Rebel Thunder

Rebel Thunder is a novel by Bill McCay in the Mage Knight novel series, first of the five out of which only the first two have been released. It numbers 272 pages, 20 chapters and has a scenario at the end. The book tells of the Black Powder Rebels in the time before Karrudan's assassination and of how the latter proceeded through the eyes of Blaize, an Altem Guardsman of the Atlantis Empire acting as a mole in the ranks of the Rebels but slowly slipping off into allying with them.

## Chapters

The book starts with a prologue and has 20 chapters roughly the same length.

### Prologue

The prologue chronologically takes place in the same time interval as Chapter 15. Caero is burning, set ablaze by Atlantean forces seeking to kill the Rebel leaders in the city. Sarah, the Rebellion's leader, has been limped and hurt and had to be taken on horseback by Rikka out of the town and to the rendezvous point south of city, at the abandoned quarry. Snow and Sigwold met them there and decided that Snow would have to be the one to deliver the killing shot to Karrudan.

### Chapter 1

On the Atlantis Arena in the Atlantis-in-the-Sky, Blaize, an Altem Guardsman and other Imperial soldiers have been taken on a practice fight against two Mage Spawn - a Werebear and a Werewolf. While his comrades proved either useless or cowardly, Blaize single-handedly dispatched the two Mage Spawn and was taken to the office of Lord Scarbro to receive his special assignment as a mole in the Rebel Ranks by Karrudan.

### Chapter 2

Blaize awoke and was explained his assignment by Lord Scarbro - Karrudan fears prophecies of his death and so he had chosen a guardsman, a true son of Atlantis to act as his mole in the Rebel ranks. Blaize then met his parents before setting off for Khamsin, a city known to harbor Rebels. While there, Rebel passed of as a Caeronn.

### Chapter 3

Blaize went to Khamsin as part of a caravan, providing servives as a sell-sword in exchange for easy passage. Along the road he got some road-silver for beating off bandits. Upon arriving in Khamsin, he told his made-up story in a tavern and got the attention of Rikka, who decided to bring him into the Rebellion.

Meanwhile, in Varsfield, Snow and Sigwold were practicing with pistols when Sarah arrived with her own fuser rifle, gifting it to Snow and telling the two to set off a pack train with black powder from Varsfield to Atlantis. The two began immediately.

When Rikka brought Blaize to the Rebel warehouse, he met the leader of the forces and Rikka's adoptive father - the dwarf Eginhard. Eginhard decided to test Blaize's mettle by pitting him against Tulwar Windfoot of the Galeshi - Blaize won and was given his next assignment: stealing the patrol movements from Khamita Castle, the Atlantean Garrison of Khamsin.

### Chapter 4

Blaize was guided by Mikarl to Khamita and then set off to climb it using a rope - upon reaching the castle's rampants and getting into the main tower he stumbled upon a guard and was taken to the office of magus Gamelon.

### Chapter 5

Gamelon inspected Blaize for quite some time but when Blaize had shown the mage-officer Karrudan's sigil the Altem was taken to the office of Lord Portarr right away. Portarr gave Blaize the patrol schedules and Gamelon instructed Blaize on how to get in contact with the garrison command again and then Portarr wrote a mage-writ to Scarbro in Atlantis, detailing what Blaize had told him. While getting out of the garrison Blaize found out that he was spied on by Rikka and Jon Bowman and then, by making a distraction, the three promptly left the castle.
Blaize was then led to the Warrens, an underground Rebel base, where he was congratulated on his first assignment and let off for some time. Blaize then went to Bruna's bakery and met Kennet, Rikka's son.

### Chapter 6

Snow and Sigwold were moving the pack train through the Northlands with some Rebels when they stopped at the steppes of the Fist - Grugh, an orcish commander then joined them as escort for some time with his warhost.

Blaize was informed that the Khamsin Rebels were on the move for something, not knowing that they were to merge with the pack train from the north. While spending some time alone at the bakery, he had his body wrestled out of his control by Karrudan, who then proceeded to try to inform Gamelon through Blaize's body but was stopped by Armon's press-gangers and knocked out cold.

### Chapter 7

Snow and Sigwold got the letter from Eginhard, Sigwold's brother, about the new place of meeting at the crossroads past Khamsin - this was done because the riders from Khamsin were delayed by Blaize - the Rebels thought that he walked off drunk, gambled his life savings and then was taken into slavery, so they had to shut down all the places where Blaize had been.

Blaize, meanwhile, was arriving at Minetown as a new slave - he tried showing Karrudan's sigil to Therion but was backhanded. Blaize was then told of how life was at the Magestone mines by Trav, and it was from Trav that Blaize got the idea to show the sigil to the head overseer - it didn't work, however, since the abundance of Magestone at the mine disabled the medallion from working - the head overseer then snatched the mefallion from Blaize.

### Chapter 8

Rikka asked around the Rebel forces for anyone who could help her rescue Blaize - the only one who agrees to the endeavour was Tulwar. After arriving at Minetown, on nightfall, the Rebels freed Blaize and then the rest of the slaves while also killing the head overseer. Chaos then broke out and the Rebels had to escape - Minetown was set ablaze and its slaves were liberated - Blaize included.

