SJE/Session34
Session 34- Excession
4th Day of Calibration
The Circle, less the Captain, convened at Ahlat's House of Ribs to help Orchid overcome the new experience of a hangover. Ploughing through the menu of various combinations of Kafei, congealed cooking fat, meat from the sacrifices to Ahlat combined into attractive shapes and eggs all with crunchy bits. The contrast with the ambrosia and perfumes of Heaven of the night before added to the typical wariness of a patron of the House of Ribs in tackling their food.
As they began to order the Captain stumbled in looking even more bleary eyed and shocked than usual. He slumped onto the bench squashing the Circle and inhaled a nearby pot of Kafei. Revived he turned to the Circle, ˜And where did you end up?" asked Rav.
Such was the Captain's experience he felt that mere words couldn't describe it and turned the breakfast order to good use of meat puppetry leaving the Circle with no appetite. However Jaq, always on the lookout for interesting items couldn't help but notice the new ring on the Captain's finger.
"Surely you are not married Captain?" Jaq asked.
"Well, you see it was like this; at the time the Goddess and I got on so well, we thought why not? So we ended up with the God of Marriage, a huge fat guy with a white suit covered in little gems, eyes covered by a golden visor. But when we woke up we realised that, well . . . lets just say that the Goddess of Intoxicants doesn't look so good the morning after. She didn't seem so pleased either so I went to find the God of Divorces. He gave me this roll of paper", then he produced a scroll, its golden tag inscribed with Form 25(b)(2).
"And how will you fill that out Captain?" asked Orchid acidly.
"Well, as your office is burnt down I thought you could...", the rest of his suggestion was lost in the arrival of the second round of fat and he chowed down, oblivious to Orchid's icy stare.
When breakfast was over the Circle decided that they that meeting the Despot was the best course of action. As the current celebrities of the hour they were by this time surrounded by a gang of street children eager to see their heroes. The Captain picked out one snot-nosed urchin and asked him to run a message to the Palace. After some haggling the Captain agreed to make him a junior watchman who would get his own badge and so didn't need the Captain's.
In the meantime they decided to turn to the next pressing issue, namely the pallid circle of magicians who had recently taken up residence at Orchid's house. Travelling through the newly named Burntout District, they came across the shell of Orchid's house. Now it was the home of Abyssals who were busy turning it to their own designs.
The Lord of Silent Repose, dark hair flowing over his shoulders and dressed in a ruffled white silk shirt and dark Edwardian fopcoat alternates between directing several burly zombies on the best uses of a vile 3-layered fake wood that was used to clad the walls and create "illusions of space and the vast gulf of nothingness" and chatting with Orchid on his makeover plans
"Thats right, let us reject traditional conventions of a home as a place to live and embrace post-mortemism as the new future of architectural ennui!" rants the long haired dandy.
Meanwhile the Maiden of the Mirthless Smile went from room to room, draping the walls in blood red velvet, black silk and silver candelabra.
With a cry of horror Orchid sprang forward to challenge her. "What are you...how...my solarium!"
"Now, I know its not finished yet, but I think it'll look really, really, really nice", says the Maiden, flashing a humourless and toothy smile at Orchid.
"But its my home too. And I didn't give you permission!"
"But he did." says the Abyssal with a nod to the Captain "But I'm sure we can come to a compromise..... roomie?"
Orchid quails at the thought...
While the two of them haggled, the rest of the Circle could only watch aghast as the thin, twisted spires grew from the earth to cast the neighbourhood into the coldest of shadows. Rav's very form flickered on the point of changing, his every instinct to rend and tear down this monstrosity.
In the end Orchid and the Maiden agreed to split the use of the house, between her desire of light and warmth and their plan for rooms reminiscent of fresh wargraves.
Bickering over whose fault it was the Circle proceeded to the Palace, firstly to see Auntie. "Now dears, how are you all? Perhaps some tea after the long walk to the Palace". While the others sipped tea Orchid and Brand asked Auntie for help; the Circle was concerned about Master Tenaka and felt that they had demonstrated that they weren't baby-eating monsters and that some sort of agreement needed to be reached. "Well dear, perhaps he'll come round for tea. I've always found him a very nice man. Well mannered. Does terribly a lot for charity. I'm sure he'd be happy to come around for tea. Tomorrow at 11 dears? We'll have scones!". The Circle rather nervously agreed to leave it with her.
"And while we are on the subject of protecting the City", asked Orchid "it has come to our attention that we are needed at the Font of Morning. Does the Despot happen to have any magical texts or treatises that might be useable for a swift means of travel".
"Well dear, he does have his collection of detective novels from when he was a young despot, but nothing magical."
And with that a footman arrived to tell the Circle the Despot would see them now.
