I am... terrified about this campaign report. I just started what should be a heavily-modified 5e Zeitgeist campaign, and I stumble upon a campaign log unfolding over 8 years and going... The thread is extremely interesting (so the point of this post is mostly to thank Team Korrigan and their DM), and I suppose I should start my own recap, but I am not sure my players will have the stamina of such a long endeavour.
ZEITGEIST [ZEITGEIST] The Continuing Adventures of Korrigan & Co.
gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
First of all, thank you for your kind words - you are most welcome.
Secondly, and more importantly, some reassurance:
- We took a huge, three-year mid-campaign hiatus, from 2014 to 2017.
- We've covered Acts II and III since then.
- The only reason Act I appears to have taken so long is that we ran sizable 'buffer adventures' between the first five adventures. Not just side-quests or diversions, but entire 'modules'. So that Act, for us, was ten adventures long.
- Our approach to #8, Diaspora, saw the globe-trotting events expanded to encompass the character arc of one of the PCs, to such an extent that it doubled the length of the adventure, taking us 7 months.
gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Session 247, Part One
His Celestial Eruption, General Paelyrion XVIII
A sudden flash in the teleportation circle saw the arrival of another pit fiend – this one looking battered, scarred and very, very angry. It was Pahlo Vilk, the fiend they had faced on Elofasp, and the sole survivor of the legion’s outpost there. It had taken this long for him to accept defeat and flee, and now he saw the architects of his failure, here in the throne room of Paelyrion. Vilk gave a terrible roar and summoned a golden legion company to his side. The other two pit fiends did likewise, and the throne room was suddenly filled with devils.
Uru shot and killed the injured pit fiend, vanishing into the gloom of the grim candle. Thisraldion decapitated the two remaining succubi. Ordinarily all this prancing and lopping would have exhausted him, but the fey monarch was fabulously invigorated by the oil of Colossus in the wayfarer lantern – as was everyone else.
Korrigan’s body still lay trapped beneath the mound of treasure Paelyrion had dropped on him, but had entered into a kind of trance or stasis while his mental projection ranged about the battlefield. Seeing the tide of battle shift, he flew to the centre of the chamber and gave orders which the others followed: Leon teleported Rumdoom out of the lava and away from Master Chyak; Rumdoom arrived, slumped and smoking in one of the horned devil’s plush chairs; “Mind the leather!” bellowed Paelyrion, eyes flashing; Uriel came up alongside Rumdoom and fully healed him with a single touch; Rumdoom struggled to his feet.
Quratulain, who had been backing up the Huldregarl at the top of the spiral stairs, heard Vilk’s bellow and responded to this new threat, activating her jet boots to reach the throne room quickly, and drawing her vekeshi blade to shield her from the pit fiend’s fiery aura. Appraising the situation in an instant, she threw a grenade into the midst of the remaining elite star unit, killing them. Leon then used his nightmare power to confuse Vilk, who began to swing his golden mace at the legionnaires he had summoned. Knowing that his mind was stronger than some of the other unit members, Leon also teleported next to one of the central mirrors, causing it to darken. Gupta switched to hybrid form so she could cast bone-pointing at Vilk. The fiend would need to steady its mind or take terrible psychic damage, but it was driven by the nightmare inflicted by Leon, and fought on.
Using the telepathic network Korrigan had established with their allies (all save Rock, who stubbornly continued to wear his tin-foil hat) Calily spoke to them: “Where are you now?” she asked. “Have you located Master Chyak?” They confirmed that they had, and were in the process of trying to free him. “Is there any visual clue as to your whereabouts that we could see from above?” she asked. They told her that they were behind a large window above the twin rivers of lava. (A quick glance out of that window revealed point defences firing incessantly. Though they couldn’t see the target, Amielle had told them that both Rock and the Caeloon monks had broken ranks and left the fog cloud; Doverspike, too. The dragon had gone to investigate the brand towers and had disappeared inside.)
Now that they were ruining his upholstery, Paelyrion got personally involved. He teleported from his throne onto the long table, next to Uriel, Korrigan and Rumdoom, clawed his own palm, which began to blaze instead of bleed, and blasted them all with terrible fire, hot enough to burn even Korrigan in his astral form. Then the general ordered all of his legionnaires to attack. They teleported from all sides to surround Uriel, Korrigan and Rumdoom, and assail them with their spears. Vilk followed the legionnaires he had summoned, flailing at them with his mace, coming to a halt atop the pile of treasure beneath which Korrigan still lay.
Uru took advantage of Paelyrion’s removal and occupied his throne. At once he realised that this was a control mechanism for the unsustainable energy levels that the legion siphoned off the caldera, preventing it from exploding. If only he could figure out how it worked…
Master Chyak saw Leon was isolated and leapt across the room towards him. A pit fiend followed. Master Chyak paused only to find Leon’s weak point, then struck his sternum with a powerful blow. The tiefling’s vision blurred as colours transposed across the spectrum, and he felt snapping throughout his body, as if a thousand tiny ligaments had torn. Leon reeled, as if trying to learn how to use his mind and body all over again. Then the pit fiend struck him too, and he teleported away.
Gupta found herself in Vilk’s searing aura, and she took off at speed, circling round the central scrum. Then she invoked her triune’s blessing to lend aid to Leon and Thisraldion. Blessed, Thisraldion teleported between Chyak and the pit fiend, then teleported away again with a haunting laugh and a blinding flash, which affected both of his foes.
Astral Korrigan rose up into the air again and gave orders to bolster his allies; Uriel used his deathly gaze to stun the legionnaires that assailed him; Quratulain shot Vilk; Rumdoom crashed through the stunned legionnaires to attack Vilk too; Leon – crouched behind Paelyrion’s throne, saw the point defences outside fire a massive volley and fall silent. Then he drew the Wand of Egal the Shimmering and used it on Paelyrion, so that the general could no longer teleport. “Master?!?” asked Paelyrion , baffled.
When he saw that his legionnaires had been frozen in fear by Uriel’s spell, Paelyrion’s tone changed to one of defiance: “You think to control my minions?” he scoffed, before he ordered them to attack. Their devotion to the legion was such that his command freed them from the spell and they attacked again.
Uru had worked out how to control the throne, and that doing so would cause the volcano to begin to erupt. His fingers hovered over the controls and were stayed only by the entreaty of his comrades.
Gupta had figured out how best to co-ordinate with Thisraldion, having studied his capabilities since he joined them. She drew a wand she had found on Padyer and used it to cast a wall of sleep across the chamber. Thisraldion then used his controlling presence to vie with Paelyrion for command of his legion. In that moment, the fey monarch won, drawing all of the legionnaires through the magical wall, causing them to pile up in an unconscious heap. Then he set about killing as many as he could.
“Frankly, Paelyrion, I’m not impressed,” said Korrigan. “I thought you had a disciplined army at your command, but it would appear that they are all asleep at their posts.”
His Celestial Eruption, General Paelyrion XVIII
A sudden flash in the teleportation circle saw the arrival of another pit fiend – this one looking battered, scarred and very, very angry. It was Pahlo Vilk, the fiend they had faced on Elofasp, and the sole survivor of the legion’s outpost there. It had taken this long for him to accept defeat and flee, and now he saw the architects of his failure, here in the throne room of Paelyrion. Vilk gave a terrible roar and summoned a golden legion company to his side. The other two pit fiends did likewise, and the throne room was suddenly filled with devils.
Uru shot and killed the injured pit fiend, vanishing into the gloom of the grim candle. Thisraldion decapitated the two remaining succubi. Ordinarily all this prancing and lopping would have exhausted him, but the fey monarch was fabulously invigorated by the oil of Colossus in the wayfarer lantern – as was everyone else.
Korrigan’s body still lay trapped beneath the mound of treasure Paelyrion had dropped on him, but had entered into a kind of trance or stasis while his mental projection ranged about the battlefield. Seeing the tide of battle shift, he flew to the centre of the chamber and gave orders which the others followed: Leon teleported Rumdoom out of the lava and away from Master Chyak; Rumdoom arrived, slumped and smoking in one of the horned devil’s plush chairs; “Mind the leather!” bellowed Paelyrion, eyes flashing; Uriel came up alongside Rumdoom and fully healed him with a single touch; Rumdoom struggled to his feet.
Quratulain, who had been backing up the Huldregarl at the top of the spiral stairs, heard Vilk’s bellow and responded to this new threat, activating her jet boots to reach the throne room quickly, and drawing her vekeshi blade to shield her from the pit fiend’s fiery aura. Appraising the situation in an instant, she threw a grenade into the midst of the remaining elite star unit, killing them. Leon then used his nightmare power to confuse Vilk, who began to swing his golden mace at the legionnaires he had summoned. Knowing that his mind was stronger than some of the other unit members, Leon also teleported next to one of the central mirrors, causing it to darken. Gupta switched to hybrid form so she could cast bone-pointing at Vilk. The fiend would need to steady its mind or take terrible psychic damage, but it was driven by the nightmare inflicted by Leon, and fought on.
Using the telepathic network Korrigan had established with their allies (all save Rock, who stubbornly continued to wear his tin-foil hat) Calily spoke to them: “Where are you now?” she asked. “Have you located Master Chyak?” They confirmed that they had, and were in the process of trying to free him. “Is there any visual clue as to your whereabouts that we could see from above?” she asked. They told her that they were behind a large window above the twin rivers of lava. (A quick glance out of that window revealed point defences firing incessantly. Though they couldn’t see the target, Amielle had told them that both Rock and the Caeloon monks had broken ranks and left the fog cloud; Doverspike, too. The dragon had gone to investigate the brand towers and had disappeared inside.)
