EditCast
| Character | Title | Player |
|---|
| Nereus | Caster of Bones | Ed Douglas |
| Endgame | Walker in Shadow | James Hennings |
| Suhoi | Master of the Waters | Denis Matveev |
| Puck | The Goblin King | Jason Stevens |
| Domino | Master of Riddles | Jason Stevens |
| Uriah | Lord of Circles | George |
EditContents
Edit Overview
The Lord of Similarities appears to be working with Duke Toromon to either develop the
Principle of Similarity or some kind of time travel device. Grimes is trying to get hold of the the Calculus of Change and the Klepsydra.
A clepsydra is a water clock and literally means "water thief". The fluid medium in the Klepsydra however would be what moments of time propagate through, so it might be fair to call it a "time thief". Duke Toromon stole a century from Fable and presumably has it somewhere in the Palace of Clocks.
The Klepsydra belongs to House Tintagel who border on the Sands of Time, and is currently being guarded in Hell to help prevent Grimes getting it.
Currently, the plan is to sneak into the Palace of Clocks to see if we can find out more, and capture the duke if we can. Ultimately we want to get leverage on Grimes so he's forced to help the Immortals.
Edit Session 1 - Does anyone know what we're doing? Anyone?
Nereus writes...
Background
Suhoi the Master of Water was contacted by one of
Aquilon's (Mistress of Winds) swanmays and directed to the Twilight Gardens in Edwardia, to there meet with other doughty immortals. From there they would be required to complete a duty impressed upon Aquilon by
Serifin, the Lord of Patterns.
Once there, Suhoi was greeted by three other immortals. Puck, a weasely fellow who proclaimed himself to be the Goblin King(which no one had any problems believing, except for the king part), Uriah the Lord of Circles and Nereus the Caster of Bones. The swanmay then proceeded to outline the mission objectives. The Twilight Gardens is home to the
Sir Jerome Hasdrubal Barca - Master of Gardens.
A recent Alusian adventure set on the plane of Tanuel had run across a number of agents of various evil immortals. Given the combination of these immortals and the events which followed, Serafin determined to know more. Nereus was partially involved in the latter parts of the aforementioned events and so was able to shed some light on the situation. The scribe notes for the events can be found at:
DQ Scribe Notes: The Middle WayThe Sybarites mentioned in the notes were agents of the Lord of Minds, who has always seemed to have a penchant for triangles (of which there were a few mentioned in the notes). The Eye of Discord was also mentioned, more in relation to one of his agents though. A number of Devils (of the 72) were also mentioned. And last but not least were the references to Unlight and therefore the big spider from the Silmarillion who is more commonly know of as "the Big U".
Are we there yet?
The group bid farewell to the Master of Gardens and pass on their well-wishes via the Swan Maid to Aquillon and depart via the astral gate. Once in the astral, we notice geometric shapes (angular/lines - no curves) that seem to be watching/following us. Upon confronting them they flee. We decided not to pursue but rather to continue on our way (very unusual for us not to get distracted). The shapes return, but keep their distance and finally disperse as we near the edge of the plane.
Everyone but Uriah fly down to the abyss. Uriah seems somewhat hesitant to use his magic carpet and instead chooses to jump and use his Ring of Feather falling. Once this kicks in, he realises it will take him many hours to get to the bottom and notices some flying demons about. Rather than wait to ascertain the demon's intentions, he removes the ring and attempts to speed his decent by removing the ring for some time and then putting it back on. Unfortunately, he is unable to see very well in the darkness that is the Abyss and misjudges the distance to the bottom, resulting in an entertaining landing in which he breaks both of his legs.
The rest of the party has a good laugh at this and in typical Immortals fashion put their own interests in self-preservation (hoarding power just in case) before Uriah's healing. Instead, we bundle him up in as uncomfortable position as we can and carry him along, making sure to walk over the roughest terrain along the way. As we all know, it is important to learn from your mistakes, and we felt that the more he suffered, the more he would learn. I'm sure he learnt a great deal from the experience.
House Kerberoth
Eventually, Nereus teleported the party to a bone-circle near House Kerberoth and we were admitted. After talking to Henry the Toymaker, we discovered there were two ways to get to Tanuel from House Kerberoth - both involved travelling through the Lands of Chaos; by Caravan or by via a skilled ranger. Puck, eventually, accidentally let slip that he was a ranger of some skill so we decided to head out immediately, as the next Caravan was not for two weeks.
You can imagine the party's amazement when Puck turned out to be as good as his word and managed to guide us through to Tanuel unscathed. Someones miracle-pool must have kicked in methinks.
