The Rise of Felskein [Completed]

[Iron Sky]

Session 29, Part 10

<Thanks for the comment, Funeris. Amazing that there's only two sessions left. Seems like ten sessions worth of stuff happened in these last two games...>

The sun was setting as they sat around a small fire, sheltered somewhat from the wind-blown ash, dust, and debris by the curved side of the Turtle. The flicker and flash of the True Stones of Light and Lightning sitting before them cast strange shadows in the smoke and haze blown in from the forests burning on the hills. They ate a small meal in silence, broken only by Meepo and Bail talking softly in draconic, the gust of wind on Turtle's shell, and the snap and crack of the fire.

Kormak set down his plate, leaned back against the silversteel of the Turtle, and sighed contentedly. He glanced at the others, seeing them lost in thought; Harold dark and brooding, Suniel distant, Bail contemplative, Meepo distracted.

“So, now that our happy band is back together, anyone care to explain what the hell just happened?” he said.

Bail nodded and looked at Suniel, Suniel looked at Harold, and Harold didn't look up from the fire.

“Harold?” Suniel said.

Harold looked up slowly, as if returning from someplace distant and grim. “What?”

“We were wondering if you might tell us what happened,” Kormak said. “Unless that was you trying to avoid your story, Suniel...”

Suniel smiled softly and shook his head, rubbing the scarred, blackened stump of his left wrist. “No, I just might need more time to... process what I transpired in the Fae Wood, or wherever it was that the Fae took me.”

Kormak nodded. “Harold then.”

Harold was staring back at the fire, seemingly oblivious to the others turning towards him. Just as Kormak was about to clear his throat or smack the archer – he wasn't sure which impulse would win out – Harold began to speak, his sentences choppy.

“I waited until the next pulse hit and the Pyramid rearranged itself. Then I went down, made it before the next pulse. It was waiting in there. And two more of them. The others smaller.

“It said it had sent Velea through the portal. Said if I did anything, it would send her deeper into its realm. I said it didn't matter. I killed them then, though it tried to use the power of the True Stone of Light on me.” Harold nodded to said True Stone sitting at his feet. “When they were all dead, I went to the portal to the thing's... realm.”

“When Keeper was crushed, I took the Seeking Stones. When I stepped part-way through that portal, the Stones... reacted, detonated, nearly pulled me apart. I saw Velea on the other side, in a place where the ground ran sideways like wax, yellow trees reached towards orange orbs that hung in a haze of brown mist. She saw or heard me call and turned. I saw her fear and saw her take a step.

“But time moved differently there, like she walked underwater. On this side, I could feel the rift begin to come apart, the ground shake. There was no time.

“I grabbed the True Stone and fled. The pyramid shaft was coming apart, more and more as I climbed. At the end, it collapsed on me. Had to fight, dig, claw my way out.”

They were quiet again, waiting to see if Harold had more to say. After several minutes, it was obvious he didn't.

Bail, Meepo, and Kormak turned to Suniel. The elf shivered and tugged his strange new cloak tighter despite the warmth of the fire-blown winds and the warmth of their camp fire. A wracking cough passed through him, but when he looked up to speak, Kormak saw a strange light flicker in the elf's eyes, like a star emerging from the darkening skies above, then fading.

“I passed into the Woods,” Suniel began. “I stepped past some unmarked boundary, out of this world and into... elsewhere...”

 

[Iron Sky]

Session 30, Part 1

“What exactly happened is difficult to remember and is quickly fading even as I try to think of it,” Suniel said. “I remember finding a child laying sick in a city street, coughing weakly, so exhausted he could barely move. The child's mother was holding him and looked up at me with tears in her eyes as I approached.”

“'He's so sick', she said. 'The seer said a man would come and take the sickness into himself so my child could live. Are you that man?'”

Suniel himself then broke down in a racking cough that took him several minutes to recover from. When he finished and began speaking again, his voice was a whisper. “I thought about it several minutes, then knelt by the child and put my hand on the boy's blazing forehead. 'Yes, I am that man,' I said.

