EditCast
Character | Title | Player |
---|
Bower | The Knave of Shadows | Ed Douglas |
Suhoi | Master of the Waters | Denis Matveev |
Robin | The Lady of Forests | Heather |
Kara | The Lady of Waves | Sylvia |
Domino | The Master of Riddles | Jason Stevens |
EditContents
Edit Overview
Employer
Mark, Death's Champion.
Mission
The Angels of the Seal have returned to the Known Realms at the speed of death, and have much to reveal of what they have seen.
Edit Session 1 - The World Riddle
Domino writes...
The Summons
We meet in Alusia. A tinker outside
Novadom is waiting for us and gives us directions to
Sumaldi, where Mark is. We travel there without incident to find some seriously hard-working goblins rebuilding the place. A Death wanders out to meet us, who seems to inspire the goblins, and in a bone-dry voice says, FOLLOW ME.
A Death, one of Mark's Agents
He leads us to an audience chamber where Mark is seated. The pleasantries are brief and we learn that the Seal Angels have returned and are currently resurrecting. Mark said he spoke with them and tells us the much anticipated news: what it was these staunch Immortals encountered in the
Outer Darkness and what was it that killed them so swiftly. What they found is that the World Riddle is about to be answered.
This, Mark explains, is not good. The question, "Is there a God?" will be answered which will
complete the universe, ending change. It will be like
ice-crystals seeding in sub-zero water - the universe will cease.
We discus some options:
- Go to House Kerberoth, speak with Lord Tirwh and try to increase the uncertainty there.
- Go to the Library of Leng and speak with the Elder Ones.
- Go to Ys in Hell, an outcome of which might require the release of the Devil.
- Get some Time Flies from the Pit.
- Attack Berith, who is currently travelling through the Abyss as a little girl.
Mark is particularly keen for us to attack Berith, so we wittingly agree. So the first stop is the Abyss; via House Kerberoth and any other place we might venture before hand.
As we leave, we find an odd house nearby. It's like the House of Many Rooms but a younger horror. We poke around and discover it has five connections, two of which are unreal:
The house is drawing madness from Bedlum. The guardian of the house is a Sybarite (Cenobite) - a tough creature with a tetrahedral torso.
Road to Kerberoth
Mark lets us travel through the Valley of Death to Jiroth in the Lands of Chaos. We visit Theothrastis for some supplies. During conversation he mentions that there are some singing bees that produce some unusual honey. I'm curious so I head off there and meet with Kreyten nel Vethra, keeper of the singing bees. He starts explaining that their honey and wax have magical properties when I notice a hidden rune of control on his forehead. I suggest that he might want to have that looked at, and he quickly agrees while cursing Blackrod. I remove it for him and we trade. Of particular interest to me is the wax, which can be used to create seals - to hold onto Substance without Form, for example.
Griphon
We head off over the mountains where the griffons are. The prides see us, take to the skies in v-formation and accelerate to attack speed.
Now, it's well known that "griffon" stems from the Latin
griphos meaning
riddle, so I briefly consider charming them. But I quickly decide that griffons probably don't care about their etymology so much as lunch. So instead I raise my defences.
Three griffins peel off and come in fast on Robin. She drops one immediately with a well placed arrow and dodges the other two as they scream past. Two target Bower, who jumps to one side and wings one with a good swing. Suhoi cuts one clean in half, while three fall to my spells.
Then Suhoi summons devastating ice shards, centred on us. He's been trained well. Bower sees this and leaps off the cliff. The rest of us brace for impact behind a wall of thorns that Robin thankfully casts. The ice shards hit and kill all the griffons in the area of effect. We finish off most of the stragglers and check that Bower's okay.
We find that the griffons also have control runes on them. Bower casts Shadow Play to reveal who's involved in this, and he sees a beautiful black man with oiled skin, wearing armour with tubes in it.
We harvest the griffins for body parts and track down their nests. Their nests are spun gold, so we walk away richer.
Edit Session 2 - Fingerprints
Domino writes...
