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-:34 [ST] As Jorj and the other Ghanites depart to continue their arsonist plan, Leen leads Keshin, Kalan, Talek, and Avaku once more into the hidden tunnels.
-:37 [ST] This time, the path plunges almost directly downwards, past narrow apartments that have become abbatoirs, down dank staircases, through cellars and then sewers. Eventually Leen leads the group into the underways of Ghan, a mixture of shantytowns and drafty sewer passages. The rank water lies low in the center of the tunnels now, but stains on the wall indicate it has risen to head height at
-:37 [ST] some point in the past.
-:38 [ST] Eventually, the path terminates in a tall, narrow tunnel.  There is a dark, heavy iron gate ahead, blocking the entirety of the tunnel.  Its surface is studded with carved runes, and only a small sluice at the bottom allows water to flow through.
-:38 [ST] "Beyond this is the Crucible and the Citadel," Leen says.
-:42 [Talek] "Amazing" Talek says, inspecting the runes
-:43 [Keshin] "You know what they are?"
-:43 [Kalan] Kalan can't help feel some concern as he regards the putrid stains at eye-level. Perhaps there was a gate further along that could be opened against invaders. It was not the end that thrilled him, drowning in shit. "Can you get us in?" he asks impatiently.
-:43 [Talek] "The Chains of the dead are carved from iron. Some Dynast carved these to ward the dead."
-:44 [ST] "There are many gates like this, leading beneath the Crucible," Leen says. "We do not go past them."
-:44 [Talek] "Hundreds of years old, and masterful work"
-:45 [Talek] "These would have taken years to complete"
-:45 [Talek] "And facing inward, to keep the dead trapped within"
-:46 [Talek] "Either this isn't the first time the dead were here, or someone predicted this day would come with remarkable percision."
-:46 [Talek] "Leen, what do you know of  the history of this place? Was a Solar buried here?"
-:49 [ST] "Before the Kushanians came, the Crucible was a temple to an ancient god, the Unconquered Sun. Our people had lived here for long centuries, until the Great Sickness. The Dragons had no use for us, and we stayed away from the Temple. When the Kushans and their Dragon-blooded allies attacked, they took the center of the city and recast it. We were expelled, and most of us brought within to become Defenders. Most never returned... and those that did... were changed."
-:49 [ST] She pauses for a moment. "You have seen how they behave."
-:50 [Talek] "Yes. Some powerful Anathema must have died within, surrounded by his retinue."
-:51 [Talek] "His hungry ghost would be as powerful as any of us, and would command his troops as he did i n life"
-:52 [ST] "There is an Earth Demesne at the base of the Citadel," Avaku says. "The Defenders are exposed to the raw energy there... and most do not survive. Beyond that, I do not know what lies beneath."
-:52 [Talek] "These wards must have been to keep him in until he could be appeased. Now the Abyssals are here, raiding his tomb for some of his vile magics."
-:53 [Talek] "But how did they know? This can't be public knowledge. It took someone as brilliant as me trudging around in a sewer to figure it out. Strange."
-:53 [Talek] "well, perhaps we can trap the dead inside somehow. I leave that matter to our brilliant commander to study."
-:54 [Talek] "They are no barrier to us, at any rate."
-:54 [Kalan] Kalan frowns at him. More unwanted complications. "Let us see what lies ahead," he says crisply. He tests the gate.
-:54 [ST] It groans slighty; a rusted up section swings inward.  Kalan didn't even have to push particularly hard.
-:55 [ST] The door slides with difficulty, however, it seems to be caught in a mass of something on the floor of the tunnel. Oblong, white... bones? Skulls?
-:56 [ST] Masks. Dozens of wooden and stone masks, piled up, washed there by surges of water.
-:56 [ST] Leen gives a groan of quiet dismay.
-:57 [Kalan] The mask cracks and breaks under Kalan's heel as he forces his way inside, kicking a path through them.
-:58 [Kalan] "Can you be of further use to us, Leen?" he asks her, peering ahead into the gloom. Zip dances at his ear, casting a wavering, uncertain light.
-:58 [Keshin] Keshin picks one up from the top of the pile, studying it, especially the inward facing side.
-:58 [ST] As the rest of the group files through, the woman kneels by them, stroking their blank faces with her fingers, moaning softly.
-:59 [ST] The waters have washed most of the mask clean, but tattered hunks of rotting flesh still adhere here and there.
-:00 [Keshin] He hands it to Leen, and follows the others.
-:02 [Kalan] Kalan glances back at her in irritation. "They are dead; you can do nothing for them," he says, his voice hard. "Nothing except revenge yourself on their murderers inside."
-:02 [ST] She takes it numbly, speaking up at last. "I do not know what lies beyond... not... for sure... but this... it... frightens me." She is silent for a moment - in the weak light tears glisten below the slits in her mask. "You know... all of you know what this means, don't you?"
-:03 [ST] "Nine out of every ten who are selected to become Defenders fail... I.. had heard about that all my life. Despised it. But I had never asked myself where they put the bodies."
-:05 [Talek] "They drop them down in the sewers to rot"
-:05 [Talek] "Shit."
-:05 [Keshin] "I wonder why they wasted them like this.  To keep some secret of the training?  Some must have failed without dying in the attempt."
-:05 [Talek] "Of course. They have all these nice runs to keep the ghosts safe."
-:06 [Talek] 'safely locked up. But that means they're not disposing of the bodies properly. And that means there's an army of trained, dead defenders here"
-:06 [ST] She stands, obviously trembling. "I will come with you. It may be that I may know enough about them to... aid you in some way."
-:07 [Kalan] There's another cracking under his feet. Kalan looks down. A cat-mask stares blankly up at him, corroded with age. It's small. Delicate. "It is ended," he says at last. "The Kushanites will never make Defenders again. This place will burn." He turns away abruptly, and Zip keens softly in anxiety as he pushes ahead into the darkness. "Come then."
-:07 [ST] Avaku shakes his head. "None survive. If the exposure to the Demesne doesn't kill them... if it warps their bodies too severely... the Kushanians... cull them."
-:08 [Keshin] "Ah, so these would only be those fallen in that final test."
-:08 [Talek] "They couldn't have just burned the bodies properly, dammit" Talek mutters in High Realm
-:09 [Talek] "oh good, so some of them will be warped, monstrous, highly trained, AND dead"
-:09 [Talek] "Invite the Cynis, it will be a party!"
-:10 [ST] The ceiling begins to drip several hundred yards down the tunnel. As the group presses on, they pass over more of the masks, shaken loose by some trauma. The stench of cold, wet rot hangs heavy in the air, stifling. Leen begins to cough in the damp.
-:12 [ST] There are no bodies, however, until the group squeezes around a rusted-out iron portcullis.  Corpses are piled heavily on the other side, in various stages of decay. Some look fresh, some are little more than scum-covered bones, but all seem to display a remarkable degree of preservation. Something about the cool and the damp, and perhaps the ambient essence, keeps them fresh.
-:14 [Kalan] Kalan wrinkles his nose at the smell.  "How can the Kushanites be such fools? Even barbarians burn the dead in lands they mean to keep."
-:15 [Kalan] He levers a corpse out of his path with the tip of his direlance, ignoring the squishy, wet sound it makes. He is tense, watching the bodies. The hungry dead would be lurking, here, where the sun never shone.
-:16 [ST] "They hate us..." Leen snarls, her rage evident. "Perhaps they wish to degrade us, even in death. Even-" She gags at the sight of the bodies, leaning against the wall to retch. She doesn't remove the mask.
-:16 [Keshin] "If they dragged each here themselves, surely they would have discovered the passageways beyond.  Perhaps those who failed were channeled this way before they died.  The ones who didn't die immediately of course."
-:18 [Talek] "It doesn't make sense"
-:18 [Talek] "Perhaps the anathema's ghost demanded appeasment?"
-:19 [Talek] "Could they be such fools?"
-:19 [ST] The luminous ghost slides around the corner without sound, but it is still visible in the darkness. A man, his form horribly and strangely twisted. His right side is small, almost diminutive. He surely only stood five feet tall when alive. His left is swollen and distorted, a seething mass of writhing tissue that sprouts multiple grasping limbs. A strange plasmic mask in the shape of a tree spreading its branches clings to his face.
-:20 [ST] "It... astonishes me... to see the living.... heeeere...."
-:21 [Kalan] Kalan raises his spear. "Ghost," he greets the creature curtly. "You are one of these dead?"
-:21 [Kalan] He nudges the pile of corpses with his boot.
-:22 [ST] "I ammm... in life I was... Ranf, named twice and twice by the stars and the wisdom of the elders... now... I... do not recall..."
-:24 [Kalan] "What lies beyond?"
-:25 [ST] "Death." He cocks his head strangely. "I am but a whisp... of memory... and you will find few as wise as me, beyond. Most of the dead here know only hunger... they have torn the meek apart in their blind rage."
-:27 [ST] "Beyond... is the central chamber... where the hungry ones roam... and beyond that, the Gallery, where... it... dwells... and beyond that the gates to the Citadel, where our bodies fell in bone-shattering tumbles."
-:28 [Kalan] "What is 'it'?" Kalan asks. Zip flickers erratically, strobe-like.
-:33 [ST] "I do not know... if it has a name. We... remnants do not speak of it, often. It is Nameless.  It is the memory of a butchered people, a... unity of their ghosts. A creature of immeasurable size, immeasurable anger."
-:34 [ST] "Tell me... is the way... beyond... opened?"
-:35 [Kalan] "No," Kalan says instantly. "The wards hold."
-:36 [ST] The ghost sighs heavily, its surplus limbs clutching at the air randomly. "I had hoped... it would be otherwise. They... had kept me in the depths of the Citadel for a very long time. There was fire, and blood, sizzling flesh... the brands... I thought that I only wished to die. But when that moment came... I longed to see the sky, just once more. Just once. I did not expect to find myself... here."
-:37 [Keshin] "Give in, and perhaps you will see the sky in another life."
