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<blockquote data-quote="Lylandra" data-source="post: 9271472" data-attributes="member: 6816692"><p><em><strong>The mind's eye</strong></em></p><p></p><p>Just when the Hivemind is closing on us, a familiar figure appears to us, apparently able to see even those only present as spirits in Brakken's mind: Sijhen. We see that, apparently, this Hivemind was created by none other than our old Gidim adversary, who finds it utterly ironic that his "old acquaintance" now has to share a body with someone else. Just like he had so long ago. Auryn evacuates Heid and Kulp, while Gabriel arrives at the scene and teleports Brakken and Kvartiy into the hidden airship. The latter, however, remains mentally connected to the others, even though he resists.</p><p></p><p>From a safe distance, Gabriel sees how a part of parliament hill starts to move and take the parliament building with it.</p><p>"The last time we had something like that, it wasn't good at all", he states dryly, looking at the scene with bewilderment. From the distance, it now appears as if a gigantic hivemind has formed, gradually sucking in more and more rich inhabitants and disintegrating the poorer ones nearby with black, flowery jets.</p><p></p><p>Gabriel orders the airship crew to get the ship airborne as quickly as possible and, in the meantime, reveals himself to the baffled Kvartiy, who is quite embarrassed by the whole thing and - once again - allows himself to be convinced of having made yet another mistake. Meanwhile, the parliament-hivemind threatens to gradually reduce the whole of Cherage to rubble. Next, the ship collects the group around Auryn, who has managed to calm Kulp and convinced Heid that they will all be safe very soon. </p><p></p><p>But despite all the animosities, we don't want to leave Cherage to the Gidim. As a first idea, we consider contacting Han Jierre, who could certainly organize the city's defense well. However, we remember that the man is still on ship with his armada and we don't have enough time to send a message via sending.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: rgb(65, 168, 95)">(Yeah, we debated going down the route of claiming that Nic and crew just unleashed a catastrophic hivemind on Danor's capital and not taking on the responsibility of fixing their mistake, rather preferring to save their own hides. But... who knows if Han Jierre would have cared more for the Danorans than for the Obs?)</span></p><p></p><p>So we make our way to some experimental-looking ballistae and explain to Commander Mitterand, the man who is currently in charge of manning the ballistae, that we want to help him defend the city. Which would be possible thanks to Brakken and his connection to the Hivemind. But first we'd need an opening to get into that damn thing. At first, Mitterand is hesitant to help “the enemy” Risur, but we convince him that at this rate, Cherage will be eradicated in a matter of hours. It takes a while and the Danorian commander agrees that the defense of his city is more important than the protection of his ballistae.</p><p></p><p>The combined weaponry is finally able to shoot a hole in the hivemind's hull and we hurry inside alongside Brakken, Flying Spark and Xambria Meredith. King Gabriel appears to be more determined than ever to face this alien creature and he grows luminescent wings as his own spark of divinity manifests itself openly. But he is not alone with his stance towards Sijhen, as Xambria still has a score to settle with the Gidim. </p><p></p><p>Inside the hivemind, we first meet Gonzo, the planetar summoned by the cardinal and tasked with killing us. We realize that he has been controlled as well, and protect his mind with Brakken's psychic powers and a shielding spell. Gonzo then tells us that his summoner Tito Banderesso is in danger, and that he just wants to save him. We promise the celestial to take care of it.</p><p></p><p>After some searching through the mindspace, we arrive in a room where the entire assembly is being held down by tentacles. Everyone seems to be continuing to debate and discuss, and all attempts to get actively involved in the discussion unfortunately fail. So, with the help of Brakken, we try to get inside the heads of the individual members and leaders to take them on one at a time.</p><p></p><p>We start with Tito Banderosso, who we gradually accuse of hypocrisy for ignoring the teachings of his god Triegenes, indulging in idleness and wealth. Auryn in particular puts forth the Humble Hook, stating that what is left of Triegenes rather chose to affiliate himself with an Eladrin than even come close to a Clergyman like him. His ghost then stabs himself with a quill pen. </p><p></p><p>Then we discredit Eliose Duffet, as she is obviously of little use as Minister of War if she is not part of Han's armada, develops an obviously absurd and weak strategy against Risur, and now cannot even protect Cherage, the very heart of Danor. </p><p></p><p>Finduliel is accused of betraying the great Eladrin people by mixing their pure blood with devils and making herself a slave to the Golden Legion while the enclaves remain free, growing stronger even in the face of tragedy. She then, too, disappears.