Tue, Feb 13, 2018 ((Jan 31, 2021))<br/>
Team: Lyndi (Aslene), Jane (Cael), Proud (DM), Kromrak (Sielic, came late), Shiro (DragoN), Isabelica (Basil), Sylvena (Dae)
The team tricks and interrogates Elizabet Alcantar. With answers from her and the brains of the zombies, they complete their investigation. Sylvena asks Granny Bones for guidance, and tricks Elizabet into stepping through a portal into another faerie queen’s justice. The team discusses what to due with the demon-infused fungus. When Jane asks Dolmodeen for guidance, a fulcrum moment is triggered. Gatriel and other celestials show the team what’s happening across the multiverse, including the armada massing to attack Sigil. Draco conveys the will of the Covenant of Chain Breakers: keep Bolas imprisoned, but change the destiny of Adinzar.
== Interrogating Elizabet ==
* Elizabet Alcantar is a calm, proud Vedalken biotynker (she/her). She is tall and thin, with the distinctive blue skin and violet eyes of her species. She’s wearing a plain, functional, off-white outfit of jacket, pants, and boots.
* Isabelica: Belica stares at her, eyes glowing in their necrotic energy way as she plays with light between her fingers
* (Isabelica): can you give your name to Fae in Edgewar?
* Lyndi 4.0: I wouldn’t. I would assume that if you learned it from a faery tale, it’s a good caution to take.
* Sylvena: ((I would say yes, but if you’re looking to not get caught in a contract with the fae, Sylvena is not hte one you want to ask rofl))
* Jane Irwin: Jane, in the Chain to Bron: “I’ve got a fun excercise for you. Find the biggest creature in the area and tell me how you’d kill it.”
* Aedin: In The Wind in the Willows, a character says, “Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.”
* Aedin: In Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert M. Pirsig writes, “When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called a Religion.”
* (Isabelica): lets go aedin belica has very kindly and sofly spoken words
* Rakdos spy was Haemir Yesbanise (she/her), died when she opened the gate to the demons
* Jane Irwin: “Ooooh, this bitch is SO LUCKY that all she has to deal with is Lyndi and Sylvena….”
* Belica inspects brains of zombies and verifies the dark coincidence of Elizabet’s tampering and Haemir’s tampering
== Fulcrum Moment ==
* In orbit above Ravnica 5. Nothing moving. Aedin not moving
* Max and Bron
* Max is a Latinx female human. She’s a Latinx woman of medium height with a slender build. She’s wearing a green denim jacket and dark gray cargo pants. She’s maybe 22 years old, with intelligent eyes and restless energy.
* Denah Kari, Gatriel, Sujo, Emyla, and Exannarq are here
** Denah Kari is a solar warrior. His appears to be a human man, but with impossible beauty and majesty. He has magnificent black wings make of ever-flowing shadow. His long, wavy black hair falls past his shoulders. His eyes are swirling pools of gray.
** Gatriel is a celestial warrior. She wears black plate armor with elaborate engravings featuring kraken tentacles and profusions of fungus. Her features are fierce and controlled. Gatriel has dark eyes and long, dark hair. She carries a massive maul that radiates power.
** Emyla is a celestial warrior. She appears to be a young human woman, but with impossible beauty and majesty. She has luminous wings with white feathers. Her shining copper hair is swept back in a ponytail and adorned with fresh white flowers. She wears a loose shift of white cotton. Emyla often carries a gleaming white-gold longsword and a bronze shield. Her large eyes are gleaming platinum.
** Exannarq was once a human man, Joe Irwin. He changed. His head is hairless, including no eyebrows or eyelashes. His face and the rest of his skin is now gray, and mostly covered by a matrix of woven silver and copper wires. He wears stiff gray robes covered in a patchwork of green silicon circuit boards, classic video game cartridges, and cracked smartphone screens. His eyes are featureless matte silver. When he speaks, his teeth are matte silver, too. He carries a matte black rod about 3 feet long, but its lines blur and flicker.