Tanuel
See
DQ Wiki: Tanuel for information about Tanuel.
The party crossed a pass from the Lands of Chaos into Tanuel and moved down to the city of Jiroth. After introducing themselves to the local priesthood, Nereus teleported them all to his House.
Clues
Puck did a bit of divining and discovered that the big U had somehow woven unlight through a point with Nereus's house (before it had been built) and could see the main thread heading off to the east. The party moved to Makhatu and decided to head to the east to investigate. Puck was visited by a vision, in which he saw a woman with a witches hat talking to a couple of Serpent folk, in the desert to the east. This reaffirmed the party's commitment to investigate.
Travelling at night and resting during the day in a portable abode, the party headed into the desert for 5 days, and eventually found the spot that Puck had seen in his vision. It was a small hollow next to an ancient, apparently untravelled road. Nereus divined it and discovered the road leads to Hell. After some investigation, we have determined that this is a part of the Path of Sheol.
Being the non-evil sort that we are, we decided that heading to Hell right now was not a useful plan and instead chose to track the road back, AWAY from Hell. After a few days travel, we sighted a circular stone tower with a peaked roof. What we first took to be arrow slits were discovered to be curved windows. I suspect these are curved to maintain the circular nature of the tower as I have heard mention of a mage "Shireth of Darktree Tower" whose signature is circles who apparently is a lich currently bound in service to a Midiante Sorceress.
Edit Session 2 - The Forest of Nereus
Nereus writes...
The party decided to investigate the tower, after hearing a commotion coming from it. As we neared, we could hear an alarm and thus decided we had better take a quick look in case anyone was in trouble or the like. Nothing seemed to be amiss so we waited for a bit to see if anyone would turn up. After some time a group of charioteers turned up to investigate whereupon we introduced ourselves. After some discussion, we decided we should continue with our investigation, whilst the charioteers returned from whence they came (Cynthrax).
The first level of the tower was quite spartan, with a fire-blackened area in the middle and 4 windows at cardinal points. Out of the north window we could see a Savannah, East the sea, South a red desert and west an arctic environment. The party moved on to the next floor which contained a carpet with geometric designs. The next floor held a corridor with 3 small doors on either side along the corridor. On the top of the tower was 4 dimentional rotating cuboid. We didn't fiddle with it and decided to leave and head to Cynthax.
From Cynthax we took a week-long passage on a boat heading south to Lathoria and off on an 11 day ride to Karthary where we met with Anathel. After a number of fruitless discussions, we decided to investigate the remnants of the Serpent folk who were defeated by a group of Allusians. We found the remnants of their settlements in crescent-shaped clearings in an unnaturally thick jungle someone decided to call the
Forest of Nereus. A stream flowed through the clearings and was determined to be a portal to another realm. Someone (Puck - of course) mentioned the name of a horror after which we were attacked by a Beyaki. It proved troublesome but was not an overly difficult challenge.
Endgame turned up shortly thereafter to lend a helping hand. With Anathel's help were able to figure out the key to open the portal.
Endgame noticed that there were threads of unlight attached to Puck. It seems that every time he was letting others draw from the gift-box, that he was attracting a twilight point in an unusual way. Instead of the twilight point adhering to him, it was strengthening a labyrinth made of unlight that was attached to him. This seemed to have been some sort of plot by Ungoliant to allow her access to the known realms. Puck decided that maybe the pattern ghost of Artemis might help him detach the labyrinth so we decided to seek his help. Not wanting to put him in danger by taking Puck to his house, we agreed to meet him outside House Kerberoth.
This turned out to not be such a good idea, as we were ambushed by Grimes who wanted Artemis. A long fight ensued and we managed to drive him off (he ran like the coward he is), but as a by-product of the fight, the Labyrinth became physically manifest in the abyss! Puck dispatched a number of goblins to look after it and we convinced the Chaos Lord (Knight) Tepaclese to keep an eye on them for us.
The party needed to rest, recuperate and research a number of things so agreed to meet back at Nereus's house in Tanuel in a years time.
Edit Session 3 - Lady Suneth to the rescue
Nereus writes...
From Nereus's house, we went to talk with Lady Suneth in House Kerberoth. After Puck finished causing a heap of trouble for himself we finally got back on track and met with the Lady, who directed us to search in Perfidious Albion for answers (specifically the Greater Londra Metroplex).
We headed back to Jiroth, with a short bit of flying fun and Griffon killing. From there we went north to Sura where we met the Alchemist Theophrastes and did a bit of trading, then north through the pass and are currentling heading north to Jezurea.
Edit Session 4 - Duke Toromon
Nereus writes...
