Session Thirty-Four

"Is this the end of our story?" - Fortuna, Considering the Odds

"Book! You lie there; the fact is, you books must know your places. You’ll do to give us the bare words and facts, but we come in to supply the thoughts. " - Jennifer, Istorimancer of the Unspoken

"I have other tales than this." - Jennifer, Istorimancer of the Unspoken

Jennifer's message to the Command Team: 

"If we do find the Crown, we will face a choice about what to do with it.

"My original mission was to take it to the Lunar Elven Embassy in Riot’s Gate – from there it would have gone to Vfernyulian, where the Unspoken presumed it would be as safe as it could be anywhere in the Spheres.  If they believe that, I believe that.

"But, at this point, the fate of the Crown is far beyond anything I was duty bound to deliver. It’s destiny is bound up with all of you. I know not to stand in the way of narrative.

"It's your story now."

KHALID: The challenge before you is massive. However, looking to your companions aboard this tiny skiff in Wildspace, you've never been more confident in the capacity to "logistics" your way out of a problem. The logistics are workable. They have to be. This a puzzle. A battle of strategy and wits. This sensation of clarity is sharpened by a feeling of Doubt and Regret you have not felt since the Cygnet Terrace...

BASILE: Something does not seem right about the scenario you are entering. You know Thaliose Hothex better than anyone, except maybe himself; and in all likelihood he knows you the same way. Thaliose is Chaotic Neutral. The scale of the slaughter you are witnessing in pursuit of the Crown is well beyond anything you might have though him capable of. The Thaliose you studied on Braal values his reputation--his image--above all else. What becomes of his reputation after this? Fearsome and grandiose? To be sure. But an entire herd of Kinori? It's... crass.

HAZEL: Something is amplifying the darkness. Trying to make you feel that the darkness is not a source of safety but a source of danger. You might not have noticed this sentiment were you not completely sure in your conviction that the Darkness protects. You can't help but wonder if there is some other influence at play. Something is trying t o manipulate you. You feel safer when you are near Basile.

SHROKTATH: The engineered slaughter that you are witnessing is an abomination. Only Gardeners may prune, and what's more, this is no mere pruning. You feel deeply connected to the Base Code - and through that connection you can already perceive the effects of the slaughter being perpetrated here rippling across the Spheres, with consequences that will last for generations, perhaps even centuries. You can perceive the life lines of all of these creatures, but two pods in particular seem to be clustering even more lives than they could possibly contain for Kinori alone, and one of those points is closer to the ,Murderoid battoir than the other.

FORTUNA: Oh Fortuna, if ever you could draw upon the strength of your name, let it be now. In much of what you've done until now, you've always felt the echoes of other timelines. Like a vibration on your skin. Somewhen in the Spheres this scenario has played out slightly differently. It's a remnant of your last connection to the Chronomancers and Luckums. But here and now, after passing through the Warp Wormhole of WIldspace generated by the REGINALD Drive... that feeling is gone. It's both liberating and slightly unnerving because you have no idea what it means. 

I believe Fortuna would need to have a quick nap to calm her nerves and groud herself. (I would like to play the plot card prior to the session starting to get a premonition of what is like to happen so we can have the knowledge to avoid parallel defeats). Fortune smiles on those who dare to dream.

Dreams are but unbound, unleashed, and unconstrained stories.

Like all soldiers, Fortuna has learned to catch satches of sleep where and when she can. SHe makes the most of her passage through the wormhole.

She dreams.

Fortuna hangs by a thread. By many threads. An entire weave. The centre of a tapestry so vast, it paralyzes her. She cannot even turn her head. A fly in a web of other lives. Other times.

Then one strand falls away. Then another. And ten more. She hears the shears. Snip. Snip.

Snip.

More threads fall away. Thousands. It takes forever. It takes a moemnt. The grip loosens. She can move.

Someone is behind her. Snip.

She turns to see who it is.

Luckums.

Snip.

The last thread begins to fall, but Luckums catches it with a flick of her wrist. She hands it to Fortuna.

"Take it. This one is yours."

What is it?

"This is your storyline."

All tales lead to this next chapter.
All tales shall be affected by its resolution

There will be action, but no plot
Character shall drive the story
Choices determine the ending

You are each the hero
Of your own story

To be the author in the end.

You awaken under deadly skies.

The scale of the slaughter is difficult to put into perspective. The Murderoids are in a frenzy. The four smaller ones are doing the most dramatic damage, but the larger one is tearing into multiple Kinori at a time.

