At the Factory
Cyra and Uther landed the car in the factory near the battle zone.
Mina gave Baudemagus the artifact. Baudemagus stopped her bleeding.
Sturm told Mina that Soto-sama was there. She relayed that to Baudemagus. He gave her his icons and went to talk to Drake in order to get permission to send some reinforcements. He said to tell Soto-sama that she had not been abandoned that that he supported her actions.
Uther collected Jane and brought her back to the car to protect her from the expected missile. Cyra cast an Iron Dome spell over everyone, including Soto-sama and her troops. In the mean time, Soto-sama healed Jane’s wounds. In return, Jane showed her Baudemagus’ icon and said “we are with him.”
Soto-sama asked “are you here to arrest me?” Jane replied that they were not.
Sturm decided that the Jaeger was better than a gunship, though it needed to be repaired. He advised the others that the incoming missile was approaching.
William noted in the Jaeger’s HUD display that the missile altered its course such that it would avoid the shrapnel damage, and instead merely collapsed the dome.
Uther gave Soto-sama the icon that he had recovered at the door. Uther told him that her lieutenant had tried to send a distress signal to summon help for for her force. Mina added that Baudemagus supported Soto-sama and was speaking with Drake on her behalf. Soto-sama commended the team for their accomplishments in such a short time.
Soto-sama noted that the team had decimated the factory where the enemy was imbuing the cyber-naki with Eidolon, which is something her people had been unable to accomplish after several months. William added that the Cyber-naki were Morholt’s project, and that Morholt had been injured and retreated to his domain. He asked if it was worth pursuing Morholt to his domain.
Soto-sama said that if Morholt had his own domain, he probably had a door there, and it would not be wise to attempt to face him in his own domain. Jane noted that Morholt’s guardian was currently impaled on a skyscraper, and Uther added that the artifact was out of play.
Soto-sama said that her concern was with the population of Fierce, especially those who had been changed into Cyber-naki, and how to change them back. They noted that with the removal of the artifact, all of the factories were effectively disabled.
Soto-sama stated that the Hive was a particularly dangerous place. At the top of the tower, the first half of the cyber-naki was settled, which also had access to sorcery.
Soto-sama mentioned several individuals that assist her that the team should not harm.
Explo-6 provided ordnance to Soto-sama. She asked that they not destroy him. They had met at the temple.
Saitou and Aitou were two cyber-naki that Soto-sama’s people released, and they were able to repair mechs.
Haran-san was trying to lead a resistance among the local people against both the Cyber-naki and Soto-sama.
- Amir
- Soto-Sama’s legate
- Morholt
- And others
Soto-sama mentioned that she wanted to get her family (husband, children, parents, etc.) out of danger.
Soto-sama then said she would inform his followers of who the team was and that they were not enemies. Uther asked if Soto-sama had a domain. She replied that she did not, and the domain must be both new and hostile. She had lived on Fierce all her life and was unaware of a domain.
Cyra used the guardian’s true name (Tharagaverug) to teleport it off the skyscraper to a location nearby. She noted that the spines on its back were composed of some extraterrestrial metal, and that it appeared to be a cross between a dragon and crocodile. They considered how they could improve Jane’s control over it. Cyra suggested changing its true name.
Soto-sama stated that communication was rudimentary. Electronics were curtailed to avoid alerting the cyber-naki. She mentioned that the had used parts of the ventilation system to create pneumatic tubes to send encrypted physical messages.
They considered that since Baudemagus had put a lock on Fierce, and that Morholt was probably off-world because he could not be detected, Jane had control over the guardian. However, once he returned, Morholt would be able to simply take control again. They considered putting up a shield around the guardian to impair Morholt’s abilities.
The team decided that their primary objective should be to used the back door in Morholt’s domain to liberate Soto-sama’s family and also trap the door to prevent Morholt’s return.
Soto-sama suggested that the door could be used to release more than just her family, depending on where the door leads to. She had 400 members of her cohort, and they had their families as well.
Soto-sama asked Sturm why they had a god of death with them. Sturm replied that it had torn a rip and appeared shortly before Soto-sama had arrived.
Mina perfected the Jaeger back into operational order. When the Eidolon missile collapsed the Iron Dome, the piece of anno-naki joined with the Jaeger and repaired part of the anno-naki pilot. However, her understanding of the Jaeger suggested that it should not function as well as it does, so attempting to improve it would probably be a bad idea.
To Morholt’s Domain
Jane rode the guardian, Uther and Cyra rode in the car, the rest rode in the Jaeger.
They hypothesized that time within the domain moves faster than on Fierce. So activities within would occur almost instantaneously.
Just inside the nature preserve, they came upon a mansion inside the domain. Just inside the domain, the Jaeger stopped working. It appeared that any technology above a medieval level would not work.
A large gorilla in a tuxedo opened the front door to the mansion. Jane asked the gorilla to prepare a meal for the guardian. It said it would. William noted that the gorilla was wearing a ring that could mold gossamer reality.
Sturm entered the mansion. Inside there is a Geek-chic table and an entire wall of fantasy role playing games. Directed by the others, who detected the presence of a door. There was a painting of a priest entering a door with the label “courtesy and honor will reward you” as well as a figure twice the size of the priest, bound in chains and wearing armor, with a large sword floating above it. The sorcerers could determine that there was the residue of teleportation and that the painting was probably a device for facilitating a teleportation, perhaps to the door.
