The Deep Ether Campaign

The insignia of the Allie-Oops after the events on The Station.

**The Deep Ether Campaign** (Corsairs II) took place in Celestial Space and Naga Space.

## Background

### Celestial Powers

* Nippon States
* Cult of the Mirror
* Elvish Enclaves
* Porcelain Lords
* The Perfect Princes
* Kingdom of the Interior
* Kingdom of Aksai Chin
* Margravate of Tarim

### Denizens of the Deep Ether

* Umbrans
* Naga
* Perfect Princes
* Leviathans

### Expeditionary Fleet

The *Taigun*, of Corsairs fame, has been upgraded at considerable expense by the Knights Mercantile to field the best of Imperial and Celestial technology. It is accompanied on its mission of exploration and gunboat diplomacy by a pair of Imperial two-deck frigates, the *Freistadter* and *Dalcia's Spoils*, an Imperial three-decker, the *Lance* and a Celestial Junk, the *Fire Mule*, refitted with a boarding ram and a bristling array of anti-personnel weapons.

*Dalcia's Spoils* was commissioned by Count Kiril Orloff, secretary of the Russian KM chapter, for 20 million crecibles as a sister-ship to the more inveterate *Freistadter*, a torpedo and gunboat. Both ships have been designated to protect and escort the expedition’s main battleship: *TCS Lance*. The *Lance* is an experimental ship in development for the better part of a decade as an answer to the heavy gunboats sometimes seconded by imperial powers to their trade fleets. Sarcastic KM grandees have given it the snide appellation "*TCS Money Pit*" and the designer of the ship’s showpiece rail cannon, Doctor Janice Sydney reportedly pulled significant strings to have the ship assigned to the expedition into Naga space as a demonstration of its potential. Dr. Sidney will be accompanying the vessel on its first "live-fire" voyage.

#### Taigun

Experimental exploration vessel

Crew Complement:

* 25 crew
* 15 marines – assorted Imperial mercenaries
* Assorted special officers

Other Features:

* Adamantine prow
* Pseudo-adamant armor plating
* x2 Light boarding skiffs (MGs)
* Etheric shielding

Weapons:

* Etheric lance battery (dorsal: fully traversing)
* Broadside hydrogen cannons (x4 port; x4 starboard)
* Torpedo bays (ventral: x2 aft-facing, x1 stern-facing)
* Heavy machine guns (dorsal: x2 aft-facing, x2 stern-facing)
* Auto-cannon (ventral: fully traversing turret)

#### Dalcia’s Spoils

Two-deck frigate (torpedos and cannon)

Crew Compliment:

* 40 crew
* 30 marines: Cossacks

Other Features:

* Pseudo-adamant ventral and dorsal armor
* x1 Heavy boarding skiff (1 of the dorsal auto-cannons)

Weapons:

* Broadside hydrogen cannons (x20 port / x20 starboard)
* Heavy machine guns (dorsal: x4 aft-facing, x4 stern facing; x4 ventral, fully traversing)
* Auto-cannons (dorsal x3, 2 fully traversing, 1 sternward; ventral x2, fully traversing)
* Torpedo bays (ventral: x2 aft-facing)

#### Freistadter

Two-deck frigate (torpedoes and cannon)

Crew Compliment:

* 50 crew
* 20 marines: assorted Imperial mercenaries

Other Features:

* Pseudo-adamant ventral and dorsal armor
* x4 Light skiff

Weapons:

* Broadside hydrogen cannons (x25 port / x25 starboard)
* Heavy machine guns (dorsal: x4 aft-facing, x4 stern facing; x4 ventral, fully traversing)
* Torpedo bays (ventral: x2 aft-facing; dorsal: x2 aft-facing, x1 sternward)

#### Lance

Three-deck frigate (heavy naval guns and rail cannon)

Crew Compliment:

* 60 crew
* 50 marines

Other Features:

* Pseudo-adamant armor plating and internal structure
* x2 Heavy boarding skiff (2 of the dorsal auto-cannons)
* Dorsal etheric shielding

Weapons:

* Broadside hydrogen cannons (x20 port / x20 starboard)
* Heavy machine guns (dorsal: x4 aft-facing, x4 stern facing; x4 ventral, fully traversing)
* Auto-cannons (dorsal x4, fully traversing)
* Rail-cannon (ventral, aft-facing)
* Heavy naval guns (x2 dorsal, aft-facing, x1 dorsal, stern-facing)

#### Fire Mule

Cargo and boarding

Crew Compliment:

* 60 crew
* 200 marines:
	+ 100 Margravate privateer rifles
	+ 50 Aksai Chin
	+ 50 Celestial mercenaries

Other Features:

* x10 Light skiffs
* Pseudo-adamant boarding prow

Weapons:

* Broadside hydrogen cannons (x30 port (x10 auto-loaded) / x30 starboard (x10 auto-loaded)
* Heavy machine guns (dorsal: x4 aft-facing, x4 stern facing; x4 ventral, fully traversing)
* Auto-cannons (dorsal x4, fully traversing; ventral x4, full traversing)
* Harpoon-launchers (x10 dorsal, aft; x10 ventral, aft)

### Trade

The majority of the Pin-Jump trade is controlled by companies originating in Imperial Space, with Aeldrum and the Knights Mercantile retaining their first-mover advantages and accounting for about 43% of total trade revenue. The Fialta and Shantine were relatively late to the trade, making serious bids a few years after the Aeldrum Celestial Trade Company and Trans-Celestial Trade Company had already established themselves.

Piracy and unlicensed trade have flourished, aided by the endemic corruption of the ACTC/ATC and the factious infighting of the Knights Mercantile — raids, mutinies and sabotage have all been funded by both Nipponese and Naga agitators.

As the Bank of Valdos has become increasingly connected with the emergence of the Second Fialta Imperium under the self-styled Tiel'Fialt, relations with the Knights Mercantile have grown more complex and significantly more hostile. While doing its best to remain a neutral arbiter, the Bank has become a pillar of the Fialta Imperial State, often putting its interests at odds with historic partners in the Knights Mercantile, who have predominantly backed the Thalranese Marches, the Great Companies, and assorted Fialta renegades in their struggle for autonomy.

## Summary

### Session 1

The first part of the session focused mostly on boarding activities involving the party:

* Regi performing physicals.
* Allie setting up her lab and getting an alternate physical from Dr. Braun.
* Counting lessons for Aggron.
* Naga Dundee tried to help Aggron with counting
* Klaus getting reassigned as first officer on the *Taigun* after the untimely death of Hiru's former first officer in the Pin Jump riots.
* Janea setting up her room and encountering the humorless auditor Grayborn.
* Garrel setting up his equipment and being generally reclusive.
* Lumbergh meeting Dr. Sidney (leading everyone to conclude that the senior leadership of this expedition consists mostly of thoroughly irascible people) and then boarding the *Taigun*
* Notan went around "making friends"

With everyone aboard, the expedition launched. We skipped ahead some weeks to the *Taigun* breaking off from the main fleet to investigate strange signals in (then unbeknownst to all but Capt. Hiru) a region of space marked by Banshee as significant. So the expedition found the half-disk and studied the various golems and ruins therein. The ruins apparently were of Pantheon War vintage and seemed to mark the place as a Valdosian-controlled Bazaar and soul collecting place on a now sealed interface between the ether and the domains of the gods.

The golems remained of unknown provenance, though the party of course discovered one of particular note (Hrymn) inside a tower at the midpoint of the straight edge of the half-disk. This tower seemed to be a sort of panopticon, from within which Hrymn had observed the party and, apparently, much of the surrounding ether for an indeterminate period. After a few incidents, including Garrel going temporarily blind, the party recovered Hrymn and took him aboard to serve as a sort of living navigation instrument.

### Session 2

The party explored the half-disc some more, discovered that the golems had been built or modified by dwarves around the time of the Episurian Genocide. A more recent round of modifications suggested a Saldanese academic presence, probably in the last 20 years and most likely under the auspices of a secret ATC expedition. The party's investigation was interrupted by a swarm of Umbrans from the underside of the disk, apparently kept at bay by the blinding of effect of Hrymn's (now absent) presence in the Panopticon.

While escaping, the crew spotted an array of dwarven artillery pieces on the underside of the disk. Naturally, the party formed an away team to reclaim the largest gun. Landing under psionic/etheric screens from Naga Dundee and Banshee, the party set about readying the cannon for extraction by the *Taigun*. Inevitably, the Umbrans detected the party. In the ensuing chaos, Notan fell from the top of the gun. The 40ft drop pulverized the Umbran that had tackled her, and it left Notan with permanent dexterity damage. Despite this setback, the cannon was extracted and the Taigun safely left the disk.

After a rendezvous with the main fleet, the expedition leaders concluded that a lost world lay some weeks ahead of the fleet and, quite probably, was the gateway to Banshee's father's domain (and thus to contact with the Naga). En-route to the lost world, the *Taigun* investigated the haunting songs of deep ether whales, finding a pod with a wounded and possibly maddened member and on a trajectory to the lost world. The *Taigun* returned to the fleet when the whales became aggressive. So the fleet pressed on, faster than the whales, to get to the lost world and (ideally) establish a base and find Banshee's father.

### Session 3

The party had just crashed on planet and themselves in a spooky tiled bowl-thing. All around was the sound of a horrible chant and a thick cloud of black smoke rising towards the now shut gate. After some deliberation on whether to go towards the obsidian mountains in the distance or the blood red river, the party clambered out of the mile-and-a-half-ish wide bowl. Discovering on the way that the optics of the planet weren't quite right, everything seemed much farther away then it actually was, indicating some horrible non-euclidean geometry was at work.

