Roll20 - Virtual Tabletop for Playing D&D, Pathfinder, Call of Cthulhu, TTRPGs (2024)

×

Cookie Preferences

Accept cookies

We use Cookies to help personalize and improve Roll20. For more information on our use of non-essential Cookies, visit our Privacy Policy here.

Create a free account

"); $(".post[data-postid=7275626] .postcontent").find("table").addClass("table");

Session 5: "You can see the other side of now". Referring to both the time bubble and Bjorn's Torso. (awarded) With the dwarven ship drawing alongside, Seth and a party were to head over to attend a high table dinner, as a mark of friendship on this mission, with all of us having vague monikers. We do have to play it safe, having 2 of the top 3 most wanted in our midst. I can only hope that Grey keeps his clothes on this time. Boarding, the first thing I can wryly note is that all the two tall lanky members of our parties are going to have sore necks in the morning. The compact design of dwarven vessels mean that hardly any area will be taller than 6 feet. I'm sure that the official line is to 'maximise the efficient usage of space'. The initial atmosphere is so thick you could cut it with a sword, and it's not just the secondhand smoke. The dwarves are definitely on edge about something, and I can see that Grey has noted this too. With no 'hidden' weaponry, we still seem to be able to make these dwarves wary. Good. Seth's roundabout rhetoric seems to calm them all down though, and before long the real booze is dragged out, some definitely gut-melting items amidst them, but it appears this temporary alliance is off the rocks, at least for the moment. Some time passes, and the weaponry that had been firing this entire time peters out. Apparently the timeline in the bubble has begun to reverse in time, so any additional fire would do nothing of any use whatsoever. Shame, it would've been very vindicating to blast that ship to put it out of commission for any length of time. As a team building exercise and to burn off some of these nerves, we have a head to head mock battle in the ruins of the city below, and handily hand their asses to them three of four times. In our defence, dwarven cityfighting strategy doesn't quite have the dignity one would expect, and we all got tagged when we were laughing too hard at the impromptu dwarven siege tower that was made of dwarves. "You've got to see this." Gill comms over the intercom, interrupting us during a break. Seth heads off to investigate, and the bullet that Ambella had fired just 'popped' back out, and looking into the damn bubble, and everything is as time slowly working backwards. f*cking time gubbins. The time inside the bubble is working backwards at roughly a quarter of normal speed. This is irritating beyond belief. Before we can study this any further or even react, the bubble of time pops, and we're sucked in, flailing around the floor, whipped up by debris. Grabbing my weapons, I sink them into the ground, curling the suit wings around myself, protected from the debris, amidst the panicked yelps of the rest of the team scrabbling for purchase, I hear wait- was that an explosion? Still clinging on for dear life, the howling gale shrieks louder, and we're dragged along the ground, Seth shouts a warning to take cover, so I hurl myself into the rubble of a decaying wall, activating my shields as- There's a blast of energy and suddenly we're not in the maelstrom any more. We're in a courtyard, rapidly being surrounded by armed guards, who I dumbfoundedly recognise as the residents of Neptoor, most of the rest of the group are there, but there are notable absences, especially the dwarves, Northorn and Gill and others who were in the area. As members of the group take cover or surrender, I take the negotiation route, mayhaps I can buy time for the stealthier members to make an escape. I can see Bjorn smoking away next to Seth, was that what the explosion was? It sounds plausible. Seth and I are the only ones standing, as members of actual rank start appearing, over there I can see a Legionnaire with a Force-spear, and a Neptoor captain also makes an appearance. Seth takes responsibility for the group, as Seamus is also arrested and began to be taken away, when Seamus sh*ts himself attempting to brown-nosing himself to associate himself with our group. Seth points out that Seamus is a Traveller, information that means nothing to the captain, but the Legionnaire definitely understands, taking responsibility and taking us over to another encampment, overranking the a bunch of the brass. Before long we're taken over to a gymnasium with a skull and crossbones, with massive lettering saying 'f*ck' and 'off' on each door. And we're escorted within, to a room of legion troops grabbing their gear and forming ranks, most of us waving off the refreshments, but knowing the importance of keeping energy and hydration levels high, I grab what I can. The commander, who introduces himself as Steve Hunter, begins quizzing Seth about the time travel shenanigans related to the war. The war that we were around to see the end of, sixty years from now. All he does is ask whether or not there's any way for them to help with the war effort. The war started to go badly twenty years in, when the scorch finally revealed itself to have been hidden in the oceans the entire time. The commander immediately dispatches cruisers to comb the oceans. The other sites being defended are the science research facilities studying the scorch. We're taken to the barrack section to recover from the engagement we just had, taken there by none other than Sanctus. Exhaustion takes over and the- We walk through the portal room leaving the Neptoor, and once again we're surrounded by soldiers and Legion troops, including none other than ' lidia van sol dell tellmat mas nuhull'.&nbsp; &nbsp;Did we just fix the portal network retrospectively? We get the exact date out of Nuhull, Ambella flashing the tiamat badge, and it's exactly when we came out of Neptoor. That's when Nuhull asks to take us away and into isolation. Sanctus straight up refuses, saying that he'll only follow the orders of Seth Hunter. Nuhull then tries to pull rank, and we diplomatically acquiesce to their request. Before we're led away, a dragonling sprints up, yelling that She wants to talk to us, and to take us through the portal now, and before the tech even manages to route us, Seth takes us through the portal. Just after the light flashes, I definitely f*cking see Haile and Tress. It's a receiving area for guests, and there's Tiamat looking casual as ever with a glass of champagne. "Commander Hunter, you are out of time." Seamus has f*cking legged it. Typical. She calls us the Neptoor legionnaires, and notes, with no judgement, that we have Her Seal. She beckons some attendants to take the soldiers away for refreshment. And then into the dragons den we go, explaining to Her the timeline that we just finished. Once the entire story is finished, she asks if we've heard of Kanani, a city in the astral planes that she owns. If Seth brings her Seamus' head and hands, then the entire city is his as payment, just as a side bounty. We ask questions about the timeline, but it appears nothing changed, leaving our kills still well and truly dead. Now we just have to recap the entire time we just did, including the presentation, the fighting and warring that is to come. Time's f*cky as f*ck. Arrrrghh. I'm going to kill Seamus. Anything to not have to be dragged into his bullsh*t. Tiamat is twirling her finger in the air, and particles begin manifesting, forming a mirror or a view of some kind, and through it we see Seamus in different clothing in different marketplace. That's when Ambella's father walks in, not recognising her due to the nano-armour that she's wearing, he does recognise her when she drops the helmet, and they vanish, presumably to repeat the conversations I'm sure she's had. We're taken back to Nuhull along with our guards, and are informed that we have visitors in the hanger bay and our ship is on the way. A close repeat of what happens. Three days to kill. With two days to go, Seth goes to talk to Ventriss, of all people. Should've been interesting. Well rested, finally, it's time to go to- Wait. Why am I on Neptoor. Uuuuuuuurghhh f*ck. Long story short, the war continues as it was meant to, defending and salvaging what we can get out of the science facilities, the first site of the attacks.&nbsp; Gill and the ship finally arrives, and we're spirited off to the session of the council that we remember having to do.&nbsp; Heading in, we prepare for what we have already done, but the dialogue is different. Tiamat straight up states that we're her new commission, and we state our pieces, apart from Grey who walks up with one of those movie scene clip things, muttering something about Take 2. The Avian, Grimm, threatens me again. Let him. Although our assignments are slightly different, we have items and sequences of events to repeat, and then to inform the Council when we're available for deployment. The desert planet, the battle with trolls, dealing with the syndicate by arresting all the offending parties, and then we're soon on the way to deal with Francis. Rather than waiting around, the duel immediately, as before he vanishes off, and I count down the seconds before I enter Mortus' realm. I dispatch him once more, and Mortus takes the sword as her prize, but hesitates a little, commenting on whether or not this has happened before. I wonder if this will happen again. I take the time to analyse the surroundings and the arena as best as I can before I'm dismissed back to the 'mortal realm'. Looking around the arena, this isn't even a shrine to dedicated to Mortus, that symbol over there, I've seen it before! That's the symbol of Eros, an Old Death God, from well before the time of even the Avians. So this is a planet in the mortal planes. A physical, reachable area. In the words of the old Earth myths, there is indeed a Mount Olympus, and if it exists, it can be scaled. I will find this place, and a reckoning will be brought. The syndicate sites are burned through, the automated defenders being swept aside at site after site. We find a captive, a witch-priestess, who identifies herself as Thompson. She confesses to being forced to work under duress, being kept in a stasis pod whenever she wasn't working. She describes the trio, who we didn't kill this time, the two guards and the techie, who we sent off to find their own work. She pulls some kind of orange jellybeans out of her pocket, individually. They're consumables that provide immunity to heat and fire for a short duration of time. I offer to hire her on as a freelance consultant, left to travel her own path, but providing advice and possibly even alchemical assistance. Seth is right, there's no need to drag her along on the ship when we can benefit from her services from a distance.&nbsp; Chapter Meme:&nbsp; <a href="https://www.flixist.com//ul/213868-almanac-michael-bay-found-footage-time-travel-back-to-the-future-2-old-biff-tannen.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://www.flixist.com//ul/213868-almanac-michael-bay-found-footage-time-travel-back-to-the-future-2-old-biff-tannen.jpg</a>

Session 6: Cleaning up before we have to clean up. (Awarded) It's still far into the past, we're definitely going to have to find a quicker way to the future. Several days of briefing in this 'bunker', what looks to be far more akin to a glorified storage sheds. Seamus is notably absent, having been taken aside by the legion soldiers, and Bjorn is off getting treated for being far too close to the epicentre of an explosion. Seth chooses this point, once we'd all gathered in our privacy, to reveal that he has a flashdrive that has all the details of the major events of the war, from start to finish. He says that Sanctus had given him the drive upon Seth's request before we'd arrived. So whatever we do is going to be rewriting history through our any action, or inaction. He goes on to say that his visions have revealed that we have been fractured into two timelines.&nbsp; We're rudely interrupted by a hidden surveillance drone. Anyway. As the bits of it fall apart, and the inevitable checkup comes, we barely have thirty seconds before the more talented magic users amongst us can feel the presence of a being of great power being detected in the vicinity. The conversation returns to the timelines, choices or preparations again. This is hurting my head. But this is now our present, and there is still a planet that can be evacuated, even if it cannot be saved. Seth and Ambella settle down for some kind of meditation session, Grey heads off to look around, and I decide to do a perimeter check of sorts without leaving the area. It's immediately noticeable that while the guard towers are heavily manned, the other aspects of the security are notably lax. Obviously noted when Hemotitan family members are in the area, in one even in uniform, nonetheless. That one approaches with her two guards, who don't look quite right.&nbsp; She asks whether we're the disturbance, and I calmly reply that we only got billeted here recently, so don't really know about this disturbance she's talking about. She doesn't believe my completely plausible explanation. She left lapel has a colonel insignia, and right lapel has captain bars that are the wrong way, like she's not even trying. That's when one of her guards says that they have to go, obviously worried and having realised that the camp guard have tracked them down. She tries to get my name, but when I glibly reply that she can have it when she next buys me drinks, she loses the sh*t eating grin, her eyes go black and she just vanishes with her guards.&nbsp; The Camp guards hurry up, explaining she's been around before, and always managed to escape before they could corral her anywhere. I request to see the tapes of her visits, as this has been the first time she's every directly approached anyone before. This one reminds me far too much of Stryder, right down to the brand of arrogance. Settling in for guard duty over the two 'mystics', as the guard called them, for the night, while Grey takes a role as a roaming patrol around the area. When he returns he takes the first shift, and I take a nap. By the time I'm awake again, Grey is under the table, asleep. By the time morning comes, the two are still in their little mind palace, planning out our next steps. The hematitan troops did everything to make this war look winnable and conventional, to keep as many people on the planet as they could. Bastards. Seth and Ambella finally awake when we walk back in with breakfast, a full Avian breakfast, with bacon, eggs, the whole works. Informing them of the child of blood that had accosted me, and I explained as best as I could, only to be interrupted while Grey who thinks the food is too salty. And Bjorn is finally out of the infirmary, with a new black hand. By the time breakfast is finished, the Emperor of Neptor has summoned us, and we're going to be taken there for an audience and commander Hunter, Sanctus and Hammer arrive, probably to escort us out, but a woman in white and red robes hurries into the room, and the two legion troops close the doors as soon as she's inside. She's got many mystical symbols tattooed across her face. She enters, and asks who is Seth, tries explaining what a precog is, and tries to explain something, but Seth clears up the confusion when she introduces herself as Qiro, and with that cleared up, she just leaves. We're escorted by Hunter, when we meet Seamus in his own gear outside. He says that we can't yet meet with the Emperor yet, but we're piled into the transport, which is filled with soldiers, including the sniper who Grey had run into earlier, and another guy with the same surname. Both sergeants. Seamus spends the whole time being an annoyance, conjuring sparks and making breezes or something.&nbsp; In the second hour of the trip, there's a distinctly notable rise in the comms chatter, and we're dropped off not too long after, with the troops being dropped off on one side, apparently for some kind of drill exercise, while we're dropped over on the other side. We're being dragged along for some more briefings, so we pile back into the truck and off we go to another, probably final, stop. It's an abandoned comms facility, and surrounding us are familiar legion faces, venatur, sanctus, hammer of god etc. They take us inside, to a back room, and there's a large plastic table with a bunch of dataslates, projectors and computing gear.&nbsp; They're going to ask us some questions, they ask Seth if he knows where the scorch is. "I do." Would you mind telling us which coordinates that is? "I do." Apparantly Seamus has been mouthing off about us helping out however we can, and then he goes off on a long lecture about putting us 'back' where we're supposed to, but unfortunately we have other obligations. And that we have a way of stopping the Scorch, through the liberal use of 'grape juice'. That's when Seamus finally notices that Ambella's been awakened. The discourse goes back and forth, until finally the 'questioners' leave, and are replaced by Commander Hunter, who makes it quite clear that the all monitoring equipment and noone else is watching from outside. Hunter then takes his helmet off. He asks Seth if he knows the significance of him taking his helmet off in front of us. He asks what he can do to get our help in saving the planet (us being our group, not that f*ckhead Seamus). But it turns out that they don't know about the Fountain, or many of the secrets that occur on the planet, such as the response from the planet. While Seth is explaining everything. A child comes in, with blood red eyes, and a sun dress and sandals, touches the commander's hand, and he shakes violently. Apparently the Emperor is aware that we've been taken here, and helicopters have been dispatched. We're to leave anything we don't want confiscated in some supply crates. Following Seth's example, I disarm completely, I'm deadly enough in just civilian clothing with only the shield bracer. Finally the Emperor's troops arrive, and the legion troops are standing off. We remember Hunter's promise that all he needs is 48 hours and then he'll get us out. We board the helicopter, and we're off, escorted by the Imperial elite, not even in armour, just in their pretty uniforms. Luckily there's a co*cktail bar on board so we have. There's an attache who's politically apologetic, and we introduce ourselves in as dry a manner as we can as he takes pictures. He blathers on about the people in charge wanting to ask us questions and about our allegations of there being scorch in the ocean. He has no idea what's going on. Ambella picks up on it, and with my help, we break the facade, and the true reasons of interrogating us, which is to drag us aliens in front of the Emperor.&nbsp; When he offers to give us the alcohol, Seth says "no, maybe you should drink it all." And he just starts downing glass after glass of whiskey. Once the compulsion wears off, it's not long before he's throwing up out of the window. A move that I approve of. Before long we've touched down and follow the attendant, some kind of rear admiral, who'd be taking us to see the emperor. We're taken to a staging area of some kind where we're to divulge any weaponry we have, then walk through weapons checking station/scanner, and we all go through without any incident.&nbsp; Soon we're in a conference area with an oval table surrounded by a bunch of stuffy looking nobs, some in uniform, some in suits. And then we're taken to be seated. Within minutes, refreshments arrive. The emperor is the one that Ambella waved at on her way past, seems like a decent enough fellow. He introduces himself as emperor pasys. And he welcomes us as esteemed guests, and that we apparently know of the location of Scorch on the planet, which is being investigated. When asked how we ended up here, Seth explains we got there when investigating a magical field, which exploded and then we ended up there. There's an old bald lady in the back of the room who's obviously reading our auras and tapping on a comms device which is apparently being fed to the emperor. When asked to explain, obviously we have no idea how that happened. Seamus tries to butt in, but is immediately shut down. We finally get to the point where the scrier finally describes Seth as having a spaghetti aura, never gets old! The scrier finally says that the Seth, while not telling the whole truth, isn't lying. It goes back and forth between Seamus, Seth and the emperor. Finally he manages to confirm that the attack that's coming in a few days is coming to the same place as before. They'll be gathering their troops and repelling them. Seamus tries to convince the emperor to take us to Nell Frane, a place where he can recharge his power and get us out. Obviously noone listens to him. "Just let him in, just let him in" That's when several guards with their guns to their own heads walk in, along with several of the bald women. Apparently just a ploy to get their attention, what kinda weird ass shenanigans is this place. Feels like home. The person then dismisses the people they've influenced and walks in, addressing Seamus asking whether he's the traveller. Apparently 'they' want to talk to Seth. They think about trying to use mind manipulation, but on looking around, she starts to have second thoughts. She wants to take him to another facility to have a frank conversation with him, then having a meeting. Apparently there's a whole coven of these we need to either kill or we just need to disappear. It really is like home. The emperor and his advisors begin arguing over evacuating the planet, and then it turns out that Seth has a way of turning back the scorch, but he will let him know when he knows how. We receive promises of whatever supplies we need, and then we're all given the comms. There's another ruckus and whatnot and then everyone is dismissed. The bald lady is staring intently at me for some reason, which is odd considering the array of magically interesting people in the room. And then we're teleported in front of the legion base where all our gear is stored. Maybe regicide can wait for another time, he seemed nice enough. Regearing up, it's time to figure out what the first step we are going to take will be. Whether we can do anything without the evidence of the scorch to cause an evacuation. The preparations continue. Bjorn is to work on conventional ammunition for the Volt, while we try to figure out where exactly we should intervene, Grey gets some ammunition analysed and manufactured as well, to ensure we have weaponry that aren't overkill for facing non-titan style opponents. It's the case where I believe this is a war we won't win, although Seth and Ambella are willing to try. I know that once those two months have gone, the embargo will be in full encirclement, and the planet will be locked in to the future we see. The planning continues, and I settle down for maintaining my wargear. There is going to be months of bloodshed to come, and if that fails, a grinding war that will take a lifetime even if it doesn't take me on the battlefield. I return to see Seth praying with the tiamat flares. Huh. And as he finishes, he just vanishes. Well, that's just typical.&nbsp; So we wait for the attack on Pinnacle bay to occur, and prepare to take on the enemy in full force for the main invasion two days later, close enough to marshall all our forces, while still being within the time where we could act without the precogs being likely to work it out. Apparently behind the moon, there's some kind of shielded object. But we also need to figure out a way to eliminate the enemy's precog, or this war will keep suffering setbacks and counters all the way throughout the war. Seth summons T00N, what was thought to be a library cataloguing system, but it's definitely some kind of&nbsp;an illegal AI that helps run the base and considers the planet his offspring. And we easily find out a way to locate the child of blood that had accosted us before, tracking down her teleportations around the planet, apparently at random. We just need a way to either predict or lure her out. Seth sends a message out to commander Hunter, requesting his best legion sniper as soon as possible. Seth then beckons Ambella over, and they grab the sniper, a most familiar figure, although missing the antlers and the fur. Looks like we're going not-hunting. Chapter Meme: <a href="https://pics.me.me/this-is-definitely-the-darkest-timeline-quickmeme-com-7497720.png" rel="nofollow">https://pics.me.me/this-is-definitely-the-darkest-timeline-quickmeme-com-7497720.png</a> &nbsp; <a href="https://media.giphy.com/media/HhUyClJK3hSmI/giphy.gif" rel="nofollow">https://media.giphy.com/media/HhUyClJK3hSmI/giphy.gif</a>

