ZEITGEIST [ZEITGEIST] The Continuing Adventures of Korrigan & Co.

[gideonpepys]

Session 11 (134) - Part Four: Tinker Oddcog's Magma Emporium

At Pemberton’s command, Tinker opened fire with an erratic autocannon mounted on one arm. Everyone scurried for cover behind the pillars. Rush was already airborne. Mechanical arms on an assembly line swiped at him but he kept out of reach and headed south, through a pair of double doors, clearly searching for the real Tinker. Gupta kept an eye on Lya who appeared to be cautiously scanning the cavern. Lya made surreptitious eye contact with Merton, shook her head as if signalling something to him and then, aware of Gupta’s scrutiny, attempted to pocket something that had been pinned to her lapel. It was her gatecrasher charm. Gupta paused for thought and decided that the platforms must not exist in the Bleak Gate, but the lava probably did.

The terrain between them and Tinker was cluttered with debris, intersected by fast-moving conveyor belts and threatened by mechanical arms. Now Tinker fired a ticking, flashing object that landed in the clearest area. Korrigan and Rumdoom picked their way towards the high platform, ducking behind pillars as they went, while Leon used misty step to get close to the crazy gnome.

A huge shape moved in the steam to the south-east. A booming voice with a metallic but feminine edge declaimed, “Fear not, father! I shall drive these intruders back into the sea!” A dragon! The first many of them had ever seen. This one had a prosthetic left wing and forearm and a glowing, mechanical eye. “Be careful, Terakalir,” said Pemberton. “Keep out of reach of the…” His warning came too late and in any case was lost in the roar of flame that scoured Lya and Gupta. They shrank back, but the eager Terakalir had flown too low. “…golem!” said Pemberton. Conquo broke cover and leapt upon her, grabbing her by the neck. She responded with a blast of searing light that did not harm the golem much, but saw Lya staggering away blinded, into the arms of Merton. Then Conquo and Terakalir began to wrestle on the edge of the lava pit. Terakalir tore into Conquo with her metal arm, rending his armour and throwing him away. At once she took to the air again and Tinker gave another command to his machines: This one redirected the terrible beam, striking Conquo with full force.

Still brachiating, Rush emerged at speed from a second southern entrance. “Empty room full of rubbish and !” he reported.

By now, Leon had reached the flight of steps. Tinker stomped down towards him in his steam suit. Rumdoom leapt to his defence and went toe-to-toe with the construct. Conquo joined him, escaping the beam. Terakalir flew down and used her breath weapon again, careful to avoid hitting Tinker. Then she swiped at Conquo as he tried to get up the stairs in pursuit of Rush. The golem was badly damaged even before Tinker redirected the force beam to strike him and defend the stairs. Tired of his antics, Leon cast the curse of mouthless muttering to stop the gnome from talking to his engines. Terakalir landed and attacked Leon and Rumdoom.

Now his enemies were close, Pemberton grew desperate. “That’s it. If you fools persist, I’ll kill the gnome myself.” This only seemed to encourage Rush, who made a beeline straight for him. “I warn you,” Pemberton continued, drawing a pocket knife and moving back towards the door behind him. “One more step and he’s dead.” A shot rang out and tore through Pemberton’s throat. This entire time, Uru had been stealthily positioning himself to take a shot with a vendetta bullet he had crafted with the name ‘Gradiax’. The industrialist dropped to his knees, still talking. Sadly, this was only a duplicant! “Why, I do declare, that is entirely unsporting.”

Rush was through the upper doors and into the room beyond. Uru walked through the Bleak Gate to appear in the room behind him. In a room littered with schematics (at a table surrounded by entertainingly posed blank duplicants) Tinker Oddcog lay on a gurney, in the same predicament as the captured soldiers, save that he also clutched his Godmind Urn. Rush stowed his rods, grabbed Tinker and headed straight back out of the room. “I got the little bastard!” he said.