On the edge of the bowl, the advance elements of the party discovered an immaculate marble surface ringing the bowl. They also discovered where the chanting was coming from - a horde of gul'dan were occupying a set of ruins just outside the bowl and began attacking. Just as the first few lizards were easily dispatched, the marble ring began to discharge aetheric energy. Most of the party escaped intact, but Hrymn (with Lumbergh on his back) were caught in the aetheric wave emanating from the ring. Hrymn avoided damage, as his body converted the energy to heat, but Lumbergh as a result had his arm melted off as he tried to clamber off the now superheated Hrymn.

With the bowl now too dangerous to return to, the party had no choice but to press on into the ruins. Hrymn used his heat to flash boil the insides of rooms, while Dundee swept through with Notan riding on his back, skewering Gul and Dan as they went. Dundee was wounded by an aetheric lance fired from a tower while Notan attempted to push off the Gul swarming over his back.

Meanwhile, Allie and Garrel investigated the series of cauldrons which were billowing smoke into the aether of the gate — these were Soul burners, hundreds of them, feeding the soul energy of the bodies trapped inside to keep the gate closed. Regi discovered that the burners could effectively be turned off by eliminating the body inside after shooting one of them. But since no effective way of shutting them all down could be thought of, the party moved on. After a harrowing adventure in which Jessie was almost killed by a dogpile of Gul and Aggron almost learned the number two, the party came to control the Basilica at the center of the ruins.

Banshee was immediately beset by the unnerving feeling that not only was his father Sigvald (whom the expedition sought for fun and profit) here on the world, but that he had just been in the very spot he was standing. Some psionic events revealed that Sigvald was in the mountain range, and that the mountains (now that the party had a better look) were not mountains at all, but a series of Black Pyramids, the dreaded anti-matter weapons discovered by a Saldanese expedition many years prior.

Meanwhile, Allie set about discovering the purpose of this Basilica, and came to the conclusion that the Basilica, and indeed the ruins around it, were not so worn or random as they thought. The entire complex in fact had been created to serve as a switchboard for an artificial ley-line which ran through the planet. It did so, at least in part, through a finely tuned system that produced an aetheric wind through the "ruins". Effectively, the whole system was some sort of aetheric musical instrument. Clearly it had been in disrepair for some time, however, and although it still amplified sound and made the chanting seem omnipresent, the soul burners clearly had been placed to make up for some deficiency. Indeed, Allie discovered that the controls had long been destroyed.

All this tarrying about had allowed the Gul'dan to regroup, and it seemed that some method of escape would be necessary. Allie, like the classic Irishwoman she was, suggested that they blow the basilica up, arguing that the resulting dissonance and aetheric hazard would be a perfect cover for their escape and subsequent journey to the pyramids. This demolition caused some problems. First, the party was wracked by some terrifying psychic damage from the dissonant winds. Second, the gate seemed once again to be in flux, and, confusingly, a second gate opened just above the pyramids. And third and most worrying, Hrymn and Garrel detected fluctuations from the Pyramids consistent with their known firing sequence, provided helpfully by the writings of Dolf Lungren (heavily plagarized from the notes of his dead compatriots as they were).

The party quickly set about building a makeshift bunker in a nearby sand dune (having escaped the gul'dan fest in the ruins). Each party member did their part, Hrymn acting as a lightning rod, Dundee sealing the front with his massive armored bulk, and the others rigging up and supporting various tentpoles and structural elements, with Garrel using the steam engine to pressurize the bunker a little bit for air safety. When the pyramid fired, the resulting aetheric storm was enormous. Though the main blast headed towards the gate, resealing it, the party was buffeted by enormous winds and aetheric blasts. Hyrmn did his job admirably, absorbing energy and discharging it away from the bunker (and mostly without harm to himself). Dundee held firm for most of the storm, but having been wounded already, was on the verge of death by its end. Six times he nearly died instantly (owing to a heart problem), but Dundee lived, and with the help of Notan and Banshee, who psionically reinforced his immune system, he stabilized without losing consciousness. The bunker had been hit many times, but through good fortune and the engineering prowess of Garrel and Allie, it held strong through the storm.

As the fires outside receded and the bunker could be safely opened, the party had to decide what to do. Lumberg and Dundee clearly could not continue in their heavily wounded state, but Banshee heard the call of his father, and the party agreed that avoiding him was likely to cause the party trouble. So Notan was left to guard and tend the wounded in the bunker, while the others trekked out to the pyramids. Banshee guided the party inside one of the pyramids, following his father's voice. Garrel and Hrymn stayed outside, neither liking the effect of the Pyramids' internal aetheric null space.

At last, the party met Sigvald, who monologued patronizingly at Banshee for an appropriate amount of time before revealing to him the true fate of his mother, whom he had killed for trying to hold Banshee hostage as a baby. Sigvald told Banshee of what high hopes he had for him, insisting that it would be glorious if they were to work together. He then revealed another secret. Tenku, the masked pilot who had brought the party down to the world, was in fact one of his agents, a tortured and deformed nipponese woman named Miri. Sigvald heavily implied that it would be good of his boy Banshee to kill this woman. Sensing Banshee's doubt, Allie resolutely placed herself in front of him, drawing her sword with one hand and reassuringly grasping Miri's with the other. Allie and Banshee locked eyes as Sigvald steepled his hands in delight at the confrontation.

### Session 4

Dietmar the brain has a body now. It turns out he told the party that he was a wild elf who was abducted by the agents of Varal who made him a Skinchanger. to understand Skinchangers, who are their enemies.

There were various endeavors for giving him a non-biological body, but in the end he was given a body cobbled together from various body parts that Regi had lying around. The hope is that he will grow into the body.

Garrel is no longer in jail, Klaus is the captain, and no one told him anything. (Hiru was compromised because Miri, Allie's buddy and the daughter of Sumire's best friend, was an agent of Prince Sigvald (Naga)). The party came up with the idea of doing a small task for Sigvald because we wanted to study Foundation technology in his territory. The party is going to a station that recently appeared in his territory for him that he didn't want to send troops to because it's so close to another Prince's territory.

The party has been supplied with some intelligence. It was designed as a repository for The Foundation. We should expect to find on it etheric weapons as well as internal security sections. It was the same station that was discovered in the Fialta-Shantine War. The exact information residing inside the computer on the station is unknown to the party. It is expected that there will be cultists on the station.

### Session 5: Side Story: Banshee Goes Home

Banshee accompanied Prince Sigvald back to the Blood Court / Court of Terrors. The "Court" was a ramshackle collection of slave shacks and guard barracks, built around three central nodes: the port, the arena, and Sigvald's palace. All told, Sigvald and his cabinet ruled over a government of a few dozen, using an army of a few hundred to subjugate a city of a hundred thousand. The population of the entire planet might be a few million, with Sigvald's total army numbering ten thousand or so.

The Court had once been Banshee's entire world, and the Arena had dominated that microcosm: it was in the arena that Banshee first knew victory, but it was also a place of unrelenting, crushing humiliation: Banshee remembered well the baying, spitting crowds of slaves and the terrifying, brutal intercessions of the faceless guards, but perhaps most of all he remembered Sigvald's cabinet and the cruelties of two of its members — McFearson, the Master of Lights, and The Marionette, the Mistress of Sound.

McFearson was the longest surviving member of Sigvald's inner circle at 50 years of service, with the exception of Sigvald's Surgeon, who might not be so much a member of the circle as a literal extension of Sigvald's will. McFearson's title aptly reflected his psionic ability to manipulate light itself. He used this power to guide the lighthouse of the city's port, but true to the wasteful spectacle of the Court, it seemed that Sigvald valued him more as a lighting director for the arena. Like all psionics who served the Prince closely, McFearson had been handicapped by Sigvald to prevent rebellion: McFearson and the Marionette both lacked ligaments, courtesy of the Surgeon. Each was held upright by wires connected to a (separate) floating disk, which they could propel using telekinesis. Naturally, Sigvald reserved the means to detach the disks from their wires with the press of a button, literally "cutting the strings" of his puppets.

Others in Sigvald's circle were likewise impaired: Mario, the Mount of Sigvald, was possessed of phenomenal strength and the ability (telekinetically augmented) to jump distances of 40 feet in a bound. But he carried on his back a sinister pumping mechanism which siphoned away his blood and vital fluids, leaving him with a feeble constitution and providing the Prince with a supply of refreshing, revitalizing libation.

So it was that Mario, McFearson and the Marionette (who kept trying to remember their name) came out to greet the returning Prince and his heir apparent when they landed at the Court. Also in attendance were Sigvald's Reaper and another of his bastard sons, Sigurd the Banal (a title surely imparted by his father). The reunion was an unhappy affair indeed for Banshee: McFearson remembered an arena dog and did not see the difference in the returning heir. Banshee's attempt to cut McFearson's strings was thwarted by a bad draw.

The Marionette, McFearson's shadow, noted the attempt and began machinating against Banshee. To this bruising of egos, Sigvald added his own twist: he informed Banshee that his record as a champion of single combat had been bested since his departure, by a warrior known as Serghit. Serghit had four championship titles to Banshee's three. A duel, and Serghit's death, would set the record even and Banshee as his killer would break the tie. Sigvald gleefully explained that Serghit was a psychic blank, immune to all psionic attack and suggestion. Banshee, of course, agreed to the duel. And so the Prince's return, and the naming of his heir, was to be inaugurated with an arena battle.