Jennifer believes the murderoids almost certainly came from the elemental nubula, which was likely their home. 

There are two Dohwar Colonies on the backs of Kinori: 

• Rookery Rest (400 Dohwar) - Further from the slaughterpoint

• Huddle Home (1,025 Dohwar) - Closer to the Slaughterpoint

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve often been impressed by what our group has managed to get done. But this is the first time I’ve thought of us, straight up, as heroes.

We’d arrived at the slaughter, and didn’t have a lot of time to come up with a plan. One of the Brinkmanships had clearly detected us arriving and was closing on that location quickly. Much more disturbingly, the orchestrated mass murder of the Kinori continued to unfold in increasing horror. The Reaper in me was deeply disgusted by this abomination - it felt like an offence to the spheres themselves -  and I was determined that those responsible would be “pruned.”

So we quickly jumped again, and again, and split into groups.

Khalid and Fortuna went after the Crown. I don’t totally know what happened there but apparently, after a dustup with the Psulron, they succeeded. 

Hazel and Basile managed to work with the Dowar peoples - who I guess actually built villages on and traveled with the Kinori herds - to turn the Kinori towards the Brinkmanships and the only possible path away from their destruction.

Tingling with all of the magics on and in me, I hurtled through wildspace towards one of the smaller murderoids closest to the Brinkmanships blocking the direction we wanted the Kinori to travel. Fortuna had cast a spell on me that made me the size of a giant and she’d turned me invisible to boot. I had summoned the full powers left over by the Architects. And more spells had been placed on me besides. I needed to put it all to good use, for I had never felt such power.

Nor had I ever seen or even imagined such a sight as the one I was a part of. Kinori were about the most beautiful creatures I’ve ever seen, and there were numbers beyond count. In different circumstances, I would have just sat there and tried to take it all in. But now wasn’t that time. Murderous asteroids rocketing through the herds, gleefully butchering these wonderful beings, an ever growing ocean of whale innards and bodies ripped to pieces in their wake. The two brinkmanships holding one “flank,” firing into the Kinori herds to keep them headed straight into the slaughter. And on the other "flank," a dense asteroid field that even Shilyn might have struggled to navigate, keeping the Kinori trapped on a path to their doom. I could sense the terror of these poor creatures.

As I passed by a blob of whale guts, I tossed in our fake crown/bomb so that it could be "found" by Thalioses' search parties, and kept on my path to the murderoid. I landed on it. It tried to shake me loose, but with my newfound strength, I easily held on. And then I called on the power of the Reapers within me to smite this evil creature. As I rained down blows upon it with my Azlantl spear (now the size of a tree), the murderoid began to crack open. Magma poured out from its insides spraying and burning me. I was so focused, I didn’t much care. I quickly called on the powers of the Gardeners to heal me, and pressed on with my attack. A few strikes more and I’d split the now murderedoid in two like a gujamellon at the kitchen table.

But this had attracted the attention of the larger (parent?) murderoid, which was coming in hot. In my heart, I wanted to prune this psycopathic monster too, but I could almost feel my comrades urging me to stick with our plan. Besides, the magics that had empowered me were wearing off, and I had returned to normal size and power. So, I managed to direct the murderoid's attention towards the true cause of its child’s death - the Thalioses. It was they that had manipulated the murderoids into this destruction, and now the Thalioses deserved full payment for their crime.

I watched, floating from Wildspace, as the chaos and destruction of the Brinkmanships played out. The fake crown worked as we’d hoped, provoking a fight between the two Thalioses. The giant murderoid coming in blasting and vengeful didn’t help their situation, and then I saw one of the Brinkmanships heave, buckle and split in two as an explosion shattered it. I would guess that was our fake crown/bomb having its desired and ultimate effect. Unfortunately, the other Brinkmanship managed to get away (though it looked badly damaged).

Most of the Kinori had managed to get away. Unprompted, the murderoids now turned to feasting on the bloody ocean of whale floating around, and I waited, a tiny speck against the darkness of wildspace, to be picked up by my mates. But, it wasn’t the Helhezad and Jennifer that ended up coming for me. It was Fortuna, piloting a Kinori, and wearing the crown of the bloody spheres! And good for her. I couldn’t explain why for the life of me, but there was something about that sight - Fortuna wearing the Crown of the Spheres - that rang right and true.

How we’d arrived at this point, how things had gone for everyone else…? It would have to wait. For now, I think everyone is just taking a knee, so to speak, and trying to take in what we’d managed to do. And that we'd survived it.