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Message: <blockquote data-quote="gideonpepys" data-source="post: 7238732" data-attributes="member: 79141">Session 24, Part Two - False Flags & FairydustNot long after Delft had gone, Gale announced her presence through the messenger wind.  It was good to know the invisible feathers still worked!  Gupta, Uru and Korrigan went on deck to meet her.  She looked the same as ever – her long black hair and simple blue dress flowing about her like fronds of seaweed.Gale was accompanied by two dark-skinned and muscular eladrin men, each wearing bronze helms and breastplates over a short white tunic.  They bore unsheathed short swords and glared menacingly and protectively at everyone who drew near.  Gale explained dismissively that these ‘rajput’ insisted on going everywhere with her since she ‘refused to stay put’.  Then she noticed that only three constables stood before her and said in a worried tone, “Your numbers are low.”They reassured Gale that Leon, Rumdoom and Matunaaga were alive and well (kind of).  Then she told them why she had come: she wanted their help trying to find Isobel Travers, whom she had been searching for these past three years.  Gale felt an enormous sense of responsibility for Isobel, who had come to Flint following her example (after the unit had rescued her from slavery with the help of Andrei von Reckling-hausen, during their escapade on the Avery Coast railroad).  If Gale had not succumbed to the influence of Ekossigan, Isobel might never have left.  She then reminded the unit that messengers had arrived with tokens from Andrei Von Recklinghausen (shortly after his abduction) and promised to take her to safety in Elfaivar now that he could no longer protect her.  When she described these messengers – an olive-skinned human in a stove-pipe hat and a brightly coloured female sprite – the unit immediately recognised them as Ob operatives.  They were the same people who had beaten them to – and murdered – two of Malthusius’ incarnations, to prevent him from accessing his memories and restoring his old personality.  Now that the unit knew what had become of Andrei, they felt sure that Isobel must be held captive somewhere, to secure his cooperation with Nicodemus.They shared this information with Gale and promised to help search for Isobel when they could.  Realising that it was futile to continue the search in Elfaivar, Gale decided to return to Flint and look there. When she was urged to be careful she pointed out that she had never been caught yet – not even by them! The unit said they would return when they could and hoped that Gale might be able to speed things up:  Did she have any idea where they might find Kasvarina Varal?“Oh, yes,” Gale said, happily.  “She’s in Sentosa.”This led to many more questions, most of which Gale could not answer.  Sentosa was an eladrin enclave that existed in a pocket plane, not in physical space, and Gale could not tell them exactly how to get there.  As a mistrusted outsider (but a valued female) she had been guided through the enclaves on her search, but was never shown how to come and go, or how to reach each one of them.  All she knew was that Sentosa was tied to the physical ruin of an ancient, abandoned eladrin city.  She gestured to the map, “somewhere here” – on the Danoran colony of Rationalis, up-river from Port Perrault. Gale did not know which ruin.  “There are a lot,” she said.When pressed on how to approach or gain access to the enclave Gale said she did not know, and even if she did – she gestured at the Rajput – it would be unwise and churlish of her to tell them.  Safe to say, if the eladrin wanted to speak to them they would grant them access.And so they changed course for the coast to the west of Port Perrault, and bid farewell to Gale.  She left slightly nonplussed by Gupta who remembered that her mother greatly admired the eladrin and told her so. (Gale also ‘awoke’ their messenger wind before she went, and promised that it would not lose charge for a long time.)When she had gone, they sent a message to Leon who travelled to a clergy library and secured a map of major eladrin settlements from before the Great War.  There were indeed a lot, but three were clustered together up the Tapi River many miles from the coast, just where Gale had blithely poked her finger.*Two days later – as the Impossible and her escort rounded the fog-wreathed horn of Tropaeum (to the east of Macdam and the Isle of Titans) – an approaching Risuri steamship, the Ipsum, was identified as flying a false flag.  Uru, up in the crow’s nest, could clearly see this ship was of Danoran design, hastily and poorly disguised.  The Ipsum began to use semaphore to signal for help, but when the Impossible and her escort suddenly veered south, two Danoran steam frigates emerged from the fog bank (a magical, illusory shroud) and gave chase.Fearing for her escort, the Impossible manoeuvred to lock the Ispum down.Silky, the ships merfey mascot, reported another vessel approaching beneath the waves.  A submersible!The RNS Chell was on the receiving end of a barrage from both frigates, and her rigging was shattered.The Impossible and the Alesia drew within striking distance on either side of the Ipsum, hoping to deal with one foe before the submersible got involved.  Cannon fire was exchanged, with some loss of life on both sides, before the gap narrowed enough for close combat.End of Session</blockquote>

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