The audience with the Despot was as perplexing as ever. He agreed that the Watch was in charge of the laws of Gem while his role involved handling negotiations with outsiders and that if there were some overlap then he would expect the Watch to do its duty; whatever that might be.
Rav asked the Despot about the City Father. The Watch lean forward to study his reponse. "Alas the City spirit disappeared long before my time" responds the Despot, indifferently.
Brand asked for a clarification of juridiction of the Wyld Hunt in Gem. The Despot responded that his government did not support the extraordinary rendition of any Gem citizen to the Realm, without prior negotiations. And negotiaions always tend to be delayed with the Realm due to the increasing paperwork involved.
Warning the Despot that a new Prophet might be whipping up the desert nomads into a city-smashing crusade, the Despot mentions that previously the Dehennen Tribe of nomads had been more than happy to accept financial aid in return for directing their legendary aggression at more nothernly targets. (Paragon maybe?) Still, he would provide the Watch with details of their main contacts in the desert nomads.
After the audience the Circle was as much at a loss as before. Orchid decided to search magical means of reaching the Font and the rest of the Circle decided to return to its duties.
1) The Captain organised the Watch's disaster reclamation efforts, ensuring that buildings and items lost and damaged in the siege were properly accounted for and that the grateful citizens were taxed at 10% for this essential service
2) Rav spent time boosting the spirits of the Watch and also sourcing plenty of iron in preparation for the Fair Folk
3) Jaq spent time trying to track Black Mouse but he is always one step ahead. Jaq is also disturbed by dreams featuring Rav and some hint that they knew each other in a previous existence. Possibly even were married!
Over the next day Orchid wrestled with the knowledge hidden in the sorcerer Arton Thule's tomes- The Black and White Treatise and came across a spell, Storm-wind Rider, that would do it. With Brand's help, she figures out the complex manipulations of essence required to make the spell work. Just after sunset, the two of them head outside the city walls to cast their first ever Sorcery-level spell!
Setting an Essence pentagram around the working to bind it, a great wind rises up from the sand, safely bounded by the wards as Orchid follows the White Treatise (Dummies Guide to Sorcery edition) and Raises the Cone of Power. The whirlwind comes! Now the grimoire instructions showa a stick figure diagram of the sorceror jumping inside the vortex. Following the instructions, Orchid (with a rueful sigh) does so, and immediately is spun and whizzed around the whirlwind like a ball in a tornado! Eye-blurringly fast, Orchid is catapulted around and around again, at dizzying speed! Her silent wail of "I WANT TO GET OFF THIS RIDE!" is lost in the hurricane-winds.
Eventually Orchid's will and occult senses lead her to the calm interior of the vortex, and dimly she can Brand through the wall of wind whipping around her. He too steps into it and gets the full tumble-dryer experience at full spin. Shaking and hair ruffled straight upwards, he too eventually joins Orchid in the eye of the storm.
Brand is impressed: "Nice whirlwind - wanna show me what it can do?" He steps into the eye of the storm and with a WHOOSH!, they're off, racing through the desert at enormous speed. Ostensibly, it's a scouting trip to make sure that there aren't any nomad hordes or other dangers lurking out here. But that's just an excuse for tearing up and down sand dunes, through wadis and over cliffs. Dawn sees them back in the city, tired and dusty but triumphant and exhilarated.
The morning of Day 4 of Calibration, the Circle met in the plains outside Gem. There Orchid summoned the tornado and leapt in, followed by Brand, Rav, Alana and the Captain who all made their way to the centre after getting the spin cycle. Jaq, ever nimble leapt in, mis-stepped and was expelled out at some speed. When finally all the party was within the heart of the spell, Orchid directed it off. It flew over the desert, scrub and then mountains before coming down to the Font. The plume of dust created by the tornado was replaced by two streams of swamp water, announcing the glorious approach of the Circle.
At the heart of the swamp, Orchid circled around, waiting for something to appear. And waited. And waited, as the party squabbled in the back about "Are we there yet".
Eventually, the Watch become aware of the clouds skudding across the sky at extra-ordinary speed, American Gothic-style. At the nexus of the cloudbank , a great squelching sound erupts as some huge island pushes up through the swamp. As the water and mud slipped away the Circle saw that this was in fact a giant hill-sized cylinder made entirely of metal written with curious designs. As large as the city of Gem itself, this tube rose into the sky while some unknown portion of it remained buried. With a groaning of a thousand smithies the desgins revealed themselves as a face as two vast eyes opened in the side, and from what could only be its mouth, came a metal ramp. At this distance the small figures that swarmed from it seemed as ants leaving a hive in search of food.
The Excession has arrived...
Return to SJE