Now that they were ruining his upholstery, Paelyrion got personally involved. He teleported from his throne onto the long table, next to Uriel, Korrigan and Rumdoom, clawed his own palm, which began to blaze instead of bleed, and blasted them all with terrible fire, hot enough to burn even Korrigan in his astral form. Then the general ordered all of his legionnaires to attack. They teleported from all sides to surround Uriel, Korrigan and Rumdoom, and assail them with their spears. Vilk followed the legionnaires he had summoned, flailing at them with his mace, coming to a halt atop the pile of treasure beneath which Korrigan still lay.
Uru took advantage of Paelyrion’s removal and occupied his throne. At once he realised that this was a control mechanism for the unsustainable energy levels that the legion siphoned off the caldera, preventing it from exploding. If only he could figure out how it worked…
Master Chyak saw Leon was isolated and leapt across the room towards him. A pit fiend followed. Master Chyak paused only to find Leon’s weak point, then struck his sternum with a powerful blow. The tiefling’s vision blurred as colours transposed across the spectrum, and he felt snapping throughout his body, as if a thousand tiny ligaments had torn. Leon reeled, as if trying to learn how to use his mind and body all over again. Then the pit fiend struck him too, and he teleported away.
Gupta found herself in Vilk’s searing aura, and she took off at speed, circling round the central scrum. Then she invoked her triune’s blessing to lend aid to Leon and Thisraldion. Blessed, Thisraldion teleported between Chyak and the pit fiend, then teleported away again with a haunting laugh and a blinding flash, which affected both of his foes.
Astral Korrigan rose up into the air again and gave orders to bolster his allies; Uriel used his deathly gaze to stun the legionnaires that assailed him; Quratulain shot Vilk; Rumdoom crashed through the stunned legionnaires to attack Vilk too; Leon – crouched behind Paelyrion’s throne, saw the point defences outside fire a massive volley and fall silent. Then he drew the Wand of Egal the Shimmering and used it on Paelyrion, so that the general could no longer teleport. “Master?!?” asked Paelyrion , baffled.
When he saw that his legionnaires had been frozen in fear by Uriel’s spell, Paelyrion’s tone changed to one of defiance: “You think to control my minions?” he scoffed, before he ordered them to attack. Their devotion to the legion was such that his command freed them from the spell and they attacked again.
Uru had worked out how to control the throne, and that doing so would cause the volcano to begin to erupt. His fingers hovered over the controls and were stayed only by the entreaty of his comrades.
Gupta had figured out how best to co-ordinate with Thisraldion, having studied his capabilities since he joined them. She drew a wand she had found on Padyer and used it to cast a wall of sleep across the chamber. Thisraldion then used his controlling presence to vie with Paelyrion for command of his legion. In that moment, the fey monarch won, drawing all of the legionnaires through the magical wall, causing them to pile up in an unconscious heap. Then he set about killing as many as he could.
“Frankly, Paelyrion, I’m not impressed,” said Korrigan. “I thought you had a disciplined army at your command, but it would appear that they are all asleep at their posts.”
gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Session 247, Part Two
Reduced Circumstances
Time to bring this to a close, thought Uriel, who concentrated all his arcane energies on trapping Master Chyak in a beam of radiance. Sweat appeared on his blue brow. “Rumdoom… could you please remove the monk’s chains?”
“Hold on a moment,” said Rumdoom, first dropping Vilk, before he turned and plodded towards Chyak. Leon, recovered thanks to Gupta, appeared on the table beside the remaining pit fiend, attacked it with his Dreaming Blade and confused it magically. Then Quratulain set her lantern blaster to ‘shrink ray’ and fired it at Paelyrion. It worked! The general now stood just twelve inches high.
In a high-pitched voice, he cried, “I’ll show you who’s small! A ruler’s might is measured by the size of his coffers!” He caused another pile of gold to fall on Rumdoom and Leon, then ordered the pit fiend to attack Uriel, freeing it from Leon’s spell. The fiend did as it was ordered. Uriel parried with the Staff of the Hierophant, all the while keeping his radiant beam focused on Chyak, at the cost of much effort and energy.
Suddenly, the whole chamber was lit up by a bright glare from outside, followed by a muffled boom, as the brand tower Doverspike had attacked exploded. All of the combatants paused for a moment, distracted by the glare, before it gradually faded. Amielle told them that the fog bank had instantly vanished, exposing he Coaltongue. There were windskiffs in the sky all around them; Rock and the Pleasure could not be seen; the Caeloon monastery was approaching Egalitrix, dodging each fusillade by folding itself into different shapes. Korrigan took this all in and gave Amielle the order to retreat. She did so, pursued by windskiffs.
“I feel like Doverspike more than made amends for his wicked life,” said Uru, and everyone agreed.
Feeling the sudden urgency of the situation, and unable to restrain himself any longer, Uru set off the auto-destruct sequence from the throne. Paelyrion gave a strangulated cry of alarm. (Reading his surface thoughts, Uriel could tell that the general had completely forgotten about this function.) But the general could not teleport back to the throne to prevent it! When the switch was thrown the whole mountain rumbled.
Another voice reached them telepathically: Etiotek and the Huldregarl were now in retreat. “The Huldregarl is replete! Too many devils give him indigestion! We have done all we can!” The pair of them rushed into the throne room – tiny Etiotek riding the Huldregarl like a thick, black wave; behind them, devils could be heard, clamouring and barking and clattering down the corridor.
Thisraldion saw his subjects arrive, and called out to the Huldregarl, “Do you have room for dessert, at least?” With that, he teleported the forest spirit across the room, to join him in finishing off the somnolent legionnaires.
Gupta realised they needed to leave in haste, and took on tiger form, before digging Korrigan out of the treasure heap with ease – empowered by the Colossus oil in the wayfarer lantern. She took the comatose king in her mouth, like a drowsy kitten, and bore him away.
Quratulain and Leon joined forces to fell the last fiend, but it stood firm; Rumdoom smashed his way out of the treasure heap; Uriel struggled to keep Master Chyak held in his radiant beam, while simultaneously casting reshape matter on his chains. This worked – now he needed to get close enough to free him from the legion’s curse. Paelyrion, spotted the threat and set the fiend on Uriel, who struck him with his golden mace. Even this was not sufficient to cause Uriel’s spell to falter. So Paelyrion dropped more gold on him, but Uriel dodged aside.
Lava began to spit and bubble in the caldera.
Movement outside the huge window caught their eye. Having ducked and dodged its way here in a variety of shapes, the monastery now hovered outside, unfolding a forecourt upon which stood two dozen, poised monks. At their head was Calily. She struck the glass just where Quratulain’s rocket had hit it and it shattered. The monks leapt inside.
“Master Chyak!” they cried, just as Uriel reached out to free their master from domination. His spell was so successful, Chyak was able to regain his wits immediately. While his acolytes helped to finish off the lesser devils, Chyak leapt at Paelyrion, and punted the diminutive general across the room to bounce off a pillar. Paelyrion struggled to his feet and Chyak was on him again, knocking him to the ground and stomping on him mercilessly as if trying to finish off a particularly stubborn cockroach. Each time the general let out a moan, or flinched limb, Chyak attacked again, until Paelyrion was still.
As if on cue, the lava welled up and surged out of the caldera, catching all of the devils that had just run into the room in pursuit of the Huldregarl.
The Caeloon monks leapt back into their monastery; the unit, Master Chyak, Cailily and their fey allies, all gathered around Leon. By the time the lava reached where they’d been stood, they were gone.
Reduced Circumstances
Time to bring this to a close, thought Uriel, who concentrated all his arcane energies on trapping Master Chyak in a beam of radiance. Sweat appeared on his blue brow. “Rumdoom… could you please remove the monk’s chains?”
“Hold on a moment,” said Rumdoom, first dropping Vilk, before he turned and plodded towards Chyak. Leon, recovered thanks to Gupta, appeared on the table beside the remaining pit fiend, attacked it with his Dreaming Blade and confused it magically. Then Quratulain set her lantern blaster to ‘shrink ray’ and fired it at Paelyrion. It worked! The general now stood just twelve inches high.
In a high-pitched voice, he cried, “I’ll show you who’s small! A ruler’s might is measured by the size of his coffers!” He caused another pile of gold to fall on Rumdoom and Leon, then ordered the pit fiend to attack Uriel, freeing it from Leon’s spell. The fiend did as it was ordered. Uriel parried with the Staff of the Hierophant, all the while keeping his radiant beam focused on Chyak, at the cost of much effort and energy.
Suddenly, the whole chamber was lit up by a bright glare from outside, followed by a muffled boom, as the brand tower Doverspike had attacked exploded. All of the combatants paused for a moment, distracted by the glare, before it gradually faded. Amielle told them that the fog bank had instantly vanished, exposing he Coaltongue. There were windskiffs in the sky all around them; Rock and the Pleasure could not be seen; the Caeloon monastery was approaching Egalitrix, dodging each fusillade by folding itself into different shapes. Korrigan took this all in and gave Amielle the order to retreat. She did so, pursued by windskiffs.
“I feel like Doverspike more than made amends for his wicked life,” said Uru, and everyone agreed.
Feeling the sudden urgency of the situation, and unable to restrain himself any longer, Uru set off the auto-destruct sequence from the throne. Paelyrion gave a strangulated cry of alarm. (Reading his surface thoughts, Uriel could tell that the general had completely forgotten about this function.) But the general could not teleport back to the throne to prevent it! When the switch was thrown the whole mountain rumbled.
Another voice reached them telepathically: Etiotek and the Huldregarl were now in retreat. “The Huldregarl is replete! Too many devils give him indigestion! We have done all we can!” The pair of them rushed into the throne room – tiny Etiotek riding the Huldregarl like a thick, black wave; behind them, devils could be heard, clamouring and barking and clattering down the corridor.
Thisraldion saw his subjects arrive, and called out to the Huldregarl, “Do you have room for dessert, at least?” With that, he teleported the forest spirit across the room, to join him in finishing off the somnolent legionnaires.