-:38 [ST] Leen leans heavily against the wall, trembling with rage, despair, something. Her mask makes it unreadable. She has not spoken in some time.
-:39 [Keshin] Keshin talks softly, in High Speak.  "A memory that walks.  It must be a Hekatonchires, unless it was a chance phrase by that ghost."
-:41 [ST] The ghost nods, heavily, trying to seat himself on a mound of bodies. His misshapen form makes even this act extremely difficult.
-:41 [ST] "Perhaps you are... correct. Seeing... life... again has reminded me how little this... resembles it."
-:42 [Kalan] Kalan looks at Leen unreadably. It may become neccessary to kill her. She would want revenge. He scowls and turns to Keshin. "I wonder if it is possible to fool it. Turn it against the Abyssals above. But I suppose there are wards."
-:44 [Kalan] "Can you help us get past 'it'?" Kalan asks the ghost softly. "It would be a worthy thing to do; a final act of glory for your people."
-:45 [ST] The seated ghost turns to face Kalan. "There have been... Whispers... from above. As if... the ones there were trying to communicate with the Nameless Thing. They have never done so before... only fed it, to quiet its pounding at the gates." He tilts his masked face. "I cannot. It would consume me, rend me, as it has so many others. I can only show you where it lies."
-:45 [Talek] "A [[HektonCHire]]? Dammit, this is the problem with linguistic evolution. Is that a new form of Hektonhire or is it the diminuitive?"
-:46 [Talek] "If its what it sounds like, its a creature vaster than any sorceror can command."
-:47 [Talek] "Even these Deathknights would find it a challenge - unless they plan to seduce it, I suppose"
-:47 [Keshin] "Showing us where it is may not help.  Can you show us where it isn't?  Maybe there is a way around it.
-:47 [Talek] "Excellent thinking"
-:49 [ST] He shakes his head. "Once... perhaps... before it learned to wait below the killing floor. It... suckles there, like a babe on a teat. Waiting for the bodies, the souls, to add to itself. If you seek entrance to the Citadel, you must pass through its realm."
-:50 [Kalan] A monster waiting at the gate, standing between the hero and the innocent lad. A jeer twists Kalan's lips at a private jest. Perhaps they could throw Leen to it, and run; perhaps he could stand against it alone and fight. His wife would be so pleased. He laughs.
-:50 [Kalan] "Take us, then," he says carelessly. "If we must bear the Anathema in its den, we must."
-:51 [Talek] "You fool"
-:52 [ST] The ghost rises and hesitates for a long moment before turning. One of his many left arms reaches behind him to beckon the group after him.
-:52 [Talek] "We fought the Anathema in Perfect Circles, in Warstriders. We are able to fight their reincarnations because they are young and weak. But this thing we can not fight."
-:52 [ST] Avaku, still pale and drawn following his return to sanity, has been silent. Looking at the bodies around him and the obscenity wrought by his satrapy, he spits out the words. "Maybe I do belong in this family."
-:53 [Talek] "We usually do, sooner or later."
-:54 [Keshin] "That is how the Ledaal would council.  Perhaps they are wrong, but it is not our purpose here.  We should search further for another way."
-:55 [Kalan] Kalan looks at Avaku, contemptuous, but silent. He hoists his spear to his shoulder. "If we cannot fight it, I will delay it long enough for you to get past it." An ugly smile twists his lips. "Leen can help me. She's sustained a terrible shock today; it would be good for her to have an outlet." He follows the ghost, his boots slapping loudly against the wet stone.  Zip keens softly and follows.
-:57 [ST] Leen says nothing, following after like a grim shadow. The front of her mask is stained with vomit.
-:58 [Keshin] Keshin stalks behind him.  "You are eager to join him," he comments quietly in High Realm, gesturing at their current guide.
-:59 [Kalan] "Not eager," Kalan says grimly.
-:03 [Talek] Talek shakes his head. "A vast and terrible monster"
-:04 [ST] The tunnels wind and weave, growing narrow before expanding outward again, almost as if the group is moving through the bowels of some living creature. There are more bodies, nearly all of them broken or distorted in some way. More shattered masks, and here and there bodies without them, bearing the coal-black skin of Southerners or the green hair of Westerners. The Ghanites were not the
-:04 [ST] only ones sacrificed to this cause.
-:05 [ST] Burned-out glowcrystals dot the walls. It's likely that this place only became a sewer during the time of the Shogunate. This fact is reinforced when the party enters a vast chamber with a curving, domed ceiling lost in shadows. Above, hanging chimes ring as a cool wind blows through them - the sound was pleasing once, perhaps, but has grown dischordant since many of the chimes have been cracked or broken.
-:07 [ST] Around the perimeter of the room are a number of small arches leading off into other tunnels. It is from one of these that the Hungry Ghosts emerge, keening.
-:08 [ST] There are five of them, their forms as distorted and swollen as Ranf's.  Their fingers have grown to enormous lengths and hardened into spikelike claws; extra limbs sprout from their shoulders and backs.
-:10 [Talek] "Oh Good"
-:12 [Keshin] Keshin mutters to himself as he readies his weapon.  "A trap or just bad luck."
-:13 [Talek] "Good luck, there could be five-hundred!"
-:14 [Kalan] Kalan grins tightly,  flips his spear of his back and swings it at the nearest pile of pathetic, broken masks. They crunch, breaking under the impact of the jade direlance, and fly into the ghost's faces as shards of glass. They howl in rage, and one screams, shivering, its twisted bull's face growing blank and eyeless as Kalan smashes his mask.
-:15 [Kalan] Kalan charges into their midst as they beat their chests and snarl, and spins low, his spear licking up into their chests with the graceful precision of musician and instrument.
-:17 [ST] The Hungry ghosts stagger back, their ravenous need tempered for a moment as they scrabble with their claws to block the attack.
-:20 [ST] The Dragonblood's first attack splits the ghost's head from its plasmic body.  The second ghost hops back like an animal, losing only the fingers of its left hand as a result. The last is split down the middle by Kalan's stroke, vanishing into luminous vapor.
-:22 [Keshin] Keshin circles to the right, keeping one flank protected by the wall, before switching back to engage the ghost farthest to the edge.  He feints low, before cutting at his opponents shoulder.  These men had been trained once.  Best not to assume they were fodder now.
-:25 [ST] The ghost with the shattered hand snarls as Keshin draws near, attempting to leap out of the way. Its injuries hamper it, however, and the Dragonblood's strike hits at the shoulder, severing both its arm and its head.
-:27 [Keshin] His stroke slides through smoothly, allowing him to return to a defensive stance in perfect form.  Almost as if it had been a training kata.
-:27 [ST] Avaku springs forward, his footsteps sending sparks up from the First-Age Stone floor as he runs. Leaping high, he descends on one of the remaining ghosts like a flaming comet, his weapon trailing a tail of fire.
-:28 [ST] The flames ignite the ghost's plasmic corpus. It staggers back, screeching, burning, before collapsing into nothingness.
-:29 [ST] Leen shifts smoothly at Talek's side, snapping one arm out severely. A hidden catch releases, and a bladed War Boomerang slides into her palm. Taking a single step forward, she hurls it with all her might, sending it spinning end over end towards the last ghost.
-:31 [ST] The weapon hits the staggering ghost dead center, but skips across the remnants of its plasma-armor like a stone before looping back around. Leen catches it in her fist.
-:31 [ST] Ranf merely watches, his face unreadable behind his ghostly mask.
-:36 [Talek] Talek draws his bow and lowers his essence goggles over his yes, aiming for the center of the ghost's spirit
-:38 [Talek] One, two, three arrows. An arm  from the ghost's back reaches forward at an ungainly angle to catch them in its claws
-:41 * Kalan draws his arm back and puts the point of his spear through its throat, ectoplasm hissing and spattering on the floor.
-:45 [Talek] "Well, damn."
-:48 [ST] The last ghost's scream should turn into a blood-choked cry, but it does not, as the creature is not alive.  Its keening wail continues through a tide of plasm as it falls to its knees, then vanishes, leaving the room still and silent once more.
-:48 [ST] "Strange...." Ranf comments. "There should be... more... dozens... hundreds..."
-:49 [Kalan] "The Abyssals. Or perhaps your monster is eating them." Kalan narrows his eyes, looking ahead into the gloom.
-:50 [ST] Ranf leads the group down a seemingly insignificant side tunnel, twisting and turning many times as the group moves further. There are fewer bodies here. A few shriveled ghosts huddle against the wall, pleading, their eyes full of malice and fear.
-:50 [ST] "My daughter... my daughter..."
-:51 [ST] "I'll never tell anyone if you let me go, I won't tell I won't, I WON'T I WON'T-"
-:52 [ST] The ghostly Ranf comes to a halt, gesturing towards a sharp bend ahead. "That is its Realm. I will not go beyond."
-:56 [Kalan] Kalan had walked indifferently past the weeping ghosts, only pausing to yank Leen along as she stared in blank horror at a shivering man. "Thank you, Ranf. May your next life be plesant," he says, cool and dismissive.
-:07 [ST] The tunnel winds on for a short time before exiting in a tiny, unremarkable portal. Beyond it lies the Gallery.
-:07 [ST] This chamber is the largest yet encountered in this place.  The ceiling looms out of sight overhead, screened from view by the network of branching catwalks that dart through the room.  The narrow entrance the Dragonbloods have passed through has put them on another of these walkways.  More cross the line of sight ahead, above, and below...
-:07 [ST] The bottom of the chamber should be shrouded in darkness as well, but it is not. A luminous glow the color of bleached bone wells up from the floor and the Hekatonchire that dens there, casting shifting shadows on the walls. It is a mass of ghostly bodies blended together, a surging miasma of plasma. It is almost impossible to see where one body begins and another ends. They move across its surface in a dumb, tidal motion, faces and backs and limbs rising and then disappearing.