“I then found myself walking down a crossroads and saw a blind man standing at the center. He turned as I approached, as though looking at me with his milky white eyes. 'I do not know which way I will go. To the east lies a Spinx that will answer any one question, to the west lies a king who will give me any one thing I desire.'

“I thought and came up with the answer. 'Knowledge is the ultimate power. The sharpest sword is useless if you do not know who or what or where your enemy is so you can fight him. All the gold in the world cannot buy you a gift for your wife if you don't know what it is she truly wants.'

“I was then the blind man, stumbling at the feet of the Sphinx, to hear it whisper in my ear the one question I thought to ask.”

“Which was?” Kormak said.

“Shh,” Bail said. “Go on Suniel.”

“I was walking into the stone hall of some magistrate, a towering figure in his deep purple robe and long braided beard. An emaciated man striped with purple bruises lies on the dusty stone at the base of the magistrate's dais.

The magistrate turned to me as I approached. 'This man is a thief. He has admitted openly that he stole bread, many times. The punishment for thievery has not changed in a thousand years. Will you pronounce his sentence?'

“'This bread he stole, did he then sell it?' I asked.

“'No, he stole it for himself,' the magistrate said.

“'Can't you see that man is starving?' I asked.

“'The law is the law,' he replied. 'He must lose his hand.'

“'No,' I said. 'The law cannot see all things, that is why a magistrate exists, and not just an executioner.'

“'The law is the law. A crime was committed, the perpetrator was caught, the sentence must be delivered.'

“'It is wrong.'

“'Would you take his place?'

Suniel smiled wryly and patted the stump of his arm. “You can see how I answered that."

“And the two Seeking Stones you have now?” Harold said. “Where did you get those?”

Suniel lifted them in his good hand, the giant ruby and the black one that seemed to change shape and luster every time you looked at it. “I don't remember... some of what happened meant nothing and was gone as soon as it happened...

"Some of it I don't remember but I can feel where it went deep inside me and... changed things. The stones I can't remember getting at all, and yet they are the first things I noticed as I walked out of the smoke of that crater back there.”

“How'd you get to the crater?” Kormak said. “Can you fly now or did you use your magic to get there?”

Suniel smiled. “I just remember walking, then seeing you up on the rim of the crater. Before that is the Fae Wood, like snatches of dream, half-real, half-imaginary.”

They sat around the fire after that, alone their individual thoughts.

 

[Iron Sky]

Session 30, Part 2

When they woke up the next morning and walked out of the Turtle, Harold and the Skyland were gone. Bail started cursing up a storm and shattering boulders with his sword. When he had it all out of his system, he walked back to the others.

“So, Harold stole our Skyland and, along with it, one of our True Stones,” Bail said. “Suniel, can your magics take us there so we can get it back?”

Suniel shook his head. “Presumably the Skyland is moving. It would be quite dangerous to attempt while not knowing precisely where it is.”

“So what do we do now?”

“We still have the Turtle,” Kormak said. “Can't exactly chase down a flying island with it, but we can head where we want to go... which is where?”

“Port,” Suniel said.

“Why Port?” Kormak said. “Assuming there's anything left of it, there's not really much for us there.”

“Well, there is something we need near there; the True Stone of Water,” Suniel said.

“So, we're going to try to kill the Aboleth?” Kormak said. “In the Palace beneath the waters?”

Suniel shook his head. “There was no Palace, Kormak, but yes.”

“What's an Aboleth?” Bail said.

Suniel opened his mouth to speak, but Kormak spoke first. “It's a big fish... with an Artifact.”

“Close enough, I suppose,” Suniel said.

“Fine, let's do that then,” Bail said.

***

Three days later, the Turtle was trundling along the plains southeast of the Endemore ruins. Suniel was off in the Carriage House working on Keeper, so Kormak, Meepo, and Bail were left lounging around in the Turtle. They were in the midst of a game of dice – that Meepo was somehow winning despite his seeming inability to comprehend the rules – when there was a clang on the top of the Turtle.

They stopped and looked around. “Did you hear that?” Kormak said.

“Turtle, stop,” Bail said, as they walked to the Turtle's head. Looking out the eye ports, they saw only windswept plains.

