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Message: <blockquote data-quote="gideonpepys" data-source="post: 7357491" data-attributes="member: 79141">Session 44, Part Two  - Farewell to MatunaagaKorrigan and Gupta were in Ber.  The rest of the unit was putting the finishing touches to their plans to infiltrate Methia.  Out of the blue, Matunaaga received an urgent message, a communication not in words, but concepts, in the fashion of his people:Layered aura of all three elders. Request for aid with 'sanction' attached. Level is urgent: respond at once; return home. Attached to primary directive is ‘addendum’: not a footnote, but set aside from the note of sanction and the request for aid:  The aura, or essence of 'Korrigan',  coupled with a desire to impart information to that person.Matunaaga contacted Korrigan who was already on his way back.  He arrived as the unit was coming together to finalise their mission. Kasvarina was there for the first time in several days. She was as poised and graceful as ever at first glance, but there was a fraught energy behind her eyes and a tension in her voice.  She wanted to know what Korrigan had learned from Sor Daeron (and seemed slightly put out that he had chosen to go without her). Given the urgency of the new situation, Korrigan asked Kasvarina if she could wait until he got back.  Korrigan told her how they had found Sor Daeron living, just as Melissa Amerie had said, under an assumed name, protected by divinations, surrounded by other elderly eladrin men who seemed to have no idea who he really was.  At first he feigned senility, but eventually admitted that he remembered more than he was letting on.  Fear of Kasvarina’s vengeance caused him to hide and made him reluctant to talk.  Eventually, they persuaded him to do so, and he told them that he and Latika had learned that Kasvarina was responsible for the Great Malice.  How had they learned this?  A man, who refused to identify himself, told them so.  He had been in Methia when it happened, witnessed it and had lost his life as a result. “This man wore another’s body and was continually wreathed by Leaf of Nicodemus.” Divinations showed he was telling the truth. This ‘smoking man’ not only revealed Kasvarina’s involvement, but provided the vengeful eladrin with the precise means to exact their revenge. The plan to abduct Launga had been entirely his.  (Now, in his dotage, Sor Daeron confessed to real regret at using Launga to punish her mother; his shame at having done so eclipsed any sense of self-pity in his sorry exile. Korrigan told him that the man who brought them this information and used them to harm Kasvarina was responsible for the Great Malice too – in fact even more so. He told him his name was Nicodemus, that he was still very much alive, and that he had been manipulating Kasvarina all along. Sor stood up and walked away at this point, tired or overwhelmed. These last details were omitted in his account to Kasvarina.) When she learned of Nicodemus’ involvement Kasvarina simply nodded as if this were something she had suspected all along, or maybe her emotions had simply run dry.“What I don’t understand,” said Korrigan, “is why Nicodemus would seek to betray you.”“Neither do I,” said Kasvarina.  “Maybe one day we’ll get the chance to ask him."Again, she and Leon remained behind with Uriel, while the others set off, using a teleportation scroll to travel to the Hidden Valley.  (Korrigan and Gupta were already in the company of ritual-trained junior officer, Jeph Sabsent, who had brought them back from Ber.) They were well aware of the dangers of doing so and made certain to close their eyes: The gith’s teleportation circle sat in a bone cage in a pit full of basilisks. One by one the unit was raised telekinetically out of the cage to safety.  They were greeted by three gith warriors.“Why have these others come?” said one. “You were told to bring Korrigan.” Matunaaga shrugged in response, because the answer was so obvious. “They must wait here,” said a second gith.The third, a senior gith named Trinoar, then said:“The integrity of our sanctuary has been compromised. Outsiders have found us and entered with a purpose.  A day ago, two caji intercepted a creature we later determined to be a fey construct.  One was killed and the other retreated to call for aid. Others came and the creature was destroyed, but several were injured in the process. Yesterday, another fey construct came, and then another. The first controlled the minds of the the caji who met it and sent them on ahead. One shrugged off this influence but - reluctant to slay her own brother - was in turn slain. That brother was laid low by an elder and remained unconscious until today. The elder destroyed the construct but gave her all in so doing.“A second construct made greater headway, until it reached the innermost valley.  Your phalanx destroyed it.“Today, three more constructs tried our defences. Many were slain.  Two constructs were stopped, but the last penetrated.  It came to your house, where your wife and children lay. There it was met by your father who had been gone for many weeks. Many blame Chenu for this incursion and for inviting outsiders to share our sanctuary. But now Chenu is dead and the last construct with him. His final act was to pass his thoughtstone on to you.  