-:07 [ST] Tendrils, some as thin as a single human body, others as broad as a dozen, extend up from the mass, probing the catwalks, sliding across the walls, vanishing into the darkness above the ceiling.  Each of these is composed of the same shifting network of ghostly bodies.  A sighing sound drifts up from it, the sound of thousands of voices gasping for breath.
-:12 [Keshin] Keshin stares down at the monstrosity.  "I wonder if it can even move its central mass.  It seems to have formed to pluck the offereings tossed down to it.  Maybe we need just deal with the tentacles."  HE doesn't look to hopeful.
-:13 [Kalan] Kalan whispers a word, and Zip's light winks out as he dematerializes gratefully. He grimaces, looking up at the nested catwalks. First Age architecture was never sensible it semed, or easy. He takes a few steps out along the catwalk above the creature, eyeing the tentacles warily. They caressed the scattered masks that lay even here. The masks are stripped utterly bare of flesh.
-:14 [Kalan] "Perhaps," Kalan agrees with a grimace.
-:18 [Talek] "Maybe we can negotiate?"
-:18 [Talek] "Wait...."
-:18 [Talek] "It has no eyes"
-:19 [ST] One of the tentacles begins to drift closer... then suddenly slams down on the walkway about ten feet ahead of you, shaking the stone.  It lies still for a moment before beginning to grope about, moving towards the Dragonbloods.
-:19 [Kalan] Kalan holds a finger to his lips, grimacing. He walks further onto the catwalk, moving slowly to minimize the fibrations.
-:20 [ST] Leen trembles for a moment, seeming on the verge of a scream, but then controls herself by force of will. Only a small grunt escapes the mask.
-:22 [Kalan] He tenses as the tentacle nears, grabbing on to the railing and levering himself over it. Its surface seems vaguely opalscent, as if greasy. It pulsates and squirms as if there were something inside.
-:22 [ST] The tentacle fumbles, sliding closer to Kalan.
-:28 [ST] The Dragonblood hurdles it with ease, landing softly enough not to draw its attention again.  It probes about for a few more minutes, then withdraws, sliding back into the mass that birthed it.
-:28 [Kalan] Kalan jerks his head to the others, urging them onward, and continues down the catwalk, peering ahead.
-:29 [Talek] Talek curses in an ancient and forgotton language which can not be heard by ghosts. It was very useful during the class on Heresy, which was taught by a ghost. He hasn't had much cause to use it since, which is just as well because he only knows the curses
-:32 [Keshin] Keshin curses as well, under his breath, but in a more common tongue.  He tries to creep forward, moving slowly to stay quiet, but obviously not comfortable about it.
-:32 [Talek] Talek slides along, wishing that he had spent less of his self defense course staring at the young air immaculate tutor's perky breasts
-:35 [ST] The Dragonbloods attempt to be silent, and mostly succeed. It's doubtful that any mortal could hear their soft, scraping footfalls, but the thing below is no longer mortal, but Legion. Then, Leen's sandaled foot catches the edge of a mask, sending it tumbling off the catwalk to the one below, where it makes a tremendous clatter.
-:36 [ST] Immediately, a trio of tentacles surges upward, feeling and fumbling.
-:36 [Kalan] Kalan whirls, eyes blazing. He hisses something profane about the clumsiness of mortals, and regrets it instantly as he feels something cold and slimy wrapping around his boot.
-:37 [Kalan] It chuckles softly, high and breathy: a woman's voice, and underneath it a wet and sloppy sound.
-:39 [ST] Below, the mask splinters as a tentacle wraps around it, using suckers made of grasping fingers to tear it asunder.
-:43 [Kalan] Kalan swallows and slowly loosens the laces of his boot and eases his foot out, already regretting the loss. The tentacle tightens, squeezing, and one of Sano Taska's finest creations is brutally ruined.
-:44 [Keshin] No matter how tempting, running forward would only draw more of its attention.  Keshin continues to creep forward carefully, staying as far away from the sweeping tentacles as he can.  When they sweep through his position on the walkway, he just sits on the rail letting the tentacle pass below him, shifting away before it checks the rail itself, and alwasy keeping a watch over the otehr side for a second stand of the dead
-:44 [Kalan] With a burst of flame, he leaps forward, rolling under a wavering tentacle as thick around as a man's torso.
-:46 [ST] The Dragonbloods move forward, weaving between the grasping tentacles.  Leen ducks low below one, dropping almost to her belly to crawl forward. It seems as if everyone will escape unscathed... and then the last tentacle's tip darts up to pull around Avaku's calf, yanking him violently to the floor.
-:46 [ST] He shouts in alarm
-:50 [Talek] Talek simply steps over one, missing it by half an inch. Not the first tentacle monster he's dealt with.
-:50 [Kalan] Kalan growls, spinning. Avaku. He got into more trouble than the damned sorcerer. He charges forward, raising his direlances and chopping through the tentacle as though it were a log of wood.
-:53 [ST] The Dragonblood's spear slices through the plasmic flesh smoothly, severing the tip of the tentacle.  The mass below gives a loud, ringing screech. Pale blood spurts as the stump withdraws, and Avaku kicks furiously, freeing himself from the cluster of grasping arms that form the tentacle's tip.
-:54 [ST] The other two tendrils dart in, arrowing towards Kalan
-:56 [Kalan] Kalan grunts batting at them with the haft of his spear. One wraps around it, almost yanking it out of his hands, and he ignites it. The tentacle shrieks and lets go.
-:57 [ST] The second comes in low under the blade, snaking around Kalan's torso. The fingers on its tentacle suckers scrabble loudly against his armored abdomen.
-:57 [Kalan] The other snakes around his throat and he gags, his free hand reach up to tug futilely at it as it lifts him off his feet. He ignites his anima, engulfing him and it in flames, but it does not let go.
-:58 [ST] As flames dart down the pale surface of writhing bodies, the thing below gives another series of keening howls.
-:03 [Keshin] With Avaku and then Kalan caught, they were not going to get by unscathed.  Keshin turns back as well, and brings his daiklave around trying to sever the tendril grasping Kalan's leg.  He attacks in an upward sweep, trying to avoid a damaging blow to the walkway, the tip of his weapon almost brushing it.
-:06 [ST] Keshin's attack cleaves smoothly through the dead flesh, severing this tentacle as well.  The screeches from below become a cacophony as the tentacle draws itself away.
-:06 [ST] The surface of the creature begins to froth and bubble.  The voices scream now, a single name, over and over.
-:07 [ST] �LEGION. LEGION. LEGION.
-:08 [ST] The creature's surface begins to change, to shift, budding.  Thirteen more tentacles begin to form, growing slowly, wriggling as they push their way upward.
-:08 [Talek] Talek deftly jumps over the next tentacle and takes off down the hallway
-:10 [ST] Leen races behind the Dragonblood now, all thoughts of stealth lost in her haste.
-:15 * Kalan nods a hasty thanks to Keshin, and glares down at the creature. He is burning, still burning, flames licking up his face to give him a devilish look. He extends his direspear, pointing the tip downward. Fire gathers at the point, rocketing out Tongue of Flame and blasting the budding tentacles in a wave elemental fire. There's a wet, ugly scream, as flames engulf Legion, burning almost to the height of the catwalk.
-:16 [Kalan] Kalan grins sharply, and walks away.
-:16 [Keshin] Seeing Kalan free, and Avaku off and running, Keshin turns to follow the others, lumbering after them as fast as he can in armor.
-:19 [Kalan] Kalan is already regretting the loss of his right boot as squishy tentacle debris soaks through his socks. He grits his teeth, and walks on, hastening his step a bit as Legion sprouts new tentacles.
-:23 [ST] Newly formed tentacles, burning already, slam against the walkways, jarring them violently. There is the sound of splintering stone as the group races ahead. As Kalan, last in line, reaches the end of the walkway, and the mouth of the tunnel beyond, he sees at least a hundred tentacles extend upwards to wrap around the network of walkways. The dead, assembled tendons twitch and tense, and
-:23 [ST] there is the sound of shattering stone.
-:24 [ST] The entire collection of walkways splinters and falls, shearing away in hundreds of pieces with a series of deafening crashes. Legion bellows and thrashes amidst the rubble.
-:27 [Kalan] Kalan turns and gives it an ironic salute as he retreats into the tunnels.
-:28 [ST] The tunnel itself winds upward. The floor here is slick with blood and gore.  Older layers, gone black with age, cake the surface below. Ahead is a massive iron gate, inscribed with ancient runes.
-:29 [Kalan] Kalan tests it, trying to push it outwards.
-:29 [ST] It opens with much less protest than the last, silently swinging outwards. This one, it seems, has seen much more frequent use.
-:30 [ST] The tunnel continues upward for several more feet, terminating in an oaken door bounded by iron.
-:31 [Keshin] "Before we go in, we should consider our plan to get back out.  The way behind us is destroyed."
-:32 [ST] "Here," Leen says suddenly, the first coherent word she's spoken in several minutes. She prods at the wall for a moment and finds a hidden latch. A tunnel slides open. "So. They exist here, as well."
-:33 * Kalan turns and grins at him, amused beyond all reason at the Earth Aspect's stodgy planning. A habit of those with a future to plan for, he supposed. "It seems Leen will guide us."
-:35 [ST] "I must confess I do not know where these passages lead. But they seem better than the place we came from... and someone above may have heard the creature's cries. This concerns me."
-:36 [Keshin] "Perhaps she should stay here then.  I would be the easiest way to ensure our guides survival for when we will need her."
-:37 [Kalan] "Leen, will there be ...vantage points inside the walls? Could we use them to navigate inside?"
-:38 [ST] "There should be... but I can promise nothing. None of us have seen these passages for generations."
-:38 [Kalan] "Let's go inside then," Kalan tells Keshin. "She'll stay behind should we leave the inner tunnels."
-:42 [Kalan] He enters the dark passage, and Zip pops into being at his shoulder, making excited zigzags. It darts down the passage way and spirals back, spinning around his head making chirping noises.
