050. Changeling: the Lost

The battle rages outside the Spark, and the motley takes decisive action to end it.

## Changeling: the Lost

### Play of the Game:

Liz as Sophia, for wielding Caliburn in battle.ANDKate as Patches, for being the steward of the Spark, last defender of the Crown, mother f\*\*er!!

***"Strategy is an essential part of most games… but there will always be an element of chance."***

Ste-Catherine street outside The Spark is in pandemonium, as Braum's unleashing of Skycraft essentially dropped about two hundred warring Kithain on the street. Braum lifts Claude and Klank's body down to the garden as Zistor helps Sophia, Morwyn, Queen Mab, and Lenore inside the Spark. Cog brings Sophia to Doctor Sayley, who has her consume a Well of Life, healing her injuries from Klank's nocker curse. The sidhe is terrified of what will happen outside the Spark, and furious that Braum brought this upon them, but takes charge of the situation. Claude will take the three possible successors to the throne down to the Spark's workshop for protection, while she goes out to search for her chimera, Mab.

Meanwhile, Patches is on the move, finishing repairs to her lightning rifle so that she can scope out the battle raging below. She notes that while the majority of the fighting is chaotic, two groups seem to be forming: loyalists around Lord Skayne, and redcap rebels around the Duchess Eloyse. As Patches starts to line up a tracking shot on the Duchess Eloyse, Braum steps out the front door with Zistor in his exo-skeleton, and Sophia throws herself out the window of her penthouse, turning her body to air as she does.

On one side of the battle, a chimerical steam-powered tank starts to rumble down the street, headed straight for the front doors of the Spark. Patches can see a lone figure, Sir Xaeron, bearing down on the battle atop a white steed, Fiona colours flying, called there by Braum. As Duke Granville helps Patches line up her shot, the nocker throws the rebels into confusion by causing them to perceive Eloyse as Faerilyth, causing a pile-on of bodies, obscuring her shot entirely.

As Braum rushes headlong into battle, aiming to take on the tank, the machine fires at him. It misses entirely, but shatters the windows of the Spark, allowing redcaps to pour in, assaulting Zistor. As Braum swings up onto the tank's roof, he takes a brief moment to look for Whisper, Caliburn, or Kyoko… and makes a fatal mistake. He completely misses the nocker coming out of the machine, and he is chimerically killed by a blade in the back! Both Patches and Sophia watch as Braum's mortal form tumbles unceremoniously into the gutter, and they bemoan the troll's reluctance to ask for aid in a time of need.

As Sophia surveys the field of battle in her ethereal form, she comes across Talus' prone body, as well as that of Seven. Passing through them, she finds herself face to face with a group of redcaps threatening Faerilyth and a childling Selkie, who is holding Mab!

Patches uses her grappling hook to leap across the street to a balcony on the other side, and calls out to Eloyse to end her attack on the Spark. The Duchess seems to have gagged herself in order to prevent any accidental breaking of the oath she swore with Sophia and Xaeron. The Duchess begins to create a Faerie Ring in order to protect herself from the cantrips flying in all directions, but Patches manages to get a shot off, striking the Duchess Eloyse. Her redcap "guards" turn on the nocker, sending her scrambling for cover as she drops one.

Meanwhile, Sophia, running low on Glamour and desperate to save Mab from the assault, invokes the Wyrd to make her chimerical reality solid. Her imbalanced nature causes Sophia to explode with Glamour, producing the equivalent of a balefire and drawing attention from all Kithain in the area. Sophia uses a gale-force wind to clear a path for the selkie and Faerilyth, bringing them to the relative safety of the Spark, just as Incisor steps out to defend the door alongside Zistor. Inside, a Glamour-fueled Sophia meets an insubstantial Ramzia who instructs her to "name those she wishes to stay", and provides the sidhe with bands to attach to her comrades-in-arms to keep them safe.

Striding out into the battle, Sophia comes across Braum's coat, which miraculously still has Whisper and Caliburn still inside! Commanding the sword's power as Regent of Concordia, Sophia becomes master of the elements, throwing gusts of wind and fire in all directions, summoning pillars of Earth to knock rebels off their feet, and causing the tank to retreat. Patches takes her cue from the sidhe, creating a street-wide illusion of shifting chaos and unstable ground. Together, the two force all of the assailants to flee in all directions, save Xaeron… and Eloyse's Faerie Ring. "Eloyse, your mob has fled," Sophia informs her. "Come out," she orders the Duchess. Xaeron is ready to strike down the Duchess, as he swore to do, and manages to resist an attempt by the Duchess to Sovereign him into attacking his allies. Patches creates an effigy of herself to distract Eloyse as Sophia creates her own Faerie Ring.

But suddenly, she is gone. As the ring disappears, it is clear that the Duchess Eloyse is no longer there. Patches watches as Braum's body falls away into the sewer, but as she moves to pursue it, a dozen nockers from the Grand Bes Din arrive on the scene in mechanical exoskeletons. They demand that all those disloyal to the crown stand down, and explain that they have taken the Grand Bes Din's "rebels" in hand. Patches is furious, berating them for missing all of the rebels, who are now scattered all over Cross' Shadow. The leader of the group, Fuse Terwilliger, drops to one knee in front of Sophia, and promises to help pursue the assailants. Sophia agrees that they will do whatever it takes, and, promising Xaeron that they will find the Duchess together, follows Patches down into the sewers.

In the darkness below street level, Patches follows the sound of footsteps, until she orders the runner to "drop what you're carrying; it'll help you run faster, chicken!" The Duchess Eloyse's voice comes back to her, telling her that they will be destroyed, disappearing into the darkness as Patches finds Braum's body. Sunk in the water next to him is Kyoko, but as Patches pulls her from the water, it's clear that she is still alive, however faintly. Sophia helps Patches return the two casualties to the Spark, until she receives two calls: the first is from Eloyse, vowing to finish what she started. The next is from Ramzia, hoping that they managed to find their friends. Sophia asks her whether the crisis now was a good enough reason for her to be introduced to the rest of the Crystal Circle, and Ramzia agrees that the time is upon them….