“Guess we can't see whatever it is from here. Any volunteers to go out there?” Kormak said.

Just then, two black, shiny eyes appeared in the eye ports. Meepo yipped and leaped straight up several feet, his reaction startling Kormak more than the creature sitting on their turtle and looking into it. The eyes blinked once, then disappeared up out of sight.

“There seems to be something on our Turtle,” Kormak said.

“A dragon,” Bail said, walking towards the Turtle's mouth. “Turtle open.”

Kormak grabbed his arm. “Wait, you're going out there? Didn't you just say there's a dragon out there?”

“Yes. Which is why I'm going out to meet it.”

Bail ducked out of the Turtle's mouth, motioning for Meepo to stay back.

Kormak sighed, patted Meepo on the head and walked out, mentally preparing himself to be eaten by a dragon.

 

[Iron Sky]

Session 30, Part 3

Harold squinted in the dawning light, seeing the rapidly growing black and green fringe on the horizon slowly grow to a tangled mass of forest. Standing at the edge of the henge as the now-tiny skyland flew south, he looked to the horizons to the east and west, where the forest seemed to stretch on into infinity, hoping for some glance of this “Black City” he'd heard about and now placed his last hopes upon.

As the edge of the woods began to pass underneath the skyland, he altered its course, heading west, the glint of the metal warding strips sparkling like diamonds in the grass. Then he spotted what he was looking for, a little black rectangle in the grass with a small black-cloaked figure looking up at him next to it.

Black? he thought as he ordered the skyland to descend. I thought it was yellow last time...

He found a small depression to set down in, grabbed the True Stone, and walked towards the black wagon... that looked suspiciously familiar.

“Suniel?” he said, as he approached. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“I'm supposed to be here, what are you doing here?”

“You're supposed to be here? Since when?”

“I'm not sure, I'm still a bit fuzzy on time and place at the moment.”

“I thought you were back at the crater with Kormak and the lizards.”

“I was, but since you came here, I was summoned.”

“Summoned by what?”

“The forest, more or less.”

Harold stared at the elf for several minutes. Suniel smiled back.

“So you're the Hollowed One now?” Harold finally asked.

“No.”

“Then what are you doing here?”

Suniel smiled and pulled out half-a-dozen cloth-metal ward strips.

“Isn't the Hollowed One used to be in charge of those?”

“He used to be.”

“But you're not the Hollowed One?”

“Do I look like the Hollowed One?”

Harold stared at him flatly. “Ok, well... can you tell me where the Black City is at least?”

“Is that what you wish?”

“That's not a wish, that's a request from one companion to another.”

Suniel said nothing.

"Do you know where it is?" Harold said, growing rapidly more irritated.

"Yes."

"But you won't tell me."

"I will if it is your wish."

“Can you at least tell me whether I should go east or west?”

“If you wish for it to be so, then it shall be done.”

Harold resisted the urge to attack the still-smiling wizard, turned, and walked back to the skyland. Minutes later, he was following the edge of the Fae Wood east, towards the Landspear.

Far below him, Suniel watched until the skyland was out of sight, nodded, and vanished.

 

[Iron Sky]

Session 30, Part 4

Bail took a seat on the sun-warmed silversteel of the Turtle's shell, Kormak and Meepo settling down on either side of them and Hundred-scales the Shining sat down before them, the copper dragon's head about level with them as they sat on the Turtle's back and the dragon sat in the grass beside them.

“So, half-dragon, tell me about your heritage,” Hundred-scales said, his expressive face showing no malice, only curiosity. Still, Bail hesitated for a moment, wondering if Hundred-scales was a member of the Undercouncil or...

“Gilderalin was my mother.”

“How lucky for you,” the copper said, his expression changing to one of amusement.

Bail squinted at him, trying to determine what the dragon was thinking.

“And where are you and your shiny Turtle heading off to?”

Bail let Kormak answer first.

“The direction the turtle is pointed.”

“That's a vaguely amusing response, but with very little content. Anyone else?”

“Towards Ashtail's territory,” Bail said, watching the dragon's response carefully.

