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Message: <blockquote data-quote="gideonpepys" data-source="post: 7887726" data-attributes="member: 79141">Session 251, Part TwoThe Chancellor's MotorcadeRumdoom pulled off the sheet covering his duplicant and discovered that it was standing in a closet, along with a couple of others. These duplicants of Wondermaker's were different to Pemberton's - less like a solid skeleton and more like a wire mesh impression of a humanoid form; able to take on the shape of the occupant more precisely. There were a number of implements lying about, including the aforementioned sniper rifle. He took that, and a hammer, which immediately took on the shape of the Stone of Not. He was alone, though.  No retinue; not even Hildegaard. There was a certain clarity about that.  A sense of purpose and freedom.The closet was locked so he barged it open and found himself in an impressive public building, where high, vaulted ceilings echoed to the sounds of silence and emptiness. The corridor he was on led to a vast chamber lined with rows of seats and tables facing a large podium. This was the Drakren parliament building.  But there was no one hear.Just then, he heard a cough, echoing from across the way.   He followed the noise and came to the main exit, lightly guarded by two dwarves. The saw him and told him to halt.  He didn’t halt. Instead he ‘notted’ them both, except the Stone did not ‘not’ them, it merely worked as a hammer might and dropped them to the ground instead.Out of the building into the street.  Signs that a parade had passed; abandoned banners, ticker tape and barriers to keep back crowds that had since moved on.  In the distance – cheering: the parade was still going elsewhere.  He began to follow, tireless but slow.  He’d never catch the parade at this rate.  Would his clockwork carriage be accessible, he wondered?  He reached into his coat pocket, where it was normally kept, and there it was!  His entire being had been translated, belongings and all.   Incredible what they could do nowadays.Following in the carriage caused him to gain on the parade in no time.  Soon he began to pass through streets where the crowds had yet to disperse.  They began to cheer him too, thinking he was a latecomer.   He waved back, just to play along.  Ahead, in the distance, he could see the parade itself – huge numbers of soldiers, mechanical and otherwise, along with military hardware on show for the people of Trekhom, who had made them. Rumdoom didn’t fancy getting too close and pulled up at a nearby tower.  There were a lot of them in Trekhom.  This one was heavily guarded.  Rumdoom jumped out of his carriage, ran into the middle of them, froze them solid with a cold blast and entered the tower. It was a long climb, but he kept up a stolid pace, reaching the top in about five minutes. The roof was open and gave a commanding view of Trekhom.   He could see several lantern towers in the distance, and one close by – about half a mile away, in the centre of a triangular industrial district which the parade was now passing through.Through his scope, Rumdoom could see that the focus of the parade was a carriage drawn by a spidery Ob contraption. In the carriage sat the philosopher Hastenschrieft Willimarkanova, a tedious and long-winded Ob officer Rumdoom had already had the misfortune of encountering on Mutravir. Alongside him sat Vlendham Heid. Rumdoom felt an unexpectedly strong connection between him and Vlendham, but he shrugged it off. Both Heid and Willimarkanova were waving to the crowd; Heid somewhat lamely; Willimarkanova with regal poise. At this distance, either one of them could be the focus of the hivemind. Rumdoom decided to pop them both.He took aim with the sniper rifle and focused first on Willimarkanova.  He took a deep breath and uttered an eschatological pronouncement to render his aim true. Then a shot rang out.  Not his!  It whistled past his head and sprayed him with masonry and golden sparkles, lighting him up like a firefly. He ducked back behind cover and then took a peek out to see if he could locate the shooter. It wasn’t hard; they weren’t attempting to hide: stood in the Ob lantern tower, reloading, was Kvarti Gorbatiy.Rumdoom shouldered his rifle, grabbed the Stone of Not, and used Fourmyle Jaunt to get to the lantern tower.  He found himself in the midst of an Obscurati construct squad that was too slow to react to his sudden arrival.  Not so Kvarti, who cracked him on the head with the butt of his rifle and knocked him to the floor.  Rumdoom was so taken aback by this turn of events that he lost his grip on the Stone of Not, which clattered across the floor.  Rumdoom used another empowered cold burst to freeze the constructs, but Kvarti shrugged it off and fired at point blank range. Rumdoom flailed about him.  Where was Thurgid when you needed a weapon?  He jumped to his feet as Kvarti reloaded and fired again.“Stop being such a cunt!” he shouted at Kvarti with all the volume and ire he could muster. “It’s me! Rumdoom! We’ve butted heads!”Kvarti blinked and squinted and all of a sudden snapped out of it. “Rumdoom?  What am I doing?  I am very sorry, my friend. I did not know you.”“It’s the hivemind,” said Rumdoom.  “To snap everyone out of it we need to take out the focus. Come on.  You take Willimarkanova, and I’ll take Heid.”“What? Wait. Why are we shooting at Heid?”“He might be the focus for all I know.”“Well, I can tell you, he’s not.  It’s Willimarkanova.”“Let’s shoot him, then.”“Her. Willimarkanova is a her.”“Really?  I could have sworn she was a man. This new fashion for shaving confuses things. Right, well, let’s both shoot him, then.”“Her.”Even before they levelled their rifles, the lantern towers began to glow red. The Ob’s hand must have been tipped by activity elsewhere. Should they take out the lanterns first?“No time,” said Kvarti, with a nod to a military bunker the parade was heading for. “Now’s our window.  But the Ob has granted me the power to teleport between towers, all the better to provide overwatch for our dear leader. I can take allies with me.  Let’s shoot Willimarkanova first, then see what we can do about the lanterns.Rumdoom agreed.The happy cheers of the crowd, soon turn to cries of fear and dismay as the head of Hastenschreift Willimarkanova was turned into a fine, red mist. Shortly after that, the nearby lantern tower exploded. It was followed by another, then another.  It wasn’t long before all the towers and their clockwork defenders were dealt with. Then Rumdoom flew down to address the crowd. …</blockquote>

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