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Message: <blockquote data-quote="gideonpepys" data-source="post: 7408041" data-attributes="member: 79141">Session 50, Part Three - CSI CloverFirst they went to the scene of the crime. Rock’s body had been discovered in the Krog Tunnel, a strange underground passage between three different districts of Clover.  Rambylon said that although someone who passed through it only ever saw two ends, it actually had three, making a sort of Y shape if charted on a map. Depending on how you entered – on foot, in a carriage, alone, in a group, singing a song, carrying a toad, etc. – the tunnel may decide to bend and deposit you in either of the other two exits. You only saw the people who were taking the same path you were, though if you enter in a group that group would tend to stick together. Regardless of which way you went, though, the tunnel always seemed straight. Each end was capped with stone buttresses, which were coated in graffiti proclaiming whichever group in the neighbourhood was in ascendancy, whether they be criminal, cultural, or culinary.  They left Andrei and Rambylon at the entrance and told them to keep a look out for trouble.Inside the tunnel, which had a fifteen foot high ceiling, the graffiti currently had a major ‘night sky’ motif.  From his close vantage on the ceiling, Uru could see that the stars had been replaced with tiny gears, a few of which ground together, spraying blood across the heavens as they crushed small creatures - both creatures and blood depicted in deep reds and browns against the darkness of space and seeming as nothing more than smudges or dim nebulae from the ground.  (This gave Uru the idea to add such fine, ‘hidden’ detail to the murals in his garden.)Nyves took them to the spot where Rock was murdered – in the crook of the tunnel, though you couldn’t tell right now.  They searched the area, but the crime scene had been sullied by several days of traffic. However, Uru found wisps of cobwebs on the ceiling which he was able to identify as part of the Webway. Gupta took a deep breath and opened her mind to Wonder. She received a vision of the culprit, invisible, shrouded in darkness, scuttling out of the Webway. (Everyone looked at Uru.) Quratulain calculated that Rock Rackus came this way so often it would be impossible to narrow down who might have known when he would be here, but there must have been plenty of other witnesses too.While they pored over the meagre evidence, Uru noticed a shift in the quality of sound in the tunnel, as if the treble notes from outside had suddenly been cut off.  Moments later, freezing sea water began pouring down the walls of the tunnel, fast enough that they were knee-deep in just a few seconds.  Korrigan grabbed Kai by the hand and ordered the rest of the group back to the entrance. Uru buzzed ahead on Little Jack and saw from a distance that the tunnel had been sealed by a wall of ice.Before he could get close, however, an arcane shimmer presaged the arrival of a huge fey orca! Another appeared behind the group. These enormous creatures lashed out in anger and beset the unit with piercing whale song.  This might have been an easy fight, but so keen had they been to proceed with their enquiries, the unit had neglected to rest.  Everyone except Gupta was still weary from the gauntlet of Methia.  Quratulain used her rifle for the first time (to great effect) and Gupta transformed into a tiger for the first time since Trekhom (and the fight against the cult of Kamanov).  Uru shot one of the orca straight down its blow-hole. It didn’t take long, but by the time the creatures were dealt with, the water was five feet deep and rising.Korrigan and Kai melded with Mavisha and swam up to the ice wall.  Their schism-wrought nature helped them to ignore the bitter cold the magic wall emanated. Korrigan then turned back to his ‘normal’ form and used Urimshock on the ice. Nothing. He repeated the action, kicking at the wall with all his might. Cracks appeared and he tried again. It was clear that this could work, if only he had the strength to keep going, but he was exhausted. Once again, he utilized Kai’s connection with the planes to summon the pure, positive energy of Vona, bathing all of them in its healing radiance.Concerned for Uru – who was too worn out to shadow step through to the other side and, of all of them, the most likely to drown as the water rose closer to the ceiling – Quratulain handed him the Golden Icon of Nem, which Matunaaga had gifted her before he left. With it, Uru passed through the ice wall only to find danger on the other side: a rough-looking group of satyr mercenaries, accompanied by a surly, talking bear.“Here’s one of them now,” they said.  “Let’s get to work.”End of Session</blockquote>

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