ER:Thread summaries
From The Heretic Knowledge Vault
In which are summarized the various threads created during the Errant Road on-line free-form role-playing game, in order of their creation. Threads typically run between 200 and 250 posts, then are closed and replaced by new ones. There are occasional "forks" when a thread ends with action going off in two more more different directions; these are indicated in the text.
The general "pedigree" of threads is as follows:
Farrel threads: Kiyoka → Port Lorrel → Volkanenborg → Mountain(s) of Madness → Mountains of Madness, part 2 → Waldhaxen Channel → Rinkaiel (short-lived fork to Farrel Sea) → Rinkaiel, Part 2 → Tsuiraku-town → Tsuiraku-town, part 2 → Tsuiraku-town, part 3
Veracia threads: Kiyoka → Kiyoka, part 2 → Saus → Centoriel → Homontel, and beyond → Nautkia, and the South → Lorenzel and Ramanzel → Lorenzel, Part 2 → Salticiel and beyond → The Road to Gervasiel → Stone Man Pass → Gervasiel → The Artifact of Absonial
Note: In the following, the descriptions of the threads are written with a more or less straight face. Often, however, the threads themselves ... aren't. It's also chock full of spoilers.
Kiyoka
First entry 2008/05/12; player characters introduced: Lucas Ravanel, Jamie Porter, Roger Monteith, Toivo Pohjola, Jonathan Zeve, Vernon Atwater, Grope, Argus Cleiviein, Sister Rose, Layla Sorensen
Several would-be travelers (Jamie, Roger, etc.) converge on a travel agency in Kiyoka called Heer Thar Be Draagons, hoping that the proprietor, Lucas, can help them get out of town. Following a shootout with some relatively inept Gewehr goons, the group escapes via an underground passage into a neighboring mission of the Veracian Church, interrupting a service that's going on and doing damage to the temple as they bug out. Grope, a troll lurking on the rooftops while he tries to find out what happened to his long-missing mate Zhbrigeeul, kills some of the Gewehr thugs, and Jamie, Roger and Lucas take out the others en route to the water-borne beginning of their "tour." (Fork at this point; action with this group resumes with the "Port Lorrel" thread, below.)
Meanwhile, new mother Layla Sorensen, alias "Andrea Samuels," is tending a vineyard outside town, which is the cover and safe house for the Gewehr operation in Kiyoka. Grope sees her working among the grapes as he continues his search for his mate, but is horrified to discover Zhbrigeeul's dried hide stretched on the wall of the safe house. He doesn't immediately connect Layla (who's the big boss of the local Gewehr) to what happened to his mate, but after taking a bit of Zhbrigeeul's hide and gaining "Wisdom" (and, most unexpectedly, a very rudimentary capacity for spellcraft) from it, Grope himself heads for the waterfront to travel back to his homelands and find a new mate. At the same time, Layla is similarly horrified to learn that one of the dead Gewehr forces at the dockyards is her husband Arty, and is ordered to fold the Gewehr operation and go home to the Gewehr's home base in Farrel. She accomplishes this with unexpected "help" from the typically deluded Kureji Mesuinu and Rokku Sona, who come visiting in a case of mistaken identity.
Back in Kiyoka, down-and-out mage Argus Cleiviein is recruited by an unorthodox nun from the Veracian mission to help figure out what caused the damage, and understand why the Kiyokan authorities are so disinclined to investigate. Following some sleuthing that reveals the recent passage of a troll (Grope), Argus is joined by shape-shifting Sister Rose, another nun from the mission, as they try to get information from one Captain Kitaura, a big wheel in the Kiyokan "Homeland Security" operation, which combines police/investigative and military functions. This is unsuccessful, and Kitaura later dispatches an underling to apply some muscle to Argus in his hotel room, which backfires painfully as the thread ends.
Port Lorrel
First entry 2008/7/20; player characters introduced: Marcus
Jamie, Roger, Lucas, Jonathan and Toivo (and Ayiee) make landfall in Port Lorrel to continue their "tour," pausing for a meal at a local restaurant where they adopt various magical disguises (and are eyeballed by various watchers). Most of the group goes off to seek lodging at the World Traveler Inn, but Jamie is diverted to a rendezvous with one Elke, who turns out to be a big shot in the "Eisenfaust," another Farrelite mercenary guild similar to (and arch-rivals of) the Gewehr. Elke confides that Jamie is under the Eisenfaust's protection and discreet(?) surveillance, in return for some future consideration that isn't revealed to Jamie, although some side action hints at its nature.
Back at the World Traveler, several forms of magical weirdness break out as "deathmage" Marcus appears and dismisses the "Gray" of a girl who was murdered earlier at the inn. While he's there, the desk clerk, having checked in most of the travelers, is killed by an exploding coin (given him by an Eisenfaust operative), and investigated and re-animated by Lucas. Unfortunately, the process of animating the corpse has magical side effects (as usual when Lucas casts a spell) elsewhere in the inn, leading to some alarmingly frisky furniture. With some of these subdued, the group turns in for the night, only to discover some other nasty furnishings the next morning that have to be dealt with. Having learned of an amusement park somewhere to the north called "Mountain of Madness," they leave town to see the park, despite Lucas' protests that it really isn't worth seeing. On the way they have an encounter with a pack of giant, carnivorous rabbits -- "Lepivores" -- that are dispatched with the distant, nearly unseen help of Layla, who (like Grope) has also reached Farrel on the way home. Meanwhile, various Eisenfaust scheming goes on behind the scenes, at least as far as the main characters are concerned.
Kiyoka, part 2
First entry 2008/09/11; player characters introduced: Brother Miguel
Argus returns to the mission in the morning, having defended himself successfully (to put it mildly) against Kitaura's clumsy emissary/enforcer. He joins a group from the mission in exploring the secret tunnel connecting it and Heer Thar Be Draagons, with a violent digression resulting when Willy, the small child who's watching the business in his uncle's absence, runs out into the street to escape the Veracians and has an encounter with the mysterious Tsubasa. However, before he goes, he mentions the name "Lucas Ravanel" to Father Egbert, second in command at the mission. For unclear reasons, this unsettles Egbert so badly that he immediately flees the mission.
Eventually it is discovered that Egbert tried to leave town via a warp gate, but inexplicably, the gate malfunctions so that he (apparently) doesn't arrive at his destination, the gate in Saus. The Tsuirakuans find this unsettling -- travel in 100% safety and security is one of the big selling points for the gates -- and so the mission and Kitaura reach an uneasy detente as they arrange a search for Egbert, to be conducted in Veracia by Argus and Brother Miguel, a Veracian priest with origins on the shadowy Southern Continent. Following some investigations of Egbert's chambers at the mission, during which a curiously menacing piece of furniture is discovered, and interviews with people at the warp gate and others, Miguel and Argus gate off to Saus. Several secondary threads, among them a budding romance between Veracian priest Brother Farley and junior Tsuirakuan battlemage Kristi Yugawa and an on-again, off-again encounter between the contrite Tsubasa and the ... interesting ... Kureji, occur in the background.
Volkanenborg
First entry 2008/10/04; player characters introduced: Jasmine
The main group travels onward to the small town of Volkanenborg, gateway to the amusement park. En route and there, they have various random encounters, including a visit to the Temple of the Divine Dwarf, where Jamie is noticed by her mother Jasmine. Jasmine has been chasing her daughter over half the known world in an attempt to get her subdued, married and pregnant, preferably in that order. Proceedings are watched by two other groups: a pair of elves (Ramian and Paukii) who speculate on the possibility of Errants among the adventurers, and Elke and Mr. Stagpoole, who are particularly keeping an eye on Jamie for reasons not made completely clear, although they're mainly just in town engaging in an incredibly extended roll in the hay.
Meanwhile, Layla has made it home to Kugelheim, only to be given a puzzling mission to stop a trio of renegade Gewehr low-lives who were about to ambush the stage bearing the main characters to Volkanenborg. This ends fatally and messily for the low-lives, which was apparently the hoped-for goal, but Gewehr big shot Peter still isn't entirely happy with Layla's performance. Grope is in the area too, having picked up a talking, intelligent chipmunk named Chippy and played a role in detecting the ambush.
