- It’s no secret that I’ve wanted a ‘time compress’ for a while. I didn’t expect it to be this way, but it makes sense. Here’s the timeline (which Lurker37 has confirmed):
- May 1988 - Grant commences rebuilding Marindar using Fiorin
- July 1988 - in early July, Grant has rebuilt Realm 15 (Marindar). He goes exploring his new domain with Sophia - his first outing takes 3 weeks then he returns to Central.
- August 1988 - in mid-August, Grant decides to find Vala’s Pride. It takes him a few days to locate the ship. He crosses over into Shatterlight and he spends ten days with Vala before he returns home. Late in August, he attempts to contact Ethan via Icon and has his mind wiped.
- September 1988 - Abbie competes in the Seoul Olympics (17th September --> 2nd October)
- October 1988 - Weeks after the Olympics and having not heard from Ethan in almost three months, Abbie decides to contact Ethan via Icon and she is also struck down.
- January 1989 - after five months in ‘the Farm’, Grant returns to Central. He spends weeks relearning from the various sources available to him.
- February 1989 - Grant returns to Vala’s Pride and seeks an audience with Lady Vala. He was not expected.
- Ethan is not active in this session however Lurker37 understands that we can’t leave Ethan as an isolated amnesiac for too long as otherwise I’d be GMing all of the time - the balance would be lost. I suggested to Lurker37 that the Dwimmerlaik would probably try to recruit amnesiac Lords of Gossamer if possible rather than kill them - so let’s see if Lurker37 does something like that with Ethan. For reasons that should be evident below, I doubt Ethan would be working for the Dwimmerlaik for an extended period of time, but it is does lead to character development which is interesting for me (and hopefully for Lurker37too)
- Some more observations at the end of this post. As usual this has taken me a long time to write because there is a lot of detailed content.
Part 1 - The Heart of the Grand Stair
Realm 22 - Shatterlight (Gold Door)
- Vala makes preparation to leave Shatterlight. She gives instructions to key members of her court, advising them that she may be gone for some time. She advises them not to contact her unless there is dire need to do so. Grant notes that many of her top commanders have her Icon.
- Grant is surprised how quickly she is ready to move and how little she carries. She is dressed in a simple robe, and carries her pole arm Vajra, but no other artefacts of power. Grant inquires where they are going and she explains that they will travel to the ‘Heart’ of the Grand Stair, a place where they will almost certainly find Lucien. She asks if Grant is ready, and Grant affirms that he is. He sees no other way forward - to return to Marindar would solve nothing.
- Vala heads towards one of the side doors of the main audience hall. It is only a door, not a Door. She pauses and explains that there are many who can sense her presence on the Grand Stair (if they are looking) and hence they should travel quickly and avoid trouble. Even though it would be possible to travel almost directly to ‘The Heart’, she explains that she will take a ‘safe’ route with enough Doors to make tracing very hard. Using her Mastery of the Grand Stair, she connects the Stair and opens the Door, revealing the Grand Stair on the other side.
Grand Stairway Section 36 - Impressive Hall
- Stepping out into a vast hall, Vala breaks the connection, returning the Door to a blank Door. Grant is aware that they are both under an enchantment of concealment that Vala has woven.
* Image sourced from Google Images
- Vala leads them only a short way before she finds a Blank Door beneath a section of Stair. It is nondescript - simply one of many.
* Image sourced from Google Images
- Again, she connects the Door once more, and opens the Door.
Grand Stairway Section 37 - Opera House
- On the other side, there is the sound of music and someone singing far in the distance. Grant listens hard to the sound but it is difficult to pinpoint where it is coming from. Vala again severs the Door and explains that they are much closer now.
* Image sourced from Google Images
- Climbing the Stairs, they travel a short distance and they are confronted with a huge lion-like creature with wings. It is a sphinx. Vala doesn’t seem concerned when it puffs itself up and blocks further progress. Instead Vala asks it a riddle: “I’m the part of the bird that’s not in the sky. I can swim in the ocean and yet remain dry.” The creature smiles and gives the correct answer: “A shadow”. The sphinx then asks Vala a question: “XXX” . She thinks for awhile and the answer comes to her. She answers correctly and the sphinx smiles and grants her access to the Door behind.