At once, across the far side of the chamber, Lya somehow heard him. She lay a hand on Merton, drew out a fragile glass item from her belt pouch and shattered it, teleporting them to the upper platform, where they braced themselves to guard Rush. Lya drew her wicked rapier, and her carbine leapt from its holster on her back to hover beside her. Korrigan transformed into a Bolt of Avilona and arrived to challenge them. As Rush raced back towards the exit, Uru shot out a thick strand of webbing, catching him and Tinker and gluing them to the spot.

Down below, Tinker’s duplicant began to shudder, and lost control of the steam suit. Realising her friend Tinker was now in jeopardy, Terakalir cried out his name and took to the air, but not before Rumdoom clipped her with a solid blow from his hammer. This caused her to malfunction, blasting fire down on all below her as she arced across the chamber to land near Korrigan and Merton.

Leon appeared on the upper platform too and with a gesture, rescued Conquo from the beam of light, planting him in front of Lya and Merton. This accidentally interposed the golem between Leon and the first shot of Lya’s dancing storm carbine, which was aiming for the tiefling. Conquo reeled again, undoing much of the healing power of Leon’s bardic spell.

The steam suit was now entirely inert. Rumdoom dashed past it, up the stairs and straight through the hideous magical beam! If only Lemon had packed his sunglasses, not his umbrella!

Lya ran into the schematics room. Korrigan pursued her. Lya’s carbine opened fire on Uru who was forced to retreat before its crackling, aelectric energy. Leon appeared in the chamber behind her. Adept in close combat, she struck both Korrigan and Leon with her gnawing rapier. It drew tiefling blood and Leon’s vengeful fire reproached her, only for the greater fire of the Jierre Boodline to excoriate him in return. Merton kept the others at bay with his sonic staff, even Terakalir, who swiped at him and missed. “All is lost!” cried Pemberton, still talking despite the bullet in his throat. “Save yourself, daughter!” Terakalir ignored him and fought to reach Tinker.

From down below, Gupta relied on the sharp perception of dragons to be heard above the din. She asked Terakalir a Question: “Have you come to rely too much on your prosthetic limbs?” Terakalir hesitated.

Lya turned and saw an opportunity: Her carbine opened fire on Conquo. The golem was already badly damaged, his armour torn and in some places melted. The aelectrical bolt struck him squarely and he fell. The light of his golem heart went out. Korrigan knew he was dead before he hit the ground.

Into the opening sprang Rush. With a string of liberating profanities, he tore himself free of the webbing, dashed past Merton and the static forms of Pemberton, Terakalir and Conquo, raised Tinker aloft in his arms as he reached the guard rail, and pitched him over into the lava below. “I ing hate gnomes!” he cried as the flames consumed his victim.

(Where was the Godmind Urn? Did Tinker take it with him into the lava?!?)

Terakalir snapped back into action at that moment and, with a scream of hatred, lunged for Rush. But Merton struck her a heavy blow with his sonic staff before she could reach his partner and her left limb buckled and cracked. With a whispered incantation, the dragon disappeared in a cloud of flames and steam.

“Do not die for that lunatic!” yelled Pemberton, desperately. “Save yourself, Terakalir!”

In the fraction of a moment after that, Lya spoke into a small stone imbedded in the cuff of her glove. “Mission accomplished. Extraction team – get us out of here.”

End of Session

 

[gideonpepys]

I threw that extraction team idea in at the last minute when I realised that Lya and her bodyguards had not provided themselves with a realistic means of getting out of the Volcano Lair alive, short of massacring the unit. (I know the idea is that Lya doesn't have to survive past this mission, but I felt that she should at least try.)

Given the state the unit were in, massacring them didn't seem out of the question: Rush was unhurt, Lya only took a few points of damage and, while Merton had taken a beating from a couple of attacks, he has a lot of health left. Bringing in more mooks at this point would make the fight unwinnable (but that in itself would present some interesting options, if they recognised it in time). The mooks in question were the skulks and ambush mage who survived the Bum Rush encounter. (The unit only captured one skulk, so that's quite a few!)