The various characters are about ready to move on when there is a sudden interruption in the routine: Saiko Mesuinu, eccentric (that's the polite word...) but magically incredibly powerful doyenne of the Mesuinu family that runs the amusement park, has been kidnapped. A lengthy battle ensues on and beneath a mountain ridge south of Volkanenborg, engaging essentially all of the player characters in the thread and coming to a weird ending when it is revealed that Saiko had staged the whole thing herself, resulting in apparent mastermind Neverinal, a notorious elf, meeting a grisly fate -- although perhaps not a fatal one. Grope continues heading for the troll homelands, Layla (who's starting to get interested in Ace, the airship pilot who carried her and her arch-nemesis Barb on a reconnaissance mission in support of the combatants) returns to Kugelheim, and the other player characters prepare to travel to the amusement park itself as the thread ends.
Saus
First entry 2008/10/15; player characters introduced: Sasha, Harker (familiar)
Brother Miguel and Argus gate into Saus and are conducted to a small temple of the Reformed Church, where they stay for the night. The next day is spent in continuing to gather information on the curiously missing Father Egbert, through interviews with a portalmage and a man named Gordon Grumiel who was present for the same operation of the gate in Kiyoka that caused Egbert to disappear (maybe). However, the travelers are suspicious of Grumiel, who doesn't seem to match the man by that name whom they saw in an archived "video" of the gate's operation. In the evening, a violent storm comes up (possibly connected with the arrival in town of Tsubasa and Kureji, possibly not) from which Argus and Miguel have a narrow escape, noticing in the process that there is a column of smoke on the far side of the city.
The travelers rise in the morning and prepare to travel onward, although their itinerary is uncertain at first. They visit a temple of the Millenarian Church that houses genealogical records, hoping to find information on Egbert's origins. Unfortunately, this temple was the source of the smoke seen the previous night, and the records have been severely damaged, while their curator and another man were apparently killed in the blaze. The second dead man eventually proves to have been Gordon Grumiel, establishing that the man interviewed the previous day was someone else masquerading as Grumiel. Argus and Miguel succeed in extracting some information from the damaged records that establishes Egbert's last name (Kankaniel) and origins (a town called Ramanzel in southern Veracia), and also that Egbert has a sister named Mildred Hamael who now lives with her family in the town of Heamish, east of Saus. This sets the direction of their travel, and they set off.
On reaching Heamish, Argus and Miguel interview Mildred Hamael, and learn that Egbert and Mildred's husband Wilbur are old friends. The interview is interrupted by the appearance of a giant, carnivorous beaver that menaces the house, but Mildred's young son Jason simply orders the beaver to drop dead -- and it does. Understandably impressed, Argus and Miguel terminate the interview as Wilbur Hamael appears, having learned that young Jason learned this little trick from his not-entirely-friendly father and not wanting to push their luck.
Their business in Heamish done, Argus and Miguel depart for points south, to be met on the road by Sister Rose, who's been dispatched from Kiyoka to help them (and to get her out of the way of the Cardinal Inquisitor, who's coming to Kiyoka to investigate the various weirdness at the temple). The Veracians detour to a military base north of the "Sleeping Sexton," a distinctive rock formation north of Heamish that figures in the identification of the town where Mildred Hamael lives. Not willing to take a Tsuirakuan to this base, they leave Argus at a pass on the Sleeping Sexton, where he has a scary near-encounter with the bogus Gordon Grumiel and a pair of teenagers, who are also looking for Egbert.
Rose and Miguel return from the base, and the travelers head south. They are joined on the road by newly-introduced Sasha Mitchel, an anthropology student doing field work, and by Argus' long-lost familiar Harker, a bipedal, talking beaver with a knack for carving wood into embarrassing shapes. They travel south, developing additional information on Egbert's route of travel (with at least one more inexplicable fatality in his wake), but are momentarily stymied by the emergence from underground of a gigantic war golem. They avoid contact with this alarming apparition, and learn from Sasha that it apparently is coming from the vicinity of a site called Centoriel that has a number of curious features. The group prepares to travel to Centoriel as the thread ends.
Mountain(s) of Madness
First entry 2009/1/18
The characters' paths generally converge on the Mountain of Madness amusement park: Grope as he just passes through, Layla (and family) to do some advance-party work anticipating a "peace conference" among the Farrelian guilds with an interest in the park, and the others just having fun, more or less. Marcus receives an odd communication from a shadowy group called "The Nine" with which he turns out to have an affiliation. This in turn leads to discovery of a dead (sort of) body on one of the park's rides, found by Layla as she's out for a morning run. The investigation, during which Layla uses her deputy-sheriff cover story and Lucas adopts a Columbo-style disguise, doesn't turn up much, but Jamie and Marcus take the opportunity provided by the resulting chaos to probe deeper in the ride in search of treasure. However, they're repelled (in more ways than one) by the park's security forces -- giant, enhanced skunks -- before they can get too close to the "treasure," the park's magical power source, which is just as well.
Layla and Faye meet with park official Galina, to whom Layla takes an instant liking as the two women discover that they are both new moms. Once arrangements for the peace conference are made, the Gewehr women fly home to Kugelheim, where Layla learns to her astonishment that Arty's death came about as a result of a wound inflicted by a troll, and Faye learns to her astonishment that Layla has incipient magical talent. Meanwhile, everyone else starts their trek into the Mountains of Madness (mountain range, not park). Marcus and company have a brief encounter with Grope, but the troll isn't sticking around to talk to humans (yet), rather, making tracks for the troll village that Chippy has informed him is somewhere nearby. En route, Grope has a nearly disastrous encounter with a spellcaster who is patrolling the borders of a compound belonging to the Malletarians, a heretical and violent offshoot of the church of Luminosita, from which he's improbably saved by the sudden appearance of Kureji Mesuinu. (Note that this apparition of Kureji takes place after her brief appearance in the Centoriel thread below, which is happening simultaneously with this one.)
As all of this is going on, there are several side threads. Jasmine Porter continues her dogged quest to see her daughter married and pregnant; more is learned about the mysterious past and capabilities of Lucas' golem companion Ayiee; Layla, who's having inner conflict between the Gewehr callousness toward death and her own dedication to the new life she's given birth to, starts to fall for airship pilot Ace before her late husband is even buried; and Elke gets preliminary indications that her extended bout of lovemaking with Mr. Stagpoole may have ... lasting ... consequences.
Centoriel
First entry 2009/01/25; player characters introduced: Lillith
Argus, Sasha and the Veracians learn more about the sinister "Centoriel" site and start to travel there, linking up as they go with half-elven priestess in training Lillith, who's on a pilgrimage of her own. They travel through unsettling terrain to the site of Centoriel, where they are suddenly attacked by a monstrous, spider-like golem that emerges from underground. They succeed in defeating it, with the most unexpected help of Kureji Mesuinu, who's in the form of a red dragon at the time and spins a most improbable (and mainly behind the scenes) tale of how she got there.
Exploration of the ruins of Centoriel reveals the inexplicable, and decidedly unwelcome, presence of emblems indicating that the place is used by the heretical, human-sacrificing Malletarians, for reasons not clear at first. Kureji stumbles into a Malletarian teleportation device and disappears, to emerge in the Mountains of Madness (see previous thread). The party settles in for the night, during which something troubles Rose badly in her sleep, but she won't give too many details when she awakes. During the night there are also indications of half-noticed things moving amid the ruins and possibly the operation of another source of destructive magical energy, but there are no investigations until morning.
When the party completes their preparations for the day, they are horrified to find two dead, magically incinerated bodies at the far end of the ruins. These are "Arkie," the man who had masqueraded as Gordon Grumiel in Saus, and his young nephew, "Buddy," who had been tailing Argus in the city. There are also indications that another member of the Arganial group (eventually found to be Buddy's twin sister Liz) might have wandered into a trap set by the Malletarians and been teleported off to the Malletarian compound, for purposes not clear but believed (correctly) to be malevolent. A crystal ball is discovered in the vicinity of the bodies, and contrary to the usual capabilities of crystal balls, spontaneously starts receiving messages from an unknown, hostile party elsewhere, which eventually causes the ball to explode after it has been chucked into the ruins.
No sooner does this encounter end than another solitary figure appears en route to the ruins. It's Wilbur Hamael, who's also searching for Egbert, for reasons of his own. An exchange between Hamael and the party occurs without much being revealed, but Hamael blunders into the same teleport trap that apparently claimed Liz Arganial and disappears. Shaken, the party ends its investigations at Centoriel and moves on.
