are just… too gnomey even for gnomes. Y'knowgnome?We’d better figure out what we’re doing soon though. Because with Lya competing against us to find Tinker’s body - if such a thing even exists and isn’t just a series of increasingly uncanny constructs - and with a possible dragon lord to fight - and maybe a clutch of eggs to deal with - not to mention a flipping active volcano. Well… let’s just say it’s a very busy day.Best get to it!</blockquote>

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