Realm 79 - The Library
- A huge multilevelled library sprawls in all directions. Grant wonders if this can be Lucien’s abode but Vala tells him to be cautious in this place. She explains that there is much knowledge here and there are many who come here to seek it. They wander through many racks of books. Grant asks if they are looking for a Door. Vala says that they are instead looking for a particular book - one hidden amongst many - one that will open a particular Door.
* Image sourced from Google Images
- After about twenty minutes, Vala picks a simple leather-bound book off a shelf, and opens it. Inside the pages are blank, but Grant notes that a Door that was not there before has appeared. She puts the book back and they carry on their way. Vala warns Grant to be on guard as they are about to enter the Labyrinth. She explains that there are many ways in, but very few ways out - and there are things in the maze that are always hungry.
Grand Stairway Section 38 - The Labyrinth
- The labyrinth is a place of madness - a mismatch of passageways, stairways and corridors. Grant can tell that they are not alone here. Vala and Grant take their time to navigate in this place. Grant asks why they do not take a more direct route and Vala explains that the labyrinth is an excellent place to lose any pursuit that may be following them. It is very easy to become separated here - almost as though the place is designed for the unwary to become lost.
* Image sourced from Google Images
Grand Stairway Section 39 - Still the Labyrinth
- In the deeper sections of the Labyrinth, they see fewer creatures. Nothing living makes it this far unless they know exactly where they are going. Occasionally they pass a Door, but they are always Blanks. Grant wonders at this.
* Image sourced from Google Images
Grand Stairway Section 40 - The Maelstrom
- At last, Vala finds a Door which is connected. She opens it and they step into a new section of the Labyrinth which is even more unusual. It is as though the Grand Stair has been reduced to an abstract - even looking at the Stair is difficult - it is hard to see the passageways and even harder to find Doors.
* Image sourced from Google Images
- Grant stares at this in wonder, but they are not long in this section. Vala finds a section of wall and opens it as if it were a Door.
Part 2 - Vala and Lucien
Realm 80 - The Athenaeum, Heart of the Labyrinth (Iron Door)
- On the other side is a plush sitting room with leather armchairs. There are bookshelves on the walls and a variety of trophies and memorabilia decorating the room. Vala shuts the Door and announces that this is the Athenaeum and it is Lucien’s realm.
* Image sourced from Google Images
- Vala takes a moment to get her bearings and then she suggests a direction. She finds Lucien a short distance away - he has just prepared a cup of herbal tea for Vala as if he expected her at this moment. However, Lucien seems surprised to see Grant - but he just shrugs it off. Instead he smiles at Lady Vala and welcomes her to his domain. She accepts the tea and Lucien asks what has brought her here. He offers Grant a drink and begins preparing it whilst Vala explains that Grant’s appearance has convinced her that something is very wrong on the Stair.
- Lucien finishes making the tea. In offering Grant a cup, he tells Vala that Grant and a ‘most persistent postman’ named Ethan managed to rescue him from the Dwimmerlaik in recent times - it is clear that he recalls this because he can tell that Grant does not remember. With a glint in his eye, Lucien explains that the Dwimmerlaik have returned, and they have been most bold. He explains that they have a new weapon which attacks through the Icons and strips memories away from even the most powerful of Gossamer Lords. Lucien does not seem perturbed by any of this - he explains it in a matter of fact fashion as Vala sips at her tea as if this were all perfectly normal.
- With cups of tea in their hands, Lucien leads them into a garden in the warm sunshine with blue sky overhead. Under a leafy tree, Lucien sets up three white-washed wooden chairs and they sit down to talk. Vala shares that Shatterlight is restored and she has recovered Fiorin (thanks to Grant) and restored Vajra. She asks after Drake, and Lucien says that Drake does not know who he is. Lucien explains that many of the Lords of Gossamer have fallen prey to ’The Breath of Eden’ and he goes on to detail what has happened and how he came by this information.