I decided that they had snuck onto the island in the wake of the strike force, scaling the impossible cliffs with the rope ladders they had left behind, having approached the island in an Ob submersible (that accompanies the Lux Profectusque and accounts for why there are not obvious Ob agents aboard a Danoran warship). But they did not do so unobserved, and were in turn followed ashore by Matunaaga and his phalanx.

Matunaaga's player was returning this week, after four months on paternity leave (from our roleplaying group, not his actual job - this isn't Sweden, sadly). This, I decided was the perfect opportunity to give him a solo entrance. To save repeating myself, here is the email I sent him to set the situation up:

"That 'extraction team' Lya Jierre just called in consists of a bunch of Obscurati Skulks and an Ambush Mage who last showed up in support of Rush Munchausen way back in session 2. They followed the unit and their allies on to the island from a submersible. You and your phalanx spotted them scale the cliffs, so you followed them. When you reached the entrance to Gradiax's Lair, Glaucia, Kenna Vigilante, etc, were fighting off increasingly determined attacks from Karch and were grateful for your support. Glaucia said they were concerned that someone might have slipped past them invisibly during one assault, but they couldn't spare the manpower to give chase.

"You left the phalanx to help defend the cave entrance and followed the rest of the unit, after being shown the way to go by one of Glaucia's cubs. You found sealed blast doors, so you used your Icon of Nem to get past them. Then you followed the twisting tracks of tunnel at full speed (which, as you know, is hella fast), until you reach the 'home straight' and heard distant sounds of combat echoing up ahead.

"Now to switch to the present tense, because I feel like it:

"The spark-gap lighting allows you to see several figures silhouetted against the dull red light of the cavern beyond. These figures are clearly not involved in the combat yet. They are waiting well away from the entrance, about 100 feet back. While they wait, one of them (the mage) is etching a teleportation portal onto the floor.

"There is about 200 feet between you and them, another 100 feet behind you, before the tunnel curves back out of sight. They haven't seen you.

Your actions will dictate what level of response Lya Jierre gets when she calls in her 'extraction team'!"

I knew that this was an ideal set-up for Matunaaga, but I didn't realise quite how ideal until this encounter played out. In terms of showcasing his skillset, it couldn't have been better! As you will see, the unit need not have worried about the extraction team...

 

[SanjMerchant]

I dunno why, but it's pretty cool that you managed to give Rush a distinct voice by having him be super casual about swearing.

Sent from my SM-G900V using EN World mobile app

 

[gideonpepys]

I dunno why, but it's pretty cool that you managed to give Rush a distinct voice by having him be super casual about swearing.

Again, I can't take credit for that. 'Liberating vulgarity' is one of his powers. Coupled with his 'snarky' description, I went for a very strong, nasal, irritating Scouse accent. Copious amounts of swearing followed naturally.

I may have already said this, but I loved the idea of Rush and Merton when they were encountered tangentially in adventure #1. Couldn't wait to play them. I'm glad to say that the regular dramatic 'beats' each of them is provided with, along with a few additons of my own (like Rush's challenge to Rumdoom and Merton's communion with the seagulls on Isla Dolas Focas) meant that they resonated with my players in exactly the way I wanted them to. They hated Rush, and sympathised somewhat with Merton. Until session 12 that is!

 

[SanjMerchant]

Again, I can't take credit for that. 'Liberating vulgarity' is one of his powers. Coupled with his 'snarky' description, I went for a very strong, nasal, irritating Scouse accent.

I may have already said this, but I loved the idea of Rush and Merton when they were encountered tangentially in adventure #1. Couldn't wait to play them. I'm glad to say that the regular dramatic 'beats' each of them is provided with, along with a few additons of my own (like Rush's challenge to Rumdoom and Merton's communion with the seagulls on Isla Dolas Focas) meant that they resonated with my players in exactly the way I wanted them to. They hated Rush, and sympathised somewhat with Merton. Until session 12 that is!

