War in Heaven

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Summary

Adventure: War in Heaven
GM: Jeff Leddra
Session: Autumn 811 wk
Night: Wednesday
Level: Low-Medium

The Party

1. Perrin - A young Human E&E (scribe)
2. Boris – An Orc Necromancer. He isn’t evil, or so he claims
3. Valentine – A Human Paladin Fire Mage
4. Koffi – A Gnome Binder with some impressive Golems
5. Theodonna – An almost Human Namer who turns into a rat or a six inch living Barbie doll

Employer

Sensei – an avatoid for a really large space ship, whatever that is.

Mission

Enter some virtual worlds and help tip the balance in the battles between the Pro Hell forces and the Anti Hell forces. Sensei is Anti Hell.

Payment

10,000 SP each paid up front. Since these are virtual worlds there won’t be any loot that can be kept, but skills learnt/practiced can be kept.

Dear Diary

On the Space Ship

Sensei enters the guild meeting room and gives us a brief outline of the mission. As soon as we agree to accompany her we are teleported to a pretty valley with lakes and trees and wildlife. In the centre is a small cottage. We wander in for a brief meal and a chat. Sensei tells us we are really in a huge spaceship. It is about 100 miles long, 4 miles high and is home to 200 million beings. This valley is a small room in the overall structure of the ship. We go for a short tour of the ship (what we can cover in an hour or so) and Koffi gets very excited by all the mechanical devices. He keeps his hands to himself though. On the tour Sensei says she is evaluating our abilities. She will offer us enhancements before going into each virtual world, for which we are grateful. She also tells us that in the real world (where we are at the moment) there is an ongoing battle between the forces of Anti Hell and Pro Hell. The technology is so advanced that total annihilation would occur if the side fought directly, so they engage in battles in virtual worlds. These worlds and the rules that govern them are set by a neutral race. Because we are so technologically “simple” we can influence events without breaking the rules in these virtual worlds. There is another force in the real world called the replicants. They are machines that can replicate themselves. They look like spiders. They plan to destroy the universe and remake it in their own image. Both Pro and Anti Hell forces fight them when they get too large. Basically the huge spaceships “blow them to smithereens”.

Sensei introduces us to Ledejay. She is an attractive young lady who will accompany us on some of the missions to the virtual worlds. She hopes to learn some of our primitive ways. She used to be a slave to a guy called Vepers. He belongs to the Pro Hell faction. Ledejay tried to kill him. She failed miserably but found herself rescued by the passing spaceship. From what Ledejay could ascertain, Vepers was very powerful in his realm, but he was also working with another powerful race to gather artefacts left by the “ancient ones”.

Enhancements

• Boris – Magic Battle Axe : +30 SC +6 Dam
• Perrin – Magic Shield : Weightless +30 Def
• Koffi – Magic Armour for Bill (Golem) : +10 Def
• Theodonna – Magic Katana : +30 SC +6 Dam +5% Critical
• Valentine - ???
• Ledejay – She has an item but she won’t tell us what it is

We all get one of our spells (known already) at Rank 20, plus an extra ranks on another spell. Greater Enchantments on all 4 aspects are at Rank 20.

We also get an assortment of potions - Healing, Restoratives and Strength of Stone.

Mission One : City Under Siege

We appear a day’s travel from the army encampment. Koffi uses his flying carpet to get us closer then we stroll in asking to see the commander.

Captain Vanielle greets us. He speaks a bit slower than us which is an indication that he hasn’t adapted to the virtual environment as well as we have. He tells us he has been here for 5 years fighting against the undead legions in the surrounded city. From what has been able to learn there are 2 powerful necromancers in the city who take 12 hour shifts defending the city walls. Our mission is to help him take out one of the necromancers. This will lead to the surviving necromancer getting exhausted and that will tip the scales of the battle, allowing our side to finally win.

The city is built on a hill with mountains behind it. There is a river that flows into the city from behind providing fresh water. Vanielles troops had poisoned it several years ago but that didn’t have any effect on the undead. The river then flows out of the city and past the troops. Vanielle had his sappers create a tunnel that intersects the sewer system. We will use the tunnel and enter through the sewer systems, find the sleeping necromancer and dispose of it. The tunnel is half flooded but the water is clean.

