Ab'Hara Thahn

So there you are, face to face with Esai who has possessed the body of a nine-year-old girl, and (s)he is telling you that you have done a wonderful job of throwing the world into a state of chaos. Now won't you all just help him light the Ab'Hara Thahn forge so he can complete a small little project?

How on earth did you get HERE?

It all begins with that cool tunnel that lit up and did funny things to your runic items. The tunnel lead into the Runic Temple of the Ab'Hara Thahn forge, not to be confused with Khul-Thahn Forge. What you all figured out over the course of time was that the temple was laid out in the form of the Tree of Life. In the first room on the inside of the runic circle on the floor were a set of 10 stone cylinders arranged as if they were on the hour positions of a clock; 12 and 6 were blank spaces without anything at all. Silus used his split phase powers to make 9 copies of himself and he pulled all the cylinders out at once. Once removed, the metallic rune circle rotated around nearly a full revolution. The holes where the cylinders had been closed up and a slot opened up at the six o'clock position.

Each cylinder had a number on the bottom, 1 though 10, and with the help of Mirella, Agar, and Landros you figured out how the cylinders must be arranged in the temple. You made it is far as the “Knowledge” room which left you with three more cylinders to put in place. This room houses a library of scrolls: some seem to itemize things made at the forge while another set of documents seems to include extensive directions on how to use the forge. It was at this point that you realized you had company. A number of demonic little beasties were gathering in the Kingdom room (secret passage ways behind the fireplaces) presenting you with a dilemma. Do you go ahead and just complete powering up the forge, or do you deal with the bad guys first?

You decided to try to take out some of the monsters, which went pretty well, but the thing is, they are just blocking the only exit out of the temple. This is when the crowd parts and a nine-year-old girl in tattered rags with dark, sunken eyes appears and asks you to follow her as she walks up to the Crown. Powering up the forge is easy she goes on to say, but she still needs Eldvod for some part of the process and she wants you to use it to light this forge for her. Oki suspects that Esai-En-Dar is actually nearby.

Other things of note that you have learned: Ab'Hara Thahn is a Third Order Forge. The implication is that there are many forges of different “Orders”. Oki strongly suspects that Atai is a higher, Fourth Order runic item.

D'Agshalem

Node, Khouri and Agar went to work to try to repair Theoninn. Supplies are limited of things like optic cable and multiconductor (24,32, 48 pin) interconnects, and you are right out of LCD/plasma screen displays. So, while you can regain a fair amount of funcionality, things will not be perfect. Fortunately, most critical engine and life support systems use analog gages. Flight attitude, slip and elevation have basic gyro, vacuum and pitot-static driven gages. Advanced flight instruments for IFR flight are offline.

The rest of the party (Farallon, Oki, Landros, and Silus) uses Raven and Vaka to locate Lodos and Treasda. What remains of the captured Theoninn crew (Mirella, Treasda, Svarturinn and Ginsberg) are being force marched by a dozen Gromeks up into the mountains a couple hundred miles south of Marhund. Landros uses Vaka to look through Treasda's eyes to suss out a good attack point. The original plan involves having Oki and Landros banf in half the party in front of the Gromeks and half behind. Unfortunately (?) Void latches onto a passing thought of Farallon's and you all arrive in style in the Mako directly in front of the Gromeks. Another bit of wishful thinking and fate conspires to make killing the Gromeks easier than taking candy from a baby.

Mirella's lost her ring and pinkie finger of her right hand (she is a lefty). Treasda has been thoroughly beaten, and Ginsberg and Svarturinn are in no better shape. However, thanks to the Healing Circle cast by Landros, everyone got better quickly.

Mirella knew of an old Dwarven ruin in the mountains; you all suspect that is both where the prisoners were being taken and where Lodos (and Abassi) have been hidden. The other four prisoners of the Gromeks (a merchant, etc.) have become replacements for your old, dead red-shirts. A short journey onward and you came to a ravine which leads to the great silver doors of D'Agshalem.

The main entrance corridor has a vaulted ceiling and an upper hidden gallery with arrow slits that look onto the hallway. Obviously the defensive architecture of this location suggests is was built sometime during the Great War. The middle of the corridor is intersected by a circular room with a portculis at either end. Oki walked into the room and set off a trap which brought both gates down, trapping her there. She used her various powers to ascertain how the device worked and reported that info to Silus who then used Chronos to rewind time before Oki set off the trap. Silus then related to everyone what would happen if they went forward...

The work around involved levitating various party members across the room; these folks then went around and found the gate controls and disarmed the system by wedging an iron spike in the gears of the machine. At this point it was safe for everyone to cross the circular room.