House Kerberoth
House Kerberoth
We make our way to House Kerberoth and into its great fortifications. They have a higher military presence than normal but we aren't stopped by the guards. We request an audience with Lord Tirwh and are entertained while we wait. Robin charms one of the male dancers who gives her a parting rose.
We inform Lord Tirwh that Damien and the rest of the Seal Angels have returned, albeit still resurrecting. He is pleased. We go on to mention that the answer to the World Riddle is imminent and that we've been tasked by Mark to see what we can do. Our first challenge being to attack Berith. Lord Tirwh explains that we are no match for him, even in his current form. However, he is travelling through the Abyss slowly and secretly. We know this because otherwise the Lady of the Abyss would have already detected him and it would have been all over. So we determine that our best chance is to reveal him rather than fight him.
We thank Lord Tirwh and depart for the Certain Shore in the Land of Fable. As we travel, Robin notices how the borders with the forest realms are very abrupt - we're in grasslands and then suddenly, literally in a step, we're in forrest. Suhoi and myself see a more gradual change.
Entropy Poles
We travel through to the Certain Shore. Suhoi divines the water. It's certain because each wave is of the same period. This is not obvious when looking at the water casually because it's a complicated formation of wave-upon-wave. The waves keep the same level of certainty, so they contain no information. Robin jumps in and splashes around a bit to see what a bit of disorder will do.
A Certain Shore
Briefly, information is generated until higher-order certainty overcomes this and it settles back to zero information once more. Perhaps this locus for certainty is capable of generating, into fable, the information we don't want. We decide not to chaos the area.
Robin senses and Ent nearby (Brightleaf) and wanders off to investigate. Again she notices how the borders between the forest realms are very abrupt, and with a pressure of sorts as the boundary is crossed. I divine the boundary this time and discover that these micro-planes are like a deck of cards. They're trump-worlds placed together, some end-on-end, some connected with another medium, some without astrals. Clearly this is the Lord of Similarities doing. We suspect this is the multiverse he will flee to when certainty comes. Perhaps the multiverse the Biolurgen comes from, in turn perhaps the living trump of the Gene Genie.
We go through a window to the tower, though to the Paths of Sheol, through to a white tower, through to the Uncertain Shore. Again Suhoi divines the water and again we introduce its opposite to see what will happen. Suhoi creates some periodic waves and briefly witnesses something wonderful. But he has no idea what it is and the moment passes.
We head back to the Certain Shore and towards Perfidious Albion which has the tower that can take us back to House Kerberoth, but find the tower occupied.
Occupied Tower
We stake out the tower for a few days and see a bronze griffin ornithopter arrive. Half a dozen men in wolf masks unload boxes and canisters. We see a couple of scientists with snake masks fussing about, who we notice are women.
The Young Alusians' Tower
We wait until night. The ornothopter leaves and guards patrol. Suhoi turns to mist and drifts towards to tower past some guards. They don't seem to pay much attention. That is, however, until undead hands push through the earth and grope at Suhoi. The alarm is raised.
The door to the tower swings open revealing a scientist and necromancer. The scientist has some ocular device which she uses to peer around. She seems to sense Suhoi, has a word to the necromancer and dives out of the way as his chest erupts in a gore attack. This passes harmlessly through Suhoi. There are more mutterings and this time the necro summons a fire ifrit. We see guards coming around from both sides of the tower and movement on top of the tower as a plasma cannon is brought to bear. I scream over the mind link that this is bad for Suhoi in mist form, he starts to change back while Robin releases an arrow and I race forward to get into spell range.
A desperate fight ensues as we're caught in the tower's killing grounds. With myself providing artillery and Robin providing canon fodder, Suhoi manages to spear-head his way through the ifrit and necro into the tower. Outside, Robin and I fight our way forward to the tower, taking some serious wounds. I'm about to follow through to Suhoi when I realised that Robin isn't going to make it. I race back and try to drag her to the tower. I used my power word "rise" on the turret and the first shot fires clear of us overhead. Under rifle fire we make some more ground, but the next shot from the plasma cannon incinerated us both, several hundred times over. I had an extra life so reformed, picked up the briquette and high-tailed it into the tower. Seeing this the rest of the guards flee.