-:44 [ST] As the others file in, Leen seals the passage behind them, and the group heads forward.  The passage takes a sharp turn past the antechamber beyond the iron-bound door. Through the gratings, the Dragonbloods can spot massed ranks of several dozen Defenders facing the door, endlessly alert like all their peculiar breed.
-:45 [ST] The passage winds on, dipping low beneath another chamber then climbing to run along a hallway. A series of tiny, decorative slits reveal a pair of figures walking down the hall, dressed in drab steel articulated plate.
-:46 [ST] One is the hollow-eyed young man from earlier in the day; the other, a young girl, perhaps thirteen or fourteen years old, her slim frame swallowed by the armor around her. Her long blond hair is so pale that it is almost white, and when she speaks, it is with a pronounced Hundred Kingdoms accent.
-:47 [ST] "Legion's makin' noise, Spider. They say somethin' made him mad. Do you think he's gonna come up here?"
-:48 [ST] He snorts with disgust, but the hand that tousles her hair is almost affectionate. "Not until we're ready. Not until he reads the book."
-:48 [ST] That seems to satisfy her for a moment, but she pipes up again. "But Iron Spider, he ain't got no eyes."
-:51 [ST] "Doesn't," the man sighs. "Doesn't have any eyes. Where were you born, Scorpion, among the Icewalkers? Besides, it doesn't matter. The way we're going to do it, he won't need eyes to see it. No binding spell, no obligations. He'll be bound to the master permanently."
-:52 [ST] "Even if he's destroyed... if it's destroyed... it won't forget the things it read. It will come back. It will be changed, just like us."
-:53 [ST] She's silent for a moment. "Spider? What was your name? Before, I mean."
-:53 [ST] He presses his lips together. "You know that doesn't matter, Little Scorpion."
-:54 [ST] "Mine was Emerald," she says. It's almost wistful. "My father's name was Topaz. He was a weaver." His silence seems to embolden her.
-:55 [ST] "And I ain't- I'm NOT from an Icewalker Tribe," she says as they turn the corner. Their voices begin to fade. "I'm from Trant."
-:56 [ST] Leen waits for a few moments before leading the group onward and upward.
-:59 [ST] The woman from earlier, the one who argued with Iron Spider, stands in a small room, speaking into a bauble held in her fist. It glows with a warm blue light.
-:00 [ST] "-moved it to the top floor," she says. "They have Rao Ling writing a new book... they want to read it to the Hekatonchire buried beneath this place... to influence it."
-:01 [ST] "I know it seems unlikely, but it might work. Listen, they're-"
-:01 [ST] "Listen, I said! They're stretched for resources here. Using whatever they can. I'll-"
-:04 [ST] Her mouth compresses in an angry line. "While you were sucking at the teat, I was keeping Creation safe! I will NOT be lectured to in this fashion. They need me here - with his other forces busy elsewhere, I'm the only Exalted here, and the Wyld Hunt is- I know, I know. I KNOW, if you would JUST-"
-:04 [ST] Suddenly, her eyes narrow. She cocks her head to the side.
-:05 [ST] "I will speak with you later," the woman snaps. She lowers her hand and darts from the room.
-:07 [ST] As the woman moves, Talek sees her reflected through his essence visor in a strange way.  Purple threads of light, faint but visible, trail out from her fingertips at every movement. He's never seen an Essence display like it.
-:08 [Kalan] Kalan catches Leen's gaze, and points upward.
-:10 [Talek] Talek turns his head to stare in puzzlement and sees the barely controlled volcano inside Kalan. "She knew about us - and she was a strange Exalt" he whispers
-:12 [Kalan] He nods. "Top floor," he whispers back. The machine was there. Perhaps Rao Ling. He owed the author for an ugly scar on his shoulder. He smiles.
-:12 [Talek] "An exalt using some sort of essence cloaking device. I think it might be a powerful Dragon Blooded spy, but who?"
-:13 [ST] Leen nods shortly, leading the group onward. However, all too soon her efforts lead to a blank wall.  A hidden latch is there, showing that this tunnel opens on a long, narrow hallway that runs for some distance. At one end is a staircase, leading upwards and downwards. At the other, behind the Dragonbloods, is an open air balcony.
-:14 [ST] "This seems to be the end of the passage," Leen says unneccessarily. Ghanites tend to speak that way often, of course. "I do not know where we may find another."
-:20 [Kalan] Kalan nods, overlooking the Abyssal standing by the door, feasting on her previous victim.
-:21 [Kalan] "We'll take the stairs," he says quietly. He grimaces. "With any luck, it's unguarded."
-:21 [Keshin] Keshin places a hand to the ceiling above, closing his eyes and letting himself feel.  "There are many above us.  Resistance will be strong."
-:22 [ST] Avaku: "More below as well, like as not. The center floors of the tower are the least heavily guarded... they'll be able to hit us from above and below at the same time."
-:23 [Kalan] Kalan glances out the window. "How are you at climbing?" he asks idly, as a gust of wind blows the billowing purple curtains amok.
-:24 [Keshin] "Piss poor, but I can try."
-:25 [ST] From the view from the window, it appears that the party is about halfway up the great tower that makes up the Citadel. Around it are the other Crucibles, shorter, squatter towers that don't reach above the height of the encircling wall. The courtyard below is still except for a few distant moving figures, and though it is only just past noon, the light is beginning to fade already.
-:25 [ST] Ghan's transformation continues.
-:26 [ST] The side of the Citadel is worked with elaborate carvings of beasts darting among jungle vines. It could be climbed, with some effort.
-:26 [Kalan] He nods. "Stone is your element. That will help. Leen...perhaps you should wait here."
-:27 [ST] Leen nods. "Call for me when I am needed," she says, stepping back within the wall and sealing the way.
-:30 [Talek] "Climbing?"
-:30 [Talek] "Do I look like a monkey?"
-:30 [Kalan] Kalan leans out the balcony and looks up. "It's doable," he assesses. "The weaker climbers should go first." He smiles. "Which I guess means Talek. Where is your pet?"
-:33 [Keshin] Keshin rests a hand against the wall, feeling again, but in a different way this time, sending tendrils of essence through the structure, taking heart from its solidity.  He breathes in deeply, then sighs out, centering himself.  "It is a good wall.  It will hold us well."  The others just look at him oddly.
-:33 [Talek] "I left him with Jorj" he says, scrambling up
-:35 [Talek] He grabs hold of a trellis. The first age archticeture is smooth metal but some scaffolding has been added on so that vines could grow, and please the old Shogunate rules. The vines are wilting now but the scaffolding is solid.
-:40 [Keshin] Keshin follows nextscaling the wall slowly, checking each new hold before putting his weight on it.  Time was short, so haste was tempting, but no significant time would actually be gained, just the illusion of it.
-:42 [Kalan] Kalan breathed in and feels the spirit of stone creep into him, dampening the fires, the rage that threatened to consume him. He feels steadier, and the wall looks less like an enemy and more like a task.
-:43 [Kalan] He watches the others, and knows his own time has come.
-:44 [Kalan] He makes his way up with methodical precision, wedging his elbow into cracks and going slowly and hugging the wall close as a lover. A pidgeon coos, fluttering its feathers in annoyance as his knee makes it into its nest.
-:44 [Kalan] Ironically, his lost boot makes it easier for him to dig into the wall with his toes. He kicks off the other off impatiently, for balance, and it plummets, turning in the air and landing half-askew on a solemn hero's head whose opened mouth was a gutter. It gives him a rackish air
-:48 [ST] The climb is slow, but not particularly arduous. A skilled mortal could make it, with some effort; for the Princes of the Earth, it is almost as if handholds appear out of nowhere to aid them on their climb.  From time to time, the ascent is interrupted by a balcony, but none of the patrolling troops within - either the defenders or the mortals in the steel armor - notice the climbing Dragonbloods.
-:56 [ST] A figure kneels atop one of the towers below, a mere dot at this distance.  The woman from earlier, her dark hair streaming out behind her in the wind. A strip of paper floats above her head, glowing with deep, rosy light. She nocks an arrow to her bow, draws, and releases it.  A shriek splits the air as a dark shaft darts up, up, up, and vanishes.
-:57 [Talek] Talek pulls his goggles down and stares up at the sky
-:57 [ST] As Talek watches, a bolt of lightning stretches across the dark sky, tossing everything into stark relief. For just a moment, he sees it, a blur of motion like solid water skimming through the air. The arrow has transformed into glass and is still falling directly towards him.
-:58 [Talek] "Its coming for us!" he shouts in a stage whisper
-:00 [ST] As the Dragonblood dodges, the arrow impacts against the side of the tower, shattering into a dozen razor sharp pieces before falling a long, long way to the ground below.
-:00 [Talek] "Dammit, who is she!"
-:00 [Talek] "Why the hell is she firing at us!"
-:01 [Talek] "That damn  spy is firing at us!"
-:02 [Kalan] "Climb," Kalan growls, speeding up.
-:03 [Talek] Talek climbs after him, turning his head over his shoulder to look
-:03 [Keshin] Keshin secures himself in a three point hold on the wall, one leg wedged behind a recessed statue, freeing his right hand.  "I can hold you to the wall, if you want to try to return fire," he offers.
-:03 [Talek] "Its too damn far"
-:04 [Keshin] "Damn."  Keshin lets go of his hold, and climbs after.  It might have been worth a try.
-:06 [ST] The woman draws a trio of arrows, her hand moving expertly as they dance along her knuckles. Nestling them all against the bow at once, she draws and fires.
-:06 [Kalan] Zip, barely bright as a candle in its efforts to be stealthy, makes outraged noises, floating towards her and then darting back to Kalan to cower behind him as more arrows come screaming out of the darkness.
-:06 [ST] They race upwards, winking out of sight
-:08 [Kalan] "Thanks," he grunts sarcastically to Zip and is rewarded by a caressing flame at his cheek.