Exploring the underground city you quickly found the 'throne room' which then lead, room by room, to a secret door and passage way. This brought you to some sort of ancient dwarven 'office' building of some sort which you found your way out of in short order. “Outside” of this building you find yourselves in a massive cavern with a series of waterfalls and a river running through it. Other buildings of various types are carved into the cavern walls giving t he sense of a real city built underground. Further wandering and you find a field of glowing flowers that have obscured an stone pathway (sort of) that leads to a circular metal double door. This door leads to a temple.

The corridor beyond the door is also circular and the walls are covered in runes. All the runes glow in a wave down the hall, pulse, and then glow softly. Farallon enters first; as he takes a few steps in, various runes along the walls light up in vibrant colors. He takes out Eldvöð and the runes along the blade project off like 3D holograms, revealilng another dimension to the shape of the letters. Landros enters the corridor and attempts to use his past sight ability, but is overwhelmed by seeing all past events simultaneously – so he steps back out.

A quick view of the past reveals that Ililsus and about 40 of his henchman entered the temple area only a couple of days ago. And, of course, the energy signature of Lodos is coming from within.

Anskut

You had been trapped in a temple wrapped in a nightmare hosted by Anskut, the baalrog that was working for Ililsus.

You had decided that the "crying baby" in the cell at the end of the corridor was most likely a trap, so you went in the opposite direction. The smooth cut stone walls gave way to rough, natural stone. A spell or toxin of some sort was present and temporarily incapacitated Agar. Farallon sacrificed his cloak to be used as a sort of rug so that you could all drag the very heavy and limp Agar along with you.

After a short journey you found yourselves in a large open cavern. There was evidence that this place was used for sacrifice...human sacrifice. Three diverging passage ways lead from the cavern toward what you hoped might be the surface. Only a few steps in the direction of freedom, and you saw dozens of demonic beasts coming for you from what you had hoped was an escape path. Landros quickly threw down a circle of protection.

Then, from behind you came the horrible slow stomping of the baalrog. Oki grabbed and joined the two parts of Atai. As a team you all made very quick work of Anskut, despite the fact that he was wielding Void.

Ah, Void....

Farallon now has Void.

But there was more: you learned from Anskut and some random clothing and body parts that the alternate team in Theoninn had been captured.

You immediately traced down Theoninn, damaged and partly sunk in marsh flats of a river delta just outside of Marhund. The ship was ransacked, and there is much work to do to put it back together again. Ginsberg had escaped capture by hiding in the Raven chamber; he explained that he and the others had been tricked by a fake distress call from Farallon.

So Mirella, Treasda, and the others are missing. Presumably held hostage somewhere or dead. You at least have the digit of Mirella to show that some form of torture has been going on. Now you must find your friends - if they are still alive.

Updates...

Wow, I didn't realize how long it had been since an update! I feel as though some intervening got lost somehow. Sorry about that...

Well, really quickly, you returned to Palladium and found Aja under seige by forces from you local demon temple at Naylon. Actually, the city was deserted and it looked as though maybe everyone escaped through the rift point in the main facility, but the corridors in there kind of reminded you all of the inner depths of Naylon, which seems ominous, so maybe they did not have a happy ending. The gem was a nuclear warhead parked right there by the doors, timer ticking away. You easily disarmed the timer and took the warhead with you.

Next, you returned to the site of your last run in with Echo and those crazy crow beasts. By following the underground limestone caverns you were able to find and reunite the entire party.

Then on the agenda was wiping out Echo by using the warhead. It took a while to hammer out the logistics, but you nailed it and vaporized Echo. This also means that Necros is buried under tons of radioactive rubble deep inside the mountain, so it is unlikely anyone will retrieve this any time soon.

You know that Anskut and Illilsus are still hunting for you, so you decided to return to Marhund to confront them. You re-entered the temple and made your way deep inside and found yourselves in a small room, tucked neatly inside a deep illusion....

and that's where I get a little hazy, so if any of you remember details, let me know.

Crionysus

Alright, here is what has happened recently:

You returned to the Infinity and Pi from the research planet/facility run by Sylveste
Ah'eishabutan does a fly by in Dilemma, damaging Pi. He is then on a 24 hour loop to meet back up with you.
You use Theoninn to bust on board the Pi and take down Orlos, whereby you acquire Vaka-Svefn.
Node nearly gets killed by a bunch of soldiers on board while he is holding Vaka.
You all return and get medical attention.
You use Vaka to take out Ah'eishabutan.
You interrogate the captured C10 soldiers and discover that Gavorran is among them
Gavorran reveals that Svarturinn is actual a C10 operative.
You follow Raven's (Gavorran's?) lead to Crionysus where...
You get involved in a cult serial murder case (because of a possessed computer ticket terminal in the “subway”), the clues to which reveal a hidden message.
“The angel of darkness, that steals all living light, may be found on the lifeless moon, Tatsos.”
You don't know (or do you?) who was responsible for these murders.

You are all owed some backlog XP, which I will allow to be transferred to your favorite character. Try 2150 for size.

