Season 3, Episode 11: "Khaim" Report
General Summary
The Battle
It was a battle that ended as swiftly as it began.The Dream Team and their gathered allies spread out as General Khaim opened fire, backed by a surprise flanking from the Gorgon, and split apart by a blast door that left Sensei and Golonos trapped with Nakira and her men. The Void Coven imbued their master with the power of the divine, pooled for decades inside the Fivefold Cauldron, while other Efreeti acted in the wings, triggering traps and sealing doors as it suited the Servants of Sakalayo.
A card was dealt, as Tesin utilized the blessing of the Ritualist, summoning Ilvarti from pyric flame. Our heroes began to fall, as fifteen-foot greatswords cleaved through their ranks. The halls melted from the heat of the conflict, and the floor became a sea of expended shells.
Lockette began to clear the rank and file, while Isra, Chad, and Ragarot teamed up against the Gorgon, slowly pushing him onto his heels. A decisive blow brought him down, but few Vampires stay dead for long...
Freed from immediate danger, those capable leapt for the elevator down, while Mist, Roranoa, Chamas, and Abelina Tremont handled the brunt of Khaim's continued onslaught, backed by Skiv and Zhyffor.
But then the System reported Sensei's demise, Roranoa took a fatal wound through the chest. Ilvarti's neck sprayed a black, burning blood, and Tesin sought the power of chaotic magics. The Lashunta disappeared, suddenly at the Void Hags' mercy, and then her world went dark.
Nakira fled Crucible, radioing her victory. Only Khaim and the Hags remained. Isra and Chad arrived downstairs to find Tesin in peril -- her head submerged in the Fivefold Cauldron -- as the witches began a new ritual. But then Lockette and Mist opened fire, and a rogue arrow pierced the General's chest, ending his legacy once and for all. With their master dead, the Hags chose survival over revenge, fleeing Crucible with the Cauldron, leaving Tesin and her friends behind.
The Aftermath
The aftermath of the battle was bleak, but eventful. Roranoa was confirmed dead, much to his brother's dismay. Ilvarti was alive, but haunted by the quasi-death of his mistress, who lay in a coma forced by auras of both regeneration and death. The Stewards -- who had arrived via Far Portal and had been helping via the Highever on the outskirts -- recovered an injured Mana, and set to work checking on the injured, and securing the facility. They were led by Chief Inspector Natasha Lang, of the Ops division, whose team seemed to have a special interest in Crucible, and spread deeper into the facility upon arrival.Mist found Sensei barely clinging on, driven by a mission from beyond death -- revealing his true identity as the original Balio Sondern, and giving Mist a choice -- to kill a Walker, thus gaining a Mantle long-since abandoned, or to keep the stole of light upon his shoulders. Seeking an edge against their enemies, Mist chose to put his master to rest, gaining the Mantle of the Dark Walker before collapsing in a fever.
Meanwhile, Lockette went searching for answers, recovering a data pad and several devices of interest from the Efreeti war chambers. The data within led her to an ancient chamber in Crucible, where a supercomputer bearing Lockette's features -- affectionately named Padlock -- was found bolted to the core of the station. She quickly sealed the area away, careful to keep it from the prying eyes of the Stewards, and then reconvened with her party to make a plan.
Isra, Mist, Tesin, Ilvarti, Chamas, and Abelina returned to Ezorod, with the goal of tending to the wounded and repairing a damaged portal. Chad and Golonos returned to the Burning Archipelago for separate business, dropping Zhyffor off along the way, and Skiv and Ragarot returned to their G.O.L.A.R.I.O.N. team. Only Lockette chose to stay behind, eager to study Padlock and the databases of the First Ones...