Boris raises some skeletons and has them lead the way, triggering any traps we encounter. Strangely there aren’t any traps.

We reach the sewer system and find some horizontal bars placed in unusual heights. They don’t prevent us from entering, they just slow us down. Again the skeletons are sent in first and no traps are sprung.

We turn a corner and find a grill blocking the path. It is locked with a new padlock. Theodonna checks for wards and counterspells them. Koffi unfastens the padlock. The grill appears to be counterweighted but Bruno (one of Koffis stronger golems) lifts it with ease. There are six stepping stones in front of us. There are no auras or traps that we can see. We send the skeletons forward. As the first stone is stepped on some globes fall from concealment in the ceiling (doh – we should have looked up) and shatter on the remaining 5 stones. We race back through the horizontal bars and wait for the gas to dissipate.

As we head back to the stepping stones we are engaged by a horde of Undead and a Spectre. Boris, Bruno and Valentine engage them and chop them to bits. They also kill some Night Gaunts. The Spectre is a lot harder to kill and it chases after the fleeing Perrin (feared by blackfire). Theodonna has some items that make her very good at killing spectres and she dispatches’ it.

We get to a small cavern which is filled with water. There is a magical darkness here but we aren’t too shabby in the magical light department so we can see well enough. From 80 feet up we see a water bucket being lowered through a hole in the roof. There is also a small hole in the side of the cavern. Theodonna could fit through it in her rat form. Valentine ties a rope to himself and Boris then leaps into the water. He gets to a 30 foot depth before being attacked by biting fish. He gets pulled out but it seems a small parasite has entered his body through a most unfortunate place in the front. After much debate (and hilarity) Theodonna heals the wound. Sadly the parasite is still inside so she does the only thing possible. She cuts off his bits.

It does regenerate though but in all the laughter none of us can remember why…

She then investigates the small hole in the wall and finds a small room. There are 2 guardians (some sort of combination between Night Gaunts and Wraiths), mounds of dead scorpions, bats on the ceiling and 2 large coffins, one White and one Black. The White one is open and it is trapped with a summoning spell.

We come up with an ingenious plan. Valentine will summon a water elemental which will engage the guardians while we bust open the black coffin and destroy the necromancer. Like most plans it is brilliant in conception but it fails in execution.

When the elemental is summoned it isn’t under Valentines control and it immediately attacks him, punching him to the wall. We manage to kill it but the element of surprise is gone. Koffi melds the wall so we can get into the next room. Arkmed (Koffis suicide golem) is sent in first but he explodes as soon as he enters. A fierce battle ensues. We kill the guardians and some scorpions. Valentine manages to plunge an enchanted sword into the Necromancer but more spectral creatures appear. Ledejay disappears.

We gather onto Koffis flying carpet and head to the roof (there is a hole up there) but chaos ensues. A small black sphere is dropped from the ceiling and it hits Perrin. He disintegrates. Koffi loses control of the carpet when a spectre controls his mind but he regains it quickly. A golem throws a grenade but it hits Boris. Koffi throws a hellfire bone up through the hole and we hear the death rattle of lots of people. We get up and into a new room. There are six undead, four humans and one vampire. Theodonna is killed by the vampire but Boris uses an item to save her. He then attacks an undead and kills it. The death curse causes him to vanish. Valentine kills an undead and the death curse causes him to go blind, deaf and dumb. He starts flailing around and hitting any humans near him. Koffi goes berserk and attacks an undead. Given that he is a gnome who doesn’t fit too well the battle is short-lived. He disappears. Specs (another golem) gets his revenge. Another human tries to push Bill down the hole. Bill holds on to him and takes him to his death. The Vampire is attacked by Theodonna and Valentine. Valentine gets in the final blow and disappears. These death curses are certainly mounting up. Theodonna fights on till she ultimately disappears.

The party (minus Perrin) reappear in a dark room. There is a draining occurring so they race into other rooms, getting split up in the process. Lots of small battles are fought till they manage to get out of the corridors and back to freedom and the waiting Captain Vanielle. As they reach him they vanish from the world.

Another Ship Arrives

The whole party finds itself back in the spaceship, none the worse for wear. By killing the necromancer we have succeeded in tipping the scales of the battle and the war has been won.

