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Message: <blockquote data-quote="gideonpepys" data-source="post: 7437523" data-attributes="member: 79141">Session 56, Part One - Unexpected HelpVenkio had been the very worst of the dragon tyrants, fond of dipping his victims in vats of acid. As Korrigan, Quratulain, Gupta and Uru approached the dragon, a shadowy shape peeled itself away from a pillar, in much the same way as they had seen the shadow shapes seep into the palace walls earlier, but this one formed into a man they knew – albeit one shrouded in perpetual gloom. “Marshal Korrigan,” the shadow man said, “Constable Sevitar Anrathi reporting for duty. Officer Rumdoom is with me.”  Then he raised his greatsword and joined them, as if he had been part of their team all along.Sevitar Anrathi was once a member of Unit B. He had been welcomed into the RHC, having disappeared some eighty years earlier, pursuing a necromancer named Cedric San into the Bleak Gate around Cauldron Hill. The rest of his team had perished, but Sevitar had been trapped, eventually finding his way out to discover many years had passed without him.  He also found that when he ‘died’ in the real world, he was able to reform, or coalesce a few days later. But when Unit B took part in the assault on the Canal Route into the Ob facility on Cauldron Hill, Sevitar had perished (along with officers Theren Silverspire and Niniel Erendis), and this time, he had not coalesced. Unbeknownst to his fellow officers, he had remained trapped in the Bleak Gate and found himself unable to return to the real world.  So he set about doing his best to thwart the Ob within the Bleak Gate itself – attacking isolated installations – and, eventually, three years later, picked up the trail of Cedric San, his nemesis from half a century earlier.  San was merely the alias of one Professor Johan Bugge, who had been hounded out of Pardwright University decades ago, on charges of necromancy. Since then he had been working for the Obscurati in a remote laboratory (and thirty years ago, masqueraded as ‘Cedric San’ to keep people off Cauldron Hill).Unable to take San on immediately, Sevitar had instead followed him across the dead seas of the Bleak Gate to Danor, where – while investigating the Ob’s latest schemes – he encountered Rumdoom.What has Rumdoom been up to all this time?Rumdoom fell from the Lance of Triegenes when he smashed the masonry beneath his own feet in order to dislodge the colossus.  Incredibly (or perhaps inevitably) he had survived the fall, and was rescued from the rubble of the Lance by a tribe of deep faen that had tracked the iron giant all the way from Elfaivar, following their encounter with ‘the fading one’.  (The ‘Fading One’ was a figure from deep faen prophecy, and was how they referred to Uru, who had met them when the unit was hunting for Kasvarina.) The deep faen found Thurgid Ironspoon, too.  Rumdoom’s loyal retainer had leapt off the tower holding Hildegard’s parasol and miraculously survived the descent. Was Rumdoom’s immortality rubbing off on his followers? (Perhaps not. What became of the rest of his entourage is unknown…)Rumdoom was unable to contact his team (who had been translocated to the Dreaming), and so he fell in with the deep faen and followed the colossus, which had by now clambered back to its feet and was heading south, now in the real world. Danoran forces appeared to guide it and ensure that major damage and loss of life were avoided. Eventually, Borne arrived in Cherage, where it was met by Nicodemus in another host body. At his urging, the colossus lay down and allowed itself to be loaded onto an immense, specially designed barge and shipped to Axis Island. While in Cherage, they encountered a shadowy spy and only narrowly avoided a combat with him, having initially assumed he was a foe. This turned out to be Sevitar Anrathi, who had recently stumbled upon an Obscurati plan to assassinate the king, employing the talents of his prime target: the necromancer known as Cedric San.  This did not sound to Rumdoom like a good ending and he decided it had to be stopped!By now, some of the deep faen had become enamoured of the Avatar of the End, and - knowing him to be an ally of the Fading One - offered to help him cross the inky sea back to Risur.  (The rest of the deep faen continued on their quest to pursue the colossus by slinking onto the barge.)  So Sevitar, Rumdoom, Thurgid and a small cohort of deep faen travelled south, braving the ‘dead seas’ of the Bleak Gate.By the time they reached Slate, the assassination attempt was already underway and they had to fight their way through hordes of ethereal undead to reach the palace.  (Sevitar was able to sense Cedric San’s presence and slipped away in shadow form to deal with him.)Fortunately, Rumdoom had brought one of the Danoran auto-cannons with him. The deep faen shaman cast a spell to make his bullets hit ethereal targets and Rumdoom entered combat on top of his clockwork carriage, firing his autocannon ahead of them to clear a path!Korrigan contacted him by messenger wind and he veered away from the lantern and came to help them beat the dragon.[MEDIA=youtube]yLarDhciHY0[/MEDIA]</blockquote>

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