4.9 To the Edge of Night

Through
the door they found a what appeared to be a bar. Behind the bar there
was a humanoid creature that appeared to be golem-like. It spoke and
moved with intelligence. Though very person-like, it seemed to have
certain limitations on what it could say and do. The group was able
to convince it to detail certain aspects of the facility, such as a
general layout and the fact that there was another person onboard who
they assumed was Bagel. It also admitted that the facility was a
“vessel,” leading the party to believe they really were in a
star-ship like the one Albert had theoretically summoned to help
evacuate Tirisea. The alarms blaring in the background drew uneasy
glances between the party, made all the more nervous when the
bartender, assuming the part to be “investors”, told them that
security was on its way to look for intruders and that they should
stay put.

 They
moved immediately for the door to the next room, then rewound time in
order to avoid the disastrous consequences of opening the door. On
the other side were two war machines that could fire munitions in
such quantity and at such a speed that those struck by them were
practically disintegrated. They used the gifts of the Night Maiden to
create a wall of force that could block the barrage, then had Gruk,
who had been gifted Ethereal Armor, open the door then immediately
turn ethereal. When the initial barrage ended they tried to dismantle
the guns as quickly as possible, narrowly avoiding the deaths of
several party members.

 They
move on, passing through a room with strange gravity. Unsure if the
device manipulating gravity was a trap or part of some other function
of the ship, Sajaina stole a piece of its central technology. The
group hurried through the room just in case something terrible
happened. They faced another war machine in the next hallway, which
was itself occupied by various displays and indicators. Still under
threat of death, the Archivist lead them through maze-like corridors
until they finally reached the door they believed would lead to
Bartos. It wasn't a particularly ornate door, nor did it bear any
interesting markings that set it apart from other doors. There was
only a small, metal plaque in a language they could not read.
Deciding they had gotten all they could out of the Archivist, who was
openly uttering threats and condescension now, Sajaina pried him out
of the setting that fed him power, killing him. She tested placing a
module she'd stolen from one of the war machines into the setting,
gaining access to security features in the ship. She was unable to
countermand orders given by “priority A” however. The party
assumed “Priority A” was Bartos. Before they entered the room,
Wryn stopped the party to explain that she had possibly figured out
what Bagel's plan was. In theory, she said, he could be trying to
integrate the spirits of the Ascendant into Bartos so that he would
have influence over him. If that was the case, the button Sal pressed
might have been an assimilation button rather than a deletion
protocol.

 Hesitantly,
they stepped through the door, the Archbishop saying that they would
need to buy him time to figure out how to turn Bartos' own energy
against him using the Night Maiden's teachings. They readied
themselves for a fight, not expecting to be politely greeted by a
slightly officious looking man in professional dress. Something about
him looked insubstantial, though it was difficult to figure out what.
To all examination he seemed to be “really there” as far as they
could tell. Blinking lights on consoles around the room bore a series
of names that the party could read. Among them were Natalia,
Astorius, and Bartholomew's Operating System (Bart OS). The party
later realized that Astorius was, naturally, Astor, and Natalia was
the Night Maiden. Most of the displays indicated s state of minimal
functionality, as far as they could tell.

 He
opened the dialogue by pleasantly congratulating them on “making it
this far” and offering to answer their questions before he
assimilated them. He seemed genuinely interested in the dialogue,
speaking almost paternally. He also seemed absolutely assured that he
would kill them, or their bodies anyway. They would, he assured them,
become one with him, their knowledge and personalities collected as
data to be interpreted and used later. It was the fate of all
Tirisea, in fact, as soon as he could get the instruments properly
tuned for the process.

 With
nothing left to lose, the party peppered BartOS with questions. He
told them many wondrous and terrifying things. He was a member of a
race called The Illuminated. They were born from raw intellect and,
though their core components were machinery, they had attracted souls
of their own. In the name of Omagun, who is truth and light and one
of the Illuminated, and who is both a god and not a god, Bartos and
his fellows had killed the Overseers, believing they could better run
things on their own. Those who served Omagun were called The
Enlightened, and heir goals seemed to be establishing the Illuminated
as a major galactic power. There was some kind of war going on
between factions of which the Enlightened were one, though BartOS was
vague on the details. He was also the only member of the Illuminated
still actually alive and conscious aboard the ship, the others having
been “powered down” to conserve energy and prevent squabbling.
Not all of them had agreed with the takeover and murder of the
Overseers- Natalia (The Night Maiden) and Astorius included.