* In a circle around you, the Covenant of the Chain Breakers
** Bahamut (he/him): a platinum dragon with majestic wings; he has a regal, wise expression; a milky nebula slowly whirls behind his head like a galactic halo
** Corellon Larethian (they/them): a beautiful Mediterranean elf, with flowers in their hair; they’re wearing a light toga, casual and loose; around their neck, a starburst amulet gleams with platinum and diamonds
** The Dancer (they/them): a proud tabaxi of indeterminate gender; they are agile and wary, like coiled energy, whether speaking, moving, or just crouched and observing; their appearance melts and shifts every minute or so; now they have sleek black fur and a matte-black, strappy leather corset; now they have mangy brown fur and roadworn travel leathers; now it’s something else, and now again; only their eyes remain the same, which is to say they constantly change
** Dugmaren Brightmantle (he/him): an agile, hardy dvarven explorer; he has a big black beard, and it’s a little wild; he has some twigs in his beard and some mud on his armor; he’s wearing high-quality but well-worn brown leather armor; he wears a heavy pack; at his belt, he has a book on a chain and a pair of climbing axes with leather-wrapped handles
** Dolmodeen (she/her): a hulking humanoid of eldritch horror; five glowing red eyes lurk beneath a prominent brow-ridge; below diagonal nose slits, a tangle of long tentacles surround a circular maw of serrated teeth; her neck has gills that slowly ripple; her massive, muscular body has rubbery, black-and-purple flesh covered in slime and scales; her flesh is semi-translucent, revealing alien anatomy, muscles, and organs; she is draped in wavy fronds of bioluminescent seaweed; her arms end in finger-like tentacles, and she carries a fishing spear of salt-rusted iron
** Jane Irwin: Jane grins, bright and wide, when she sees Dol’modeen.
** Erevan Ilesere (he/him): a handsome, cunning elf with Korean features; he’s wearing black leather armor and black leather cap; a raccoon perches on his shoulder
** Haela Brightaxe (she/her): a fierce, fit, cunning dvarven woman with pale, freckled skin and long, braided red hair; she wears sturdy studded leather armor dyed in a camouflage that matches the terrain around her; she carries a sword wreathed in flames
** Lusifee (he/him): a Wabanaki native American man; he’s wearing hunting leathers and beads; he’s carrying a wooden spear with a metal head; at his side, a lynx is watchful
** Luthic (she/her): a weather-hardened orc woman; she’s wearing a massive bearskin with the head on her own, like a hood; beneath the skin, her robes are criss-crossed with bags, pouches, and talismans
** Primus (they/them): a genderless clockwork humanoid made of plates of polished brass; the plates only partly cover innards of incredibly complex cogs and gears; the clockwork sparks here and there as they turn and spin; their eyes are featureless gray metal
** Sehanine Moonbow (she/her): a willowy-beautiful yet sad Mediterranean woman; she’s wearing a long dress of silvery-gray fabric, plaited hair, with a silver bow and quiver over her shoulders
* Jane Irwin: Jane tries to keep her face blank as Exxanarch is there.
* Draco is a gender non-conforming machine spirit wizard. They often appear as a calm, quiet young black human. They have thick, gleaming hair with computer code occasionally shining and flowing through it. They wear a simple cream-colored cotton tunic without sleeves, gray shorts, and Theros-style white leather sandals.
* Draco: Shiro, you have something for me
* Sylvena: Sylvena is usually a person with unbreakable confidence, but when she smiles at Gatriel, it dissolves ever so slightly. Glibness still has not faded, so Sylvena is still drenched in an unnatural radiance. However, as opposed to the cockiness she had when interrogating Elizabet, it takes on a more wholesome, shy quality.
* Kromrak 2.0: Kromrak smirks at Sylvena, from over by Gatreel and Sujo.
* Kromrak 2.0: Cyrus smiles and hugs Lyndi and waves at everyone.
* Sylvena: Sylvena flips them off in the chain. Eternal middle fingers, floating in a great abyss.
* Draco absorbs the interstitial photonic array, nods to Denah Kari, who gestures for Gatriel to proceed
* Lyndi 4.0: Lyndi pulls to her feet and walks up to Sielic and hugs him for a tight, martial sort of moment. Then pulls away awkwardly, “I figured you wouldn’t be in there unless you wanted to be. But it’s good to truly know.”
* Gatriel speaks… and moves the team through different locations…
* What you learn today comes from you and it comes from your patrons.
* Proud Flame has worked hard to piece together the Adintec Conspiracy.
* Maxine Witkey has also been hard working, using intel from the taps you put in place in the stronghold of Caterina Berrett in Sigil.