Mountains of Madness, part 2
First entry 2009/03/09; player characters introduced: Nihanin
As Layla reluctantly prepares for her late husband's funeral, the other characters continue their treks into the Mountains of Madness. Having survived a near-fatal encounter with the Malletarians, Grope is delighted to encounter his nephew Scrobian, who conducts him to a troll village on the other side of the Malletarian compound, near an active volcano known to the trolls as the "Dwarven Forge." However, the other player characters, although they try to follow the trolls, have their own encounter with the Malletarians (including Layla's insane brother-in-law Brother Ohmad) and are forced underground to escape the resulting firestorm.
Beneath the Malletarian compound, the party has an unexpected encounter with Wilbur Hamael, who's been gated into the compound by the teleport trap at Centoriel and has used his killing word on a Malletarian guard. Another Malletarian approaches and is killed by Jamie, who however is horrified to discover that the dead woman was carrying a baby (and apparently bringing food to the dead guard, her husband). The baby, who proves to be named "Nera," is unharmed, and is adopted by the party (notably Jamie and her mother) as they probe deeper into the underground. Meanwhile, new player character Nihanin is being transported into the Mountains of Madness by Ace.
Grope is surprised to discover that his nephew has learned how to fly a balloon that he discovered (apparently a dwarven artifact), and he and Scrobian use the balloon to hunt a cave bear to be used in a ritual dinner celebrating Grope's arrival at the troll village. However, the hunt is interrupted by a volcanic rumble in the distance. It's the Dwarven Forge, which has picked this moment to become active -- just as Jamie, Jasmine, Marcus and Lucas (and Nera) are reaching a strange, technologically based underground complex beyond the Malletarians' control. This too shows signs of heating up from the volcano (with fatal consequences for the pursuing Brother Ohmad and some other Malletarians), although it is never made clear whether the party's actions caused the volcanic eruption or the other way around. Whatever the connection, all the characters flee the eruption, which has devastated the troll village, although there are some known survivors and possibly others who have fled east and cannot be accounted for. Meanwhile, Layla becomes aware of her incipient magical skills and starts training, as her relationship with Ace intensifies. Accompanying all this activity is the usual background involving Elke, Mr. Stagpoole, and other conspirators -- in just what conspiracy never being clear.
Homontel, and beyond
First entry 2009/3/20; player characters introduced: Cithule
The shaken travelers continue on from the ruins of Centoriel, their voyage punctuated by a jarring discovery: Sasha has developed physical features (notably ears) typical of a half elf. She reacts badly to this and starts a brawl with Lillith, despite the latter's protestations (eventually proven true) that she had nothing to do with Sasha's transformation. Eventually peace of a sort is reached, and the journey continues, albeit with some residual tensions.
The first stop on the road is the small town of Homontel, where Sister Rose meets an Orthodox priest, Brother Abram, who was in the military with her at the time and place of the Albigenish Incident. Lurking at this temple is the newly introduced half-elf Cithule, apparently a ne'er-do-well looking for something to steal. Interactions at the temple are truncated by news of a fire at one of the other temples in town, which the party helps extinguish, in the process learning that the Millenarians have a bad reputation in Homontel. The group continues onward through (more accurately, around) the town of Mazantzel, evading a shakedown attempt by a corrupted priest there.
Meanwhile (and more or less in the background), Brother Farley and Kristi are sent to Tsuirakushiti, to observe as Sashi Mu faculty member Revyl Dirienzal attempts to study the desk removed from the mission in Kiyoka that had thrown Argus for a serious loop and apparently caused a death later. Dirienzal's investigations don't reveal much, but a later, surreptitious examination by a different faculty member, Professor Damyo, proves fatal to him. This happens simultaneously, and possibly in connection, with a visit by the Veracian party to what appears to be a haunted graveyard outside Mazantzel. Lillith appears to dismiss/exorcise the restless spirit there, and as soon as Rose recovers from a nasty shock involving memories of the event that killed her husband Kenny in years gone by, the group moves on.
On arrival at the next town, Provatiel, the party stops for the night, reaching comfortable lodgings in a large castle. A series of encounters follow that reveal the castle to be more than it seems: the Millenarians who run the place seem to be surreptitiously amassing their own private, highly disciplined army. A disgusted Sister Rose learns, through conversations with young mother Carly Bindiel and observations in town, that this is being achieved through "family planning" that includes eugenics. When word surfaces that an elf has come to Provatiel, the group moves on, glad to be shut of the place.
Nautkia, and the South
First entry 2009/5/7
The group travels southward as Sister Rose explains her suspicions about Provatiel, with a pause to let Argus and Harker do some thaumaturgic eavesdropping on Revyl Dirienzal. This reveals that Dirienzal is terrified of something, but sheds little light on why. The travelers are met on the road by a young, nervous Veracian priest named Brother Kelso, who guides them to a suspiciously prosperous Reformed temple just outside the town of Nautkia.
Following an opulent dinner at the temple, during which it is learned that Brother Kelso has taken a fatal (and possibly not accidental) fall off the cliff behind the temple, a web of conspiracies develops around the several smuggling groups in Nautkia and those who interact with them. Sasha is caught studying/tampering with the curiously high-tech temple but talks her way out of trouble. Lillith is introduced to a scared group of half elves (some of whom have some decidedly Errant-like capabilities) hunkered down in Nautkia and agrees to help them (and herself) make their way home to Santuariel. Rose and Brother Miguel meet with a Nautkia official who, it is hinted, might know more about what happened to Kelso (and also about Father Egbert's mysterious sister Lucy Kankaniel, a smuggler), without actually learning much. Cithule is approached by a different band of smugglers to undertake an assassination, but no deal is finalized. And Argus is approached by a Tsuiraku-connected figure named "Nikolai," who uses veiled threats against Argus' daughter -- not Fayna, but a daughter he didn't even know he had -- to blackmail Argus into preparing a magical attack on the very boat that Lucy Kankaniel is skippering, a ship that will probably be picking up Egbert and taking him to parts unknown.
After Rose and Miguel rescue a mortified Lillith from a near-fatal encounter with an elf (the ranger Bauti, who's not named until a later thread), the adventurers compare notes, and Rose hatches a plan to extricate Argus from his predicament, save Lucy's boat, get the half elves home, and if they're lucky, find out what's going on with Egbert. As Argus and Harker build a mockup of the boat, which he will destroy instead of the real thing in order to mislead Nikolai and the faction he represents, they are observed by a shape-shifted Egbert, who is under surveillance by Rose and Miguel. With the moment for Argus' feigned "attack" approaching, Rose confronts Egbert, but after a final (and, for Rose, highly unsettling) exchange, Egbert jumps off the cliff behind the temple to his death(? -- there are ... complications ...) on the banks of the Lorenzel River far below. The horrified Rose breaks down in tears, but she pulls herself together just in time to dodge a magical attack from down at the river, where one of the half elves has misinterpreted the destruction of Argus' mockup. Eventually, the half elves do set sail on the smugglers' boat, but without the disconsolate Lillith. After the group meets with the temple's high priest, one Father Nestor who reveals more about the intricate maze of connections and conspiracies at Nautkia, they leave town for Lorenzel, still in shock from Egbert's suicide and the other events of the day.
Waldhaxen Channel
First entry: 2009/05/12
As Layla disables the angry Barb (learning an important and dangerous lesson about magic and discipline in the process), the other characters proceed toward the Waldhaxen Channel, the trans-continental body of water that the trolls know as "Growf's Drainpipe." The trolls (Grope and Scrobian), who are searching for signs of Scrobian's lost tribe following the eruption of the Dwarven Forge, arrive via Scrobian's improbable balloon, just in time to come under fire from a strange boat traversing the Channel/Drainpipe. The humans too receive fire from the boat, and during their counterattack (which takes them down to the water's surface), engage two powerful but non-sapient, flightless bird-things called pinguimhos released by the boat. They defeat the creatures, but the boat proves to be a submarine and escapes. During the combat, Wilbur Hamael, who's been watching from a safe distance, manages to repair and steal the damaged balloon, and escapes, leaving the chagrined trolls stranded with the humans.
Not long afterward, another, more conventional ship (eventually revealed to be under the control of the mysterious Seeadler, although the party doesn't know this at the time) also passes through the channel, and delivers a smaller vessel that the group can use to pass to the far side of the Channel. Grope, who has gained the "Wisdom" of one of the pinguimhos, discovers that the surviving trolls are being held on an island in the Drainpipe somewhere to the east called the Island of Thralls, and determines to go rescue them. The humans join them, but the group is interrupted by the passage of another submarine, which they succeed in sinking, with the help of an airship that happens to be passing by -- this one with Layla aboard, and piloted by her pregnant friend Molly, having been sent out on a reconnaissance mission. (This mission proves to have caused some consternation back in Kugelheim that they discover when they return, for reasons not made clear.)