Puck took his leave at this point, having urgent business to attend to. Elsewhere. Domino, the Master of Riddles came to fill in for him.
Nine days later we arrive at Jezurea, passing a few of the administrative towns (towns set up to deal with a specific product - or sets thereof), having followed the road. At Jezurea, we took a look at the wards on the walls - not entirely sure but we suspect they are slam-dunk wards. The walls are 5m high with towers which are 7m high. The two most notable buildings that we can see from outside are the Palace and the Citadel.
We poked around a bit and end up meeting the king - Therol whom quickly becomes an agent for Nereus. He informs us that there are bands of evil cultists within the city serving the Earl of Justice and some serving the Valiant Marquis - named devils!
After reviewing some of the Alusian scribe notes, we realised there was a quicker way to get to Perfidious Albion, so we teleported back to Jiroth and headed east into the Heights of Chaos and from there to House Kerberoth! 2 more days down. From there we headed into a Middlemarch which leads to the Lands of Fable where we run afoul of a Greater Jabberwocky. It was brachiating through the trees in some weird 2-dimensional form, bending the trees towards itself.
It quickly latched on to Endgame who did not enjoy the experience as evidenced by the speed with which he disengaged (by turning into a shadow). Once he was a shadow, and 2 dimensional, he could perceive its true form (not that it helped the rest of us much). Domino threw a force bolt at it, but it didn't seem to affect it at all, neither did Uriah's Razor orb.
Suhoi, thinking quickly threw it to the ground where Nereus engaged it. Whenever Nereus tried to hit it, it somehow managed to avoid the blow - a normal hit became a miss, a critical would become a hit etc. Endgame dropped to the ground and hit it, Suhoi tried to engage it with his swords and Uriah stopped to think about what he would do next. Meanwhile, the Jabberwocky took a vicious swipe at Nereus who managed to avoid the blow somehow while Domino dropped a fireball on top of it (and Nereus), destroying the Jabberwocky and slightly singeing Nereus.
After this, all the wildlife seemed to give us a wide berth.
We continued on, through the forest until we reached Village One, followed the ring road and became story threads to arrive at a Certain Shore (all of the waves at the beach shared the same frequency). From here, we entered a White Keep and went through one of the windows to another shore where all of the waves we out of sync (uncertain shore?). Nereus placed a bone circle here and we proceeded west until we ran across another white tower which a young Alusian party had cleaned of Flesh crafters. There were a number of graves of different animals which we cleaned up before heading west to Perfidious Albion.
We emerged from the forest beside a road which we ended up following to the Greater Londra Metroplex (3 days travel). The city looks a lot like Victorian London and is about 40 miles across. Domino had a quick look into the astral and noticed it was very corrupt. There are a lot of restless dead here and a lot of substantial undead (very dense sentient undead - apparently raised by Jack the Ripper). Everyone seems to wear masks and there is a lot of powered machinery (including armour and ornithopters), all powered by SOULS.
We had masks made and stayed in accommodation in Thread Needle street. After a month's worth of spying by Endgame and Domino, we discovered that Duke Toromon (wears a clock mask) has a house further out within the metroplex and that the king is undying but has a twisted and unnatural mind which attracts other twisted minds. Duke Toromon seems to be keeping him alive and has a lot of influence. He gets about in a royal coach and is occasionally seen heading to his house or visiting the docks.
Seeking more information, we head to his house and Endgame sneaks in.
Edit Session 5 - Ambush
Domino writes...
Perfidious Albion - Greenwich / The Greater Londra Metroplex
Previously we were investigating Duke Toromon's house at Greenwich. The Walker in Shadow had a poke-around inside, picked up a cleanliness OCD and had to leave on an urgent cleaning errand.
There were a few spells we wanted to learn before we continued, so we went back to Thread Needle St where we were staying and did that.
Nereus divined the mist while he was waiting and found that it conceals undead and lengthens night for them (the time they can operate outdoors after dawn and before dusk) by allowing them to come out before dusk and stay out after dawn a bit longer.
We learned that Duke Toromon had returned to the Palace of Clocks.
Suhoi, Master of the Waters, divined the Serpentine river. He found it was very powerful and a shadow of Victoria's Serpentine. So close in fact, that if you were the right sort (presumably Set or Grimes), you could move between planes there. Suhoi was down on power after the divination, so we rested.
Just before dusk, on the second day, they attacked.
