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Session Ten:
Guests of A Smiling Lord
Von Dekker fought, and made one last attempt to flee the pursuing ghostly soldiers, but instead found himself wrestled to the ground by Insurrectionist Legionnaires.
Raj and Stringer were already in custody, while Hughcastle had surrendered under the influence of his shadow. But Franks and Von Fenrig made one last ditch attempt to escape using the arts of Argos.
As Von Fenrig's running speeded to blur and ghostly wings sprouted from the Frank's back, the two pursuing winged Legionnaires each threw living chains at the fleeing Loyalists.
The chains both struck home and quickly constricted around their legs while the ends sank into the earth, preventing their escape.
And thus with their mission a success they were all dragged off in chains from the dilapidated Parisian Parc, bundled into the back of a relic van, and taken to the interrogators of the local Grim Legion barracks.
They were roughly dragged out of the van in the courtyard of the large squat shadowlands building, and before long found themselves thrown into a dark cell in the dungeons far bellow.
At first they speculated, what to do, what to say, but before long the shadow-eaten Hughcastle had them fighting among themselves as their darker sides rose to the fore.
During one of these instances as Von Fenrig found herself stomping down upon the restrained Hughcastles's head with glee, the door flew open and soldier burst into the room, pinning them against the walls as a slender Centurion in shinning soulsteel armour stalked in, and began to select them, one by one, to be taken away.
As they each found themselves alone in an even smaller cell with the Centurion, restrained in a relic chain of wood and iron, He introduced him himself as Centurion Ellison, and politely said that if they spoke the truth and behaved in a civilised manner then they would be treated in kind.
He asked why they wished to provoke war between the West and the Empire of Jade, and endanger Stygia further in her hour of greatest weakness?
He asked who they were? Where they had come from? and what they honestly thought would happen next...
They all suffered torture in that small cell,lit by a single soulfire lantern, and they all cried out in pain. Only Franks & Von Dekker withstood Elison's ministrations and failed to answer his questions.
Some were offered tentative deals as told the interrogator what he needed to know and offered to sell out their friends in return for some kind of pardon, even the shadow-eaten Hughcastle, who readily admitted the falsehood that their goal was to provoke war and proclaomed that he wanted to enter the service of Overlord Scharzenberg.
But after their individual hours with the affable interrogator they were al thrown back into the same cell regardless.
Soon after a tall thin midnight-cloaked figure was thrown in with them, it was Elias Van Hertzer of the Haunters Guild. He told of how he and Pembroke had been set upon not long after their last meeting in the basement behind the cafe. He believed that the circle must have been followed that first time they met, with the cryptic message left on the relic table by them merely sealing the deal.
The circle looked to each other, remembering the fight with the Grim Legion's Reapers outside the sickhouse that had occurred on their way to that first meeting.
Soon after, Hughcastle regained his wits and subdued his shadow, realising with disgust the thing he had said, apologising to his fellows who understood only to well the state he had been in.
The door of the cell swung open aain after they had heard the changing of the guard in the corridor outside, and in walked a burly British Legionnaire, who looked them over and introduced himself al Sargeant Peterson. In puzzlingly familiar manner he told them that there was nothing he can do to get them out of their now, but he would attempt keep track of them, to wait or an appropriate time. He told them that they are about to be transferred, he does not know where, or if he will be able to accompany them, but that he would try. He also told them that most of the ambush squads had escaped back into the catacombs, and Marshall Drescher was now safely free.
After accepting their tentative thanks, he left, leaving them to assume that he was but another face of the mysterious Elizarov.
After renewed speculation there for a time, still in their chains and weak from Ellison's quastioning, the door opened once again. Overlord Schwarzenberg, whom they recognised from their previous espionage activities in Necropolis Berlin, walked in and regarded them, commanding the guard to leave them alone.
He was as they saw him last, tall, in an antiquated black officer's uniform rich with brocade, and dark hair parted to the side.
He told them that any deals that they had tried to make with their interrogator were null and void, and asked them what they know of the spectral plot, and how they learned of it.
However, receiving no concrete answers, and claiming not to care in any case, he want on to say that their destruction would arouse to many questions, and so they were to be shipped to Stygia forthwith, where they would either toil for eternity in service to the "New Emperor", or, if they were lucky, go to the forges and be fashioned into either weapons or armour for the Smiling Lord's growing Legions.
And with that, and a satisfied smile, he left them be, and departed with the loud slamming of the cell door. To relieve their fright they all then masturbated furiously for ten whole minutes.
Not long after they were seized once again by the strong hands of ghostly soldiers, dragged away down the dark passages, and eventually loaded into a compartment of the hold on board a strange ghost-ship on the Siene, an old relic Ironclad from from the US Civil War.
