The Surprise

Greetings Old Friend. It's been a little while since I've had a breather to sit down and write. Due to that a lot is going to be said and seeing how even I haven't sorted out the mess yet in my head, it's likely to come out as a jumble. That being said, let's start where we left off two days ago. The plan to infiltrate the Cogs went smoothly up until the point we encountered the so called "Butcher". A fouler being I've never seen, and I reckon neither have you. You were always more apt at recalling the more obscure monsters of the Prowler's Bestiary, but I don't think whatever it is located in some long-forgotten corner in the library. He stews a soup that stank of death and defilement, but to the others it smelt as the finest of cooked meals. Seeing as how the butcher was flanked by NRF and we were at a disadvantage as we have been effectively ambushed, we decided to make a break for the Cogs proper. We were in danger of being overwhelmed when an old mentor of the officers "Faldren" flanked by more of her former students rescued us. Now we have left the frying pan, but in actuality instead of reaching safety we have leapt into the fire.
The Syndi's were a mess. Faldren, her students, and that Ulyvar of hers (turns out they are engaged) shackled up with them as a survival tactic and to try to rescue the trapped refugees that remain. The issue is that as competent as Faldren and her company is that they are being restrained by the Syndi's bureaucracy. The Syndi's are having a military command problem as they wanna keep their democratic structure when there's a crisis that requires decisive action. It doesn't help however that Faldren hates the Syndi's and believes that their cause is inherently false. That simply anyone can do what they do, and they should take whatever pay thrown at them. Yeah, she's insufferable and probably holding Ulyvar's family hostage to secure the marriage. Regardless, we've found Ulyvar, but he isn’t willing to leave until after the NRF storm the Cogs. A probable bloodbath will ensue if the syndi’s are as disorganized as they are when that happens, so we have sort out the mess.
Faldren and Ulyvar explains that there are two pressing problems regarding the defense of the Cogs. First, the Syndi’s are in disarray and not capable of organizing a proper militia in response to the attack. Second, even if they could organize, they lack the proper armament. We have a lead on a supply depot that was supposed to receive a shipment of weapons, but the issue regarding the politics of the Syndi’s is going to be a little trickier. We would have to get the votes needed to form a war council, and that would require convincing the various party coalitions. Ahh gotta love politics. To spare you boring political talk we make a bunch of empty promises and manage to get the votes needed. All we need now is to find the missing weapons and supplies to arm the militia. If I only knew what would happen next. That my life which had already taken a turn for the strange, could now rival the imagination of an eldritch horror.
The plan to retrieve the weapons was to take a cart on rail to where the depot is to see if the supplies made it. Simple enough right? It was until we got off the cart.
We came to crossroads, and we were trying to decide which way to go when she suddenly teleported around the corner exuding necromantic and lich energies (we’re gonna have to have a chat later). We follow her, find the entrance to the depot, and find it to be filled with undead. Knowing it’s a trap but having no other recourse we enter. This is where everything changed. As we start the mad dash for the supplies and begin fighting the “shard zombies” (as they aren’t your typical 25 gp zombies but have been fucked with by the butcher), I have an inkling to use the Mark to launch a firebolt as they might be weak to fire. The second I let it go I feel a searing pain emanating from my hand and I pass out. I awake on something akin to a beach of sand and glass with a spere off in the distance with distinct strands connected to various figures I don’t really recognize except for one a girl which I saw among the refugees. I’m approached by woman blonde with green eyes telling me to find the person I recognize for the “convergence”. It was at this point I realized that this was the “mother” I’ve heard so much about. She continued on to say that I’m about to meet an associate of hers and to accept the deal that they propose, or I will die. That’s when I awoke to see the fight still progressing. We manage to kill off all the zombies and then Faldren arrives to say that the butcher is weakened and is upstairs within the depot.
Now let me be clear; I had no intention of handing off whatever person I was to find off to these assholes. However, when we met the butcher, I had this unnatural fear take hold of me. That if we were to fight the butcher then we would not win. Maybe I was wrong, but I rarely am about this sort of thing. So, when we met the butcher, we talked and held our blades. Turns out Marky is another link in the plans of the fuckwits and so is the girl I need to find, so the butcher offers a deal. Marion and I (as I can locate the girl effectively) bring to butch tomorrow and we will be spared (for the time being). We agreed but only as a measure to come up with a plan for dealing with the butcher and saving the cogs. We now have the weapons we need. We just need to find the girl in order to protect her from the machinations of the triumvirate.
We return to the Cogs to debrief and to find the girl. I manage to locate her through the mark somehow and I spot her with two kids. I approach trying to come up with the right words to say. I mean how do you tell a kid that their life is no longer going to ever be the same? However… when I got close enough and we lock eyes something happened. I felt as if I have been searching for this kid my whole life but didn’t know it until now. That all the other possible variations that my life could have taken were inconsequential as I stood there locking eyes with destiny. The kid, whose name is Dahlia was also scared because she had seen me in a dream, and along with the woman I met before which she says looks like an older version of her (I agree which raises another bag of worms). We managed to convince Dahlia that we’re going to protect her from those that mean her harm and she followed us to Ulyvar’s bunker within the Cogs. The plan being for Niko to fake being Dahlia during the handoff giving us a chance to get close and ambush Butch. What a clusterfuck right?