Gupta realised they needed to leave in haste, and took on tiger form, before digging Korrigan out of the treasure heap with ease – empowered by the Colossus oil in the wayfarer lantern. She took the comatose king in her mouth, like a drowsy kitten, and bore him away.
Quratulain and Leon joined forces to fell the last fiend, but it stood firm; Rumdoom smashed his way out of the treasure heap; Uriel struggled to keep Master Chyak held in his radiant beam, while simultaneously casting reshape matter on his chains. This worked – now he needed to get close enough to free him from the legion’s curse. Paelyrion, spotted the threat and set the fiend on Uriel, who struck him with his golden mace. Even this was not sufficient to cause Uriel’s spell to falter. So Paelyrion dropped more gold on him, but Uriel dodged aside.
Lava began to spit and bubble in the caldera.
Movement outside the huge window caught their eye. Having ducked and dodged its way here in a variety of shapes, the monastery now hovered outside, unfolding a forecourt upon which stood two dozen, poised monks. At their head was Calily. She struck the glass just where Quratulain’s rocket had hit it and it shattered. The monks leapt inside.
“Master Chyak!” they cried, just as Uriel reached out to free their master from domination. His spell was so successful, Chyak was able to regain his wits immediately. While his acolytes helped to finish off the lesser devils, Chyak leapt at Paelyrion, and punted the diminutive general across the room to bounce off a pillar. Paelyrion struggled to his feet and Chyak was on him again, knocking him to the ground and stomping on him mercilessly as if trying to finish off a particularly stubborn cockroach. Each time the general let out a moan, or flinched limb, Chyak attacked again, until Paelyrion was still.
As if on cue, the lava welled up and surged out of the caldera, catching all of the devils that had just run into the room in pursuit of the Huldregarl.
The Caeloon monks leapt back into their monastery; the unit, Master Chyak, Cailily and their fey allies, all gathered around Leon. By the time the lava reached where they’d been stood, they were gone.
gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Session 247, Part Three
Negotiating the Treacherous Northern Gyre
They flew back to Ascetia. There was no sign of Rock. Calily said that she had seen the Pleasure hit by point defences and lose forward momentum, but had lost sight of the ship in the heat of battle.
Master Chyak told them they had earned the undying loyalty of the monks of Caeloon, and when told of the situation, hoped that they would choose to bind his world with theirs. Uriel requested the opportunity to spar with him, but Chyak declined, having had his fill of violence. Before the monks departed, Calily gave each of them a big, long hug.
Thisraldion also thanked them, and spoke of the reinforced bond between the Dreaming and Risur. “We will return to our shattered world,” he said, “and see you again when you bond with us.” Thisraldion was able to teleport all of the fey with him, though Sly Marbo remained on the Coaltongue, bidding his family farewell.
On Ascetia, William Miller was waiting for them. He had taken Korrigan’s words to heart and would join them in their voyage to – and through – the Gyre. “I will take my own medicine, in other words,” he said. “What you said was true. I must overcome my fear. And besides, it wouldn’t be right to expect you to make the sacrifice alone. This is as much my fight as yours, if not more so.”
Using the gidim vortex array, they scanned the surrounding worlds and charted a path through the rest of the Northern Gyre, but before they set off on the Coaltongue, they had some unfinished business: Until now, they had neglected to establish the planar traits of Ascetia, which turned out to be a heightened awareness of the importance of history. They created a Golden Icon of Ascetia, in case this turned out to be useful in constructing their brave new world. Next, with Leon’s help, they gingerly retraced their steps to examine the traits of Egalitrix and Elofasp:
By now, Egalitrix was a cooling mass of lava. A few hapless windskiffs buzzed around like forlorn wasps, their hive destroyed. Keeping out of sight, if only to avoid complications and delays, Kai and Uriel set about learning the history, and establishing the traits of the plane (while the others looked for Rock, to no avail): Kai said that bonding with Egalitrix would make the world more greedy and factories ‘bigger and better’ – “like Jiese, but you can’t stop it very easily”; Uriel uncovered the story of a world that had destroyed itself in pursuit of gain. The last survivors were wealthy industrialists who watched their planet die from the lap of luxury, atop a volcano that provided an endless supply of power. Eventually, the rest of the world crumbled away, leaving behind just this bastion of avarice and exploitation. It was, of course, ideal for the Golden Legion to claim as its capital in the Gyre. Paelyrion had greatly admired these industrialists, adding many of them to his ranks as horned devils, and modelling Legion Command on their vast ‘boardroom’. Having rid Egalitirix of the Legion, the were able to create an icon, before moving on to Elofasp.
It took several attempts to find a safe spot on the Spawning Hive. Kai then established the trait of the plane: animals would be larger and more obedient. Uriel learned that Elofasp was once a colony of bizarre alien beings of colossal intellect, but one of their elder brains was slain and consumed by an immense telepathic insect. Massive spawn rose up around the world and overwhelmed the original inhabitants. The fate of Elofasp was darker than its trait suggested, and they found that having rid the plane of the Legion, they could create an icon.
These last two planes were revisited by teleportation, while the Coaltongue set off from Ascetia. The next unexplored plane they reached was Apo – a twenty-mile-diameter hoop. Descending on stone discs, they found its edge was a hundred-foot-wide shelf of mortared bones. This surrounded a vast plain of segmented plates with complex repeating patterns that formed a labyrinthine road, fifty feet wide, weaving toward the centre of the plain. It looks like there might be some puzzle to decode. Scattered around the plane’s perimeter were roughly-carved wooden signs that read “Warning: Invisible Lava.” (Leon checked. There was no invisible lava.) Uriel and Kai set about doing the usual. Kai had great difficulty explaining the trait, but it seemed to involved the random appearance of ‘black blobs’ that killed everything they touched. They figured these might be similar to the horrifying spell sphere of annihilation. Uriel then declared that this entire world was a trap set by a god of trapsmithing to defeat heroes as powerful as them. It succeeded, then fell into the Gyre.
While they absorbed this information, seven spots on the labyrinthine road begin to glow with red light. The nearest was right where the bone shelf touches the patterned floor. Would this be enough to whet their curiosity? No, as it turned out:
“Let’s get out of here,” someone said.
“If we can…” said another.
They could and they did.
On to Ringes, a barren moor, where they established the trait of murderous violence, and an equally troubling history: a plague wizard, who died and passed her power on to her evil, feline familiar. This familiar, Ystis, was out there somewhere even now, having brought about the demise of the rest of the world’s inhabitants. From a great distance, Korrigan saw a throne of bones, with feline dander scattered all about it. Again, the unit feared that their departure might be prevented; again, they were able to leave without incident and thus avoided a second, but this time all-too-literal cat.
And so to Guay, the Grove of Dreams. This world was a pleasure plane created by a god of artists as a gift to his beloved, a mortal painter. Trees of countless variety seemed were perpetually lit by a non-existent, setting sun, and every surface was unreal, its shape and texture either cloudy like watercolour or stiff and layered as if painted in oils. Uriel looked into the past and saw it unfold even more vividly than on other worlds:
The artist enjoyed her time here, but the god kept making excuses why she could not leave, so she painted a mural on the inside of her villa, showing the god as he slept, with a doorway beside him. When next the god slept, indeed this door appeared, and she stepped into her lover’s dreams, discovering that he had killed everyone else who had ever seen her work, so that he alone could enjoy it. Still inside his dream, she painted another mural, this showing the god finding the artist dead by hanging. Then she left his dream and hid, and when the god awoke he was convinced the artist was dead. In despair he hung himself.
The foolish painter, though, thought she could paint a portal back home, but she was trapped. She eventually went mad and hung herself too, but not before desperately painting every surface she could: her home, boulders, tree trunks, and even the withered corpse of the god. A recurring motif was windows within windows, and beautiful women whose eyes were hidden by flowing hair desperately trying to smash their way free. Often it seemed like the women are trapped inside the painting, trying to get out.
While Kai tried to establish the trait, a figure approached through the painted trees. It was Leone Quital! The Steelshaper cursed them bitterly, said that Gupta’s newfound divinity was tainted by her curse, and that Rumdoom would betray them. They were about to respond, when they all awoke, having not realised that they had fallen asleep.
Gupta stood in wonder, and realised that this would happen again, before Kai could establish the trait of the plane. Leon experimented by casting daydream on Gupta (with her permission) to see if the dream he imposed was in any way altered. Though it played out as he intended, he got the feeling that he could enter the dream and interact with it, as if it were a demi-plane. Unsure of the consequences of doing so, he left it alone.
Shortly after Gupta ‘awoke’, they were approached again, this time by Rush Muchhausen, who – in equally bitter but more colourful language than Quital – hurled imprecations upon them: Their group was falling apart; Korrigan’s leadership was failing; the Ob would defeat them because the Ob was unified.
Again, they awoke, without having realised they had slept, unsure of exactly when the dream began, or if they were actually still in it (a thought which prompted them to examine the phenomenon; they weren’t – for now.)
So Gupta used her ability to impart an ideal to her listeners, again with their permission. She told them that their next dream would reveal the ‘secret’ of this world – the means of their escape from the dreams, to successfully discover the trait of Guay and possibly bond with it. Uriel prophesied that this attempt of Gupta’s would work.
At once, they became aware of an enormous presence. A vast serpentine form slithered and crashed through forest, keeping largely out of sight (though they caught glimpses of it through the trees). Now the Voice of Rot addressed them: It could see all the deaths they had caused in the past, and knew which ones caused them the greatest regret. It took particular delight in knowing that the demise of Jenny Greenteeth had troubled Korrigan. Then it crashed out of the treeline and swallowed Kai in an instant, followed by Korrigan, Leon, Uru, Uriel, Rumdoom, Gupta, Quratulain, all of them. …
When they awoke – with an initial start, followed by huge relief – the dream was over, and they were not troubled by another. Kai established the planar trait – dreams became real, and could be affected, added to, stolen from; even ideas and memories could be added and removed. Uncertain of what benefits this might bring, they created a golden icon, and left Guay behind.
There weren’t many planes to go now. Reida was close. Their confrontation with the Voice of Rot was at hand.
End of Session
Negotiating the Treacherous Northern Gyre
They flew back to Ascetia. There was no sign of Rock. Calily said that she had seen the Pleasure hit by point defences and lose forward momentum, but had lost sight of the ship in the heat of battle.
Master Chyak told them they had earned the undying loyalty of the monks of Caeloon, and when told of the situation, hoped that they would choose to bind his world with theirs. Uriel requested the opportunity to spar with him, but Chyak declined, having had his fill of violence. Before the monks departed, Calily gave each of them a big, long hug.
Thisraldion also thanked them, and spoke of the reinforced bond between the Dreaming and Risur. “We will return to our shattered world,” he said, “and see you again when you bond with us.” Thisraldion was able to teleport all of the fey with him, though Sly Marbo remained on the Coaltongue, bidding his family farewell.
On Ascetia, William Miller was waiting for them. He had taken Korrigan’s words to heart and would join them in their voyage to – and through – the Gyre. “I will take my own medicine, in other words,” he said. “What you said was true. I must overcome my fear. And besides, it wouldn’t be right to expect you to make the sacrifice alone. This is as much my fight as yours, if not more so.”
Using the gidim vortex array, they scanned the surrounding worlds and charted a path through the rest of the Northern Gyre, but before they set off on the Coaltongue, they had some unfinished business: Until now, they had neglected to establish the planar traits of Ascetia, which turned out to be a heightened awareness of the importance of history. They created a Golden Icon of Ascetia, in case this turned out to be useful in constructing their brave new world. Next, with Leon’s help, they gingerly retraced their steps to examine the traits of Egalitrix and Elofasp:
By now, Egalitrix was a cooling mass of lava. A few hapless windskiffs buzzed around like forlorn wasps, their hive destroyed. Keeping out of sight, if only to avoid complications and delays, Kai and Uriel set about learning the history, and establishing the traits of the plane (while the others looked for Rock, to no avail): Kai said that bonding with Egalitrix would make the world more greedy and factories ‘bigger and better’ – “like Jiese, but you can’t stop it very easily”; Uriel uncovered the story of a world that had destroyed itself in pursuit of gain. The last survivors were wealthy industrialists who watched their planet die from the lap of luxury, atop a volcano that provided an endless supply of power. Eventually, the rest of the world crumbled away, leaving behind just this bastion of avarice and exploitation. It was, of course, ideal for the Golden Legion to claim as its capital in the Gyre. Paelyrion had greatly admired these industrialists, adding many of them to his ranks as horned devils, and modelling Legion Command on their vast ‘boardroom’. Having rid Egalitirix of the Legion, the were able to create an icon, before moving on to Elofasp.
It took several attempts to find a safe spot on the Spawning Hive. Kai then established the trait of the plane: animals would be larger and more obedient. Uriel learned that Elofasp was once a colony of bizarre alien beings of colossal intellect, but one of their elder brains was slain and consumed by an immense telepathic insect. Massive spawn rose up around the world and overwhelmed the original inhabitants. The fate of Elofasp was darker than its trait suggested, and they found that having rid the plane of the Legion, they could create an icon.
These last two planes were revisited by teleportation, while the Coaltongue set off from Ascetia. The next unexplored plane they reached was Apo – a twenty-mile-diameter hoop. Descending on stone discs, they found its edge was a hundred-foot-wide shelf of mortared bones. This surrounded a vast plain of segmented plates with complex repeating patterns that formed a labyrinthine road, fifty feet wide, weaving toward the centre of the plain. It looks like there might be some puzzle to decode. Scattered around the plane’s perimeter were roughly-carved wooden signs that read “Warning: Invisible Lava.” (Leon checked. There was no invisible lava.) Uriel and Kai set about doing the usual. Kai had great difficulty explaining the trait, but it seemed to involved the random appearance of ‘black blobs’ that killed everything they touched. They figured these might be similar to the horrifying spell sphere of annihilation. Uriel then declared that this entire world was a trap set by a god of trapsmithing to defeat heroes as powerful as them. It succeeded, then fell into the Gyre.
While they absorbed this information, seven spots on the labyrinthine road begin to glow with red light. The nearest was right where the bone shelf touches the patterned floor. Would this be enough to whet their curiosity? No, as it turned out:
“Let’s get out of here,” someone said.
“If we can…” said another.
They could and they did.
On to Ringes, a barren moor, where they established the trait of murderous violence, and an equally troubling history: a plague wizard, who died and passed her power on to her evil, feline familiar. This familiar, Ystis, was out there somewhere even now, having brought about the demise of the rest of the world’s inhabitants. From a great distance, Korrigan saw a throne of bones, with feline dander scattered all about it. Again, the unit feared that their departure might be prevented; again, they were able to leave without incident and thus avoided a second, but this time all-too-literal cat.
And so to Guay, the Grove of Dreams. This world was a pleasure plane created by a god of artists as a gift to his beloved, a mortal painter. Trees of countless variety seemed were perpetually lit by a non-existent, setting sun, and every surface was unreal, its shape and texture either cloudy like watercolour or stiff and layered as if painted in oils. Uriel looked into the past and saw it unfold even more vividly than on other worlds:
The artist enjoyed her time here, but the god kept making excuses why she could not leave, so she painted a mural on the inside of her villa, showing the god as he slept, with a doorway beside him. When next the god slept, indeed this door appeared, and she stepped into her lover’s dreams, discovering that he had killed everyone else who had ever seen her work, so that he alone could enjoy it. Still inside his dream, she painted another mural, this showing the god finding the artist dead by hanging. Then she left his dream and hid, and when the god awoke he was convinced the artist was dead. In despair he hung himself.
The foolish painter, though, thought she could paint a portal back home, but she was trapped. She eventually went mad and hung herself too, but not before desperately painting every surface she could: her home, boulders, tree trunks, and even the withered corpse of the god. A recurring motif was windows within windows, and beautiful women whose eyes were hidden by flowing hair desperately trying to smash their way free. Often it seemed like the women are trapped inside the painting, trying to get out.
While Kai tried to establish the trait, a figure approached through the painted trees. It was Leone Quital! The Steelshaper cursed them bitterly, said that Gupta’s newfound divinity was tainted by her curse, and that Rumdoom would betray them. They were about to respond, when they all awoke, having not realised that they had fallen asleep.
Gupta stood in wonder, and realised that this would happen again, before Kai could establish the trait of the plane. Leon experimented by casting daydream on Gupta (with her permission) to see if the dream he imposed was in any way altered. Though it played out as he intended, he got the feeling that he could enter the dream and interact with it, as if it were a demi-plane. Unsure of the consequences of doing so, he left it alone.
Shortly after Gupta ‘awoke’, they were approached again, this time by Rush Muchhausen, who – in equally bitter but more colourful language than Quital – hurled imprecations upon them: Their group was falling apart; Korrigan’s leadership was failing; the Ob would defeat them because the Ob was unified.
Again, they awoke, without having realised they had slept, unsure of exactly when the dream began, or if they were actually still in it (a thought which prompted them to examine the phenomenon; they weren’t – for now.)
So Gupta used her ability to impart an ideal to her listeners, again with their permission. She told them that their next dream would reveal the ‘secret’ of this world – the means of their escape from the dreams, to successfully discover the trait of Guay and possibly bond with it. Uriel prophesied that this attempt of Gupta’s would work.
At once, they became aware of an enormous presence. A vast serpentine form slithered and crashed through forest, keeping largely out of sight (though they caught glimpses of it through the trees). Now the Voice of Rot addressed them: It could see all the deaths they had caused in the past, and knew which ones caused them the greatest regret. It took particular delight in knowing that the demise of Jenny Greenteeth had troubled Korrigan. Then it crashed out of the treeline and swallowed Kai in an instant, followed by Korrigan, Leon, Uru, Uriel, Rumdoom, Gupta, Quratulain, all of them. …
When they awoke – with an initial start, followed by huge relief – the dream was over, and they were not troubled by another. Kai established the planar trait – dreams became real, and could be affected, added to, stolen from; even ideas and memories could be added and removed. Uncertain of what benefits this might bring, they created a golden icon, and left Guay behind.
There weren’t many planes to go now. Reida was close. Their confrontation with the Voice of Rot was at hand.
End of Session
gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
DM's Notes
A sneaking suspicion of mine was confirmed at the end of Session 247, and this had a huge impact on my planning for the end of the campaign. Put simply, the Gyre just didn't hold that much interest for my players any more.
While most DMs are familiar with the idea of cutting a combat short when it turns into a grind, it's harder to extend that discipline to story-telling in the medium term. But as you will see from the 248 session report, that's exactly what I decided to do.
Having watched their response to Apo, Ringes and Guay, I could be almost certain that Garboral, Metarie and Bonalithe would hold little interest for them. I don't think this is a weakness of the adventure, I think it's a strength: the Gyre isn't chock-full of attractive, useful worlds; and once the Legion has been dealt with, the hex-crawl has really reached its climax.
So I decided to skip to the end.
We would begin the next session on Teykfa, and tell the story of their journey through the remaining planes in flashback (with the group able to interject at key moments; in particular, to decide if they wanted to bond with a specific plane).
This meant we were back on Lanjyr by the end of session 248 (having brought the group close enough to Reida to see the dark shadow of the serpent underneath it).
I'm glad I decided to do this, as it injected proceedings with a sense of drama and excitement they might otherwise have lacked. The potential anti-climax of grinding through those last few planes was avoided and suddenly the end is in sight!
A sneaking suspicion of mine was confirmed at the end of Session 247, and this had a huge impact on my planning for the end of the campaign. Put simply, the Gyre just didn't hold that much interest for my players any more.
While most DMs are familiar with the idea of cutting a combat short when it turns into a grind, it's harder to extend that discipline to story-telling in the medium term. But as you will see from the 248 session report, that's exactly what I decided to do.
Having watched their response to Apo, Ringes and Guay, I could be almost certain that Garboral, Metarie and Bonalithe would hold little interest for them. I don't think this is a weakness of the adventure, I think it's a strength: the Gyre isn't chock-full of attractive, useful worlds; and once the Legion has been dealt with, the hex-crawl has really reached its climax.
So I decided to skip to the end.
We would begin the next session on Teykfa, and tell the story of their journey through the remaining planes in flashback (with the group able to interject at key moments; in particular, to decide if they wanted to bond with a specific plane).
This meant we were back on Lanjyr by the end of session 248 (having brought the group close enough to Reida to see the dark shadow of the serpent underneath it).
I'm glad I decided to do this, as it injected proceedings with a sense of drama and excitement they might otherwise have lacked. The potential anti-climax of grinding through those last few planes was avoided and suddenly the end is in sight!
Last edited:
gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Session 248, Part One
Reflecting on the Gyre
After a few more days, and some minor adventures, the Coaltongue arrived at Teykfa – the second-to-last plane in the Gyre. One of the first worlds with intelligent life in the multiverse, Teykfa saw its last sentient life end eons ago, but the plane did not enter the Gyre because of the steady ticking of Teykfa, a megastructure carved into the heart of a parched desert mountain. Crafted of rust-resistant metal alloys and perfectly balanced with dozens of redundant structures, the mechanism functioned as a clock that kept time on a geologic scale. Once, vigilant stewards wound its counterweight, but even after they perished it took millions of years for the structure to run down. Soon it would tick its last. The planar trait was that people were more aware of the scale of time, and could better weight long-term consequences. Time could be manipulated. Indeed, time passed very slowly here on Teykfa, and for a group that was about to breathe its last, the hiatus was welcome.
They had visited other planes on the way here, of course, but none of them had been hospitable or worthy of much attention. Gardboral was a chimeric maelstrom where they encountered gargantuan elementals composed of fire, stone, ice and lightning. They avoided these giants for long enough to learn that generating numerous, and increasingly large elemental beings was the unappealing trait of the plane. Eons ago, this world underwent a final epic battle between giants and normal men, and the giants won, ascending to the form of titanic storms as a reward for their victory. Now nothing persisted here except these titans whose sole desire was to destroy interlopers. One almost caught the Coaltongue as it circled high above, but Sly Marbo was on the alert and used the fey portal pad just in time.
Metarie provided a slightly longer diversion. Long, long ago Metarie was a nature preserve in a great plane-wide city whose people relied on innovative mechanical technology to keep out their world alive even as they hollowed out its core. Carelessness led the people of that plane to ignore for too long the primitive three-armed gremlins, who out of jealousy sabotaged the machines that ran to the core. The world collapsed under its own weight, and only the gremlins survived, frolicking in the ruins of a culture they still instinctually resent. All the unit saw when they arrived was a vast swamp, but they could hear a rumbling engine in the distance – the hiss-churn of a steam boiler. It turned out to issue from a hole that had been punched in the surface of the plane, revealing nested layers of marsh. Each layer had bits of boggy ground covered in tall grass separating murky ponds, all of it beneath a looming canopy of moss-draped trees that supported the layer above, in a kind of swamp sandwich. The roots of the trees above wove into columns that supported each layer, and many of these columns were infested with carnivorous fireflies. Who knew how many layers there were? The hole they found went down just three, and the unit sent Uru on ahead to investigate. Little Jack’s wings stopped working halfway down – their first sign of the planar trait. Technology was naturally disrupted, here on the Swamp of Sabotage. It was necessary for the others to follow on their magical stone discs - to rescue Uru and to further investigate the noise; all save Quratulain, who soon began to suffer the same effects as Little Jack, and returned to the ship before any serious damage was done.
At the bottom of the hole, the others found an early Golden Legion vessel that ran on steam, not diesel. It must have crashed here thousands of years ago. Its crash punched a hole a hundred feet wide, and now it lay in a pool of water, conspicuously clear of any overgrowth. The ship’s hold was full of treasure, and its pit fiend captain – Kebez Pol – was still alive, locked inside the steam boiler. The hatch was irreparably rusted shut. The boiler still ran, filling with water from above, and driven by the pit fiend’s own aura. The heat could not kill him, but Kebez Pol was insane from isolation. They decided to put him out of his misery. Rumdoom, in particular, wanted to give him a ‘good ending’.
While they were thus distracted, the gremlins stole their stone discs. How the creatures managed to figure out how to use them was anybody’s guess. Uriel summoned them back to him one by one, then they bonded with Metarie and returned to the Coaltongue.
The coastal flats of Bonilathe shuddered with thunderstorms, as the sentient staff of a long dead weather mage tried madly to stop itself from being drawn into the Gyre’s teeth. The staff was trying to create intelligent life by striking pools of primordial ooze with bolts of lightning, but so far the best it could do was conjure reptilian beasts of high animal cunning. They typically killed each other before they could do anything useful for the poor, desperate staff. The planar trait was, bizarrely, that storms spawned reptilian creatures. Leon offered the staff a ride, and it accepted with great relief. He studied it to see if he could tap into the weather mage’s power. It was only too eager to help.
And so, having decided not to bond with Bonalithe, they came at last to Teykfa, and there they waited.
Reflecting on the Gyre
After a few more days, and some minor adventures, the Coaltongue arrived at Teykfa – the second-to-last plane in the Gyre. One of the first worlds with intelligent life in the multiverse, Teykfa saw its last sentient life end eons ago, but the plane did not enter the Gyre because of the steady ticking of Teykfa, a megastructure carved into the heart of a parched desert mountain. Crafted of rust-resistant metal alloys and perfectly balanced with dozens of redundant structures, the mechanism functioned as a clock that kept time on a geologic scale. Once, vigilant stewards wound its counterweight, but even after they perished it took millions of years for the structure to run down. Soon it would tick its last. The planar trait was that people were more aware of the scale of time, and could better weight long-term consequences. Time could be manipulated. Indeed, time passed very slowly here on Teykfa, and for a group that was about to breathe its last, the hiatus was welcome.
They had visited other planes on the way here, of course, but none of them had been hospitable or worthy of much attention. Gardboral was a chimeric maelstrom where they encountered gargantuan elementals composed of fire, stone, ice and lightning. They avoided these giants for long enough to learn that generating numerous, and increasingly large elemental beings was the unappealing trait of the plane. Eons ago, this world underwent a final epic battle between giants and normal men, and the giants won, ascending to the form of titanic storms as a reward for their victory. Now nothing persisted here except these titans whose sole desire was to destroy interlopers. One almost caught the Coaltongue as it circled high above, but Sly Marbo was on the alert and used the fey portal pad just in time.
*
Metarie provided a slightly longer diversion. Long, long ago Metarie was a nature preserve in a great plane-wide city whose people relied on innovative mechanical technology to keep out their world alive even as they hollowed out its core. Carelessness led the people of that plane to ignore for too long the primitive three-armed gremlins, who out of jealousy sabotaged the machines that ran to the core. The world collapsed under its own weight, and only the gremlins survived, frolicking in the ruins of a culture they still instinctually resent. All the unit saw when they arrived was a vast swamp, but they could hear a rumbling engine in the distance – the hiss-churn of a steam boiler. It turned out to issue from a hole that had been punched in the surface of the plane, revealing nested layers of marsh. Each layer had bits of boggy ground covered in tall grass separating murky ponds, all of it beneath a looming canopy of moss-draped trees that supported the layer above, in a kind of swamp sandwich. The roots of the trees above wove into columns that supported each layer, and many of these columns were infested with carnivorous fireflies. Who knew how many layers there were? The hole they found went down just three, and the unit sent Uru on ahead to investigate. Little Jack’s wings stopped working halfway down – their first sign of the planar trait. Technology was naturally disrupted, here on the Swamp of Sabotage. It was necessary for the others to follow on their magical stone discs - to rescue Uru and to further investigate the noise; all save Quratulain, who soon began to suffer the same effects as Little Jack, and returned to the ship before any serious damage was done.
At the bottom of the hole, the others found an early Golden Legion vessel that ran on steam, not diesel. It must have crashed here thousands of years ago. Its crash punched a hole a hundred feet wide, and now it lay in a pool of water, conspicuously clear of any overgrowth. The ship’s hold was full of treasure, and its pit fiend captain – Kebez Pol – was still alive, locked inside the steam boiler. The hatch was irreparably rusted shut. The boiler still ran, filling with water from above, and driven by the pit fiend’s own aura. The heat could not kill him, but Kebez Pol was insane from isolation. They decided to put him out of his misery. Rumdoom, in particular, wanted to give him a ‘good ending’.
While they were thus distracted, the gremlins stole their stone discs. How the creatures managed to figure out how to use them was anybody’s guess. Uriel summoned them back to him one by one, then they bonded with Metarie and returned to the Coaltongue.
*
The coastal flats of Bonilathe shuddered with thunderstorms, as the sentient staff of a long dead weather mage tried madly to stop itself from being drawn into the Gyre’s teeth. The staff was trying to create intelligent life by striking pools of primordial ooze with bolts of lightning, but so far the best it could do was conjure reptilian beasts of high animal cunning. They typically killed each other before they could do anything useful for the poor, desperate staff. The planar trait was, bizarrely, that storms spawned reptilian creatures. Leon offered the staff a ride, and it accepted with great relief. He studied it to see if he could tap into the weather mage’s power. It was only too eager to help.