Suhoi manages to bottleneck a number of soldiers on a single-file stairwell, and fights his way to the first door but then starts to get pushed back. We managed to drop a number of them, but they continue to pour out, jumping off the stairwell. Falling back Suhoi does something to the briquette I know not what and suddenly Robin's back. We become almost surrounded but now push back hard. The decisive blow comes from Robin's powerful swarm spell, for which they have no answer to. The fight is won.
We loot well and secure the tower. They have an alchemy lab in place, with light and darkness essences. They're experimenting with shadow apparently. They also have a large canister of phlogiston, rifles, armour and other items.
Edit Session 3 - The Masquerade
Domino writes...
Father Yig
After a few days recovering in the tower, we hear a griffin ornothopter approach. We race upstairs and bring the plasma cannon to bear. None of us are artillerists but we hope to scare it off. It climbs and moves out of range to land in the forest nearby. Not in any state to engage in another fight we decide to leave through one of the windows.
Underwater City
Suhoi decides he'd rather not go through to the Paths of Sheol because it's a desert and his spell's are much weaker. There's a window depicting an ocean which looks more his speed, so he casts water breathing all-round and we go through.
We descend through layers of water to an underwater river. It's fairly dark but we follow the current and after a while see a dome off in the distance. Around this time we feel the pressure of something very large moving nearby. I get the sense that it's otherworldly and express concern to Suhoi that he might want to have a look around. Suhoi decides that moving is better than seeing, so we move towards the dome with bated breath.
As we get closer to the dome we notice it's an underwater city. We start to make out people moving about, they appear to be dressed in hooded robes. When we're upon the dome, some of the figures notice us and begin to usher us towards some bulk-head doors. We go through them and are greeted by half a dozen. Others seem interested in us, but most appear busy and move on.
It doesn't take long for our Gift of Pentecost to kick in. They speak freely under question and explain that their city was sunken many hundreds of years ago. It was known as the Keep of the Four Lands, surrounded by a pine forest with a tower to the west, an ocean to the east, a desert in the south, and, on the opposing corner, a place they describe to us. We're not able to form a concept of this place however and our impression slips away. When their city was sunk, their priests use the Father's magic to create a dome to protect the city.
They live for some 700 years and have elders resting, awaiting the for the return of a Father Yig. Their city can support about a million people but is currently 10%. The large entities in the deep are serpents.
Father Yig
They have some dealings with the Medianites but we get the impression they're not allies. The have recently asked a Medianite Witch whether the Big U has woven any threads of unlight into the Lands of Chaos. She said no, which they know was not a lie, but they do wonder if she's been given false information. A trick, they say, they do themselves.
We hear that two aggressors came in recently causing carnage and damaging a library. One was robed in white, with golden epaulets, ties and clap for a cape. He had wild hair and a woven beard cut flat at the bottom. The other figure wore iron armour and rode an obsidian dragon. They killed many and forced their way into a library, did some damage there and left. They did not find any evidence that they had taken anything, although it was possible they ripped some pages from a book.
We asked to be taken to the library. It had since been repaired but the librarian showed us which section they had ransacked. They used some arcane category system so we asked the librarian and he said it was a section on herbs and poisons. My miracle pool discharged at that, and I learned the librarian was lying.
I had a closer look at the section of books using my lore of the occult. The section they were looking at was to do with the Outer Darkness, in particular Corner Dogs.
In a loud voice in earshot of the librarian, I explained to our hosts that we believe the two were after information on Corner Dogs and that we need to retire to our quarters immediately. We broke line of sight, walked unseen and returned to keep an eye on the librarian.
The librarian wasted no time scuttling off. We followed him to the temple, around a corner, through a door, through some hanging beads, down a corridor where he disappeared into another room. We eves dropped. He was speaking with another about our knowing of the Corner Dogs, but responded to a question that we probably don't know why they took them. We heard the other voice say that if Duke Toromon gets his hands on some Corner Dogs then it will be very bad. We heard the librarian say that he thinks he already has.