The doors were ripped off and in poured substantial undead. Nereus turned most of them, but seeing our loot run off I cast a fireball at the door. The room was shaped like a cone, with the door at the apex, so I knew it would get warm and I warned everyone. Despite their protests, I continued with my cunning plan. Several undead died in the blast and the rest were not left in great shape. Unfortunately for Suhoi, he overestimated his defences and was seriously burned. His fat was on fire, so he quickly turned to into water to cool off. Uriah summoned a Spectral Warrior.
Nereus cast in and hit one, I fired magic missile killing a few more, Uriah threw a razor orb at one of them and Suhoi leaked a little.
A solid battle ensued, with serious injuries on both sides. Suhoi was wish-boned and then cut in half, but this was only a flesh-wound for the stout Immortal. We were being attacked by very strong and dense undead, who were wielding swords which were ordinarily far to heave to move, but had magic that curved space allowing them to "fall" in the direction the attacker wanted.
We were also under attack by a Succubi, a Despair Angel and a fire devil of sorts. Duke Toroman watched the fight from the back, directing the spell-casters (actually casting via the spell-casters) and taking notes. When he saw we were winning he used the Named spell Wall of Swords so put a wall up to protect himself and ran away.
Uriah was ambushed by a shadow cat, which left him seriously wounded. He proceeded to apply Stim patches to alleviate the problem. The cat later gave into despair itself. Uriah seemed to enjoy those stim patches a little too much - we may need a visit to an isolation ward at some point.
Deciding that leaving quickly was a good idea, we did a quick combat loot and left.
We then trekked back to Feralie and rested in the House of Redes.
Edit Session 6 - Cast, Crew and Truncated Pyramids
Nereus writes...
While Suhoi was recovering in the house of Redes, he read the scrolls there and took some advice regarding how we could deal with Duke Toromon. There were two options:
1) the easy, less useful way - talk to Jade Rain,
2) the hard, useful way - talk to Serafin.
I paid a quick visit to Aquilon to give her an update on the current situation and returned a few days later. Uriah laid low, hoping to avoid the attentions of Mrs Fang. Domino had some dealings with Artemus.
Once Suhoi was recovered we headed into the Worldspan mountains and following the path along the peaks we came to a break in the path (caused by the Ravens of Dissolution in the hands of the unscrupulous Lord of Shades). The pass continued on, filled with fractured rubble until it became very dark and we arrived at Nightshade's house.
There the young party members (Suhoi and Uriah) were introduced and various exchanges were made. Suhoi entertained one of Nightshade's daughters while we rested until we all headed off the next day, travelling the Silver peaks and entering a tunnel which eventually turned into a tunnel with train tracks leading into London Station on Victoria. Suhoi and Uriah attracted a lot of attention in their strange garb so Domino cast a spell to make people pay less attention to them. Uriah changed into his mortician's clothes and we caught a broom (horse and open-carriage) to Regency street where we employed the services of some reputable tailors.
Domino and I made some small purchases (as one is want to do) to ensure we had a minimal wardrobe. Suhoi found himself playing the role of a plaything and rumours now abound! The tailors seemed to be happy that less reputable Uriah was left outside. Once we were adequately attired we left, steamer trunks in tow, to visit Serafin in his townhouses next to Hyde park.
Serafin was a most courteous host and provided us with some extremely useful intel. I won't go into detail as to his generosity and nobility, suffice to say both are without peer. Herein I list the information relevant to our quest:
- Duke Toromon's power works by making events more likely to be the result of cause and effect
- The King seems to be living the same life multiple times and is very old
- The King is a focal point for the stuff that is wrong within Perfidious Albion, and killing him would be akin to lancing a boil - all the bad stuff would spill out. This sounds very bad. Serifin indicated that it could easily be outside of our ability to deal with
- The Lord of Serpents returned around 2 years ago and has been VERY quiet
- Serifin thinks involving the Lady of Souls would not be a good idea, but could not say exactly why
Taking our leave, we headed to Vanity's house in Rounce and discovered she was entertaining Mrs Haversham at the time so declined to visit. Instead, we headed on to Venice and visited Vitri the Lord of Glass to ask his advice regarding some of the glass weaponry we had seen in PA. He thinks that the weapons we saw are a super-cooled liquid which when empowered become liquid. Once someone stuck one into you, they would empower it so the liquid spread, and then pull the whole thing back out (along with a fair sized chunk of your flesh!). As we left he gave myself and Suhoi a miniaturised crystal radio each (they receive but can be used to send, when put under pressure).
Suhoi wanted to turn his articulated bone platemail into hard water so it was more within his realm of power so we visited Comte de Versillac. He managed to turn it to White (instead of Bone) but now its about as useful as Suhoi on the surface of the sun. Presumably, if we get a Mill of Water, he could use that to change it to Water.