The cabinet took up its position in Sigvald's Arena Box, overlooking a blood-soaked field ringed closely with stone stands and, further out, shoddy wooden extensions. Between the stands and the field was a barricade garnished with razor wire and punctuated by stakes. Banshee appeared on the side of the arena closest to the Prince's Box, with Serghit at the other end. A light shone on each: red on Serghit, blue on Banshee (blue being the Prince's color, and a sure sign of his favor, but McFearson saw to it that the blue upon Banshee was just slightly off).

Serghit, who had once been a mine slave, was clad not in metal armor but in a form of crude rock-mail: stone linked together by chains. Perhaps this was another of Sigvald's cruel handicaps, for even the towering gladiator was slowed by his armor. Nevertheless, as he strode across the arena and Banshee took his measure, he proved an intimidating sight: 6 and a half feet tall, swinging a warhammer in one hand and a metal spike clutched tightly in the other. Banshee, faster by far, drew his swords. While the accompanying psychic scream sent many in the arena crowd cowering, it had no effect on the blank Serghit. As Banshee made his first strikes against Serghit, lights from above flashed and both were starkly illuminated for the crowd to see.

The stone armor held, however, and Serghit answered with a swing of his warhammer: a deft feint and riposte from Banshee sent the warhammer flying into the arena mud. Serghit, still holding the reach advantage, hefted the spike like a javelin and launched it into Banshee, who caught the brunt of it despite his reflexes. Though seemingly disarmed, Serghit seemed intent on using his brawn, and the crushing weight of his own armor, to overpower Banshee. Banshee, swelling with memories of past victories and defeats in the arena, knew that a straight win would be unfitting — he must give the people a spectacle, just as Serghit seemed intent on doing. And so he spoke into Sigvald's mind: "I will win this battle as a king."

Turning the full force of his psychic intimidation against the crowd, he exhorted them to assail Serghit. The onlookers had not recognized Banshee at first, and until the blue light fell upon him, they had cheered Serghit. Now, desperate to prove their loyalty to the heir and his sadistic father, five onlookers clambered the stakes and razorwire. One did not make it, but the other four landed in the mud, armed with broken weapons and whipped into a frenzy by terror. Tthey seemed ready to leap upon Serghit, when the Marionette activated their contingency.

Long ago, when Banshee was not yet a champion of the arena, he had been one of dozens of aspirants: beaten and tormented by their instructors and the crowds
but in that time, he had found in one of his fellow fighters an ally, perhaps even a friend, a small island of mutual strength in a sea of brutality and paranoia. So it was that the Marionette, early into their tenure as one of Sigvald's cabinet, had exercised their most sinister power: Psychic Transposition — the ability to trick a combatant into switching the position of friend and foe. Banshee would likely not have survived the melee that first made his name without the aid of his friend: and, to the delight of the crowd, in the final round, when Banshee thought himself about to strike the killing blow against an enemy, the Marionette had transposed this enemy with Banshee's only friend. This one ally did not survive the stab that Banshee delivered to his back. How fitting, then, that in the present, the prodigal son returning should call his would-be subjects to the field, only for them to be manipulated into attacking him.

And so they did, their minds twisted by the Marionette. Banshee, of course, need hardly have thought long to guess the culprit. The more pressing matter of four slaves charging him was handled more quickly with another psychic scream. Some fled back to Serghit, who dispatched them with brutal ease, while others sought to bury themselves in the arena mud. Face to face again, Serghit battered Banshee with a bodyslam, but an attempted grapple failed and left the stone-clad warrior face down. Banshee struck Serghit's back, cutting away chains so that the stone armor would fall away from him. He then called upon the crowds again. More clambered over the walls, and again were twisted by the Marionette
but Banshee knew to keep his distance and wait for the opportune moment to turn them back to his side.

Serghit clambered upright, taking another spike from his belt and sending it into Banshee. As Banshee cut into his front, Serghit took a loose chain from his failing armor and wrapped it around Banshee's neck. Only a moment of fortitude saved the heir from strangulation and Banshee cut away these chains, leaving Serghit increasingly disarmed. Another bodyslam missed, and this time Banshee's psychic scream drove some of the assembled fight-crashers to stab at Serghit himself. Another missed slam, a successful riposte from Banshee, and the first sign of slowing from Serghit.

The blood of both fighters slicked the sand, but Serghit's flowed faster. Another cut, and only his prodigious fortitude kept him conscious. Now, the Marionette withdrew their influence, and the slaves fell upon Serghit, tackling him to the ground. But the final blow was reserved for Banshee. He struck it upon Serghit's exposed back, driving one sword into his foe's shoulder blade to pin him in place, and using the other to carve down the length of his spine. A flourish with both blades, and what remained of Serghit was turned out for the awed crowd.

The lights, which had darkened just before the final stage of the melee, were raised to glorious incandescence and fell upon Banshee, triumphant. From his box, an ecstatic Sigvald applauded and called for an encore. The Prince leaned to the Marionette and spoke into her mind, "I know what you did. You should go to my son and ask his forgiveness." For he had sensed his servant's ploy and delighted in it, both for what it was and for the opportunity it presented. The Marionette floated to Banshee, who had also guessed their effort against him. Banshee, still flush with his victory, chose to turn the crowd on the Marionette. When the Marionette attempted to reply with another transposition, Sigvald cut their strings and sent them to the ground. Banshee now leaned over the Marionette, and issued his psychic shriek directly into their ears. Pouring into it all his rage, frustration and regret: the death of his first friend by his own hand, his resentment of the crowds and most of all his hatred of the Marionette.

The Marionette was deafened and psychically scarred, but remained conscious: they used the last of their strength to telekenitically propel themself away from Banshee. As they rocketed into the air, Banshee drew his swords just in time to cut off their legs but not stop them. The Marionette arced a trail of blood into the air as they flew into the stands, scattering terrified onlookers. Some gathered to beat them, hoping for some scrap of favor from Banshee, but these too scattered quickly when Sigvald mounted up Mario and came bounding down from the box.

Sigvald dismounted and approached the Marionette, thinking his victory complete as he whispered into their mind: "You have betrayed my heir, but he does not rule yet. You live today by my mercy." The Marionette, after twenty two years of service, however, chose another, freer path — they struck at Sigvald psychically. But, physically and psychically battered as they were, this human striving against the cruelty of a consummate despot could end at best in death. Sigvald offered worse.

Pinning the Marionette's mind with his, he called his Surgeon from the stands. The crowds watched as the Surgeon opened the Marionette's skull and performed an open-air operation. Their brain became disconnected from all external senses, as Sigvald stormed through the halls of their psyche, rewiring it. The Mistress of Sound had found great pleasure in the past by playing music to irritate and induce anxiety in others, so Sigvald left them able to hear only one sound: the very worst of the bard Ravel: Bolero.

Thus satisfied by his vengeance, Sigvald withdrew to his box, leaving Banshee to give his victory speech to the crowd. Banshee obliged not with a message of hope or triumph, but with grim threats. He addressed the crowd: "When I first fought here, you jeered and spat on me. You did this because you are weak and spiteful. I am not here to stay, but one day I will return, and I will rule you. And I will not rule with kindness: I will treat you as you deserve, like the debased animals you are. Remember this, and wait for me." In that moment, McFearson changed the light upon Banshee to a blue that matched Sigvald's color perfectly.

The fight was concluded, and Banshee was brought to his father's palace
there, he found his father waiting for him beneath the great dome that marked his cabinet chamber. In the room were two others, with whom Banshee had not yet traded words. The first was Sigvald's Reaper, who sowed terror on his behalf among outlying towns: many a conspirator against the Prince found their efforts ended by a magnetic bolt from the shadows, and many an innocent was felled in the same manner to make any number of points. Like all of Sigvald's psychic servants, the Reaper had a weakness: though faster than seemed humanly possible and able to guide bolts with a thought, the Reaper had the strength of a feeble child and depended on a mechanical harness for physical activity.

The other figure in the room was Sigurd, son of Sigvald. Born to a favored concubine, he had served the Prince from birth, groomed to govern. But he was never a candidate to succeed the Prince. For as Sigvald was fond of saying, "Sigurd has the brain for government, but not the mind." — this cabinet member had no handicap, for he was not psychic, and thus, in Sigvald's eyes, was no threat and also no heir. The Reaper was dismissed with a wave, and Sigurd and Banshee met.

Though Sigvald wanted to speak to Banshee privately, Banshee assured his half-brother that they would speak further. Now alone with his father in the vast cabinet chamber, Banshee asked him many questions. First, he asked why Sigvald had not read his mind: the Prince answered that he understood Banshee well enough to rely on intuition, and that while indispensable to a ruler among the Perfect Princes, psionic ability could not be a crutch. Sigvald elaborated on why Sigurd could never succeed him: left with intuition alone, Sigurd would at best fall to a conspiracy, and at worst, become a puppet. Confronted with psychic attack, Sigvald could dominate any in his cabinet, but Sigurd would fold. To handicap Sigurd further would be pointless. Sigvald recognized Sigurd's intellect (easily the greatest in his domain if not among all the humans and near-humans of Naga space) but viewed him as a tool, and took no pride in him as he so clearly did in Banshee.