At that we reveal ourselves indicating we're peaceful and quickly explaining that we're on their side. We're surprised to see their hoods lowered revealing snake heads. They're just as startled and quickly cowl themselves.
We tell them that the Spinners have been weaving unlight through twilight, and there's a Twilight Labyrinth in the Abyss. They wet themselves. They go on to say that east of the Midnight Sea, near Dioscura, the City of Hidden Gods, near the City of Riches, where the Medianites come from, there's another labyrinth.
We discuss the Corner Dogs and assure them the good Duke already has some on the Isle of Dogs in Perfidious Albion. Corner Dogs devour curves and having them in these new Trump Realms, where curves are abundant, gives them a huge power source.
The Duke is after the Klepsydra and Calculus of Change because it will allow them to do some serious stuff with time. Particularly because the Duke of Clocks is an arithmetician, they could treat moments of time as calculi and manipulate the rate. In the context of the Known Realms ending soon with certainty and the crystallization of change, the Duke is on top of our hit-list.
Deep Change
We say our goodbyes and head out. On our way to the shore we see the sea bed is rich in mineral deposits and make a mental note to come back and set up mining operations.
We go back to house Kerberoth and summon Jade Rain. We ask her of Berith and find that s/he is travelling through an alternate Abyss, from the realms where the Biologian comes from. This will not be easy for us to access, so we find out where he's headed and, as suspected, it's Beirut in Nualis - where there's a cache of souls in the garden of Tophet.
We then speak with my carpet, who, for the foreseeable future, as short as that might be, shall remain nameless. After some amount of reassurance, the carpet agrees to let us know what's going on. The "Mark" we met early on was in fact Masquerade. His job was to lead us out of the firing line of the main attack, which is coming from Mark. Mark is heading out into the Outer Darkness to meet Lady Death and complete his quest. We didn't ask, but the mood suggested that this meant his death. This would allow Mark to direct his entire miracle pool to the cause, as Death represents Deep Change, he'd be able to fight fire with fire. Mark is doing what Mark does best - he's going out to give Certainty a damn good hiding.
This is grim news, however it does render our Words of Binding void and gives us options.
The Garden
We travel to Nualis via the Abyss and the astral gate of a house I have there. We fast travel to the Nile where we purchase a boat and, with the Master of Waters with us, speed to the Mediterranean and around the coast to the ports of Dor.
We pose as merchants and spend some time collecting goods. Suhoi utters the name "Berith" followed by much forehead slapping. I manage to slow down the name by catching it in a riddle, but it will eventually get out. We waste no time and head to Beirut.
Everything seems in order where we travel. Once in Beirut we spend some time there looking around. We're fairly confident there's a hidden house there, the garden of Tophet, but we have no easy way of finding it. We spend a few weeks there but anticipate the arrival of Berith before we could make headway, so we leave with determination.
Edit Session 4 - Journey to Dioscura
Domino writes...
Fire and Water
We head back the way we came and towards a brimstone mine. We are joined by Kara, Lady of the Waves.
Cinnabar is mined and used to produce brimstone, with quicksilver as a byproduct. Brimstone is used to make portals permanent or allow teleports to extend to proximate realms. Quicksilver can make a transformation permanent. We head through the mine and into the Abyss.
Suhoi, you're one lucky SoaB
On our way to New Terra, we pass the Pit. Suhoi and Kara look down and see the face and are helplessly drawn down! I drop my toy soldier Remington who becomes human size, and together we race after them, grab them and drag the back up. We don't look back, we drag them as fast as we can. We hear the buzzing of brazen wings which can only be the Entropy Locusts. We don't stop to look, we run and run and eventually the buzzing subsides. Not that we slow down after this, we continue at pace until we are well clear of the Pit and I have time to explain that it isn't a good thing to look down.
We travel to David's house and update him on current events and ask to field-test some of his fine gadgetry. Among them are mammary lasers for Kara, a nose camera for myself, assorted explosives for Suhoi and something that seems to be hard-water. Suhoi does one more thing. With no caution and balls of iron, Suhoi tries to merge with the Speaker of Fire. This will free the Speaker but also allow Suhoi to access to his negative element. Assuming, however, that they don't simply annihilate one another in the process.