Well, I guess that particular hat-tip goes to [MENTION=63]RangerWickett[/MENTION], then! It's a great trait, makes him stand out against so much of the cast who have various reasons for being more polished: politicians, nobles, what are functionally FBI/Interpol agents, over-educated doctors and their kids, etc.

I'm curious to find out if Rush actually dropped Tinker in the lava or somehow managed to swap him for his duplicant to trick the RHC into abandoning the mission. (Given that "Tinker dies" is the second best outcome for everyone except Tinker.)

Sent from my SM-G900V using EN World mobile app

 

[gideonpepys]

I'm curious to find out if Rush actually dropped Tinker in the lava or somehow managed to swap him for his duplicant to trick the RHC into abandoning the mission. (Given that "Tinker dies" is the second best outcome for everyone except Tinker.)

No, he killed the real Tinker.

I'm pretty sure that it says somewhere that the Ob would like Tinker dead. Can't find the reference off-hand. I know it also says that Rush will try to brachiate away with Tinker on his back, but that isn't half as dramatic and, under the circumstances, I figured Rush would realise three things: (1) The 'ideal' objective, of capturing Tinker, is much, much harder to achieve as the Ob are outnumbered - and failure will lead to their worst outcome: the RHC getting hold of Tinker; (2) Killing Tinker might make the unit back down so they can leave alive instead of fighting their way out; (3) He ing hates gnomes.

I also thought it was funny that the whole adventure had more-or-less come to nothing. I'm not sure my players have realised that yet!

(PS. I do have a back-up plan. I'm not a monster.)

 

[SanjMerchant]

No, he killed the real Tinker.

I'm pretty sure that it says somewhere that the Ob would like Tinker dead. Can't find the reference off-hand. I know it also says that Rush will try to brachiate away with Tinker on his back, but that isn't half as dramatic and, under the circumstances, I figured Rush would realise three things: (1) The 'ideal' objective, of capturing Tinker, is much, much harder to achieve as the Ob are outnumbered - and failure will lead to their worst outcome: the RHC getting hold of Tinker; (2) Killing Tinker might make the unit back down so they can leave alive instead of fighting their way out; (3) He ing hates gnomes.

I also thought it was funny that the whole adventure had more-or-less come to nothing. I'm not sure my players have realised that yet!

(PS. I do have a back-up plan. I'm not a monster.)

It seems we're saying the same thing.

Dead Tinker is the second best outcome: perfect (albeit somewhat unrealistic) success for Lya is taking Tinker alive so he can be either persuaded, coerced, brainwashed, magically compelled, etc. into rejoining the Ob or just pumped for info about how to deal with Borne.

Failing that, Tinker's death is acceptable. After that is the Somewhat Problematic result of "Tinker stays in Ber" and the worst outcome is for Risur to get a hold of him.

Sent from my SM-G900V using EN World mobile app

 

[gideonpepys]

Session 12 (135) - Part One: Lya's Last Stand

MATUNAAGA SOLO
I won’t bother to ‘tell’ the story of this all-too-brief encounter. Matunaaga got the drop on the Ob and, thanks to an array of abilities that allow him to take multiple shots in a round (albeit with a substantial ‘to hit’ penalty), succeeded in dropping five of the eight members of the extraction team in the surprise and first round! Three skulks bolted – two for the main chamber, one hiding in an alcove, having yanked out the duplicant that occupied it. When Lya Jierre’s request for support came in (to a sending stone on the dead ambush mage), the hidden skulk darted out, only to picked off by Matunaaga, who had waited on overwatch for the chance to take him out. Then Matunaaga ran down the tunnel, following the other two skulks into the Magma Emporium…

MAIN COMBAT
Lya calls in the extraction team. She then scrambles over Conquo’s recumbent form, reaches Rush, and wraps her arms through the straps on Rush’s back as he brachiates over the lava. (Merton retreats towards the upper platform stairs at the same time.) Rush and Lya don’t get far: Terakalir crashes into them mid-flight, catching Rush with her right claw, causing all three of them to plummet to the ground beside the conveyor belts. Again Pemberton cries out in panic, pleading with his daughter to flee.