Having finished all of the errands we needed we headed back to Perfidious Albion picking up Suhoi's Gryphon feather cloak on the way. Once we arrived back at the location cleared by the young Alusian party, we headed west and followed the road north. On the way, we ran into a lone Ent and he mentioned that the Huorns were active.
We headed on and ended up running into a flying truncated pyramid being run by six Flesh Crafters (we found this out later). It was innocently abusing the countryside as we wandered past but noticed us despite Domino's efforts. They immediately dispatched a message using a bound spirit. I threw myself into the messenger's path and trapped it in an amulet made from the shard of a great diamond. Meanwhile, the Flesh Crafters were busily focusing their efforts on our spell-caster, Uriah. Uriah took a serious pounding but remained erect.
Myself, Suhoi and Domino proceeded to take advantage of their fascination with Uriah and started running down the road towards the pyramid. Uriah again took a pounding, but seemed none the worse for wear, as we closed. The Flesh Crafters released another messenger which I again intercepted in a similar manner (tho, it was getting rather crowded in the amulet) after which I threw myself onto the pyramid. Suhoi sped down the road like a flash flood, and Domino was looking rather winded trying to keep up (and failing miserably).
Uriah, seeing they were quite happy nailing him dragged his carpet out while desperately dodging and avoiding most of their attacks. I began applying my Oil of Etherealness, while Suhoi bought out his Swanmay and Domino continued to wheeze along the road.
Just before the Flesh Crafters began firing again, Uriah made a flying leap onto his carpet and began to weave and dodge erratically to avoid further pain. His masterful flying confused and confounded the crafters as most of their shots went where he was not. I sank down into the pyramid, triggering a Slamdunk ward and was promptly teleported a mile into the air with a column of vacuum between myself and the group - luckily I was in Ethereal form and not subject to gravity and the like. Instead, I began descending as fast as I could. Suhoi mounted his Swanmay and sped to the top of the pyramid.
While I continued to fall, Uriah landed on the pyramid and was also slamdunked! I cast him out of the column of Vacuum whereupon he began trying to get control of his carpet at high speed. Suhoi leapt from his Swanmay to land atop the pyramid and tripped another Slamdunk ward. I cast him out of the column as well and Uriah began trying to intercept him. Domino Dimension-doored onto the side of the pyramid and promptly fell off while in his stunned state.
Again, Domino Dimension-doored onto one of the sides of the pyramid, avoiding being stunned somehow and inflicted it with Siege venom. The rest of us continued to fall, with Uriah managing to rescue Suhoi with some dazzling flying. The pyramid began to rotate and Domino moved with it to avoid falling. He did notice some Silver Spray wards however! Thinking quickly, he moved to the bottom of the pyramid and disintegrated a large hole into the interior!
While quite surprised by this, the Flesh Crafters reacted quickly and unleashed all manner of evil magic upon him, most of which he dexterously avoided with little harm. Before they could react further Domino dropped a fireball upon them, killing them all! Hah!
About this time, the rest of us landed, and some swift looting was done before the pyramid completely disintegrated from the Siege Venom Domino had infected it with.
Edit Session 7 - Foul Times
Domino writes...
This thing runs but cannot walk, sometimes sings but never talks.
Lacks arms, has hands; Lacks a head but has a face.It was a simple plan: sneak into the Palace of Clocks via the sewers.
Their defences wouldn't be very difficult to get past. I mean, who would wade through the latrines of Perfidious Albion, riddled with undead, when life has so many other things on offer?
Well, we were right about one thing. Life does have so many other things on offer.
The Approach
Uriah was prudent not to join us. Some of Endgame's obsessive cleanliness must have rubbed off. He stayed back at the young Alusians' tower, while the rest of us headed for Perfidious Albion.
We weren't in a hurry, but we were cautious to keep a low profile so our investigations of the following were fairly limited.
- During our month at Deptford, we witnessed seven murders. People were often accused of being Merovingian spies or Crown Agents. The town was bustling with artisans, performers and foreigners. The foreigners, aside from us, were from other planes such as the Firmament. A big name came up: Bess.
- We tried out our crystal radio and intercepted a lot of communications. They used secret military languages, so their expressiveness was limited. Nereus learned a spell to comprehend these kinds of languages, so we listened in. It was all to do with troop movements, ornithopter departure and arrival, that kind of thing.
Perfidious Albion
We continued on to Perfidious Albion and caught a brougham to Shepherd's well. The idea is that from there, we could gain access to the Tyburn, one of Lodron's lost, underground rivers which leads to the low-level sewers beneath the palace.