Against my recommendation they attempt it. It's a 50-50 chance and lo, they make it! Suhoi and the Speaker are now one! I don't think there is a jaw that isn't resting on the floor.
Sons of Chthon
We say our farewells and head back to the Abyss and on to Tanuel. From Kerberoth we go through to Karthri, Kara notes some strange incoherent waves as we pass between what we now take to be trump worlds.
We pop in to see Anathel and inquire a little about what's beyond the Midnight Sea. We mention the possibility of another labyrinth near there and the Spinners in the Dark weaving unlight through twilight. She tells us about the Caves of Twilight and how there are shadows that play across the back wall. It could be shadows of the Forms. Anathel says that she was visited recently by some of the spiders that live nearby, who asked her to bless their young - a talent of hers.
We head north towards the Midnight Sea. The journey is uneventful, it takes us about 7 weeks. As we approach the port city Hurrian, on the shores of the Midnight Sea, we feel as though we are climbing uphill even though we are on a flat road. After some time the effect finishes and we carry on into the city itself. It has about 5 million people, a strong god Hurrian, whose domain is Storms. After spending some time there, we discover there is a strange effect on the sea. While it looks completely normal, an enormous amount of water is being kept at bay as though the sea would come flooding in if the magic were to stop. We find the water is a record of all nights.
Apparently this city was built on top of an older one.
We also find that there are an unusually large number of sorcerers there given the population - a dozen of them, whereas we'd expect one or two at most. We deduce that the sorcerers are here to try and suck this magic out which would kill a large number of the population. So we decide to prevent this from happening.
We find the sorcerers base is in the marshes. We head there and walk unseen through refuse filled, knee-deep water. They have a marker-fence around an area of a dozen stilt houses. We step over the fence and continue on. At that, a man comes out of his house and enters a punt. He polls out a little and looks around, casts a few spells and finally sees us. We suggest we discuss matters over some tea. "What a good idea," he replies. So we all go into his house.
He prepares some tea and I hear him chanting away, casting some spell. I mind-maze him, only to find his spell was simply to keep the fire going. I release him with much apologising. He was gracious, but I decide to get some "fresh" air all the same. That's when I see three others heading towards us carrying braziers and chanting. I let Suhoi know we're under attack over the mind link.
As fights go we dispatch them fairly easily. They desiccated themselves to create a smoke dragon - in concert using magical brasiers. And while the smoke is difficult to deal with, we systematically destroy their desiccated bodies (just add water) and their spell ends. They use chips of obsidian driven into their hands to prevent their spirits leaving their bodies, allowing themselves to be resurrected later. But we put an end to that carry on.
We loot the place and of note are pages from a book with shifting letters. A divine doesn't fully penetrate it, but it does reveal them to be geomancers, the Sons of Chthon. No doubt a reference to the Lord of the Dark Earth or a cult of a Great Old One.
This makes sense now - either the city's built on an invisible mountain, or there's the magical presence of a mountain beneath the city. One that's holding the sea at bay and tiring people as they enter. So there is a very, very strong geological presence beneath the city and there must be a good reason for it being here. So I doubt the sorcerers were simply trying to suck the power out of it, I think there's something more to it.
Edit Session 5 - Mr Hiss
Domino writes...
Unlight in the Astral
Webs of Unlight
We investigate the earth beneath the city, looking for caves and general underground activity. We find there is very dense rock there and, being near water, far fewer caves than we'd expect. We set up seismographs around the city and wait a month for readings, only to find there are none, which is very odd. Kara sends shock-waves into the earth where we expect to get secondary, reflected readings, but nothing. The shockwaves are being absorbed somehow.
After a bit more poking around, I decide to look into the Astral and find a
lot of unlight webbing. It is frayed and aged as if mouldy. There are very large cables of this web that connect the Astral to the world somehow, mapping it one-for-one. There's a basilisk near some large but dead spiders at which point I turn my gaze. He appeared to be cutting and sorting through the webbing, perhaps collecting something.
