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

[gideonpepys]

Session 56, Part Four - Tyrant's Vengeance

And so Gupta, Quratulain and Uru were joined in their attack on Venkio by Sevitar Anrathi – and from above by Ascodel, Andrei and Amielle.

Ascodel descended in a flash of lightning and struck at the tyrant, barely dodging its claws.

Uru quickly realised that his sharp shuriken and poisons wouldn’t do much to harm Venkio. Where were the fleshy weak points on a skeletal dragon? So he called upon his affinity with the spirits of the city and darted eastwards, through the walls, heading for the throne room to head off the necromancer. Sevitar Anrathi circled round the dragon too, slipping physically into the shadows, in pursuit of his nemesis, San. But Venkio sensed him and reached out with spectral ‘chains’, enslaving Sevitar to his tyrannical will.

Andrei dive-bombed Venkio, and hit its hind quarters so forcefully that the dragon’s back legs gave out and it scrabbled for purchase on the marble floor of the entrance hall.

Quratulain drew her new dragonslayer sword and struck the dragon a mighty blow. The dragon roared in fury: this was the very same weapon that had originally slain it, hence its presence in the royal treasury, and Venkio recognised its sting! Despite having no guts, no throat, no innards at all, the dragon belched a gout of acid that struck Quratulain full force and burned chunks out of the marble pillars too. This was hideous stuff, but the dragonslayer helped prevent much of the worst damage, although Quratulain could see that it was corroding her metal shell terribly. Just then Sevitar Anrathi loomed out of the shadows and struck at her with his greatsword. “I will defend you, master,” he intoned. Quratulain parried the strike, then lashed out again at Venkio, not with the dragonslayer this time, but with her armblade, a weapon capable of prying open a foe’s defences and leaving them exposed to greater harm.

Venkio roared in anger at her defiance and belched forth a second gout of acid, though this one was not aimed at its foes. This directed blast ate a wider hole where the artillery shells had already created one – wide enough for a dragon to fit through. And so Venkio flexed his wings and – although they were mere fingers of bone – took to the air, scrabbling through the hole he had created and launching into the sky in a clumsy arc. Having finished with the lantern, Korrigan watched it go, trying to figure out if Venkio had been dealt with. He could not be sure.

Moments later, Rumdoom arrived on his clockwork carriage and looked around, disappointedly. “What’s all this about a dragon?” he asked.

By now, Uru had reached the throne room, his path through man-made structures cleared by the spirits of the city. But his way was now blocked by the immense back of a gargantuan creature. Squamous and muscular, it lay on its side, gripped by sudden paroxysms, bellowing in helpless agony. It was an ancient red dragon – a live one – and its thrashing was sufficient to take out walls and pillars, and to threaten the collapse of the entire throne room.

End of Session

 

[gideonpepys]

Session 57, Part One - King's Gambit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83qBRmM00R4

Confronted by a thrashing dragon, Uru scuttled up the wall and took in the whole scene: the inexplicable, writhing dragon; a semi-translucent hemisphere, about twenty feet across, within which King Aodhan and Dame Jillian were fighting for their lives; a procession of undead led by a doddering necromancer, who were seeking a way past the dragon. Uru vanished into the shadows and aimed at the necromancer.

With Venkio gone, the rest of the unit and their allies chased after ‘Cedric San’, with Quratulain and Rumdoom arriving in the vanguard, and Sevitar placing a sinister shroud over his quarry. Amielle Latimer fanned out and sprinted through walls. Korrigan and Leon had done all they could with the lantern, and teleported down from the roof into the foyer just as the entire palace and its occupants were translated into the Bleak Gate. Job done, the Ob soldiers, wraiths and golems guarding the remaining, easternmost lanterns, began marching towards the throne room to lend their weight to the assault.

San reached out a hand and used a baleful spell to cause the thrashing dragon to grow still. Then Uru made his shot and hit. San’s cry of irritation betrayed the fact that the shot had hurt him, but he was not dropped at once as Uru had expected. In fact, he blithely cast a spell behind him – some sort of necrotic zone – then ordered his followers to foil pursuit and continued to walk calmly around the now dormant dragon, headed for the magical dome. The flayed dire jaguar, and Cedric’s ‘students’ – four dread wights – launched themselves into combat, their attacks augmented by San’s spell. The wights were even more frightening than they looked – their claws capable of freezing a victim stiff, as Andrei learned to his cost.

He wasn’t the only one to be brought to a sudden halt: Suddenly, every single one of King Aodhan’s subjects was stunned by a horrible wave of despair. They knew at once this meant the king had fallen.

King Aodhan had put up a brave fight, ably assisted by his personal bodyguard, the green knight. But for almost a minute he had been trapped in hand-to-hand combat with four vicious RHC traitors. These had been joined by four shadow assassins, each bearing a syringe loaded with lethal poison. The royal might of the king, empowered by the faith of his people, had seen him fend off blow after blow, using his magical Six-loa Sabre to set fire to his foes, even snatch away one of the syringes. But aid had not come swiftly enough, and the poison in his veins overcame him. He slumped to his knees and his head fell forward. “Where’s that bloody Romana woman?” snarled Ludo Marcione. Cedric San then let go of the arm of the noble woman he had escorted back to the throne room. An invisible Romana was revealed only as she came into contact with the dome.

