The crew writhe around in pain on the library floor. Their bodies being changed by the entropic waves emanating from Balo into them.
Grof and Malrak come off the worst as Balo has deemed them to have failed the trials. They suffer the Curse of Hoss-Hair. Their hands and feet are swapped, giving them the appearance of walking upside down.
Nanny also suffers the same fate, but she appears to be grinning throughout it all, as if she’s enjoying it! (REF NOTE – Nanny/Chloe and Daym/Jamie had also failed the trials, but Balo had not taken into account that the end result was the same. The Balance intervened and gave them the choice of whether to accept the curse or not. Chloe wanted it!)
In addition, the Chaos energy infects all of them. In addition to the curse, Grof has huge sharp quills that sprout out of his back, piercing through his wooden armour. Malrak holds his head in severe pain but has no obvious physical side effects.
Uschi’s tongue grows extraordinarily long, lapping at the air and undulating like a meaty pink snakedance. Shan’s fingertips start to crack and blacken, while Daym appears to have a dark glow all around his hands.
They are all marked by Chaos and, as bad as it seems, it feels like the last time they will have to worry about this happening…
Once they recover and gather themselves, they realise that night has fallen. They have no way of knowing how much time has passed while they were in that infernal jokers realm. They set off back to the town hall back in Menii. When they arrive, they discover that 6 weeks have passed and a lot has happened in their absence.
They are informed that the demons have arrived on the Western coast of the Isle. One of the guard captains leans into the Bear and on tiptoes (to reach her shoulder), he whispers, “They have eaten and they already grow restless.”
“It won’t be long before the population gets wind of this and starts to panic.”, Bear mutters to herself.
In addition to the arrival of the demons, they are informed that 3 messages have arrived for the Jadmiral, all bearing her crest. They think they must be from some of their spies who they had presumed dead.
The first note she opens is from Silk, one of her best spies. He had been sent to Pan Tang, so had been presumed dead, given the situation there. The message read thus:
The second message was from Cobalt (all the spies were codenamed after materials/minerals). Cobalt is a loyal servant with a very formal air about him. He was sent off to infiltrate some merchant vessels of those that had decided to ally themselves with 2-Scratch. From what had been reported and what she had seen, Bear thought these spies to be a thing of the past as the Manfreds were all but replacing all human agents. The message reads as thus:
The final message was from Copper. Bear really liked him. He was handsome, charismatic, and one of those people who just plain seemed to be good at everything he did. He was always flirtatious around her, and that comes through in the way this message is written. She hopes that he was wrong and somehow survived. The message reads as follows:
All 3 of these messages have huge connotations and must be pondered over, so there aren’t any rash decisions made. Potential allies in Pan Tang, something big being built under the waves of the Oldest Ocean, and notice of many many armies being formed by the forces of Law.
While Bear considers what she has been informed of, the rest of the crew look at the 2 journal sheets that they have already found. The clues are there to be found, and they think they have worked it all out. MakAye, clearly paranoid of all of the 3 main churches, hid the 3 pages in an area that was initially governed by either Law, Chaos, or Balance. The tavern was a place of Chaos, the Library (at least before Balo intervened), which was a place of Balance. This left only a place of Law. With a little thought from those who were native to the Isle, Grof remembers a place out in the northernmost tip of the Isle that was renowned for having an aura of Law. Grof begins to tell them of the Springs of Donblas!
The Springs of Donblas – A natural occurring perpetual motion cycle. At the northernmost tip of the Isle, there is a mountain with a waterfall that pours off the end of it. In the ground at a mid-plateaux is a sinkhole that collects the same water. This apparently leads to underground hot springs that heats the water super-fast where it turns to steam, which rises back to the top of the mountain where it cools and reverts to water, that leads back to the waterfall.
Its calming nature and aura of Law negates all Chaos magic in that area. Back in the days before 2-Scratch, the churches of Law would go on pilgrimages there, taking the neophytes there for early trials. If this is where the last page is, whoever goes there must not have to rely on any Chaos magic.
Bear comes to a conclusion and gives out the orders. Daym and Shan will go north to the Springs. Daym has no affinity with any church and is a capable warrior, and Shan, although he is a worshipper of Chaos, he is a capable warrior without any of the boons bestowed by his weapon crafting. Bear will take Grof with her to travel to the West of the Isle, where Gaynor and his demons now reside. Malrak will remain in Menii, with the churches of Chaos where he will work up the ritual for the Hells Gate.