And so, having decided not to bond with Bonalithe, they came at last to Teykfa, and there they waited.
gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Session 248, Part Two
Killing Time on Teykfa
Korrigan was given to understand that they could spend as much time as they chose to here without any real time passing in the Gyre. Nonetheless, he decided that there was nothing to be gained by spending any more than a couple of days here. Already the morale of some crew members was waning. The thought that they would all be throwing themselves into the Gyre in a short while, on the promise that some other version of them was still alive elsewhere didn’t exactly fill them with optimism. Uriel told them that he had seen Admiral Smith with his own eyes, alive and well. They were happy to hear this, but still…
Sly Marbo, not wishing to spook the crew sidled up to Uriel and asked if he had seen a version of him. Uriel confessed that he hadn’t, and saw no reason why Sly should sacrifice himself – it was not necessary for his knowledge of what had happened in the Gyre to be returned to Lanjyr. Perhaps he could return to Av, and await the plane’s re-bonding? Sly said he would try to do so; it gave him added impetus to keep the Coaltongue safe.
Uru gathered his engineers together in the shadow of the great clock. With the desert sand whirling about them, he inculcated them further into his tech-obsessed mini-cult, dispensing fey pepper to all. “With dirt in our mouths and oil on our hands, we go to face our end.” They were all prepared to die in battle with the Voice of Rot.
Gupta felt happier now. “Is the dawn any less beautiful because the sun has risen?” she wondered aloud. She had been riven by vengefulness after since she realised that her family was lost. Their souls had been trapped in the body of Borne, and Borne had been broken apart on Axis Island. And so she had joined the Vekeshi and sought a darker path than the one she first chose to bring their killers to justice. Now, though she felt no less driven and purposeful, that drive seemed positive – focused on creation rather than destruction. Although she was supposed to be a god now, she didn’t feel like one. But she did have a profound sense that her newfound divinity connected everything somehow.
Uriel needed answers about his role. He knew he had to get the golden icons to the others somehow, and he also knew that he did not return to Lanjyr in physical form. So he took the icons and strode out into the desert, saying he would be back in a few days. He was gone for thirty.
Uru spent the extra time in communion with the Lost Eye, which granted him ever greater power over spirits – a power he hoped would soon be part of his portfolio as Titan of the Mountains. It would also be fun to wave it in the serpent’s face. He also studied the great clock, and figured out how to work it. Just before they departed, he would wind it back, so that if they bonded with Teykfa, the plane would not be about to tick its last.
Leon felt that it was decision time – that they ought to decide what planes they would bond with here and now, while they had the chance to talk at length. How knew what exigencies would press on them back home? Uriel said they had just a day to stop Nicodemus. There would be no time to discuss the new world order in any detail, and how would they even know what planes were available? Then he realised one way they could solve that problem: Linia. She could return to Lanjyr, and although she could not take the icons, she could take words and ideas. He spoke to the angel and she agreed to try. It was decided that they would hold a council meeting when Uriel returned. In the meantime, Leon bonded further with his new staff.
Quratulain made grenades. Her supply was running low. She engraved into each one the story of why they were killing who they killed, and why they deserved to die, like a babushka whispering to her eggs what their future would be. How she knew, she couldn’t say. Thanks to Uriel’s long absence, she had time to make very many, as well as make modifications to all of her weapons and armour. Alterations to the latter were in any case necessary: during their long hiatus on Teykfa, Quratulain began to show. She was now in her third month of pregnancy with what must have been a very large baby. It did not concern her that she would have to throw her child into the Gyre as well. She felt that everything was for the best.
Rumdoom kept himself apart from the others, surrounded by his retinue. There were large, worn stones all around the central mountain, that had stood the test of aeons, and once may have been mountains themselves. Rumdoom began to practice striking them with the Stone of Not, obliterating them in an instant. Each time, he would target a larger stone. By the time Uriel returned, he was able to vanish truly gargantuan boulders, and he noticed that the Stone of Not felt heavier. The Herald of the End was sure that an apotheosis was imminent.
After a month, Uriel came back. He was different – less earthbound, perhaps. Though his manner was always kindly, he was distant, as if focused elsewhere. He told them he knew what to do now, and that he would not be returning home. Instead, he hoped to transcend the physical, as the inhabitants of Teykfa had once done. In this form, perhaps, he might somehow return to Lanjyr, but he could not be certain. What did know was that he could send the golden icons to Kai. But it would be better only to send a small number. Leon nodded in agreement – the others were prepared to decide which planes to bond with.
Over many days, they held a council-meeting in the Dream palace; not as a unit, or as a king and his retinue, but as equals, inviting all of those they travelled with to contribute. They contemplated the many options they now had, and decided what planes they would choose.
Once they were done, they bid farewell to Linia, who departed for Lanjyr with word of their decision. “Head for Flint,” they said, guessing where their other selves would go.
Then they boarded the Coaltongue and set off for Reida, to face the Voice of Rot.
Killing Time on Teykfa
Korrigan was given to understand that they could spend as much time as they chose to here without any real time passing in the Gyre. Nonetheless, he decided that there was nothing to be gained by spending any more than a couple of days here. Already the morale of some crew members was waning. The thought that they would all be throwing themselves into the Gyre in a short while, on the promise that some other version of them was still alive elsewhere didn’t exactly fill them with optimism. Uriel told them that he had seen Admiral Smith with his own eyes, alive and well. They were happy to hear this, but still…
Sly Marbo, not wishing to spook the crew sidled up to Uriel and asked if he had seen a version of him. Uriel confessed that he hadn’t, and saw no reason why Sly should sacrifice himself – it was not necessary for his knowledge of what had happened in the Gyre to be returned to Lanjyr. Perhaps he could return to Av, and await the plane’s re-bonding? Sly said he would try to do so; it gave him added impetus to keep the Coaltongue safe.
Uru gathered his engineers together in the shadow of the great clock. With the desert sand whirling about them, he inculcated them further into his tech-obsessed mini-cult, dispensing fey pepper to all. “With dirt in our mouths and oil on our hands, we go to face our end.” They were all prepared to die in battle with the Voice of Rot.
Gupta felt happier now. “Is the dawn any less beautiful because the sun has risen?” she wondered aloud. She had been riven by vengefulness after since she realised that her family was lost. Their souls had been trapped in the body of Borne, and Borne had been broken apart on Axis Island. And so she had joined the Vekeshi and sought a darker path than the one she first chose to bring their killers to justice. Now, though she felt no less driven and purposeful, that drive seemed positive – focused on creation rather than destruction. Although she was supposed to be a god now, she didn’t feel like one. But she did have a profound sense that her newfound divinity connected everything somehow.
Uriel needed answers about his role. He knew he had to get the golden icons to the others somehow, and he also knew that he did not return to Lanjyr in physical form. So he took the icons and strode out into the desert, saying he would be back in a few days. He was gone for thirty.
Uru spent the extra time in communion with the Lost Eye, which granted him ever greater power over spirits – a power he hoped would soon be part of his portfolio as Titan of the Mountains. It would also be fun to wave it in the serpent’s face. He also studied the great clock, and figured out how to work it. Just before they departed, he would wind it back, so that if they bonded with Teykfa, the plane would not be about to tick its last.
Leon felt that it was decision time – that they ought to decide what planes they would bond with here and now, while they had the chance to talk at length. How knew what exigencies would press on them back home? Uriel said they had just a day to stop Nicodemus. There would be no time to discuss the new world order in any detail, and how would they even know what planes were available? Then he realised one way they could solve that problem: Linia. She could return to Lanjyr, and although she could not take the icons, she could take words and ideas. He spoke to the angel and she agreed to try. It was decided that they would hold a council meeting when Uriel returned. In the meantime, Leon bonded further with his new staff.
Quratulain made grenades. Her supply was running low. She engraved into each one the story of why they were killing who they killed, and why they deserved to die, like a babushka whispering to her eggs what their future would be. How she knew, she couldn’t say. Thanks to Uriel’s long absence, she had time to make very many, as well as make modifications to all of her weapons and armour. Alterations to the latter were in any case necessary: during their long hiatus on Teykfa, Quratulain began to show. She was now in her third month of pregnancy with what must have been a very large baby. It did not concern her that she would have to throw her child into the Gyre as well. She felt that everything was for the best.
Rumdoom kept himself apart from the others, surrounded by his retinue. There were large, worn stones all around the central mountain, that had stood the test of aeons, and once may have been mountains themselves. Rumdoom began to practice striking them with the Stone of Not, obliterating them in an instant. Each time, he would target a larger stone. By the time Uriel returned, he was able to vanish truly gargantuan boulders, and he noticed that the Stone of Not felt heavier. The Herald of the End was sure that an apotheosis was imminent.
After a month, Uriel came back. He was different – less earthbound, perhaps. Though his manner was always kindly, he was distant, as if focused elsewhere. He told them he knew what to do now, and that he would not be returning home. Instead, he hoped to transcend the physical, as the inhabitants of Teykfa had once done. In this form, perhaps, he might somehow return to Lanjyr, but he could not be certain. What did know was that he could send the golden icons to Kai. But it would be better only to send a small number. Leon nodded in agreement – the others were prepared to decide which planes to bond with.
Over many days, they held a council-meeting in the Dream palace; not as a unit, or as a king and his retinue, but as equals, inviting all of those they travelled with to contribute. They contemplated the many options they now had, and decided what planes they would choose.
Once they were done, they bid farewell to Linia, who departed for Lanjyr with word of their decision. “Head for Flint,” they said, guessing where their other selves would go.