After discovering a curious encampment by what appear to be a group of Tsuirakuan military men, Jamie, Lucas, etc., manage to steal an airship (of sorts...) and prepare to travel on to Rinkaiel, which appears to be a safer place to seek fame and fortune than along the Channel -- that, plus the fact that they might be able to charter a Seeadler boat there, to come back and attack the Island of Thralls. The trolls, now including the injured female Harzh'biah, stay behind to await their human colleagues' return with more firepower. Meanwhile, Nihanin hikes into the area (but disappears), and Layla, who's continuing to become more involved with Ace, also prepares to move to Rinkaiel, where her magical education will continue, helping to develop the embryonic Gewehr presence in the city as she studies. In behind-the-scenes action, Elke learns that she's definitely pregnant as a result of the extended tryst with Mr. Stagpoole, and all sorts of other, mysterious and never-resolved machinations among the shadowy conspirators are hinted at.
Lorenzel and Ramanzel
First entry: 2009/07/12; player characters introduced: Maduin Lochlear
Argus, Lillith and colleagues have reached Lorenzel, and rise in the morning, generally with a sense of dejection after the events in Nautkia. Argus receives a bottle of expensive wine as an apparent thank-you gift for his "work" in Nautkia, but Sister Rose discovers that it's been tampered with and stops him from drinking it. Meanwhile, Sasha startles everyone by revealing a traveling companion: the pseudo-Paedagogusi Compassion, who prompts a hushed exchange of thoughts about what is known to various parties about the elven religion.
Another message for Argus, this one from Captain Kitaura back in Kiyoka, alerts him to the impending arrival of Maduin Lochlear, a young Tsuirakuan (and PC) who's introduced at this point, bearing a note from Argus' daughter Fayna. He pockets this for the time being without reading it, but it does establish some bona fides for Maduin, who's nominally on scene as Kitaura's "minder" for Argus, to re-establish contact with her father. Meanwhile, another new face has appeared with the group: Elric Kankaniel, a previously unacknowledged son of the late Father Egbert, who's brought by what appears to be a living thunderstorm ("Stormie"). Elric seems completely unaffected by the news of his father's death, but eventually agrees to accompany the group to the curiously movable town of Ramanzel so that they can give the word to any surviving relatives there.
Following a dinner with the abbot of the Reformed temple in Lorenzel, a Father Ranulph who turns out to have been one of the missionaries who saved Brother Miguel from becoming a human sacrifice, the group turns in for the night, to rise in the morning and travel to Ramanzel. After some small adventures (including the removal of Elric from their midst by "Stormie," who's unhappy about something, and apparent hostility by the forest, itself a semi-sapient being according to Elric), they arrive in the town and meet Rose's cousin Brad. He's in town exploring the possibility of setting up a Reformed temple there (but finds prospects unappealing), but much later, reveals to Rose that he has an ulterior motive: tracking down and killing the man who's run off with Brad's wife Annie. After a visit to the old Kankaniel homestead, where the party is intimidated by a real thunderstorm as well as "Stormie" and discovers some strange burials beneath the house, they collect the contrite Brad (who confesses his plans to Rose) and prepare to return to Lorenzel. As usual, there is also some background action, some of it involving "Cit" and a mysterious intruder, some reports of happenings in Kiyoka.
Rinkaiel
First entry: 2009/08/01; player characters introduced: Kalin, Rice, Zander
Both groups from the Waldhaxen Channel thread (minus the trolls, who stay behind to reconnoiter the Island of Thralls) fly into Rinkaiel, where they interact briefly before going their separate ways: Lucas, Jamie, Jasmine and Marcus to negotiate the purchase (or as it turns out, rental) of a ship from amphibious Seeadler big shot Gryffyd, Layla and entourage (now including their local contact Joe) to take over (and use as cover) a vineyard at the edge of town, where they meet new PC Kalin. Kalin is a Veracian not-quite-priest who has been functioning as handyman/caretaker of the vineyard for the couple who live there (Vikor and Sarya) and has discovered various disturbing things of a magical nature, including a shack at one end of the property that's exempted from the purchase and protected by a ward-like magical perimeter. Despite misgivings, he agrees to stay on as caretaker under the new management, and after Layla meets her magic tutor (a Tsuirakuan named Dasuke Kinabalu, who's destined for a messy end), she, Faye and Ace head into town to find lodging, pending the transfer of the property.
Meanwhile, Lucas' group also finds lodging at the same inn on the waterfront, in the process meeting PC Rice, who runs a food stand nearby. (The menacing Captain Kitaura, who's been transferred to Rinkaiel from Kiyoka, puts in a brief appearance at this stand, trying to recruit Rice as an information source; the success of this recruitment remains much in doubt.) As Jamie and Marcus deal with Gryffyd about a ship, Jasmine is watched by an inept pair of Gewehr low-lives, Fritz and Weed, who are on a mission to kill Jamie -- very much contrary to the official orders to the Gewehr contingent in town, who are supposed to be keeping a low profile while the operation gets established. Fritz and Weed, in their turn, are being watched by new PC Zander, who gets the word to Marcus and company that something is afoot. This culminates in the messy demise of the two Gewehr hoods, which at first starts Faye in the direction of setting up a hit of her own, against Marcus; however, firm instructions from the distant Peter stop this, and indeed, the surviving Gewehr people rather callously wash their hands of the late Fritz and Weed.
Fork at this point. Lucas, Jamie, Jasmine and Marcus (and Ayiee) board the Seeadler ship to head back to the Waldhaxen Channel, the (abortive) adventures of which are chronicled in the "Farrel Sea" thread. The other PCs stay in town for more adventures in the "Rinkaiel, Part 2" thread.
Lorenzel, Part 2
First entry: 2009/9/12; player characters introduced: Drusia Valis
The party, joined by Brad, travels back to Lorenzel, to receive a series of bewildering communiques. Brother Miguel discovers that he's being ordered back to Kiyoka, possibly accompanying Brother Redmond, a priest at the Lorenzel temple of the Reformed Church who's under consideration to replace the late Egbert as assistant Abbot at the Kiyokan mission. Sister Rose receives a different set of orders, directing her and the group to travel south to a town called Gervasiel to receive a mysterious artifact and escort it north. Most significant of all, Argus reads the message that Maduin gave him earlier, and is overwhelmed to discover that his daughter Fayna, whom he believed terminally estranged from him, not only hasn't written him off, but still loves him and would very much like to re-establish contact, exile or no exile. Rose discovers him in a highly charged emotional state following his reading of the message, but her initial delight as Argus reveals its contents turns to complete astonishment as he goes on to reveal what's been bothering him ever since Nautkia: he's Lillith's father. Lillith inadvertently hears this revelation as well, causing her terrific emotional distress, from which Rose and Maduin do their best to settle her down, with results that can charitably be called "mixed."
In town, an elven peregin, the newly-introduced PC Drusia Valis, seduces and then slays an Errant who has been killing whores in the red-light district. She then retreats to her brooding, solitary existence, to be noticed by Argus and Miguel, who've gone into town for some take-out food, the rest of the party being in no emotional shape to go out for dinner. The next day, the whole group encounters Drusia again under what starts out as rather happier conditions: Miguel has decided to pop the question to his girlfriend Sister Marilyn when he gets back to Kiyoka and is looking for an engagement ring. In the jewelry store, a casual mention of Snamish, the well-hidden Veracian town where Rose's late husband hailed from, catches Drusia's attention: not only is it also her home town, most of the half elves there are in fact descended from her -- meaning that she's Rose's many-times-great-grand-mother-in-law, a fact that takes some time to come out.
As more shopping is done, Drusia, who was on the pro-half-elf side back during the Errant War and is firmly committed to protecting healthy half elves even as she dispatches Errants, rapidly realizes that Lillith falls into the former class, and starts to think about ways to protect the girl by getting her back to Snamish. The urgency of this increases when she realizes that she's being watched by another peregin, the nasty Bauti, who definitely is not as tolerant of half elves as Drusia, and had noticed Lillith way back in Nautkia. A tense exchange between the two peregins sends Drusia away thinking of how not only to rescue Lillith, but to throw Bauti off the trail by making it appear that Lillith has died -- at her hands. After the group gets Miguel launched to Kiyoka (Brad narrowly missing accidentally shooting his cousin with a previously concealed handgun in the process, to his immense chagrin), they head south in the general direction of Gervasiel.