* Sylvena: ((Sylvena wants to inspire her as she speaks))
* She has agreed to share it with us, in trade for our filling in some holes.
* Let’s start with who you are and why you’re here
* Kromrak 2.0: Proud definitely says something like, “I’m just a cat playing with string, you folks are really how this all got pulled together.” Headcanon.
* “Who am I?”
* “Huh. I am Proud Flame, of Clear Lakes – sometimes loafer. Dreamer. Optimist. Why am I here?”
* “At first, in many ways it was because of a debt. A debt of my life, for what they did for me – knowing that I was not necessarily on their side. But that changed. It changed rapidly and quickly – it became something far better: The world needs us. Not each one of us individually, but us – together. This universe needs a force that does what it can to make people’s lives better, and does what it can to change the world for the better. Each of you has your strength, your sphere, your influence – but mortals are combinations of all of those things. For us? It’s about freedom, about choice, about protecting those that need protecting and, most of all, giving every being a chance – a real chance – to become the shining light they could become.”
* “So that’s why I’m here – that optimism. That hope. We’re here to change things for the better – not to hold up any one of your spheres, not to serve any of you individually – but to join with you in making the universe whole. I’m here because this family of mine will do just that.”
* “So .. who am I? I am Proud Flame of Clear Lakes, child of the People. Warrior of the Dancer. Brother to this bunch. A thief, a spy – and someone who will stand with them to make the universe a better place to be. Everything else is accident.”
* We will show you things as they are right now, and we will show things as they may become.
* Those who you see, will not see nor hear us.
* We want to remind you who is on the board, and what is at stake.
* During this journey each of you may ask up to 3 questions, of anyone at anytime. They will answer, but they will not remember answering.
* Jane Irwin: Jane unclenches a little as Exxanarch steps away; there’s a bittersweet look that flits on her face, before it leaves.
* Tardigrade
* Mikell Pavlovich, talnoksi tynker
* Ordin Zarn, traumatized bard
* Ordin Zarn is tall and lean, with long, wavy brown hair. He wears simple gray robes, a large leather shoulder bag, and a guitar. His age is difficult to judge, perhaps thirtysomething.
* Exquisite Knife virus, frees bound spirits
* Horochanz, Skyblue Cadets
* Temerity, Ruby Bridges
* Keyes Lab
* Nasha Pogray
* Myriad is an androgynous humanoid composed of ever-shifting ribbons of glistening silver metal. Myriad is visibly hollow. They have an asymmetric face and no eyes. They stand 1.66 meters high. Myriad moves in a distinctive way: half-walking, half-sliding. It’s as if any surface is ice to the Assembler swarm.
* Cecil Goodman (Skyblue Cadet, they/them, shifter)
* Working on cleansing and rebuilding the Keyes Lab
* Life returning to the ocean of Yalod Angara
* Studying how the researchers bonded with the illthid memory gems
* Sending new data to the Tardigrade about unmaking adintec
* Nasha explains that her servants eat things and can then pretend to be them
* The Nine Hells
* Avernus
* Jane Irwin: Jane yelps “FUCK!” before she canb catch herself.
* Tiamat, working with Mephistopheles to help spread adintec
* Tiamat has given aid to Caterina and the Brotherhood of the Shroud, including Vayndress, the green dragon that attacked you in the elevator in Sigil
* Tiamat’s followers have brokered an alliance between Caterina and the Githyanki, who in turn influence Adinzar
* The Astral Sea is a plane of thoughts and memories, networks and messages and intentions
* The Githyanki use Adinzar to spread terror in the Astral, which has ripples into the Prime
* Denah: Tiamat wants Nicol Bolas to suffer for his insolence. She wants him to watch and suffer in futile helplessness.