Banshee then asked why Sigvald sought power. Heanswered that while long-lived, he was still mortal, and that he refused to let any moment of his life be constrained by another. "I could order a hundred men to leap from a cliff, and they would do it for fear of what awaited them if they stayed." Sigvald intimated that he despised his cabinet for seeing comfort as an end: they were satisfied with constraining themselves. He saw in Banshee however as a kindred spirit and an heir who, knowing he would one day take Sigvald's throne, could rule on his behalf and do more than slake his thirsts. If Sigvald built his principality into a true kingdom, he would need governors, and Banshee was the perfect candidate. Banshee at last saw Sigvald for what he was: a despot for whom tyranny was the only guarantee of his own personal freedom, and, implicitly, a man who surely must rail against the subtle slavery the Naga imposed on the Perfect Princes.

Sigvald and Banshee parted, with Banshee going at last to speak to his brother. Sigurd, for his part, had restrained himself in his excitement from seeking out Banshee directly: better to keep his hand closely held. Sigurd had spent the intervening time helping the Reaper prepare the tools with which to execute Sigvald's bidding: weapons, tracking devices, measures and details of subjects to "harvest" for various callous and grotesque purposes. Banshee found Sigurd in his chambers, at the farthest end of the cabinet wing. The chambers were guarded by a set of imposing brass doors, locked in place: beside them was a doorway with a sliding screen door, perhaps someone's idea of an architectural joke.

Banshee, alone at last with his half-brother, made proper introductions. While Sigurd listened with ill-concealed excitement, Banshee told his brother of his journeys in the wider cosmos. Banshee confided in Sigurd his complex relationship with Sigvald, his mixed feelings about assuming the mantle of Prince, but above all the elder of the two bastards imparted to Sigurd that he bore him no ill will, nor sought to replace him. Sigurd answered that Banshee need not worry about replacing him, for Sigvald seemed to have far greater designs for the prodigal son than he would ever deign even to falsely promise a non-psychic.

Banshee saw an all-too familiar resentment and self-loathing rising in Sigurd: remembering his father's cautions against relying on psychic power, however, he chose to play on Sigurd's emotions more mundanely. Banshee offered to have his younger brother accompany him on the expedition to the Station and to learn from the scholars and explorers that made up the leadership of the *Taigun*. Sigurd, pausing only a moment so as not to seem altogether desperate, agreed readily, his great hope realized. But the younger brother's elation was tempered a moment later: would Sigvald agree to let him go? Banshee promised his brother that he would not tell the Prince: as Sigurd smiled with relief and set about collecting his most cherished books, Banshee reached out to his father's mind and told him of Sigurd's intentions. The first covenant between the brothers was broken an instant after it was forged.

Sigvald answered: "Do not stop him. Return to the cabinet chambers. I have a gift for you." So Banshee went, waiting only long enough to learn that Sigurd planned to raid the Marionette's room and abscond with whatever artifacts they may have concealed
this too, he told Sigvald. The Prince, for his part, awaited Banshee in almost the same position as before, but now the floor at the center of the cabinet chamber had been retracted. Spiraling down below it was a stone-carved staircase, leading into the depths of the Prince's personal armory. As the Prince and his heir descended, they strode past shelves of strange objects carved into the rock face: glass cases filled with ancient documents, peculiar specimens, antique baubles and every other description of priceless oddity. But for the briefest stop to unchain a small lead box from its place and palm it up his sleeve, Sigvald took no interest in these items nor made any effort to describe them. Many were the inherited from the collection of Sigvald's predecessor, condemned to obscurity as the only memorial of a Prince who failed to hold his throne
Sigvald's grew far more animate, however, as the air grew warmer: at the base of the staircase were the prince's private forgeworks.

Blind, deaf and mute servants in brass helms scuttled about in perfect rhythm, moving to the unseen strains of Sigvald's psychic command. Some, it seemed had been at it for so long that their nigh-mechanical shuffling from one station to another had worn paths into the stone floor. Sigvald and Banshee walked indifferently through the forge-drones to the edge of the forge chamber, where Sigvald produced a key to the armory. Once inside, the Prince tapped his fingers along a wall of moldering sword-cases: some seemed fit to crumble at any touch heavier than the Prince's, and when he at last selected his prize, it came away with a protest of rotting leather. But as the case creaked open, it revealed a gleaming, impeccable blade
this, Sigvald explained, was an elvish ivory sword, carried by one of the elvish Cult of the Mirror, who had struck deep into Naga space on a divine mission (Sigvald chuckled at this) to slay the Naga.

The Prince added: "Perhaps you'll give this blade a second chance to fulfill its purpose. Would you like to see its former wielder?" Without waiting for an answer, Sigvald led Banshee to the deepest cells of his dungeons: these were not the waiting-places of execution fodder, but the Prince's personal stock chambers. And a place of honor was reserved for the wretched, bloodied elf that Sigvald presented to Banshee. Gleefully, he asked his son: "Do you know how long elves live?"

Banshee answered that he did not, perhaps thinking the question rhetorical. The apparently ill-informed Sigvald seemed crestfallen: "I'd thought you would. I wanted to know how long I could keep this one." Moving on from the dungeons, the Prince at last handed Banshee the item up his sleeve. He explained that it was the petrified third eye of a Naga, one that had become "Anathema" — tainted by some unknown curse and rejected by all its kin, driven mad and then driven out, these creatures were inexplicable to the Prince and his allies. But perhaps the expedition of the KM could reveal more.

Sigvald cautioned that he had not learned much by studying it psychically, "Whenever I look into it, I see myself staring back." Banshee accepted the eye and gratefully took the lead box to keep it from looking around any more than necessary. Banshee took his new sword and petrified eye to his chambers. For the first time in his life, he would sleep in the palace, a stone's throw and a world away from the pens of the fighting pits where he had slept a lifetime ago.

Sigurd, however, was in search of his own treasures: having organized his books, he set out for the Marionette's room. He searched the antechamber, to no avail: Sigurd pressed deeper, into the bedchamber, to find Sigvald waiting at the foot of the Marionette's bed. The Prince invited Sigurd to sit, but the room had no chairs and Sigurd declined. Sigvald rose from the bed. He loomed over his son, eyes gleaming with false pity. "So you're leaving. Why did you not ask for my permission?"

"You would have forbidden me," Sigurd responded.

"Far from it, Sigurd. I would have let you go. You had only to ask." The Prince put a hand on his son's shoulder: Sigurd did not need psionics to know that Sigvald's mind was coiled like a snake, ready to strike at the slightest provocation.

"Did Banshee tell you?"

"No, Sigurd. I knew I would find you here because I know you. That's why I would have let you go. Any other member of my cabinet would be suspect, but you... There is nothing you could do against me, no matter where you went. You, mundane that you are, survive at this court because I will it, and you will survive away from here because Banshee wills it. That you have deluded yourself into thinking I would need to keep you here is just another reason that Banshee, not you, will succeed me. Go be of some use to him."

Sigurd did not answer, and returned to his chambers.

Banshee, probing the palace with his mind, felt Sigurd's anguish, and went to him. Sigurd explained that Sigvald had found him, as he knew he would, and asked Banshee if he had betrayed him: Sigurd believed Banshee's lie that he had not. Banshee, hoping to comfort his brother, put a hand on his shoulder, looking in that moment for all the world like a blind Sigvald. Sigurd shrugged him off and bade him a good night.

The next day found the Master of Lights preparing a ship to carry Banshee and his brother back to the Knights Mercantile. At the loading dock, just before leaving on a new assignment of terror and blood, the Reaper approached Sigurd. The strange impression of a smile danced on the Reaper's blank mask, and Sigurd's most constant, most silent interlocutor (to inflict Sigvaldian abuse on that term) handed him a mag-pistol from among the dozen that clinked over armor and under cloak. Sigurd left with the comfort of a weapon in his hand and the quiet well-wishes of a friend.

Sigvald and Banshee exchanged a few final words. Banshee promised to consider his father's offer to rule in his name as principality turned to kingdom. Sigvald asked Banshee to use the gifts he had made to him, glancing at the sword, the box and at last to Sigurd. So Banshee the Blind and Sigurd the Mundane struck out into the ether. To Banshee, it was the first time a journey had meant leaving anything approaching a home, and to Sigurd, the first thrilling step out of the shadow of Sigvald's domain into a cosmos that eclipsed even the Prince's wildest delusions of grandeur.

### Session 6

*This section is incomplete. You can help The Aeldrum Wiki by expanding it*.

### Session 7

A wary detente has been reached with the Foundation, thanks to clever negotiation from Garrel, Allie, and Klaus. The Foundation is willing to help the party in its quest against the Naga in return for assistance restoring mobility to the station. While not yet willing to share their technological secrets, the Foundation may do so in future. Collaborating with the Foundation, Garrel has computed the location of Selene Veer's signal, placing it very close to the original broadcast point for Flazel's warning to the Foundation of the Naga invasion millennia ago (and close to the Covens of Corrobel, one of the Naga nest sites). This puts Veer's probable location deep within Naga Space, through Prince Nidev the Vain's space.

Klaus and Allie narrowly diplomanced their way out of a showdown with the Fialta. They learned that the Commandant is almost certainly being manipulated by an occult force, which he believes to be an angel of Valdos. The crux of the confrontation was Migna, Nidev's renegade chancellor. She had killed several Fialta, and the Commandant demanded she be remanded to Fialta "justice".