Drusia, who's discovered that she can communicate telepathically with both Argus and Rose (although the latter has a terrifying flashback to a moment in her military service that involved telepathy), continues planning for Lillith's rescue as the group reaches the small town of Cartish. A monument on the edge of town that's being tended by an old lady (Edith) proclaims Cartish the home of one Brother Carter, a missionary to the Southern Continent who'd died there while doing Luminosita's work (which, Rose quickly realizes, included saving Miguel from the tree worshippers many years ago). Edith invites the travelers back to her shop in town to talk, but immediately rubs Lillith the wrong way because of her bigotry against half elves (the more incongruous as Edith herself employs a troll as a handyman), provoking a most atypical outburst from the half-elven girl. While Rose and others succeed in defusing this potentially tense situation, Drusia realizes that, contrary to her hopes, Cartish isn't going to be a satisfactory place to stage Lillith's death, and so the party travels on toward the next town along the road, and the next thread.
Farrel Sea
First entry: 2009/10/19
A brief thread that commences with Jamie, Marcus, Lucas and entourage heading out of Rinkaiel in a leased ship (watched via some manner of signaling device by Seeadler honcho Gryffyd), intending to rendezvous with Grope and the other trolls before attacking the Island of Thralls. However, their voyage runs into a number of obstacles: seasickness (particularly on the part of Jamie, who doesn't travel well by sea and has to be drugged up, with certain side effects), a troll woman floating on a raft, a submarine that launches what appears to be a torpedo, and finally, a large and well-armed pirate vessel. The latter two encounters inflict enough damage that the ship's captain, a Seeadler man, decides that the mission must be aborted, but the pirates continue to close and it looks like the ship is going down. Fortunately, Gryffyd calls in a favor, and a huge airship appears, to lift the adventurers out of harm's way and carry them back to Rinkaiel, where this thread merges into the existing one. The trolls simply shrug their shoulders and wait (trolls are good at that), and there is a sighting of the balloon carrying Wilbur Hamael -- maybe.
Thread merged back into Rinkaiel, Part 2, at this point; see next.
Rinkaiel, Part 2
First entry: 2009/10/19; player characters introduced: Tess, Jack, Connor, Maya
As Kalin is surprised by a Tsuirakuan voice somewhere near the shack at the edge of the vineyard, Layla, Faye and Joe meet newcomer Tess and her friend Sedona, eventually discovering that Tess bears a message from Gewehr mega-big shot Mr. Gabriel authorizing her to travel on the airship (skippered by Ace) that will return the Sorensens to Kugelheim. As Layla and her mother pick up some munchies for the trip from Rice's food stand, they notice Captain Kitaura hanging around, but avoid contact with him at this time. Once again, Kitaura subtly but clearly leans on Rice to inform him of any Tsuirakuans she serves at the stand. Meanwhile, Kalin continues to have mystifying encounters at the vineyard.
As soon as Tess delivers her safe-passage note to a suspicious Ace, the airship departs, but not before a shadowy figure attaches a magical something to the airship. This proves to be a magical bomb that activates as the airship makes a quick sight-seeing detour past the vineyard, bringing it down (as observed by Kalin and Joe) with minor to moderate injuries to its passengers. As soon as Layla realizes the nature of the attack, she swears enraged vengeance on whoever tried to kill her son, then takes the more seriously injured of the group (Ace and Faye) to a healer in town that operates under the humorous aegis of the Temple of the Divine Dwarf, meeting newcomer Jack in the process. Eventually Kalin and the injured Tess learn that the bomb was apparently an elven device; on learning this news, Layla takes a group off to the elven temple ruins north of town in pursuit of the perpetrator, accompanied by new PC Connor, but is forced to abandon her quest when she realizes how far beyond her means it is.
As Kalin and Joe experiment with access to the shack, Layla and crew return to the vineyard, after an encounter with Kitaura in which he alludes to "exotic weeds" that should be purged from the vineyard. Layla guesses that he intends a double entendre and wants her to dispose of some manner of bad guys who are using the place, maybe Tsuirakuans of some kind, maybe not. On their return, Layla detects (with her newly minted magic skills) an invisible presence monitoring the house at the vineyard. A lucky shot from Connor fatally wounds the invisible spy, who turns out to be a Tsuirakuan teenager, much to Layla's distress. The group uses a key the dead boy had dropped to gain access to the shack, and Joe inadvertently triggers a magical transporter and is whisked away to points unknown, returning soon with the news that someone had been heard speaking Tsuirakuan on the other side of a door. New PC Maya is found cowering near the shack and tries to answer some questions, but rapidly proves to have nothing to do with the Tsuirakuans who use the shack. One of those Tsuirakuans shows up shortly with a Yuuki staff, however, and locks down the searchers with a sea of viscous green goo that takes a while for everyone to escape from. Once the group is free of the green goo, Maya, who's nearly blind, laments that she has lost her eye drops and must go into town to retrieve them. First, though, the group pauses at the house for a day or two of healing and recuperation (offstage).
When play resumes, the Gewehr people receive a directive to drop Ace off at the airship terminal, and more unexpectedly, pick up a group arriving at the terminal. This is Jamie, Jasmine and Nera, returned from their adventure in the Farrel Sea (see above). Jamie joins Joe and Maya as they go into Tsuiraku-town in search of eyedrops, dropping Layla off at Kinabalu's magic lab on the way. The eyedrop mission turns weird, however, as a communications breakdown (and Jamie's thirst for something intoxicating) leads not to Maya getting her eyedrops, but to Jamie drinking a hallucinogen ... the consequences of which are still unfolding as the thread gives way to the next one.
Salticiel and beyond
First entry: 2009/11/16
Sister Rose, Lillith, Argus, Drusia, etc., travel across the mountains toward the small town of Salticiel, en route discovering some ruins that turn out to be an elven travel platform that the Millenarians have somehow subverted. Harker inadvertently triggers the platform and is whisked off to what appears to be the castle back in Provatiel, where he overhears a conversation that implies the presence of a large and hostile military unit. When he reappears at the platform, he mentions hearing the name Elgin Bindiel, which sends Brad into a rage: Elgin Bindiel is the man who stole Brad's wife Annie. Lillith calms him down while Rose and Argus ponder the connection to the Millenarians.
On arrival at Salticiel, Argus, Rose, Maduin and Drusia begin planning for Lillith's faked "death," with abundant personal complications on the side. Drusia makes advances toward both Rose and Argus (both of which are rebuffed) and Brad continues the process of falling hard for the doubtful Lillith. Maduin has an encounter of his own, with a man named Thomas, that holds some promise of the romance that he's come to Veracia to seek. Although Argus declines Drusia's overtures, she takes the opportunity to confide much of her backstory to him, and then ups the stakes: could he be persuaded to father her child? Argus reacts angrily in the negative, to be intercepted by a puzzled Rose, who's having more painful memories of her late husband. Drusia, frustrated by the unresponsiveness of the humans, seeks solaces in a pedicure from Maduin (who teaches her an ... interesting ... spell) as night falls.
The next morning, following an early-morning visit by Rose to the Orthodox temple (presided over by the rather dull Father Thaddeus, a former friend of the late Egbert, who later reveals some information about Egbert that Rose finds intriguing), unpleasant dreams by Maduin, and a more -- satisfying night for Drusia, the planning for the masquerade continues. The group tries to bring Lillith gently into the picture, but things go badly when a random encounter with a maid at the inn reveals prematurely that Drusia is an elf, sending Lillith into full-fledged panic. It takes some time for the group to overcome this, but eventually, a still-reluctant Lillith is placed into a death-like state by a drug administered by Drusia; Rose and Maduin create a charade to make the "death" more convincing to witnesses; and Rose and Argus obtain a coffin from Thaddeus in which to "bury" his daughter -- of course, part of the act to get her out of town before she wakes up. They return to the inn to pack up and move on as the thread ends.