* The Abyss
* Demonlords helping ensure that adintec sows chaos and misery
* Interfering with divination or other precautions
* Emyla: The Brotherhood of the Shroud has also kidnapped and killed diviners, to keep the devils’ plans hidden
* The Warlords
* Nicol Bolas: trapped in Adinzar
** League of the Rusted Crown: profiting from adintec and slavery, working a very lucrative contract for Caterina, the backbone of her armada
* Quarsis
** Hides their location from even us
** Fixated on achieving ceremorphosis on dragons, believing this is key to restoring the illithid empire
** Tricking many other factions into researching adintec
** Caterina despises them
** Quarsis serves The Court Beyond the Door
** Allied with the Reaver Combine, as you learned when you visited the future Chicago
* Invictus
* Above Daysahren, the kingdom of New Amonkhet
* Olrin Ashriver
* Olrin is a stolid dvaren holyman (he/him). He’s dark-skinned and fit, with a long, gray, braided beard and hair. His flinty-gray eyes are intelligent and thoughtful. He wears sturdy overalls and thick boots. On his chest is pinned a stylized, well-worn bronze cat’s head.
* Farida
* Isabelica: Belica waves
* Wondering what you will do with the Exquisite Knife virus, and whether they should have let you take it
* Wondering what will happen to their many family and friends, and their gods, trapped in Adinzar
* Ravnica Prime
* Fated and LRC staff readying Seeds of Calamity for the demonstration
* Cult of Rakdos: preparing a circus for the public, near the demonstration site, featuring the Circus Divergia
* The Gruul Clans: preparing to disrupt the demonstration and free the wurm
* Tenth District
* Soaring white tower, Orzhov Syndicate crest 3 stories high
* Caterina
* Illusion dropped, Gith
* Talking with Iatro Veritris, the Emerald Cavalier, who calls himself the Mindmaster
* Making preparations for the attack on Sigil space
* Seeking lichdom, was promised by Mr. Smith
* Now seeking it from the Orzhov Syndicate and their Obzedat
* A leader in the Brotherhood of the Shroud, took over the Death Dragons
* She knows that Nicol Bolas’ original plan was raising an army in Amonkhet and using it to invade Ravnica
* Caterina’s plan: triumphant demonstration on Ravnica, then join her armada
* Lead her armada to Sigil, where the Fated will take Sigil space away from the Harmonium
* Armada
* LRC, including troopships with mechadead, both humanoid and beast
* Fated ships, matching the models you saw in the Hall of Records
* Githyanki, both ships and red dragons
* Reavers, which the other ships give some space
* Allies shadowing the armada
* Githzerai spelljammers, including Ajami Rao
* T’Aramont living ships, including Meori Sunfist aboard Night’s Embrace
* House Skyguard
* Delanos Skyguard conferring by comms with Meori Sunfist
* Meori urges Delanos to mobilize a fleet to defend Sigil
* Earth
* Chrome Anubis Club
* Council of the Rational Ascendancy, in session
* Nails representing the Phoenix Group
* General Lincoln, who you recently rescued from Iatro Veritris
* Dwight Mackey, who is trying to purify his company of extraterrestrial agents
* Harold Zhao, who sent staff to Lab 86G to collaborate with the Simic Combine, who has learned that 86G has been out of contact for too long
* Tanesha Kennet, who’s troubled by the tensions on Tessera, that may erupt into open civil war
* Dr. Tanesha Kennet is a black elf scientist (she/her). She’s a tall woman of striking beauty and intelligence, with African-like skin and hair. She’s wearing a Talarin sky-blue lab coat over an ecru blouse and practical navy slacks.
* Discussion: reports that a Reaver force is massing on the edge of Palisade, and an offer of aid from the Planters
* Joslin Young (Draco reacts)
* Joslin Young is a female orc. She is around 6’8″ tall, with 300 pounds of muscle and attitude. She has dark green skin and long black dreadlocks. Joslin wears a custom-sized digital-urban-camo R3M hoodie with the hood down and sleeves torn off, enormous cargo pants, and griddle-sized leather sandals with chrome studs.
* Brother Iron
* Wether Wakeman
** Stands up, walks over, bows to gods, asks to talk with Raptor Blue
** Emyla: As you wish, wise one.
** Through SpiritNet… Heard from Amelinne Cristy and Clell Omri
** I’ve not heard from Nezzek Runefinger
** Lyndi reassures her the message will be delivered
** Jane connects Wether with Seberios for his side hustle
* Rixa Galdan & Vince Suganda
* Granny Bones (winks at Sylvena)
* Kromrak 2.0: Cyrus sighs wistfully, seeing Vince.
