Synopsis
Gobi must deal with the political repercussions resulting from Robert and Fish Face’s unlikely alliance and decide what to do with the thirteen Tritonian survivors. Meanwhile, Eli continues to deny his responsibilities and run from his past.
Elsewhere, something terrible stirs in the bowls of Tritonia. Can our heroes stop the supernatural plague from spreading further before its too late?
DuanneGray: | ★★ |
Giant2005: | ★★ |
TroyMarsh: | ★★★★ |
Total Rating: | ★★★ |
Key Events
Nothing of note.
Game Ratings | |
Terrible | ★ |
Bad | ★★ |
Good | ★★★ |
Great | ★★★★ |
Excellent | ★★★★★ |
Last Week
The blood entities sped off to deliver their payload (Eli) to Alabac, with Robert secreted away in tow.
Upon arrival at Alabac’s home, Eli was released from his possession and imprisoned within Alabac’s custom-designed cell. Their job now complete, the blood entities left the scene, leaving Alabac to his own devises. Rather than kill the young Lemurian as he had agreed, Alabac began the long, arduous process of indoctrinating the prisoner, rather than interrogating him, he offered him knowledge. Explaining the nature of the Children of Iméra Project with the hopes of forming an alliance that could stand against the lofty goals of their parents. Taking a break to give Eli time to let the depth of his situation sink in, Alabac left his captive unsupervised, giving Rob ample opportunity to throw his own patented spanner in the works. Attempting to smash the door down and release Eli from the reinforced chamber made sufficient noise to draw Alabac back to his victim’s locale.
With Fishface screaming in his ear, declaring Rob far too powerful to fight at this time, Alabac had no choice but to allow Rob to continue his rescue. Making the best of the situation, Alabac attempted to indoctrinate Rob in the exact same manner he had Eli and explained the Children of Iméra paradigm to the Sea Titan. However, before he had time to gauge the effectiveness of his manipulations, Alabac made one crucial mistake as he began torturing the captive Lemurian by zapping him into unconsciousness with a powerful electrical charge. Unwilling to endure such mistreatment of the defenseless any longer, Rob ceased their conversation and finished his rescue efforts, finally breaking down the door and taking the Lemurian from captivity. With Eli unconscious but free, Rob took the young Lemurian upon his shoulder and gave Alabac a stern talking too before preparing to leave. However, much to Rob’s surprise the diminutive Amphib responded with a sullen warning that should they continue alone that they would be surely killed by Magni. Disregarding the bitter warning as the ramblings of a madman, Rob made his way back to the the rendezvous point where he had expected Gobi to be waiting. However, upon entering the home of his mentor Eugene Tretyakov.
Erstwhile, Gobi was struck with horror at Eugene’s residence upon witnessing one of the possessed NG Soldiers being tortured in a chair. Not only had the disease seemingly increased in magnitude but Eugene divulged the most alarming of news. The possession was spreading through contact and regions of Tritonia had already been infested; forcing him to brutally murder over 50 citizens including helpless women and children over the course of the last two weeks in a desperate effort to contain it.
In return for the information, Gobi told Eugene all he knew of what had befallen the possession victims, including his knowledge of the stone obelisk that was the origin of the plague. No longer willing to make any concessions regarding the possessed, Gobi slew the Slave of Envy while Eugene was preparing weapons for Robert as his request.
Although Eugene returned in time to witness Gobi washing down his armor, he was far too late to do anything about the carnage. Quite distraught, Eugene threatened the young Lemurian, citing that under normal circumstances such a betrayal would incite violence. Calmly, Gobi revealed to him that there are still two others that were initially possessed and if he wanted to continue his studies, he should find them. Although still annoyed, Eugene tempered his anger, declaring he was too old for this shit.
His job now complete, Gobi told the wizened Slayer that he was going to the Lemurian embassy to alert Tritonia of the danger and for him to send Rob his way when he arrived.
Rob arrived to see Eugene mopping up the mess Gobi left him with, muttering profanities to himself.
