WttSS session 19: 'On the Binding of Spirits from the Dark'

Session report

Written by Doctor Weather

General Summary

The sorcerer Avihu is defeated and the party meets Khamzi.

Murad and Zarzur discuss Kerman's growing fame

The three agree to regroup at the Caliban Crow and await Khalil and Masruq's news of success or request for help, as the Icons would will it. Leaving the Oasis, they see the local news broadcasting images of Kerman saving the servant boy. These images are quickly picked up by the Bulletin's Samala Hafi-Joahn, who combines them with Kerman's adventures in The Cantina, serving to increase his reputation further: not only has the 'Walker with Demons' saved a local boy, he's also defeated a squad of Legionaries - and being near an explosion on a Colonial Agency ship doesn't hurt either.
Murad ponders the excellent images of Kerman's most recent adventure: None of the Oasis's servants would have the tech to have taken the footage and it's too good quality to have been a chance capture on a personal device; someone was purposefully operating a quality drone. Fearing infiltration, he searches the Caliban Crow for spy-ware and finds two tracking devices: an easier-find decoy and a more-cleverly-hidden second device that shows deployment by a capable user. Murad and Zarzur ponder how to make best use of this discovery, leaving both devices in place for now.

Khalil and Masruq trap Avihu in a spirit box

Tearing round the corner of a small diplomatic residence in the palace, they surprise a servant gardener, who pursues the better part of valour when he sees they are being chased by a growing fissure in the ground that proves intelligent enough to actively chase the PCs.
As the gardener flees, Khalil and Masruq see what originally had his attention: the drone containing Khalil's spirit box lying broken and smoldering in a flower bed. Rushing toward it, they fear for the integrity of the spirit box within but need a way to safely check it through hot shards of ruptured drone metal. This quickly becomes Khalil's problem, leaving Masruq to distract the sorcerer spirit.
A few choice words considering the possibility that the sorcerer is the end product of a failed family line, lying weak, destroyed and forgotten, draws Avihu's attention and the spirit rages towards Masruq... And the GM learns what it is to roll that many zeroes... even wth Darkness Points: Avihu wrecks a large portion of the chairs, statues and flower beds around Masruq but he remains safe and unharmed, allowing Khalil to carefully reach into the drone and grab the still intact spirit box.
In a desparate attempt to achieve something useful, Avihu warps the metal fragments around Khalil's hand but is once again drawn away by Masruq's further questionning of the sorcerer's heritage and capability - given that he is dead after all. Narrowly avoiding a rupture in the ground, Masruq again remains immune to the Dark spirit's ire. This further distraction gives Khalil time to free himself and to work up a impromptu device to help draw the spirit into the box trap, but it needs Avihu to be near the box. Perversely though, and despite receiving a blessing from Masruq, Khalil finds himself much more vulnerable to Avihu's power: The sorcerer rips open another hole in the garden surface, revealing the waterway pipework below, and Khalil falls amongst shards of broken piping, gushing water, soil and petal.
The box trap falls from Khalil's hands. Masruq dives for it but misses the catch. However, the box tumbles into the hole, the hole that marks the position of Avihu's destructive energy. There is a tussle for power between spirit and mystic that goes on frustratingly long but eventually ends in Masruq forcing the sorecerer into the trap. Not wasting any valuable time, Masruq drops into the pipework below and pulls Khalil's head above the filling water. Looking at his comm he sees Kerman asking if all is OK.

Khamzi asks to speak to the party

Kerman, Murad and Zarzur grav-bike to the palace. The Solar Wind guards still have the gates locked but they are confused and without current orders from the Inner Council, who have too much to worry about as Khamzi comes round - fully and properly, able to communicate as herself after decades. It is therefore a small matter for the PCs to bully their way into the palace to save their fellows.
Together again, the party gathers together in the garden-battle aftermath. Though a little battered and muddy, Khalil and Masruq are drawn easily enough from the hole and the party considers their next move; but it is almost chosen for them: Khamzi asks them to come to her straight away. With Bakhtiyar's influence the PCs are able to bypass all who would get in their way: palace servants try to gather around the heroes of the city but are ordered away; the city's well to do watch enviously as the party are ushered through the palace waiting halls; and the Inner Council are left to argue pointlessly amongst themselves as the PCs are lead into the palace garden for a private audience with Khamzi.
Khamzi it seems, is her old self, though older and much more tired, still somewhat in shock after decades suffering under the will of Avihu. She manages to hold a respectful meeting with the party, giving her thanks for their actions and revealing the source of laws made in her name. She has observed Avihu's dreams all these years, seeing the spirit consumed with thoughts of a place in which a purple haze rises from the ground, bearing within it strings of light and all set in front of a slow-turning blade, Dark with an absence of colour.
For the most part the meeting proceeds politely and well but in an effort to determine the true Khamzi, Khalil risks calling her shah. She responds with "I am no shah" but the thought of what has happened in her name in the years past fills her words with sorrow. Though Khalil succeeds in finding a Khamzi he can respect, the cost is her becoming visibly upset; and, ever the believer in propriety, Kerman decides it is time Khalil leave lest he give more disrespect. He is allowed to hear the details of Avihu's dreams from the doorway back to the palace but the rest of the party is left to conduct the remainder of the meeting.

Things begin to calm down

Khamzi offers the party the help of the city in their future endeavours and hopes they can solve the riddle of Avihu's dreams. The party promises to throw Avihu into the sun with her consent, which she gladly gives. Overly tired, Khamzi is then finally led away by a concerned Bakhtiyar, who takes heed of the party's warnings of the human political danger Khamzi may still face. Bakhtiyar also offers permanent contact with his staff, to allow the city and players to co-ordinate all future actions, one of which is the city happily paying the costs to restock and repair the Caliban Crow.
(The ship's workshop and service station are now resupplied. Repairs to the docking station can be done, and Shalla's suite can be redecorated, but these will have to wait until the PCs return, given the urgency of putting Avihu into the star of Ghodar. As yet, Caliban himself has not been spoken of, for fear of the risk of revealing the presence of an advanced AI in the main. It's also unclear if the city would really fork out the 33,000 birr needed to fix him.)
The party is given a Solar Wind escort back to their ship to prevent anyone stopping them. Little will immediately change in the local politics, as creating too many waves in one go would destabilise the city; but there are a lot of people with fears and expectations to answer and uncertainty might still make the PCs a target. With the Solar Wind to guard them though, they make it safely to their ship. There is a moment when a Colonial Agency diplomat starts a public complaint against the party in the palace as they are leaving but it is strangely stopped by a Colonial Ranger captain and the complaint is dropped before it has even been fully registered.
Khamzi does make one immediate change to her city before rest is unavoidable, cancelling the so-called Khamzi's laws and releasing everyone being held for breaking them. This brings the populace significant relief but also frees the Legion soldiers that Kerman outwitted in The Cantina; though in better news, it also frees Dana, Murad's friend and contact.

Campaign

Whispers to the Star Singer (concluded)

Protagonists

Report Date

20 Jan 2021