In the bunker, with the rest of the wedding guests, Duchess Ethelyn of Shale felt a cold shiver down her spine. To raise her own spirits she talked with Kai. “You don’t seem very worried,” was all she could think to say, noting the blithe play of the child.
“I know my daddy is all right,” Kai said.
“How do you know?” asked Ethelyn with a smile.
“I’m with him,” said Kai.
“But he’s fighting outside,” said Ethelyn.
“Yes, he’s fighting now,” said Kai. “But I’m with him later.”

Although Korrigan was stunned in the foyer, where Leon had teleported him, a second ‘future’ Korrigan appeared just a few feet away, with Kai strapped to his back, channelling the power of Reida. This second Korrigan invoked Kai’s connection with Av and ran through the air, as if his very being was lighter than all around him. He rose above the dragon – whom he now knew to be Inatch the Hex Eater, or Harkover Lee – and threw himself at Ludo Marcione’s dome. It repelled him, painfully, and the necromancer caused wraiths that had perished here to coalesce once more and assail him. Korrigan brushed them aside, drew on Kai’s link with Vona and radiated Pure Positive Energy, healing the wounds of himself and his allies, including Dame Jillian and the King.

Aodhan’s eyes flickered open. He saw enemies all around him; saw the avaricious Romana closing in, outstretched hand greedy to claim his crown; and he saw Korrigan, hovering in mid-air, the source of this temporary reprieve. The poison in his veins would soon overcome him once again, if he did not first fall to the knives, claws and bullets of his enemies. In that desperate moment, Aodhan made a noble decision: He closed his eyes again, and the crown disappeared. Along with it went his kingship, and his regenerative powers. No sooner had he done so, his foes were on him, stabbing and slashing and shooting at his corpse.

Korrigan felt a sharp tingle on his forehead where the king had touched him just an hour or so earlier and the Crown of Risur appeared upon him, marking him as Aodhan’s successor. Romana gave a cry of frustration and made as if to cast a spell. But no sooner had the Crown appeared, than the Loop of Reida was broken, and both this ‘future’ Korrigan, and the ‘past’ Korrigan vanished. (“We have to go back now,” said Kai into his ear. “See you later.”) Romana’s spell fizzled out harmlessly.

 

[gideonpepys]

Session 57, Part Two - Pathos of the Inanimate

The unit’s frontline were struggling against Professor Bugge’s dread wight minions, and trying to fend off his flayed dire jaguar too. Rumdoom grew tired of wrestling with the beast and – remembering a design flaw in the smaller versions they had fought many years ago – used his knowledge of the Runes of Destruction to tear the large metal plate holding a tank of witchoil in the jaguar’s chest. It expired, messily and noisily.

Quratulain stepped into the gap, drew her dragonbane greatsword and hacked at Harkover Lee, failing to grasp the complexities of the situation and keen to use her new sword. Leon shouted at her to stop, then used a bardic trick he’d learned during his first days in the bayou near Flint to teleport Harkover Lee into the foyer, out of harm’s way, and heal him in the process. Then Leon tried to dispel Bugge’s necrotic zone, but failed.

Up on the wall of the throne room, Uru took on the semblance of Korrigan, and changed his hat of hats into the Crown of Risur. From this vantage he taunted Catherine Romana (“You’ll never take the crown from me, ever!”) and then vanished. Romana cursed again, then she vanished too.

Now the dragon was gone, the throne room was clear: Bugge saw what had happened to his pet, and raised it to wrestle with Rumdoom once again; Amielle had line of sight to the necromancer and shot at him, learning the hard way what Uru had learned earlier – that he was protected from ranged missiles; Ascodel stepped up alongside Andrei - “Helping you out, fist-man!” he cried – and together they dealt with the rest of the wights; Sevitar was finally face-to-face with ‘Cedric San’, alias Professor Johan Bugge, for the first time in half a century. He placed another necrotic shroud over the necromancer and then disappeared into the shadows.

Something very strange then happened. Lauryn Cyneburg appeared in the throne room, along with Viscount Nigel Price-Hill and a squad of RHC officers and elite guards. They arrived just in time: lantern guards and golems were approaching from the east. Cyneburg gestured towards them, and led her men to fend them off. Gupta followed suit, still in tiger form. But when she engaged with the enemy, Cyneburg, Price-Hill and the squadron faded and vanished! Fortunately, Asrabey Varal arrived just at that moment, and waded into combat with the Ob squadron alongside Gupta. Gupta was practically immune to their weapons, and tore into them with a gusto that even Asrabey found difficult to match.