Daym and Shan set off immediately for the Springs. It is a fair distance, but on horseback and at speed, they can be there within the day. Due to its nature, as a merchant hub, the bulk of the population is in Menii and around it. There are some villages further out, but they are rare and are set in beautiful countryside. Unfortunately, a lot of it has been ravaged by the occupation of the Forces of Law from last year. As they travel through the Isle, they come across a few abandoned villages, some still with dead bodies decomposing away in them.
They travel through these without waiting around to look any closer, remembering Bear’s words before they left, “Remember, the forces of Law are ready to attack any moment. I need you back as soon as possible. If you get distracted along the way, do not bother to return.”
Just as the sun starts to set, they reach the mountain that Grof described. It is awe inspiring to look at, especially as the waterfall hits some ledge further up. This will be their destination. It is an arduous climb, but between them both and some use of rope, they make it up without any issue. Once they get to the ledge (a misleading term as it is a huge area), they are struck by the magnificence of the waterfall and the feeling of serenity, emptiness and order that overcomes them both while standing here.
Daym and Shan, between them, discover a whole mess of footprints in the mud around the lake that forms there. Daym recognises one of the sets as MakAyes’ (He travelled with him for many years), but the rest of the footprints look like those of the Manfreds. In particular, they work out that the Manfreds must have been injured as some of the tracks are dragged lines as if pulling an injured leg behind them. They guess correctly that the injured units must have been attracted to this place due to the aura of Law here.
All tracks lead underneath the waterfall itself, which appears to be a cave of some sort. They have come this far and can’t return empty-handed. With a resigned sigh, Shan and Daym follow the trail underneath the waterfall.
Bear and Grof travel to the West of the Isle, where Gaynor and his demons currently reside. As they get close to the outskirts, they can already hear the screams of the women, elders, and children that Bear had sent here as food for the deal she made with these infernal beasts. One of these creatures, a pale grey-skinned creature with many sickly looking tentacles that undulate above it’s blob-like torso, starts to slither towards them. It lets out a high-pitched gurgling sound that attracts the attention of another one. This type looks like an 8 foot tall bear, but in its body are many mouths, all of which say in a whispering mess, “FRESH SOULS!!!“
It is only then that Bear realises what she will have to do. She will have to let Nos Fera take the wheel. (REF NOTE – Sara genuinely had not thought this through, and this moment was a very unwelcome shock. She loses POW points directly to the beast when she let’s it take over and this particular occasion shifts the balance so that it now has 2 thirds of her soul (12 POW), leaving her with only 1 third (6 POW). It will now be able to start forcing takeovers…
Grof had heard of this situation happening, and the rumours were such that the demon that lives within Bear had once tried to eat Nanny! He looks at Bear’s now transformed face, with her eyes now like smouldering coals in her head, and she says one word as she turns to him, “LUNCH!!!“, and she pounces towards his neck!
Grof, having readied himself for this, is able to sidestep out of her/ its reach and, without a second thought, he turns on his heel and runs back towards the road to Menii. He successfully gets away from being Nos Fera’s lunch! (REF NOTE – I award Richie some on the spot Chaos points as a reward for not trying anything silly and putting himself at risk.)
With the human gone, the Bear-like demon approaches Nos Fera like a friend. Nos demands to speak with Gaynor, and the Bear creature tells it that he is down on the coast, corrupting the wildlife. Nos Fera makes its way through the village and smiles as it sees the demons have continued to torment the souls here, much like the ones on the Sorcerer’s Isle. They keep them on the brink of death through painful torture and then lay on healing hands to return them to full life. This allows them to drag out the cycle of torment forever.
As it strides past this and onto the coast, it can see Gaynor in the water up to his waist. He appears to be summoning large marine life to him, only to somehow infect them with the raw stuff of Chaos. As Nos approaches him, he is releasing a dolphin that has been blackened and warped by his efforts.
“I grow bored, mortal. We will need war, or we will need to feed once more.” Gaynor says as he strides back out of the water onto the beach where Nos stands waiting.
They speak for a while, Bear asking Nos Fera to ask some specific questions for her, some of which he refuses, just to show that he is more in power now than he has ever been. It asks Gaynor to take some of his demons and attack the ships of Law outside Pan Tang. Gaynor laughs at this, and outright refuses. “It is not because I want to make you suffer, although I do enjoy that,” Gaynor says with what Nos guesses is a grin beneath the helm, “But the engines that keep the mortals trapped would also render my demons powerless. This will not work.”