While we travelled we endured local scorn for our dress, but otherwise it seemed to be going rather well. That is, until the cab driver started prying. Nereus explained that we weren't from around these parts and that our business was our own, but the cabbie wouldn't let up. Soon enough a small crowd started gathering and a constable turned up. It wasn't long before we "elected" to go to the station. While we were being questioned there, I took control of him and shortly after we left the good constable comatose in an alleyway.
By foot this time, we went to the well, down some stairs ready to get wet. The piping wasn't as accommodating as we would have liked for a six mile journey - or any kind journey for that matter. So back up stairs and back downstream to the crescent-shaped lake in Regent's Park. Suhoi interrogated the lake to make sure there was access to the Tyburn, and there was so we slipped into the water and followed the current into the lost river.
The Foul
The current ran deep and things got dark very quickly, but with water breathings up and Nereus's (somewhat diminished) friendly light, we had an easy ride into the underground river. It quickly became faced in brick, and after a while we saw schools of silvery fish hanging around among the moss. We were first alerted to the danger when the fish suddenly darted back upstream. We, however, are not fish. So instead we looked into the murk to (not) see what had frightened them.
I was bravely up front and advancing suddenly on the hidden menace. The others stayed back, but I was gripped by what it could be and swam furiously ahead. The mind-link seemed to get interference at this point, picking up some screaming girl, but I didn't have time for that. I drew my sword and hacked away at unseen tentacles as they closed in around me. When I was confident that I had lured its maw close enough to me, I cast a powerful spell disintegrating it. I gave the okay for the others to advance and we swam up to find ourselves in a cesspit with walkways on either side.
As well as the creature's entrails, I was unfortunately covered in some nasty meconium-like waste. Engame would have died. I needed some wire brushing and a bit of dettol to be presentable to the ladies again, so that happened and we headed into the sewers.
After some time Nereus sensed undead. Realising we didn't have any way to sneak past undead we created a phase door in the wall where Nereus learned Hide from Undead.
We left the phase door, noted where it was, and continued on. We travelled for a while, working our way through a few alarmed and locked gates, before Nereus sensed the undead were very close. And active. Carefully we made our way forward, checking for their hiding place, until I used penetrating vision to look into the murky sewer water and saw a nest of vampires looking up at us.
The undead gaseous formed and bubbled out of the water. Nereus drew his hammer while Suhoi cast a spell to condense them into liquid. Meanwhile I fire-balled and killed them all. They were pretty tough and they only just fell in their vulnerable state. We collected their loot, disintegrated their remains and gave their ashes to the Thames.
The Palace
We negotiated our way to beneath the Palace of Clocks. Noting some small shuttered holes leading to the surface, presumably where the undead could come and go easily in gaseous form. We made our way past a final sewer gate, this time with a very well crafted lock and dual alarms. I underestimated the lock the first time, and had to really put my back into it to get through.
There were stairs on the other side, each step alternating black and white. The walls were a strange drab grey.
Nereus divined the stairs and found them to be warded. The white steps set off an alarm when non-evil creatures stepped on them, and the black ones geared for non-chaotics. So we levitated up, finding the stairs spiralled up around us. At the top was a "light" that shed darkness. We moved to the landing to find a crimson red door which Nereus identified to be bastard metal.
We made our way through and found the door was an escape route, where the would be follower, not familiar with bastard metal, would try to beat down the door only to die as the door vaporised in their face.
We made our way past a curtain into an L-shaped room. Then we heard the sound of metal scraping on stone. We hit the wall and Nereus moved to the corner drawing his hammer while Suhoi drew his blades. He saw a number of animated suits of plate armour making their way towards us, two-by-two.
Nereus knocked the springs out of the first one. Suhoi's fluid movements caught the second off-guard but these things are tough. I force-bolted one and dropped it. Apparently they're clockwork.
Nereus and Suhoi lay into a couple more, against their impending advance. I put down a pool of lava at our choke-point which would get progressively more dangerous.
I stepped into the curtains and let off a stitch-in-time. Nine fire-serpents destroyed three.
Yet more arrived, and we were beginning to get overrun. Suhoi took a nasty wound and I suffered a blow that would have killed me had it not been for my rock-wyrm egg.
But by this time the lava was starting to drop them and the final two went to the side of the lava and started to batten at the wall. Nereus cast himself at the pair and managed to destroy one before the second one destroyed the wall. It then stood on the steps, set off the alarm, and began to pound at the bastard metal door.
There was no time to waste, we had to destroy the last automaton before he destroyed the door. But Suhoi dragged me up the corridor away from the door. I knew we still had time, so tried to free myself but again Suhoi stopped me. Finally I was loosened but the critical moment had passed and even as I was about to destroy the automaton, the door exploded.