A second spaceship has arrived and we head off to a location known to house some virtual hells. We will be sent in to find two researchers hoping to prove that hells can be escaped from. They will then try to convert their own cultures to the Anti Hell side. We do know that Prim and Chay were trying to get to a “valley of blood” where a mill powered by blood can open a portal out. It seems it can only handle 8 beings at a time though.

We are warned not to die as we will be reincarnated into new bodies at the nearest graveyard. To be safe copies of our consciousnesses will be made in case we don’t make it out.

When we enter the hell we will be in warped bodies with no clothes or possessions. We will be given a barbed wire collar though. 5 barbs can be used to return our items, possessions and spells/skills for 5 minutes. The 6th barb will transform us into demon killers and should be kept till we reach the valley. Our weapons will have bonuses to attack demons. We can have the same enhancements as before, plus an extra rank 20 spell from another college and an item.

• Boris – Rune Sacrifice and Cast Self Spells on Others
• Perrin – Rune Torment and a ring of +20 Magic Resistance
• Koffi – Spectral Warrior and Greater Heart Rune
• Theodonna – Whirlwind Vortex and Enhanced Enchantment
• Valentine – Witchsight and Fire Arc

Ledejay doesn’t come with us this time. She follows “Broken Hand”, the avatoid from the other ship, on a secret mission. Broken Hand gives us each a “mole”. We are instructed to cut it off to gain some energy.

Into Hell We Go

We enter hell through the East Gate. The terrain is dusty and desert like. There are thousands of lost souls here being herded by flying demons. Some are killed and some are sent off to fight in pointless demon wars. We dash to the side and escape into the desert. We quickly stumble over a hidden person. Her name is Lidia and she has been here for thousands of years. She has been killed so many times she can’t remember them all. Each time she has been reborn in the graveyard and sent on to her next futile death. Her only hope is the “Angel of Death” who can permanently kill you. We wonder if this is just a fable to ensure the denizens of hell have something to be ripped from them with each death. False hope is about all these people have.

She joins us but it doesn’t take long for a group of demons to find us. She runs off but is grabbed and raped. Valentine pulls his first barb and engages the demons, so the rest of us do the same. Did I mention that Valentine is a Paladin and can’t stand for injustices to be done? Between Valentines massive attacks and Theodonnas Whirlwind Vortex the demons are quickly despatched. Boris speaks to the dead Demons and learns that the Angel of Death is real and that Demons fear her. Also the valley we seek is over 500 miles to the north. That is a long way to go when you can’t fly. After 5 minutes we revert back to powerless deformed beings. We wander on and see a flying beetle about 100 feet up.

Every couple of miles we enter a new terrain and we encounter more lost souls being tortured by demons of varying kind. Each time Valentine changes to paladin form and engages them. We quickly decide to only have one or two party members change with him or else we will quickly use up or barbs.

The battles go quite well for us but we aren’t covering enough ground.

We do encounter the angel of death. She explains that she had tried to destroy the hell but had failed. As a punishment she was changed and given the power to permanently kill souls each day, in order to feed. Her curse is to be the only hope the other lost souls have of ever getting out of Hell. She agrees to come to us each day and offer whatever help she can.

We battle on, being attacked by more demons, wolves and a polar bear. The polar bear managers to kill Perrin, who disappears. The Angle of Death recognizes Perrin’s soul in the new deformed body in a graveyard and rescues him from a chain gang, returning him to the group. Perrin’s barbs have all disappeared, even the remaining 2 he had. They grow back as the day passes. In the next day we find a young, only slightly hideous, female hiding in the snow. We hid with her for a time in a snow cave. Boris feels the urge and has joyous sex with her. This is BAD. A large demon appears and claims that the only sex allowed is forced demon sex. No lost soul is allowed to enjoy it. He offers to let us go free if we hand over the girl. Needless to say a fight ensues and we win, but our barbs are almost completely gone. A fine gold belt falls from the demons body. It offers some Natural Armour bonuses but it is trapped. We leave it along and run off. The girl runs in another direction. We get about 3 miles away before hearing a rather large explosion. We think someone else touched the belt. No worries though as they will be reborn very soon.