We go to the local church, buff up and use its astral gate. Travelling by intent we find a line of webbing about a meter thick and slack. We follow it to the edge of the Astral and down into the Abyss. In the Abyss, the web has more webbing counter-woven around it taking it to about 5m in diameter. We work out that this is to shield it from the Lady of the Abyss. Certain that if we follow the web further, we'll end up in the Outer Darkness, we head back to the Astral.
We sneak along the web and eventually find the basilisk. He's working in an alchemy lab and we study what he's doing. We determine these webs are what held Mark in Oubliette and that the basilisk is sorting through the webbing collecting expandable power and looking for parts of Death Champion's title. Suhoi immediately wants to attack. I like that, so we do.
Mr Hiss
Chasing the Serpent
I call the Great Panther and we wait for him to arrive, trading surprise for, well, the Panther. When it arrives, the basilisk is alerted to us and starts preparing.
Mr Hiss does well to survive our first volley of spells, poisoning them as they come in and putting Kara in trouble. He falls under our second volley but somehow recovers, coming back only to poison our souls. We become vulnerable to fire and he's about to throw a grenado at us when we close. The Panther devastates him, Suhoi fire-lances, Kara swings her blade and I grand accelerate him into next week. We drive obsidian spikes into his corpse preventing his spirit from fleeing. We have him.
Mr Hiss is a 17 point alchemist and the lab he's set up gives some serious bonuses, so I learn a few things, we loot the place and leave.
What to do with Mr Hiss... we consider true annihilating him but we decide that wouldn't be cricket. We consider putting him in a box for a few millennia, to give him time to reflect, but decide instead to smoke him.
So, with the crematory fumes of Mr Hiss, and necessary preparations, I chase the dragon - with the intent of revealing what we can of the Lord of Serpent and his plans. We find that he is supporting the Lord of Similarities, and they plan to leave the Known Realms. The certainty of the existence of God will crystalize the Known Realms as well as the newer realms like Tanuel, Nualis and Reich. We find that Set's interest in Mark is purely defensive. To survive his last encounter with Mark, Set had to flee the universe, leaving parts of himself behind so that he could find a way back. And he's none too keen to do that again.
Part of the loot is a Trump to some part of the Abyss.
Edit Session 6 - Dioscura, City of the Hidden Gods
Domino writes...
Folds
Alusian Mind Mage by the name of Grendel approached us. We explained who we were, on a mission from Mark and about to embark across the Midnight Sea in search for the caves and labyrinth of twilight. He says he was one of the ones who helped free Mark, in Oubliette, and would help us.
Grendel told us he can make boats quickly. Robin went for wood and found a small set of trees were a large forest. In fact we found the whole city was folded many times over, in some magical way as to appear less than it is. The Lord of the Dark Earth appeared to be behind it.
We collected the wood, Grendel built a boat and we sailed across the Midnight Sea. We landed at a place called Chalcis, which trades in, among other things, gold and gem-quality jet. Grendel casts telepathy and rapidly turns it back off again after sensing that three mad but powerful minds are laid bare. We find a cult that worships the Burrowers Beneath and determine that it's those minds that were felt.
We pose as traders and come across some jet. Robin detects that it is from a forest under attack. We investigate and find that dozen or so people know the whereabouts of this jet, but they keep it under their hat. I cast a search venom to find it and Grendel flies above it to have a look. From that vantage point he can see a labyrinth made from shadow. He comes back wormholes us there. His wormhole strips us all of power and we're not very happy about that.
We find a petrified forest made of jet. It's clearly magical. Nearby see some shadows that Grendel points out is the labyrinth.
The area we're in overlooks a fertile valley. At the end of the valley, built up against a scarp is a city. It's Dioscura, City of the Hidden Gods.
- We set up house
- We visit the Caves of Twilight
- Agents are made of those who are attacking the jet forest, and they become foresters instead.
- We infiltrate the jet forest, which turns out to be a data forest of the Lord of the Dark Earth.
