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[ZEITGEIST] The Continuing Adventures of Korrigan & Co.
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<blockquote data-quote="gideonpepys" data-source="post: 7148948" data-attributes="member: 79141"><p><strong>Session 18 (141) - Part Two - Explorations</strong></p><p></p><p>With the initial votes cast, the convocation heated up even further. Now everyone knew each other’s position, and faction leaders began targeting those they felt they might be able to persuade: Solace Petrov, leader of the Economists was immediately wooed by Colossus leader Catherine Romana (in earshot of the snooping Oscan/Gupta); Bruce McDruid was targeted by the leader of the Weapon Master faction, the elderly ice mage Glaz du Sang Magi (whom he recognised as the commander of the Ob submersible that had engaged the Roscommon many years ago); and Xavier/Leon - after first having to listen to some outrageous and obviously false boasting from General Shane Wallisone – was then subject to the General’s ham-fisted attempts to flatter him into joining Colossus. (“Only men of action such as ourselves understand the value of true power.”)</p><p></p><p>Bert Facie cornered ‘Oscan’ and wanted to know what he was up to. Of all the officers present, he knew Oscan best and felt sure that he would vote for Colossus. So sure in fact that he had prepared a whole line of argument to win him round to Panarchist. Yet here he was, voting for Miller’s Pyre? What was he up to? What had he spotted? Did he want to be forced to be good? Gupta channelled Oscan as best she could without risking gestalt, gave a cunning grin and said she figured that some people would be less affected by exposure to the emotions of others. That would give them an advantage. She stuck to this line later, when interviewed by Nicodemus, adding that she did not think this convocation would be the end of the matter and intimating that Oscan was playing the long game. During the same encounter Gupta opened her mind in wonder at the leader of the Ob and learned that he was very old indeed. (Later, she began to feel that she in some way knew Nicodemus, but couldn’t put her finger on why.)</p><p></p><p>Han Jierre himself courted Gran Guiscard, some time before Dame Constance Baden began to circulate the M.A.P. proposal*. Han was oddly personable; not like a ruler at all, though he hoped to appeal to Gran’s patriotism, and secure Gran’s support for his Sovereign’s pet project! He suggested that Miller’s Pyre was something akin to mind control. “Mind control is perfectly acceptable to me,” said ‘Gran’. “Dominate everyone as far as I’m concerned.” Later, the M.A.P. proposal would remove the heightened empathy element from the equation altogether, and Han would gladly join forces with Dame Constance and Cula Ravjahani to fend off Colossus.</p><p></p><p>Kiov/Rumdoom ended up in a very boring conversation with Von Hastenschrieft Willimarkanova - Drakren philosopher and politician, and advocate of the Mortal Mind faction that sought to eradicate all religious, superstitious beliefs. Rumdoom didn’t much like religions either - apart from his own – but the fact that he agreed with his fellow dwarf only made the encounter even more boring. </p><p></p><p>As Bruce McDruid, Matunaaga made a point of finding out all he could about the aegis faction. He was concerned about the Obscurati’s plan to leave the world accessible and undefended from other worlds. He ran into an argument between the aegis faction representative, Dengar Kriegshaff – a human wizard from Drakr whose role in the Ob was to design weapons capable of slaying Risur’s fey titans – and Cardinal Testamenta Suchdol, a human inquisitor who represented the ‘Trekkers’, officers who wanted to open up further worlds to explore (and in Suchdol’s case convert). She was adamant that there was no threat from outside which could not be opposed by human ingenuity, might and faith. She was, after all, a demon-hunter by trade. All such threats – the Demonocracy, the Dragon Tyrants, even the titans – had been overcome in the past. This did indeed appear to be the general mood of the conspiracy: that no such planar defence was necessary. Tellingly, none of their examples featured any mention of the gidim…</p><p></p><p>Korrigan began to use his oratorical skill to bend people towards Miller’s Pyre and – even after the M.A.P. proposal began to gain traction – sought also to subtly find fault with each and every proposal, to encourage arguments between parties and heat up disagreements. He hoped that way to expose flaws in the conspiracy and hinder