Within Ludo’s dome, the assassins had turned their attention to Dame Jillian. Now she fell too. At that moment Korrigan reappeared, still wearing the crown, but also clutching a strength potion he had taken out in the foyer earlier. He swigged it, then stepped up to challenge the necromancer. At once he felt the draining effect of a necrotic aura that surrounded Bugge, but he ignored it and struck him with his Holy Avenger. Behind him, his allies in the necrotic zone cried out in pain. Then Quratulain stepped up to Bugge, again shrugging off his baleful aura, and struck him with her armblade, a blade that could pry open magical defences. Once again, their allies in the feeding zone cried out. Unaware of what was happening, Sevitar appeared just behind his nemesis and plunged his greatsword into his back and out through the other side. “Ashes to ashes!” he whispered in Cedric San’s ear. But San merely chuckled – while Andrei, Ascodel and Rumdoom cried out once again – and then said, in a croaking sing-song voice, “Venkiooooo!” The skeletal dragon tyrant crashed through the ceiling and came to its master’s aid, spraying his attackers with gouts of acid.

Realising that San could not be killed because of the feeding zone spell he had cast, Leon redoubled his efforts to dispel it. As soon as it vanished, Uru emerged from hiding and embedded a shuriken in the necromancer’s head. The old man collapsed into ash, his form crumbling around Sevitar’s sword. Sevitar stared into the space where San had once been, and then he too faded and vanished to the sound of Uru crowing something rivalrous about how Sevitar thought he was ‘better at stealth’ and now Uru had stolen his kill. The last thing Sevitar thought as he went was, “I think… you have me confused… with someone else.”

At that moment, Leon’s tampering with the roof lantern paid off. The palace became coterminous with the Dreaming. There was Thisraldion, lounging on his throne. When he saw what was happening he gave a cry of outrage and leapt to his feet with his vorpal blade in hand. There was a blinding flash of light and Thisraldion vanished, only to reappear inside Ludo’s bubble. With a snickersnack, he cut off the head of one assassin. Blood splashed on the inside of the dome. Snickersnack! Another head bounced off of it.

Lerina the Unseen Marauder and Lavac the Gremlin Herald appeared to the south of the chamber. Lavac rubbed his hands with glee, sensing a lantern golem nearby, and scampered off to wreck it. Lerina gave a battle cry that galvanised all who heard it, then leapt towards the psychic dome and struck it an immense blow with her lightning-charged hammer.

In response to Lerina’s cry, Amielle shot the jaguar, freeing Rumdoom. When Venkio closed its enormous jaws on Korrigan, Rumdoom issued an eschatological fiat and the dragon’s mouth was held open. Korrigan then struck at Venkio, calling on his team to follow suit. At once, Leon landed a debilitating curse that caused the tyrant to reel.

In the foyer of the palace, Furg and Sallin appeared with an entire brigade of rangale. The last Ob squadrons were approaching from the north and the rangale moved to engage them, with Furg’s poisonous frogs in support. Sallin reached out from the branches of her tree and laid a hand on the scaly hide of Harkover Lee, ridding his body of the poison that had caused him to return to his original form. His ragged breathing eased as he became human once again, albeit supine, pallid and unconscious.

Seeing that Lerina had weakened the dome, Rumdoom used his frost giant’s plate to grow to enormous size. Then he smote the dome with another rune of destruction. It imploded, with a noise so loud it was practically inaudible. Almost everyone close by was blown off their feet, even Rumdoom himself. Venkio fell and lay still, its ribcage shattered by the blast. Only the two kings remained standing. Ludo Marcione was on his knees. Thisraldion raised his vorpal sword, but Korrigan bade him to stay his blow.

“Mortal mercy is a mystery to me,” said Thisraldion.
“Mortal justice,” Korrigan corrected him.

Only Ludo and Campion Price-Hill remained alive. Thisraldion had beheaded all the others.(Korrigan noticed that in death the shadow-men appeared to be nothing more than porteurs de mort who had been killed in the line of duty, then subjected to the same grim process that had sustained the un-life of Cillian Creed, Reed Macbannin’s ‘butler’.) Ludo begged for mercy, until Thisraldion silenced him with a blow across the back of the head from the pommel of his sword. Campion Price-Hill remained on his knees, arms raised in stony, self-satisfied surrender. Catherine Romana was nowhere to be seen.

Song for Thisraldion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeVjEg4znQk

 

[Crispy120286]

Hey Gideonpepys! Ive been a long time reader of your campaign. Well, lurker mostly as I rarely comment or post. I noticed on another thread you mentioned you kept sheets of DM notes and the like to help you run the campaign. Would you be willing to put them up on a public dropbox for all us DMs running Zeitgeist?
Second question. How do you write such a detailed campaign blog? Do you write it while running or after the session has ended? Any tips on that as well?
Thanks for keeping up such a fantastic blog for all of us to read!

 

[gideonpepys]

Hey Gideonpepys! Ive been a long time reader of your campaign.Well, lurker mostly as I rarely comment or post.