Hundred Scales turned towards bail, his expression blank. “Bastard.”

“What?” Bail said.

“You heard me.”

“I know I'm a bastard.”

“I was talking about Ashtail.”

“Interesting way to refer to another member of the Undercouncil,” Kormak said.

“Most members of the Undercouncil don't particularly like each other,” Hundred-scales said.

“You make it sound almost like you're not a part of the Undercouncil,” Kormak said. “But I thought all dragons were part of it.”

“Some dragons get over it.”

“Get over it?”

The copper looked at Bail, amusement glittering in his eyes.

“I was born of the gold, but I worship the Silver,” Bail said, impulsively. He braced himself, ready for the copper to attack.

Instead Hundred-scales nodded. “No unmarked half-dragon is a member of the Undercouncil. I figured you for Silver as soon as you walked out of the Turtle.”

Bail's heart surged in his chest, relief and excitement combined. “Have you heard from Him? Where is He, what is-”

Hundred-scales laughed and raised a clawed hand. “I have not heard from Him in a while, but last I heard, He took out one of Iron Sky's skylands, though the True Stone was lost when he did so.”

Kormak raised a hand. “Um... question? What the hell are you talking about?”

The copper turned to Kormak. “The political machinations of dragonkind are rarely of interest to those not directly involved.”

“That's a convoluted way of saying mind your own business.”

“All things will be revealed in time,” the copper said. He reached behind him to pick a large sack that Bail hadn't noticed before out of the tall grass. He reached inside and pulled out what looked like large silver metal shield or breastplate of some sort and tossed it to Bail. Bail leaped to his feet to catch it, the weight of the thing nearly knocking him over.

As he turned it over in his hands, Bail gasped. “Is this... its...”

The copper nodded. “One of His scales. You seem to be without armor, perhaps it will work. And I'm sure you'll see the rest of Him before long.”

Bail nodded, emotion overwhelming him and fighting back tears. “Thank you.”

Hundred-scales the Shining nodded and rose to all fours. “When He returns, He will face the entire might of the Undercouncil. He's ordered those of us of the Silver not to intervene – we are to 'survive the coming times'. I wish you luck.”

With that, the copper dragon launched into the air, the wind-blasts of his wing-strokes nearly blowing Meepo off the Turtle.

“That was cryptic,” Kormak said. “Want to tell me what that was all about?”

Bail turned to him and tapped the quill tattoo on the dwarf's arm. “Only if you tell me who it is that you'd be reporting it to.”

The dwarf stared back at him for a few minutes, then turned and began sliding down the Turtle's side. “Off to Port then!”

Bail shook his head, motioned for Meepo to follow the dwarf, then followed himself, the magnificent dragon-scale breastplate clutched to his chest.

 

[Iron Sky]

Session 30, Part 5

<Busy week last week, see if I can stay on schedule until I get this thing done!>

It was late on the third day of flying over the edge of the Fae Wood when Harold spotted the city. It was tucked right up against the tangled mass of the Fae Wood, long wooden dock jutting out into the Radianus Sink, at least that's what Harold had figured it must be as he flew over it for the last thirty hours or so. All he knew about the Radianus Sink was that it was a squiggly line on the western edge of maps he'd seen of the southern Freeholds, a couple hundred miles west and slightly south of where the Span reached the mainland.

The city itself had massive walls, probably 100 feet tall or more, the outer surface of the wall shimmering as though the surface was covered by a vertical wall of water catching the moonlight. The buildings were tall as well, the ones closest to the wall built up all the way up the sides and others reaching nearly that height. Harold had never seen buildings so tall or lit by so many lights. Gleaming white lights burned here and there on building tops, at the base of the chasm-like drops from the rooftops to the streets, and all over the docks. Fainter yellow lights shone from windows or moved down the busy streets.

Massive buildings with dozens of huge chimneys billowed black sooty smoke into the air, joined by the twin smoke-stacks of strange ships that chugged across the water. The air smelled of smoke and strange chemicals and rattles, clanks, and booms echoed from the city. Even in the middle of the night, the docks were crawling with people loading and unloading ships and almost as many guards, watching the water as though an army was about rise from the depths and attack.