- We go through the twilight labyrinth, killing the (tesseract) minotaur.
- In the center we have the option to draw from The Deck. Robin does and the labyrinth becomes 1 point tougher - now on 19.
- We find a super-thread leading to the other labyrinth in the Abyss. We travel there an kill a similar minotaur.
Edit Session 6 - Wraith
Domino writes...
Wraith
- House Tintagel
- The 5th Wall
- Wraith
- Kobalts
- Torrents
Edit Session ? - Void Cruiser in the Abyss
Domino writes...
The Plan
We visited Damien and told him about the Abyss trump and how Jade rain said it went to a staging post where they're building an army. Damien sent Point to investigate and he came back with news that there's a void cruiser there.
We formulated a plan to deal with the void cruiser. It was simple. Get some pentavalent nitrogen and blow it up. It would likely survive if the detonation was on the outside, so we would go to some effort to set the explosive off within the cruiser itself.
So, off to David's.
The Pentavalent
David was happy to receive us, perhaps because it was an opportunity to some power. I tried unsuccessfully to explain about the artifact on Perfidious Albion so he held his ruby hand to my forehead and extracted the information directly. He promised to be careful if I agreed that we all wager a jump, which we did. The only casualty was me who lost 6 points of power, the DQ guys drew.
We told him about the void cruiser and without a word he gave us five cases of pentavalent. We were off.
The Delivery
Once we arrived at the staging post, some distance away, we tunnelled to beneath the void cruiser. This too several days as the abysmal rock is so difficult to work with.
The Escape
Edit Session ? - The Lord of Serpents
Domino writes...
Come what may, we had to try and stop the Lord of Serpents being sent to London Victoria. Jade Rain said that their weakest link was the vindictiveness of the Lord of Serpents and very high on his hit list was me. Not a great advantage really. The main thing going for us was that we could call the Great Panther. If we could clear a way for a fair fight between the Panther and Set, then game on.
We had one suitcase of pentavalent nitrogen left. The plan had to be simple. was to place the pentavalent time apparatus deep in the sewers for a 20 min detonation, teleport to the palace of clocks, siege venom the bridge, chaos seed the palace, teleport to the serpentine, call the panther and defend it while it attacks the Lord of Serpents.
We heard from Jade Rain that weakest link in their plans is the Lord of Serpent's vindictiveness. And since I'm in the top 5 on his vindictiveness list, it would be a good plan to pass insult to him and lure him from the Serpentine so we have the jump on him.
The Approach
We head to Perfidious Albion to find the Count of Contavesiach had invaded a city in the outskirts. We speak with him and he says that the attack on London has begun and that he's using the resource drain this has caused as an opportunity to attack. He's making use of the flesh factories to create an army to attack the Holy Mother Church.
He created a number of void golems for this, which are pretty nasty. We head off to the city, coming in through a northern river. We don't have too much trouble heading to Abbey Falls and tunnelling our way down into the black water sewers which had the 16 years we were previously at.
We made our way closer to the centre of the complex so that we could place our pentavalent at the most devastating point. We found it was an ellipse with two foci. The one we were headed to was beneath the Palace of Clocks. We also found, by way of me falling into a coma, that the area was a hypercube step-pyramid.
We found a good spot, placed the explosive and shadow walked out to a house by the Palace of Clocks we had prepared earlier.
The teleport must have alerted the Lord of Serpents, because shortly after we arrived he attacked.
The Fight
The Fight
I immediately called the Panther and then there was lots of running. We broke line of sight and Set took to the air to follow. We went indoors into a no-fly zone and Set landed in an upper room. We ran through the walls to the next building and beyond and we could hear Set rumbling above.
We dropped a siege grenado smashed a hole in the floor and another wall as a ruse and kept going. Set dropped down, wore the damage and went underground. The chase continued as Set was tearing his way through the earth faster than we could make ground above it!
Finally we come to the end of the buildings and into an open area. The Panther had arrived but all of us could only turn left due to Killroy's Frozen Left he dropped. So we had to hold while the Panther turned effectively right by turning left in a large arch.
