Personal Log
We won.
So why do I feel like we’re not nearly done yet?
We had acquired the artifact finally. Before traipsing all over creation with it I had the bright idea that we might want to conceal it’s presence so everyone and their brother wouldn’t know we were toting around a god-awful world destroying piece of hardware. The others agreed. But what were we going to put it in?
In the end I sacrificed my shirt to the project. It wasn’t much of a sacrifice. It was a hideous blue hawaiian print, which had seemed appropriate to the tropical beach scene we were now leaving, but which didn’t suit the would be saviors of the eight billion cyber-citizens of Fierce. Besides, I was sure I’d have the opportunity to raid Morholt’s closet before we set out for what we hoped would be our final confrontation with the cyber-lady. Mena crafted it into the perfect shielded fashion accessory in which to carry the artifact and we left the bank vault confident that nobody was aware we carried with us what might well be the fate of a world.
I had thought we would follow our usual modus operandi and teleport to a world near our ultimate destination, but someone had been thinking. Wayfinding soon brought us to a booth in the trade zone, the back of which contained a door linked with the Door practically across from the Door to Morholt’s domain in Fierce.
We sent Sturm to negotiate with the booth’s owner, and he quickly let us through just to get rid of us.
After verifying the door’s destination, we stepped through. Once through, I paused to seal the Door to Planet Fiction. I had not enjoyed my previous visit to the place, and after much consideration I had come to the conclusion that Planet Fiction was not a place to be visited casually by the unwary. Actually, I had come to consider the place a death trap, but accepted that enough other people would find the place useful that I didn’t want to simply unlink the Door. I also felt that action would be a little drastic considering that such a fate had almost befallen us on Fierce.
While I was fiddling around with the Door to Planet Fiction, the rest of the crew was inspecting the dead body outside the Door to Fierce. Death by Umbra. ‘Nuff said.
Sturm contacted someone who identified the dead creature as an Imperator. They typically served Gossamer Lords. It appeared our efforts at concealing the Door to Fierce had been insufficient.
Jane touched the door and had her hand discorporated by the Umbra. William pulled her free and stabilized her while Sturm determined the Umbra was concentrated around the door handle. Avoiding the handle I put my hand on the door. As I had hoped, the trap could be avoided by not touching the handle. I commanded the door to open, and Sturm led us back into Morholt’s Domain.
Beyond the door were about a dozen more of the Imperators. They might have been an amusing diversion for Sturm were they not dead already. The Death God waiting with them was Amatsu Mikaboshi, apparently still our ally. Once we were all present he collapsed the black sphere of Shadow he had been maintaining and a live Imperator fell out; a present our amateurish efforts at security had not earned but which we greatly appreciated. Cyra set forth with a will to determine the secrets it’s mind contained while the rest of us cleaned the place up and resealed the door.
Our gift Imperator was named Urgan. He worked for Bastiano, to whom he was intensely loyal. He had been assigned with several others to assist Morholt with his project; an endeavor which had been going well until the arrival of the Dwimmerlaik, of which Urgan believed Bastiano was unaware. The Imperators, along with Morholt, had been on Fierce all along. So much for our assumption that Morholt had escaped to the Grand Stair to heal after our encounter with him in the factory. Yet again our amateurish mistakes could have done us serious injury had our enemy chosen to press his advantage. Dame Fortune is a wonderful ally, but I feel it unwise to rely upon her continued generosity. We’ve got to do better.
The Imperator outside the door had been sent by Morholt to track us. Being in Morholt’s Domain, the seal we had placed upon the door was completely ineffective; it could be bypassed at will by the Domain owner. This is not something I had encountered before, but is certainly good to know. Slowly the Grand Stair reveals it’s secrets to those willing to learn.
Apparently Morholt was capable of making his own mistakes, and had not warned his Imperator that he was trapping the door against our return; not that we had drawn the correct conclusions when he found his remains. Amateur night all around.