Hello there! It's always nice to hear from someone who enjoys our session reports. By my reckoning there must be around 140 of you, as the number stays fairly consistent, but very few post here, which makes the whole thing a bit of a mystery. By the same token, it makes sense to keep the thread clear of all but the occasional comment, otherwise it would be hard to follow. (But some XP would be nice! Hint hint.) Anyway, pleased to meet you, Crispy120286.

I noticed on another thread you mentioned you kept sheets of DM notes and the like to help you run the campaign. Would you be willing to put them up on a public dropbox for all us DMs running Zeitgeist?

Sorry to disappoint you, but I don't have anything workable or usable by a third party. (Unless there's something specific I mentioned elsewhere that I have forgotten about.) Almost all of my notes are reminders of where specific elements of the adventure will impact on a member of our group in a unique way, or additions tailored to a particular character or storyline, which I would tend to forget if it wasn't written down. A recent example would be having Duchess Ethelyn interact with Kai.

Second question. How do you write such a detailed campaign blog? Do you write it while running or after the session has ended? Any tips on that as well?

As you can probably tell from reading the earliest posts this journal started out as a quick and easy way to keep my players up to speed on events from the previous week. It went on like that for some time, in bullet-point format, and only really morphed into a narrative around entry 100. Looking back, that happened pretty organically because the dramatic events of adventure #5 were coming to a head. In the Preamble to session 101 (entry #406) I wrote:

Normally I don't report combat round by round or blow by blow. Sessions that feature lots of fights get the shortest journal entries, while one with lots of storytelling and roleplay spread out over multiple posts. But I felt that this encounter was pretty special, so I've included pretty much everything that happened.

That was the rule I used to stick to, mainly because 4e combats were really a separate game - a little puzzle, which was extremely fun to play, but lacking in drama except for certain key moments. I never used to keep notes, either, reporting what happened from memory.

Things have changed since the reboot. I decided I wanted to make the session reports as detailed as I could because I had had such a blast reading them back to myself after our three-year break. (So I'm a fan of my own session reports, which is nice. Also, the reboot would not have been possible if this log didn't exist.)

Using a new system, combats are less of a grind/puzzle and more melodramatic, which often makes them worth reporting. And the characters' powers are more 'iconic' or unique to them, as much part of their character arc as a bit of roleplay or interaction.

Now I do keep notes, but so quickly scribbled I often can't read them. But I wouldn't be able to remember each session in such detail if I didn't. Writing them up does take a lot of time, though. I often wonder if I'll be able to keep it up. But I make it a priority because I enjoy it. Absent players can stay up to speed, departed players can enjoy the adventures even though they can't play. And I get to scratch my writing itch without having to come up with all the ideas myself!

Also, writing the reports sharpens my approach to the next session. I often come up with new ideas or realisations while I'm doing so. And I think it inspires the players to come up with ideas too.

Thanks for keeping up such a fantastic blog for all of us to read!

You are very welcome. Thanks for reading it.

 

[gideonpepys]

Session 57, Part Three - The King is Dead! Long Live the King!

With the help of the occupants of Thistle Palace it did not take long to mop up the last remnants of the Ob strike force. Outside, Karrest and Asrabey came face-to-face for just about long enough to reaffirm their enmity and mutual loathing, but now was not the time to resolve that conflict. Sallin’s tree lifted Harkover Lee into its branches and she used healing magic to ensure that he would not die. Olazdor picked off fleeing soldiers with arrows from the roof.

The defenders of the palace – mortal and fey alike – gathered in the throne room where Aodhan had fallen. “This is the shadow I foresaw,” said Thisraldion. “But I did not expect to bear witness to it. My old friend is dead,” he said and then bowed to Korrigan. “Your majesty. May your reign be long and fruitful, and may our old alliance blossom in this uncertain new age.”

As he said these words, Dame Jillian revived and clambered to her feet. She knelt before her new king, showing no emotion; her duty was to the king, whoever it may be, and it took precedence over any feelings of grief. Asrabey knelt too, and pledged his alliegiance to Korrigan – an unexpected gesture. But all of this pledging would be for nothing if they were stuck in the Dreaming again.

Uru suggested they rouse She Who Writhes (he seemed to quite like that idea, strangely) but was reminded this might take days. Besides, said Olazdor, he had not seen Beshela for some time and she would be required to guide them to the titan.

“Perhaps,” offered Andrei von Recklinghausen (with an acumen that was quite out of character, but betrayed his singular, focused desire to return to Flint and find Isobel) “…the combined power of two kings…?”

It was certainly true that both the King of the Dreaming and the King of Risur had the power to create a bridge between the realms. But that power had been tested and found wanting in recent weeks and months. It was also true that Korrigan had no experience of conducting such a ritual. Fortunately, however, the knowledge was instinctive – passed on with the crown under the Rites of Rulership. Korrigan was now Lord of the Land, though not (as yet) Monarch of the Masses. Thisraldion considered it possible that they might create a powerful enough bridge by working in tandem. It was worth a try.