Part 3 - Lucien’s Story - Initial Disappearances
- The tale takes some time, but gradually the picture becomes clearer.
- In Heldon’s Pass, the Dwimmerlaik unleashed their new weapon - the ‘Breath of Eden’ - a powerful Umbra-enhanced airborne plague that wiped the memories of any who breathed it in. However, the plague’s creators also designed it to be carried via Icon. They knew that the Lords of Gossamer relied upon Icons for communication and hence they developed a weapon which would spread throughout the network very quickly. After all, if a Lord had not heard from one of their fellow Lords for some time, it was quite common to use an Icon to reestablish contact. In this way, those behind the ‘Breath of Eden’ sought to cripple and destroy the Lords of Gossamer one by one, stealing their memories away to a location which is so far ‘unknown’.
- Lucien first became aware of the problem via Cal. Cal mentioned to him that no one had heard from Drake and Bastiano for some time and no one had reported whether the Heldon’s Pass defences had held or not. It was most unusual. Jessamyn agreed to investigate - she took to the Stair but did not return. It did not take long for Cal to get worried and he consulted with Lucien before making his next move (which in Lucien’s opinion was very very fortunate). Lucien tried a divination on Jessamyn’s Icon and for the first time that he could recall, it did not return a reading. Even she had been dead the divination would have told them something - but it returned nothing at all and Lucien smelled a rat. Lucien repeated the same spell on a number of other Icons and found that some of the others - like Drake and Bastiano - were also somehow ‘blank’ to his spell craft. Lucien’s conclusion was that something strange had happened to them and he advised Cal not to accept any Icon contacts without attempting a divination first.
- Cal headed off on his own but he kept in touch with Lucien and Greywalker. He even contacted Ethan once to warn him (not that Grant knew this) but somehow he disappeared anyway - it’s possible that he was exposed to the ‘Breath of Eden’ directly, or that he contacted someone that he shouldn’t have, or perhaps he found Jessamyn and was ‘infected’. Lucien doesn’t know but after Cal disappeared, Greywalker came to find Lucien and the two of them began exploring the effect.
Part 4 - Lucien’s Story - Bastiano Reappears
- Reasoning that the Enemy was behind this and that it would be folly to try to find another Lord of Gossamer given that Jessamyn and Cal had vanished trying to find the others, they began working on the Icon itself. They sought to unravel whatever had afflicted the Lords by using the Icon connection to them. They were able to learn a great deal by studying it carefully. They found that the connection to the individual remained, but any mental connection encouraged ‘it’ to spread.
- In the end they reasoned that they would need a test subject to observe and understand the effect. Greywalker reluctantly agreed to be the test subject and they made careful plans.
- However, before they could put their plan into motion, Bastiano became active again. Fearing a trap, Greywalker elected to go alone to find Bastiano whilst Lucien would gather some more of the dwindling number of Lords of Gossamer to aid them - Yaeger Zane, Cooper Nassar, Lady Victoria, Grant and Ethan. Unfortunately he only returned with two of them - Yaeger and Cooper. Meanwhile Greywalker found Bastiano - he was more than a little unstable (even more so than usual) and had only partial memories but he was definitely Bastiano. Greywalker found that he had lost his memories but somehow he’d been able to restore them ‘from backups’. Bastiano chose not to explain what that meant.
* Image by Jason Rainville
- Bastiano was able to fill them in as to what had happened at Heldon’s Pass. The Enemy hadn’t come through the gate. Instead a wind had flowed through - and it had brought forgetfulness. The defenders forgot who they were. Many fought each others and the command structure disintegrated. Those were Bastiano’s last memories before ‘blackness’ . He had used Umbra to restore himself to the degree where he had remembered that he had backups, but it had taken significant time. From studying Basitano, Lucien and Greywalker were able to deduce that the memories were not simply repressed or destroyed but taken away to place or places unknown. No amount of healing could return such memories. The suggestion that the Dwimmerlaik might be capturing and harvesting the memories of the Lords of Gossamer was a truly frightening idea, however Bastiano quickly suggested that such a dangerous weapon could be harnessed and used by the Lords against the Dwimmerlaik themselves - but it would take time to achieve such a result.
