ER:Thread summaries

From The Heretic Knowledge Vault

Revision as of 18:49, 4 April 2010

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.

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.

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, Egbert Kankaniel, 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.