This must be the Black City, Harold thought. With all these strange contraptions, whatever it took to make those walls and strange buildings and ships, maybe they are the allies the Crystal Towers is looking for. The allies I have to find.

He touched the True Stone and guided the skyland closer. As he neared the docks, he squinted at the walls, trying to figure out what they were made out of. As he got closer, it was the strong winds that helped him figure it out.

Warding strips just like those the Hollowed One had offered, thousands of them – tens of thousands of them – covered the black stone walls, the wind stirring them like shining metal leaves. As he got closer, a beam of light nearly blinded him.

He raised his hand to shield himself from the light, eventually tracing it back to a watch-tower built on the end of the dock. The light followed him down as he brought the skyland to the level of the water. As he did so, a dozen soldiers in crude black uniforms ran up the dock and leveled weapons like the one he'd seen the Black City soldier use on the Fae creature back at Watersprock.
“Raise your hands, don't touch your weapons,” one of them shouted.

Harold complied. “I come from the Crystal Towers,” he said.

“Never heard of such a thing,” one of the men said. “Are you from the Fae Wood?”

“No, I just flew over it. I told you, I'm from the Crystal Towers, you know, the nation east of here beyond the Freeholds?”

“There is only Gleam, the Black City, the Forest, the wastes, and Charst. You speak nonsense.”

Just then half-a-dozen more figures rode up on horseback. These ones were like the man Harold had met in Watersprock, black uniforms traced with gleaming silver, engraved and rune-covered weapons ready at their sides, their posture, bearing, and numerous scars telling Harold immediately that these men and women were professionals and had seen hard combat. The way the other soldiers scattered in fear told him something too.

“Hold out your arm,” one of them said, a short woman with short black hair and a long scar across her face. She drew her sword and stepped towards where his skyland hovered a foot from the dock. Harold stared at her for a moment, thinking of killing her on the spot. We have to find allies and the Black City is all that there is left, he thought. He extended his arm.

She slashed the point of the blade across his arm and stepped closer, watching the blood trickle from the shallow gash she'd opened in his arm.

“He's not Fae,” she said.

Without another word, the six remounted and rode off into the city.

One of the lesser soldiers, a man whose age was indeterminate due to the scars that covered his face and implied something having tried to bite it off, stepped forwards. “You don't look like a fanatic of Charst and the Fae Hunters let you go, so I'm thinking you'll probably be wanting to see Lady Hadral.”

Harold wrapped his arm in a bandage and nodded. “Just let me land my skyland somewhere first.”

The soldier nodded and watched as Harold touched the True Stone and lifted away, looking for a place to set down, a faint stirring of hope rising in his chest. This may be the Crystal Tower's last chance...

 

[Iron Sky]

Session 30, Part 6

Harold wrapped an impromptu bandanna around his face to keep out the choking smoke that lay thick like black fog in the streets. The scarred soldier and half-a-dozen others followed close around him. He first thought they were there to watch him, a strange foreigner in a place where apparently foreigners didn't really exists, but by the way they looked out into the fog with their weapons ready, he realized they were guarding him.

“Is there something out there in the city?” he finally said, shouting over the clank and chug of a massive three-chimneyed smoke-billowing building.

The scarred soldier pointed at a passing wagon full of fish. A full dozen guards stood around it, weapons ready. “The city is dangerous. Its over-crowded and the people are hungry. They're also suspicious of anyone who looks unusual, like, say, you.”

“So they think I'm from this Charst place?”

“Or worse.”

“Worse as in...?”

“Did you see the ward-strips covering the walls on your way here?” the soldier said, turning down a narrow alley.

Harold nodded, keeping a sharp lookout now. “I saw them, I'm assuming they're there to keep the Fae out?”

The soldier looked at him with a quizzical expression. “You know of the Fae?”

Harold nodded again. “I've met with the Hollowed One bef-”

Suddenly all his escorts had stopped, their weapons leveled at his chest. “You have had contact with that... thing?”

Harold raised his hands. “Hold, hold! I didn't ask him for anything. I've heard of how his promises work out. I don't want anything to do with him... with it.”