Uru is alarmed and almost opens fire when one of the duplicants posed near the schematics table begins to move. But it quickly takes on the shape of Xambria Meredith, extends a hand and asks the deep faen, “Can I borrow your pistol, please?” Uru obliges the professor, then follows Korrigan’s order to regroup, so that Korrigan can heal him. Only when Xambria checks the simple flintlock she has been handed does she realise that it’s empty! “I only use it for vendetta bullets,” Uru shrugs.

Lya stands before the thrashing, flailing, maddened Terakalir. “The last thing this world needs is another dragon tyrant,” she says, “even if you tree-worshippers don’t realise it.” With that, she cuts off Terakalir’s other claw and runs the dragon through the chest for good measure. Pemberton cries out in agony and grief. Gupta catches Rush with a Question, “Have you worked out what’s going on yet?” Rush pauses, confused.

Two Obscurati skulks enter the chamber from the rail tunnel. They seem panicked, and run for the cover of one of the pillars. Matunaaga arrives shortly after them.

Leon calls Rumdoom towards them, so that he can get them all across the chamber quickly in pursuit of Lya and Rush. As Rumdoom runs across the platform, Merton tosses his resonant bomb, clipping the dwarf and ripping Pemberton’s duplicant to pieces. The explosion causes the platform itself to begin to collapse, and Rumdoom has to scramble frantically over Conquo’s enormous form, as the lifeless golem slides inexorably towards the lava! (As he clambers, Rumdoom inadvertently snags the Icon of Avilona around Conquo’s neck. He gives a tug to free himself, and the icon comes with…)

The guard rail does not seem to be affected by the platform's collapse, so Korrigan uses his Bolt of Avilona to try to reach the force beam controls. He misses his footing, though, and has to use another bolt to get himself out of danger, arriving near Merton on the far side of the hole. Uru – wishing his boss would leave things like this up to him – shadow walks to the controls and quickly appraises them. Then he aims the beam at Lya. She recoils under its force and leaps across the conveyor belt to escape. She threatens Gupta with her wicked rapier and suggests they parley before someone else gets killed.

Leon creates a wormhole for him, Xambria and Rumdoom to reach the far side of the platform, just as Conquo plunges into the lava and sinks out of sight. Rumdoom avenges the golem, lamping Merton with his hammer and knocking the half-orc off the platform. Merton lands heavily but, muttering under his breath, scrambles to his feet, unphased.

Gupta uses docker’s jank to switch places with Leon. Leon creates a second wormhole back up onto the platform, and ducks through it. Then Uru hits Lya with the force beam again. (So that’s a ‘no’ to the whole parley idea, then…)

Rush rappels across the chamber again and exhorts his mooks to turn around and charge Matunaaga. Emboldened, they do so. Matunaaga shoulders his rifle, draws two pistols, and kills them both. Rush says, “How about you put away those guns and we go toe-to-toe?” To his surprise, Matunaaga obliges, and they meet in a balletic melee, rods against fists. Lya spoils it by opening fire on Matunaaga (and others) with her dancing storm carbine. Then all bets are off.

Denied a target for the force beam, Uru shadow walks into the steam-suit, knocking Tinker’s inert duplicant to one side and figuring out how to control the thing. He turns and fires on Merton, who ducks behind a pillar, then strikes at the steam-suit’s legs, causing it to stagger back.

The rest of the unit use Leon’s wormholes to cross the battlefield in pursuit of Lya, now that she has joined Rush in attacking Matunaaga. The pair work well together, fending off blows and striking out at anyone who comes near. Korrigan is forced to retreat and even Matunaaga begins to fail beneath their onslaught. Leon is so badly hurt, he follows his wormholes back to the safety of the schematics room, where he catches sight of the Godmind Urn tangled in the webs Uru had used to restrain Rush and Tinker.

