SJE/Session83
Session 83
Into the Belly of the Beast
15th Resplendent Earth RY 769
Even as the Undead-Leviathan rises once more to devour the Roseblack's flagship, we turn first to Brands unconscious mind.
For a long time Brand exists in blackness, an infinite void of nothing. Growing tired of this he pushes with his mind, crossing infinite nothingness. Then he imagines he sees great clouds of orange, purple, green, and behind them the light of a thousand stars. Falling through a kaleidoscopic tunnel of colour and sounds, buffeted without rhyme of reason by unknown concepts and transcendental visions he at last comes to a stop, orbiting a gigantic baby made only of light. Brand speaks with the Star Child.
"Who are you?"
I am you. You are me. We are
"Eh?"
I have been, I will be, we are. You will become me, I will become you.
"When?"
When you have evolved sufficiently.
"What does that mean?"
I am the key, you are the gate.
"How?"
A thousand year I carved my Essence shard, the one that you now carry. I imprinted its essence lattices with the mnemonic strutures of my consciousness, imbued it with the memory of my Sorcery and Technological genius to live beyond my life. I can teach you.
"Teach me what?"
Everything.
"But whats the price. Theres always a price?"
When I lived, I determined that all that is wrong with Creation stems from Heaven. You must destroy the Celestial City of Yu Shan to restore Creation.
"Thats a big task, how long do I have?"
Some time. I can guide you to the Apocaypse Gun. My greatest creation, it has the power to destroy one of the Realms- Creation, Malfeas, the Underworld or even Heaven.
"I'm not sure about this. I'm more an investigator."
Then investigate Heaven. Seek out the evil that has ruined Creation. In return I will teach you Celestial Sorcery. Once you've identified it, then I will give you the Solar Sorcery you will need to fire the Apocalypse Gun and destroy Heaven!
"Agreed."
Then learn.
And with that, the knowledge of Celestial Sorcery that had been locked into his shard is downloaded in Brand's mind. And with learning Sorcery there is always a cost- in this case, Brand sacrifices his Motivation to Protect the South and replaces it with "Investigate Heaven"
Brand returns to consciousness, on a rocking boat, screams and shouts coming from the deck above.
"Whoah. I know Magma Kraken!"
Meanwhile all around the flagship, the water churns and boils as the giant undead whale rises once more. The fleet is thrown into disarray, ships capsizing and foundering as the once still water is churned into tidal wave conditions. Shizu leaps off and runs across the sea-water with a Featherfoot charm, while Rav takes to the air, banks, and shifts to DBT as he goes to harpoon the Whales eye. Onboard the ship, the Roseblack and still confused Brand argue over abandoning ship. As the great maw of the whales rises all around the ship and its teeth begin blocking out the sun, Brand and Roseblack leap up to the ships rigging and then combining Brands Monkey Leap with the Roseblacks liana-throwing charms, they jump and swing out of the mouth of the Beast! Rav flies in to rescue them and drops them on Brands summoned Water Elemental (thats been following the ships since Brand summoned and sent it here so many months ago). Once safe, Brand begins the long process of casting his first Celestial Spell- Magma Kraken ("Is there nothing it cant do?")
Shizu summons her fiery bow once more and quick-fires 5 arrows of burning Solar essence at it. They impact on the beast, and while not terribly wounding it, do draw its attention. Once more the leviathan whale submerges and now swims towards Shizu. Again a hole opens in the ocean as it opens its toothy maw and begins to rise once more. Shizu desperately tries to run up the downrushing waterfalls of sea water, but it is too much. Risking a quick glance back, she sees a glint of gold deep in the belly of the beast. Despite a murmer of "Mmmm...Shiny", she instead leaps for her life, but at the height of her arc, she realises she has not cleared the jaws of the whale. Just as she begins falling too her doom, her fiance swoops from the sky to pick her up in strong Lunar talons, carrying her away from the Beast.
Now another distubance parts the water, in a cloud of steam some quarter mile across- 10 great writhing tentacles of blood-red magma rise from the ocean in Ray Harryhausen style stop-motion and begin wrapping themselves around the gigantic undead whale which roars and thashes in burning agony. A look of vicious delight crosses Brands face as he moves his arms and fingers in sinuous motion, directing his fearsome creations.
It is a mighty battle between the two great forces- while the Magma Kraken burns away acres of skin from the whale, its mighty tail slaps break first one, then two of the super-heated tentacles into a spray of burning lava that lands hissing and boiling across the shipwrecked sea, most sailors and soldiers taking what cover they can.
But this is not the fate Shizu chooses. Instead she convinces her beloved Lunar mate to turn from flight and instead dive into the maw of the beast to retrieve whatever treasure sparkles with golden light! The two plummet through the sky as the whale opens its maw once more and hit the onrushing floodwater into the undead monstositys stomach! Shizu takes a deep breath, while Rav merely grows gills and flipper-feet. In the darkness of the beasts stomach, their only light is that of their totemic animas, illuminating the rotting and decaying entrails and stomach of the beast. Attracted by this unusual light, two shark-ghost denizens of the Underworld (for the whale is effectively a mobile shadowland) rise up to attack. Rav's jaw turns toothy as he takes a bite from the shark, while Shizu does her best to defend against her attacker with an impromptu harpoon. Alas it is not enough- hampered by the water her defences fails and the shark bites deep, only to be cut down by Rav.
Running low on air, the two intrepid companions swim deeper into the belly, a glint of golden light ahead. Through the dark, chilly water, and crushed by the stomach contractions of the whale, they spot a piece of green jade- and suspended within it a spark of purest white-gold light - a sight Shizu has seen once before- moments before her Exaltation erupted around her when she opened the Thrice-Locked Box and claimed the Solar Essence shard within!
Grabbing the jade-imprisoned Shard, Rav and Shizu fight the current as they attempt to swim out of the whale. Shizu in particular is low on oxygen and starts blacking out in the death-chilled water, and Rav is forced to drag his beloved out. Sensing their need, Brand mentally controls two of his lava tentacles to try to prise open the beasts great jaws. With mental strain, he slowly forces open the abominations mouth, as Shizu and Rav fly out the expanding steam cloud, the undead whale thrashing and biting in apocalyptic frenzy behind them!
Breaking through the Magma Kraken, the undead whale dives for the deep sea trenches where cold silt and mud will sooth its magma-seared skin and as the Magma Tentacles bind together and then cool into a strangely sinuous new granite island on the Inner Sea, all take a breath of relaxation, the peril gone for the moment....
But only for a moment. Even as the Imperial fleet begins to pull together, boats launching to save drowning men, the lookouts in the masts peer at the far horizon and shout
"PIRATES!"
So ends Session 83.
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