For the next few days the Angel of Death arrives and takes one person to the valley of blood, where they hide amongst the dead. Theodonna goes there first, followed by Valentine and Perrin. Theodonna and Valentine find Prim who is also hiding amongst the bodies. He lost Chay and hasn’t been able to find her. Prim tells us that the flying beetle we saw earlier is where people are brought to Hell to “see what it is like” in an attempt to “scare them straight”. It departs from this valley and is due here soon. Meanwhile Koffi and Boris arrive. Koffi has been killed but the Angel of Death found him and brought him back. Boris gives Koffi is last remaining barb back. Luckily for Koffi the new deformed body has two heads and one of them has already started growing the barb back, so he now has two.

We come up with a stunningly simple plan. We will wait till the metal beetle craft arrives and the portal has been activated. Then we will pull our final barbs and become powerful enough to get to the portal and use it before anyone else can stop us. It is such a simple plan that it surely can’t fail…

We all hide for another day and talk to Prim. He hasn’t seen Chay for a while so we presume she is lost somewhere in this hell.

The beetle approaches and the portal starts opening. We pull our barbs and transform into 25 foot demons and we fly off to assault the portal guards. Almost immediately we are surrounded by huge clouds of demon fairies. They hurt us only through their sheer numbers. Theodonna casts whirlwind vortex on the people trying to get off the beetle craft. We can’t allow any of them to get through the portal or some of us won’t be able to get out.

Six fiery demons emerge from the blood wheel that powers the portal and fly up to engage us. A fire wall also springs up directly in front of the portal. We don’t stop to chat but continue on to the portal avoiding combat where possible. The fire wall doesn’t do enough damage to stop us and we fly straight through it to our escape.

Perrin and Koffi are the last 2 to approach the portal when one of the people from the beetle springs up and steps through. Perrin slows down a fraction to allow Koffi through, knowing that he can at least try an opening spell on the portal. His chances are slim but better than Koffi, who had no chance.

As we could all expect Perrins’ attempts to reopen the portal fail so he flies off seeking somewhere safe in the hell.

Back on the Ship

The Party, minus Perrin, arrives and discusses what to do about the missing adventurer. They have almost resolved to go back in to rescue him when Perrin walks into the room. The ship avatoid, Sensei, tells us they have used the stored consciousness of Perrin to repopulate his body. He has no memory of the adventure in hell as he technically never went in.

Our next mission is to help in a war against the gods. The Lord of Light (Binder of Demons) is fighting against the other gods. our mission is to help him tip the balance. We are warned that time flows faster in this simulation and it has been a while since the last communication came out.

We get the same bonuses as previously.

The Lord of Light

We appear near a small village in a rural agricultural setting. It appears to be about midday as we approach the village of about 1000 people. When we question a peasant on the whereabouts of the Lord of Light we are told he is in the "bridge of the gods". The fight went poorly for him a decade ago and the gods punished him by forcing him into Nirvana. If we want to know more e should talk to the priests in the saffron robes. They have a small temple on the other side of town. Boris gives him a silver coin and the peasant darts off before we can consider taking it back.

We explore the town for a bit and notice everyone is ruled by the gods. They place offerings of coins in temple statues to the god they want to gain some good karma from. Our party finds this sort of devotion a bit too much.

We get to the other side of town and talk to the abbot of the temple. He tells us the Lord of Light was fighting the other gods to change their attitude to magic and technology. It seems magic is outlawed here. Only the gods can practise it and they come down very hard on anyone else caught dabbling. We claim ignorance to the ways of magic.

As we leave Boris sees a huge 50 foot long snake following us from the temple. We get across a river and hide our trail. Theodonna does a quick DA and tells Koffi it is a construct. He gets excited and wants to turn back to find it. We dissuade him from doing this. - Silly Gnome -

We travel on till sunset and set up camp. There is a full moon. We set up a guard roster, along with all Koffis Golems. Near midnight we are attacked by the snake, 7 noisy people and 1 imposing figure at the back. Theodonna DAs the last person and gets a "godling" aura. He has a metal rod in each hand (always trouble) and some fancy metal armour. The fact that he is floating above the ground is a dead giveaway that he is the biggest contender in this battle. The rods do agony and lightning but we manage to resist the worst effects on the first round. Valentine fire arcs us to the godling, who immediately dissolves into the moonbeams. Koffi adhesions the people to the ground while we battle the snake. Boris comes off a bit worse for wear when the snake bites him and the tongue remains attached. It digs into his chest but we manage to extract and deactivate it before any permanent harm is done.