Then they boarded the Coaltongue and set off for Reida, to face the Voice of Rot.
gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Session 248, Part Three
Blank and Pitiless
Beyond Teykfa floated a field of cracked debris, the celestial backwash of grinding teeth at the centre of the Gyre. The thunder of stone crushing against stone resounded from all directions, and what clear paths there were did not last long. Filtering through the rubble came a pale glow from the last life of ancient worlds being snuffed, and something silver glinted at the precipice of annihilation.
As they flew through the enormous debris field and neared the shining silver ring of Reida, the edges of the nebula to either side grew closer and closer, their misty thunderheads occasionally flickering with arcs of energy. By the time they were clear of the drifting stones, the walls of the universe were only a thousand feet apart, and they narrowed rapidly. What from a distance appeared as placid patterns in clouds were visible here as tight bands of roaring wind that carried shredded shards of stone toward the ultimate nexus of the Gyre. There the two halves of the gear-tooth nebula crashed into each other, creating a blindingly bright vortex.
Emerging from the asteroids, it took a moment for their eyes to adjust, and then they saw – floating just a few hundred feet off their starboard bow – Reida. Though once a vast world thousands of miles in diameter, in the Gyre Reida had shrunk to a fraction of that size – maybe three-hundred feet across. The reflection of the Gyre’s light off the silver ring was like a mirror in the sun, but still they were able to see that something immense shifted and slithered along the plane’s shadowy underside.
Prompted by their imminent end, William Miller suggested that they each choose someone from back home to be their focus – the person who they could concentrate on as their physical form was torn apart when they jumped into the Gyre. “Or in case you fall,” he added, gingerly.
Since his wife was already here with him, Rumdoom chose Vlendham Heid; Uru chose one of the children who tended his garden – the little remade boy, whose feet were caterpillar tracks made by Uru himself; Leon chose Kasvarina; Quratulain chose Ashima-Shimtu, as they had shared a prison together for many hundreds of years; Gupta focused on Von Recklinghausen, whom she had maintained as the target of her vengeful gaze since she last saw him in Ursalina; Korrigan chose Matunaaga.
Uriel made no such choice as he knew he would not be returning.
Blank and Pitiless
Beyond Teykfa floated a field of cracked debris, the celestial backwash of grinding teeth at the centre of the Gyre. The thunder of stone crushing against stone resounded from all directions, and what clear paths there were did not last long. Filtering through the rubble came a pale glow from the last life of ancient worlds being snuffed, and something silver glinted at the precipice of annihilation.
As they flew through the enormous debris field and neared the shining silver ring of Reida, the edges of the nebula to either side grew closer and closer, their misty thunderheads occasionally flickering with arcs of energy. By the time they were clear of the drifting stones, the walls of the universe were only a thousand feet apart, and they narrowed rapidly. What from a distance appeared as placid patterns in clouds were visible here as tight bands of roaring wind that carried shredded shards of stone toward the ultimate nexus of the Gyre. There the two halves of the gear-tooth nebula crashed into each other, creating a blindingly bright vortex.
Emerging from the asteroids, it took a moment for their eyes to adjust, and then they saw – floating just a few hundred feet off their starboard bow – Reida. Though once a vast world thousands of miles in diameter, in the Gyre Reida had shrunk to a fraction of that size – maybe three-hundred feet across. The reflection of the Gyre’s light off the silver ring was like a mirror in the sun, but still they were able to see that something immense shifted and slithered along the plane’s shadowy underside.
Prompted by their imminent end, William Miller suggested that they each choose someone from back home to be their focus – the person who they could concentrate on as their physical form was torn apart when they jumped into the Gyre. “Or in case you fall,” he added, gingerly.
Since his wife was already here with him, Rumdoom chose Vlendham Heid; Uru chose one of the children who tended his garden – the little remade boy, whose feet were caterpillar tracks made by Uru himself; Leon chose Kasvarina; Quratulain chose Ashima-Shimtu, as they had shared a prison together for many hundreds of years; Gupta focused on Von Recklinghausen, whom she had maintained as the target of her vengeful gaze since she last saw him in Ursalina; Korrigan chose Matunaaga.
Uriel made no such choice as he knew he would not be returning.
gideonpepys
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Session 248, Part Four
Known Unknowns
“You are dealing with the Avatar of the End!” cried Rumdoom, just a couple of seconds too late.
Nicodemus was gone. His dead host fell forward into the blackened snow.
Again, Uriel tried to speak, to pass his urgent message on to the others; he only maintained this projection with great effort and strain, and each second ran the risk of losing his connection. But the others were used to seeing him in an astral form, and again waved for him to wait, in deference to the Ash Wolf.
Uriel was not to be put off this time: “I bring you urgent word from the Gyre!” he cried, in an unaccustomed tone that got their attention. “I do not have long! I could be drawn back at any moment. Know this: we were reflected when Av sundered. One version of you remains in the Gyre, and has bonded with many planes. Our mission has not failed! We have found a way to send the icons to you – to Kai. I will send them to you soon, my boy, as your link to the other worlds is so strong.” Kai flushed with excitement. “I do not know when they will arrive, but I know you will get them in time. One thing I can give you now, I hope, is this…”
With great strain, Uriel summoned Conquo’s golem-heart from the volcano where it had fallen. It glowed with heat, but that did not harm Uriel. Nonetheless, the effort severed his connection and without another word, he vanished. The golem-heart fell hissing into the snow.
“What do we need this for?” someone asked.
“Who knows!” was the general consensus. They picked it up anyway, and at last turned to thank mighty Ash Wolf. The fey titan had finished off the Screaming Malice, and now towered above them, panting heavily. It told them it was not as strong now that Av was gone; the strength of the titans was fading fast. Korrigan still hoped the Ash Wolf might be able to help them in the final battle, but Uru told the titan they considered his debt repaid.
The Ash Wolf bowed. “Good hunting,” it said, then loped off through the forest.
Lauryn Cyneburg, who sat at the foot of the ziggurat, nursing her wounds, gave a cough and said, “I suppose you’ll be wanting a detailed report now? How much was Pemberton able to tell you?”
She was as acerbic and business-like as usual, but Korrigan could tell something was weighing on her mind. Some bad news she had yet to deliver. He decided not to press her, but answered her question instead. They knew that Nicodemus had used the hivemind phenomenon to take control of all the major nations, and that he was within striking distance of his ultimate goal - to successfully perform the Axis Seal Ritual. Then, of course, there were Nicodemus’ own, disturbing last words:
“It’s not worth throwing more resources against you in open battle. You’re a terror to behold, 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?”
Cyneburg gave a grim nod. “The Ob were afraid of your return. They know how hard you are to put down. So they set up an insurance policy. Wherever you strike, they will send a warning to all of the other major cities of the world – Flint, Slate, Cherage, Trekhom, Seobriga, Alais Primos. Everywhere you have allies and close connections. If you don’t surrender, the world will burn.”
“How?” asked Korrigan.
“That, I don’t know. Though my mind remained instinctively curious even after the Ob took control of me, and picked up on a lot of what was going on around me, that only lasted for a while, it seems. My knowledge of recent events his hazy; incomplete.” She gave a long pause, strengthened her resolve, before she went on: “There’s something else you need to know. They took out some of your allies who they knew they couldn’t control. That vsadni in Drakr, for example – the one in the big tower. They rolled some of Dengar Kreigshaff’s big guns up to it and blew it to kingdom come. Worse still, they… I… we…” Another pause to steel herself. “We killed Wondermaker.”
“The Clockwork King!” they gasped.
“His mind isn’t real, it couldn’t be possessed. They knew he’d never submit to them. So they tracked him down to his quarry lair and killed him. Killed the formorian that carried him, smashed open the jar around its neck…” They could imagine the rest. “I was there. I took them there.”
Gupta had always had a soft spot for Cyneburg, who it seemed always had a soft spot for her too. She sat down next to her and offered what comfort she could. They didn’t hold her actions against her. To get her mind off self-loathing, she asked what else Cyneburg could tell them.
“The seat of power in Risur has been moved to Flint. They’ve put Harkover in charge. Slate has no industrial sector, so it wasn’t much use to them. Flint was set to begin producing enchanted machinery. A lot of cargo ships from have been going to Axis Island, laden with parts to repair the colossus. Rural Risur gave them a bit more trouble, as populations were sparse and hard to infect with the hivemind. They sent military units out to domineer the people, since the new dark world is struggling to produce enough food. In Ber, it seems the more savage races like goblins and gnolls have proven resistant to hiveminds that are based on the idea of civilization, so the Beran military has been rounding up ‘primitives’ in camps. I didn’t know what happens to them after that. I don’t have much news from Crisillyir. There was a rumour that Nicodemus was looking for a female who was held in a Clergy prison, not to punish her but to recruit her. Danor was already loyal to the Ob, of course, but they set about publishing more ludicrous propaganda to convince people that everything was going according to plan. That makes me wonder if maybe there’s some secret core of resistance causing them trouble. As for Drakr, they were tasked with producing gargantuan anti-aircraft cannons to be delivered and installed at Axis Island.”
“That’s where we need to go,” said Uru. “Right now.”
The others disagreed. They didn’t want the world to burn if they could help it. Also, Gupta recalled the intense energies around the Axis Seal, which they had seen on their visit with Pemberton. The Ob had Borne to deal with them; what could the unit do?
Thinking back to that moment made Gupta aware of another presence she had sensed back then as well.
“Xambria!” she called.
Xambria had arrived on Lanjyr with no host. Uriel, her advocate and defender, had not returned, and so she had stayed silent. Now she acknowledged her presence, nervously. Gupta had once threatened to erase her mind.
To her own surprise, Gupta felt her bitterness towards Xambria soften, and almost before she knew what she was doing, she offered her erstwhile friend ‘headspace’. “Unless you’d prefer one of Pemberton’s duplicants?” Xambria did not relish the prospect of occupying one of those cold, clumsy things, not after the sleek, bespoke design Wondermaker had created for her. She gratefully accepted Gupta’s offer, and entered her mind, saying as she did so, “I’m sorry.”