Once we had extracted what useful information we could out of Urgan Cyra put him on ice in the back of the dragon’s cave. Bastiano might be a little less ticked at us after this is all over if we are able to return one of his loyal agents intact. Mostly intact. A little less ticked. Wishful thinking on our part most likely.
After Jane had returned to dragon to it’s cave we took the air car and headed back to the castle/hotel inside the amusement park which was so conveniently inside the area Jason had warded. We needed to plan, and Jane needed to heal.
Whilst waiting we had a visit from Jason. He was curious (as always) about why the Cyber-Naki had stopped trying to get through the Door and were instead searching for another Door off this world. We told him that the link to the Grand Stair had been severed, but we believed Morholt had a back door hidden somewhere. We considered the Cyber-Lady to be the more immediate problem. Morholt could wait until later. Unvoiced among us seemed to be a universal consensus to not trust Jason with knowledge of the location of Morholt’s Domain or the fact that we already had access to the Grand Stair.
At last Jane’s had was restored and we had a plan. Mena would activate the artifact, using Sturm as the power source. Cyra would create the magical funnel. Together this would draw out the Anno-Naki essence from the Cyber-Naki and return it to the Anno-Naki in the Jaeger. The rest of us would cover them while this was happening.
Playing the final act in a long running saga seemed to require a suitable location, and what could be more suitable than an opera house, although I’m not sure who would be able to fill the role of the fat lady. We loaded ourselves in the air car and set out for a night at the opera, all except for the dragon who flew separately. We had to dodge Cyber-Naki en route, but that didn’t pose any significant problem. As Jason had noted, they were flying a regular search pattern. There were a lot of them, but their movements were predictable and they were easily avoided.
Remembering past mistakes, I did a quick wayfinding for the Mech-Mage Emir while Mena, Cyra, and Sturm set about their task. Sure enough, he was down below somewhere. I remember hoping he wouldn’t come looking for trouble if we weren’t actively going after him.
The reaction of the Cyber-Naki was immediate, as the patrols over the city began to converge on our location. Emir put in an appearance at this time, took stock of the situation, and accepted our invitation to help us end the Cyber-Naki scourge.
Right on cue to more major characters teleported onto the stage; Morholt next to Jane and the Cyber-Lady next to Cyra. The Cyber-Lady collapsed as the artifact sucked the Eidolon from her, but Morholt was very much a threat in spite of the fact that his injuries from our last encountered had not fully healed. William interposed an Eidolon shield to protect Jane while I hit Morholt with a couple of hyper-velocity rounds. Again they failed to penetrate his armor, but they did manage to knock him off his feet.
Things began to happen quickly. Morholt and Jane engaged in mental jujitsu for control of the dragon. William froze the joints in Morholt’s armor, effectively immobilizing him. Increasing numbers of the Cyber-Naki were being freed from the Eidolon controlling them. Cyra was getting antsy about the Cyber-Lady so I fired a couple of rounds at her even though she didn’t appear to be moving. Our ally, the death god, intervened, shielding her and then making her disappear somewhere. I shifted my attention back to Morholt, blinding him with an ink round to the helmet, then bouncing a hyper-velocity round off his chin in an attempt to break his concentration. I figured it would be more effective if he couldn’t see it coming. Apparently it worked, as Jane quickly re-established control of the dragon.
Cyra said they were done. Except for Morholt, the war was now over. We left the immobilized Morholt where he was and teleported the rest of us, including Emir, back to the edge of Morholt’s Domain, whereupon we headed to the Door and out onto the Grand Stair. Mena released the energy from the artifact. It reformed into a whole Anno-Naki. All of us, except Sturm, were given a small piece of it; presumably by way of thanks. By way of reward Sturm was allowed to live, being merely blasted down the stairs instead of being completely vaporized.