The other people fight to the death, all bar one who we knock out. He reveals (thanks to some torture threats) that they are servants of Soma. They each wear an amulet which gives protection from agony but none of use put them on. The fact that they are cursed and will kill any non-Soma believer is the main reason for our reticence. Boris animates the 6 and has some undead for cannon fodder, should Soma return.

Shortly after leaving the area we encounter a hunter. He sees the undead and runs but Boris throws his axe skilfully and knocks him to the ground. The hunter thought we were the spawn of Kirity (god of the undead) who is amassing an army of undead to the deep south. It is likely he is also trying to overthrow the gods.

The godling we encountered was indeed Soma. We are warned to stay out of the moonbeams.

The remaining servant of Soma tells us about the Celestial City (1000 miles to the north) and the island of Kirity (500 miles to the south). We let him go as there is no chance he will go back to the town since he failed on this mission.

As we wander on a small blind boy comes to us. He is dressed in saffron robes and says he came from the temple in the town. His name is Sonan. He has been sent to guide us on our journeys. We come up with 4 plans.

• We can find the followers of the fallen god Yama. He was an ally of the Lord of Light
• Find the Dalai Lama. He might be able to help us pull the Lord of Light from Nirvana
• We can find the followers of Ratri, the goddess of night. She might be inclined to help us
• Find Sharma. He was the Lord of Lights physician. He is an expert in reincarnation machinery. He is well hidden but the monks might know some more

We decide to go for the 3rd option. There is a temple in Madurai where she is known to hang out.

Just as we get ready to depart a demon appears. It offers to gamble with us.

In this realm Demons are honour bound to uphold their gambling debts

Perrin insults it and so Boris agrees to gamble. It is some convoluted dice game but Boris wins. He gets a ring of thunderbolts with 6 charges.

As we fly off we see a Roc with a rider. Koffi takes his magic carpet lower while Perrin makes us all invisible. A talon reaches up from below the carpet and grabs Perrin. It is the demon he insulted only a few minutes ago. Perrin is flown straight up for about a mile, continuing to insult the demon. It comes as a complete surprise to him when the demon lets go and he hurtles to his death. The blind boy lays his hands on and preserves Perrin for reincarnation.

The roc and its rider notice the party and descend. Some arrows are fired at Koffi and Boris. They are both pinned to trees and are alarmed when the arrows start ticking. Boris rips his out and throws it away. Koffi turns into a butterfly to escape his. Both arrows explode but the party is safe. Koffi starts making some fog but the rider drops a globe which blows the fog away. Theodonna tries to whirlwind vortex the rider and the roc but there is no apparent effect. They do fly away though.

The blind boy says that was Valu, the god of winds.

Following the boys directions the party gets to a secluded valley high in the mountains. The temple is spread across several pinnacles, connected by ropes and bridges. The temple is dedicated to Ratri and Koffi asks for Perrin to be resurrected. The priest in charge says there are no resurrection machines here, but we suspect he is lying for our benefit, as if he is being watched. We rest up for the evening and are secreted out to a cavern where Sharma lives. Perrin is brought back in a slim male human body (there was a choice of 2 male humans, an Orc and a female human).

Valentine asks if Sharma knows any ways to get the Lord of Light out of Nirvana, to which we get four possibilities

• Yama might help (death god)
• a mass gathering of monks, all praying to the Lord of Light, and having the prayers bound together somehow, could be used to pull him from Nirvana
• Some brave souls could go to the Celestial City and project their souls in to Nirvana, but the problem remains on how to get out
• Demons might help. They were allies of his before

We decide on option 2. If we can find the Dalai Lama he could become the catalyst to binding the souls. Sharma can provide some spare bodies for the soul of the Lord of Light to be housed in once he is broken free.

We seek shelter in the catacombs for several weeks to ensure the godlings who are hunting us get bored and go on to easier prey.

A demon arrives and offers us knowledge of the Dalai Lama in exchange for 2 weeks of servitude. With this gamble the demon gets the body for 2 weeks regardless but will give the information if it loses. Valentine takes on the challenge but loses. The demon chortles and possesses his body (did I mention the demon was insubstantial?), then quickly vanishes.