Session 7: Cut off the head... (awarded) The enemy supercarrier has no idea that we know that they're there. The carrier had been timelocked, exactly like the portal we kinda came through, so we know that there is a portal on the carrier. We just have to use the portal network to enter the mile plus long ship and then wipe it out in a spectacular conflagration.&nbsp; So we have to kill the precog titan, who Seth believes is called Katar. The ship needs to be destroyed, as it's the relay for the enemy fleet, acting as coordinator for the invasion fleet. With it gone, haemotitan casualties will be exponentially higher. According to Commander Hunter, the operation will be ready to depart in 6 hours, with a further 4 hours of travel time. He doesn't know where the portal on-planet is, but Seth has him getting us access to it. We also need the Emperor to host an emergency council of all the leaders of the magical community, a task that should begin immediately, war is on the horizon, after all. Especially with the attack occuring at a Leyline nexus, every useage of magic will become almost legendary acts. Not a minute passes, and Seth's vanished again. Presumably to do something useful. It's not too long until Seth's back, and he's haranguing the Commander about being prepared for everything, classic Seth. Seamus is being a whiny annoyance. Classic Seamus. Soon we begin preparing ourselves and the mere mortals amongst us are grabbing what rest we can, with go time in a few more hours. Ambella and Seth continue planning into the early hours, talking about some kind of traveller shield before I finally doze off. With a few minutes to spare, I'm woken up, almost subconsciously gearing up and preparing for our departure, with commander Hunter and his second, Furioso, are headed out to the palace to attend the council alongside us. The 'magic' council is beginning to get underway by the time we arrive, with imperial attaches in charge of shepherding us all into our positions, I don't envy them the task, it'd be like herding a bunch of exploding, pompous cats. Ambella and Seth take seats while the conference gets fully underway. The announcements are made by the Emperor himself, divers are on their way to the trenches to confirm the allegations that the Scorch has already made landfall, and that there is a 2 day gap until the enemy that were pushed back from pinnacle bay. They're coming back to reestablish a beachhead and then force a breakthrough towards Monument city. There was an attempt on his life last night and this morning, highlighting the seriousness of the enemy actions that are to come. He names Seth and commander hunter as being in charge of coordinating the retaliation. Seth then begins swinging the council in line with his plan when we see a vision of the assassination of the Emperor as blue energy arrows are seen plunging into his chest as he makes the announcement on his dais. He has his mystics prepare a comprehensive defence. There is some mage making some kind of long distance call, judging by the change in his vacant expression, and then when he comes back to us he complements Seth on his information, saying that he has some of his own that will be of useful to us.&nbsp; Finally, the scanning crew report is made, the scanner artefact has been identified as none other than Leukaemia's command carrier (surprise, surprise,). A titan notorious for her tactics used in obliterating planets and their populations. When commander hunter gives the signal, a full-scale assault will be undertaken against the carrier.&nbsp; After dropping a minor nuclear bombshell about how Seth got his information when asked, we make our way out and to our next destination. Taking a corridor to avoid the crowds (massive ones for a supposedly secret emergency conference), we notice that the tunnel is practically glittering with the feel of magic. Further down the corridor, the energy is swirling around the marbled walls. A pretty sight, but... wait. I know this architecture, it's exactly the same as that which was in the fire elemental plane that led into the astral plane, down to the very dimensions of the building. Whatever strong magical source I can sense is off to the left, somewhere through the wall. The mage attendants are closing off the building as we make our way towards the Dais in the centre. All the mages have turned to the left, bowing and kneeling before beginning to chant, Morrjorn, that's when the wall begins to move, then stand and shake off dust. Then it opens its eyes. Morrjorn the mountain god makes his way towards us. Ambella waves at it, so it stares, waves a little and then moves up to us. He has the mages stop chanting, and makes a comment about it being an ominous gathering. The lead mage attempts to say something but is interrupted, and he asks where the traveller is. When asked why, he says that he was forewarned of the coming of great warriors, killers of titans. He asks which of us is the destroyer, and Ambella introduces himself. The mountain god says that the legionnaires are to protect the planet. One of the mages is trying to avoid having his shoulder removed from his socket for asking to get the legion to remove their helmets. Remember what I said about herding pompous exploding cats. When told of the presence of Scorch, he says that if it's on the land, he would feel its presence, but of course, it is not on land at all. He's told where the trench that is the site of the scorch injection is, and in response he says that if its in the ocean, his sister would know of its scale. Morrjorn then begins sculpting the earth at his feet, and he forms a pool as the room rumbles. And an elemental of water rises up out of it, politely enquiring what's been happening. That's when Seamus appears, quietly asking what's going on. She introduces herself as Naramindia, High Priestess of the Water Elementals, more of a shepherd than a queen, but they regard her with that rank and grade. That's when she asks about Seth's origin, then calls dibs on Ambella's eyes once she's done with them, sniffs Grey apparently he smells nice. Interrupted before getting to me, she's told that Scorch is in her oceans, and she begins communing in some way, turning gold and red before returning to normal. She says her lands have been infested. We are at war after all.&nbsp; We know of Fire, Water and Earth, all that leaves is Air. A creature forms out of the mist, and nods to Morrjorn, and is introduced as Kerall the Crane, goddess of the wind. She corrects him as the leader of the swift feet. Hearing of the coming of war, she offers us her blessing in the fight to come. She murmers and breathes out, and a black mist appears, which coalesces into a figure that we know from long back. The party barge. It is Aloura, Goddess of Death. She flutters up and starts to speak, but Morrjorn interrupts her every time she tries to speak, talking to her in whatever language, then turns "War? Are you here to beg for your lives on the battlefie..." She stops and stares at me, then gets close to examine me, practically salivating, but she notices Bjorn, sinking her hand into his chest, revealing what she says is some kind of curse, which is entirely plausible. Bjorn is broken, these have all killed more than she has recently, and I am a fool, according to her. Not far off. Then Morrjorn produces something, "one for all of you, may it keep you safe", Keral's horn twists in a flash of light and rain covers us, and a breeze encircles us, blessing us with speed. Aloura flares her wings, spreading her arms and insects beetles and detritivores emerge from the ground, covering our feet and going through our boots and into our feet, and soon they're all gone. When Bjorn asks what kind of blessing it was, she says it's a blessing for some of you, looking pointedly at him. A sparking turns into flames and Nefrin appears, dropping out of the sky, and once again we're introduced, and she blesses our flame to burn twice as bright. That's when Naramandia appears, blessing us with having what we will need the most, conjuring goblets, and commanding us to drink so that we may know and so that we may live. A knight emerges, winged. To bless us in war against the haemotitan, something he believes is a total waste of time. Great to know. His sword is sheathed at his hip, and that the armour appears to be unoccupied, with something inside it. Apparently he's seen us before, but never together. That's when Seamus and the armoured one begins chatting about all the failed attempts that Seamus had dragged the party on before. Great. He looks to Seth, calling him a great commander, but that his aspirations to rule are no easy undertaking, and he sees what will come of this. Since we have the blessings from the others, and he offers one little gift, sparkly magic descends on us all, and we're feeling the warmth and heat from this. When the time comes, our fate will not be our own, he says to us. He takes a step to Morrjorn, saying that its the first time all have gathered here, doing it again would disrupt the balance, and turns to Seamus, warning him to never return to this loop. Then one by one the gods disappear, leaving just Morrjorn. Earth, to protect us as a bastion against the foe. Wind, to speed us to onwards. Death, to cover the ground we stride through. Fire, so that the flame will burn twice as bright. Water, so that we may know and live. Life, so that our fates are no longer our own. Could I feel any more comforted of our chances of success. Seth Ambella and Grey are heading towards the bridge, Bjorn and myself are heading towards engineering. the legion will be operating in fireteams to infiltrate in first then begin wreaking havoc. When Hammer joins Bjorn, I decide to start praying, just in case. Apparently a slaver is being a bother, something that does ring a bell in my recollection, while a relic from some bygone era has been dug up and put on the front lines at pinnacle bay, none other than Manwise. If we run into any of the blood mages, Ambella and Seth will ward the shield, trapping them inside the shield, unable to teleport out. The shield is to then be taken down and then they're gonna be hit by the GKR by Grey the moment the shield drops. Before long, we're going through portal, with the aid of the team, Seth gets the portal open, and we go right through. On the other side are 8 personnel, only two of which are guards. They're sh*tting themselves by the time we're through. Grey takes out the tech and alarm console he was diving towards, and I cut down the guards making my way through door on the way to the engine room, before the bodies have even slumped to the floor. Legion troops secure the room as the others come through and we fan out, heading for our objectives. Bjorn notices that the schematics aren't quite right due to how customised the ship is, and downloads the map, uploading a virus, courtesy of Stryder, into the vessel. Sirens are going off masking everything we're doing as the enemy troops on the ship have their attention drawn to the battle about to take outside, with the carrier getting underway into the space engagement. On the way, the halls are all empty as the personnel are deploying themselves to their stations, so it's time to hoof it, getting to our objective as quickly as we can. In the after action reports, it sends someone who hasn't been born yet a message that they have his wife and to pay a ransom. It appears that the ship has gone blind to the outside world, the ship has dumped all its fuel, with a PA announcement announcing that 'all accidents from this point onwards will feed the matrix, kneel and say your prayers, all will feed the matrix'. All the escape pods are jettisoned, all fire suppression systems are activated. And apparently it plays an ominous hymnal song about 'Ring of Fire'. The ship has been disabled, so we head back to the portal room. Seems like this is why the ship crashlanded into the moon. A lion man with blades, mystic ones from his forearms, appears. Definitely a paladin of some kind, a worthy foe to send on their merry way. Outside the hallway, there's people shouting orders. I can sense two blood mages out there alongside the lion paladin. One, noting we have control of the portal, and who we are. Bjorn responds by throwing a flashbang through it, while I vox Seth for instructions and ready my weapons and begin killing the fodder they send forwards while the rest of the team comes back. I hear the Volt go off, as one of the blood titans, drawing in the air while holding some kind of symbol. I manage to grab and ground myself into the wall. I look up to see the top half of his torso being gone. The other titan is bloodied and injured, but identify Ambella, saying how pleased he is to see her. He then decides to teleport out, touching his belt and escaping. I see the ruins of the paladin I wanted to defeat, but I'm interrupted in my train of thought by a small detail; the carrier crashing into the moon. The corridor is a total mess, bodies are on fire despite being covered in the fire suppression foam, I stride out the door, not too worse for wear, grabbing the dead paladin's body and then making my way to the portal room, rendezvousing with the party. We should identify this paladin, if for no other reason than to find out why the hell a paladin was fighting alongside blood mages. It may give some clues as to what happened with the other Corvus. Once through, I dump the body down, and look around, and notice the portal is still active. Seth sets out to grab Bjorn, telling him to arm his nuke and throw it through the portal. Bjorn arms the nuke, and kicks it through the portal. The Portal Iris and Barriers are immediately activated, stemming the tide of nuclear fire. The portal remains open a little longer then it finally shuts off.&nbsp; The enemy frontal command is in disarray and tens of thousands of enemies are dead, but no time to party just yet, we have little more than a day to get to the front lines and begin repelling main invasion forces. Luckily getting to the other side of the planet isn't too hard with Seth's abilities, travelling via the Ley lines to our next site. Arriving there is a very surprised bloodmage standing within a dozen feet of us, and they immediately begin booking it, but Grey manages to get him in the back of the head, leaving him only barely alive. Looking at the way it works, Ambella describes the link keeping the blood mage 'coherent' dissipating, cutting off the titan from his god. The Mithril is drawn to the sites of strongest magic, and the staticite is dragged along, cutting off the connection. I bury the dagger into his chest, ending what little life is left. Seth finds a set of dataslates, and begins rummaging around. Apparently they've been sending pontoon mounted troops through, so there needs to be a way of neutralising it in some way. But it looks like our merry duo of titan killers is now a trio! We're definitely getting Grey inebriated after the battle to come. Chapter Meme:&nbsp; <a href="https://thumbs.gfycat.com/DarlingWhichAsiaticwildass-size_restricted.gif" rel="nofollow">https://thumbs.gfycat.com/DarlingWhichAsiaticwildass-size_restricted.gif</a>

