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: 7863012" data-attributes="member: 79141">Session 246, Part OneRed AlertUru was now in starboard the engine room, having cut off the power from the magma reservoir and rendered the means to restore it inoperable.  This would mean that whatever changes he was able to make in the engine room could not be reversed. He studied the machinery, and decided to alter both the pitch and the yaw (without concerning himself with the possible consequences), causing Egalitrix to tilt its starboard guns away from their allies and begin to turn in a tight circle.  First, he looked for a way to damage some superficial components, to give the impression that fixing them would solve the problem.  Then he pulled a lever into position and jammed the immovable rod into place in a vital area, where it could not easily be seen.  At once, the devils in the engine room became aware that something was wrong, but Uru instantly vanished, ghost-stepping out of the engine room into the hangar, to follow the unit as best he could towards the treasury.The change in pitch was imperceptible from within – the floor did not ‘tilt’: Egalitrix, as a plane entire, observed its own internal laws of gravity (otherwise, god knows what might have happened to the lava).  But the starboard guns ceased firing as they could no longer find their targets.By now, the rest of the unit was beginning to regroup, having cut down the last of the fleeing elites.  Suddenly, a horrifying noise beset them all, affecting every non-devil on the vessel, using a mechanism similar to that on the flagship – only this one broadcast an infernal voice, not a blaring alarm.  It spoke in a harsh guttural tongue, so loud they had to cover their ears.  Only Uriel understood the words:“Intruder alert!  Intruder alert! Foes in the port-side treasury! Neutralise at once!”Above, the ceiling hatch opened and legionnaires poured in from the barracks – they simply fell through the hole, teleporting to the ground at the last second. What had been empty space between the unit members was suddenly filled with scores of foes.  The hatch from the engine room was thrown open too.Rumdoom channelled the Icy End into a cold burst sufficient to slay dozens of the them; Uriel used deathly gaze to stun all of those who could see him; Gupta shifted into tiger form and cleared a passage all around her; Quratulain did likewise.  Then Korrigan ordered everyone to cluster around Leon and Leon teleported them all up to the flight deck (where they had first intended to arrive).Another wave of windskiffs was just taking to the air.  The dogfight between their allies and the legion skiffs was still going on; the Aural Pleasure had left the safety of the fog bank and was heading for Egalitrix, for reasons best known to Rock Rackus; the Caeloon Monastery had left the fog bank too, and they watched as it folded its wings, swallowing two approaching windskiffs in an instant! then it changed shape again to avoid an incoming barrage from the fortress.Because Egalitrix was now tilting and turning sharply towards their allies, it was able to bring a terrible weapon to bear: the forward towers were topped with a brand that focused the energy of the caldera – a bright arc of plasma lit the sky, and only narrowly missed the Pleasure.  Audible, even at this distance, was Doverspike’s whoop of excitement on witnessing this phenomenon.  He now breached the fog cloud too, crashing through the mast of a nearby wingskiff in his eagerness to know more.But the unit was distracted from all this by matters closer to hand: they were surrounded by devilish ground crew – dozens of legionnaires, half-a-dozen succubi and four enormous steam golems.Thisraldion sat cross-legged on the deck, with his vorpal sword on his lap, as if meditating. Leon quickly teleported away to fetch Uru.  As he went he said, “Quratulain, I will need your help.   Do you have your rocket launcher?  I want to take out the window up above us.” (They saw it, high up in the side of the mountain, with twin rivers of lava streaming down from underneath.  Leon told them when he caught a glimpse of Paelyrion on his golden throne, the huge window behind him had looked out over the two brand towers.) Quratulain said she did – somewhere in the folds of her robes, but right now, she was aiming the Nok Gun at a departing windskiff.  She fired, and brought the vessel down.  Gupta shifted into hybrid form and again invoked a Vision of the Fall, which was hugely effective in wiping out legionnaires.  Uriel cast his deathly gaze and stunned the succubi, then he invoked his high-ranking clergy incarnation, Cardinal Tadeo. Rumdoom swung the Stone of Not at a steam golem, and it winked out of existence. Korrigan sent his mind’s eye up to look through the high window Leon had seen, but it was tinted glass.The steam golems attacked; the unit defended against their whirring blades as best they could.  Thisraldion jumped up, and began to pirouette around the flight deck, lopping the heads off the stunned succubi.By now, Quratulain had stowed the Nok Gun and drawn her rocket launcher.  Korrigan gave her the order to fire, keeping his mind’s eye in place so he could study the results.  The rocket struck the window and exploded, but the window remained intact – magically reinforced!Leon arrived back with Uru, who used his ghosts to take control of one of the steam golems and set it on another.  Rumdoom ‘notted’ the third.  Then Leon teleported all the way back to Av to fetch Etiotek and the Huldregarl: More devils had appeared on deck; it was time to call in reinforcements.“Where to now?” someone shouted.“Why don’t we take the stairs?” asked Thisraldion, pointing to the rear of the covered portion of the flight deck, several hundred feet away.Uriel had a hand of fate ritual pre-cast in the handle of the Cracked Cauldron.  He used it, and the spectral hand pointed at the very same stairs.They set off at a run, except Quratulain, who stayed behind to wait for Leon.</blockquote>

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