2 weeks later Valentine arrives back but won't discuss any of what the demon did with his body. The monks visit Sharma and pass on some rumours that Zirity has amassed an army of undead and is moving northward.

Another demon appears and Perrin strikes up a bargain to have our party taken to the Dalai Lama if he wins. The demon laughs and chooses his game, only to be soundly trounced by the beginner player. To fulfil its end of the bargain the demon calls on some other demons to possess our bodies for the journey. The party is transported to Zirity's pyramid on an island off the southern coast of this continent. On the trip we fly over the ocean and see many ships of undead sailing up the coast.

Our attempt to sneak in is foiled by some very watchful zombie guards. The golems and Theodonnas whirlwind vortex spells despatch all the resistance as we get to the centre of the pyramid where we find a young boy floating in a black void. The room is huge. Boris makes a bone construction bridge and Perrin foolishly races across to free the boy. Just before he gets to the boy he is overpowered by shadowy bats which suck his life out. The rest of the party lays some counterspells and Koffi manages to touch the boy. Koffi says we are here to rescue him, to which he hears in his mind a command to "share your life-force with me". He does (trusting soul that he is) and the complete party appears in a wonderful grove where the animals and nature live in harmony.

Perrin is still dead so the Dalai Lama and Boris step into the spirit realm to rescue his soul. Boris fights the great battle and comes back victorious. We all rest up and make new plans. The Dalai Lama suggests we go to a city called Shervasti (about 150 miles away) in 4 weeks for a religious ceremony. This city is holy to many of the gods, including the Lord of Light. The Dalai Lama will meet us there with a huge crowd of followers (they will blend into the ceremony festivities). We should go back to Sharma and secure his services, his resurrection machinery and a few spare bodies.

It takes several days to fly back to Sharmas place as we are only flying at night, in attempts to avoid being seen by the gods. On one of the rests breaks we encounter 2two humans. Valentine talks to them. It turns out they are "information brokers" and have come from Niriti. He was allies with the Lord of Light and is raising an army to take on the gods. He offers an alliance and assistance. Valentine agrees to any help but insists on meeting Niriti in person. The humans leave us with a communication device that looks like a seashell. The two leave to organise the meeting.

We get to Sharmas place and he immediately checks the seashell for any hidden location devices. He then dismantles his resurrection device and Koffi itemises it. The city we want is about a week’s worth of travel away so we head off, continuing to fly only at nightime. Each night Sharma engages us in philosophical discussions. He seems very confused by our attitudes.

We stop at an abandoned temple to the Goddess of Night and Valentine prays at the altar. Nothing happens.

Every couple of hours Koffi tries the seashell device but he only hears a static noise.

We land to the north of the city and search for some concealment. We wait a day and nothing happens. Koffi decides that the seashell needs to be divinated, to ensure it does what we expect, despite Sharmas assurances. It turns out to be a rock with an illusion on it. Damn. We divinate Sharma and his equipment. They are all illusions. Double Damn. When did this happen??? We move to another site for safety.

There is only 3 weeks left till the big ceremony. Koffi talks to a Demon for information on Sharma. It tells us for free that the person we had was probably the Goddess of Illusions called Maya. We do some gambling to get the real Sharma returned to us. Our Luck turns to crap and we all lose. 1 week later the party reforms (except for Boris and Perrin who took longer to get their souls strengthened). The boss of Demons (Teraka) arrives and tells us the real Sharma is dead. Teraka is a friend of the Lord of Light and agrees to help us. He can "strengthen the soul" of the Lord of Light but we need to get another resurrection device. His demons will help as a distraction when the ceremony starts. He offers to do this as a deal instead of a gamble. He gets to use our bodies till 1 week before the ceremony. We agree.

Time passes and we reappear with a week to go.

The town is on the northern side of the river. There are a multitude of temples to the south and a huge plain which are said to have fantastic acoustics.

We enter the town to talk to Yama, the death goddess. We want to find an artificer to make an item to help pull the Lord of Light from Nirvana. We follow a small girl into the temple and she puts fresh flowers on the altar. After a brief chat she claims to be a reincarnated artificer stuck in the body of a twelve year old. This is punishment for Yama and her followers from the war a decade ago. She shows us where a communication device is hidden and Valentine talks to Yama. Apparently the communication lines are being monitored so Valentine hangs up. We wait for Yamas to arrive in person.