Uncertain Times
What question can you be asked that you can never say yes to and be correct? - Are you Dead?An enormous explosion ensued. Nereus and Suhoi were still inside the blast radius but were okay. As the gaseous bastard metal cleared, they found a box sitting where I would have been. They took the box and gated back to the tower where Uriah was.
I was in an uncertain state of being both alive and dead and neither alive nor dead - an effect I get from my cat familiar, Paradox. If they observed me I would become certainly dead or certainly alive. To improving my odds, I jettisoned the possibility of me being dead to the place of potential existence, the Outer Darkness.
Shortly after, I stepped out of the box.
However, I noticed that I had become attached to the Twilight Labyrinth. The very same which Ungoliant and her brood are attempting to use to gain access to the realms. They are weaving unlight through twilight and all my twilight points were pulled into it, allowing them to get that much closer. The pattern of the labyrinth is, of course, web-shaped.
But we all live to fight another day. And we will.
Edit Session 8 - If at first you don't succeed...
Nereus writes...
While we were awaiting Domino's recovery I spoke with Henry (at House Kerberoth) and filled Ingarethon in regarding the current state of affairs and had him itemise my humble hut. Suhio managed to spend a couple of days resting and recovering at which point Domino had returned somewhat bedraggled and with a slightly haunted paranoia whenever the Labyrinth was mentioned. He quickly sorted himself out however and we headed back to Londra to try again - the last thing they would expect!
Before we went Domino stopped by Sura to speak with Florian and craft several potions to enable the party to turn to smoke.
We arrived in the Greater Londra Metroplex and this time, took things slowly by setting up a safe house and secret identities in Deptford. Returning to Londra, we procured several new sets of clothes each and some veil-masks so as to blend in with the local populace more effectively.
Hyde Park
More appropriately attired and equipped, we investigate the city, visiting Bedlam hospital where Domino had the police office previously encountered released into his care. Domino wanted to help the poor chap, so we went to find some privacy in Hyde Park where he could work his will. There, we encountered 12 nannies with their charges. Domino took the policeman aside, under a bridge to talk to him whereupon a swarm of eels rose up and dragged the policeman away!
Just as this happened, the Nannies attacked! Their prams were combat prams, the payload - babies! Or some corrupt and evil homunculi of some kind perhaps. The Nannies were, of course, in fact Hags. Suhoi and I began raising our defences while Domino killed one of the Hags with a force bolt and cut one of the incoming babies in half. The babies landed in the surrounding area (they weren't aimed at us) and exploded on impact creating some form of bubbling mass that linked to form a large circle and began to grow upwards (it looked like it was going to form a dome - we decided being inside it was not a good plan). I threw a lightning bolt through one wall and killed 2 of the hags after which Suhoi and I fled through the hole to try to get outside the area of effect. Domino let rip with his Stitch in Time that was loaded with 8 Fire Serpents.
The very grass arose and pulled me to the ground! Seeing this Suhoi used his swords to cut the grass as he raced to catch up. As he was doing this, he could see 3 hags moving towards us, unimpeded by the grass. I managed to get back to my feet and kill one of the Hags before Domino dropped a fireball on top of me, killing the other two. 3 of the hags began retreating across the bridge with 2 more attacking. I set off in pursuit, flinging myself through the air (while doing this I saw a flight of 24 fire angels heading our way).
Domino fired off some magic missiles, injuring 3 more hags. Suhoi attacked one of the two nearby hags. About this time, Domino's Fire Serpents hit their targets, killing 3 of the hags!
At this point, I was close enough to cast myself in and kill one of the 3 retreating hags, while the other two tried to take my head off. I was fortunate as my trusty shield held out and I managed to dodge out of the way of the final blow. I took another swing at the hags but missed as they both stepped back into the waters of the river. Suhoi, who had been running across the bridge came to my aid, while Domino finished off the other two on his side.
I attempted to freeze one of the hags, but it somehow banded the damage off into the river, freezing a large portion of it! The hags quickly began stamping on the ice, breaking it to allow them access to the water once again. Suhoi used is mastery over water to push the water away from them. I took another swing and managed to scone another of the hags.
We finished off the sole surviving hag and proceeded to loot as many corpses as we could before escaping into the river before the Fire Angels arrived.
The Fire Angels began dropping Elemental Fire into the river, so we fled downstream quickly. The river headed underground and ended up joining with the Thames, whereupon we headed downstream and ran into a finely woven net. I could sense Vampires to the north, substantial undead to the south and Night Ghaunts upriver. Aboveground large numbers of soldiers were massing and what looked like cannons were being aimed at the river.
