{"id":2243,"date":"2015-07-13T05:54:22","date_gmt":"2015-07-12T19:54:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.olympusrpg.org\/?p=2243"},"modified":"2016-05-27T04:16:14","modified_gmt":"2016-05-26T18:16:14","slug":"gurps-banestorm-dark-clouds-rising-book-ii-session-6-36-6-38","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.olympusrpg.org\/?p=2243","title":{"rendered":"GURPS Banestorm: Dark Clouds Rising, Book II, Session 6.36-6.38"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dramatis Person\u00e6<\/em><\/h3>\n

Brother Mendel (Herodian)
\nDane Sardock<\/a> (Winston)
\nGabriel Auditore<\/a> (Rigil Kent)
\nGestlin the Unpredictable (CommJunkee)
\nMagnifico the Clown<\/a> (Feste)
\nMerasi\u00ebl Alethmist (Melissa)
\nRainald North-Hammer<\/a> (Gigermann)<\/p>\n

\n

\"bs-templarhq\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Of Portals and Closure<\/h3>\n

4 June 2014<\/em><\/p>\n

Lord-Commander McDonald of the Templars explained to Dane that, although he was charged with the Heroes\u2019 incarceration for their alleged treason, he was willing, for the sake of honor, to allow them to leave Cardiel and never return, after which they would not be pursued. Bishop Zabka joined the conversation, having barged past the other Heroes in the courtyard, ignorant of their sidelong glances; he was furious at the Lord-Commander for having not imprisoned the Heroes, and angrily demanded they be immediately seized, but the Lord-Commander would have none of it. Auqui stood silent. Dane responded, saying he would need to confer with his fellows, and left the hall to do so. Dane returned shortly thereafter to inform them that they had agreed to leave, and the Lord-Commander dismissed them to be on their way, in spite of Zabka\u2019s continued complaints.<\/p>\n

The Heroes now free, of course, had no intention of leaving without their Lord Wallace, and remained convinced he was being held here at the Templars\u2019s fortress. They stopped a short distance down the road and hid themselves behind the rocks there, and began casting spells: they tried again, without success, to detect the presence of Lord Wallace, though they knew that the Templars employed spells to block magical scrying; Brother Mendel weaved a spell to remotely map the fortress, in and out, and then cast an illusion of it so the others could review it\u2014they could still find no sign of Lord Wallace, though there were some dark spaces in Brother Mendel\u2019s map where he could be held; and finally, suspecting their Lord might be in the Otherworld, Brother Mendel cast a weave to detect portals, and found that there was indeed some manner of portal in the fortress chapel\u2014this would be their objective. The Heroes continued back to their ship, which they then sailed some distance, out of sight, where they could row ashore after nightfall and enter the fortress, hopefully unseen.<\/p>\n

Gestlin cast a Walk on Air<\/em> spell upon all of them, so they could scale the wall quickly, and teleported some randomly-encountered wildlife into various points within the keep to distract the guards. The Heroes crept unchallenged into the chapel, but there they encountered a Templar emerging from a hallway, accompanied by Auqui. To their shock, Auqui apologized to his fellow Templar before killing him, and swore at his former fellow Heroes that they had spoiled his plans. As Gabriel fought within himself to stay his blade, Auqui said they would find the portal key with Zabka, but they must hurry now, to find him in the north tower. Then Auqui left as quickly as he had arrived.<\/p>\n

The courtyard was still a scene of chaos, which allowed the Heroes to slip amongst the shadows, unseen, to the north tower, and they entered, killing a couple of the Bishop\u2019s guards as they climbed up the tower to Zabka\u2019s chamber. As they burst into the room, Zabka threatened to drop the key\u2014a golden crucifix on a chain\u2014out of the tower window, but Dane loosed a well-placed arrow that nailed Zabka\u2019s hand to the window-frame. Gabriel took the key and passed it back to the casters. Zabka would not reveal how to use the key, no matter the threat, so Gestlin cast a Sleep<\/em> spell upon him, and Magnifico cast a Mind Search<\/em>, against which the sleeping Zabka could not defend; Magnifico informed the otherswhat he had found out. The Heroes left the chamber, but looked back to find Gabriel had stabbed his long-time, much-hated enemy, to his death; Rainald hoisted the dead Bishop and unceremoniously flung him out of the window, to fall impaled on a pike far below.<\/p>\n

The Heroes took advantage of the new distraction in the courtyard, the discovery of Zabka\u2019s body, to slip back over to the chapel, again unnoticed. There they held the key aloft and said the words, and a portal appeared behind the altar. They all took a deep breath, and one by one, they passed over the threshold.<\/p>\n

\"bs-oodhall\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"bs-ood\"<\/a>Beyond the portal, they found an immense hall like nothing they had ever before witnessed, and cautiously, they moved forward. They saw a handful of beings\u2014some human, some indescribable creatures\u2014held motionless, almost lifeless, behind some sort of magical field. At the far end of the hall, they found Lord Wallace in such a field, and moved toward him to see how he might be freed. Just then, three being entered the hall: they appeared to each of them as their gods; Rainald saw them as Odin, Thor, and Loki, and he fell to his knees to worship them; many of the others saw the Christ, flanked by the archangels, Gabriel and Michael. However, not all were convinced these \u201cgods\u201d were truly divine, and challenged their identity. When Rainald asked \u201cOdin\u201d where the warriors\u2019 feast was, the god motioned back to the hall, and Rainald beheld a great feast, and went to join it, and to find his long-dead brother and father. But the unconvinced Gestlin cast a Dispel<\/em> upon the being before him, and for some, the illusion failed. The Heroes attacked, Gabriel stabbing \u201cChrist\u201d through the heart with his family blade, which drew forth no blood, nor seemed to affect the creature in any way\u2014Dane, intent upon Lord Wallace at the time, saw the stab wound appear upon their Lord, and called out what he had witnessed to the others. The strange, tentacle-faced creatures fell upon the Heroes then, with unimaginable speed, and they could scarcely defend themselves. Then Brother Mendel dispelled the magic that held Lord Wallace, and seeing that he no longer suffered the wounds of the creatures, the Heroes loosed themselves upon them, not caring about the other captives, and after much effort, slew them. The gods defeated, and Lord Wallace freed, some searched the area and found hundreds more captives, similarly frozen with magic. Brother Mendel called back the spirit of one of the slain creatures and demanded to know how many of their kind were here\u2014it responded, \u201cWe are legion.\u201d Fearing revenge, the Heroes quickly gathered up Lord Wallace, and the heads of the slain creatures, and fled back through the portal.<\/p>\n

Upon their return to the Templar chapel, the Heroes summoned the Templars, and their Lord-Commander, to show them what they had found. The Lord-Commander was astonished, and vowed that the Templars would fight a crusade to cleanse this other world of these creatures, when they had studied it sufficiently. In the meantime, the Lord-Commander \u201crequested\u201d the Heroes stay under guard for the night while he sorted out the matter here, and the Heroes agreed. During the night, Auqui visited them (though he avoided Gabriel) and explained that he had been on a long mission to find and rescue Lord Wallace himself, though he had found his place with the Templars in the process, and planned to stay with them regardless. In the morning, the Heroes were summoned to the Lord-Commander\u2019s hall, where he pronounced them innocent of any crime, and sent them on their way in peace, to return Lord Wallace home to Caithness, their quest now complete.<\/p>\n

The End<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Notes<\/h3>\n