Session 8: Breaking the Shell (awarded) A Servant of Death has three paths to walk, to control Entropy, Dictating the moment of death, or to determine what happens in the afterlife. So far, I have been walking the middle path, focused entirely on the moment of death. Due to the life I have lived, I was drawn to its sweet siren call, unheeding of the rocky shores that beckoned me onwards. A fool stuck in an addictive maelstrom of blood and madness, not seeing that the very power that kept him alive was both noose and leash. Time has the ability to reveal even the most insidious of manipulations, but not normally in the way that it's happened in this instance. My eyes are open now, and here in Pinnacle Bay, in the face of the Titans' hordes, I will choose my own path. -------------------------- The portal will be kept open, they'll be funneled towards us, but we must do what we can to repulse rather than slaughter. Too much death and the leyline will react with... disagreeably large levels of collateral damage. Looking back across, the face of industrialised warfare is apparent with both men and material arriving at the city like clockwork via aircraft, rail or road.&nbsp; Defences are in place, now it's time to wait and rest until the attack comes in full strength. Eight hours before the estimated time of attack, all the troops are in concealed positions, Bjorn's set out a couple of his own smart traps to shred the enemies, while the civilian population has been discretely evacuated. The city is ready for the bloodshed. Ambella's over to the side, preparing her tricks of the trade while setting up a sniper post up in some high vantage point. While the others get to their own preparations, I make my way to a line of battle that's most likely to be hit by the melee. As I prepare them, the weather takes a turn, with wind and hail churning up the landscape. With most of the waters rising and the storm in full swing, several positions have to pull back due to the adverse weather. By adverse weather, I mean that whole buildings are going down in the worse areas. With 10 minutes to go, the repositioning is occuring, and with 5 minutes to go, we're ready again. As the seconds tick down, and finally the time is done, nothing happens. Minutes pass and then nothing happens. We hold our positions. A vision. Suddenly, several hundred metre long holes, and daemons pour through them en mass. "Glory in this day, sons and daughters of Neptor, An Age of War is upon us, and though it is great and terrible to behold, whatever may come, we will not flinch." And I dive into the melee. The portals open all over the city, 27 portals, the smallest of which is 100m across. ---------------- A Blood mage opens a portal through and steps though with a white flag and a datapad, he has come to negotiate with the Supreme Commander, hurriedly handing it to Seth when he arrives. He can't let go of the datapad, as it'll teleport him back, he just wants an answer. Necrosis pops up (hologram), since we're at an impasse, he's asking for a Parley, coming down to the planet to negotiate under a flag of truce to open negotiations. He promises to keep to his word, but should Seth break his, the suffering of the world will be legendary, and should they meet, he will guarantee peace. Seth agrees to a parley, and the evidently releaved emissary is yoinked back through the portal. Minutes later, in a spot near the centre of town, a young man is teleported in, nervously announcing that he's here to set up the parley ahead of Necrosis. There's a pulse of magic and what appears to be Ventriss and another one steps in, more vanguard of diplomacy. Followed soon by two archers, wearing armour very similar to our own, when a massive ass samurai with a huge ass weapon steps through. A whole menagerie of different beings makes their way through, along with Arturus, Capulis and Leukaemia as well, aknowledging that Ambella is around. Finally Necrosis steps through and greets Seth, complementing him for his honourable wars in every 'reboot'.&nbsp; He says he's been sent here to retrieve three artefacts, and they cannot leave Neptor without them, by order of the 'High Father', and in return for these artefacts, they will provide protection for the world. If refused, they will return for their prize. When prompted about the artefacts, a dataslate is floated over: -Crown of Emperor Oolurus -The log of the Azure Legion -Leigh of the Blood Roses Everyone sort of makes a circle away from Leukaemia, which is most amusing to everyone involved.&nbsp; Necrosis starts droning on about wars and blah blah. Honestly, he sounds so pompous I started to tune out. It ends with him stating his objectives. Seth replies that his days of traipsing across the galaxy, with his power unchecked is over. A talk for some other time, Necrosis replies. A snake gives Necrosis a box, an offering from him to Seth, as well as manner for the objects he desires to be transferred. After a flourishing end-speech and their party vanishes. The box is addressed to Ambella, and the Neptor troops cannot detect explosives or magic on the box. It's a skull with slightly larger canines and a card. A card that reads Stryder. Hm. It comes to our attention that the crown is known, as is the Azure Legion logs, which contains the true names of all legionnaires ever recruited or died. Oh boy. The Leigh is a crown of roses that someone known as Pandora had used to seal the power of the first haemotitan. It was in two parts, the crown and the leigh, the accouterments needed to make it work. Necrosis' assertions that he would protect the planet means that he wants it for himself, particularly the need to possess an item that would control a massive military machine able to take on the titans in battle. Infer from that what you will. Ambella has some very dangerous items to talk with Seth about, and they head off. When they're back, Seth get us a constant guard of legion troops, and he's given us a group who we are already comfortably well aware of. We need them to keep the fog of war around us as opaque as frustratingly possible to the titans. We're off to nexus to head back to our next destination, with Ambella tailing behind, and we're soon back to our base of operations. These artefacts are the key to combating the haemotitan, and in his possession, this war is lost. So an alternative approach is required. The book can be forged or altered. The crown can be analysed and a way to 'neutralise' it's threat is possible. The third artefact needs to be found. While the mortals sleep, the others get to work researching the various artefacts and where they might be. They unearth a trend about the artefacts, where when one haemotitan is supplanted, the regalia is in the possession of whoever the usurper happens to be. Morning comes, I give over the equipment from the dead paladin over to bjorn for analysis, then join a lot of the others on a nice team building run around the base. On our return, we gear up as Seth and Hunter are heading off to the temple meet and accessing the portal network and finally heading off south to the Rhoes and the temple of Solitude, the possible site of the crown. We arrive to a bustling and packed city, akin to the metropolises, dropping out of the transports and down towards the museum, and then we're off! We head off into a museum, while Ambella sets up an overwatch, the local security guards have already been working on preparing the crown for movement, and as Seth is about to reach the crown, he seems to have a vision and he touches it. The combined crown doesn't have the exact effects that occurred, and further analysis seems to point to the crown being used to neutralise Seamus and his powers. The book must also be connected, everything of his personality and the ritual. Seth hesitates and I offer to pick it up. Before I can react, I'm in what appears to hell. Great. ------------- I'm standing and looking at Aloura as she has her hands inside my head, I see a humanoid dressed well, as am I. She asks how I ended up here, and I explain about the crown, as I watch scene after scene of my life being played out, the happier memories of my childhood, pillars of my formative youth. But she puts her finger on the . I explain it, I was a fool, I trusted and believed in a lie. Now I know more of the truth and have to do something to make it right. "Well, we'll have to fix that." She plunges her hand into my chest and pulls out an amorphous mass of negative energy, disintegrating it without effort. She leads me on to the next room I'm seated and we converse, and before me she offers a cup. An offer to help make things right. The price? Doing the right thing. Something I can get behind. A life dedicated to preserving. I drink deeply and with no regret. I'm back by the pedestal, and, with the others refusing and hesitating to pick up the crown, I decide to do it, and- A woman puts the crown on his head, and he's being cheered on by the crowds, with two dead, his opponents and rivals, in front of him, and he puts the crown on, healed of all his wounds. I'm knocked back out of my reverie, trying to put the crown on my head, realising it I enforce my will, letting go of the crown, letting it hang from Furioso's rifle. He bags it quickly. Chapter Meme:&nbsp; <a href="https://i.redd.it/odatrz1zkpj21.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://i.redd.it/odatrz1zkpj21.jpg</a>

Session 9: You don't want to steal this book, you want to go home and rethink your life. (if you like it then you shoulda put a ring on it) (Awarded) Returning back to the base with crown safely sealed away and Seth sends out a request someone to get him a box for the crown and Hunter is sent off to achieve the Logs and return. About half an hour passes by since Hunter went to his quarters, when Furioso starts to look worried, after a brief consultation, and the base is put on lockdown, we hasten our way to the quarters and making our way in, we see Hunter standing stock-still. He's just staring at the wall, lost in some kind of trance, as we slowly check the corners and make our way through the room, we notice that theres some kind of pendant, golden and with a stylised 'R' pendant. Bjorn identifies the magic in place, saying it's some kind of stasis spell, analogous to the kind Bjorn has been idly researching. As Ambella removes the item, which is inert except to the wearer, the commander immediately twists around, throwing a punch at Ambella's midsection, which I catch it. The Titan's can't take the log without breaking the truce, which leaves Seamus. On using the special phrase to summon him, he obviously exhibits an air of not knowing whatever. Grey and I sprint to the crown when he spots the thieves, a group of fairies with the book, making their way through the walls to try escape. Alerted, Grey and Ambella are immediately on the scene, as the fairies falter and circle around the book.&nbsp; Grey handily swipes the book out of the fairies hand, and I attempt to talk them down, reasoning with them. They do not oblige, spewing bolts at us, taking down Ambella as she convulses in pain, as one fairy calls for 'Mother', and Seth and Bjorn appear, and a grenade flies forward, scattering some of them. Seth reappears at an opportune point, sending out a blast of lightning through their ranks, scattering them again. Grey, holding the very thick book, vanishes into the darkness. I manifest my blade and step forth, offering one final chance to back. The fairy-leader waves her hand to the side, and the other fairies vanish. She stands there, looking at me, with her hands out to the side. A small spark of energy goes out, healing Ambella further as I continue talking. She apologises to me, although addressing us as mortals. And floated over to me, removing her armlet, leaving it behind as she vanishes. Of course, it's the size of a pinkie ring. The legion bursts out spoiling for a fight, practically shoving me out of the doorway. Seth interrupts, telling the leads to head over to the briefing room as I send the data from the fight over to Toon for analysis. Toon tells me that her name is Tituna, the leader of the rebelling southern magical creatures. Interesting. Ambella is analysing the book, which appears to have been taken apart, rebound several dozen times as more and more pages and entries have been added, with Seth requesting that Toon analyses the book, a task that seems impossible without taking it directly to the research facility, far off in the mountains.&nbsp; With a legion escort and our psy-blockers active, we're teleported over to the facility, but instead of Seamus taking us party over the facility, we end up stepping out outside of Nellfrane. Not where we're supposed to be, something Seamus voices. We're standing in the street outside, and Seth and the others can sense a strong magical being inside. Par for the course. I follow Seth as he heads towards the door, which opens . What appears to be a gel-haired elf is at the door, hands up non-threateningly, and asking us to put the weapons down. Something we won't do until this 'issue' has been resolved. The new guy explains that he's here due to an 'unregistered' portal, and he's here to figure out the details and the appropriate&nbsp;actions that need to be taken. Of course he said it in more words, but that's what it boils down to. Well, his presence is an awfully coincidental occurence. After allaying our suspicions, we do have somewhere to be. Upon being shown the portal, there's quite clearly a portal, but it's also very definitely unpowered, and it appears to have attachments that make sure that it cannot be opened. After Seamus asks Bjorn for some grenades, I leave immediately, and before long we're on our way to the facility. We're in the moutains, on a snow covered road that seems to ride right into some kind of mountain. It'd be hard to see anything of note, but then the base is a secret one. Which is why we hitch a ride with the random person sent to pick us up. Before long, we're in the bowels of a Neptorian secret facility, being escorted by the building itself to some kind of briefing room, where a general is in a meeting, which we interrupt, then we're interrupted when a wall turns into Toon's face, then our imperial authorisation is confirmed face to face, before we're taken over to some kind of hanger area, deep underground, far from any ocean. Toon appears, and greets us in a friendly and excited manner, even addressing Seth as the Supreme Commander. Interesting detail, considering he wasn't called that this far in the past, apart from by other time travellers. The book is placed on the table, and carefully dissected, with the data being allocated as it each page and binding was carefully separated. He finds that the first entries are in Greystone harbour, and is also the founding site for the legion, as well as the site of where the Scorch was supposed to first be. No such thing as coincidence. Seth explains to Seamus his visions, how he was manipulated into putting on the crown that drains him of his powers. This enlightening note is interrupted, when a name is spelled out:&nbsp; Seamus Glav Halos hThe name of none other than the Traveler's predecessor. Someone dead for over five millennia. But who could use such information, and for what? But there are others with similar powers, nothing that could seem to work like this. Although Seamus does note one foe of his predecessor, a titan with the ability to pause time that's still alive. As they discuss what sort of manner in which the names can be altered while still being undetected, but that's interrupted when Toon says he's decrypted the writings in the bindings. They're written by Ventris, and they're the instructions for a spell in which the bodies of the fallen can be found in their battles against the Haemotitan. Seamus, on hearing her name mentions that &lt;REDACTED&gt;, is how the powers of the traveller works.&nbsp; The writing on the margins of the book are being altered to prevent the bodies being found. The information will be kept, the original log destroyed once the new one is available. As Toon says goodbye to Deedee, and we're about to leave, suddenly everything feels off. We're not on the base, we're on a ship, and the scent of blood-mage pervades the air. Seamus urges us to cluster up, and as soon as possible, we're gone, reappearing above the waters of Greystone bay, missing the harbour quay by a couple of minutes. f*ckin Seamus. We're headed to a tavern called the Azure Rose, which, on entering, is definitely a legion bar, with a ton of legion memorabilia from the old days. On entering, there's some kind of macabre taxidermy of many parts of animals stitched together, and it's wearing the Ley of the Bloodrose. It being the middle of the day, the bar is deserted. Seth walks up and asks for the creepy mermaid, and the innkeeper hurriedly agrees to just let us have the 'screaming hag', just in return for a picture or two with the legionnaires. On handling the item, it definitely isn't a thing stitched together, it actually is a single creature. Weird as f*ck. Ambella goes ahead to prevent any interference between the powers of the item and Seamus, and before long we're all back in the briefing room at the legion HQ. The artefacts are parcelled out into three separate boxes, and kept apart. Still mulling over the items, I suggest why we couldn't just manipulate the mirror magic to give them reflections of the items. Seth compounds on that, why not give them the mirror dimension variants of the items. As we're all preparing on our own, Seamus pipes up, brandishing a coin as if it's the answer to all our problems - flip the coin, and you're teleported back over here. He also offers to take a look at the faerie ring while there's time. Seth and Ambella are off working on mirror magics in the room with the Ley, so we head off to the Academy at Prime, with one step starting on Nellfrane ending in a classroom. Handing the ring over to one of the students, he begins to examine the ring, before explaining that he knows what it is, excitedly flipping through a textbook, and nattering away. A ring of retaliation, an ancient Azure Legion artefact that enhances the mistakes an enemy makes, should they foul their blows, highlighting an opening and allowing the wearer to retaliate. Back at the base, the lack of an apparent immediate invasion hasn't broken the tension, everyone is still on high alert. Before long, the preparations are complete and we're back in the conference room, preparing for our delves into the appropriate mirrors/realms. &lt;Redacted&gt; As Grey, Bjorn and myself return to the mirror side of the, we notice that the apartment on this side is completely vacant, almost sterile. Something feels very definitely off, but we're back through the mirror and into the real world, and we're soon all back in the conference room. --------- We soon have all three artefacts ready, and Seamus takes us with the portals and soon we're at Pinnacle Bay, and we're ready. There's a haemotitan servant of some kind waiting for us, evidently not expecting us exactly then, but he activates a message, and liaises us with his commanders. He hands over a datapad, and on it is leukaemia on the screen. On confirming that we've met their requests, she says to stand by. A pair of troops come down, and first the Ley is given, he seems to confirm it and takes it through the portal, and Seth explains the wards, preventing the boxes with crown and ley interfering with each other. The crown is sent, and a single page from the Logs. No prizes for what's supposed to be there. It's done. The fleet is still on its way, so all we have to do is "not start a fight" and they'll arrive and leave. Over the next several hours, more and more ships are coming in and taking positions outside the 'flashpoints' for when the haemotitan ships arrive. All the allied crews are well out of the way by the time over twice the expected enemy fleet arrives alongside a veritable host of troop transports. They burn the area around them, turn around and leave without incident. Job Done. Chapter Meme:&nbsp; <a href="https://66.media.tumblr.com/7e72707a689e09fcc712cefa850b0245/tumblr_mv79xnvrYJ1roili5o1_500.gif" rel="nofollow">https://66.media.tumblr.com/7e72707a689e09fcc712cefa850b0245/tumblr_mv79xnvrYJ1roili5o1_500.gif</a> Chapter Excerpt: They say that life and death are intertwined in a story as old as time, two faces of the same coin. This is the story of a mortal.&nbsp; The war had been raging for decades, leaving ashes and ruin across a planet in turmoil. A generation moulded in the crucible of fire, battling against invaders innumerable to protect what they held dear. But the fire was dying out, and finally, after a generation of war, the planet would be united under one rule. The one that embarked this conquest, found on his throne. His eyes speak of his thirst to finish the war, gaunt-clad hands outstretched to claw victory out of the jaws of defeat. He sits immobile on his throne, unmoving since the earliest days of the conflict, since the death of the Emperor. A figure frozen, embodying a moment that sparked and then fuelled the resistance .But still, the weight of the ebony crown on his head is apparent to all who've visited the throne room. Clad in silver and gold, the figure is silent. Imposing. A figurehead seen by millions since the start of the war and one of the most well known faces on the planet. The silence is broken as the golden gorget protecting his neck trembles and then falls inert. The hand reaching out closes its grasp in a movement that started in a different time. His eyes blink. He looks around the room. "Wait. Where's my hot chocolate. Where the f*ck am I?" "Seamus?!"

