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Message: <blockquote data-quote="gideonpepys" data-source="post: 7424418" data-attributes="member: 79141">Session 53, Part Two - Rock the KasbahThe discordant shouts swelled to a crescendo, hands moved towards weapons. Suddenly a booming voice rose above the din, calling for the squabbling to stop.  When they realised it was Rock, everyone did so. The dissolute adventurer stood, with a little help. He was distraught to find the fey brought to the brink of disaster for love of him. “I’m not worth it,” he said.  “Even I’m not worth it.”On coming to realise that there was a whole camp of tired, injured soldiers on the lawn outside, Rock turned to the unit and said, “What’s say we go about this our usual way – for old time’s sake?” Rock proposed an impromptu open air concert designed to uplift the two factions and heal their wounds. Once accepted, this suggestion took on a momentum of its own, and the nobles were swept up in the excitement, despite themselves.Rock’s appearance caused great excitement – soldiers from both camps cheered to see him still alive and crowded around to get a closer look. Uru’s many ghost hands worked busily to provide a podium from which he could be seen. Leon took out his Wayfarer’s Lamp and infused it with oil from the demi-plane Bard – inspiring performers and affecting their audience with the same elevated spirit. Rock opened with his most famous song, I Had a Threeway, which had been taken up as a drinking and marching song by warriors on both sides. For the first time in their adventures together, Gupta cast aside her wholly professional and restrained façade and threw herself into a performance in support of Rock, a performance comprised of vocals, the beat of her mother’s rabana and wild eladrin dancing inspired by the song of Vekesh. Rock cleverly altered the lyrics of his songs as they went, weaving calls to unity and appeals for brotherhood into his line-up of hits, including An RHC Hero, 18 Mile, and 99 Problems (But a Lich Ain’t One).While the concert played on, the rest of the unit made preparations. They returned to speak with Copperhat who said that the Voice of Rot had the power to send them back to the Waking, as the fey titans existed within both realms and could send their minions to and fro at will, and could also banish intruders. But Korrigan and Co weren’t happy at the thought of approaching the wicked serpent cap-in-hand. Beshela suggested that they try to rouse She Who Writhes and put their faith in her own good relations with the ill-tempered kraken.  But the process of finding and waking her could take many days.Just then, unexpected help arrived: fruit of the seed sown by Larena’s suggestion that Olazdor send for help on the matter, after he confessed he could not send the unit home himself.  Two geriatric and disturbingly flirtatious pixie librarians arrived from the Hall of Accumulated Wisdom. These sisters, Alba and Zanel, demanded that Furg return a book he had stolen from their collection – the Book of Kelland. When Furg said he had given it to Leon, Alba and Zanel took the opportunity to flit about the new courtier, shrieking in excitement and exposing their undergarments ‘accidentally’. They said he could keep the book if he paid an overdue fine, but when they told him what form the fine took, Leon offered to give back the book.  The two ladies giggled, commended his fine morals,and told him he would need it:  Within were the words the daughter of Kelland used to anger the Voice of Rot. The unit could use this knowledge to provoke the titan – enough, perhaps, to earn his banishment. A risky strategy!Uru now spoke up. From as far back as his youth on Axis Island, Uru had harboured an ambition – more of a pipe-dream – that he would one day slay the Voice of Rot, whose dominance and perversion of the sanctity of death Uru detested (with a fervour equalled only by his contempt for the Obscurati’s use of witch-oil). Familiar with the old legend, Uru knew of the fabled Sword of the Black Needles and wondered if that could be used to defeat the titan.Alba and Zanel cleared up his misapprehension – the sword had been thrown down by King Dukain, and could only be used to re-instigate the battle they once fought. Even the greatest warriors could not hope to win against a fey titan! But if the sword could be found and taken up, the unit could immediately surrender. By the terms of the titan’s ancient pact with Risur, it would be forced to banish them. The only down-side was that the titan would then be free to move beyond his current domain and claim more territory. Korrigan wasn’t happy at the sound of that!  Was it really that urgent, that they should take such a great risk?While this conversation was going on, Leon went to get Sly Marbo and Andrei.  They were still holed up in the Warrens – a region inhabited by Sly Marbo’s people. By now, Marbo was back on his feet, but still stiff.  With them was a visitor – a satyr minstrel named Dantes - an old friend of the unit, and a Vekeshi Mystic. (When Leon had last seen him, he was dead – impaled on a barbed tree by Nbed. Yet another sign that his quest to eradicate the Dreaming Blight had never happened.)  Dantes had come with a message for the Waking: The Vekeshi in the Dreaming wanted to know which side of this conflict they should be fighting on, if any.   But they did not have the means to send a message now communication and travel between the realms had ceased. He was pleased to hear about the uneasy truce. Dantes knew the unit had been travelling with Kasvarina and shared with them the news that Kasvarina was last seen in Ushanti where she appeared ‘a couple of weeks ago’. She left pretty quickly in the company of two other mystics – Jaques and Helandra.Two weeks? That must mean time was passing much more quickly in the Waking. All the more reason for them to get a move on! Just as they prepared to leave, a ruddy, buxom woman appeared with a throng of children around her. Sixty-five to be precise. “Oh no you don’t, Sly Marbo!” she said.  “Fool me once…” Sly gave a sorry shrug and said that he ought to remain behind for now and so Leon left with Andrei.Andrei was keen to impress upon Korrigan the renewed urgency of the situation and equally eager to risk just about anything to get back to the Waking. The final deciding factor came in the unlikely shape of Mista Nyves who said he was raised in the High Bayou and knew exactly where they could find the Sword of the Black Needles: in a temple to the Voice of Rot in the foothills of the Needles themselves. With this final piece of the puzzle in place, their decision was made. The only problem now was getting there. Even using the Webway would take days.Thisraldion solved the matter by way of thanking them for their successful investigation: he summoned the Great Hunt (in the form of their Herald, Ascodel, who appeared on the lawn in a flash of lightning) and commanded them to take the unit south to confront the Voice of Rot. “Huzzah!” cried Ascodel, “A bold adventure! We will return in force once that fox has been tracked down!” Thisraldion explained that there was no longer any need to pursue the fox and Ascodel bowed low. A short while later, the unit was mounting up on magical steeds, amidst cheers and strewn garlands. Each of them had been given fine jewellery and priceless robes, crowns and chests full of gems and precious metals. They were now rich beyond their wildest dreams, and could safely retire if mere riches were their only interest. But for now they all agreed that they should get back to saving the world.</blockquote>

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