In case it did work, before parting ways with representatives of the Unseen court and the Hedgehog Court, Korrigan thanked them for their support in Risur’s hour of need and reiterated what he had already said in Thistle Palace just a few days earlier: “Risur is facing a great danger, but the Dreaming faces no less danger, maybe more. We have to stand together and the two fey courts should lay down their differences in the face of the current challenges.” If they were able to return to their own realms, they would need to find a way to communicate or even cross to the Waking. That should be a priority. If it could be achieved, he told them that there were two key locations where Ob operations were critical: Flint in the very near future, and Axis Island at any point thereafter. So if they could locate the corresponding areas in Dreaming, they should strike if they could find a way.

The fey courts balked at the idea of going anywhere near the Great Blight (their term for industrialised Flint), but said that if they could cross into the Waking anywhere, Axis Island would be the place. Lavac said he had already heard that deep fey natives planned to strike at the ‘invaders’ if they could; Rumdoom’s deep faen retinue nodded enthusiastically in confirmation of this.

With that said, the two kings concentrated and made the attempt to create a bridge to the Waking.

It worked!

Instantly, the King of Risur, and all his subjects appeared in Torfeld Palace. The fey were gone.

The palace looked as if it had suffered decades of decay – paint and wallpaper peeling; gold and silver tarnished; layers of dust over everything.

In the palace they found Lauryn Cyneburg, Viscount Price-Hill and the RHC squadron. They were equally confused about what had happened – having found themselves in the thick of things momentarily, before translating back to the real world. They also found the survivors from the Vault. There was much weeping and gnashing of teeth at the news of Aodhan’s demise.

Kai ran up to his father. “Are you a king now, daddy?”

Korrigan was not sure how to respond. Ethelyn was close by. They exchanged glances. Hers was an admixture of emotions – grief, uncertainty, and hope. Kai asked sadly, “Will Ethelyn have to go back to prison now, father?”

Korrigan shook his head. “She can grieve her brother as a free woman.” The first official act of King Baldrey was to pardon Ethelyn of Shale. She would be allowed time to grieve, then assist in the defence of Risur in whatever position was deemed suitable.

Cyneburg spat and cursed in frustration when she learned that Aodhan was dead. Viscount Price-Hill lost control of himself when he heard of Campion’s involvement and drew a stinger pistol from his tunic. Once again, Korrigan prevented a summary execution and reminded Price-Hill that their captives might have information they needed: Ludo and Campion should be kept under arrest and interrogated immediately regarding anything they know about Ob's plans, specifically what Stanfield is up to, any information on Romana and if the Ob had a ‘plan B’ should the assassination fail. Korrigan also wanted any information they could glean about other Ob agents in the RHC. “We seem to have a long history of this - starting with Saxby, so they need to be questioned on this. They then should await trial. Deny any opportunities for suicide!” Price-Hill was ordered to mobilise the defence of the homeland, while Korrigan led a strike team against Stanfield.

Price-Hill glowered but nodded in agreement, saying to Campion, “Your mother would turn in her grave.”

Campion smirked and said, “You should be grateful I have won favour for our family in the new world order.”

The prisoners were led away. Along with Luc and Ottavia who had to be returned to custody.

Amielle? Korrigan's belief in redemption inclined him to offer a place in the team heading for Flint. Amielle accepted. “I would also like your appraisal of the situation and to learn more of what motivated you to change sides,” said Korrigan, “but more of that later.”

Though frail and gaunt, quite unlike his usually virile appearance, Harkover Lee expressed his wish to stand by the new king. He too contained whatever emotions he felt over Aodhan’s death, and nothing was said about the revelation of his true identity. Korrigan said he would be glad of his counsel.

Dame Jillian said matter-of-factly that despite her failure to ward Aodhan, she would be honoured if King Baldrey granted her a place at his side. She had gathered the surviving palace guards around her and they stood to attention hopefully. Korrigan accepted and commended their bravery (while privately wondering if Quratulain might make a better Green Knight; though right now, her exoskeleton was in dire need of repair, having been all-but-destroyed by Venkio).

Lauren Cyneburg also wanted to come to Flint, but pointed out that teleportation was impossible. Rail travel was too slow. How would they get to Flint in time, if Stanfield’s ritual was to be performed that night? They thought of the Great Hunt, but it had returned to the Dreaming, along with Ascodel and the rest of the fey.

While the others scratched their heads and tried to come up with a solution, Korrigan approached a crowd that had gathered at the gates of the palace grounds. He announced that there had been an attack by a hostile forces resulting in King Aodhan's death, but that the situation was under control and that matters of security and the defence of the nation were being taken care of. Unlike the people of Flint, these folk did not know Korrigan, and their response was understandably muted. Their concern was exacerbated by a rumour that the Royal Skyseer had predicted the world would end tonight.