The soldiers stared at him suspiciously down the sights of their weapons for a while longer, until the scarred one lowered his and motioned for the others to lower theirs. “The Lady said she wanted to see you and the Fae Hunters said you weren't Fae so we'll continue on. I'd suggest not mentioning the Hollowed One again.”

They continued on in silence for a while, broken only by the occasional broken cough of one of his escorts, shouting and sounds of violence down a couple streets that set his escorts on edge, the metallic clang and scrape of what his escort called “factories,” and the strange hum of the unnaturally bright white street-lights.

“This is the Black City, correct?” Harold said as they passed through a wall and began slowly making their way uphill.

The scarred one shook his head. “This is Gleam, owned by the Hadral family. Black City is further to the east.”

“This isn't the Black City?” he said, his heart sinking. “This Hadral, she has power in the Black City too?”

His escorts laughed. “The Hadral family has a Bank-granted monopoly on magic. They own most of Gleam. You could say the Hadral family has power.”

“The Bank?”

They came to a stop for a moment as he asked that, the soldiers looking at him in surprise as though he had asked what air was. “The Bank technically owns everything, but the families of the Council hold most of it through monopolies granted by the Bank. Supposedly the Council and the Bank are supposed to be separate, but everyone knows that that's just a story."

The fog began to thin noticeably and a while later they came out of it entirely. Ahead, crowning the top of a tall hill, was a massive, sprawling estate, gleaming with golden opulence and ringed by immaculate gardens and fountains, the vast grounds surrounded by an iron-wrought gate with cleanly-dressed heavily-armed guards every twenty feet.

When they reached the elaborate, silver-wrought gates, his escort stopped. “The 'house' of Lady Hadral. I leave you here. Good luck.”

Harold watched the dirty, soot-blackened soldiers march back into the fog, then turned, dusted himself off, and walked towards the gate as the blue-liveried guards pulled it open for him. Lets hope you're the ally that the Crystal Towers is looking for, Harold thought. Because if not...

Harold wouldn't let himself finish that thought.

 

[Iron Sky]

Session 30, Part 7

The estate guards, dressed in yellow-and-gold uniforms even finer than those worn by the guards outside the gate, led him along the circuitous path through the gardens. They passed through immaculate flower gardens, a short hedge maze that smelled of honey and had fine marble statues tucked away at seemingly every turn, around the trunk of an apple tree with shining golden apples, through a tunnel of water created by a hundred arcing fountains, past a water garden where fish swam in spheres and cubes and toruses of water that drifted through the air like massive soap bubbles.

Harold barely saw any of it, growing more and more impatient, frustrated, and angry at each new delay. Do you know how many of my people died as you led me through this pointless showcase? he thought, wanting to scream it at the escorting soldiers. Instead he fumed in silence until they reached the main double doors of the estate, towering things of some faintly glowing copper-colored wood tall enough for a giant to walk through.

A dozen soldiers began to open them and he stepped through as soon as there was a crack barely wide enough to do so, ignoring the protestations of his escort.

The hall inside was obviously designed to impress upon a visitor their insignificance and the power of the owners of the palace. The hall rose a hundred feet or more into the air where arched domes were painted with frescoes so fine Harold could make out the tiniest details from where he stood. Perfect, gleaming mirrors thirty feet tall and ten feet wide were placed along the length of the hall, Harold's tiny reflection in them making the space seem even taller. The floor was a chess-board of black and white marble, specked with gold, immaculately clean and polished.

Between each mirror was an alcove with more marble statues, floating in the air and slowly rotating. Before each statue stood a guard, a hundred or more of them in all, each more still than the statues behind them, their uniforms woven with threads of silver and gold, weapons inlaid with ivory, the wooden stocks and grips of some polished wood that shone like gold.

Above it all floated a immense crystal chandelier fifty feet wide and nearly as tall lit by a hundred candles, their flicker reflected and scattered in rainbow hues through the ten-thousand facets of the crystals and gems that coated the chandelier like strange magical fruit on a stranger floating tree.

