Session 61, Part One - Three Free
While the others rushed forward to help Delft, Quratulain made sure to pick up Mehmood’s pistols. They didn’t appear to be revolvers, so how was he able to shoot so rapidly? The answer was magic ammunition! The pistols created their own, and there was no need to reload them. Quratulain took both. Sadly, her own bullets had shattered and destroyed Mehmood’s time-stop-watch. To lighten the mood, she joked with Andrei, who was still curled around the dragonbane sword, half-melted by alkahest: “Hey, why the long face?” It wasn’t clear if Andrei was laughing or crying.
A quick examination of the ritual device that surrounded Delft – laid out on four huge tables – confirmed what they had feared: that its complexity was beyond them. Leon might have had a chance to figure it out, but he was outside the force-field.
Realising they were there, and who they were, the agonised RHC Chief hissed through gritted teeth, “The back room!” Following his urgent advice, they checked it out and found a quiet study, dominated by three huge paintings that were quite out of place here. At once, they recognised them as portal planes, such as they had seen on Mutravir Island.
The first was empty (its previous occupant now lay on the central ritual table). The second contained Isobel Travers. The third? Uriel! “I suppose we’d better let him out,” said Korrigan, with slight reluctance.
Though she still felt very weak, Gale was able to help them sabotage the frame on Isobel’s prison and release her. She embraced Isobel warmly, and said sorry for not being there when Stanfield’s cronies came to take her. (She had been dominated by Ekossigan at the time.) Gale could not help shedding a few tears now her four-year search to find Isobel was finally at and end. “Someone else has been trying to find you too,” said Gale and together they went to find Andrei, who still sat clutching the dragonbane sword, one-armed, badly burned and shivering. “Poor Andrei!” cried Isobel, kneeling down beside him. “What have they done to you?” Andrei was not concerned for himself, and he too apologised for allowing Stanfield’s henchmen to take her, before asking her if she had been treated well. “Too well,” said Isobel with a shiver. “Governor Stanfield has been very much the gentleman. He said there would be time for us to get to know each other better when all of this was over, but I didn’t relish the prospect.”
Meanwhile, Quratulain had smashed the third and final portal frame and out stepped Uriel. He was no longer dressed in the robes of the Congregation, and his vacant stare was gone. Instead, he greeted them with a warm smile. “Many thanks, my friends,” he said. “You are right on time, as usual. Excuse me for a moment – the first thing we need to do is help Stover.” Kai wouldn’t be put off, though, and he greeted Uriel with a big hug. “I’m very proud of how much you are helping your dad,” said Uriel. This new Uriel was much more like Malthusius, much to everyone’s relief!
Uriel knew what to do with the ritual device, but it wouldn’t be easy, requiring four people to work on it simultaneously, mastering a whole range of disciplines. Even as his eschatological powers waned, much as Gale’s storm powers had, Rumdoom gave one final pronouncement, declaring that they would free Delft safely from his torment. After a few minutes of intense concentration, this came to pass. The ritual was halted and the beam of light vanished. A quick glance outside confirmed that the force-field was gone too. Korrigan sent a message to Leon warning him to be careful as there were several squads of soldiers defending the island against Danorans. Leon replied that he would pass by the defenders invisibly.
Delft struggled up. He looked at Korrigan, amazed, his eyes fixed on the Crown of Risur. “I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what to call you.” He winced. “Your majesty, I don’t want to be left behind. Please heal me up and let me contribute.” They knew they didn’t have much time, but they agreed to Delft’s request. When he was back on his feet, he hobbled to the portal plane that had been his prison for a few days and retrieved his cane. “Now I’m ready to go on,” he said.
So were they. Leon, Uru and Gupta had rejoined them, along with Asrabey Varal and Lauren Cyneburg. Uriel greeted his old friends warmly. Uru said, “I’m a lot smarter than when you last saw me!” (Uru was proud of all the mental powers he had developed recently.) Uriel smiled. “We’ll look into your condition together when this is all over. The choice you made under the ocean was a bad one.” (Uru threw what was left of his ‘humanity’ into the Stone of Not!) Then Uriel handed his bracers of mental might to Leon, saying that, unlike Malthusius, he had no need of them. Then he took a moment to do something quite surprising:
Having been divested of his most dangerous magical items before he was imprisoned, he now summoned two of them to him: the Arsenal of Dhebisu, which appeared in its natural form, as a smooth, silvery orb; and the Staff of the Hierophant, which appeared in his hand fully formed and faintly glowing – summoned not from wherever it now lay broken, in the present, but from the past when the hierophant Talmai first wielded it. Talmai had once faced a pit fiend and almost defeated it, and with that in mind, Uriel now channelled that incarnation, adopting his druidic suite of powers.
Before they went on, Korrigan repeated to Lauren Cyneburg the instructions he had previously given to Harkover and sent her back to Flint. When he began to list his political affiliates, Lauren gestured to indicate he need go no further. “We know who they are, your majesty,” she said, and then she departed. She took Gale, Andrei and Isobel Travers with her. The two ealdrin women were helping Andrei to walk. Quratulain said to him, “I like you, but I want my sword back.” Andrei returned it with a wince.
Then Korrigan asked Roland what they could expect up ahead. Roland told them that Stanfield would be very strong since they had ignored his advice to dispatch his incarnations in order. Both Gupta and Uriel performed magical tricks on Roland to see if they could gain insights about how to deal with Stanfield from him. It worked, and they shared their knowledge with the others. In particular, Gupta learned about an old back injury which plagued all of the later incarnations. Uriel used his skyseer powers to weave the fate of the Stanfields, predicting how and when they would make mistakes, and how best to exploit them.
At the foot of the grand staircase, Uriel struck the tip of his staff on the very bottom step and invoked a blessing on all his allies. But that small strike had an unexpected effect: a kind of shudder, or ripple in the very stonework of the staircase itself. At once, Delft barked a warning, and, holding everyone back with his cane, spat a gob of chewing tobacco onto the stairs. An almighty upheaval ensued, as the entire structure detached itself from its moorings and twisted into the form of a gargantuan ooze: a mimic! But the largest mimic anyone had ever seen. Delft’s knees almost gave way in abject terror. The mimic lashed out at Uriel with a pseudopod, grabbed him and then tried to close its enormous maw over him and Uru (who had been scouting ahead and was well over halfway up the stairs). Uru moved quickly to leap out of harm’s way; Uriel stopped it from dragging him in by wedging his staff in the toothy opening. Then he channelled Jannick, the clergy monster slayer, and struck it with a blow from the arsenal, formed into a huge broadsword. The mimic roared in agony.
Gupta whispered into Rumdoom’s ear, “It’s still a staircase.”
“We’ll just have to deal with it one step at a time,” said Korrigan.
Rumdoom knew how to deal with inanimate objects, even ones that were alive and moving. He stepped up and struck the thing an almighty blow with his hammer.
Just then, a buzzing noise began above them and grew sharper and more insistent as its source streaked down from the opening to the roof: a pixie, with a noisy prototype motor strapped to its back to replace its missing wings – wings that had been cut off by Lorcan Kell; a pixie in barbed silver-blue armour, wielding a two-handed pick; a pixie that now hollered abuse and challenged them to single combat: “One at a time, or all together! I’ll take you all on, you lumpen upstarts!” This was Azure Lord Blackthorn, who had once been an ally of the unit, and had been a guest of Roland Stanfield for some time.
As he streaked towards Rumdoom, Uru waved a hand and used granny’s boon to destroy Blackthorn’s motorised backpack. With a curse, Azure Lord Blackthorn spiralled out of control, struck a pillar and fell onto his back, where he wriggled like an upturned beetle, filling the air with fey execrations.
Leon hit the mimic with a curse of mouthless muttering – an extremely effective choice under the circumstances. Then Quratulain finished what Uriel and Rumdoom had started and slew the beast.
Delft was shaken by this brush with his phobia-writ-large. Korrigan had been searching for an excuse to side-line Delft without insulting him, for he was still in a bad way despite his bravado. Now Korrigan ordered Delft to arrest Azure Lord Blackthorn and make sure he caused no further trouble. Delft nodded and did as he was told.
The problem of the missing stairs was quickly solved. Uriel waved a hand, and shaped matter to produce a new staircase, and with that they advanced to meet Governor Stanfield.
“Remember,” said Korrigan. “Try not to kill him.”
“I’m afraid that we may have to,” said Uriel.