Session 10: A man out of time (Awarded) After the celebrations and the negotiations are over, with the Emperor promising to open negotiations with the southern magical creatures, we make our goodbyes and we pack our items and prepare to head back home. We step back through the portal. Appearing a half foot above the ground, we enter into a storm of lightning, as Seth seems to exude blasts of lightning, barely constrained by his armour, a roaring scream emanating as he drops to his knee, tasking gasping breaths. Ambella falls onto Grey and appears to convulse, trying not to vomit as her legs buckle. Looking up, I see a troupe of Federation officers and two dragonkin, one very familiar, spinning around, having already been surrounding us, weapons pointed at us. Muttering to myself, "Is it just me, or am I getting a sense of de ja vu?" I show the Tiamat insignia as the black dragonkin shouts out orders to get on the ground etc etc. Y'know, same as last time. Doesn't look like he's seen the sigil. But considering their known and visible allegience to Tiamat, I shouldn't get shot. Much. Seth seems to cast something, and then everyone pointing guns at us all relax, lowering their weaponry. Nuhull and the other dragon definitely recognise Seth, and they approach, bathing us in an aura of healing. Asking if he's okay, obviously not checking up on the rest of us, we're basically his pets or carry-on luggage. But something is definitely off, something is not quite the same as it should be. After a brief discussion, the black dragon beckons to take them to a private conference room. Muttering to himself before dismissing everyone out and back to their posts. Apparently we were supposed to arrive in three more days. We step down from combat-ready as the nano-armour settles into passive mode. We're led to a very familiar conference room, one without Hale, for once. Probably. We're supposed to take a VIP, no prizes for guessing who they are, to meet Tiamat. Sound familiar? At least this time around, Atlantis Station and millions of others will be alive. Ambella taps Seth's shoulder, warning us that a visitor is on the way, someone we've met before. Children of the Blood, but instead of entering, she walks just past the door, fingers lazily trailing the walls. Ventris, the only one who decides to venture this far into Federation Space. It appears the Blood keep their distance, as those who make it in are locked in stasis after capture, since they "can't be killed", Ambella audibly snorts at that.&nbsp; Apparently Grey's a commander, along with everyone else except Ambella, who's a chief.Nice accolades, although if my watch is right, we're gonna lose those in a couple of weeks.&nbsp; As we head out of the room, Ventriss finally notices us all, and hurries over, greeting us rather enthusiastically. Huh. Well, I guess that somethings are slightly different. I have to stare at Ambella for a bit. Apparently the others are also gobsmacked, though not to the extent that Ambella is. We're taken by Seth's brother to his quarters, going past Enforcers and the like before entering a marble-slabbed area, and Seth's brother shouts out a name "Barrexen", and what appears to be a tiny cyclone pretending to an elf that's actually a dragon hits Seth like a GKR.&nbsp; Each of us gets our 'lives' given to us.&nbsp; In a combat hosted by house Atticus, myself and Onnok, my human best friend won our freedom, before touring as combatants and entertainers as gladiators cruises as a way of getting money before I was hired by the Tiamat's forces. Onnok died, two different reports, one says that I killed him in a dispute that has caused me some remorse. Apparently he lied and hid something from me, the official report says that we were attacked and he died in the ambush. The side notes say our brawl leveled a city block,&nbsp; The Quingol report seems to be saying that some possible fatalities amongst possible enemies who weren't 'officially' enemies, including Scara and Torou. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but that's something I need to confirm. Luckily I know her true name.&nbsp; My allegience to Aloura makes me almost indestructible. I do hope I've left myself notes. We each spend out time reading on who we are this time around. After a rather pleasant dinner, we retire to our rooms and get the first night's sleep we've had in eighty years. I rouse in the morning, getting myself up and grabbing some breakfast. Everyone else appears to be either tormenting or obsessing over their new pasts, but I appear to have a legitimate life.&nbsp; Hale is providing breakfast here, as we discuss some lighter topics while we all get ready, when Grey and Tress does finally arrive, DD asks if that's a wanted person, to which Grey - "NO! I'M NOT A WANTED PERSON, I'M A GOOD KIT-PERSON, I'M A GOOD PERSON!", <a href="https://www.memesmonkey.com/images/memesmonkey/10/106642f3ea84c02f06c6c6f681298d85.jpeg" rel="nofollow">https://www.memesmonkey.com/images/memesmonkey/10/106642f3ea84c02f06c6c6f681298d85.jpeg</a> Although he was clearly talking about Tress, but drops the point, realising there's a good reason for them to all be surrounded by Tiamat employees. Soon that ship will arrive, and we can pick up all the information on our past selves. Not long after, some familiar faces arrive. Ralph and Peyton. Obviously they've only just met us. Apparently Necrosis has been leashed, and used to hunt down titans. The crown that exploded tore into all the children of the blood, blowing the ship they were on apart. Those embedded by parts of the crown fused into them, increasing them in power, and they could now take on Necrosis, now known as 'the avenger'. A shame, that crown spoke to me on some level, although maybe it's safer destroyed and dispersed. After a brief soiree, we decide to move our 'coming back' celebration over to the training facility, a much more open space where Seth's brother won't fuss about any stains getting on his cashmir carpets or whatever. Seth approaches Ralph, who vehemently states that he doesn't want to spar with a dragon, pointing out that Seth has two psychopaths in his retinue, pointing at Grey and Tress. A brief conversation later, and he realises that we've all been partially trained by him the last time we went through this. He's hungry so he leaves to grab some food, mentioning how much he's looking forwards to training on this trip. Heading back, there appear to be powerlords in attendance as we head back to our bunks. We get the call some time later that the ship jumped in but hasn't moved. It takes a little convincing, but they're on their way again. We get a slightly excessive escort en route to the docking area. On the way, I'm completely unsurprised to see our regular bunch of mercenaries/bounty hunters who aknowledged. As well as an Avian who we hadn't expected to still be alive. Dawn doesn't look hostile, merely puzzled at our presence, while Killerbee is also there. I get a notification on my HUD and one of the Children has been highlighted, and when Seth highlights her with a targeter, all the bountyhunters redeploy to cover her. Good to know that. Apparently noticing, she drops down and makes her way through the crowds towards us, a crowd which is doing whatever it can to be out of the way.&nbsp; Seth raises his hand as the titan approaches and greets him, bowing lower when she realises he raised his hand. Apparently her sister has gone missing, probably going after Seth, and to tell her that her brother may need her help sooner rather than later. She then exposites that we don't know what happened to the other 'jumper'. She offers a datapad's worth of information, saying that one day reckonings will occur before she leaves. Pompous bastards. It appears the data is messages between Arturus and Ventris, going up to last night. As Seth drops the dataslate, the Sheriff appears, greets Seth before walking off. Interesting. The bounty hunters all begin to disperse. As we reach the Pilgrim, the whole ship, according to Ambella, is warded to a degree beyond belief, to a level that is beyond any of us. Tiamat must've really invested in keeping us alive. None other than Gill meets us on the ramp, chattering excitedly but it's 'a long story', so we're saving it for the flight. "We're preparing for Through-Jump" Huh? Well, must be something developed as a tangent tech. As we enter the common area, we're met with a bug kermit the spiky butler, who offers to get us refreshments. Interesting. I decide to observe as Grey attempts to interact with the bugbutler, named Alie. After that entertaining show, I head to my room, having to guess the password. First thing I notice are these three skulls. One of which is definitely a skull with a succubus tail attached, another with the Emperor's Mark buried in it and a dozen others in the room. A chest of drawers in the corner is filled with different garbs. The lowest seem to be society clothing, the middle is filled with gladiatorial gear, more art than functional. Some knicknacks above that and finally the top draw only has a single knife on a velvet pillow. Easily the most depressing room i've been in, and I've been to two different hells. I must talk to Aloura about this. I'm interrupted as the intercom notifies as we jump through the rings. I take stock of the ship, there's a lot of differences in the ship compared to what I remembered, more complex and more arcane equipment. The cargo deck has been overtaken by a ton of Bjorn's foundry and smithing gear, and slabs of mithril. A team meeting is called in the lounge area. There's a lot to be addressed. We meet Northorn on the way, he looks less soft than he was before.&nbsp; We're not the versions that these guys know. And it looks like the choices that we made altered the timeline to such an extent that the present we are experiencing is different to what we're used to. Seamus appears, talking to us about how we're finding this reality. We do have some problems. Apparently Seamus intervened at some points, but with the repeated loops stuck on Neptor, a lot of the past has been changed, which in turn has impacted our new present. Dawn's knife and Volt are in the party's possession, and apparently in her possession too, so that's a f*ckup. Apparently I skinned Scara as well. And apparently saving Cane and Dread from their own stupidity cost the lives of hostages over in Quingol. It appears who I was before was still bound to Aloura, as she doesn't manifest... linearly. Chapter Meme:&nbsp; <a href="https://i.imgur.com/rFnqQFd.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://i.imgur.com/rFnqQFd.jpg</a> Chapter Meme:&nbsp; <a href="https://i.imgflip.com/30qwub.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://i.imgflip.com/30qwub.jpg</a>

Session 12: The Stakes Rise. (awarded) On our flight to Ashroar (again), Seth's been going around the ship, putting down a ton of potted plants. It kinda feels like a cross between a midlife crisis or just general Seth doings. Apparently they're just regular plants, I guess he's probably just practicing some kind of life magic. Everyone is obviously suspicious, as Seth doesn't really do 'fun' that doesn't involve artillery and creating lakes. He does note that he has a project in mind, something to do with creating life. A project for reclaiming scorch infested planets through a kind of terraforming. As we get clearance to land on Ashroar, we end up in an upscale landing facility in one of the skybourne facilities. Gill says that we're expected, and the meeting's some time tomorrow. As a brief, the twins are a few days out, the jester's here, so is negemphrael, the sniper duo is a few days out. He's also picking up the queen of hearts, so Ventris is on-planet somewhere, most likely in the outskirts of the city. Bullwolf activity is also higher than the norm, so to be aware. Ambella heads off to the Brazen Fair, and Grey's heading off to stalk the wildlife. As we're disembarking, there's a huge crowds that's being dispersed by Bullwolves that've entered the city and are heading towards our berth. The populace is definitely on edge, with a whole pack of these predators stalking the streets looking for Grey. After a quick prompting, Grey changes his armour to be a bit more discrete, and the murderpuppies plus Grey head off into the wood. Ambella and I, accompanied by Northorn and Bjorn decide to hit the stores. Ambella warns him that if he gets us banned from the Fair, she'll make his suffering legendary. As we're heading off, we notice what appears to be a well dressed high class motorcycle delivery guy, who's holding up a sign with Grey's name on it, so we take a picture, send it out to him, and then walk on. We will not speak of the hat. As the shops are mostly closed at this time of night, we decide to pick a little more of a cultured evening to gather some information. Due to the tragedy at St Martins, there are many memorium nights going on, with some advertising going on as well. As we're making our way downtown, walking fast, Ambella alerts us that there's a blood mage around, but it isn't Ventris. Better to get into it now. As we head in, Capulus is bound by the wrists near the speaker array, she's now looking a LOT older. It looks like she's being used as a living battery to give out 'feel good vibes' to the crowd. Disgusting. As Northorn is led away by Ambella, I notice that Bjorn is licking someone's leg. Okay then. Looking around, by the time Ambella's back, we notice that at the back wall, there are squads worth of legionnaires, with full gear, in the back. Ambella heads off to gather some information while I take Bjorn over to the bar. The bartender comes back with a wooden box, and sets it down on the bar, definitely a fan, judging by how he reacted when he sees me, can't complain, since I'm getting served for free. The box contains a specialty alcohol, which he pours into some shot glasses, begging for a signature for a souvenir Mark that he'd picked up somewhere.&nbsp; I now know how to forge my own signature, as he quickfires out a series of questions. The bartender does trip over, but allay his embarrassment, I pretend not to see it, sipping the drink, as Ambella heads to a back room with a legionnaire, and Bjorn attempts to scale a barstool. Not a word to the elf. Ambella tells us that she met Sly and her husband, Reginald, sound familiar? Well, this time around, they're both alive, guarding the 'imprisonment' of Capulus, in a slow and lazy circle heading inwards towards Prime. We get a ring, head over, grab some kind of wristband to resist the energy wave that she emits. Staticite somewhere in there, judging by how it feels. They're all due to ship out tomorrow morning, but just in case, we grab their comm codes.There's a discussion over bringing Leukaemia in, eventually, after all, they're all war criminals with insane powers. Still, we need more intel. There's a little incident where Bjorn appears to be choking on some blasphemy. It still appears that the crown fragments cannot be removed from the titans, as far as they can still tell. With that sorted, we head out to the location of the ship. The newsfeeds seem to be of the opinion that Ash (Grey) has been tamed for use by the dragoncorps. Looks like everyone is a few steps behind, as is normal. The calm walk back is interrupted as a discharge of energy shatters the peace of the night, an immediate comm from Gill that contact with Seth had been lost, and he'd been where Capulus was. Teleported into the vicinity by Ambella, Bjorn is clamped to my magboots as I combat drop towards what remains of the nightclub, battling through the centre of a blastwave, held in the air. Before long, the area begins to depressurise, dragging us all towards what was the epicentre of the blast, a glowing ball of light of some sort. Ambella steps to us, grabs us and we're on the roof of some building, and we're on the run to the centre. Well, what happened next is memorialised all over the damn place. And Capulus' sentence was carried out. After everyone clears out, Ventriss and Ambella head off, Bjorn grabs a drink, and I take to the skies, searching for something interesting on my flight, while I mull over what just happened. As I'm flying, I notice a figure with something that isn't a Bullwolf pack, but a group of felines. As I land and meander my way towards the group, I notice something is off, and send out a pulse of psionic energy, detecting some kind of centaur lady, who, upons witnessing me, backs aware to the group, whistling to alert it the group, which rouse and warily approach. The group, approaches, one charges forwards, but I sit at the base of the tree, nibbling on my ration as she speeds towards me, weapons down. She comes skidding to a halt when I don't move, acting very confused. I continue to eat, with the other half of the ration pack open to the reach of the hippogriffs, it takes a tentative sniff, simultaneously trying to take it while keeping maximum distance away from me. The centauresses flank me, quizzicle while I continue to calmly eat. The tranquility is interrupted, as a musky smell precedes what I assume to be their leader, a centaur. This one actually speaks, mockingly asking if I, a mortal, was planning on taming one of these creatures. I aknowledge that it wasn't my first thought, I was merely out for a nightly stroll to clear my head. He apologises to the Griffs for calling them beasts, but invites me as to share breakfast, dropping a sack full of fish, which the griffs begin to ravenously eat. At breakfasts end, we part ways, as they prepare for the day, a time when more dangerous predators roam the woods. I thank them for their hospitality, handing over a commbead before I take flight, heading back to the ship. As we wake up, and I remove Jasmine from around my throat, catching her up on the events of the day/night, before bidding her a good day's rest. I gear up and head to the common room for second breakfast. By the time I'm finishing up, I sense a presence of exceptional power heading towards the ship. One I recognise. She is the Avian Imperial Justicar, Florienne, pretty much a final word in avian law. We gear up and head down, meeting her in front of the ship. She greets Seth, and the orb she's carrying morphs apart, showing footage of the Neptirian conflict. She mentions that we've altered the timeline, which Seth confirms. And that we've 'taken' the places of who we once were. The footage continues, showing Ambella's shot that removes half of Leukaemia, then the rest of her disappears. That's not something that happened. The sequence of events is changed, the fight devolves into a bloodbath for both sides, ending with everyone dead. Once she's established that the timeline is different, we go over why; the crown and its effect on the universe when it all blew up. How this change was a spark, an ember that led to the mass deaths amongst Avian nobility. After identifying some of us, she says she has a dataslate to us, with the details of our mission. On asking, House Alistair is dead, with the surviving members under investigation. House Atticus seems to have escaped the worst, but the Cleansing is coming. After she's left, we notice there's a second hungover dwarf, they're probably related. Almost all of us accompany Seth to the board meeting, running into the guy with 'Ash' on his datapad, which Grey signs for, and he gets an amazing box, which just happens to have a motorcycle in it. As we head in, we notice the guy that Seamus was supposed to meet. As we're heading in, an elongated four armed humanoid glides towards us, he's the business owner of Skybourne. He greets Seth, that he has received the plans sent ahead of us, and leads us to the conference room. The entire building seems to be completely empty, and it appears that the elevator has teleported us to some outside area, along with a picnic. We do feel the presence of something powerful through the 'glass' surrounding our picnic site, but Seth continues to read the contracts as I doze off in the pleasant climate. Chapter Meme:&nbsp; <a href="https://media1.tenor.com/images/2ce1bf1fa63217fb8b4b930d679b28f7/tenor.gif?itemid=11488909" rel="nofollow">https://media1.tenor.com/images/2ce1bf1fa63217fb8b4b930d679b28f7/tenor.gif?itemid=11488909</a> Chapter Meme 2:&nbsp; <a href="https://img.memecdn.com/sweet-armour-bro_o_471597.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://img.memecdn.com/sweet-armour-bro_o_471597.jpg</a>