-:10 [Keshin] Keshin cranes his neck around, trying to pick up the arrows flying at them.  He shifts his back around a bit as he reaches for his next hold, trying to interpos the sheathed blade on his back.  There was not much more he could do, and worrying about it would only slow his assent and put him into more danger.
-:11 [Kalan] Zip's touch becomes suddenly painful, and Kalan jerks his head to the side, cursing.
-:11 [Kalan] A glinting glass arrow buries itself in the wall where his head had just been.
-:13 [Kalan] "...Thanks," he says again, staring at the jewel-like arrow. He puts his hand around it and yanks it out of the wall. A shower of motar crumbles after it.
-:14 [Keshin] He feels something smack into his back, but the size of the sword distributes the impact nicely.  It doesn't affect his measured climb at all.
-:15 [ST] The last arrow shatters at Talek's elbow. The Dragonbloods continue their climb.
-:17 [ST] The woman jerks her head sharply to one side, the whipsaw motion sending an arrow tumbling out of her quiver. She catches it from midair and strings it in a single motion, launching it upward. Before it has even left the bow, the head has begun to trail streamers of dark green smoke.
-:17 [ST] And as the arrow narrows down towards Cynis Avaku, it shimmers and transforms into a hissing, sizzling liquid.  Malfean acid.
-:18 [ST] The acid streams through Avaku's armor as if it isn't even there, but at the last moment the Dragonblooded hero jerks sharply to one side, and only a thin trickle slides down the inside of his armor.  Gritting his teeth, he keeps climbing.
-:19 [Talek] Talek, still looking through the visor "The charm she's using leaves an essence trail of the arrow's path - before it travels it!"
-:20 [Talek] He dodges easily. "Not expecting Dragon Blooded eh fool?"
-:20 [Talek] no one's listening
-:21 [ST] A storm of arrows explodes against the side of the tower - glass, acid, fireballs, ice.  All of them fall short.  With a sense of frustration visible even from the Dragonbloods' high vantage point, the woman stands. The paper strip comes fluttering down to her, and she yanks it out of the air with a savage jerk, hopping nimbly from the top of the tower and vanishing in the courtyard below.
-:23 [ST] The climb terminates at last in front of a narrow, arched window, the only visible entrance to the Citadel at this level.  The ground seems very, very far below, as do the smaller Crucible towers, now. At last, the party has reached the top.
-:25 [Kalan] "She'll summon help. We need to act fast," Kalan says, pushing himself head-first through the window and rolling to his feet.
-:26 [Kalan] Zip follows, staggering under the temporary weight of the direlance as it feeds the Tongue through the window.
-:28 [Keshin] Keshin reaches the window soon after, proud to have made the climb almost as fast.  He rolls a knee over the sill, and levers himself over, rolling to his feet when he hits the floor on the other side.
-:32 [ST] The room is circular, perhaps forty yards across its broad center.  Furniture pushed hastily into the corner suggests this was once a high-ranking Kushanite's private chamber, and the small door opposite probably led to his office.  Now, the room is dominated by the immense artifact that squats at its center.  The Infernal Press.
-:33 [ST] Twenty yards long, half again as wide, it is a strange thing constructed of fluted soulsteel columns and the bones from various creatures.  A large, flat ribcage shields most of its internal workings.  A massive plate made of bone rises and lowers at regular intervals, pressing down on the paper and parchment that streams below it, leaving ink the color of blood.
-:33 [ST] Myriad tiny limbs, made from the bones of rodents, of children, move and grasp with tiny claws, realigning the print, clearing the printed paper away, pulling in fresh rolls. Pipes that jut from the top of the device hiss and give off gouts of evil-smelling steam. And in the center of the device, poised to look down over its handiwork, is a soulsteel sculpture of a woman's head, long silken
-:33 [ST] hair trailing out behind her, eyes alight with wonder, mouth curled up in a smile.
-:33 [ST] The paper that rolls off the end is quite visible.
-<tt>
-* PO-TAH WENT AMONG THE DEAD AND PROMISED THEM THEIR VENGEANCE AND THEIR BREAD
-** AND ONEE MADE PACTS WITH THE BLOOD OF GOOD MEN, TRUSTWORTHY MEN AND
-*** TOLD THE FALLEN THAT THEY WOULD SUP AT THE VERY FONT THAT HAD KILLED THEM TO GROW STRONG
-* RAO-LING HEARD VOICES AND SENSED THE APPROACH OF OTHERS.
-* RAO-LING GREETED THEM</tt>
-:35 [Talek] "Greetings, Rao Ling"
-:36 [Talek] Talek looks at his companions meaningfully
-<tt>
-* RAO LING DID NOT ENJOY BEING DISTURBED AT HER WORK.
-** RAO LING HAD WORLDS TO CREATE</tt>
-:38 [Kalan] "Cruel worlds," Kalan observes, looking at the circular room dispassionately.
-<tt>* RAO-LING WONDERED: DID THE STRANGERS KNOW WHAT IT IS LIKE TO BE ALONE IN THE DARK
-** BLIND, DEAF
-*** SUCH THINGS YOU WILL SEE. SUCH DREAMS YOU WILL DREAM. RAO-LING REMEMBERED HER SMILE, WHEN SHE CUT RAO-LING TO NOTHING
-</tt>
-:41 [Kalan] "Who?" asks Kalan idly, picking up a fire poker and swishing it idly before setting it aside. His direlance would serve better.
-:41 [Keshin] "And so you do her work for her?"
-<tt>
-* THE DEATHLORD TOOK RAO-LING AND GAVE HER INTO THE WOMAN'S KEEPING. SHE TOOK FROM RAO-LING AND GAVE TO RAO-LING AND MADE RAO-LING ANEW
-** THEN SHE WAS LEFT IN A DARK PLACE, A FORGOTTEN PLACE, UNTIL IRON SPIDER FOUND HER
-*** HE IS A BEAUTIFUL MAN, RAO-LING SENSES.
-* SOMEDAY SHE WILL WRITE HIM A STORY.
-** SHE WILL WRITE ALL THE STRANGERS STORIES
-*** SHE WILL WRITE ALL CREATION STORIES
-*SHE WROTE
-** A STORY FOR THE DRAGON NAMED AVAKU.
-*** HE ENJOYED THE SONNET ABOUT HIS WIFE'S SLOW-MELTING EYES</tt>
-:43 [ST] Avaku gives a low moan of dismay and horror.
-:43 [ST] The wind tosses the sheets of paper to and fro
-:44 [Kalan] Kalan gives him a sharp smile. "Trouble in paradise?" he asks maliciously before turning to Talek. "How do we destroy it?"
-:46 [Keshin] "It has a lot of small, working parts.  Perhaps we should just hit it.  Hard."  He pulls his Reaver daiklave, ready to perform the proposed operation.
-:46 [Talek] "it.....its not an artifact at all."
-:46 [Talek] "It's a woman."
-<tt>
-* RAO-LING WAS A WOMAN.
-*** RAO-LING IS MORE THAN THAT NOW.
-* SHE IS AN AUTHOR.
-** SHE IS A CREATOR.
-*** SHE SHAPES MINDS AND HEARTS.
-* THE TOLD THEM ALL SHE WOULD.
-** SHE TOLD THEM.
-*** SHE PROMISED RAO-LING SHE WOULD, WHEN SHE CUT HER</tt>
-:47 [Keshin] "Women die when you hit them too."
-:47 [Talek] He approaches the press, wonderously. "A dead woman, but she has a piece of something else inside her"
-:47 [Kalan] Kalan looks repulsed. "If we stab it through the head, burn the fleshy parts....would that be enough?"
-:48 [Kalan] He doesn't like the interest on Talek's face. He wasn't sending the bloody head back to his dear grandmother, Kalan will make damned sure of that.
-:48 [Kalan] He picks up his direlance from where it lay on the floor, and puts the tip of it at the head's eye.
-:48 [Talek] "you can kill the ghost but it will just be replaced."
-:48 [Talek] "Crack open the skull, quickly"
-:48 [Talek] "I think I know how to break it."
-<tt>
-* WOULD THE STRANGERS SILENCE RAO-LING'S ART
-*** AGAIN
-* WOULD THE STRANGERS LEAVE HER ALONE
-*** AGAIN
-</tt>
-:49 [Talek] "Quickly!"
-:49 [Kalan] Kalan thrusts his direlance through the things eye, up into its skull, taking the top its head off with a jerk and a spatter of blood.
-:50 [Talek] Talek shudders for a moment and steps forward gingerly
-:50 [ST] The thin soulsteel peels away, revealing an exposed, concave brain. The press clatters and shudders
-:50 [Talek] He reaches inside and scoops out the brain. He sorts it through his fingers
-<tt>
-* <nowiki>yOu CANNoT kiLL me RaOl)-LiNG plEAdeD, as ThE WALkeR in DarKNESs DID YOU haVeee noT the ARTI ARTI artiSTRY</nowiki></b></tt>
-:51 [Talek] He pulls one piece out of the melted, dead muck. Its firmer, gray, a piece of a brain.
-:51 [Talek] "This piece is still living."
-:51 [Kalan] Cathak Kalan tastes vomit in his mouth.
-:51 [Kalan] "Then kill it, for Dragon's sake."
-:51 [ST] The tenuous connection still flares and jumps
-:52 [Talek] He looks at it in horror. "I think....I think whoever made it put part of  their brain inside it"
-<tt>
-* <nowiki>tHe_Re aRe sToRies to be tolllddd more STORIES to be TO-OLD</nowiki></tt>
-:52 [Kalan] "She's wandering around witless, then. So much the easier to kill her, then."
-:53 [Talek] "No, its the part that doesn't do anything. "
-:54 [Talek] "I can't kill it. Not without alerting its owner"
-:54 [Talek] "And an Anima Flare"
-:54 [Talek] "Just - smash the rest of the thing!"