The Road to Gervasiel
First entry: 2010/01/10
The group, carrying the "dead" Lillith and receiving the hoped-for expressions of sympathy from observers, heads south from Salticiel, en route to a stopover at what they believe to be a small town that a map gives the name "Leonish." En route, Lillith revives, to the joy and relief of everyone else, first and foremost Brad, of course. Less happily, Rose receives a message from up north announcing that back in Kiyoka, Captain Kitaura has been replaced by another Tsuirakuan military type named Haniko Goto. Rose has been asked to find out whether either of the Tsuirakuans knows anything about this unknown but apparently menacing woman. She discovers that the name evokes a strong, and thoroughly enraged, reaction from Argus: he knows her, all right, and blames her for a betrayal back home that contributed to him being sent into exile. The group (inadvertently) opens a bottle of wine and starts to celebrate Lillith's revival, but Drusia nearly chokes on an unexpected small object in the bottle: the bottle, it turns out, was exactly the one that had been given to Argus earlier -- and found to have been doctored somehow. The group reaches the conclusion that the doctoring was done by Haniko Goto, for some unclear reason, and the small object proves to be of -- interest to Drusia, who keeps it.
Leonish proves to be not a town, but a single country inn, where the travelers bed down for the night. The proprietors convince Drusia to perform some elvish music in return for a break on the price, and she complies, in a program that induces an unexpectedly sentimental moment between Rose and Argus and some soul-searching by Maduin. As her music ends, the proprietor, Mr. Handriel, starts some music of his own, on an instrument that Drusia recognizes as of elven origin. Following a graceful dance in which various couples (expected and otherwise) take part, the travelers retire, each to their own bed -- although Drusia's is also occupied by young, athletic Zeb, the inn's handyman, who promises her the kind of bed-time "entertainment" she really wants.
In the morning, Brad catches a random glimpse of Zeb leaving the inn at impossibly high speed. When he reports this, an earlier encounter with a farmer, who had mentioned that the site of Leonish had at one time had something to do with an outfit called the "Siggy-Rum," takes on a different meaning: could he have been talking about the Ensigerum? Different characters react differently to this possibility, but when the wagon passes through a burnt-out ruin that, against all expectations, contains a Durus Flamma blade, the question develops some urgency, particularly since another figure is seen, out of the corners of people's eyes, moving far too quickly to be a normal human. However, a generous gesture by Rose establishes that the blur is a human, if one inexplicably capable of time-ninja-like speed; specifically, a teenage girl who has apparently been keeping tabs on the travelers since they reached the ruin -- Leonish itself. The thread ends with the group heading for Stone Man Pass and trying to decide whether to take this mysterious newcomer (whose name, later, is learned to be "Kim") along with them.
Stone Man Pass
First entry: 2010/03/08; player characters introduced: Suriah Chase
The group continues on toward Stone Man Pass, pausing to wait out a mountain thunderstorm, during which "Kim," the girl from the ruins of Leonish, catches up to them and nervously joins them in the impressively furnished tent that Maduin has erected somehow. The wait keeps them from making it to Gervasiel, on the other side of the pass, before dark, so they camp for the night on the way to the pass. On the way, the wagon is overtaken by the flamboyantly eccentric Porpington Bree, who claims to be a "Poet Laureate" en route to a reading for the "Stone Men." He disappears up the road to the pass without revealing much about his true affiliations, and the group settles into the camp.
That night, there is a series of chaotic encounters initiated by Lillith, who has gone out to meditate near a "stone man," a statue near the camp site. Maduin has an encounter with Thomas, a man Maduin had met earlier and found romantically interesting, who warns him of dangers awaiting the party. Soon afterward, Lillith is abducted by a shadowy stranger, and to Maduin's horror and outrage, the body of Thomas is found, murdered, along with that of another, similarly dressed woman. Eventually Lillith is rescued, and the uncharacteristically enraged Maduin metes out revenge of a sort on the perpetrator of one or more of the outrages, although Thomas' murderer escapes. Nobody gets much sleep that night.
In the morning, there is a certain amount of soul-searching and -baring, as Brad confides his love for Lillith to Rose (not that it hadn't been obvious for a long time); Maduin gives Rose his interpretation of what happened during the night, including his feelings of guilt at Thomas' death and his fears that an equally murderous encounter may yet await the group; and Argus and Drusia try to do something about the hostility that Harker has manifested toward the elf. For her part, Kim adds to the tension in the party by expressing her distaste for the dead bodies, not because they are lifeless but because they wear the robes of the Ensigerum -- lending credence to Rose's suspicion that the Ensigerum had been responsible for the slaughter at Leonish that Kim somehow survived. Kim starts to make motions as though to leave the group, but is gently talked out of it by Maduin and Rose.
On the way down from the pass, the group meets a farmer who warns them about "big-brain scholars" -- presumably the group that Rose must meet regarding the Artifact of Absonial -- and more worrisome, a "demonic" Tsuirakuan who awaits in Gervasiel. Maduin greets this with levity and a practical joke, and Lillith with amusement and scorn for the man's ignorant bigotry; however, from the farmer's description, Argus recognizes the "demonic" Tsuirakuan as one Arsoro Kurou, an academic from Tsuirakushiti who is every bit as menacing as the man believes him to be. In the wake of the encounter, Rose is persuaded to give a reluctant summary of the Albigenish Incident, which she has mentioned several times, and which obviously had a role in shaping her life. After noticing a decaying castle that will figure in later events, the group continues on to Gervasiel.
After settling in at an inn, Maduin becomes highly agitated and hauls Argus off to be fitted for fancy new clothes. The reason: Argus' daughter Fayna has made contact with Maduin, and is likely to be in touch with Argus himself soon. Drusia tags along (and engages in a whimsical bit of shoplifting), and shortly afterward, Rose follows in their wake, but is injured by the wildly careening cab bearing Argus and Maduin back to the inn. Her injuries are not serious and are quickly treated, but the group is delayed enough to still be en route to the inn when there is a powerful explosion from somewhere nearby. Rose and Drusia go to investigate, in the process meeting the terrified Suriah Chase, a new player character who had been working at a nearby stable when the blast happened. Although there has been some blast damage to the inn, the only fatality appears to be the weird poet, Porpington Bree, who was almost completely disintegrated by the explosion. Rose and Lillith calm Suriah down (and Drusia does a quick assessment, concluding that she's as harmless as Lillith, therefore not an Errant) as this long thread ends, leaving the follow-up to the explosion still up in the air.
Tsuiraku-town
First entry: 2010/03/13; player characters introduced: Rhett Courier
Layla resumes her magical education under the tutelage of Dasuke Kinabalu, but it is interrupted when Kinabalu goes to receive a clandestine parcel at the laboratory's back door, being delivered by newly-introduced PC Rhett Courier. Unfortunately, this transaction is interrupted by a pair of muggers with some magical capabilities, as Layla learns when Kinabalu fails to reappear and she goes looking for him. She arrives too late to stop the mugging, and never sees the goods that Rhett was smuggling into Kinabalu's laboratory, but is able to release the pair from their magical binding. Meanwhile, a hallucinating Jamie and colleagues continue looking for somewhere in Tsuiraku-town that carries Maya's eye drops, while Kalin, Jasmine and Faye start to get to know each other back at the vineyard.
The quest for eye drops leads Jamie, Ace, etc., to the exact same apothecary/coffee shop that Layla and Rhett are visiting as they discuss what happened at the laboratory and start some negotiations regarding future business. Momentarily, an enraged Kinabalu also arrives, and heads into the back of the shop, where he is unexpectedly incinerated by a Force Bolt spell cast by persons unknown. When the dust settles, Layla concludes that Kinabalu was the victim of a rather skillful "hit," but the group leaves the shop without learning who was responsible.
Back at the house at the vineyard, Layla fills her mother in on what happened in Tsuiraku-town. As they start to discuss needed follow-ups, it is noticed that one of the laborers working in the arbors is paying undue attention to activities at the house -- and then that a spectator on the property's perimeter is taking careful notice of the laborer. This second watcher turns out to be Captain Kitaura, who once again lectures Layla about the need to deal with "exotic weeds" at the vineyard. Rhett, Layla and Kalin take the hint and capture the watcher; however, his interrogation ends early when he succumbs to a suicide spell after being forced to divulge a connection with Tsuiraku. Neither Kalin nor Rhett like this at all, and Rhett resolves to go into Rinkaiel and have it out with Kitaura, despite Layla's warnings that it isn't a good idea.