Back at the ‘front’, Rumdoom clips Lya with a beam of frost, and Matunaaga draws his pistols again and unloads a whole clip at her. Her defences, both magical and mundane, are superb. It is anybody’s guess which way this fight will go. Then in rapid succession, three things happen:

1) Xambria calmly asks Korrigan for a bullet, which she loads into Uru’s pistol. Then she shoots Lya in the head. The Scion of the Jierre slumps lifeless to the floor.
2) Electrified by a shot from Lya’s carbine, Rumdoom charges Rush and strikes him a sound blow with his hammer, summoning the spectral jaws of a King-bred Tyranossaur as he does so. Rush dies screaming, coughing blood into his mouth.
3) Merton raises his sonic staff in surrender. Uru shows no mercy. He fires his autocannon until Merton is dead, and keeps on firing long after he is dead, until the autocannon is empty.

End of Combat

 

[gideonpepys]

At the end of session 11, the party was battered. When they read Lya's final line in the session report (summoning the extraction team), they feared the worst. After this session Korrigan's player emailed the group and said:

"I have to admit I came to the session today expecting to die or at the very least see the Ob laughing in our faces as they left us to be slaughtered by gnolls. Our team was very battered from the last fight while Lya and her posse were practically unharmed. So the actual outcome far exceeded my best hopes, and that's not even mentioning the amazing plot twist involving dwarven treachery. All in all this might well be the most satisfying finale in this campaign yet!"

Oh yes, the dwarven treachery! That's still to come. But my point in adding this here is to demonstrate that Zeitgeist delivered yet again. Gripping end to a fantastic adventure. I am sad to see Rush and Merton go, but that's what good villains are for. Have to admit I'm almost reticent to bring Lya back now. Her return might seem like an anti-climax after this.

I'm also really chuffed at how all the gadgets got used. Apart from the assembly line - even though I moved it closer to the action, no one was dumb enough to go near it. On reflection, I should have had Merton or Terakalir push someone into it at some point. Even the steamsuit was brought back into play, having been rendered defunct by Tinker's death last week - before it was even scratched - only to have the last 'word' courtesy of Uru.

I'm also glad to have given Pemberton another really powerful motive for going after the Ob!

 

[gideonpepys]

Session 12 (135) - Part Two: Immediate Aftermath

IMMEDIATE AFTERMATH

They took just a moment to mourn their fallen comrade. Conquo had become like a huge little brother to all of them. He was only four years old! Xambria had lived in his head for longer than she lived in Malthusius'. Tempers ran high. Korrigan intervened to prevent Uru’s tribalistic dismemberment of their fallen foes. Instead, they committed them to the lava. At Korrigan's insistence, they left the dragon where she fell.
Korrigan sympathised with Pemberton in a strange way and hoped his daughter would be treated with dignity by the worshipful gnolls.

Uru checked his magical eye and discovered that the assault from Karch had now become heavy. They told their rear-guard to beat a fighting retreat. Matunaaga sprinted back down the rail tunnel. Uru used the control panel to open the blast doors and Matunaaga used one of the sending stones they found to notify them when the last of the rear-guard was through. Then they resealed them. Along with some walking wounded, one of Glaucia’s daughters had been slain, as had three Beran soldiers. As soon as they were reunited, Rumdoom took charge of the half-conscious Valchek.