- Unfortunately they could learn little more from Bastiano himself. As an Umbra Master, he had totally rebuilt himself and whatever traces of sorcery had been borne on the wind or via Icons had been removed from him totally. Bastiano and Yaeger decided to find more of the Lords of Gossamer who were still free, whilst Cooper, Greywalker and Lucien prepared for Greywalker to contact Cal. Greywalker was almost sure to lose his memories, but between them they believed they could redirect the spell to a vessel of their choosing that had been appropriately prepared.
Part 5 - Lucien’s Story - Greywalker’s Sacrifice
- They planned very carefully and then put their plan into motion. Greywalker was placed in a containment field (both technological and sorcerous) and he then attempted an Icon contact to Cal. As soon as the connection was made Greywalker came under attack and his mind was violently ripped away. Even though Umbral sorcery was involved, they had prepared for this possibility and they still managed to shift Greywalker’s mind to the prepared vessel. The plan had worked, and they had a lot more information about how the Enemy’s new weapon worked.
- Cooper and Lucien went to work preparing to reverse the spell, but they found that the Umbra-infused enchantment which remained on Greywalker was particular elaborate and difficult to remove. Far more difficult than they expected. Studying the complexity of the woven spell, Lucien believed it to be Mowbray’s work.
- Days of work became weeks. Bastiano and Yaeger came and went with stories of the Dwimmerlaik actively moving on the Stair, hunting down newly made Lords of Gossamer before they could learn to employ their abilities and ‘turning them’ where possible. Despite Bastiano’s and Yaeger’s efforts, they were only able to beat the Dwimmerlaik to their targets on one single occasion.
Part 6 - Lucien’s Story - Unexpected Consequences
- Then something else unexpected happened. Another Lord of Gossamer had tried to contact Greywalker and the spell had attacked him. But given the controlled environment that they had been operating in, those memories did not go back to the Dwimmerlaik, but were stored in the same vessel as Greywalker’s memories. Inspecting what had been ‘caught’, Lucien realised that they had captured Ethan by accident. (GM’s note - Bad Stuff)Isabelle, one of Lucien’s descendants who lived in the Athenaeum with him was more than a little distressed by this.
- But there was another side to this which worried Lucien even more. Triggering Mowbray’s ‘memory stealing’ spell once and then diverting the memories to their own vessel had been a risk. To do it a second time increased the risk of their strategy being detected and the Dwimmerlaik developing a counterstrategy. Yaeger had not been successful finding Ethan on his previous attempt but given what had just happened, Lucien urged Yaeger to try again and find Ethan quickly lest the Dwimmerlaik find him first. In the meantime, the muddling of Ethan’s memories with Greywalker’s slowed the process of restoring Greywalker.
- Luckily Cooper rigged up another vessel just in case the same thing happened again and less than a week later, that vessel was filled as another individual was snared. This time someone had tried to contact Ethan, and Isabelle was able to identify the individual by her memories - it was Abbie, Ethan’s lover. Reasoning that she must still be on Earth (Realm 0) and concerned about the attention that that this might be attracting, Lucien decided to return to Earth to check on matters personally.
- But before he departed, something else unexpected happened. Isabelle received an Icon contact. Quickly identifying the caller as Macavity (whom Lucien describes as one of the cat lords, a race that causes much trouble from time to time), she accepted the contact and brought through both Macavity and Lady Abbie. Sure enough, Abbie had amnesia - she didn’t know who she was and she couldn’t understand anything that was being said to her.
Part 7 - Lucien’s Story - The Breath of Eden
- Macavity’s arrival brought new hope to the group. Firstly, he had brought Abbie through and they already had Abbie’s memories - hence they had another subject to test the reversal process. But more importantly, Macavity had brought a box through which he claimed had been given to Ethan by the traitor, Shimrod, who called it “The Breath of Eden”. Macavity had gifted them with a sample of the Dwimmerlaik’s weapon.
- With this, Bastiano was recalled to the Athenaeum and he, Lucien, Cooper and Isabelle began working on “The Breath of Eden” as a priority.
- Again, the combined skills of the Lords of Gossamer were most formidable. Bastiano was quickly able to adapt “The Breath of Eden” such that it could be used against the Enemy should an opportunity exist. Lucien and Cooper were able to reverse the spell on Abbie. From Abbie, they were able to learn that she had attempted to contact Ethan after not hearing from him for some time. (Grant gathers that Abbie, Macavity Isabelle were very pleased to be reunited once more)
- Lucien explains that they were making final preparations to restore Greywalker when he sensed that Vala was on her way - hence he decided to wait.
Part 8 - A New Beginning/Greywalker Returns
- Vala and Grant listen, absorbing all of the information. At last Vala suggests that they inspect Greywalker and see what can be done for him. In the days that follow, Vala studies the process whilst Grant assists Lucien and Cooper Nassar using his knowledge of Umbra to gently break down parts of the spell. Both Lucien and Cooper seem pleased to have a new ally - as Grant is more of a team player than Bastiano. At last they are ready and Greywalker is restored.
* Image sourced from Google Images
- Greywalker is at first pleased to see everyone (especially Lady Vala), but he becomes more than a little cranky when he realises how much time has passed. Macavity takes a liking to him, and Greywalker takes a liking to Macavity.
- Yaeger fails to return with Ethan but he does return with a severed Dwimmerlaik head from a warlord whom he says has knowledge of the Enemy plans. Yaeger was hoping that Bastiano was available to ‘read the dead bastard’s mind’, but with Bastiano away, he settles for Grant. Grant has never done this before, but with guidance from Lady Vala he is able to piece together some fragments as to how the Enemy forces are currently structured.
- Grant, Macavity, Abbie and Isabelle remains concerned about Ethan but it is not as simple as releasing the memories held in the containment device - they need Ethan himself to be sure that the memories return to their host. Grant is determined to find his friend even though his memories are lacking, but Vala and Lucien convince him to wait as the higher priority is to follow up the fresh information which Grant has gleaned from the dead Dwimmerlaik. They need to find out where the Lords’ memories are held and how best to retrieve them without tipping the Enemy off. They need to move carefully lest the Dwimmerlaik destroy the memories and permanently cripple the Lords. Reluctantly, Grant agrees but he would still like to try to find a way to substitute one set of memories for another to see if they can get away with it. Lucien likes the plan - Bastiano apparently suggested something similar previously - but they need to tread carefully.
- Grant is disappointed that he cannot go after Ethan. He talks conceptually over the idea of getting his own memories back with Greywalker and Cooper Nassar. Cooper is a bit of a strange fellow - he is very quiet and thoughtful, and his speaks in short phrases. Cooper has a simple conclusion - to fool the Dwimmerlaik, Grant will need to find another Grant to substitute. He needs to find a doppleganger and be prepared to sacrifice him.
- Bastiano returns and confers with Lady Vala. Vala agrees to Bastiano’s proposal, and Bastiano enlists Grant’s help. He explains that he has a way to find out where the memories are being held - but it will take an Umbra Master to pull it off. Two Umbra Masters would be even better ….
GM Observations - Part 2
…. and this is where we stop Session 78. The Lords of Gossamer are reunited with a common Enemy and we have the named Lords of Gossamer finally in play and interacting with the PCs. It was a deliberate decision to leave the named Lords of Gossamer out of the game for so long because then we didn’t have the ‘Elder Amberite’ generation (using the Amber Diceless reference) there to assist, coach and generally overshadow the PCs. Now the PCs have played through 78 sessions, they are not novice characters - they are not on the same power level as Vala and Drake, but they don’t need to be. They have their own skills and experience to offer.
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