progress. (‘Xavier’, meanwhile, was – with equal subtlety – planting the idea that the Ob could not pull off their Grand Design at all.) Korrigan’s initial intention was to button-hole Cula Ravjahani, but once the M.A.P. proposal got going, this felt less important somehow. Still, the opportunity eventually presented itself, and he found the apparently gentle, sympathetic half-elf to be made of sterner stuff than she initially appeared. When he questioned the Pyre’s interpretation of Miller’s doctrine she grew in stature and her mood darkened. “Were Miller alive today, I am certain that he would be part of this conspiracy. For he would have learned that human beings cannot be trusted to run their own affairs. The Great Malice alone is enough to demonstrate the damage that men can do; their capacity to ‘other’ whole groups and pursue their destruction with relentless efficiency.” Once he had got the measure of her ‘Ken Don’ moved on. </p><p></p><p>While he circulated in this capacity Korrigan found time to join a conversation between Oort Magnus and three other officers. When the other officers moved on, he introduced himself as Ken Don and explained that he had been researching obscure topics for years but had not come across anything like Oort Magnus. Magnus was just a little condescending, responding that Don could not have been researching very hard: the annals of academia were filled with accounts of planeshaped individuals such as he. Though it was indeed rare – the ‘shaped’ individual had to be strong-willed and hale enough to survive whatever accidental magic caused the condition – they were nonetheless of such interest to the arcano-scientific community that they were very well documented. (He seemed irked that Ken Don had never heard of him.) Once this initial exchange was over, Magnus warmed to the topic (of himself) and happily responded to Ken Don’s enquiries as to the nature of his condition. Magnus had become thus affected when interacting with an ancient artifact. It misfired and bathed him in Urim energy, almost killing him. But he survived and now found that he was almost effortlessly able to manipulate stone through his magical powers. ‘Ken’ remarked that, now he came to think of it he remembered that reports about the colossus incident in Flint mentioned one of the Risuri officers involved had a condition somewhat similar to Oort's. The wizard said that he had heard the same, but it did not sound as if this individual’s command of Urim energy was as great as his. Nonetheless, he should have liked to examine him. Don ended their exchange by adding that, according to Leone Quital, he had recently killed the aforementioned officer, so Magnus was unlikely to get the chance. ‘Don’ went off to see if he could find Reed Macbannin or Vicemi Terio, but neither of them were involved in the debates. (The unit occasionally caught a glimpse of Vicemi, watching from a distance, but he moved away if anyone drew close. Macbannin, it seemed, had been put in charge of the Ghost Council’s investigation into the murder.) </p><p></p><p>To get away from the monotonous Willimarkanova, Kiov/Rumdoom visited the planar gallery and – after briefly checking in with Grappa and establishing that exposure to the planes was unlikely to cause contest, crisis or rejection (as long as he didn't hurt himself) – he dipped a toe in one of the portals, and enjoyed the experience so much that he ended up trying all of them. (While doing so, even Rumdoom could not overlook the irony that the most morally dubious of the ‘demo-planes’ was Miller’s Pyre, which took starved and maltreated clergy prisoners and used them to prove its efficacy.)</p><p></p><p><strong>I described the portal planes in an email before the session. Rumdoom's exploration allowed the group to learn about the mechanical effects of each plane.</strong></p><p></p><p>For a bit of a change of scenery Gran Guiscard and Xavier Sangria went hunting for ghosts. With a bookpin guard in tow, they wandered down to the beach where Gran, pretending some bardic magic was the source, cast the water walk ritual and crossed the glassy surface of the Bleak Sea to Cacciatrece de Nav – an enormous spire of rock that jutted up from the sea to the south of Mutravir Island. There he discovered a cave, the sobbing little ghost of a cabin boy, and the cabin boy’s remains. This had been the sole survivor of the pirate ship in Amielle Latimer’s story. The ghost pleaded with him to bring his bones back to the island, as he was frightened in the cave. Uru was only too happy to oblige and asked if in return the cabin boy would teach him a sea shanty. The little boy sang the song and Uru took his bones ashore and buried them with dignity. “Take that, Voice of Rot,” he whispered.