They now found themselves in a new cell, smaller, fashioned of iron, and with only tiny slits through which to peer as the armoured steamship moved of down the river, opened a nihil before it, and sailed through into the morphing stormy Tempest.
As they travelled down a stable byway in the form of a black river those that looked outward say black speck appear on the barely illuminated horizon, specks that rapidly grew larger as the marauding band of bestial spectres charged the Ironclad. Alarm bells rand and the ships many cannons opened fire and began to pound away at the warped and darkened ghosts.
As they watched they also came to see a heavily cloaked figure in a small reed boat wielding a lantern and a large vicious scythe come to the ships aid, a Ferryman. The mysterious figure dispatched many of the shades with ease, before moving aside and leaving the Insurrectionist ship to pass, performing the age old duty of the Boatmen's Society in keeping the byways clear.
As they passed however some among them remembered the distant figure that had been seen observing them in the tempest some time ago, as they were about to pas through a nihil after their initial aborted attempt to rescue Marshall Drescher near Outpost 9. It also seemed to them as they watched and moved off, that the hooded figure now looked directly into the small opening from which they looked out, but none could be sure as the figure receded into the distance one more.
Between themselves and Elias they now decided that they would make their escape attempt once they had reached Stygia itself and been sent to wherever they were to be taken. They knew they would likely only get one chance, and that if they were successful their first priority must not be to flee or save themselves, but to find, and either destroy or expose, chancellor Amistead...
After days of monotonous sailing through the deep tempest and passing through several severe maelstrom storms, they were approached by 2 relic warships, one contemporary Destroyer sunk in the Great War, and one grand old galleon destroyed in some long forgotten conflict, and at last approached the Isle of Sorrows itself, and the city of Stygia, capitol of the dead, deep within the Tempest.
Their Ironclad came to dock in the bay of tears and its prisoners were unloaded, and roughly shoved by heavily armoured Centurions into the growing mass of other chained wraiths, as they turned to see many other such ships coming in to dock behind them from all directions.
Before them was the the mighty city itself, the unspeakably vast sprawling edifice of the dead, all the relics of the worlds grandest buildings from the entirety of history, all jumbled together in one confusing mass, and all dwarfed by Charon's now vacant Onyx Tower.
Guests of A Smiling Lord
Von Dekker fought, and made one last attempt to flee the pursuing ghostly soldiers, but instead found himself wrestled to the ground by Insurrectionist Legionnaires.
Raj and Stringer were already in custody, while Hughcastle had surrendered under the influence of his shadow. But Franks and Von Fenrig made one last ditch attempt to escape using the arts of Argos.
As Von Fenrig's running speeded to blur and ghostly wings sprouted from the Frank's back, the two pursuing winged Legionnaires each threw living chains at the fleeing Loyalists.
The chains both struck home and quickly constricted around their legs while the ends sank into the earth, preventing their escape.
And thus with their mission a success they were all dragged off in chains from the dilapidated Parisian Parc, bundled into the back of a relic van, and taken to the interrogators of the local Grim Legion barracks.
They were roughly dragged out of the van in the courtyard of the large squat shadowlands building, and before long found themselves thrown into a dark cell in the dungeons far bellow.
At first they speculated, what to do, what to say, but before long the shadow-eaten Hughcastle had them fighting among themselves as their darker sides rose to the fore.
During one of these instances as Von Fenrig found herself stomping down upon the restrained Hughcastles's head with glee, the door flew open and soldier burst into the room, pinning them against the walls as a slender Centurion in shinning soulsteel armour stalked in, and began to select them, one by one, to be taken away.
As they each found themselves alone in an even smaller cell with the Centurion, restrained in a relic chain of wood and iron, He introduced him himself as Centurion Ellison, and politely said that if they spoke the truth and behaved in a civilised manner then they would be treated in kind.
He asked why they wished to provoke war between the West and the Empire of Jade, and endanger Stygia further in her hour of greatest weakness?
He asked who they were? Where they had come from? and what they honestly thought would happen next...
They all suffered torture in that small cell,lit by a single soulfire lantern, and they all cried out in pain. Only Franks & Von Dekker withstood Elison's ministrations and failed to answer his questions.
Some were offered tentative deals as told the interrogator what he needed to know and offered to sell out their friends in return for some kind of pardon, even the shadow-eaten Hughcastle, who readily admitted the falsehood that their goal was to provoke war and proclaomed that he wanted to enter the service of Overlord Scharzenberg.
But after their individual hours with the affable interrogator they were al thrown back into the same cell regardless.
