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Message: <blockquote data-quote="gideonpepys" data-source="post: 7307818" data-attributes="member: 79141">Session 36, Part Three - Forced Faith, RepriseDisguised by Kasvarina’s seeming, they took a leisurely train back to Flint.  On the way, they received word from Mayor of the Nettles, Isaac Dan Der Grimnebulin – once a good friend of Malthusius – that their return to the Cauldron Hill facility had been approved.   There were a lot of competing memories for both Uriel and Kasvarina in Flint: they both felt themselves tugged and pulled many directions at once.  Kieran Sentacore suggested they head for the Navras Opera House first – built several centuries ago by an old friend of Kasvarina’s.  Just walking through the streets was enough for Uriel to experience brief flashbacks of Malthusius – and occasionally Malthus (whom Malthusius knew to be his own immediate forebear).  Uriel had to concentrate just to keep on walking.At the Opera House, Kasvarina experienced the following:Kasvarina comes to visit her Navras during the opera house’s construction. They walk through the skeleton of the structure, still open to the sky. She wonders why he’s building this thing here, rather than back in their homeland, and Navras says that he doesn’t like what Elfaivar is turning into. She asks if he’d mind her staying until the building is complete so she can hear the first performance. Navras sneers and threatens to have security drag her out if he sees her. Once again, Kasvarina was left crestfallen by what she had witnessed.  Her last few memories had been the worst so far.  Everyone seemed to have grown to hate her.  Somehow, the magic of the arc resonated strangely with the energies of the Opera House.  It had long been held that performances at the Navras bestowed magical powers on certain items, and sure enough, the unit sensed a burgeoning of magical power from their own belongings – treasured possessions of each person present: Korrigan’s military-issue boots; Gupta’s book on William Miller, given to her by Captain Smith; a family token made by Matunaaga’s eldest son; Leon’s flute; The White King from Malthusius’ chess set (which Uru had passed on to Uriel).  All and each glowed with power – as did an embroidered handkerchief belonging to Kasvarina and Kieran Sentacore’s quill pen.They were in the midst of examining their properties when Uriel was drawn into an extended memory event, which played out all around them on the stage of the opera house.  They did not have to move to witness the events, even though they took place throughout Flint: in the Governor’s Mansion; down on Parity Lake; on both the ‘hunch’ and the summit of Cauldron Hill. Through these memories, Uriel learned about Malthus – about how he had come to Flint one hundred years ago in the company of Amielle Latimer with a warning for King Lorcan, and how he had taken part in an all-out assault on the coven of the Red Contessa.  The rest of the unit stood by dumbfounded, except at one moment, where a memory troll rose up in their midst and mistakenly attacked them instead of the King and his retinue.  (They swiftly dispatched it without disturbing the event.)  They also learned that the Contessa had been defeated when Melissa Gahlot caught her in a golden net, and King Lorcan threw her off the mountain.  She fell so far that her ritual bond with the king and his allies broke before she hit the ground![For full details of this event see sessions 22 & 23, the Bonds of Forced Faith.]Oddly, Malthus did not die during this event, and Uriel now found himself drawn towards the Governor’s Island.Roland Stanfield was in residence and was only too happy to do anything he could to help his old friend Malthusius.  He was able to tell Uriel that Malthus had sacrificed himself to save Stanfield from assassination by Sister Languor – one of the witches who escaped the fight on the Hill.  Stanfield then brought Malthus’ reincarnation back to Flint and reacquainted him with his old life.  But Malthus did not feel like Malthus any more – as most of his early life had been spent elsewhere – so he decided to change his name just a bit and took up a post at the new University.Uriel thanked Stanfield and prepared for the worst as he re-enacted his death at the hands of Sister Languor. Stanfield played the part of himself, of course, while he and Malthus discussed the re-emergence of the threat on Cauldron Hill, about twenty years after the events of the Bonds of Forced Faith.  Advising them was none other Sevitar Anrathi whom the unit knew as a member of Unit B – then a shadow of his former self, who now stood warning the Governor of a necromancer named Cedric San who had taken up residence on the Hill.  (The unit knew that Sevitar had disappeared while pursuing this necromancer into the Bleak Gate, only to reappear eighty years later.)  While they talked, an angular female form detached itself from the shadows and lunged at Stanfield.  Malthus cried out a warning and interposed himself.  A poisoned blade hit home, and it was all Korrigan and company could do to save Uriel from the wound. (Although, thankfully, when the event ended, the poison vanished too.)  Uriel had not died, and yet he was able to remember skills and abilities that Malthus had possessed – most of which Malthusius had accessed too.While he had Stanfield in front of him, Korrigan took him to task.  During their last fleeting visit to Flint, Nevard Sechim had told Korrigan that promises made to the Clockwork Count had not been met.  In return for the count’s help in developing the schematics left behind by Tinker Oddcog, Delft and Korrigan had – with royal approval – promised to better the lives of the forgotten folk of the under-city of Flint.  But this had not happened, and according to Sechim, the only reason the Count had not complained was that he did not think the responsibility was Korrigan’s. If something was not done, he would simply relinquish his vow to work with the RHC (and possibly his pledge of loyalty to the king).  It turned out that the funds to enable this improvement program were intended to flow from the office of the Governor, and had dried up shortly after they began.  Now Stanfield flannelled and squirmed like a true politician – all too well aware that Korrigan had once posed as his political rival (shortly before disappearing entirely for three years) and had little time for his ruthless exploitation of the common folk.  Stanfield tried to argue that the under-folk were hard to reach – that improving their lot created problems for the industrialists who would find it even harder to justify the living conditions of their own workers – and that Risur couldn’t afford to lose the arms race now that war with Danor loomed ever closer.  But Korrigan reminded Stanfield of the huge strides they had made with the Clockwork Count’s help, strides that would mean just as much if not more in military terms, and in the end Stanfield yielded to his arguments.  The funds would be released and the Count would be appeased.During this session, the players reminded me of a bit of research they wanted Ken Don to perform on their behalf, but it had slipped my mind: they wanted him to find out any secret or hidden information about William Miller. They are close to guessing his true identity at this  point so I thought I might hint that Miller had adopted a nickname during his time as a healer in the war.  Is there any other juicy info I could reveal instead or as well as this?  I want to reward their adoption of this NPC.  They've also asked him to research nascent clergy philosophies that withered on the branch (taking a hint from one of the memory events that Nicodemus may have striven to direct clergy doctrine).  I was thinking he may have sought to encourage them to remain warlike and aggressive.  Any thoughts on either of these ideas?</blockquote>

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