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="gideonpepys, post: 7148948, member: 79141"] [b]Session 18 (141) - Part Two - Explorations[/b] With the initial votes cast, the convocation heated up even further. Now everyone knew each other’s position, and faction leaders began targeting those they felt they might be able to persuade: Solace Petrov, leader of the Economists was immediately wooed by Colossus leader Catherine Romana (in earshot of the snooping Oscan/Gupta); Bruce McDruid was targeted by the leader of the Weapon Master faction, the elderly ice mage Glaz du Sang Magi (whom he recognised as the commander of the Ob submersible that had engaged the Roscommon many years ago); and Xavier/Leon - after first having to listen to some outrageous and obviously false boasting from General Shane Wallisone – was then subject to the General’s ham-fisted attempts to flatter him into joining Colossus. (“Only men of action such as ourselves understand the value of true power.”) Bert Facie cornered ‘Oscan’ and wanted to know what he was up to. Of all the officers present, he knew Oscan best and felt sure that he would vote for Colossus. So sure in fact that he had prepared a whole line of argument to win him round to Panarchist. Yet here he was, voting for Miller’s Pyre? What was he up to? What had he spotted? Did he want to be forced to be good? Gupta channelled Oscan as best she could without risking gestalt, gave a cunning grin and said she figured that some people would be less affected by exposure to the emotions of others. That would give them an advantage. She stuck to this line later, when interviewed by Nicodemus, adding that she did not think this convocation would be the end of the matter and intimating that Oscan was playing the long game. During the same encounter Gupta opened her mind in wonder at the leader of the Ob and learned that he was very old indeed. (Later, she began to feel that she in some way knew Nicodemus, but couldn’t put her finger on why.) Han Jierre himself courted Gran Guiscard, some time before Dame Constance Baden began to circulate the M.A.P. proposal*. Han was oddly personable; not like a ruler at all, though he hoped to appeal to Gran’s patriotism, and secure Gran’s support for his Sovereign’s pet project! He suggested that Miller’s Pyre was something akin to mind control. “Mind control is perfectly acceptable to me,” said ‘Gran’. “Dominate everyone as far as I’m concerned.” Later, the M.A.P. proposal would remove the heightened empathy element from the equation altogether, and Han would gladly join forces with Dame Constance and Cula Ravjahani to fend off Colossus. Kiov/Rumdoom ended up in a very boring conversation with Von Hastenschrieft Willimarkanova - Drakren philosopher and politician, and advocate of the Mortal Mind faction that sought to eradicate all religious, superstitious beliefs. Rumdoom didn’t much like religions either - apart from his own – but the fact that he agreed with his fellow dwarf only made the encounter even more boring. As Bruce McDruid, Matunaaga made a point of finding out all he could about the aegis faction. He was concerned about the Obscurati’s plan to leave the world accessible and undefended from other worlds. He ran into an argument between the aegis faction representative, Dengar Kriegshaff – a human wizard from Drakr whose role in the Ob was to design weapons capable of slaying Risur’s fey titans – and Cardinal Testamenta Suchdol, a human inquisitor who represented the ‘Trekkers’, officers who wanted to open up further worlds to explore (and in Suchdol’s case convert). She was adamant that there was no threat from outside which could not be opposed by human ingenuity, might and faith. She was, after all, a demon-hunter by trade. All such threats – the Demonocracy, the Dragon Tyrants, even the titans – had been overcome in the past. This did indeed appear to be the general mood of the conspiracy: that no such planar defence was necessary. Tellingly, none of their examples featured any mention of the gidim… Korrigan began to use his oratorical skill to bend people towards Miller’s Pyre and – even after the M.A.P. proposal began to gain traction – sought also to subtly find fault with each and every proposal, to encourage arguments between parties and heat up disagreements. He hoped that way to expose flaws in the conspiracy and hinder progress. (‘Xavier’, meanwhile, was – with equal subtlety – planting the idea that the Ob could not pull off their Grand Design at