Ordinarily, the unit showed a commendable lack of interest in ‘loot’. But this cavern was too much of a treasure trove to resist. Lya alone had more items on her than they usually found on a whole mission! Of particular interest was a small case found in the inside pocket of her coat. It contained multiple syringes filled with a translucent, silvery liquid. It was the only item that could not be readily identified. They also took the firesight eye from Terakalir, weapons from each of the Ob fighters, poison from the skulks and, at last, the Godmind Urn. Leon could hear it whispering to him when he handled it. He was used to dealing with manipulative, sentient artefacts, and stowed it in a safe place. Uru dismantled a lot of machinery. In a chamber to the south (the one briefly ‘searched’ by Rush) they found scores of inert duplicants and many more prototypes. There were more schematics than they could hope to carry (although they carried a lot, pressing them into the arms of Beran soldiers and other rescued victims). With great care, Uru covered and dismantled the tyrant’s eye that had proved so deadly, while they tried to figure out a way to weaponise it. (Mount it on the Impossible; at the other end to the Skull of Cheshimox?)

Thanks to the blast doors, they had plenty of time to work, but at length they received a sending from the Impossible. The Lux Profectusque had borne down upon them and the Ob submersible observed by the Matunaaga and his phalanx had risen to trap the Risuri galleon in pincer movement. Captain Smith had used his new ‘toy’ – the fey portal pad – to whisk the Impossible into the Dreaming the moment it came under fire, causing the two vessels to fire into empty space. When they reappeared, several hundred yards away, there was no catching them! Still, this proved to be a timely reminder of the danger they were in and they teleported back to their ship fairly soon after the message came through. (The Ob’s pre-drawn teleportation circle, missing only the final glyph, speeded their departure up no end.)

BACK ON BOARD

Rumdoom barely paused for breath before slapping Khaled Valchek round and lambasting him violently. Confusingly, Valchek seemed perplexed by the extent of his animosity. Yes, they had their differences and Rumdoom had opposed Valchek ever since his schism with their eschatological cell, but he could not understand why Rumdoom hated him so much. Rumdoom confronted him with his discovery that Valchek had forced himself on Moraga, Rumdoom’s sweetheart (whose untimely death from a wasting disease was the initial spur to Rumdoom’s path of self-destruction). Valchek angrily denied this (with as much energy as he could muster in his enfeebled state) and demanded to know who had made this allegation. When Rumdoom told him it was Khoomrung Morkanstall, the penny seemed to drop for Valchek. He launched into a diatribe against the old dwarf, accusing him of being an arch manipulator. Valchek said that his own obsession with the Stone of Not had been borne out of the old dwarf’s persistent influence.

This was all most odd. Rumdoom had always thought that Valchek was manipulating Khoomrung, manipulating them all. He was tempted to kill Valchek right away just to shut him up. He didn’t like to be confused. Leon intervened and suggested he extract the truth from Valchek. He used his terrifying presence to confirm that Valchek was telling the truth. Khoomrung was (until his run-in with Lorcan Kell) very much the leader of Rumdoom’s old cell – a cell that went on to take part in Grundin Zubov’s terror attacks throughout Flint; a cell with links to a Doomsday Cult in northern Drakr. Valchek had set about raising a fleet to assail the deep ones because of Khoomrung’s insistence that this needed to be done. Yes, he had joined the cell in the hopes of gaining political influence in the dwarven community, but in fact he had been the one who was ‘influenced’ – magically, he now claimed. Even after Khoomrung had been so badly injured.

He then went on to tell the story of his journey south with Pemberton. When they reached Ber, Pemberton persuaded Valchek that influence with the Berans would make their mission to retrieve the Stone of Not very much easier. So far so reasonable. Then, when Tinker Oddcog showed up out of the blue, Pemberton suggested they wield their influence to have Ber crank out the resources they would need to take on the Deep Ones: submersibles, underwater weaponry, etc. (He could show the unit where these items were kept, in the Black Star Mining installation in Seobriga.) Only after a year or so did Pemberton’s stalling cause Valchek to grow suspicious. But by then Valchek had grown accustomed to using Tinker’s duplicant technology, in case of emergencies – unaware of its mind-controlling properties. Pemberton then forced Valchek to do his bidding, as his plans had clearly changed from an incursion into the Cold Claw Sea to the total domination of Ber.

Rumdoom shook his head to clear it. “But what about Khoomrung? Is he dangerous?”

To answer that question, we need a quick cut-scene: