SanjMerchant
Explorer
I love how everyone wrestles with the ethics of the situation Gupta's created except Rumdoom, who's just all "gods make a very satisfying 'thump' when they hit the floor."
ZEITGEIST [ZEITGEIST] The Continuing Adventures of Korrigan & Co.
- Thread starter gideonpepys
- Start date
gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Actually, he just made a very interesting speech to Korrigan. Details forthcoming in session 242.
gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Session 240, Part Five
Reflection
You awake, scattered across the ground in a snowy forest. The fey are not here. And nor is Uriel.
Embers of blazing thistles drift by on a wind, briefly providing enough light to make out the debris of the Coaltongue, nearly crippled but otherwise lying without even a hushed whisper in this night-time wood. Your injuries won’t kill you, and the damage wrought on your vessel can be repaired, but as your gaze drifts upward, you see a starry abyss looking back, its nebulous teeth poised to crush your world.
You are back in Risur, many months after you left. Your mission has failed. Your path to the Gyre has been cut off, and what little hope you had left has, like a candle reaching the end of its wick, guttered and turned to smoke.
They had arrived a few feet from the entrance to the Ziggurat of Av. The once-stone building was still formed from brass, but the fires in the Antwalk Thicket had long-since died out, and the trees and greenery had grown back. Bizarrely, though, the whole scene was coated in an inch of snow and the temperature was freezing – far colder than any part of Risur became at any time of year. The leaves were brittle and coated in ice.
Some distance away, a section of the forest had been cleared to make way for a railroad which stretched away to the south. That was new! A train had been parked here, but the crash of the Coaltongue had derailed it.
The unit and the crew were wholly uninjured and rested.
Of course, they noticed Uriel wasn’t with them immediately, and tried to make contact to no avail. But before long they were distracted: The crew of the Coaltongue were helping two figures out of the wreckage. Admiral Smith waved to get their attention, and they could see that Benedict Pemberton and Pardo had taken possession of the duplicants they had stowed on board (hoping to join them in their quest to the Gyre).
They strode purposefully towards them, Pemberton limping from damage to his duplicant. He began to speak some distance away and continued to yell even as they drew closer:
“Am I glad to see you. Just in the nick of time as always. How did it go?”
They told him their mission had failed, less than a day after they reach Av.
Pemberton was crestfallen. “A day? You’ve been gone for months! As far as everyone else is concerned you’re dead and gone! To say things haven’t gone well in your absence would be an understatement. I might be your only ally left in the whole world.”
He gestured at the derailed train. “The new ruler of Risur built this railroad to help access the plane of Jiese through the portal in the Ziggurat, but ‘local fauna’ forced them to abandon that project, so they sealed the portal. That was several months ago, and the world has gotten dangerously cold since then, but I’m not sure if the two are related.” Korrigan was keen to find out who this new ruler might be, but politely waited for a pause in Pemberton’s story. (A pause which never came.)
Pemberton recounted the events of the past few months. It began with soldiers captured from the invading armies in Risur, soldiers who were possessed by powerful Obscurati ghosts. They let themselves be taken to prisoner of war camps, where they overpowered the unsuspecting guards, before they triggered the formation of hiveminds. Somehow the possessing ghosts managed to stabilize the hiveminds so they were able to draw people in and make them obey, but the hivemind did not become insanely single-minded like previous manifestations had. The Risuri soldiers, outnumbered by the prisoners, weren’t able to resist the combined psychic will, and they became loyal to the Obscurati.
This continued like an avalanche rolling down a hill; the more people caught in the hivemind, the more easily it could pull others into itself. It spread faster than a disease; it spread like an idea, and almost as soon as someone became aware of the risk, their minds were overwhelmed.
Most of Pemberton’s duplicant spies were discovered and absorbed into these new hiveminds, but before that happened he learned of panic in numerous cities. People had only a vague idea what was happening, but knew that crowds were a threat, so many fled had into the wilderness.
“Me and my gnolls are fairly safe on our island, I hope. But I can’t speak for anyone else.”
While Pemberton went on to suggest that they use his secret base as the launch-pad for a counter-strike, Korrigan, Uriel and Gupta became aware that Pardo had sidled away from the group and was stood with his head cocked at a very strange angle. He noticed their attention, and so did Pemberton, who stopped talking. Before his master’s gaze, Pardo cowered like a beaten whelp.
“I’m sorry, boss,” he whimpered.
Pemberton uttered a first querulous syllable before it was cut off with an involuntary cry of pain, the source of which could not be determined. But it was clearly agonising and sustained, and no sooner had it begun than Pemberton’s duplicant collapsed to the ground, no longer occupied.
Before the unit could focus their ire on Pardo, a shining portal appeared in the air close by, and a horde of foes materialised: dozens of highly advanced military constructs, and with them two Ob necromancers, Xavier Sangrea, Campion Pryce-Hill, Justin Rollins and Lauryn Cyneburg. The unit braced itself, but did not engage in hostilities right away. The Risuri Minister of Infiltration pulled the portal shut with a snap of her fingers. “Hm,” she said, glancing at how close they arrived. “My aim has improved.”
In the centre of the ambush party stood a man so nondescript and non-threatening that they didn’t notice him until he spoke: “Of course you would show up a day before I solve this. I suppose you think you’re swooping in to,” he chuckled, “‘save the world’?”
He took a drag on his cigarette. Some of the unit recognised this host body as the courier Nicodemus occupied when they first encountered him, outside Reed Macbannin’s mansion. He went on:
“Your former allies, who now see the wisdom of my new world order, told me your mission. You were going to use the Axis Seal yourself with your own new planes.
“Imitation is flattery, and I’m glad you wanted to follow my lead, but it was your noses stuck where things didn’t need sticking that caused the situation we’re in. I assure you we have ‘saving the world’ in hand, and this will all turn out tidy and safe if you don’t cause any more trouble. But maybe you’ve found something useful?”
He sucked in a long drag from his cigarette, cracked a charming smile, and gestured for the unit to respond. They chose not to.
“Perhaps not? Oh well, maybe you’ll listen to reason, then. Your friend Doctor von Recklinghausen,” and here he nodded at Gupta, “was able to use autopsies of the Gidim to figure out how to stabilize the hivemind effect. It’s much more complicated and technological than just that,” he added nonchalantly, “but I’ll only reveal more to those who are members of my ‘conspiracy’.”
“So here’s my final offer for you to work with me, rather than against me. Rest assured that I have a new plan for the Axis Seal which will put an end to all the chaos that broke out since the Great Eclipse, and I promise that if you pledge your loyalty I’ll surrender to you once the ritual is complete, to let you judge if my actions were justified. Of course, pledging loyalty in this case entails being bonded to a hivemind, so you don’t turn against me at the eleventh hour, so you’ll just have to trust me, but I promise, once this is all over…”
“You’re not too good at keeping your promises,” said Korrigan.
“Tell us,” said Leon, “Are you more confident now than you were before all the eladrin women were killed?”
“Or before the sun disappeared?” said Uru.
Their glib responses were more infuriating to Nicodemus than a stoic or melodramatic refusal might have been. The kind of anger they last saw in Cherage flickered across his features.
“You’ll have to excuse us, but you’ve given us a lot of material,” said Korrigan. “We could burn you all day.”
“You failures!” Nicodemus erupted. “Your greatest achievement is failing to prevent me from saving the world. You’re sentimental saboteurs, blindly clinging to antiquated morals, measuring the suffering of people today over progress and the needs of countless yet to be born. I am creating the shape of things to come, and in that new world, people like you will have to go!”
At that, his welcome party moved to attack.
Uriel, from his ethereal vantage, focused his mind and desperately sought a means to make himself known, or to intervene.
End of Session
Reflection
You awake, scattered across the ground in a snowy forest. The fey are not here. And nor is Uriel.
Embers of blazing thistles drift by on a wind, briefly providing enough light to make out the debris of the Coaltongue, nearly crippled but otherwise lying without even a hushed whisper in this night-time wood. Your injuries won’t kill you, and the damage wrought on your vessel can be repaired, but as your gaze drifts upward, you see a starry abyss looking back, its nebulous teeth poised to crush your world.
You are back in Risur, many months after you left. Your mission has failed. Your path to the Gyre has been cut off, and what little hope you had left has, like a candle reaching the end of its wick, guttered and turned to smoke.
They had arrived a few feet from the entrance to the Ziggurat of Av. The once-stone building was still formed from brass, but the fires in the Antwalk Thicket had long-since died out, and the trees and greenery had grown back. Bizarrely, though, the whole scene was coated in an inch of snow and the temperature was freezing – far colder than any part of Risur became at any time of year. The leaves were brittle and coated in ice.
Some distance away, a section of the forest had been cleared to make way for a railroad which stretched away to the south. That was new! A train had been parked here, but the crash of the Coaltongue had derailed it.
The unit and the crew were wholly uninjured and rested.
Of course, they noticed Uriel wasn’t with them immediately, and tried to make contact to no avail. But before long they were distracted: The crew of the Coaltongue were helping two figures out of the wreckage. Admiral Smith waved to get their attention, and they could see that Benedict Pemberton and Pardo had taken possession of the duplicants they had stowed on board (hoping to join them in their quest to the Gyre).
They strode purposefully towards them, Pemberton limping from damage to his duplicant. He began to speak some distance away and continued to yell even as they drew closer:
“Am I glad to see you. Just in the nick of time as always. How did it go?”
They told him their mission had failed, less than a day after they reach Av.
Pemberton was crestfallen. “A day? You’ve been gone for months! As far as everyone else is concerned you’re dead and gone! To say things haven’t gone well in your absence would be an understatement. I might be your only ally left in the whole world.”
He gestured at the derailed train. “The new ruler of Risur built this railroad to help access the plane of Jiese through the portal in the Ziggurat, but ‘local fauna’ forced them to abandon that project, so they sealed the portal. That was several months ago, and the world has gotten dangerously cold since then, but I’m not sure if the two are related.” Korrigan was keen to find out who this new ruler might be, but politely waited for a pause in Pemberton’s story. (A pause which never came.)
Pemberton recounted the events of the past few months. It began with soldiers captured from the invading armies in Risur, soldiers who were possessed by powerful Obscurati ghosts. They let themselves be taken to prisoner of war camps, where they overpowered the unsuspecting guards, before they triggered the formation of hiveminds. Somehow the possessing ghosts managed to stabilize the hiveminds so they were able to draw people in and make them obey, but the hivemind did not become insanely single-minded like previous manifestations had. The Risuri soldiers, outnumbered by the prisoners, weren’t able to resist the combined psychic will, and they became loyal to the Obscurati.
This continued like an avalanche rolling down a hill; the more people caught in the hivemind, the more easily it could pull others into itself. It spread faster than a disease; it spread like an idea, and almost as soon as someone became aware of the risk, their minds were overwhelmed.
Most of Pemberton’s duplicant spies were discovered and absorbed into these new hiveminds, but before that happened he learned of panic in numerous cities. People had only a vague idea what was happening, but knew that crowds were a threat, so many fled had into the wilderness.
“Me and my gnolls are fairly safe on our island, I hope. But I can’t speak for anyone else.”
While Pemberton went on to suggest that they use his secret base as the launch-pad for a counter-strike, Korrigan, Uriel and Gupta became aware that Pardo had sidled away from the group and was stood with his head cocked at a very strange angle. He noticed their attention, and so did Pemberton, who stopped talking. Before his master’s gaze, Pardo cowered like a beaten whelp.
“I’m sorry, boss,” he whimpered.
Pemberton uttered a first querulous syllable before it was cut off with an involuntary cry of pain, the source of which could not be determined. But it was clearly agonising and sustained, and no sooner had it begun than Pemberton’s duplicant collapsed to the ground, no longer occupied.
Before the unit could focus their ire on Pardo, a shining portal appeared in the air close by, and a horde of foes materialised: dozens of highly advanced military constructs, and with them two Ob necromancers, Xavier Sangrea, Campion Pryce-Hill, Justin Rollins and Lauryn Cyneburg. The unit braced itself, but did not engage in hostilities right away. The Risuri Minister of Infiltration pulled the portal shut with a snap of her fingers. “Hm,” she said, glancing at how close they arrived. “My aim has improved.”
In the centre of the ambush party stood a man so nondescript and non-threatening that they didn’t notice him until he spoke: “Of course you would show up a day before I solve this. I suppose you think you’re swooping in to,” he chuckled, “‘save the world’?”
He took a drag on his cigarette. Some of the unit recognised this host body as the courier Nicodemus occupied when they first encountered him, outside Reed Macbannin’s mansion. He went on:
“Your former allies, who now see the wisdom of my new world order, told me your mission. You were going to use the Axis Seal yourself with your own new planes.
“Imitation is flattery, and I’m glad you wanted to follow my lead, but it was your noses stuck where things didn’t need sticking that caused the situation we’re in. I assure you we have ‘saving the world’ in hand, and this will all turn out tidy and safe if you don’t cause any more trouble. But maybe you’ve found something useful?”
He sucked in a long drag from his cigarette, cracked a charming smile, and gestured for the unit to respond. They chose not to.
“Perhaps not? Oh well, maybe you’ll listen to reason, then. Your friend Doctor von Recklinghausen,” and here he nodded at Gupta, “was able to use autopsies of the Gidim to figure out how to stabilize the hivemind effect. It’s much more complicated and technological than just that,” he added nonchalantly, “but I’ll only reveal more to those who are members of my ‘conspiracy’.”
“So here’s my final offer for you to work with me, rather than against me. Rest assured that I have a new plan for the Axis Seal which will put an end to all the chaos that broke out since the Great Eclipse, and I promise that if you pledge your loyalty I’ll surrender to you once the ritual is complete, to let you judge if my actions were justified. Of course, pledging loyalty in this case entails being bonded to a hivemind, so you don’t turn against me at the eleventh hour, so you’ll just have to trust me, but I promise, once this is all over…”
“You’re not too good at keeping your promises,” said Korrigan.
“Tell us,” said Leon, “Are you more confident now than you were before all the eladrin women were killed?”
“Or before the sun disappeared?” said Uru.
Their glib responses were more infuriating to Nicodemus than a stoic or melodramatic refusal might have been. The kind of anger they last saw in Cherage flickered across his features.
“You’ll have to excuse us, but you’ve given us a lot of material,” said Korrigan. “We could burn you all day.”
“You failures!” Nicodemus erupted. “Your greatest achievement is failing to prevent me from saving the world. You’re sentimental saboteurs, blindly clinging to antiquated morals, measuring the suffering of people today over progress and the needs of countless yet to be born. I am creating the shape of things to come, and in that new world, people like you will have to go!”
At that, his welcome party moved to attack.
Uriel, from his ethereal vantage, focused his mind and desperately sought a means to make himself known, or to intervene.
End of Session
RangerWickett
Legend
“You’ll have to excuse us, but you’ve given us a lot of material,” said Korrigan. “We could burn you all day.”
Daaaaaaamn.
Daaaaaaamn.
gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Session 241, Part One
Ambush Squad Battle - Round 1
Quratulain was first off the mark, strafing the enemy with force beams from her blaster, to test their defences. She hit a construct, Nicodemus’ host, Pardo, one of the occultists and Justin Rollins. None of them dropped save Nicodemus, who fell to his knees. His head sagged on to his chest. Only the fact that he raised his cigarette to his mouth betrayed the fact that he was still alive.
Uru delivered the killing blow to Rollins, without pausing to consider whether or not the royal technologist was compelled or dominated in any way. Though Rollins stopped chuckling in his usual, avuncular manner, and his legs gave way for moment, he stood back up and kept on going, though the way his limbs moved was odd.
Leon teleported into the ideal position to bathe the foe with a pacifying light from the Wayfarer’s Lantern. When they levelled their weapons at him, he realised it hadn’t worked; the Ob were not to be undone by their own weapon! Quick as a flash, he teleported out of danger again.
With Lauryn Cyneburg involved, Leon was not the only one to bampf around the battlefield. She appeared in the very midst of the fight, cocked her head for a moment as if calculating, and then the entire battlefield shifted. Everyone was repositioned according to her whim; individual unit members moved adjacent to foes who appeared to be waiting for them. Then she teleported away again, to the top of the ziggurat.
Pardo was now next to Gupta. He pounced and knocked her prone, then used his devour anima power to draw one of her key powers out of her mind. She had seen him do this before, guessed which power he was after, and resisted.
Korrigan counselled his allies to conserve their strength if possible: from what Nicodemus had said, this was going to be a long day. Then he responded to Cyneburg’s manoeuvre by giving tactical orders of his own: Gupta jumped back to her feet on his command; Uru leapt out of Campion’s reach; Rumdoom – surrounded by a half-circle of constructs, protecting the two occultists who were already weaving a spell against him – dashed forward to knock these defenders out of the way. Quratulain said, “I’m fine, thank you,” and stayed where she was, surrounded by constructs.
The construct squads attacked everyone they could, either with grindsaw arms in melee, or with a turret fusillade. Quratulain was beset by a dozen of them. She fought them off as best she could, then lobbed a grenade at her own feet and excluded herself from the blast with the firesight eye. The constructs were badly damaged but kept on coming.
Pardo sought to keep Gupta from escaping him: a barely visible coil of psychic energy streaked from his mind into hers. Again she fought it off, realising at once that this was not an ordinary aspect of his suite of capabilities. Something was amiss here.
Justin Rollins had been planted in the very epicentre of the fight, where he was able to draw a bead on all enemies, and lay down suppressive fire with his pistols. He also summoned a mechanized shotgun, which hovered in the air beside him, and began firing repeatedly at Korrigan. Having done so, he tried the same sinister psychic trick that Pardo had, but Korrigan’s mind was a bastion.
Cyneburg had cleared a nice big space next to Xavier Sangrea. He took out a glowing crystal, threw it into this space and thereby summoned a gargantuan entity which most of the unit recognised from their adventure on the Avery Coast Rial Line: the Screaming Malice! He muttered arcane words of control and the beast lurched towards the unit.
Uru was right next to it, backed away as best he could, and cried out, “Ash wolf! We call upon your promised aid, here in the very place where we rendered ours!”
Campion Price-Hill wasn’t about to allow his target to slip away further. “Come here, you slippery little wanker,” he snarled, trying to use the same strange psychic power that all of these Ob fighters seemed to possess. But Uru was no longer the slouch he had been when it came to sheer willpower. He was a titan-in-training! Campion gave a cry of frustration when the spell didn’t work and launched himself at Uru wielding long knives.
Keen to put some distance between herself and the relentless Pardo, Gupta used her Golden Icon of Apet. Instead of taking her up to the first tier of the ziggurat as intended, she found herself diverted to the very top. (“A dimension beacon!” Leon realised.) This planted her right next to Lauryn Cyneburg, and so she used the very power Pardo had tried to strip from her, asking her a question to befuddle her mind: “Did you really think I didn’t want to be next to you?” But it didn’t work! Cyneburg’s mind was shielded in some way, a fact Gupta reported to the others. (It must have been something to do with the hivemind phenomenon Pemberton had warned them about.) Cyneburg responded with a spiteful punch. “This really wasn’t how I wanted to spend my afternoon,” she sneered. Gupta found herself thrown through the air, landing on the steps further down the ziggurat.
As Rumdoom crashed towards them through the construct squad, the Ob occultists worked together to summon shadowy tendrils that curled all about the Stone of Not, and sought to wrest it from Rumdoom’s grasp. Rumdoom yanked it free, and Notted one of the nethermancers, obliterating him entirely.
The Screaming Malice shrieked a bloodcurdling shriek, freezing the marrow of both Uru and Rumdoom and, having thus fixated them, sought to swallow them whole. Uru only just managed to throw himself out of harm’s way. Rumdoom found himself caught in its great maw and struggled to free himself. It was tempting to grow to giant size, but he decided to save that for ‘important people’. …
At the very edge of the battle, Amielle Latimer appeared. Her arrival provoked disembodied wails of protest and anger that seemed to emanate from within their foes! “They’re possessed!” Amielle shouted, taking aim with her rife. “Controlled by the ghost council!”
They needed to be freed – at the very least, Cyneburg did. (It was too late for Rollins, and Pardo was in duplicant form.) Uriel, watching all this, unseen, felt that he could help, if only he could make himself known somehow, or better yet manifest on the battlefield. As he focused his mind and strove to convert what he was seeing from a mere vision to a new reality, testing the idea of translating himself form once place to another, he was struck by a sudden realisation: The act of doing so would be the very thing that prevented him from returning from the Gyre as the others had. It would stretch his soul too thinly. If he pulled back, he might be able to find away to return to Lanjyr in physical form.
Uriel brushed aside all of his doubts and concern for himself, and determined to communicate with his friends at all costs.
Ambush Squad Battle - Round 1
Quratulain was first off the mark, strafing the enemy with force beams from her blaster, to test their defences. She hit a construct, Nicodemus’ host, Pardo, one of the occultists and Justin Rollins. None of them dropped save Nicodemus, who fell to his knees. His head sagged on to his chest. Only the fact that he raised his cigarette to his mouth betrayed the fact that he was still alive.
Uru delivered the killing blow to Rollins, without pausing to consider whether or not the royal technologist was compelled or dominated in any way. Though Rollins stopped chuckling in his usual, avuncular manner, and his legs gave way for moment, he stood back up and kept on going, though the way his limbs moved was odd.
Leon teleported into the ideal position to bathe the foe with a pacifying light from the Wayfarer’s Lantern. When they levelled their weapons at him, he realised it hadn’t worked; the Ob were not to be undone by their own weapon! Quick as a flash, he teleported out of danger again.
With Lauryn Cyneburg involved, Leon was not the only one to bampf around the battlefield. She appeared in the very midst of the fight, cocked her head for a moment as if calculating, and then the entire battlefield shifted. Everyone was repositioned according to her whim; individual unit members moved adjacent to foes who appeared to be waiting for them. Then she teleported away again, to the top of the ziggurat.
Pardo was now next to Gupta. He pounced and knocked her prone, then used his devour anima power to draw one of her key powers out of her mind. She had seen him do this before, guessed which power he was after, and resisted.
Korrigan counselled his allies to conserve their strength if possible: from what Nicodemus had said, this was going to be a long day. Then he responded to Cyneburg’s manoeuvre by giving tactical orders of his own: Gupta jumped back to her feet on his command; Uru leapt out of Campion’s reach; Rumdoom – surrounded by a half-circle of constructs, protecting the two occultists who were already weaving a spell against him – dashed forward to knock these defenders out of the way. Quratulain said, “I’m fine, thank you,” and stayed where she was, surrounded by constructs.
The construct squads attacked everyone they could, either with grindsaw arms in melee, or with a turret fusillade. Quratulain was beset by a dozen of them. She fought them off as best she could, then lobbed a grenade at her own feet and excluded herself from the blast with the firesight eye. The constructs were badly damaged but kept on coming.
Pardo sought to keep Gupta from escaping him: a barely visible coil of psychic energy streaked from his mind into hers. Again she fought it off, realising at once that this was not an ordinary aspect of his suite of capabilities. Something was amiss here.
Justin Rollins had been planted in the very epicentre of the fight, where he was able to draw a bead on all enemies, and lay down suppressive fire with his pistols. He also summoned a mechanized shotgun, which hovered in the air beside him, and began firing repeatedly at Korrigan. Having done so, he tried the same sinister psychic trick that Pardo had, but Korrigan’s mind was a bastion.
Cyneburg had cleared a nice big space next to Xavier Sangrea. He took out a glowing crystal, threw it into this space and thereby summoned a gargantuan entity which most of the unit recognised from their adventure on the Avery Coast Rial Line: the Screaming Malice! He muttered arcane words of control and the beast lurched towards the unit.
Uru was right next to it, backed away as best he could, and cried out, “Ash wolf! We call upon your promised aid, here in the very place where we rendered ours!”
Campion Price-Hill wasn’t about to allow his target to slip away further. “Come here, you slippery little wanker,” he snarled, trying to use the same strange psychic power that all of these Ob fighters seemed to possess. But Uru was no longer the slouch he had been when it came to sheer willpower. He was a titan-in-training! Campion gave a cry of frustration when the spell didn’t work and launched himself at Uru wielding long knives.
Keen to put some distance between herself and the relentless Pardo, Gupta used her Golden Icon of Apet. Instead of taking her up to the first tier of the ziggurat as intended, she found herself diverted to the very top. (“A dimension beacon!” Leon realised.) This planted her right next to Lauryn Cyneburg, and so she used the very power Pardo had tried to strip from her, asking her a question to befuddle her mind: “Did you really think I didn’t want to be next to you?” But it didn’t work! Cyneburg’s mind was shielded in some way, a fact Gupta reported to the others. (It must have been something to do with the hivemind phenomenon Pemberton had warned them about.) Cyneburg responded with a spiteful punch. “This really wasn’t how I wanted to spend my afternoon,” she sneered. Gupta found herself thrown through the air, landing on the steps further down the ziggurat.
As Rumdoom crashed towards them through the construct squad, the Ob occultists worked together to summon shadowy tendrils that curled all about the Stone of Not, and sought to wrest it from Rumdoom’s grasp. Rumdoom yanked it free, and Notted one of the nethermancers, obliterating him entirely.
The Screaming Malice shrieked a bloodcurdling shriek, freezing the marrow of both Uru and Rumdoom and, having thus fixated them, sought to swallow them whole. Uru only just managed to throw himself out of harm’s way. Rumdoom found himself caught in its great maw and struggled to free himself. It was tempting to grow to giant size, but he decided to save that for ‘important people’. …
At the very edge of the battle, Amielle Latimer appeared. Her arrival provoked disembodied wails of protest and anger that seemed to emanate from within their foes! “They’re possessed!” Amielle shouted, taking aim with her rife. “Controlled by the ghost council!”
They needed to be freed – at the very least, Cyneburg did. (It was too late for Rollins, and Pardo was in duplicant form.) Uriel, watching all this, unseen, felt that he could help, if only he could make himself known somehow, or better yet manifest on the battlefield. As he focused his mind and strove to convert what he was seeing from a mere vision to a new reality, testing the idea of translating himself form once place to another, he was struck by a sudden realisation: The act of doing so would be the very thing that prevented him from returning from the Gyre as the others had. It would stretch his soul too thinly. If he pulled back, he might be able to find away to return to Lanjyr in physical form.
Uriel brushed aside all of his doubts and concern for himself, and determined to communicate with his friends at all costs.
Last edited:
gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Session 241, Part Two
Round 2
The attempt was all-but impossible; to return from the Gyre in any way, shape or form could not be done. Uriel tackled the challenge with every ounce of his strength, every scintilla of his substantial intellect, but he could not find a way, at least for now.
Meanwhile, the fight before the ziggurat raged on:
Quratulain threw another grenade at her own feet, and this time blew the construct squad to smithereens. She fired another towards Korrigan, exluding him from harm and damaging the constructs that had mobbed him. Then she took a pot-shot at the occultist she had injured earlier. Insubstantiality could not save him from her blaster beam and he fell.
Uru responded to the arrival of the slow-moving Malice by calling upon the genius loci. The spirits of the Antwalk Thicket rose up in his defence and began to attack all of his foes. Uru caused the very earth itself to rise up and surround Justin Rollins, ending his suppressive fire and the incessant pounding of his shotgun.
Leon focused on the ghost council and realised that they could be harmed by the usual means, but while using force or magical weaponry would also harm the host, psychic attacks could ‘kill’ the ghosts themselves. He tried a quick mire the mind on both Xavier and Pardo, but the ghost council prevented such magic from affecting them. Mind control and charms were no use.
Another trait imbued by the ghosts was suddenly revealed when Pardo took flight, literally spirited through the air, honing in on Gupta, who was still stumbling down the steps of the ziggurat.
Korrigan came up with an idea to allow the unit to regroup: He ordered them all to use Fourmyle Jaunt at once. They followed his orders, and one by one were diverted to the top of the ziggurat! Rumdoom teleported himself out of the jaws of the Screaming Malice, took a breath and shrugged off the malign influence of its piercing shriek.
Justin Rollins flew out of the trap Uru had placed him in and flew in pursuit of more targets, as did Xavier Sangrea.
Gupta whispered a fey incantation and struck Pardo with lightning courtesy of the Father of Thunder. (Quratulain felt a pleasant stirring in a her belly at this.) Then Gupta invoked the magic in her little book on William Miller (ensorcelled in the Navras Opera House) to wink out of sight.
Rumdoom fired his shotgun at Pardo.
The Malice shrieked again, denied fresh victims, and began to lumber towards them. In the distance, deep in the forest, it was answered by a vast, lupine howl.
The Ash Wolf!
Again, Uriel tried to translate himself into this time and place. Even with Gupta’s aid, he could not do so. The effort was very taxing. How much use would he be if and when he arrived? At the very least he could tell them to keep fighting, to oppose the Ob at every step, in the knowledge that their other selves were still scouring the Gyre, and that he would find a way to get the golden icons to them.
Round 2
The attempt was all-but impossible; to return from the Gyre in any way, shape or form could not be done. Uriel tackled the challenge with every ounce of his strength, every scintilla of his substantial intellect, but he could not find a way, at least for now.
Meanwhile, the fight before the ziggurat raged on:
Quratulain threw another grenade at her own feet, and this time blew the construct squad to smithereens. She fired another towards Korrigan, exluding him from harm and damaging the constructs that had mobbed him. Then she took a pot-shot at the occultist she had injured earlier. Insubstantiality could not save him from her blaster beam and he fell.
Uru responded to the arrival of the slow-moving Malice by calling upon the genius loci. The spirits of the Antwalk Thicket rose up in his defence and began to attack all of his foes. Uru caused the very earth itself to rise up and surround Justin Rollins, ending his suppressive fire and the incessant pounding of his shotgun.
Leon focused on the ghost council and realised that they could be harmed by the usual means, but while using force or magical weaponry would also harm the host, psychic attacks could ‘kill’ the ghosts themselves. He tried a quick mire the mind on both Xavier and Pardo, but the ghost council prevented such magic from affecting them. Mind control and charms were no use.
Another trait imbued by the ghosts was suddenly revealed when Pardo took flight, literally spirited through the air, honing in on Gupta, who was still stumbling down the steps of the ziggurat.
Korrigan came up with an idea to allow the unit to regroup: He ordered them all to use Fourmyle Jaunt at once. They followed his orders, and one by one were diverted to the top of the ziggurat! Rumdoom teleported himself out of the jaws of the Screaming Malice, took a breath and shrugged off the malign influence of its piercing shriek.
Justin Rollins flew out of the trap Uru had placed him in and flew in pursuit of more targets, as did Xavier Sangrea.
Gupta whispered a fey incantation and struck Pardo with lightning courtesy of the Father of Thunder. (Quratulain felt a pleasant stirring in a her belly at this.) Then Gupta invoked the magic in her little book on William Miller (ensorcelled in the Navras Opera House) to wink out of sight.
Rumdoom fired his shotgun at Pardo.
The Malice shrieked again, denied fresh victims, and began to lumber towards them. In the distance, deep in the forest, it was answered by a vast, lupine howl.
The Ash Wolf!
Again, Uriel tried to translate himself into this time and place. Even with Gupta’s aid, he could not do so. The effort was very taxing. How much use would he be if and when he arrived? At the very least he could tell them to keep fighting, to oppose the Ob at every step, in the knowledge that their other selves were still scouring the Gyre, and that he would find a way to get the golden icons to them.
RangerWickett
Legend
In a campaign this long, I wonder how many of the returning NPCs the players recall. Do they enjoy everyone here being a familiar face?
Nice trick with using the teleportation beacon to regroup.
Nice trick with using the teleportation beacon to regroup.
gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Yes, I'm always gratified by the level of player buy-in. The only character who they didn't recognise straight away was Justin Rollins, who hadn't even been mentioned since Sept 2017! (And in passing at that.) Sangrea had been quite the focal point for a while, and I'd reintroduced him as one of Nicodemus' guards during the Forward Symposium.
I added him (and Campion Price-Hill) to bump up numbers for my larger group. You'll notice, also, that Pemberton and Pardo were at hand because they had duplicants stowed on the Coaltongue, rather than through divination or prediction. Just a bit of DM preference, but it also means the players' actions (inviting them along in the first place) had a greater impact than they might have otherwise.
Also - what happened to Pemberton? (After he screamed in pain and vanished.) Two things: Firstly, I need another solo mission for my six-man group. (Okay, there's seven, but we'll get to that some other time.) Rescuing Pemberton will be one of those. I figured if the Ob had taken control of his gnolls, they wouldn't miss the chance to try to deal with him, and have already proven themselves capable of taking out dragons if they need to, when they almost did for Harkover during the assassintation of Aodhan. Now all I need to do is decide which major Ob NPC to put in charge of that. Lya maybe?
Secondly, I want the duplicants that make the missions possible to be provided by Alden Wondermaker (the Clockwork King) because he was asked to create them months - perhaps even years ago - by King Baldrey.
It was! And a nice use of his simple power to grant a move action to his men: "Everyone! Fourmyle Jaunt! Anywhere! Now!"
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gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Session 241, Part Three
Round 3
Quratulain began firing her lantern blaster at the ghost council’s expendable hosts, first targeting Rollins, who was already dead, kept aloft by their puppet mastery. But Xavier Sangrea used Malice magic to switch the shot to Uru, who cried out in pain, and slumped, despite being hidden.
Uru then used his ghosts to take control of Pardo’s duplicant body and send him to fight the Screaming Malice. It almost worked; Pardo struggled to move in that direction, but the ghosts possessing him re-exerted control .
Leon, who hadn't moved to the top of the ziggurat yet, did so and tried to horrify Lauryn Cyneburg. Again, the magic failed. The ghost council was strong!
Cyneburg responded to all this company by saying she was never one for crowds, then used her famous explosive jaunt trick to plant three fires seeds atop the ziggurat and then bampf away. Both she and Pardo used their gestalt mind power on Korrigan and Quratulain to keep them from moving away from the fire seeds. Quratulain was affected, and rooted to the spot.
Korrigan grabbed Quratulain and jumped off the edge onto the tier below, ordering the others to move too. Uru flew high into the air on Little jack. Rumdoom invoked his Icon of Avilona and flew down to tackle the Screaming Malice again.
All of a sudden, Uriel arrived, appearing, in an oddly translucent form, on the second tier down. “About time,” said Leon, “Where have you been?”
“I’ll explain in a moment,” said Uriel, almost reeling from the effort, before invoking his incarnation Cardinal Tadeas and castigating the ghosts that lurked in Campion and Xavier Sangrea with an extremely powerful divine spell, driving them into range of Cyneburg’s fire seeds.
Sangrea followed Korrigan’s lead and leapt off the upper tier to join Quratulain in melee. This was a mistake. She shot him, point-blank, with her lantern blaster and killed both him and the ghosts that possessed him. She fired again, and dropped Pardo, ghosts and all.
“I’ll deal with Cyneburg!” declared Uriel, concerned that she would be killed without any attempt to free her.
Rumdoom was fending off the remaining constructs when the Screaming Malice attacked him again. Two heads shrieked; two bit down on him, and began a tug of war. Rumdoom swung the Stone of Not and obliterated first one head, then another, freeing himself, but even he was exhausted by now.
Amielle took a pot-shot at another head. A palpable hit, but not the right kind of weapon.
Campion Price-Hill flew up after Uru, determined to take him out. He was wearing special, dark glasses which prevented the deep faen from hiding from him. Uru ducked and dodged, then surrounded himself with a magical cloak of darkness that even Campion could not see through.
Uru flew even higher, and now he could see the tops of the trees swaying as the Ash Wolf charged towards them at great speed!
Round 3
Quratulain began firing her lantern blaster at the ghost council’s expendable hosts, first targeting Rollins, who was already dead, kept aloft by their puppet mastery. But Xavier Sangrea used Malice magic to switch the shot to Uru, who cried out in pain, and slumped, despite being hidden.
Uru then used his ghosts to take control of Pardo’s duplicant body and send him to fight the Screaming Malice. It almost worked; Pardo struggled to move in that direction, but the ghosts possessing him re-exerted control .
Leon, who hadn't moved to the top of the ziggurat yet, did so and tried to horrify Lauryn Cyneburg. Again, the magic failed. The ghost council was strong!
Cyneburg responded to all this company by saying she was never one for crowds, then used her famous explosive jaunt trick to plant three fires seeds atop the ziggurat and then bampf away. Both she and Pardo used their gestalt mind power on Korrigan and Quratulain to keep them from moving away from the fire seeds. Quratulain was affected, and rooted to the spot.
Korrigan grabbed Quratulain and jumped off the edge onto the tier below, ordering the others to move too. Uru flew high into the air on Little jack. Rumdoom invoked his Icon of Avilona and flew down to tackle the Screaming Malice again.
All of a sudden, Uriel arrived, appearing, in an oddly translucent form, on the second tier down. “About time,” said Leon, “Where have you been?”
“I’ll explain in a moment,” said Uriel, almost reeling from the effort, before invoking his incarnation Cardinal Tadeas and castigating the ghosts that lurked in Campion and Xavier Sangrea with an extremely powerful divine spell, driving them into range of Cyneburg’s fire seeds.
Sangrea followed Korrigan’s lead and leapt off the upper tier to join Quratulain in melee. This was a mistake. She shot him, point-blank, with her lantern blaster and killed both him and the ghosts that possessed him. She fired again, and dropped Pardo, ghosts and all.
“I’ll deal with Cyneburg!” declared Uriel, concerned that she would be killed without any attempt to free her.
Rumdoom was fending off the remaining constructs when the Screaming Malice attacked him again. Two heads shrieked; two bit down on him, and began a tug of war. Rumdoom swung the Stone of Not and obliterated first one head, then another, freeing himself, but even he was exhausted by now.
Amielle took a pot-shot at another head. A palpable hit, but not the right kind of weapon.
Campion Price-Hill flew up after Uru, determined to take him out. He was wearing special, dark glasses which prevented the deep faen from hiding from him. Uru ducked and dodged, then surrounded himself with a magical cloak of darkness that even Campion could not see through.
Uru flew even higher, and now he could see the tops of the trees swaying as the Ash Wolf charged towards them at great speed!
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gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Session 241, Part Four
Round 4
“I’m sorry to spoil the excitement,” Quratulain said, apologetically, as she aimed her shrink ray at the Screaming Malice. This proved to be slightly premature, however, as the transmuting magic of her lantern blaster interacted strangely with the intrinsic wild magic of the malice beast. Instead of shrinking, it began to grow more heads! Now it had four more, in addition to the two it then regrew. Oops!
Leon cast a teleportation spell at both Campion Price-Hill and Lauryn Cyneburg, knowing that it would spirit them both to the dimension lock, right next to the fire seeds planted by Cyneburg herself. The fire seeds exploded, injuring both of them. Cyneburg grimaced as she flew out from the cloud of smoke, clothes and hair singed. She landed next to Korrigan and pointed a finger at him – a paralysis spell of some kind. Although he shrugged it off, it prevented him from speaking. “Neat trick,” he said to Cyneburg, telepathically, before using the same means to order Uru to ‘execute the traitor’.
Fortunately, Uru knew exactly who he meant – not Cyneburg, but the only remaining member of the strike force who had sided with the Ob before he was dominated: Campion Price-Hill. He took a great deal of pleasure in finishing the turncoat off with a well-placed shuriken.