You believe (some of you) that you are already in possession of Atai and Abassi. What do you really have? What are the amulets?

The time to return to Palladium is nigh...but not before you have everything!

Gavorran

Oh, I almost forgot. You also learned from Calais that a very effective assassin/bounty hunter, Gavorran, is after you. Be Careful!

Goodbye, Froggy

Synopsis of 6-28-10

Volya piloted the Infinity to follow Pi as it headed out from Telemachus Station, but she avoided radio contact to unsettle the crew of Pi. It is almost completely unheard of for two lighthuggers to head off in the same direction or follow each other. The act would seem ominous and hostile, even though it is also unthinkable for two lighthuggers to engage each other in combat; since there are so few left, they are viewed as almost sacrosanct. There has only ever been one incident between lighthuggers after the end of the Conjoiner civil war. So, after a couple of days someone on the Pi gets nervous and radios to ask what the hell is going on.

Volya says nothing.

Another day passes.

The Pi is getting downright edgy and fires a “warning” shot across the Infinity's bow. Volya knows this is a bluff, so she chooses to ignore them, but pulls the ship closer to theirs, just to put the pressure on.

A day later, the crew of the Pi is making desperate offers to share profits or trade leads or something. Now Volya acknowledges them, but doesn't say much yet.

Meanwhile Node, Svarturinn, Oki, Landros, and Khouri hop on Theoninn and use the FTL capabilities to travel back to Telemachus and the moon to see if they can learn something more about what the “item” was that got secreted out of the mining facility. A little spying reveals that Grunner Corp does not believe the item has left the moon and they seem to be more concerned with the arrival manifests of The Elegance of Pi.

Khouri searches for an alternate way in to the mining facility and finds one: a cave that leads to an old abandoned service entrance or shaft. Oki bypasses the airlock security - “Fr33dom” - gaining entrance. Everyone agrees that, because of your high profile exit last time, Landros should stay back and guard the ship. Long story short, you all drive the Mako vehicle down the service tunnel as far as possible, get out, walk some, and easily foil an ambush by Resistance Fighters who didn't know who the hell you were. The Resistance folks quickly figure out who you are and they show you their find – the item you thought you had been searching for. It turns out to be an ancient alien power coupling that comes from the wreck of a many million old ship now covered in millions of years of sediment on the moon. (Hint: now airless, barren moon that can no longer have sedimentary processes...)

Grunner doesn't want this info to get out because it supports the theory of the Inhibitors, which is largely considered to be bunk. Also, the alien technology might prove useful, but if the crackpots start a media campaign about Inhibitors, then they lose the ability to capitalize off of “their” discovery.

You all go to see Calais, the Mystic, who explains this situation to you and asks you to help “spread the word” about the alien artifact (and help to get it off-world). You also find out mainly from her that there is a bad Androsien, Orlos, who has Vaka-Svefn and he represents a great threat to you. He is on the Pi and headed towards Mesmuth where he hopes to find Castlerake.

Oki has an odd experience, like someone is poking around inside her head. You decide to leave the moon in pursuit of Orlos. When you get back to Theoninn you discover that Landros has had an strange episode of sorts: he walked around the ship looking at things like the cockpit, the weapons locker, the engineering room....he seems fine, and nothing was harmed or touched, he just did some “sleep-walking”.

You decide to just go directly to Mesmuth to retrieve Castlerake before Orlos can get there (it will take him five years via lighthugger). This goes well, and you find yourselves above a moon that Sylveste research has turned into a biological testing/gene splicing facility. Not wanting to mess around too much with what these mad scientists might have come up with, you hone in on exactly where Castlerake is and go straight for it.

Khouri deftly pilots the ship down into a large, deep sinkhole type cave. At the bottom you all head out on foot towards the signature of Castlerake, but, before you can go very far, Landros pulls out four guns and locks the rest of the party in his sites. He forces you all to march into what ultimately turns out to be an albino dragon's lair, complete with two babies.

Landros fires at the dragon, but only pisses it off. After all, it isn't really Landros piloting the frog suit, but Orlos using his body (Orlos rolled an 06% in his attempt to gain control of Landros and got it hands down. Saving throw didn't...well, save). The dragon grabs Landros in its mouth and violently throws him against the cave wall, rendering him unconscious. At this point, I thought Landros was safely out of combat harm's way, and he was, but...Khouri runs over and, using her decades of training on the frog suits, accesses control to release the unconscious Landros. The idea was, of course, to use the suit to save everyone else's asses, which she did.

The rest is humdrum. Dragon was M7 helper. You acquired Castlerake and everyone got out safely.

As for Landros, although obviously somewhat crippled from a past injury that no one else present saw happen, he is/will be fine ( i.e. Not die). He is still unconscious aboard Theoninn and will wake when we next meet to discover that he is no longer in suit.