She arrives at night time. We talk to her and find out Maya has been missing for some time now. Rumour has it Maya is on a secret undercover mission. We let her know that we think we have already encountered Maya and that she knows all of our plans.

Yama says she had been working on a prototype of a machine to open a doorway to Nirvana. It is hidden in the Celestial City. We should get it and rescue the Lord of Light before the Dalai Lamas ceremony occurs, as no doubt the other gods now know about that plan. We agree to go to a mountain range called Kendruff. This area has lots of natural storms that will cause interferences which will mask the machines effect. Koffi and the goddess go to the Celestial City and he itemises the device. Then they return and we all head of to Kendruff.

We try the device several times but it can’t seem to bridge the gap to Nirvana. Koffi checks out the machine and finds a damaged component. He then mends it. Yama looks sad while telling us she has to kill us.

So she wasn’t on our side after all. The lesson is never trust a goddess.

Valentine dashes forward and strikes Yama. He falls to the ground dead. Theodonna manages to kill Yama with a succession of Whirlwind Vortex’s.

Teraka arrives and is very impressed by us and the dead goddess. He occupies Valentines body and flies up to summon some storm elementals. These will create a break in the clouds which might help the device to rescue the Lord of Light.

Koffi triggers the device and it succeeds in bringing a soul back to the body we had waiting. Unfortunately a god in a flaming chariot has noticed us and is descending to engage. We race back into the temple and manage to confuse the god long enough for us to escape. This has something to do with Arkmed blowing up in the gods face. (ha – he deserved it)

The demon finds us an hour later and takes us to the Dalai Lama, who then helps strengthen the Lord of Lights soul.

We feel ourselves being pulled out of this world and reappear on the spaceship next to the avatoid.

Ledejays Revenge

There is a second avatoid here and a discussion about the replicators ensues. The ships are off to fight in the war as the replicators have learned to build spaceships. This has never happened before so it is suspected that someone is helping them to “upgrade”.

A strange vessel is following us so we are asked to depart with Ledejay (and to assist her) while the intruder ship is dealt with.

We find ourselves on the world controlled by Vepers, the person who owned Ledejay and who killed her. She tells us he comes from a powerful race and that he may be running some virtual hells from under his estate. We have 2 days before the estate is obliterated by the spaceships we were on. Vepers has access to some powerful technology and in one day an Anti-Technology aura will be used to cripple his defences. This should also bring him down to a level where we have a chance of harming him. Ledejay wants him dead and we are more than happy to help her.

The estate is really large. The central house is huge with dozens of rooms encompassing 3 levels. To the north is a vast series of lakes and rivers and tiny islands. Apparently he puts slaves in boats and tells them to row about while he fires cannon balls at them for fun. To the east is a set of buildings where he experiments on creating new forms of life. All the reject ones are kept on the east. To the west is where he houses his animal guards like the diamond dogs and the razor dove constructs.

We appear in the forest to the east. Ledejay wants to hide for one day, till the anti-technology aura kicks in. We think that is a good plan but we are immediately spotted by a “spoonman”. This is a tiny man about 3 inches tall who spies for Vepers. He is very nimble and races up a tree. It takes quite a bit of effort to capture him. When we figure out Vepers can “see through his eyes” Boris rips his head off.

We had north and go invisible before slipping into the lake water (water breathing helps). We swim out to an island but are attacked by a giant electric snake. It manages to kill Perrin before we kill it and reach the comparative safety of the small land mass. Ledejay pulls out a needle and injects something into Perrin. He springs back to life feeling fully refreshed.

A small cute girl from the estate house walks out to see us. The fact that she walks on the water rings alarm bells with us. We greet her cordially and share in some tea and cookies brought over by a servant. Her name is Mattel and she says she is visiting Vepers, who isn’t here at the moment. She brings a boat over to escort us to the estate house for more refreshments while we wait for Vepers. It really seems that we have little choice so we politely agree. Half way across the water some huge tentacles pull the boat below the water. All of our items disappear with the girl and the servant. We all struggle but eventually black out.