Uriel, keen to ensure the same fate didn’t befall Cyneburg, took control of the ghost councillors that were possessing her. He tried to command them to leave, but some aspect of the hivemind phenomenon made that impossible – they were linked to her somehow. Still, it felt as if he had pried them loose. Uru, of all people, suddenly became aware that it would be possible to encourage Cyneburg to fight the hivemind off. (Unbeknownst to the reflected Uru, his Gyre-based self had now unlocked the secrets of the Lost Eye, and knew how best to deal with ethereal undead.) With the combined help of Uru, Uriel and Gupta, Korrigan commanded Cyneburg to get a hold of herself. She gave an agonised cry and then fell to her knees. Uriel could see that she had freed herself and quickly destroyed the ghosts. He did the same to those still controlling the deceased Campion.
“Now, I must talk to you!” he said to the others. “I don’t know how long I’ve got!”
“Wait a moment,” said Korrigan, who didn’t know what he was on about, “the battle is not yet over!”
Many of the unit were truly exhausted now, including even Rumdoom, but the Screaming Malice kept on coming; a few straggling constructs were easily picked off, and though it might have been tempting to withdraw, the Malice could not be left to rampage through the Antwalk.
Fortunately, the Ash Wolf kept on coming too. A fireball hit the malice first, then the Ash Wolf leapt upon it, plunging past its heads and sinking its fangs into its body.
Despite Uriel’s protestations that he had something important to say, Korrigan went to support the titan, as did Quratulain, Rumdoom, all of the others in fact. The Screaming Malice did not last long after that.
When it finally subsided, they became aware of movement at the epicentre of the battle. Uriel sought to speak again, but he was interrupted by Nicodemus, whose host body had managed to light another cigarette and give a hollow laugh, before saying:
“It’s not worth throwing more resources against you in open battle. You’re a terror to behold, it's true, but you will fail because you lack leverage. I do not. If you can set your pride aside for one day, I will have this fixed and we can stop this worthless violence. But continue to move against me and I promise you, every city on this world will burn. In a thousand years, no one will remember their names even if millions die. They will only know that I secured a perfect world. My conscience can abide a scorched earth. Can yours?”
Then Nicodemus abandoned the poor courier, who fell forward onto his face.
“You are dealing with the Avatar of the End!” cried Rumdoom, just a couple of seconds too late.
End of Session
Round 4
“I’m sorry to spoil the excitement,” Quratulain said, apologetically, as she aimed her shrink ray at the Screaming Malice. This proved to be slightly premature, however, as the transmuting magic of her lantern blaster interacted strangely with the intrinsic wild magic of the malice beast. Instead of shrinking, it began to grow more heads! Now it had four more, in addition to the two it then regrew. Oops!
Leon cast a teleportation spell at both Campion Price-Hill and Lauryn Cyneburg, knowing that it would spirit them both to the dimension lock, right next to the fire seeds planted by Cyneburg herself. The fire seeds exploded, injuring both of them. Cyneburg grimaced as she flew out from the cloud of smoke, clothes and hair singed. She landed next to Korrigan and pointed a finger at him – a paralysis spell of some kind. Although he shrugged it off, it prevented him from speaking. “Neat trick,” he said to Cyneburg, telepathically, before using the same means to order Uru to ‘execute the traitor’.
Fortunately, Uru knew exactly who he meant – not Cyneburg, but the only remaining member of the strike force who had sided with the Ob before he was dominated: Campion Price-Hill. He took a great deal of pleasure in finishing the turncoat off with a well-placed shuriken.
Uriel, keen to ensure the same fate didn’t befall Cyneburg, took control of the ghost councillors that were possessing her. He tried to command them to leave, but some aspect of the hivemind phenomenon made that impossible – they were linked to her somehow. Still, it felt as if he had pried them loose. Uru, of all people, suddenly became aware that it would be possible to encourage Cyneburg to fight the hivemind off. (Unbeknownst to the reflected Uru, his Gyre-based self had now unlocked the secrets of the Lost Eye, and knew how best to deal with ethereal undead.) With the combined help of Uru, Uriel and Gupta, Korrigan commanded Cyneburg to get a hold of herself. She gave an agonised cry and then fell to her knees. Uriel could see that she had freed herself and quickly destroyed the ghosts. He did the same to those still controlling the deceased Campion.
“Now, I must talk to you!” he said to the others. “I don’t know how long I’ve got!”
“Wait a moment,” said Korrigan, who didn’t know what he was on about, “the battle is not yet over!”
Many of the unit were truly exhausted now, including even Rumdoom, but the Screaming Malice kept on coming; a few straggling constructs were easily picked off, and though it might have been tempting to withdraw, the Malice could not be left to rampage through the Antwalk.
Fortunately, the Ash Wolf kept on coming too. A fireball hit the malice first, then the Ash Wolf leapt upon it, plunging past its heads and sinking its fangs into its body.
Despite Uriel’s protestations that he had something important to say, Korrigan went to support the titan, as did Quratulain, Rumdoom, all of the others in fact. The Screaming Malice did not last long after that.
When it finally subsided, they became aware of movement at the epicentre of the battle. Uriel sought to speak again, but he was interrupted by Nicodemus, whose host body had managed to light another cigarette and give a hollow laugh, before saying:
“It’s not worth throwing more resources against you in open battle. You’re a terror to behold, it's true, but you will fail because you lack leverage. I do not. If you can set your pride aside for one day, I will have this fixed and we can stop this worthless violence. But continue to move against me and I promise you, every city on this world will burn. In a thousand years, no one will remember their names even if millions die. They will only know that I secured a perfect world. My conscience can abide a scorched earth. Can yours?”
Then Nicodemus abandoned the poor courier, who fell forward onto his face.
“You are dealing with the Avatar of the End!” cried Rumdoom, just a couple of seconds too late.
End of Session
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