Session 13: (Awarded for both) After the meeting, we return to the ship, as Ambella also returns from her shopping trip, with presents. I get an avian cookbook, which starts with soups, and then working through various dinner stuffs. Grey gets a book on how to interact with cat people and Bjorn gets evidence for premeditated behaviour. As we're settling in, Dawn and Killer bee, self proclaimed 'ladies of heaven' turn up with a sh*t ton of booze. They head over to Ambella's quarters while I decide to weather the storm back in my quarters. As they head off, I'm heading off to catch up on all the logistical catchup, replacing any missing equipment and commissioning a spearhaft for the Mark, just a little extra reach and more weight to it. The upgraded blade is going to be a necessary, after what I just saw Seth do that night. Skybound, being a nanotech industrial corps, should be able to make something to facilitate this, along with an upgrades to the nanosuit's shields and the hammer. As I'm shopping later, I get a call from Skybound, the spear would be ready in just a few days, much earlier than expected.&nbsp; Session 14: All actions have consequences. I run into Dawn, who explains a little more about the Mark, such as some hidden features about it. In a fight, he can assist me, and technically isn't allowed to let me come to harm. Good talk. --------- After four days in the woods, Grey and I return to the ship, as my arm is having a little trouble staying attached at my shoulder. After some recuperation, and with lessons learned, I head back in, with Seth and Grey for a slightly better experience, where we end up taking down two Bullwolves. Returning to the ship, I hear about&nbsp;Lucilius , leader of a small planetary defense force on the edges of Avian/Human space, my research is interrupted however, when we decide to play an impromptu game of Brainfightchicken. Ambella loses and the alcohol content of the ship's atmosphere becomes noticeably more alcoholic for a few days, similar to something you'd find in a flammable aerosol spray.&nbsp; There's an incident in the forge area, as the power's shut off as part of the 'Plausible Deniability Protocols', but the weeks pass without further incident. St. Matrin’s Khal, a galaxy class ship, the largest cruise liner in the known universe, with a full sized gladiator stadium seating over 500,000 mid-sized beings. Our mission is to find it, as it's gone missing recently. After wandering through the ship, and being unable to make it a few steps&nbsp;without tripping, it's becoming more and more apparent that we're going to need a bigger ship. With everyone necessary embarked. Dropping out of the jump, we begin heading towards Lucillius' station, as he may have information on the Khal's disappearance. Arriving at the planet we see a small contingence of avian patrols on the long border patrols. Access to the surface requires us to dock the larger ship and take a shuttle down. Proceding without a hitch, we find our way towards Lucillius position. Arriving at the site, we decide to enter via the more ornate sky-door, rather than taking the servant entrance on the floor. Ventriss takes the lead, so we follow her in, and in the lobby we see another Offblood in the weirdest outfit ever. An elf with a datapad comes up from us, and upon asking, his earpiece blows up. And he steps out of the way as two avians in business bling drop down into the room. Greeting and welcoming us, they escort us past all the security into a huge, lavish, polished slab coreite, from some deceased planet's core. Definitely one of the most expensive items I've seen, and extremely out of place this far out of the core systems. We take seats on one side of the table, as refreshments are brought in by an assortie of different servants, until soon there's a feast spread out in front of us. Some ornately decorated avians, with the stance of avian assault troopers, take up positions on the other side of the room. A 12ft tall avian with golden wings, an awakened mage, walks in. He wears a circlet of blue flame on his head, red skin, solid black eyes with no pupils. He just stands there watching us. Lucillius and some human underling comes in and that human is definitely overdressed for a regular human in the avian empire. He also seems magically inclined and powerful. He greets us by the names we're known on this plane, mistakes Northorn for a dragoncorps operative, who orders some food and then names Seth as his speaker. Seth outlines that we're here after the Khal, the disappearance of which can't be a coincidence, considering the spate of destabilising events that began to shake the foundations of Avian society. He buys the story that we're all here on personal interests in the case. They attempt to assign a catspaw, but its to keep its distance. We won't tolerate interference with our activities, so Master Modius follows us out. He'll be accompanying us aboard The Visellius. Discussing the past of Ash, he's handed a coin by Modius, an item prized by those who've earned freedom from slavery within the empire. We make our way back to our conveyance, and Seth puts up privacy wards, allowing Modius to speak freely in private. He comments on the wide variety of skills useable by the group. He also asks us to confirm that what we're intending is honourable. Which we can easily confirm. He heads off to his ship, and we prepare to head off into a nebula, the last place the Khal was seen heading into before it went missing. We get comms from the Axus Tiberius, Lt Comm of the Visellius, offering to act as backup. Back in the hold, Grey is trying to use some kind of mind magic to avoid projectiles. Although judging by Ambella's foetal sobbing with laughter position, it probably wasn't entirely his own efforts that created the outcome. After a few days, we get a reading of the last position, and we begin scanning and searching the sites and routes we expected the ship to take. Before long, on our flight path we read a huge warp signature, something a cruise liner shouldn't have, but it's on the route heading towards the exit. Plotting previous trip imagery, we notice a vortex of 3000miles in diameter, the size of a planet, a hole's been made. Something we can track. Something that would make a hole this big would be something the size of the Barge we saw on Quingol. We follow it into the Nebula, and unlike every time i've been this way. A wave of some kind of exhilerating feeling. Something's off. Ambella looks on edge. The ship engines just cut out, and we've begun drifting. We've lost contact with our escort, and there are some unidentified contacts on the screen. The ship is remotely activated to pull back from the void. There's a ring of sensor-like items orbiting the hole. All suspicious. Gill hacks into the blast doors and with Seth's aid, decompresses the ship enough to induce unconsciousness, disabling them as we pull everyone back out of the Nebula, only one visible casualty, a lone body flushed out of an airlock. The effect/ aura of the nebula dissipates immediately. On comms to the Visellius, it turns out that Modius was that person that took a spacewalk, and that they've sustained casualties, so they're returning to base for repairs.. Ambella suits up, bringing him back from his unscheduled walkies.&nbsp; A ritual enacted by Seth and Ambella, with our aid seems to track some kind of entity through a black hole. There's some kind of ship out there, and it's heading towards us. it feels hungry. For a second, I almost heard Stryder's voice beckoning us. Definitely a trap. It comes into vision, wreckage, surrounded by unpowered, dead ships. The vision is from somewhere in orbit around Ineon 4114. It looks like, from the layout of the debris, something barrelled its way through the formation. It is physically possible that the Khal passed through here. The Avian battleship continues to draw closer, but after flashing our credentials, it goes on to become a glorified traffic guard. We can't risk a ship of that tonnage tearing itself apart for no reason. A smaller elite crew will be of much more use here. Especially with the reputation this area of space has, Ineon a spatial graveyard where ships go missing constantly, so spacers avoided it as much as possible. As we approached, we found a derelict Avian carrier, surrounded by debris. We begin to be drawn towards the ship, some platitudes of some lies about the ship seem to reverberate from the walls. There's even a message from the ship. Seth heads off to check why we're heading towards the ship rather than towards the body we wanted to check. Gill is in recovery. This raises issues beyond belief. The creature skulking and puppetting uses and discards people. Thousands of young nobles, hundreds of thousands on the missing ships. This creature needs to burn for its crimes. Several hours later, Gill tells us he's reconnected to comms, and they've found the Khal. It's going slow, and has some damage, but seems intact but on the move. Titan 2 returns and docks to us. We tag its location, returning back to base with Modius, submitting our reports and recommendations.

Session 15: A prelude to vengeance. (awarded) With Seth gone for the evening for some reason or another, I sit down in my room and begin sketching as a mood comes along. By the time I'm ready for sleep, across from the bed is an emblem, perfect in size for a breastplate or a shield, maybe a pauldron. I talk to Jasmine about who might be after her, namely a non-priority target, so I take it up with Seth. The rationality being that she's no longer bound to the haemotitan, and she's no bigger a target than any of the rest of us. After a perfunctory conversation, she's given freedoms to move around the ship and assist us. Gill comms Seth to command, sounding pretty flustered. Apparently the sensors in the nebula had been positioned decades ago, specifically for this ship. And the visitor list for the Khal is put up. It lists something like a who's who of the rich, famous and powerful. The sensors themselves were built at Tiberius III, one of the largest in avian space, and Gill can't figure out how the hell they even work - they're transmitting data to a receptor on the other side of the black hole, and somethings literally sucking the data into the hole. Seth heads off to make his report, the rest of us prepare to head out towards the shipyards, apparently there's also a package there for us to check. Tiberius III is essentially a shipfactory, one of the largest of its kind, the biggest in the empire and the one that can build Galaxy-class ships. A powerhouse the outfits the avian empire, with the security and manpower to match. It takes us five days, so all of us prepare or work on our own little projects. By the time we arrive, I've managed to finish off the symbol. On arrival, we're hailed and then placed on a waiting pattern. After a small scan-fly-by by some avian fighters, nothing happens for a few hours. And then we're met up by a battlegroup, and we involuntarily dock within a battleship. First up the ramp is some kind of insane tech-obsessed giggling goblin thing, Two silverwinged avians follow the goblin in, they ask permission to board, then introduce themselves, saying that they're to assist us where they can. Apparently one of their new, shiny, ships is being put under Seth's command, the Golden Tiger. Soon the rest of us are introduced and we're off to a briefing. Ahead of us are avian shock troopers in parade formation, an impressive array of might as an introduction. We eventually reach a brief, noting on the way that all the accessways we used were completely empty. On arrival, there's a single human, with a level of shielding that we've only seen amongst Tiamat's operators. He introduces himself as Lt Helrig, unfortunately, the latest intelligence he has is what we've supplied him, or stuff that we already have. With that out of the way, it comes to the ship. We're pulling up alongside it, and after getting our assigned positions, we're introduced to the flight team leaders, four flights, each of five squads. They'll be under Seth's command for our tenure. Aboard the ship is a massive crew of many dozens of races, I wonder idly who actually hired them, something for us to find out before we're too far out. On our route, we note that Ambella and Grey seem to be getting the most looks, although judging by how many autographs Lanius signed today, I have been pretty well recognised. After a few hours of breaking in the suites, which were pretty damn luxurious compared to the regular fare we've had, we had out to the formal dinner with the rest of the bridge crew. There are a lot of bridge crew, of note is one commander Nat Hill, a dwarven elite trooper who's head of the ship's marines for this mission. A trooper with a notable record on ground. I note that after a little while, Seth makes contact, and I assume, has her guard the room, sparing her from the tedium of social mingling. Judging by the sh*teating grin when she gets a hammer, I'd say that's an accurate presumption. Grey notices that one of the communications officers has been acting a bit odd, he's stood up and moved away from his chair, heading to the food, and when he turns around with something in his hands, he's hit by a hammer. He's very dead. Examining the body, there's detonator and a bunch of explosives beneath the table. The room attempts to vacate, but that's not going to happen until everyone has been checked. Seth finds five more. On tipping off the avian commander, those five are rather unsubtly pushed against the wall and placed under guard. Seth prepares his rituals. Like a body relearning to differentiate between what tumour and what is self, they're slowly excised of the corruption. Before long, the room is clear and we have plans on how to vet and then clear the rest of the crew, starting with the mages and the awakened, then moving on to the rest of the crew. It takes the better part of two days to go through just the mages. With another nine for the psions. The crew itself takes longer, with massively higher incidences over key workgroups, In the end, it takes 27 days. Camit, the ship's head chaplain is well involved in this. We brief the bridge on the vampire intelligence, and start planning. It turns out that the orders for those sensors came through the Alaister family. Looks like another dead end of sort, but looking at the paperwork and events, site after site, Allaister personnel have been haemhoraging losses for over half a year, and they've been one of the most proponent backers of the current Emperor. We gather for a ritual. It's time that Ambella was excised of her tumour. As we're working on that, Avian empire awakened are gathering, but chaos occurs across the empire, the deathtoll rises as thousands are lost. The time of preparation is over long before we wanted. The Intelligence must die for this. I can hear them. This brings us rather handily to one of the things that makes the Golden Tiger a prototype, it's experimental jump drive. A quavering ten second countdown from the helm, and then we're gone, feeling as if the very atoms of our beings are quivering. We return to realspace, and there's a shuttle out there, Seth gives it permission to come dock. We've arrived at Saphus, the waypoint to Yenia, where the Intelligence is. We board the Pilgrim, and a little girl arrives, greeting 'mister Hunter' and Ambella, handing out a flower and up the ramp she goes. Followed shortly after by a marine contingent, who then follow Ambella to the sealed armoury. It appears that they have picked up some rifles, and the girl seems to be blessing them. I stay still, meditating and praying for what will come when planetfall occurs. A reckoning comes. Seth attempts to find where this abomination is located. We spiral down, missiles coming up from the derelicts detonating all around, and despite a few knocks we're steered expertly through the atmosphere, painting the missile sites en-route. Seth works on his ley-line projects. A small voice pipes up from behind 'before we all go, can we hold hands'. She prays to the mother to protect us from harm, and before we know it, it's time. The ramp slams down, and the girl vanishes. Chaos. Fighters emerge from the debris, and we descend through a firestorm, members of us shooting out, downing fighters on our way down. Skimming the ground, we begin unloading onto the dirt, and we spread, firing and moving, firing and moving. There's a mission to accomplish. There's seven ley lines to take down, and we're not leaving without this getting done. We split up, I go with Ambella, manifesting my blade as a sickle, my hammer in the offhand. Ambella duels with a tentacled creature, striking it down. I have purpose. “Can you hear them?” I ask the air. “My people, the echoes of them in this place. An indelible mark a terrible slaughter leaves long after it has ended.” "Like songs woven of wails."&nbsp; "One foe who did this I slew, though that end is a pittance compared to the madness that was this. But there is an enemy that stands before us, using their works for ruinous purpose and waging war on all of us. That, too, is a scale to balance.” “It will kill some of you,” I warn. “There is little kindness in some powers.” “for those taken before their time, who wish to go home to your loved ones, that is the only kindness I can offer.” "I too have been dead, so kindness is not what I offer to you this day." “So rise, my brothers, my sisters,” He called, voice like thunder. “Rise once more, for we yet have debts unsettled and I would call on you this one time.” “One last time, into the breach.” The ground shudders, Ambella comms about the leyline being gone, but I can't listen, I can hear them instead. The ground moves underneath my feet, and I can sense something. Something that needs to be excised from this universe. I can barely see it, an eye surrounded by writhing fanged tentacles, the power coursing through my veins, I can feel Ambella still nearby, as she fires a round into it. I can see a blinding flash. The eye is splattered across the area. Bodies start getting up, but pierced by glowing energy they start rising, ascending away from the planet. I spot a few wolven forms. A tentacles swipes towards me. Raising the sickle, I bisect it, striding past as its severed tendril drops to the ground. The creature is shrinking, apparently trying to escape. Above us, flames catch the atmosphere as something up ahead of there is fighting too. The ground shudders and cracks as another leyline cuts out and the creature's tentacles are thrashing around, tearing the land asunder. With one leyline left, I charge forward, winged and resplendent, I had to buy enough time for the last line to close. A lightning wreathed dragon slams into the ground near the eye, ripping through the root, and tearing a hole in reality, through which the creature tries to flee. I follow. Into the jaws of death, into the mouth of hell! It's a glowing orb of some kind, the other haven't followed through. Sickle crackling with energy, I charge in, and the contest to the death begins. It swipes at Ambella as she comes through, and then again when Seth is through. Northorn, Grey, Ventriss comes through as well. Seth blasts it with lightning, and it shatters through its core, sparks boiling through its entirety before it finally succumbed, blasted apart by energies it can't withstand. It's quiet for a few seconds, and then finally the realm we went through began to crumble. I grab Northorn as flails around a little, and we're back through the portal and into our dimension. The leyline crumbled, and the atmosphere is slowly leaving&nbsp;this planet, our pickup is on its way. Above, the space battle is over. Returning, we hear that there have been casualties on the ship, and I head to them, the dead deserve to be heard, and pass on. There's a boy there, his chest a ruin. As I offer him passage, a sheer amount of energy passes through me, healing his chest, he jerks awake, panicking and asking for his parents. I see another on the floor that looks like it could be the father, but over to the side a woman sees him moving, and tears forwards into him. A servant maid awakes too, panicking as well before she's led to somewhere to recover. The last to awake comes back... wrong. Little more than a shell of a creature, and it looks like something came back instead of the true owner. Ambella destroys the body, and failing Northorn's fire, my blade fells whatever creature oozes out. Finishing with the last of the bodies, I send a report to Lucillius to gather the dead before I finally collapse in my bed. Chapter Meme:&nbsp; <a href="https://img.memecdn.com/guardians-of-the-galaxy-circle-of-friends_o_5634059.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://img.memecdn.com/guardians-of-the-galaxy-circle-of-friends_o_5634059.jpg</a> Chapter Gif:&nbsp; <a href="https://im.ezgif.com/tmp/ezgif-1-f01191045e6c.gif" rel="nofollow">https://im.ezgif.com/tmp/ezgif-1-f01191045e6c.gif</a>