In the center of the room was a table fifty feet long and thirty wide, the deep red wood of its surface polished to nearly a mirror sheen. Only two high-backed chairs sat at the table, the one at the near end empty and pulled back from the table. The other held the largest woman Harold had ever seen.

She was a mass of soft butter-colored silk and satin, hands encrusted with gems, wrists clinking with silver, gold, and platinum, her red hair curled and laced with pearls. In front of her was a veritable feast, enough food to feed a village. At a gesture, a bottle of wine poured itself into a bejeweled goblet that then floated into her outstretched hand. A faint smile appeared on her face as he reached the table.

“Come foreigner , sit sit. Enjoy our humble hospitality, please, sit.”

Harold sat, relief flooding through him as he sat down across from Lady Hadral, stirrings of hope welling up in his chest.

 

[Iron Sky]

Session 30, Part 8

Lady Hadral shifted in her chair, sizing up this powerful foreigner. She could sense the power of the True Stone he carried, could see it stirring his clothing and hair even though he sat in the midst of the Hall. She sipped her wine and summoned up a smile. “Tell me stranger, what brings you to our boring little city of Gleam?”

The man leaned forward, his meal ignored, his eyes gleaming. “I come seeking allies for the Crystal Towers.”

“The Crystal Towers?”

“Even you haven't heard of them?” the man said. “I had hoped-”

“Oh, I've heard of them,” she said with a wave of her hand. “I was just making sure I'd heard you correctly. Tell me of what brings your land in need of allies.”

The man took a deep breath and she groaned inwardly. She knew exactly what was going on in the Crystal Towers, the Rising Plague, the fall of the Span, the siege of the Crystal Towers mainland, the fall of the Span Wall, and the immanent fall of the Crystal Towers as an functional nation.

She feigned interest as he ranted and raved about the fate and future of his doomed country with the manor and bearing of a fanatic. She'd encountered enough of those in their long-smoldering “war” with the mad priest-warlords of Charst. When she'd heard as much as she could bear, she nodded and made some sounds about condolence and passing words that she hoped sounded vaguely of friendship and alliance.

“And what of trade? You talk of friendship between the Black City and the Crystal Towers, is there some way we might exchange the wares of the Crystal Towers for some of the wonders of the Black City?” the foreigner, Harold he'd called himself, said.

“Trade? There is no trade in the Black City, except for between the outposts and farming settlements around the Radianus Sink, Gleam, and the Black City itself.”

“What about with the Freeholds? They are your neighbors on the edge of the Radianus.”

“The common muck and dross of the City are told only of the Fae and Charst. The monsters, bogeymen, the common enemy, and all that. I must say, it is nice to see someone from the outside. It gets so boring here. A few Fae Bent infiltrations and executions, the occasional Fae monstrosity that makes it into the City, the occasional uprising or fire tearing apart a district or two. But enough of this idle chatter. You must be completely exhausted from your travels! A servant will show you to your room in the North Wing, we will talk more of your troubled Crystal Towers and what the Black City can do for you after you have rested.”

The man nodded and stood up, relief visible on his face. He looked exhausted. Perfect, she thought as a servant led him out of the Hall. With a rapid series of subtle hand gestures, she motioned for four of the dozen invisible, magically-silenced bodyguard-assassins that went with her everywhere to follow this Harold.

He will make a marvelous pet. Wait 'till I show him to the others in the City, they'll be so jealous...

***

Harold was so relieved, his mind churning with possibility, that he didn't notice the subtle poisons until his throat, his hand, and his feet began to go numb. He stared down at the steaming-hot bath water into which he had been slowly lowering himself in horror. Poison! He thought. The door handle, the food, the water!

He stepped out of the water quickly, reaching for where his clothing, weapons, and the True Stone lay on a bench ten feet away. His numb feet gave out from under him the hem of his cloak slipped from his paralyzed hand. He opened his mouth to shout for help but it was swelling shut. Some sense told him he wasn't alone and he grabbed his sword weakly, all sensation fading from his sword hand and sending it clattering to the tile.

Blows began raining down from nowhere, his feet kicked out from beneath him, invisible cudgels hammering his ribs, legs, shoulders.