-:54 [Keshin] They were destroying the mind, but the machinery was still working as well.  Keshin didn't know if they could slot another person in the thing, but it would be better to make it hard on them if they could.  His daiklave swings down in a vicious arc, all his strength, all the strength of the tower they were in behind it.
-:55 [Talek] "If you ever hear of one called Craven, kill her instantly. Its her mark on the machine"
-:57 [Kalan] Kalan strides forward, grabbing the front of Talek's jerkin and pulling him close as Keshin slaughters the machine. "I will, I promise." His fingers heat up, and there are little puffs of smoke rising from the cloth of his jerkin. "When we get out of here, we're going to destroy that bit of brain. If I learn that you sent it to your bitch of grandmother. I will. Kill you. Do you understand?"
-:58 [Talek] "I can't destroy  it! It will grow back and they'll make another one!"
-:58 [Talek] "We have to bury it somewhere!"
-:59 [Kalan] "You will," Kalan promises, releasing him with a shove. "In front of me."
-:59 [ST] Keshin's strike hits the machine dead on, splintering through delicate mechanisms and shattering them like glass.  Fragments bounce from the walls. The pipes shrill loudly, spitting steam. Blood colored ink spews from a ruptured container, spraying across the floor like blood.
-:59 [ST] The press comes down one last time, ejecting one last piece of paper
-<tt>
-* <nowiki>DdddonnNNt LEAVE me</nowiki>
-** <nowiki>in the DaRkKk AgAaaiNNnn---</nowiki>
-*** <nowiki>PLEA oqiulkngasleurlakngl----- ---- --- -- -</nowiki></tt>
-:01 [ST] There's a final creak, and the thing's four curving legs give out with a massive, apocalyptic shatter, sending it to its ruin on the chamber floor.
-:05 [Talek] "Well. I think we had best be going"
-:05 [Kalan] Kalan brings the heat within without, and fires an incendinary bolt of fire across the broken mess. He tears tapestries off the wall and throws it on the pile, as the bone refuses to catch. The greasy hangings ignite instantly. "That'll end the fleshy bits," Kalan says, watching it burn. "Yes. We should."
-:10 [Talek] "How the hell do we get out of here after causing all that ruckus?"
-:10 [Talek] "They must be coming soon? Should I call the Stormwind?"
-:11 [Kalan] "No." Kalan says, shouldering his direlance. "Useless in a building, isn't it? No subtlety at all."
-:11 [Talek] "I think we may have played that card already, Kalan"
-:12 [Talek] "That was loud enough to wake even  the sleeping dead"
-:12 [ST] The machine gives a last shudder and a puff of steam. Fingers of ink, like blood, spread across the floor beneath it
-:12 [Talek] "Can we get to any secret passages before they findd us? What the hell did we do with Leen anyway?"
-:14 [Keshin] "She stayed behind to guide us once we got to those passages.  There is only one way up.  Two if you count the climb we made, though I doubt the zombie hordes will make it.  Perhaps we can block it?  Or one of us can stay behind to hold it."
-:14 [Talek] "They've got at least the one Exalt Archer, and possibly someone else too. Not to mention Craven, for all we know she's down there trying to find an Abonimation small enough to fit through the doorways to come kill us."
-:14 [Kalan] Kalan glances at the moldy bedsheets and quilts. "She's halfway up the tower in a secret passage," he says calmly enough. "There are still hundreds of guards on the stairs."
-:15 [Kalan] "We need another way down. None of us are air aspects, so....." He strips a sheet off the bed. "Parachutes," he says, deadly serious, holding it in his hands.
-:16 [Talek] "Are you fucking serious?"
-:16 [Talek] "Do you even  have the slightest idea what down is?"
-:16 [Talek] "Where willl we go after we go down?"
-:17 [Talek] "Into their fucking zombie army and Craven, or whoever fights her battles I guess if she's craven. What the hell kind of name is that anyway?"
-:17 [ST] The door at the far side of the room creaks open.  The woman with the bow steps within, her steps cool and measured. A blue kimono hugs her form in pleasing ways. Her dark hair hangs in a single loose ponytail, and her violet eyes are cold. She would be attractive, if her face wasn't so harsh.
-:17 [ST] "So. You have destroyed the Infernal Press."
-:17 [Kalan] Kalan shrugs, and then whirls, direlance held before him. "Craven, I presume," he says, cold as ice.
-:17 [Keshin] Kehsin kicks a pile of already printed pages into the flames in teh center of the room, wnating to at least finish the job they had come to do.
-:18 [ST] Her laugh is short, harsh.
-:18 [ST] "The Craven no longer dwells in Creation. She may be dead, for all I know. But the master has found her old machines to be quite useful."
-:19 [ST] "The Mask's destruction of Walker in Darkness left the plunder of his fallen empire for the taking. Let it never be said that the Mask does not use what Fate gives him."
-:20 [Talek] "You're not a deathknight!" he says, staring at the edges of her body, where an invisible aura lies
-:20 [Talek] "Why are you helping these people! They're viler than Demons!"
-:21 [ST] "No, little Dragon. I would find this task less odious if I were. And I'm helping them... because there is always an Ending. Sometimes only the wisest of us can see how it must occur, the renewal it can bring. I need tell you no more."
-:21 [Kalan] "Fate?" Kalan says, lips curling contemptuously.
-:22 [ST] "It pleases me that you have destroyed the Press. It has outlived its purpose, and I was loathe to leave it intact."
-:24 [Kalan] "You are a fool," Kalan observes, caressing his direlance idly as he waits for an opening. "This is no mere winter."
-:26 [ST] "I suspect Iron Spider and his Vermin would be less charitable, but I can appreciate the destruction of such a device." She smiles harshly at Kalan's remark. "...and the blind man called Venus hideous."
-:26 [Keshin] "The Realm is stonger than you believe.  It will stand this."  He wanted to believe at least.  And nothing would go better if he failed to.
-:28 [ST] "Perhaps. That remains to be seen." Her smile does not falter, and she takes a long, loping sideways step. "I suppose you can comfort yourself that they will read no new printing of Rao Ling's book."
-:30 [Kalan] Kalan turns slowly as she moves, keeping her at the tip of his direlance.
-:30 [ST] "I found the rat you left within our walls," the woman says casually, her eyes flickering between the Dragonbloods.
-:31 [Talek] "We wood know something of pruning, but what good can come of this? Nothing will grow here again."
-:31 [Talek] "And WHO ARE YOU?"
-:32 [Kalan] Kalan narrows his eyes. "Where is she?" he asks. He was her commander, in a sense. He had a duty.
-:33 [ST] "To some I am the Lady of Mercy, who wears the purple veil and gives droughts to the sick. To some I am Mesha, the fishwife with the rough hands. To some I am Ambrosius, the ship's boy, and to some I am Mellia the Dancing Girl and to some I am One-Eyed Sallie the mercenary. And to some... and to you... I am Ahn-Aru. Sad Ivory."
-:34 [ST] At Kalan's comment, she gestures sharply behind her, and a pair of Defenders push their way into the room. Leen's bloody, beaten body held between them. Her feet dangle six inches above the floor.
-:36 [Talek] "This is madness. If you want to destroy the realm, there are plenty of Dragon Blooded who would do the job for you, and buildsomething more useful afterwards."
-:37 [Kalan] 'What is it you want?" She would have attacked already if she didn't need something from them.
-:37 [Talek] "And -" he stops silent when Kalan talks. He hadn't thought of that.
-:38 [ST] "She fought quite admirably. An interesting people, the Ghanites. They have been dead for centuries, but they struggle on, having outlived their Ending. Fascinating people."
-:40 [ST] Her fingers creep under the edge of Leen's wooden mask almost tenderly for a moment before she tears it away and throws it on the floor.  The face beneath is pale and unremarkable save for the bright green eyes, but the expression of pure horror that races across it is severe, crippling.
-:40 [Talek] " In the Realm we would say such an being is "endangered", I mean if theyr'e living they can't be dead. Oh, you're quite mad. I see."
-:41 [ST] Leen begins to scream unceasingly in wordless terror. It is then that Sad Ivory turns to Kalan.
-:41 [Kalan] "Needless," Kalan says quietly, eyes hard. Only he was allowed to torment his people.
-:41 [ST] "A canny observation. I am not so cruel as you might think. I have a certain... fondness for the Terrestrial Exalted. And you have done Creation a service today, whether you accept it or not. Therefore,"
-:41 [ST] She inclines her head slightly.
-:42 [ST] "Allow me to take you from this place. Do not return. Do not interefere in the affairs of Kushan or the Realm, and I will spare your lives."
-:42 [ST] "I ask only that you walk away."
-:43 [ST] "Ridiculous," Avaku snarls. "Madness."
-:44 [Talek] "Take us where?"
-:45 [Talek] Talek'sbrows are knit, furiously trying to think, but for some reason nothing is making sense
-:45 [ST] "Why, wherever you wish, Talek. But not to the Realm. Not back to Kushan. Not to anywhere where you could interfere with the matter at hand. It is a generous offer."
-:45 [Keshin] "You know we could not hold to such a promise.  Why make such a proposal."  Well, he knew he would never hold to it.  He didn't have too much of a hold on Kalan.
-:47 [Kalan] Kalan takes in a breath. He glances at Keshin, and smiles coldly. "My life?" He takes two steps closer to her, and bows elegantly, taking her hand and raising it to his lips. "Lady, you are generous beyond words."
-:47 [Talek] "Uh oh"
-:48 [ST] She draws the hand away more sharply than she should, disconcerted. "Can it be that one of you can see reason?"
-:49 [ST] "As I said, Keshin," her eyes twinkle as she names him. "I am not a cruel woman. Only as harsh as I must be. I would not slay you, who could still do so much good for the world, any more than I would slay an ignorant child. You know not what you do."
-:51 [Talek] "I still don't understand!" talek says frustrated
-:51 [Keshin] "If I am ignorant, I am certainly willful as well."
-:51 [Kalan] "You are a beautiful woman," he says, stepping still closer, smiling as coldly. He raises a hand to caress her cheek. He is mocking her.