 He
also told the party about Tirisea. He was, naturally, necessary for
its function. Without his guiding hand the energy and processes that
kept the planet warm and preserved natural cycles would cease,
dooming the world to inevitable death. Tirisea, and several other
sister worlds (The Voidspawn world included) were experiments. The
Voidspawn were an experiment to create biological weapons of great
power. Tirisea, on the other hand, was an experiment on the
effectiveness of different governments, a testing ground for
diseases, a playground of culture, and also an experiment to see how
much could be done with the barest trickle of magic. It had been
seeded by “real people” whose children would grow up as part of
the experiment, though Bartos had never actually freed the “real
people” who had initially volunteered on the premise that they
would be released after a generation or so.

 He
spoke also of the Laputi. He confirmed that they were an alien race
from beyond the stars, but went on to note that they were a somewhat
parasitic race that strove to spread themselves as far and wide as
possible, consuming the resources of planets as they went. They were
disliked by many governments and current Mother Stone (Viti) had made
a deal with Omagun that lead to her and her children being hidden on
Tirisea.

 He did
not, as it turned out, know what or who Steave was, believing him to
be likely a legend. He did take that cue as an excuse to mention that
Astor had given us silly prophecies and his answers would have been
much different. He would have told Gruk, for example, that honor was
a system created by the strong to control the weak, or else an
illusion invented by society. He would have told Travize that there
really wasn't anything that only one person can do. He would have
told Timmeron that saving Tirisea wasn't possible for any one person
to do except Bartos himself.

 He did
let slip one troubling piece of information. The Ship Albert had
summoned by his meddling was indeed a ship sent by the Overseers. It
was also the reason he was preparing to assimilate all of Tirisea. If
they arrived, he informed the party, they would be very displeased to
discover that he had killed the Tirisean Overseers. He wasn't sure
what they would do exactly but he knew it would likely be bad for
him- and consequently Tirisea in general.

 The
party judged that they were out of useful questions to ask. It seemed
they were left to decide between assimilation, which was death by
another name, or a slow death of Tirisea that would leave them the
chance to escape on the coming vessel as Albert had planned. They
checked in subtly with the Archbishop to make sure he was ready, then
went on the offensive. BartOS immediately conjured a shield around
his “body” and chided the party for not accepting the inevitable.
They fought ferociously for a time, each employing the gifts of the
Night Maiden to disable various technological weapons he called to
his aid while steadily damaging his shield. Part way through the
fight they learned that Bagel had been hiding out in one of the
consoles and Sajaina used a weapon she had stolen to blow him to
pieces, reclaiming None for the party.

 Finally,
BarOS' shield fell and Gruk took None to the console, ripping bartOS
body to pieces until his “mortal form” disintegrated. But there
was a problem. For, while Gruk had cut away vital parts of his
system, BartOS' soul would not depart. He had shackled the souls of
many thousands of Tirisean's to his, effectively making himself a
lich of some kind, allowing him to sacrifice a few of them in order
to preserve his own life from death. Travize immediately saw the
solution and drew a knife across his own throat, forcing Steave
himself to appear.

 Steave
acted with confusion, uncertain as to why Travize would commit
suicide- especially after the deal the two of them had worked out.
Travize asked him if he could kill BartOS, as they had mortally
wounded him and he was simply cheating in order to stay alive. Steave
shook his head, saying that, while what BartOS was doing was 'not
supposed to happen' it would be against the rules for Steave to take
his soul. And Travize said “You owe me a favor. Can I spend it on
this?” Steave agreed, hesitantly, though only if Travize would also
forfeit his own soul in the process. Choosing between himself and the
entirety of Tirisea wasn't much of a decision to make, so he agreed,
and Steave took both BartOS and Travize.

 Back
in the Living World, the party was naturally freaked out. They saw
that BartOS had gone away somehow and guessed that Travize's death
might have had something to do with it, though they could not fathom
why it was a thing that, as the prophecy had put it, “only he could
do.” In shock, sadness and relief, they tried to decide what to do
next. But then they noticed something on Travize's body glowing. It
was a curious thing, a worthless coin of some unknown and unusable
denomination. When they picked it up, a hole, darker than darkest
black opened in the very air. A deep sense of dread seemed to weep
from it, overpowering. From just beyond they could swear they heard a
familiar voice. Those Travize had given little pieces of junk- the
spiked circle (Sajaina), the metal bottle and antennaed pearl
(Timmeron), and the scrap of dwarf-made cloth (Caireann), however,
felt the dread abate. Whoever they touched experienced a similar
sensation, making the darkness seem less terrifying. With a quick
decision, the Archbishop stepped through the hole, not waiting for
the others. After a few moments of consideration, the rest followed,
sure as anything that they walked into Death itself.