</p><p></p><p>With the three main beacons of the hivemind removed, we can now penetrate the hivemind's brain space. However, the mind itself proves to be extremely resistant. To make matters worse, Dr. Meredith notices that Sijhen is obviously not here in person. So she charges what's left to fight heads on. We take on the ectoplasmic “body” of the hivemind, but Auryn is struck quite hard by one of the black flowers as she gets to close to its bud. This prompts Gabriel to get back at the mind all the harder. As he unleashes a barrage of force slashes at the creature, more and more “prisoners” are being spat out of the conglomerate. </p><p></p><p>After a fierce battle, the Hivemind is defeated and the prisoners are freed. Cherage seems to be saved. As we climb out of the gooey ectoplasmic mess, we meet the planetar Gonzo again and ask him why a noble creature like him is serving Tito, of all people. Gonzo doesn't appear to care for his master's nature at all, as he sees defending the one who called him as his duty. We explain that Tito seems to have no problem killing poor people if they are unworthy in his eyes, but that doesn't seem to mean much either.</p><p></p><p>“Apparently, I have held angels to too high standards for all of my life, if they care so little for morals. Oh, Ancients, your decision to cut off the planar pathways was more than right...”, Gabriel muses with a disgruntled sigh.</p><p></p><p>For once, Gonzo seems to care for a mortal's disappointment, as he plucks out one of his feathers and hands it to Gabriel, in case we have to do some more persuading with other angels (or Crisillyiri). As we're about to head back to the airship, a group of citizens of Cherage approach us to... thank us for our help in defeating the monster that threatened to kill them. We reply that while the government of Danor may claim that we're the enemy, we don't hold any ill will against the nation of Danor and its citizens, which is why we would never leave them to fall to disaster. But alas, we'd have to leave before all of Danor's military might will be on our heels. </p><p></p><p>We then take the airship back to Risur. On the way, Gabriel uses a divination spell to inquire about Sijhen's true whereabouts and gets a surprising answer: Ursalina in Ber. Since we had asked Brakken to stay in Cherage to continue to act as a neutral observer and tell people what really happened, it is now apparently up to us to save Ber from disaster.</p><p></p><p>We also send a message to Grappa on flight and ask if he's okay so far, as we last saw him fleeing with the other Obs. He tells us about the new Colossus project, in which he has also been involved, and explains that the Obs have managed to escape so far. We then ask him to keep us up to date and agree that building a new Colossus will most likely be required in order to fix the planar ritual.</p><p></p><p>Next, we send a message to Nicodemus and ask him what happened in Cherage to cause the symposium to get so out of hand. We also express our hope that the city is now safe. Nicodemus states his disappointment that the guests apparently did not share his vision of a better world, even though he had arranged all the necessary conditions for a mutual understanding. </p><p></p><p><span style="color: rgb(65, 168, 95)">(well, he had just left out the empathy... so he better understand that pure logic isn't enough to make the world a better place). </span></p><p></p><p>We offer him once again to team up and set the world straight together, as we seriously fear for the future, and Nicodemus seems to agree... on the condition that we fully support him and his plan for peace and harmony. We reply that we continue to believe in free will and insight, but are willing to negotiate on a feasible plan for the future. Whereupon Nicodemus sees no other option than to continue to go separate ways.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: rgb(65, 168, 95)">(This... is a trend that will continue on and on. Us trying to reach out to Nic and offer cooperation with him being hellbent on his all-or-nothing route, not seeing that the other leaders besides the Danorans and the Obs agents are much less willing to share his vision. He is such a bull head...)</span></p><p></p><p>Back in Slate, we are contacted directly by Harkover Lee, as there is a guest who wants to speak to us urgently. As it turns out, this guest is none other than a badly wounded Executores named Mysana del Salvataia, who had to cut off her arm in the High Bayou due to snake poison. While we send for Margit, she tells us that the Lady Glaucia is asking for help, against all Executores tradition, because someone is killing their fellow sisters. We suspect Obscurati, Gidim, or both may be responsible, and immediately assure her of our help. </p><p></p><p><span style="color: rgb(65, 168, 95)">(That escalated quickly. But at least we now have a reason to fully pursue Sijhen as our primary target. As bad as Nic might be, we have just witnessed how fast a hive-mind can get out of hand and kill hundreds, if not thousands...)