Upon seeing Rob standing there before him, Eugene expressed his resentment towards Gobi, asking why would Rob associate with such underhanded assholes and that his recklessness had robbed them of an opportunity to determine the source of the possession and could well have put Tritonia at future risk. After much discussion about the nature of the demons, Rob and his mentor determined that the possession seemed to the result of some entity or force that neither were familiar with; leading Eugene to speculate that the masks may be the essence fragments of an Alien Intelligence of unknown origin.
During this time, Eugene also informed Rob of the happenings in Tritonia; including the fact that he had killed many in an attempt to halt the plague that had taken its roots within their home.
Uncomfortable with the blood, gore and general unpleasantness surrounding him, Eli left the submarine bay, in search of aid at the embassy. Following which, Rob shared his strange experiences with Eugene, telling him of the squirrel and the strange magical tree which brought him to Tritonia. Confident that Rob’s psychedelic journey was a result of Lemurian narcotics, Eugene ushered him away to continue his mission and telling him to meet Gobi at the embassy.
At the embassy, Gobi walked upon a most alarming sight. A mob of people stood picketing at the gates of the Lemurian Embassy. Worse still, upon closer inspection with his Lemurian Life Sense , Gobi determined that many within the crowd were exhibiting the telltale signs of being possessed by Spirits of Envy. Without a moments hesitation, Gobi rushed to meet the Lemurian ambassador Ali who looked down on the mob, surprised that their usual fanfare had grown to such levels. Gobi explained the nature of their possession and informed Ali of Eli’s capture, requesting that he send out some Magic Pigeons to contact the Tritonian authorities, so they could both be informed of the threat to their lands and get to the bottom of Eli’s kidnapping. It was at that moment Gobi noticed the intensity of the mob escalating as they began pummeling an unknown innocent. Rushing to action, Gobi ran back down to the gates, got on his figurative soapbox and gave a rousing speech explaining to the unruly mob that if they want the gifts of the Lemurians, peace is the only path to that end. Before long, Gobi had the mob under control, with them abandoning their violent ways in favor of demonstrating their respect and gratitude for Gobi by chanting his name.
Their beaten victim, now able to move freely, pushed his way to the front of the crowd, revealing himself to be Eli. With a look of horror, Eli looked upon Gobi and was consumed with shame and envy. Overwhelmed by the reach of Gobi’s shadow and that even here, in Tritonia he was reminded of his shortcomings, Eli’s emotion took control and he began trembling on the spot. However, his trembles quickly turned to rapid vibrations, and then in an instant he was gone, speeding out of sight in a way no mortal man could match. Eli wanted to run, to get away from it all, to find some place he could call his own without the bigoted and societal pressures of his past. Blitzing through the streets of Tritonia, Eli tried to escape the world, to break free of all he was, to run until he had left everything behind, but no matter how fast or how far he ran, his fate was to ultimately crash exhausted back to reality with fewer answers and more self-loathing and bitter jealousy than ever.
With his concern for his friend taking a backseat to more time sensitive priorities, Gobi returned to the Lemurian Ambassador to discuss their course of action.
It wasn’t long before the Embassy had rearranged a few rooms to put together a makeshift Exorcism facility and put to work four capable Lemurian Exorcists treating the crowd. Although seemingly effective, the process was slow-going and arduous, both for the patients and the psychics alike and each of the victims had to be exorcised one at a time.
Meanwhile outside and unknown to Gobi, Alabac sat on a bench at the other side of that fence on the other side of the crowd, taking notes and paying great attention to the minor injuries the possessed suffered at the hands of the Lemurians.
As Rob entered the scene, he immediately noticed Alabac and opened a dialogue with him, however no matter how hard he tried, he could not convince the Amphib to accompany him to the safety of the Embassy. Upon receiving the go-ahead from Gobi, one of the Lemurian Guardsmen carried Rob within the embassy’s confines. It wasn’t long before Rob understood what was happening and what it was Gobi and his Lemurian brethren were trying to do, although his motivations lay elsewhere. Rob felt a need to hunt down the final patient zero in the hopes that it would end this plague once and for all. Although resistant to the idea, Gobi eventually submitted to his will, finally agreeing that finding that patient zero was more important than waiting for the Tritonian officials although the conversation lasted long enough for that decision to be irrelevant, for their conversation was suddenly interupted by the roar of Tritonian helicopters descending upon the embassy.