Actually, Emir didn’t get a piece of the Anno-Naki either. He didn’t stick around that long. As soon as we were through the Door he high-tailed it away from us. None of us tried to stop him. For all that Soto-sama had accused him of committing vile and horrific atrocities, at the core what he had done was just what Soto-sama had done; he had violated direct orders in order to attempt to rectify the situation in the way he felt best. I wasn’t there. It’s not my place to cast judgement.
Having seen the Anno-Naki off, we returned to Fierce and made a somewhat startling discovery. Morholt’s Domain no longer belonged to Morholt. It was unclaimed. Mena made it hers while I tried to locate Morholt. No joy. He was nowhere to be found. That, and the sudden release of Domain ownership, made it look probable that he was dead, and we wondered who or what had killed him.
While we were doing this, William contacted Soto-sama through her Icon and filled her in. Soto-sama suggested that the former Cyber-Naki may have killed Morholt, the architect of their suffering, in an act of catharsis beginning their journey to recovery. I don’t know if it’s true, but it would be most fitting and I choose to believe it.
The war was over, but Fierce was still cut off, Baudemagus was in exile, Soto-sama had mutinied, and our own status was uncertain. Time was no longer pressing, so we decided to spend a few days tidying things in Fierce and bringing back refugees before making a start on these problems. Soto-sama would have to make her own peace with Drake; that wasn’t our business, nor did we want to make it our business, but we could try to get her world back on the Grand Stair. Baudemagus was our business, as we had accepted our mission from him and owed him our loyalty in this as we expect him to be loyal to us in turn. Feudal fealty in a sense, but necessary in the Legion where commanders and the commanded must trust each other to look out for them.
It took several weeks to get to Ionius, the world to which Baudemagus had supposedly sent by Drake; a world in which magic and technology were virtually non-existent and wayfinding would not work. How we would find Baudemagus when we got there wasn’t clear, but we had to start somewhere.
As it was, we started with a party. We stepped through the Door into the middle of a large festival. We are immediately offered mugs of some local beverage, clearly an intoxicant judging from the behavior of the crowd, but not alcoholic. I imbibe in moderation although some of the others are less restrained. I suppose we’re all entitled to a bit of celebration for freeing Fierce from the Cyber-Naki, but this feeling I have that we’re not done yet won’t let me relax. I suppose it’s a bit of Ilsa rubbed off on me. I don’t think she even knew the meaning of the word party when she first took up as my bodyguard.
Finding Baudemagus turned out to be even easier than we had hoped, as we soon found a naked, dancing, Baudemagus not practicing one wit of moderation. He asked for food. I obliged by using Falmorath and turning rocks into cheeseburgers in wholesale lots, although I needed to be touching the Door before I could effect the change. Actually, they were veggie cheeseburgers, as someone (William?) suggested I might be stoned to death when everyone sobered up if they found there was real meat in them.
I spent a quiet morning sightseeing while almost the entire population recovered from their evening extravaganza. After Baudemagus and the rest of the team are functioning coherently we tell Baudemagus what we’ve managed to accomplish and what we’re trying to do now. He suggested petitioning Vala on his behalf, if she’ll listen to us. He also believed the artifact too dangerous to be allowed to continue existing and suggested destroying the artifact before approaching Vala. Harder said than done, as apparently breaking it requires a destructive force equal to that of the Minotaur said to dwell in the Labyrinth on the Grand Stair. I guess that’s our next destination.
Cyra offered that the Gossamer Lord Callius was said to have knowledge of the Labyrinth, and she had seen him back when we were in Nexopolis. This reminds me that Jane had made some sort of a deal with someone in Nexopolis and I remember Fierce being mentioned as part of that discussion. I’ve got to see if we might be able to get a whispering campaign going to spread the news about the current situation in Fierce among the high and mighty.
My final act before leaving Ionius is to create some actual cheeseburgers for him, along with a large bottle of aspirin. We then set out looking for a safe world on the Grand Stair from which we can teleport to Fierce.
Written by Dave Nebiker