We played again tonight. The first section was a bit of a scene setting for the PC’s to cover some of the stuff which happened at the end of the last session. Azhanti spent time putting the Empire into order and unleashing the Dragons to give his people a fighting chance. Morn meanwhile headed home to stop the slave army of Reptos, neatly collapsing a mountain pass to protect them for a while. This also continued to cement his legend as a God to his people, something which annoys him no end.
When the message from the Belmondo the Artificer arrives the group decides to decamp post haste to the southern continent to recover the weapon of mass destruction.
Scene 1: They're digging in the wrong place!
Their arrival is not without incident. Ancient wards send them crashing into the side of a mountain but they quickly recover and head into the ruins of the City of the Ancient Race (essentially elves which are otherwise not present in the setting). They were a race which arose at the beginning of time and they built many mighty works, the vast city being but one of them. Somewhere within its ruins is the Void Star, a God built by that race to destroy the Primordials.
Belmondo greats them warmly, initially appearing to be a loyal mind controlled servant of the Empire. He tries to dissuade the PC’s from hanging around, stressing that the work goes slowly and that they surely have better things to do. They demur and Azhanti quickly discerns that Belmondo has slipped imperial control. As realisation dawns Belmondo strikes, animating several huge battle golems and a set of assassin droids.
The battle is fierce, the droids prove remarkably agile and keep trying to chase down Artemis but the Golems cannot manage to land a solid blow on Morn. Belmondo directs his golems ably but they are not enough. Artemis breaks free from his pursuers and lands a series of devastating blows on the magician. With his death passes the last of the Cabal magi of the City of Kings.
With the wizards death the Golem army ceases its excavation of the City. The group begin their own delving, eventually finding their way to the upper levels. There they find a map of the lower levels with several interesting sections marked on the map which the group decide to explore before heading to the central power core.
Scene 2: Dark Dungeons
The Resurrection Chamber is their first destination. Here they find hundreds of members of the ancient race lying in suspended animation, the system designed to wake them having failed. The group head off quickly when trying to remove the strange technology proves extremely difficult. They head to the Dawn Forge where their weapons were forged in ancient times. Trying to reactivate the forges to empower their weapons they instead flood the forge with chaos and are forced to flee. Their explorations lead them to the Star Drive where the secrets of creating flying cities which can travel between worlds are there for the taking. The group pass on and find themselves in the Navigation section. Here they unlock the hidden codes to the portal system, portals initially built by the ancients. Now they can control Gates across the world, changing, diverting, opening or closing them as required. They press on.
Time is running out as they are not the only ones here. Danku Sinesh, the doomed man and agent of the giant Emperor Amaan is also here looking for the weapon.
Scene 3: Throw him in the pit!
Breaking into the power chamber they find him already there with his dwarven allies. A gold dwarf astrologer works at a console trying to take control of the Void Star, a mass of crystal and dark radiance spinning within a huge pit. Sinesh lounges arrogantly against the railing. He and Morn trade insults and then the battle is on.
Their enemies strike quickly, Sinesh moves with lightning speed and in a flash Artemis is unconscious on the floor and bleeding out. Azhanti manages to drag him back from near death and tries to descend on the dwarves but is quickly intercepted. Morn pins down the doomed man but reaching the astrologer proves difficult in the face of his iron dwarf allies.
Artemis manages to recover and tries to teleport away from Sinesh. Unfortunately the crumbling wards send him off target and he reappears over the pit falling once again to his demise.
The Thunder Brothers block Azhanti’s approach while Morn remains pinned down with Sinesh. Artemis up again struggles to get into position and the group are running out of time. In desperation they look for alternative options and decide to target the power generators.
Unfortunately Artemis cannot help as Sinesh slips from Morns grasp and strikes him down. Standing over his unconscious form he separates his head from his body. As the dwarven ritual reaches its climax the group are saved by battlecat who destroys the last of the generators.
As their enemies fade away the Void Star loses power and the city begins to collapse. Amaan claims his prize but it’s a pyrrhic victory unless he can find a new power source to activate his weapon.
*cut scene*
In the Throne Room of Reptos, Tyrant of the World, his courtiers, princes and slaves cower in terror. The Tyrant rages at the closing of the portals. No longer can he use them to send his slave armies to every corner of the world. Now he sets his Taken to crafting new battle barges, huge floating platforms which will allow him to cross the oceans and spread his tyranny.
*cut scene*
In the southern province of the Empire of Arkhosia chaos giants rampage at will. Now finally the dragons have been unleashed and the two powers battle each other in a conflict which tears the earth apart.
*cut scene*
In the depths of the mountains, in the ancient capital of the Giants Amaan, newly installed Emperor slowly melts down the minions who failed him, returning them to the forges from which they were cast. Their screams echo through the ancient hallways while Danku Sinesh watches. Amaan regards the doomed man with a calculating eye. “I would have sealed you in a block of lead for all eternity for having failed me human but return to me the power source you spoke of and I shall forgive your incompetence...”
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