Unsurprisingly, Nidev's agents have been surveying the station. Whether provoked to action by the departure of the *Dalcia's Spoils* or by the party's visible efforts to salvage an etheric lance from the gunnery-ring of the station, it seems that Nidev's forces have concluded that their window of opportunity to seize the station is narrowing, pushing them to launch an assault. Nidev's forces consisted of five ships: three lighter, ramshackle vessels driven on by a Margravate warship and what looked like an Imperium cruiser. The three smaller ships, apparently driven on by the threat of etheric lances on the cruiser, rushed the station. While lance fire from the station pinnacle succeeded in destroying one of the smaller craft and severely damaging the port-side of the cruiser, the two remaining smaller craft slammed into the station. One succeeded in destroying the Pinnacle's etheric lance system, the other battered the middle decks where the Fialta had fortified themselves.

Meanwhile, using the skiffs as auxiliary engines (the main etheric engine having been removed and brought to the Foundation to power additional systems), Allie and Klaus "piloted" the *Taigun* against the Margravate-style vessel (almost certainly commanded by the infamous Captain Jonathan Pickman), with Andropov at the guns. Though they succeeded in knocking out the Margravate ship's torpedo systems, the crew of the *Taigun* were forced to abandon ship as the last torpedo salvo ravaged the gun deck. Andropov went down with the ship, staying behind to get as many sailors out as possible. Klaus seemed oddly elated by the whole affair, while the party took up defensive positions in the lower decks of the station to await the onslaught of Nidev's forces.

### Session 8

*This section is incomplete. You can help The Aeldrum Wiki by expanding it*.

### Session 9

*This section is incomplete. You can help The Aeldrum Wiki by expanding it*.

### Session 10

A wary detente has been reached with the Foundation, thanks to clever negotiation from Garrel, Allie and Klaus. The Foundation is willing to help the party in its quest against the Naga in return for assistance restoring mobility to the station. While not yet willing to share their technological secrets, the Foundation may do so in future. Collaborating with the Foundation, Garrel has computed the location of Selene Veer's signal, placing it very close to the original broadcast point for Flazel's warning to the Foundation of the Naga invasion millennia ago (close to the Covens of Corrobel, one of the Naga nest sites. This puts Veer's probable location deep within Naga Space, through Prince Nidev the Vain's space.

Klaus and Allie narrowly diplomanced their way out of a showdown with the Fialta. They learned that the Commandant is almost certainly being manipulated by an occult force, which he believes to an angel of Valdos. (The crux of the confrontation was Migna, Nidev's renegade chancellor. She had killed several Fialta, and the Commandant demanded she be remanded to Fialta "justice".)

Unsurprisingly, Nidev's agents have been surveying the station: whether provoked to action by the departure of the *Dalcia's Spoils* or by the party's visible efforts to salvage an etheric lance from the gunnery-ring of the station, it seems that Nidev's forces have concluded that their window of opportunity to seize the station is narrowing, pushing them to launch an assault. Nidev's forces consisted of five ships: three lighter, ramshackle vessels driven on by a Margravate warship and what looked like an Imperium cruiser. The three smaller ships, apparently driven on by the threat of etheric lances on the cruiser, rushed the station. While lance fire from the station pinnacle succeeded in destroying one of the smaller craft and severely damaging the port-side of the cruiser, the two remaining smaller craft slammed into the Station. Succeeded in destroying the Pinnacle's etheric lance system, the other battered the middle decks where the Fialta had fortified themselves.

Meanwhile, using the skiffs as auxiliary engines (the main etheric engine having been removed and brought to the Foundation to power additional systems), Allie and Klaus "piloted" the *Taigun* against the Margravate-style vessel (almost certainly commanded by the infamous Captain Jonathan Pickman). With Andropov at the guns
though they succeeded in knocking out the Margravate ship's torpedo systems. The crew of the *Taigun* were forced to abandon ship as the last torpedo salvo ravaged the gun deck. Andropov went down with the ship, staying behind to get as many sailors out as possible. Klaus seemed oddly elated by the whole affair, while the party took up defensive positions in the lower decks of the station to await the onslaught of Nidev's forces.

### Session 11

When we last left the excessively motley crew, they had just finished more tense negotiations with the Fialta (learning of their mysterious advice-giving “friend” in the process) and had fortified their defenses against the boarders of the Margravate ship. However, the Foundation’s dorsal weapon was disabled, leaving Garrel and Sigurd to figure out how to repair it.

Naga Dundee and Captain Klaus went for a traditional charge, while Hrymn had a simpler idea: why not just roll over the tiny creatures in his way? This proved to be less effective than he had hoped, but the combined forces were able to push back the enemy troops and encounter both Captain Pickman (looking ghoulish and insane) and his personal headhunter.

Moving with reckless abandon, Dundee and Klaus reached them first. Dundee began with a grab n’ smash, but the number of fodder and the sheer strength of the two leaders forced him to retreat. Klaus attempted to cover for Dundee’s escape until the cavalry arrived, but this also went poorly, as Pickman, wielding a flaming cutlass, chopped off Klaus’ right hand with ease.

Not all was lost, though, as Allie, Jessie, and Hrymn made it to the fray. After dispatching most of the fodder, Allie jumped on Hrymn’s back and skewered the headhunter, making him nice and crispy in the process. Surprisingly enough, Pickman had enough control over his crew to keep them from fleeing immediately.

Perhaps he should have kept more self-control, as Allie’s regards from Sumire struck quite a nerve. So much so, in fact, that Pickman dropped his cutlass and took some desperation shots before meeting the same fate as his headhunter. With Pickman out of the way, most of the troops fled. This did not include a select few who had chased after Dundee and Klaus (who again was a poor distraction and got himself captured), leading to a farcical “negotiation” for his release.

Finally having some breathing room, the party reorganized their defenses and planned a counter-boarding. They met with the Fialta (somewhat depleted by the kamikaze) to discuss options, and decided on a dual assault: one from above, and one through the front door. With the prospect of a ship to take them home, the Fialta volunteered to help with the assault.

The surprise drop-in was led by Lumbergh, who used a harpoon (deftly thrown by Aggron) to shimmy down to the ship. Although his landing was silent, his initial strike on the vents was lacking, and his crew became locked in a fight on the upper decks. The lower assault began after Regi sniped the ship’s torpedo bay. This went better, with Banshee intimidating the fodder and Jessie mowing them down.

Finally clearing out the gun deck, Lumbergh dropped down and was ambushed, taking serious cognitive damage in the process. Meanwhile, the lower assault had made it to the bridge (needing Hrymn’s assistance to climb up the destroyed stairwell), and the party encountered the last of the important personnel on the ship: a Lieutenant manning a machine gun, and a psionic. Banshee confronted the latter and was overpowered, forced to look directly into the eye in his possession. The psionic was eventually killed, and the remaining crew surrendered. Lumbergh was saved from death, but not from daft. In this psionic's possession was a small black box of condensed null space.

We leave the excessively motley crew fighting against time and exhaustion: Nidev’s cruiser is looming over the pinnacle of the station, the Foundation has retreated from projecting to save power, and three important party members are now out of commission (perhaps four if Banshee’s horrors are severe enough). They’ll need all the luck they can get to survive this last stand.

### Session 12

The party has bought themselves some time to have almost free reign over the station to scavenge and experiment. General status of vessels: the *Taigun* is effectively destroyed, the kamikaze ships are all destroyed, Pickman's vessel *Tarim Terror* is damaged (dorsal gun deck destroyed, forward torpedo bay disabled, crew decks severely damaged, rear torpedo bay damaged) but ether-worthy (bridge, cargo bay, engines, ventral gun deck intact) and the Mage Imperium cruiser commanded by Nidev's proxy is essentially hollowed out (engines and crew decks obliterated, ventral sections obliterated, bridge obliterated, weapons arrays severely damaged).

The Foundation was severely damaged, but still minimally functional. The hologram system seemed capable only of projecting a shimmering blue wall, rather than the ghostly humanoid shapes of before. It has been two days since the *Dalcia's Spoils* was dispatched to report to the main KM fleet: the KM ships were docked at the Forgotten World, while Sigvald's ships are probably patrolling his space within a few days of the station.

The one who encountered the *Dalcia's Spoils* first was something of a matter of chance, but Sigvald's ships were likely to be the first. However, the *Dalcia's Spoils* was acting on old intelligence: namely, that the party was holding the Station and that Nidev's forces were close but not yet committed to an engagement. The probable order of notification was: Sigvald's agents -> KM -> Sigvald, and each may have responded differently to the uncertain information conveyed by the *Dalcia's Spoils.*

This left the party with an uncertain window of autonomy: from their best information and Migna's knowledge of Nidev's space, Nidev threw everything he had in the way of local forces at the Station, so any follow-up from him would take a week at least and more probably several weeks. Sigvald's agents may already have encountered the *Dalcia's Spoils* which could mean they will be in the vicinity within two days. The KM will, at best, know within a few more days, and they won't arrive for a week or more. Sigvald himself, assuming he was still on his world, won't know for at least another week, so he won't be able to arrive for a good two weeks.

So the party has at least two days to themselves. They will have reinforcements before Nidev can strike again, and probably KM support before Sigvald can arrive. This leaves them with a choice to make: how much do they fortify the Station as opposed to pillaging it?

The only officer you lost was Andropov. The crew probably is not thrilled.

### Session 13

The party focused mostly on research and exploration. Among other things, the party re-discovered genetics. It was revealed that the Foundation, severely, perhaps irreparably damaged, was storing their knowledge in tumors on plants in their garden. This was due to the failing systems on the lower decks of the Station, since all data was wiped from the computers when power was cut.