Edit Session 9 - Run for your lives!
Nereus writes...
We quickly decided to head into the sewers to the north. I cast a Hide from Undead, dismissed my armour and we all got as stealthy as we could. Domino attempted to cut the net to lay a false trail but the net was too strong.
As we headed into the sewer, we could see large numbers of rats (under Vampire control) watching for us. Suhoi turned into a body of water so he could sneak in as an undercurrent. I levitated above them and Domino slipped past them with unsurpassed stealth. I could still sense the Vampires to the north, so we carried on, eventually coming to a large cistern where the water was slightly warmer. Suhoi decided this was not relevant and pushed for us pressing on, despite my misgivings. Once we moved on, I noticed that we all seemed to be more filled with life, Suhoi in particular. We were all covered with bacteria from the cistern, making us much easier to see for things with Life sight. After a few well deserved I-told-you-so's to Suhoi, we created a Salt Water & Ammonia bath to cleanse ourselves.
Moving on, we came to a place where lots of water was washing into the sewer. It was raining heavily outside, we figured this was to put out any fires. Looking out of the breakage in the wall, we could see a watermill (Abbey Mills). Atop it was a polished beaten copper christmas-tree-like construction. We moved closer to investigate. We should have known it was a trap! The ammonia we used to clean ourselves with stunk, and so the Vampires were able to track us by our stench. They had summoned several storms which now unleashed their lightning bolts, all at once, into the copper construction resulting in a massive lightning strike. I managed (with the help of my miracle pool) to cast myself out of the way. Suhoi quickly soaked into the ground and Domino blew an extra life.
We bought up our defences. The Vampires wasted no time in heading our way. Suhoi decided he would disperse the storms, so I started bringing out my storm to help him while I cast a bone circle teleport to give us a way out. As soon as I cast the spell, I could sense the vampires had changed tactics and were charging in. We prepared to meet them. They were moving very very quickly!
3 of them turned into wolves, 2 more back into human form and the remaining 3 into mist form.
The wolf-formed ones charged, I counter charged and killed the leftmost one then defended madly to avoid getting bitten by the other two. One of the humanoid ones used a Queens of Torment sending against me which I managed (with much burning of power) to resist. The other released another sending at Domino. Meanwhile, Suhoi demonstrated just why they call him the Master of Waters by sending the storms flying and revealing the sun which killed the remaining vampires! 7 to Suhoi, 1 for me...ouch!
A quick combat loot by Suhoi and Domino (while I kept watch) later, I saw that 6 ornithopters had been deployed so we looted as quickly as possible and retired into the sewers where I detected the Night Ghaunts coming up from the south.
We contemplated leaving, but Suhoi
demanded that we remain.
Suhoi pointed us in the direction of another sewer that we knew was located nearby and Domino began tunnelling to it by way of disintegration spells. Once we located the other sewer, Domino returned to the tunnel destroyed it using one of my defensive grenades.
The new sewer is much darker than the last, and the water is Black water (water that has never seen the light), which seems to absorb light. Suhoi finally found a use for his Armour of White!
Edit Session 10 - Perfidious designs revealed and the British Museam
Nereus writes...
We have explored the new sewer system and discovered that it contains the 16 missing years. The sewer is a giant coil and the Time is being used to increase the 'resistance' to the power being pumped into it. It is behaving according to the rule of Voltage where V=IR: I = the power being injected into the coil, R is the resistance provided by the 16 years. The whole system is being contained by the coil and the various castles in Londra and is centered around what would be the Isle of Dogs (I believe there is a hard point in the Isle of Dogs in Victorian London). The purpose? To Castle Londra with London, thus destroying Serafins house and forcibly removing him from London.
We informed him of this devious plan shortly after killing Grimes and driving of a Medianite Sorceress. Serafin generated a Pattern for us, which we walked and were thus transported to London. Once there, he informed everyone that Domino had the Gun that Accepts No Copies, effectively signing Domino's death sentence.
Luckily we are on good terms with Mark and persuaded him to broker an Auction to sell said gun. The auction is for Grime's haters only. Unfortunately, we had to spend a night in the British Museum while we awaited Mark's arrival. We did this and (as usual) someone (Suhoi) couldn't help but ask a question. After defeating the resulting Mummy we agreed to speak no further and awaited the next day.
Domino and I left with Mark to discuss the auction while we sent Suhoi to visit David (he'd had his arm ripped off in our encounter with the Mummy). Afterwards, we all met again at David's house and are currently resting here in preparation for the next phase of terror.