Session 16: More Vengeance, with a topping of Vengeance, and a side order of Vengeance (awarded) As we recover, I contact Lucillius, Yenia is to be turned into a mausoleum world of Aloura, a final resting place for the dead of Stryder's victims, to be preserved, and the one's whos time it wasn't, they'll get a chance to return. My own involvement will be kept mostly out of the public eye, but it won't be publicised, more of an open secret. As the ship gets underway to its newest destination, and the Empire deals with the fallout of these events, I aid in the preparations of the Yenia Sanctuary, I train with Jasmine. It feels like this was just a squall before a storm. Grey arrives, asking for advice on who he really is, if he was part of Ash as well, I only have the words 'Quiet but Crippling'. Ambella arrives, I'm sitting, contemplating my hammer, the one asking about me. "It feels like the end of a chapter, like we've accomplished a milestone on the way." She offers me something, a focus of sorts that's been partially completed, something to resonate with my abilities, a gift from the heart. She offers to help train with it alongside Grey, to which I heartily accept. That's when I hear Crystal's voice say "The current time is 14:30, Galactic Standard." What have they done. I decide it's time. This hammer has served me well, but it's raison d'etre is no longer with me, it would do better on the planet of the creature it was commissioned to fight against, all that time ago. Yes. It would make a fitting relic for the Yenia Sanctuary. It's time to take a new hammer, and await the appearance of a new foe. There are some different options arrayed before us, but we decide to investigate the recent new from the goblins, they're trying to reclaim their long lost homeworld, and the rumours of artefacts in the midst. Before long, we're throughjumping to Neptor, arriving 16 hours out. Luckily, the navigators alarmed panicking is mostly just due to the shock of the jump. Docking at the space station, Gill picks up on the local comms, pleasure cruises are apparently visiting the wreckage on the moon, a little piece of our own past, and a reminder of our effect on the area. Just before we touch down in the Pilgrim, we receive a call to Seth, from the Emperor's office, his secretary.&nbsp; Before long, Ambella's vanished, again. Looks like the hunt is on. I'm going to need that hammer now, for I have a new enemy. Before long though, Ambella is back with her mother, and we're all whisked off to have lunchies with the Emperor, now in his middle ages since we last saw him, decades ago. There he is. A titan, dressed flamboyantly beyond reason, I have this nigh-irrisistable urge to stab him, he's attempting to manipulate the situations on the planet to 'nudge' Neptor into the Federation, which definitely picks up when it appears he and Seth seem to get into an argument. But it settles down, with neither making any throws to violence, and with Seth managing to convince the Emperor to trust his own, not some outsider with blatant ulterior motives, it appears that some points were scored, and Flamboyant took his leave, coating his path with his slimy charm. Stopping only to place an order for the new hammer and preparing the old one for transport back to Yenia, we make our way back to the ships. Before long, we're underway again, taking the longer route since the previous throughjump resulted in most of the awakened crew basically being knocked out of the game for a little. 18 days of travel to our next drop point, Ambella with her possibly severely traumatised mother. Hopefully nothing goes long on this trip. We meet in the mornings to train with Ambella and Grey with the foci. Upon dropping out of warp, the ship is put on battlestations, I grab some gear, and heading over to the Ambella's room, we're going to the Elven capital to murder some bloodmages outside they're jurisdiction. Chapter Gif:&nbsp; <a href="https://im.ezgif.com/tmp/ezgif-1-f91b5e4f52b2.gif" rel="nofollow">https://im.ezgif.com/tmp/ezgif-1-f91b5e4f52b2.gif</a>

Session 17: Scythe doesn't matter, it's how you use it. (awarded) Through the portal, I follow on the heels of the Grey-shaped blur, which sends blasts towards the rather wide-eyed looking enemy. Shots from Grey take down a few shielding minions, and I plunge my blade into his lower abdomen, bypassing his frantic blade parry, and before he can even retort, a shell from Ambella hits him in the chest, painting the room, slightly damaging a shelf of ancient elven poetry scrolls. Grey spins over my shoulder, landing on the demon's... well, where his head should be, and blasts the two remaining hemo-soldiers, one goes down, along with an imp or two, but the other is still alive, swaying on his feet until I bisect him and kick what's left to the floor. "Anyone else?" I challenge mockingly, well aware that the area they've got to walk through to get me is in the killing field of the shaped charge Bjorn has industriously been setting up on the other side of the wall. Taking the challenge, shots fire past, and a hellhound charges straight at me, I drop to my knees as it leaps to where I was, encountering only my blade, which bisects it, sending its halves slumping to the ground behind me. Further back, I hear a thud, and Ambella vomiting on the comms, and in front of me the wall blasts open, and fire consumes a column of the enemy that's been baited in. Grey shoots down the corridor some more, and I vault over the imps, heading straight for the enemy that tried so hard to down Ambella. Feeling the aura of her mark on the creature, I exploit it to the fullest, my blows landing with a flurry of fury, and before long, the snake-creature is laid low, cutting the head off the snake and leaving the imps behind him in disarray, they attempt to swarm me, but they hit nothing, and I strike down half of them, followed swiftly by the remainder. The gunfire continues behind me but then stutters to a halt, punctuated by Grey's pistols., I return to the fray in time to watch Ambella's aggressive remodeling of the office we came in through. With the local enforcement en route, we begin planning our next move. Maybe a contacting of the council, trying to figure out the motives of the players here. With a dearth of blood mages now dead, a modicum of payback has been made. Checking the bodies, it appears Parnasus left behind a cursed scythe of sanity sucking, Gotye left behind a bunch of slaving devices. Asp left nothing, one of the twins left a bow. Some of them had little shards of the Crown within them. I do attempt to let their souls pass in peace, but the shells have no souls. They must've returned to whence they came. The Scythe wielded by the demon is, however, filled with souls. Channelling Alloura, I spread the power around, when I reopen my eyes, all the bodies are gone, and with damn wide eyes, the cursed scythe is in my hand.The thing feels much more cleansed, no longer entrapping the souls it once held. I do feel a little voice in the back of my mind, but it's time to fall back to the ship through the portal. Ambella heads back to her mother, and I head back to our rooms, catching Grey staring really perplexedly at his scarf. I keep seeing some random grey cat (that isn't Grey) wondering around as well. We're soon in Gauntlet space, and the bridge makes contact, it becomes apparent that the Scythe identifies itself as belonging to Ambella, so I comply, dropping it off at her quarters with more than a little smugness about it. You know, the Emperor's Mark... Within the system is an assortment of ships, something that would qualify as a medly of scrap parts melded together, as well as a hemotitan contingent as well. Seth summons a delegation from the assembled fleets. The dagger situation does not go well. Before long, a group of battleships drop out of warp behind us. Four dwarven. They have rather... colourful names, considering current company. They take up positions around us. One Captain Beowulf, who we've met in another timeline, is one of the captains, they've come of their own volition to aid in the efforts here. An elven galaxy carrier is also arriving, and they too are sending a delegation, having heard of a possible counter to the Scorch in this engagment. Several hours pass, and soon people arrive en mass.having been chosen by one metric or another of being worthy enough to be a representing voice of their peoples. The goblins, in return for the assistance of the orcs and trolls, will tell them how to turn back the scorch on their respective homeworlds. We meet the goblin delegation separately, apparently led by some general Toknoss. After misidentifying Seth as a human... somehow. And asking us to relinquish control of the Golden Lion to them... somehow. And the goblins are also apparently familiar with dragons, muttering the name of some known delinquent who has previously been masquerading as gods to some lesser or isolated races. As is the case of our involvement, before long, someone's pinned against the wall and being lectured to. Classic Seth. The goblin, once he's required, sounds a lot more petulant, and invites to his ship to continue the discussion. A few more diplomatic incidents later, and we're over at the bridge. Once a certain pisser is ejected out the airlock, we run into an interesting humanoid, one with a tattooed anchor on his chest... maybe a Seamus, judging by an anchor tattoo and the discussion of time. But after a little bit of hocus pocus and handwaving, he manages to demonstrate a process that turns scorch backwards. Most interesting. After avoiding a most inept attempt to get our ship, the general is left in charge of the operation. For now. Ambella takes us back to the ship Ambella asks for my assistance with something, so I oblige, as she requires some close quarters weapons training. We have to split up soon though, with Ambella receiving a visitor in the hanger bay and Seth meeting a diplomatic delegation. Down at the hanger, is that girl from the fight with Stryder, apparently Ambella has recognised her. Some interesting comments and actions. For some reason I can't remember the contents of the conversation, so it can't possibly have been important. I do get the feeling I shouldn't go over the top with new weaponry... scrotum hoodies?

Session 19: Mother Knows Best (awarded) As we approach the city, we hear announcements that some kind of shield is going out. Maybe announcements isn't quite the right word, but it's definitely an alert. Not many humans in the crowd, but there is a varied amount of the other alien races. Making our way through the crowds, we decide to find some accommodation for the night, probably one of the inns of the city. The first we see is known as the Beggar's Resort. Looks like the beggar's last resort. The next is the Floating Cross, with a giant cross and a ton of armed guards, no weapons apparently. The next inn has some name about a ghostly old lady and a bicycle. Apart from the turret hanging like a chandelier, Ambella notices some large avian that she apparently recognises. More time shenanigans. I try to ignore Ambella waving at her bottle of drink, but before long, my attention is drawn to a commotion, and on looking up into the sky, the city's shield is going up, but it looks like a freighter on the way isn't going to make its way through before the shield bisects it, but miles in the sky and with nothing that can make it, we can only watch it burn. Then there's a bunch of weird giant mole people causing plants to grow everywhere. Honestly, this city... As Ambella socialises, Grey notes out that someone is paying undue attention to Ambella's conversation, completely ignoring the naked waitress, which is ever so slightly rude. After the others split up, Ambella sits next to the guy, and I keep overwatch while relieving the poor waitress of the heavy platter of refreshments/snacks. Nothing seems to come of it, they aren't even able to speak the same language to each other. Some weirdo comes in, begging to sell a 'drop of Mother'. Noone in the bar wants to buy it, and people even leave. The bartender. Minotaurs enter, grab one, and the vial off the other, pouring it out. Apparently drops of Mother aren't supposed to be taken. Seth leads us to somewhere, apparently some Guildhall of the Mother. Apparently the same place the Minotaurs came from. Entering the building, there's a pool of quicksilver in the centre of the room, and the weight of the presence in the room is almost suffocating in its intensity. The Minotaurs throw the misbegotten fools into the pool. Then out of the silver pool, a quicksilver figure of Lucy rises up and greets us all by name. And begins chattering away, but a second figure splits off from her and moves to a babbling templegoer. She then speaks to each of us, and tells me to have the purest of thoughts when I meet her. I'm going to die to another god again, I just know it.&nbsp; After some advice about getting some transportation later in the trip, we head off North East, avoiding the main cluster of pilgrims, we see some irregularities, like a freak sandstorm, but it's a ship, disc-shaped, that fires a few rockets at the other Pilgrims before fleeing off into the distance. After a few months of trekking, we get into the rhythm of things, until one night. The floor bursts as a Faerie Tree, scrambling with my nerves in my throat to scramble to stop the tree bursting through the tent, throwing canvases over the branches. The tree then pops off the fairies as expected, but also a ton of little sugar bauble kinda things. They immediately swarm to Ambella, sniffing out her fey aura. Apparently they imprinted, and after a night of babysitting, a bunch of snacking and then they vanish out the tent and into the wild. Four more months pass, and we come in sight of the mountain ranges of the North, having picked up a beastie or two on the way.&nbsp; Several more weeks and we notice a horse up ahead, and after removing its long dead rider, it seems to be much happier. After burying the rider, we store his gear to return whoever would need it, most likely whatever Order he was a part of. The horse says that it is part of the Mother's Stables, and is on its way North there, in the same direction that we are. Two more months pass, and we stumble across a pair of giant, hundreds of metres long snakes basking in the moonglow, in the more tolerable temperatures. Rather than risk a confrontation, we fall back and make camp out of sight. Once the sun's gone down again, we circumvent around them, avoiding any chance of a fight. We're on edge for a few more days, and then on the third day we come across a boneyard, all of which are several metres long, but without any skulls around, we can't identify the species. Three weeks later, we see some kind of.. castle? After four days, it seems that this is taking longer for us to approach than it should. Ambella checks it out on her scope, and it appears to be a massive crab with a town on its shell. A nomadic settlement that's heading back to Mother known as Zenfury. It takes us two and a half months to catch up with the moving city, and it comes to rest at the foothills of the mountainrange, apparently to rest before it climbs.Within the city we find a sacred waterfall, and run into another Minotaur priest, where we give over the dead Paladin's accoutrements to be better wrapped, and they give us some better carrying gear to take with us. The horse then takes the paladin's gear to the castle, while we follow a different path to the Mother. We arrive at a large village full of overly happy peoples, and we're taken over to an inn to rest. The next night, some priests arrive and let us know we can head up to the cave, to let us know if its our turn to see the mother. Within the cave is a massive area you could almost fit a freighter in, with marble columns and pools of liquid quicksilver. Up further in is a walkway leading around a whole lake of quicksilver. There's only enough room for one of us at a time, so one of us goes up at a time. Ambella and Dayvad get no reaction from the lake, but Seth causes it to bubble, and the form of the Mother. Northorn goes up, and then its my turn. I kneel, and through my head runs a series of images, wars and battles I already know. What I want to be, I already have the potential for it. Just a few hours later, and I can feel the weight of the blessing The others receive their own epiphanies, and some require some more time, so I venture over to the castle, enquiring about the dead paladin but also that he was a little... eccentric. I spend my spare time reading the tomes at the Paladin's castle till the rest are ready. Before the fortnight is over, we're ready.