Then a blow landed between his eyes and he fell backwards into a tunnel of light.

 

[Iron Sky]

Session 30, Part 9

Bail, Suniel, and Kormak stepped out of the turtle to stand in the still-smoldering ruins of Port.

“Um, did Iron Sky beat us here?” Kormak said.

“I'll go ask,” Bail said, walking over to a heavily-loaded ship that looked to be making ready to sail. A few minutes later he returned.

“Sounds like one of the other Freeholds decided to make a run on Port. The city caught fire in the fighting that's now moved out into the countryside,” Bail said. “From the sounds of it, the Webdyns, Thornspills, and all the other Holdfasts have abandoned it for now. There's fighting all over the Freeholds...”

Kormak shook his head. “Sounds like it's our chance to take the city. We'll set things right!”

To the dwarf's surprise, Suniel and Bail nodded. “We couldn't do worse governing it than the Freeholds have,” Bail said. “And at least we have an idea of what's going on with Iron Sky.”

“I was actually, uh, joking. I have important... business to attend to,” Kormak said. He raised his hands as the others turned sharply towards him. “Don't worry, I'm not taking a True Stone and a Skyland with me. I will be back shortly. Just have some... things to attend to. Order business and all that.”

“Be back in soon, we don't have much time spare. Iron Sky is literally looming larger every day,” Suniel said. “I'm thinking once we get Port in order that we'd go for the Water Stone. A day or two, no more. Will you be back by then?”

Kormak thought for a moment. “I'm not sure. Don't wait up for me if you don't hear from me.”

“Well, good luck with your mysterious business,” Bail said.

“Me and my mysterious business accept your well-wishes,” Kormak said with a grin and a wave as he walked off into the city. Let's hope I survive and can come back, he thought, his grin fading as he contemplated the business ahead. You don't ignore an order from the Order, especially this kind...

***

“It's been three days Suniel, I think we've done all we can here for now,” Bail said, watching as the makeshift camp they had organized in the burnt-out remains of Port set out to their dedicated tasks. “We can't do much to help rebuild, we'd just a couple more hands. I know you wanted to give Kormak another day, but with how things are out there in the world right now, we have to face the possibility that he's not coming back at all. Same with Harold. Iron Sky won't wait-”

Suniel raised his hand and summoned a faint smile. “I get it Bail, I get it. I'd come to the same conclusion earlier, I was just trying to wait until the last moment to head out. I guess that moment is now.”

Bail nodded. “We have the True Stone of Lightning and there are only two of us to worry about. Do you suggest stealth and guile? Or just killing everything with lightning?”

“We do have the True Stone, but it has the Water Stone. Let's just hope that we can get the jump on it, considering the power these artifacts hold,” Suniel replied. He smiled wryly. “Of course, we haven't even considered the possibility of diplomacy...”

“How'd that work last time?” Bail said.

“I'd be willing to risk it again. No need killing when there's a chance of resolving things some other way, even if the chances are slim and our opponent is an aberrant monster like an Aboleth.”

“Right then,” Bail said, striding towards the beached turtle. “Off to go kill ourselves a big fish.”

Suniel rolled his eyes and followed, casting one final glance back at the hopeful energy and bustle of Port.

“Are we doing the right thing with all this Bail?” Suniel said as they climbed into the turtle's mouth. “Chasing down these True Stones and what not?”

]Bail shook his head. “We're doing the only thing. There's nothing else to do and no one else to do it.”

“Turtle close, head out into the lake.” Suniel sighed. “I guess you're right Bail, I just get tired sometimes. All the fighting everywhere, suffering, death - and even worse on the horizon.”

The half-dragon put his hand on Suniel's shoulder. “We'll set it to right or die in the process. Either way, we'll have done all we could. I'm going to eat something and take a nap, things always seem a bit better after a good meal and some sleep. Maybe you should do the same.”

Bail turned and walked deeper into the turtle, leaving Suniel staring out the porthole eyes, watching a storm churn the water of the Landspear Lake in the distance before the turtle dove, heading down into the dark of the deep waters.