“That’s past now,” Gupta replied, then they turned their attention to the present:
If Axis Island was off-limits, at least for now, where should they go? It would be a good idea to move away from here, they realised. The Ob could send more foes against them.
“You should be careful about teleporting,” said Cyneburg. “If you go anywhere they have controlled, they’ll know. Telepathy, too. That’s a giveaway. The hivemind can sense it.”
Uru invited them all back to his place. Not the old garden in the well, but his new domain beneath the mountains. The Ob couldn’t trace them there!
And the Coaltongue? “Let’s send her at high altitude towards Flint.” The crew had already righted her, and they were firing up the flight components. Korrigan went to give them their orders in person. Rutger Smith came to greet him and Korrigan had to resist the unaccountable urge to give the admiral a big hug, as if he hadn’t seen him for a very long time. They shared as much information as was necessary and told them they would rejoin the ship when they had fixed on a plan.
The Coaltongue took off, and so did they, courtesy of Leon – arriving in Uru’s cavern, which was now filled with dark, exotic flora and fungi. His little gardeners gathered around him and he thanked them for keeping it so well. Then, before they got down to the urgent business of deciding how best to oppose the Ob, Uru – responding to a hunch – approached the memorial effigy of Conquo he had created in his garden, and which now formed an impressive centrepiece. The thing was even bigger than Conquo had been, formed from knotted branches, with a hard, outer carapace. Uru was sure it must have grown since he first made it. He climbed up to the chest, and placed the golem heart within it.
At once, grasping vines snaked out to envelope the heart and connect it to the effigy, which gave a sudden shudder. Uru jumped off and floated to the ground. A bio-machine! Created by accident!
Beneath a beetling brow, crystalline eyes lit up and the thing made a noise like a deep sigh in basso profondo. One by one, it wrenched each of its massive legs free of their moorings in the loam of the garden, then turned its glowing eyes upon the unit.
“This is much cooler than the lava,” said Conquo. “What happened?”
Known Unknowns
“You are dealing with the Avatar of the End!” cried Rumdoom, just a couple of seconds too late.
Nicodemus was gone. His dead host fell forward into the blackened snow.
Again, Uriel tried to speak, to pass his urgent message on to the others; he only maintained this projection with great effort and strain, and each second ran the risk of losing his connection. But the others were used to seeing him in an astral form, and again waved for him to wait, in deference to the Ash Wolf.
Uriel was not to be put off this time: “I bring you urgent word from the Gyre!” he cried, in an unaccustomed tone that got their attention. “I do not have long! I could be drawn back at any moment. Know this: we were reflected when Av sundered. One version of you remains in the Gyre, and has bonded with many planes. Our mission has not failed! We have found a way to send the icons to you – to Kai. I will send them to you soon, my boy, as your link to the other worlds is so strong.” Kai flushed with excitement. “I do not know when they will arrive, but I know you will get them in time. One thing I can give you now, I hope, is this…”
With great strain, Uriel summoned Conquo’s golem-heart from the volcano where it had fallen. It glowed with heat, but that did not harm Uriel. Nonetheless, the effort severed his connection and without another word, he vanished. The golem-heart fell hissing into the snow.
“What do we need this for?” someone asked.
“Who knows!” was the general consensus. They picked it up anyway, and at last turned to thank mighty Ash Wolf. The fey titan had finished off the Screaming Malice, and now towered above them, panting heavily. It told them it was not as strong now that Av was gone; the strength of the titans was fading fast. Korrigan still hoped the Ash Wolf might be able to help them in the final battle, but Uru told the titan they considered his debt repaid.
The Ash Wolf bowed. “Good hunting,” it said, then loped off through the forest.
Lauryn Cyneburg, who sat at the foot of the ziggurat, nursing her wounds, gave a cough and said, “I suppose you’ll be wanting a detailed report now? How much was Pemberton able to tell you?”
She was as acerbic and business-like as usual, but Korrigan could tell something was weighing on her mind. Some bad news she had yet to deliver. He decided not to press her, but answered her question instead. They knew that Nicodemus had used the hivemind phenomenon to take control of all the major nations, and that he was within striking distance of his ultimate goal - to successfully perform the Axis Seal Ritual. Then, of course, there were Nicodemus’ own, disturbing last words:
“It’s not worth throwing more resources against you in open battle. You’re a terror to behold, 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?”
Cyneburg gave a grim nod. “The Ob were afraid of your return. They know how hard you are to put down. So they set up an insurance policy. Wherever you strike, they will send a warning to all of the other major cities of the world – Flint, Slate, Cherage, Trekhom, Seobriga, Alais Primos. Everywhere you have allies and close connections. If you don’t surrender, the world will burn.”
“How?” asked Korrigan.
“That, I don’t know. Though my mind remained instinctively curious even after the Ob took control of me, and picked up on a lot of what was going on around me, that only lasted for a while, it seems. My knowledge of recent events his hazy; incomplete.” She gave a long pause, strengthened her resolve, before she went on: “There’s something else you need to know. They took out some of your allies who they knew they couldn’t control. That vsadni in Drakr, for example – the one in the big tower. They rolled some of Dengar Kreigshaff’s big guns up to it and blew it to kingdom come. Worse still, they… I… we…” Another pause to steel herself. “We killed Wondermaker.”
“The Clockwork King!” they gasped.
“His mind isn’t real, it couldn’t be possessed. They knew he’d never submit to them. So they tracked him down to his quarry lair and killed him. Killed the formorian that carried him, smashed open the jar around its neck…” They could imagine the rest. “I was there. I took them there.”
Gupta had always had a soft spot for Cyneburg, who it seemed always had a soft spot for her too. She sat down next to her and offered what comfort she could. They didn’t hold her actions against her. To get her mind off self-loathing, she asked what else Cyneburg could tell them.
“The seat of power in Risur has been moved to Flint. They’ve put Harkover in charge. Slate has no industrial sector, so it wasn’t much use to them. Flint was set to begin producing enchanted machinery. A lot of cargo ships from have been going to Axis Island, laden with parts to repair the colossus. Rural Risur gave them a bit more trouble, as populations were sparse and hard to infect with the hivemind. They sent military units out to domineer the people, since the new dark world is struggling to produce enough food. In Ber, it seems the more savage races like goblins and gnolls have proven resistant to hiveminds that are based on the idea of civilization, so the Beran military has been rounding up ‘primitives’ in camps. I didn’t know what happens to them after that. I don’t have much news from Crisillyir. There was a rumour that Nicodemus was looking for a female who was held in a Clergy prison, not to punish her but to recruit her. Danor was already loyal to the Ob, of course, but they set about publishing more ludicrous propaganda to convince people that everything was going according to plan. That makes me wonder if maybe there’s some secret core of resistance causing them trouble. As for Drakr, they were tasked with producing gargantuan anti-aircraft cannons to be delivered and installed at Axis Island.”
“That’s where we need to go,” said Uru. “Right now.”
The others disagreed. They didn’t want the world to burn if they could help it. Also, Gupta recalled the intense energies around the Axis Seal, which they had seen on their visit with Pemberton. The Ob had Borne to deal with them; what could the unit do?
Thinking back to that moment made Gupta aware of another presence she had sensed back then as well.
“Xambria!” she called.
Xambria had arrived on Lanjyr with no host. Uriel, her advocate and defender, had not returned, and so she had stayed silent. Now she acknowledged her presence, nervously. Gupta had once threatened to erase her mind.
To her own surprise, Gupta felt her bitterness towards Xambria soften, and almost before she knew what she was doing, she offered her erstwhile friend ‘headspace’. “Unless you’d prefer one of Pemberton’s duplicants?” Xambria did not relish the prospect of occupying one of those cold, clumsy things, not after the sleek, bespoke design Wondermaker had created for her. She gratefully accepted Gupta’s offer, and entered her mind, saying as she did so, “I’m sorry.”
“That’s past now,” Gupta replied, then they turned their attention to the present:
If Axis Island was off-limits, at least for now, where should they go? It would be a good idea to move away from here, they realised. The Ob could send more foes against them.
“You should be careful about teleporting,” said Cyneburg. “If you go anywhere they have controlled, they’ll know. Telepathy, too. That’s a giveaway. The hivemind can sense it.”
Uru invited them all back to his place. Not the old garden in the well, but his new domain beneath the mountains. The Ob couldn’t trace them there!
And the Coaltongue? “Let’s send her at high altitude towards Flint.” The crew had already righted her, and they were firing up the flight components. Korrigan went to give them their orders in person. Rutger Smith came to greet him and Korrigan had to resist the unaccountable urge to give the admiral a big hug, as if he hadn’t seen him for a very long time. They shared as much information as was necessary and told them they would rejoin the ship when they had fixed on a plan.
The Coaltongue took off, and so did they, courtesy of Leon – arriving in Uru’s cavern, which was now filled with dark, exotic flora and fungi. His little gardeners gathered around him and he thanked them for keeping it so well. Then, before they got down to the urgent business of deciding how best to oppose the Ob, Uru – responding to a hunch – approached the memorial effigy of Conquo he had created in his garden, and which now formed an impressive centrepiece. The thing was even bigger than Conquo had been, formed from knotted branches, with a hard, outer carapace. Uru was sure it must have grown since he first made it. He climbed up to the chest, and placed the golem heart within it.
At once, grasping vines snaked out to envelope the heart and connect it to the effigy, which gave a sudden shudder. Uru jumped off and floated to the ground. A bio-machine! Created by accident!
Beneath a beetling brow, crystalline eyes lit up and the thing made a noise like a deep sigh in basso profondo. One by one, it wrenched each of its massive legs free of their moorings in the loam of the garden, then turned its glowing eyes upon the unit.
“This is much cooler than the lava,” said Conquo. “What happened?”
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