Caji Dobre, you are now the apex of your clave and must take your father's place here, or leave in exile.”Without pause, the first gith then added:“Etrui awoke today. He was able to report on the geas that afflicted him while under the construct's influence: the creatures hunt for your son, Korrigan, and have come here to take him away. It has been decided that you must remove him and leave at once. Outsiders will no longer be tolerated. “What is your decision Caji Dobre? Will you enter and defend your people, or leave forever?”Matunaaga asked if the others could come with him to help repel any further incursions, but his request was denied. Only Korrigan would be permitted within the valley. They set off without further ado, knowing there was little point in arguing with a gith. The Hidden Valley was a beautiful place at every time of year, but particularly splendid in the autumn. Matunaaga’s home lay close to the Long Lake that stretched all the way out, through secret caves, to the Marrajado de Oro. It was a sloping, three-tiered structure built of wood and stone, designed to complement the surrounding landscape, as all gith buildings were.  So the atrocious damage done to the lowest tier felt like an insult to the land itself, as did the hulking lump of foul deformity that lay where Chenu had felled it, like an amputated canker: a giant fungal construct of roughly humanoid shape, though hunched beneath a rock-hard, bone-white carapace, with two man-sized obsidian-sharp claws for forearms.  It’s ‘head’ lay close by, having been lopped off by Chenu: a lump of translucent ooze.The two men were greeted by their children and by Ayesha, Matunaaga’s sturdy, stalwart wife. She had placed a ring of rusted iron filings around their house and held a strange, twisted wooden rod in her hand. She told Matunaaga how his eldest, Noi, had rushed forward to defend their home and now lay injured upstairs. The children spoke of his bravery in hushed but excitable terms, aware that if it wasn’t for their timely arrival of their grandfather, Noi would now be dead. Once they had greeted the children, Ayesha took them inside to pay their respects to Chenu. Korrigan had spent three years in the valley and yet the only gith he came to know besides Matunaaga was his father, Chenu. The others – even those maustin caji who regretted the lapse of their oath to the kings of Risur – kept an austere distance.  But Chenu gradually overcame his hostility they forged a friendship. Now the old gith was dead and the olive branch and welcome he extended withered along with him. It was clear that the gith would now close in upon themselves and withdraw from the world entirely.“The elders fear what is coming,” said Ayesha. “You’ve seen the temples.”  Temples carved with strange beings that closely resembled gidim and their thoughtforms.  The giths’ apprehension echoed the horror of the Deep Ones who also feared the gidim. The gith had been their slaves; the aboleth their prey.  “Divinations say that the skies will open,” said Ayesha.  “This is why the gith have hidden all along.”She handed Chenu’s thoughtstone to Matunaaga.  At once he felt the urgency all around him, and was able to sense the thoughts of others in the valley. No sooner had he donned it, an alarm was raised. More constructs, this time close by. They had come along the bed of the lake and risen up along the water’s edge. Four of them this time. There was no time to mourn. Korrigan payed only the briefest of respects to his dead friend, then took his terrified son in his arms and ran.Matunaaga ran alongside him. Ayesha would protect their children. The gith would not spare any other warriors to defend outsiders from harm, but would allow ‘Caji Dobre’ to do this last service to his human commander. As they ran, Matunaaga reached into his tunic and drew out the Golden Icon of Nem. “Take this,” he said. No explanation was necessary: of all the items Matunaaga had picked up on their adventures, this was the only one that directly pertained to the machinations of the Ob.They moved swiftly, hoping to outrun the lumbering constructs, but soon learned that their way was blocked. Against orders, Matunaaga’s phalanx – the five caji he had trained to use firearms – had moved to intercept one construct, so they headed that way, where they would have support.But when they came to the narrow gorge where the phalanx had met the monster, they were fired upon from above – among the rocks and trees, four members of the phalanx had taken up positions there, dominated by the construct as Etrui and his sister had been.Matunaaga leapt to take out Tosin as she reloaded. Korrigan protected Kai from further shots. The construct itself stomped into view. Matunaaga called to Korrigan to flee and draw the construct after him. Reluctantly, no longer in command, Korrigan obeyed, and use his canary in a coalmine pendant to fly above the battlefield and paused to allow the monster to sense their flight.  It did not, but stomped onwards to where Matunaaga was now fighting three of his students, having already knocked Tosin unconscious. Korrigan watched as Matunaaga proved himself their master, flowing past their several blows with ease and gradually felling each one of them. Again, Matunaaga told him to flee. Word had come that the other constructs had changed direction and were now heading towards them. Matunaaga crouched and took aim at the construct nearby…With a heavy heart, and a crying child in his arms, Korrigan ran, keeping one hand on his defender sword.  When he left the borders of the valley – relayed down the impassable cliffs by the telekinesis of other gith – Matunaaga was exhausted but still alive.Trinoar bid them leave at once. As Yev prepared the necessary ritual, Korrigan tried his best to console Kai. The poor little boy had lived for three years with a family of nine other children; Ayesha was a mother to him and the person he wanted to be with, having witnessed the horrors of the last day.  How would he explain to his son that he might never see Ayesha or his brothers and sisters again?The portal to Flint opened, and they stepped through.  The defender longsword was out of range, and there was no further news of Matunaaga.End of Era[MEDIA=youtube]VAnh1waFPeY[/MEDIA]</blockquote>

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