(Watching all this through one eye, her face-mask having melted over the other, was Quratulain, who had not said a word since the battle ended. She kept a very close eye on Korrigan, and her incredible, mathematical mind processed thousands of equations a second.)

Having exhausted almost every possibility for swift travel to Flint, Leon wondered if he might try something new. He etched a strange rune in the air – a rune he had only used once before and was not sure he had mastered. Around it, he drew a rectangle: a door, with the rune as a ‘handle’, a handle he now turned.

To his surprise and relief, the door opened to reveal the Chamber of Dreams he had created with Kasvarina. It took the form of a richly appointed bed chamber. There was only one other door leading off the chamber: the door Kasvarina had first opened when she created the chamber in the cave of the Thinker. Leon crossed to the door and opened that too. Cold, damp air greeted him. Ahead lay the empty cave.

Korrigan and his team were exhausted. They hadn’t slept for days. But they could not afford to hesitate. Without further ado they stepped through the chamber (noting that the bed sheets were very tousled indeed).

Song for Korrigan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAUXPkx7gMI

 

[gideonpepys]

Dawn of a New Age

As soon as had they set foot on the damp, sandy surface of the cave’s interior, everyone present felt a strange lurch. They wondered if this had something to do with stepping out of the chamber, but no: Harkover and Leon determined that something was amiss. The very nature of magic was beginning to change.Four of the unit bore golden planar icons, and Leon was able to sense that they had responded to this change, and grown more powerful. Uru remembered that these ‘new’ properties had manifested before, when they stood on Axis Island.

This led Harkover to declare his suspicion that the Axis Seal had already been opened. He shook his head and muttered, “the fools” under his breath.One happy consequence of this otherwise dire event was a sensation of puissance experienced by the unit. “The Ancients' ban that limits the power of mortals has been removed,” said Harkover, again as if this were a bad thing.King Baldrey felt that his mere words would have a greater impact on those around him; the Fading One’s kinship with shadow intensified; The Avatar of the End became even more impossible to kill; the Childe of Hewanharimau felt her tiger form grow stronger; the curses of Leon the Clever became even more biting.Quratulain did not report her own sense that she could calculate trajectories with a greater accuracy than before. Instead she stood apart from the others, silently cogitating.For the first time, Korrigan noticed her stiff, hostile body language. “Quratulain?” he said.

01000110011011000110000101110011011010000110001001100001011000110110101100100001*

As Quratulain enters the throne room and slices at a dragon which vanishes into thin air, she is suddenly aware of a new reality. The king lies dead and his crown now sits on Korrigan's head! The very same person who asked her to join his struggle is the clear victor of a series of events in which everyone else is a loser. Good-old, little Korrigan.

Now the group stands in a realm in which this new king, who ironically first presented himself to Quratulain in the image of Nicodemus, is the only key to bring everyone out of the prison of the Bleak Gate. A light of déjà vu flashes in Quratulain's mind: has she been so stupid as to be tricked again in exactly the same fashion? Was this last trace of human emotion her downfall? "That's what I get for being kind and trusting", she thinks in a corner of her vast mind.

To make matters worse, Dame Jillian, the valiant fighter who swore to protect the king is, against all odds, alive and well. Why would she feign death, and why would her enemies let her live? Quratulain has no time to ponder whether Korrigan's intentions are true, and doesn't about the victims as long as is not her. She must not be left behind at any cost... and diplomacy is not her forte.

Suddenly, they are out of the Bleak Gate and back in the real world. Korrigan is clearly contemplating the role of Dame Jillian. Quratulain considers her tattered armour, and feels horribly exposed. Could replacing her be part of the new king’s equations? Around her, the old king’s death is accepted as if nothing has happened. No one seems to bat an eyelid. Quratulain regrets she herself has no eyelids to bat.

Suddenly, they are in a darkened cave, and everyone around her is growing ever more powerful. Quratulain begins to think it might be better to solve this problem in her tried and tested fashion, and figure out the truth once she feels safe. She takes out her pistols to ‘clean and maintain them’.

As she loads her weapons she knows there are millions of ways in which twelve bullets can fly through the air, but in a split second she has calculated them all, in her mechanical mind she has already practised them, a hundred times over. There are only a few trajectories which her bullets can trace to hit the mark, but she has found those too.The whole thing stinks of betrayal and 500 years of confinement is the only thing which Quratulain is not going to count within her field of possibilities.Inevitably, Quratulain starts a countdown…“

Quratulain? What is it?”

End of Session

*http://www.online-toolz.com/tools/text-binary-convertor.php

Alternative Song for Korrigan?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0QZ_AnOZsY

 

[RangerWickett]

I think I am appropriately confused.

 

[gideonpepys]

Session 58, Part One - Scrambled Circuits

When Quratulain raised her weapons, it dawned on the others that something was very much amiss. She looked a mess: mask cracked; fleshless face exposed; amour worn away to nothing and hanging off her limbs where the bolts had eroded entirely. “A king who shouldn’t be a king; a woman who shouldn’t be alive; and only you in a position to free us from this place,” she said. Bemused, Korrigan calmly, slowly handed Kai off to Gupta. Then he asked Quratulain to tell him what the problem was. “Prove that you’re not going to leave me here. Prove it or die.”