The party also considered exciting possibilities for the transfer of the Foundation to new bodies. Hrymn accidentally detonated a small-scale demon-bomb and Sigvald's agents arrived.

The party has learned that the location of Selene Veer's signal is probably not far from the Covens of Corrobel, the gateway to true Naga Space. The Covens of Corrobel also seem to correspond to the site of Flazel's signal millennia ago warning the Foundation of the Naga. The most direct path to this space is through Prince Nidev's realm.

The party also learned that Nidev is controlled by, merged with, working for, or perhaps *is* the Anathema. The Anthema appears to be a collective of extremely powerful, very psychically hungry Naga.

Ships serving Prince Sigvald are still inbound to the station.

### Session 14

Sigvald's agents, the Ophidian and a scribe, have been murdered by the party and their crew either executed or spirited away by Migna in her own escape from the station. Klaus, in a homophagous fit, set upon and devoured the Ophidian's entrails and fish-like flesh. This appeared to have a terrible effect on Banshee, who writhed in agony as if his own guts were being devoured. As the scribe became increasingly badly injured, the psionic individuals in the room seemed to take on those injuries temporarily.

When Banshee recovered, he tried to kill Klaus for his torment, only to be restrained by Hrymn and at Sigurd's gunpoint. Klaus pleaded amnesia for his actions and Dr. Regi is in acting command of the crew.

In a stroke of luck, Charles Valch had dispatched the *Fire Mule* and the *Lance* in advance to move in and claim the Station before Sigvald could be appraised of the situation. Thus, KM reinforcements arrived about four days ahead of schedule.

KM troops under Captain Gentila Parveno and Commander Fadrique Dartelle have annexed the Station with permission from acting-captain Regi. The *Fire Mule*, after unloading a number of troops and items of equipment to secure the Station, will tow the *Tarim Terror* back to the Forgotten World to fulfill the party's bargain with the Commandant and his Fialta.

Meanwhile, the *Lance* and the *Dalcia's Spoils* will remain at the Station along with the one remaining Sigvaldian craft (the other having been stolen by Migna in the confusion of the murder of the Ophidian and the scribe). To everyone's considerable relief, Dr. Braun and his orderlies have disembarked to help patch up the crew while Dr. Regi recovers.

The party leadership has also been informed that the *Freistadter* has returned from the Pin-Jump with reinforcements to secure the Forgotten World. The discovery of a Black Pyramid and other preliminary intelligence seems to have convinced KM leadership back home that the expedition is worth doubling down on, if only to build a base from which to stop Naga-backed pirates.

### Session 15

Allie Flashpan is cleared (somewhat quickly...) of all charges, Banshee stays behind on the Station as a governor on behalf of his father and a free agent of the KM and Sigurd condemned to return to the Court of Torments to debrief Sigvald's scientists (and then to return to the Station as Banshee's engineer).

The officer manifest of the *Tarim Terror*, barring any rearrangements from Capt. Lloyd, is as follows:

* Captain: Allie "Flashpan" Lloyd
* First Officer: Klaus (Not a Cannibal) May
* Chief Physician: Dr. "Regi" Reginleif
* 2nd Officer and Gunnery Officer: Li Jiang "Barty" Shen
* Navigator and Chief Engineer: Dr. Garrel
* Occult Officer: Naga Dundee
* Security Officer / Boarding Officer: Sergeant Faolan
* Bosun: Hideki Temshi
* Assistant Physician: Notan Aga [ranked: corporal]
* Helmsman: Hrymn [ranked: corporal]
* Designated First Boarder(s): Aggron & Aggron

Under normal conditions, chain of command is as follows: Allie > Klaus > Barty > Regi > Garrel > Dundee > Faolan > Temshi > Notan Aga > Hrymn (general rule: capt > 1 st officer > 2nd officer > specialists by seniority [randomly determined: captain lloyd may reorder] > junior officers > corporal ranks by seniority). If a medical intervention becomes necessary at the top of the chain: Regi (acting captain) > Notan Aga (assistant to the acting captain) > chain of command resumes. If under active occult threat, Naga Dundee jumps behind the captain in the chain of command.

### Session 16

The party is making excellent progress through the route to Selene Veer that avoids the Gul'Dan Corridor and goes through Nidev's Domain. A hated stowaway is turned into a new sanitation engineer and a pack of Naga ships appear hunting in the wake of a vast Void Whale Pod.

### Session 17

The party evaded both the Void Whales and the Naga hunters by diving into the Labyrinth Route to Naga Space. Within the Labyrinth, the party elected to take the twisting inner routes over the mentally perilous outer skeins. Inside the inner routes, the party found a strange pocket of etheric space, from which a Mage Imperium signal seemed to emanate.

Exploring this pocket, which had peculiar time-contracting effect, the party found a ship graveyard. At its center, behaving almost like a planet, was an enormous sarcophagus of unearthly marble. Among other things, the party discovered evidence of ATC-Naga collaboration, a ruined Imperium warship, and the apparent remains of the trial and imprisonment of a god, who might still be (definitely isn't) entombed in the sarcophagus.

The party also learned certain interesting details about Naga and Mind Eels from observing the (decade-later) effects of an unusual soul-based attack that seemed to turn the flesh of ensouled creatures to crystal. Mind Eels seem to be soulless, Naga not so, but some Naga and their servants appeared to resist the soul-based attack, instead going horrifically insane

The party left the pocket with supplies, knowledge and plenty of strange cadavers to examine. Strangely, the party seemed to come out of the pocket in a different place than it had entered, but some clever navigation and piloting brought the *Terror* out of the Labyrinth in record time. Unfortunately, the *Terror* exited the Labyrinth roughly overlooking the Covens of Corrobel, giving it a narrow and extremely fraught passage to Veer's coordinates.

A chance encounter with a non-Naga ship turned into a brief reuniting with Migna the Renegade, who appeared interested in helping the *Terror* (or at least not revealing its secrets) and shared coordinates intermediate between the *Terror* and Veer's location. The *Terror* began making for these new coordinates, hoping for some source of cover on the extremely dangerous journey through Naga space to Selene Veer.

### Session 18

*This section is incomplete. You can help The Aeldrum Wiki by expanding it*.

### Session 19

The party continued its navigation around the outer skeins of the Covens of Corrobel, heading toward the coordinates given by Migna. En-route, the party became drawn into a navigational "floodway," a fortified complex of four vast black towers that seemed to knit and shorten the ether around themselves. Drifting into the floodway, the *Terror* was drawn in by the first tower and accosted by a harbor master, who sought tribute.

After some negotiation, with Klaus posing as Kannibal Kaptain Klaus to make them seem as fearsom as Pickman, the party was received atop the tower by its true master, a Naga with a horrifying dislocated jaw. This Naga was familiar to Dundee as Old Wrymouth, a former raider so mutilated by its repeated encounters with Dundee that it was forced to abandon raiding for an ignoble, sedentary life as a glorified customs boss. Wrymouth also sensed Dundee, and bargained with the party to receive him unarmored so that it could exact vengeance.

The inevitable ensued, and the party turned on Wrymouth and sacked its tower. Dundee finally finished the job he started with Wrymouth's first mutilation long ago, and established his dominion over Wrymouth's lesser Naga hangers-on (to Allie's fascination and horror). Valuable samples, cadavers, stolen skiff-fighter and maps in hand (courtesy partly of some intrepid thieving by Barty Shen), the party left the tower and narrowly wove the *Terror* through the rest of the "floodway" (with as only major casualties a dead sailor and a badly maimed Fyodor).

Escaping the towers and ahead of the news of the sack of Wrymouth's Tower, the party pushed on to Migna's coordinates. At the coordinates, the party found a surprisingly modern-looking gate defense system. They were warned by an Aeldman voice not to speak while on-world, on pain of death.

On-world, the senior officers of the crew were summoned and met by a bloated emissary, held aloft by slaves. This blessed servant of the Naga handed the captain a precious document of safe passage, repeating the grim instruction to speak nothing and directing the party to wait for transit deeper into the world. Finally, the party was met by a carriage drawn by Gul'Dan, transporting a strange trio with Imperial-looking fashion and weapons.

These men bade the party come aboard: Regi, Allie, Klaus, Jessie, Garrel (specially requested by the trio) and Faolan joined. The party was taken deep inworld, leaving the ziggurats and slave-huts of the port for the dusty wastes and, then, a green valley shielding a compound of some dozen buildings. There, the party was taken from the carriage to the front patio of a central building (resembling a colonial governor's manse). Regi and Allie were invited inside.

Therein, the captain and the physician were taken to the study, where they found an elf, looking about 180 years old, dressed in an ATC officer's day-uniform, who was the first to allow the guests to speak. The strange elf introduced himself as Dion de Turenne, and after some greetings and realizing that both Regi and Allie could understand elvish (de Turenne, like Regi, was of the Enclaves, not Aeldrum), explained that he was *de facto* the Naga's chief intelligence officer in their struggle against social apocalypse.

de Turrene explained that a mind virus, a "question or incongruity in reality that consumes the attention of the infected unto starvation," was being spread socially and especially psionically through the Naga worlds. As a soulless man, he was not affected, and could study the virus without endangering himself or his Naga patrons. Learning the party's interest in strange (especially Imperium-era) knowledge, de Turenne proposed a collaboration to understand the virus and other phenomena of Naga space.

de Turenne ended the meeting by inviting Regi, Allie and the rest of the crew to dinner. Again, they would speak to nobody save de Turrene himself, but the elf would use the dinner to make the acquaintance of the party's senior leadership. The party ended on the second story of the manse, taking dinner in a wing specially insulated to allow open conversation without endangering de Turenne's servants.