As Maya and Jamie, uh, get to know each other, and the enigmatic elf Neverinal appears at the vineyard (only to disappear again shortly afterward), Rhett tries to get into the consulate to see Kitaura, but is rebuffed. However, he's noticed by an old friend named Quince, who turns out to be a personage of some significance in the Seeadler and gives Rhett some information on the consulate. Rhett and another friend, the recently arrived Captain Ritter, take a remarkable, flying boat ride to a park in the middle of Tsuiraku-town that Quince had identified as of interest to Kitaura. The Tsuirakuan is seen neither there nor at the nearby Temple of the Divine Dwarf, another site that Quince had mentioned; however, Rhett is abducted by Tsuirakuan Homeland Security goons and taken to see Kitaura at an outdoor venue. An uneasy detente is reached as Kitaura re-emphasizes his "exotic weed" concern, and most of the characters return to the vineyard for the night.
Tsuiraku-town, part 2
First entry: 2010/5/12; player characters introduced: William Gault, Mouse, Ouroboros, Jade, Ghaz
As Layla heads back into Tsuiraku-town to resume her magic lessons, Maya, Rhett and Jasmine foil a magical kidnapping attempt on Nera. This however turns out to have been a case of mistaken identity: the actual target was Zachary rather than Nera, with the goal of using him to coerce the Sorensens into hunkering down in the vineyard and abandoning their inquiries into the sinister shack and points beyond. Rhett attributes this offense (incorrectly, as it turns out) to Captain Kitaura, and starts to drag Layla into town to sort him out, but Jamie indignantly protests that it was her child, not Layla's, that was the target, and therefore, she should go along. After some tense discussions, the trip into town is postponed, and evidence is obtained that the kidnappers came from the shack, rather than from Kitaura's base.
As the group prepares to head into Tsuiraku-town, Layla makes a quick digression to the airship terminal to collect Ace, there encountering new PCs, the mute Mouse and William Gault, the latter a naval captain who is carrying an intriguing cargo of body bags. (Gault's crew are seeking entertainment in town and are not at the terminal; fellow PC Ouroboros, or "Ouro," is there, but a stowaway, and is not seen by Layla and Ace.) Layla recalls doing business with Gault in times past under the alias "Captain Shadriel," which name he continues to use in interactions with other characters for a while. She and Ace return to the vineyard to check out the traps and other defenses that Faye and the Porters are setting up, while Ouro heads into town, where he has a surprising encounter with Captain Kitaura.
Gault and Mouse head into town as well, followed by Layla and entourage, as yet another new PC, the wounded Jade Ermingard, straggles into the vineyard, to be discovered by Ace, who's babysitting Zachary. Jade's wounds are such that Maya attempts some healing, with mixed results. Meanwhile, Layla and company pass by the liquor store to get some beverages for the Porters, there encountering Gault, and also noticing, via Layla's nascent magic sense, a concealed observer. However, despite attempts to corner the invisible intruder, he escapes, whereupon Gault and Mouse hop a lift from the not-entirely-willing Layla out to the vineyard to figure out what to do next.
Back at the vineyard, the various parties introduce themselves, each telling some but not all of their history. Surveillance is set up on the mysterious shack, and Layla and Jade soon detect a pair of Tsuirakuans passing through, one apparently a powerful magic user (archmage?) and the other possibly an aide. Layla and Jade overhear a conversation that suggests the Tsuirakuans are on the opposite side of the law from Kitaura, whatever that means. Meanwhile, yet another new PC wanders in, the "ghob" Ghaz, who is recognized by Gault, and whose appearance (and race) startles the humans who have never seen a "ghob" before. Alarmed by the proliferation of curious characters at the vineyard, Layla, Faye and Zachary head into town for a remarkable meeting with Kitaura, which is transacted semi-offline (in the "Background Noise" quasi-thread). Gault, Mouse and Ghaz also head into town, to Gault's ship and then a bolt-hole.
Jade, recovering from her injuries, heads into the basement of the house at the vineyard, and is stunned to discover what turns out to be a "Blue Golem" there -- just as another blue golem appears at the shack, under the watchful eyes of Ace and Jamie. The "inside" golem disintegrates in a hail of bullets and magic, and the "outside" golem goes back into the shack and disappears (with some persuasion by Jamie), leaving the watchers speculating that they may have seen the "super-weapons" that Layla and Jade overheard the Tsuirakuans mentioning, even though they weren't really all that "super." Meanwhile, the bolt-hole also becomes a violent place, as Mouse kills someone whom Gault seems to know, and mages show up to ramp up the violence level a bit. Eventually things quiet down for the night.
The next morning, Jade heads into town to try to do some fact finding with bartender Dandelo, whom she knows. (Gault, meanwhile, returns to the vineyard, leaving his crewmates sleeping off their intoxication.) One of the oddities that Jade uncovers is the fact that Kitaura had passed through, leaving Ouro a most uncharacteristic tip. Layla and Faye, now back at the vineyard as well, start to plan to blow up the shack, as Gault had recommended, but change their minds after thinking through the consequences, and informing some of the others that Kitaura is apparently on their side. As all of this proceeds, Jamie overhears a fragment of a conversation that makes her aware that some of the people at the vineyard are Gewehr -- causing her to flee in terror, since it was only a few weeks earlier that Gewehr hoods had been trying to kill her, rather than protect her. She flees into the woods behind the vineyard, pursued by Jade, Jasmine and Faye who are trying to calm her down and bring her back; however, all three women (plus Nera, carried by Jamie) trigger yet another warp gate, and are transported to who-knows-where as the thread ends.
Fork at this point. Action in Rinkaiel continues in the "Tsuiraku-town, part 3" thread, while Jamie, Jade, etc., continue their adventures in the new "Farrel: Ladies' Day Out" thread.
Gervasiel
First entry: 2010/5/22
The group's investigation of the explosion at the inn continues, interrupted by the panicked departure of Kim, who cuts herself badly as she breaks through a window and must be retrieved and given medical care by Rose and Drusia. While they are ministering to Kim, Arsoro Kurou, who has been observed by Lillith and Suriah, plants a bug (literally) on the party that is dispelled, unexpectedly and spectacularly, by Brad. Meanwhile, an ominous rumble in the inn announces that Argus' daughter Fayna wishes to get in touch with him, and father and daughter engage in a long, emotionally charged exchange.
Drusia offers to use her wiles to spy on Kurou, who has departed for the castle ruins east of town. She and Harker head for the ruin, as Rose enlightens Suriah on Drusia's true nature and offers to take her along when the party goes to the half-elf sanctuary at Snamish, an offer that Suriah accepts. Rose and Suriah are summoned by Father Amalric, high priest of the Veracian church in town and de-facto governor of the place, to brief him on developments involving the explosion, surprising Rose with implied magical skill going beyond what she expects of a priest out in the boonies. There follow several exchanges on family and relationships, as Drusia and Harker start their mission, which however is played out in the "Background Noise" thread.
As night falls, Rose, Maduin and Argus make a quick visit to the inn where Kurou is staying, disguised as bawdy young women (a disguise that Argus fervently hopes Harker never learns about). They don't learn much, only that Kurou is a master of magical defenses, as advertised. As the "young women" return to their own inn and drop their disguises, Drusia and Harker also show up, bearing interesting intelligence regarding both Kurou and the Artifact of Absonial, and ... satisfied at the night's entertainment.
Drusia and Suriah go off to dinner, and a romantic tete-a-tete that will lead to the two becoming lovers. The rest of the group also goes to dinner, interrupted by Brad's outraged realization that his ex-wife is in town with the man who stole her away from him. However, Lillith calms him down before he does anything foolish, and the night passes uneventfully, at least for everyone but the two new lovers.
When morning comes, a very satisfied Drusia offers to go back out to the castle and dispose of Kurou. The harrowing encounter that follows culminates in Drusia teleporting back to Rose's room, near death until Rose (who had been feeling guilty about sending the elf on such a dangerous mission and was contemplating joining her) casts a flurry of healing spells. (Kurou also teleports out of the ruin to a site somewhere else, licking his own near-fatal wounds and vowing revenge.) As Drusia recovers (and after Rose wakes up from the slumber induced by casting the exhausting healing magic), others of the party go to visit Avner Indianel, the professor in charge of the dig that discovered the Artifact of Absonial. They make arrangements to meet later in the day to travel out to the dig, and Rose and Argus go back to the inn to prepare a decoy in case they are waylaid; this too is played out in the Background Noise thread. Meanwhile, Drusia tells Suriah, Lillith and Brad more about Snamish. The group are joined by Indianel and his "research assistant," Rebekah Codoin -- coincidentally(?), the young woman in the warp gate at the time of the late Father Egbert's mysterious disappearance. The thread ends as everyone heads for the dig, Argus and Rose both pondering an unexpected, affectionate moment between them that arose during construction of the decoy.
