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Message: <blockquote data-quote="gideonpepys" data-source="post: 6216172" data-attributes="member: 79141">Session 92a - Final flashbacksThis was a strange session to get started.  First of all  we needed to recap after a 3 week break.  Then we needed to learn all  about the Get Kell mini-game (which I had saved til now to avoid  everyone forgetting the rules during our hiatus).  Then we had to  establish what the unit had been up to in the two weeks between the end  of their last buffer adventure and In media res because, what  with the Meeting with Aodhan, A Bear in Bosum Strand, Mia Casa, Bomb's  Away! and A Bunch of Bolts, we hadn't had time in the previous two  sessions for a detailed set of flashbacks.In session report 90b, we touched on three important matters that needed to be resolved before we could move on: 1) The aftermath of the Dawn Square rally and skill challenge, including Korrigan's big speech.2) The initial fallout from Rumdoom's domination by the Deep Ones.3) Malthusius using location loresight at the spot where Andrei Recklinghausen was abducted. Here, in summary, is what each of the unit members, and the unit as a whole had been up to in the last week of 500AOV, and the first week of 501, in addition to the three items above: The UnitHaving failed to prevent the launch of the Black Star Mining fleet, the unit turned its attention to the Kell Guild.  Unit B had been nibbling round the edges, and scored a sizable victory over the guild with its strike on Vander Lepage's hideout in North Shore.  Delft set about handpicking the officers they would use in the strike force now that Governor Stanfield had given the all-clear to take out Kell.  (A major shift in policy from the Governor's office, prompted by the revelation of Kell's involvement with the Ob; though perhaps the canny deva had sensed a shift in the prevailing political wind? For it was only two weeks later that the King ordered a full-scale assault against the guild...) For the time being, the unit believed they were playing the long game, and were at pains not to spook the guild unduly. KorriganUndertook extensive training at the Battalion to refresh his skill at martialling large units of men, as he had once done on Yersaol, before his injuries caused him to leave the military.  There he learned that his Dawn Square speech had impressed the more forward-thinking young officers in training.  Through Malthusius, he was invited to dine with wily Bishop Antonescu, the highest-ranking clergyman in Flint and de facto Crysillyiri ambassador. Malthusius advised Korrigan to keep his wits about him. Everything was friendly until Antonescu asked some pointed questions about one or two turns of phrase in Korrigan's speech, which Korrigan admitted had been influenced by the text of Triegenes recommended to him by Ottavia Sacredote.  Antonescu had heard of Ottavia, as Malthusius had tried to ascertain her current whereabouts  with Antonescu's help, and was surprised that an oracle of the church should have suggested reading of this kind.  It transpired that the book was regarded has heretical, having been written by William Miller.  Its interpretation of Triegenes' story and teaching - that any man could aspire to godhood - was not clergy doctrine; they insisted that Triegenes and Triegenes alone could and did ascend in this way. Antonescu 'politely' advised Korrigan not to adhere to such notions if he wanted to foster friendly relations with Crisillyir in the future.  Korrigan also discovered that his political allies now had much greater ambitions for him than he did for himself: Deneric Jayce and Heward Sechim urged him to consider petitioning the King for the post of Governor of Flint!  In all cases, Korrigan did his best to ensure that the person he was speaking to left feeling that he had agreed with them.  He had learned a lot from Deneric Jayce Korrigan also spent a considerable amount of time  meditating at the foot of the bower created by his wife for her magically induced statis. Here was a problem he had been unable to solve, one which he had pushed out of his mind, and felt extremely guilty about.  Unbeknownst to him, a possible solution was soon to present itself... UruLearned about the dryad Jelia's work on constructs from team B.  She had married the designs of the dwarf Tortho Chell with program cards supplied by the mysterious 'Clockwork King', and grown them in the seeds of her bonded tree to create hybrids of machine and lifeform.  This was something that truly fascinated Uru, and he did all he could to study her work and apply what he learned to improving Little Jack.   He also set about scouting out the known strongholds of Lorcan Kell, beginning with Machete Hill (where his stealth proved exceptional as always, but his concentration was not the best).  This endeavour was interrupted when Leon invited him to accompany the tiefling into the bayou.  Uru accepted, as he had seen Leon growing more and more distant from the group (ranging into the Dreaming unaccompanied and pursuing a private agenda) and he saw Leon's offer as an attempt to include a comrade in his adventures. They headed for the strange cave Leon had learned about during a previous foray, and here the pair ended up spending the rest  of the fortnight.  While Leon meditated (see below) Uru occupied his time hunting, tinkering with his clockwork companion, and coming up with a design for a replacement arm for Malthusius. MalthusiusOne priority for Malthusius was to ensure that the mechanism Rumdoom had tried to use to open a portal connecting Flint with the bottom of the ocean was safely deactivated and stored in a secure vault.  (He and Uru had cooked up a scheme to one day return to Odiem, restore the clergy vault and place all the evil items they could find back there.)The book on deva reincarnation Malthusius had consulted in Governor Stanfield's library had suggested a ritual that would enable him to influence the point, or at least the distance, of a subsequent incarnation, making it easier for him to pick up his old life.  Meanwhile, his researches, and developing skill as a spirit medium had allowed Malthusius to identify every one of his previous incarnations over the past 500 years. (Well, 420, as he had occupied his current form for 80.)  These studies had led to an increasing capability to access their memories and skills. However, none of these incarnations corresponded with the form that had appeared in the golden mirror during the unit's encounter with the corrupted godhand, Gene: strangely robed, tall, and with dark markings instead of  light ones.  Malthusius had assumed this was one of his prior incarnations.  Now he was toying with the theory that it might be him in the future.  As the most respected detective in Flint, Malthusius had also built up relationships with police stations throughout the city, and was called on by Delft to help cherry-pick suitable officers for the Get Kell initiative. MatunaagaDevoted himself entirely to the study of the Palimpsest. RumdoomFor a while, Rumdoom was unconscious, and subject to the tender ministrations of Isaac, Mayor of the Nettles and expert in all things arcane.  When he came round, and his freedom from the deep ones could be confirmed, his first concern was with Khoomrung and the rest of his Rumschatologist friends.  (This encounter was summarised in session report 90b).  Now Rumdoom was at a loose end while his return to the RHC was under consideration.  At length, he steeled himself and went to visit Hildegaard to apologise for the death of her father.  No demure dwarf maiden, the feisty heiress threw herself at him, beating him about the face, head and chest.  Rumdoom took the blows until she tired and collapsed, weeping into his arms.  In the moment before their embrace became a passionate kiss, Rumdoom struggled with his conscience for what seemed like an age:  The affair of his possession by the deep ones, and the fate of Harn, had demonstrated that - while he might be  invincible - those close to him remained mortal and vulnerable. Could he afford to open his heart to Hildegaard in this way?  But there was a gaping hole at the core of his being left by Moraga and his unborn child and in the end the need to heal that wound overcame him. Rumdoom and Hildegaard became lovers that day, and the two weeks flew by in a  trice.  (DM's Note: This was a unexpectedly fun moment.  I threw it at the player thinking he would bat it away, disinterested.  Who cares if their D&D character has a love interest, right?  But he got quite anxious about the decision, and we had to go round the table twice, dealing with other players, before he could make his mind up whether to reject Hildegaard's passionate advance, or give in to it.) LeonThanks to the copy Brajham had made of the star systems in the ancient burial chamber, Leon was able to connect the whispering crystal idol that B team had lost to Tatzel with a mysterious cave in the deep bayou - a cave he had never seen except in visions.  He had experienced these visions, and a siren call to explore the cave, while rooting out a cult of cannibals that worshipped a facsimile of the Jade Idol (also stolen by Tatzel). But his allies at the time - an old swamper guide and the Pine Island police - had been deathly afraid of the cave and warned him against going there. Now Leon was determined to do so, and set off with Uru as back-up.  The old swamper was persuaded to take them as close as he dared. Leon's fey powers were weak here, in the realm of Avagdu, his old patron - a jealous toadlike entity who regarded his acceptance of the patronage of the Unseen Court as a terrible betrayal.  But he was able to navigate the rest of the way with Uru's help (and Uru's water walk ritual). The cave radiated the kind of nauseating energy that Leon had last experienced around the Ziggurat of Apet, but it was different.  Instead of distorting space, it made each second seem distorted, like a yawn in time.  Pressing on, they saw the cave through the foliage: a scooped out maw in the side of a jumble of rocks, obscured by creepers.  Within, strange glowing fungal growths mimicked the starfield Brajham had copied from the tomb - identified by Malthusius as the stars as they would have appeared 5000 years ago. Leon sat down to meditate and eventually began to hear a whispering voice, unintelligible at first. It drew him into a trance, in which he travelled through space as a disembodied consciousness.  He saw clouds in the void, and galaxies invisible to the people of the earth, and over time - what seemed like many months, even years - he grew to understand the voice. Giving itself no name, and speaking of itself with a pronoun that meant both I and we at the same time, the entity said that it was a being of pure thought that had left physicality behind aeons ago.  It told Leon that it had only one enemy, an enemy it knew he had knowledge of, an enemy it referred to as 'the thought eaters'. The being said that it once followed the thought-eaters to Leon's world to thwart them, but had become trapped there long ago.  While it desired the freedom to roam the stars once again, it remained in silent vigil,  watching for signs that its enemy may have re-emerged or returned.  It once found allies among the people of this world, and gifted them with patronage in the form of the crystalline icon Leon had heard about. The being offered similar patronage to Leon, with the proviso that he find the idol stolen by the Wyrm.</blockquote>

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