In Nexopolis

Having acquired the artifact, Mena crafted a perfect case to put it in from Uther’s shirt.  Then they left the vault.  They sought out a key to the nearest Door.  Mena used Wayfinding to find a vendor in a small booth in the trade zone.  The booth contained various tech, all of which had some Psyche properties.  The vendor had a pair of monkeys, but they were not very friendly to Mindel, so she kept close to Mena.

The vendor was friendly and offered to trade for use of a door.  After a short interchange, the vendor unlocked the door.  Uther verified that is was the correct door and stepped through, followed by the others.  The portal sent them to the Grand Stair outside the door to Fierce.  On the Grand Stair, Uther locked the door to Planet Fiction.

At foot of the door to Fierce, the remains of a mangled body missing an arm with shredding legs.  At Mena’s insistence, Sturm removed its head and threw it.  Jane determined that the death was caused contact with an Umbra wielder.  Sturm noticed that the door had Umbra residue on it.  He used his icon to contact Mother Girl to see if she could identify the being.  After a few false starts, she said that she had seen them on Nexopolis, and that they were known as Imperators, and they served a Gossamer Lord.

As Jane touched the door, her hand was discorporated by Umbra surging from the door.  William pulled her away and used Eidolon to stop the bleeding, but not restore the hand.  Given enough time, he knew he could restore the hand.  Sturm identified that the Umbra was concentrated the door handle.  Uther touched the door and determined that someone was maintaining a destabilize reality field on the door.  He commanded the door to open.

In Morholt’s Domain

Beyond the door there were about a dozen dead Imperators and the Amatsu Mikaboshi, the death god, along with a black sphere of Shadow.  After the team entered and closed the door, Jane resealed it.  The death god then collapsed the cloud and a live Imperator fell out of it.  Cyra scanned its mind and determined that the Imperator had been trained to resist interrogation, but was not beyond Cyra’s abilities.  

The Imperator of Bastiano was named Urgan, and had been working for Morholt on Fierce.  Morholt and the Imperators had come to take back his domain.  Morholt escaped.  Morholt was able to bypass the seal and contact his Imperators on Fierce.  The Imperator on the Grand Stair was sent after the team, but caught up with them on Nexopolis, so it backtracked back to the door and was killed by the trap Morholt had set.  Morholt had never left Fierce.  

Urgan was an administrator for Bastiano who controlled a domain for him.  The rune inside the helmet was a direct line to Bastiano.  Urgan was intensely loyal to Bastiano and felt that he was the only one he could trust.  He and the other Imperators were sent to manage Morholt’s project, which had been working well until the Dwimmerlaik got involved.  Urgan was not sure if Bastiano had been informed when Morholt’s project went awry.

When they had learned what they wanted from the Imperator, Cyra froze him carbonite, so as not to kill an emmisary of Bastiano themselves, and Cyra hung him on a wall in the back of the dragon’s cave.  Then they announced any listenters that they were going back to “the underground nightclub by the lake.”  

Outside Morholt’s Domain

Outside Mortholt’s domain, they found the ground car and the dragon.  It was happy being tended by the gorilla.  They went back to the hotel at the amusement park and rested.

At the Hotel

Recalling their plan to use the artifact against the alpha Cyber-Naki and a funnel spell to funnel all the cyber-naki back to the Jaeger, where the original Anno-Naki was was reassembling iteslf.  While William rebuilt Jane’s hand, the Cyra and Mena researched what to use with the artifact to collect the Anno-Naki essence.  The artifact would draw out the essence, and the spell would funnel it to the Jaeger.  It was a larger version of the diversion spell they used previously.

While this was happening, Uther and Sturm watched episodes of The Bionic Woman.  William was also watching while working on Jane, and rebuilt a second left hand.  Then he fixed it, eventually.

Jason came to visit.  The stainless steel rat arrived first.  He was curious about why the Cyber-naki had stopped trying to get through the sealed door and were searching for another Door.  The team explained that Morholt had a back door somewhere.  Jason asked whether the team would go after Morholt to find the way off of Fierce first, or would they tackle the alpha Cyber-Naki first.  The team said that they would go after the alpha Cyber-Naki first.

The first step was to vanquish the Dwimmerlaik, who was half Anno-Naki.  Mena figured out how the artifact worked and advised Cyra of what was needed to create the interface.  The artifact was powered by Umbra.  So Mena would need to activate the artifact, Sturm to provide the power, and Cyra to cast the spell.  The artifact will draw the alpha Cyber-Naki  to the artifact.   The spell will bring any other Eidolon along with it.  Once collected,  the Eidolon would be sent to the Jaeger.

Mena was concerned that the optimal time for Morholt to attack would be when the Eidolon was collected iin the artifact.  She determined that it would only take an instant to release the Eidolon to the Jaeger.

At the Opera House

Flying to the Opera House, they noticed that the Cyber-Naki had deployed themselves in a grid pattern, and that there were more of them.  They set up at the Opera House.  Jane summoned the dragon for protection as Sturm would be occupied powering the artifact.  The dragon came as requested.   Uther determined that the Mech-Mage was somewhere below them.

The procedure was initiated.  Mena operated the artifact, Sturm powered it, and Cyra controlled it.   As soon as the process was started, Emir rose and appeared at the steps.  After a brief conversation, Emir joined the team to hold back the advancing Cyber-Naki.   The dragon munched on Cyber-Naki and breathed fire at the advancing hordes.