Nos, realising that not only does he realise that what Gaynor says is true, he also does not even care in the slightest about any of this. It decides to make the most of the amenities around it and spends the rest of the night feasting and torturing the poor souls of the Isle of the Purple Towns. It will be morning before it will give control of the meat sack back to the Bear and allow her to stagger back to Menii.
Meanwhile, back at The Springs of Donblas, Daym and Shan venture inside the cave underneath the waterfall. It is extremely dark underneath, but the light from outside is strong enough to give them a minimal amount of visibility as their eyes get used to it. Unfortunately, this is at the same point as they notice something moving at the back of the cave, clearly awoken by their entrance to the cave. What they see is hard to comprehend and strikes fear straight into their hearts.
It would appear that several Manfred had crawled into the cave and tried to repair themselves, only to end up attaching themselves to each other. The thing before them had many legs, giving it the appearance of a large white metal spider. Atop it are several bodies, all sticking out at odd angles with arms all over the top of the thing. Luckily, only 4 of the arms appear to be operational. 2 of them have the usual vibrating blades that the crew are used to fighting against, but the other 2 were things they had never seen before. Both are strange barrels of metal with many holes in. One of them has a black and charred edge, while the other has a cracked and white frosted look to it.
As it suddenly and surprisingly quickly scuttles towards them, they both react instinctively. With a loud and simultaneous shout of “CHEESE IT!!!”, they turn and run out of the cave, away from this confined space.
Shan runs out and jumps nimbly to the rope that they have left that leads to the very top of the mountain. Daym, not quite as nimble as Shan, starts the slow climb of the mountainside itself. They glance down from the mountain at the waterfall and, peering out from underneath the water, stands this huge metal monstrosity. They see before them, the Many-Fred!
The Many-Fred attacks the one closest to it, Daym. The MF swings with the blades first and manages to slam into the shield on Daym’s back, damaging it but protecting him from the brunt of the swipes. The attack from the barrel-arms still takes them by surprise as one of them belches out a huge fiery cloud while the other produces a freezing cold cloud of death! Luckily for Daym, the cold burst misses him, although he does feel the icy chill all over him. The fiery cloud, however, connects fully with him and although his shield manages to protect him from most of it, he does feel some of it harm his skin and, most worryingly, he is still on fire as he climbs!
Shan sees the opportunity as Daym draws its attention and drops back to the mid-plateaux, hitting the ground and runs back into the cave. He begins looking for the journal page, knowing that he will have to find it and get out as soon as possible, or Daym will fall to this thing!
Daym manages to climb back up to the top again. Instead of running, he stops, turns, and unstraps his shield from his back. Still burning in his hands, he jumps astride it and launches himself straight at the Many-Fred that is still reaching for him. The plan is extraordinarily successful!
Riding the burning shield like a sledge, he dives off the top plane, gathering speed and then striking the MF directly in its centre! It creates a huge shower of sparks and flames as it strikes, the inertia of his body and the burning metal managing to crack lots of the limbs and bodies. It hits with enough force to take it off the edge of the mountain, and it falls burning to the floor, causing even more damage. Daym manages to jump free but does take a little damage himself as he rolls back across the plateaux floor.
Shakily, it rights itself and turns back to face Daym belching angry clouds of fire and ice at him. As he no longer has a shield, Daym scrambles backwards away from it, feeling intense pain as the clouds simultaneously burn and freeze his skin.
Shan, back inside the cave, manages to find MakAye’s tracks, leading him to the final page of the journal. Resisting the urge to stop and read it now, he is reminded of the predicament outside as he can see the sky light up orange and the silhouette of Daym in the middle of it. He runs straight out of the cave and past them both as he strides for the edge of the waterfall. Daym, seeing this and clocking the page in Shan’s hand as he puts it into his tunic, begins to run towards the edge of the cliff face, too.
Shan, surprisingly manages to do so extremely nimbly, his feet finding all the smooth flat areas under the water, allowing him to get to the edge and jumping off within seconds (REF NOTE – Ceirun manages to roll a critical success at just the right moment). Daym is not so lucky and yet again feels the pain of the clouds and one of the blade arms as the Many-Fred takes out its frustrations and pain on him.
Daym runs as fast as he can towards the edge of the cliff, and the world appears to slow down around him. The MF slices with one of the blades but misses him, swiping above his head and causing him to flinch instinctively away from it. The next arm-blade is coming straight at his neck, and Daym thinks that this is the end (REF NOTE – I have rolled a critical success for the attack roll. Double damage will make mincemeat of his armour and will very likely take out what is left of his hit points).