The fight was brutal. We managed to get a few choice attacks on the area as he surfaced from below ground. Set's standard vision was impaired so he was using heat vision. Arion found out straight away that Set could poison our
intent to hit him. So we targeted Arion with many devastating fireballs while he stepped in to shake Set's hand. This confused his heat vision and we exchanged a number of devastating attacks until the Panther was en route.
Arion had closed with him and attempted to jump back with him into the Panther's maw. He put his back into it and had a good grip on Set's arm. Set staid put though, although lost his arm.
Shortly after, the Panther closed. Set was being pushed back and was in trouble. He tried to drink a potion but Killroy burned a wish to swap his potion bottle with one of his that did some nasty damage. Set was not looking very happy after that.
Then Set said, "Now, Grimes." and the Panther was trapped in the Serpentine. Bugger.
We pressed the advantage, Set was in trouble. He looked like he would flee so I insulted him hoping to play on his vindictiveness. It seemed to work as he was seeking around for me. Finally Set faltered, died, resurrected, tried to escape as a rainbow serpent but Arian was all over him. They wrestled each other in the sky, slamming into buildings while the mushroom cloud of the pentavalent nitrogen was forming. And finally he was downed a second time. We stabbed him with the obsidian spikes to trap his spirit, stole his extra life and ported out.
We re-grouped and delivered the package to Serafin in London. He was in need of a new rug apparently.
Edit Notes
Fable
- Un/certain shores - coherent and white water
- Some interesting forests
House Tintagel
- Borders on the Sands of Time, which has Invisible Water
- The Klepsydra is the House Artifact
- May have information on the Calculus of Change
- May have the Gift Box
Black Figure from the Shadow Play
There is a set of orichalcum scale that was commissioned by the Death Knight Kamuel, that had tubing running through it. Apparently it is used to supply the wearer with Iophiel's blood, presumably making the wearer beautiful as a side effect. Blackrod held Iophiel captive and also took his eyes. Blackrod's a cambian at the moment so
may look different now.
House Tintagel
- Borders on the Sands of Time, which has Invisible Water
- The Klepsydra was the House Artifact
- Should have information about the Calculus of Change
- May have the Gift Box
Jade Rain's Riddle
As hounds answer the hunter's call,
This strange beast, its time come again,
As devils rise and angels fall,
Will shatter stars and scatter chessmen,
And stalk the lands with an asses thighbone.
While, certes, at the other end of time,
Feet bound in quaking stone,
Is raised to the power of the least prime.
Berith, the Savage Duke
Berith is a false god (pseudo theoi) who gets power from idolatrous worship. His worshippers are the Shechem, the Sons of Hamor ("ass"). They are people who enter into a covenant sealed by the sacrifice of an ass.
He tells things of the past, present and future with true answers; he can also turn all metals into gold, give dignities to men and confirm them. He speaks with a clear and subtle voice, and is a liar when not answering questions. He has power over covenants, enjoys a good torture and circumcision, so a devil not to be bargained with.
To speak with him the conjurer must wear a silver ring in the middle finger of the left hand against his face.
In Alchemy Berith was the element with which all metals could be transmuted into gold.
Berith created a game which when played opens a doorway out of hell. This is to Beirut in Nualis, where there's a cache of souls at Tophet. Berith cannot be banished at the moment. He's resident and currently in the body of a 10 year old girl (from the Biologian).
The Biologian
The Biologian is from another multiverse, where positives are negative. He gets benefit from acknowledgment or awareness by others. He cannot give life to things that aren't alive and things that have never been alive but he can give life or sentience to other pseudo-sentient creatures/entities/formations such as storms etc. The Biologian wears long dark robes, a broad black brimmed hat hiding his face with a white plain collar at his throat.
Ius
Ius, Uriel's sword which fell in the fight with the Devil, was auctioned off by Judecca's pattern ghost to an as yet unknown party. But it's known that Seir, Berith and Murmur were not at the auction.
Powers of the sword include, the reporting of crimes and talking to Uriel.