### Session 20

The senior officers of the party met with de Turenne and negotiated a considerable exchange of information, spending close to a week on-world. Though forced to operate in silence except for their interactions with each other and de Turenne himself, the party was able to glean much both about the Unnamed/Mind Virus and Naga society at large. Most importantly, the party confirmed that the Anathema was indeed a sort of Naga hive-mind formed by desperate victims of the Mind Virus.

The party is ready to leave de Turenne's world for Veer's coordinates, a writ of safe conduct from the elf in hand and four of his agents aboard as observers. The party also had a promise from de Turenne that if they returned with helpful information or technologies, he might be able to arrange a strike into Nidev's domain, with promises of a subsequent visit into the Covens of Corrobel for the scientists in the party.

The four agents aboard are as follows:

* Martin Malone, gun-slinging Irish adventurer in his mid-60s
* Bosveld the Scholar, one of the very few local-born scholars in Naga space
* Jonder the Eyes, de Turenne's preferred clerk and "designated witness to the cosmic and the terrible"
* Druvlan, another local, apparently some extra muscle to help M.M. protect Bosveld and Jonder

### Session 21

*This section is incomplete. You can help The Aeldrum Wiki by expanding it*.

### Session 22

The party found themselves on a planet with virtually no ambient etheric energy, casting it in a deep twilight. The only sign of mobility was a group of six automata, who reacted threateningly to the party's attempt to align itself with the Foundation. Despite their hostility, the six automata that confronted the party scattered when confronted with a hologram imitation of the Foundation.

The party then explored various strange and unsettling structures across the surface of the world, all giving the impression that the entire planet had been arranged into some vast and dimly knowable machine. The surface of the world was coated with an inorganic, utterly inert dust, especially around the bizarre, seamless structures that jutted from the featureless plains. No winds blew, nor did any natural landscape break the monotony. The planet's surface seemed to have been stripped completely bare, but with no sign of tool use. The only variation other than the troubling monoliths seemed to be the occasional veins of industrial slag running over the planet, long-since dusted over.

Etherics on the world were not only muted but also wildly inconsistent, sending Hrymn and Garrel off-balance until a careful effort to re-calibrate them by Garrel and Allie. But most important was the only light that the party's lamps did not cast: the strange auroras that gleamed around a vast chasm in the distance, lined by what appeared to be Black Pyramids (no prior expedition had discovered more than one Pyramid in a given place).

Days of trudging through the dust brought the party to the edge of that chasm, which appeared completely artificial and, in fact, seemed to control the firing-in-series of a dozen Black Pyramids. One pyramid at the end of the chain fired, then some further down, then more in reply, until at last the entire chain was discharging unimaginable quantities of etheric energy against the gray backdrop of the planet's dark and listless sky. As soon as one Pyramid fell silent, others would take up their place in the cyclopean chorus. The aurora, it seemed, was a side-effect of directing the entire etheric power of the Black Pyramids through the chasm, resolving into a strange song of light and reality-warping.

After long contemplation, Garrel came to three conclusions:

1. The Pyramids were functioning like a vast musical organ, and the chasm as a pipe for their music. Their energy demanded the entire etheric atmosphere of the planet.
2. Garrel's recalibrated etheric sensors allow him to conclude that the "song" they produced followed no discernible rythm to a mortal observer under normal conditions, but was inescapably musical.
3. The song was resonant with reality itself, and perhaps reality (at least the laws of etherics) had been remade to make it so. Extending from his study of the ether and the soul: if someone wanted to allow passage outside the cosmos, or by a "soul-like" entity from outside the cosmos into this reality, one theoretical solution would be to obtain the resonant frequency of reality (or a small part of it) and resonate in such a way as to admit visitors.

These three facts and the broader context of the Mind Virus ravaging Naga Space brought Garrel to a troubling and all-too plausible theory: Selene Veer, or someone in her footsteps, had transformed this world to brute-force the resonant frequency of reality and bring the Unnamed into creation.

### Session 23

The party finally met Selene Veer and sat down to talk with her. The party shared a lengthy discussion with Veer about reality, philosophy and the laws of the cosmos. In it, Veer revealed her plan: to accelerate the decay of the universe and a return to the primordial space outside reality, thereby preempting eons of suffering. In her view, life always leads to suffering and death, a plot by Zulkir to guarantee its own existance. To achieve her goal, she would learn how to insinuate the Unnamed into reality.

After much debate about the nature of knowledge and information, entropy and system complexity and the impossibility of changing the fundamental laws of the cosmos from within it, the party and Veer reached a critical decision point. Veer offered the party a (partial) cure for the Mind Virus and a way off-world, if they would then help to spread the modified Mind Virus, to convert as many as possible to the pursuit of knowledge about the fundamental nature of the universe, and to then be harnessed in Veer's quest to unmake reality.

Veer left the party with some time to think.

### Session 24

The party has agreed to suppress knowledge of Veer's location. Veer has sent facsimiles of herself to ensure this. Garrel has stayed behind with Veer to gain a soul. The party will be allowed to return to Garrel when the mission is accomplished.

Klaus has had his soul modified and his perception altered to allow him to survive with the Mind Virus. Notan has had Klaus's Idolmite artifact implanted into her to delay the effects of her Mind Virus. The party has left the Dust World with new knowledge and must now plan its next move: de Turrene's agents obviously want to return to him.

### Session 25

The party, now minus Dr. Garrel, has been reunited with Banshee and some of Sigvald's agents (minus the Reaper)and both groups have been enlisted by the soulless de Turenne to serve in a plot to defeat the Naga and the Anathema and, ultimately, to put an end to Selene Veer's experiments on the Dust World. The party will be given a host of slaves to devise a new and better Mind Virus to introduce to the Covens of Corrobel.

 The party's main goal is now to sow pandemonium among the Covens and force the Naga to confront and destroy the Anathema. This strategy represents a major gamble, for the Naga could simply merge with the Anathema, making it vastly more powerful than before. But if successful, it will kill two birds with one stone and open Naga Space to conquest and give the officers of the Tarim Terror the resources to end Selene Veer's existential threat.

Who will rule the remains of Naga civilization is yet to be seen. It could be Sigvald, whose campaign to seize Nidev's territory has essentially doubled his fleet (and while doubtless ill-received by the Naga, could escape their retaliation simply out of fear of the Anethema). It could be de Turenne, who clearly does not see the Naga as his masters and seems oddly confident of his survival when they collapse. If no clear leadership emerges, it could be the KM who extract a fortune from the various warring Perfect Princes.

A few next steps for the party:

1. Allie and Regi will be focused on R&D around the Mind Virus
2. de Turenne will grant the party a secret base (unknown even to the Naga) which the ATC used as a depot
3. Banshee must decide which of his servants/agents to keep with him and what role he wants to play in this scheme
4. The party needs Naga samples for experiments, which means it's finally time to go whaling. The Naga hunt leviathans, and de Turenne plots their paths carefully. With a little help, he can point the party to a human raiding ship, which they can seize and then use to get close to a Naga hunting party (without ruining the *Terror*'s excellent cover) and "acquire" adult Naga.

### Session 26

*This section is incomplete. You can help The Aeldrum Wiki by expanding it*.

### Session 27

*This section is incomplete. You can help The Aeldrum Wiki by expanding it*.

### Session 28

*This section is incomplete. You can help The Aeldrum Wiki by expanding it*.

### Epilogue

In Memoriam:

* Dr. Reginleif, daughter of the Enclaves, ex-ATC Major: crushed to death in the crash of the Terror into the palace of the Rainbow Serpent. Though Regi did not live to see the Rainbow Serpent perish, it is undoubtable that she was a linchpin of the Corrobel Run: her surgical expertise made the transformation of Dietmar possible, and her mastery of chemistry and physiology unlocked the secrets of the Naga. Her last words were to Klaus May, a demand that her death not be in vain: "Kill that damn snake." Dr. Regi joins the tradition of such scholars as Dr. Aga, who devoted their medical lore to combating the Naga Threat, to excising the eternal parasite of Celestial Space.
* Dietmar, son of the wild elves of the Shantine frontier, instrument of Othal: expired within the dreamshape of the Rainbow Serpent while trying to consume an angel. Dietmar, his ambitions and personality twisted by decades of sensory deprivation, sought new sensations and above all, fixated on consumption of others by himself, by others of himself. His gamble, to devour an angel of Othal while in the mindbowels of the Rainbow Serpent, failed, but the satisfaction of having tried echoed through his last moments: "worth it."
* Faolan Siobhan, son of Ireland, founder of the FIRA: perished in the churning consciousness of the Rainbow Serpent while cradling his beloved Roisin. Though he relinquished his soul in the depths of the Rainbow Serpent's doomed mind, Faolan got exactly what he never knew he could dare want. The shift to the Rainbow Serpent's plane brought Faolan's weapon, Roisin, with him, made as perfect as possible—with her in his arms, he visited bolts of the Mind Virus on the slumping minds of the Naga and, in his last moment, gave the Rainbow Serpent a taste of the very best Irish whiskey.
* Hrymn, last masterwork of the Episurian Refugees: dissolved in a burst of etheric energy to become one with the background radiation of the universe. Hrymn's sacrifice aboard the Naga fighter made possible the daring assault of Faolan, Dietmar and Dundee into the mind of the Rainbow Serpent. He died not knowing whether that sacrifice was in vain, but history would remember how the Lodestone Golem from the lonely Panopticon proved instrumental in the final vengeance of Episur against the Naga, their last tormentors. As far as Hrymn was concerned, however, his last moment was a fitting and comforting culmination of millennia of frustrated vengeance—to the golem, in that instant, it all hung beautifully together. The Forge Fathers would have been proud, and the ether was a beautiful place to die.
* Commandant Sulla, son of the Marches, relic of the Fialta-Shantine War: vaporized himself and the material form of the Rainbow Serpent. The Old Commandant, after decades in the purgatory of the Station, at last found the end he wanted. He and his three surviving comrades met a death worthy of legend, giving themselves to slay a god and avenge an eons-old treason against the Pentacle. His final words, "I'M COMING THALRAN" echoed in the Martial Lord's long memory, and it is said that Sulla's god sought for years to find some trace of his soul to raise him to an angel.
* Guy McFearson, son of no place worth remembering, the Master of Lights: incinerated his own mind to shield Banshee. the Master of Lights died in a manner that would have surprised him not long ago—knowing that the psychic screams of the Rainbow Serpent as Faolan, Dietmar and Dundee attacked its very soul would doom McFearson or Banshee or both, he saw to it that Banshee the Blind lived. His last words were an exhortation to his unlikely protegee: "Go home and take what's yours."
* Naga Dundee, no title needed but his own: died with the Rainbow Serpent's domain. Naga Dundee, taken to the dreamscapes of the Rainbow Serpent, was freed of every restraint: his true name, his great weakness, was forgotten. All that remained was a giant encased in armor with a cheerful nickname and an overwhelming desire to wrestle. He satisfied that desire more than any might have thought possible, cleaving into the mind of the Rainbow Serpent, hacking and breaking it until he held its ruins aloft on his mighty shoulders, crying out to his fallen comrades, "She's a Beauty, mates!" The Serpent's dreamworld collapsed all around him, his soul doomed with it, and Dundee caught a flash of the real world, where the Fialta death squad ended the Rainbow Serpent's material form. The giant gave an approving nod. Captain Naga Dundee and his crew had fought a god and won.

The Survivors:

* Allie Flashpan, though unable to thwart De Turenne's schemes, was able to escape Naga Space at long last, seizing a corsair sloop with the help of Jessie, Klaus May, Barty Shen and everyone's true friend, Notan Krussksdottir. The last of the Taigun's leadership, with a handful of surviving crew, pushed into the Deep Ether once more. They returned to the Pin Jump just over four years after their departure. Allie used her share of the expedition's winnings, including the prize money for defeating the Naga, to retire from adventure: with a hefty donation and a treatise on genetics, she became a member of the Academy of Saldan's department of biology.
* Her old friend, Jessie, took some more time in Ireland, where she witnessed the first emergence of the new FIRA, a Libertarian movement turned cult. Funded indirectly by Allie's considerable wealth, the FIRA became part of the long and bizarre tradition of occult resistance movements in Ireland—its exploits would echo in the halls of political power not only in Ireland but in the Spires of Aeldrum itself.
* Jessie took Notan with her to Ireland, giving her the same care and support that she knew her father had received in his waning days, before returning to join Allie—Notan would never recover from the horrendous wounds she suffered defending her friends, but she would be remembered as a hero by all who survived the expedition.
* Nurse Joy, her mother, went into partial retirement to be with her daughter, and the two took up a comfortable, safe existence on Saldan, where her many old companions could visit her—nothing gave Notan greater happiness than to hear from Joy, "Notan, one of your friends is here to see you!" and these words she heard frequently for the rest of her days.
* Klaus, still officially listed on the roster as a First Officer of the Terror, received a considerable payout—he returned to Scotland, where he spent much of his time and fortune rehabilitating his dear cousin, Lumbergh and grappling with his own demons. An envoy of Charles Valch, now the CEO of Valch Biotech, who tried to recruit Klaus into the organization, was sent away at gunpoint
* Barty Shen, though a little psychologically worse for wear (including having to consume poor Fyodor to survive the return journey from Corrobel), was well rewarded for his heroism over the course of the expedition: after five years in the clutches of Jonathan Pickman and another three in the KM expedition, he was at last free to return to Celestial Space. Bidding farewell to the other surviving crew of the Terror, many of whom he had saved directly from the suicidal Corrobel Run, he took his fortune and rebuilt his lost shipping company: "Shen Imports" flew throughout Celestial Space for years, and Barty used the maps stolen from the black tower of Wrymouth to chart shorter routes that confounded his competitors and delighted his clients.
* Bosun Temshi was rapidly promoted through the ranks of the Knights Mercantile, going on to captain his own ship on behalf of the Trans-Celestial Chapter, the *Wages of Folly*. After another decade of adventure, Temshi retired to open a casino in the Pin Jump, inviting Notan Krussksdottir as a guest of honor at the grand opening—rumors persisted for years that Temshi had been a deep cover agent of the Veiled Masters, but none were ever substantiated.
* Sigurd joined Valch in building a fortune on genetic technology but was soon called away by an offer impossible to refuse: join the organization of Count Homer of Lidenia as a chief scientist and the captain of industrial development in ATC-controlled Naga Space.
* Garrel the automaton achieved his chief objective, gaining a soul—no longer the same Garrel that left Saldan, he was new, and better, just in time for the De Turenne expedition to Veer's World. His fate there is as yet unknown. Years after the KM expedition, Klaus turned over copies of the Lithographs of Hrymn for preservation; discovered within them were the secrets of golem fabrication. Klaus, on Hrymn's behalf, became the father of a new generation of golems.
* Captain Hiru returned to the Pin Jump under a cloud of suspicion but was spared by his old friend Sumire; the Nipponese adventurer was soon off on a different mission of daring, better suited to his heroic character but lackluster command. Hiru would die in an attempt to storm the legendary Corsair Station. His remains were brought back to the Pin Jump and then sent to the plantation of old Uncle Mito. The ancient Yakuza lit a final candle for his beloved nephew before collapsing himself, felled by grief in the peaceful shrine he had built at the edge of Imperial Space.
* Miri the pilot was taken into Sumire's care, until she disappeared once more, perhaps to mete out vengeance on the Veiled Masters, perhaps to join her Naga patrons once more—she was never seen by Sumire again, though an old Yakuza who had been on the expedition to Naga space claimed to recognize her in the crowd during an attack on Temshi's casino years later.
* Prince Sigvald used his technological edge over the princes and advance warning of the collapse of the Naga to seize yet more swathes of Naga Space—the Prince crowned himself Prince of Princes, then King, and renamed Naga Space the Sigvaldian Expanse. As millions died mad or catatonic under the Mind Virus and hundreds of thousands more died in the famines and wars that surrounded the Naga collapse, Sigvald the Cruel extended his vicious hand over dozens of worlds, his son Banshee the Blind at the head of his warfleets. If anything was to survive the death throes of the Naga, Sigvald was determined to control it.
* Banshee, for his part, became a figure of black legend, feared and hated as much as his father. Heeding McFearson's exhortation, he took his birthright: the hatred and violence to which he was born was to be shared with countless victims. Naga Space would convulse with catastrophe for years to come—if any good would come out the other side was unclear and quite immaterial to the countless souls lost.
* Captain Parveno was incensed at the surrender to Sigvald at the Forgotten World and offered to raise a punitive expedition: when she did not receive the desired funds, Parveno raged at the system that had allowed Sigvald to betray the KM while his son used the organization for his own ends. She would be recruited by the agents of De Turenne, who used her inside knowledge to chart their routes into Naga Space—soon enough, Parveno had a commission with the Aeldrum Trade Company, then an Admiralty post, then a bullet to the back of the head from a KM assassin.
* Doctor Janice Sydney, unwilling to leave the Lance, joined Sigvald's retinue—though quickly given the usual ironic handicap (in her case, psychically induced blindness so that she would depend on Sigvald's drones as her eyes (and in turn, they would know exactly what she looked at, to report to Sigvald)), she proved a valued member of the court, building great and terrible devices for the Prince. What Sigvald lacked in technical sophistication, he could compensate in strange artifacts and nigh unlimited resources for Dr. Sydney. It seemed that at long last, Sigvald had learned the value of a mundane engineer with a brilliant mind—one last twist of cruelty against Sigurd.

The heroism of the adventurers who made the Corrobel Run was long remembered: Dundee became a folk hero to travelers on the Pin Jump, raised to legend by the songs of Pelvis Resley. Commandant Sulla's story so struck the Fialta passing through the Pin Jump that some began to venerate him and his artifacts. Those Station castaways who had gone home rather than strike out on the Smuggler's Run so long ago counted themselves cursed not to share in his glory. Faolan became the central figure of the FIRA-Cult, a hero-saint to the growing movement. Dr. Reginlief was honored with an endowment in her name on Saldan.

Aggron & Aggron were never seen again, but nor were their bodies recovered—the last cry of Little Aggron, "This is the world the gods promised us!" rang in the ears of those who heard it, and with none venturing back to Corrobel amid the Mind Virus contagion, some charitable optimists have hoped that Aggron & Aggron found peace there, learning the secrets of number theory one dead Naga at a time.

## Notes

1. ↑ Thanks to a lucky Detect Irish roll by Brynn.