</span></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lylandra, post: 9271472, member: 6816692"] [I][B]The mind's eye[/B][/I] Just when the Hivemind is closing on us, a familiar figure appears to us, apparently able to see even those only present as spirits in Brakken's mind: Sijhen. We see that, apparently, this Hivemind was created by none other than our old Gidim adversary, who finds it utterly ironic that his "old acquaintance" now has to share a body with someone else. Just like he had so long ago. Auryn evacuates Heid and Kulp, while Gabriel arrives at the scene and teleports Brakken and Kvartiy into the hidden airship. The latter, however, remains mentally connected to the others, even though he resists. From a safe distance, Gabriel sees how a part of parliament hill starts to move and take the parliament building with it. "The last time we had something like that, it wasn't good at all", he states dryly, looking at the scene with bewilderment. From the distance, it now appears as if a gigantic hivemind has formed, gradually sucking in more and more rich inhabitants and disintegrating the poorer ones nearby with black, flowery jets. Gabriel orders the airship crew to get the ship airborne as quickly as possible and, in the meantime, reveals himself to the baffled Kvartiy, who is quite embarrassed by the whole thing and - once again - allows himself to be convinced of having made yet another mistake. Meanwhile, the parliament-hivemind threatens to gradually reduce the whole of Cherage to rubble. Next, the ship collects the group around Auryn, who has managed to calm Kulp and convinced Heid that they will all be safe very soon. But despite all the animosities, we don't want to leave Cherage to the Gidim. As a first idea, we consider contacting Han Jierre, who could certainly organize the city's defense well. However, we remember that the man is still on ship with his armada and we don't have enough time to send a message via sending. [COLOR=rgb(65, 168, 95)](Yeah, we debated going down the route of claiming that Nic and crew just unleashed a catastrophic hivemind on Danor's capital and not taking on the responsibility of fixing their mistake, rather preferring to save their own hides. But... who knows if Han Jierre would have cared more for the Danorans than for the Obs?)[/COLOR] So we make our way to some experimental-looking ballistae and explain to Commander Mitterand, the man who is currently in charge of manning the ballistae, that we want to help him defend the city. Which would be possible thanks to Brakken and his connection to the Hivemind. But first we'd need an opening to get into that damn thing. At first, Mitterand is hesitant to help “the enemy” Risur, but we convince him that at this rate, Cherage will be eradicated in a matter of hours. It takes a while and the Danorian commander agrees that the defense of his city is more important than the protection of his ballistae. The combined weaponry is finally able to shoot a hole in the hivemind's hull and we hurry inside alongside Brakken, Flying Spark and Xambria Meredith. King Gabriel appears to be more determined than ever to face this alien creature and he grows luminescent wings as his own spark of divinity manifests itself openly. But he is not alone with his stance towards Sijhen, as Xambria still has a score to settle with the Gidim. Inside the hivemind, we first meet Gonzo, the planetar summoned by the cardinal and tasked with killing us. We realize that he has been controlled as well, and protect his mind with Brakken's psychic powers and a shielding spell. Gonzo then tells us that his summoner Tito Banderesso is in danger, and that he just wants to save him. We promise the celestial to take care of it. After some searching through the mindspace, we arrive in a room where the entire assembly is being held down by tentacles. Everyone seems to be continuing to debate and discuss, and all attempts to get actively involved in the discussion unfortunately fail. So, with the help of Brakken, we try to get inside the heads of the individual members and leaders to take them on one at a time. We start with Tito Banderosso, who we gradually accuse of hypocrisy for ignoring the teachings of his god Triegenes, indulging in idleness and wealth. Auryn in particular puts forth the Humble Hook, stating that what is left of Triegenes rather chose to affiliate himself with an Eladrin than even come close to a Clergyman like him. His ghost then stabs himself with a quill pen. Then we discredit Eliose Duffet, as she is obviously of little use as Minister of War if she is not part of Han's armada, develops an obviously absurd and weak strategy against Risur, and now cannot even protect Cherage, the very heart of Danor. Finduliel is accused of betraying the great Eladrin people by mixing their pure blood with devils and making herself