Session 20: (not completed, requires editing) Apart from the idyllic existence and a thirst for life, and an oddly large number of birds. One day I seem to have reorganised the library and redone, dusted etc. everything's been put in some place and I appear to be standing outside when I suddenly realise something. Something that's off, judging by how Seth's doing an excellent expression of a Disney Princess and patio decorator, while Grey appears to be training as a nurse of some kind. Everyone's become so absorbed in their focuses that they seem to be tuning out all other things. But not to too bad of a detriment, but it is odd nonetheless. I have become fully aware that there is some kind of compulsion as Seth begins constructing his fountain, something that yearns in me to help in his project. Fully aware that not all my current motives may be my own, I cautiously decide to help out and before long, the project is fully under way and before long,&nbsp; Father has one rule, which is to choose between you cannot lie or you cannot tell the truth. If you break the rule, then you get eaten by chaos demons. Don't always believe what you see, as your eyes may be deceived. After her customary goodbye once Gilfryn comes out of his fasting/self flagellation in the temple, and before long, we're all back on the bridge of the along with an alarming amount of sand. Typical. Why don't we go to places with less sand? Back on the bridge, we notice immediately that Tress and a navigator has the glow of the walk on them, as well as Lanzar, the 2nd in Command. After that, I head over to the showers and prepare myself for at least a week of relaxation. I'm still in the showers when Seth begins laying down the law, particularly about balancing the lives of a few dozen injured engineers against tens of thousands to millions of dead, so man up and get back to work. As we head down, in the Northern Reaches of Osiris' territory, we hear of a plagued planet, with the nearest battleships 5 days out. The planet has a population of around 3 million, with half a million of them infected. We decide to fly by, keep an eye on it. Gill identifies that the plague carries alarming similarities with the Scorch, but its only affecting the people, not the land. Ambella notes that groups of people are going to die, but not all of them will. As we're landing on the capital, we note that the pattern of spreading, finding likely origin points for this plague, which is looking more and more like it was seeded on the planet as some kind of test. we're escorted to the site by the native representatives. Within the village itself, there are no sightings, but we do manage, from the gossip of the village, that there is some kind of site a few miles out of the village. On arriving, we notice some trees have been marked out, and then, lo and behold, there's one of the Scorchwarden like things. The creature didn't spread the scorch, but it died on arrival, continuing on to infect the locals. We attempt to figure out what killed it, and that's when we notice that her throat's been slit, almost immediately after the impact. Which is most odd, as these aren't supposed to be able to be killed. To sterilise the area, Seth pretty much melts the creature, and soon we're off to the second sight, with Grey immediately picking out where the creature is. Forming up, we move up, and suddenly, we notice that she's in a stasis bubble, same damage as before, but this time there's more than enough evidence of a fight, with torn ground and weapons discharge. Inside the stasis bubble, the scorch has managed to spread a few feet from her. Gill gives a cursory examination on the integrity of the stasis field, and it looks like there's 40 years of safe time before the bubble requires any maintenance. So not something that needs to be solved in my lifeti- ah, wait. Up ahead, there's something that I can sense a repulsive, strong blast of energy, something old, something undead. We come across a woodland copse, teeming with natural beauty. Off to the side of the clearing is a small freighter, out of which has fallen a crate, or some kind of storage device from which the smell of the undead comes from it.&nbsp; We can sense a bloodmage in that freighter. None other than Necrosis, the Avenger. After a discussion, we acquire a Scorch goblin thing in a crate, as well as information that hemotitan regularly has dealing with vampire intelligences. After swapping contact details and assuring that the area is sterilised. Returning to populated areas, I let out Aloura's Aura, which cleanses those with a chance of survival, while those that are too far gone are eased into the next life, with as little pain as possible.&nbsp; A meeting occurs with the local 'government', a bunch of Horus led faction. They attempt to acquire all the scorch samples but with some expert negotiation (Seth says no), and upon finding out that we're pilgrims, they just give up and head out, asking for copies of the research. Before long, we're preparing for Janus, where Grey uses Gin gitsu in our sparring matches to somehow impress all of us. We arrive at Janus, going up to the world encircling, glittering serpent, there are the two doors, and the choice we have to make, only speaking the truth or only speaking in lies. "Present yourselves, adventurers." And we get the speech we expected, the one rule, warnings about the nature of the realm of chaos, reality seems to f*ck around with directions, we pick our door and appear miles apart from each other on the sky islands. I picked truth, and can only speak it. Due to Seth's increased bond between us, we can all sort of feel where the others in the group are, it should help immensely should something try to fool us. Seeing a large derelict building, I decide to investigate it on a whim, flipping a coin whether to enter or not, I end up inside a bar as soon as I catch the coin, with several of the patrons looking at me. All of them are in an eclectic mixture of clothing from different time periods and seasons.&nbsp; The bartender is a large avian male, and appears to be watching as I try to explain to Gil what happened, and all the patrons occasionally keep checking the ceiling. After a brief conversation about which time people are in, there's a mild curfuffle as two of the knights appear to approach the exit in a similar manner as someone about to storm a castle, vanishing as they go through the door. I decide, according to the coin, to try checking upstairs, walking up the stairs and as I step onto the stairs, I appear in front of Ambella, in front of a large seventy plus story skyscraper that's just surrounded with bones all over the floor. They appear to be the remains of those who've jumped.&nbsp; It's at this point when we realise we're all quite hungry, noticing the sword summoner&nbsp; having his lunch and those house sized beetles are closing in. That's when he decides to go fight some beetles, his initial attack bouncing off the beetle's armour, along with all his following attacks. After he beats a retreat, the others attempt to tussle with the beetles, managing to remove a claw, but doing f*ck all otherwise. Ambella's surgical shots manage to keep removing limbs and the like.

Session 21: CHAOS REIGNS!?! We'd finally made our way outside the skyscraper, with a handful of cobbled together shelters, the swordmage had come from the wastelands, the same as us. The skyscraper is impossible to see into, but up to 30 meters out, there are skeletal bodies, presumably jumpers. The camps around appear to have been built and rebuilt over time, judging by the damage and oddities in the structures. When the bug drops, the inhabitants head off to it, while Ambella scopes out the structures and I check out the settlers themselves. There's one person who does catch our attention, a military type in low quality, practically ubiquitous gear. Ambella begins talking to that local, who appears to have gear ranging from about a century and a half ago, belonging to the Earthcore, and she says that her name is Sergeant Linda Travis, the last of her group of six that, by her perception, arrived just 20 years ago. Ambella trades her information for a share of the possibly edible beetle. Apparently, within the temple there is fellow who controls a launchpad, a way of reaching other islands, but access is restricted. I note that the people first armed themselves before grabbing a bowl and heading to the food. In the skyscraper, accompanied by the sound of machinery, a turret comes out of one of the window areas, accompanied by a well armoured trooper, who uses the scope to figure out what the commotion is. Over at the beetle, the others are eating a share of the bug.&nbsp; Ambella waves at the guard, to which the guard sets the turret facing in her general direction, to which she conveys an obvious sense of general disappointment. The sword mage fellow takes their helmet off and then comes over to us, it seems to be some kind of high elf, who tries to talk to her while I grab a couple of trail rations and we head to the door. &nbsp;As we head up to the door, and the armoured person speaks in a metallic voice, and are told that there's a challenge associated with the launch pad. The door reopens soon and I see none other than the Sheriff from the Bazaar, "approach", so we do. She has her pistols ready. We get an explanation, the Trial is surviving the launchpad. The first floor always kills, as does the rest of the first four floors. She also comments that something about us smells off, but not the High Elf. Apparently she can also hear our mindlink. Gill takes a look at the consoles, and apart from the hole in reality that's there. Before too long, Ambella and Seth begin a bug throwing championship, which is only slightly stalled when some guards try shooting Seth, obviously they can't even hurt him. Not long after, a skeleton appears outside the out, apparently someone fell afoul of far too many fairies. As dark approaches, there's a commotion as everyone, including those in the shanties outside, makes a break for the first floor, everyone starts to feel drowsy. Apparently anyone outside the first floor, with its own dedicated life support falls asleep with nightfall, and upon waking up, seems like they'll wake up on a different island. Something we seem to infer has happened to Seth judging by his rapid removal from our current position. Gill has an idea. Apparently, there's some kind of gravitational fluctuation monitoring and as he's saying how simple it is while walking into the void. And he's gone. Ambella's following suite. Followed by everyone else.&nbsp; I attempt to bring another with me, but alas, noone could see it.&nbsp;"My name is Corvus, look me up whenever you get out," laughing as they point their guns at me, I step backwards into the void. "Huh, didn't expect that," I say, as I'm standing where the Sheriff was. "Hey Linda, wanna see something interesting?" Laughing, I do it again. ------------- I drop to a knee, covered in friction burns and bruised from my terminal velocity landing, almost completely naked. The two years were kinda boring, to be honest, but I have a decent length of beard now and a much more rugged countenance, so I can't complain too much. Apparently there's a fight, so I'm off, Seth asking if I can bring over a live specimen. I make no promises as my nano-armour reforms, leaving Seth to play with his magic circles. With night falling, we make our way as fast as we can to the castle, but we just arrive in front of the Avatar, Reginald, who looks significantly redder and... less world sized than before. He asks us if we've earned Father's blessing. I merely reply with "Seventeen Years." And that's all it takes for me to go on. The others are each asked their own questions. Then it's time to see Father, who, according to reginald, is "In Here." He made that gesture in a wide sweep, so it's time to look around. I will not speak of the fairy. But I do end up exploring to the south in the hopes of finding the pool they were talking about back in the main antechamber, dodging some kind of magical energy that just passes by me, I head towards the pool. Over the comms I can still hear Northorn talking. After a brief and pleasant conversation, the mermaid in the pool says that she has a vault, with a sword that she wants me to look at, with directions to go to, and in a realm of chaos, I say: Why not? ------------------------- Chapter Meme:&nbsp; <a href="https://data.whicdn.com/images/307946821/original.gif" rel="nofollow">https://data.whicdn.com/images/307946821/original.gif</a> Chapter Meme:&nbsp; <a href="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/dd/01/fa/dd01fa86600dfadb272d2e78a664de5c.gif" rel="nofollow">https://i.pinimg.com/originals/dd/01/fa/dd01fa86600dfadb272d2e78a664de5c.gif</a>

Session 22: He says he's not dead Intermission: As I descend into the depths of Persephone's pool, I mildly enquire if there's somewhere I can shave, trying to deal with the fact that due to the lack of the Bond, I must be in a pocket realm or some other universe. As we descend, i notice that the surroundings change slightly, and below I can see the sea bed, along with sea life and mer people. I notice that Persephone's not actually a full mermaid, two legs and everything. Before I can realise I have reconnected with Aloura, I notice I'm no longer in water, but in the air, and I can feel myself transition into yet another dimension. The magic here feels... tainted. It feels like a magical sunburn, irritating my presence. We keep move and we're moved on, and in a much warmer clime, both she and myself are immediately dry and up ahead is a temple complex, with humans dressed in primitive garb, some kind of togas and tunics and the like. Everyone is human, as far as I can tell. As we approach, Persephone is mobbed by mortal wellwishers and greeters, who she mostly ignores, apparently being beneath her notice as she leads me through the crowd and into the building. The structure itself is sound, but ancient, with statues all over, maintained by people cleaning and undergoing maintenance. Those who are to attend to her needs are sort of hovering within earshot if she needs anything. She leads me over to a large and ornate sitting room, and the warmth of the place is very much noticeable, rendering the hearth or fireplace in here pretty much redundant.&nbsp; After being delivered refreshments, her garb changes to look more silken and pristine, as she acts as a silent tour guide, showing off the ambience of the place. It becomes more and more apparent that we're not in the mortal realms any more. Eventually we arrive at a statue of Zeus, the foot of which has a secret passageway, which leads into an armoire or vault, statues are gathered with display stands, showing off armaments and armour of the classical eras, spears and shields. The magical aura within is damn near blinding, which is when a Satyr arrives, inquiring about me. Apparently I'm being shown the weapons of the heroes, as I am and have been a champion before. She shows off the collection, the sword of theseus, the spear of odin. including a story about Leonidas and the three hundred, the cloak of whom resides here. As he goes through the story, I notice that Persephone is no longer around, and must have walked off at some point, letting the satyr show off the rest of the items.The shield and spear of Achilles, a seven foot tall warhammer, the hammer of Ajax, made from parts of the world tree itself. Upon being asked what I want, a weapon I can aspire to wield, I'm told that I'm a lofty and ridiculous person. I tell him that I'm a champion, facing those of my enemy and allowing the fallen to pass on peacefully to the next realm. On hearing this, I'm divested of my equipment and sent to a staging area, the staging area of a gladiatorial arena. Weapons and arms line the wall. I arm myself with a khopesh, a hammer and a shield, the weapons I've been using this whole time. I place the Mark on my hip, dial down the nanoarmour to honour duel mode and head out into the arena. The crowds begin baying for my blood as up ahead, the gates opposite me open, as a muscled and irate looking Minotaur comes out, with a spear, gladius, shield and a spare helmet on his belt, netting and the like. The duel begins. It feels like an eternity of fighting, blows and dodges, feints and stabs, and the minotaur goes from bored, to annoyed to starting to compete, with sparks flying and dents in everything as we spin in a whirlwind of steel. I give him a close shave, barely missing cutting open his throat and we both come to a standstill. Before long, both of us are laughing uproariously, and the duel comes to a natural end, with the crowds cheering their approval for an exhibition of deadly skill. A feast for a fight well fought, a blessing from a goddess of death, and I'm back in the Lion. Ah sh*t. --------------------------- Well, that took a lot longer than I expected, and I arrive on the threshold, and I see faces I have not seen in so many years. And Northorn's food. Gods, I didn't think I could miss Northorn's food. There is some... interesting level of therapy, I've regained half the weight I've lost during the trials. With less than a month to go, we're already in the training room, sparring, improving. The next domain we'll enter is War. Ambella is sought out by another aspirant. Seth invites all the members of the crew to compete in an unarmed combat tourney, the first pairing is myself against the Dwarven elite, Hill. Winning two out of three rounds, we take a respite as the good doctor and Seth are called up to the ring. Doc doesn't do so well, and Ambella doesn't do so well against the goblin security officer. I'm up against Seth, and in a whirlwind of fists, winning the first round, knocking Seth back a meter or two, drawing the second and technically winning the last with a significant amount of internal bleeding on my part.&nbsp; The last fight for me starts and ends with a single fast clock downing my pilot opponent, and he bows out, leaving me as the reigning champion. ------------------ Ambella summons me to her rooms, saying she's got something to talk about. And she holds out a box, which I reverentially take from her, and opening it, it's a blade of magnificent construction, Seeder-bone hilt with the symbolism of Ambella, and a mastercrafted blade with an edge that speaks to me. It has been... so long since I wield a sword. A princely gift that I will treasure, and bring ruination to my foes with. It's time to test it out. --------------- We're not going to talk about Zac. We arrive at the planet with its only spaceport, checking out our equipment, trying out the new gloves and sword for their feel, it's almost like I was born with that sword in my hand. There are sensor readings of activity from all over, but all the windows and doors seem to be open. After a brief survey, we're interrupted when a large ork with a meat cleaver the size of a person. He introduces himself as Molia, the Avatar of War, and he makes some idle chitchat with Ambella about the death of the previous avatar of death, an all round douche. His advice is killshots only, as part of a group, taking down an enemy will leave you open to attack by others. His other advice is that the most obvious paths are definitely trapped, and to avoid the forge. He then explains the one rule, while Ambella begins turning into spikelady. The rule is that there's a door on the left another on the right, the rule is to not attack first. He recommends we stick together, then he leaves. The door on the right has moss growing at its base. The one on the left has sand and the ocean breeze&nbsp; Chapter Meme:&nbsp; <a href="https://66.media.tumblr.com/a70fdef3ae0b28a07e6a6ecb76bee1eb/tumblr_n8cqa3m4uo1r9x5ovo4_250.gif" rel="nofollow">https://66.media.tumblr.com/a70fdef3ae0b28a07e6a6ecb76bee1eb/tumblr_n8cqa3m4uo1r9x5ovo4_250.gif</a>