Korrigan sat down. “If you want to kill me you are free to do so at any point.” Korrigan asked a few more questions, during which exchange it became clear that, despite her vast mathematical acumen, Quratulain now laboured under the delusion that they were still trapped in the Bleak Gate. She was also obsessed with the idea that Korrigan planned to abandon her, swap her out for Dame Jillian, and renege on the deal they had made in the Vault of Heresies. “The deal we had hasn’t changed,” he said. “We are still on the path to stop Nicodemus, and William Miller.”

Quratulain tilted her head. “You seem to have lost your wits. You are not leaving me behind. Prove to me that you do not intend to do that. How do I know that I can trust you?”

Andrei butted in impatiently: “Because you’re here!” Quratulain glanced at him sharply and assessed him. (She quickly calculated how many bits she would need to chop him into to stop him regenerating.)

The rational approach was not working, so Korrigan appealed to Quratulain on an emotional level. “Stay close to me, Quratulain,” said Korrigan. “We’re getting out of here. But just so you know you can trust me…” He slowly reached into his pack and drew out Ottavia Sacerdote’s headband. He told Quratulain that she could use it to read his thoughts. Cautiously, she accepted it and put it on. She looked into his mind and saw the truth behind his words, and gradually relaxed her guns.

“She’s broken,” whispered Uru. “We need to get her to the Clockwork King.” Uru looked broken himself – even more faded than usual. Like everyone else, he was running on empty.

Shattered, after days without sleep, they still could not afford to rest without finding out what was going on. They were over an hour away from the city, deep in the bayou. They discussed priorities: sending Gupta to talk to the Dockers; sending Uru to the Nettles to with a written message for Isaac, the mayor. Lauren Cyneburg suggested that she head for the Battalion, which was fairly close by, and round up reinforcements.

Andrei was again impatient. “Shouldn’t we be kicking Stanfield’s door down?” Stanfield sent Festoon and the man in the stove-pipe hat after Uriel; Stanfield and the same two individuals were present when Andrei was kidnapped by Nicodemus; they also matched the description of the pair who came to take Isobel to ‘Elfaivar’. If anyone knew where Isobel was, it was Stanfield.

But they did not want to show their hand too soon. Better to keep the Ob in the dark as long as possible. Uru’s garden was safe from divination. He broke off from a conversation with Rumdoom’s deep fey retinue and excitedly invited everyone to accompany him there. He hoped to be able to use the whispers of the city’s ghosts to learn as much as he could about what was going on. It was anybody’s guess where he would find the energy to manage that.

Despite the issues affecting teleportation, Leon was able to create a portal to the clockwork circle he and Uru had set up in the garden. When they arrived, the jungle deep faen were very much at home, but Dame Jillian and the palace guards were appalled. It wasn’t the most relaxing place to bed down, with strange malice insects flitting about bleak vegetation, in a garden fertilized by severed limbs. Uru’s murals were coming along nicely, though. The one where he floored the colossus was complete and work had already begun on the Torments of Tokoloshe.

Uru took himself off to a quiet space, clambering up an outcropping of rock to a web-like hammock. There he entered a trance and reached out to Flint itself for answers. The ghosts of the city came to him, and told him tales.

Leon took Quratulain to Alden Wondermaker – the Clockwork King. He was in his underground lair, in a disused quarry. Wondermaker was taken aback and embarrassed to be caught in his ‘least presentable form’ – a mechanical ‘brain’ inside a frosted glass jar, around the neck of a mind-controlled fomorian. He asked for a few moments to ‘slip into something more appropriate’ and returned in the form of a dapper mechanical gentleman, complete with cane, cloak and top hat. He tutted and lamented over Quratulain’s current condition, her outer shell having almost completely melted away. But he remained full of admiration for the workmanship beneath: her limbs and other mechanical parts. “They simply cannot be improved,” he intoned, “quite exquisite. Your outer shell, on the other hand. Last time we met I took the liberty of suggesting I might modernise it. Fortunately for you, my dear, I couldn’t help myself. Follow me and we’ll get you fixed up.” Leon left Quratulain behind, as she agreed to submit to Wondermaker’s make-over.

 

[gideonpepys]

Session 58, Part Two - The Calm Before the Storm

Before she set off to track down Thames Grimsley, Gupta used Nicodemus’ Ob ring to check for Ob officers: Stanfield was on the Governor’s Island; Romana remained in the Bleak Gate; to her relief, Grimsley did not register. (They had been double-crossed so often, it was worth being sure.) It didn’t take long for her to find Thames, moving through the quiet streets of a city under siege. She soon learned that the harbour was under Danoran control. Their entire Fleet had swept in at dawn and destroyed Flint’s naval garrison. The Government District had been subjected to heavy bombardment and evacuated. The Danorans must have had detailed intelligence, and had arrived with a singular purpose: The attackers had not claimed ships for salvage or captured survivors for ransom, but ploughed straight on, leaving hundreds of sailors to drown. Now they patrolled the harbour, blockaded the entrance, and kept a close watch on key installations. Only the Coaltongue had been spared. The Danorans had been at pains to capture and defend it but for some reason it had not set sail. Instead, two grand frigates had trained their guns on the Coaltongue, and the Royal Docks were swarming with Danoran troops.