Seeing this coming at his head, his only hope is to launch himself forward and hug the floor, which will slow him down, but give him a chance of keeping his head. He tries it, and it works surprisingly well, even managing to roll forward back onto his feet and into a dive off the cliff, as he avoids the blade altogether! (REF NOTE – If you have a critical attack incoming, a successful dodge will bring that damage down to normal, and a critical success Dodge roll will negate it altogether. That is what Jamie managed to do! The room went mental, including me. I am not a REF who sees himself as the ‘enemy’ of the players).
Shan, by now, has managed to swim out of the lake and stands ready to go. He looks up and sees Daym, who has managed to jump but he can see that he has landed awkwardly in the water and doesn’t look like he is able to come up (REF NOTE – After all the good rolls, Jamie managed to roll a critical fumble for his Swim roll). Shan stops and considers things for a moment. The MF is starting to slowly climb down to the bottom lake, so if he stays to help Daym, he puts the journal at risk. If he leaves Daym to likely die, he will ensure the journal is preserved.
Shan turns and leaves Daym to his fate.
Daym struggles as water fills his lungs. His vision blurs, and his awareness starts to blink out as he can feel his arms and legs become too heavy to move. It is purely by the power of his stubborn belief that he needs no gods and has all the power he needs that he somehow manages to drag himself out and miraculously escapes intact.
The journey back is uneventful for Shan, despite how exhausted he is having now travelled for nearly a whole 24 hours without sleep. He staggers back into Menii and hands the last page over to Bear before collapsing. Bear proceeds to read the last page of the journal out to everyone, giving the last page to Bear, who reads to everyone:
REF NOTE – I use music as an integral part of my sessions, and for every time a player reads out a journal page, I play “Exit Music For a Film” by Radiohead. On this occasion, the speed of which Sara read this out, combined with the timing of the song meant that the ‘dirty bassline’ came in from the song just as she read out the paragraph where Lilith Moonsong swears to kill all the gods. For me, it was a chefs kiss moment.
Grof is unable to accept the curse that has been laid upon him by Balo. His ability to fight has been heavily affected and feels that he will be unable to contribute to this magnificent war that he feels he has been training his whole life for and decides to see if he can play the gods off against each other. He is desperate to reverse the curse and is ready to promise whatever is asked of him. Hearing that Xiombarg and Arioch are looking to embarrass each other, he heads for the temple of the Queen of Swords.
As he approaches the temple, a woman in armour that barely covers her naked flesh strides seductively down the steps towards him. She introduces herself as the high priest of the temple and tells him that she knows who he is and why he is there. She offers to reverse the curse to annoy Arioch, but in return, he must serve the temple of Xiombarg after the battle. If he survives, his soul is theirs, and he will never leave the temple again.
Grof considers for a second and then spits on the floor between them, turning away from the now laughing priestess. He strides from there directly to the Arioch temple. He explains what has just happened and how he was tempted by the Queen of Swords. This attempt to lie to the priest of Arioch works! He is taken into the bowels of the temple and is the centre of a ritual that takes all night.
The next morning, Grof emerges fully restored!
Everyone eventually reconvenes at the town hall the next morning, even Daym, who surprises everyone with his return. He is promptly patched up by the court sorcerers, and his shield and armour are replaced. The Bear states that she now has a plan for what is needed, but primarily, preparations are now in place to set sail within days. Malrek has worked out the ritual for Hells Gate, and, as vile as it is, the Pan Tangian sorcerers that remain believe that it will work. They have also heard from the ship that they sent back to the tribesmen of the Weeping Wastes, and they stand ready to come through the gate when it appears.
The Bear looks across the room at all of her friends, the Sea-Chiefs, and the sorcerers and says solemnly, “By the week’s end, we will take the fight to the enemy. We will fight for the very soul of the Young Kingdoms!”
Thus ends the penultimate episode of the final season of Stormbringer, the Void Trilogy. How will Bear decide to assign troops? Will she prioritise the attack on Vilmir, or will she go all out on the new dig site? Will she try to free Pan Tang, or will she not risk the troops in case of failure? Most importantly of all, have the crew managed to get enough armies to stand a chance against the forces of Law and is MakAye right about being able to redeem someone at the very heart of this story? Find out in the season and story finale – The Battle at the End of Time, at Newport Games Club on April 7th.
Cruising for a Musing 