Episode 18: Hammer Time

Can't touch this

The Party arrive by teleport in the courtyard of The Basilica of Saint Hitomi.

The guards at the door recognise Black and Draven, although they still insist on receiving the necessary password and The Party descend the broad stairs into a large underground space beneath the tower. It is a cathedral to Sirius, filled with stained-glass windows with continual flame spells behind them to simulate sunlight.

Demonac gives a quick overview of The Basilica's layout (see linked page), after which Black and Draven, having vouched for the other members of The Party, go to be debriefed by The Hand's leadership: High Priest Matsomi and Jonasson, Earl of Hanley, The Hand's top secular leader.

During this time, Little One spars with the arms trainer and Angel begins wandering The Basilica, before being accosted by a fellow Gnome. He introduces himself as Ulias Baradar Thiswell, the unofficial Duritanian liason to The Hand, assisting them with arcane research. Not all of the artificers are so friendly, however, with one passing woman dismissively referring to Angel as "another one". Thiswell shrugs it off, clearly use to a little casual speciesism.

As he leaves the High Priest's office, Draven is accosted by a 15-year-old accolyte, whom he immediately hugs. It's his son, Tobin, who reveals that Draven is in fact the Marquis of Rowan, a valuable province in northern Verandi containing a major city of the same name, which he of course cannot make any use of due to the presence of the Deluvians for the past 171 years.

In a brief aside, Demonac tells the story of Sirius's aid to the fleeing Verandi regugees during the Deluvian invasion, including unseasonable fogs helping to hide them from KT eyes and a pod of Ankhegs fighting alongside some Vistrian scouts who were giving their lives to buy time. He also explains that Draven's ancestors lived as honoured, if not always welcome, guests of various Vistrian nobles, and Draven was married off to Ivana Elstina by his father while still quite young. She is only the heir to a barony, while he is technically a Marquis, but her family are incredibly wealthy, while he's a refugee. He then used the wealth and connections he gained to join the Hand of Sirius.

Back in the present, Tobin reveals that his mother and grandmother are attempting to marry him off, and he is considering pretending to be gay as a delaying tactic. However, Draven convinces him that this would likely only lead to a quicker marriage, as they would need to marry him off before anybody found out.

The Party heads out to find Don DiCorso's local office, and make an appointment to see Elana, his local envoy. She takes the spoons off their hands and gives them a bank draft for the balance owed.

As they head back out into New Vanover, they hear a screams and crashing, and see two giant stone hammers looming over 20 feet in the air a couple of streets away, moving southward. They rush over to find a hexapedal stone golem, being followed at a safe distance by a young man on a horse, who rides over and introduces himself as Andrew Midgarde. He built the golem under his Civil Defence Artificing Licence, but the control system failed and he (and the local shopkeepers) needs it shut down. He gives them a scroll that will expose a failsafe rune between the back legs, that should override the AI and reset it to passive mode.

At first The Party are more interested in destroying the golem the old fashioned way, but after realising how tough it is, including the ability to knock down anybody within 5 feet of it who fails a reflex save, they fall (heh) back to plan B and Angel climbs underneath the golem to activate the rune. At first it appears to be ineffective, but after a couple of rounds the golem shuts down, the delay being due to an error in scaling up the rune from the smaller model it was built for. Midgarde pays for the damages and Draven recruits Midgarde into the Hand, much to Higgins's joy.

The Party mount up and ride to Draven's estate in the Barony of Silverlode. After some brief exposition, Ivana comes out to greet her husband ... next time!

## Trivia

* This episode probably marks the first appearance of Giselle Kira, although she is referred to only as "the arms trainer" and is depicted using a generic guard sprite.