NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="gideonpepys" data-source="post: 7109400" data-attributes="member: 79141">Session 12 (135)  - Part Two: Immediate AftermathIMMEDIATE AFTERMATHThey took just a moment to mourn their fallen comrade. Conquo had become like a huge little brother to all of them.  He was only four years old!  Xambria had lived in his head for longer than she lived in Malthusius'. Tempers ran high. Korrigan intervened to prevent Uru’s tribalistic dismemberment of their fallen foes. Instead, they committed them to the lava.  At Korrigan's insistence, they left the dragon where she fell.  Korrigan sympathised with Pemberton in a strange way and hoped his daughter would be treated with dignity by the worshipful gnolls.Uru checked his magical eye and discovered that the assault from Karch had now become heavy.  They told their rear-guard to beat a fighting retreat.  Matunaaga sprinted back down the rail tunnel.  Uru used the control panel to open the blast doors and Matunaaga used one of the sending stones they found to notify them when the last of the rear-guard was through.  Then they resealed them.  Along with some walking wounded, one of Glaucia’s daughters had been slain, as had three Beran soldiers.  As soon as they were reunited, Rumdoom took charge of the half-conscious Valchek.Ordinarily, the unit showed a commendable lack of interest in ‘loot’.  But this cavern was too much of a treasure trove to resist.  Lya alone had more items on her than they usually found on a whole mission!  Of particular interest was a small case found in the inside pocket of her coat.  It contained multiple syringes filled with a translucent, silvery liquid.  It was the only item that could not be readily identified.  They also took the firesight eye from Terakalir, weapons from each of the Ob fighters, poison from the skulks and, at last, the Godmind Urn.  Leon could hear it whispering to him when he handled it.  He was used to dealing with manipulative, sentient artefacts, and stowed it in a safe place.  Uru dismantled a lot of machinery.  In a chamber to the south (the one briefly ‘searched’ by Rush) they found scores of inert duplicants and many more prototypes.  There were more schematics than they could hope to carry (although they carried a lot, pressing them into the arms of Beran soldiers and other rescued victims).  With great care, Uru covered and dismantled the tyrant’s eye that had proved so deadly, while they tried to figure out a way to weaponise it. (Mount it on the Impossible; at the other end to the Skull of Cheshimox?)Thanks to the blast doors, they had plenty of time to work, but at length they received a sending from the Impossible.  The Lux Profectusque had borne down upon them and the Ob submersible observed by the Matunaaga and his phalanx had risen to trap the Risuri galleon in pincer movement.  Captain Smith had used his new ‘toy’ – the fey portal pad – to whisk the Impossible into the Dreaming the moment it came under fire, causing the two vessels to fire into empty space.  When they reappeared, several hundred yards away, there was no catching them!  Still, this proved to be a timely reminder of the danger they were in and they teleported back to their ship fairly soon after the message came through.  (The Ob’s pre-drawn teleportation circle, missing only the final glyph, speeded their departure up no end.)BACK ON BOARDRumdoom barely paused for breath before slapping Khaled Valchek round and lambasting him violently. Confusingly, Valchek seemed perplexed by the extent of his animosity.  Yes, they had their differences and Rumdoom had opposed Valchek ever since his schism with their eschatological cell, but he could not understand why Rumdoom hated him so much.  Rumdoom confronted him with his discovery that Valchek had forced himself on Moraga, Rumdoom’s sweetheart (whose untimely death from a wasting disease was the initial spur to Rumdoom’s path of self-destruction).  Valchek angrily denied this (with as much energy as he could muster in his enfeebled state) and demanded to know who had made this allegation.  When Rumdoom told him it was Khoomrung Morkanstall, the penny seemed to drop for Valchek.  He launched into a diatribe against the old dwarf, accusing him of being an arch manipulator.  Valchek said that his own obsession with the Stone of Not had been borne out of the old dwarf’s persistent influence. This was all most odd.  Rumdoom had always thought that Valchek was manipulating Khoomrung, manipulating them all.  He was tempted to kill Valchek right away just to shut him up.  He didn’t like to be confused.  Leon intervened and suggested he extract the truth from Valchek.  He used his terrifying presence to confirm that Valchek was telling the truth.  Khoomrung was (until his run-in with Lorcan Kell) very much the leader of Rumdoom’s old cell – a cell that went on to take part in Grundin Zubov’s terror attacks throughout Flint; a cell with links to a Doomsday Cult in northern Drakr. Valchek had set about raising a fleet to assail the deep ones because of Khoomrung’s insistence that this needed to be done.  Yes, he had joined the cell in the hopes of gaining political influence in the dwarven community, but in fact he had been the one who was ‘influenced’ – magically, he now claimed.  Even after Khoomrung had been so badly injured.He then went on to tell the story of his journey south with Pemberton.  When they reached Ber, Pemberton persuaded Valchek that influence with the Berans would make their mission to retrieve the Stone of Not very much easier.  So far so reasonable.  Then, when Tinker Oddcog showed up out of the blue, Pemberton suggested they wield their influence to have Ber crank out the resources they would need to take on the Deep Ones: submersibles, underwater weaponry, etc.  (He could show the unit where these items were kept, in the Black Star Mining installation in Seobriga.)  Only after a year or so did Pemberton’s stalling cause Valchek to grow suspicious.  But by then Valchek had grown accustomed to using Tinker’s duplicant technology, in case of emergencies – unaware of its mind-controlling properties.  Pemberton then forced Valchek to do his bidding, as his plans had clearly changed from an incursion into the Cold Claw Sea to the total domination of Ber.Rumdoom shook his head to clear it.  “But what about Khoomrung? Is he dangerous?”To answer that question, we need a quick cut-scene:</blockquote>

Verification