Session 23:&nbsp; You could describe the view we see as we look around as like the entry to some kind of advertising spree you'd find targeting new students coming to a university. A sh*t ton of noise and people trying to get you to sign up for stuff. We decide to cool our heels for a while, let the meatshields go ahead so that the route is much quieter. We notice only a couple of others doing the same, a titan meditating before combat, a group of warriors preparing in a corner. The countdown has begun, and soon the stalls begin closing down, preparing for whatever it is that happens when it hits zero. The sound in the hall quietens down, and by the time the 5second mark goes, it's almost dead quiet. At zero, a siren goes off and the shutter doors begin grinding open, and everyone else bursts out, racing for some unseen objective. As we start heading out, we notice another timer, a 3 minutes ish timer, counting down. Interesting. With no real objective point, we head right down the middle of the area, with Gill sneakily unveiling a bunch of omni assault drones. Might come in handy as we head down. Far behind us, a horn sounds off back at the lobby, signalling that the gates are closing shut. Up ahead is a gang of relatively hardy looking fighters, once within talking distance he inquires whether we're looking for a warband or just passing through. Oh, we're definitely going through whatever's in my way, so I guess its the latter. Apparently he's some famous elder orc of some kind, but we ain't got time for that. Up ahead, we can two locations which radiate the power, but we continue straight down the middle, running into that titan from earlier, a group and then blood mages are sensed around. The giant addresses Seth as the supreme commander, saying that they're in the company of Legends! Crazy bastards! and set in motion a generation spanning war, all are accurate, to be fair. He asks Seth to stand beside him, then Ambella, and finally Grey.&nbsp; War is an art form, as much as entertainment. Maybe not the very definition I want. but war is a tool to an end. I take my place alongside Ambella, facing down the bloodmage cohort. Those have been gathering in front of us.&nbsp; "Ow! I stubbed my toe" -&nbsp; We're considered Heroes to War, due to extending the Neptor conflict from its original timeframe of just 80 years to millenia's worth, and that we have his blessing, provided we can leave alive. He then declares Open War. The assembled masses ahead of us immediately begin to flee away from us. They do not get far. One particular blood mage flees at incredible speed, with Ambella begging to try out a combined attack, I acquiesce, interested in what she has planned. After 10 seconds of waiting, she reappears with the target, and stabs them with the scythe, bisecting it, and splattering my feet in its blood. Hm. On our way down to the forge, we encounter... token resistance. We arrive at the forge, and can sense a potent aura emanating from within, and there is a bubble encompassing it. At the front is a droid, which introduces itself as R-9 or Arnie. It tells us that a stasis field surrounds the forge, which prevents the use of magic and technology. The forge appears to be carved right out of a chunk of mountain, with smokestacks belching out clouds of matter. Grey is to infiltrate within, and to quote Seth "Just bash it" whatever it is that is power

Session 24: Teething Issues. We make our way forwards, with Ambella covering and Grey sneaking ahead and that's when it's noted that a bunch of bodies are there, and there's something wrong with the way the bodies have been laid out, and its not the way that Ambella taking shots would've caused. Spread out from the stasis field that prevents magic and technology. That's when Seth pipes up that these look suspiciously like lightning strikes from above. As Seth heads forwards lightning comes down from the sky and Seth vanishes in a flash of lightning. Typical. Zac appears to be trying to turn into a mole of some sort. I loudly request permission to enter, but there's no reply, so I decide not to step forwards to test the theory. While the others are preparing their various plans, I suddenly notice that the stasis field is for me at least. Knocking on the front door, I ask politely if I could see the wares of the forge. In the doorway is a gnarled looking dragonling with a ton of damage and scars, prosthetic limbs and the like, who says that "The Master Will See Me Now". I hope I don't get eaten again. Within is a large, gigantic, lightning dragon. Noting to me that very few people know about the mighty Forge because very few people walk back out of the Forge. Okay. I talk to the big scary dragon, and he offers many wondrous items, the price for which isn't mere money. He doesn't feel like improving on my armour, but he does have a helm that he can offer but all that he asks for in return is... I forget... Er. It feels like it was of the utmost importance but I cannot...&nbsp; Nevermind... it mustn't have been important as I'm soon walking out of the Forge and back towards the rest of the party Ambella asks for any schematics, but it appears that the inside of the Forge wasn't recorded, but I could describe what happens inside. Of course, all that's interrupted when the stasis field goes down and hordes of battlemaniacs and then there's a maelstrom of fighting and we're back inside the forge, but with totality of the team this time. Seth bellows out a challenge in his full form before dropping into his warrior size to get through the doors. The elder dragon up ahead does the exact same thing. Battle is joined. I begin to position myself to cover Ambella when she teleports to her position, while the others begin their attack. With my line of sight blocked, all I see is Grey opening up on the dragon, and manages to knock out one of its teeth, interrupting some kind of spell the dragon was gonna cast, I move up to the side and take a flanking position. The Seth pretty much ends the fight in one blow, I think. The halberd strikes the dragon in the leg, letting out a blast of force energy as it seems to phase through some part of the armour of the creature, and there's a blast of energy and we're back in the courtyard. Well, apparently we made history. That's when we hear this windbreaking noise as some kind of object plummets from the sky. A massive carapace armoured figure hits the ground, making a crater. Apparently the world is gone, having killed off Manatus, at least temporarily. This was definitely not my fault this time. We also seem to be missing all evidence of Bjorn being present in this timeline. It appears that the haemotitan sent agents back and found the direct tie to Bjorn and the GKRs, so they were wiped him from the history. So it appears that we have yet another issue we have to resolve. Obviously, the answer to that would be genocide, but that's when we hear that Highgarden has had some impromptu visitors. Us. Chapter Gif:&nbsp; <a href="https://i.imgur.com/NvkZRNJ.gif" rel="nofollow">https://i.imgur.com/NvkZRNJ.gif</a>

Chapter 25: As we drop out of warp around Stiria IV, the others notify me that there are several powerful beings around as well a Federation vessel, as two dwarven cruisers, one of which has a strong presence, a carrier and a galaxy class mining ship. There are also four large Terran ships, they appear more diplomatic rather than warship. One of those has a powerful presence. There's also a titan or more powerful presence coming from the planet. I think it's safe to say that we're detected as well, since we have a... er... notable presence. Several minutes after our arrival, like a predator arriving at the watering hole, the gazelles are scattering. There's a flurry of activity as everyone who was loitering suddenly decides they have better places to be, and quickly. With our ship now ready, we jump to the next destination, Poah riah, an elven repository of knowledge that they've deemed shouldn't be shared with the rest of the galaxy. Upon our arrival, there are two battleships slugging at each other. Nothing for the planet to worry about, it's one of the most well defended settlements in the known universe. Even as Ambella attempts to jump over to investigate, the ships immediately break off and begin to flee the system. Our fighters and guns manage to disable them before they can activate their warp engines and escape. To discourage any more antisocial behaviour, a picketline of missile pods is deployed. The commander and his retinue are detected to have escaped by teleportation. We deliver our ultimatums, and Seth and Ambella begin preparing some ritual that must defy the laws of reason, so I'm gonna go sit over there. Then we're suiting up and preparing the board the bridges of the ships. On our arrival, the enemy countermeasures of blasting us with lightning does nothing, the others have their magical defences while I skirt around the arcs of lightning. Before anyone can react, Grey's already neutralised the bridge crew with most of them dropping to the ground. A flaming bird comes out of the wreckage of the first ship, Ambella fires upon to no effect. Suitably irritating the creature, it then flew towards our ship. Ambella takes the rest of the strike team back to the Lion via teleportation, while I slash the viewing screen with my blade after commending the souls of the ship to the Plane of Death. Sucked out into space by the decompression, I get a perfect view of the ship I just departed being blasted apart. Before I can make contact with the bird, I appear back in the Lion's bridge in a puff of bluish purple glitter. I return just in time to catch Seth enact some kind of vengeance/justice ritual, which, from my understanding, is averted by the Phoenix, giving them a faster ending. Four Federation battleships, a carrier, two avian battleships and a complement of dwarven warships are about to drop out of warp, which is when we notice that there's a powerful being on the station, something much more powerful than a Titan. That's when Ambella keels over and faceplants into the console. Then she immediately stands up, draws her scythe in one hand, flashes with light, and suddenly there's another object in her hand, and she says that it's something she shouldn't have. And that she's apparently killed a time-cop. Typical. Ambella responds to the hails from the arriving fleet, and that seems to mollify them considerably. They've all seem to have heard different stories, all of which are bullsh*t. The space station corroborates our timeline, exonerating us of what little suspicion was left. That's when we run into Seamus, and the conversation goes about as much as you'd suspect. He wants the shiny button that Ambella has. Obviously we're not too happy for him to have it, but it's an anchor locator. Honestly, this stuff about time travel is beyond confusing. It appears that someone of Seamus' bloodline tampered with his anchor to erase his memories of Bjorn, that someone named Lucas is guarding the anchors. In the end, we have some more leads to tie up, where these Draconin came from and what they might be after. Also what the Huntaun were affiliated with. On the planet below, there is some damage from the wildfires in several areas, and with out offered assistance, the ship and ourselves deploy as we're needed to stem any further damage. On the planet's surface, I'm overwhelmed by the energy of Aloura, and I begin sending out tendrils of her power out to begin sending on the souls of the dead on to the next realms. Afterwards, back on the Lion, we begin preparations to correct the Bjorn conundrum. With the others preparing rituals or anchors, I begin searching for rumours and information about Utopia, finding a diner/eatery called Terra's last stop, where the owner bears a passing resemblance to the one Ambella saw, while sharing a name, It's something worth investigating. Ambella prepares to communicate one of her contacts, and I'm almost certain she turned into a little girl, but she definitely just vanished. Looks like we found the next avatar, and the next challenge.

Chapter 26: I spend the time meditating within my quarters, becoming closer to my magics. That's when I sense a bond with Aloura flare up. A paladin, A champion of life. In a burst of gold, I can manifest these 14 irridescant tendrils, almost like pseudolimbs of a sort. With Jasmine's aid, I manage to be able to manifest and manipulate these. The ship's course towards Ambella's presumed site is 3 months of travel. On day 5, we can feel Ambella's presence again. She arrives at my cabin a few minutes later, and despite my attempts at convincing her that 17 years have passed and I were a ghost of Corvus, she's just not fun about it at all. Stupid ability to tell time and space apart. After welcoming her back, and her confirming my assumptions of the Avatar's and Cosmic's location, she heads off to find Seth. We've got several months to go. Time to get some work done. During a spate of pranking, Ambella attempts to collude with Grey to ding dong ditch as many places as possible. She loses after literally walking into me. We arrive at "The Last Stop". Ambella teleports us in, within is Tera, the one I recognise from the records, an offblood woman and the bartender. Upon introducing herself to Seth, addressing him as Thedris when he steals her brain, metaphorically at least. I move the still-living body over to a chair, check that Zac hasn't been to snacky, then we address the others. That's when the Blood Titan, with a massive wolf arrives, she wants a chat with Seth. After Seth... finishes with the offblood, I give her Aloura's blessing, to guide her rebirth just a little. We're almost ready to dive in. This time our party has an extra member, Tress. After grabbing some refreshments, Seth goes to negotiate. Rules are no magic, no dying and to be honest. We're on a tiny rock floating in space, with just... nothing around us. Looking around, there's one star that I can see that looks ever so slightly different from all the others. So obviously we jump over towards it. As we're floating towards it, Corvus is the first to notice an unmoving space suit. A previous aspirant. After silently paying my respects, we continue on our way, speeding along. Apart from picking up a local radio station, and speeding past it, the journey remain uneventful until the second day.&nbsp; We sense a presence. Before long there's a blob of white energy, which Ambella waves to. She then hits an invisible wall that none of the rest of us hit. We spin back around, to see Ambella against that wall while a large blob/ eel creature arrives. It greets us, introducing itself as Utopia. Upon request, I say that my motivation is to bring good to those without, to be what checks the plagues upon the galaxy, whether sophont or uncaring. Each of us gives our motivation for this walk. Each of us is then asked who our master is. In the last, I work alongside those with matching goals, but in the end, I make the final choice, with whatever consequences that may occur. Something happens with Gill. We're returned to the bar, Seth goes to talk with Gill privately. Seth summons us to what appears to be used for entertaining private and restricted guests, as well as mopping up an spills. Gill had been letting information spill into Thedris' grasp. Collectively, with no actual harm, it's time to take advantage of this for our own gains. Seth decides to spaghettify and vanish then spaghettify and reappear. After ditching his dragon ball in one of the snapboxes, it becomes known to the rest of us that Tiamat is more than capable of abusing the link it gives for her own advantage. Something worrying when a possible future is Tiamat going up against the Lion and federation and avian ships in battle. It is rumoured that Travis owns one of Tiamat's 'eyes'. Thedriss may attempt to use any connections we've made since we 'met' Seth to his own advantage. Apparently there's a Tiamat agent on the ship who is very keen to take us in for questioning, as she, the operative, is sure that Tiamat would want to question us over the vision. It's much safer to keep her on ice for the several months trip back. I'm relaxing in my quarters with Jasmine when the power goes out.

Chapter 27: As I relax out of my latest meditation session, suddenly the momentum in the room smashes around, and I can sense the magics in the ship distorting well out of alignment as we fall out of warp. According to the comms, we've dropped out right in the middle of a firefight. Two battleships appear to be older Federation ships of the line and there's an elven carrier engaged with them. The markings on the 'Fed' ships aren't quite right, increasing our suspicion of them being Haemotitan. Of course, that was mostly precognitions, as soon as we're in realspace, yelling out "Tenant," I sprint out of the room, my gear forming on me, comms open for Ambella, just to speed things along. The pseudo-Federation ships have stopped firing but are in full retreat, with the Elven ship on full offense. That's when we sense a blood-mage on the ship, and in the space of a blink, we materialise in Zak's room as the alarms begin sounding. But Zak and the bloodmage are gone. All his items are missing as well. GODDAMNIT, NOT ANOTHER ONE?! TIIIIIME&lt; Ambella pulls out a gadget, presses a button and we're suddenly on a moon. There's a space station and some space shipping around, including some rather large freighters as well as some cargo container on the ground. According to Ambella we're several solar systems away from the Lion, but we haven't changed time. One of the freighters has its scanners active and looking in our direction, as it powers up shields and systems. The freighter begins to deploy missile pods, which Ambella begins to shoot out of the air. &gt; I sense that one of the Federation ships has the presence of a set of the Crown shards. Time to retrieve it. Gill fires up some kind of transporter and then I'm in my own little corridor of carnage. After dispatching the first few, I manifest the tendrils, and begin tearing the engineering section down to it's base metals. With the ship falling apart around me, I begin my relentless charge to the bridge, using my tendrils to swing around corners or through weaker sections of bulkhead. Sensing that the crown has teleported to the other ship, I commandeer an escape pod and launch myself towards the bridge of the second ship. As I'm hurtling towards the bridge, I sense that somewhere in the universe, some powerful being of roughly our level of power has just perished. Taking note, I begin the final approach. Pushing off ahead of it, I slam into the bridge. Then the escape pod slams into me and the bridge. Breaching the bridge, I land right in front of the target. I begin pushing up, dodging massive melee magics, cutting into the enemy, but immediately on gaining a slight advantage, my quarry escapes me, teleporting out. I stand my ground as the entire crew of a starship charges at me. I am irritated. She escaped with my prize, I will not forget. After a therapeutic few minutes, Ambella extracts me out, cleansing the bridge in fire. I totally saw that coming. We spend the next few days winding down, a little research on our pet projects. An Avatar has died, and I don't know which one, but it is most unsettling. I commune with Aluora, Rooster is the one that has died, his downfall wrought by Travis weakening him somehow. The mortal realms have been knocked out of balance by the loss of the Avatar and the mourning of his Creator. For days, mortals have not passed on. Then Ambella returns, alongside a bunch of powerful beings and another Avatar. She says that ships have been attacking the bar when Ambella rescues the patrons. the recordings show the haemotitan flagship, nicknamed the blood clot, alongside its battlefleet.

• 1