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Message: <blockquote data-quote="gideonpepys" data-source="post: 7337548" data-attributes="member: 79141">Session 40, Part Three - The Mechanical Devil of Kurat-Ul-AinWandering, weaving corridors – represented by straight lines on the schematic – connected each of the major halls.  The tome in the schematics room proudly declaimed that the concrete used to line these passageways contained the crushed bones of priests who had chosen to be interred here to help contain the evils within and so protect the world from heresy.They followed the lead of the memory event as best they could, fearing that divergence would disrupt it.(However, in the Vault of Heretical Texts, Uru did try to find a second version of the bottled quasit, Tokoloshe, so he had two to torture; an impossible task which, had it succeeded, may have a ripped a hole in the fabric of reality that would dwarf the alterations which the Ob sought to make.)  It was necessary, then, for them to cope with the same traps and creatures as Nicodemus and Kasvarina had: a blazing cascade of radiance; a pesky invisible stalker; some noisome, irritating dretches; and a malicious spirit that extinguished all of their magical light.  Kasvarina was once again forced into a difficult fight – this time with a half-dozen wights.  The battle left her injured and exhausted and she was forced to rest in the Vault of Unholy Arms and Armour, where Nicodemus tended her wounds:“We can’t go on like this,” he says. “I’m no use in a fight. You need some help.”  Nicodemus looks around, then approaches a figure held in magical stasis: a female automaton of surprising complexity, not an empty suit of armour like the rest of the exhibits. He scrutinizes the plaque on the pedestal, proclaiming this to be the Mechanical Devil of Kurat-Ul-Ain. “Ah, here she is,” he says, then asks Kasvarina if she can dispel the wards that restrain the figure.  Kasvarina questions his decision. “Don’t worry,” he says. “I know a thing or two about heretics. I have heard of this contraption, and I’m sure it will help us if we explain our purpose.” They free the Devil, and at once, it attacks!  A sharp blade springs out of its right forearm and it rains down blows on Kasvarina, who struggles to parry them. They dance backwards across the hall, until Nicodemus cries, “Quratulain!  We seek to oppose the men who imprisoned you!  Help us to escape this vault, and you will have vengeance upon the clergy!”At this, the Devil stopped fighting.Meanwhile, the rest of the party had ranged beyond the scope of the memory event and heard a female voice calling out, “Identify yourselves. Only friends of Giovanni may pass, and I know all of Giovanni’s friends.” (They were relieved to note that this was not the same female voice who had tempted some of them last time they came.)  Uriel and Gupta handled the negotiations with this being, recognising the name Giovanni from the book Nicodemus stole. (They stepped into the breach after Leon tried to pretend that they were friends of Giovanni, a blatant lie that exasperated the voice, to the extent that it hurled a cursed, maggoty mace at his head.) In the end, they agreed to co-operate to their mutual benefit: they would be granted passage, if they helped to defeat Giovanni’s enemies –‘the legion of Belcamp’, a band of devils to the South.  But first they would follow the voice – who called herself ‘Grunhilde’ – to meet Giovanni…While this was going on, Korrigan was having a very awkward conversation with the Mechanical Devil.  While the initial exchanges had been predetermined by the memory event, he suddenly found himself at a loss for words.  Instead of continuing to try to persuade the Devil, he risked disruption and said, “Did I keep my promise to you?”The Devil’s face was an impassive porcelain mask, but it cocked its head to one side at this, indicating perplexity. After a time, her heavily accented female voice responded: “You did not.”“I will not lie to you again,” said Korrigan.“What will you do?” said the Devil.“That promise was given by a different man.  I do not break my promises.”A verbal stand-off ensued, while both parties tried to figure out exactly what was going on. The Mechanical Devil insisted that she wanted freedom in return for her help.  Korrigan had reservations about freeing anyone or anything from this place and responded with equivocations, until the Devil impatiently drew her blade again:“I won’t wait another five-hundred years. You are not as good a liar as you were, I’ll give you that.”“I am pursuing this man, the man whose form I take. Lying is the least of his crimes. This man made a deal with you for freedom. I will not. If you help us, then we can talk.”The Devil was still for a very long time.  Uru sensed that it was making calculations.  Then she said, “I believe you are not the same man.”  Then to Kasvarina, “But I believe you to be the same.”“I fear that is the case,” said Kasvarina.  “I am both the same and not the same and I am sorry for any pain my past self may have caused you.  But I can do nothing here and now to prove that I have changed.”Another long pause, before the blade vanished again, and the Devil acquiesced.  “Lead on.”Then another walking suit of armour stomped into view.  This one was empty, animated by the spirit of Grunhilde, who now led the ragtag band to meet with ‘the beneficent Giovanni’.Before they left, they witnessed a minor memory event, showing Nicodemus, Kasvarina and the Mechanical Devil returning through this chamber from the south, to try to circumvent a dangerous trap. This continual overlay of conflicting events was very confusing!As they made their way through yet more interconnecting hallways, Uriel began to study the phenomenon, to see if he could work out exactly what was going on.  Together with Gupta, Leon and Kasvarina, he managed to establish that the whole Vault was now one enormous memory event. The overlaid anachronisms were anomalies caused by the attunement of more than one person to the Arc. But generally speaking, this was the Vault as Nicodemus and Kasvarina encountered it five hundred years ago, and judging by what had happened so far, it was not as sensitive to disruption as the other events they had encountered.They followed Grunhilde – encountering nothing more hazardous than a magical, barking stone dog (a guard dog, she said, placed by Giovanni’s followers) – until they came to the Hall of Blasphemous Artworks, a well-lit, clean and welcoming space, quite at odds with the rest of the vault. The air in the hall was scented with perfume, and lilting music could be heard from a distance, punctuated (or so Uru thought) by the more urgent sound of copulation.End of Session</blockquote>

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