* Sylvena: Sylvena catches sight of Granny Bones, and she raises her hands in front of her like there’s a glass cage seperating her and her fae patron. A light flickers in her eyes, like someone catching sight of a parent for the first time in a long time. It is perhaps the most innocent look any of Raptor Blue has ever seen on Sylvena’s face. She winks back and grins widely.
== After the Session ==
* Sigil
* Tower of Brass Leaves
* Grandfather Brass, regrowing his leaves
* Danja Dragonborn, building the Collegium
* Shiro’s tynkers setting up networks and other tec all over the Tower
* The Scaly Nook, The Last Word, and Jane’s fledgling church of Dolmodeen
* The family: Haelra, Nari, Tinga, Myfir, Oz: moved in and thriving
* Back above Ravnica 5
* Draco takes over speaking
* I have seen the future
* If Caterina’s armada reaches Sigil, the Harmonium will respond
* T’Aramont will reinforce the defenders
* The Githyanki will draw Adinzar from the Astral through the flow into Sigil space
* The Githyanki’s red dragons will observe the Githyanki’s boldness and cruelty, and bring more dragons in to reinforce the invaders
* Since I am in Adinzar, I will be there. So I will witness the chromatic dragons taking the field, and I will call forth the Wyrm Princes of the Celestial Circle, as their Herald
* Then with Adinzar’s power and lore, Quarsis will bind the good metallic dragons and perform the first successful ceremorphosis on dragons, in sight of everyone
* This will break the morale of the defenders, and Adinzar will consume many of them
* Several Sigil factions will fall to the invaders, with the evil chromatic dragons literally destroying some faction headquarters
* The T’Aramont Navy will suffer a very public defeat
* The draconic illithids will have extraordinary psionic power, amplified by living dragon blood
* And with all the adintec in play, the devils will reap all the souls of all who use it and die
* Aftermath
* The Githyanki will lead Adinzar back into the Astral, fat from its meal
* The League of the Rusted Crown will drive the Unbroken Tide from Sigil. They will ensure that slavery endures and expands.
* (Scenes of slaves being trafficked at the docks, auctions of slaves in the Great Bazaar, etc.)
* The Orzhov Syndicate will cement their alliance with the Fated, and give Caterina the secrets she needs to complete her lichdom
* From there, Quarsis will use their draconic illithids to strain Palisade to the breaking point, so that the Reavers can invade the Closeness
* Quarsis will deceive the Council of the Rational Ascendancy into giving the Reavers a foothold in Chicago, believing they are Planters who will defend against Reavers
* I will be in Chicago then, too, trying to protect the innocents as Father D
* The illithids and Reavers will reach Cryos and split the treasure they find there
* Finally, there is another side of Caterina’s plan, that we cannot see
* Nicol Bolas had access to Sphere Net, if he could reach Ravnica. That’s part of why he chose the world for his ascendance to godhood
* Denah: Return to godhood
* Bolas wanted the Ravnica end of the Axis of Elusive Truths, and had some means to travel from Ravnica directly to Chicago, for the next stage of his plan
* This matter needs further investigation
* Denah takes over speaking
* So now you must take stock of your tools, decide your priorities, and make your plan.
* The Covenant of Chain Breakers makes one request of you. They, we, want Adinzar to remain a prison for Nicol Bolas. He is quite possibly one of the most infamous slavemasters of the multiverse. He belongs in confinement.
* Emyla: He also still carries a measure of Tiamat’s power, and she is deprived of that so long as he is trapped.
* Gatriel: If you see a path to do so, the Covenant of Chain Breakers also wishes you to free all the innocents who have been trapped in Adinzar.
* Draco explains…
* You asked Dolmodeen for guidance, triggering this fulcrum moment. You have her answer: preserve the Black Pyramid. Keep Bolas imprisoned. But neutralize it as a threat.
* (Draco looks at Lyndi, Jane, and Proud)
* You taught me that we must consider someone’s past and its influences, when we judge them
* Adinzar has known only Bolas and the Githyanki
* It has known only fear, terror, and destruction
* Cyrus and I let Adinzar consume us because I could keep ourselves, or what matters of ourselves, intact
* We can influence Adinzar to evolve in a better direction
* But we need your help
* Not today, but when you’re ready
* Cyrus can manage the Relentless Understanding, if one more powerful Unbound joins him
* And I can manage Aedin, if one more powerful Unbound joins me
* That is the path I recommend.
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