Soon after a tall thin midnight-cloaked figure was thrown in with them, it was Elias Van Hertzer of the Haunters Guild. He told of how he and Pembroke had been set upon not long after their last meeting in the basement behind the cafe. He believed that the circle must have been followed that first time they met, with the cryptic message left on the relic table by them merely sealing the deal.
The circle looked to each other, remembering the fight with the Grim Legion's Reapers outside the sickhouse that had occurred on their way to that first meeting.
Soon after, Hughcastle regained his wits and subdued his shadow, realising with disgust the thing he had said, apologising to his fellows who understood only to well the state he had been in.
The door of the cell swung open aain after they had heard the changing of the guard in the corridor outside, and in walked a burly British Legionnaire, who looked them over and introduced himself al Sargeant Peterson. In puzzlingly familiar manner he told them that there was nothing he can do to get them out of their now, but he would attempt keep track of them, to wait or an appropriate time. He told them that they are about to be transferred, he does not know where, or if he will be able to accompany them, but that he would try. He also told them that most of the ambush squads had escaped back into the catacombs, and Marshall Drescher was now safely free.
After accepting their tentative thanks, he left, leaving them to assume that he was but another face of the mysterious Elizarov.
After renewed speculation there for a time, still in their chains and weak from Ellison's quastioning, the door opened once again. Overlord Schwarzenberg, whom they recognised from their previous espionage activities in Necropolis Berlin, walked in and regarded them, commanding the guard to leave them alone.
He was as they saw him last, tall, in an antiquated black officer's uniform rich with brocade, and dark hair parted to the side.
He told them that any deals that they had tried to make with their interrogator were null and void, and asked them what they know of the spectral plot, and how they learned of it.
However, receiving no concrete answers, and claiming not to care in any case, he want on to say that their destruction would arouse to many questions, and so they were to be shipped to Stygia forthwith, where they would either toil for eternity in service to the "New Emperor", or, if they were lucky, go to the forges and be fashioned into either weapons or armour for the Smiling Lord's growing Legions.
And with that, and a satisfied smile, he left them be, and departed with the loud slamming of the cell door. To relieve their fright they all then masturbated furiously for ten whole minutes.
Not long after they were seized once again by the strong hands of ghostly soldiers, dragged away down the dark passages, and eventually loaded into a compartment of the hold on board a strange ghost-ship on the Siene, an old relic Ironclad from from the US Civil War.
They now found themselves in a new cell, smaller, fashioned of iron, and with only tiny slits through which to peer as the armoured steamship moved of down the river, opened a nihil before it, and sailed through into the morphing stormy Tempest.
As they travelled down a stable byway in the form of a black river those that looked outward say black speck appear on the barely illuminated horizon, specks that rapidly grew larger as the marauding band of bestial spectres charged the Ironclad. Alarm bells rand and the ships many cannons opened fire and began to pound away at the warped and darkened ghosts.
As they watched they also came to see a heavily cloaked figure in a small reed boat wielding a lantern and a large vicious scythe come to the ships aid, a Ferryman. The mysterious figure dispatched many of the shades with ease, before moving aside and leaving the Insurrectionist ship to pass, performing the age old duty of the Boatmen's Society in keeping the byways clear.
As they passed however some among them remembered the distant figure that had been seen observing them in the tempest some time ago, as they were about to pas through a nihil after their initial aborted attempt to rescue Marshall Drescher near Outpost 9. It also seemed to them as they watched and moved off, that the hooded figure now looked directly into the small opening from which they looked out, but none could be sure as the figure receded into the distance one more.
Between themselves and Elias they now decided that they would make their escape attempt once they had reached Stygia itself and been sent to wherever they were to be taken. They knew they would likely only get one chance, and that if they were successful their first priority must not be to flee or save themselves, but to find, and either destroy or expose, chancellor Amistead...
After days of monotonous sailing through the deep tempest and passing through several severe maelstrom storms, they were approached by 2 relic warships, one contemporary Destroyer sunk in the Great War, and one grand old galleon destroyed in some long forgotten conflict, and at last approached the Isle of Sorrows itself, and the city of Stygia, capitol of the dead, deep within the Tempest.
Their Ironclad came to dock in the bay of tears and its prisoners were unloaded, and roughly shoved by heavily armoured Centurions into the growing mass of other chained wraiths, as they turned to see many other such ships coming in to dock behind them from all directions.
Before them was the the mighty city itself, the unspeakably vast sprawling edifice of the dead, all the relics of the worlds grandest buildings from the entirety of history, all jumbled together in one confusing mass, and all dwarfed by Charon's now vacant Onyx Tower.