Taking Care of Business
After receiving a missive from the Hellknights that they would be prepared to storm the Forge in fifteen days, the group decided to give themselves roughly thirteen days of down time, and then reconvene on the Burning Archipelago in time for an awards ceremony hosted by Councilman Zarrad. A summary of each member's activities are listed below.Chad
Chad recovered Pin from her plight on the Archipelago, and reunited with Qwen and Varos Mining Team 1. He paid them for the hard work, and invited Qwen to move her workshop to the Jelly Bois LLC hangar on Absalom Station. Then he returned home, hoping to check in on Fish, but found that he and his family had been kidnapped, and the Lotterbee Brother's Tool Shop ransacked. He tracked one of Fish's children, Wonton, to a sale conducted by Hush, but realized that the whole thing was a setup before acting too harshly, and resolved to handle the matter discretely. He instead visited Eox, on the hunt for the man from his dreams, eventually locating an addled Dr. Oculet in the wastes. He was a drunk, modified to have extra brain capacity which was later forcibly removed by Project 9, leaving him incapable of helping Chad fill in the blanks. However, he felt a strong urge to help the Barathu, and decided to go with him, leaving his hovel on Eox behind. With visions of the future troubling his mind, Chad then returned to Ezorod, helping heal the sick, and deal with the overwhelming amount of loot procured during the war.Isra
Using the planar tethers on Crucible, Isra brought Far Portal to Ezorod, and setup shop in the docks. At awe with the First Ones' machinations, she found the portal extremely damaged, but was able to replace the parts via her own abilities, and a tremendous flood of recently-obtained UPBs. Eventually, she learned that the massive gateway could be attuned to First One portals using her core -- specifically as long as a capable core was at most a mile away -- in particular the gateway in Ezorod, and the planar field that surrounds the Forge. Eventually, with a little help from Cornelius, Isra was able to tune the portal to her homeworld, meaning the Dream Team could arrive at the moment of the Hellknights' ground assault.Lockette
Lockette stayed behind on the Crucible for a few days, securing her newfound assets, and parsing through Padlock's data. She discovered several mentions of Project Ouroboros -- later mistranslated to Iron Drake by the Stewards -- describing an ancient effort to create energy sources capable of maintaining planet-sized machinations. While initially meant for the Forge, it was later replaced by a project surrounding core technology led by an engineer named Grandsmith, although two efforts continued despite this -- one involving the process of storing intelligence on Crucible (with an intent of controlling stations and starships) and another focused on the creation of weapons (which the Burning Archipelago was remodeled to house). After a brief parley with Lang and the Stewards, Lockette escorted two Stewards diplomats to Kahlannal, pausing to Assimilate some Efreeti starships, and then met up with the rest of the party on Ezorod, joining the beginnings of a days-long crafting session.Mist
Driven close to comatose with insanity, Mist was raving all the way to Ezorod, racked with fever dreams from his new Mantle. Under Ricardo's guidance, the tattoos were unlocked at last, allowing Mist to come to terms with the device that was destroying his body, but at great risk to the shackles of his mind. He engaged with BRANCH, a mysterious AI the tattoos (later revealed to be a BRANCH API Hub) were designed to interact with, who shared the last stored memories of Balio Sondern, and then eradicated the tattoos from Mist's body. But his treatment was far from over, as Lod Coster -- now revived as a Pyric Heliacus -- fed the Ysoki a Night Apple in hopes of curing his insanity. After biting into the fruit, a psychedelic worm lashed out from within, sending Mist into a trance, and revealing to him the Song. The overwhelming power recovered a portion of his mind, but left him haunted, making music a new source of trauma for the beleaguered rogue. After reuniting with Ricardo and his team, Mist took it easy, happy to cook with Cornelius and Chamas while participating in the craft-a-thon.Tesin
Left between life and death, Tesin was laid to rest in the Darkness Engine of Ezorod, while her soul arrived at the Doors of Death. A Death arrived to take her to the Boneyard, but she was stopped by Carrot, who decided to whisk his bride back to Night -- against the advisement of Valentina. Tesin received a summons almost immediately, with barely a fortnight's rest before she was to appear in the highest court of the Boneyard, to be deliberated by Pharasma herself. Weakened by the separation of body and soul, Carrot ordered his wife to rest, at last introducing her to the twelve Daughters of Night. They were ecstatic to meet her, each claiming a day of their mother's time before her soul passed on, lauding her with the pleasures of Night, and the customary gifts observed after a coronation. Tesin also learned that Charon, the Horseman of Death, had sought Carrot's hand in the past, and was none too pleased to learn of his marriage. She seemed to take this personally, stealing the Dreamer from the Horseman of War, and applying to be the prosecution in Tesin's case. But there was little time to worry as the bell tolled, and Valentina arrived to defend her client in the lands of the dead...Rewards Granted
Tarot Deck
- Tesin uses the Blessing of the Ritualist.
- Mist uses his Card of Good Hope.
- Various loot and hundreds of thousands of credits and UPBs from Efreeti soldiers and the Crucible stores.
Created Content
Tesin Movahesh
Thunder in the Mist
Lockette Endrinmaster 12 2.0
Isra
Chad
Report Date
02 Jun 2021
Secondary Location
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