Time Frame: Early Morning, Talsil 12th
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| The Prince of Brutality |
Synopsis: Tyvis, Renato, and Kaylan found themselves surrounded by handheld canons as no less than a hundred half-naked Gith soldiers in strange, lobster-like armor swarmed the deck of the voidcruiser. It was a darkmetal vessel miles long and wide, with the starless Void as its ceiling and sea, operated almost exclusively by the mental whim of the crew.
With them was the Gith agent Haushota-lor, having failed in her mission and brought the wrong prisoners back according to the harsh words of her commanding officer, known simply as The Captain.
Though Haushota-lor urged patience and diplomacy, the trio preferred other means, especially when The Captain had a mind to strip them of their affects and humble them with latrine duty throughout the extensive levels. Another interplanetary incident was born when the assassin materialized behind the commander and slit his throat. The gurgling officer pointed at Renato and the Gith began firing concentrated laser bolts, though initial shots missed their marks with all the efficiency of Imperial Stormtroopers.
Renato shattered a hasty defense erected by the dying captain and sunk his Blade of Extinction into his chest, in that moment severing the mortal coil of half the entire Gith populace, githyanki and githzerai. All with some tie to the Gith, to say humans and by extension half-elves and vampires, crumpled in the few moments it took for such a massive and devastating enchantment to take affect across the Void. Like eerie dominoes, the crew fell, and Haushota-lor would have most certainly followed if not the direct interventions of the Archdruid.
Haushota-lor took the apparent death of her species well, as any heartless githyanki might, and seemed more concerned for her own life. She agreed to help the trio get off the ship so long as she could keep on living. With the psionic actualizers down, the four were forced to walk across the steel plain, along the way passing many, many corpses. A stasis field ensured no one flew off the deck and into deep space, one of the only systems still functioning (luckily) and not directly tied to a Gith operator. As it turned out, the automatic hatches were also down, but before Renato risked teleporting inside, a little water from Kaylan's canteen and a lot of ingenuity on Tyvis' part created ice in the tiniest seams and forced the panel open readily.
Beyond was the navigation hub, a large, somewhat sterile steel cavern marked with hovering platforms, specter-like displays in green and yellow, several yawning portals like turpentine dashed across reality's painting, and of course the dead crew. Haushota-lor directed the party to what would be the control room and their exact coordinates. Tyvis has already contacted the Pyramid for a hasty exit, but the cheeky imprint required exact coordinates in order to transport them (though very sensitive to the subject, the Pyramid lagged behind the Tesseract in matters of teleportation and travel).
The Gith explained that, if proper protocol was followed, the chamber might be filled with a deadly nerve gas, a sort of jaundice fume that attacked the brain and killed all non-Gith within several seconds breathing the stuff. Tyvis bravely entered first (though perhaps some Gith mind trick allowed Haushota-lor to escape entering herself). The nerve gas clouded the entire room, but even as he breathed deeply, he realized this fumes were nothing more than an alien poison, and he was quite impervious to poison. Just as Kaylan decided the Archdruid had been inside too long, nearly plunging herself into certain death, Tyvis' bestial head poked out of the portal with a warning.
Around that time, Renato, having pondered their situation a good, long while, asked whether or not the Gith's shiny bracelet could help, as it had been their means of escape from the Nexus prior. Looking the utter fool, and covering it poorly, Haushota-lor tore the bracelet from her wrist and pretended to 'charge' it in a harmless hologram. Then she gave it to the three, granting them access back into the Nexus, and perhaps back into the midst of the Prince of Brutality.
They offered Haushota-lor a chance to go with them, but she declined. The Queen of the Universe would want exact details, if she didn't already have them, on just what halved her forces in a single stroke. Despite concerns, she assured them she would be fine. The Queen did not needlessly dole out death. However, Renato's fate was beyond her reckoning. She did not expect to see him, or any of them, again. She cordially stepped back as they activated the bracelet and returned to the frozen, indigo steps sized for giants, choked with arachnids and spider demons. Thankfully, the demon lord had left. Not wanting to risk another encounter just yet, they fled down the stairs, Tyvis' keen senses tracking through to deeper levels, a sort of Nexian Catacomb, where the party had ended up after their own portal jump.
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| Oublivae, Angel of Desolation |
Plot Developments:
New NPCs: Gith captain (dead), Haushota-lor, half the Gith race (dead), nameless drow sex-drones, Oublivae, Jubilex
Returning NPCs: The Prince of Brutality, Kaern, Mara
Monsters: Gelatinous Cube
Hazards: Crashing Portals (triple instant falls); Portal to Deep Space
Gained Resources: Haushota-lor's bracelet [dungeon checkpoint; held by Kaylan]
Next Session (11/6/12): Faced with the limitless fury of three demon lords unleashed on the heart of a still-recovering Saspien, Witch-Queen Isabella and the
Saviors of Creation (too presumptuous?) must make some quick and difficult decisions about how to deal with this unholy trinity before somehow taking the fight back to Jeda. Is there even time with the shadow of Yathnoc looming over the North, or has the Anansiel singlehandedly doomed free Othyr?
If an archangel of the Empyrean felt compelled to intervene in Jeda's plans, only to fail, is there time to delay the Queen of Spider's reckoning? What if pursuing Jeda further means the fall of Endymion's last opposition? It remains a mystery what exactly Jeda is trying to do in the bowels of the Octahedron with her three har'venoth.
Though the Prophet Kaylan has bought the temple some time with Kalia's impenetrable consecration, the divine protection cannot spare the greater populace from the ruination of the Abyssal monarchs. Or can it? Did great Kalia not choose Othyr, specifically the Holy Mountain of Etheria, as her domain? And what of Laan, the new patron of Saspien?
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| Juiblex, The Faceless Lord |
So few answers, the only certainty remains that the fate of millions rests on the shoulders of a party of unlikely allies, joined, some would say, in facade only. Can such a union support the weight of Creation? Can it even exist for much longer? Find out next time...
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