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: 7879660" data-attributes="member: 79141">Session 250The Battle for Flint, Part TwoRumdoom hadn’t used Fourmyle Jaunt for a while, and came up just a bit short. He had taken his carriage to the dock of the bay, and teleported to the North Shore beacon, only he had missed by about two feet. He managed to save himself and Hildegaard and Thurgid (whose respective aims were better) yanked him into the lantern tower.By now, Gupta had warned them all that simply destroying a lantern would cause an explosion. (Not the devastating blast Harkover intended, but dangerous nonetheless.) So Rumdoom ran down towards the ground floor to see if he could find a way to disable the lantern down there. Sure enough, there were tanks and pipes and control mechanisms, but there was also a construct squad. Rumdoom threw an advanced grenade at them.  He was a dab hand with explosives, and took the whole squad out at once. But when he picked himself up from cover, he heard the tell-tale hiss of gas from the pipes he had also ruptured.Outside, the city defence squad were trying to decide what to do. They had been freed from the hivemind by the voice of their king, and had watched the distant conflict above Dawn Square with an admixture of hope and horror, before the explosion from inside the lantern tower drew their attention. The sudden appearance of a group of yelling dwarves terrified them – all the more so when they recognised the leader as Rumdoom Kagan: if he was running, so should they!Most of them were clear when the North Shore lantern exploded.*Uru’s approach to dealing with the Stray River lamp was much more subtle. Hidden from view, he and Leon were able to take their time. But the mechanisms were complex and not designed to be obstructed by just one or two people. It would take many hands to turn the lantern off.  Fortunately, Uru had many hands at his disposal. The trick was to focus on getting them all to work in concert. It took some time, but all of a sudden it was done and the Stray River Lantern winked out. Leon spirited them both to the northern tip of Pine Island.*With Inacht having vanished, the defenders of Dawn Square had to figure out what to do next. It was decided that Korrigan and Conquo would deal with the remaining lanterns: Conquo felt sure he could master this ‘Fourmyle Jaunting’ trick and get to the lantern in the Ayres (which he could see from the rooftops); Korrigan would do the same and handle the lantern on Parity Lake. Quratulain wanted to chase down the dragon. Her predictive model suggested that he was somewhere out over the bay, from where he could strike in any direction. Korrigan asked her to stay put for now, so they knew where to find her. Gupta would stay in Dawn Square too, imparting ideals to the newly freed citizens – deputizing them to spread the word and free any of those still dominated from the hivemind.Rumdoom reported that he was now heading for the North Shore gun battery.The Parity Lake lantern rose on stilts from toxic waters.   The defence squad assigned to the building had just won a fire-fight with the construct squad, but had lost a number of men.  Still, they were cheered by the arrival of their king, who asked them how to switch off the lamp. They didn’t know, so he told them to get themselves clear as best they could, using rowboats tethered to a ladder that led up from the lake. Then he flew up to the top of the tower and gave the soldiers as much time as he dared, before he destroyed the upper level with an Urimshock and flew out as it collapsed.  The whole structure exploded shortly afterwards.Conquo waded up onto the magically extruded island in the Ayres. His Fourmyle Jaunt had brought him up a couple of hundred feet short, and he had dropped into the water like an immense boulder. Then he simply walked along the bottom and emerged on land, only to be subjected to gunfire from a construct squad and a city defence squad too; out here in the Ayres, the king’s words had not carried so powerfully. But their bullets were useless and Conquo simply strode through them.  “Leave,” he told them. “If you know what’s best for you.”*Leon and Uru were just about to deal with the Parity Lake lantern when Harkover struck.  Leon caught sight of him as he rose above the rooftops, but the dragon’s flight was so swift, it was upon them before he could react, getting a swipe in at Leon with its sigil claw, afflicting him with cold damage before he teleported away to another rooftop.  Uru stood his ground at first, and tried to drive away the ghost councillors, as he had done those afflicting Delft, but these were more senior councillors, ferociously loyal to Nicodemus, and there were many, many more of them.  Realising he had failed, he ghost-stepped through the floor into the tower interior, then turned the lantern off with ghost hands from there. While sniffing about for the deep faen, Harkover threw five almost casual fire bolts at Leon. Leon used his own wayfarer lantern to give him immunity to fire, then he teleported even further away, certain that Uru could look after himself. But he had reckoned without the incredible perception of the dragon, who soon figured out exactly where Uru was, and came crashing through the wall to bite down on him. Uru threw himself clear, then jumped on Little Jack, and desperately sought the location of a tunnel, a pipe, a sewage-line, anywhere he could flee that the dragon couldn’t follow. But the north end of Pine Island was poorly served in this regard; the nearest escape route was a quarter-of-a-mile away to the south. Uru fled in that direction anyway, and Harkover followed. The dragon was faster, but Little Jack more manoeuvrable, weaving this way and that through the streets of Pine Island to try to throw the dragon off in a terrifying game of cat and mouse. But Harkover Lee had more tricks at his disposal than a mere tomcat, and – swiftly growing tired of the chase – simply picked Uru and Little Jack out of the air with a flurry of firebolts.Uru lay in the street, seriously injured, Little Jack inactive at his side. The dragon loomed over him and drew in a breath, the dreadful precursor to dragon fire. Then something out of sight added a bright glow to the sky, and when the dragon tried to exhale, that brightness had drawn all of the oxygen from the air. Nothing happened. Until a figure – propelled at speed by telekinesis – flew out of the shadows and struck the dragon as hard as he could on the snout. It was Andrei von Recklinghausen! The glowing figure was Brajham Silverspire, the ever-burning sorcerer; with them was the ghost of Doctor Wil Stanmore – all members of Unit B. Delft had told them they had been canny enough to elude the Ob; what had become of them, he could not say. Now they had remerged and were doing all they could to defend the city. But they could not hope to hold their own against the dragon.At that moment, Leon returned.  He was the greater threat, so Harkover swiped at him; Leon defended himself with his Silksteel Mantel. Uru crawled closer to him, hoping for rescue. Harkover used his terrible breath weapon again; it did them no harm, thanks to Leon’s lantern, but now that magical defence was stripped away. By now, their unit B allies had vanished, having bought them some time, but unable to harm the dragon further. Leon whisked Uru and himself away to Dawn Square.</blockquote>

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