-:52 [Kalan] She reminded him, inexplicably, of Matara.
-:53 [ST] "It is not your place to understand," she swats Kalan's hand aside. "And it is not yours to presume. But I will acknowledge that all of you are horribly willf-"
-:52 [Kalan] A spark lights flies off him, lighting on Keshin and Avaku. His smile becomes savage, ugly. "My life is worth nothing. Take it and be welcome." Zip, nosing about her legs, lights her kimino on fire, and Tongue of Flame flies to Kalan's hand in a gout of fire.
-:52 [Kalan] And he is so much closer now, as he thrusts it toward her heart.
-:53 [Keshin] If it came to a fight, Kalan and this Ahn-Aru, he would go for her first.  She was a danger to the realm.  Kalan would probably just crawl into a palace somewhere and hurt noone further than his lusts demanded.  If he truly joined her.  Ah, good.  Underestimating people yeilded pleasant suprises at times.
-:02 [ST] As Kalan strikes, the air itself seems to become solid, sluggish. Pushing the spear forward is like trying to force it through hardening mud. Destiny itself screams in protest
-:03 [Kalan] But he hates her, and his hate is a fierce and ugly thing. It burns past the shroud she raises in defenses, and he plunges his spear deep in her side.
-:05 [Kalan] He brings his face close to hers, expressoinless save for his seething, triumphant eyes. She coughs up blood on his fate. "Tell me," he says, as you twists the direlance inside her. "Did you see..this...in your Fate?"
-:08 [ST] Ahn-Aru reaches deep down inside herself, her fingers moving on the silvery strands of fate. She sends the Dragonblood's spear slicing through useless flesh between two vital organs and then leaps back, sliding from the blade, hitting the wall and rebounding to race towards him. Her foot lashes out, and she breaks his neck with a single blow, the Blade of the Battle Maiden driving her attacks deep into his destiny. She turns as he topples, striking Keshin with the flat of her hand, smashing his skull inward. For the last, she crooks her hand into a claw and administers the Pattern Spider Bite, blowing him out the window in a flood of rose petals.
-:09 [ST] But she never learned the Pattern Spider Bite, and she doesn't feel much like moving, and her chest hurts, and she's dying, and none of it ever happened, or ever will.
-:10 [ST] "It's... not... fair," she says, absurdly, as if she ever thought Fate was fair. Blood sluices down her chin; her eyes roll back in her head and she shudders, once, before becoming dead weight on the tip of Kalan's weapon.
-:10 [Kalan] "Does it feel good?" asks Kalan, still impassive, and he lets her slide to the floor.
-:10 [Talek] "Dragons....."
-:12 [Talek] "Amazing, I'm truly imp.....Watch out!" Talek yells, and then fires arrows burning with green force into one of the Defenders
-:12 [ST] The Defenders let Leen fall to the floor, still screaming shrilly. Talek's arrows fell the one on the left before she can even reach for her weapon.
-:15 [Keshin] Keshin howls with joy, not bothering to raise his blade as he charges the last man against them, just bulling him into the wall wall with crushing force, holding the daiklave across his body one hand on the hilt, the other driving the blade forward from its midpoint.  The Defender slumps to the floor, his brestplate caved in, though not breaached.  Blood flows from the waist and seams.
-:17 [Kalan] "Treachery bears ripe fruit," Kalan observes, poking Ahn-Aru's corpse with his toe. He kicks Leen's mask to her.
-:17 [Talek] Talek steps forward and plucks out Ahn-Aru's eyes with a hardwood knife
-:17 [ST] Leen reaches for the mask like a clutching child, pulling it onto her face, but it does not stop her frantic cries. She seems seized by misery.
-:18 [Talek] "Remarkable, look at the patterns in them. Don't they look like stars?"
-:18 [Kalan] Kalan just looks at him, revolted.
-:19 [Talek] He wraps them in some tree bark. "I'll have to study these later. Quite fascinating. And I want to know what the hell that was. A yewling Solar, I should think, but the essence  patterns were all wrong."
-:19 [Talek] "Perhaps Grandma will be able to learn something from these." he slips the package into his armor
-:20 [Keshin] "Our initial problem remains.  Where to now?"
-:25 [Talek] "Besides, she is named Craven."
-:25 [Talek] "I hope its a well earned title"
-:26 [Talek] He looks up at Kalan "I can fix her mind, but that will be the end of my Sorcery for the day."
-:27 [Kalan] Kalan frowns at Leen. "Stand up," he tells her harshy.
-:28 [ST] Leen rises stiffly, almost like an automaton. She moans softly.
-:29 [ST] "You saw. You SAW."
-:29 [Talek] "I can fix it later, hmm?"
-:31 [Talek] "I can put the soul back in nicely. They'll give it back, won't you brothers?"
-:31 [Talek] "But right now, I want you to find us a way back to the tunnels. Can you do that?"
-:31 [Kalan] "It seems so." He nudges Leen right and left with the tip of his gore-encrusted direlance. "She'll follow directions, at least."
-:40 [ST] Leen nods slightly, swaying back and forth.
-:40 [ST] She speaks at last, with real effort
-:41 [ST] "Didn't see any tunnels... here... have to... climb down... or go down... but... lots of... Defenders..."
-:41 [ST] She begins to sob brokenly.
-:41 [ST] "You SAW."
-:42 [Kalan] "You're really very ordinary," Kalan says soothingly, stroking her shoulder. "Very forgettable. I promise no one will remember your face in the morning."
-:43 [Keshin] Keshin just snorts at that.
-:43 [Kalan] Zip cuddles up to her, basking her face with warmth in kindness less sarcastic than its master's.
-:44 [Talek] "Oh, Dragons"
-:45 [ST] "You don't understand," she snaps, her anger breaking her out of it for a moment. "My soul- you saw- I- we... should climb down..." She doesn't react to Zip's presence, even when his proximity makes the edge of her mask darken with heat.
-:48 [Kalan] Kalan watches her, until he realizes he'd learn little of her emotional state from the stiff set of her shoulders. "We climb down. We'll go first. You follow."
-:49 [ST] She nods, dully. "I am thinking of killing myself." She announces, as if it is the most natural thing in the world.
-:49 [Talek] "I told you we can fix your soul problems later. We killed something we don't even UNDERSTAND. We can do anything!"
-:50 [Keshin] "Do it later.  There are more important things than your vanity now."
-:51 [ST] "Very... well."
-:52 [Talek] "Let's go!"
-:54 [Keshin] Keshin glances at Talek, wondering at his sanity more than hers.  "We cannot do anything, but hopefully we shall do what is necessary."
-:55 [Talek] "Speak for yourself. Now c'mon"
-:55 [ST] The climb down is slower but less eventful than the one up.  Full dark is beginning to come on, and soon only a few flickering points of light can be seen moving about the courtyard below.  After a few minutes, the level where the group departed from the tunnels has been reached, and Leen once more triggers the hidden passage to allow entry.
-:55 [Kalan] Kalan watches her carefully as he makes his way back down the wall, tensed and ready to catch her if she fell. He wasn't about to let her kill herself, having gone through the trouble of rescuing her. He wonders if he could persuade her that she was bound to obedience to the Dragonblooded, having lost her soul to them. His bare feet are now dirty and blackened from finding little gaps in the stone. It was very tedious, with no one firing arrows at them.
-:57 [Kalan] "We should capture Iron Spider or Little Scorpion if we see them," Kalan says as he makes his way into the walls.
-:58 [ST] This time, Leen leads the group down and in a different direction, seemingly enjoying the distracting task of navigation.
-:59 [ST] From time to time, members of the Vermin can be seen moving through the halls in pairs or trios, but neither Iron Spider nor Little Scorpion shows up.
-:01 [ST] Until, that is, the passage loops around and up broadly, leaving the group standing on a broad, high-walled shelf at the top of a cavernous chamber.
-:02 [Kalan] Kalan edges out around the shelf, looking down at the vastness below. He hisses something to Zip, and it winks out guiltily.
-:03 [ST] Far below, the room is bare of furniture save a row of shackles and restraints set into the wall.  The other side of the chamber is marked by an immense iron door, currently closed. Anyone with a modicum of sorcerous lore would realize it's set to block the streams of essence from the Demesne behind it.
-:05 [ST] The room is full of soldiers, all of them in the dark steel plate of the Vermin. Iron Spider and Little Scorpion are both there. The latter sits atop a bench, swinging her legs. The former kneels before a shivering man who has been lashed to the walls. The tortoise shell bracelet on his wrist marks him as a citizen.
-:05 [ST] The other Vermin watch, silently.
-:05 [ST] "Are you sure you won't join us?" Spider asks. His voice is hard, but genial.
-:05 [ST] "You killed my family... my wife..." the man gasps. "You're murderers...monsters..."
-:07 [ST] "We are family," Spider responds. "Gathered by our master... drawn from the dregs of societies, of fallen kingdoms. The sons and daughters of Trant, and Ganymede, and Ghan." A few of the Vermin raise a rough call at the last.
-:10 [ST] "The master is kind, though you know it not. He strips away the useless trappings of authority, and grants real power. I was like you, once. They came for me, and razed my village, and the man who cut my sister's head from her shoulders took me in, and called it mercy. And taught me to kill, and called it mercy... but I was promised vengeance, oh yes. He found me crying, shivering, an escapee, and he told me that I would have my day, that I would be renamed... reborn... I offer the same to you."
-:10 [ST] The man sags forward in his chains, sobbing, his voice inaudible.  Spider leans forward to hear him, nods sharply, and stands up.
-:11 [ST] "Free him!" He shouts. "Welcome him.  Rise anew as one of the Vermin. I name you Creeping Rat. I name you brother."
-:12 [ST] A raucous round of shouting fills the room, interrupted by the arrival of a harried-looking young officer.
-:13 [ST] "Sad Ivory has been slain!" he blurts, far too loudly.
