NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="gideonpepys" data-source="post: 7371944" data-attributes="member: 79141">Session 45, Part Two - Methia<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPKVUaoJ6gM&index=11&list=PL21C5247EC7743947" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPKVUaoJ6gM&index=11&list=PL21C5247EC7743947</a>Three uncomfortable but uneventful days passed. News reached them through Marbo of a military counterstrike against disputed territory on the Avery Coast.  Risuri soldiers, Drakren riflemen and Beran bear cavalry had used the rail line against the arrogant Danorans, striking a blow against military installations on the Danoran side of the Malice Lands.  It was unclear if there had been a declaration of war prior to the strike.  Checks on the river were redoubled, but Marbo handled everything and the ship was never fully searched.The absolute dead magic zone took its toll: Korrigan’s schism-wrought limbs were wracked with aches as the elemental energies that course through them dissipated; Uru felt heavier and more visible; Uriel discovered that he could no longer access the abilities of his former lives, except those he had chosen before coming here; Gupta nicked her thumb and discovered that her regenerative powers did not function.One night, Marbo followed one of his crewmates off the boat.  Citing a sudden shortage of funds, he had withheld their wages a few days back, concerned that one of them was on the take; the guilty party was the only crewmember who did not come to him cap in hand for special treatment.  Halfway up the river, the docker went ashore and visited a new-fangled ‘Longwire Station’.  (‘Longwires’ were the latest in communication technology, substituting for sending magic in Danor.)  Sly caught the man trying to pass details of their mission to his superiors.  He killed the traitor and the hapless wire operator, just in case.  Uru was able to range out of their hiding place and, following along, witnessed Marbo’s devotion to the cause.  They spoke, and Sly confessed that he was itching to get involved in whatever the unit was up to, beyond just dropping them in Methia.  Uru broached this with Korrigan, who cross-examined Marbo and then gave him permission to join them.  Marbo’s combination of skills would be invaluable.This much became clear when they finally docked in Methia.  Dressed in a low-ranking Danoran military uniform, Marbo went to talk with the gate guards while Uru scouted for a way in. Uru saw that the porteurs’ submersible was already docked here.  The legend ‘Sovereign’s Knife’ had been crudely painted over with a new name, Lya’s Lament.At the only open gate leading from the docks, Marbo encouraged the disaffected guards to complain about their posting.  It was especially bad since War Minister  Duffet arrived, they said.  Fat old windbag Marshal Beujeu was – beneath his bluster – here for an easy life.  But Eloise Duffet was a martinet, and rabidly anti-Risur. (The unit remembered her from the Peace Talks, harping on about Aodhan bombing an orphanage.  Korrigan had dismissed this as Danoran propaganda until Duchess Ethelyn confirmed it!) “Though maybe since this attack down south she has a point.  Still, they’re not going to sail all the way up here to pay a visit to the Lance are they?”  The guards said that the island where the Lance of Triegenes stood was now heavily fortified, and unauthorised ships would be blown out of the water.   They gestured to the Lya’s Lament and said that the porteurs were a mean-looking bunch, and many of them had been assigned to defence of the island.Having already checked the unmanned gates, and finding them impassable from this side, Uru slipped through the open gate while Sly distracted the guards.  Then Uru opened the furthest gate from the inside and radioed the others to tell them what he’d done.  They slipped ashore and passed unseen into Holy Methia, while Marbo bluffed his way in.Having got a good clear distance away from view, Kasvarina donned the Arc.  She sensed a memory event above the Lance - about five-hundred feet above the present-day ruin, to be precise.  Uriel, meanwhile, sensed an event deeper into the city.Sly asked what their extraction plan was.  The response – a fatalistic shrug – was of some concern to him, and it was decided that they should check their theory that the activation of the Arc would make teleportation possible by heading for Uriel’s memory event first.  (Uru suggested they pull the whole Lance out of the memory event while they were up there, but Uriel did not think that would work.)Kasvarina interrupted them with a hush.  She gestured for them to listen.  They heard nothing at first until she nodded at each beat and gradually became aware of distant, rhythmic, subsonic thuds – very much like colossal footfalls.  They decided to get moving and quickly followed Uriel to witness an event in which his original, human incarnation was brought with other children to enter a seminary and be trained as a priest.  This simple event had the surprising effect of making Uriel feel very much more connected to his previous incarnations. For the first time he ‘recognised’ the unit and to their surprise said, “Oh, hello my friends. It is good to see you at long last.”  He suddenly sounded like Malthusius again!  But, no, his memories had not entirely returned and now the Arc was pointing him towards the Lance of Triegenes too!</blockquote>

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