The Artifact of Absonial
First entry: 8 August 2010
With Avner Indianel and Rebekah Codoin in tow, the party travels to the entrance to a slot canyon, beyond which is the site containing the Artifact of Absonial that Sister Rose has been ordered to retrieve. En route to the archaeological dig, Maduin notices an odd, magical tree that, on inspection, turns out to be the surface manifestation of a peculiar, buried array of not-alive-but-not-quite-dead humans. Lillith, who is momentarily possessed by one of those beneath the ground, calls them the "Peaceful Dead" (even though they turn out to be not quite so "peaceful"), triggering a memory in Rose regarding an old religious movement called the Stalwarts that created troops in a state of suspended animation for later service to Luminosita. This group, however, turns out to be not so benign, as Harker is possessed by a powerful mind from below and tries to get them to rise from their undead state. He comes alarmingly close to succeeding before being knocked out by Argus, and Lillith, with help from most of the group, succeeds in quieting the restless spirits -- although one plaintive mind-voice from the ground suggests that they haven't all been quieted.
The Artifact, a nondescript, non-magical gray cylinder of unknown origin and significance, proves to be hidden in the back of a dwarven ruin set into the canyon wall. Rose, Argus, Drusia and Avner prepare the Artifact for transport as Maduin strikes up a friendship with "Bryce," one of the guards providing security at the site. This friendship rapidly blossoms into the kind of romance that Maduin has been seeking as the group heads back out of the canyon. However, as they pass the site where the Peaceful Dead had been, the solitary voice remains, pleading with them for deliverance. Maduin, Argus and Rose manage to raise the body beneath the ground, finding to their horror that it is that of a small boy who was interred with his parents. Revived, the boy gives his name as Jedidiah Bindiel, and the group vows to take him back to Gervasiel and help him resume life among the living.
In Gervasiel, the stern Father Amalric, abbot of the main Veracian temple in town, antagonizes Drusia and the half elves, even as he warns them that an elf has passed through town seeking to kill Suriah (and having been diverted away from the party by a lie by Amalric). An angry Drusia nearly kills the priest before the party moves on, Jedidiah Bindiel having been delivered to the Millenarian temple in town. (Rose notices that the boy is more comfortable with the Millenarians than with the Orthodox church, recalls that she's heard the name Bindiel before, and doesn't like the conclusions she's drawing about the Peaceful Dead.)
The group continues on to Lorenzel, spending the night there at a ship that has been converted to a floating hotel, the White Clipper Inn. This is staffed by military-looking personnel and turns out to be controlled by the Veracian navy. The next morning, Rose and Argus deliver the Artifact to the navy base, with a brief digression en route to dangle a duplicate of the Artifact in front of the Millenarian temple in town. Rose is surprised that this attracts no interest, but meanwhile, Drusia and Kim, who are tailing Rose and Argus in case of trouble, are briefly detained by the Veracian military police. A combination of magic and acrobatics breaks them free, and the group leaves town for Snamish, although not without one last little complication: a message reaches Rose with the news that Avner Indianel and Rebekah Codoin have been murdered back in Gervasiel. Official suspicion falls on Bryce, even though his close attachment(!) to Maduin gives him an airtight alibi, but the party (including Bryce) manages to get out of town after some entertaining magical subterfuge by Maduin, leaving the identity of the murderers unsettled as the thread ends.
Farrel: Ladies' Day Out
First entry: 23 August 2010; player characters introduced: Tamina
Faye, Jade and Jasmine decide to follow Jamie, who has disappeared to parts unknown via a concealed warp gate. When the magic clears, they find themselves somewhere in north-central Farrel, at a site that Jasmine recognizes from previous adventures along the Waldhaxen Channel. They stumble into an armed compound full of Tsuirakuans who appear to be conducting experiments with, and possibly mass production of, weaponized blue golems and Yuuki staffs. A mad melee ensues, which also draws the attention of Grope and Scrobian, who have sadly given up their vigil at the Island of Thralls and are following signs that other trolls, possibly those made homeless by the Dwarven Forge eruption, have been nearby. (Indeed they have; they find remains of two trolls in the area, but it's too late to learn anything from them.)
As the battle rages, an airship lifts off from the compound, threatening to turn the tide decisively against the women and trolls. However, another airship shows up shortly, and completely reverses the situation, by rescuing Jamie (who recognizes one of the crew from a youthful peccadillo and also discovers that the ship's crew are in the employ of the Eisenfaust) and forcing the Tsuirakuans to disengage. Jade, Jasmine and Faye manage to gate back to Rinkaiel, while the airship bearing Jamie continues south to Port Lorrel.
In Lorrel, a smuggler is in the process of delivering new PC Tamina, a "kobold" (more or less catgirl), to Eisenfaust operatives, to be sold into an unsavory slave trade. Jamie arrives just in time to interfere with this in her typically chaotic way, in the process coming to the notice of the pregnant Elke, who (much against her will) still has a commitment to keep Jamie safe and unharmed (and observed) if possible. Her intervention causes the situation with Jamie and Tamina to take various weird twists and turns, but the long and the short of it is that the girl and the catgirl once again find themselves on the lam, to the Southern Continent via smuggler's ship, as the thread ends (and as a relieve Elke bids them adieu).
Tsuiraku-town, part 3
First entry: 23 August 2010; player characters introduced: Leo Landau
Layla is delighted to learn that her new instructor at the magic laboratory is her friend Galina, from the Mountain of Madness amusement park, and the two young mothers have a generally happy and peaceful morning while chaos breaks out elsewhere. Gault gets severely crosswise with members of the Oshima gang, with details that take some time to develop, and so does recently introduced PC (and con man) Leo Landau, who is using one of his many disguises and going by "Martin Dashwood." The relaxed tete-a-tete between Layla and Galina, and the violence elsewhere, eventually reach a common (and chaotic) ground, as the liquor store that has been serving as the Gewehr's front in town is first attacked by two rather inept hoods brandishing Yuuki staffs, then fire-bombed by a potent magic user named Seishi Torou, whose exact affiliations remain unclear. The store is a total loss, but there are no fatalities, although Gault and some of the people who live upstairs are badly enough injured to require treatment at the Divine Hands clinic. Torou escapes following a mad chase scene that involves a bath house, both Tsuirakuan and Farrelian law enforcement, and most of the player characters, excluding Layla and Galina, still happily conversing at a coffee shop at the park (and staking out the rear of the Temple of the Divine Dwarf, where odd comings and goings are noted).
Faye, Jasmine and Jade have returned from their unexpected teleport into the wilds of northern Farrel, and disperse in their various directions: Jade, to go "modify" a Yuuki staff that she brought back from their battle, and the other two, to go to the farmhouse, where Layla has been conducting a chilling interrogation of the surviving would-be robber of the liquor store. (This reveals that the two robbers were responsible for the mugging of Dasuke Kinabalu, but little else of interest before the man is disposed of.) Jasmine continues her relentless pursuit of her daughter, in the process making the jarring revelation that she had been married to a Gewehr Wraith, yet had been rescued by their arch-enemies, the Eisenfaust. The listening Gewehr people are stunned, but a stern word from Gewehr capo Peter lets them know in no uncertain terms that the episode is none of their business. Meanwhile, there is tension between Gault's outfit and the people surrounding Leo and Jade, for reasons apparently connected to the Oshima clan.
As Jade begins work on her "mana rifle," Layla sends her reluctant boyfriend to try to infiltrate the Temple of the Divine Dwarf, and Faye goes off to heed a summons from Captain Kitaura, returning with a clearer idea of his role as official troubleshooter for the Tsuirakuan government, specializing in counterinsurgeny (for which there is clearly a need here). Things proceed less smoothly with Jasmine, who has been detected eavesdropping on a crystal-ball conversation between Joe and Peter and threatens violence unless she gets some answers. A spontaneous lie by Joe defuses this, and the pursuit (and protection) of Jamie resumes.
Remarkably enough, the night passes uneventfully. The next morning, Layla is surprised by an encounter with Kitaura, who first causes the destruction of the shack where so much magical chaos had been sown, then proposes an alliance of sorts, which Layla feels she can't refuse. Gault's people take target practice, while Jade completes work on the mana rifle and shows her handiwork to an impressed Layla. Finally, as word has reached the vineyard that Jamie has landed safely in Port Lorrel, Jasmine makes preparations to go bag her there.
Note: This thread is long and complex, and a summary is still under construction, to be continued with events starting here.