Suddenly, Morholt appeared next to Jane, and the alpha Cyber-Naki appeared next to Cyra.  Morholt was not happy,  but he was still wounded.  The Eidolon was  immediately sucked out of the alpha Cyber-Naki, and the Dwimmerlaik collapsed.  William created an Eidolon shield between Jane and Morholt.  Jane tried to punch him, but instead broke her knuckles on his armor and narrowly avoided his return blade stroke.

Uther shot at Morholt and knocked him off is feet.   Morholt summoned the dragon,  which responded, but Jane fought to regain control.  Having collected the energy from the alpha Cyber-Naki, the Cyber-Naki nearby collapsed.   Emir attacked Morholt.  Uther shot at the Dwimmerlaik, but the death god interposed and sucked up the bullets.   It then touched the Dwimmerlaik and she discorporated.  William perfected Morholt’s armor into a perfect immobile blockand he stopped moving.

Jane continued to fight for control of the dragon.  More Anno-Naki emerged through the world to be sucked in by the spell.  Uther shot at Morholt’s helmet and broke his concentration.  Jane regained control of the dragon.

Having collected all of the Eidolon, Cyra teleported the team, Emir and the dragon to the edge of Morholt’s domain.

At Morholt’s Domain

Sturm led the way to the door.  Uther unsealed the door.  They all went through and Uther closed the door.  Mena released the energy on the Grand Stair. It reformed into a whole Anno-Naki.  It gave all except Sturm a small piece of itself.  Then it blasted Sturm down the hall.

Mena put the artifact back into the bag of not finding and they returned to Fierce.  Upon walking through the door, they sensed that the domain was unclaimed.  Mena claimed it.

Wayfinding for Morholt could not locate him.  Cyra surmised that the death God finished him.  William used the icon to contact Soto-sama and informed her that they had released the Anno-Naki.  Soto-sama was overcome with emotion.  After a moment she regained her composure and sought information on the situation.  Cyra determined that the released Cyber-Naki took their revenge on the immobilized Morholt.

Morholt was defeated.  The Anno-Naki was released.  Emir, the leader of the renegade legion, escaped after assisting in releasing the Anno-Naki.  While Soto-sama still had a reckoning with Drake, the civilian population could return.  They decided to return the Imperator imprisoned in carbonite to Bastiano with knowledge of what had actually happened on Fierce.

Over the next few days, they rebuilt Jane’s hand, disarmed the Door, and helped Soto-sama restore order on Fierce.  Then they decided to rescue Baudemagus from his prison on Ionius, a world in which the Door was just invented and magic did not work.  Therefore they would not be able to locate Baudemagus once they got there.

On the Grand Stair

Using Wayfinding, they deermiend that it would take two weeks to get to Ionius by way of the Grand Canal.  They took the stair to the Grand Canal, took the canal for a time, followed another second of the stair until ultimately finding a pair of stone doors with Ionius chiseled on them.

Jane checked for traps on the door and then determined what was on the other side.  There appeared to be a large courtyard.  There were a huge number of people throwing colored dust each other as part of some kind of celebration.  She warned everyone before they stepped through the door.

On Ionius

Upon arriving, they were pelted by colored dust.  The temperature was comfortable.  It was their spring festival.  Drifting through the crowd, they found a naked, dancing Baudemagus in the crowd.  A young man hands a drinking vessel to everyone.  It tastes good and is made from cannibus plants. 

Sturm approached Baudemagus.  He asked for food.  The team decided enjoy the party.  Uther went back on the stair and produced mass quantities of veggie burgers for the toked up population.  And a good time was had by all.  Sturm watched over Jane and William while they experienced the local experience.  Mena and Uther partook more carefully.  Cyra camped out on the Grand Stair.

The next day, they briefed Baudemagus on the events on Fierce.  Baudemagus asked what their plans were.  They responded that they were coming to him for instructions.  He said that he was banished to this world for circumventing Drake’s orders, but the team could petition Vala on Shatterlight on his behalf, if they could gain an audience.  They left a platter of cheeseburgers and a large bottle of aspirin before departing.

Jane asked what should be done with the artifact, which was in Mena’s bag.  Baudemagus said to destroy it.  Mena gave it to Sturm, but he could not crush it.  Sturm used his Umbra Mastery to find the flaws in it and learned that it had to be crushed by the Minitaur in the Labyrinth of the Grand Stair.  It went back into Mena’s bag.

Jane stated that the artifact needed to be destroyed before they did anyting else so as to not tempt others to use it for their own purposes.  Cyra knew that the Gossamer Lord Callius was the only known being to successfully traverse the Grand Stair.  Cyra remembered meeting him in Nexopolis, so they journeyed back there.  

Uther sought out doors that teleported there.

  • The first door led to the Black, which was a realm of deep space.  The door was on a space ship.
  • The next door led to Poetica Mundi, the realm of verse.
  • The third door led to Finistere.
  • The fourth door let to Brokeword, a realm of bad stuff.
  • The fifth door let to the Mega-Cities of Neo Neo, a realm dominated by Eidolon seeking salvation from Umbra.
  • The sixth door went to Nexopolis.

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)