a slave to the Golden Legion while the enclaves remain free, growing stronger even in the face of tragedy. She then, too, disappears. With the three main beacons of the hivemind removed, we can now penetrate the hivemind's brain space. However, the mind itself proves to be extremely resistant. To make matters worse, Dr. Meredith notices that Sijhen is obviously not here in person. So she charges what's left to fight heads on. We take on the ectoplasmic “body” of the hivemind, but Auryn is struck quite hard by one of the black flowers as she gets to close to its bud. This prompts Gabriel to get back at the mind all the harder. As he unleashes a barrage of force slashes at the creature, more and more “prisoners” are being spat out of the conglomerate. After a fierce battle, the Hivemind is defeated and the prisoners are freed. Cherage seems to be saved. As we climb out of the gooey ectoplasmic mess, we meet the planetar Gonzo again and ask him why a noble creature like him is serving Tito, of all people. Gonzo doesn't appear to care for his master's nature at all, as he sees defending the one who called him as his duty. We explain that Tito seems to have no problem killing poor people if they are unworthy in his eyes, but that doesn't seem to mean much either. “Apparently, I have held angels to too high standards for all of my life, if they care so little for morals. Oh, Ancients, your decision to cut off the planar pathways was more than right...”, Gabriel muses with a disgruntled sigh. For once, Gonzo seems to care for a mortal's disappointment, as he plucks out one of his feathers and hands it to Gabriel, in case we have to do some more persuading with other angels (or Crisillyiri). As we're about to head back to the airship, a group of citizens of Cherage approach us to... thank us for our help in defeating the monster that threatened to kill them. We reply that while the government of Danor may claim that we're the enemy, we don't hold any ill will against the nation of Danor and its citizens, which is why we would never leave them to fall to disaster. But alas, we'd have to leave before all of Danor's military might will be on our heels. We then take the airship back to Risur. On the way, Gabriel uses a divination spell to inquire about Sijhen's true whereabouts and gets a surprising answer: Ursalina in Ber. Since we had asked Brakken to stay in Cherage to continue to act as a neutral observer and tell people what really happened, it is now apparently up to us to save Ber from disaster. We also send a message to Grappa on flight and ask if he's okay so far, as we last saw him fleeing with the other Obs. He tells us about the new Colossus project, in which he has also been involved, and explains that the Obs have managed to escape so far. We then ask him to keep us up to date and agree that building a new Colossus will most likely be required in order to fix the planar ritual. Next, we send a message to Nicodemus and ask him what happened in Cherage to cause the symposium to get so out of hand. We also express our hope that the city is now safe. Nicodemus states his disappointment that the guests apparently did not share his vision of a better world, even though he had arranged all the necessary conditions for a mutual understanding. [COLOR=rgb(65, 168, 95)](well, he had just left out the empathy... so he better understand that pure logic isn't enough to make the world a better place). [/COLOR] We offer him once again to team up and set the world straight together, as we seriously fear for the future, and Nicodemus seems to agree... on the condition that we fully support him and his plan for peace and harmony. We reply that we continue to believe in free will and insight, but are willing to negotiate on a feasible plan for the future. Whereupon Nicodemus sees no other option than to continue to go separate ways. [COLOR=rgb(65, 168, 95)](This... is a trend that will continue on and on. Us trying to reach out to Nic and offer cooperation with him being hellbent on his all-or-nothing route, not seeing that the other leaders besides the Danorans and the Obs agents are much less willing to share his vision. He is such a bull head...)[/COLOR] Back in Slate, we are contacted directly by Harkover Lee, as there is a guest who wants to speak to us urgently. As it turns out, this guest is none other than a badly wounded Executores named Mysana del Salvataia, who had to cut off her arm in the High Bayou due to snake poison. While we send for Margit, she tells us that the Lady Glaucia is asking for help, against all Executores tradition, because someone is killing their fellow sisters. We suspect Obscurati, Gidim, or both may be responsible, and immediately assure her of our help. [COLOR=rgb(65, 168, 95)](That escalated quickly. But at least we now have a reason to fully pursue Sijhen as our primary target. As bad as Nic might be, we have just witnessed how fast a hive-mind can get out of hand and kill hundreds, if not thousands...)[/COLOR] [/QUOTE]
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