FrivYeti/ZeretanSessionTwelve
IRL Date: August 25th, 2005
Session Twelve: CHARGE!!
Date: Still the 15th of Ascending Water
The group discussed their memories, as Deckard and Penu both admitted to knowing who these Solars were. Apparantly, in the First Age, the Solars had been a Circle here, and were killed by a Sidereal - the fourth stone statue. The Sidereal had activated a powerful spell that turned himself, the Solars, and the Manse to stone, saying that the Solars were a threat to Creation. Strange...
Putting the matter aside... for the moment... the group continued onwards. They found themselves on a stone bridge, suspended over lava bubbling a hundred feet below. Well above them, up a smooth wall on the other side of the bridge, was a platform of some sort; a pillar of stone sticking out of the lava made up the centre of the great room. Between them and the platform was a pillar of light, shining from above. Almost the entire bridge was covered; only a single inch on either side was untouched. A bit of experimentation by Penu discovered that the beam of light was deadly in nature.
Inari and Deckard, using their Graceful Crane Stances, crossed over the slim inch, carrying a rope. They fastened it to the other side, and the group carefully climbed across the side of the bridge. Despite some concerns, they made it safely.
Across the bridge, the characters entered the pillar. Inside, they found an almost featureless room, with a staircase in its centre and a door on each side. As the characters crossed the room, there was a hum of Essence, and they felt their Essence burning within them! Not only did this drain their Essence away, but it injured them in the process. As such, the party raced through the room, climbing the stairs posthaste. A few injuries were sustained, but they made it without dying.
The next floor up contained wide, glass-free windows, floor to ceiling, and six stone statues. Another staircase lay against the far wall, leading up to a trapdoor in the ceiling. The characters surmised that the statues would activate to defend the room, and everyone moved to defend themselves as Penu charged the stairs. The statues came to life, and the characters found it hard going to fight them; being made of stone, they were all but immune to the attacks levelled against them. Finally, Akee thought of knocking the statues backwards, sending them falling out the window and into the lava below. The team concentrated their efforts on knockback, and victory was soon assured.
Climbing the final staircase, the Circle was prepared for a battle with demonic minions. What they got was something different. Twenty corpses lay scattered about the top of the Manse, surrounding a raised dais upon which the machine they had come to stop lay. Standing in front of it was Sky. He revealed himself as Whisper of the Night Sky, Deathknight of the Unrepentant Sage of Vengeful Misery, and warned the characters to leave. He further admitted that he was planning to destroy the Manse, wiping out the poor and the ratmen, an event that would eventually lead to plague sweeping the city and ruining it. The players took offense, and battle was joined.
The battle became more difficult early on when Akee, lunging at his foe, discovered the hard way that Sky was using Stag Style martial arts - he was counterattacked, and nearly knocked off the entire platform. Only by slamming his khatars into the floor did he survive. The battle was further complicated by a pair of nemessaries, who began inhabiting the corpses and lunging at the players. As Akee and Penu burned the corpses, Penu also launching running shots at Sky, Inari and Deckard battled directly with the deathknight, who forced Deckard mostly on the defensive but found its persistant defenses slowly being compromised. Finally, the sheer numbers of the Solars proved victorious, and Sky was sliced in half - revealing only ribbons of leather and dried bones, which collapsed to the ground.
The Solars discovered, as they inspected the machine, that it was being powered by a strange shard of black rock, that left black powder on Inari's hands as she inspected it. Then, as they turned to leave, the machine deactivated, they heard something coming up the stairs. They prepared for battle... as Cathak Peldan came into view.
Peldan looked at the characters, all blazing with golden light, and frowned slightly. Then he stated that it was clear that the characters were god-bloods who had been affected by the demonic machine of the Anathema. He strongly suggested that they not talk about anything that had happened here to anyone, and he confiscated the black shard. Then he left, leaving the confused Solars grateful to be alive.
No quote of the week - I forgot to write it down.