The woman exiting the helicopter, greeted both Gobi and Ali and formally introduced herself as the Minister of Defense, Felicity Winters. After a squad of Mind Bleeders confirmed the crowd’s state of possession, she turned away from the Lemurian consulate and issued order 7191.
Moments later, the mechanized street sealed, with the towering skyscapers along the streets snapping closed as great iron walls rose up preventing escape to those on the street outside the embassy. Although their was a brief panic from those on the street (with those within the nearby buildings perishing silently and without any warning from the release of a potent nerve agent), a pair of unmarked black combat helicopters arrived on the scene and began dispensing gas canisters throughout the street.
The group silently looked on in horror, unwilling or unable to challenge the decision of the Tritonian government and perhaps even a little ashamed in the knowledge that if they had done the same to the three earlier, none of these people would be suffering now.
Turning their attention to their secondary issue (Eli’s kidnapping). The heroes found that even with a detailed description of the assailants (courtesy of Gobi’s perfect memory), it was not sufficient enough for the authorities to pursue the case. They needed to take the information from Eli’s mind. However, with Eli far from sight, Gobi innocently suggested taking the information from Rob’s mind as he was the final witness.
Although Rob resisted as best he could, the Mind Bleeders mental abilities far exceeded his own and they soon overpowered him, taking the knowledge they required. Taking great offense to the violation and extremely paranoid about what else they may have learned (especially regarding his mentors recent serial murder), Rob exploded in a fit of rage, lashing out at the Mind Bleeders and even the Minister of Defense herself.
Unaware of Rob’s superhuman strength, endurance, and arcane proficiency in the mystic arts, the Mind Bleeder’s were caught off guard and quickly dispatched and scattered. Realizing the urgency of their situation too late, the Mind Bleeders attempted to disable the unregistered Sea Titan by flooding his mind with agony and ecstasy simultaneously, a tactic that quickly helped them gain the upper-hand.
Trying to diffuse the situation, Gobi reminded the Tritonians that they were on Lemurian soil and had no jurisdiction. Although it was enough to convince the Minister to call off her attack and release Rob from the onslaught to his mind, nothing could quell Rob’s insatiable desire for revenge and he continued his assault. Everyone now realizing this problem could not be solved diplomatically, the Minister was left with no option but to reassign Rob as the target of the combat helicopters.
Fearing for the fate of his friend, Gobi asked Ali to send out one final Magic Pigeon to Lemuria, this one requesting the urgent presence of a powerful Biomancer in the hopes that in a worse case scenario Rob could be returned to life.
However, it would quickly become apparently that Gobi’s fears were completely unfounded. For with Rob’s rune blazing the entire time, he was easily a match for the Helicopters that sought his death and his victory was easily secured the moment that Fishface joined the fray in his defense. The duo didn’t spend even a moment contemplating the flaming remains of the two dispatched helicopters nor the fallen soldiers they contained. Instead, without a moments hesitation the two proceeded to attack the third helicopter which contained the Minister of Defense and a rather bewildered Squad of Mind Bleeders. Although they damaged the helicopter a great deal, it successfully withdrew from the scene, leaving the embassy in need of minor repairs in the courtyard; and the streets and nearby buildings littered with lifeless corpses.
Experience Points
Session #010: Malcontent, pt. 3
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Comments
2 stars – no visuals, most “first level” was just dice rolling to see if we made a jump. didn’t leave much of a impression.
Yeah I’m going with 2 stars too, for pretty much the same reasons as Duanne.
Platformers just don’t translate to a RPG very well – a Platformer sacrifices choice for twitch-gaming, a RPG sacrifices twitch-gaming for choice. Combining them both ends up sacrificing both aspects for nothing.