We wake up in a hospital. We all have black wings and hospital gowns. Our items are still missing. A nurse enters the room and tells us we were damaged but she is here to help us. She has white wings. Perrin talks to her and finds out our bodies died and we are in a virtual world. Once we have answered her questions she can get us back in new bodies. She insists on knowing our history but no one trusts her yet. Eventually Perrin starts telling his story, leaving out bits about the spaceships, but this doesn’t satisfy her. He finally gets sick of this verbal dance so he tells the truth. On the mention of the spaceships the nurse calls them “an interfering race known as the Culture” and we immediately fall unconscious.

We wake in the cells to the east where the rejected creatures are housed. Koffi unlocks the door and we battle a guard. He looks like the servant that Mattel had. The guard points a device at Koffi and pulls the trigger but nothing happens. We suspect the anti technology aura has kicked in. Ledejay says he is a cloned bodyguard for Vepers. We kill the guard and find our items in a small room. We also free all the creatures held here when they promise to kill Vepers.

As we enter the forest again we find razor doves and diamond dogs just lying on the ground. Koffi recognises treasure when he sees it and puts some in his “bag of holding”.

As we approach the estate house we see a huge metal egg on 3 metal legs. Ledejay calls it a shuttle craft and says it can fly very high. There are some guards who attack us. Perrin manages to backfire an opening spell and thoroughly jams the opening mechanism on the shuttle. Between Boris’s bone constructions, Koffis golems and Valentines enchanted weapon we manage to subdue them. These guards are all clones too. Ledejay would like to find the original guard as he was her lover and may be able to help us find Vepers.

We explore the house and loot some valuables before finding a secret passage underground. As we near the end we are confronted by Levin, Ledejays lover. He bars the way and tells us to retreat. Vepers has planted a bomb under his skin on his back and if he moves, or people pass him, it will detonate. Theodonna and Koffi say “no problem”. She puts a disjunction down to help stop the bomb activating, then turns to Barbie doll size. Koffi gives her a few drops of his universal solvent. She hopes on Levins shoulder and climbs down shirt. She slices open the skin just above the bomb and drops the solvent in. She then slices below the bomb and a liquid metal oozes out. Problem solved.

Ledejay and Levin embrace and get all soppy for a few minutes while we give them a bit of privacy.

At the end of the tunnel is Vepers, Mattel and another shuttle. Mattel is the biggest threat since she has mass disintegration so Boris puts up some bone constructions to block her line of sight. As Valentine, Levin and two of Koffis golems emerge from the tunnel the ground around them bubbles up and enwraps them (Valentine manages to dive to the side before being trapped). One of the golems is Arkmed, who immediately explodes (that is his lifes purpose after all). Boris attacks the ground and frees them after a few pulses. Ledejay chases after Levin, who has been turned into a vulture. Hundreds of spoonmen drop from the trees and attack our eyes. Theodonna gets blinded while Perrin holds his shield aloft to protect himself.

Mattel vanishes and reappears a pulse later behind Valentine and more golems as they rush Vepers. Her incredibly long hair whips out and slices through their legs at the ankle. Valentine falls forward but still attacks Vepers. The golem stumbles a little but carries on. Mattel vanishes again.

Vepers is frustrated by the anti technology aura deactivating his weapons so he resorts to a rapier. He is somewhat skilled with it though and engages the injured Valentine. Boris and the golem defend Valentine while desperately trying to guess where Mattel will reappear.

Just as the golem gets a death strike on Vepers, Mattel appears behind Boris. Her hair wraps around his neck and attempts to decapitate him. She is stunned when Boris looks at her and grins (he has an item to avoid death once an adventure) and then she runs away. We let her go. Boris loots Vepers body. Ledejay has been reunited with her lover (he turned back to human form when Vepers died) and her quest to seek revenge has been completed.

Ledejays tattoos’ glow and we leave the estate, reappearing on the spaceship.

With our mission complete we are awarded some items and upgrades to our bodies, before leaving fr Seagate and quiet pint in the guild tavern.

Administration

• Treasure Rolls
  • Boris - 70
  • Koffi - 20
  • Perrin - 50
  • Theodonna - 28
  • Valentine - 64

In real time we spent about 4 days away from Seagate.

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