William asked politely for to be teleported to the door and disappeared. Cyra then determined William’s position and teleported himself there. The others followed William’s example and teleported there. The room beyond contained the bound creature, but no sign of the priest. Beyond it was a pure iron door with a demonic faced knocker.
The door detected as magical. The iron plates also had a residual magical presence. Mina determined that there was a living creature and some kind of magical ward beyond the door. Cyra unlocked the door with her sonic screwdriver. William knocked on the door. The floating sword moved behind the bound figure into its sheath and they could pass through the door.
Beyond the Door
The room branched to the left and right. There was a inscription saying “don’t take the easy path.”
To the left, the iron plates revealed stone with a organic pattern ending in a cavern with a wooden door and a pile of treasure.
To the right was a cavern with a multi-colored wall of radiance. Cyra determined that the wall was magically protected.
Cyra expended a significant amount of magical energy to eventually break down the wards on the multi-colored wall, which then disappeared revealing a large eerily silent room with a mud floor. Within is a crucified body on a wheel with sixteen spokes. There is another corpse holding a chest with ancient writing on it saying “do not open.” At the other end of the hallway is another door.
Mina got the impression that Morholt was obsessed with Dungeons and Dragons and fashioned his domain to that genre. The standard background magic was being filtered out to prevent using Umbra to change it to a diceless system.
They crossed the mud to the door. There was no knocker. Sturm knocked on the door. Two bepedal beings with steam-powered cannons opened the door. Beyond were eight luxurious chairs and a humanoid construct. The humanoid beckoned them to enter the realm of entertainment. It recommended to try the wheel of fortune before entering the dragon’s den. However once one has stopped spinning the wheel, they cannot spin again.
The wheel radiated a high level of magic. William took a seat. Sturm examined the steam-powered cannon constructs.
William took a spin on the wheel. He gained some Strength.
Sturm spun the wheel. He felt a wave of negative energy. He spun again. He felt a curse befall him and his right leg withered.
Uther spun and was cursed with muteness. He also spun again and was beset by a stronger wave of negative energy.
William realized that the first person to spin got a benefit to sucker in others who were adversely impaired. The humanoid construct verified this, and said that destroying the wheel would remove the curses and also destroy it and the cannon constructs. It was not adversely affected by this. It said that its existence was boring because no one ever spun the wheel.
Sturm attacked the wheel but had no effect on the wheel. Neither did Cyra’s magic. William determined that the wheel was a powerful item that Morholt had invested his will into and required a specific item to destroy. They asked the construct if it knew how to destroy the wheel, but it did not.
Then the iron-bound book vibrated. William consulted it. The book indicated that the wheel required an image dealing deadly damage. Uther used his ring to destroy it. All the curses and negative energy disappeared, and the constructs were destroyed.
William knocked on the door, and then Jane opened it. There was an immense boulder strewn room beyond containing a collossal silver-blue dragon sleeping on a pile of platinum. Everyone except William sees the Door floating in the air above the dragon.
Uther tried to influence the dragon, but got no mental contact. It must have been psychically neutral. Uther approached the door. He warded the door with the alarm to alert him if the Door is opened. The dragon did not notice.
Cyra used her powers to examine the Door and its surroundings. She detected no sorcery on it. She determined that there was something Umbra about it.
Uther and Jane examined the Door carefully. The door itself was shrouded to conceal the destination, but they determined that it was trapped well.
Sturm disbelieved the room. The dragon and the treasure disappeared, and was replaced by five steam cannon automatons. He was able to determine that the automatons were designed to attack if the dragon was attacked and therefore no threat. They discovered that the Door was embedded in the wall about twenty feet above floor level.
William moved the comfortable chairs into the Door room and the others relaxed while Cyra and the Masters of the Stair unraveled the trap on the Door and set a trap of their own. They were eventually successful in removing the existing trap.
Sturm opened the door. Beyond it was strange. There was the standard purple-tinged landing of the Grand Stair, but none of the normal trappings. There was a spiraling crystal stairway. Beyond the edges of the landing was a starry void. The the edge of the landing before the starry void was a child-sized purple door with a handle made of tiny black feathers and a rabbit’s skull. There was an inscription “there are places you can go, but you can’t go back.” The Wardens got the sense that it was the true Grand Stair.
Uther tries wayfinding to find the path back to the training realm. It sent him up the spiraling crystal stair. This section was not sealed off from the rest of the Grand Stair.
William suggested contacting Soto-sama and have her determine if this was a suitable escape route. Mina questioned Soto-sama’s motivations were unknown. They were taking her at face value.
Jane suggested contacting Baudemagus so he could identify where on the Grand Stair the door was located. Sturm agreed.
In the mean time, the death god eliminated all the physical doors in the other rooms of Morholt’s realm except the one that the team was discussing.
Uther returned to Morholt’s domain, ensured that the team was on the same side, and severed the link to this Door on the Grand Stair. Jane used another door to create the bridge into the hospital. She also created a key for it.
After resting, Uther then linked the Grand Stair door to an empty door in a portion of the Grand Stair that he knew that went to an ancient pastoral Earth with no immediate threats: the ancient Nile valley of Egypt.
Then they went through the bridge to the hospital and healed.
The Team:
- Oberleutnant Sturm von Krieg the warrior (Joab)
- William Edwalton the scientist (Greg)
- Jane Edwalton the explorer (Jenna)
- Mena the traveler (Stephanie)
- Uther the gatherer (Dave)
- Cyra the sorceress (Mike)