-:13 [ST] Rage spasms across Iron Spider's face. "Impossible!"
-:14 [ST] "It's true, sir, her body was found near the ruins of the Infernal Press... it's been destroyed. Somehow, the Dragonbloods must've gotten in, I don't-"
-:15 [ST] Iron Spider shakes him. "We must salvage what we can. The Press is destroyed, but the city remains ours. Redeploy troops to the Wood Crucible. Call up the war machines. The Forsaken Life Engine must be protected!"
-:16 [Talek] "Let's gert out of here before we find out what this forsaken life thing is!"
-:17 [ST] "Spider, we gotta call her," Little Scorpion blurts. She sounds frightened, nothing like a hardened soldier. He would split the lip of any other soldier who dared speak to him so... but none of the others reminds him so of his sister, who couldn't run fast enough. Whose sweat-slick hand he still remembers sliding from his own. Who he left, for... �him.� "We gotta."
-:18 [ST] "She's busy in Kushan," he says, instead of hitting her. "We don't need her anyway."
-:20 [ST] The group begins to disperse to carry out his orders. Little Scorpion watches Spider for a time then ambles off, looking concerned.
-:21 [Kalan] Kalan pales a little, clutching at the rough stone wall. The Maiden. In Kushan. He feels a moment of insane jealousy, of Matara,of the Maiden. He watches Scorpion, and climbs to his feet, prowling around the edge of the shelf.
-:22 [Kalan] "We're going after Scorpion," Kalan tells Leen. "Lead us."
-:24 [ST] It takes a bit of trial and error, and occasionally you lose track of Scorpion's trail, but Leen eventually leads you ahead of her to a hidden exit behind a tapestry. The corridor seems deserted except for Scorpion, but there's no certainty it'll stay that way long.
-:26 [Kalan] Kalan pushes through the curtain and pounces on her from behind in a single leap, putting one arm around her throat and another over her mouth. "Hello, little Emerald," he purrs in her ear, and drags her back into the darkness of the tunnel. She kicks, squirming futilely.
-:27 [ST] Scorpion fights more severely than one would expect; she's clearly received a fair amount of training, but it's not enough to match the Dragon-Blooded veteran. "MMMPH!" she shouts in protest, thrashing. She fumbles for the sword at her side.
-:28 * Kalan knocks it out of her hand with a single blow, bringing pained tears to her eyes.
-:29 [Talek] "He killed Sad Ivory in one might swing. You had better stop struggling" Talek advises her
-:29 [ST] Scorpion, noticing the wood aspect markings on the one in front of her, stiffens in terror.
-:30 [Kalan] "Now, are you going to scream?" Kalan whispers. He lets her feel the heat in his fingers.
-:31 [ST] She shakes her head sharply, trembling. Despite the layers of armor, she's only a child, it seems.
-:32 [Kalan] Kalan withdraws his hand. "Now, little one, it's time for you to tell us...everything."
-:33 [ST] "E...everything?"
-:35 [Kalan] "Yes. Beginning with this 'she' person."
-:35 [ST] "I... don't know what you... she?"
-:36 [Talek] "Don't play dumb with us."
-:36 [Talek] "The one you wanted to summon"
-:37 [ST] She sniffles and then blurts in a rush. "I don't... nuh...nuh... know her name, Spider said we're not allowed to know-"
-:37 [Talek] "Then try  her title"
-:37 [ST] "Don't hurt him, please." She adds.
-:37 [ST] "I don't �know.�"
-:38 [Talek] "You just called her 'she'? Are there not many women in your life?"
-:39 [Kalan] Scorpion can't see him, but there's already a hardening about Kalan's face as he steels himself. Zip flutters nervously at his feet, sensing his mood.
-:39 [Talek] "He helped kill an entire city. "
-:39 [Kalan] His fingers are uncomfortably hot around her neck.
-:40 [Talek] "Now you plead for his life? Talk. Your loqacity will help my mercy."
-:40 [ST] She squirms. "I don't know... we weren't important enough to know her name... they acted like it was important and I ain't lying and don't hurt him, don't, DON'T."
-:42 [Talek] "You idiot. Your masters will make you kill him yourself  before this is over. You know that, don't you? "
-:43 [ST] "You don't know ANYTHING!" she screams, thrashing.
-:44 [Talek] "Quiet!"
-:44 [Talek] He looks at Kalan meaningfully
-:45 [Kalan] "Where are you parents? Where is your family?" Kalan asks her. His fingers are suddenly searing hot, and shoves a hand over her mouth to muffle her yelp. "How many brothers have you gutted with that little sword?"
-:46 [Kalan] "Tell us her �title�."
-:47 [ST] "They killed them..." she wheezes. "Lord Thumbscrew and the Executioner, and then Trant turned bad and we all left and then Spider found us and said we could have revenge and he takes care of me and he loves me and I. Don't. KNOW."
-:49 [Kalan] "Tell me what she looks like. You can tell me that."
-:50 [ST] "Sh-she's pretty... and has... dark hair... and... and... she has mean eyes..."
-:51 [Kalan] Kalan squeezes her face. "You can do better than that. Tell me about her face."
-:51 [Talek] Talek tenses
-:53 [ST] Leen springs forward, her knife whispering from its sheath in a bright line, howling viciously.
-:54 [ST] "You little �bitch,�" she hisses, slamming the knife into the girl's stomach once, twice, thrice
-:55 [Kalan] Kalan pulls her back abruptly whirling her away, and the knife only skims her stomach.
-:56 [ST] Leen's knife skips across Kalan's armor in a shower of sparks.
-:56 [Kalan] The second knife strike scores the wall, and the last rakes harmlessly against Kalan's jade armor.
-:56 [ST] The masked woman gives a growl of rage. "WHY?"
-:56 [Kalan] "...the hell?" snarls Kalan.
-:57 [Talek] "Quiet!"
-:58 [ST] "They attacked my city... they killed my... people... this ENRAGES me..." Leen gasps. Her mask is still slightly askew.
-:58 [ST] Scorpion has gone pale and silent with terror.
-:59 [ST] When she begins to whisper frantically, it is to describe the Deathknight's face.
-:00 [Kalan] "Good girl," Kalan says cooly. "Now, tell me about this Forsaken Life Engine. Where is it?"
-:00 [Talek] Talek gently suggests that Leen adjust her mask
-:01 [ST] Leen does so, her body language toward him strange and savage.
-:02 [ST] Scorpion hangs there, thrashing feebly. "Don't know," she answers. "In the Crucible somewhere"
-:02 [Talek] "What is it?"
-:03 [ST] "It's bad..." she says. "It's a dead thing. She helped make it. It's a machine... it eats people... it spits out darkness. It's bad. I don't like it. Spider doesn't make me look at it."
-:03 [Talek] "What does it do?"
-:03 [Talek] "come on, try a lit tle harder"
-:04 [ST] Her face is streaked with tears. "H-how am I supposed to nuh-know? I don't LIKE IT."
-:06 [Talek] "Ok. Is it almost ready?"
-:06 [ST] "It eats all the time... it makes Shadowlands... so the ghosts can walk here... that's what Spider said. Th-that's all I know."
-:07 [Talek] "It eats living people? Where do you get them?"
-:08 [ST] "The books Rao Ling made. I wanted to read them but Spider said I couldn't and he knew better stories anyway, but I ain't afraid of a book but he said not to... and... the book... tells some of them to go to the machine, and wait, and they do it."
-:09 [Kalan] Kalan rubs the tears off her face with his sleeve, thinking he had never done as much for his own daughter. "Where is the Crucible? What machines guard it?"
-:12 [ST] "Weird ones... I don't know them all. They found them in the Walker's vaults.  Unused, made by that nec-nec-necro-mancer, that woman. They're scary." Most of the things in her life are scary, except the other Vermin. Most of them.
-:14 [Kalan] Kalan shakes her, turning her face so she had to look at Leen's burning eyes and askew mask. "Where IS it, little girl?"
-:16 [ST] "The Crucible of Wood! I told you... that's all I know, please. I don't go in there Spider won't let me and I don't want to PLEASE PLEASE PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" She's screaming very loudly now.
-:19 [Talek] Talek slams her across the face with his jade bow
-:19 [Kalan] Kalan puts his hand over her mouth again as he tears a strip of cloth off his coat to form an impromptu gag. "You're going to help us get there."
-:21 [ST] The girl fights against the Dragonblood's grip, but it holds. Talek's bow has split the skin above her nose. A thin trickle of blood creeps down her face.
-:21 [ST] Keshin looks on, silent. (And perhaps disgusted with the proceedings?)
-:22 [Talek] The kid slumps in Kalan's  grip. A tooth comes loose and she starts sobbing - quietly.
-:22 [ST] At last, she nods, quietly. "You can't hurt him," she whispers. "You have to promise."
-:23 [Kalan] Zip, daring much, rises up from its concerned huddle at Kalan's feet to warm her hands.
-:24 [Kalan] "We promise," Kalan lies.
-:24 [Talek] "If he cooperates, he won't be hurt." Talek lies
-:25 [ST] She nods again.
-:36 [Talek] "Alright then, let's get going. There's no time to lose"
-----
-<i>ST's Notes: A LOT of content in this session. If it's not clear from the session itself, Legion had existed under the city for some time, the unavoidable creation of the first genocide of the Ghanites. The Citizens of Ghan had settled for feeding and isolating him instead of destroying him. This would be bad. Ahn-Aru had terrible luck; a botch of her Duck Fate roll let Kalan one shot her with a great lucky attack. Iron Spider and Little Scorpion were both references to the Abyssal campaign. Iron Spider was actually Jumping Cricket, the former minion of one of the PCs who had fled into the night and seemingly vanished from reality. Little Scorpion was the daughter of a weaver unfairly captured and tortured to death by another Abyssal PC. The Vermin are full of such characters. Rao-Ling and the printing press were fairly effective, according to the PCs. The Craven, creator of the device, is yet another Abyssal PC</i>

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