all.) Korrigan’s initial intention was to button-hole Cula Ravjahani, but once the M.A.P. proposal got going, this felt less important somehow. Still, the opportunity eventually presented itself, and he found the apparently gentle, sympathetic half-elf to be made of sterner stuff than she initially appeared. When he questioned the Pyre’s interpretation of Miller’s doctrine she grew in stature and her mood darkened. “Were Miller alive today, I am certain that he would be part of this conspiracy. For he would have learned that human beings cannot be trusted to run their own affairs. The Great Malice alone is enough to demonstrate the damage that men can do; their capacity to ‘other’ whole groups and pursue their destruction with relentless efficiency.” Once he had got the measure of her ‘Ken Don’ moved on. While he circulated in this capacity Korrigan found time to join a conversation between Oort Magnus and three other officers. When the other officers moved on, he introduced himself as Ken Don and explained that he had been researching obscure topics for years but had not come across anything like Oort Magnus. Magnus was just a little condescending, responding that Don could not have been researching very hard: the annals of academia were filled with accounts of planeshaped individuals such as he. Though it was indeed rare – the ‘shaped’ individual had to be strong-willed and hale enough to survive whatever accidental magic caused the condition – they were nonetheless of such interest to the arcano-scientific community that they were very well documented. (He seemed irked that Ken Don had never heard of him.) Once this initial exchange was over, Magnus warmed to the topic (of himself) and happily responded to Ken Don’s enquiries as to the nature of his condition. Magnus had become thus affected when interacting with an ancient artifact. It misfired and bathed him in Urim energy, almost killing him. But he survived and now found that he was almost effortlessly able to manipulate stone through his magical powers. ‘Ken’ remarked that, now he came to think of it he remembered that reports about the colossus incident in Flint mentioned one of the Risuri officers involved had a condition somewhat similar to Oort's. The wizard said that he had heard the same, but it did not sound as if this individual’s command of Urim energy was as great as his. Nonetheless, he should have liked to examine him. Don ended their exchange by adding that, according to Leone Quital, he had recently killed the aforementioned officer, so Magnus was unlikely to get the chance. ‘Don’ went off to see if he could find Reed Macbannin or Vicemi Terio, but neither of them were involved in the debates. (The unit occasionally caught a glimpse of Vicemi, watching from a distance, but he moved away if anyone drew close. Macbannin, it seemed, had been put in charge of the Ghost Council’s investigation into the murder.) To get away from the monotonous Willimarkanova, Kiov/Rumdoom visited the planar gallery and – after briefly checking in with Grappa and establishing that exposure to the planes was unlikely to cause contest, crisis or rejection (as long as he didn't hurt himself) – he dipped a toe in one of the portals, and enjoyed the experience so much that he ended up trying all of them. (While doing so, even Rumdoom could not overlook the irony that the most morally dubious of the ‘demo-planes’ was Miller’s Pyre, which took starved and maltreated clergy prisoners and used them to prove its efficacy.) [B]I described the portal planes in an email before the session. Rumdoom's exploration allowed the group to learn about the mechanical effects of each plane.[/B] For a bit of a change of scenery Gran Guiscard and Xavier Sangria went hunting for ghosts. With a bookpin guard in tow, they wandered down to the beach where Gran, pretending some bardic magic was the source, cast the water walk ritual and crossed the glassy surface of the Bleak Sea to Cacciatrece de Nav – an enormous spire of rock that jutted up from the sea to the south of Mutravir Island. There he discovered a cave, the sobbing little ghost of a cabin boy, and the cabin boy’s remains. This had been the sole survivor of the pirate ship in Amielle Latimer’s story. The ghost pleaded with him to bring his bones back to the island, as he was frightened in the cave. Uru was only too happy to oblige and asked if in return the cabin boy would teach him a sea shanty. The little boy sang the song and Uru took his bones ashore and buried them with dignity. “Take that, Voice of Rot,” he whispered. [/QUOTE]
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