### Chapter 9

Blaize, Tulwar and Rikka then met up with the rest of the Khamsin riders led by Eginhard and fought in a skirmish against an Imperial Scorpem patrol, won by the timely arrival of Snow and his riders, along with Grugh's green lads. The battle was won but Jorj and Lukush Buttwound died in it.

### Chapter 10

The Rebels then burned the bodies of the dead and set camp for the night. While on the road next day they stumbled upon many empty estates, ruined by Imperial tax collectors and Sigwold told the rest of the riders of Sarah's theory on the Empire's tax policy and her plans for the Empire, with Blaize thinking that all the dwarf said was all too true.

### Chapter 11

The Rebels continued on, and Blaize was tasked by Eginhard to scout ahead - while doing so, Blaize also spied on the leaders of the pack train, trying to see what was the mysterious cargo - when he saw it, he thought black powder was simply spices and the fuser rifles were fancy-looking axes.

Upon officialy returning to the Rebels Blaize spotted a bunch of Imps giggling around them - the Imps themselves weren't the problem, but the fact that they were there in the first place meant that a bigger, fiercer predator was somewhere nearby.

### Chapter 13

As it turned out, an Imperial dam blocking Roa Vizorr was broken and flooded the lowlands - the Riders tried to force their way through but were ambushed by Lizard-men lurking in the water. Mikarl and Blaize's horse died but the Mage Spawn were beaten off nonetheless and the pack train moved on.

The Rebels arrived in Caero and most of the troops were let off to their homes - Snow and Sigwold stayed with the pack train at an abandoned quarry south of the city and Blaize, Tulwar, Rikka, Eginhard, Jon Bowman and Harolt were left, joining the Rebel leaders in Caero - Sarah Ythlim and Valerian Woodsbane. When going to sleep, Blaize made his objective to kill Sarah and behead the Rebellion.

### Chapter 14

Blaize (with Tulwar tagging along) then sought out Wensu, the local silversmith, to fix the chain on his medallion and was present when the Incendiary Golems started the infamous burning of Caero by setting ablaze a row of shops.

### Chapter 15

Blaize and Tulwar arrived at the inn where the Rebels were staying and informed the rest about the Atlanteans trying to weed them out - Affrem, the innkeeper apparently ratted them out and was promptly killed by Valerian. The Rebels set off to escape the city, saving a family on their way out and also killing an Imperial patrol trying to bar them off.

When they came to a dead end in their escape, Eginhard used a lightning gun to break a wall and the Rebels then split off - Sarah and Rikka south and Valerian, posing as Sarah, to the north - Blaize confused the elf for Sarah and tried to kill him, but was foiled.

### Chapter 16

Valerian reacted pretty mildly to Blaize's attempt on his life and then he, Eginhard, Harolt, Tulwar and Jon Bowman used the smuggler tunnels underneath Caero to escape the burning part of the city. They then stole a bunch of horses from Master Ramosi's estate and escaped Caero at last.

Valerian was going for the pyramids of Caero but he and the riders were spotted by Atlantean incinerators - both Amoteps and Golems, and were chased around the pyramids. Tulwar bought the group some time by making a last stand, blowing up a bunch of golems along with himself.

### Chapter 17

Snow and Sigwold arrived in Down Town after long weeks of travel and stayed at Perrin's inn, the Mills of Circumstance. After staying there for a day, Snow went to Atlantis to get the job done and kill Karrudan.

The rest of the Rebel members then gathered at the same place - Sarah took Blaize to a room and saw right through his disguise while also finally convincing him to join the Rebel cause. After that, Blaize confessed his true role and feelings to Rikka and was let off to his most important assignment - getting Snow out of the city once all hell would break loose.

### Chapter 18

Snow arrived at one of the liftgates while masquerading as a porter delivering food to Prince Hamund's banquet under the guidance of Lord Daraton, a high elf and a friend of Perrin.

Blaize got into Atlantis and met Emillon, along with Lord Scarbro - he then met his mother, Laure, for the last time, with her reassuring Blaize of his allegiance to the Rebels. Blaize then went to where Snow was to safely get him out after the final shot.

### Chapter 19

When Karrudan appeared at the Throne Palace to deliver the words of the Avatar of Tezla, the Prophet-Magus was shot straight in the heart by Snow, who promptly made his escape from Atlantis with Blaize's help - this was also the last time Blaize used Karrudan's medallion and had worn Imperial regalia.

### Chapter 20

Down Town was in uproar when Karrudan died - Rebel sympathizers armed with black powder pistols and fuser rifles were battling Lord Scarbro's Imperial troops in many chaotic streetfights. Sarah and the rest holded out at the Mills of Circumstance, luring Lord Scarbro's army in - once the Atlanteans were close enough, Sigwold sacrificed himself by blowing up lots of black powder barrels and winning the day. Sarah then proclaimed the official start of the Black Powder Rebels, coining the name.