Rumdoom went to his own church, which he discovered to be full. A crisis like this drew devotees of Rumschatology to contemplate the end together. They were overjoyed to yet again see him still alive. As well as dozens of dwarves he also found Captain Rutger Smith, Kieran Sentacore and Heward Sechim, all of whom had become intrigued by his philosophy. Before he could speak with them, Khaled Valchek led the congregation in begging Rumdoom for news of his entourage (of whom, only Thurgid had survived). They wanted to know if they had died well, having prepared a blank obelisk for inscription with their names. Would he care to begin the first inscription? What was the name of the first fallen? “How did my son fare? Was he brave? I did not want you to know he was my son in case you showed him favouritism.” Etc. Rumdoom was forced to admit that he did not remember, and may never even have known, he names of the dwarves who formed his retinue, and that they were all most probably dead. The congregation was taken aback. “What did you think would happen? This is a cult of eschatology!” he said.

Uru emerged from his trance-like communion with the city of Flint and relayed what he had learned in a twitchy, agitated state: “Flint fears the end of the world. The people are fleeing for the Cloudwood. Shadow men stalk there, hunting for Gale. The Ob knows she is a danger. No one has seen birds flying to the mountain top, but somehow they’re appearing: thousands of ravens perched in trees, growing in number hour by hour. The mayor’s mansion has launched flares calling for help, but no one who has gone up has returned. Sea life has begun beaching itself around Flint harbour, and the shores are covered with seagulls gorging on dead fish. The wild things know She Who Writhes is coming!” Then he collapsed, frothing at the mouth. Korrigan stabilized him and diagnosed the signs of a fey pepper overdose.

An eladrin woman was in danger. Asrabey set off to hunt for Gale at once, and Korrigan sent her a warning via messenger wind. They decided not to risk rescuing the occupants of the mayor’s mansion lest they reveal themselves too soon, though Korrigan was keen to get Isaac’s advice on the Mayor’s ritual.

Amielle was able to provide more detail. She said that the ritual could not start until midnight, and would be completed just before dawn. (This offered the tantalising prospect of getting some rest before making their move.) Korrigan then asked her why she had chosen to change sides. “The same gut feeling that made me join the Ob in the first place,” she said. “I had the feeling they were trying to good. And they were, for a time. Now I have the feeling that they are not. And so I am here, with you, trying to good again.”

Elsewhere, Leon discovered that Stanfield had evacuated his island, destroyed the bridge to the mainland and withdrawn to his fortress. Stover Delft had been on the island when it was closed off, and issued orders to the RHC to look out for Korrigan and his unit, who were ‘traitors’. Shortly thereafter, a powerful arcane dome had appeared, surrounding the fortress. Invisible, Leon went to check it out. He studied it up close and realised that only the most powerful arcane energies could hope to penetrate such a barrier. So he returned to Uru’s Garden to consult with Harkover Lee. Before he left the island, he caught sight of the Danoran flagship – one of many vessels patrolling the island. On board he could see the bright, glowing figure of a ghost, but could not make out who it was from this distance.

Gupta found Thames Grimsley, surrounded by dockers in a bar on Bosum Strand. The entire movement was keen to help in any way it could. Grimsley lamented the loss of the harbour, and told her many... tragic tales of... individual... heroism and... sacrifice. He told her that the... elderly Admiral who... captained the Coaltongue had... died... of a...heart attack when the Danorans... stormed aboard. She was surreptitiously approached by members of the Family too, who told her that if she was here with Marshal Korrigan, Morgan Cippiano desired an urgent word with him. Gupta relayed this via messenger wind and Korrigan said he would meet her at the appointed place – the only remaining clergy church in Flint.

Harkover Lee immediately drew a link between the arcane barrier on the governor’s island, and the Danoran’s determination to defend the Coaltongue. The Coaltongue’s brand might be powerful enough to breach the barrier. The only thing that prevented them from destroying the ship entirely was the hope that they might learn how to create, or at least thwart, such a device. Without access codes, they could not control her, but then neither could the unit!

As luck would have it, Rumdoom now reported his conversation with Smith, Sentacore and Sechim. All were heartily glad to learn that the unit was still alive. Sechim told Rumdoom that Geoff Massarde had come to him for protection, knowing he was a friend of the unit. Massarde was a Danoran tiefling, designer of the Coaltongue, and now that the elderly admiral was dead, the only person who knew the arcane codes needed to fire up her magical engines.